2006-2007 Courses

Freshmen Learning Communities--Fall 2006

1. Creating a Sustainable Environment for the Future (8 credits)

This learning community explores the central role of sustainability of Earth's environment in our contemporary society. Earth's environment can be positively or negatively impacted by the actions of individuals, local agents such as businesses or community groups, nations, and international bodies. Topics will include: (a) a basic understanding of Earth's natural systems of the atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere; (b) how societies transform those natural processes to alter our environment; (c) the power of dialogue and understanding in working towards a sustainable future. Through the theme of what it means to be a part of a sustainable civilization, this learning community will study college writing, laboratory science about Earth's natural systems, and the cultural aspects of the environmental sustainability of human activities.
This community continues in spring with a 1 credit seminar and a 3 credit class “Society and the Environment" (GPH 210 meeting SB and G). Students needing Math 142 or ENG 102 will also be able to take special sections focusing on how societies can destroy or live in harmony with the environment.

ENG194: Learning Community Writing
GPH 111: Introductions to Physical Geography: Understanding Earth System Science (SQ)
GCU 194: Cultural Geography: Sustainability Seminar
Librarian: Katherine O'Clair, Life Sciences Librarian

Faculty: Ronald Dorn,(Lead), Peter Goggin

Faculty Disciplines: Cultural Geography & Sustainability, Geography Sciences, English

General Studies Credits: L, SQ

2. Human Disease and Society (11 credits)

This community will look at disease and some of its implications for society, from health problems to ethical, philosophical and historical implications. Students get a foundation in biology and biomedical studies and are introduced to the important issues that are posed by the diseases that have ravaged mankind.

ENG194: Learning Community Writing

BIO 188: General Biology II: Biology for Majors (SQ)
PHI 120 : Bioethics (H)
LIA 194: Integrative Seminar
Librarian: Sheila Hofstetter, Health Sciences Librarian

Faculty: Kenneth Mossman (Lead), Sandra Woien, Karen Dwyer

Faculty Disciplines: Medical Biology, Bioethics, English.

General Studies Credits: L, SQ, H

3. Human Disease and Society--II (11 credits)

This learning community examines health maladies and their implications from biological, cultural and cross-cultural perspectives. Students get a foundation in biology and biomedical studies and are introduced to the important issues that are posed by the diseases and illness that have ravaged humankind. The first semester medical anthropology class sets a context for the learning community by showing the importance of differences among disease, illness and sickness and how they are produced in the interaction of biological factors with cultural, social, economic, political and interpersonal dynamics. Health and disease are examined from the perspective of the ecological, social, political and cultural factors that affect well- being. Cultural models are presented as frameworks for assessment of the factors involved in the social causations of illness, and used to guide development of cultural sensitivity in provider responses to specific health problems and ethnic populations. The second semester focuses on disease in China and provides background for understanding the concepts and diagnoses in that tradition. Some attention is also given to comparative reflections on how Chinese traditions differ from those in Ancient Greece and modern Western Biomedicine.

BIO 188: General Biology: Biology for Majors (SG)

ASB 294: Medical Anthropology (C)

HST 201: Disease in China (SB, H) (spring 2007)

ENG 194: Learning Community Writing (L)

LIA 294: Integrative Seminar

Librarian: Julie Tharp, Reference Librarian

Faculty: David Capco (Lead), Michael Winkelman, Hoyt Tillman, William Martin

Faculty Disciplines: Biology, Medical Anthropology, History, English

General Studies Credits: SG, C, L

4. From Slavery to Hurricane Katrina: Myth, Culture, and Catastrophe in New

Orleans (9 credits)

This Learning Community focuses on three centuries of New Orleans history leading up to Hurricane Katrina, emphasizing the environmental, political, and social vulnerabilities that proved so calamitous for the city, as well as its irreplaceable contributions to American culture and to our notions of what it means to be multicultural. The implications of the disaster are best understood from a holistic perspective that crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries. Accordingly, we will draw upon a broad array of interpretive materials ranging from slave narratives to foreign policy speeches, religious biography to blogs, documentary films to jazz operas. Students will also have the unique opportunity to take part in the New Orleans Disaster Oral History Project by documenting the experiences of Katrina evacuees who have settled in the Phoenix area.

JUS 294: The Making and Unmaking of an American City (SB, C)

WST 294: All that Jazz: Race, Gender, and Power in New Orleans (SB, C, H)
REL 194: City of the Dead (L, HU, C)
Librarian: Deborah Abston, Reference Librarian/Bibliographer

Faculty: Tracy Fessenden (Lead), Karen Leong, Helen T. Quan

Faculty Disciplines: Religious Studies, Women’s Studies, Justice and Social Inquiry

General Studies Credits: L (2), SB (2), C (3), H, HU

5. Thinking Globally: Individual, Authority, and Nature in World Contexts (13 credits)

Thinking Globally is a School of Global Studies course for majors and those interested in majoring in Global Studies. This learning community will study global dynamics by exploring the changing definitions and interconnections of the individual person, authority, and nature. It compares historic civilizations and the emergence of global dynamics through markets, the system of nation-states, colonialism, urbanization, communication technologies, and sources of knowledge and authority (science, civilization, religion). Students will develop an empirical and theoretical foundation in global patterns of interconnectedness and change and in the conflicts driving global policy debates.

ENG 194: Learning Community Writing

SGS101: Thinking Globally: The Individual and Authority (G, SB)

SGS102: Thinking Globally: Technology and Nature in World Settings (G)

FLA 194: Thinking Globally: Individual, Authority and Alterity (HU)

LIA 194: Integrative Seminar (1 credit)

Librarian: Christopher Miller (primary), Southeast Asian Studies Bibliographer

Librarian: Debbie Abston (secondary), Reference Librarian/Bibliographer

Faculty: Carolyn Warner (Lead), George Thomas, Stephen West, Sarah Fedirka

Faculty Disciplines: Global Studies, Global Studies, East Asian Languages & Literature, English

General Studies Credits: HU, SB, G (2)

6. War, Culture, and Memory (12 credits)

The events leading up to World War II, the various aspects of the war itself, and its consequences are best understood from a holistic perspective that crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries. In this freshman Learning Community we will draw upon a broad array of material ranging from international relations theories and theories of foreign policy, to the ethical and religious dimensions of the war and its aftermath, to ways in which the war is reflected in literature and popular culture.

ENG194: Learning Community Writing

REL 201: Religion and War
HST 200: Historical Themes in the United States (SB, H)
POS 160: Global Politics (SB, G)
Librarian: Yuwu Song, Instruction Librarian

Faculty: James Foard (Lead), Kyle Longley, Roxanne Doty, Montye Fuse

Faculty Disciplines: Religious Studies, History, Political Science, English

General Studies Credits: L, SB (2), H, G

Sophomore and Advanced Learning Community

Medicine, Science, and Public Policy: Making Better Choices (9 credits)

Policy decisions about health and medicine are notoriously complex. A broad-based, integrative, interdisciplinary approach can help manage the complexity of decision making, and enable better choices. We will explore connections between medical science and society, examining changing notions of health, disease, life, and death from historical and contemporary perspectives. In the integrative seminar (conducted as part of HPS 394), our special focus will be on public health and healthy public policy. Biological cases and historical examples will be integrated with analysis of public health infrastructure, health care systems, and changes in what is considered “good medicine” and “good health”.

HPS 331: History of Medicine (H)

BIO 431: Genes, Development, and Evolution (L)

HPS 394: Public Health Ethics and Policy

Librarian: Jenny Mueller-Alexander, Business Reference Librarian & Bibliographer

Faculty: Jason Robert (Lead), Manfred Laubichler, Jane Maienschein

Faculty Disciplines: Bioethics, Biology, Public Policy

General Studies Credits: H, L