This seminar examines the role of sports culture in the social and political construction of individual and collective American identities. Special attention will be given to issues of power, and race, gender, sexuality, class, and nationalism. Readings and films will cover contemporary and historical issues in baseball, basketball, football, boxing, and cheerleading.

This course examines how laws and popular culture have historically shaped conceptions of race and mixed race in the U.S. In addition to examining historical contexts, we will also explore autobiographical and theoretical writings on mixed race identities and representations of mixed race identities in popular culture. The themes that will be covered in this course include questions of appearance, “authenticity,” community membership and belonging, and performativity. Requirements for the course include: in-class attendance, frequent short response papers, a midterm essay, and a creative final project.

This course will examine the interaction between different racial groups in the U.S. from the 19th century to our present moment. Conventionally, such studies focus solely on the relationship between African Americans and whites, relying on the hackneyed Black-white paradigm of U.S. race relations. This seminar explodes that dichotomy, searching for a broader historical model, which includes yellow, brown, red, and ethnic white.

• In other words, how did African Americans respond to the internment of Japanese Americans?
• What made desegregation cases like Mendez v. Westminster important precedents in the run-up to Brown v. Board of Education?
• What is a “model minority,” and why did Asians inherit the mantle from Jews?
• What is a “protest minority,” and why were Blacks and Jews labeled as such during the Civil Rights Movement?
• What is the relationship among Black Power, Yellow Power, the American Indian Movement, and Chicano Power, if any?

We will critically interrogate the history of contact that exists between and among these diverse “groups,” and whether conflict or confluence dominates their interaction. If conflict, what factors have prevented meaningful alliances? If confluence, what roles have these groups played in collectively striving for a multiracial democracy?"

This seminar will consider the role that comedy and comedians play in contemporary American culture and politics and their influence, both direct and covert, on the ever-changing conception of American identity. We will explore the connections in style and message between current stars—Dave Chappelle, Margaret Cho, Stephen Colbert, and Chris Rock—and some of their classic predecessors (such as Buster Keaton, Bert Willams, the Marx Brothers and Will Rogers). We will also examine the work and impact of innovative, iconoclastic performers whose direct influence is still strong, such as Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, George Carlin and Whoopi Goldberg, and discuss key critical commentary on humor, comedy, and comedians.

This first-year seminar introduces students to the historical challenges faced by people of Mexican descent in the United States. We will discuss the social, economic, and political changes that influenced the day-to-day life of Mexicans/Mexican Americans. To organize the class, we will question the meaning of a racialized Mexican identity in the United States. This class will highlight the racial, class, gender, and sexual diversity within the Mexican-American community. We will consider how different groups of Mexicans have historically understood these ideas and their relationships to other Americans and other Latino groups. Part of our work will also consider Chicano history’s political and intellectual underpinnings as an academic discipline.

From the lynching advocated in D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation to the feminization of East Asian bodies in David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly, to ethnographies of mail order brides and sex tourism, this course will examine the intimate links between race and sexuality. Through ethnography, film, literature and diverse histories, we will investigate how race gets sexualized and how sexualities get racialized through processes of globalization and in particular local and national settings.

This course will include midterm and final papers, as well as short weekly reading responses. Grades will be based on the quality of written work, on class participation, and on attendance.

This course combines several approaches, drawing materials from urban and more broadly, cultural anthropology by focusing on cities and communities; media and visual anthropology, taking into account popular cultural forms and life ways as portrayed on the big screen; and musicology and film studies, asking how—and why—film scores are matched and used to evoke particular cinematic narratives. We will watch, read about, listen to and discuss a selection of films and consider the many ways in which, in them, music and images are arranged to convey meanings, symbols, places, cultural practices and political relations. Evaluations will be based on class participation, a short, autobiography about your personal history and relationship to film, a take-home midterm essay, and ongoing group projects organized around distinct film genres, culminating in a final collective paper and presentation.

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.

Everyday, four million people pass through Tokyo’s Shinjuku station, the busiest train station in the world. This is 40 times more than the entire population of Ann Arbor. Responding to such staggering statistics, this course explores representations of the crowd in Tokyo in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will consider how the crowd is evoked in visual culture by looking at popular magazines, woodblock prints, and postcards. We will also consider a number of literary, cinematic, and artistic works with particular attention paid to themes of disaster, sacred pilgrimage, political activism and entertainment. Ultimately, students will gain from this seminar an introduction to the history of Tokyo itself, with its peculiar intersection of topography and ideology, as well as a greater appreciation of the extent of the city’s urban planning and the breadth of its representation.

This course surveys major themes in history of the Philippines, paying particular attention to their cultural dimensions. Starting with its inception as a colony of Spain, through the American colonial period, to the post-colonial present, we will draw from Philippine historiography, ethnography, literary works and popular culture to examine the cultural effects of processes such as: religious conversion and colonial encounter; revolution and nationalism; hybridity and language; regional, class, and identity formation; modernity, globalization, and migration.

The course will be conducted as a seminar. Students will be graded on their active participation in discussion, response papers, and final research project.

The final years of the fifteenth century heralded a new era in the relationship between Asia and distant parts of the globe. The arrival of Vasco da Gama on the west coast of India in 1498 established direct contact between Europe and maritime Asia. It also initiated centuries of commercial, cultural, artistic and technological exchange. This course explores facets of that exchange, pursuing case studies in India, Southeast Asia, China and Japan. Readings, lectures, and student projects will address the varied nature of Asia’s encounters with the Portuguese, Dutch, and British, and more recently with global modernity and post-modernity. Topics include cartography, exotica, gift exchange, diplomacy and protocol, trade, missionary activity, colonization, Orientalism, and the post-colonial condition. I.III.IV. 3,4

As the product of a crisis within a given community, the outcast materializes, by his or her very existence, the boundaries within which the community imagines itself to be whole or coherent. For this reason, the outcast is always a figure of danger but also of potentiality — this is precisely the ambiguity which has proven fruitful for thinking across disciplines, from moral philosophy and political theory to psychoanalysis. In this course, we will focus on literary manifestations of the outcast in twentieth century Korea, where attempts to secure and legitimize various communal formations were accompanied by spectacular displays of violence, and rely on this figure as our guide in re-examining the history of modern nation-building in Korea. The outcast will serve as a broad heading under which we can consider relations between such terms as exile, migrant, refugee and nomad; special attention will be paid to the place of the writer within these relations. The course will conclude with discussions of recent texts that address new forms of exclusions emerging within the globalizing economy and digitalized culture of South Korean society today.

