General Education. One seminar may be used in fulfilling the General Education requirement in humanities and history. In addition, designated seminars may be used to fulfill the quantitative requirement. (See 7.c under "Degree Requirements,")

Courses

069. Psychology and Peace. This seminar considers the contribution of psychological concepts to the development and maintenance of world peace. The concepts are used both to analyze the conditions that have led to the current level of international tensions, and to evaluate proposals for the promotion of world peace. Fall semester. R. Wagner.

084. Anatomy of a Few Small Machines. One can treat the products of technology as "black boxes" — plain in purpose but mysterious in function. A more flexible and exciting life is available to those who look on all such devices as mere extensions of their hands and minds — who believe they could design, build, modify, and repair anything they put their hands on. This course helps students do this primarily through practice. Only common sense is required, but participants must be willing to attack any aspect of science and technology. Field trips are required. Fall semester. G. Clough.

127. Experimental Music. Whether in classical, jazz, popular, or category-defying music styles, experimentalists challenge inherited definitions and social conventions of music by favoring expanded sound sources, unconventional formal structures, and radical performance practices. This seminar examines the roots, history, and musical documents of American experimental music from Benjamin Franklin to Frank Zappa. Fall semester. A. Beal.

135. Women in Art. The role of women in the fine arts has produced exciting new studies for art history. Ranging from ancient Egypt to the modern world, this seminar discusses women as the makers of art, the subjects of art, and the patrons of art. Winter semester. R. Corrie.

150. Hamlet. This course undertakes an intensive study of Shakespeare's play, with particular emphasis on the various ways it has been interpreted through performance. Students read the play closely, view several filmed versions, and investigate historical productions in order to arrive at a sense of Hamlet's changing identity and enduring importance. Winter semester. M. Andrucki.

193. WISE Women: Women In Science and Engineering. Imagine a future where women make up fifty percent of the scientific community. Would the practice or content of science be different in such a world? This course examines the status of women in science through an exploration of the lives, times, and works of women scientists, past and present. Winter semester. B. Shulman.

225. Utopias and Dystopias. Is an "ideal" or "perfect" social order possible or desirable? Can a state of dystopia or "wretchedness" be avoided? What factors distinguish one condition from the other? This course draws upon a number of genres — fiction, political treatises, and historical writings — in order to explore the notion of utopian and dystopian societies. Such exploration encourages us to ask how our current social order could be re-envisioned by challenging taken-for-granted norms and institutional structures for social interaction, political decision-making, and resource distribution. Fall semester. S. Smith.

234. The U.S. Relocation Camps in World War II. During World War II, the United States government interned over 110,000 American citizens of Japanese descent and resident Japanese in "relocation camps" far away from their homes. This course studies the history of Asian immigration to the United States; the political, social, and economic conditions of the United States prior to internment; the relocation camps themselves; and the politics of redress leading to the presidential apology over the wartime "mistake" a half century later. Fall semester. A. Hirai.

235. Einstein: The Man and His Ideas. An introduction to the life of Albert Einstein and to his special theory of relativity. The seminar begins with a study of Einstein's life, through biographies and his own writings. Next, his special theory of relativity is developed, and its seemingly bizarre predictions about time, length, and mass are discussed. The experimental verifications of these predictions are then studied. Finally, some of the philosophical implications of the theory are discussed, as well as some of its applications to nuclear weapons and modern theories of the universe. Fall semester. M. Semon.

237. Reinventing Politics. Can we change? Can political writings affect our ability to reimagine and reinvent our political lives? Through the reading and writing of diverse forms of political literature, students explore the central concerns of politics: human nature; how we interact with others; how we inherit, deliberate on, and choose our collective lives. Readings focus on three cultural areas — the West, China, and the Middle East — and include historical studies, political philosophy, personal essays, and fictional works. Students improve their own writing skills through work on the traditional linear research paper, the personal essay, and historical or science fiction. Winter semester. A. MacLeod.

242. Identities. Aspects of ourselves we hold most dear, most changeless, are, in actuality, socially fashioned. This seminar examines the raw materials out of which identities are formed, fixed, and made to appear timeless. Students consider how our variously gendered, raced, classed, and otherwise imperatively regarded selves become named, learned, performed, and enforced in different cultural and institutional settings. Students examine how systems of production, ownership, and religion help mold notions of personhood. Through ethnographic interviews, historical research, and the analysis of print and Web-based texts, students have ample opportunity to explore in their research papers aspects of personal, family, and other corporate identities. Fall semester. C. Carnegie.

