2005–2006 Courses
Spring 2006 Learning Communities
1. Theme: Contemporary Global Trends (Freshmen)
This Learning Community is designed for interested students and majors in the School of Global Studies (SGS). Students will examine patterns and processes that have shaped world-wide change and international institutions since World War II. The course will introduce a range of concepts and theoretical perspectives key to understanding how the dynamic flow of ideas, people, culture and capital in a globalize era can give rise to tremendous global opportunities and challenges. This Learning Community will be structured around both theoretical approaches and concrete case studies with the active participation of students in the form of working groups. (9 credits)
Courses:
SGS 103: Transitions in Global Culture and Political Economy (SB, G)
SGS 194: Religion, Conflict and Transformation (HU)
ENG 101/102/105: First Year Composition: The Discourse of Global Change
ENG 194: Advanced First Year Writing (L)
ENG 294: Critical Reading and Writing: The Discourse of Global Change
Faculty: Hyaeweol Choi (Lead Faculty), David Damrel, Sarah Fedirka
Faculty Disciplines: Korean Studies, Religious Studies, English
General Studies Credits: L, HU, SB, G
2. Theme: Human Disease and Society (Freshman)
This community will look at disease and some of its implications for society, from health problems to ethical, philosophical, and cultural 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 humankind. Additionally, health and disease are examined from the perspective of the ecological, social, political and cultural factors that affect well-being. Models of social causations of illness and cultural sensitivity in provider response are presented as frameworks for analysis of specific health problems and for relating to specific ethnic populations, respectively. (11 credits)
Courses:
BIO 187: General Biology: Biology for Majors (SG)
PHI 294: Medical Anthropology (C)
ENG 101/102/105: First Year Composition: Language and Making Science
ENG 194: Advanced First Year Writing (L)
ENG 294: Critical Reading and Writing: Language and Making Science
LIA 194: Integrative Seminar
Faculty: David Capco (Lead Faculty), Kenneth Mossman, Michael Winkelman, Karen Dwyer
Faculty Disciplines:Biology, Medical Anthropology, English
General Studies Credits: SG, C, L
Fall 2005 Freshmen Learning Communities
1. Theme: Baseball Diamonds
This community will examine the meaning of baseball in America. It will explore the game's role in shaping American cultural values and national identity, as well as in building community. Topics willinclude: (a) baseball's transformation from grass-rootsamateur play to its commercial form as a professional sport; (b) baseball's role as a tool of American socialization from dugout to diamond and from pressbox to grandstands and beyond; (c) baseball as mirror of American notions of class, race, ethnicity and gender; (d) the literature and the mathematics of baseball from box scores to Ball Four, ERA's to RBI's, fiction to film, and the infinities in between, and (e) baseball the game--how, where and when it's played, who plays it, and why it matters so much to so many. This community will integrate college writing and applied mathematics with concepts and readings from literature, anthropology, ethnic studies and social psychology. (9 credits)
ENG 101/102/105: First-Year Composition: Baseball Fungoes
MAT 142: Mathematics: Math, Society & Box Scores
ASB 252: Introduction to Serious Fun: Comparative Sports and Culture
CCS 210: Introduction to Ethnic Studies: Baselines and Color Lines
Faculty: Cordelia Candelaria, Hjorleifur Jonsson, Ryan Melendez, Robert Short
Faculty Disciplines: English, Mathematics, Anthropology, Chicano/a Studies, Psychology
2. Theme: Human Disease and Society
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. (11 credits).
ENG 101/102/105/194: First-Year Composition
BIO 188:General Biology: Biology for Majors
PHI 294: Bioethics
LIA 294: Integrative Seminar
Faculty: Kenneth Mossman, David Capco, Sandra Woien, Karen Dwyer
Faculty Disciplines: Microbiology, Biology, English, Life Sciences
3. Theme: Thinking Globally: Individual, Society and New World Order
This learning community will examine the values that produce world order and civilization, the existence of the nation-state, as well as the emergence of a globalized world through commercialization, industrialization, mass communication and colonialism. Students will develop a foundation in patterns of international politics, global social change, and the theoretical approaches to understanding them. This learning community is also for students interested in pursuing a major in the School of Global Studies. (12 credits)
ENG 101/102/105: First-Year Composition
POS 194: Social Change: Political Science (SB, G)
FLA 194: East Asian Languages & Cultures (SB, G)
SOC 194: Social Change: Sociology (SB, G)
Faculty: Carolyn Warner, George M. Thomas, Stephen H. West, Amy Lerman
Faculty Disciplines: English, Political Science, Foreign Language, Sociology
4. Theme: Terrorism
Why do some people become terrorists? What are the circumstances under which terrorism becomes a form of social protest? How do political, historical and social developments lead to a recasting of ‘freedom fighters’ as ‘terrorists’ and vice versa? How do politicians and the media construct views of armed conflict and resistance, often in a way that promotes fear and enhances social control?
This community will approach terrorism from the perspectives of political science, justice studies and religious studies disciplines. The community will investigate how terrorism can be understood from a social, economic, political and historical viewpoint. Topics to be covered will include the underlying conditions that give rise to terrorism; the relationship between resistance, patriotism, nationalism and terrorism; the morality and justice of terrorism; the media’s construction of a discourse on terrorism, including the role of propaganda; the historical development of terrorist organizations; and the link between democracy and terrorism. A variety of historical and contemporary examples of social resistance and ‘terrorist’ activity will be examined. (9 credits).
REL 294: A Theology of Terror
POS 294: Terrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy
JUS 294: Mass Media, Propaganda, and Social Control
Faculty: David Altheide, Miriam Elman, Mark Woodward
Faculty Disciplines: Justice Studies, Political Science, Religious Studies
Fall 2005 Sophomore and Higher Learning Community
1. Theme: Medicine, Science, and Public Policy: Making Better Choices (Advanced—Fall 2005)
The approach of this learning community is to explore multiple connections between medical science and society. We will examine notions of health, disease, life and death from historical and contemporary perspectives, focusing especially on changing concepts of organism within biology and medicine. Students will learn about the fundamental principles of genetics, developmental biology, and evolutionary biology through case studies. These cases will be integrated with analysis of health care systems, their relationships to patients, and changes in what is considered “good medicine.” Health care public policy will be explored in connection with health research, law, ethics, medical practice, and social outcomes. This learning community is for sophomore and advanced students interested in science, public policy, law, health and bioethics. (9 credits). This learning community has up to 6 hours of available Honors credit.
BIO 394: Genes, Development and Evolution
HPS 331/BIO 318: History of Medicine
POS 394: Health Ethics, Law and Policy
Faculty: Jason Robert, Manfred Laubichler, Jane Maienschein, Gary Marchant
Faculty Disciplines: Philosophy of Biology, Bioethics; Biology, History of Biology; History & Philosophy of Biology & Medicine; Law, Genetics & Public Policy.