Credit Exclusions: Credit is granted for a combined total of 17 credits elected in introductory biology.

A User's Guide to the Brain

Two years of high school biology required.

Brain function depends upon intricate connections among nerve cells strategically positioned to process information. This means you will learn about the physiology of individual nerve cells and the operation of synaptic communications among nerve cells. Because sensory systems are reasonably well understood, they provide an opportunity to understand how the brain works. As we sort through various functions of the brain, we will eventually consider whether it is possible for someone to read or modify your thoughts and feelings.

Credit Exclusions: Credit is granted for a combined total of 17 credits elected in introductory biology.

All human cultures have seasoned their foods. Although hunger makes us eat, it is flavor that controls what we choose to eat. Some typical questions:

• How do the chemical senses detect savory flavors and what do we know about the neurophysiology of their pleasures?
• Do plants taste attractive or repellent to animals?
• How do natural or artificial seasonings affect your health?
• Can dieters successfully replace calories with seasonings?

This course introduces students to biophysics and its role in the life sciences. The historical example of the discovery of the structure of DNA by Watson and Crick is discussed and re-created using modern techniques. As a highlight, the structure of a DNA crystal will determined using the synchrotron at the Argonne National Laboratory. Students will compose a term paper that critically compares the historical and the modern techniques at each step of the structure determination.

Intended audience: First-year students interested in the natural sciences and medicine.

Course Requirements: Student presentations, quizzes, and a term paper.

Class Format: Class will meet twice for 3 hours per week in a lecture/discussion format plus a 2 hpw laboratory. In addition, a field trip to the Argonne National Laboratory is planned.

From the lynching advocated in D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation to the feminization of East Asian bodies in David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly, to ethnographies of mail order brides and sex tourism, this course will examine the intimate links between race and sexuality. Through ethnography, film, literature and diverse histories, we will investigate how race gets sexualized and how sexualities get racialized through processes of globalization and in particular local and national settings.

This course will include midterm and final papers, as well as short weekly reading responses. Grades will be based on the quality of written work, on class participation, and on attendance.

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.

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 include stereotyping, communication, cooperation, conflict, justice, and discrimination. What psychological theories address how individuals and groups might benefit most from life in pluralistic societies? What are some psychological dynamics of stereotyping? What are possible connections between various forms of discrimination, e.g., racism, sexism, homophobia, and anti-Semitism?

How do issues of race, intergroup relations, and social group identity impact 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 course is part of a larger program called FIGS (First-year Interest GroupS).

This course will examine the interaction between different racial groups in the U.S. from the 19th century to our present moment. Conventionally, such studies focus solely on the relationship between African Americans and whites, relying on the hackneyed Black-white paradigm of U.S. race relations. This seminar explodes that dichotomy, searching for a broader historical model, which includes yellow, brown, red, and ethnic white.

• In other words, how did African Americans respond to the internment of Japanese Americans?
• What made desegregation cases like Mendez v. Westminster important precedents in the run-up to Brown v. Board of Education?
• What is a “model minority,” and why did Asians inherit the mantle from Jews?
• What is a “protest minority,” and why were Blacks and Jews labeled as such during the Civil Rights Movement?
• What is the relationship among Black Power, Yellow Power, the American Indian Movement, and Chicano Power, if any?

We will critically interrogate the history of contact that exists between and among these diverse “groups,” and whether conflict or confluence dominates their interaction. If conflict, what factors have prevented meaningful alliances? If confluence, what roles have these groups played in collectively striving for a multiracial democracy?"

It is common knowledge that the fault lines of gender and sexuality were far more pronounced and prominent in Black public culture during the post-civil rights era than during the high tide of the Black freedom movement. In recognizing gender as a crucial aspect of discourses of black identity and authenticity in the art, literature, and politics of the Black freedom movement, we will reexamine that assumption. We will draw on secondary sources, as well as a range of primary sources, including government documents, fiction, drama, periodicals, popular music, and visual art-to explore the centrality of gender and sexuality as markers for notions of "authentic" Black identity.

Tens of thousands of papyri from Egypt provide an intimate view of daily life in Egypt during the Greek and Roman periods. Many of these documents are legal and detail transactions and agreements of actual people. In this class we are going to read legal documents in translation and discuss the contents and the legal practices (Egyptian, Hellenistic, Roman) we see at work in them, and the social realities lying behind them.

As viewed through the ‘cultural lens’ of the Iliad and the Odyssey, ‘The World of Homer’ explores the emergence of Greek society — as a highly competitive, elite- and shame-oriented culture. Both of these early epics will be read and analyzed in their entirety, as an appreciation of the wide and vivid cultural canvas in which the ancient Greeks recognized the origins of their social and religious attitudes and institutions; and forever meditated upon the pathos and fragility of the human condition.

Over the last century, why have women writers returned to Greek and Roman mythology as a source of inspiration? How do they rewrite the gendered plots of particular myths in order to engender new meanings? This seminar will consider revisions of Classical myth in various literary genres (including fiction, poetry, and drama) written by various women (including Mary Renault, H.D., Christa Wolf, Marguerite Yourcenar, Rita Dove, and Anne Carson).

