Descriptions: ACFN-HONR

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ACCOUNTING & FINANCE

ACFN 337: Business Taxation Topics
Warren Bostrom
Computation of tax, tax accruals, tax considerations on the formation and operation of businesses, and other tax topics. Includes on-line research of tax issues.
PREREQUISITE: ACFN 113

ACFN 360: Financial Derivatives
Steven Welch
This course is designed to enhance students' understanding of financial derivatives including options, futures, forwards, and swaps, and their use in the fields of investments and corporate financial management.
PREREQUISITE:ACFN 315 or MGMT 332, MATH 118 or 119, MATH 124.

ACFN 395: Finance Capstone
Steven Welch
An integrative academic experience which engages majors in research, identification of finance and business issues, assessment of alternatives, and support of proposed solutions.  Students will develop analytical and problem-solving skills through application of finance and related concepts to case studies involving real-world issues.
PREREQUISITE:Senior standing, 310, 315 and 320. May be concurrently enrolled in either 315 or 320 and capstone.

ART

ART 200: Environmental Art & Architecture
Richard Bresnahan
Cross-listed with ENVR 200A
This course focuses on a range of issues addressing art, architecture and their relationship to a sustainable environment. Through an analysis of critical theory, students will gain an understanding of the language and critical issues of art, architecture and their impact upon the environment. Through a hands-on approach, students will apply these concepts to make ceramic artwork in the SJU Pottery studio. Students will critically analyze readings, discuss examples of art and architecture and meet with artists in order to expand their understanding of the relationship between art, architecture and the environment.
Grading: A-F only
Fee: $50

ART 233F: Printmaking
James Hendershot
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.
  • Releif/Woodcut, a surface cut away and printed

There will be equal importance given to the importance to the creating and printing of images.

ART 233N: Video Animation 
Simon-Hoa Phan

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.

ART 309D: East Asian Gardens
Carol Brash
In the areas now called China and Japan, people have been creating gardens for thousands of years.  Each generation links itself to the past through the visual and literary (as well as the edible) fruits of their gardens. Today reinterpretations of some of these early ideas appear in diverse sites ranging from the reconstructed garden at the Minneapolis Institute of Art to the "Lucky Bamboo" sold at Home Depot.

Some of the topics we will investigate include the shift from the garden as a site of agricultural production to a site of aesthetic/cultural production, the complicated relationship of nature and artifice, gardens as repositories of memory, and the relationship of gardens to the other arts. We will read recent scholarship and examine examples paintings, poems, prose, plans, maps, and garden reconstructions. Chinese gardens that we may consider include painted versions of the Garden of Solitary Delight and the Garden of the Artless Administrator; reconstructions of the Garden of the Artless Administrator and The Garden of the Master of the Fishing Nets; and contemporary constructions based on historic models such as the Garden of Awakening Orchids in Portland, Oregon. Japanese gardens that we may consider include Temple of the Gold Pavilion, Temple of the Silver Pavilion, Temple of the Peaceful Dragon, tea gardens, and the painted gardens of the Tales of Genji. Our exploration will include a field trip to one Chinese and one Japanese garden in the Twin Cities area (an additional course fee will be charged to your student account for this).

ASIAN STUDIES

ASIA 200: Introduction to Asian Studies
This course is intended to introduce our majors and minors to the academic field of Asian Studies so they may acquire an interdisciplinary understanding of Asia's unity in diversity, enduring traditions, "modern" transformation, and recent emergence as a central player in global affairs and a post-Western world.

The colloquium seeks to 1) enable majors to develop their identities as Asianists -- individually and in a community of like-minded colleagues -- by enabling them to reflect on their own values and cultural identity while learning about Asian cultures; 2) analyze similarities and differences in Western and Asian approaches to the challenges of today's interdependent world; and 3) identify real-world personal and professional opportunities available to them within the Asian Studies field. Their collective exploration will continue when they reunite in the Senior Capstone (ASIA 399) course, which is currently under development.

The colloquium will be taught by four instructors, one instructor per mod

BIOLOGY

BIOL 216: Physiology in Practice
Manuel Campos
This course is specifically designed to introduce nutrition and dietetics students to basic principles of human physiology - from cellular processes, to the workings of organ systems, to homeostasis. The course will use a case study, problem-based learning approach to teach basic physiology from applied examples that students will likely be exposed to in their future clinical practice.
PREREQUISITE: BIOL 121

BIOL 373F: Bioinformatics
Andrew Holey
Cross-listed with CSCI 317D
This course provides an introduction to the field of bioinformatics. Topics will include sequences of DNA, RNA and proteins, comparing sequences, predicting sequences, predicting species; computational techniques such as substitution matrices, sequence databases, dynamic programming and bioinformatics tools. The course will have a seminar format.

BIOL 373J: Biological Illustration
Manuel Campos
This course is a hands-on introduction to biological illustration theory and techniques. The class meets weekly. In the first five weeks students are introduced to some of the basic techniques of biological illustration. Students will be encouraged to work with techniques that fit well with their main interest area(s) in biology. Then, students will be required to apply this knowledge by designing and completing an independent project. This project will involve preparing a set of materials that illustrate a concept or topic of interest, and that can be used to help others understand the topic. Each student will be asked to work on an independent project that incorporates their illustrations in a real setting, whether preparing a poster for a research presentation, teaching a lesson, preparing a resource that others could use to teach a lesson, preparing an educational brochure for the Arboretum or a nature center, preparing posters for an elementary school science class, or other similar project.  A student who successfully completes this course should have a basic understanding of the techniques and purposes of biological illustration and be able to use his or her knowledge to successfully convey significant biological information to a target audience.

CHEMISTRY

CHEM 116: Introductory Chemistry Topics II
All instructors
This second course in a two course sequence will be required of all students participating in the NSF sponsored FoCuS program, but is also open to other underrepresented groups in science. If a student is not part of the FoCuS program they must get FoCuS committee approval to enroll. First year students intending to become Chemistry or Biochemistry majors will form a cohesive and supportive peer group as they are introduced to modern chemistry research and opportunities and develop practical and leadership skills.  The instructor for this course will serve as their advisor. Topics will include applying for summer research positions, studying for chemistry exams, an introduction to scientific literature, developing resilience as they face challenges in becoming independent learners, learning about how to be an effective leader and balancing leadership, service and academic commitments.
PREREQUISTE: CHEM 125

CHEM 205: Chemical Measurement Lab
All instructors
This course is an introduction to the science of chemical measurement. Using classical techniques (quantitative analysis & spectroscopic techniques) students will learn to measure important physical and chemical properties, quantitate and minimize measurement errors, and obtain accurate calibrations. Laboratory experiments will focus on student development of precision and accuracy, data analysis and reporting as well as scientific writing.
PREREQUISTE: CHEM 125

CHEM 255: Fundamentals of Macroscopic Chemical Analysis
All instructors
Fundamentals of Macroscopic Chemic Analysis explores thermodynamic approaches to chemical equilibrium. Emphasis on free energy as the driving force for chemical reactions will be explored through the quantitative analysis of chemical equilibria in simple as well as complex systems. Statistical methods will be developed for the assessment of data. Chemical systems in equilibrium as well as in dynamic situations will be studied.
PREREQUISTE: CHEM 125

CHEM 315: Reactivity III
All instructors
An understanding of chemical reactivity, developed in Reactivity 1 and 2, is extended to non-polar systems through the study of radical pericyclic reactions. Principles used in understanding nucleophiles and electrophiles are adapted to these systems. Molecular orbital theory is exploited to explain a number of non-polar reactions. With a firm understanding of an array of reactions in hand, a number of biochemical pathways are examined in detail. The roles of enzyme catalysis, enzyme cofactors and regulatory pathways are also explored.
PREREQUISTE: CHEM 251

CHEM 324: Topics in Inorganic Chemistry
Brian Johnson
Have you ever wondered how a solar cell works, what a light-emitting diode is or how something can be superconducting?  This course will explore the structure-property relationships in these and other interesting and useful solids.  Additional emphasis will be on the synthesis, characterization, theory and practical applications of these materials.

