Descriptions_ACFN-HISP
ART
ART 233D: Artists Books
Students will develop visual narratives using various 2-D media such as drawing, painting and printmaking processes. Students will investigate the bookform as a format as they work towards arriving at a marriage of form and content. The artist book is a unique format that encourages different attitudes between artist and viewer. It contains ideas in the familiarity and intimacy of the bookform while providing opportunities for development of sequential imagery and narratives. Students may combine text and image in their projects and will work towards finding the most appropriate bookform for their content. Visual presentations, demos, field trips, discussion and hands on studio practice are all components of this class.
FEE: $70
ART 233F: Printmaking
This is a hands on course working with the following printmaking processes.
- Monotypes, a created image painted or drawn on a smooth surface and printed, and one of a kind print form.
- A collagraph, a construction on a plate surface and printed.
- Relief/Woodcut, a surface cut away and printed
There will be equal importance given to the importance to the creating and printing of images.
FEE: $45
ART 233N: Video Animation
Traditional animation methods will be explored together with digital and experimental techniques. A variety of materials will be utilized: paper and pencil, chalk, clay, toy figures, trash, and roommates - anything and everything. Participants will be able to create conventional narrative animations as well as abstract and experimental animation and art installation. Viewing of animation films, analysis, and discussion will accompany each new technique. Prerequisite: imagination, patience, and attention to details.
FEE: $60
BIOLOGY
BIOL 373L: Mathematical Modelling in Biology
Cross-listed with MATH 340A
Traditional approaches to mathematical modelling in biology have relied primarily on differential equations models. However, new approaches have and are being developed that rely instead on discrete methods, such as those coming from graph theory, polynomial manipulation and elementary linear algebra. For example, gene regulatory networks have been successfully modelled using Boolean logic. The spread of tick-borne diseases and methods of control have been well described using agent-based models. Graph theoretic models have been used to explore aspects of neuronal network connectivity.
This course will survey a variety of discrete modelling approaches, including Boolean models, polynomial dynamical systems, graph theory, agent based modelling, and hidden Markov models. Emphasis will be on examples and applications, which will be drawn from various areas of biology, including problems in gene regulation, population dynamics and neuroscience. The necessary mathematical background will be included in the course.
PREREQUISITE: Math 119 or permission of instructor
BIOL 373K: Neurobiology
A reading, writing, and discussion-based investigation of neurobiological principles such as neuronal structure and function, cellular excitability, synaptic transmission, sensory processing, motor responses, and disease. Students will be expected to produce a critical analysis of a current neurobiological issue of their choice.
PREREQUISITE: grade of C or better in BIOL 121 and 221
CHEMISTRY
CHEM 321: Topics in Computation Chemistry: Modeling Biomolecular Systems
This course will explore computational chemistry to understand structure and function of biomolecules. Topics will include basic thoeories of molecular mechanics, molecular dynamics, semi-empirical and quantum chemistry simulation techniques. Students will utilize different computational chemistry software packages for the visualization of molecular systems. The course involves hands-on experience with computers to understand conformation and dynamics of biological macromolecules, protein-ligand binding free energies, ground and transition state structures, reaction kinetics and thermodynamics. Prereq: Chem 255, Chem 251
COMMUNICATION
COMM 334: Capstone: Rhetorial Theory
The Sophist Gorgias noted that, "speech is a powerful lord" and likened language use to magic or spell-casting. Indeed, many thinkers have observed that public performance of language is a powerful activity: for some, this power is "truth creating," for others rhetoric is powerful because it can move people to action, and still others just think it's pretty. The study of this activity, rhetoric, has been a fundamental element of both philosophy and education in the Western tradition. In this course we will study how prominent thinkers from ancient Greece to modern times have conceptualized the nature of rhetorical behavior, and we will explore the utility of a rhetorical perspective for understanding our contemporary world.
