This course explores cities in contemporary Africa through the lens of architecture and the built environment, informal economies and survivalist strategies, art and culture, social justice and citizenship. There is an unfortunate tendency in journalistic, scholarly accounts to portray cities in Africa as examples of distressed, distorted, truncated, or failed urbanism. This view that “cities in Africa just don’t work” is a fairly widespread perception that has embedded itself in popular culture. Rather than treating cities in Africa as undifferentiated places of socio-economic malaise, famine and war, infrastructural failure, and service breakdown, the course seeks to understand the complexity of processes at work that produce cities in Africa today. The course focuses the multiple ways that cities actually do work in Africa, but perhaps in ways that are invisible to planners, experts, journalists, and travelers.

Brazil is a place of paradoxes and contrasts. The fifth most populous nation, it boasts one of the world's largest economies and an advanced industrial sector, but suffers income disparity and regional economic imbalances that are among the world's most dire. Its constitution guarantees social and economic justice and protects historically disenfranchised groups, but implementation and enforcement of the law is hobbled by special interests and police corruption. It celebrates its rich multi-ethnic cultural heritage, but remains stratified by perceived racial and regional differences.

In this course, we will examine the historical roots of these paradoxes, focusing particularly on cultural production and expression. Topics include:

• indigenous societies and responses to European invasion;
• slavery and paternalism;
• religious expression; and
• the ways that racial and ethnic identification has inspired much of Brazil’s unique cultural production, particularly in the areas of literature, dance, music and cinema.

Writing assignments:

• A weekly short paper on the documents and the readings (1 p. posted on C-Tools by 5PM Sat.) : 25%
• Participation in one group presentation of the film or the novel of the week: 25%
• A final paper of 10 to 15 pages on a topic chosen with the Instructor: 50 %

This course provides an introduction to the feminist scholarship about women and gender. We explore how women’s lives differ across social categories such as race, class, sexual orientation, and age, with an emphasis on women in the United States today. Readings are drawn from both the humanities and social sciences to familiarize students with key questions, theoretical tools, and issues within Women’s Studies. A variety of topics are covered, including: violence against women; women and work; reproductive justice.

Course Requirements:

The course grade is based on short written assignments, a group project, exams, and participation in discussion.

Intended Audience:

No data submitted

Class Format:

No data submitted

This course examines how conceptions of race and mixed race have been historically shaped through law, science, and popular culture. In addition to examining the ways in which race has been socially constructed and how its meanings have changed over time, the course also explores the politics of interracial marriage, contemporary mixed race identities, and cross-racial adoption. Through an examination of historical, sociological, and autobiographical texts, the course explores a variety of themes including: census classifications, affirmative action, notions of colorblindness, questions of appearance, “authenticity,” community belonging, and the debates around the mixed race movement. Course requirements include posting a weekly discussion question, two in-class exams, and a final group project.

This course will consider the “the idea of Europe” (Pagden 2002) from the end of World War II through the present. We will engage the contradictions of genocide and enlightenment, American occupation, colonialism and the politics of freedom, the social productions of 1968 radicalism, socialism, post-socialism, and financial crisis. Furthermore, we will look at the contemporary processes of Europeanization, social security, population decline, and the social and political consequences of the necessary immigration.

• What kinds of subjects is European immigration policy producing?
• What kinds of citizenship?
• How should we understand the relaxing of internal borders next to the erection of new walls and fences in northern Africa?
• How are tensions with Islam impacting the ways in which Europeans see themselves?
• How and why are ideas of asylum changing?
• What are the relationships between Europe’s asylum politics, its proclamations of human rights, and its humanitarian aid?
• Finally, what new types of social and cultural forms (music, dance, cinema, and visual arts) are resulting from the contemporary mixes of unemployment, immigration, and spare time?
• Why are “immigrant” neighborhoods erupting in Paris, but not in Berlin?

Advisory Prerequisites:

Sophomore standing; introductory anthropology recommended.

This course is a focused and in-depth investigation of global phenomena, with particular attention to human rights, human security (civil conflict, economic development, social welfare, and health care), and sustainable economic and ecological systems. Readings rely on multiple methods and disciplinary approaches. In the process of studying these global phenomena, students discuss the strengths of specific methods and disciplinary approaches in improving their understanding of issues and problems that cut across nation-state boundaries.

Advisory Prerequisites:

CICS 101.

This course looks at evidence for:

• the rise and fall of civilization;
• the introduction of revolutionary technological innovations;
• trade and the exploration of new lands; and
• the invention, loss and re-creation of a range of skills including the production of figurative art, monumental stone architecture, and writing.

Our context is the ancient Greek world between ca. 3000 and 31 BCE. Ancient Greece has famously given us the Olympics, democracy, history, and theatrical performance, all of which can be traced through the writings of ancient authors. Here, though, we will focus on the art, architecture and artefacts left behind, asking what they have to tell us about the lives of ordinary people, and how those lives were affected by social, cultural, and technological change. At the same time as offering an introduction to the major societies of the Greek world during this period, we shall also look at some of the major research traditions and methods which have been employed in Greek archaeology over the past couple of centuries, down to the present day.

Course Requirements:

No data submitted

Intended Audience:

No data submitted

Class Format:

No data submitted

This seminar evaluates media coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court, in the context of long-range factors affecting the ability of news media to function in a democracy. It examines the scope and content of print, broadcast, and new-media news reporting on major cases before the court. How accurately, fairly, and adequately do news organizations cover the cases as they proceed through the legal system? Does the media help the American public gain a sufficiently thorough understanding of the complex legal issues and social impact of each case? In addition to gaining a broad overview of media coverage of current and recent cases, each student will select one case from the current or past court term and study media coverage of it in detail.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

At least one 300-level course in COMM strongly recommended.

This course focuses on problems in journalistic ethics at a time of growing concern over standards of news coverage, as exemplified most recently in the Lewinsky case. The course provides an historic overview of traditional journalistic ethics. Coupled with that is a detailed study of changing values in news coverage as media decision makers adapt to social, economic and technological changes. The course highlights such problems as sensationalism, info-tainment, anonymous sources, hidden cameras, punditry, the lowering of the wall of separation between the business and editorial sides of news organizations, invasions of privacy, and the personal behavior of journalists. The course studies journalists' responsibilities to their profession and to the public, and examines proposed solutions to the problems of ethics violations.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

COMM 351 or 371 strongly recommended.

This course covers the basic principles of the First Amendment and how they apply to media policy, practice, and regulation. Topics include First Amendment theory, hate speech, prior restraints and media censorship, defamation, indecency, obscenity, and advertising regulation.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

COMM 351 or 371 strongly recommended.

This course will examine the legal system's treatment of gender through court cases and through various theoretical lenses. The aim is to understand the role American jurisprudence has played in shaping society's views and ideas on gender.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

COMM 351 or 371 strongly recommended.

This course will examine the development, regulation and impact of the Internet in American society. In particular, we will focus on the expanding legal implications of this still relatively new technology and how the judicial and political apparatuses are trying to keep pace with the Internet's ever-expanding influence in our society. This course will cover the history of the Internet, court cases applying existing laws to the Internet, legislative attempts at additional regulation and theoretical concerns over the technological implications the Internet poses to deeply rooted legal concepts such as fair use.

Crs Requirements: Students will be graded on the basis of 3 exams throughout the semester. The exams combine multiple choice, short answers, and long essays. The long essay portion sets forth an extensive factual pattern, requiring the students to identify various legal concepts and ideas covered and address and analyze how the those concepts apply to the facts given. In addition to the exams, students are required to present 1-2 case briefs on an assigned court case, requiring them to write the facts, issues, holding and reasoning of the court case. Students also must present the case brief in class and post the brief to the course web site.

Intended Audience: Communication Studies concentrators and other juniors and seniors.

Class Format: 3 hpw seminar format

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

COMM 351 or 371.

