Writing Seminars for Fall 2010
Intd 105 01/CRN 15014/Welles 26/Paul Scipione TR 11:30 am-12:45 pm
Affluence in America
What’s more quintessential than the American Dream? It’s even guaranteed in our Declaration of Independence as the “pursuit of happiness.” Study hard and work even harder. Save and invest. Is the American Dream in need of redefinition? Have companies become too adept at “data mining” and exciting our passions to spend? Have “wants” somehow morphed into “needs?” And how do we explain pockets of poverty that have resisted four decades of social engineering? Class readings ranging from Steinbeck’s the Grapes of Wrath to Stanley’s The Millionaire Next Door, as well as shared nuggets discovered in the library, interviews with competing experts, and personal and family anecdotes will be used by students to develop both effective verbal and written positions on affluence in America. Our collective research will then be preserved in a written class Proceedings that we can share with others.
Intd 105 02/CRN 15374/Milne 105/Stephan Derne TR 10:00-11:15 am
Durkheim on Religion & Ritual
The course considers French Sociologist Emile Durkheim’s “The Elementary Forms of Religious Life” (1912). Foundational to the disciplines of sociology and anthropology, “The Elementary Forms” explores religion and ritual of Australian aborigines as a way of understanding religion as an “essential and permanent feature of humanity.” Students will use their own experiences with religion and knowledge of religion today to evaluate Durkheim’s conclusions about the nature of religion.
INTD 105 03/CRN 15375/Sturges 106/Linda Ware MF 11:30 am-12:45 pm
Disability in America
This interdisciplinary exploration of disability will draw from the humanities, the social sciences, and education in an effort to promote understanding disability as a richly complex human experience that exceeds the typical tropes of tragedy, cure, and care. Each week we will consider specific themes of representation in the texts and media sources assigned for the course.
INTD 105 04/CRN 15375/Newton 206/Glenn McClure TR 10:00-11:15 am
Songs-Slavery, Songs-Freedom
The Atlantic Slave Trade set the stage for some of the most profound questions of American identity, as well as globalization. We often only study the basics of this historical narrative, but rarely get a chance to explore some of the lesser known, and vital parts of this complex history. In this course, we will examine a wide variety of primary and secondary source texts dealing with the Atlantic Slave Trade (circa 1580-1860) including Ghanaian music/drumming, slave narratives, Black Spirituals, slave ship documents, recent histories, and more. These texts illustrate the ways in which Europeans, West Africans, and Native Americans mixed, clashed, and/or collaborated to form the basis of many of our modern assumptions about culture, economics, race, and globalization.
INTD 105 05/CRN 15376/Newton 206/Glenn McClure TR 2:30-3:45 pm
Songs-Slavery, Songs-Freedom
The Atlantic Slave Trade set the stage for some of the most profound questions of American identity, as well as globalization. We often only study the basics of this historical narrative, but rarely get a chance to explore some of the lesser known, and vital parts of this complex history. In this course, we will examine a wide variety of primary and secondary source texts dealing with the Atlantic Slave Trade (circa 1580-1860) including Ghanaian music/drumming, slave narratives, Black Spirituals, slave ship documents, recent histories, and more. These texts illustrate the ways in which Europeans, West Africans, and Native Americans mixed, clashed, and/or collaborated to form the basis of many of our modern assumptions about culture, economics, race, and globalization.
INTD 105 06/CRN 15378/Fraser 202A/Douglas Baldwin TR 1:00-2:15 pm
Secrets & Secret Codes
This seminar examines the creation and breaking of secret codes, as reflected in literature, history, and modern use. The course studies both fictitious and real code users and code breakers, through readings and films. Discussions and written exercises will consider such issues as who hides secrets and why? Who exposes secrets and why? When it is ethical to try to discover someone else's secrets, and, having discovered a secret, when it is ethically necessary to protect it or expose it.
Intd 105 07/CRN 15383/Milne 105/Caroline Beltz-Hosek TR 2:30-3:45 pm
The Woman Writer
This course centers on writings by notable 19th-20th century female authors, which students will examine from a feminist critical perspective. Works by Emily Bronte, Sylvia Plath, and Virginia Woolf will be thoughtfully analyzed in conjunction with seminal sociopolitical literature by Mary Wollstonecraft and Simone de Beauvoir. With each text we will explore how the author approaches the domestic sphere, sexual agency in patriarchal culture, and the transcendental power of creative expression.
