Mammy. Jezebel. Matriarch. Welfare Queen. This first-year seminar introduces students to the experience of African American women through the study of representation in the past and present. Beginning with the imagery of jezebel and mammy constructed during the slavery era, we will trace and define the changing yet interrelated representations of Black women in American society. Throughout the course, we will study processes by which stereotypes about race and gender intersect to define African American women in particular, limiting, and recurring ways. We will consider the ideologies from which these images have stemmed as well as the social and political uses to which these images have been put. We will also examine the myriad ways that African American women have challenged, rejected, redeployed, and transformed these images. Our materials for this course will include works of history, cultural criticism, fiction, autobiography, and film.

This course is designed to introduce students to a wide variety of topics and issues in American Studies in a seminar format from a Humanities perspective. It enables students to have contact with regular faculty in a small-class experience and to elicit their active participation in the topics under discussion.

The year 1893 marked not only what Frederick Jackson Turner called the closing of the American frontier; it also marked a renewed expansionism of U.S. control beyond its continental boundaries. By 1898 — with the annexation of the Philippines, Hawai’i, Cuba, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and Guam — the U.S. had secured its military presence over new overseas locations. This course introduces students to the study of U.S. empire through the literature written from within its borders as well as from its geographical and cultural margins. We will compare the complex histories and experiences of U.S. economic, military and colonial presence in Asia, the Pacific, and the Southwest. Authors include Carlos Bulosan, Herman Melville, Milton Murayama, Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Bonnin), Sia Figiel, and Willa Cather. Films include South Pacific. and The Big Lebowski. Seminar requirements include journals, presentation, 2 papers, and a final exam.

Approx. textbook cost: $125

Where does our notion of race come from? Are racial classifications different from other ways of cataloguing humans? Does the act of classifying people into racial and ethnic groups necessarily entail prejudice and produce hierarchy? Is race a universal concept? If so, is there a single system of racial thinking or are there multiple systems? What does it mean to say that race is a social construction? What is the nature and scope of public and private representations of race? What are the best ways to interpreting these representations? These are a few of the questions that this seminar will explore. Finding answers requires that we distinguish between, and compare the meaning of, two dimensions of racial thinking. Race is both a category of the mind and a category of power. As a result, research on race generally has generally adopted one of two perspectives: a psychological one focusing on the beliefs and attitudes held by individual persons, or an interpretive one focusing on the social, cultural, and political properties of systems of racial classification. Saying that race is a category of mind is saying that race is an idea, and as such is a topic of interest to behavioral scientists, particularly psychologists. Research by these scholars tends to approach race in the context of general cognitive processes like perception, stereotyping, and category bias. Saying that race is a category of power is saying that race is a principle for organizing inequitable distributions of resources and authority, and as such is a topic of interest to anthropologists, historians, sociologists, and political scientists. Researchers from these disciplines typically focus on the ways race functions within systems of power and authority and is articulated in specific systems of domination. The seminar seeks to coordinate and integrate findings from both these perspectives, working to gain a more comprehensive understanding of race and racism. Course Requirements: Weekly journal (“reaction paper”) of notes and queries (2-4 pages, typed and double-spaced) dealing with issues raised in readings and class discussions. Students will lead discussion in at least one class during the term and will make at least one in-class presentation. There will be a short answer final. Active classroom participation is required. Grades will be based on the following: reaction papers will account for 30% of grade, class participation 40%, and the final 30%. All required reading will be posted on the Coursetools Website and can be downloaded without cost.

In the turbulent decades of the early twentieth century, Chinese literature underwent dramatic changes. Called upon to adapt literature to revolutionary ends, writers of this period struggled not only with formal concerns like new literary idioms and modes of expression, but also with the question of Chinese identity itself: What did it mean to be Chinese in a newly international world? What did it mean to be "modern"? This course examines a diversity of literature from this period (primarily fiction), focusing in particular on themes of realism and revolution; nationalism and Chinese identity; sexuality and gender; and problems of "voice" in the creation of new narrative modes.

This seminar will draw on theories of narrative and studies of narrative art in Western art and literature. The class will survey the history of visual storytelling in Japan from the seventh to twentieth centuries, emphasizing lively class discussion and close looking. We will engage in issues including visual modes of storytelling in the scroll format, concepts of literary and pictorial genre in the premodern period, and the functions of picture scrolls as tools of persuasion, repositories for nostalgic visions of the classical past, vehicles for the mythologization of religious institutions, and sites for satiric representation. The objects we will analyze will range from the twelfth-century Genji scrolls to modern animation, with special emphasis on illustrated texts.

