This course is designed to give students an extensive survey of the cultural characteristics of the Arab world by situating the practices and traditions of the Arab world into their own unique setting. The material chosen, both for the lecture and for reading, focuses on issues of ethnic diversity that define the Arab world in particular and place into a greater multi-cultural realm. Special attention will be given to family, gender relations, national and religious minorities, East-West cultures and relations, the role of the past and of social change, and Arabic art and music. The course material will be explored through lectures and videos supported by listening and viewing guides in addition to discussion based upon the assigned readings. In both their writings and in the class discussions, students discuss the meaning of culture and ethnicity and how misunderstanding these principles can lead to forms of stereotyping, intolerance, and racism. There will be emphasis on developing effective outlining, writing, and oral presentation skills. Moreover, the course is accompanied by an interactive website utilizing the UM Course Tools Software. Grades will be based upon class participation, short essays, and a final project. Material: Course pack and website.

In the period under discussion (16th-20th Centuries), Armenian literature flourished mostly in the Armenian dispersion. Alongside traditional literature in Classical Armenian, there had long emerged a new, secular literary trend, expressed in Middle Armenian. Responding to a growing national awareness, Armenian writers in the 19th century revised some of the principal elements of Armenian identity and placed a greater emphasis on its political aspects. Such trends and many innovative ones continued into the 20th century, but the Genocide of 1915 brought Western Armenian literature to an abrupt end. This tradition survived in the post-Genocide dispersion, at the same time as a new literature began to emerge in Soviet Armenia. This course will focus on a wide range of issues that reshaped Armenian letters in the modern period: from recovered and fresh ideas, renewed awareness and genres throughout the 16th-18th centuries, to the clash, in subsequent centuries, of old and new values; identity, legitimacy and continuity; nationalism, nationhood, and literary reactions to violence; and cultural, aesthetic and social concerns, all against a historical background.

Studying current political controversies and social problems will stimulate the search for insight into deeper questions of politics and society. We will follow selected political and social issues using newspapers, magazines, electronic and entertainment media, and the Web. There also will be readings from more scholarly sources in the social sciences. Students will write papers, do class projects, and participate in discussions. There will be frequent quizzes. Class attendance is required, and classes will be devoted to discussion, conversations with guests, and occasional films.

The earliest civilizations in both Eastern and Western hemispheres are the focus of this course. The civilizations of most ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Mexico, and Peru will be points of emphasis. The course begins with brief discussions of the work of archaeologists, of the evolution of complex societies, of the spread of human populations in the planet's many environments, and the beginnings of our agricultural systems. We then consider the geography, economic and political development, and ideologies of each early civilization, based on archaeology and the evidence of the earliest written texts. No special background is assumed. There are two lectures and one discussion section per week. The textbook is IMAGES of the PAST by Gary Feinman and T.D. Price, McGraw-Hill, For those with further interests PATTERNS in PREHISTORY by Robert Wenke and Deborah Olszewski, Oxford University Press, may be of interest. There will be electronic resources and in-class handouts. There will be In-Class Midterm and Final Exams.

Advisory Prerequisite: Sophomore standing.

In the period under discussion (16th-20th Centuries), Armenian literature flourished mostly in the Armenian dispersion. Alongside traditional literature in Classical Armenian, there had long emerged a new, secular literary trend, expressed in Middle Armenian. Responding to a growing national awareness, Armenian writers in the 19th century revised some of the principal elements of Armenian identity and placed a greater emphasis on its political aspects. Such trends and many innovative ones continued into the 20th century, but the Genocide of 1915 brought Western Armenian literature to an abrupt end. This tradition survived in the post-Genocide dispersion, at the same time as a new literature began to emerge in Soviet Armenia. This course will focus on a wide range of issues that reshaped Armenian letters in the modern period: from recovered and fresh ideas, renewed awareness and genres throughout the 16th-18th centuries, to the clash, in subsequent centuries, of old and new values; identity, legitimacy and continuity; nationalism, nationhood, and literary reactions to violence; and cultural, aesthetic and social concerns, all against a historical background.

Over the last two decades, postcolonial studies has had a significant impact on how literary critics, anthropologists, and historians analyze colonial relationships and the political and cultural legacies of colonialism. This course introduces students to the key concepts, methods, and debates in the field and explores their relevance to Asian studies. Topics to include: Orientalism and its critics, anticolonial nationalisms, nation and gender, subalternity and representation, colonial and postcolonial modernity, globalization and diaspora, the political and intellectual stakes and contexts of the field of postcolonial studies.

Enforced Prerequisites: ASIAN 235 with at least a C-

Advisory Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing and concentration in Asian Studies.

Intended to familiarize students with major theories of interdisciplinary study in literature and history and provide a critical context for the study of Asia. We will think about how critical models and methods can broadly inform work on Asian history, literature, and cultural studies and how these tools can be brought to bear on archival material in the research collections of the University of Michigan.

Enforced Prerequisites: ASIAN 235 with at least a C-

Advisory Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing and concentration in Asian Studies.

Background and Goals: This course is designed to allow students to explore the insurance mechanism as a means of replacing uncertainty with certainty. A main goal of the course is to explain, using mathematical models from the theory of interest, risk theory, credibility theory and ruin theory, how mathematics underlies many important individual and societal problems.

Content: We will explore how much insurance affects the lives of students (automobile insurance, social security, health insurance, theft insurance) as well as the lives of other family members (retirements, life insurance, group insurance). While the mathematical models are important, an ability to articulate why the insurance options exist and how they satisfy the consumer's needs are equally important. In addition, there are different options available (e.g. in social insurance programs) that offer the opportunity of discussing alternative approaches. This course may be used to satisfy the LSA upper-level writing requirement.

Alternatives: none Subsequent Courses: none

Advisory Prerequisite: MATH 115, junior standing, and permission of instructor.

This research seminar takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of urban culture and representations of the city by Black people in the United States. Beginning with the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago and ending with the Los Angeles riots/uprising in 1992, the course emphasizes the transition from a utopic (though ambivalent and racist) view of the city in the 19th century to a harshly racialized and apocalyptic view of urban life by the end of the 20th century.

In this course, we will address such ideas as the racialization of urban space, the gendering and racialization of poverty, cultural articulations of "ghetto life" in Black texts, and the production and consumption of urban cultural forms like hip hop and public graffiti.

Advisory Prerequisite: Upperclass standing.

In Building Black Communities, we will examine how African American women, men, and children created, maintained, negotiated, and performed community life historically, with an emphasis on the period from the Reconstruction to the dawn of the 21st century. We will consider how African Americans have contended with internal and external tensions and challenges. And, we will explore various strategies of self-determination as we engage such subjects as protest, migration, urbanization, and modernity. Our readings and lectures will take us to "real" and imagined in places such as Atlanta, Georgia; Birmingham, Alabama; Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; Mississippi Delta; New York, New York; Richmond, California; Richmond, Virginia; and Washington, D.C. Through our class discussions, small group activities and other assignments, we will investigate primary sources including maps, music, letters, photographs, architectural plans, and the built environment. Additionally, this course may include at least one field trip and one evening performance.