Intd 105 08/CRN 15385/Sturges 109/Michael Oberg MW 7:00-8:15 pm
American Indians & Christianity
"Indians and Christianity" looks at the historical encounter of Native Americans with Christianity from the time of the first sustained missions in North America in the seventeenth century to the present day. Most of the course will work with the JESUIT RELATIONS, the annual accounts written by Catholic missionaries in Canada and the Northeast in the seventeenth century, but we will also explore Puritan missions among the New England Indians, and contemporary Christianity amongst the Kiowas in Oklahoma. Readings include: THE JESUIT RELATIONS; Allan Greer, MOHAWK SAINT; and Lassiter, Ellis and Kotay, THE JESUS ROAD.
Intd 105 09/CRN 15386/Welles 134/Beth McCoy WF 1:00-2:15 pm
Octavia Butler’s Parables
This course will explore science fiction writer Octavia Butler’s novel The Parable of the Sower and its sequel, The Parable of the Talents. Taking place in a future America that has slowly lapsed into political, environmental, and religious chaos, these novels follow the rise to power of Lauren Oya Olamina, a young black woman from California. In response to the destruction around her, Olamina develops a new religion, Earthseed, a religion based on the principle that “God is Change.” As Olamina’s followers grow in number, the novels raise important questions about power, celebrity, religious fundamentalisms, race (especially white supremacy), class, gender, corporate slavery, and mobility. Especially as this course will begin two years after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, students should be prepared to meaningfully discuss and explore these provocative topics.
Intd 105 10/CRN 15387/Milne 105/Anne Lutkus MW 4:00-5:15 pm
We’ll Always Have Paris
"We'll always have Paris" will have as its subject Paris, the city and the legend. Students will read, discuss and react to, critically and personally, texts about Paris written by Parisians and by foreign visitors to the city of light. We will consider Paris at different periods of its history as represented by in painting and cinema, poetry and prose with a side glance at some of the inevitable songs about Paris.
Intd 105 11/CRN 15388/Welles 134/Gillian Paku TR 2:30-3:45 pm
Hypocrisy: The Virtuous Vice
“Hypocrisy,” claimed la Rochefoucauld, “is the tribute that vice pays to virtue.” We’ll put our own pressure on the morality of hypocrisy by considering the effects of servitude in Ben Jonson's Volpone, and of sex and gender in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. Those pressures are reconceptualized and given different generic form in recent texts like Kazuo Ishiguro's Remains of the Day, and in The Rules: Time-tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right. We'll refine our thinking in the process of writing and rewriting, assembling evidence and structuring arguments of appropriate scope and complexity. Comparing forms of hypocrisy, and some virtues and vices that closely resemble it (we might even find a contemporary example or two in an election year), we'll turn to the hugely complicated figure of Chaucer's Pardoner and articulate how hypocrisy, which seems to rely on false appearance, can be so compulsively public.
Intd 105 12/CRN 15390/Welles 134/Thomas Greenfield TR 1:00-2:15 pm
Great (or pretty darn good) Plays You've (Probably) Never Read.
We will study, discuss, and write about several British and American plays that pack a punch but are not often studied or performed in high schools or performed. Our study will consider traditional and modern ideas of comedy and tragedy Probable selections include:Aristophanes, LYSISTRATA; Shakespeare, HENRY IV Part 1; Oliver Goldsmith, SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER; Oscar Wilde, LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN; Lillian Hellman, THE CHILDREN'S HOUR; Arthur Miller, INCIDENT AT VICHY; Edward Albee, THE GOAT, OR WHO IS SYLVIA
Intd 105 13/CRN 15391/Milne 105/Sidney Symington MWF 8:30-9:20 am
Looking On Darkness
In this course, we will explore the views of darkness in Western literature. Major texts are Othello, Heart of Darkness, and Toni Morrison’s Playing in the Dark. Other readings include biblical texts, travel writing by V.S. Naipul, and stories by Hawthorne, Stephen Crane and Barbara Kingsolver. Students will be asked to reflect on the authors’ application of darkness as a cultural symbol and literary device, and to express in writing of their own the roots and ramifications of our hate-love relationship to The Dark.
