This course will give first-year students with an interest in literature broad exposure to a sample of texts from a foreign culture and a remote period of history, all of them in English translation. It will provide them with essential knowledge about Islamic classical literary and intellectual life, and expose them to a number of ideas and perceptions which have shaped Islamic culture. Through the juxtaposition of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish texts, internal commonalities and differences as well as diachronic developments will become visible.

Aspects to be discussed include religious thought, lyric poetry and epic, emotion and reason, historical tradition and myth, political writings and perceptions of self and others. Such essential knowledge will help to dispel stereotyped notions of cultural uniformity and religious rigidity. Most sessions will include texts from all three languages, and from different genres. The exploration of fictional and non-fictional literature will help to rethink divisions along language boundaries, genres, socially defined subcultures, and lead students to a new appraisal of human creativity as an expression of world understanding. A hands-on encounter with original manuscripts will illustrate the notion of literature as a multisensual experience. In addition to weekly short responses to the readings, students will write a topical in-depth research paper which should take as its basis texts from at least two of the genres discussed during the term. Much of the readings for Arabic are found in Robert Irwin: Nights & Horses & the Desert. An Anthology of Arabic Literature, London: Penguin, 1999 (and later editions). The others, together with information from reference works will be provided through a course website which will also serve as a forum for discussion.

The Babylonian text known as the Epic of Gilgamesh is generally considered the first great literary masterpiece in history. This composition is, for most moderns, the emblematic poem of the ancient Mesopotamian civilization that flourished for thousands of years in what is now Iraq. We will conduct a close reading of the epic and related poems as a means of entering into Mesopotamian culture, literature, and beliefs.

“Religion in America, takes no direct part in the government of society, but it must be regarded as the first of their political institutions…I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion – for who can search the human heart? -- but I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions. This opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or to a party, but it belongs to the whole nation and to every rank of society.”

~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835) p. 305-306

Almost every facet of American life, both pubic and private, is somehow influenced by spiritual or religious beliefs and values. This influence has framed the history of this nation. Oftentimes, the religious and spiritually inspired positions taken, within particular critical social domains, ignite debates about social justice, equality, and fairness. Such debates include issues like school pray and language in the pledge of allegiance, stem cell and other genetic research, national security and other public policy decisions, rationalization for support or aggression toward particular populations, what constitutes marriage and family, human or animal reproduction, race and cultural relations, and the role of faith in business operations, to name a few.

This seminar will explore the influence of Americans’ spiritual and religious beliefs and values on specific domains of public life. The social domains that will be explored include: politics, security, science, health, commerce and the economy, education, media, and the arts. Note: this is not a course on comparative religions or a detailed examination of specific religious practices.

Students will engage in lively and provocative discussion, applied projects, and interdisciplinary readings. One outcome will be a deeper understanding about the role of spiritual beliefs in the public lives of Americans. As well, each of us will begin to develop a deeper sense of the complicated intersections between issues of faith, social justice, equality and fairness.

France, England, the U.S., and Canada have laid claim to the Great Lakes and prairie west from the era of colonization in North America until the present day, but in reality this was an indigenous space until the 19th century. This course will examine how American Indian history in these regions has been understood, and produced, by both Native and non-Native peoples, and we will explore how this history contributed to the development of modern North America. This course is designed to introduce students to the Ethnohistorical approach to Native history, which combines the methodologies of anthropology, history, ethnic studies and postcolonial studies. Students will read and interpret a variety of textual documents ranging from the journals of Jesuit missionaries, to Native oral histories and origin stories, maps, narratives of exploration and discovery, treaties, works of fiction, and relevant secondary materials. Grades will be determined by active participation in lecture and discussion sections, reading response essays, two exams, and an individual research project with parts due throughout the semester.

This is a first year seminar that will meet twice a week to consider the complex political, ethical, historical, and aesthetic issues that characterize the era of the anti-Communist witch-hunt in the United States of the late 1940s and early 1950s. At that time there was a nation-wide 'Red Scare' that was addressed by the controversial tactics of 'McCarthyism.' Writers, intellectuals, teachers, scholars, trade unionists, and many others were called upon to identify alleged subversives and to 'name names' of radical friends, relatives, neighbors, and co-workers, often under the threat of imprisonment and blacklisting.

Theories about modern human origins have received tremendous media coverage, deservedly so because they incorporate the fundamental issues of human evolution. Modern humans differ not only from other animals but also from their predecessors. People not very different from living populations in their behavioral capacities and anatomical features only first appear perhaps 100,000 to 200,000 years ago. Considerable controversy surrounds the question of whether these behavioral capacities and anatomies are causally linked, and why they appear when and where they do. New data have addressed these issues from disciplines as diverse as mitochondrial genetics and the foraging ecology of ancient human hunters, but the issues remain far from resolved. In this seminar, we will explore these various sources of information and insight, drawing on genetics, fossils, and archaeology to outline and explain what actually constitutes modern humanity and its diversity, and how its unique aspects came about. Using the modern human origins controversy as an organizing principle allows us to delve deeply into the different aspects of how we came to be human. The course will be organized and run as a seminar in which student input and discussion are essential. Readings drawn from a required course pack will be assigned for each week's discussion. In addition, participants will prepare a research paper, due at the end of the term, that addresses some aspect of the modern human origins debate. Grades will be based on timely completion of the assigned readings, active participation in discussions, and the final research paper.

This seminar explores ways various world communities make meaning of bodies. It treats the body as a medium of communication, expressive culture, and habitual action. Topics will include: gesture and movement; facial expression; body decoration and beauty; gender; bodily etiquette; the body in performance; spatial design; sports/martial arts and others. Students are expected to participate in class discussions and to prepare rigorously for them (completing each reading twice and keeping a diary). Requirements: writing assignments and term paper.

This course will consider the precolonial and colonial historical roots of today's rapidly changing nature and cultural tourism industries. We will review relevant theories and methods for the analysis of a wide range of tourism-related phenomena such as monetisation of local economies, new performative contexts for ritual practice, practices of consumption by tourists, and power dynamics of tourist/local encounters. The last phase of the seminar entails reading ethnographic monographs about these forms of tourism, each of which integrates history, social theory and political-economic analysis. Students will produce two papers for the course.

This course provides an introduction to the religious history, philosophy, and practices of Zen Buddhism. Zen is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chan, which is itself a transcription of the Sanskrit word dhyâna, meaning meditation. While meditation is no doubt the backbone of the Zen tradition, this course will highlight the fact that Zen has a number of different faces, including a radical antinomian side that challenged the role of meditation (and all forms of mediation). This course will examine the rich diversity of the Zen tradition as it developed in China, Korea, and Japan, with the first part providing an overview of the historical development of Zen and situating it within the Buddhist tradition that it emerged out of. The second part of the course will challenge and critically evaluate much of what is presented in the first half by exploring some less well known facets of Zen practice that on first glance appear to run counter to what the Zen tradition says about itself. We will explore the role of language in Zen from the enigmatic and abstruse use of koans to questions about why a tradition which took pride in “not being dependent on words” nonetheless produced a voluminous textual record. We will study both the crazy antics of inspired Zen monks and the structured life of Zen monastics and their rituals. Consideration will also be given to why a seemingly iconoclastic tradition like Zen also has a long tradition of venerating its masters, including some that were mummified. Why, we will ask, was Zen appealing to the Japanese warrior class and what has been its role in modern nationalistic movements in Japan? This course is designed to be as much an ongoing critical reflection on the history of the study of Zen as it is about Zen history.