This course is about the diversity of religious life in modern India. It will begin with the examination of the following three points, namely,

1. that ancient layers of India's religious life are alive and well in contemporary India;
2. that the hybrid discourse of the "secular state" is itself a religious discourse in modern India; and
3. that India's unique agony over religion is instructive for rethinking some of our most general notions about "religion" and "secularization."

In this course we will discuss the overall periodization of the various layers of India's religious life, namely,

1. the Indus Valley (c. 3000-500 BCE),
2. the Indo-Brahmanical (c. 1500-600 BCE),
3. the Indo-Sramanical (c. 600 BCE-300 CE),
4. the Indic (Hindu-Buddhist-Jain) (c. 300-1200),
5. the Indo-Islamic (c. 1200-1757), and
6. the Indo-Anglian (c. 1757-present).

We will then apply the overall analysis to the five salient religious crises in contemporary India:

• the Sikhs in the Punjab,
• the Muslim issue in Kashmir,
• the Shah Banno case and the Muslim Women's Bill,
• the Mandal Commission Report on Other Backward Classes and
• the controversy in Ayodhya.

We will also examine the role of ethnic and racial conflicts that led to these crises.

Requirements:
An essay of 3,000 words will carry 30% of the course marks. There will be two tests: a midterm worth 20% and a final worth 30%. The remaining 20% of marks will be allotted to the presentation and participation in tutorial discussions.

Midterm test: February 24, 2005.
Essay due date: March, 2005.
There will be a Registrar Scheduled final exam in the month of April. Absence from class without notice will seriously affect the final grade.

Texts:

• Gerald James Larson, India's Agony Over Religion, SUNY Press, 1995.
• Donald S. Lopez, Jr., ed., Religions of India in Practice, Princeton University Press, 1995.
• Willard G. Oxtoby, ed., World Religions: Eastern Traditions, Oxford University Press, 1996.
• Pashaura Singh, The Guru Granth Sahib, Oxford University Press, Paperback, 2003.

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

This seminar explores how sexual reproduction came about and the consequences the origin of sex has had on biological diversity. Our exploration will focus on the diversity of animal courtship and mating behaviors that biologists have discovered. We will employ readings from research journals, science magazines and books, group discussions, library research, short writing assignments, and oral presentations. Through these activities, we will examine scientific methods of posing and testing questions and fundamental biological concepts in evolution, genetics, and ecology.

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

Small-group classes taught by regular and emeritus faculty.

This course examines the life and legacy of Malcolm X, considering him both as an historical figure whose ideas and actions were part of a specific historical moment, and as an iconic, almost mythical figure whose image continues to stand as a powerful symbol. Our focus will be on understanding Malcolm X’s influence on the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s, when various organizations and individuals claimed to be carrying on his legacy. In addition, we will critically assess the ways in which his legacy continues to be constructed and used to represent that period of Black struggle. Our investigation will be guided by three broad objectives.

• First, we will study Malcolm X’s life leading up to his emergence as a national and international figure of Black resistance.
• Secondly, we will examine the contours and depth of his activism and its relationship to the broader African American freedom movement. This will include a close look at the various ways in which his ideas and his example as a political activist dramatically impacted the emergence of the Black Power movement following his assassination in 1965.
• Finally, we will analyze and interpret contemporary representations of Malcolm X in both scholarly and popular forms, allowing us to better understand his legacy and his place in narratives of African American history.

Throughout the academic term, we will take care to highlight the ways that ideas and images are used to construct historical meaning — that is, to make sense of the past and its relationship to the present.

This seminar introduces first-year students to the intellectual community of social scientists working in the field of Afroamerican and African studies. The topic of the seminar varies from year to year.

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

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

Mammy. Jezebel. Matriarch. Welfare Queen. This first-year seminar introduces students to the experience of African American women through the study of representation in the past and present. Beginning with the imagery of jezebel and mammy constructed during the slavery era, we will trace and define the changing yet interrelated representations of Black women in American society. Throughout the course, we will study processes by which stereotypes about race and gender intersect to define African American women in particular, limiting, and recurring ways. We will consider the ideologies from which these images have stemmed as well as the social and political uses to which these images have been put. We will also examine the myriad ways that African American women have challenged, rejected, redeployed, and transformed these images. Our materials for this course will include works of history, cultural criticism, fiction, autobiography, and film.

Ancient Rome was a “mythless” society — or so it has been claimed. The popular and dynamic stories of Aeneas, Romulus and Remus, Hercules and Cacus, and Lucretia suggest otherwise. This course will explore the meaning and making of myth at Rome in relation to two facets of Roman culture: religion and history. What significance did Roman ritual attach to myth? How was myth used in accounts of the invention and reinvention of Rome as a state, a republic, and an imperial power ruled by one man?