Advisory Prerequisite: Upperclass standing.

A "studio" format course for students in the chemical sciences wishing to enhance their writing, speaking, and analysis skills. The course includes critical analysis and proficiency of written and oral communication and an introduction to the multi-faceted features of professional life.

Advisory Prerequisite: CHEM 461.

This course is devoted to exploring the conquests and worlds of Alexander the Great — the worlds of the East that he encountered and conquered, and the new Greco-Persian world that he attempted to create before his early death. It is also about the ‘Internal World' of Alexander himself: the conflicting bibliographic portraits (ancient and modern) of the Great Conqueror in hagiographic terms as a humane and gentle man, and a man of divine destiny and power (a ‘New Achilles'); or as a brilliant but deeply flawed individual, an increasingly delusional victim of his own success, and even a disassociative drunk. The course takes a source-based approach, with a close and comprehensive reading of the two principal ancient biographies of Alexander, Arrian's Anabasis (representing the ‘Official' Alexander tradition) and Curtius Rufus' History of Alexander the Great (representing the ‘Unofficial' or ‘Vulgate' tradition); supplemented by selective fragments of the earliest Alexander sources. Along the way we will also explore the physical and cultural world of Alexander and his legacy for the Hellenistic East, with readings from Michael Wood's In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great.

Enforced Prerequisites: Open only to concentrators in Classical Civilization, Classical Archaeology, Classical Language and Literature, Ancient Greek, Latin, and Modern Greek.

This course examines research and scholarship focused on existing media institutions, their genesis and current lines of development, institutional arrangements, organization and operation, economic structure, and characteristic communications "output." Course topics may include: the history of media systems; media and government, including legal, regulatory and free-expression issues; media economics; international media systems; technologies; media organizational routines; and the values and behavior of media professionals. The course investigates the ways in which institutional, economic, and organizational arrangements affect professional behavior and media content, with attention to media system changes over time and in comparative contexts. May not be repeated for credit.

Enforced Prerequisites: COMM 101 or 102 with a grade of at least C-

This course examines general phenomena involved with the creation, dissemination, and reception of mediated information. Course topics may include: information processing, including message encoding and decoding; media priming and framing of evaluations and decisions; influences of message structure and communication modalities on processing; media use and reception, including interpretive processes; information flow and control, focusing on influences of communication networks, message diffusion, and information gate-keeping; and communicative processes of learning, persuasion and social influence. The emphasis is on the development and testing of general theories explaining how mediated communication works, even though research examined will center on particular cases (e.g., studies of priming in political communication). May not be repeated for credit.

Enforced Prerequisites: COMM 101 or 102 with a grade of at least C-

This course explores social and cultural approaches to the study of mass communication. Course topics studied may include: communication and social identity, including race, ethnicity and gender; media's role in defining and reflecting culture; the equity of community, state, and worldwide information systems, including debates over the "new world communication order," post-colonialism, and globalization; media audiences as interpretive communities; media and social movements; and the role of media in altering and maintaining political and social order. Research on mass communication is examined in connection with broader questions about the relations between cultural systems and social formations, and about the dynamics of social and cultural change and contestation.

Enforced Prerequisites: COMM 101 or 102 with a grade of at least C-

This course critically evaluates research and scholarship focused on the impact of mass communication in a variety of substantive domains including the impact of media on knowledge, social values, and behavior. Policy applications of media effects research and the use of mass communication in public information campaigns are also reviewed. Media impact is treated both in theoretical and applied terms. The research examined spans levels of analysis, including effects on individuals as well as society at large. Topics to be covered include media impact on: social values; educational development; political behavior; violence and aggressive behavior; consumer behavior; and public opinion. Research on the use of mass communication in public information campaigns is also reviewed, as is the role of media research in providing guidance for social policy makers and media professionals.

Enforced Prerequisites: COMM 101 or 102 with a grade of at least C-

This course proposes to familiarize students with different, and sometimes conflicting ways of reading and representing stories and events. We will discuss well-known cases, such as Shakespeare's The Tempest, Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, and Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, as well as the various interpretations or translations these works have received over time in different cultural settings. This exploration will allow us to better understand the production of cultural works — Shakespeare's Tempest and Conrad's Heart of Darkness, for instance, are themselves complex literary interpretations of other texts and historical events — and their reproduction and diffusion through re-writing, translation, and transposition in a different medium (e.g., film).

Literary works include:

Shakespeare, The Tempest;
• Aimé Césaire's A Tempest;
• Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre;
• Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea;
• Conrad, Heart of Darkness;
• Nabokov, Lolita, and
• Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Teheran.

We will also discuss cinematic interpretation of these works, such as:

• Peter Greenway's Prospero's Books,
• Francis Coppola's Apocalypse Now, and
• Stanley Kubrick's Lolita.

Evaluation will be based on regular attendance and participation in class discussion, keeping a regular reading and viewing journal, a midterm assignment, and a final paper. Students from all disciplines are welcome.

Advisory Prerequisite: Junior standing.

Analyzes the medium-run and long-run response of the economy to technology shocks, preference shocks, and shocks to government policy (especially capital and labor taxes and government purchases). This class will satisfy the upper-level writing requirement, based on short weekly papers relating the theory in the class to current issues. The draft syllabus gives more detail.

Wolverine Access may list the class as CLOSED, but I expect to be able to admit everyone who wants to take the class, since many students may drop when they see how rigorous the class is. Please look carefully at the syllabus to see if this class is right for you, then just show up on the first day of class.

Enforced Prerequisites: ECON 401 and 402 with a grade of at least C-

Advisory Prerequisite: ECON 404 or 405.

Examines the causes and consequences of world economic development. Topics include: the effects of the agricultural and industrial revolutions, law, global integration, and finance on economic growth and standards of living.

Enforced Prerequisites: ECON 401 with a grade of at least C-; or Graduate standing

Advisory Prerequisite: ECON 404 or 406

This seminar will illustrate how elementary microeconomic tools can be used to illuminate observed real-world phenomena and to evaluate alternative policy interventions. Each student will complete a problem set and writing assignment. In addition, students will be required — as part of a team of three — to investigate in depth a single local, national, or international topic. Students on the same team who want to use their project toward honors will be encouraged to focus on different aspects of the overall topic. Students will choose from a list of topics either suggested by the instructor or by students in the class. A preliminary list of suggested topics will be available at the first meeting and it usually evolves during the first weeks of the seminar.

Students interested in enrolling in ECON 495 must submit an application. Applications are available on Economics Department's website.