This course examines how images, illustrations, and other aspects of visual culture function in China and in the study of Chinese culture. Beginning with a discussion of theoretical concerns related to looking at images (how to "read" them, what they signify as texts), the course will focus specifically on questions of how to look at various traditions of the image in China. Topics covered include the use of woodblock prints as illustration in literature; early uses of photography in China; use of body-landscape maps in Taoist metaphysics; mechanical reproduction and Chinese visual culture; words and images in contemporary Chinese art, and other related topics. Students will be expected to produce an original full-length research paper on some aspect of visual culture in Chinese Studies by the end of the academic term.

Students will explore the place of food in a community's understanding of itself and of others. Using modern Japanese fiction and film as our main texts, we will examine how the discourse of food defines regional and national identities, and how communities are represented through patterns of consumption or deprivation. We will probe the tension between the role of certain foods as markers of cultural authenticity and the reality of cuisine as a historically dynamic, hybrid enterprise. We will investigate the connections of gender and class to food and its preparation, and study how the sharing of food affects human alliances. In short, we will be asking what it means to eat sushi.

This course will focus on the various phases of Japan's encounter with the West from the 16th c. introduction of Christianity and the mid-19th c. opening to Western trade, to the present. We will examine the shifting representations of the West in the Japanese imagination, for ex., as object of aspiration and identification, as "barbarian" enemy and rival, protective father-figure, space of erotic fantasy, and so on. In sum, what roles has "the West" played as the Other in the ongoing project of Japanese self-definition, and why? Readings will include both contemporary fiction and cultural studies materials. Requirements: discussions, four 2-page essays, and a final paper.

Some see nationalist movements as rational attempts by the oppressed peoples of the world to achieve autonomy and liberty. Others see nationalism as "one of Europe's most pernicious exports" whose inevitable consequence has been the annihilation of freedom. In our survey of the history of Korean nationalism we will consider both democratic and oppressive aspects of nationalist thinking and practice, paying special attention to issues of gender. We will consider how nationalist movements resisted degrading assertions made by colonialism, and helped to create a modern form of civil society. We will also consider how nationalism inhibited the deepening of democracy in Korea by suppressing non-national forms of identity, e.g. identities based on gender, class, sexuality, etc. No background in Korean history or language is required.

Credit Exclusions: Credit is granted for a combined total of 12 credits elected in introductory biology.

We will have wide ranging discussions of feeding behavior. These will include nutritional fads and fallacies, weight regulation and bioenergetics, comparative specializations in energy and nutrition, and the latest on the regulation of feeding by the brain circuits and hunger hormones of mammals. Students will critically evaluate the pros and cons of selected subtopics. Although we will touch on eating disorders, this is not a counseling seminar.

Credit Exclusions: Credit is granted for a combined total of 12 credits elected in introductory biology.

We will have wide ranging discussions of feeding behavior. These will include nutritional fads and fallacies, weight regulation and bioenergetics, comparative specializations in energy and nutrition, and the latest on the regulation of feeding by the brain circuits and hunger hormones of mammals. Students will critically evaluate the pros and cons of selected subtopics. Although we will touch on eating disorders, this is not a counseling seminar.

For most of the last half the twentieth century, scholars, journalists, and policy advocates have considered African American men to be in a state of crisis. This course provides a critical examination of works that aim to document and interpret that crisis. We will explore a range of arguments produced in the past thirty years that aim to define the state of Black masculinity and the social condition of African American men. These works will stimulate our effort to pose and answer questions about what, if anything, constitutes a condition of crisis for African American men and what needs to happen to and for them in order to improve their prospects in American society.

This introductory seminar course will examine identity development and oppression as we challenge ourselves to think critically about our social identities and worldviews. Social or group identities include for example, race, ethnicity, social class, gender, sexual orientation, and religion. These identities are predicated upon a social structural system that advantages some groups and disadvantages others. As such, this course will also explore how inequities in our multicultural and multiethnic U.S. society impact identity development and relationships between groups.

Taking its title from the Langston Hughes poem, this seminar will explore psychological aspects of race, ethnicity, and other cultural differences in the United States. What are some of the opportunities and obstacles to our joining with Hughes in affirming, 'They'll see how beautiful I am . . I, too, sing America?'

Topics will include stereotyping, communication, cooperation, conflict, justice, and discrimination. For example: What are psychological theories about how individuals and groups might most benefit from life in pluralistic societies? What are some psychological dynamics of stereotyping? What are possible connections between various forms of discrimination (for example, racism, sexism, homophobia, and anti-Semitism)?

Classical Athens was a litigious city. Every citizen could litigate another citizen and argue his case before a court of fellow citizens. A number of speeches arguing for or against a case have survived. Most of them were written by ancient speech writers who could be hired to argue a case for you. As a rule, these speeches give only one side of the proceedings; the actual litigation (against which the surviving speech argues) or defense (replying to the surviving speech) have been lost in the course of the centuries.

During this course, students will be introduced to the litigation procedures in the Athens of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E. With the help of texts in translation students will be asked to read and analyze actual speeches. What are the particulars of the case that is being argued? What sort of arguments are used? What rhetorical techniques are applied? Should we "believe" the arguments given by the speaker? The class will also discuss the other side of these speeches that have not survived. Is it possible to reconstruct the arguments given by the litigant or defendant? What are possible modern arguments that can be adduced to argue these 2400 year old cases? Each week students will discuss a case, read the ancient text, think about the other side, and finally give an argued "verdict".

You may have learned that Homer's epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, were transmitted orally or reflect an "oral culture." But around the same time as Homer, in the 8th century BC, the Greek alphabet was born, and with it, some degree of literacy. Over the next 200 years, people began to inscribe all kinds of objects with their new alphabet: shepherds scratched graffiti on rural cliffs; craftsmen etched and painted words on temples, statues, and cups used at drinking parties; Greek politicians inscribed laws on stone and set them up in public places. In the 5th and 4th centuries, writing allowed authors like Herodotus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, and Plato to create the histories, tragedies, comedies, and philosophical treatises that now form the canon of Western literature. And, finally, in the age of Alexander the Great, scholars began collecting papyrus rolls of literary works and storing them in libraries.

But who knew how to write in ancient Greece? How many people could read what was written? Was writing somehow meaningful to those who could not read it? How should we define "literacy"? And how did levels of literacy change over time? We'll discuss and debate these points both in and out of the classroom, drawing on ancient literary texts and inscriptions, slides in class, objects at the Kelsey Museum and papyrus fragments at the University Library.

This course centers on Homer's Iliad and its paradigmatic value for military conflict in antiquity and the modern era. The course begins with a close reading of the poem, in particular the dynamic relationship between the narrowly circumscribed subject ("the anger of Achilles") and the complex narrative that transforms this subject into an evocative and enduring account of war. The remainder of the course considers works in a variety of disciplines (e.g., tragedy, philosophy, psychology) for which the Iliad has provided an access point to understanding war and its call to remembrance.

It's an insult in this country these days to tell someone she or he is 'living in the past.' We of course want to live in the present, to be here, now. But isn't the past here, now, too? Doesn't the past live in the present?