COMM 360: Capstone: Language, Gender & Culture
This course will examine the relationship between language, gender, and culture in a variety of contexts and cultures. The mutual influences of language and culture, and their role in the creation of gendered roles and identities within and across cultures will be explored
COMM 386: Studies in Film: Films About Rock & Roll
Cross-listed with ENGL 386
Walter Benjamin has noted that "in the case of films, mechanical reproduction is not, as with literature and painting, an external condition for mass distribution. Mechanical reproduction is inherent in the very technique of film production. This technique not only permits in the most direct way but virtually causes mass distribution." If film is the first art form to be inherently mass produced, recorded rock and roll music must be a close second. This course seeks to create a dialogue between film and rock music-a dialogue that emerges from theoretical premises such as Benjamin's. The course will follow a loose chronological trajectory of film that leads from a documentary about influential blues artist Chester Burnett (Howlin' Wolf) through early films about Elvis and the Beatles. The centerpiece films of the course will be Rude Boy (The Clash) and The Harder They Come (classic reggae film) and The Commitments (soul music in Dublin). The course will seek to create a conversation between the material culture of rock and roll and the material culture of film. Theoretical readings will be drawn from the work of Gayle Rubin, Gregory Bateson, Walter Benjamin, Theodore Adorno, Greil Marcus, Lester Bangs and others. Films will include feature films, documentaries and "rockumentaries' such as This is Spinal Tap. The goal of the course is to learn to read these two forms of expression in light of the contexts of "the age of technological reproducibility"-contexts which have created and maintained both rock music and film. The course will be discussion centered with occasional lectures. Grade will be determined by intelligent participation in the class conversation, short papers and a longer, theoretically-based documented essay.
ECONOMICS
ECON 329: Behavioral Economics
This course will integrate ideas from economics and psychology to explore human behavior through a combination readings, experiments, and discussion. Students will learn experimental methods associated with behavioral economics and will participate in classroom experiments. Behavioral models of consumer behavior will help explain how cognitive limits and biases and broader social influences affect consumer behavior, choice under uncertainty, saving and borrowing, investment decisions, charitable behavior, and the extent of cooperation in groups. Course findings will be related to topics such as retirement savings and social security, financial markets and products, obesity and food policy, insurance choice and health policy, and social welfare systems to alleviate poverty
ENGLISH
ENGL 120B: Fiercely Funny Fiction
Novels about war, family strife, the Holocaust-does this list suggest that we'll spend the semester steeped in hopelessness, suffering, and loss? Instead, we'll read novels by writers who use the devices of humor to explore deeply serious matters. Consider, for example, Joseph Heller's Catch-22, the novel whose title became the phrase for irresolvable, absurd, even deadly dilemma. In Heller's novel, a military pilot who fears danger and refuses to fly bombing missions is sane, so he must fly more missions; a pilot willing to fly dangerous bombing runs is insane and eligible for grounding: "All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions."
ENGL 120F: Monstrosity & Metamophosis in Fiction
Monsters are an integral part of our narrative experience, from childhood ghost stories to updated contemporary tales of vampires and zombies. We are fascinated with monsters, the creatures that are almost us but not quite, the creatures we might become. The word monster comes from the Latin monere, meaning "to show," "to warn, or "to remind" (Webster's Word Histories, 1989). This course will examine literary representations of the monstrous. We will ask: How do we conceive of the monster and the monstrous? What forms can the monstrous take? What is the relationship between monsters and desire? What does monstrosity teach us about narrative forms? And above all, what does the monster reveal or show us about ourselves, especially how we understand and construct individual and social identity?