Enforced Prerequisites: ECON 401 and 402 with a grade of at least C-

Advisory Prerequisite: ECON 404 or 405

This course will consider the evaluation of social programs, such as job training programs for the disadvantaged, marriage promotion programs and drug use prevention programs from an economic perspective. The first part of the course will consist of lectures that introduce the basics of econometric program evaluation. The remainder of the course will consist of seminar style presentations and discussions of academic papers and government reports.

Students will write a literature survey reviewing the evaluation literature on a specific program; in so doing, they will both learn how to write a serious analytic literature survey and learn about the particular program they choose to study.

Enforced Prerequisites: ECON 401 and 402 with a grade of at least C-

Advisory Prerequisite: ECON 404 or 405

The course treats the development of economics from its origins to the near present. The aim of the course is to deepen understanding of some contemporary economic questions by examining how they have arisen and been answered and debated in the history of economic thought.

The first half of the course provides an overview of economic thought with the most attention paid to classical political economy from Adam Smith through Karl Marx, and to the neoclassical economics of W.S. Jevons, Léon Walras, and Alfred Marshall. The remainder of the course this term is devoted mainly to the history of macroeconomics beginning with John Maynard Keynes and through the twentieth century. The main textbooks for the course are The Ordinary Business of Life: A History of Economics from the Ancient World to the Twenty-First Century by R. Backhouse (Princeton 2002) and Modern Macroeconomics: Its Origins, Development and Current State by B. Snowdon and H. Vane (Elgar 2005).

The course situates the history of economics in broader contexts. Attention is especially focused on the scientific status of economic theories as well as on their relation to policy and normative questions.

Enforced Prerequisites: ECON 401 with a grade of at least C-

We write well when we write about subjects that interest us. We also write well when we write about subjects in which we have a fair amount of expertise. With these ideas in mind, this course, to a large extent, will be determined by the students in it. It will, of course, have page limits, deadlines, grades?, but the class readings and the paper topics will be decided by the students (with a lot of feedback and advice from me and other members of the class). Come prepared to state your special interest(s), suggest at least one substantial text (essay, book or film) for the class to read on that interest from which all of us can learn and profit, and propose a sequence of essay assignments for yourself and your area(s) of interest. Be prepared to do a lot of writing and revising of your work and to have your work reviewed by others in the class.

Much like the ENGLISH 225 courses I have taught over the last dozen years, this course will focus on

1. improving your vocabulary,
2. strengthening your grammatical, mechanical, semantical, and syntactical skills, and
3. helping you find your voice.

I insist that you make the private public (ideally, to illustrate a universal truth or a general principle) in order that you establish your authority to comment on the topic of your essay, that you pen an essay which is not generic, and, most importantly, that you write with a human voice (not dead, wooden prose written by an obscurantist majoring in philosophy [mea culpa to any philosophy major reading this course description]). Although this course is not difficult, it is perhaps the most labor-intensive course you will take. Quid pro quo — be prepared to work hard for me, and, in the process, you'll learn much about writing. The reading material for this course is your peers' writing. This will be a fun, interesting, profitable, and practical course. Text: The American Heritage College Dictionary.

This course engages students in the practice of writing life-stories. Students read a range of autobiographical essays while developing their own versions of the form; smaller assignments culminate in a larger personal essay due by the course end. In addition, students facilitate life-writing exercises with a group of fifth-graders in a Detroit school; involving five trips total, from the 4th through the 9th week of the term, the school visits take place on Fridays (students choose either a morning or afternoon session; either way, the course requires a Friday time commitment). In class and in writing, students reflect deeply on this community work and their life-writing experiences, and comment on parallel essays by writers such as John Edgar Wideman and Annie Dillard. We address such questions as: how is life-story linked to body, place, and tradition? How might differences in race, gender, ability, and sexual preference inform life-stories? How do people sort and make sense of their lives? How do writers shape the material of their lives into essay form? Course grade is based on a reflective journal of responses; three (4-page) analytical papers; three (4-page) personal writings; and the larger 10-page personal essay due by the course end; the final paper may be drawn from prior personal writing; it also goes through multiple drafts and is peer-reviewed by the class at large. Course readings are from a collection of personal essays (such as Phillip Lopate's or Dinty Moore's), and/or a supplementary course packet (estimated cost $50).

Literature often attempts to transform "strangers" into "'friends" for us. "Works of fiction," Professor Paul Coates tells us, exist in a space between the Double and the Other." To enter into a work of fiction is in a sense an attempt to transform what is unfamiliar into something we can understand, something that becomes like "us," something that can become a Literary Double. In this writing seminar, we will want to concentrate our attention on how and why authors involve us in the most unlikely identifications. How does John Irving, in A Prayer for Owen Meany, create a hero for us out a little guy who looks translucent (his blue veins show through his skin), has a strange sounding voice, and is extremely manipulative? Or how does Katherine Dunn in Geek Love create a father, who, out of "love," produces a family of freaks, freaks who we actually become intrigued by. Moreover, these texts encourage us to find ways in which we recognize some of Ourselves imbedded in the most unlikely character images? Pretty much all semester we will be reading works that help us to make meaning and connections out of the implications of the three unlikely joined subjects in the title of this class. And we will consistently be aware of that "space," between the text and ourselves, between the characters and our own identities. We want to consider the ways in which we, in the process of reading and writing, actually create the text and recreate our "selves." The work of the semester is to write and revise exploratory, analytical essays, the subject of which will be determined by each individual student. I intend to send out an exact syllabus to those enrolled in the class during winter break. The readings will be selected from a group of contemporary authors of different genders, ethnic backgrounds, socio-economic classes, sexualities, and religions.

Literature often attempts to transform "strangers" into "'friends" for us. "Works of fiction," Professor Paul Coates tells us, exist in a space between the Double and the Other." To enter into a work of fiction is in a sense an attempt to transform what is unfamiliar into something we can understand, something that becomes like "us," something that can become a Literary Double. In this writing seminar, we will want to concentrate our attention on how and why authors involve us in the most unlikely identifications. How does John Irving, in A Prayer for Owen Meany, create a hero for us out a little guy who looks translucent (his blue veins show through his skin), has a strange sounding voice, and is extremely manipulative? Or how does Katherine Dunn in Geek Love create a father, who, out of "love," produces a family of freaks, freaks who we actually become intrigued by. Moreover, these texts encourage us to find ways in which we recognize some of Ourselves imbedded in the most unlikely character images? Pretty much all semester we will be reading works that help us to make meaning and connections out of the implications of the three unlikely joined subjects in the title of this class. And we will consistently be aware of that "space," between the text and ourselves, between the characters and our own identities. We want to consider the ways in which we, in the process of reading and writing, actually create the text and recreate our "selves." The work of the semester is to write and revise exploratory, analytical essays, the subject of which will be determined by each individual student. I intend to send out an exact syllabus to those enrolled in the class during winter break. The readings will be selected from a group of contemporary authors of different genders, ethnic backgrounds, socio-economic classes, sexualities, and religions.