COMMUNICATION

COMM 102: Public Speaking
All instructors
This course is intended to teach students the art of public speaking via the study of communal responsibility and identity. Students will study, analyze, and construct public speeches. Both the analysis and construction of these speeches will draw upon basic rhetorical theories in conjunction with theories of publicness and the public sphere.

COMM 201: Rhetoric, Culture & Criticism
Aric Putnam
This course will introduce students to the basic theories and practices needed to understand and critique rhetorical action. The class will give students exposure to diverse theories of the relationship between language and power and provide opportunity for practice making judgments about specific moments of public expression: speeches, music, essays, visual images. The intent of this class is to provide students with a deeper understanding of the academic study of rhetoric and with a skill that will help them make greater sense of how public messages matter in their lives today.

COMM 310: Black Civil Rights Rhetoric
Aric Putnam
This class explores the history of public argument about black participation in United States democracy. We will study the speeches, essays, public art, and popular culture that have shaped how people of African descent have accessed and exercised the rights of United States citizens. Ultimately, we will gain insight into the philosophical concepts, political issues, moral complexities, and discursive qualities of this rhetorical behavior.

COMM 380A: Visual Communication
Emil Towner
This course introduces students to the rhetorical, social, historical, political, and ethical aspects of visual communication. Students gain a critical understanding of visuals and the changing media environment by examining and critiquing visual messages, including speeches with visual components, advertisements, photographs, news stories, image events, body rhetoric, monuments, film and television, the Internet and other visual media.

COMM 380B: Video Game Studies
Ashleigh Shelton
This course provides a broad introduction to the interdisciplinary academic study of video games, with a focus on the steadily growing body of social scientific gaming research. Students will survey major debates and study key theories and perspectives surrounding their history, content, uses, and effects. By playing, reading, and writing about video games in an academic context, students will learn to analyze video games critically, as well as develop a basic appreciation and understanding of their cultural value.
PREREQUISITE: COMM 101, 103, or 201

COMM 386-01A: Studies in Film: It's Film Heaven: Analyzing Genre Films in an Interpretive Community
Luke Mancuso
Cross-listed with ENGL 386
The ENGL/COMM 386 course is an advanced course in the English/Communication Department sequence of upper-division courses at CSB/SJU. It is also a liberal arts course. As an advanced course, it seeks to build on foundational skills you have encountered (such as effective critical thinking, reading, writing, and oral communication skills in Core and Humanities) so that you can pursue upper-division academic work (in this case, a specific exploration of one facet of film studies)  competently, efficiently, and  even in leadership roles. You will need to sharpen these skills in order to exert a sense of control over your immediate experience as film viewers. As a liberal arts course, ENGL/COMM 386 deals with contemporary social values in culture (personal identity, film viewing habits,  gender positions, class positions, narrative representations), and how those social values shape, determine, regulate our individual responses to everyday life. In other words, this liberal arts story is your story. There are several components of a liberal arts learning environment:  critical thinking, perceptive analysis, adapt better to change (seeing things from other perspectives) development as a whole person (in a social context)

You will leave this course with a wider set of questions about your identity as film viewers than the ones you came with, by recognizing your interconnectedness to others.  We read 30 essays, and analyze 100 scenes together, selected by students, in the learning community across the semester.

COMPUTER SCIENCE

CSCI 317D: Bioinformatics
Andrew Holey
Cross-listed with BIOL 373F
This course provides an introduction to the field of bioinformatics. Topics will include sequences of DNA, RNA and proteins, comparing sequences, predicting sequences, predicting species; computational techniques such as substitution matrices, sequence databases, dynamic programming and bioinformatics tools. The course will have a seminar format.

COURSES OF THE COLLEGE

COLG 105D: Career Planning
This course is a practical seminar intended to increase student understanding of themselves in relationship to their academic and career goals. The course explores the importance of experiential learning opportunities and the professional preparation required to actively pursue these opportunities. Content includes major and career exploration, career tool (e.g., resume, letters, interviewing) development, and the leveraging of career resources including human networks, technology, and others.
FEE: $30.00

COLG 130: EMT Basics

This course covers basic minimal emergency care required to work on an ambulance or first responder squad throughout the 50 states in the U.S. The course offers basic to more advanced techniques and principles of pre-hospital; emergency care. Students must be at least 18 years old to take the National and State Certification exams. .

Mantoux or other TB test within 6 months of course
FEE: To be Determined

ECONOMICS

ECON 329:  Global Transition to Sustainability
Ernest Diedrich
Cross-listed with ENVR 300M
"Business as usual" is becoming more and more deadly to humans so humanity has turned to sustainability for help. This course discusses what sustainability is, why it has become a global concern, how people measure it, and how countries and their institutions have implemented it as a way to steer away from societal as well as ecosystem collapse.  Of special concern will be an analysis of benchmark policies used by leaders in sustainability.  We will look at implementing sustainability at the "micro" level (businesses, cities, schools, etc.) as well as the "macro" level (country and multi-country levels) and will examine examples of what's working around the planet as well as what's not.  Of special concern throughout this course will be deciding what sustainability economics is as well as discussing what a sustainable or green economy would look like.  Introductory Economics would be helpful.

EDUCATION

EDUC 300:  Structures of English for ESL Teachers
Sarah Pruett
This course addresses both the structures for the English language in a format all allows pre-service teachers to not only understand how the language works, but also how these structures can be taught effectively. The course will cover an introduction to linguistics, including English grammar rules, phonology, morphology, orthography, vocabulary, semantics, and pragmatics. This course will also cover word and sentence-level pronunciation rules in North American English. Students will observe and analyze speech and writing samples of English Language Learners, and design activities and lessons that target the development of specific structures of English in a contextualized, communicative way. This course has no prerequisites.

EDUC 301: Teaching Literacy to English Language Learners
Allison Spenader
Teaching literacy to English Language Learners is a course that provides pre-service teachers with an overview of the challenges ELLs face in classrooms with regards to literacy. This course explores the importance of using a variety of instructional approaches to meet the needs of ELLs, and stresses the need to include teaching materials that support second language literacy and development in both the ESL and mainstream classroom. This course includes an in-depth exploration of the differences between first and second language literacy development, and the effects that limited English proficiency has on student academic success.
PREREQUISITES: EDUC major or permission of instructor

EDUC 304: ESL Methods & Materials
Natalie Prasch
ESL Methods and Materials is a course designed to provide students with an overview of practical issues pertaining to teaching ESL today, including course and lesson planning, second language teaching methods, strategies instruction, as well as hands-on experiences working with elementary, high school, and post-secondary learners. Topics covered include: information on learners of various ages and ability levels, communicative-based approaches to teaching ESL, creating and adapting lesson plans, working with technology and creating and analyzing ESL teaching materials.

Pre-service teachers exit this course with a variety of clinical experiences that have prepared them to work with ESL students in any K-12 setting. Each student will complete either a K-12 or Higher Ed practicum experience. This experience allows students to familiarize themselves with the needs of students at varying stages of development and at multiple linguistic ability levels. The Practicum provides pre-service teachers with a valuable experience working with elementary, middle, high school or adult students alongside a mentor teacher.

EDUC 349: Intro to Teaching/Learning in an Online Environment
Theresa Johnson

Computers and other digital tools provide opportunities for reimagining many aspects of K-12 Education. With over 2,000,000 K-12 student enrollments in online courses, it seems likely that many teachers will have the opportunity to teach in a digital environment. Students will learn more about the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to support student learning via a variety of digital tools. This course is taught entirely online with occasional online discussions/meetings on Wednesday evening.
PREREQUISITE:  Successful completion of one EDUC pedagogy course

ENGLISH

ENGL 120A: Reading Fiction & Poetry: Science Fiction: Of Aliens & Outer Space
Jane Opitz
Science Fiction asks fundamental questions:  Who are we? Are we alone? What does it mean to be human?  This course explores such questions through both written and video texts. After examining and defining the genre and its fit into the literary cannon, we read short stories, excerpts from longer works, and novels that exemplify two or three specific narrower themes within the field. Each theme is explored through stories presented chronologically to highlight development of scientific and moral thinking over time and is complemented by the application of excerpts from appropriate critical texts. Students (working in small groups) select and present movies and television episodes that further develop the target themes.
NOTE: On most even Thursdays, the course meets at SJU from 2:40 to 5:00 PM to accommodate videos. No prerequisites.