243. Science of Alternative Medicines. Americans spend a great deal of money on herbal remedies and other nutritional supplements and make frequent visits to nontraditional healers. This course investigates the science behind these alternative medicines, first by defining what "alternative medicines" are, and then by analyzing the scientific basis of these therapies. Course activities include small group discussions of readings, presentations by practitioners and other experts in the field, and student presentations of findings from the literature. Fall semester. N. Kleckner.

244. (Un/Nu)clear Fallout: Nuclear Fission Technologies and Environmental Human Health. After the bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, atomic fission technologies were a part of modern culture. Were humans prepared for the environmental and human health effects of atomic fission? If they were not prepared, was it due to ignorance, hubris, deliberate indifference, or some other factor or combination of factors? In this seminar students study the environmental and human health effects of atomic fission technologies, and the people who made decisions about these effects, beginning with the earliest experiments and continuing through present-day controversies surrounding the disposal of radioactive material. Fall semester. R. Austin.

246. Wall Street. This seminar takes a critical look at the pulsating heart of American capitalism: Wall Street. Topics include the role of Wall Street in the American financialsystem; definitions of financial assets; theories of financial asset valuation; the history of Wall Street; speculative bubbles; monetary policy and financial markets; the influence of Wall Street on the economy; the influence of Wall Street on society. Winter semester. D. Aschauer.

247. Growing into Japaneseness: Childhood and Adolescence in Japanese Society and Culture. How do people come to experience themselves as being of a particular nationality, and how do they come to define that nationality as they do? How is this related to the process of their becoming men and women? This seminar explores these questions by looking at the experience of one group of people in one particular contemporary society: children in Japan. The course considers in particular the roles of education and mass culture in the process of coming to adulthood. Texts include historical and social scientific analyses as well as fiction and comics. All readings and discussion are in English. Winter semester. M. Wender.

248. Feminist Ethics. Feminist ethics has proliferated during the past two decades partly in response to important work by Carol Gilligan, whose groundbreaking book, In a Different Voice criticizes Lawrence Kohlberg's gender-biased theory of moral development. Building on this criticism, feminist philosophers have articulated alternative theories of moral development. This work has also expanded to include criticisms of impartial moral theories, including the theories of Immanuel Kant, John Rawls, and others. This course explores each of these criticisms and examines alternatives to the theories in question. The course examines ethical issues in relationships, such as issues of trust and care. It examines the moral tension between justice and care. Finally, it explores the conflicts between principle-based and particularist moral epistemologies. Fall semester. S. Stark.

249. Global Economy and Nation-State. Is the global economy actually displacing the nation-state, making it an obsolete social entity destined for extinction? This question is at the heart of a growing — and polarized — debate among sociologists and political scientists. Some argue that the nation-state is destined for disintegration while others that the nation-state will endure, and even be strengthened by, the global economy. This seminar critically evaluates arguments on both sides of the debate. Students take the European Union (EU) and the Common Market of South America (Mercosur) as potential precursors of tomorrow's global economy, and investigate the strength of the nation state in those contexts. Fall semester. F. Duina.

250. Ethics and Human Rights in Sports. Sports play a major role in many aspects of most cultures. The issues pertaining to "sports" and culture as well as the choices made surrounding these issues can have a major impact on the lives of people everywhere. This course examines some of the philosophical, political, economic, sociological, religious, and legal issues associated with "sports." Topics addressed include corporate ethics and sport, gender issues, racism and sports-related, ethical decision-making, and specific sports-related human rights issues. Winter semester. G. Purgavie.

251. Spectacles of Blood: Roman Gladiators and Christian Martyrs. This course considers the sociology of violence in the ancient world by exploring the question, "Why did Romans like to watch people die?" Students trace the history of gladiatorial games from their origins as Etruscan funeral rites to their culmination in violent spectacles of death routinely enjoyed by Romans of every segment of society in the early empire. In the second half of the course, students trace the phenomenon of martyrdom in the early Christian Church and the reasons why Christian martyrs might embrace a violent, public death in the arena. Assigned readings are drawn from English translations of primary sources and selected secondary readings. Students write, critique, and revise a series of short essays and team Web pages on topics related to the course. Fall semester. M. Imber.

252. Playing God: From Creation to Doomsday in Medieval Drama. This course opens a window onto the popular culture of the late Middle Ages in England through a study of the sequential drama known as the mystery plays. Individual plays were linked together to tell a story that opened before the beginning of the world and closed after God's formal judgment of mankind. With their earthy, often comic realism, the plays enact a new and radical juxtaposition of the sacred and the profane that affirms and questions religious and social orthodoxies. Winter semester. A. Thompson.

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