The primary texts in our pursuit of answers to these questions will be three works written during the principate of Augustus: Vergil’s epic poem, the Aeneid, Livy’s history of Rome; and Ovid’s calendar poem, the Fasti. These texts will be supplemented by other sources. We will also explore the visual imagery of the artistic and architectural program that Augustus undertook in order to legitimize the principate and promote its ideology.

Class discussion, presentations, and writing assignments will be the basis for evaluation of course grades.

This class will be an introduction to classical aesthetics. How did the Greeks and Romans conceive of aesthetic problems—beauty, sublimity, or their opposites—and what vocabularies did they have at their disposal? To ask the question one first has to have a sense of how we approach these questions today. Consequently, in this course you will read a mix of modern and ancient materials. We will begin by exploring the first coinages of the term aesthetics in the eighteenth century, and then move forward to contemporary discussions, such as John Armstrong’s The Secret Power of Beauty (2004). Then we will go back to antiquity to look at what the ancients had to say about aesthetic objects and experiences in various media (literature, sculpture, painting) from Homer to Plato, Pliny, and Lucian. The course is open to anyone interested in pursuing the question of why beauty might matter to us, or alternatively, why simply to ask the question has mattered to cultures present and past. There are no prerequisites.

This course will be devoted to developing an effective style of analytic writing that will prepare you for future course work. Today social and economic inequality continues to increase both with in and between nations, and there remains an urgent need to refocus our attention towards the poor. As disadvantaged citizens, a group with acute needs, and a common sense of exclusion, the poor should be among the most willing to mobilize and to protest. This expectation is, unfortunately, often not born out by reality. By drawing on examples from industrializing and post-industrial countries, we will examine three things: How economically and socially disadvantaged people resist oppression, articulate their demands, and how the attempts of organizing this group succeed or fail. You will examine information culled from a variety of sources, including academic texts, newspaper articles, films, and conversations with people, who live the everyday reality of poverty.

Overpriced food, fleabag hotels, tacky souvenirs and pushy tour guides: these were the hallmarks of travel 2,000 years ago for Greeks and Romans, whether they were visiting the pyramids in Egypt or attending the Olympic Games in Greece. This course will use a combination of textual and visual documents to explore the reasons Greeks and Romans traveled, their interactions with foreign cultures, and their experiences on land and at sea. Readings for the course will be drawn from epic poetry, satire, and ancient travel guides. These texts will be discussed in conjunction with a variety of monuments and material artifacts, ranging from the seven wonders of the ancient world to the cheap souvenirs that travelers carried home. The goals of the course are to familiarize students with the study of the ancient world and to prepare them for writing at a level and style appropriate for university coursework.

Is the “nature” in The Bible the same as the “nature” we find in Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time or Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species? How must we rethink race, gender, and ecology with regard to different “natures”? In this course, we will study different systems of classification and categorization of nature and try to answer the question, “what is human?” In what ways are cyborgs, vampires, humans with prosthetic limbs, or people with silicone implants human or not-human? In what ways are chimpanzees that use sign language, cloned sheep, or chess-playing supercomputers non-human or human? We will review, analyze, and debate material from anthropology, philosophy, biology, physics, literature, gender studies, and the popular media. Most importantly, we will improve our writing skills through practice and peer review while analyzing a topic that demands clarity and demonstrates the need to search for hidden meaning in the apparently self-evident.

Has anyone ever called you cynical? or critical? Most people don’t realize that the term “cynic” means “dog-like” and that the first Cynic philosopher was Diogenes of Sinope who lived in the late 4th century BCE. But he isn’t the first Greek example of a societal critic. This course will give you a chance to learn about your “doggy” predecessors in ancient Greece, and also prepare you for success as a college-level writer. We will begin with a look at ancient critics and move forward in history to compare and contrast them with their contemporary counterparts, including the novelist Kurt Vonnegut and the hip-hop artist Eminem. Course requirements will be weekly reading and writing assignments and participation in serious philosophical discussion about the merits, methods, and hazards of taking an oppositional stance to the world you live in.

Why would a group of angry French citizens protesting against the negative effects of transnational capitalism tear down a McDonald's restaurant? This is one of many dramatic examples that have caught corporations off-guard in recent years. In this course, we will attempt to come to a better understanding of anti-globalization, a worldwide grass-roots movement concerned with political, intellectual and practical resistance to the expansion of unbridled capitalism. In order to decipher the ideological agendas behind the current debates about globalization, we will read a wide variety of texts ranging from newspaper articles, magazine editorials, scholarly essays to short texts of philosophy. In response to these primary sources, you will have the opportunity to develop your analytic writing skills through varied writing exercises and discussions with your peers.