This is a one-term introductory course in Labor Economics. The course begins by discussing the determinants of labor supply. We will consider a simple model of labor supply in which an individual chooses between labor and leisure. In this process we will also try to see how effective some welfare programs are in encouraging work. After this we will turn to the other side of the labor market in which firms decide on their hiring decisions. This will be the study of labor demand. We will discuss how regulations such as the minimum wage affect the hiring decisions of a firm.

Additional topics include the study of labor market equilibrium, compensating wage differentials, human capital, and labor market discrimination.

The waitlist is managed according to standard departmental practice.

Enforced Prerequisites:

ECON 101 with a C or better.

Advisory Prerequisites:

ECON 102 (unless ECON 101 completed with B or higher).

Course Notes:

This course focuses on examining and employing academic argumentation. Students hone their skills at the presentation, explanation, and assessment of claims through effectively crafted writing that utilizes appropriate evidence. The course builds on and refines skills from first-year writing courses and provides a basic introduction to incorporating research.

This course requires you to produce thoughtful and intellectually rigorous arguments that attend to academic expectations of form and style. We will interrogate the frequently silent assumptions that underlie both implicit and explicit arguments, recognize the importance of context and audience when developing your essays, and identify and minimize the logical fallacies that too often pass for nuanced analysis. Critical reading is integral to this process, and will be a central component of this course.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

Completion of the First-Year Writing Requirement.

Course Notes:

This course focuses on examining and employing academic argumentation. Students hone their skills at the presentation, explanation, and assessment of claims through effectively crafted writing that utilizes appropriate evidence. The course builds on and refines skills from first-year writing courses and provides a basic introduction to incorporating research.

This course will explore the use of written academic argument as inquiry--as a method to solve problems or answer questions that have yet to be addressed. The goal of written argument is not for an individual or individuals to win but for the entire community to work toward agreement on the best possible solution to a problem. Like ancient rhetoricians, you will learn specific ways to develop arguments to address questions of definition, cause, value, and action about a single issue. The goal is to improve your written argumentation skills--skills you can use in other courses. Also, you should emerge with new skills in using written argumentation for analysis.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

Completion of the First-Year Writing Requirement.

Course Notes:

This course focuses on examining and employing academic argumentation. Students hone their skills at the presentation, explanation, and assessment of claims through effectively crafted writing that utilizes appropriate evidence. The course builds on and refines skills from first-year writing courses and provides a basic introduction to incorporating research.

In this section, we will be considering the issues that shape our lives as students, consumers and citizens, while exploring forms of academic research and argumentation. The course will be divided into thematic sub-sections including:

• education
• ecology and its politics
• working conditions and capitalism
• technology.

In each of these sub-sections, we will be considering the topic at hand as it has been represented in political debates, visual media, and personal essays. Students will be expected to come to class prepared to discuss assigned reading on these topics, and to write first and final drafts of four original argumentative essays in the course of the academic term. The essays will vary in structure, and will include an op-ed, a researched letter to a politician or public figure, a response to an argumentative essay, and an independent research project. Students will also be expected to contribute short written responses to a class blog several times in the course of the academic term.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

Completion of the First-Year Writing Requirement.

Course Notes:

This course focuses on examining and employing academic argumentation. Students hone their skills at the presentation, explanation, and assessment of claims through effectively crafted writing that utilizes appropriate evidence. The course builds on and refines skills from first-year writing courses and provides a basic introduction to incorporating research.

This course will help you build the skills you need to become a persuasive advocate for the issues and ideas that matter to you. Throughout the term, you will write a series of well-informed, well-structured arguments that speak to real world debates — whether in politics, culture, the arts, education or science — that pique your curiosity, chap your hide or arouse your passion. We will focus on specific techniques for reading, researching and writing about contemporary issues, providing you with the tools you need to produce a range of convincing, sophisticated arguments about the topics you choose to study. I will be encouraging you to consider the concept of argument not simply as a means of confronting opponents but also as a means of inquiry — a means of discovering and building knowledge about ourselves, our communities, and the world at large.

This course builds on and refines skills from introductory writing courses ENGLISH 124 and 125, as well as provides a basic introduction to the processes and effective uses of primary and secondary research.

Course Requirements:

The major papers and assignments for this course will focus on presentation, explanation, and assessment of claims through written reasoning that utilizes appropriate evidence and writing conventions.

Intended Audience:

No data submitted

Class Format:

No data submitted

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

Completion of the First-Year Writing Requirement.

Course Notes:

This course focuses on examining and employing academic argumentation. Students hone their skills at the presentation, explanation, and assessment of claims through effectively crafted writing that utilizes appropriate evidence. The course builds on and refines skills from first-year writing courses and provides a basic introduction to incorporating research.

What is "aging with grace"? Does it mean that we should abstain from beauty surgery and let time do its work? Does it mean that we should exercise regularly to moderate the aging process? Or does it mean that we should learn to be older and wiser? And how does a story like "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" shake up what we know about growth and time?

In this class, we will intervene in the ongoing discussion of beauty, maturity, productivity, and other age- or time-related issues through a wide range of readings, exercises, and assignments.

Starting with the conventions and protocols of academic writing, we will learn to write in four distinct styles: argumentative essay, research article, literary analysis, and project proposal (or annotated bibliography).

Course Requirements:

No data submitted

Intended Audience:

No data submitted

Class Format:

Through discussion, workshop, conference, collaboration, and library tour, we will learn to look at daily issues with a fresh eye, incorporate research into arguments, and complicate arguments by engaging with different discourses. Although this class is predominantly about temporality, we may also touch on other topics of your interest. In class, we will focus on the mechanics of writing and the craft of argumentation.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

Completion of the First-Year Writing Requirement.

Course Notes:

This course focuses on examining and employing academic argumentation. Students hone their skills at the presentation, explanation, and assessment of claims through effectively crafted writing that utilizes appropriate evidence. The course builds on and refines skills from first-year writing courses and provides a basic introduction to incorporating research.

Ecology has been defined as the relationship between living organisms and their environment. What, then, is the ecology of an argument? And what are some of the ecological systems that the writer inhabits?

In this course, we will consider how the demands of argumentation vary according to rhetorical context. We will use methods of genre inquiry to analyze and compose arguments dealing with social and environmental issues. Questions we will consider include: what elements make arguments effective? And how does the disciplinary context of an argument shape what counts as evidence? Students will have multiple opportunities in writing to clarify, to explore, to research, and to persuade. They will be expected to provide feedback on one another's work, and, collaboratively, to revise.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

Completion of the First-Year Writing Requirement.

Course Notes:

This course focuses on examining and employing academic argumentation. Students hone their skills at the presentation, explanation, and assessment of claims through effectively crafted writing that utilizes appropriate evidence. The course builds on and refines skills from first-year writing courses and provides a basic introduction to incorporating research.

This course seeks to amplify your skills of written persuasion and rhetorical analysis. Using texts from both academic and popular culture, we will examine how writers use the tools of argument to transform a premise or claim into a structured, logical, and supported course of reason. Alongside these investigations, we will test their methods (from researching evidence to refuting a counterargument to appealing to a reader’s emotion) ourselves in four independent essays of increasing length and depth. In addition to assigned readings and writings, students should be prepared for group-based writing workshops (in which we offer critiques of fellow student work) and for lively and respectful debate on any number of contemporary cultural controversies.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

Completion of the First-Year Writing Requirement.

Course Notes:

This course focuses on examining and employing academic argumentation. Students hone their skills at the presentation, explanation, and assessment of claims through effectively crafted writing that utilizes appropriate evidence. The course builds on and refines skills from first-year writing courses and provides a basic introduction to incorporating research.