ENGL 122G: Reading Fiction and Poetry - "Modes of Allegory,"
The word "allegory" derives from the Greek terms "allos," other, and "agoria," speaking. Most works of literature employ a kind of "other-speaking", such as metaphor or allegory, in order to create meaning. In this course we will read selected works of fiction and poetry with an eye to figurative language and meaning. Without eliminating the surface meaning, we will examine the ways in which literature additionally means and how we understand it. As a member of the course, you may expect to read medieval to contemporary texts, and to become familiar with different allegorical modes. This introductory course investigates the commonly felt frustration that literary works hide meaning and the vague sense that these works (like all art) mean whatever the viewer decides. The belief that authors hide meanings within texts grows out of allegorical habits of reading that can be traced back to the typological imagination of the medieval period-when allegory was in its heyday. By reading such early allegorical texts, we can learn to recognize overt and clear forms of allegory and to discern the meanings intended by their (often dogmatic) authors. Reading more contemporary works, we can understand allegory as less all-encompassing by identifying it as a discrete facet of larger narratives: for instance, the mixture of realism, fantasy and allegory that occurs in Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio; the questioning (rather than positing) of allegorical truth in The Scarlet Letter; and the plural rather than singular meaning of personification allegories in Italo Calvino's The Nonexistent Knight & The Cloven Viscount. These examples help us to grasp more concretely how the figurative as well literal language of a text reveals, rather than obscures, its subject.
ENGL 206: Creative Writing: Clinical Encounters I
English 206 is a creative writing course for pre-health science majors. Students participate in a sustained clinical experience, delivering creative writing sessions to a clinical population, while developing their own writing lives. This course helps students increase their capacity for working with ambiguity (moral, creative and narrative), while helping them see "patients" as people who are not defined by their diseases. Additionally, this course helps future clinicians learn to communicate with precise imagery and metaphors, while revealing connections between the practice of medicine and the arts of poetry and fiction.
Instructor Permission required
ENGL 221E: Masterworks of Modern World Literature
In this course we will read some Masterworks of Western literature and drama in translation. Our reading list includes some very famous texts, and other equally fascinating reads that may be less familiar to you. Our texts come from Europe, Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil and may include: Voltaire's Candide, Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Chekov's Uncle Vanya, Kafka's The Trial, James' The Ambassadors, Freud's Civilization and its Discontents, Camus' The Plague, De Beauvoir's The Second Sex, Rulfo's Pédro Páramo, García Márquez' Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Lispector's Hour of the Star, and Calvino's Once upon a winter's night a traveler. It may also count towards the Gender Studies major/minor.
ENGL 222A: English Renaissance Literature
From 1580's to the 1680's England experienced an unprecedented literary renaissance, as writers resurrected and re-imagined classical literary forms to fit new cultural, political, and social pressures. We'll read and consider texts within this historical content, from the sonnet sequences of Lady Mary Wroth and Sir Philip Sidney, to epics such as Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene and John Milton¿s Paradise Lost, pastoral and country house poems by Aemilia Lanyer, Ben Johnson, and Andrew Marvell, the religious lyrics of John Donne and George Herbert, the occasional verse of Mary Herbert and Katherine Philips, and the Restoration era work of John Wilmot (the Earl of Rochester) and Aphra Behn.
ENGL 223C: Literature of the Americas: Revolutionary Americas
"How is it," the English writer Samuel Johnson asked in 1775, "that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty from the drivers of Negroes?" Johnson's stinging question reveals that the struggles for political independence in the Americas at the end of the eighteenth century were inextricably intertwined with the existence and expansion of chattel slavery. This course introduces students to the discourses and intersecting cultural production of forms of freedom and unfreedom-particularly gender inequality, slavery, and racism-in North America and the Caribbean. We will examine how discourses of race, masculinity, and femininity shape ideas of liberty in the United States, Haiti, and the British West Indies. We will then trace the repercussions of these discourses through the British abolition of slavery in 1833 in to the end of chattel slavery in the United States during the Civil War. Our discussions will focus on the messy and incomplete processes of social and personal transformation using a wide range of readings, from Thomas Jefferson's rough draft of the Declaration of Independence and the Haitian Constitution of 1804 to fictional works that shed light on the revolutionary roads not taken, such as Leonora Sansay's Secret History (1808) of the Haitian Revolution and Herman Melville's "Benito Cereno" (1855).