In this course, we will think about the ways in which the past lives in the present, and the ways in which present-living people from various periods and cultures have tried to live with the past. We'll think about politics, trauma, memory, and time travel. Readings may include a poem about a mysteriously incorrupt dead body (St. Erkenwald), a double memoir about an Indian anthropologist doing fieldwork in Egypt and searching for a 12th-century slave, a case study of an odd man haunted by a bad dream (Freud's 'Wolfman'), a novel about time travel (The Doomsday Book). We'll also see a film or two, and do some fieldwork. Who cares about the past? We do.

What is a rule? What does it mean to follow a rule? Is following a rule an act of obedience, an act of submission to authority, a way of participating in a particular community or group and therefore constitutive of identity? Can it be a strategy, a necessary means of survival?

In this course, we will read texts and watch films that provide rules and represent cultures governed by rules. Our goal will be to interrogate the forms taken by regulation in various periods, and try to understand the appeal and seduction of rules — for readers, for writers, for societies. We will consider why and how rules are written and read: to be followed and broken; to organize social and moral life; to enable positions to be taken in relation to a larger group or identity. We will also consider topical shifts in regulating texts through the centuries, culminating in a modern culture that boasts a thriving industry in self-help and how-to books. Through a close study of biblical passages, monastic rules, courtly texts, and modern literary and cinematic works, we will examine how rules, in addition to organizing social life, create conditions for obedience and transgression, and are employed as a trope in a variety of texts to explore and satirize, even as they communicate and legislate, cultural mores.

Texts will include: selections from Deuteronomy, Leviticus, and Romans; The Benedictine Rule; Ovid, The Art of Love; Andreas Capellanus, The Art of Courtly Love; Tristan and Isolde; Eco, The Name of the Rose, and Haft, The Key to The Name of the Rose; Cortázar, Hopscotch; Foucault, selected writings. Films will include Braveheart and The Name of the Rose.

The course introduces first-year students to cultural studies in general and Dutch Studies in particular, integrating social, political, and economic history with literary renderings, and artistic representations of colonialism. The Netherlands has been an active participant in shaping the world as we know it, through mercantile and political involvement around the globe. The Dutch were colonizers of Indonesia and its many islands, founders of New Amsterdam/New York, traders in West Africa, first settlers in Capetown in South Africa, and the first trading partners with the Japanese. The Netherlands held colonial power over Suriname until 1975; other West Indies islands, i.e., Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao are still part of the Dutch Kingdom. We will trace the origin and development of the Dutch expansion in the world, how countries were conquered and political systems were established. Mercantile gains as shown in the spice trade and the many aspects of the slave trade will be emphasized. The role of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), once called the world's largest multinational in the 17^th and 18^th century, will be examined. We will read from the vast body of Dutch literary works related to the East and West Indies, started as early as the 17^th century.

This seminar will consider how financial and related markets work, and the varied means by which such markets influence the behavior of households, governments, and the functioning of the international economic system. Alternative views as to how financial markets work will be given ample consideration as will differing perspectives on household behavior.

Popular conceptions of archaeology tend toward fantasies of expeditions to exotic locales, discoveries of unimaginable wealth and importance, and above all, the thrill of adventure, fame and glory. In reality, the profession of archaeology is rarely as exciting. This course will focus on exploring how fictions of archaeology are constructed in popular media, contrasting these images with examples of actual research. We will watch several films, read articles from newspapers and magazines, and become familiar with the literature produced and used by academics and professionals in the field. By the end of the course, students will have a working knowledge of how archaeology really happens and an understanding of how this process provides a fascinating window into the past.

The last decades of the 19th-century (the 1880s and 1890s) is known in African American history as "the nadir" (lowpoint), because it witnessed the nation's post-Civil War retreat from Black equality and the escalation of violence against African Americans. In this course, we will study how Black writers addressed racial inequality and violence in their short stories and novels, and how they viewed the role of literature in national debates over the possibilities of African American citizenship. Authors include Charles Chesnutt, Anna Julia Cooper, Pauline Hopkins, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Sutton Griggs.

In addition to class participation, class assignments will include short responses, peer review of drafts and paper revisions.

All Americans know something about Native Americans — at least they think they do. Stereotypes abound and, for most of our history, most of them have been vicious. But all stereotypes are damaging to the people they include, even the most benign and supposedly positive. Where vicious stereotypes would silence and discredit those they target, stereotypes of the supposedly benign kind are all too ready to speak for them, preempting their own efforts to speak the truth as they see it.

The course will involve a close study of some four works of fiction by Native American writers, all of which powerfully contradict the usual ways of imagining and thinking about 'Indians.' It will begin with an extended look at a work which is neither fictive nor entirely Native-authored, John Neidhardt's Black Elk Speaks; this will help us to identify certain crucial problems in the reading and interpretation of texts infused with Native American cultural values and emerging from Native American experience, from a perspective outside those values and that experience. Subsequent readings will include D'Arcy McNickle's The Surrounded, James Welch's The Death of Jim Loney, Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, and Louise Erdrich's Tracks.

Students will be required to make several class presentations, to write weekly response papers as well as two short essays, and to participate in a group research project culminating in an end-of-term presentation and a collaboratively written paper.

Environmental problems are complex. They are a tangled web of scientific, political, historical, social, economic, legal, and psychological factors. This seminar will use the lens of "environmental conflict" to examine these multiple dimensions of environmental problems. Three conflicts will be explored in detail: the restoration of wolves to Yellowstone National Park; the decline of New England's fishery; and the toxic chemicals conflict portrayed in the book and movie A Civil Action.

The purpose of this seminar is to begin to understand at both the global and local levels, the emerging responses to major problems resulting from unprecedented environmental changes. Initiatives to achieve future sustainability will be the focus of the seminar.

We will begin with a multidisciplinary examination of global environmental and related social changes. Focus will be on the needs of humans and other life forms, including the biophysical conditions on which life depends. Interconnections between the natural environment and social and cultural systems will be emphasized. To help develop a 'global' perspective, we will identify implications of these changes for local communities, particularly in the U.S.A.

By critically examining the multiple meanings of 'sustainable development' and 'sustainability' and related practices, the seminar will address the emerging choices and actions for change. Emphasis will be on changes being pursued by communities, organizations, and individuals in response to growing perceptions of the unsustainability of established values and behaviors. Also, we will examine our own lifestyles in relation to achieving greater sustainability.

To understand initiatives to achieve greater sustainability in local geographical communities, we will study the topics of sustainable consumption, land use, food security and agriculture, materials use, and business and economy. Discussions of these topics will draw upon print and electronic resources, presentations by guest practitioners, and community based experiences of the seminar's members. Readings will come from a wide range of publications including core books of readings by different authors (e.g.,People, Land and Community, Vital Signs 1999, and Eco-Pioneers) and articles from a variety of journals (e.g., The Futurist, Science, Resurgence, Harvard Business Review, and Co-op Quarterly).

Seminar members over the course of the academic term will select and complete a project of their choice. Each seminar member will be expected to involve herself/himself in relevant learning activities of their choice beyond the seminar and within the University as well as the surrounding community. If they choose to, students will have the opportunity to pursue and integrate into their seminar work service learning experiences related to the pursuit of sustainability. Information and other learning from these involvements will be incorporated in the seminar.