In this section you'll be asked to think critically about how argument works in criminal cases. We will evaluate the various arguments that are used in order to arrest and convict people and take a critical look at the way evidence is used at each stage. What counts as evidence? Are there points of view that are taken more seriously than others. Why? We know that it is possible for judges and juries to "get it wrong" and put innocent people in jail. Are there failures in effective argument that allow this to happen? Effective and competent argumentation is crucial for any scholar and by looking at argument through a "true crime" lens we will be evaluating argument in the real world with real consequences.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

Completion of the First-Year Writing Requirement.

Course Notes:

This course focuses on examining and employing academic argumentation. Students hone their skills at the presentation, explanation, and assessment of claims through effectively crafted writing that utilizes appropriate evidence. The course builds on and refines skills from first-year writing courses and provides a basic introduction to incorporating research.

This section focuses on the audience. Most if not all of the time, people write for a particular audience, but people do not always consciously think about who their audience is or how to connect with them. But someone reading a Twitter feed has a very different set of expectations than someone reading a newspaper, and both have a different set of expectations than someone reading an academic paper. In this class, we will develop strategies for identifying and reaching different kinds of audiences. Audience expectations can determine everything from a writer’s word choice and syntax, to how they structure their argument, to the kinds of sources they cite. In this class we will learn how to study audiences and respond to their rhetorical needs. Students will analyze examples of writers succeeding (or failing) at connecting with their audience and will practice writing for several different audiences. Work commitments for this course will include reading, large- and small-group discussion, peer reviews and workshops of one another’s work, small-scale writing assignments, and several extended essays.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

Completion of the First-Year Writing Requirement.

Course Notes:

This course focuses on examining and employing academic argumentation. Students hone their skills at the presentation, explanation, and assessment of claims through effectively crafted writing that utilizes appropriate evidence. The course builds on and refines skills from first-year writing courses and provides a basic introduction to incorporating research.

Having polished the basic skills required for college-level writing in your earlier composition courses, you will find that Academic Argumentation will require you to create formal essays that exhibit a more advanced standard of logical organization. You will learn the various forms (or “classes”) of argument, and how to avoid corrupting your theses with logical fallacies. I will ask that you support the assertions in your essays with well-researched data, documented using MLA or Chicago Style citations, and that you submit work that presents an overall positive image. (“Positive image” refers to papers calculated to persuade your audience in the most effective manner possible, with minimal mechanics errors and proofreading errors, and sophisticated arguments.) “Standard essay form” will still make up the basic argumentative framework upon which to build your papers, but we will explore ways to expand your understanding of that format. We will draw our general subject matter for reading and discussion from various categories, including history, politics, and popular culture. Further material should arise from our five planned field trips. I have designed the essay assignments to allow you freedom to draw inspiration and ideas from those and other sources. Take advantage of this freedom. Choosing topics in which you have a genuine interest will help you to enjoy the writing process more, and to create stronger papers.

Course Requirements:

Please plan on regular attendance (no more than two unexcused absences) and daily in-class participation.

[Note: this course requires the use of a portable computer. If you do not own one, a mini-laptop can be made available for your use during the term.]

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of department.

Advisory Prerequisites:

Completion of the First-Year Writing Requirement.

The English language is a complex, rule-governed system that we use every day without having to think consciously about the intricacies of what we know when we “know how to speak English.” In this course, we will unpack that knowledge, from how sounds are strung together to make words to how we take turns in conversation, from where new words come from to why Americans speak different dialects.

ENGLISH 305 both introduces the systematic study of language in general and gives you entirely new ways to think about the English language you see and hear all around you. The course covers the many levels of structure working in language — from sounds to words to sentences to discourse — as well as the ways speakers learn and change language over time. Discussions also focus on the social and educational issues tied up in language, including attitudes toward dialects, the teaching of Standard English, language and gender, and bilingual education. We will address questions such as: How is texting changing the English language? Why isn’t “ftagn” a possible English word? Is it “sneaked” or “snuck”? How are some words so “bad” they are not allowed on network television?

Course work will consist of frequent short assignments, three short essays, a midterm, and a final. No background in linguistics is required; the critical prerequisite for the course is genuine curiosity about the details of language.

Advisory Prerequisites:

Recommended for students preparing to teach English.

What role do stories play in large- and small-scale social change? Can a story inspire change? Are stories perhaps the only route to deeply rooted, sustainable social change? We’ll use as our arenas for inquiry some of the most significant civil rights movements in our lifetimes (for example, Black freedom, LGBTQ, women’s, and disability movements), and we’re going to read, listen to, and watch popular books, and movies. Our primary aim will be to figure out, in fairly concrete ways, how stories can alter people’s beliefs about people and the worlds in which we live, such that sometimes our worlds really do become better, more just, more tolerant, more accepting places.

We’ll explore representations of race, ethnicity, nationhood, ability, gender, class, and sexual orientation as we read books such as To Kill a Mockingbird, Giovanni’s Room, Rubyfruit Jungle, Motherless Brooklyn, The Birchbark House, Toughest Indian in the World, and Free to Be You and Me, and watch movies such as Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Milk.

Course Requirements:

Work for the course includes active participation in discussions, maybe an occasional quiz, an exam and two essays.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Much like the ENGLISH 325 courses I taught during my first dozen years here, this course will focus on (1) improving your vocabulary, (2) strengthening your grammatical, mechanical, semantical, and syntactical skills, and (3) helping you find your voice. I insist that you make the private public (ideally, to illustrate a universal truth or a general principle) in order that you establish your authority to comment on the topic of your essay, that you pen an essay which is not generic, and, most importantly, that you write with a human voice (not dead, wooden prose written by an obscurantist majoring in philosophy [mea culpa to any philosophy major reading this course description]). Although this course is not difficult, it is perhaps the most labor-intensive course you will take. Quid pro quo be prepared to work hard for me, and, in the process, you'll learn much about writing. The reading material for this course is your peers' writing. This will be a fun, interesting, profitable, and practical course. Text: The American Heritage College Dictionary.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

Completion of the First-Year Writing Requirement.

The title of this course in the creative nonfiction essay, taken from Eileen Pollack’s text on writing in this genre, suggests that our essays will challenge the taboo against writing in the first person. This course welcomes the “I”. But note carefully this caveat: the territory of the personal essay is dangerous because it suggests challenging the unexamined life or, put another way, confronting the mind’s potential for passivity and instead, with conscious intent, taking charge of the thoughts, feelings, beliefs, assumptions, and experiences that we would defend as central to our own truest and most complex selves. So we will be writing ourselves, and in the process we might hope to cultivate both the examined life and our capacity for the kind of sympathetic imagination that allows us to understand those different from ourselves.

The above general and somewhat romantic overview of the course comes down finally to the specifics of putting words to a page, and for this we will consider the elements of form and structure, voice and style, the symbolic and ironic, and the relationship of the personal to the universal.

The course will be workshop based. Students must be prepared to present their work in class and to give and receive critiques. Some research will be required.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

Completion of the First-Year Writing Requirement.

“Try to be one of the people on whom nothing is lost!”

— Henry James

This course asks of you what James asks of you: to be curious about not only the world around you but also your interior world, and to make something of your curiosity on the page, for what we write down is never lost. All writing starts with a question or a hypothesis. You’ve had them — questions and hypotheses — haven’t you? Maybe it’s a family story that has several versions: what is being left out? Why? What really happened? Maybe you have a theory about why iPods are ruining our ability to appreciate music. How can you convince your reader? What examples, observations and evidence can you provide? Maybe you’ve always wondered whether you could get out of a locked trunk. What if you tried it? What might you learn? What could you pass along to the reader?

“All thought is a feat of association; having what’s in front of you bring up something in your mind that you almost didn’t know you knew.”