ENGL 315B: Editing & Publishing
"Every generation rewrites the book's epitaph; all that changes is the whodunit."--Leah Price, "Dead Again," New York Times Book Review, August 10, 2012
As e-book sales rise, book publishers are knitting their brows and trying to forecast demand for printed books and e-books. "[L]ast year," Leah Price notes, "Amazon announced it was selling more e-books than print books - hardcover and paperback combined." That announcement prompted a new round of hand-wringing about the future of the book. The shift from print to electronic formats has had-and continues to have-enormous consequences for the publishing industry. Claims that this shift spells the death of books, however, demand careful examination. In English 315, we'll explore the rapidly changing book-publishing industry, looking closely at the ways in which industry developments and new technologies affect writers, readers, and publishing companies. We'll begin by studying the traditional book-publishing model, and then we'll study the effects of digital technologies on the transmission of writers' works to audiences of readers. Guest speakers from the publishing industry will join us to offer insiders' views.
ENGL 340A: Medieval Quests
By reading the Arthurian Romances and medieval epics, this course explores heroic masculinities of the medieval world. Through the lens of the knight's quest, we examine representations of women, Christianity versus the monstrous (the Other), and medieval world maps and landscapes to discover the fine lines the knight must tread between glory and ruin. Texts will include Le Morte D'Arthur, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Romances of Chrétien de Troyes, The Lais of Marie De France, Tristan and Isolde and The Song of Roland. The knight's quest tends to be cyclical in nature until he undergoes change-often at personal sacrifice-for which his reward is Christian enlightenment rather than material gain. Reading critical texts such as Northrup Frye's The Secular Scripture, we will explore theories of the quest as nightmare, how the familiar becomes strange (the uncanny), and fears surrounding mixed blood. (If you are a fan of Game of Thrones, Lancelot and Guinevere, or medieval mystics, you'll be among your people.)
ENGL 348A: Self Made Americans
Do we make ourselves or do we become what we already are? Do we have a right to be whoever we want to be? Are our identities fact, fiction, or something else? The Americas have long served as a space where men and women struggled with these questions and with their uneasiness about just how far self-made people could go. In the United States, we know part of this debate today as the American Dream, the idea that anyone can remake herself and move from "rags to respectability" through "pluck and luck." This class examines the development of the American Dream in fictions about self-made men and women. We will read the most famous stories of self-made men in Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography (1790) and Horatio Alger's novel Ragged Dick (1867). We will also analyze a wide variety of other works that expand, trouble, or satirize this model of success. These texts include the Robinson Crusoe-inspired fantasy The Female American (1767); The Contrast (1787), an early American drama; the seduction novel The Coquette (1797); Thoreau's Walden (1854), and Solomon Northup's Twelve Years a Slave (1853). We will explore these texts with attention to their historical and material contexts, but making your own hut on the banks of Lake Sagatagan is strictly optional.
ENGL 365: Current Issues in Literary Studies: Show Business: Race & the American Imaginary
What can we make of the stubborn New World habit of giving symbolic power to black populations while simultaneously denying them real social power? Why are whites so often comfortable "at play" in black cultural forms? Our primary texts will be novels from the U.S. and Argentina, mostly from the second half of the 19th Century; we will also consider other fine arts forms such as minstrelsy, classical music, jazz, painting, and photography, as well as writings from Economics, New Musicology, Literary Theory, and Cultural Studies. Since this is a seminar, students will take central responsibility for their learning: expect a vigorous reading load, a substantive seminar presentation, and a research paper. We begin with Eric Lott's Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class. Novels may include: Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn (1884), James Weldon Johnson's Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912), William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! (1936), and Julio Cortázar's The Pursuer (1959). Music may include works of Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Scott Joplin, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, The American Songbook, and Charlie Parker. Latin American texts will be taught in English translation. Students who wish to read and write in Spanish may do so.