Intd 105 14/CRN 15392/Milne 105/Caroline Beltz-Hosek TR 4:00-5:15 pm
The Women Writer
This course centers on writings by notable 19th-20th century female authors, which students will examine from a feminist critical perspective. Works by Emily Bronte, Sylvia Plath, and Virginia Woolf will be thoughtfully analyzed in conjunction with seminal sociopolitical literature by Mary Wollstonecraft and Simone de Beauvoir. With each text we will explore how the author approaches the domestic sphere, sexual agency in patriarchal culture, and the transcendental power of creative expression.
Intd 105 15/CRN 15393/Milne 105/Ellen Herzman TR 11:30 am-12:45 pm
Women & Work – Fiction & Non-Fiction
What constitutes meaningful work for women? In this course, we will read works of non-fiction which discuss opportunities and challenges women have faced in the last century and what they have found valuable in the work they do. We will also look at some portrayals in fiction and film to see how they influence our ideas about women and work. The purpose of the course is to improve the ability to read significant texts carefully and critically, to write sustained, coherent, and persuasive arguments on significant issues, and to write clearly, following conventions of Standard English. As this is primarily a writing course, a considerable portion of the work will focus on the construction of effective argumentative essays.
Intd 105 16/CRN 15394/Sturges 111/Ronny Tsang TR 6:00-7:15 pm
Themes in Contemporary American Literature
This interdisciplinary course will utilize the 2007 and 2009 editions of The Best American Nonrequired Reading Series to explore the themes and ideas addressed in contemporary American Literature. We'll set out on our journey through modern American Literature in the hopes of discovering some truth about the state of our nation and the people living in it. Our search will take us through mainstream and unconventional works of short fiction, graphic novels, speeches, excerpts from novels, photos and artwork, essays, music, film, non-fiction, interviews, internet documents, letters, and other assorted works. Students should be fully prepared to read and write about, analyze, respond to, and discuss a wide variety of themes and topics that include, but are not limited to: Love and companionship, god and religion, war and conflict, violence and crime, morality and belief systems, family structures and dynamics, science and scientific advancement, social inequality and poverty, the economy, and social norms. In short, we will attempt to better understand modern America through examining a wide range of literature written by the myriad of people who reside here.
Intd 105 17/CRN 15395/Sturges 111/Kerry McKeever TR 6:00-7:15 pm
Graphic Novel and Culture
This course serves as an introduction to critical methods in popular culture studies, with a focus on the graphic novel as cultural product and practice. Together, we will explore the ways in which meanings emerge in several celebrated texts of the graphic novel genre, as well as some emerging classics. Our readings of these texts will be informed by a diversity of theoretical perspectives, including visual culture studies, postmodernism and intersectionality.
Intd 105 18/CRN 15402/Welles 132/Cynthia Klima W 4:00-6:30 pm
Central European Cultural History
Description: TBA
Intd 105 19/CRN 15403/Sturges 108/Kathleen Mapes TR 1:00-2:15 pm
Family Histories
In this course, we will read think historically and creatively about the relationship between family and history. By the end of the course, students will have the opportunity to write a paper that addresses their own family history. Since this is a writing seminar, writing issues will be discussed in class and students will work together to improve their writing. It is essential to recognize, however, that writing is an intellectual endeavor, not just the “end product” of our thoughts and analyses. As such, paper drafts, peer evaluations and revisions will be essential components of the six short essays (approximately 4-5 pages each) students will write over the course of the semester. Since my background is in history, we will follow the conventions of writing used in that field. Nonetheless, I expect that the critical reading, thinking and writing skills taught in this course will give students a strong foundation as they begin their college careers.
Intd 105 20/CRN 15404/Sturges 108/Thomas Barden TR 4:30-5:45pm
Partisanship-American Politics 1790-2000
Description: TBA
Intd 105 21/CRN 15405/Fraser 119/Kevin Munnings TR 11:30 am-12:45 pm
The Hero's Journey
This course will explore the philosophical and metapsychological aspects of the archetypical Hero's Journey as envisioned by Joseph Campbell and exemplified in Literature and Film.
Intd 105 22/CRN 15406/Fraser 104/Kevin Munnings TR 1:00-2:15 pm
The Hero's Journey
This course will explore the philosophical and metapsychological aspects of the archetypical Hero's Journey as envisioned by Joseph Campbell and exemplified in Literature and Film.
Intd 105 23/CRN 15407/Fraser 114/John Shoemaker TR 7:30-8:45 pm
The Populist Persuasion in American Culture and Politics
Description: TBA
Intd 105 24/CRN 15410/Welles 133/Todd Geohle MW 4:00-5:15 pm
German History, Media and Terror
This course will examine the terrorist organization known as The Red Army Faction (RAF) and its effect on West German life and society throughout the 1970s. The seminar will also investigate how concerns about the immediate German past shaped the actions of both the RAF and its opponents. Additional time will be spent considering the ways in which the RAF and the broader “Red Years” (1967-1977) have been represented in a variety of mediums. Throughout the semester, the seminar will critically explore Heinrich Böll’s scathing assessment of the “Red Years,” "The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, or How Violence Develops and Where it can Lead." Course participants will also review the film adaptation of Böll’s novel, the written declarations of the RAF, and the memoirs of former terrorists themselves. Through in-depth analysis of text and image, classroom discussions, and essay assignments, the seminar seeks to improve the student’s writing and critical reasoning skills.
Intd 105 25/CRN 15416/Welles 133/Colleen Garrity MW 11:30-12:45 pm
The 1900 Galveston Hurricane
This writing seminar centers on Erik Larson’s book, Isaac’s Storm, a historical account of the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. Also called the Great Hurricane, this event stands as the deadliest natural disaster in American History, killing over 6,000 people on Galveston Island, Texas. Larson’s text carefully intertwines discussion of the life of Isaac Monroe Cline, the meteorologist-in-charge at Galveston in 1900, as well as the early development of the National Weather Service, as he illustrates the story of the storm. Course topics span a variety of themes, including the sense of place associated with Galveston and the U.S. Gulf Coast region, the human and physical toll of the hurricane, a comparison of historical accounts and Isaac Monroe Cline’s own memoirs, forms of disaster writing, and human arrogance in the face of natural disasters.
Intd 105 26/CRN 15432/Sturges 108/Mary Jensen MW 11:30-12:45 pm
Illuminating Childhood: Portraits in Film
We have all been children, but what does this mean? This course will consider international films as a window on children’s lives and development. As we investigate how films represent childhood, we will pay particular attention to the many ways that childhood is constructed and experienced across boundaries of nationality, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic class, and ability. Sociocultural theory will be used to explore the impact of cultural contexts on children’s development and the ways that children understand and navigate their worlds. Primary goals of this writing seminar are for students to develop critical thinking and reading skills and the ability to clearly express their ideas in writing. Course material will be presented through lectures, films, and readings, and will be processed in class discussions and written analyses.
Intd 105 28/CRN 15450/Brodie 208/Anne-Marie Reynolds MWF 11:30 am-12:20 pm
Artist in Third Reich
This course will explore the careers of selected composers, performers, painters, and film makers whose life choices and creative efforts were irrevocably altered by the Nazis' rise to power. Two required texts will provide different perspectives: The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany, Martin Goldsmith's account of his parents' participation in the Nazis' Jewish Culture Association Orchestra and their eventual escape to America, and John Alfred Williams' Clifford's Blues, a novel based on the experiences of a black, gay, jazz pianist, interred at Dachau for twelve years. Other artists who will figure in our study include film maker Leni Riefenstahl, conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, and composers Richard Strauss and Kurt Weill, as well as the painters villified in the Nazis' Degenerate Art Exhibit. Through discussion, listening, musical analysis, and written assignments (20 pages in all), we will come to understand the crucial role the arts played in Hitler's campaign against the Jews.
Intd 105 30/CRN 15466/Fraser 119/Darrell Norris TR 10:00-11:15 am
Literary Expressions of Naval Conflict: A Survey
Spanning autobiographical narratives, fictional accounts, and critical studies, the literature of naval conflict from the Age of Sail to the modern era reflects a common dilemma inherent to warfare at sea. Naval conflict is characteristically long on the dimensions of space and time and correspondingly short on actual engagement. Moreover the latter, based on the collective effort of ships’ crews, left limited scope for individual initiative of heroism, and confined wide-ranging observation and related decision-taking to a handful ofkey combatants. This course entails close reading, class discussion, critical reviw, and prose wiritng based on nine chapter-length readings drawn from memoirs, fictions, and critical analyses spanning the period 1798-1945. Discussion and short writing assignments will also be based on otable visual representations of naval conflict.