A review of the fundamentals of composition with further practice in writing expository prose. Materials are drawn in part from the student's fields of interest.

In this seminar, you will work to bring to the page what no other artist has: your own way of phrasing, your own way of observing, your own history that shapes your lens. What do you remember most vividly? What do you most vividly forget? Where does the line blur between fact and fiction, and how can you walk this line as a tightrope, mining deeper truth? As writers, you will be asked to use writing as a shovel, excavating meaning in your lives. This class functions as a workshop with an emphasis on revision, and is designed to give you the and tools you need to realize your own intentions and reach an audience. We will read as writers; contemporary essays are our texts, including works by Joyce Carol Oates, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Judith Ortiz Cofer, Amy Tan, John McPhee, David Sedaris, and many others. Because workshops are based on the responsibility we have to each other as writers, punctuality, attendance and participation are essential to your success in this class in which you will write four revised essays, exploring different forms of personal narrative.

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

Using discussion, workshops, in-class exercises, and a variety of written examples, we will explore an array of techniques useful for creating and amplifying these works. Students should expect to write and revise (work through subsequent drafts) three essays of increasing length, complete and comment on regular readings, and be prepared to discuss each other's work in a demanding but spirited forum.

A review of the fundamentals of composition with further practice in writing expository prose. Materials are drawn in part from the student's fields of interest.

A review of the fundamentals of composition with further practice in writing expository prose. Materials are drawn in part from the student's fields of interest.

A review of the fundamentals of composition with further practice in writing expository prose. Materials are drawn in part from the student's fields of interest.

A review of the fundamentals of composition with further practice in writing expository prose. Materials are drawn in part from the student's fields of interest.

Credit Exclusions: May not be repeated for credit.

From antiquity to the present, artists have been irresistibly drawn to the law as an institution and justice as an ethical concept as thematic material for their story telling. Based on intensive reading of works by or from Aeschylus, Sophocles, the Apocrypha, Shakespeare, Melville, Schnitzler, Kafka, Koestler, Camus, R. Shaw, and P. Roth, our discussions will examine how these selections treat the legal process as an object of analytical interest in itself, as an example of procedurally and ethically complex social phenomena, and as a testing ground for propositions of morality. We will also study two films. Limited class size should allow each student a chance to lead discussion. Requirements: one short paper, a longer critical/analytical essay, and your actively, intelligently participating presence. We will study how some artists' fascination with the law helps us come to terms with themes of ethical content within a social context.

Book cost: under $100 for new copies and course pack; less for used.

Advisory Prerequisite: Senior concentrator in English.

Credit Exclusions: May not be repeated for credit.

Graphic Narrative is a general term for Comic Books, Graphic Novels, Manga, Bandes Dessinées, Novelas Em Quadrinhos, Sequential Art, and even the Bayeux Tapestry. This seminar enrolls both advanced undergraduates (in ENGLISH 417 Senior Seminar, 4 credits) and graduate students (in ENGLISH 549 Contemporary Literature, 3 credits). We will use both primary and secondary readings to explore the modern history and theory of the field, the sociology of the field, and a rich assortment of excellent examples of many literary types within the field.

The written work consists of a daily reading journal, a shorter essay (1500-2400 words, which is approximately 5-8 double-spaced pages of text depending on font size and margins and excluding included images) and a longer essay (3000-4500 words, which is approximately 10-15 pages). In all three assignments, students are expected to consider both the form and the content of the materials read and to strive for insights that go substantially beyond the discussion in class. The shorter essay should be on a graphic (not chapter) children's book, and the longer essay should be either on some general aspect of graphic narrative (e.g., the use of framing, the use of thought bubbles, the use of color, the techniques of visual allusion, palimpsest, collage, the varieties of irony, the relations between drawing style and meaning, the handling of a specific theme, the uses of a specific image, cultural constraints on meaning, etc.) or on some aspect of the work of a single important graphic narrative artist, series, or genre. These essay projects require reading beyond that in the syllabus and consultation with and permission of the instructor. In the reading journal, students are expected to record

1. any extrinsic details potentially relevant to a critical discussion of the work (including at least type of work, name and nationality of writer and/or illustrator, date and place of publication, publisher, format),
2. observations as one reads, including page references and quotes (which may need to include photocopies), and
3. conclusions and/or hypotheses and/or questions that seem noteworthy after reviewing (a) and (b) and perhaps the work as well.

The journals should be hand-written with two-inch margins all around because these journals will be exchanged at the beginning of each class meeting, read by a fellow student, and the contents commented on in the margins. The journal should be kept in a spiral-bound notebook into which can be glued copies of graphics if needed. Students should use these journals not only as a record of their reading of syllabus materials but also of any other course-related materials, and as a place to keep class notes and to record and sometimes work out essay topic ideas. When the journals are submitted at the end of the term, they should be accompanied by a printed, double-spaced, two-to-three page self-analysis of the worth (both educational and in terms of grade) of the journal to the student. The course grades will be based on participation (25%), journal + self-analysis (25%), children's book essay (20%), general essay (30%).

Advisory Prerequisite: Senior concentrator in English.

Credit Exclusions: May not be repeated for credit.

This seminar is designed to think about the novel in America: more specifically, how the novel, as a literary form and a cultural institution, has taken part in significant debates about the meanings of culture and citizenship over the course of the nation's history. Beginnings with the context of antebellum American and associated debates about slavery and ranging up through fiction in the contemporary U.S., we'll consider a number of novels whose matter and manner of telling stories raise questions about enfranchisement and belonging, political representation and self-representation, social being and the art of the novel. This not a survey of American novels; rather, we'll focus on an unusually small number of texts in order to make intensive exploration of the historical and aesthetic contexts to which they respond. More broadly, the course is designed to help students sharpen and develop particular skills: use of archival materials; engagement with literary critical traditions; close literary analysis.

Our texts will be drawn from among such nominees for the status of "great American" novel as: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin; Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn; Henry James, The Golden Bowl; William Faulkner, Light in August; Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man; Susan Choi, American Woman; Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex.

Requirements will include a writing portfolio, comprised of four 5-7 page essays and exercises for developing them; discussion leading with other class members; and a final project or exam.

Please note: all students interested in enrolling must attend the first two class meetings. For further information, please contact sbblair@umich.edu.

Advisory Prerequisite: Senior concentrator in English.

Credit Exclusions: May not be repeated for credit.