— Robert Frost

The worth of this course, you will discover, is not so much in the final grade as in our endeavor to pursue such questions and theories on the page with diligence, creativity and flourish, to explore an interior world filled with things, to quote Frost, “you almost didn’t know you knew.” As you can see, in this course we are moving beyond the skills you’ve mastered in lower level writing courses, pushing past literary analysis or position papers into the realm of creative non-fiction. While skills from your previous writing classes are certainly transferable — structure, developing organizing ideas, accuracy, economy or language, research — this class will pair these skills with new ones germane to the craft of creative non-fiction — narrative, description, emotional resonance, theme, etc. In so doing, you will engage with questions about people, places, ideas and objects, questions that may have been stirring inside you for some time now. But there are no easy answers. Bear in mind that as we explore questions on the page, the aim is to pursue truth, not so much to arrive at an absolute truth. The former intention acknowledges complexity and depth, a certain form of respect for the idea, whereas the latter more often than not ends up feeling didactic or forced. Yield to the complexity, check it out; readers respect this. After all, when a writer pursues a question or theory, it is often not so much to discover an absolute truth, but rather to move readers closer to a truth.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

Completion of the First-Year Writing Requirement.

This course in advanced essay writing pushes past the familiar academic genres of position papers and literary analysis and calls for students to develop significant works of narrative non-fiction (or creative non-fiction). Simply put, this writing style combines the obligations of essay writing (primary and secondary source research, economy, accuracy) with the craft of fiction writing (narrative, metaphor, and emotional resonance).

Course Requirements:

Students should expect to write and revise (work through subsequent drafts) three essays of substantial length (approximately 10 pages), complete regular readings, and be prepared to discuss each other's work in a demanding but spirited forum.

Class Format:

Using discussion, workshops, in-class exercises, and a variety of written examples, we will explore an array of techniques useful for creating and amplifying these works.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

Completion of the First-Year Writing Requirement.

“Try to be one of the people on whom nothing is lost!”

— Henry James

This course asks of you what James asks of you: to be curious about not only the world around you but also your interior world, and to make something of your curiosity on the page, for what we write down is never lost. All writing starts with a question or a hypothesis. You’ve had them — questions and hypotheses — haven’t you? Maybe it’s a family story that has several versions: what is being left out? Why? What really happened? Maybe you have a theory about why iPods are ruining our ability to appreciate music. How can you convince your reader? What examples, observations and evidence can you provide? Maybe you’ve always wondered whether you could get out of a locked trunk. What if you tried it? What might you learn? What could you pass along to the reader?

“All thought is a feat of association; having what’s in front of you bring up something in your mind that you almost didn’t know you knew.”

— Robert Frost

The worth of this course, you will discover, is not so much in the final grade as in our endeavor to pursue such questions and theories on the page with diligence, creativity and flourish, to explore an interior world filled with things, to quote Frost, “you almost didn’t know you knew.” As you can see, in this course we are moving beyond the skills you’ve mastered in lower level writing courses, pushing past literary analysis or position papers into the realm of creative non-fiction. While skills from your previous writing classes are certainly transferable — structure, developing organizing ideas, accuracy, economy or language, research — this class will pair these skills with new ones germane to the craft of creative non-fiction — narrative, description, emotional resonance, theme, etc. In so doing, you will engage with questions about people, places, ideas and objects, questions that may have been stirring inside you for some time now. But there are no easy answers. Bear in mind that as we explore questions on the page, the aim is to pursue truth, not so much to arrive at an absolute truth. The former intention acknowledges complexity and depth, a certain form of respect for the idea, whereas the latter more often than not ends up feeling didactic or forced. Yield to the complexity, check it out; readers respect this. After all, when a writer pursues a question or theory, it is often not so much to discover an absolute truth, but rather to move readers closer to a truth.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

Completion of the First-Year Writing Requirement.

In this course, we will explore the genre known as Creative Nonfiction: nonfiction prose that is reflective, investigative, and analytical and borrows such rhetorical devices of characterization, scene, theme, setting, lyricism, and metaphor from fiction and poetry. We will examine the work of various authors writing in this genre so that we may employ their techniques and strategies in our own work.

Required Text: Creative Nonfiction: A Guide to Form, Content, and Style, with Readings, by Eileen Pollack.

Course Requirements:

We will work to produce clear, sustained nonfiction essays that combine the rigor of sophisticated, fact-based scholarly writing with the beauty, elegance, and imagination of literature. You should expect to produce essays in this class that are more sophisticated and complex, both in content and in length, than in work produced in lower-level writing courses. The standards are high.

Intended Audience:

No data submitted

Class Format:

No data submitted

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

Completion of the First-Year Writing Requirement.

This course is a continuation of ENGLISH 325 and will focus on improving your vocabulary, strengthening your grammatical, mechanical, semantical, and syntactical skills, and helping you find your voice. I insist that you make the private public (ideally, to illustrate a universal truth or a general principle) in order that you establish your authority to comment on the topic of your essay, that you pen an essay which is not generic, and, most importantly, that you write with a human voice (not dead, wooden prose written by an obscurantist majoring in philosophy [mea culpa to any philosophy major reading this course description]).

Although this course is not difficult, it is perhaps the most labor-intensive course you will take. Quid pro quo be prepared to work hard for me, and, in the process, you'll learn much about writing. The reading material for this course is your peers' writing. This will be a fun, interesting, profitable, and practical course.

Text: The American Heritage College Dictionary.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

Open only to seniors who have completed the First-Year Writing Requirement.

The environment is defined as the circumstances or conditions that surround an organism, and environmental science as the study of the environment and our proper place in it. These definitions point out the intricacy of understanding environmental science from a scientific, ethical, behavioral, economic, and institutional perspective. This course focuses on ecological principles and concepts underlying the management and use of natural resources, as well as socioeconomic factors and institutional roles. Throughout the course, emphasis is placed on the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to matters concerning the allocation of natural resources and the quality of our environment. Through lectures and discussions, students are encouraged not only to learn about environmental issues but also to consider their personal ethics relating to nature, resource use, and human populations.

Topics covered include biodiversity, endangered species, exploitation practices, global fisheries and aquaculture, tropical deforestation, agriculture, air and water pollution, energy production and use, waste disposal, and the role of politics and economics in environmental issues. A particular focus is placed on the role of natural resources in the lives of people from the developed and developing world, and issues relating to environmental justice in the use of resources by people from both regions.

No textbook is required for the course, and readings are provided through CTools from current literature. Quizdom clickers will be used to facilitate interactions during lecture. Total material cost is the cost of a clicker.

Course Requirements:

No data submitted

Intended Audience:

No data submitted

Class Format:

No data submitted

“Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over.” These famous words, attributed to Mark Twain, summarize perhaps the most critical environmental issue of the coming decades: the scarcity of available freshwater. Today, nearly one billion people — roughly one out of seven people on the planet — are “water deprived,” meaning they do not have enough freshwater to ensure their basic sanitation, irrigation, or drinking needs. With the world’s population expected to grow by 2.5 billion people by 2050 (mostly in areas of the world that are already water deprived), freshwater will be the critical challenge of the 21st century.

Overpopulation, urbanization, pollution, food security, corruption, politics, technology, human rights, and governance, just to name a few issues, are all intimately connected to water availability. This course will intertwine these and other issues with four main themes:

• ensuring human and environmental health,
• balancing competing demands for freshwater,
• managing across borders, and
• coping with climate change.

Several case studies from around the globe, illustrating the use and abuse of water, will be considered.

Course Requirements:

Students will be expected to read critically, reflect on lectures and readings, engage actively in discussion, and display solid writing skills.

Course requirements: Active participation; two papers; take-home final exam; and other small assignments related to current events.

Intended Audience:

Primarily juniors and seniors with a background in environmental policy and international relations.

Class Format:

This course will consist of lectures, discussion, and writing.