ENGL 120E: Reading Fiction: Growing Up in Literature
Ozzie Mayers
The "Bildungsroman," the novel of human development, traditionally traces the growth of a young person usually from adolescence to maturity. In this course, you will examine the evolution of this genre from its German origins through its manifestations in contemporary times, keeping in mind the essential influences on human growth: ethnicity, race, gender, sexualities, and class.  By analyzing examples of the "Bildungsroman" by both women and men from various centuries, countries, and classes, we will expand and modify the traditional definition of this genre so that the very patterns of what constitutes growth will be understood contextually. This will provide you with the means whereby to know the drama of human development for others but ultimately for what these dramas tell you about your own development.  Thus, you will not just read, discuss, and analyze these novels, but you will also explore your own patterns of growth.  "Growing Up in Literature" will provide you with ample opportunities to discuss these novels as fictions and as realities of human development.  The novels for this course are:

The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama

  • The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison
  • Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
  • Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid
  • Villette Charlotte Bronte
  • The Year of Ice by Brian Malloy
  • Cracking India by Bapsi Sidhwa
  • The Dark Child Camara Laye
  • Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence
  • The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

ENGL 122D:  Lit: Men, Women & Aliens
Elizabeth Johnson-Miller
Find me near the flower's eye
that takes in provocation
and begins to grow.
                      --Rumi

One definition of the word provoke is "to stir up intentionally." In this class, we will examine literature that provokes readers. The literature we will encounter will provoke us in a variety of ways: from asking us to examine race and gender roles to asking us to question some firmly and commonly held beliefs, from asking us to enter into a poem that we might not understand to demanding that we jump into a narrative that will not let us go. The purpose of this class is to get stirred up by literature, to find ourselves breathless, angry, thrilled, confused, all within the confines of a page, so that we may, as Rumi suggests, begin to grow.

ENGL 221B:  Medieval Lit: Homer to Dante
Jessica Harkins
Why study the classics? A short answer might be: these authors are everywhere. In political discourses and in psychology, in film, in painting and in literature, we continue to speak in terms of their masterpieces. This course will take us into the heart of their great works. The personalities of these authors leap off of the page; their characters are audacious, unlikable, heart-rending, hilarious, and conflicted. These poets-Ovid, Homer, and Virgil-write about gods and men, exploring themes of love, of violence and change, and of causes and consequences. By the medieval period, these classical writers have become "pagans," and writers who value them greatly, such as Dante and Chaucer, struggle at personal risk to protect and to newly translate their books. Our reading will look carefully at how these writers construct genders-both masculine and feminine-normative sexualities, and how issues of power change over time. We will notice how deeply these authors are in dialogue with one another, and how they continue to generate responses in contemporary poetry. Reading ancient and contemporary respondents-including Sappho, Christine de Pizan, and W. H. Auden, and Eavon Boland-students will notice their influence and also gain familiarity with reading such allusions in other work. Students in this course may expect to encounter some of the brilliant minds who have shaped the course of western thought and struck deeply into the human imagination.

ENGL 223B: "Hooray for Hollywood": A Cultural History of the First 100 Years of Hollywood Cinema
Luke Mancuso
This gateway course will give engaged students a lot of windows through which to look in on cinematic literature, cultural histories, thick slices of American mass culture from the 1890s to the present. We will look at such genres as silent melodramas, musicals, crime films, the war/combat film, horror films, and science fiction films.  We will investigate the way in which movies both shape and are shaped by events such as the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, the revolts of the 1960s,  the film school generation of the 70s, and globalization.  Vigorous active discussion and one film presentation. Focused research will be entertaining and fun. Weekly film labs will include classic films from representative historical periods.

ENGL 315B: Editing & Publishing
Cynthia Malone
"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 342: British Literature after 1700: Green Writing
Cynthia Malone
Cross-listed with ENVR 300L
and this prayer I make,
Knowing that Nature never did betray
The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,
Through all the years of this our life, to lead
From joy to joy: for she can so inform
The mind that is within us, so impress
With quietness and beauty, and so feed
With lofty thoughts.
                                  -William Wordsworth, "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey"

As the Industrial Revolution gained speed, many British writers explored the dynamic relationship between Nature and the Imagination. These writers represent Nature as a powerful force capable of provoking hope, solace, and terror.

In this course, we'll examine the changing meanings of "nature" in British literature. We'll give particular attention to the interactions of "nature," human beings, and the rapidly changing built environment in 18th- and 19th-century British poetry, essays, and fiction. Observing the movement of population from rural areas to cities, the shift from handcraft to factory labor, and the transition from horses to railways, British writers reflected on the changing relationship between people and the natural world. Industrialization and urbanization inform the works we'll read; the natural rhythms of days and seasons were giving way to the steady, ticking rhythm of the clock, and the environment of daily work was shifting from the agricultural outdoors to the urban workplace. We'll study 19th-century nature writing in the context of these momentous changes.
PREREQUISITE: Sophomore standing.

ENGL 365:  Current Issues in Lit Studies: Reading Matters
Ossie Mayers
This course offers a culminating opportunity for English majors to synthesize their college work, especially much of what they have learned in their English courses.  The English Department has established this course to bring English majors into regular contact with each other over a semester to read, reflect, and write about a common reading list.  Students will gain a heightened awareness of the history, content and theoretical approaches to the discipline of English, will develop a substantial understanding of their major within the larger context of its discipline, and will come to know well their immediate community of majors.

Literature has the capacity to ameliorate our society's ills, claims Toni Morrison, the 1993 winner of the Nobel Prize for literature.  She sees literature as a refuge from the fractured experience of our world promoted by the profit-driven, entertainment-based news media.  She believes that literature can provide "the mechanism of repair" because it "refuses and disrupts passive consumption of the self." Literature, she asserts, "demands the experience of ourselves as multidimensional.  It rejects lazy responses to other cultures and races and instead mines language for its power to disrupt [stereotypical thinking and complacency]." Does literature really have the power to disrupt our complacency, reform our attitudes, and, indeed, to create a better world?  What unique contributions can literature and literary studies make in public life?  Does literature always have an adversarial relationship with institutions of power?  Or is literature itself complicitous in reproducing institutions of social and political control?  These are some of the questions we will grapple with as we take stock of to what extent does Reading Matter?  As this ambiguous subtitle suggests, we will be reading the "matters" of novelists, philosophers, and theorists who took the risk to disrupt our complacency in order to address the questions above.  After reading and discussing how critics address to what extent "reading matters," we will read and discuss a selection of novels, poems, essays, and film in relationship to these critical perspectives and discern if these works "matter."  Subsequently, each student will argue for why a novel, poem (or a selection of poems), an essay (or collection), or film must be read not just by English majors but by others as well.  It will be up to the student to explain the work under consideration and to argue for its effectiveness to "ameliorate our society's ills." 

ENGL 369:  Studies in Critical Theory and Culture
Michael Opitz
Cross-listed with HONR 350
The catalog description of this course states that the course will involve a "study of selected critical theories and application, using such approaches."  The language of this description could be expanded to include the study of the stories a culture tells about itself in both literary and non-literary form.  This version of the course will center on the substance and symbolism of reggae music which began in Jamaica and has evolved into an important facet of pan-African thinking.  Reggae music, a particular Jamaican version of the African music we call rock and roll, has been a major form of post-colonial discourse.  The course will necessarily investigate reggae music--its roots, its development and its evolution into a major global force.  We will investigate reggae's use of Rastafarian religious symbolism, and compare and contrast this symbolism with our culture's religious symbolism.