Students will develop skills in critical analysis of literature, by writing a series of short essays and also creating their own version of a Classical myth.

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.

A study of rhetoric, both as a body of principles, and as a practical art, emphasizing the writing of expository and argumentative essays.

A study of rhetoric, both as a body of principles, and as a practical art, emphasizing the writing of expository and argumentative essays.

A study of rhetoric, both as a body of principles, and as a practical art, emphasizing the writing of expository and argumentative essays.

A study of rhetoric, both as a body of principles, and as a practical art, emphasizing the writing of expository and argumentative essays.

A course in the nature and technique of contemporary short fiction, from the reader-writer's point-of-view. Close analysis of twelve examples of recent American prose, with an eye on authorial technique. Written work will consist of exercises in imitation, an effort to enter the style and specific rhetoric of the examples at hand. We will read short stories from Andrea Barrett, John Barth, Charles Baxter, Raymond Carver, Ernest Hemingway, Richard Ford, Jamaica Kincaid, Bernard Malamud, Lorrie Moore, Bharati Mukherjee, Tim O'Brien, and Flannery O'Connor. The article of faith on which this course is based is that imitation is not merely the sincerest form of flattery, but also a good way to grow.

Revenge is one of the oldest topics in Western literature and remains to this day a ubiquitous element in popular culture. And no wonder: the question of whether and how to “get even” serves as a ready-made source of narrative energy, suspense, and violence, while at the same time raising fundamental questions about justice, human nature, and the hold of the past over the present. To study revenge, then, means to study much else besides, from literary history and form to the relationships between desire and duty, emotion and reason, parents and children, gender and violence, and the primitive and the modern.

After some introductory reading, we will read key texts from two bodies of work in which revenge plays a central role: ancient Greek tragedy (the Oresteia) and early modern English tragedy (Hamlet). We will then move on to—and spend the greatest amount of our time with—the Victorian novel (Wuthering Heights, Great Expectations), a genre in which the place of revenge is intriguingly uncertain. We will conclude with a look at the treatment of revenge in film Westerns (The Searchers, Unforgiven). As we proceed, we will be particularly alert to changes over time in the way revenge has been understood and represented. Assignments will include frequent short response papers and two longer essays.

This course will consider the capacity of literature to communicate stories of human suffering. In particular, we will read (and view) a range of literary and film genres to think about the strengths and weaknesses of particular story forms for telling specific kinds of stories about the human condition. Why, for instance, are stories of torture so often represented in plays? What rhetorical advantage is there in telling a story of the threat of landmines in the form of a Batman comic book? Can the novel represent mass suffering, or a Hollywood film adequately depict genocide?

Primary texts: along with a number of short stories, human rights documents, and other short media pieces, we will study Michael Ondaatje's Anil's Ghost (Canada-Sri Lanka); Ariel Dorfman's, Death and the Maiden (Chile); Sindiwe Magona's Mother to Mother (South Africa); Nuruddin Farah's Gifts (Somalia); Batman: Death of Innocents; Hotel Rwanda.

Today, we humans are more numerous than ever before—and we consume more per person than ever before. How did we get here, and what (if we wish) can we do about it? In this course, we will examine how humans have left their imprint—‘footprints’—on the earth. We begin by calculating our individual ecological footprints: how many planets would it take for the human population if everyone lived as you, or I, do? Then we find a very general definition for “resources,” one that does not depend on culture or modernity. Next, we will trace our pre-human and human ecological footprints across time. First, why do we care more about ourselves, our families and friends, and the here-and-now, than about distant strangers or the far future? What differences did it make that we tamed fire? That we invented agriculture, and that it spread around the globe? That we harnessed mechanical energy, and solved some major public health problems? We will find that each of these inventions or transitions allowed us to survive better, to raise families more successfully, and to consume ever more of the earth’s resources. Today, we are one of millions of species, but we consume the vast majority of the earth’s productivity, and have a huge impact on those other species. And even within our species, there are huge differences in wealth and resources. After our trek across time, we will ask: what can we do to be effective in reducing our human impact?

Environmental problems are a tangled web of scientific, political, historical, social, economic, legal and psychological factors. This seminar will unravel the complexity of the challenging world of environmental problems by examining several conflicts through these different disciplinary lenses. The conflict over reintroduction of wolves to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the global climate change debate, and the conflict between fishermen and scientists over New England’s declining cod fishery will be examined in detail. Other current conflicts will be discussed including oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, preservation of endangered grizzly bears and bowhead whales, and rock climbing disputes at Native American sacred sites.

Inquiry into the fundamental changes occurring in the natural environment (including humans) and in human social systems and culture, to explore the question "To what extent, in what ways and why are current trends in human impacts on the environment and social relations unsustainable/sustainable? The seminar will introduce the major contrasting responses being made to this question along with their differing scenarios of the future in terms of their visions, strategies, and examples of practices to be pursued.

Learning resources will be selected from four types of information:

1. scientific,
2. religious/spiritual,
3. documentation of innovative environmental, social (including economic and political) and technological practices and
4. personal experiences and commitments.

Religions to be considered include those of Native Americans and other indigenous peoples as well as world religions, e.g., Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. The consideration of spirituality is based on individuals' experiences and recognition of "sacred" or "ultimate" realities that are variously understood and characterized.

Students will be asked to engage in interdisciplinary, seminar based inquiry through reading and thinking critically, reflecting on and analyzing their own values, beliefs and practices, sharing the results of their own inquiries through discussions, writing, and presentations and by comparing and contrasting their own beliefs and ideas with others who have different backgrounds and current values, beliefs and goals.

It is expected that students enrolling in this seminar will have differing backgrounds of knowledge and experience in relation to the environment, science, religion/spirituality, and unsustainability/sustainability. Both students with religious commitments are welcome as well as students who are agnostics, atheists or who would describe themselves as secular humanists, skeptics, and “undecided" or by some other name for their highest values and related belief systems and practices. This opportunity for participatory inquiry will require enrolled students to engage in respectful dialogue along with acceptance of people with backgrounds and present commitments and beliefs that are different from their own.