Rich and poor Bostonians dressed in disguise, rioted in the streets, burned effigies of prominent officials, and destroyed expensive private property. At the time, government officials loudly condemned these actions, but today Americans celebrate the Boston Tea Party. What did riot and rebellion mean to seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Americans? Are riots political, and why might a wide spectrum of the population participate in these actions? How do we distinguish between a freedom fighter and a drunken and disorderly rebel? We will use diaries, letters, historians’ accounts, and novels to understand the role riots and rebellions played in early America. This course will introduce you to methods of historical analysis and prepare you for university-level writing.

The year 1893 marked not only what Frederick Jackson Turner called the closing of the American frontier; it also marked a renewed expansionism of U.S. control beyond its continental boundaries. By 1898 — with the annexation of the Philippines, Hawai’i, Cuba, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and Guam — the U.S. had secured its military presence over new overseas locations. This course introduces students to the study of U.S. empire through the literature written from within its borders as well as from its geographical and cultural margins. We will compare the complex histories and experiences of U.S. economic, military and colonial presence in Asia, the Pacific, and the Southwest. Authors include Carlos Bulosan, Herman Melville, Milton Murayama, Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Bonnin), Sia Figiel, and Willa Cather. Films include South Pacific. and The Big Lebowski. Seminar requirements include journals, presentation, 2 papers, and a final exam.

Approx. textbook cost: $125

This class has a specific question at its heart: how powerful is language? Other questions follow from that central question: what difference does language make? what kinds of power does language have to write—or right—our worlds? how does language work to persuade people or to bring about change? to build community? to empower or disempower people?

To engage these questions and others that we'll develop as we proceed, we'll read some theories about the rhetorical dimensions of discourse, and we'll examine a range of public texts in a variety of media, including but not limited to speeches, essays, letters, advertisements, movies, television shows, and songs. Work for this course will include regular attendance and participation, weekly readings (hard copy and online written documents, photographs, audio and video clips), several written responses to course texts, occasional quizzes, a brief presentation, and two exams.

The purpose of this seminar is to begin to understand at both the global and local levels, the emerging responses to major problems resulting from unprecedented environmental changes. Initiatives to achieve future sustainability will be the focus of the seminar. We will begin with a multidisciplinary examination of global environmental and related social changes. Focus will be on the needs of humans and other life forms, including the biophysical conditions on which life depends. Interconnections between the natural environment and social and cultural systems will be emphasized. To help develop a "global" perspective, we will identify implications of these changes for local communities, particularly in the U.S.A. By critically examining the multiple meanings of "sustainable development" and "sustainability" and related practices, the seminar will address the emerging choices and actions for change. Emphasis will be on changes being pursued by communities, organizations, and individuals in response to growing perceptions of the unsustainability of established values and behaviors. Also, we will examine our own lifestyles in relation to achieving greater sustainability. To understand initiatives to achieve greater sustainability in local geographical communities, we will study the topics of sustainable consumption, land use, food security and agriculture, materials use, and business and economy. Discussions of these topics will draw upon print and electronic resources, presentations by guest practitioners, and community based experiences of the seminar's members. Readings will come from a wide range of publications including core books of readings by different authors (e.g., People, Land and Community, Vital Signs 1999, and Eco-Pioneers) and articles from a variety of journals (e.g., The Futurist, Science, Resurgence, Harvard Business Review, and Co-op Quarterly). Seminar members over the course of the academic term will select and complete a project of their choice. Each seminar member will be expected to involve herself/himself in relevant learning activities of their choice beyond the seminar and within the University as well as the surrounding community. If they choose to, students will have the opportunity to pursue and integrate into their seminar work service learning experiences related to the pursuit of sustainability. Information and other learning from these involvements will be incorporated in the seminar. Writing assignments will include options for individual choice and utilize the forms of a journal and integrative essays expressed as op-ed articles, short research papers directed to different audiences, news articles, and book reviews. Essential parts of the seminar learning process will include thorough preparation for discussions and active participation in presenting and discussing ideas as well as in actively listening and responding to other seminar members. Assignments will be mostly individual but some will involve groups

Examines the relationship between science and the media through a series of case studies of recent and important scientific breakthroughs, primarily from earth and environmental sciences.

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.