This course approaches literature and literary theory from the perspective of language politics. We'll read and discuss historical documents and literary criticism on the symbolic importance of language mixture and invention in literature and in national culture. We'll consider the literary significance of questions such as:

• Is there an official language of the United States? What is a language "standard"?
• How are languages and speech forms racialized?
• Are there legitimate and illegitimate (forms of) languages?
• Who or what lends prestige to certain forms of language and denies it to others?
• Why are bilingualism and multilingualism often viewed as threatening?
• What do vernacular speech forms convey and conceal?

We will read a range of historical and theoretical readings about language policy and literary cultures. These issues raised by these readings will inform our discussions on twentieth-century U.S. short stories, novels, films, and the literary politics of language. Course requirements will include brief reading responses, in-class presentations, and two essays (one short, one long). Students must attend the first two class meetings or contact the professor in order to remain in the class.

This course satisfies the American Literature requirement for English concentrators.

Advisory Prerequisite: Senior concentrator in English.

Credit Exclusions: May not be repeated for credit.

This course examines the interaction of life and art in the works of four twentieth century writers, James Baldwin, Flannery O'Connor, John Cheever, and William Maxwell. In addition to examining — and in some cases trying on — these authors' fictional techniques, we will also be investigating the ways in which the circumstances of each writer's life found themselves translated into, or excluded from, the fiction he or she produced. Reading will consist of fiction, essays, autobiography, biography, letters, and journals. Requirements include one finished short story in the style of one of the four authors, one major analytical essay, and reading responses.

Advisory Prerequisite: Senior concentrator in English.

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

Text: The American Heritage College Dictionary.

Advisory Prerequisite: Open only to seniors and Graduate students.

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

Text: The American Heritage College Dictionary.

Advisory Prerequisite: Open only to seniors and Graduate students.

This course is a thesis tutorial exclusively for undergraduate students who are in their last year of the Creative Writing Subconcentration and have taken the 200-, 300- and 400-level writing workshops. Working closely with the writing faculty, students will complete a major manuscript. The course will culminate in a reading series in which students present their best work to the public.

Advisory Prerequisite: ENGLISH 223, 323, and 423/429. Permission of instructor.

The course is the second part of the survey of Nabokov's life work. It will be devoted entirely to the American period of Nabokov's writing and cover his novels Bend Sinister, Lolita, Pnin, Pale Fire, Ada, Transparent Things, and Look at the Harlequins, as well as most of his English-language short stories and poems. Special attention will be paid to his activities as a translator, literary scholar, and educator. Students will be expected to read a wide selection of scholarly and critical works on Nabokov. Undergraduates concentrators in any field, including natural sciences, especially biology; graduate students of Slavic, English, Romance, German, and comparative literature, linguistics, and visual arts.

Three hours, lecture. Intensive reading; participation in class discussion; midterm report on secondary reading; final take-home examination or a research paper.

This course meets once a week for an hour. It is designed to help the cohort of thesis writers with the kind of problems that are likely to arise in the late phases of thesis composition. While ENGLISH 496 is a comparatively informal continuation of ENGLISH 492, students are required to attend these sessions. The course is taught by a number of the faculty working in the Honors program, who take turns guiding each week's meeting.

Advisory Prerequisite: ENGLISH 492, admission to the English Honors Program, and permission of instructor.

The content of this course is broad, but critically important for helping informed citizens learn to look at the things we build and the spaces we inhabit. Built environments affect our entire lives, yet we rarely focus on their influence. This course bridges the natural science, social science, and humanities realms anticipated in the Program in the Environment. Course lectures and readings emphasize breadth over depth. Student case study work, however, will develop depth in particular landscape topics.

This course is an introduction to the role of humans in shaping the built environment. It explores physical design and cultural meaning at various scales and contexts in the landscape. We explore the power of physical design and planning to enrich the human spirit, provide functional needs, interpret cultural history, and sustain natural systems. The course is concerned with exploring how Americans shape space and how, in turn, space shapes people. We take a topical approach, dealing with different aspects of landscape change, design, and planning. The course illustrates how humans have adapted and shaped landscapes for functional and aesthetic goals. A unifying theme is emphasized throughout: the important link between natural and social processes of landscape change. Landscape design and planning professional skills will not be taught directly; the goal is not to prepare students for landscape architecture practice. This course, however, is designed to encourage students to think about land from many different perspectives. Prepare to think, talk and write about villages, mobile homes, theme parks, shopping malls, freeways and farms, among other built forms. You will be asked to consider many aspects of these diverse places — economic, social, historical, political, and ecological.

Three exams per term. Five assignments, including a semester-long journal exercise and four other exercises that have two to five pages of writing each.

Intended audience: Sophomores and Juniors in the Program in the Environment, or elsewhere in LSA. The course should appeal both to students interested in environmental literacy generally, and to those following specific environmental career tracks.

Crusades and courtly love, King Arthur and the grail — these are some of the subjects of twelfth- and thirteenth-century literature and of this class. We will read medieval epics, romances, poetry, and short narratives. Some of these are quite beautiful, some are quite weird. Readings and discussion in modern French, though some secondary reading assignments may be in English, and we'll study some Old French just for fun. We will also look at the ways in which some modern films understand and represent the French Middle Ages. Participation in class discussion is essential, and there will be a series of writing assignments.

Enforced Prerequisites: Three courses in FRENCH numbered 300 or above

Love Parade, Fettes Brot , and Lodown: Youth cultures, their terminologies and styles, develop and disappear fast. They stress difference, creativity, and-above all-individuality. Through their multifariousness, German youth cultures and the concomitant aesthetic are loosely defined, and this facet sustains the flexible component in our class. This course delves then into the popular forms, creative activities, and political orientations of youths within the 80s and 90s. Encountering these specific cultural manifestations (music, film, publications), we will try to find a methodology pertinent to approach this 'deutsche Besonderheit — der Mythos Jugend' (Griese). The formal requirements include readings, weekly essays, short grammar tests, motivated physical and oral presence.

Advisory Prerequisite: GERMAN 230, 232, or the equivalent (placement test) or permission of instructor

At the dawn of the 20th century, Alma Schindler was regarded as the most beautiful, talented and intelligent woman in all Vienna. As we read her autobiography, we survey the lives and works of the artists, writers, composers, musicians and political figures whom she influenced, including her several spouses (Gustav Mahler, Walther Gropius, Franz Werfel) and intimate friends and lovers (e.g., Gustav Klimt, Maurice Ravel, Oskar Kokoschka, Arthur Schnitzler, Arnold Schönberg). We try to understand how art, music and literature could flourish so brilliantly in the shadow of impending chaos, as Vienna — the city of dreams — came to embrace German fascism. Readings from Alma's autobiography are supplemented by videos, paintings, musical compositions, and passages from works by contemporary authors.

Class time is devoted to students' oral presentations, viewing videos and paintings, listening to and discussing music (songs, symphonies and operas), discussing poems and novels, and surveying the political events of the time.