The course will bring to bear the insights provided by one or more interpretive theories.  We will study the methodology of semiotics (the reading of symbols and signs) and apply understandings of semiotics to reggae and Rastafarianism.  Readings will include some contemporary Marxist theory, post-colonial theory, works by Marcus Garvey, C.L.R. James, Roland Barthes, Edward Said, Gayle Rubin, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer as well as some examples of underdevelopment theory.  We will also screen the film The Harder They Come and a documentary, A Great and Mighty Walk, which profiles historian John Henrik Clarke.  Works of Bob Marley and other reggae artists will provide further textual material for the course.

The class periods will be discussion-based with time devoted to lecture and critical  listening to music.

ENGL 381:  Literature by Women
Mara Faulkner
In spite of the many ways in which women writers have been silenced throughout history, they have produced a diverse and challenging body of poetry, fiction, drama, essays, and memoirs.  In this course we will barely sample that rich array, limiting ourselves to women who wrote or are writing in English.  But I hope that our reading of literature by women from all traditions will continue long past the end of the semester.

We will begin with a historical overview of women's writing in the United States and Great Britain and the social, religious, political, and aesthetic environments out of which it came.  We will then move on to an intensive study of several novels, clusters of poems by single authors, and nonfiction texts.  Along the way, we will examine several feminist approaches to literature, reading essays by leading feminist critics.  While all of these critical texts are encompassed by the general term feminist criticism, they are as diverse and as challenging as the literature itself.

This course aims to help you develop your ability to read intelligently and sympathetically, to question underlying assumptions shaped by gender, race, and class, and to speak and write clearly about what you've read.  Class sessions will include discussions, short lectures, student presentations, media presentations, and speakers. You will keep a commonplace book and write a long researched/creative project. There will be a mid-term test and perhaps an oral final exam. 

May be used toward the Gender Studies major/minor.
PREREQUISITES: Sophomore standing.

ENGL 386-01A: Studies in Film:  It's Film Heaven:  Analyzing Genre Films in an Interpretive Community
Luke Mancuso
Cross-listed with COMM 386
The ENGL/COMM 386 course is an advanced course in the English/Communication Department sequence of upper-division courses at CSB/SJU. It is also a liberal arts course. As an advanced course, it seeks to build on foundational skills you have encountered (such as effective critical thinking, reading, writing, and oral communication skills in Core and Humanities) so that you can pursue upper-division academic work (in this case, a specific exploration of one facet of film studies)  competently, efficiently, and  even in leadership roles. You will need to sharpen these skills in order to exert a sense of control over your immediate experience as film viewers. As a liberal arts course, ENGL/COMM 386 deals with contemporary social values in culture (personal identity, film viewing habits,  gender positions, class positions, narrative representations), and how those social values shape, determine, regulate our individual responses to everyday life. In other words, this liberal arts story is your story. There are several components of a liberal arts learning environment:  critical thinking, perceptive analysis, adapt better to change (seeing things from other perspectives) development as a whole person (in a social context)

You will leave this course with a wider set of questions about your identity as film viewers than the ones you came with, by recognizing your interconnectedness to others.  We read 30 essays, and analyze 100 scenes together, selected by students, in the learning community across the semester.

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

ENVR 200A: Environmental Art & Architecture
Richard Bresnahan
Cross-listed with ART 200
This course focuses on a range of issues addressing art, architecture and their relationship to a sustainable environment.  Through an analysis of critical theory, students will gain an understanding of the language and critical issues of art, architecture and their impact upon the environment.  Through a hands-on approach, students will apply these concepts to make ceramic artwork in the SJU Pottery studio.  Students will critically analyze readings, discuss examples of art and architecture and meet with artists in order to expand their understanding of the relationship between art, architecture and the environment.
Grading: A-F only
Fee: $50

ENVR 215: Sustainability Workshop:  Nature, Spiritualities & Alternative Lifestyles
Richard Bohannon II
This course will survey different approaches to the non-human world as a spiritual resource, including readings from poetry, fiction and narrative non-fiction, and look at how they relate to lived environmental practices and activism. Readings will come from Christian, Buddhist, and non-theist perspectives, among others, and the course will also involve field trips. Discussions and assignments course will revolve around two questions: First, how is "nature" portrayed in various nature spiritualities, what do these spiritualities include in their sphere of ethical concern, and what do they exclude or ignore? Second, how do various nature-based spiritualities relate (or not relate) to everyday practices?

ENVR 220: Environmental Methods & Measurement
Jean LaVigne
This course serves as an introduction to the analytical tools and metrics of environmental studies, providing students with quantitative and methodological skills germane to environmental problem solving that can be applied in upper division courses and in their own research projects. Topics covered will include basic statistical analysis, environmental ¿footprinting¿, cost-benefit and other economic metrics, energy auditing, green building standards, greenhouse gas emissions auditing, green certification programs, field- and laboratory-based measurement tools, and other common standards. Students will learn to apply these methods and to critique the use of similar methods by the media, in marketing campaigns, and by other researchers. Prerequisite: math prerequisite.

ENVR 225: Food, Gender, Globalization and the Environment
Diane Veale Jones
In this course, we examine the environmental, economical, and social equity issues of food, production, processing, distribution and consumption. We explore the journey of food from the field to our table. To map successfully this journey we analyze women's and men's roles, historically and currently, in food production; examine different approaches to food sustainability and environmental sustainability; and delve into politics of food regulation.

ENVR 300G: Science of Global Climate Change
Troy Knight
Is Earth's climate rapidly changing, and if so, what is causing it?  Heated ideological debates and images of imminent environmental catastrophe generated by the issue of climate change often obscure the scientific foundation upon which it rests. In this course students will gain a basic understanding of the interdisciplinary science behind climate change and its impacts.  Following an  introduction to the climate system, we will explore Earth's climatic history and how we know about this history, the drivers of climate change past and present, and the impact of climate change and stability on human societies in the past, present and future.  Labs will focus on furthering understanding of climatic processes, methods in paleoclimatology, and the use of models in climate science.

ENVR 300K:  God & Nature
Richard Bohannon, II
This course surveys the relationships between Western religions and the natural world.  The course traces the historical development of how nature has been perceived, beginning with Jewish and Christian origins, proceeding through the Middle ages and into modernity, giving special attention to the interactions between Christianity and other faiths (e.g., pre-Christian European traditions and Native American spiritualities).  The primary focus of the course concerns contemporary issues within the United States, including religious environmentalism within church bodies and the non-profit sector, forms of spirituality within environmentalism, eco-feminism, the environmental justice movement, nature religions, and contested depictions of the natural world within Christianity.

ENVR 300L:  British Literature after 1700: Green Writing
Cynthia Malone
Cross-listed with ENGL 342 
and this prayer I make,
Knowing that Nature never did betray
The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,
Through all the years of this our life, to lead
From joy to joy: for she can so inform
The mind that is within us, so impress
With quietness and beauty, and so feed
With lofty thoughts.
-William Wordsworth, "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey"

As the Industrial Revolution gained speed, many British writers explored the dynamic relationship between Nature and the Imagination. These writers represent Nature as a powerful force capable of provoking hope, solace, and terror.

In this course, we'll examine the changing meanings of "nature" in British literature.  We'll give particular attention to the interactions of "nature," human beings, and the rapidly changing built environment in 18th- and 19th-century British poetry, essays, and fiction. Observing the movement of population from rural areas to cities, the shift from handcraft to factory labor, and the transition from horses to railways, British writers reflected on the changing relationship between people and the natural world. Industrialization and urbanization inform the works we'll read; the natural rhythms of days and seasons were giving way to the steady, ticking rhythm of the clock, and the environment of daily work was shifting from the agricultural outdoors to the urban workplace. We'll study 19th-century nature writing in the context of these momentous changes.
PREREQUISITES: Sophomore standing.

ENVR 300M:  Global Transition to Sustainability
Ernest Diedrich
Cross-listed with ECON 329
"Business as usual" is becoming more and more deadly to humans so humanity has turned to sustainability for help. This course discusses what sustainability is, why it has become a global concern, how people measure it, and how countries and their institutions have implemented it as a way to steer away from societal as well as ecosystem collapse.  Of special concern will be an analysis of benchmark policies used by leaders in sustainability.  We will look at implementing sustainability at the "micro" level (businesses, cities, schools, etc.) as well as the "macro" level (country and multi-country levels) and will examine examples of what's working around the planet as well as what's not.  Of special concern throughout this course will be deciding what sustainability economics is as well as discussing what a sustainable or green economy would look like.  Introductory Economics would be helpful.