ENGL 386: Studies in Film: Films About Rock & Roll
Cross-listed with COMM 386
Walter Benjamin has noted that "in the case of films, mechanical reproduction is not, as with literature and painting, an external condition for mass distribution. Mechanical reproduction is inherent in the very technique of film production. This technique not only permits in the most direct way but virtually causes mass distribution." If film is the first art form to be inherently mass produced, recorded rock and roll music must be a close second. This course seeks to create a dialogue between film and rock music-a dialogue that emerges from theoretical premises such as Benjamin's. The course will follow a loose chronological trajectory of film that leads from a documentary about influential blues artist Chester Burnett (Howlin' Wolf) through early films about Elvis and the Beatles. The centerpiece films of the course will be Rude Boy (The Clash) and The Harder They Come (classic reggae film) and The Commitments (soul music in Dublin). The course will seek to create a conversation between the material culture of rock and roll and the material culture of film. Theoretical readings will be drawn from the work of Gayle Rubin, Gregory Bateson, Walter Benjamin, Theodore Adorno, Greil Marcus, Lester Bangs and others. Films will include feature films, documentaries and "rockumentaries' such as This is Spinal Tap. The goal of the course is to learn to read these two forms of expression in light of the contexts of "the age of technological reproducibility"-contexts which have created and maintained both rock music and film. The course will be discussion centered with occasional lectures. Grade will be determined by intelligent participation in the class conversation, short papers and a longer, theoretically-based documented essay.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
ENTR 310: Social Entrepreneurship
Social Entrepreneurs identify and address social issues using entrepreneurial principles and approaches. They act as change agents at the local, national, and often global level and focus on creating value for those around them. An introduction to social entrepreneurship, this course will engage students in identifying important issues in today's world and creating potential entrepreneurial approaches to address those issues. Students will become familiar with this new field, meet active social entrepreneurs and develop their own social venture plans.
PREREQUISITE: Instructor permission, preference to students with service learning or nonprofit volunteer experience.
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
ENVR 215: Sustainability Workshop
Sustainability Workshop was designed to provide students with a hands-on approach to environmental studies in application. For 2014-2015 the topic of the course will be campus sustainability. Students will be introduced to the broad concepts behind sustainability in higher education, learn how colleges and universities actually work in terms of their finances, planning, budgeting, and operations, and then will delve into case studies on topics like sustainable campus food systems, sustainable energy plans, sustainable transportation networks, sustainable landscape management, and sustainability in the curriculum. By examining programs and initiatives from schools around the US, the class will develop an understanding of strategies and programs that work to advance sustainability as well as the motives behind them.
The "workshop" part of the class will then shift the focus to CSB/SJU: students will explore the history of our local sustainability programs, tour campus and meet involved professionals, learn how to track and measure sustainability outcomes, and ultimately develop their own projects to advance sustainability on our campuses. Readings will include Jim Farrell's The Nature of College and a wide range of articles and other resources related to campus sustainability. The course will be run as a seminar; students will be expected to participate in daily discussions, share their work with the class, and to complete a substantial final project on campus sustainability at CSB/SJU. The course will meet on a regular twice-weekly schedule for two mods (C/D) and students should anticipate the work load to be equivalent to any other lower-division ENVR course during that period. Enrolling in ENVR 220 for the first half of the semester (A/B mods) is a good way to combine the two courses into the equivalent of a single four-credit course.
Students from any major are welcome to enroll and there are no prerequisites for enrollment. However, prior completion of ENVR 150 or concurrent enrollment would be helpful for background.
ENVR 300Q: Environmental Health
This course will explore the health of the environment and how it relates to public policy by examining the issues and problems associated with environmental pollution and how pollutants impact our ecosystem. Students will develop an understanding of the physical processes involved in polluted environments as well as the socioeconomic consequences. Topics may include energy and resources; water treatment; geoengineering; climate change; remediation strategies; environmental public policy; in addition to pollution in the air, water, and soil including heavy metals, toxic organic compounds, ozone, greenhouse gases and pesticides.