This course aims to give students an introduction to the world of mass media, with a strong emphasis on reporting and writing about the environment and public health. This class has consistently won high praise from students for providing personalized, hands-on training in improving writing skills. Students learn from two prize-winning journalists who have more than 40 years combined experience covering the environment and public health for media outlets such as The New York Times, Newsweek, The Detroit Free Press and National Public Radio. Each week, the course focuses on a different topic in the news related to the environment and public health, such as urban sprawl, energy efficiency, climate change, environmental justice, sustainable development, garbage, the Great Lakes and cancer. Students hear from a range of leading experts on the topic of the day, learning not only about the subject itself but also about the process of journalism. Guest speakers are chosen to represent many points of view. They range from corporate executives to environmental activists, scientists, government officials and journalists. Past speakers have included SNRE Dean Rosina Bierbaum; Donele Wilkins, Executive Director of Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice; James Clift of The Michigan Environmental Council; Mike Johnston of the Michigan Manufacturers’ Association; Neal Boudette, The Wall Street Journal’s Detroit Bureau chief; Keith Naughton, Newsweek’s Detroit Bureau Chief at the time; Rebecca Williams, producer of Michigan's Radio's Environment Report; 60 Minutes producer Alden Bourne and Sarah Mayberry, health producer for WDIV, among many others. Along the way, instructors lecture and steer discussions about media ethics, interviewing skills, freedom-of-information laws, government databases, the journalistic uses of social media and many other media-related topics. In-class exercises are featured as well. In-class critiques of student writing also point out the most successful writing techniques. The course has two field trips that show first-hand how journalism is practiced. In recent years, they have been to the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Lab in Ann Arbor and to the Carleton Farms landfill in Sumpter Township, (this is the controversial landfill that receives trash from Toronto). All class activities are designed to give students a broad understanding of how the mass media operates while also sharing tips on how students can participate in the mass media — either as full-time journalists or occasional dabblers in public discussions.

Course Requirements:

Course Requirements include:

1. in-class participation;

2. a 1000-word profile of person in environmental/public health field;

3. short assignments, including writing a 200 word story from a public meeting on a local government issue and tweeting from the meeting, and writing a blog critiquing a news article;
4. a 2000-word news feature on environmental/public health issue.

Multiple drafts are required for each writing assignment.

Intended Audience:

Concentrators in any field of study are welcome, especially those who are interested in environmental and/or public health issues and seek to improve their writing and communication skills.

Class Format:

Class meets once a week for 3 hours. The class is limited to 22 students to facilitate discussion among students.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

Completion of First-Year Writing Requirement.

This course looks at evidence for:

• the rise and fall of civilization;
• the introduction of revolutionary technological innovations;
• trade and the exploration of new lands; and
• the invention, loss and re-creation of a range of skills including the production of figurative art, monumental stone architecture, and writing.

Our context is the ancient Greek world between ca. 3000 and 31 BCE. Ancient Greece has famously given us the Olympics, democracy, history, and theatrical performance, all of which can be traced through the writings of ancient authors. Here, though, we will focus on the art, architecture and artefacts left behind, asking what they have to tell us about the lives of ordinary people, and how those lives were affected by social, cultural, and technological change. At the same time as offering an introduction to the major societies of the Greek world during this period, we shall also look at some of the major research traditions and methods which have been employed in Greek archaeology over the past couple of centuries, down to the present day.

Course Requirements:

No data submitted

Intended Audience:

No data submitted

Class Format:

No data submitted

This course is a historical and comparative introduction to the study of law, thus exposing students to a variety of ancient and medieval legal cultures across the globe. Besides grappling with the basic question of what law actually is, we investigate how law was made and justified, how laws were involved in governing and regulating human relations and transactions, and shifting notions of justice. We examine a range of famous and lesser-known legal sources and materials (codes, narratives, documents, trial records, cases, rituals, performances and ceremonies) as well as literature drawn from history, anthropology, and political theory.

Course Requirements:

No data submitted

Intended Audience:

No data submitted

Class Format:

No data submitted

America, one historian has remarked, is a nation of words. In this lecture course we will examine some of the words and concepts that have been central within American culture from the Enlightenment to World War II and how they have been articulated, debated, and deployed at a variety of times and by a variety of people. Our reading will include such major figures as Thomas Jefferson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, W.E.B. Du Bois, Margaret Mead, and Langston Hughes, as well as a host of less well known writers, scientists, political thinkers, popular commentators, and the like. We will focus throughout, however, as much on how the words were used—in producing arguments, laws, social movements, consumer goods, and machines—as on the language itself.

There are no prerequisites to enroll in this course. HISTORY 361 will meet twice a week for one-and-a-half-hour lectures/discussions. Completion of the weekly reading assignments plus regular attendance at lectures is expected, as students will be responsible for all material covered in the lectures and will also be expected to participate actively in discussions. Grades will be based on a combination of examinations, writing exercises, and participation in class.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

This course explores the history of women and gender relations in European society and culture from the Protestant Reformation and the opening out to the New World through the French Revolution (1500-1800). Through lectures, discussions, and paired readings, we will pursue the following questions:

• How did the gender systems of early modern societies shape women’s lives?
  
• What possibilities were open to early modern women and how did they respond to them?
  
• How important was gender to the ways in which early modern women thought and wrote about their lives and about the issues of the day?
  
• How did gender intersect with other factors, such as class or status, religious or national identity, age, sexuality, or marital status, and the particular circumstances of time, place, and culture in shaping individual women’s lives?
  
• How did the great events of the period shape women’s lives? How did women contribute to these major events?

This course provides an in-depth look at the period from 1901, when Theodore Roosevelt, a bold proponent of the United States taking its place among the great empires of his time, assumed the presidency, to 1950, when the cold war was in full gear.

It concerns the rise of the United States from industrial powerhouse to an unparalleled world power managing a limited welfare state at home. How did the combination of two world wars and two waves of social reform (Progressivism and the New Deal) lead to that result?

This course familiarizes students with the broad sweep of American business history, and touches on global business history as well. Much course content is personalized, that is, focuses on people, rather than institutions or events.

Course pack. No text.

Advisory Prerequisites:

Junior, senior, or graduate standing.

Economic development and institutional change in the U.S. from colonial times to the present. Timing, pace, and sources of economic growth; structural change; economic activity; industrialization; government intervention; and income distribution. The history of the American economy is full of drama, controversy, amazing institutions and colorful characters. This course studies the questions of history using the theoretical and empirical tools of economics.

Among these questions are:

• How did land abundance and labor scarcity affect the development of the American economy?
• How did the American population grow? Immigration, births, deaths?
• Why did the American colonists seek independence from England?
• How important was the railroad to the growth of the American economy?
• How did Americans conquer the continent “from sea to shining sea”?
• Why did slavery persist so long in America? Why did it take a war to get rid of slavery?
• How did the American economy thrive without a unified currency, a banking system or a Central Bank?
• What caused the Great Depression? Could it happen again?
• What was the impact of wars on the American economy?

For textbook information, please visit the ECON Textbook Information Website. Information will be posted for each class as soon as it is available.

Enforced Prerequisites:

ECON 401 with a grade of C- or better; or Graduate Standing. With permission of instructor.

Brazil is a place of paradoxes and contrasts. The fifth most populous nation, it boasts one of the world's largest economies and an advanced industrial sector, but suffers income disparity and regional economic imbalances that are among the world's most dire. Its constitution guarantees social and economic justice and protects historically disenfranchised groups, but implementation and enforcement of the law is hobbled by special interests and police corruption. It celebrates its rich multi-ethnic cultural heritage, but remains stratified by perceived racial and regional differences.

In this course, we will examine the historical roots of these paradoxes, focusing particularly on cultural production and expression. Topics include:

• indigenous societies and responses to European invasion;
• slavery and paternalism;
• religious expression; and
• the ways that racial and ethnic identification has inspired much of Brazil’s unique cultural production, particularly in the areas of literature, dance, music and cinema.

Writing assignments:

• A weekly short paper on the documents and the readings (1 p. posted on C-Tools by 5PM Sat.) : 25%
• Participation in one group presentation of the film or the novel of the week: 25%
• A final paper of 10 to 15 pages on a topic chosen with the Instructor: 50 %

Language permeates just about every aspect of human existence, and as such the study of language offers a richly interdisciplinary approach to understanding the human condition. This course will give you an overview of some of the many different ways in which language can be studied, and will show what we learn about being human from this. Because language is involved in so many facets of human existence, the study of language affords excellent background for many other fields such as cognitive and social psychology, neuroscience, history, foreign languages, sociology, anthropology, etc. Topics from at least three of these areas will be addressed in the course:

1. Cognitive aspects of language. What does it mean to say that you “know” some language? What aspects of this knowledge are acquired and how are they acquired? What aspects are genetically determined and do not need to be acquired? How can we best describe this knowledge?
2. Physiological aspects of language. Many different systems of your body are involved in the production and perception of language — the mouth, the visual system, auditory system, the brain, the hands (for signed languages), etc. What are the properties of these different systems? What do the properties of these systems tell us about language and about being human? Are there any parts of human physiology that are uniquely specialized for language?
3. Social aspects of language. Language is a powerful tool of identity construction. We use language both to define our own identity, and to classify others. How do we use language to achieve this social identity formation? How is language used as a political tool for creating social cohesion and/or oppression?
4. Historical aspects of language. Language is constantly changing. American English, for instance, is pronounced very differently from British English. There are also many vocabulary differences between British and American English. What factors (including cognitive, physiological, and social) lead to change, and how can we trace the evolutionary path? How are new languages created and why are so many languages currently on the verge of extinction?

Course Requirements:

No data submitted

Intended Audience:

No data submitted

Class Format:

No data submitted

Life presents us with many questions and choices with moral dimensions, and coming to grips with these questions requires understanding as well as motivation or feeling. Moral philosophy is an area of inquiry dedicated to promoting such understanding. Moral philosophers seek to develop the concepts and principles needed to understand the nature and the origin of our fundamental values, how (if at all) these values might be justified, and what implications they might have for how we should live our lives — as individuals, as groups or societies, and as co-inhabitants of the earth. The lecture portion of this course provides a systematic introduction to the concepts and principles of moral philosophy, and also to the dominant traditions in Western moral thought. The discussion sections will each have a sustained focus on a particular domain of contemporary moral concern. The overarching goal of the lecture and sections, taken together, is to give students the resources they need to analyze difficult and controversial moral issues, to think about these issues in clear and critical ways, and to challenge and develop their own moral views. Throughout, an effort will be made to tie theoretical questions to the actual questions we face in daily life, and to draw upon insights about morality arising from research done in other disciplines, such as psychology, social and political theory, anthropology, and decision theory and game theory.

Individual Discussion Topics by Section:

Sections 004 & 005 — Obligation & Conflict: (led by Warren Herold): In these discussion sections we will consider three questions.

1. First, we will ask about the nature and extent of our moral obligations to other people.
   • What obligations do we have to the least well-off members of society?
   • What obligations do we have to future generations?
2. Second, we will ask about our moral obligations to non-human animals.
   • Is it wrong to eat meat or perform scientific experiments on non-human animals?
3. Third, we will ask about our moral obligations to natural objects.
   • Do we have an obligation to save species, protect ecosystems, or preserve natural environments?

After introducing these three questions, we will examine the conflicts which these categories of obligation produce, and we will consider the extent to which they place constraints on our right to promote our own interests. Throughout the academic term, emphasis will be placed on the development of critical thinking and writing skills. Students will learn how to read, analyze, and critically assess philosophical arguments, as well as to construct and communicate philosophical arguments of their own.

Sections 008 & 009 — Controlling life and death (led by Annette Bryson):

• Is it wrong to clone a human? How about to selectively replace portions of a human's genetic makeup?
• Could genetic engineering go too far?
• Is it ever wrong to use prenatal screening for the purpose of selective abortion?
• What about to control for disease or disability? For gender or eye color? To knowingly create disabled children? What is a disability anyway?
• Is it wrong to willfully terminate a healthy pregnancy? What is a healthy pregnancy?
• What are some morally relevant implications of artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization?
• Is euthanasia ever permissible? Is there a morally relevant difference between purposefully killing someone and deliberately letting her die?

Our goal will be to examine potential answers to these questions using theoretical tools acquired in class readings and lectures, with the aim of formulating informed answers of our own.

Course Requirements:

No data submitted

Intended Audience:

No data submitted

Class Format:

Lecture/Discussion. The discussion sections will each have a sustained focus on a particular domain of contemporary moral concern.

This course analyzes law and legal institutions from the perspective of moral and political philosophy, with particular attention to U.S. civil rights law in historical context.

Topics studied in this course include:

• methods of legal interpretation,
• equality and discrimination,
• democracy and voting rights,
• property rights and distributive justice,
• the tension between social control and liberty (including specific liberties, such as free exercise of religion), and
• the justification for punishing lawbreakers (or for imposing specific punishments, such as the death penalty).

Readings will be drawn:

• from historical figures (Locke, Hume, Bentham, Mill);
• from contemporary legal philosophers;
• from texts in legal history, criminology, or sociology; and
• from statutes and court decisions.

Required texts: John Locke, Second Treatise of Government (Indianapolis: Hackett), John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (Indianapolis: Hackett). Additional readings will be made available in a custom text and online.

Course Requirements:

Course Requirements include substantial readings, three short papers, a final examination, and class participation.

This course is a survey of classic topics in metaphysics, or the study of what exists and the nature of what exists; and epistemology, or the study of justification and knowledge. We will discuss topics including external world skepticism, theories of persistence, and theories of personal identity. This course emphasizes readings from contemporary philosophers, such as Dave Chalmers, Alan Hajek, David Lewis, Jim Pryor, and Ted Sider, and the course thereby develops and complements more historical approaches to these foundational topics in metaphysics and epistemology.

Class Format:

Course Requirements include extensive careful reading, two papers, a midterm exam, and a final exam.

Advisory Prerequisites:

One course in Philosophy.

This course is an introduction to American politics, with an emphasis on the Constitution, the electoral process and political participation, and the decision-making process in Congress, the executive branch, and the federal courts. We will use theories of politics, as well as historical and current events, to develop an understanding of the structures and processes of our government.

Course Requirements:

Your grade will be based on exams, participation in discussion section, and assignments from your GSI.

Intended Audience:

No data submitted

Class Format:

In addition to two lectures per week, you will meet twice a week in a discussion section led by a GSI. In these sections you will have the opportunity to discuss the readings, ask any questions you might have about lectures or readings, and address topics in more depth than the lectures permit.

Advisory Prerequisites:

Primarily for first and second year students.

This course will focus on prominent political theorists. We begin in ancient Greece during the fifth century B.C. We will focus on key political, literary and dramatic texts from the "Golden Age" of Athens. We will then move chronologically towards the sixteenth century A.D. We will consider questions on the citizen: who is a citizen, what are their duties to the state, what can citizens expect the state to provide? We will look at state organization: which regime type and political institutions are most appropriate? We will consider the status and basis of knowledge (epistemology) and problems that emerge when rhetoric is misused (sophistry). Students will gain a mastery of political theory debates on justice, equality and the "best" life. Students will read original political theory texts. In-class group work, take-home essays, and exams will be a component of this class.

Legal decisions involving civil rights are lenses through which we can view the history of America’s struggle over race. This course begins with the crisis over slavery 150 years ago and works its way forward, examining the links between civil rights decisions and wider social and political practices. We will cover the watershed Reconstruction Amendments that were added to the U.S. Constitution after the Civil War, examining competing post-war interpretations of what “equality under law” required and what it meant to “destroy” slavery. We move on to study Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the infamous decision that upheld a Jim Crow segregation statute, and Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the landmark 20th-century decision that struck down legal segregation in education. We will examine the various dilemmas that confronted the Court in Brown, as well as the problem of providing federal legal remedies for unpunished lynching and racial violence. The course also includes units on the legal construction of “whiteness” in the law of naturalized citizenship and Korematsu v. United States (1944), the Supreme Court decision that ratified the U.S. policy of interning Japanese-Americans during World War II. Recent court cases involving the Guantanamo detainees and U.S. policies in the “war on terror” will be discussed in the context of Korematsu. The course concludes with an in-depth examination of Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) and Gratz v. Bollinger (2003), the Court decisions involving affirmative action at the University of Michigan. A number of themes run throughout the course, including constitutional politics, theories of race, conceptions of legal equality, American identity, and the nature of race prejudice.