ENVR 311:  Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
Jean Lavigne
This is an introductory course in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). GIS is designed to collect, store, and us spatial and geographical information, such as land use, property ownership, roads, rivers, lakes, forest cover type, elevation, versus tract boundaries and data, and political boundaries. In this course, students will learn to use ESRI¿s ArcGIS software within a larger context that also includes a history of cartography, the uses and abuses of maps, elements of map design, mental maps, participatory GIS, and a range of ethical issues that must be considered in learning how to use this powerful technology responsibly.

ENVR 320:  Research Colloquium
Derek Larson
This course offers a semester- long, in depth, interdisciplinary study of a single topic in Environmental Studies. By design the course will provide both depth of exposure in a topic and methodological instruction and application of research skills in the field, as preparation for the research requirements of other upper division ENVR courses and for the application in your post- collegiate career. Topics will vary each semester, but skills covered will include group discussion, formal oral presentation, poster presentation, secondary literature analysis, research design, collaborative project design and implementation, and written presentation of research results. This course is intended for junior and senior environmental studies majors and must be taken before enrollment in ENVR 395.

ENVR 321:  Sustainable Agriculture
Diane Veale Jones
How do we sustain the environment and provide food security to 9 billion people in 2042? This course examines the causes of food insecurity; investigates the environmental, human and cultural costs of industrial agricultural food production; identifies the environmental consequences of producing protein-rich foods, e.g. fish farming, meat, and soybeans; considers the affect of climate change on food production; and explores the potential and the risks of agricultural biotechnology to increase the global food supply. In addition, we explore emerging agricultural practices as possible solutions to the problem of balancing human needs and the environment.

ETHICS

ETHS 390-01A:  Environmental Ethics
Jessica O'Reilly
How do we consider human and non-human agency? In what ways can we consider the rights of non-human agents in environmental ethics? How do we distinguish between cultural relativism (the idea that a culture can only be evaluated using its own cultural parameters) with a universalistic idea of human/animal/ environmental rights (the idea that certain values should be upheld everywhere regardless of cultural background)? What factors contribute to a high quality of life? How do humans relate to what we call "nature"? In environmental ethics, we consider the role of non-humans-animals, plants, land, water, and so on-in our predominantly humanistic ethical frameworks. We will bear in mind that people from various cultural backgrounds devise different, even discordant, ethical systems in comparison with others. A major component of the class will consist of skill-building in environmental ethics from diverse thinkers, from the traditional environmental philosophers to people from minority cultures, perspectives, nations, and environments. In this course we will analyze the following environmental problems: a) land use and land-use rights, b) food safety and security, c) whaling, d) human population, e) water supply, and f) climate change. Students will engage in regular, collaborative online writing projects and conduct original research on a chosen environmental and ethical problem.

ETHS 390-02A:  Deception & Manipulation
Scott Richardson
At times we feel justified in lying, even to those we love, and we regularly have no problem deceiving people, especially those to whom we have no attachment.  Yet we also have an ingrained sense that the truth is the proper basis for human relationships and should be championed-except for situations when it shouldn't.  Manipulation sounds repugnant, and we resent being the object of others' meddling and maneuvering, yet again we engage in this activity frequently and often consider it beneficial to those with whose lives we are fiddling.

This ethics seminar will use novels, plays, and a philosophical treatise to explore the morality of deception and manipulation at both the personal and political levels.  We will look at the moral implications of different types of manipulation, ranging from simple deception to elaborate schemes designed by masterminds who reach a desired end by casting in a role someone who does not even realize that a play is being performed.

The reading will include John Fowles's The Magus, Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, a spy novel by John le Carré, Machiavelli's The Prince, Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, and plays by Sophocles, Euripides, Henrik Ibsen, and Woody Allen.

ETHS 390-03A:  Adoption, Ethics & the Family
Jean Keller
Nearly 6 out of 10 Americans have a personal experience with adoption-meaning that they, a family member, or a close friend were either adopted, adopted a child, or placed a child for adoption (Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute).  This widespread and increasingly accepted social practice nonetheless raises a number of ethical questions.  Should adoptees have the legal right to access their original birth records, or should such records be sealed, as a way to protect the privacy of birthmothers? Is international adoption a benevolent practice that serves the best interests of children, or an exploitative practice in which privileged (usually white) first world persons selfishly satisfy their desire to have children? Why are so many African American children in foster care and do present day social policies in the U.S. serve the well-being of these children or perpetuate a history of U.S. racism? Should gay and lesbian couples have the legal right to adopt?

This course will address these questions and more. Rather than understanding adoption as "good" or "bad", adoption will be examined as a complex and multifaceted social practice informed by deeply entrenched systems of power, privilege, and disadvantage.  Using adoption as our lens, we will investigate some of the legacies of gender inequality, racism, and global inequality and how they structure the modern day family.  Adoption will be studied from a range of personal, theoretical, historical, and ethical perspectives, highlighting the voices of adoptees, but also addressing the perspectives of birthmothers, adoptive parents and adoption researchers.

ETHS 390-04A:  Adoption, Ethics & the Family
Jean Keller
Nearly 6 out of 10 Americans have a personal experience with adoption-meaning that they, a family member, or a close friend were either adopted, adopted a child, or placed a child for adoption (Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute). This widespread and increasingly accepted social practice nonetheless raises a number of ethical questions.  Should adoptees have the legal right to access their original birth records, or should such records be sealed, as a way to protect the privacy of birthmothers? Is international adoption a benevolent practice that serves the best interests of children, or an exploitative practice in which privileged (usually white) first world persons selfishly satisfy their desire to have children? Why are so many African American children in foster care and do present day social policies in the U.S. serve the well-being of these children or perpetuate a history of U.S. racism? Should gay and lesbian couples have the legal right to adopt?

This course will address these questions and more. Rather than understanding adoption as "good" or "bad", adoption will be examined as a complex and multifaceted social practice informed by deeply entrenched systems of power, privilege, and disadvantage.  Using adoption as our lens, we will investigate some of the legacies of gender inequality, racism, and global inequality and how they structure the modern day family.  Adoption will be studied from a range of personal, theoretical, historical, and ethical perspectives, highlighting the voices of adoptees, but also addressing the perspectives of birthmothers, adoptive parents and adoption researchers.

ETHS 390-05A:  Ethics & Performance
Adam Houghton
Great artists perform to make sense of the world around them and to answer major questions about the human condition.  The best performances clearly reveal meaning and allow spectators to recognize truth from their varied perspectives.  Just seeing a great performance can change a person's life.  For example, a film about a family's struggle over an abortion has changed spectators' opinions on the issue.  Students taking this course will use artistic performances in theater, film, and television to identify and analyze ethical issues.  Yet no matter how great an artistic performance is, it is not real life-it is a formal contrivance devised to make the spectator think, feel, and value the artist's ideas.  Therefore students will peel back the layers of ethical issues not only in the performance stories, but in the performance methods as well.  Students' analysis will explore how art imitates life and life imitates art.  People create informal performance in daily life, and those performances have ethical issues to examine.  Whether students look at artistic performance or informal human performance, the goal is the same: to make sense of the world and seek answers to life's major questions.  Requires attendance at evening performances.

ETHS 390-06A:  Happiness Is.....
Rodger Narloch
When people are asked what they want in life, a common response is that they just want to be happy.  But what is happiness and how do we attain it?  In this course, we will discuss a variety of different perspectives on these questions.  We will address what self-focused happiness might look like, but then transition to questions of how an individual's happiness relates to the happiness of others (and which others?).  Furthermore, we will discuss what it means to be morally good and the extent to which being good is a necessary component in being happy.  Finally, we will think about the nature of choices and decision making, especially as they relate to the formation of one's identity and vocation or path in life.  Ultimately, students will have to propose their own educated model or theory of happiness and articulate its implications for how they plan to live their lives.  These topics will be covered through extensive class discussion based on significant amounts of writing in response to readings from philosophical, psychological, as well as Catholic and Benedictine perspectives.