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.

Two hundred million years ago the Earth's continents were joined together to form one gigantic super-continent, called Pangea. Plate tectonic forces broke Pangea apart and caused the continents to drift. We study the evidence for plate tectonics and the large-scale dynamics of the Earth's interior that is responsible for mountain building, earthquakes faulting, volcanic eruptions, changes in Earth's magnetic field 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.

Credit Exclusions: Those with credit for GEOSCI 107 or 205 may only elect GEOSCI 147 for 2 credits. Those who have credit for both GEOSCI 107 and 205 may only elect 147 for 1 credit.

This first-year seminar examines the geologic origin, as well as economic and societal impact of natural hazards such as earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, floods, tsunamis, climate change, and meteorite impacts through lectures, discussion, student presentations, and research projects.

Credit Exclusions: No credit granted to those who have completed or are enrolled in GEOSCI 284. Those with credit for GEOSCI 109 may only elect GEOSCI 148 for 2 credits.

This seminar will focus on a wide spectrum of possible interactions between people and their physical environment. Fundamental principles important to the study of environmental geology will be presented followed by readings of case histories and discussions of selected environmental problems, in particular those of anthropogenic origin. Examples of topics discussed include issues related to global warming, energy (fossil fuels, nuclear energy), water resources (impacts of excessive groundwater withdrawal, allocation of surface water rights), radioactive waste disposal, and geological aspects of environmental health.

The final years of the fifteenth century heralded a new era in the relationship between Asia and distant parts of the globe. The arrival of Vasco da Gama on the west coast of India in 1498 established direct contact between Europe and maritime Asia. It also initiated centuries of commercial, cultural, artistic and technological exchange. This course explores facets of that exchange, pursuing case studies in India, Southeast Asia, China and Japan. Readings, lectures, and student projects will address the varied nature of Asia’s encounters with the Portuguese, Dutch, and British, and more recently with global modernity and post-modernity. Topics include cartography, exotica, gift exchange, diplomacy and protocol, trade, missionary activity, colonization, Orientalism, and the post-colonial condition. I.III.IV. 3,4

A thousand years ago, becoming a monk or a nun was more than the personal choice of a secluded way of life. Monks could be hermits, but also advisers to kings and popes. Fulfilling a central function in society, monasteries also had a major influence on medieval culture. Starting our journey in the 4th-century desert, we will consider different forms of religious life up to the crisis of monasticism in the 15th century. Although we will survey traditions of monasticism throughout Europe, north Africa, and the Middle East, including Q’alat Seman in Syria (constructed around the pillar of Simon the Stylite), particular emphasis will be placed on exploring monastic culture in western Europe and sites such as the once magnificent abbey of Cluny (Burgundy, France) or the austere, Cistercian Fontfroide (Languedoc, France). Students will be introduced to the spatial lay-out, structure and function of monasteries. We will look at the role of monks as the guardians of relics and the effect of pilgrimage on art and architecture. Art produced at nunneries will introduce us to female spirituality in the Middle Ages. This seminar will sharpen skills of visual and architectural analysis and introduce primary textual sources, such as the letters of Abelard and Heloise, a couple of star-crossed lovers turned monk and nun.

A basic introduction to historical thinking and method through small-course seminar experience. Topics vary from term to term; however, no matter what the topic, students can expect to spend a great deal of time learning to think critically about historical questions and to write well. As such, the Freshman seminar should serve as an introduction to upper-level course work in history and related fields of study.

This seminar will explore the historical forces that have given shape to the evolving and important relationship that exists between Canada and the United States today. Dating back to the 1530s and the advent of the fur trade in North America, the movement of goods, capital, people, armies, and even the border itself have all played pivotal roles in shaping and defining the kind of relationship that exists between these two countries. In particular, this course will examine the ways in which the rise and fall of empires in North America, and their attendant issues, have influenced the economic, cultural, political, and military relations between these two states. It will be through the discussion of these ideas and issues that this class will study the meaning and context of U.S.-Canadian relations from the era of the fur trade through the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994. Beyond the historical development of U.S.-Canadian relations, the course also will examine the ways that historians consider the political and economic consequences of trade, dependency, and globalization.

Required readings for the course may be purchased at Shaman Drum Bookshop, 313 S. State, and are on reserve at the Shapiro Undergraduate Library:

• John Herd Thompson and Stephen J. Randall, Canada and the United States: Ambivalent Allies
• Colin G. Calloway, The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America
• Hugh MacLennan, Barometer Rising
• George Grant, Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism
• Steven High, Industrial Sunset: The Making of North America’s Rust Belt, 1969-1984
• Course pack (available at Dollar Bill Copying, 611 Church Street)
• Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History

Many of the assumptions that we make about witches and witchcraft do not hold true in the Russian case. Unlike the western European cases, where witches were overwhelming imagined as female, in Russia, the vast majority of the accused were male. In the west, Satan and a satanic pact defined the essential nature of witchcraft, but in Russia the devil made little appearance in witchcraft cases. How can we explain these differences? What do the differences and similarities tell us about Russia and about witchcraft? We will analyze fairy tales, folk practices, miracle tales, contemporary descriptions and trials, and we will read several recent studies that offer thought-provoking analytical frameworks.

A new component of the course will be a unit on the understandings, justifications, and results of judicial torture in witch trials in Russia and the west, a subject with startling relevance in the world of today.

The course is conceived as a collective effort to puzzle out some of the fundamental problems and methods of comparative history. Students will have a chance to do original research and analysis.

The course requires no background in Russian history and is open to all interested first-year students.