ETHICS
ETHS 390-03A & 04A: Business Ethics
Jean Ochu
Business Ethics: Is business ethics an oxymoron? If you read newspaper articles that describe corporate misconduct and felonious behavior by corporate executives your conclusion would be yes. We will examine the ethical choices individuals must inevitably make in their business and professional lives. We will examine ethical philosophical concepts that are relevant to resolving the moral issues in business. We will identify the moral issues involved in specific problem areas of business and determine the reasoning needed to apply ethical concepts to business decisions. Business ethics has an interdisciplinary character. We will examine issues in politics, sociology, economics, environment, and social justice. This course will be primarily discussion based through the use of case studies and actual moral dilemmas faced by individuals in business. Students should have taken at least one course in accounting, management, or economics and/or have interest in business.
ETHS 390-05A: Ethics of Public Policy: Economic & Environmental Policy
Matt Lindstrom
The impact of ethics laws have led to apparent tradeoffs and court decisions with respect to other goals in a democracy including free-speech and civility. Examination of some ethical issues that public administrators face will include whistle-blowing, conflicts of interest, open meeting and transparency laws, lobbying, and campaign-finance issues. Topics include ethical issues related to economic and environmental policy. Regarding economic policy, exploration of fiscal policy, economic mobility, property rights, and policies such as minimum wages, Social Security, and economic development tools. Regarding environmental policy, discussion of common-pool resource dilemmas related to climate change and the political economy of energy and food policies. Key questions include distribution of costs and benefits, resource ownership and impacts (pro and con) of various energy and food policy alternatives, and local, state and international dilemmas. Questions and debates about the "common good" and national, personal, corporate and global interests will be a focal point.
ETHS 390-06A: Emigration, Xenophobia and Human Exploitation
Marina Martin
The main focus of this course is the analysis of emigration through the ethical problems it raises and the various forms of social tragedies and moral abuses that come with it in modern society. Hundreds of immigrants lose their lives when trying to reach their destiny abroad. Do all people have a right to emigrate? Is the identity and safety of a given nation threaten by the flow of emigration? Or should nations adopt John Lennon's dream "Imagine all the people sharing all the world?"
Students will be exposed to a selection of readings, films and documentaries, together with other art forms (photographic material, murals, paintings) all dealing with moral issues raised by cultural/ethnic differences and problems associated with emigration.
ETHS 390-09A: Others
Anthony Cunningham
We share our lives by both necessity and design with others. Born utterly dependent, we rely entirely upon the care and kindness of others for our very survival. Even when we no longer depend upon others to feed, clothe, and protect us, we must figure out what sorts of responsibilities we bear to others and what responsibilities they have to us. Some people may seem relatively distant, bound to us only in the basic sense that we share in some common humanity. Others can seem so important to us that we might not wish to go on without them. In this course we'll examine the responsibilities we bear to each other in various respects-as human beings, as friends, as family, as brothers and sisters in common causes. We'll also look at the ways in which people turn their backs on others and misuse them in cruel and oppressive ways. Using sources drawn from philosophy, literature, history, memoir, and the social sciences, we'll put our minds to what we owe others and what others owe us.
ETHS 390-10A: Healthcare Ethics
Georgia Hogenson
This course directs students to re-think ethics in today's system of healthcare, where the best possibilities for ethical healthcare in this century lie beyond traditional and mainstream thought. Students will question assumptions guided by the major principles of healthcare ethics and reflect deeply on clinical cases across healthcare disciplines from the perspective of professional and consumer.
ETHS 390-11A: Good, Evil & the Limitations of Human Nature
John Houston
All of us are familiar with the terms "good" and "evil". Furthermore, we have all at some time used these terms in reference to persons or their actions. This phenomenon is the focal point of this class. In this course we will seek to address a variety of questions related to good and evil. Some of these questions include: What are the conceptual origins of our judgments about good and evil? Can we objectively say of some actions or persons that they are good or evil?-Or do terms like good and evil merely serve as expressions of our individual preferences? In virtue of what do we describe people as good or evil? Are some people born evil and others good, or do they become so? If they become so, how does this happen? Philosophers, Psychologists, and famous literary personalities have grappled with these questions. We will draw upon their resources to reflect on these questions and attempt to articulate our own answers to them. In this course students will be required to read, think, write, attend class, and contribute to thoughtful dialogue.
ETHS 390-12A & 13A: Reading for Life
Tony Cunningham
Everyone loves a good story. Great stories can provide us with far more than mere recreation. Stories can provide us with rich character portraits that can reveal the subtleties and nuances of what it means to live well and responsibly. In this course we'll use novels and films to address Socrates' most basic ethical questions, "How should one live?" and "What sort of person should I be?" We'll do so by attending to all the concrete, particular details of real life and fictional characters thoroughly embroiled in the "business of living." Reading well offers the possibility of vicarious experience and ultimately, ethical insight. Our readings will include: The Crucible (Arthur Miller); Ransom (David Malouf); The Remains of the Day(Kazuo Ishiguro); Beloved (Toni Morrison); Hecuba (Euripides); How To Be Good (Nick Hornby); Glengarry Glen Ross (David Mamet); Cold Mountain (Charles Frazier)
ETHS 390-14A: Sex, Death & Ethics
Scott Johnson
Most students enjoy talking about sex (outside of class), haven't thought much yet about death, and are rather upset that a course on ethics is even required. Since the first seems amusing and the second far away, this class might seem like a pleasant way to satisfy an onerous requirement. So admit it, you just read this description because of the title. And you think since it meets once a week on a Wednesday night, it shouldn't interfere too much with the rest of your week. Be warned, however, this is a real class with difficult readings as well as a final paper graded on both style and content. It requires regular attendance, active participation, and weekly reflection on the reading.
This course will consider Sex, Death, and Ethics, consistent with the guidelines for Ethics Common Seminar. Abortion is only one area where the three interrelate. But isn't there really only one answer to the question of abortion? Why should a pro-choice president be allowed to speak at a pro-life university? Can abortion be discussed at the dinner table or in a classroom without parents becoming worried and suspicious? If we don't talk about abortion somewhere, how will we know that our moral judgments are consciously elected and defensibly maintained? And if we can't talk about this subject, how can we claim to account for a variety of other moral views which easily compare with ours on abortion?
There is more to Sex, Death, and Ethics than simply abortion. We will investigate euthanasia, AIDS, stripping, prostitution, and promiscuity. We will read plays as well as textbooks, memoirs, and some short fiction. You will need to watch several films outside of class. We will ask more questions than we will answer, but we will also develop our critical thinking skills with essentially contested concepts. There are no preconceived answers to the questions we will ask. Our task, properly stated, is to learn how to ask and assess those questions which may turn out to have uncertain answers. Ethics is the study of how we should live, and questions about these topics are vitally important. This is a difficult class that will repay your investment.
ETHS 390-15A & 16A: Healthcare Ethics
Kathy Twohy
This course directs students to re-think ethics in today's system of healthcare, where the best possibilities for ethical healthcare in this century lie beyond traditional and mainstream thought. Students will question assumptions guided by the major principles of healthcare ethics and reflect deeply on clinical cases across healthcare disciplines from the perspective of professional and consumer.
ETHS 390-017A: Justice in the 21st Century
Daniel Finn
Few issues are as fundamental to human life as justice: everyone is in favor of it. Yet few issues are as controversial: justice has widely divergent meanings for different people. This course will examine in detail five rival understandings of justice prevalent in debates today. Students will read two novels, and five philosophical or theological treatments of the notion of justice in our joint efforts to come to grips with what justice means in our lives: personally and on a national and global scale. Like all Senior Seminars, the goal of this course is to improve each student's ability to make good moral judgments.