What is the cause of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and why do they occur where they do? How did the ancient and modern mountain form? A theory proposing mobility of the Earth's crust, called plate tectonics, has in the last half-century transformed our understanding of the Earth. Plate tectonics seeks to offer a unifying explanation for geological and planetary phenomena such as earthquakes, volcanoes, topography, and also climate, economic mineral occurrences and the evident diversity of life in the present and in the fossilized past. In this course we will explore what is presently known about the Earth, how plate tectonics cam to be proposed, rejected, and ultimately accepted during the 20th century, and the current state of this successful although sometimes ambiguous theory. 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: 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 examines the interactions between people and their physical environment through case histories and discussions of selected environmental problems including water resources, nuclear waste disposal and geologic aspects of environmental health. Examples of specific case studies discussed include:

1. observed Antarctic ice shelf changes due to occurrence of potential global warming;
2. nuclear energy as an alternative response to the global oil crisis - subsurface nuclear waste disposal and its potential impact on groundwater: the Yucca Mountain (USA) versus the Tournemire (France) research sites;
3. environmental impact created by construction of dams, e.g., the Three Gorges Dam in China.

Geological observations have had a profound impact on our understanding of the origin and evolution of life on Earth. This course seeks to provide the broad historical and conceptual background required to critique geological and evolutionary theory. We will begin by considering the nature of scientific inquiry and the substantial pre-Darwinian history of geological thought. We will then explore early concepts and controversies concerning the geologic history of life and their importance for Darwin's theory of natural selection. Many other keystone geological controversies, including the age of the Earth, plate tectonics, and asteroid impacts will be addressed in the context of our understanding of the history of life on Earth. Finally, we will discuss modern questions in evolutionary biology and geology, particularly with respect to their potential social significance.

Credit Exclusions: Those with credit for GEOSCI 104 may only elect GEOSCI 151 for 2 credits.

This course explores the characteristic of the Earth's climate system and how the various components of that system operate to produce times when extensive ice sheets cover large parts of the Earth's surface. The role of each of the major components of the climate system will be discussed in detail. These include the ice sheets themselves, the astronomical inputs, the oceans, the atmosphere, and the movement of the continental and ocean boundaries. Reconstructions of past climatic conditions are presented and discussed in terms of how they are developed, what they can tell us about climatic extremes, and how they can be used to test the models that simulate modern climate patterns. The long-term climate change associated with the most recent ice age is then contrasted with more rapid climate oscillations, particularly the climatic warming which has been associated with the recent large increase in atmospheric "greenhouse gases."

This seminar will provide an introduction to German imperialism from the earliest foreign ventures through the Nazi era, with an emphasis on the German colonial overseas empire (1884 through World War One). In addition to an historical overview, this course will address theoretical interpretations of empire, colonialism, and imperialism with special application to the German context. We will also deal with “postcolonial” politics and culture in German(y). The readings are historical and theoretical; we will also read examples of colonial and postcolonial literature and consider the visual dimensions of German imperialism (photography, film, and the arts). The course is open to first-year students. All required readings are in English

Myths are one way of structuring and explaining the world. This course explores the 'after life' of classical mythologies by focusing on the classical revival of the Renaissance, but we also study the intersection of these traditions with contemporary representations, chiefly in film. The course aims to familiarize students with a core set of myths, ones narrated in Ovid's Metamorphoses, and which provided a framework for picturing themes like transformation, desire and creativity. We will combine analysis of literary poetics with close attention to visual literacy. Through gender analysis, we focus on the construction of masculinity (e.g. Hercules) and femininity (e.g. Venus). The very fictionality of myth made it an apt vehicle for the figuring of creativity, here investigated through the stories of Narcissus, Prometheus and Pygmalion.

This seminar will draw on theories of narrative and studies of narrative art in Western art and literature. The class will survey the history of visual storytelling in Japan from the seventh to twentieth centuries, emphasizing lively class discussion and close looking. We will engage in issues including visual modes of storytelling in the scroll format, concepts of literary and pictorial genre in the premodern period, and the functions of picture scrolls as tools of persuasion, repositories for nostalgic visions of the classical past, vehicles for the mythologization of religious institutions, and sites for satiric representation. The objects we will analyze will range from the twelfth-century Genji scrolls to modern animation, with special emphasis on illustrated texts.

As students at the University of Michigan in 2005, you are living, according to many scholars, intellectuals, and politicians, in a new and defining historical period: the “Age of Terror.” The term reflects what most believe were paradigmatic shifts in American life (in politics, culture, and foreign affairs) in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Your parents came of age in the previous paradigmatic historical era, the Cold War. This class explores “Cold War America,” the historical world of your parents.

The goal of this class is to introduce students to the politics, culture, ideologies, economics, and foreign affairs of Cold War America. By reading both primary and secondary sources, viewing movies and television shows, and listening to contemporary music, we will examine the dynamics of Cold War society in the United States. Students will be graded on their participation in our class sessions and on three papers (Two five-page papers and one eight-page paper).

Assignments will likely include: Melvyn Leffler, The Specter of Communism; Michael Harrington, The Other America; selected articles from magazines such as Life, Look, and Ladies Home Journal; films such as Rebel Without a Cause, Easy Rider, and Red Dawn; music by Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Kool and the Gang, and Public Enemy. We also will be listening to portions of the Johnson and Nixon Presidential Tape Recordings.

From smallpox to AIDS, dramatic disease outbreaks both shaped and were shaped by American culture. This course explores how medicine and culture intersected to influence the causes, experiences of, and responses to epidemics in America; and it uses epidemics to illuminate the history of American society from colonization to the present. Lectures introduce new topics and summarize discussions. Discussions will explore past perceptions and compare past and present; we will not discuss the present apart from the past. Readings (4 – 5 hours weekly) include modern histories, plus old newspapers, films, and medical journals. Written assignments are two five-page book review papers, a short weekly journal, and an individual research project with parts due throughout the term. They will introduce you to the medical, graduate, and undergraduate libraries. Readings available only for purchase cost about $30; other required readings available on reserve or for purchase cost about $130 more.

Course pack available from Dollar Bill at Michigan Book and Supply.

Readings:

Crosby, Columbian Exchange (Greenwood)

Rosenberg, Cholera Years (Chicago)

De Kruif, Microbe Hunters

Brandt, No Magic Bullet (Oxford)

Gould, A Summer Plague (Yale)

Garrett, The Coming Plague (Penguin)

At a time when issues of militancy, war, and conflict are omnipresent in public life, the historical events of late 19th and 20th century India provide a range of historical episodes and discourses of considerable interest. India has known the violence of colonial repression, terrorism, class warfare, ethnic strife, and the everyday violence of poverty. Gandhi stands of course as a figure of importance not only within India but beyond in seeking to resolve differences without violence. The class will take up a series of topics, ranging from the so-called Mutiny to Gandhian non-cooperation to the decision to "go nuclear." Students will have an opportunity to work extensively in primary sources and wil be encouraged to think about the disciplinary perspective offered by historical study.

What links the Monk, the Slave, and the Prisoner? Why is society threatened by the individual standing apart?.

In this seminar we will study — in a cross-cultural context from Late Antiquity to 19th-Century America and 20th-Century French Colonial Africa — the friction that exists between society and the individual set apart. We will ask: What does it mean to withdraw? How does this facilitate the identification of social problems? How is withdrawal a form of rebellion? How does society resist and also benefit?

This seminar is devoted to the examination of European and American explorers, men and women, and what their study of the world did to them over a period of five centuries. We will read the accounts, and study images, of a series of explorers and adventurers whose descriptions of their exploits colored our perceptions of other societies and world landmarks. We will also view some pioneering exploration films from early in the last century. Finally, we will take a look at explorations in science fiction to see how imagined exploits compare with "real" accounts of "actual" discoveries. A major concern of this seminar is developing techniques of analyzing autobiographical narratives and examining the assumptions behind "realistic" descriptions of other societies.

In 1988 the Orthodox Church celebrated the one thousandth anniversary of its establishment in Russia. Over the course of that millenium, Orthodoxy played an enormous role in shaping the history and culture of Russia. Yet the system of beliefs and rituals that we call Russian Orthodoxy was itself shaped by the Russian historical experience. Using primary sources and scholarly articles, this course will trace the history of the Orthodox Church in Russia from its official establishment as the state religion in the tenth century through its dramatic resurgence since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Topics to be examined include: the conversion of Russia and the consolidation of Orthodoxy; popular religion in early modern Russia; religion and political culture; sainthood, miracles, and pilgrimage; religion and gender; religious persecution under the Soviet regime; and Orthodoxy in modern-day Russia.

This course considers the meanings of organized violence and masculinity in the context of Japan’s samurai history from about the tenth through sixteenth centuries. In the days of arrows, swords and spears, why did men choose to participate in contests of raw violence that certainly could lead to their own painful physical disfigurement or death? In what ways did the premodern discourse of violence serve to shape the ideals of “Japanese-style” masculinity symbolized by the samurai? What were the roles of women in wars and how did the discourse of masculinity also shape femininity? We begin by exploring the variety of ways in which “masculinity” is defined in recent scholarship and then focus on Japan’s medieval battles and samurai’s action as they are represented in tales, documents, scrolls, manga and films in order to examine relationships between violence and gender in the context of changing configurations of power and authority. Grading is based on class attendance and participation, as well as completion of readings, occasional quizzes, and a final paper.

This course will introduce students to the development of Yiddish literature during the 19th and 20th century and its connections to Eastern European Yiddish Folklore. We will get acquainted with the substance of Yiddish folklore, explore the channels through which it entered modern Yiddish literature, and examine how folklore inspired Yiddish fiction, drama, and poetry. We will look at how secular Yiddish writers emerged from traditional Jewish society and how their writings portray its transformation. We also will peek into similar developments in other forms of art, e.g., painting and music. Among the writers whose works will be read are Sholem Aleichem, Sh. Ansky, Y.L. Perets, Itsik Manger, M.L. Halpern, Anna Margolin, and I.B. Singer. Course requirements include weekly reading assignments, active classroom participation, one short oral presentation by each student, and three essays of three to five pages. There are no prerequisites for taking this course, and knowledge of Yiddish is not expected.

Do the sounds of languages capture your interests?  Perhaps you've studied a foreign language and struggled with the sounds of that language, or perhaps you've wanted to learn about the sounds of Mandarin Chinese. Or Nahuatl (Aztec). Or the 80 clicks of !Xóõ.

The study of speech sounds is connected with several disciplines, including physiology, physics, linguistics, and cognitive psychology. The goals of this seminar are to offer students research skills for analyzing the sound patterns of a language, and to introduce students to the theoretical issues that researchers consider in analyzing sound patterns. In addition, we discuss how such patterns, especially those that are general across different languages, help us better understand which aspects of our knowledge of language are learned and which are innate, a question that has concerned linguists, psychologists, and philosophers for years.

This seminar takes a student-centered, hands-on approach. Each student will choose a language and work on various aspects of its sound system step by step, including how many sounds the language has, how the sounds differ from each other and from those in other languages, how the sounds form syllables (and words), and what the stress and intonation patterns are. Students who know or would like to work on less commonly spoken languages (or dialects) are especially welcome.

No previous knowledge of linguistics is required.

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

Background and Goals: This course introduces students to the ideas and some of the basic results in Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry. Beginning with geometry in ancient Greece, the course includes the construction of new geometric objects from old ones by projecting and by taking slices. The course is intended for students who want an introduction to mathematical ideas and culture. Emphasis is on conceptual thinking --- students will do hands-on experimentation with geometric shapes, patterns and ideas. Content: The section begins with the independence of Euclid's Fifth Postulate and with the construction of spherical and hyperbolic geometries in which the Fifth Postulate fails; how spherical and hyperbolic geometry differs from Euclidean geometry. The last topic is geometry of higher dimensions: coordinization --- the mathematician's tool for studying higher dimensions; construction of higher-dimension analogues of some familiar objects like spheres and cubes; discussion of the proper higher-dimensional analogues of some geometric notions (length, angle, orthogonality, etc.). Alternatives: none Subsequent Courses: This course does not provide preparation for any further study of mathematics.

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

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

Such philosophical questions also have a historical dimension, and cannot be answered only in the abstract. Thus, philosophy can benefit from art history. Art historians attempt to answer such questions as:

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

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

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

This seminar will involve critically examining various views about human nature advanced by philosophers through the ages starting with Plato and Aristotle. One answer to the question of what we are is dualism, the view that we are a complex of body and soul. We will begin by comparing and contrasting a variety of dualist theories advanced by Plato, Descartes, Penfield, Eccles, Popper, and most recently, Chalmers. Another answer to the question of what we are is that we are merely biological beings — materialism. We will contrast and compare various materialist theories such as Smart's identity theory and Churchland's eliminative materialism, as well as discussing the biological conception of human nature. We will also look at theories of human nature that don't fit neatly into the materialist/dualist framework, such as functionalism and Aristotle's theory of human nature. Another view that straddles the line between materialism and dualism is the view that we are persons. What are the criteria of personhood? And are these criteria tenable? Finally, we look at the free will debate. Are we free to act, or are our actions biologically and environmentally determined? The answer to this question depends on what kinds of beings we are. The grade will be determined by in-class presentations and short discussion papers.

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

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

This seminar is an interdisciplinary course that explores contemporary experiences of Korean Americans in the United States from a social justice perspective. In the context and course of the first century of Korean-American history, 1903-2003, it examines the unique contributions, struggles, and challenges for social justice in a multiethnic and multicultural America. 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.

How are mental processes like vision, memory, and attention implemented in the brain? What is the neural basis of insanity? Of fear? Of sleep? Of depression? What, if anything, can the brain tell us about consciousness? Within the last few decades, science has made significant progress on these and related questions by studying the effects of brain damage and by recording brain activity in intact individuals. In this seminar, we will survey this exciting field. We will first familiarize ourselves with the structure of the human brain and then learn what is being discovered about how the brain implements a variety of mental processes. Class meetings will be largely devoted to discussion of assigned readings with occasional films and other activities thrown in.

Performance will be evaluated by short quizzes based on the readings, brain coloring-book assignments (seriously!), and two short papers. No special background is required.

This course examines the Russian short story as a genre that explores the relationship between the self and society. Works by Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Babel, Nabokov, and others will be read to analyze their intrinsic narrative and thematic complexity and to explore their function as a contested site of cultural identification. This course can serve as an introduction to Russian culture, but it also illustrates the ways in which a particular genre can contribute to constructing the identities of social and cultural groups, regardless of national distinctions. Topics to discuss include the relationship between the self and fate, popular culture, social and sexual otherness, history, revolution, memory, or alcoholism, as well as emptiness of self, doubling, metaphysical suicide, etc. Emphasis will be placed on the development of analytical skills that enable close readings of narrative texts. No knowledge of Russian literature or history is assumed.

Seven 1-page response texts, three 5-page papers, class attendance, and participation.

Starting with the ancient Greek concept of polis and ending with contemporary America, this course will follow the evolution of the city and its mythology through history. One of the most important components of modern civilization, the city is also a significant expression of cultural values and thus an excellent focal point for studying cultural differences, across both geographic and temporal boundaries. The course will examine the image and symbolism of the city in literature, and discuss it against the background of historical evidence. Authors include Balzac, Camus, Dostoevsky, and Baldwin.

SOC 105 is an introduction to sociology through the comparative in-depth study of American and Iraqi societies. The reqirements comprise two student presentations in class, one midterm and one final paper.

Students and faculty will work together solving problems related to games, gambling and coincidences, touching on many fundamental ideas in discrete probability, finite Markov chains, dynamic programming and game theory.

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.

What were the social, economic, geopolitical, and personal psychological conditions in 1943 that would result in an 18-year old freshman leaving college and going off to spend the next three years fighting with the U.S. Army in Europe and liberating Dachau? What led up to 1943 and how did these series of historical events become a part of the life of American youth and continue to affect that generation's (your grandparents) behavior after World War II and through today? What do we know from 30 years of research on the nature of obedience that resulted in both self-sacrifice and the Holocaust? These questions will be explored using the resources of historical works, novels, films, and personal documents. Each student will interview a member of that generation, preferably a grandparent or surrogate, with armed services experience during the war and write a psycho-history of their subject's experiences and its consequences for their lives and times.

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.

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 will work closely with members of the community and program staff to document cultural beliefs and practices that help to shape social identity and social expectations within the community.

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

Although medications have long been the primary means to treat disease in Western society, only in recent years has their use evoked widespread interest beyond the health care professionals who work with them and the individual patients who consume them. This seminar will describe and evaluate key issues that have raised the visibility of medication use in recent years. Areas that will be addressed include drug development and regulation, the economics and financing of medication benefit programs, medication taking behaviors, and programs to achieve proper medication use. The role of the pharmacist in managing that use, including culturally competent care, will be addressed. Examples of specific issues that may be used to illustrate the course topics include direct-to-consumer advertising of medications, the balance between patient confidentiality and health professionals need to know, insurer payment for "life style drugs" such as Viagra® for impotence and Rogaine® for baldness, and clinical controversies such as the use of hormone replacement therapy in menopausal women. Course readings will be selected from the clinical, professional, and lay literature and serve as the basis for class discussion and written assignments. One of the desired outcomes of this course is to develop in students the ability to critically analyze differing perspectives that affect how medications are used.

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

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

Mental disorders are far more common in the general population than is usually appreciated, and often produce as much or more disability than do most medical disorders. The nature of these disorders is poorly understood by individuals who are not trained in the mental health fields. While mental disorders are usually defined simply on the basis of symptoms and behavioral manifestations, a great deal more is known about them, including many of the biological and behavioral processes underlying them. This course will introduce students to the basic concepts of mental health and mental disorders, and describe the basic natural and social science areas related to understanding brain function and mental disorders, with an emphasis on the biological processes. The course would be appropriate for anyone interested in neuroscience or mental processes.

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. Myriad biological advances could be considered, but three exciting topics especially jump out:

1. birth defects and population patterns;
2. the phenomena of aging, dying, and death; and,
3. the 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.”

Popular music is a crucial part of our inner and outer lives. It helps to bring us together with others even as it serves, itself, as a trusted friend in our most solitary moments. And, of course, music has a very special way of getting under our skin — which also suggests that it can affect us deeply. But what are its effects on us? These can be hard to identify precisely because music can seem such a part of us, inseparable from our bodies, feelings, and thoughts. In this seminar we will use listening, viewing, group discussion, and writing to develop tools and a vocabulary for exploring music's influence on all these aspects of ourselves and on the culture around us, particularly in the realm of gender and sexuality. We'll listen closely to the ways in which popular music, with its potent mixture of sounds, images, and words, works powerfully — and often "under the radar" — to affect how we understand our own, and others', bodies and selves in relation to constantly shifting notions of gender and sexuality.