ETHS 390-07A:  Business Ethics
Jean Ochu
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 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 though 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 an interest in business.

ETHS 390-08A:  Happiness Is.....
Rodger Narloch
When people are asked what they want in life, a common response is that they just want to be happy.  But what is happiness and how do we attain it?  In this course, we will discuss a variety of different perspectives on these questions.  We will address what self-focused happiness might look like, but then transition to questions of how an individual's happiness relates to the happiness of others (and which others?).  Furthermore, we will discuss what it means to be morally good and the extent to which being good is a necessary component in being happy.  Finally, we will think about the nature of choices and decision making, especially as they relate to the formation of one's identity and vocation or path in life.  Ultimately, students will have to propose their own educated model or theory of happiness and articulate its implications for how they plan to live their lives.  These topics will be covered through extensive class discussion based on significant amounts of writing in response to readings from philosophical, psychological, as well as Catholic and Benedictine perspectives.

ETHS 390-09A:  Business Ethics
Daniel Farnham
This course will examine ethical and social issues associated with contemporary American business. Responsibilities of businesses to employees, consumers and the society at large will be considered. Questions of individual moral responsibility and questions of social justice and public policy will be addressed. Students will examine these issues from the point of view of a variety of stakeholders: business management, employees, investors, consumers, and citizens. Prerequisite: students are strongly encouraged to have taken at least one previous course in management, accounting, philosophy, or economics.

ETHS 390-10A:  Ethics, Morality & the Family
Kathy Twohy
All of us belong to one or more families that help form, guide, and constrain our decisions. Using Rest's Model of Moral Behavior as a framework, we will focus on the development of moral persons in the family context and discuss some of the many ethical issues faced by today's families. Decisions about the ethics of allocating family resources (including money, time, energy, etc.)whether or not to marry and parent, care of aging parents, parental rights vs. children's rights, honesty, and raising moral children are some of the issues that will be considered. Stimulated by texts, films/DVD's and actual family dialogue we will identify and analyze family ethical issues. Course requirements include mandatory attendance, participation in class discussion, keeping a journal, and several analytical/reflective papers. A-F grading only.

ETHS 390-11A:  Business Ethics
Daniel Farnham
This course will examine ethical and social issues associated with contemporary American business. Responsibilities of businesses to employees, consumers and the society at large will be considered. Questions of individual moral responsibility and questions of social justice and public policy will be addressed. Students will examine these issues from the point of view of a variety of stakeholders: business management, employees, investors, consumers, and citizens. Prerequisite: students are strongly encouraged to have taken at least one previous course in management, accounting, philosophy, or economics.

ETHS 390-12A:  Reading for Life
Anthony 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), How To Be Good(Nick Hornby), Reading in the Dark (Seamus Deane), and Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston).

HONR 390: Reading for Life
Anthony 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), How To Be Good(Nick Hornby), Reading in the Dark (Seamus Deane), and Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston).

PHIL 321:  Moral Philosophy
Steve Wagner
We will first consider some of the most prominent moral theories in the tradition of western philosophical thought, such as the views of Aristotle, John Stuart Mill and Immanuel Kant. We will analyze their views to see if they provide adequate guides for living a good life. We will then turn to a number of contemporary moral views which claim to offer variations or alternatives to the classical models-such as feminist ethics, virtue ethics, and the use of literary texts to develop moral points of view. Most of our work will be through class discussion of our readings. Our focus throughout will be to consider whether we can find guidance for our own lives in the moral views we will consider.

PHIL 322: Environmental Ethics
Charles Wright
The impact of industrial human civilization on the earth's living systems is enormous and still growing.  Until about fifty years ago few people gave much thought to the matter.  Now, however, in the face of global warming, collapsing ecosystems, species extinctions, dead zones, toxic waste sites, and a variety of other ecological ills, modern humans have begun to reconsider their relationship with the biosphere.  From one perspective, such rethinking is simply a matter of self-interest.  Modern humans understand better now that our own health depends on having healthy living systems around us.  But is there more to it than self-interest?  This class will introduce students to the question of the ethical dimensions of our relationship to animals and living systems.  We will study the work of pioneering thinkers who seek to radically revise traditional human-centered conceptions of morality and who offer a vision of a human life rooted in ethical consideration for all living beings.  

PHIL 325:  Feminist Ethics
Jean Keller
Daily headlines bring to our attention a whole host of challenging and seemingly intractable social problems. How, in the face of such challenges, are we to plan out and live our lives? What are our responsibilities, as individuals and communities, to engage and try to resolve such problems? And how do such moral obligations stack up against our desire to pursue our own passions and careers and to care for our family and friends? In this course, we'll use moral theory to engage problems posed by the news, literature, and students own lives as a means to address pressing contemporary ethical concerns.

PHIL 339:  Chinese Philosophy
Charles Wright
Students in this course will engage in the close reading and discussion of selected foundational texts in the Chinese Philosophical tradition.  One central course theme will be the Confucian emphasis on individual cultivation of virtuous character and the role such character plays in assuring the appropriate utilization of government authority.  Another will be the Taoist analysis of the dysfunctional nature of the competitive pursuit of wealth and prestige, accompanied by their provocative argument that a genuinely satisfying life can only be obtained by abandoning such pursuit.  The class will begin with psychologist Richard Nisbett's groundbreaking work, The Geography of Thought, which documents how styles of thinking widespread in China, Japan and Korea can be traced back to these traditions of Chinese philosophy.  We will also examine political philosopher Daniel Bell's recent book East Meets West:  Human Rights and Democracy in East Asia, in which he investigates whether Western democracies might learn something from traditional Chinese social and political thought.

EXERCISE SCIENCE SPORT STUDIES

ESSS 396: Research Seminar
Jean Lavigne
Students in this course will begin the data collection process for previously completed research proposals.  Students will communicate their ideas and progress to class colleagues.  After data collection, students will analyze data and interpret the results.  Conclusions will be drawn from the results and the final projects will be presented on and off campus.  Throughout the research process students will be asked to reflect upon the process, on how their project has integrated their previous coursework, and how performing research has changed their perspectives on health and human performance.
PREREQUISITE: ESSS 391, MATH 124, and PSYC 221 or SOCI 201

GENDER & WOMEN'S STUDIES

GEND 290D:  Men's Studies
Shane Miller
This course will offer an exploration of current topics in the field of men's studies. What is masculinity?  How is it formed? Who does it benefit?  What are its hazards? Readings from a variety of disciplines will challenge students to analyze the way masculinity functions across cultures and in their own cultural context.

GEND 290G:  The Male & Female Bildungsroman: Risks & Strategies in Life and Relationships
Lisa Ohm
Cross-listed with MCLT 223B
After gaining an understanding of the Bildungsroman, a German term for an imprecise subgenre of the novel called "novel of education" or "novel of apprenticeship" (roman d'education in French), we analyze how the Bildungsroman (novel of education) presents the arc of the main protagonist's life within the context of his/her socio-cultural environment. The restrictions placed on women immediately challenge the novel's emphasis on the hero's travel, adventure, love affairs, and university education. Minority writers and writers in other cultures have enlisted the format of the Bildungsroman to portray their unique developmental struggles, male and female. The darkly humorous anti-Bildungsroman points out the implausibility for success for the naïve anti-hero/ine. We read six or seven 19th and 20th-century novels in English from Germany (former East and West), Swiss, British, and American literature; from Turkish-German or other minority literature; and perhaps a Spanish pícaro novel. We also read selected pertinent journal articles or chapters by literary critics on the Bildungsroman.