Course Requirements:
The course will be a small discussion class, meeting twice a week. Requirements will include very short weekly response papers (2 pages), plus a longer (10 page) source-based paper due at the end of the semester. Students will be required to submit their longer papers in draft form and then to rewrite them incorporating editorial suggestions. Students will be expected to attend every class, to participate regularly, and to present results of their individual research to the class.

Books available for purchase at Shaman Drum Bookstore:

• Aleksandr Afanasiev, Russian Fairy Tales, (Pantheon, 1976).

• Linda Ivanits, Russian Folk Belief (M.E. Sharpe; New Ed edition (November 1992)).

• P.G. Maxwell-Stuart, Witchcraft in Europe and the New World, 1400-1800, (London: Palgrave, 2001)

• Christine D. Worobec, Possessed: Women, Witches, and Demons in Imperial Russia, (DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 2003).

In a world in which violence seems endemic — from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (2003- and 2001-, respectively), “militia” violence in the Darfur region of Somalia (2003-), pogroms in Gujarat, India (2002), ethnic cleansing in Kosovo (1999), to genocide in Rwanda (1994) … — this course examines the ability of history, as a discipline, to represent violence. This course is concerned, in particular, with the limits of the existing historiography of violence, and gauges whether other disciplines or genres (specifically anthropology, literature, and film) have been more successful in capturing the multifaceted — and often elusive — causes of violence, and its impact on society.

While this course addresses a broad theme, it will focus, principally, on a single historical event: the partition of India in 1947. Due to this historical event, which accompanied India’s independence from British colonial rule, some 12 million people migrated, 1 million people were killed, and perhaps as many as 75,000 women were victims of sexual violence. The study of the partition has produced a rich and diverse body of scholarship that helps address the broader theoretical questions about violence and history that this course engages.

This course has no prerequisites.

Evaluation in this course will be based on participation, two 3-4 page essays, and a final exam.

Required texts:
Gyanendra Pandey, Remembering Partition (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002)

This first-year seminar introduces students to the historical challenges faced by people of Mexican descent in the United States. We will discuss the social, economic, and political changes that influenced the day-to-day life of Mexicans/Mexican Americans. To organize the class, we will question the meaning of a racialized Mexican identity in the United States. This class will highlight the racial, class, gender, and sexual diversity within the Mexican-American community. We will consider how different groups of Mexicans have historically understood these ideas and their relationships to other Americans and other Latino groups. Part of our work will also consider Chicano history’s political and intellectual underpinnings as an academic discipline.

It is common knowledge that the fault lines of gender and sexuality were far more pronounced and prominent in Black public culture during the post-civil rights era than during the high tide of the Black freedom movement. In recognizing gender as a crucial aspect of discourses of black identity and authenticity in the art, literature, and politics of the Black freedom movement, we will reexamine that assumption. We will draw on secondary sources, as well as a range of primary sources, including government documents, fiction, drama, periodicals, popular music, and visual art-to explore the centrality of gender and sexuality as markers for notions of "authentic" Black identity.

This course surveys major themes in history of the Philippines, paying particular attention to their cultural dimensions. Starting with its inception as a colony of Spain, through the American colonial period, to the post-colonial present, we will draw from Philippine historiography, ethnography, literary works and popular culture to examine the cultural effects of processes such as: religious conversion and colonial encounter; revolution and nationalism; hybridity and language; regional, class, and identity formation; modernity, globalization, and migration.

The course will be conducted as a seminar. Students will be graded on their active participation in discussion, response papers, and final research project.

Much of our current knowledge of early civilizations is due to the deciphering of ancient scripts and languages, which requires an understanding of how scripts and languages work as well as a bit of luck. This course examines successful decipherments of the past (e.g., of Egyptian and of languages written in cuneiform scripts), recent breakthroughs (e.g., in deciphering Mesoamerican languages), and cases that remain unsolved. Hands-on exercises are based on real examples.

“Metaphor is for most people a device of the poetic imagination and the rhetorical flourish — a matter of extraordinary rather than ordinary language. Moreover, metaphor is typically viewed as characteristic of language alone, a matter of words rather than thought or action. For this reason, most people think they can get along perfectly well without metaphor. We have found, on the contrary, that metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.

“ The concepts that govern our thought are not just matters of the intellect. They also govern our everyday functioning, down to the most mundane details. Our concepts structure what we perceive, how we get around in the world, and how we relate to other people. Our conceptual system thus plays a central role in defining our everyday realities. If we are right in suggesting that our conceptual system is largely metaphorical, then the way we think, what we experience, and what we do every day is very much a matter of metaphor.”

— from: Lakoff & Johnson, Metaphors We Live By.

In this course we will explore Lakoff and Johnson’s thesis, first by learning in some detail how metaphors work, which will involve a bit of practice in semantics and in linguistic observation, and then by observing and analyzing the use of metaphor in our own and others’ language, thought, and action. For students interested in meaning, and in integration of their entire educational experience, this procedure can often lead to startling intellectual insights.

To aid us in this enterprise, there will be readings of some works that shed light on the nature of metaphors and/or manipulate them masterfully, including a fair amount of fantasy and science fiction. Regular participation in class and computer discussions is required; in addition, assignments include biweekly writing and a term research project.

Texts for this seminar include a coursepack of linguistic and other readings at Excel, and the following novels:

• David Brin The Uplift War
• Barry Hughart Bridge of Birds
• Terry Pratchett Small Gods & Hogfather
• Neil Stephenson Snow Crash
• Vernor Vinge A Fire Upon The Deep
• Alexei Panshin New Celebrations (ebook at http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/eBook1884.htm)

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

Introduces students to the science of constructing and attacking secret codes. An important goal is to present the mathematical tools – from combinatorics, number theory, and probability – that underlie cryptologic methods.

Background and Goals: This course is an alternative to MATH 185 as an entry to the Honors sequence. Students are expected to have previous experience with the basic concepts and techniques of first-semester calculus. The course stresses discovery as a vehicle for learning. Students will be required to experiment throughout the course on a range of problems and will participate each semester in a group project. Grades will be based on homework and projects with a strong emphasis on homework. Personal computers will be a valuable experimental tool in this course and students will be asked to learn to program in either BASIC, PASCAL or FORTRAN.

Content: This course gives a historical introduction to Cryptology and introduces 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 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 final part of the course is devoted to public key encryption, including Diffie-Hellman key exchange, RSA and Knapsack codes. The mathematical tools come from elementary number theory.

Alternatives: MATH 115 (Calculus I), MATH 185 (Honors Calculus I), or MATH 295 (Honors Mathematics I).

Subsequent Courses: MATH 176 (Dynamical Systems and Calculus), MATH 186 (Honors Calculus II), or MATH 116 (Calculus II).

Philosophers seek to diagnose, and resolve, conflicts and inconsistencies in our ordinary ways of thinking and talking about things. This course will consider a number of such cases, including puzzles about the possibility of free action, weakness of will, rationality and altruism, the passage of time, knowledge and skepticism, language, logic, and ethics. (For example: It's quite central to our ordinary ways of thinking about ourselves that some of our actions are free. But this seems incompatible with our actions just being the effects of ordinary causal processes in our brains. Do we need to give up on the possibility of free action? Give up on the view that our actions are just more physical events in the world, with the usual sorts of causal histories? Or can we reconcile these two apparently incompatible parts of our ordinary picture of how things are? Another example: We ordinarily think that we know quite a lot about the way the world is – for example, I know that I have hands. But I could have all of the experiences that I actually have, even if I were a handless victim of a Matrix-like simulation. So all of my evidence is compatible with my being a handless Matrix-inhabitant. Perhaps we should give up the claim that I know that I have hands. Or perhaps we should give up the claim that, in order to know that I have hands, I need to be able to rule out the hypothesis that I'm a victim of a Matrix-like deception.)

This course examines moral dimensions of the University and its faculty, students, and staff in their roles as citizens of an academic community.  Our goal is to help students think about how to approach participation in this community and develop their deliberative competencies by questioning academic life and the University from moral and social standpoints.  We will organize our inquiries into three domains:  academic integrity; the University as an academic community; the University’s moral obligations as an institution.

It was the best known thing, it was the worst known thing. I mean conscious experience: sweet taste sensations, blurry visions, burning itches, bursting orgasms, colored afterimages, songs in your head, streams of thought, etc. What is consciousness? How far does it extend? (Robots, plants, critters, fetuses? The comatose, anesthetized, extremely mentally impaired? Potential ghosts, zombies, group minds, subsystems within our minds? Everything?) Could science ever explain consciousness as a combination of nonconscious ingredients?

What is the relationship between being morally responsible for your actions and being capable of doing otherwise? Is God responsible for His good deeds if He is not capable of doing anything wrong? Are we responsible for doing the wrong thing, if we were causally determined to do it? We will read selections from the historical and contemporary philosophical literature. Assignments will include brief written responses to the reading, an oral presentation, and a paper.

This interdisciplinary seminar critically examines the condition of contemporary Brazilian women as well as of African-Brazilians, their struggle to gain cultural, economic, and socio-political equality. Our focus is on questions and perspectives concerning both the literary and socio-economic aspects of gender, race, class inequality, transformation, and options for self-empowerment.

This seminar is an interdisciplinary course that explores contemporary experiences of Americans of Asian Descent in the United States from a social justice perspective. In the context and course of the Asian American history and challenges of globalization, it examines the unique contributions, struggles, and challenges for social justice in a multicultural America and global community.

This class will be conducted in a seminar consisting of lectures, presentations, creative projects, student interaction activities, interactive learning experiences, and discussions. Practical opportunities for socio-cultural teaching and learning experience will be included in the course.

Throughout time and across cultures twins have been a source of special fascination, and recently as the rate of twining has increased, practical issues regarding twin’s development demands greater attention. This seminar will examine the experience and lessons of twinship. We will review research on how being a twin, and how raising twins, affects twin’s identity. We will also consider what these data, and the metaphor of twinship found in literature and film, teach us about identity, relationships, good vs. evil, life options, symmetry, and soul mates. The behavior genetics research involving twins to disentangle effects of heredity and environment will also be reviewed in order to gain an understanding of effects of nature and nurture in general. The seminar will begin with an overview of the context of twining across time and culture. In particular in the variety of rates of twining and in beliefs about twins will be considered. We will then investigate how being conceived and experiencing each developmental milestone with another effects one’s sense of self and identity. Finally, we will examine how scientists have utilized the natural variance in genes and environment between identical and fraternal twins, siblings, and nonrelated individuals who have been either raised together or apart to disentangle effects of nature and nurture on development and aging. By the end of the course students should have a better appreciation of the uniqueness of growing up as a twin, how this experience affects one’s identity, and how twin development and aging illuminates development and aging in general. In addition, the ways in which both our genes and environment affect our biology, behavior, and thought will be elucidated. The course involves a heavy workload and relies extensively on a course web site. All assignments are described on the web site and are to be submitted through it. The web site also contains topic outlines, links to relevant readings and research materials, and places for student discussion. It is essential that all students do reading and writing assignments before the class in which they are covered. Students also are expected to participate actively in class and web discussions. Class sessions will mostly involve student discussion, but will also include instructor lecture, group work, student presentations, and videos. Grades will be based on the number of points accumulated by completing assignments and exams and participating in class and web discussions.

This seminar will study the relationship between law and psychology within a general framework. We will 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 such as the insanity defense, and battered wife syndrome. Each student will write a weekly commentary as well as a "closing argument" that will be presented to the class for one of the cases under consideration.

(NOTE: Three hour session scheduled on Friday is designed to accommodate occasional showing of movies. Class session is usually less than two hours.)

How do issues of race, intergroup relations, and social group identity impact 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 course is part of a larger program called FIGS (First-year Interest GroupS).

The purpose of this seminar will be to explore the concepts of identity, alienation, and freedom as psychological and philosophical concepts. However, the orientation 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 life style, 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."

(NOTE: Three hour session scheduled on Thursday is designed to accommodate occasional showing of movies. Class session is usually less than two hours.)

This course will explore how gender influences construction of the self and how we understand our own and others' emotions. Taught from a social justice perspective, this class will explore psychologically, socially and morally complex issues surrounding gender identity, transsexualism, sexual orientation, and relationships. Students will examine their own beliefs and experiences as well as become familiar with basic controversies in this area.

What does it mean to be an effective leader? What are the individual characteristics, behavior or circumstances that determine a leader's ability to mobilize others successfully? In this seminar we will explore these questions and others by studying several approaches to understanding leadership in organizational contexts. We will use real and fictional cases to examine leadership, and evaluate our own leadership skills and behaviors in class exercises and discussions

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 include stereotyping, communication, cooperation, conflict, justice, and discrimination. What psychological theories address how individuals and groups might benefit most from life in pluralistic societies? What are some psychological dynamics of stereotyping? What are possible connections between various forms of discrimination, e.g., racism, sexism, homophobia, and anti-Semitism?

Artists, craftspeople, and cultural knowledge-makers have been instrumental but not acknowledged as creators of social action. This seminar will explore several types of creative work such as performances, exhibits, and lectures – especially those that involve both visual and narrative materials (pictures and stories). We will study how such activities have produced social action, especially among disadvantaged or stigmatized groups (like youth, persons with brain disorders, prisoners, the elderly, people with HIV/AIDS) in the United States and South Africa. Using methods from community psychology students will learn ways to assess critically creative work and social action.

Why do people hurt each other? When do they choose good over evil? In this course, we will examine how violent, hurtful behavior and caring, empathic behavior both arise from the cognitive and emotional processes of the human brain. We will consider how these biological and psychological factors interact with an individual's social context and environment. Our discussions will include psychological, psychiatric, neurological, genetic, and evolutionary perspectives. Topics will include a wide range of evil and good, from individual acts of aggression and helping behavior to large-scale phenomena such as genocide.

Students will be introduced to the fundamental concepts of learning and memory particularly as they relate to research in non-human animals. Classic texts and original papers will be read and reviewed. In-class exercises will also be employed to aid in students' understanding. Topics will include the history of the laboratory study of learning/memory, Pavlovian, and Skinnerian theories. In addition to class-room lectures and discussion, this class will also emphasize the development of scientific writing skills using both in-class and out-of-class assignments.

Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, belongs to those European cities that fascinate as unique historical amalgams whose composition defies disciplinary boundaries. The course traces Prague’s history, culture, architecture, the symbiosis of ethnic groups within its walls, and its current spirit. Topics include Prague as: a medieval city; the center of religious reformation; the center of arts and science, but also alchemy and black magic, in the early modern times; an architectural project of the baroque period; a center of the Czech nationalist revival; a center of music; the city of Jews; and last but not least- the showcase of modernism in the twentieth century. We will read literature inspired by Prague, including Neruda, Kafka, and Apollinaire; study visual documents; and watch films including Paul Wegener’s Golem.

Did young Jewish men and women fall in love in the old days? What was the place of love in traditional Jewish society? How did ideas about love, romance, and marriage change with time?

We will address these and other important questions about Jewish life by looking closely at a series of stories written in Yiddish in the 19th and 20th centuries in Russia, Poland, and America. We will explore the ways Yiddish writers portrayed romantic feelings, study their literary techniques and devices, and create our own interpretations of their works. We will read and discuss stories by the classic authors of Yiddish literature — Mendele Moykher Sforim, Sholem Aleichem, and Y.L. Peretz — as well as by their younger followers and opponents, including Dovid Bergelson, Sholem Asch, Y. Singer, Rokhl Korn, Kadya Molodowsky. We will also look at visual representations of love in art and cinema.

The region of the Balkans includes Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, and the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Named during the centuries-long Ottoman occupation, the region has politically been defined as the periphery of civilized Europe.

Through the literary renditions and theoretical elaborations of myths created in the region, as well as those created about the region by the Western literature, film industry, and in the recent years, media, we will delve into the problematics of identity, ethnicity, gender, body, memory, totalitarianism, violence, exile, and the gaze. Simultaneous with our mythical journey through history will be our historical journey through myth, as we follow the development of pertinent mythical themes from classical antiquity to modern times. Central to our discussion will be the key metaphor of the Balkans as a bridge between East and West

PRIMARY TEXTS:

• Ivo Andrić, The Bridge on the Drina (Yugoslavia, 1945, Nobel Prize 1961);
• Ismail Kadare, The Three-Arched Bridge (Albania, 1978);
• Rhea Galanaki, The Life of Ismail Ferik Pasha (Greece, 1989);
• Orhan Pamuk, White Castle (Turkey, 1985); B. Wongar, Raki (Australia, 1994).

OTHER READINGS: Select poetry and short fiction by the following authors: Constantine Cavafy, Odysseus Elytis (Nobel Prize, 1979) (Greece), Marin Sorescu, Lucian Blaga (Romania), Nazim Hikmet (Turkey), Elisaveta Bagryana (Bulgaria), Danilo Kiš (Yugoslavia).

FILMS:

• Ulysses’ Gaze (Theo Angelopoulos, Greece, 1995),
• Before the Rain (Milčo Mančevski, Macedonia, 1994), and
• The Time of Gypsies (Emir Kusturica, Yugoslavia, 1989).

In this class, we compare patterns of race relations, focusing on three issues: slavery, genocide, and refugees. We compare two cases of slavery -- the U. S. and Brazil; several cases of genocide -- the Jewish holocaust in Nazi Germany in mid-20th century, the Cambodian genocide in the 1970s, and the Rwandan genocide recently; and two refugee migrations -- the historical immigration of Jews to the U. S. at the turn of the 20th century, as well as the immigration of Cubans to the U. S. from the middle of the 20th century to the present. Together, we aim to understand these three extreme social situations, as well as how and why racial definitions change over time and across different nations. Such comparisons show that races are socially constructed as well as that racialization is a social process. While the situations we focus on are extreme, we also focus on the efforts human beings who lived through them made to overcome them and give meaning to their lives. Several documentaries illustrate and represent the issues we grapple with intellectually. Course requirements consist of two exams (Midterm and Final) in-class, and a book review of a book whose research focused on one of the three main topics of slavery, genocide, or refugees, to be chosen by the student.

This seminar will explore a wide range of issues on social identity and intergroup relations, notions of community, and everyday politics and democracy. It will examine the possibilities for building community across race, gender and class as students explore their own racial and other social group identities. How do we have constructive conversations and dialogue about our different perspectives, beliefs, experiences, and backgrounds? How do we develop the practice of civic engagement along with the skills of boundary-crossing to build a strong democracy in our schools, neighborhoods, cities, and governments? To what extent do the American ideals and its democratic principles continue to provide a bond for our society in the face of growing social divisions and inequities? 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 engaging intergroup dialogue exercises and community-based activities.

An introduction to the sociological study of inequality through an analysis of three of its fundamental dimensions — class, race and gender. The course will explore how each of the three dimensions of inequality is related to the development of modern capitalist society as described by Marx and Weber. The course will provide an introduction to basic concepts in class analysis, to contemporary issues in feminist theories of gender, and to recent work on the social construction of race. It will also trace both the similarities and differences among the three dimensions, their relationship to one another and to the underlying dynamics of capitalist modernity.

Texts include Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting Buy in America; Richard Feldman and Michale Beltzold, End of the Line: Autoworkers and the American Dream; Susan Kessler and Wendy McKenna, Gender: An Ethnomethodological Approach; Oyeronke, Oyewumi, The Invention of Women; Joe Feagin and Melvin Sikes, Living with Racism: The Black Middle Class Experience; Ron Takaki, Iron Cages: Race and Culture in Nineteenth Century America, as well as selected readings from Marx and Weber.

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.

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.

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 study the development of medicine as a science and how the perception of it has been changed through the media. Students explore their own beliefs about medicine through literature such as The House of God, The Intern Blues, The Double Helix and movies and television series such as the Story of Louis Pasteur, The Hospital, Medic, Ben Casey, Marcus Welby, M.D., ER, and Saint Elsewhere, as well as more recent offerings such as John Q, House, and Grey's Anatomy. Much of the course focuses on the discussion of ethical issues and the crystallization of students' own beliefs about medicine in the 20th century.

This 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 to 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 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 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.

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 beforehand. 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.

This course will examine the broad social and economic impact of alcohol and other drugs, in particular prescription medications, emphasizing the effect on individuals, families, and communities. After exploring how people are socialized into drinking and using drugs, we will consider what changes could be made to positively alter the way this socialization occurs. Through this process, students will gain a greater understanding of the role played by family, culture, peers, and the alcohol and drug industries in the development of usage 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.

Indeed this is the age of scientific discovery! With each passing day, knowledge in the life sciences is increasing exponentially in many areas, including stem cell biology, patterns of birth defects, and the phenomena of aging, dying and death. This new information, while important to human health, surfaces the complex and intertwining issues of ethics and values that will be of special consideration in this seminar. Each of the daily learning modules and projects in this seminar is designed to expand our current thinking about the intersect between world of scientific discovery and its impact on human health and society.

Biological Perspectives. The plan of the human body can serve as a keystone as we probe the interplay of genes, cells, morphogenesis, and the environment in which we live. A myriad of biological advances could be considered, but three exciting topics especially jump out:

1. Birth defects and population patterns
2. Phenomena of aging, dying, and death
3. Immensely provocative "stem cells"

This last topic alone opens up a world of biological concepts and principles that can influence our understanding of how the human body — your human body — is shaped prior to birth and throughout life. Thus, "life inside the box."

Ethical and Societal Perspectives. However stimulating "life inside the box" may be, that is not the whole story! In the excitement of so many dramatic scientific advances over the last ten years, efforts to understand the ethical implications have not kept pace. It is vital that researchers and clinicians be aware of and sensitive to the legal, cultural, and societal issues spawned by their work. What principles and policies should be in place to guide further research and application of such discoveries? Answering this question focuses our attention on those environmental events occurring outside biology laboratories and outside our own human bodies, i.e., "life outside the box.”

This course examines the discourses and practices of development and population control targeting non-western countries. The course situates these discourses and practices in histories of colonial encounters, international politics, and global relations of power and inequalities. We will survey a diverse range of debates among the critics of population and development policies and projects in order to see how such debates have succeeded or failed in altering hegemonic approaches to development with new approaches that attend to peoples' histories, social locations, and health and human rights. The course will analyze these discourses and practices with reference to local politics and realities of uneven development that produce gender, class, and ethnic disparities. Although the course material focuses on non-western countries, Africa in particular, we will also look at some examples of how these discourses are projected on poor communities elsewhere including the U.S. The course also aims at introducing students to the methodologies of doing research in the social sciences, for instance students will do group projects on either the case of Katrina-New Orleans or the Darfur conflict, Western Sudan as research topics for their final papers.

What does it mean to be human? Does it mean one has a right to dignity? To equality? To housing, education, and a job? To be free from racial discrimination, or sexual harassment? This class will explore how being human grounds struggles for social justice, including human rights and humanitarianism. While the French and American revolutions changed the way societies were understood and organized, instituting systems based on freedom and equality for all, we will ask how this plays out today: how recognizing “humanity” both allows for equality between people, and for new forms of discrimination.