Writing assignments will include options for individual choice and utilize the forms of a journal and integrative essays expressed as op-ed articles, short research papers directed to different audiences, news articles, and book reviews. Essential parts of the seminar learning process will include thorough preparation for discussions and active participation in presenting and discussing ideas as well as in actively listening and responding to other seminar members. Assignments will be mostly individual but some will involve groups.

In this course, we will read a range of texts — some literary, some philosophical — about the differences and similarities between humans and animals, and about the interaction between them. We will consider how animals have been represented at various moments in human culture, and ask how different images of the animal world relate to different conceptions of what it means to be human. We will read fables and fairy tales, philosophical essays, short stories and plays, and we will also think about human-animal interaction on film and in painting.

Three papers, one exam, one in-class presentation.

Texts to be used:

• Ovid, Metamorphoses
• La Fontaine, Fables
• Perrault, Tales
• Racine, Phèdre
• Flaubert, A Simple Heart
• Woolf, Flash
• Kafka, A Report to an Academy
• Coetzee, The Lives of Animals
• Essays by Michael Pollan, Cora Diamond, Mary Midgley; extracts from Aristotle, Aesop, Darwin, Descartes.

Film: Cocteau, Beauty and the Beast.

Credit Exclusions: No credit granted to those who have completed or are enrolled in GEOSCI 135. Those with credit for GEOSCI 115 may only elect GEOSCI 145 for 2 credits.

This seminar course is intended for first-year students with no previous knowledge of, or experience in, the earth sciences. The material introduces students to the history of the Earth from its formation in the solar nebula, through the development of the continents, oceans, atmosphere, and life to its present state as an active planet. The course explains how various features of the Earth 'work,' including continental drift, volcanoes, and the formation of most rocks; how theories are developed in geology; and how the magnitude of time has been determined. The course is divided into two halves. In the first half, the basic concepts are explained. In the second half, each student makes a presentation covering a relevant subject followed by discussion. Assessment is by two one-hour examinations and the oral presentation, which forms the basis for a term paper. Regular assigned readings from the course text book are essential. Enrollment is limited to first-year students only. Upperclassmen will not be allowed to register for the course.

Credit Exclusions: No credit granted to those who have completed three of GEOSCI 105, 107, and 205. Those with credit for one of GEOSCI 105 and 107 may only elect GEOSCI 146 for two credits. Those with credit for GEOSCI 205, or both GEOSCI 105 and 107, may only elect GEOSCI 146 for one credit.

The theory of Plate Tectonics states that the Earth's outermost layer is fragmented into a dozen or more large and small plates that are moving relative to one another as they ride atop hotter, more mobile material. The theory developed from the hypothesis that continents on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean had drifted apart ('Continental drifting'). Fossil Earth's magnetic field in rocks, volcanoes, and earthquakes provide the evidence. Development of the theory allows better understanding of mountain building, distribution of fossil remains, the origin of features on the ocean floor, and much more. The course involves three hours of weekly meeting time and selected reading material. No background in Earth Science is necessary. Evaluation is based on class participation, three exams, a series of student presentations on selected topics and written essays on the same subject.

One of the most dramatic developments in the sciences is the suggestion that a meteorite impact caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. This controversial idea is one of many that will be addressed in this course, which deals broadly with the evolution and extinction of life on Earth. After an overview of the history of life, we will examine high-profile debates on whether major evolutionary events and mass extinctions occur gradually or catastrophically, whether dinosaurs are really extinct, and other topics.

Credit Exclusions: No credit granted to those who have completed or are enrolled in GEOSCI 411.

This course is intended to develop concepts about Earth history based on the mid-continental rock record and includes a required four-day field trip encircling Lake Huron that will allow the student to examine first hand the geology that has been discussed in class. By the conclusion of the course, the student will have mastered the geological framework of North America.

In this seminar, we will explore the work of one of the most influential German thinkers, Sigmund Freud. While many of the key concepts of psychoanalysis are part of our daily language, major parts of the academic community in the U.S. dismiss Freud's theories as 'unscientific,' or sexist. This course is directed against both the facile appropriation of Freud in the media and the scholarly dismissal of his work. To do justice to Freud's radical insights into the workings of the human psyche, we will focus closely on some of his central texts (his Essays on Sexuality, the Interpretation of Dreams, and others). These in-depths readings will be complemented by literary works that address similar issues (voyeurism, the uncanny, etc.).

On 29 December 1170, Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered in his own cathedral. Fifty years later, Canterbury Cathedral had become one of the major centers of pilgrimage in western Christendom, drawing pilgrims — like those described in Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' — from all over Europe. The goal of the pilgrimage were Thomas Becket's mortal remains, kept within a series of golden shrines, and staged within the rich and luminous architecture of Canterbury's new choir, one of the first, and one of the important, Gothic structures in England. Our seminar will explore the extraordinary story of Becket's martyrdom, the posthumous veneration of his relics, but above all, the magnificent architecture and stained glass of Canterbury Cathedral. Our discussions will introduce you to the spatial lay-out, structure, function and imagery of a great Gothic church, and sharpen your skills of visual and architectural analysis. You will also learn how to read primary textual sources (such as contemporary accounts of Becket's murder), and secondary literature (for instance a scholarly article analyzing medieval imagery depicting Becket's murder). Course requirements: One short paper (visual analysis) of ca. 5 pages — 25 %. One paper (architectural analysis) of ca. 7-8 pages — 35 %. Class participation and discussion questions. In this seminar, class participation and an active engagement with the visual and textual material under discussion will be essential — 40%.

You may have learned that Homer's epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, were transmitted orally or reflect an "oral culture." But around the same time as Homer, in the 8th century BC, the Greek alphabet was born, and with it, some degree of literacy. Over the next 200 years, people began to inscribe all kinds of objects with their new alphabet: shepherds scratched graffiti on rural cliffs; craftsmen etched and painted words on temples, statues, and cups used at drinking parties; Greek politicians inscribed laws on stone and set them up in public places. In the 5th and 4th centuries, writing allowed authors like Herodotus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, and Plato to create the histories, tragedies, comedies, and philosophical treatises that now form the canon of Western literature. And, finally, in the age of Alexander the Great, scholars began collecting papyrus rolls of literary works and storing them in libraries.

But who knew how to write in ancient Greece? How many people could read what was written? Was writing somehow meaningful to those who could not read it? How should we define "literacy"? And how did levels of literacy change over time? We'll discuss and debate these points both in and out of the classroom, drawing on ancient literary texts and inscriptions, slides in class, objects at the Kelsey Museum and papyrus fragments at the University Library.

The story of how British women gained the right to vote is a long and complicated one, involving the 19th and 20th centuries, prisons and Parliament, actresses and clergymen, 'flappers' and factory workers, and arguments about the relationship of the quest for women's suffrage to other political, social, and constitutional issues. It is also a story that has changed over time, as historians consider this history from new angles, in light of new sources, or through new frameworks.