Advisory Prerequisites:

POLSCI 111.

This course will highlight the relationship between international law and international politics. Using tools common in political economy, this course will emphasize that trying to design international law without taking into account the actual preferences and constraints of international actors is fruitless, and that the enforceability of international agreements cannot be taken for granted. To make these ideas come to life, current international topics, like the issue of space law, the development of international human rights law, and law on Antarctica, will be addressed.

Advisory Prerequisites:

One course in Political Science.

A major controversy in public law scholarship is about the ethical and political value of a vigorous non-legal constitutional politics, sometimes called 'popular constitutionalism'. This course looks at a series of constitutional controversies in order to evaluate the ethical and legal contributions of a non-judicial constitutional politics. The kinds of cases to be considered include:

• the original ratification of the Constitution
• the abolitionist movement
• westward and imperial territorial expansion
• war powers
• the labor movement, women’s suffrage, civil rights movement, and women’s movement
• the military-industrial state
• the Johnson and Clinton impeachments
• the Iran-Contra affair
• the rise of Christian constitutionalism
• the Americans with Disabilities Act
• the Cold War

The aim of the class is to use these controversies to advance our understanding of academic debates on popular constitutionalism.

Course Requirements:

No data submitted

Intended Audience:

No data submitted

Class Format:

No data submitted

Advisory Prerequisites:

One course in Political Science.

What is the U.S. Constitution’s vision of politics, and how does this vision shape modern judicial controversies? In this course, we examine historical thought and modern jurisprudence in several areas of Constitutional law, such as federalism, the role of state governments, the separation of powers, private property, and the First Amendment. In each of these areas, we study historical accounts of Constitutional thinking. We compare and contrast these historical accounts with modern Supreme Court rulings in each of these areas. The goal of this course is not to cover a comprehensive history of constitutional law. Instead, we focus on examining how past Constitutional thought relates to modern jurisprudential arguments. Students will be expected to write papers that critically analyze Constitutional arguments, rather than simply recounting judicial rulings.

Advisory Prerequisites:

Senior standing; primarily for seniors concentrating in Political Science.

Course Notes:

A small seminar, which will introduce entering students to the topic of Psychology and issues which are important in the field of psychology. Through this seminar, students will be able to develop an understanding of how various theories and applications of the discipline of psychology may be helpful in understanding the world.

This course will explore the connection between education/learning and issues of social justice. We will consider the ways in which the structure of American education systematically discriminates against racial, gender, religious, and social class groups. The class will also examine the impact of this discrimination on social, academic, and psychological development.

Course Requirements:

No data submitted

Intended Audience:

No data submitted

Class Format:

No data submitted

Advisory Prerequisites:

Enrollment restricted to first-year students, including those with sophomore standing.

Course Notes:

All sections of Outreach count as an experiential lab for the Psychology concentration; they do not count as a lab for the Biopsychology and Cognitive Sciences concentration.

Section 003 — Juvenile and Criminal Justice. Designed to provide students with experience in and knowledge of the criminal justice system. The field placements match students with juveniles or adults in a number of placement settings in the criminal justice system. The lecture series is intended to expose students to a wide variety of issues relevant to juvenile delinquency and criminality. It is our hope that you will not only learn about the system but also have the opportunity to reach out to juveniles and adult offenders and have a positive impact on their lives.

The purpose of Project Outreach is to allow students to learn about themselves and psychology by becoming involved in community settings. Outreach students engage in real work in the community, designed to meet community needs. Because all sections of Project Outreach — PSYCH 211 are for 3 credits (on a credit/no credit basis), the academic requirements for the course are uniform across all sections (except Exploring Careers, Section 005) and include four hours of fieldwork placement, one hour of discussion section, and one hour of lecture each week; in the Careers section, students learn about themselves in relationship to future potential careers, and explore the social-psychological contexts in which work occurs. Attendance at your section is mandatory. Readings, a mid-term project, and a final exam will be assigned. The Graduate Student Instructor for each section may state additional section requirements in class. See course website (www.sitemaker.umich.edu/projectoutreach) for more information.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

Prior or concurrent enrollment in an introductory Psychology course.

Abnormal psychology entails the scientific study of aberrant behaviors, broadly defined. However, there is no universal consensus on the definition, classification, and treatment of psychological disorders. As we shall quickly see, what is deemed abnormal and how it develops or is treated will partly depend on the particular perspective taken. Hence, a key goal of this course is to guide students toward a broad and critical understanding of 'abnormal behavior' from a number of different perspectives.

We will accomplish this by exploring, evaluating, and discussing various strengths and weaknesses of different perspectives for understanding psychology based on the theoretical and empirical literature. Films may be used to illustrate some of the important concepts mentioned in the lectures and in the readings.

Your final grade will be based on the total number of points you obtain from regular quizzes and exams. In addition, a paper may be required.

Note, it is the student's responsibility to be in attendance for all lecture classes. Missing lectures, quizzes, exams, and failing to complete a paper, will have a direct impact on your final grade.

Enforced Prerequisites:

One of the following: PSYCH 111, 112, 114, or 115.

This course is an introductory sociological analysis of select acts, persons, and identities that are morally condemned. Special emphasis is directed to the co-constitutive relationship of deviance and conventionality, the variability of deviance in time and space, and the political nature of the production and deployment of categories of deviance. Among the topics of inquiry are:

• historical case studies of "legislated" morality (e.g., deviant drinking and opiate use)
• the development of deviant identities and deviant subcultures
• the medicalization of deviance (e.g., non-normative sexual and gender identities)
• types and dynamics of social control.

The course seeks to encourage and cultivate a critical, reflexive sociological perspective on social life by considering the links between "deviance" and social spheres of power including race, class, gender, and sexuality.

Course Requirements:

No data submitted

Intended Audience:

No data submitted

Class Format:

No data submitted

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Advisory Prerequisites:

One introductory course in sociology.

What does "good development” mean to you? Do impoverished communities around the world need democracy? High quality "Western" medicine for all? Spiritual enlightenment? Debt forgiveness? High tech education? Liberation from U.S. corporations? Gender equality? A return to ancient values and practices? Equality on the world stage? Or to just be left alone? In this course we will look at how different assumptions about the Global South drive conflicting solutions proposed by governments, aid agencies, religious groups, human rights activists, the business community, rebels, idealists, and grassroots organizations. Be prepared for lively discussion, a deep, personal examination of your own beliefs and values, lots of writing — and lots of help with your writing. Junior or senior status required. Some previous courses in economics, political science, anthropology, and/or lived experience in the Global South may be helpful.

Course Notes:

An introduction to the discipline of sociology via examination of topical social issues.

Credit Exclusions:

No credit granted to students who have completed or are enrolled in SOC 100, 102, 195, or 300.

This seminar will explore a wide range of issues on social justice, social identity and intergroup relations, community, and everyday politics and democracy. It will examine the possibilities for building community across race, gender, class, sexual orientation and religion 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 vibrant communities and 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 inequalities?

Course Requirements:

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.

Intended Audience:

Students from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to enroll in this seminar, bringing personal experience and perspective to enrich the discussion of theoretical readings.

Class Format:

No data submitted

Advisory Prerequisites:

Enrollment restricted to first-year students, including those with sophomore standing.

