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.

A study of the books and blogs written by women and men in the U.S. military forces in Iraq. Although the seminar will necessarily discuss the political and moral issues associated with the war, the focus will be on the lived experience of the authors.

Attendance required at all classes. No students will be added to the seminar after the first class.

For a few years I have experimented with what I’ve come to call “the critical creative writing seminar.” In such a context, the student can expect to place in conversation literature, criticism, art and film, unified around a given theme, to produce, not the academic essay, but so-called “creative writing” (as if the academic essay were not creative!) and other hybrid texts (be they performance, installation, video, cartoons, new media…). Recently, two critical creative seminars I’ve taught (at Northwestern University and here at the University of Michigan) have taken as their syllabi’s guiding principle the question of codeswitching, a linguistic term used to designate seamless and sometimes seamy movement between languages. Acknowledging the term’s literal definition, these syllabi have focused on work that shuttles between Spanish and English, in turn, to imagine codeswitching’s metaphoric significance—potential movements between the personal and the political, fiction and memoir, prose and poetry, the visual and the verbal, the spoken and the written word in twentieth/twenty-first century representation. Leaving the realm of the readerly/viewerly, students in these seminars have invested a portion of their energies in their own interpretations of codeswitching as practice, producing remarkable word/image portfolios, which have amplified the scope of the original seminars’ ambitions. Notably, I have found myself amazed by students’ insistence upon moving between multiple languages (alternately parsed, their disregard for my Spanish?English focus has delighted me time and again). This course represents another iteration of “Codeswitch,” which learns from my previous students’ suggestive efforts (even as it cannot forget the ghosts of modernisms’ codeswitching praxis). Specifically, this critical creative writing seminar springboards off a variety of texts that move between global English(s) and one or more other (often Othered) “languages” (be they Korean, Taiwanese, French, Spanish, the fantastic, computer code, musical notation, images, and/or genetic sequencing…) to require of its participants comparable levels of dissidence and dissonance. Possible cites/sites of inquiry include: Guillermo Gómez-Peña’s performances, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee (and The Dream of the Audience), Samuel Delany’s The Motion of Light in Water, Hsia Yu’s Pink Noise, Cecilia Vicuña’s QUIPOem, Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, Wong Kar-Wai’s 2046, the musical mash-up phenomenon, and FloodNet’s “inefficient” hacktivism.

This course is about the exciting progress in natural selection theory after Darwin. Students will read such books as: The Beak of the Finch (Jonathan Weiner), The Selfish Gene (Richard Dawkins), and The Moral Animal (Robert Wright). We will ask: Why is natural selection considered the principle guiding force of evolution? What is the evidence for natural selection? In humans? In nonhumans? What are the different kinds of selection? At what level (s) does selection act? The group? The individual? The gene? Which of these levels is most potent and why? In the life sciences, what relevance does natural selection theory have for pesticide resistance and the development of effective vaccines? In the social sciences, how has natural selection theory been invoked in psychology, economics, and anthropology? Does the notion of selfish genes have any relevance to human behavior? How can behavior be adaptive yet not have any basis in genetic differences among individuals? Why does natural selection often favor flexible as opposed to "innate" responses? What roles are played by culture, learning, development? What is the naturalistic fallacy?

This course is a survey of over 1000 years of Japanese and Western great books about Japanese women. The course offers an introduction to important issues for discussing literature such as gender and sex, class and labor, ethnicity and race, Orientalism, counter-Orientalism and Occidentalism.

“The Japanese Woman in Literature” begins 1000 years ago with some of the world’s best and most enduring literature, "The Pillow Book" by Sei Shonagon and "The Tale of Genji" by Murasaki Shikibu. Like most of the great works of the Japanese classical period, these works were written by women in the imperial court. In 1911, the publication of Hiratsuka Raicho’s feminist journal, "The Bluestockings", was an attempt to once again create a forum for talented women writers. In a poem in the inaugural edition, Raicho wrote:

Originally, woman was the sun.
She was an authentic person.
But now woman is the moon.
She lives by depending on another
And she shines by reflecting
Another’s light.
Her face has a sickly pallor.

("Seito", 1911)

Raicho’s poem reminds us that it was a Sun Goddess, Amaterasu, who was responsible for founding Japan in ancient Japanese mytho-religious discourse; at the same time, the poem alludes to the golden era of great women writers 1000 years ago. In this course, we will travel the socio-historical distance from the women of classical court literature to poet-feminist Raicho who found herself in a man’s literary world and beyond!

Her contributions as an author notwithstanding, the Japanese woman is also a favorite site of fantasy and anxiety in Japan and abroad, for women and for men, as an object of desire and as a desiring subject. From the famously demure Madame Chrysanthème of Pierre Loti’s late 20th century novel to the sassy Modern Girl of the roaring 20s to contemporary busty battlin’ babes (and let’s not forget "Memoirs of a Geisha"), the Japanese Woman has been available as a site of cultural imagination and inspiration, and those images often tell us less about real Japanese women than they do about the dreams and nightmares of those doing the imagining.

Following the end of the Korean War, South Korea underwent an economic development that transformed the country from one of the poorest nations in the world to one of the world's dozen largest economies. Institutional and ideological aspects of this developmental miracle are well-known, but how do we begin to understand what such a change — with a speed and thoroughness rarely witnessed in history — must have meant for the people living through it? In this class, we will examine popular culture as a means of accessing the values, desires, structures and dispositions that sustain people's lives in times of great upheaval and uprooting. Discussions will revolve around texts drawn from diverse genres including popular songs, feature films, television dramas, comic books, and fictional works; secondary readings will deepen our understanding of specific social configurations and movements within which these texts are situated.

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

What are stem cells? Do all organisms have them? Why are they such a ‘hot topic’ in biomedical research? This course will examine these and related questions about the biological properties of stem cells and how they function in normal life processes and in response to injury. We will consider stem cells in many different organisms, such as plants, invertebrates, and vertebrate animals, including humans. We will also discuss the ethical and moral issues surrounding the use of human embryonic stem cells.

The format of the course will be discussion/seminar, and students will be evaluated based on class participation (presentations and discussion) and written assignments. Required readings will be assigned from a textbook and materials available on the course CTools site. A previous class in high school biology is highly recommended.

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

This course will introduce students to the ways in which humans have generated and used genetically modified organisms. An emphasis will be placed on the underlying biological knowledge that has enabled genetic manipulations. We will consider examples of microbial, plant, and animal biotechnology, including discussions of the merits and concerns surrounding human gene therapy, transgenic plants, and other topical issues. The course will consist of lectures, discussions, and student presentations on current biotechnology topics of their choice. Students will be evaluated using in-class examinations and presentations.

“Race” has been a fixture in the U.S. imagination throughout the nation’s history, but to what are we referring when we use the term? How stable is the concept anyway? In what ways are U.S. understandings of “race” unique to this country? None of these questions can be addressed without considering the other markers of identity (ethnicity, class, sexuality, etc.) which give meaning to the notion of “race” in the first place. Class materials will be drawn from British, American, and African-American literature, history, feminist and gender studies, media studies, and cultural anthropology. Requirements include a weekly reading journal, a take-home midterm, and a final research paper.

What is jazz? It's music, but it's also more than that. And though jazz recordings now account for no more than 3% of music sales in the U.S.A., the influence of jazz upon American music, literature, ideas, images, and style has been and continues to be immense. Why is that? This course will explore this paradox by introducing students to the history of jazz music (esp. the 1920-1970 period) in the contexts of its special place in African American cultural and literary history as well as in the American cultural imagination.

These seminars, which are restricted to first-year students, are small group classes (approximately 15-25 students) taught by regular and emeritus faculty.

‘Something new from Africa’, as Miriam Makeba sang, repeating an ancient proverb first attested in Aristotle. The ancient Greeks were passionate about origins – their heroes (and some of their gods) were often first finders and/or founders. Africa, too, had her share of Greek heroes and gods who first ‘found’ and/or ‘founded’ her, or were born on its territories. This course studies Africa as a natural space, an idea, a geo-political entity – a field of enquiry where we discover what myths, ideas, constructions, biases, preferences or disliking the ancient Greeks and Romans had about Africa. Some of the most fascinating ancient literary texts will take us on an adventurous discovery of the wealth of Africa, but we will also look at ancient, medieval, and early modern African maps, not to mention African flora and fauna, seascape, landscape, peoples, animals, culture, agriculture. In fostering dialogue with ancient classical sources, modern scholars invite us to reflect on what we think we know, that ‘Africa is a continent.’ In our quest for origins, however, we catch the glimpse of a time when Africa was not even considered a continent on its own right. The goal of this course is to gain familiarity with ancient (and modern) constructions of how geographic space becomes an idea around which social, political, economic, as well as positive and negative pre-conceived notions of otherness, continue to cluster.

Readings, all in English, include selections from ancient Greek authors (Herodotus, Aristotle, Strabo, etc.), ancient Roman authors (Pliny the Elder, Seneca the Younger, Lucan, etc.), and modern scholars (e.g., Edward Saïd, Benjamin Isaac, Nicholas Purcell, etc.).

The Mediterranean has often served as the setting for stories of sea voyages, dramatic shipwrecks, and isolated island life. This course takes students on a journey through the literature of this maritime world, beginning with the ancient Greeks of Homer’s Odyssey and Sophocles’ Philoctetes. Along the way we will travel further afield to examine how overseas exploration and colonialism in the Renaissance are reflected in Shakespeare’s Mediterranean plays. To end, we will return to the themes of Homeric epic and Sophoclean tragedy as observed through the lens of New World post-colonialism in Derek Walcott’s updated treatments of travelers lost and found in the Mediterranean.

In the Greco-Roman world an apology rarely meant saying “I’m sorry.” Apologies were well-crafted defenses involving spectacular character assassination and thinly veiled insults.   Using Plato’s Apology as a blueprint, our seminar will read and write about apologies in the Greco-Roman Mediterranean and examine how Pagans, Christians and Jews developed a rhetoric of insult in legal, philosophical and religious arenas.  We will learn to recognize rhetorical devices at work, think and write about their effectiveness, and discuss when and where these devices might be appropriate in our own writing.

About ENGLISH 125

This writing course focuses on the creation of complex, analytic, well-supported arguments that matter in academic contexts. Students work closely with their peers and the instructor to develop their written prose. Readings cover a variety of different genres and academic disciplines.

Course Description

On the global stage of food-politics we are all actors. We eat, we shop, we recycle, we feast, we count calories, we cook, we microwave, we go to restaurants, and by the end of the day, we take out the trash ...

This course is designed to help you formulate your own questions and develop complex arguments about the relationship between food and politics. We will think about race, gender, and class, about abundance and scarcity, about identity and power, when reading and writing about networks of exchange, ethics of production, and the processes of consumption in the modern world.

Texts

• Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz, New York: Touchstone, 1996. (required)
• Aaron, Jane E. The Little Brown Essential Handbook for Writers (any edition, recommended)

All additional readings will be available in the resource folder on c-tools

The world is awash in mind-altering substances. This writing seminar examines how drugs are represented, whether elevated as consciousness-expanding instruments of liberation or decried as the scourge of society. We consider written and visual materials to uncover how drugs are constructed in diverse contexts for different audiences. By interrogating the category of drugs, we will come to identify the conflicting positions from which a rhetoric of drugs emerges. Readings and discussions will serve as a springboard for developing critical skills necessary for writing and revising analytical and research papers.

How do we critique and understand contemporary social problems in today's ever-expanding media environment?   American popular culture provides us with a complex array of texts presenting speakers, messages, and arguments. In this course, we will look at how popular texts, from poetry and essays to graphic novels and films, deliver social commentary.  We will also discuss how popular culture itself changes our understandings of arguments and ideas.  In other words, is the medium really the message?   The course will allow us to reflect on these ideas, analyze how messages are persuasive and how we can be persuasive communicators about today's social concerns. 

Over the course of the academic term, you will be asked to choose a social issue that is important to you and write a series of assignments to help you become an analytical and persuasive speaker on that topic.  While we will look at a number of persuasive social commentaries in class, it will be up to you to research and write on your own topic as the course progresses.  Materials you collect (e.g., class papers, readings, articles, written thoughts, advertisements) on your topic over the academic term will be compiled into a final portfolio at the end of the academic term.

This will be a writing-intensive course with a number of large papers and smaller writing assignments that will be assigned as in-class activities or for homework.

In a region that extends from Japan to Indonesia and from Tibet to the Philippines, East Asia is home to the world's most populous country (China), the world's largest Muslim country (Indonesia), and the world's fastest growing (Tiger) economies.  Embroidered over this patchwork of religious and economic diversity, is a dizzying array of political regimes, from the world's most closed communist regime (North Korea) to a thriving Muslim democracy.  In this class, we explore the causes and consequences of this fascinating political landscape through a variety of genres of writing, including personal narratives, propaganda, policy analysis and political science.

How does religion shape our understandings of time and how does it imbue the spaces we inhabit with meaning?   When and how do things hold power over people?   In this course, you will use the anthropological study of religion as a framework to think critically about these questions as they are encountered by religious traditions across the globe and as they apply to your own life.  You will have the opportunity to do your own fieldwork and to engage with readings about the sacred from a variety of disciplines and genres.

Ethnography literally means to write about people. A good ethnographer must learn how to wait, to watch, to listen, and, very importantly, to write in order to tell the story of the field credibly and convincingly. In this seminar, we will read exemplary ethnographies. You will then try your hand at doing ethnography. You will be asked to observe particular settings over periods of time, describe what happens in these settings, and explain what is happening. Through this process, you will learn how to construct grounded arguments based on both the literature and your fieldwork.

The “novel of education” has a long and distinguished history in European literature, but what form does it take in America? How does it differ from its more common cousin, the coming-of-age novel? Has the American bildungsroman changed over time in response to changes in American ideals, realities of adolescence and young adulthood, and the ethnic/religious/racial composition of the country? How does a novel of education with a female protagonist differ from its counterpart with a male protagonist? What are some of the structural, stylistic, and thematic choices a writer must consider when composing his/her bildungsroman?

Finally, I want to use our study of these novels of education to examine similar processes in our own lives in America in the 21st century. This will require a willingness on the part of each student to examine his or her own education, development, and acquisition of culture (however we may define “culture”), and to share with the rest of the class his or her observations.

The reading list will include some (though not necessarily all) of the following novels: Arrowsmith (Lewis); Song of the Lark (Cather); Invisible Man (Ellison); Henderson the Rain King (Bellow); Fools Crow (Welsh); Her First American (Segal); The Beautiful Room is Empty (White); Housekeeping (Robinson).

“Race” has been a fixture in the U.S. imagination throughout the nation’s history, but to what are we referring when we use the term? How stable is the concept anyway? In what ways are U.S. understandings of “race” unique to this country? None of these questions can be addressed without considering the other markers of identity (ethnicity, class, sexuality, etc.) which give meaning to the notion of “race” in the first place. Class materials will be drawn from British, American, and African-American literature, history, feminist and gender studies, media studies, and cultural anthropology. Requirements include a weekly reading journal, a take-home midterm, and a final research paper.

For a few years I have experimented with what I’ve come to call “the critical creative writing seminar.” In such a context, the student can expect to place in conversation literature, criticism, art and film, unified around a given theme, to produce, not the academic essay, but so-called “creative writing” (as if the academic essay were not creative!) and other hybrid texts (be they performance, installation, video, cartoons, new media…). Recently, two critical creative seminars I’ve taught (at Northwestern University and here at the University of Michigan) have taken as their syllabi’s guiding principle the question of codeswitching, a linguistic term used to designate seamless and sometimes seamy movement between languages. Acknowledging the term’s literal definition, these syllabi have focused on work that shuttles between Spanish and English, in turn, to imagine codeswitching’s metaphoric significance—potential movements between the personal and the political, fiction and memoir, prose and poetry, the visual and the verbal, the spoken and the written word in twentieth/twenty-first century representation. Leaving the realm of the readerly/viewerly, students in these seminars have invested a portion of their energies in their own interpretations of codeswitching as practice, producing remarkable word/image portfolios, which have amplified the scope of the original seminars’ ambitions. Notably, I have found myself amazed by students’ insistence upon moving between multiple languages (alternately parsed, their disregard for my Spanish?English focus has delighted me time and again). This course represents another iteration of “Codeswitch,” which learns from my previous students’ suggestive efforts (even as it cannot forget the ghosts of modernisms’ codeswitching praxis). Specifically, this critical creative writing seminar springboards off a variety of texts that move between global English(s) and one or more other (often Othered) “languages” (be they Korean, Taiwanese, French, Spanish, the fantastic, computer code, musical notation, images, and/or genetic sequencing…) to require of its participants comparable levels of dissidence and dissonance. Possible cites/sites of inquiry include: Guillermo Gómez-Peña’s performances, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee (and The Dream of the Audience), Samuel Delany’s The Motion of Light in Water, Hsia Yu’s Pink Noise, Cecilia Vicuña’s QUIPOem, Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, Wong Kar-Wai’s 2046, the musical mash-up phenomenon, and FloodNet’s “inefficient” hacktivism.

Credit Exclusions: Those with credit for GEOSCI 114 may only elect GEOSCI 142 for 2 credits.

This seminar starts from stellar evolution and the formation of the elements in stars, and ends at the formation of terrestrial planets from these elements and their early evolution (especially the Earth). Students learn cosmochemical and geochemical concepts and methods and apply them to several theme topics. Though factual knowledge is an important part of the course, emphasis is on how scientists study and solve problems and how science progresses using historical examples.

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

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

The course involves three hours of weekly meeting time and selected reading material. No background in Earth science is necessary. Evaluation is based on class participation, three exams, a series of student presentations on selected topics and written essays on the same subject.

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

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

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

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

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."

Paris in the “Gothic Age” — the 13th and 14th centuries — was thriving. Dramatically sited on either of side of the River Seine, the walled city was the capital of a powerful monarchy, site of the new cathedral of Notre-Dame, a major center of learning, and a vital nexus of trade. Our aim will be to reconstruct the medieval city in our minds as way of gaining deep insight into medieval culture. We will study extant structures including Notre-Dame and the Sainte-Chapelle and use archaeological and textual evidence to bring the city to life — investigating everything from the many-towered palace of the Louvre to the compound of the Knights Templar, from artisans’ quarters to hospitals and cemeteries. D,2

This course will explore the history of modern Scotland, especially the history of the twentieth century to the present, through a range of readings and other materials. Scotland is often presented in popular culture through a series of stereotyped images, often involving sheep and sheep byproducts, or allegedly emblematic moments, typically involving uprisings and oppression. We will try to expand our understanding of Scotland to include its modernity, its internal differences, its urbanity, its relations to other places, and its failure to comply with clichés.

Particular emphasis will be placed on the ways in which writers, filmmakers, and even musicians have represented modern Scotland, although we will read a series of works of historical scholarship and political argument to help us understand the contexts in which such cultural works have been created. This course will also offer opportunities for students to explore particular interests within the broad framework, e.g., the rise and fall and rise of Scottish nationalism, language debates, the politics of land ownership, Scotland in Hollywood film, what's particularly Scottish about Scottish social problems, North Sea oil and gas, Scotland in the post-imperial era, or the works of particular Scottish writers or artists.

NO background in British or Scottish history or literature is assumed, and students from all majors are welcomed.

There will be an optional 2-week trip to Scotland at the end of the course, involving travel to Edinburgh, Glasgow, and the Highlands.

This freshman seminar will investigate the history of "the people without history," the anonymous majority of Europeans who worked the land before the twentieth century. It will examine how village life functuioned, how farmers farmed, how peasant households dealt with the deamnds of religious and secular authorities, and the culture of rural people in Europe between medieval and early modern times. The seminar will also be an opportunity to sharpen historical reading and writing skills. Requirements include oportunity to sharpen historical reading and writing skills. Requirements include participation in class discussions, two essays, and a take-home exam.

Among the books the class will cover are E. Leroy Ladurie, Montaillou, the Promised Land of Error, C. Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms, D. Balestracci, The Renaissance in the Fields,F. & J. Gies, Life in a Medieval Village.

Among the films whose representation of pre-modern farming communities the course will analyze are The Tree of Wooden Clogs and The Return of Martin Guerre.

William Hogarth was the greatest English artist and interpreter of the social scene in the eighteenth century. He satirized all aspects of life, high and low, and left us a vivid set of images of his times. Taking as a starting point Hogarth's complex, teeming images we shall examine the rich and teeming history of England in an age of great exuberance, achievement and change. Like Hogarth, we shall be interested in the stark contrasts betwen rich and poor, modern courtship and prostitution, drunkenness and (relative) sobriety, war and peace, and notions of beauty and ugliness.

This course explores the use of language in relation to sexuality, with particular emphasis on the development of sexual identities. We examine how speakers use different aspects of language, such as narrative, word choice, and pronunciation, to point to socially relevant notions of sexuality, such as sexual orientations and behavioral categories, e.g. slut, stud, or prude. We also explore the relationship of language and sexual identity to expressions of desire and look at the ways in which both language and sexual identities are intertwined with other salient ways of interacting in the social world, including in terms of gender, social status and class, ethnicity and other kinds of cultural affiliations. Students become familiar with current research in language and sexuality as well as the fundamentals of designing and interpreting socially-oriented linguistic research.

Eastern Europe is one the fastest changing regions in the world. It is impossible to understand the "new" Europe or even follow the current events without some knowledge of the people, history, and languages of the Eastern Europe. This incredibly diverse region is a patchwork of dozens of languages, some closely and some distantly related (Slavic, Germanic, Baltic, Romance, Iranian, Armenian), and yet others belonging to non-related language groups (Finno-Ugric, Turkic, Caucasian, Mongolic, Semitic). Religions of Eastern Europe include several historically diverse Christian denominations (Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Lutheran Protestantism), two branches of Islam (Sunni and Shiite), Judaism, and Tibetan Buddhism. In this course, you will learn about both major and "minority" languages spoken in Eastern Europe, against the background of history, religion, and current politics of the countries where these languages are spoken.

Excerpts from The Brothers Karamazov are often discussed in introductory philosophy classes, but reading the novel closely reveals that philosophical questions are raised on every page. For example, Dostoevsky explores judgment and punishment, moral luck, the distinction between doing and allowing, special obligations (especially those to family), the nature of testimony, the relationships between intention, causation, and culpability, and the force of our words and actions on others. We will read Dostoevsky's novel alongside work in contemporary analytic philosophy that refines and tries to address the questions it raises.

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

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

This interdisciplinary seminar examines the condition of contemporary Brazilian women and their struggle to gain cultural, economic, and socio-political equality. Our questions and perspectives focus on both the literary and socio-economic aspects of gender, race, class inequality, transformation, and options for self-empowerment. The format includes class discussions, presentations, regularly assigned readings and papers, film/video screenings, and internet/library research.

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

When people leave the University of Michigan upon graduation, in what ways are they different from when they began? How does university life influence your marriage, your income, and most importantly (for this course) your thinking skills? How can you change the way you proceed through the university (from choosing your major, courses, and sleep habits) that can improve your chances for learning and success?

The primary goal of this course is to learn about the psychology of learning and thinking in the context of the university.

• How long do your memories last?
• What factors influence how well and for how long you will learn information?
• How will your thinking change as you progress through the university?
• Are some people better at learning than others?
• How much does effort/practice play a role in how much you learn?
• How do alcohol, drugs, anxiety, sleep, hormones, etc. affect how well you learn and think?

At the same time, we will evaluate in considerable detail the implications of the psychology of learning and thinking for our own learning and thinking (and, perhaps, of one's students and children if one becomes a teacher or parent). Thus, we will systematically examine through both empirical group projects and class activities and discussions, how what we might know about learning might mean for ourselves.

As a secondary goal, we will consider how the university as a whole works, and how university policies and university life affect you.

If we are truly successful in this course, you will have a fairly sizable body of knowledge about the psychology of thinking and learning, you will have learned to critically read and evaluate research on the psychology of thinking and learning, and you might even become better thinkers and learners. At the same time, you will understand something about the university and how it works.

This seminar will focus on twinship. Throughout historical time, and across many cultures, twins have been the source of much fascination. In literature, they have served as a metaphor to explore identity, good vs. evil, multiple life options, symmetry, and soul mates, and in science, they have been used to disentangle genetic and environmental influences on health and behavior. In order to gain an understanding of the experience, influences, and impact of twinship, we will examine literature and films that have used twins, interview twins, parents, siblings, and spouses of twins, and consider theory and research on the biology and psychology of twins, and on changes related to the recent increased incidence of twinning. A class web site will be integral to the course. Students will be expected to participate actively in both class and web site discussions, as well as to keep up with weekly reading and written assignments. In addition, there will be two group projects and a final exam. The number of points accumulated on these various options will determine final grades.

As we explore gender from a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, our specific focus will be on popular representations. How do they impact the construction of gender in a variety of contexts, such as social, ecological and transnational? We will examine how contexts shape gender development and popular representations of gender, especially in enabling and constraining the production, enactment and experience of gender. The goal of this seminar is developing a deeper understanding of qualitative and quantitative approaches to the psychological study of gender in context and learning critical skills in analyzing popular representations of gender.

How are mental processes like memory, language, and attention implemented in the brain? What is the neural basis of insanity? 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.

Our modern world emerged in four major transitions: a Demographic Transition, from high to low birth and death rates; an Industrial Transition, from agrarian to manufacturing economies; an Urban Transition, from rural to urban living; and an Age transition, from a ”traditional” age structure through a “younging” to an “aging” of the population. These transitions have also brought a massive impact on our global environment. This Freshman seminar will consider all aspects of these transitions and their environmental impact. There will be a special writing project. Students will work in small teams of 3, preparing a comparative analysis of two countries. Usually these will be “developing countries.” Students will learn how to measure all aspects of these transitions with quantitative data, and then link those quantitative analyses with historical and institutional processes. Students will also create their own text, downloading CT materials and adding their papers. The grade will be based on the paper, the text, and class participation; there will be no examinations. The papers will be done in three installments, following the three major parts of the course: quantitative country comparisons, historical processes, and modern institutional processes. In the first few weeks of the course, students will go over quantitative measures of the transitions. They will prepare a one page statistical table showing the past half century of the transitions in their two countries and will write a one or two page description of those transitions. This will identify a problem to be addressed in the rest of the paper. The first installment will be submitted and reported in class in the fourth week of class. Within two days, students will be given detailed written comments on their first installments. The second installment will be due, and reported in class, on the 10th week of class. This will contain a revision of the first installment and a review of the history of the two countries, showing how that history is linked to the current transitions. Again, within two days students will receive detailed comments on the revised first and new second installments. The third installment will examine some specific current aspect of the modern transitions, showing how human ecological forces (geography and political-social-cultural institutions) impact the environment and what policies can be developed to mitigate the environmental impact. As before, the third installment will include revisions of the first two and a linking to the final installment. This will be due and reported in class in the last class session. All materials will be available on Course Tools.

Emphasizes problem solving and modeling 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 this 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 seminar enables students to deepen their understanding of the personal and situational forces that help and hinder them in their relationships with each other. Live, interactive experiences are conducted and discussed in class. We also consider ways to transform our social-psychological insights into constructive actions for handling the challenges and difficulties that inevitably arise.

This service-learning course explores the dynamics of formal and informal education in urban settings through traditional coursework integrated with personal reflection and community involvement. We will study the effects of social history and culture on the social identity of children and youth. For example, how have community members helped to create and support positive roles for children and youth. Students will work closely with members of the community and program staff to document cultural beliefs and practices that shape social identity and expectations. This course is intended for students with an interest in teaching, or urban and community studies, or both.

One of the key issues in our society concerns medication use, such as drug development and regulation, economics and financing of medication benefits, and medicine-taking behaviors. This seminar focuses on the role of pharmacists in managing its use, including their cultural competence in caring for customers. Typical issues include medication adherence and the role of various health professionals in the health care system. We also discuss pharmacy as a career.

Since the day she was married to the French dauphin, Marie Antoinette has been the represented in every imaginable medium, including official portraits, fashion plates, pornography, caricature, newspapers, trial briefs, memoirs, biographies, and films. In this seminar we will draw on feminist scholarship in history, art history, literature, and film studies to consider the power of these representations to shape public discourse and the many meanings the figure of the queen has been made to bear from the eighteenth century to the present. On January 22, the class will take a field trip to the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts to view a major portrait of Marie Antoinette by court painter Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun and attend a symposium where it will be discussed from art historical, historical, and gender perspectives. Fee of up $10 may be charged. This course is a freshman seminar in the humanities open only to first-year students.

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