Required are at least three oral presentations in class, a one- to two-page essay every second week, a major project due at the end of the academic term, and active participation in class discussions. Matters of German grammar, style, pronunciation etc. will be treated according to the needs of the students. The entire course — including discussions, presentations and papers — will be conducted in German.

Required text:

GERMAN 426 is devoted to enhance the writing, reading, speaking, and listening skills of advanced students of German. We will use various approaches to improve your proficiency. You are expected to read newspaper articles, stories, and see films, which will serve as a foundation for compositions and discussions. Written assignments include a weekly composition of at least two pages, and a subsequent grammatic correction of the composition.

All class members are expected to give a class presentation, and lead a discussion. The final grade is based on the compositions, class presentation, and class participation. German will be used exclusively in this course.

Advisory Prerequisite: GERMAN 325, 326 or permission of instructor

If you are interested in fairy tales, Hans Christian Andersen, Denmark, or Scandinavian literature, then this is the course for you!

Hans Christian Andersen is one of the immortals of world literature. The fairy tales he wrote, such as "The Little Mermaid," "The Ugly Duckling," and "The Emperor's New Clothes," are remarkable for their sense of imagination, descriptive power, and acute sensitivity. In contrast to the Brothers Grimm, who largely collected and retold folktales, Andersen distilled the earliest literary form of the fairy tale and the folktale into a genre that was uniquely his own.

In this course, we shall read and analyze some of Hans Christian Andersen's best-known fairy tales, as well as a renowned Andersen biography and various critical texts. Our readings will primarily focus on his mastery of the genre and his complex narrative method, but the biographical aspects of his stories, his contributions to the visual arts, and the cultural setting of the tales will also be discussed. Furthermore, Andersen's fantastic fairy tales have often been adapted for the stage and screen, and we shall accordingly watch and analyze excerpts from some of these adaptations as well. This course will familiarize you with Andersen's works, especially his fairy tales, and will also help you increase your ability to think and work analytically, by developing the ability to analyze texts, voice criticism through coherent arguments, formulate good questions, and express your ideas in formal academic essays.

Course requirements include attendance/participation, several brief essays, quizzes, and a final essay/project.

For further details, contact the course instructor, Marc Pierce, at mpierc@umich.edu.

All readings and discussions will be in English.

GERMAN 492 can be elected only by students who have completed the Senior Honors Proseminar, GERMAN 491. In GERMAN 492, students write their Honors thesis on a topic of their own selection. Each student works under the supervision of a faculty member who has a research interest in the general area of the thesis topic. The grade is based on the quality of the thesis, which will be read by at least one faculty member in addition to the thesis director, and on the student's performance in an oral defense of the thesis before a faculty committee. An Honors citation is also awarded if the student's overall performance in GERMAN 491 and 492 is judged to be of Honors caliber.

Advisory Prerequisite: Senior Honors standing.

The life and art of Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) offers an exciting context for intensive study of verbal and visual creativity in early modern Europe. For his contemporaries, and for many later generations, Michelangelo exemplified the ideal modern artist postulated in the art literature and cultural theory of Humanism. The seminar will examine Renaissance theories of style and invention in order to grasp the rhetorical strategies and poetic "figures" that inform both his rough-hewn sonnets and his eloquent marbles. Hence we will attend closely to certain drawings that show the artist thinking on paper, in both line sketches and fragments of verse. Other central topics include Michelangelo's verbal and visual self-fashioning as a grouchy genius, his Neoplatonic theories of artistic inspiration, his preoccupation with the body as the primary source of visual and verbal metaphors, and the religious anxiety that accompanied his intense devotion to craft and physical beauty. We will analyze both the language and the genres of his poetry — notably the sonnet, the madrigal and the epitaph — as well as the language employed by contemporary critics of his art, such as Giorgio Vasari, Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo, Pietro Aretino, and Ludovico Dolce. Close inspection will be made of Michelangelo's drawing techniques, as well as his use of color and his treatment of stone surfaces, in order to observe the figurative effects of his working of materials. We will study a considerable portion of his production in sculpture, painting and architecture while examining his prodigious reputation and influence, particularly in the court settings of Medici Florence and Papal Rome.

Course Requirements: Short assignments given in class; 4-5 short papers (2-3 pgs); midterm blue-book exam; substantial term paper, with preliminary draft.

Intended Audience: Upper-class undergrads

Class Format: 3 contact hours per week in seminar format

Advisory Prerequisite: HISTART 102 or 251

This is an undergraduate research seminar on the social history of the U.S. Civil War. In order to provide a brief overview of the Civil War, students will read several histories of that conflict with particular attention to the experiences of soldiers and civilians.

The focus of the course is writing a 25-35 page research paper using primary and secondary sources. This is a challenging, but important opportunity to learn how to write an original, fully-documented research paper as well as contribute to our understanding of the Civil War.

In preparation for writing their own papers, participants will read and critique previous student papers on the social history of the Civil War. Students, in consultation with the instructor, will select a topic for their research papers. They will then write a 5-10 page preliminary draft which includes an introduction to the overall papers, a brief review of the existing secondary literature on that topic, details about the primary sources to be used, and a description of the research design employed. After receiving detailed comments on that draft, students will revise and resubmit that portion of their paper.

Advisory Prerequisite: Junior and Senior HISTORY concentrators by permission only. HISTORY concentrators are required to elect HISTORY 396 or 397

This course will examine the major ideologies behind the rise, constitution, and fall of the powerful empires in Chinese history. It will focus on one empire: the Qin (Ch'in), 221-207 B.C., popularly known as the empire of the Great Wall and Terracotta Warriors. The first empire in Chinese history, the Qin Empire marked the end of China's Classical Age and the beginning of Imperial China. Founded by one great mystic hero, the First Emperor (Ying, Zheng, r. 221-210 B.C.), its short life of fourteen years actually charted the course of Chinese history for the next two thousand years. This course will look into the complex ideological forces behind the enigmatic personality of the First Emperor and the founding and developing of the Qin Empire. Finally, through this study, some "big questions" in the current historical scholarship will be raised:

• Do ideologies matter in the rise and fall of powerful empires?
• Do powerful empires lead to the "end of history"?
• Do history-making heroes "live" forever?

Advisory Prerequisite: Junior and Senior HISTORY concentrators by permission only. HISTORY concentrators are required to elect HISTORY 396 or 397

Experimenting on human beings has always raised a set of complex social, ethical, and political questions. Some of those issues have persisted over the centuries; some have been specific to a given time and place. Much of contemporary medical practice is based on knowledge created by experiments done on human beings. In this class we will examine several histories of human experimentation. We will ask how people at different times and in different places answered questions about whether it was acceptable to use human beings as research subjects. We will examine which human beings were the subjects of the experiments, and what limits were placed on the conduct of the experiments. Reading assignments will include both primary source material and some of the latest scholarship on the subject. No prior background in medicine is necessary.

The class is discussion format, with occasional short lectures. Students will be guided in choosing a topic for a research paper, finding sources, crafting a historical argument, and writing (and re-writing) drafts. The goal is to complete a full-length paper on a topic relevant to the class and (one hopes) of specific interest to the student. There will be other, smaller writing assignments.

Overrides for non-history concentrators will be allocated on the first day. Anyone absent from the first class without advance permission may not take the course. Evaluation will be based on discussions, oral presentations, and the student's writings.

Readings will include:

• Coursepack of readings (cost estimated to be about $70)
• David Feldshuh, Miss Evers' Boys
• Susan E. Lederer, Subjected to Science: Human Experimentation in America before the Second World War
• Susan Reverby, Tuskegee's Truths: Rethinking the Tuskegee Syphilis Study
• Ignaz Semmelweis, trans K. Codell Carter, Etiology, Concept and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever

Advisory Prerequisite: Junior and Senior HISTORY concentrators by permission only. HISTORY concentrators are required to elect HISTORY 396 or 397

This course is designed as an intensive historical examination of U.S. popular and mass culture over two centuries. We will begin the academic term with the very first "cultural industries" of the 1830s and 40s (e.g., P.T. Barnum's museum exhibitions, dime novels, and blackface minstrel shows), and then follow the expansion and evolution of U.S. commercial entertainment through the dawn of electronic media and globalization. Probable weekly topics include: the commodification and distribution of localized vernacular forms; the rise of corporate structures, national markets, and syndication; the consolidation of new publics and modes of spectatorship; the mechanics of marketing and promotion; the politics of mass cultural representation and consumption; and the manifold impacts of U.S. mass culture, both at home and abroad.

Our scope will be deliberately broad and comparative, cutting across many different eras and cultural media: from museum exhibitions, theater, dance, and literature to radio, film, television, and perhaps even the internet. We will also make extensive use of 19th and 20th-century primary source materials (e.g., playbills, newspaper reviews, trade periodicals, pop songs, and video clips), in order to gauge the shifting meanings of mass culture according to historical context. Because this is an advanced writing course, students should expect approximately 25-30 pp. of assigned essays, with multiple opportunities for critical feedback and rewriting.

Advisory Prerequisite: Junior and Senior HISTORY concentrators by permission only. HISTORY concentrators are required to elect HISTORY 396 or 397

Ideas about the age of the earth and the human race, the nature of time, and the beginning and destiny of human history, have varied greatly at different periods and across different cultures. This cultural and historical variability of time-concepts seems to defy the sense we have that time is the same for everyone, everywhere. With this problem in mind, this course will explore ideas of time and history comparatively, examining such issues as the anthropology and philosophy of time; the cultures of time to be found in the Biblical religions and in Hinduism and Buddhism; science and the Time Revolution of the 1860's; and the idea of progress and its critics.

This is a colloquium, with readings, class discussions, and papers. There is no examination. There will be one short essay and one long research paper. You will be asked to develop a prospectus of the research paper, a draft for discussion with the instructor, and to present the substance of it to the class before submitting the final version for grade.

Advisory Prerequisite: Junior and Senior HISTORY concentrators by permission only. HISTORY concentrators are required to elect HISTORY 396 or 397

In 1947, Britain's colonial rule over India came to an end after almost 200 years. At the same time, India was partitioned along religious lines into two countries, India and Pakistan. This course examines the history that led to the partition, the violence that accompanied it, and its continuing legacy in the Indian subcontinent. We will engage the partition through three different genres: history, literature, and film.

This course has no prerequisites.

Students will be evaluated on the basis of their participation in seminar discussions and 3 writing assignments.

Texts include:
Urvashi Butalia, The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India. Ritu Menon and Kamla Bhasin, Border and Boundaries: How Women Experienced the Partition of India. Bhisham Sahni, Tamas. Khushwant Singh, Train to Pakistan.

Advisory Prerequisite: Junior and Senior HISTORY concentrators by permission only. HISTORY concentrators are required to elect HISTORY 396 or 397

Studies in historical philosophy and in the history of historical writing. Readings, reports, and discussions related to the senior thesis project.

Advisory Prerequisite: Honors students; junior standing, and permission of instructor.

Studies in historical philosophy and in the history of historical writing. Readings, reports, and discussions related to the senior thesis project.

Advisory Prerequisite: Honors students; junior standing, and permission of instructor.

Senior honors seminar for thesis writers.

Advisory Prerequisite: Honors students, HISTORY 398, senior standing, and permission of instructor.

The course spans over two hundred years of Jewish cultural activity in Russia. At the theoretical level, the course will address such issues as multilingualism, minority culture in an imperial context, relationships between culture and ethnicity and culture and religion. At the practical level, we will discuss a wide variety of works of literature, criticism, essays, visual arts and cinema. Structurally the course consists of four section: a historical introduction, two case studies of the cities of St. Petersburg and Odessa as major centers of Jewish cultural production in the Russian Empire, and an overview of the Soviet period.

The course spans over two hundred years of Jewish cultural activity in Russia. At the theoretical level, the course will address such issues as multilingualism, minority culture in an imperial context, relationships between culture and ethnicity and culture and religion. At the practical level, we will discuss a wide variety of works of literature, criticism, essays, visual arts and cinema. Structurally the course consists of four section: a historical introduction, two case studies of the cities of St. Petersburg and Odessa as major centers of Jewish cultural production in the Russian Empire, and an overview of the Soviet period.

This course investigates the syntax (sentence structure properties) of human language. It addresses the need for a scientific model to explain human knowledge of language that also makes predictions about its representation in the mind. The focus here is on human language as a specific cognitive capacity restricted to humans, rather than on the individual languages (e.g., English, Arabic, Hindi) that are made possible by the existence of this capacity. For this reason, the course explores in detail many structural properties that are common across different languages, even those that clearly do not share a common recent past. A simple example: all languages have specific strategies to ask questions that make them different from affirmative sentences (e.g., English uses special question words — ‘who', ‘what' and so on — as most languages do). In order to explain this and many other common properties of human language, a scientific hypothesis that has been explored in depth is that a large part of human knowledge of language is biologically determined, and maybe innate. This is further supported by the fact that normal children effortlessly learn their native language at an amazing speed, despite the complexity of the task at hand (compare trying to learn for example Korean or Turkish as an adult, with years of language classes), and despite variation and deficiencies of the language input they are exposed to. It is also clear, however, that there is a huge diversity among human languages, which can be illustrated only in an unfair way in this short description (e.g., only some languages change the sentence structure in a regular question: you say ‘Who do you like?' in English, instead of ‘You like who?', a possible word order similar to the one would find for instance in Chinese). Given this kind of diversity, which will be made clear, children need to be exposed to some minimum input of a particular language in order to be able to acquire it proficiently. Therefore, a major question that arises in modern linguistic inquiry and that will be object of this course is how the hypothesis of a biological basis for human language — which provides an explanation for the common aspects among all human languages and for the striking success of the acquisition task — can be reconciled with the obvious diversity of the human language experience.