Throughout history, we Americans have been deeply divided over many public issues but none has aroused more passionate debate and more heated controversy than intimate issues around sexuality. The particular manner in which sexual matters have been addressed; opens a window on a rare view of the inner workings of our society. These discussions reveal much about our sense of self-worth and our liberties to pursue our happiness. They also tell us about our conceptions of what is good, just and desirable in our relationships with others. The purpose of this course is to share with you some of the major theoretical frameworks for understanding sexuality in our society. We will examine the many ways in which our sexual conversations, sexual relations, and sexual identities are in large part shaped by the history of our society, the structure of its social institutions and the efforts of the State to regulate talk about sex in the public arena by 'sexualizing' and 'genderizing' the legitimate demands of subordinated groups in society.

We begin the course by reviewing the history of sexuality in eighteenth and nineteenth century America so as to examine the historical roots of contemporary discussions on a number of salient issues that we will examine and discuss in the second part of the course. These will include: sex, desire and body images; gender and sexual orientation; sexual violence and rape; sexual representations and pornography; commercialization of sex and prostitution; and solitary sex. In the last part of the course, we will explore emerging views on sexuality, gender and the body that could take us beyond the social boundaries of sexuality. This can provide us with an opportunity to construct new visions of ourselves, new relations based on the end of prejudice and sexual subordination, and to regain control of our bodies so as to develop our full erotic potentialities.

My hope is that the manner in which we study and discuss these topics will not only enhance our understanding of sex and society in America but also enrich our own experience of sexuality as well as value and respect the sexual choices of others.

Advisory Prerequisites:

One introductory course in Sociology.

Course Notes:

SOC 389, Project Community, is a service-learning course. Prior to registering, all students must view the web for site time requirements at: ginsberg.umich.edu/projectcommunity/courseinfo.html. Students enrolled in SOC 389 are responsible for regular attendance in a weekly seminar as well as participation at a designated community service site each week. In addition, students will complete weekly readings and reflective journal assignments, a midterm assignment, and a final paper/project. If you have questions, contact Project Community (pcinfo@umich.edu). In your email, please give the name and number of the section about which you are inquiring.

In this section, Project Community volunteers will meet during the school day to assist teachers and staff with students at Thurston Elementary School, a K-5 Ann Arbor public elementary school. Volunteers will spend some of their time assisting lunch staff with elementary students during their lunch and recess. Volunteers eat with the students at lunch and then accompany them to lunch recess where they help engage the students in fun, healthy, and safe outside recess activities. Most of the volunteers’ time will be spent assisting teachers in the classrooms with specific students, small groups, or even circulating to assist the whole class with projects and work. Volunteers may help with a variety of activities in the classrooms, such as reading, math, science experiments, and art projects. Volunteers who have special interests or skills, such as sports and games leadership, music, art or foreign language abilities, are encouraged to share these with Thurston students.

Students will be expected at site approximately four hours each week, (not including 10 minute drive time each way). Site times are from 9:00am-3:00pm, Monday-Friday. Students enrolled in Project Community who have valid driver’s licenses are able to check out vehicles through the Ginsberg Center in order to transport themselves to site. Carpooling among students in the same section is encouraged. Transportation is coordinated through the section facilitator and the Ginsberg Transportation Coordinator.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Course Notes:

SOC 389, Project Community, is a service-learning course. Prior to registering, all students must view the web for site time requirements at: ginsberg.umich.edu/projectcommunity/courseinfo.html. Students enrolled in SOC 389 are responsible for regular attendance in a weekly seminar as well as participation at a designated community service site each week. In addition, students will complete weekly readings and reflective journal assignments, a midterm assignment, and a final paper/project. If you have questions, contact Project Community (pcinfo@umich.edu). In your email, please give the name and number of the section about which you are inquiring.

This section is intended for students earning work-study hours as America Reads tutors. The class will explore the current dilemmas facing the U.S. educational system, teach students to critically reflect on their regular interactions with elementary youth, and relate site experiences to the text material. The tutors will be asked to assess what they observe in their community work, what could be improved to create more effective learning environments, and how these changes could be made.

NOTE: Participation in this section is by override only. Overrides are given by Kristi Fenrich (klynnf@umich.edu), Director of America Reads, when a tutor applicant is hired. Students with work-study should apply to be a tutor at: http://ginsberg.umich.edu/americareads/.

Students enrolled in this section of SOC 389 are responsible for regular attendance in a weekly seminar concurrent with participation as America Reads tutors. In addition, students will complete weekly readings and reflective journal assignments, a midterm assignment, and a final paper/project.

Students enrolled in Project Community who have valid driver’s licenses are able to check out vehicles through the Ginsberg Center in order to transport themselves to site. Carpooling among students in the same section is encouraged. Transportation is coordinated through the section facilitator and the Ginsberg Transportation Coordinator.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Course Notes:

SOC 389, Project Community, is a service-learning course. Prior to registering, all students must view the web for site time requirements at: ginsberg.umich.edu/projectcommunity/courseinfo.html. Students enrolled in SOC 389 are responsible for regular attendance in a weekly seminar as well as participation at a designated community service site each week. In addition, students will complete weekly readings and reflective journal assignments, a midterm assignment, and a final paper/project. If you have questions, contact Project Community (pcinfo@umich.edu). In your email, please give the name and number of the section about which you are inquiring.

In this section, Project Community volunteers will meet during the scheduled hours below to assist teachers and staff with tutoring and mentoring. The Ann Arbor Public Schools Rising Scholars program focuses on advanced placement preparation and tutoring with a focus on grades 9-10. The College Corps program is a combined group of Monroe middle and high school student’s grades 6-12. Volunteers will spend their time providing students with academic assistance and college preparation. They will also be trained to facilitate fun and engaging workshops that relate to college access and awareness.

Schedules vary based upon the school site as shown below

Rising Scholars

• Skyline High: Mondays, Wednesdays or Fridays from 10AM – 12PM
• Huron High: Monday-Friday from 9:30 AM- 10:35 AM
• Pioneer High School: Mondays-Fridays 1PM – 3:30PM

College Corps

• Monroe Middle School: Thursdays from 1:30PM – 5PM

Students will be expected to stay the entire duration on whatever day(s) they choose to participate. Students enrolled in Project Community who have valid driver's licenses are able to check out vehicles through the Ginsberg Center in order to transport themselves to site. Carpooling among students in the same section is encouraged. Transportation is coordinated through the section facilitator and the Ginsberg Transportation Coordinator.

NOTE: Participation in this section is by override-only. Students interested in enrolling should email Michael Turner, Outreach Coordinator for the Center for Educational Outreach, at mlturner@umich.edu, or call 734-763-7192. Students will be asked to complete a short application. If the section is a fit, an override will be processed, giving student permission to enroll in the section.

If you have questions, contact Project Community (pcinfo@umich.edu). In your email, please give the name and number of the section about which you are inquiring.

Enforced Prerequisites:

With permission of instructor.

Course Notes:

SOC 389, Project Community, is a service-learning course. Prior to registering, all students must view the web for site time requirements at: ginsberg.umich.edu/projectcommunity/courseinfo.html. Students enrolled in SOC 389 are responsible for regular attendance in a weekly seminar as well as participation at a designated community service site each week. In addition, students will complete weekly readings and reflective journal assignments, a midterm assignment, and a final paper/project. If you have questions, contact Project Community (pcinfo@umich.edu). In your email, please give the name and number of the section about which you are inquiring.

Students in this section will help to develop and implement children’s programs at residentially-located community centers with Avalon Housing, an affordable housing organization in Ann Arbor. During the after-school program, students will help the young residents of the Avalon community (ranging K-8th grade) with homework, and then participate in an outdoor walk or arts & crafts activity. Opportunities are also available for students to take initiative with other programming interests. The participating children go to school in the Ann Arbor Public School system.

Students in this section are expected to be at site once a week. The after-sch