GEND 360E: Contemporary Japanese Women Writers
Yuko Shibata
Cross-listed with MCLT 316A
This course introduces entertainment novels, comics, and films created by Japanese female writers and directors since the 1970's. Postwar economic development made it possible for young talented women to go into a variety of cultural fields and become successful. We examine how these contemporary female creators have come to terms with issues of gender, sexuality, race, class, and nation as well as how their products have intersected the changing phases of economic conditions. Their works have created new businesses, not only in Japan but also in the broader Asian market, by being combined with thriving local entertainment industries. We also consider what these phenomena signify, especially when the images of the West, Asia, the US and Japan are diversely reflected in these works.

GEND 360F: Gender & Work
Sucharita Mukherjee
Gender as a social construct critically defines work done or occupations engaged in by men and women in different societies. The engagement of different kinds of work and the value attached with such work is a critical component of consequent status and power experienced by different members of society. This course engages in a study of the causes and implications of this gender division of labor and attempts to understand it through varied perspectives of race and geographic locations as well. Organizations, ranging from business corporations to government agencies to families, are formed to engage in labor.  Within such organizations, men and women experience different work realities and different outcomes. We will also explore how gender influences organizational behavior, including topics such as motivation, leadership and group processes.  Finally, we will engage in studying our own work related behavior, and the ways in which gender influences such behavior.

GEND 360G: Masculinities in War & Peace
Kelly Kraemer
In this course we will examine the multiple definitions and constructions of masculine identity that emerge from human experiences with war and peace. We will examine the Warrior as the archetype of masculinity, discuss alternative conceptions of masculine identity,  and explore ways of rethinking masculinity to help build cultures of peace. We will also take a look at some of the complex interconnections between masculinities, gender, sex, and nationality.

GEND 363:  Gender & American Popular Religions
Martha Tomhave Blauvelt
Cross-listed with THEO 319G
This course examines both the remarkable variety of spiritual expression and the consistent preoccupation with gender in American popular religions. Our subjects will vary from evangelical Protestants to Italian American and post-Vatican Council Catholics to Mormons to Muslims to New Age devotees to 12 step organizations such as AA which serve religious functions, beginning in 1800 but focusing on the 20th and 21st c.

In American popular religion, concepts of divine and human families have been interconnected,  gender roles and imagery of masculinity and femininity have been central to faith concepts and been expressed in a great variety of ways, and faith traditions have alternatively and sometimes simultaneously challenged and reinforced gender norms, class lines, and concepts of race. Our course focuses equally on men and women and masculinity and femininity.

We will understand this gender in American popular religion through spirituality that expresses itself in emotional conversion experiences, communal music, commercial art and film and understandings of food; and we will move beyond the pew to processions in the streets, prayer and practices within homes, political parties, protests against drink and outdoor religious revivals. Above all, we will enter into the lives of individuals as they experience spirituality, so we will understand the immediacy, complexity and power of religion and gender. One of the central themes of this course is that historically there has not been any single way to either believe religion or to experience gender, even within single denominations, but that both faith and gender have been historically contingent experiences incorporating tremendous variety and challenging us to be open to new ideas.

GEND 382: Gender in American History
Martha Tomhave Blauvelt
"Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less," Elizabeth Cady Stanton proclaimed in her appropriately titled 1860s newspaper, Revolution.  This course charts the revolutions in male and female experiences that took place - or failed to take place - between the late 18th and early 20th c.  During this period, Americans repeatedly reimagined masculinity, from sensitive and emotional gentlemen to benevolent patriarchs to ruthless competitors to efficient reformers, while images of femininity varied from the seductive Eve to the submissive mother to the athletic and well educated New Woman.  Gender intersected with class and race to make men's and women's experiences even more varied: we will examine the experiences of a Maine midwife, the conflict between an immigrant father and his daughters, intense same-sex friendships (which were much admired in this culture),efforts of enslaved men and women to expand their freedom, and the men and women who supported or resisted the largest expansion of rights in American history: the vote for women.  Our themes will be the complexity of gender, the importance of law and of sexuality, and what impedes and makes change possible in individual lives and in society.  As sources we will use personal diaries, oral histories, autobiographies, novels, political statements, and the material stuff of the past (clothes, paintings, quilts, posters - I am a collector and do research on this period and will bring originals to class for us to examine), as well as scholarly books analyzing this period.  Course requirements include three essays, each covering one-third of the course; there are no in-class exams.  Active and informed participation in discussion is essential to this course.


HISPANIC STUDIES

HISP 356A: Seminar:  Hispanic Culture: Conflict Transformation in Latin America
Roy Ketchum
Cross-listed with PCST 368L
Global Process-Local Conflict: By using a case study approach to conflict in Latin America, this course will consider events and experiences of the global colliding with the local. Environmental, economic and cultural considerations will be explored through representations of lived experience in the form of essay, film and narrative. Case studies may include: indigenous social movements, responses to privatization of water, and conflicts emerging around resources. Making use of specific sites in Latin America, the course will introduce tools for analyzing conflict and provide practice in approaches such as stakeholders mapping and role-play. Student groups will research their own case study of conflict and facilitate an interactive learning event. The course will be conducted in Spanish.

PREREQUISITE: HISP 312 and at least one HISP course at 320 or above or instructor approval.
HISP 356B: Seminar in Hispanic Linguistics: Dialectology
Tania Gomez
This course serves as an overview of linguistic variation of Spanish in the world. The course begins with the history of the Spanish language and then we will review the most important phonetic/phonological, morpho-syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic features present in various Spanish dialects (Central America, South America, Spain, Philippines, and the United States). Geographical, social, and historical considerations will be vital to understand the origins of the variation. This course will contribute to enrich your view of Spanish, either as a native speaker or as a Spanish learner, and it will allow you to develop your analytical skills. The course will be conducted entirely in Spanish (although some readings are in English). HISP 350 is highly recommended.

HISP 360B: The New Song: Music with a Message
Elena Sanchez Mora
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.

HISTORY

HIST 200: Sophomore Colloquium:  Debating the French Revolution
Elisabeth Wengler
The ideas and events of the French Revolution continue to be hotly debated more than 200 years later. Was it a revolution of the bourgeoisie? Was it a revolution of the working class? What role did books and ideas play? Why did a revolution whose motto was "liberté, égalité, fraternité" (liberty, equality and brotherhood) devolve into the Reign of Terror? Was the Revolution a success or a failure? Was women's position better or worse as a result?

We will explore these and other questions in an intensive role-playing game in which you, the students, become revolutionaries and debate the future of France . You may play King Louis XVI or perhaps a member of the crowd who calls for his head!  You'll base your arguments on the texts and contexts of the French Revolution, by immersing yourselves in a variety of primary sources including eye witness accounts of events  like the fall of the Bastille, newspaper articles written from different political perspectives, revolutionary songs, images, Rousseau's Social Contract and Burke's Reflections.  You'll be challenged to read carefully, think analytically and creatively, and participate actively to make the case for your character's goals and ideals through your written and oral presentations. You may even change history!

HIST 300A:  Atlantic World
Jonathan Nash 
This class will provide students with a thematic introduction to Atlantic history, one of the most exciting fields of recent historical scholarship. Historian J.H. Elliott defines Atlantic history as the study "of the creation, destruction and re-creation of communities as a result of the movement, across and around the Atlantic basin, of people, commodities, cultural practices, and ideas" between the late-fifteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. We will begin by exploring the methodology of Atlantic historians and conclude by reflecting on the use of the "Atlantic World" as a historical concept. In between, we will study the meetings and migrations of Europeans, indigenous Americans, and West Africans; trans-Atlantic exchanges of commodities such as chocolate, tobacco, and sugar; competitions for land, labor, souls, and wealth; how slave traders tried to transform captured Africans into slaves; how enslaved people asserted their humanity; and, lastly, revolutionary upheavals. While learning the histories of the Atlantic World, students will have opportunities to strengthen their analytical reading, critical thinking, argumentative writing, and public speaking.

HIST 381: Readings Seminar:  Creating Colonial Spanish America
Brian Larkin
The Spanish Americas served as laboratories of colonization.  There, Iberian Europeans conquered densely populated indigenous empires and sought to incorporate these vanquished peoples as subordinates into colonial society.  At the same time, Spaniards imported vast numbers of African slaves to labor as domestic servants and field hands.  How did the various Indian and African groups respond to colonial demands?  Did they resist, accommodate, and/or ignore their colonial masters?  Did their responses change over place and time? In this class, we will address these questions and others as we explore how these three populations created hybrid societies and cultures-forms that were not wholly European, indigenous, or African, but something entirely new- in the Spanish New World.