HONR 390-01A: Honors Ethics Seminar: The Medical Professional in the Modern World
Jeff Anderson
The word "professional" today connotes an individual with well-developed skills, specialized knowledge, and expertise, who conforms to the standards of a profession. The original meaning of "professional" as one who "makes a profession of faith" in the face of demanding circumstances has been all but lost in the medical profession. This class will use the burgeoning literature of medicine, written by, for, and about medical professionals, in order to explore the full range of "professional" challenges facing today's medical professionals.
The practice of medicine is rife with ethical dilemmas. By exploring the efforts of medical professionals to counter the institutional forces that constrain them and to find their own solid ground to stand upon, this course aims to cultivate the habit of moral reflection in future medical professionals. Although this course will primarily focus on the experiences of medical doctors, it should also be of interest to those aspiring to other medical and non-medical careers.
HONR 390-02A: Honors Ethics Seminar: Justice in the 21st Century
Daniel Finn
Few issues are as fundamental to human life as justice: everyone is in favor of it. Yet few issues are as controversial: justice has widely divergent meanings for different people. This course will examine in detail five rival understandings of justice prevalent in debates today. Students will read two novels, and five philosophical or theological treatments of the notion of justice in our joint efforts to come to grips with what justice means in our lives: personally and on a national and global scale. Like all Senior Seminars, the goal of this course is to improve each student's ability to make good moral judgments.
PHIL 321: Moral Philosophy
This course will explore the meaning of rights and responsibilities, virtues and vices, values and obligations. It will raise questions of good and evil, right and wrong, freedom and determination. Approaches to morality considered will include virtue ethics, Kantian duty ethics, utilitarianism and other theories of moral thought.
PHIL 322: Environmental Ethics
This course investigates a variety of ethical issues that arise from consideration of the relation between humans and the non-human natural world (i.e., the environment, animals, land, ecosystems, wilderness areas). This course will introduce students to the basic concepts of environmental ethics, to specific ethical issues associated with environmental policy, and to philosophical theorizing about the environment.
PHIL 325: Feminist Ethics
Consideration of whether women's experiences offer unique perspectives in moral theory. Comparison of feminine and feminist approaches to ethics. Possible topics include: the nature of feminism, freedom and oppression; the role of care, trust, autonomy, reason and emotion in the moral life; different moral voices among women.
GENDER & WOMEN'S STUDIES
GEND 290B: Chinese Women in Literature
Cross-listed with CHIN 321A
This course aims to engage students with literature by and about Chinese women and the gender, class, and cultural issues that are intertwined with this intriguing topic. We will read ancient and contemporary Chinese women's writings, including poems, short novels, and autobiographies. Notable female authors that will discuss include4 Ban Zhao and Qingzhao Li from ancient China and Bingxin and Huiyin Lin from modern China. We will also discuss who the female writers were and the reasons they took up the pan, a practice often discouraged by the traditional patriarchal society. Furthermore, we will read portrayals of women's lives that were confined to the inner quarters of the household and the expectations imposed upon them by the society and customs of their times. Readings include tomb inscriptions for honorable ladies, biographies of deceased concubines, essays on the proper conduct of women, chapters of novels focusing on the domestic life, and diaries of foreign missionaries.
GEND 290I: Gender & Popular Culture
This course explores intersections between the production and reproduction of gender, and the production and consumption of popular culture. Students will use critical concepts and analytical methods from the interdisciplinary field of Cultural Studies to examine how gender constructs are produced, reinforced, and/or questioned and critiqued in different popular cultural forms and media.
HISPANIC STUDIES
HISP 360B: The New Song: Music with a Message
This course is about the protest music genre known as The New Song, originating in the 70's and 80's in Latin American countries; its songs, rooted in traditional music, have a strong contemporary political message. We will analyze representative lyrics by well known songwriters in the context of the political movements of each country; we will also watch performances by some of the most representative popular singers.