Prerequisites: Although there are no official prerequisites, students usually take one introductory course in linguistics (LING 111, 200, 210, 212) before taking this course. P>

Advisory Prerequisite: LING 210 or 211.

Background and Goals: The Elementary Topics course may focus on any one of several topics. The material is presented at a level appropriate for sophomores and juniors without extensive coursework in math. The current offering of the course focuses on game theory.

Content: Students study the strategy of several games where mathematical ideas and concepts can play a role. Most of the course will be occupied with the structure of a variety of two person games of strategy: tic tac toe, tic tac toe misère, the French military game, hex, nim, the penny dime game, and many others. If there is sufficient interest students can study: dots and boxes, go-moku, and some aspects of checkers and chess. There will also be a brief introduction to the classical Von Neuman/Morgenstern theory of mixed strategy games.

Alternatives: none

Subsequent Courses: none

Advisory Prerequisite: Two years of high school mathematics.

Background and Goals: This course examines the evolution of major mathematical concepts form mathematical and historical points of view. The course's goal is to throw light on contemporary mathematics by retracing the history of some of the major mathematical discoveries.

Content: This course follows the evolution of three mathematical ideas in geometry, analysis and algebra. Typical choices of subject are: Euclid's parallel postulate and the development of non-Euclidean geometries, the notions of limit and infinitesimals, and the development of the theory of equations culminating with Galois theory.

Alternatives: none Subsequent Courses: none

Advisory Prerequisite: MATH 116 or 186.

Background and Goals: This course is designed to allow students to explore the insurance mechanism as a means of replacing uncertainty with certainty. A main goal of the course is to explain, using mathematical models from the theory of interest, risk theory, credibility theory and ruin theory, how mathematics underlies many important individual and societal problems.

Content: We will explore how much insurance affects the lives of students (automobile insurance, social security, health insurance, theft insurance) as well as the lives of other family members (retirements, life insurance, group insurance). While the mathematical models are important, an ability to articulate why the insurance options exist and how they satisfy the consumer's needs are equally important. In addition, there are different options available (e.g. in social insurance programs) that offer the opportunity of discussing alternative approaches. This course may be used to satisfy the LSA upper-level writing requirement.

Alternatives: none Subsequent Courses: none

Advisory Prerequisite: MATH 115, junior standing, and permission of instructor.

Crusades and courtly love, King Arthur and the grail — these are some of the subjects of twelfth- and thirteenth-century literature and of this class. We will read medieval epics, romances, poetry, and short narratives. Some of these are quite beautiful, some are quite weird. Readings and discussion in modern French, though some secondary reading assignments may be in English, and we'll study some Old French just for fun. We will also look at the ways in which some modern films understand and represent the French Middle Ages. Participation in class discussion is essential, and there will be a series of writing assignments.

Enforced Prerequisites: Three courses in FRENCH numbered 300 or above.

The centerpiece of the MEMS concentration is the senior Honors thesis, which is meant to be the single most meaningful piece of work you will do as an undergraduate at Michigan. This course is designed to guide you in this difficult and rewarding process, from first glimmerings, to conceiving the project, doing the research, and writing your honors thesis. We will spend some time each week working together on learning techniques and methods generally applicable to academic research in the humanities. We will also discuss what makes an honors thesis different from a long end-of-term paper. The honors thesis is a major essay, composed over the course of at least two semesters. The thesis should not be merely an extended survey of the relevant critical or scholarly literature; nor should it be a record of your private musings on a given topic. The thesis should display extended evidence of the author's searching, creative, well-articulated thoughts about his/her subject. It should also be built on a substantial amount of original research, and display a strong conceptual grasp of the issues it raises.

This course is a workshop for thesis writers. It concentrates on practical and theoretical problems of research and writing with special reference to methodological questions. The course will meet in a seminar format for 3 hours per week. Students will elect a total of 6 hours for the course but may divide this into two terms. Students will write a 60-100 page Honors thesis.

Advisory Prerequisite: Honors student and senior standing.

Old cities are not just monuments to past glory. They are incubators for new ideas and sites of dynamic change. Athens has always been a city in transition, from ancient times, when it was a center of art, politics, philosophy, and commerce to the modern era, when it reemerged as a modern capital city. In this class, we will explore Athens neighborhood by neighborhood through photographs, films, travel descriptions, maps, poetry, plays, political writing, and fictional and non-fictional narrative. We will work through important moments in Athens' long history, as we also make stops at some of the city's contemporary hot spots — from the Acropolis to the Plaka and Kolonaki Square to beachfront scenes of Athens' modern night life — in order explore the different ways that Athens has reinvented itself.

Optional Study Abroad trip to Athens, Greece: April 30-May 13, 2007
This is an ISAC (Integrating Study Abroad into the Curriculum) course with an optional study abroad trip to Athens, Greece, April 30-May 13.

Cost of travel to Greece will be about $800 plus the cost of air travel and some meals. Eligibility for trip: The instructor requires students interested in the study abroad trip to contact her (aleontis@umich.edu) for an interview as soon as possible. The Study Abroad trip to Athens is supported through an ISAC grant and the LSA Citizenship Theme Year.

This seminar will address a cluster of related issues concerning values of various kinds and the arts. We will investigate the nature of aesthetic value, how (and whether) aesthetic value differs from value of other kinds (e.g., moral value), how it is related to other kinds of value (e.g., Do moral failings of a work of art affect its aesthetic value?), and what other-than-aesthetic values works of art, or some of them, might be especially well suited to serve. We will also consider worries about dangerous effects that works of art may have. Readings will be taken from a variety of mostly contemporary and recent sources.

Advisory Prerequisite: Open to junior and senior concentrators and to others by permission of concentration advisor.

This is a seminar-format course for students with some experience in philosophy. The purpose is to provide advanced training in reading and interpreting philosophical texts and in developing, organizing, and presenting original philosophical ideas.

This term, the seminar will concentrate on the problem of the freedom of the will; we will read texts by St. Augustine, Jonathan Edwards, and Jean-Paul Sartre.

Requirements: four short writing assignments and one long research paper. Students may be asked to revise papers in light of comments.

Advisory Prerequisite: Open to junior and senior concentrators and to others by permission of concentration advisor.

This is an advanced laboratory course. A wide selection of individual experiments is offered. Students are required to select five experiments in consultation with the lab instruction. Experiments are to be selected from several different areas of physics.

Enforced Prerequisites: PHYSICS 390 and any 400-level Physics course.