France, England, the U.S., and Canada have laid claim to the Great Lakes and prairie west from the era of colonization in North America until the present day, but in reality this was an indigenous space until the 19th century. This course will examine how American Indian history in these regions has been understood, and produced, by both Native and non-Native peoples, and we will explore how this history contributed to the development of modern North America. This course is designed to introduce students to the Ethnohistorical approach to Native history, which combines the methodologies of anthropology, history, ethnic studies and postcolonial studies. Students will read and interpret a variety of textual documents ranging from the journals of Jesuit missionaries, to Native oral histories and origin stories, maps, narratives of exploration and discovery, treaties, works of fiction, and relevant secondary materials. Grades will be determined by active participation in lecture and discussion sections, reading response essays, two exams, and an individual research project with parts due throughout the semester.

Science and technology were poised to radically transform American life in the decades immediately following WW II. The atomic bomb, radar, electronic computers, space travel, penicillin, the polio vaccine, agricultural chemicals, and the discovery of DNA held out the promise of a world free from disease, war, and dependence on expensive sources of energy. Realizing that promise, however, required decisions on how science and technology would be encouraged, put to work, and controlled.

This seminar will explore how Americans came to terms with science and technology in the 1950s. During the first half of the academic term, we will read two general works on the 1950s (O'Neill, American High and Jamison and Eyerman, Seeds of the Sixties ) and view a number of 1950s feature (e.g. On the beach, Day the earth stood still) and educational (digitized on the web) films. During this time, students will start working on a project that will explore in greater depth some aspect of science and technology in the 1950s. Students will report on and we will discuss these projects during the second half of the academic term along with other reading of common interest.

Grades will be based on class participation, two or three short papers, and a combined oral/electronic presentation. Students will be encouraged but not required to work in small groups and to pursue different (other than written papers) forms of presentation (produce a video, write a play, do a PowerPoint presentation, and so on).

In this course we will investigate the origins of education in the humanities by focusing on the genre of the letter, or epistle. We will study the history of the art of letter-writing (an Italian invention), its importance in the didactic program of the early humanists, and examples of letters written by some of the most famous personalities of the Italian Renaissance.

We will read letters written by women and men, popes and painters, saints and scoundrels, whores and widows, educated people and uneducated, and we will also try our hand at writing letters back. Readings will include letters by Catherine of Siena, Pope Pius II, Lorenzo de Medici, Alessandra Strozzi, Christopher Columbus, Laura Cereta, Michelangelo Buonarotti, Niccolò Machiavelli, Francesco Petrarca, Pietro Aretino, Veronica Franco.

The final project for the course will be a letter on an aspect of education in the humanist style. Work preparatory to this project will include exercises derived from Renaissance methods of teaching rhetoric, including pre-composition skills involving imitation and rhetorical analysis, practice composition focused on various rhetorical figures, devices, and strategies, and the preparation of a personal 'commonplace book.' Exercises will be done individually, as well as in groups, providing frequent occasion for peer review. In addition to a knowledge of the Italian Renaissance, some of its major figures and its revolutionary educational aims, the course is also designed to improve students rhetorical skills and written eloquence. One midterm, no final.

Course is taught in English; no prior knowledge of Italian is necessary.

Credit Exclusions: No credit granted to those who have completed a 200- (or higher) level mathematics course (except for MATH 385 and 485)

This course is intended for non-science concentrators and students in the pre-concentration years with no intended concentration, who want to engage in mathematical reasoning without having to take calculus first. Students will be introduced to elementary ideas of number theory, an area of mathematics that deals with properties of the integers. Students will make use of software provided for IBM PCs to conduct numerical experiments and to make empirical discoveries. Students will formulate precise conjectures, and in many cases prove them. Thus the students will, as a group, generate a logical development of the subject. After studying factorizations and greatest common divisors, emphasis will shift to the patterns that emerge when the integers are classified according to the remainder produced upon division by some fixed number ('congruences'). Once some basic tools have been established, applications will be made in several directions. For example, students may derive a precise parameterization of Pythagorean triples a² + b² = c². Students who like math but don't especially like calculus will want to enroll in this first-year MSA seminar. Students will do hands-on experimentation with numerical patterns and will tackle numerical riddles and brainteasers as they focus on empirical discovery and proof of theorems. Students will write their own text in number theory and enjoy their growing ability to think like mathematicians.

Credit Exclusions: No credit granted to those who have completed a 200-level or higher Mathematics course.

This First-Year Seminar gives a historical introduction to Cryptology, including a number of mathematical ideas and results involved in the development and analysis of secret codes. The course begins with the study of permutation-based codes: substitutional codes and ciphers, transpositional codes, and more complex polyalphabetic substitutions. The mathematical subjects treated in this section include enumeration, modular arithmetic, and some elementary statistics. The subject then moves to bit stream encryption methods. These include block cipher schemes such as the Data Encryption Standard. The mathematical concepts introduced here are recurrence relations and some more advanced statistical results. The last topic is public key encryption, including Diffie-Hellman key exchange, RSA and Knapsack codes. The mathematical tools come from elementary number theory.

Beyond an introduction to cryptology itself, we will also discuss issues related to the role that encryption plays in intelligence gathering and information protection. Included may be topics such as the U.S. intelligence agencies (their authorities, laws that control their activities, and public perception of their roles), laws that govern the use and dissemination of encryption, and the privacy of wireless communication.

Math 175 is an Honors FYS. To ensure adequate math skills, enrollment is by permission of the department. Students not in LSA Honors may contact the Math Department for information about enrolling in this class: math-undergrad-office@umich.edu.

Today we tend to tend to take it for granted that out of all forms of government, democracy is the most desirable. This course asks: what is the basis for this belief? More fundamentally, what does democracy mean? In looking at theories of democracy, we will be attuned to the historical and conceptual differences among different models of citizenship: ranging from the Greek city-state to the Enlightenment models of elite liberal democracy (in England) versus more wide-spread French republicanism to today's different versions of democracy (such as parliamentary and electoral). We will examine both democracy's strengths — especially in relation to other existing forms of government — and its flaws. We will read classical works in political philosophy — by Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Condorcet — as well as contemporary discussions of democracy by Rawls, Dahl, Shapiro, and Nussbaum. Aside from tracing the historical changes in models of democracy, we will also assess democracy's value and desirability

This seminar is for students who enjoy art, and are curious about why they enjoy it. Aesthetics — a name derived from the Greek word aesthesis meaning "sense experience" — concerns itself with the study of art. Aesthetic philosophy seeks to understand the principles that underlie our value judgments:

• What is beauty?
• Is it objective in any way?
• How is aesthetic pleasure related to perception?
• What is talent or genius?
• What makes something be art?

• What constitutes artistic value for a given period, group or set of artists?
• What perceptual/aesthetic problems were specific artists working on?
• Who sponsored them, and why?
• How did critics respond to them?

This seminar introduces students to the question of artistic value from a dual perspective, informed by philosophy and art history. Perhaps in this way we can better understand our own responses to art.

The theme is relativism, the view that everything is just a matter of opinion, that there is no single correct view about some subject-that "anything goes." In some cases this seems obviously right; consider the issue of what is and is not funny. In other cases it seems highly implausible; consider the issue of whether the Earth is round or flat. We will consider the theme of relativism from within several different areas of philosophy.

This First-Year Seminar will trace the evolution of scientific thought from antiquity to the early 20th century. The course will cover topics in all the sciences from antiquity to the beginning of the 20th century. Among topics to be covered in ancient science include astronomy, theories of motion, medicine, and mathematics. We will then move to the middle ages with a detailed study of the events leading to and following the Copernican theory of planetary motion. There will also be an extensive discussion of theories of motion, culminating with the work of Galileo, Huygens, and Newton. Selected topics in 18th-20th century science will be developed as time permits. The emergence of consistent theories of electricity and magnetism will be traced, as will progress in optics. This will set the stage for a discussion of Maxwell's equations and the Special Theory of Relativity. We will then return to developments in 18th-19th century chemistry (Priestly, Lavoisier, Dalton) and see how they eventually paved the way for the quantum theory.

Course requirements: There will be one in-class exam, a final exam, and a few homework assignments, but a significant part of a student's grade will be based on a term paper. Students will be required to access original sources and write an original paper on some topic in the evolution of scientific thought. This is a course that will stress quantitative and logical reasoning, rather than memorization of names and places. A sample selection of required texts is:

1. Greek Science in Antiquity by M. Clagett,
2. The Scientific Renaissance by M. Boas,
3. Sleepwalkers by A. Koestler and
4. Evolution of Physics by A. Einstein and L. Infeld.

The majority of even college educated adults have only a modest understanding of our place in the universe at large. Most would be hard pressed to answer correctly such questions as: What else is there in the universe besides stars? Why do we think there was a big bang? How big is a galaxy and how might they have formed? This course will provide answers to such questions, stressing conceptual understanding and simple calculational problem solving. The format will be varied and informal. In addition to regular seminar attendance, students will likely be asked to perform small experiments and present at least one oral presentation. Essays and other written work will play a large role in the grade. Although no science prerequisites are required, exposure to physics at high school level would be helpful.

This interdisciplinary seminar critically examines the condition of contemporary Brazilian women and African Brazilians and their struggle to gain cultural, economic, and sociopolitical equality. Our focus is on questions and perspectives concerning both the literary and socioeconomic aspects of gender, race, class inequality, resistance and transformation.

The format includes group discussions, activities, regularly assigned readings and papers, class presentations, film screenings, and Internet/library research.

This course is taught in English; this is not a Portuguese language course.

Estimated Cost of Course pack: $30

This seminar will study the relationship between law and psychology within a general framework. We examine a number of real cases that have been covered by the popular press (e.g., the trial of Lorena Bobbitt) as well as some fictional accounts (e.g., Grisham's 'A Time to Kill') with regard to how the law defines the limits of personal responsibility. We will also discuss the psychological import of legal issues as the insanity defense and battered wife syndrome.

This seminar will focus on twinship. Throughout historical time, and across many cultures, twins have been the source of much fascination. In literature, they have served as a metaphor to explore identity, good vs. evil, multiple life options, symmetry, and soul mates, and in science, they have been used to disentangle genetic and environmental influences on health and behavior. In order to gain an understanding of the experience, influences, and impact of twinship, we will examine literature and films that have used twins, interview twins, and parents, siblings, and spouses of twins, and consider theory and research on the biology and psychology of twins, and on changes related to the recent increased incidence of twinning.

A class web site will be integral to the course. Students will be expected to participate actively in both class and web site discussions, as well as to keep up with weekly reading and written assignments. In addition, there will be several group projects and a final exam. The number of points accumulated on these various options will determine final grades.

Taking its title from the Langston Hughes poem, this seminar will explore psychological aspects of race, ethnicity, and other cultural differences in the United States. What are some of the opportunities and obstacles to our joining with Hughes in affirming, 'They'll see how beautiful I am . . I, too, sing America?'

Topics will include stereotyping, communication, cooperation, conflict, justice, and discrimination. For example: What are psychological theories about how individuals and groups might most benefit from life in pluralistic societies? What are some psychological dynamics of stereotyping? What are possible connections between various forms of discrimination (for example, racism, sexism, homophobia, and anti-Semitism)?

How do issues of race, intergroup relations, and social group identity affect possibilities for building community in a democratic society? Students will explore issues of civic engagement and community building in a democratic society, taking into account issues of power and celebration, conflict and coalition, differences and common ground.

This introductory seminar course will examine identity development and oppression as we challenge ourselves to think critically about our social identities and worldviews. Social or group identities include for example, race, ethnicity, social class, gender, sexual orientation, and religion. These identities are predicated upon a social structural system that advantages some groups and disadvantages others. As such, this course will also explore how inequities in our multicultural and multiethnic U.S. society impact identity development and relationships between groups.

This seminar will explore conceptions of health and healing within a broad range of traditions and practices, from biomedicine to shamanism. We will study the mind/body relation within these traditions as well as consider current scientific studies elucidating the impact on health. This seminar will encourage a broadening of our conception of health and emphasize the impact of belief and culture on the practice of medicine. Students will examine their personal beliefs and practices. Topics will include placebo responses, stress, pain, addiction, and mood disorders.

Public opinion surveys suggest that prejudice and racism have declined dramatically since the 1940s. Has racism really declined, or simply gone underground? This seminar will address "hidden" or covert forms of prejudice, as well as some not-so-hidden, more overt forms of prejudice. The seminar will focus primarily on Black-White intergroup relations, but issues involving other social groups, e.g., other racial groups, gender, and people of different sexual orientations will be included as well.

This era of globalization poses a number of significant issues and challenges to all of us. They include values, ethos, and moral standards of different cultures in the world, cross-cultural communication, cultural adjustment, ethnic diversity and conflict, stereotyping and prejudice, among others. This seminar discusses each of these and other related issues. The aim is to familiarize ourselves with cross-culturally diverse ways of thinking, feeling, and being.

Public opinion surveys suggest that prejudice and racism have declined dramatically since the 1940s. Has racism really declined, or simply gone underground? This seminar will address "hidden" or covert forms of prejudice, as well as some not-so-hidden, more overt forms of prejudice. The seminar will focus primarily on Black-White intergroup relations, but issues involving other social groups, e.g., other racial groups, gender, and people of different sexual orientations will be included as well.

This course will explore how gender influences construction of the self.

How does the answer to question 'Who am I?' differ depending on one's gender. We will also investigate how beliefs about gender influence both the experience of emotion (What am I feeling right now?) and the expression (e.g., smiling, crying) of one's own and other's emotions. Students will examine their own beliefs and experiences as well as become familiar with basic controversies in this area.

This interdisciplinary seminar will explore the nature of conscious and unconscious mental processes in various types of human cognition and action, including perception, memory, thinking, and behavior broadly construed. We will take an eclectic approach in our exploration, encompassing points of view found in disciplines such as psychology, neurophysiology, artificial intelligence, philosophy, and medical practice. Both normal and altered states of consciousness (e.g., sleep, dreaming, meditation, hypnosis, and hallucination) will be considered from these perspectives.

Why do people hurt each other? In this course, we will examine how the cognitive and emotional processes of the brain contribute to violent behavior. We will consider how biological and psychological factors interact with an individual's social context and environment to produce violence. Our discussions will include psychological, psychiatric, neurological, and evolutionary perspectives on a wide range of violent behavior, ranging from individual acts of aggression and criminal behavior to war and genocide.

Shtetl — a Yiddish word for a small town — served as the setting of Jewish life in East Europe and left a lasting impact on Jewish memory and imagination. We will explore interactions between reality and fiction by examining a variety of historical sources and works of fiction, as well as visual representations in art and film. We will also touch upon more general issues such as formation of collective memory and mythology, preservation and transmission of cultural legacy.

For centuries, Jews of Eastern Europe were a people of storytellers. The Yiddish language served them as the primary medium of communication, education, and entertainment. In the 19th century, Yiddish creativity acquired an ideological dimension as the battles between the supporters of Hasidism and Enlightenment were largely conducted in this language. The 20th-century modernism adopted the traditional genre of the short story for its own aesthetic and ideological purposes. In this seminar, we will read a variety of Yiddish stories written in different styles, such as the traditional Hasidic parables of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav, realistic stories by Sholem Aleichem, and symbolist tales by Y.L. Peretz and Der Nister - all to be read in English translations. While the class discussions will center upon close reading of the text, we will also touch upon theoretical issues such as narrative technique, construction of metaphors and symbols, as well as the relationships between literature and community. Requirements will include active class participation, two papers, and a final exam.

That America is a nation of immigrants is one of the most common yet truest statements. In this course we will survey a vast range of the American immigrant experience: that of the Irish, Germans, Jews, Italians, Blacks, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Cubans, Koreans, and Japanese. Immigration to America can be broadly understood as consisting of four major waves: the first one, that which consisted of Northwest Europeans who immigrated up to the mid-19th century; the second one, that which consisted of Southern and Eastern Europeans at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th; the third one, the movement from the South to the North of Black Americans and Mexicans precipitated by two World Wars; and the fourth one, from 1965 on, is still ongoing in the present, of immigrants mostly from Latin America and Asia. At all times, our effort will be to understand the immigrant past of these ethnic groups, both for what it tells us about the past as well as their present and possible future.

This seminar will explore the possibilities for building community across race, gender and class as students examine their own racial and other social group identities. How do we build a strong democracy comprised of people with perspectives and viewpoints that differ from our own in our schools, neighborhoods, and cities? To what extent does this country's democratic principles continue to provide a bond for our society in the face of racial and class divisions? This seminar will address a wide range of questions on intergroup relations and community building.

Students from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to enroll in this seminar, bringing personal experience and perspective to enrich the discussion of theoretical readings. All students are expected to participate actively in class discussions, read carefully, and write extensively. Students will observe and participate in a number of community-based activities.

This seminar will focus on how people listen to music and music's impact on communities of people who listen to it. In the first weeks of the course, students will learn how to listen to music and explore the interaction of different elements of music, such as rhythm, melody, and harmony. As we begin to listen to a wider range of music, we will explore the impact of music in cases such as the Paris riot of 1913 following the performance of Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring' or the reaction of King George to the 'Hallelujah Chorus' at the conclusion of Handel's 'Messiah.' We will consider the impact of popular music, religious music, and the band as examples of how music has reached out into all types of communities. Students will attend three musical events and write reviews of each based on concepts explored in class. The professor will present and perform numerous examples of music on the piano, there will be invited soloists and chamber ensembles, and students who wish may share their musical talents in class. [Several spaces reserved for participants in Michigan Community Scholars Program.]

The DNA of a chimpanzee and of a human are 99% similar, and yet one species can design a spaceship while the other can use a simple stick to find ants. Why? What are the origins of human creativity? Can we teach ourselves to be more creative? This seminar will introduce students to the process of creative thought through examination of major discoveries in the history of the physical and biological sciences. We will examine the traits of creative individuals and how the environment and culture of their time influenced them. Specific individuals to be examined include Copernicus, Da Vinci, Einstein, Watson and Crick, and Edison.

Each student will present a major scientific discovery of their choosing, evaluating the thought processes leading to the discovery and discussing why it was creative and how it built on and differed from pre-existing paradigms. Students will be required to submit a paper as well as do an oral presentation to the seminar group. They also will be required to submit brief written responses to the week's reading assignment prior to class discussion.

We will explore the current contradictions between Western and Middle Eastern countries, studying stereotypes on both sides and how media and others exploit politically popular themes. We will consider various means of enhancing collaboration and breaking down the walls of mistrust and bias. We also will probe questions such as why intellectual dialogue has more or less broken down, and why thinking people are unable to connect with their counterparts across the religious and cultural divide.

Issues of human sexuality and gender are explored from many perspectives including historical, cross-cultural, religious, and physiological. All people are sexual throughout their lives, although the expression of our sex and gender is one of the most diverse and controversial areas in personal and public arenas.

The diversities of biological sex, gender identity, gender roles, sexual orientation, sexual identity, and sexual behavior and the interplay among them are presented and reinforced through readings, exercises, videos, guest speakers, and weekly written assignments. We will discuss sexual difficulties such as infertility, STDs, sexual dysfunction, and sexual victimization along with prevention and treatment strategies. We will examine social and political issues such as civil rights for sexual minorities, sex and the law, date rape, pornography, the impact of AIDS, public and private morality, etc. Issues especially relevant for students are explored, including choice of sexual partners and behaviors, the influence of drugs, alcohol, and smoking on sexual function and sexual decision-making, sexual values and religious attitudes toward sex, and the wide range of possible lifestyles from celibacy to polyamory to paraphilias.

The course requires access to the Internet, and uses a variety of Web-based resources and communication modes, as well as a textbook and readings from various journals. Weekly short papers and a semester project are required. Opportunities for help with developing presentation skills are available.

We will study the development of medicine as a science and how its perception has changed through the media. Students will explore their own beliefs about medicine through literature such as The Citadel, Intern, and The House of God, and movies and television series such as The Hospital, Marcus Welby M.D., St. Elsewhere, and ER. Much of the course will focus on the discussion of ethical issues and the crystallization of students' own beliefs about medicine in the 21^st century.

UC 151.004 is a service-learning course that integrates traditional coursework with personal reflection and community involvement. The goal of the course is to explore the dynamics of formal and informal education in urban settings. This course will help university students understand the effects of social history and culture on the social identity of young children and how community members, especially elders, help to create and support positive roles for young children within this community. Students will work closely with members of the community and program staff to document cultural beliefs and practices that help to shape social identity and social expectations within the community.

As a requirement for the course, students will complete five hours of service each week in the Detroit public school system to develop practical service-learning models. Assisting educators in implementing these developed programs will give students the opportunity to put into practice the theory of service-learning. [Several spaces reserved for participants in Michigan Community Scholars Program.]

Students will examine the development of dentistry from its origins to its present status as a scientifically-driven health care discipline. Students will evaluate critically how science has influenced the development of dentistry as a discipline for the past century and explore how emerging scientific disciplines are likely to change the practice of dentistry in the next millennium.

Please attend every session if possible. If you are unable to attend a class, please email me before hand. This is not a lecture course with a final written exam. Students will be expected to participate in class discussions, ask questions, and offer opinions.

'Health Care, Privilege, and Community' will consist of four sections. The first will provide an overview of medical and health care concepts and terms as they relate to multiculturalism. The understanding of these concepts will be critical for students, as they lay the groundwork for the remainder of the course. The class will examine issues relating to consumers of health care, which will include discussions of the major ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Many of the class discussions will focus on these new consumers, such as various ethnic communities, elders, and other interest groups that have been 'left behind' as major players in health care. In addition, the class will take a look at physicians and other types of health care providers with special attention to the providers from the major demographic groups.

Thirdly, we will examine the dilemmas within our health care system. Class discussions will focus on health disparities, ethical issues related to research in different ethnic groups, and discrimination in health care. Finally, solutions to the present health care dilemmas will be discussed. We will investigate the future challenges for equitable health care based on the demographic changes that have occurred in the United States over the last two decades. It will be important for students to gain an understanding of how these changes have resulted in new important consumers and providers of health care services. Subsequently, a discussion of current health disparities today will be an integral part of understanding whether they will persist in the future. [Several spaces reserved for participants in Michigan Community Scholars Program]

The purpose of this seminar will be to explore the concepts of identity, alienation, and freedom as psychological and philosophical concepts. The orientation, however, will be specific and applied to the normal situations and predicaments that college students experience. Questions to be considered: surviving as an individual in a large and often impersonal university; living up to and/or dealing with the expectations of parents and teachers; questioning authority in the context of the classroom; trading-off career pressures and personal goals in setting educational priorities.

Of special importance will be the examination of the sometimes frightening loss of a sense of identity that often accompanies significant alterations in lifestyle, such as that experienced by students in the transition from high school to college or, later, in the transition from college to the 'real world.' In addition to regular class meetings, each student will meet individually with the instructor every third week to develop and discuss individual reading and writing assignments. Grades will be determined by the quantity and quality of this reading and writing.

There will be two texts, group projects in the form of "Journal Clubs," and an individual book review in both written and oral form. Journal Clubs are an important part of the continuing education of medical professionals. Journal clubs meet regularly to discuss current studies on subjects of mutual interest. The class will divide into JCs to explore various aspects of medical school. This project would accomplish several goals: help you build your group participation skills, develop web skills, and increase your practical, current knowledge of medical schools. In addition, this project will introduce you to a wide range of information sources. The Clubs can decide specific topics, such as: How Medical Schools Differ; The Admissions Process; Trends in Medical Education; What Undergraduate Majors are possible?, Patterns in Specialty Choice; Getting a Residency; Staying Balanced in Medical School, and many others. The Journal Clubs will make a group presentation to the seminar. Individual book reviews will also be presented to the seminar. Each student will choose an individual book that is an autobiography of a medical student or a physician (Other kinds of book are possible). The student will make a presentation to the seminar, discussing the themes of the review of the book covering these topics.

Seminar Panels:
There will be three panels during the seminar. One of first year medical students; one of fourth year medical students, and one of doctors in practice.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN FORUM ON HEALTH POLICY:
During the Fall, 2004 term, this course will be part of the University of Michigan Forum on Health Policy. The class will attend one special symposium, on a Friday at noon, at the medical campus on a date in October to be announced. The topic will be "What the Presidential Candidates are Saying about Health Policy." Please plan ahead for this. More details in class.

GRADING:
Group Project: 30%
Individual Book Review:30%
General participation and Attendance at FORUM: 30%
Thoughtfulness of discussion participation and questions raised:10%.

WEEKLY TOPICS:
The American Medical Profession: A Brief History
Becoming a Doctor: The Educational Process
Becoming a Doctor: The Socialization Process
Great Discoveries of Medical Science
Explaining the Evolution of the American Health Care System
Trends in the Health Care System Today: Corporatization and Managed Care
Physician Manpower Issues: Women in the Medical Profession; International Medical Graduates
Doctors and the Media
Doctors and Patients: The Doctors View; The Patients View
Medicine in the 21st Century: Telemedicine; The Genetics Revolution

This course will examine the broad social and economic impacts of alcohol, with an emphasis on the effects of alcohol on health. Information will be presented on the historical perspective on alcohol and its role in the United States since the twentieth century. Students will consider the many impacts of alcohol on individuals, families, organizations, and broader society. By exploring how we are socialized into drinking and what changes could be made to positively alter the way this socialization occurs, students will gain a greater understanding of the role played by family, culture, peers and the alcohol industry in the development of drinking patterns. At the same time they will learn how to foster a more mature approach to, and responsible use of, alcohol. Classes also provide opportunities to engage in stimulating discussions with faculty and other experts from within the University of Michigan.

Mental disorders are far more common in the general population than is usually appreciated, and often produce as much or more disability than do most medical disorders. The nature of these disorders is poorly understood by individuals who are not trained in the mental health fields. While mental disorders are usually defined simply on the basis of symptoms and behavioral manifestations, a great deal more is known about them, including many of the biological and behavioral processes underlying them.

This course will introduce students to the basic concepts of mental health and mental disorders, and describe the basic natural and social science areas related to understanding brain function and mental disorders, with an emphasis on the biological processes. The course would be appropriate for anyone interested in neuroscience or mental processes.

The purpose of this seminar is to begin to understand at both the global and local levels, the emerging responses to major problems resulting from unprecedented environmental changes. Initiatives to achieve future sustainability will be the focus of the seminar.

We will begin with a multidisciplinary examination of global environmental and related social changes. Focus will be on the needs of humans and other life forms, including the biophysical conditions on which life depends. Interconnections between the natural environment and social and cultural systems will be emphasized. To help develop a 'global' perspective, we will identify implications of these changes for local communities, particularly in the U.S.A.

By critically examining the multiple meanings of 'sustainable development' and 'sustainability' and related practices, the seminar will address the emerging choices and actions for change. Emphasis will be on changes being pursued by communities, organizations, and individuals in response to growing perceptions of the unsustainability of established values and behaviors. Also, we will examine our own lifestyles in relation to achieving greater sustainability.

To understand initiatives to achieve greater sustainability in local geographical communities, we will study the topics of sustainable consumption, land use, food security and agriculture, materials use, and business and economy. Discussions of these topics will draw upon print and electronic resources, presentations by guest practitioners, and community based experiences of the seminar's members. Readings will come from a wide range of publications including core books of readings by different authors (e.g.,People, Land and Community, Vital Signs 1999, and Eco-Pioneers) and articles from a variety of journals (e.g., The Futurist, Science, Resurgence, Harvard Business Review, and Co-op Quarterly).

Seminar members over the course of the academic term will select and complete a project of their choice. Each seminar member will be expected to involve herself/himself in relevant learning activities of their choice beyond the seminar and within the University as well as the surrounding community. If they choose to, students will have the opportunity to pursue and integrate into their seminar work service learning experiences related to the pursuit of sustainability. Information and other learning from these involvements will be incorporated in the seminar.

Writing assignments will include options for individual choice and utilize the forms of a journal and integrative essays expressed as op-ed articles, short research papers directed to different audiences, news articles, and book reviews. Essential parts of the seminar learning process will include thorough preparation for discussions and active participation in presenting and discussing ideas as well as in actively listening and responding to other seminar members. Assignments will be mostly individual but some will involve groups.

Is the current health care system culturally competent? How do different health care professions provide the best care for patients who belong to a different culture than their own? How can literature, music, and visual arts help broaden our understanding across differences? Students are invited to actively use their own legacies to address these questions. We will focus on health issues in the following populations: African American, Asian American, Native American and Latino/a, among others. Exposure to the arts within each group will improve our recognition of each individual's unique experience as a member of any ethnicity.

This course explores the use of reading and writing to create and maintain social identities with an emphasis on gender, race, and class. Our investigation will extend across different cultures and through history, thinking about writing as technology as well as writing as art. To this end, we'll do research with a variety of materials including our historical collections at campus archives and museums as well as on-line book chats and real time book clubs. We will balance this with an exploration of illiteracy, who is illiterate here as well as abroad and how illiteracy has been addressed globally.