As we explore the history of the colonial Spanish Americas, we will also hone sophisticated skills of historical analysis.  The class will focus on how to analyze historical monographs for argument, evidence, and methodology. Students will participate in lively seminar discussions and write a series of short essays, analyzing the books we will read.

HIST 395: Historiography and Methods: History, Memory, and the Politics of Remembering
Gregory Schroeder
In HIST 395, students are expected to develop the research skills and historiographical awareness required for their independent projects in HIST 399 Senior Thesis, the History major capstone course. These goals are best achieved through the study of a specific subject matter, and for this particular course, our subjects are the concepts of "history" and "memory," i.e., the ways in which societies and people interpret the past, what they remember, and why they remember.  Sometimes, what is forgotten is as significant as what is remembered.  These topics are centrally important to the work of the historian, and so our work will not only develop research skills but also provide an opportunity to consider and discuss history and why it matters to us as individuals and societies. Common course readings will cover theoretical works on the nature of history and memory - they are not the same thing -- as well as case studies on topics such as national identity, memorials, museums, historic sites, and debates over interpreting the past. Many of the common readings pertain to the legacy of the Second World War and to European countries, but the course will explore other topics and countries as well. For their final projects, students will select their own history/memory topic and employ their skills to design and write a historiographical essay.

HONORS

HONR 220A: Introduction to Economics
Ernest Diedrich
Why are some countries rich and others poor? Why are some individuals rich and others poor? Is international trade harmful to the environment or helpful? What causes unemployment?  Who the heck is Ben Bernanke and why should you care?  Should you stay in business even if you are losing money?  How much is a human life worth?  This course will address these and many other issues through the lens of economic analysis.  We will cover all of the material of an introductory economics and push beyond this through additional readings and quantitative sources.  Bring your curiosity!  (This course will be accepted as a substitute for ECON 111 - Introduction to Economics within the Economics curriculum and as a Social Science course in the common curriculum.)

HONR 220B:  Introduction to Human Communication
Karyl Daughters
This course provides students with a general overview of communication theory and research, particularly as it relates to their everyday interactions.  Topics may include theories of communication on meaning, language, perception, nonverbal cues, gender, relationships, self-disclosure, conflict, listening, persuasion, groups, organizations, and cultures.

HONR 240A: The Biblical Tradition
Vincent Smiles
An introduction to the discipline of Christian theology with a substantial focus on select themes and texts of the scriptures, such as creation, covenant, kingdom, prophets, gospel and New Testament letters.  Attention is also given to the method of theological study and the development of the Christian tradition since Biblical times.  Students will be introduced to the Biblical languages, especially Hebrew, and will learn to think critically both about the Bible and about modern theological controversies.

HONR 250L: Philosophy of Human Nature
Erica Stonestreet
What are humans like?  What is the purpose of human life?  These basic questions can be answered from different points of view, and focused on different aspects of being human.  What does it mean to be a human animal?  Are we fundamentally selfish?  How should we live?  What is the connection between body and mind, or body and soul?  This course is a survey designed to introduce philosophical ideas and modes of thought, with a central focus on problems arising from human nature.  We will analyze and criticize topics that fall under four major aspects of the human condition: body, mind, soul, and society.  We'll raise questions and discuss the implications of each topic for the meanings of our own lives, for how we ought to behave as individuals, and for how we should treat one another in order to build the best lives possible for ourselves.

HONR 270C: Problem Solving
Lynn Ziegler
An introduction to solving complex problems in interdisciplinary topics which will be drawn from mathematics, computer science, and physics.  Students will work in groups and present their results.
PREREQUISITE: MATH 119 and admission to MAPCORES program or consent in instructor.

HONR 311: Great Books/Great Ideas
Scott Richardson
This is a year-long discussion based seminar that concentrates on some of the world's greatest works of literature, philosophy, and intellectual history.  Authors may include Augustine, Euripides, Austen, Thoreau, Biblical writers, Camus, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Eliot, Faulkner, Pynchon, Freud, Homer, Kafka, Flaubert, Melville, Dinesen, Flannery O'Connor, Plato, Nabokov, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Virginia Woolf, and others.  Preference will be given to Junior and Senior honors students who will complete the entire year.  Registration is by permission of the instructor only.  All students in this course purchase a personal library consisting of roughly 100 books, and students are required to read a number of works during the summer.'

HONR 340I:  Spiritual Traditions of Islam:  The Religion & Politics of Islam
Noreen Herzfeld
Cross-listed with HONR 350H
Islam shapes much of our current political and social context, through events such as 9/11, the Arab spring, our complex relationship with Iran and continued presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. Islam is also the fastest growing faith in America.  This course will focus on how Muslims have encountered God, how this encounter informs their daily lives, and how the traditions of Islam are influencing and informing current political and cultural events around the globe.

Studying another faith tradition also provides a lens through which to examine one's own faith and society, and an appreciation for the commonality of the human condition. Our study of Islam will raise a variety of broader questions, including faith versus reason, the role and position of women, the rights of religious and cultural minorities, freedom of speech vs. religious respect, and multiculturalism vs. assimilation.
PREREQUISITE: THEO 111

HONR 350:  Studies in Critical Theory and Culture
Michael Opitz
Cross-listed with ENGL 369
The catalog description of this course states that the course will involve a "study of selected critical theories and application, using such approaches."  The language of this description could be expanded to include the study of the stories a culture tells about itself in both literary and non-literary form.  This version of the course will center on the substance and symbolism of reggae music which began in Jamaica and has evolved into an important facet of pan-African thinking.  Reggae music, a particular Jamaican version of the African music we call rock and roll, has been a major form of post-colonial discourse.  The course will necessarily investigate reggae music--its roots, its development and its evolution into a major global force.  We will investigate reggae's use of Rastafarian religious symbolism, and compare and contrast this symbolism with our culture's religious symbolism.

The course will bring to bear the insights provided by one or more interpretive theories.  We will study the methodology of semiotics (the reading of symbols and signs) and apply understandings of semiotics to reggae and Rastafarianism.  Readings will include some contemporary Marxist theory, post-colonial theory, works by Marcus Garvey, C.L.R. James, Roland Barthes, Edward Said, Gayle Rubin, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer as well as some examples of underdevelopment theory.  We will also screen the film The Harder They Come and a documentary, A Great and Mighty Walk, which profiles historian John Henrik Clarke.  Works of Bob Marley and other reggae artists will provide further textual material for the course.

The class periods will be discussion-based with time devoted to lecture and critical  listening to music.  

HONR 350H:  Spiritual Traditions of Islam:  The Religion & Politics of Islam
Noreen Herzfeld
Cross-listed with HONR 340I
Islam shapes much of our current political and social context, through events such as 9/11, the Arab spring, our complex relationship with Iran and continued presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. Islam is also the fastest growing faith in America.  This course will focus on how Muslims have encountered God, how this encounter informs their daily lives, and how the traditions of Islam are influencing and informing current political and cultural events around the globe.

Studying another faith tradition also provides a lens through which to examine one's own faith and society, and an appreciation for the commonality of the human condition. Our study of Islam will raise a variety of broader questions, including faith versus reason, the role and position of women, the rights of religious and cultural minorities, freedom of speech vs. religious respect, and multiculturalism vs. assimilation.
PREREQUISITE:  THEO 111

HONR 370B:  Research Seminar
Lynn Ziegler
Solving complex problems in interdisciplinary topics which will be drawn from mathematics, computer science, and physics.  Students will work in groups and present their results.
PREREQUISITE: HONR 270 and admission to MAPCORES program or consent of instructor.

HONR 390:  Ethics Common Seminar:  Reading for Life
Anthony 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), How To Be Good(Nick Hornby), Reading in the Dark (Seamus Deane), and Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston).