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Fall 2008 First Year Course Descriptions
Click on the links below to get more details on the respective course:
AMST 103-01 The Problem of Race in U.S. Social Thought and Policy
ANTH 242-01 Psychological Anthropology
ART 367-01 3-D Design
BIOL 194-01 Genomics/Bioinformatics: The Physical and Virtual Manipulation of Genomes
BIOL 270-02 and 270-L1 Biodiversity and Evolution and Lab
CHEM 194-01 CSI Macalester
COMP 120-01 Introduction to Computing with Biological Applications
ECON 119-03 Principles of Economics
ECON 119-05 Principles of Economics
EDUC 194-01 Urban Education in Challenging Times
ENGL 125-01 Studies in Literature: Human Rights in the Humanities
ENGL 137-02 Introduction to the Novel: Literary Grotesques
GEOG 112-02 Introduction to Urban Studies
GEOG 254-01 Geography of World Population Issues
GEOL 150-02 and 150-L3 Dynamic Earth and Global Change
GERM 255-01 German Cinema Studies: Art/Horror
HISP 194-01 Caribbean Literature and Culture: (Post) Colonial Contradictions
HIST 112-01 The Global and the Local: Minnesota History in World History
HIST 112-02 The Global and the Local
HIST 140-01 Introduction to East Asian Civilization
HMCS 194-01 Critical Studies of Sports in the Media
MATH 136-01 Discrete Mathematics
MUSI 194-01 Music, Race, and Ethnicity
PHIL 125-02 Ethics: Human Rights
PHYS 194-01 and 194-L1 Nanotechnology
POLI 100-01 Foundations of U.S. Politics
POLI 194-01 Legal and Political Advocacy
PSYC 194-01 Psychology of Presidential Politics
RUSS 257-01 Tolstoy's War and Peace
SOCI 190-01 Criminal Behavior/Social Control
THDA 120-01 Acting Theory and Performance I
( = students in the class will live near each other and, in most cases, will have a roommate who is also in this class)
AMST 103-01  The Problem of Race in U.S. Social Thought and Policy
Duchess Harris, American Studies Department
This course begins by exploring the political history of whiteness. Our point of departure will be David R. Roediger’s newest text (2005) Working Toward Whiteness, How Maerica’s Immigrants Became White: The Strange Journey from Ellis Island to the Suburbs. We will examine how “race” has been at the core of civic assimilation. We will interrogate Roediger’s question, “…[W]hat happens when we think of assimilation as Whitening as well as Americanizing” (pp.9-10).
In other words, to become American one must “fight to be White.” The core of this course will focus on post-1960 America and the Black, Brown, Red, and Yellow Power Movements. We will use autobiography and prison writings to examine the Black Power Movement, the American Indian Movement, Puerto Rican Militancy, and Asian American insurgency. We will end the course with an analysis of conservative people of color and their counterparts in the dominant culture, and their movement to resist identity politics in the 1990s and the turn of the 21st Century.
This course will be conducted in a seminar format. Consequently, regular attendance, critical engagement with the assigned readings, and class participation are essential. This is an intermediate course and you will be expected to write three theoretical papers, using materials from outside of the course, and to do one in-class presentation.
Class meets T TH, 1:20-2:50 pm, in Humanities 215.
Living arrangements: Co-ed floor.
ANTH 242-01  Psychological Anthropology
Olga González, Anthropology Department
This course explores the relationship between self, culture and society. We will examine and discuss critically the broad array of methods and theories anthropologists use to analyze personality, socialization, mental illness and cognition in different societies. Our aim is to address questions related to the cultural patterning of personality, the self and emotions and to understand how culture might shape ideas of what a person is. We will also seek to understand how cultures define behavior as abnormal, pathological or insane, and how to make sense of trauma and suffering. Throughout the course, we will address the broader theoretical question related to the tension between human universals and cultural particularism.
We will begin by examining the “culture and personality” school, which draws extensively on Freudian models of personality, looking at issues such as culturally constituted defense mechanisms, child-rearing practices and psychological functions of religion. We will also examine psychoanalytical anthropology, learning how Freudian concepts about unconscious processes have been applied to the understanding of cultural symbols. Furthermore, in examining theories of ritual we will discuss the possible implications of psychodynamic theory and in so doing learn about some limitations of psychoanalytical theory when applied to non-Western cultures.
Cognitive anthropology will be another important paradigm to be examined in the course. In this case, influenced by psychologist Jean Piaget’s theories of cognition and moral development, it looks at perception, thought, self and emotion through a conceptualization of cultural models or complex knowledge structures.
The course will conclude with questions about the issue of mental health, asking how cultures construct and address phenomena such as depression, trauma, altered states of consciousness, and so called “culture-bound syndromes” of the mind and body.
This course will combine lectures and class discussions. It will have a strong writing component with a series of short papers and one longer final research paper. There will be one final exam. Grades will be based on written assignments in addition to oral presentations and participation in class discussions.
Class meets T TH, 3:00-4:30 pm, in Carnegie 05.
Living arrangement: Co-ed floor.
ART 367-01  3-D Design
Stan Sears, Art Department
Every physical object made by human hands is a work of three-dimensional design, intentional or not. Natural objects can be examined and described in terms of three-dimensional design. Most three dimensional design is essentially invisible to us, because we are surrounded by it every day, in every aspect of our lives. We do not think much about the design of our surroundings unless something seems wrong or out of place: a tree fallen in the road, a chair with too high a seat, a fork with tines too narrow, an ugly figurine on your friend's coffee table, or a barren public plaza.
Conversely, successful three-dimensional design may make us feel good without our recognizing why we feel that way: a comfortable chair with a reading lamp, an interesting garden, a lively neighborhood street, your favorite sweater, a 1965 Mustang.
This course involves problem-solving, structure-building, and the manipulation of form, materials, and ideas in three dimensions. As in spoken, written, or musical communication, a vocabulary specific to the discipline can be identified, and its basic elements described: in this case, elements of a visual language. By learning to recognize the basic elements of the language of three-dimensional design, we sharpen our ability to truly see our surroundings and can begin to articulate our own ideas three-dimensionally.
Class meets T TH, 8:00-11:10 am, in Art 135.
Living arrangement: Single-sex floors.
BIOL 194-01 Genomics/Bioinformatics: the Physical and Virtual Manipulation of Genomes
Paul Overvoorde, Biology Department
As of March of 2008, over 3,500 projects aimed at determining the complete genome sequence of a diverse array of organisms are underway. This course will explore fundamental concepts, methodologies, and technologies that underpin the approaches being used to describe and manipulate genes and genomes. Readings and discussions will include topics such as tools and applications of molecular biology, methods of DNA sequencing, use of homologous recombination to join DNA fragments, and others. Because the creation, maintenance, and interrogation of databases plays a central role in efforts to understand genome structure and function, this course will be linked to COMP 120: An Introduction to Computing with Biological Applications. Through common readings, shared class times, and collaborative-learning projects, students from both courses will become acquainted with methods that allow both the physical and in silico manipulation of DNA. Your learning in this course will be assessed through tests, problem sets, writing assignments, and participation in class discussions. This course is appropriate for both non-majors and students considering a major in biology. This course fulfills 4 credits in the science distribution requirement. Three classroom hours per week.
Class meets MWF, 9:40-10:40 am, in Olin-Rice 370.
BIOL 270-02 and 270-L1  Biodiversity and Evolution and Lab
Kristi Curry Rogers, Biology Department
“From so simple a beginning, endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” So concluded Charles Darwin in The Origin of the Species. His final words are an apt description of this course, which focuses on the diversity of life on Earth and the evolutionary processes that influence this variety. We will track the evolution of life, from the simplest single-celled organisms to the varied flora and fauna of the modern world. We will draw upon recent findings from fields as diverse as molecular genetics, developmental biology, and paleontology to decipher the long and spectacular history of life on earth.
The laboratory component of this course will include hands-on application of molecular genetic data and morphological characteristics to identify species and construct evolutionary trees, as well as field trips that highlight ancient and modern biodiversity. As a first year course, this class will focus on improving study skills. We will pay special attention to developing and honing your written and oral communication skills.
Students in this course should be ready to explore the evolution of life on earth. Students can expect to participate in class discussions, and all students will work on one larger project that will include a written report (with revisions) and an oral presentation.
This course is required for biology majors.
Class meets MWF, 10:50-11:50 am, in Olin-Rice 179. Lab meets 8:00-11:00 am, in Olin-Rice 273.
Living arrangement: Single-sex floors.
CHEM 194-01 CSI Macalester
Ron Brisbois, Chemistry Department
From the Sherlock Holmes stories before radio to the serial radio broadcasts of mysteries and whodunits during the mid-twentieth century to the current popularity of television’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, society has demonstrated an abiding interest—regardless of the technological mode of delivery—in the entertainment value associated with application of systematic, scientific, analytical thinking in the course of criminal investigation. Many high-profile cases from real life have captured public attention as newspaper columnists and radio and television pundits report and pontificate on such cases, especially the physical evidence. The Lindberg kidnapping and the O. J. Simpson trial created stunning examples of public theatre driven by a widespread desire in people to know the facts and try the case in their own minds. Whether in an entertaining work of fiction or through an untidy twist of everyday life, forensic science serves as the fulcrum upon which collection and analysis of physical evidence lead ultimately to testimony in a courtroom. Of course, in contemporary terms the word physical is essentially a euphemism for chemical or molecular. Paradoxically, the public fascination with forensic science stands largely in opposition to the public distrust and fear of all things chemical. In this course we will work towards developing thorough, molecular level understanding of the foundations of modern forensic science. In appropriate measure and as a function of scheduling, readings, problem sets, case studies, hands-on analytical analyses, guest lecture visits, and field trips may be used to guide our study of modern forensic science. Our primary text for the course will be Investigating Chemistry: A Forensic Science Perspective by Matthew E. Johll. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson will serve as an ancillary, very entertaining book that addresses historical aspects of planetary forensics. This course requires that you practice your written communication skills, and, in that regard, the best-selling, humorous, and quite useful Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss will inform your writing mechanics.
Class meets MWF, 8:30-9:30 am, in Olin-Rice 300.
COMP 120-01 Introduction to Computing with Biological Applications
Elizabeth Shoop, Mathematics and Computer Science Department
Computing and information technology are pervasive in our lives today – we live in an ever-increasing information society. For the purpose of this course we will define information technology to be general-purpose computers and their associated peripheral devices, applications that enable people to make good use of computing, data and information stored on these computers, the software that operates the computer and provides us with a human-usable interface, and the theory behind the operation of the computer and its applications. Because this technology permeates every aspect of our lives today, each person should be able to command a certain level of fluency with information technology that will enable him or her to use it effectively. You will obtain such fluency in this course. People with such fluency do not work in a vacuum – computers are designed to help people enjoy their lives more fully, make strides in developing new scientific discoveries, and generally get their jobs done faster. Computer professionals work with data in various fields and design new applications that enable people in a wide variety of fields to make strides in many important areas. One such field is the application of computing to biological research, and in particular the study of genomes. In this course we will use this particular application area to learn how to harness your new-found fluency with information technology to aid biologists with the study of genomes. To provide useful applications, information technologists need to learn important aspects of the application area they are working in. To make this possible, this course will be linked to another first-year course, BIOL 194, Genomics/Bioinformatics: The Physical and Virtual Manipulation of Genomes. Through common readings, shared class times, and collaborative learning projects, you will become acquainted with methods that allow manipulation of genomic DNA, both in the biology lab, and in the computer lab. With this knowledge, you will be able to apply information technology to study genomes such as the human genome. Your learning in this class will be assessed using tests, problems sets, writing assignments, and participation in class discussions and activities.
Class meets MWF, 9:40-10:40 am, in Olin-Rice 256.
ECON 119-03  Principles of Economics
Karine Moe, Economics Department
The discipline of economics provides a set of analytic tools to help us understand how the world works. Provocative and powerful, economics yields insights into many different policy questions. Economics will help you to evaluate the costs and benefits of free trade and to understand how the Federal Reserve can calm financial markets. Economic analysis of the gender wage gap can help you understand why the gap exists and what we can do about shrinking it. In this presidential election year, economics can help you sort out the economic arguments of the candidates. What are the consequences of rising federal debt? Economics will help you to predict the differing effects of the candidate’s policies.
The purpose of this course is to introduce you to the principal concepts of economics. After an introductory period, we will spend about half of the course discussing the basic questions of microeconomics. How do individuals in an economy decide what and how much to purchase? How do firms decide how much to produce, what price to charge, and how much labor to hire? In the second half of the course, we will talk bout macroeconomics or how the entire economy functions. What are the economic causes of unemployment and inflation? What is the GDP and how is it calculated? How does the federal reserve system work?
This course is primarily lecture-based. Students, however, will find that there is ample time devoted to discussion of the subject matter and in-class problem solving. The grade will be based on homework, exams, and short writing assignments.
Class meets MWF, 10:50-11:50 am, in Carnegie 304.
Living arrangement: Co-ed floor.
ECON 119-05  Principles of Economics
Sarah West, Economics Department
This course is an introduction to micro- and macroeconomics. It develops tools to analyze contemporary economic policy issues. The course has a special focus on the development of writing skills necessary to effectively communicate economic arguments and reasoning. Policy topics include globalization, the environment, poverty, and inequality, taxation, and economic development. Students that take this course satisfy a prerequisite for higher-level economics courses, add a valuable component to interdisciplinary majors, and develop skills necessary to understand the fundamentals of economic policy. Final grades are based on three exams, on a series of papers in a semester-long research project, and on homework assignments.
Class meets T TH, 9:40-11:10 am, in Carnegie 305.
Living arrangement: Co-ed floor.
EDUC 194-01 Urban Education in Challenging Times (this course is open only to students in the Bonner Program http://www.macalester/edu/cec/programs/bonner)
Ruthanne Kurth-Schai, Educational Studies Department
“Knowledge emerges only through invention, and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.”
Paulo Freire
Today there is significant concern that public education, both in the United States and around the globe, has reached a critical juncture.
Perhaps more than any other social institution, public schools mirror a troubling array of social problems. Trends toward increasing urbanization, poverty, segregation, violence, religious and political intolerance, environmental degradation, immigration, population displacement, and marginalization based on age, gender, race/ethnicity, language, or handicapping condition present daunting challenges for every public school system worldwide. Public support for public education is further strained as important curricular and extracurricular programs are cut in response to budge constraints, and standardized tests document significant gaps in achievement and opportunity based on race/ethnicity and economic background.
Yet also more than any other social institution, public education provides vital opportunities to express social justice, compassion, imagination, and integrity. Urban public schools remain as one of the few social settings through which diverse citizens can interact in sustained and meaningful ways to achieve common goals. Public education can be shaped to better prepare all young people to pursue life with intelligence, dignity, affiliation, and an ever-evolving sense of purpose and possibility.
Such issues are of central concern to this course. Throughout the semester we will study contemporary challenges and opportunities affecting urban public education on local, national and international levels. We will work both individually and collectively, on campus and in the community, to analyze specific policy issues and reform strategies. We will address these complex concerns from multiple perspectives, using varied approaches to teaching and learning including on-line journaling, social inquiry, and public scholarship. We will explore Macalester’s urban community through service learning placements in Minneapolis and Saint Paul public schools. Required texts include: City Schools and the American Dream by Pedro Noguera, Letters to the Next President by Carl Glickman, and Education for Public Democracy by David Sehr; supplemented by relevant print, on-line, and other media resources.
Education 194 carries education course credit, satisfies a distribution requirement in the social sciences, counts toward both the Concentration in Educational Studies and Concentration in Urban Studies, and serves as in introduction to campus wide commitments to internationalism, multiculturalism, and civic engagement.
Class meets T TH, 3:00-4:30 pm, in Humanities 216, plus service placement in an urban public school setting.
ENGL 125-01  Studies in Literature: Human Rights in the Humanities
James Dawes, English Department
This course is an introduction to the study of human rights by way of the arts and humanities. We will seek to better understand the contemporary norms and practices of human rights by examining its deep historical contexts, and by considering the philosophical and religious debates that continue to shape human rights theory and practice. We will also examine theories of trauma and torture, personal accounts of human rights and humanitarian fieldwork, representational ethics, and studies of human rights in film and media. We will scrutinize relevant literary texts as works of art, as case studies in human rights, and as models for understanding how words can change the world, whether in the form of human rights reports and newspaper accounts or of poems and novels. In other words, we will seek to better understand how spectators of suffering develop (or fail to develop) empathy for distant persons or for persons considered alien by also examining how they can so palpably feel for the dreams, desires, and dignity of fictional persons. In The Defense of Poesy Sir Philip Sidney describes the tyrant, Alexander Pheraeus, “from whose eyes a tragedy well-made and represented drew abundance of tears; who without all pity had murdered infinite numbers, and some of his own blood, so as he that was not ashamed to make matters for tragedies, yet could not resist the sweet violence of a tragedy.” What is the line that separates those who are merely moved from those who are moved to act? When does the story become real enough to change you? Authors may include Micheline Ishay, Paul Gordon Lauren, Samantha Power, Elaine Scarry, Jacobo Timerman, Tracy Kidder, Lynn Hunt, Alan Dershowitz, J. M. Coetzee, Michael Ondaatje, Kenneth Cain, Mary Ann Glendon, Ishmael Beah, Alison Boden, and Kazuo Ishiguro.
Class meets MWF, 10:50-11:50 am, in Carnegie 105.
Living arrangement: Co-ed floor.
ENGL 137-02: Introduction to the Novel: Literary Grotesques
Casey Jarrin, English Department
Casting a critical gaze upon the villainous heroes of literature, this seminar will explore the meanings and manifestations of the grotesque over the last two centuries. We’ll shake hands with the monstrous, the genius, the depraved, the revolutionary, and the human, from Frankenstein’s monster to the anti-heroes of Dorian Gray, In Cold Blood, and The Shining. As we examine literature from a variety of historical moments, cultural frameworks, and national contexts, we’ll refine our own theory of the "grotesque” from its medieval half-human/half-beast forms to more contemporary theorizations and textual embodiments.
Throughout the semester, formal and stylistic concerns (language, metaphor, prosody, narrative voice, tone, point-of-view) will enter our conversation to underscore the connections between literary texts and their grotesque content. We’ll encounter a variety of literary genres, both textual (novels, short fiction, poetry) and visual (painting, photography, film), in an attempt to understand their distinctive forms, transformations, and aesthetic interrelationships. Finally, we’ll consider postmodern authors whose work self-consciously challenges formal conventions in grotesque and iconoclastic ways.
Several key questions will animate our discussions: What is the connection between literary production and anxieties of mortality, deformity, and human reproduction? How have texts responded to unnatural technologies of immortality and questions of the supernatural? How might language and narrative perform gruesome acts of violence, insatiable consumption, and/or cannibalism? How do particular texts represent or even embody monstrosity? How do representations of race, gender, and sexuality manifest themselves within the grotesque as a literary mode? How have the gothic, horror, and war genres shaped our cultural understanding of the grotesque?
POTENTIAL TEXTS (8-9 of the following): Novels: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; Oscar Wilde, Picture of Dorian Gray; Truman Capote, In Cold Blood; Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire; Toni Morrison, Sula; Don DeLillo, White Noise; Martin Amis, Time's Arrow; Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian; Stephen King, The Shining. Short Fiction: Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man is Hard to Find; Nathanael West, Day of the Locust; Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis; Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried. Selections from Edgar Allan Poe, Joyce Carol Oates, Sherwood Anderson. Poetry: Anne Sexton, Transformations. Selected poems by Robert Browning, T.S. Eliot, Stephen Dobyns. Related Films: Frankenstein (1931); Apocalypse Now (1979); The Shining (1980); Gods and Monsters (1998); Capote (2005). Selected episodes from The Twilight Zone.
REQUIREMENTS: Literary Grotesques is a first-year seminar. In addition to readings and weekly journal responses, students will be responsible for 3 papers (4-5, 6-8, and 8-10 pages, including one required revision discussed in collaborative writing workshop). While the course will provide a particular foundation for future coursework within the English department, it will also develop key critical reading/writing/thinking skills necessary across all disciplines. Particularly suited for those students considering majors in the humanities or social sciences.
Class meets T TH, 9:40-11:10 am, in Old Main 111.
GEOG 112-02  Introduction to Urban Studies
Dan Trudeau, Geography Department
This course offers an interdisciplinary overview of urban life. We will draw on the disciplinary perspectives of history, geography, political science and sociology to examine how the built environment of cities are shaped by human activity and how, in turn, urban life is shaped by the built environment. This introduction to urban studies will have a special emphasis on exploring the history, geography, economics and politics of St. Paul and the surrounding metropolitan area. We will take advantage of our urban location by engaging the urban environment of St. Paul through local case studies, field study exercises, and visits to cultural institutions in the community. We will draw on our engagement with the local urban environment to demonstrate broad themes in the interdisciplinary literature on urban studies (e.g., the effect of transportation systems on urban development; city government, metropolitan fragmentation and regionalism; the search for community in urban settings; urban growth and neighborhood change; and, the effect of the global market economy on individual cities) at a more personal level. Directed field study exercises will help you learn analytical skills. Writing assignments will help you synthesize knowledge from exercises, lectures, and assigned readings. You will also take responsibility for leading discussions of assigned readings at a few points in the course.
Other details: This course provides you with a great opportunity to leave campus and engage people and places of St. Paul. This will require from you a willingness to explore the city by bus, bike, foot, and train. It will also require a solid work ethic to complete the field study exercises in a timely fashion. You will be rewarded with foundational knowledge of St. Paul and the greater Twin Cities region that you will draw upon throughout your career at Macalester. I am excited to have a residential first year course, and I look forward to working with a curious and dynamic group this fall.
Class meets T TH, 9:40-11:10 am, in Carnegie 204.
Living arrangement: Co-ed floor.
GEOG 254-01  Geography of World Population Issues
Holly Barcus, Geography Department
In 1798 Thomas Malthus first argued that population growth would exceed food production, which in turn, would lead to widespread starvation. Today we still have not conclusively answered the very controversial question of whether the world is or is not “overpopulated”. Questions of resource availability and distribution, world fertility and mortality rates and increasingly, the redistribution of populations through international migration change the ways in which we consider this question. In this introductory population geography course we will explore global population trends and the various factors that influence the volume and distribution of populations across the globe focusing on both contemporary and historical population debates. Our objectives will be to understand the current spatial patterns of global human population distribution and how the primary components of population change (fertility, mortality and migration) differentially affect world regions. Contemporary population issues (AIDS, refugees, immigration, fertility choices and decisions) will provide the lens through which we begin to develop an understanding of the historical and, possibly, future trends and debates. We will examine these issues from both a macro and micro perspective. For example, we will consider migration flows such as those between Mexico-US, rural-urban migration in China, and transnational migration in Mongolia, seeking to better understand why individuals decide to move from one place to another and how changes in the global economy influence these decisions. At a local scale, we will evaluate the emergence of immigrant neighborhoods in St. Paul and Minneapolis through discussions with local experts to better understand how these new communities change the urban landscape and how living in Minnesota affects individual immigrants and refugees. Directed exercises and field trips will help you acquire the skills to measure and evaluate population structure and composition and independent projects will allow you to apply these skills to geographic areas of greatest interest to you, both locally and globally.
Class meets MWF, 2:20-3:20 pm, in Carnegie 107.
Living arrangement: Co-ed floor.
GEOL 150-02 and 150-L3  Dynamic Earth and Global Change
John Craddock, Geology Department
In recent years it has become increasingly necessary to understand the consequences of human endeavor on the natural environment. The Dynamic Earth and Global Change course provides a framework for understanding the evolution of the Earth and natural processes of global change. Forty years ago, the origin of mountains and climate, the evolution of coastlines, the eruption of magmas, and the drifting of continents were the subject of great debate. Today these processes are relatively well understood within the unifying theory of plate tectonics. River systems, groundwater availability, earthquakes, volcanoes, deserts, and glaciation have profound effects on the human condition. The objectives of the Dynamic Earth course are to help students develop an understanding of the composition, structure, and evolution of the Earth. The observational and interpretative skills developed in the course provide a basis for understanding the natural evolution of the Earth and the effects of human activities on its surface environment. Several field trips will introduce students to the natural environment in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Upon completion of the course, students will:
- recognize and be able to interpret the significance of common minerals and rocks
- be able to use the theory of plate tectonics to understand global change
- understand processes that modify the Earth’s surface (e.g., rivers, glaciers, oceans)
- have experience using modern instrumentation to investigate real-world problems
- understand the methods and processes of science
- know how to interpret the significance of features and events in the natural environment
- appreciate the dynamic character of the natural world
Class meets MWF, 1:10-2:10 pm, in Olin-Rice 187. Lab meets TH, 1:20-4:00 pm, in Olin-Rice 187.
Living arrangement: Co-ed floor.
GERM 255-01  German Cinema Studies: Art/Horror
Linda Schulte-Sasse, German and Russian Studies Department
One often hears horror movies referred to as trash. Does horror necessarily “deserve” this condemnation (or plug)? Why does an occasional horror film like The Silence of the Lambs win respectability or even a best-picture Oscar? What are the criteria by which we determine whether any film or work of art is good, bad, or perhaps not art at all? The course will examine horror films from various periods and places, some of which were repudiated at their release only to be recuperated later as art-house classics. But all challenge cultural assumptions about art and horror as mutually exclusive categories, and all employ shock, horror, and gore as compelling means of representing social anxieties and historical traumas. Our objective will be to reflect on questions of aesthetic valuation, and to explore the themes, narrative strategies, and audience effects of horror; we will draw on a variety of theoretical approaches like Freud’s notion of the uncanny or Todorov’s of the fantastic. Likely examples will include pre-World War II Germany (Wiene, Murnau, Lang), postwar France (Franju), 1960s England (Micheal Powell), 1970s Italy (Dario Argento, Mario Bava) depression-era USA (Tod Browning), and contemporary “post-modern” American/Canadian cinema (Romero, Lynch, Cronenberg).
Course prerequisite: guts. First, films like Tod Browning’s Freaks (1932) or Franju’s Les Yeux sans Visage (1960) will disabuse you of any notion that Quentin Tarantino invented grossness. Second, you may find that by seriously engaging film studies, introducing theoretical concepts, and doing what some call “over”-reading, the course will “ruin the fun.” My hope is that the opposite will be the case (and that fun and work are no more mutually exclusive than art and horror).
Student obligations: a series of short papers, oral presentations, and one longer research paper. Two exams and an informal log responding to class readings. Hopefully the Twin Cities will offer some cultural events relevant to our theme that we can visit as a class.
Class meets MWF, 10:50-11:50 am, in Humanities 401. Film screenings T, 7:00 pm.
Living arrangement: Single-sex floor.
HISP 194-01  Caribbean Literature and Culture: (Post) Colonial Contradictions
Margaret Olsen, Hispanic and Latin American Studies Department
In this course, we will focus on the ways in which slavery and colonialism have shaped twentieth and twenty-first century textual, musical, and visual self-representation in the Caribbean. We will pay special attention to the cultural production of the Afro-Caribbeans and their attention to the continuing ravages of capitalism and consumption in the region. Students will be encouraged to become aware of the dual, and sometimes multiple, geographic and cultural realities that Caribbeans are often obliged to live between the US and the Caribbean in order to economically survive.
Texts: Mimi Sheller Consuming the Caribbean (Theoretical framework); Derek Walcott The Antilles: Fragments of Memory (Nobel speech); Jamaica Kincaid A Small Place (Short essays); Mayra Montero In the Palm of Darkness (Novel on Haiti); Edwidge Danitcat The Farming of Bones (Novel on Haiti); Mayra Santos Febres Urban Oracles (Short stories-PR); Patrick Chamoiseau Texaco (Novel-Martinique); Gabriel García Márquez Of Love and Other Demons (Columbia); Ana Lydia Vega “Encarcanublado” (Short story-PR); Rosario Ferré “When Women Love Men” (Short story-PR)
Other textual sources (fragments): Aimé Cesaire Discourse on Colonialism (essay-Martinique); Selected poetry by Nicolás Guillén, Nancy Morejón (Cuba); Roberto Fernádez Retemar Calibán Revisited (Cuba); Pedro Pérez-Sarduy Afro-Cuba (Cuba)
Films/Documentaries: Life and Debt (On tourism and poverty in Jamaica); The Agronomist (About Haitian journalist Jean Dominique) OR Aristide and the Endless Revolution; Heading South (A fictional film on middle-aged women traveling to the Caribbean for sex)
Music: We will listen to various examples of meringue, calypso and reggae music as a text of social, political and economic protest.
Course expectations and evaluation: Students will be expected to read and actively discuss the texts and films and music that we explore throughout the semester. There will be brief, weekly quizzes on the readings and screenings. Groups of students will work on specific islands or colonial legacies in the region and will familiarize fellow students on what they learn in oral presentations. Our final project will involve researching the lives of Caribbean groups in the US in order to discover some of their strategies for cultural and economic survival. There will be a midterm exam and a final exam.
Projected grade evaluation:
Weekly quizzes (10-2 lowest may be dropped) 20%
Oral presentations on regions and criticism (2) 20%
Midterm Exam 20%
Final Project (team project) 20%
Final Exam 20%
Class meets T TH, 3:00-4:30 pm, in Humanities 214.
Living arrangement: Co-ed floor.
HIST 112-01  The Global and the Local: Minnesota History in World History
Peter Rachleff, History Department
The Global in the Local introduces students to global historical issues and the methodologies of the historical discipline by investigating local case studies. This strategy allows students to explore the environment of the Twin Cities while putting the people, places, and events of the past into relationship with broad historical trends and developments. Professor Rachleff’s section of The Global in the Local will pay particular attention to the commercialization of agriculture, industrialization and immigration, the evolution of the labor movement, the impact of race, racism, and racialization on Minnesotans, and the articulation of political ideologies and movements. We will also be interested in the complex issues attendant upon how we remember, construct, and memorialize the past. We will explore these themes through readings, primary documents, films, and out of class activities. There will be an emphasis on discussion in the seminar, as well as an emphasis on writing.
Class meets MWF, 9:40-10:40 am, in Old Main 002.
Living arrangement: Single-sex floors.
HIST 112-02  The Global and the Local
Andrea Cremer, History Department
The Global and the Local introduces first-year students to global historical issues by investigating local case studies. This combined strategy allows students to explore the environment of the Twin Cities while putting peoples, places and events of the past into critical conversations regarding issues of global importance. Professor Cremer’s section of The Global and the Local examines Minneapolis/St. Paul as the junction of three major waterways, the Mississippi, the Minnesota and St. Croix Rivers. These waterways shaped the lives of diverse peoples and drove demographic and industrial growth. Throughout the semester the course will focus upon three key historical themes that carry global significance: colonialism, environmental change, and the rise of industry. Our readings, discussion and activities will explore these themes as they shape Minnesota history from the 17th through the 19th centuries. The chronology of the course will carry students through the experiences of Minnesota’s indigenous peoples, the era of frontier settlement, and the advent of industrialism.
Student assessment will occur in the form of in-class writing assignments, formal essays, a group project, and participation in class discussions. Our readings will be drawn from primary documents, historical monographs, and novels.
Class meets MWF, 9:40-10:40 am, in Old Main 003.
Living arrangement: Single-sex floors.
HIST 140-01 Introduction to East Asian Civilization
Yue-him Tam, History Department
This course introduces the cultures and societies of East Asia from the earliest times to the present day from an historical perspective. Primarily an introductory course for beginners, this course considers a variety of significant themes in religious, political, economic, social and cultural changes in the region with emphasis on China and Japan. To a lesser degree, significant changes in Korea and Vietnam will also be examined.
ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:
Map Exercise 5%
Attendance & Discussion Participation 20%
Mid-term Exam 20%
2 short papers or book reviews (4-5 pages
each, topics own choice) 30%
Final Exam 25%
REQUIRED READINGS: Required readings are mostly assigned from the following books:
John K. Fairbank, Edwin O. Reischauer, Albert M. Craig. East Asia: Tradition and Transformation. (Houghton Mifflin).
Conrad Schirokauer, A Brief History of Chinese and Japanese Civilizations. (Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich).
Also, the following books are recommended:
Frederick W. Mote. Intellectual Foundations of China. (Alfred A. Knopf).
John Naisbitt. Megatrends Asia: Eight Asian Megatrends That Are Reshaping our World. (Touchstone).
Other readings will be assigned from other publications and journals from time to time.
Class meets T TH, 9:40-11:10 am, in Old Main 002.
HMCS 194-01  Critical Studies of Sports in the Media
Leola Johnson, Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies Department
Critical Studies of Sports in the Media is a first year course that focuses on the ways U.S. media, especially television and cable networks, define the meaning of sports in American culture. We look at the way the media define competition, masculinity, race, femininity, and other important cultural identities and practices through its presentations of amateur and professional athletes.
In line with HMCS’s commitment to interdisciplinary work, this course incorporates readings from history, economics, literary studies, cultural studies, film studies and sociology in a process of reflection and discussion designed to illuminate the development and operation of a “sports/media/entertainment complex” in the United States. I borrow this term from Prof. Sut Jhally of the University of Massachusetts, who coined it in the mid 1980s to describe the growing domination of sports by giant corporations, including the professional sports leagues, the NCAA, ESPN and the athletic shoe companies, especially Nike and Adidas.
By the end of the semester, we should be able to identify the major institutions in the sports/media/entertainment complex, to talk intelligently about how these institutions define the identities and practices of athletes and athletics in amateur and professional sports, and to take coherent positions on whether or not these identities and practices are good or bad for our society.
In addition to introducing you to the critical study of sports in the media, the purpose of this course (and all other first-year seminars) is to help you adjust to life at Macalester. As a first-year seminar, the course will introduce students to the following competencies useful in subsequent Macalester work:
- How to use library resources, including online library catalogs.
- How to plan, draft, and revise a college paper, including formulating a research strategy and taking into account the importance of audience, clarity, and proper grammar and usage.
- How to navigate the Macalester network, manage email, and protect computers from virus attacks. How to determine which resources/databases are relevant to specific research questions and to distinguish questions and to distinguish between primary and secondary resources.
- How to evaluate critically the usefulness, point of view, currency, and authority of information, especially on Internet sites that have not been refereed.
- How to avoid plagiarism.
- How to construct a thesis statement.
- How to organize an essay.
- How to support claims with evidence and reason.
- How to cite evidence using the Modern Language Association system of documentation.
- How to speak persuasively about research and to participate constructively within group discussions.
Class meets MWF, 9:40-10:40 am, in Olin-Rice 270.
Living arrangement: Co-ed floor.
MATH 136-01, Discrete Mathematics
Tom Halverson, Mathematics and Computer Science Department
 In this course we will explore the world of discrete mathematics. The term “discrete” is as opposed to the continuous mathematics of calculus, where objects blend smoothly into one another. In discrete mathematics, the objects of interest are finite mathematical structures that can be ordered and counted. Examples of these are Pascal’s triangle, integer sequences, bit strings, sets and subsets, finite graphs (like the one at left), hypercubes (the graph at the left is also a representation of a 4-dimensional cube), Fibonacci numbers, trees (of the mathematical variety), permutations, partitions, and derangements.
One of the main topics in discrete mathematics is combinatorics, or the art of counting. In fact you might call this a course in counting. We will learn many techniques for counting the objects listed above, and one of the most important ones will be recursion and induction.
Our work will not be done purely for its mathematical beauty, but also for the surprising effectiveness of discrete mathematics in solving real problems. We will see applications such as airline scheduling, routing, public key cryptography and the design of tournaments, experiments, and circuits. Furthermore, many of these discrete objects play a central role in computer science, and the applications in that field are abundant.
Your grade in the course will be based on written problem sets and written projects, and a few in-class quizzes and exams. Some of these projects will be done in small groups and some will be done individually. We will focus on mathematical writing of several varieties: expository writing where you describe an interesting mathematical discovery, algorithmic writing, where you describe an algorithm for solving a problem, and mathematical proof, where you formally argue that a statement is true. We will also use the computer and the programming language Mathematica (which is free to you on campus) to help us illustrate ideas, enumerate examples, make conjectures, and solve problems. No prior programming experience is necessary.
There are no formal prerequisites, but some mathematical sophistication is necessary, the kind that can be obtained through a solid high school mathematics and/or computer science program. Most important is an interest in exploring, learning, and writing about mathematics. This course is required for both the math and the computer science major and it fulfills the natural science distribution requirement. You can look for more information on the course website: www.macalester.edu/~halverson/math136.html.
Class meets MWF, 9:40-10:40 am, in Olin-Rice 243.
MUSI 194-01  Music, Race and Ethnicity
Chuen-Fung Wong, Music Department
Music has always been at the center of racial and ethnic conflicts in America and the world. This course is an inquiry into the intersection of musical individuals and social life where racial and ethnic issues are ingrained in the production and consumption of musical sound. It explores the role of music in the deconstruction and negotiation of racial and ethnic identifications across a wide range of human societies. Students are expected to complete reading assignments from racial and ethnic theories, anthropology, and ethnomusicology. Audiovisual examples are drawn from both Western and non-Western musical traditions, ranging from European operas to popular music in the Middle East. Students will be equipped with basic skills in analyzing and writing about music. There are no pre-requisites. This course is open to all first-year students; no previous knowledge of musical instrument or notation is assumed or required.
Class meets MWF, 10:50-11:50 am, in Music 202.
Living arrangement: Co-ed floor.
PHIL 125-02  Ethics: Human Rights
Martin Gunderson, Philosophy Department
Human rights are a significant feature of the political landscape. We appeal to human rights to critique governments, defend policies and in some cases to argue that armed intervention is justified. But human rights are philosophically puzzling. Do human rights such as those stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights reflect genuine moral rights? How do we determine what moral rights we have in the first place? If there are moral rights, is there any reason to believe that some moral rights apply to all humans? Should some human rights be regarded as the rights of sentient beings and extended to non-human animals such as the great apes? In order to address these questions we will consider a variety of ethical theories including those of Kant, Mill, Aristotle and various contemporary philosophers. In this respect the seminar provides an introduction to ethics as well as a chance to explore the moral foundations of human rights. The emphasis of the seminar will be on critical thinking and writing. Students will write three papers on ethics and human rights, and a portion of the seminar will be devoted to learning how to write a philosophy paper.
Class meets MWF, 10:50-11:50 am, in Old Main 111.
Living arrangement: Co-ed floor.
PHYS 194-01 and 194-L1  Nanotechnology
James Heyman, Physics Department
Nanoscience is the emerging field of science concerned with the control of matter on the atomic and molecular scale. This interdisciplinary field sits at the convergence of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Materials Science and Electrical Engineering. Our course will introduce science at the nanometer length scale, the fabrication of nano-scale systems and their technological applications. This quantitative course will use mathematics at the pre-calculus level and includes a two-hour weekly laboratory. There are no prerequisites.
Class meets MWF, 9:40-10:40 am, in Olin-Rice 101. Lab meets TH, 1:20-3:30 pm, in Olin-Rice 154.
Living arrangement: Single-sex floors.
POLI 100-01  Foundations of U.S. Politics
Julie Dolan, Political Science Department
This course analyzes the major ideas, actors, institutions and processes that shape the formulation and implementation of public policy in the United States. Throughout the course, the emphasis is on hands-on learning and active engagement with politics. To these ends, we combine course readings with political simulations and role-playing, field trips, and observation of actual governmental and quasi-governmental organizations in action. We focus on the basic structures and functions of American government under the Constitution, examining each branch of government and its players, processes, and structures. We also pay close attention to the 2008 presidential and congressional elections, focusing on the role of campaigns, the media, political parties and interest groups play in shaping and influencing public opinion, political participation, and voting behavior. At the end of the semester, students should be able to interpret and understand politics as they unfold in the United States.
The course is built around a variety of activities that serve to facilitate and enhance students’ understanding of American Politics in action. First, we will spend some time venturing off-campus to visit and learn about local government organizations in the Twin Cities. Additionally, each student is responsible for observing one governmental or quasi-governmental organization in action and periodically reporting back to the rest of the class. Possible observation sites include campaign organizations, political party organizations, city councils, executive branch agencies or departments (either federal or state), county commissions, school boards, state courts, and non-profit organizations. Finally we engage in a series of role-playing exercises to simulate the relationship between the President of the United States and the White House Press Corps. All students will play one of the following roles: President of the United States, presidential press secretary, deputy press secretary, White House Director of Communications, print journalist, or broadcast journalist. The simulation takes us through a daily briefing held by the press secretary, a presidential Rose Garden address, and a follow-up press conference.
The objective of this course is to equip students with a hands-on understanding of the procedures utilized by government, the role of campaigns and elections in the United States, the complexity of public policy decision-making, and the motivations and resources of various governmental actors.
Class meets MWF, 10:50-11:50 am, in Carnegie 208.
Living arrangement: Co-ed floor.
POLI 194-01  Legal and Political Advocacy
Patrick Schmidt, Political Science Department
It’s one thing to have a chance to speak your mind, but it’s quite another to persuade others and to shape law and policy. Effective advocacy in American law and politics depends on the raw skills of communication—writing and speaking—but it begins in understanding the institutional environment in which advocacy occurs. Simply put, one must possess a sophisticated understanding of the political and legal processes in which you will take part in order for your views to have their maximum impact. This course will have you working at multiple levels: rapidly improving your oral and written communication skills, understanding how to author persuasive arguments, and simultaneously gaining an understanding of how key decision-making institutions operate in American politics.
The institutions we will explore are all around you, and they make decisions that can have significant and immediate consequences on your community. We will take the opportunities presented by Macalester’s urban location in a capital city to consider advocacy before a range of bodies, from city councils and bureaucratic rule-making bodies, and from small claims courts to the Minnesota Supreme Court. What characterizes effective advocacy? What are the logics at work in the institutions and their cultures that makes some interests appear more compelling, reasonable, or sensible than others? What kinds of arguments and evidence work most effectively on decision-makers in those institutions, and why?
This course will take on this subject by both thinking and doing. We will read and write in the glorious abstractions of political thought and social science research, but we will also participate in the very processes that we’re studying (well, some of them anyway; hopefully we’ll stay out of court!). Ultimately we can use the perspectives of this course to turn the analysis onto ourselves: what will make you an effective participant in the life of Macalester College? What will make you an effective and engaged citizen in American civic life?
This course will also count toward the Legal Studies minor.
Class meets T TH, 3:00-4:30 pm, in Carnegie 304.
Living arrangement: Co-ed floor.
PSYC 194-01  Psychology of Presidential Politics
Kendrick Brown, Psychology Department
This course will investigate the psychological concepts and dynamics applicable to U.S. Presidential politics. The focus will be on the psychological factors shaping: (1) campaigns for the office of President and how they are evaluated by voters; (2) personality qualities and leadership styles exhibited by U.S. Presidents; and (3) agendas and policies established by U.S. Presidents during their administrations. The course will cover a number of psychological theories applicable to the political realities involving the office of President. Students will be expected to remain current with developments in the ongoing 2008 Presidential campaign.
For the most part, primary material, such as psychology journal articles and selected essays, will be used in the course. Thus, a course pack of the primary material will be made available for purchase in the first week of the class.
The class will be discussion-based with many active learning exercises and movies to illustrate the concepts. New psychological theories will be introduced through lectures in which students will have an opportunity to ask questions and engage the course topics.
Grades will be determined through exams focused on the primary material and in-class activities. Additionally, periodic reflection papers focused on the ongoing Presidential election campaign will be submitted by students. Lastly, a term paper designed to synthesize all that students learn throughout the semester will be due at the end of the semester. This term paper will be in two parts, on which students will be provided feedback by the instructor.
Class meets T TH, 9:40-10:40 am, in Olin-Rice 300.
Living arrangement: Co-ed floor.
RUSS 257-01  Tolstoy’s War and Peace
Gitta Hammarberg, German and Russian Studies Department
In 1851, a drop-out from the university, Tolstoy volunteered to serve his country in the Caucasian wars, bent on “destroying the predatory and turbulent Asiatics,” as he put it in a letter. Later he studied Russia’s engagement in the early 19th-century Napoleonic wars intensely, and gradually he gained fame for his polemics against imperialist wars and violence in general. But perhaps his greatest claim to fame came from his pacifist doctrine of non-resistance to evil, which has inspired people from Gandhi to Martin Luther King. Tolstoy’s stint in the South launched him as a writer of fiction. The Napoleonic wars yielded War and Peace, and while he was not adamantly preaching pacifism, he wrote Hadji Murad, his last literary work, in which he returned to the Caucasian wars of his youth.
Our course will focus on War and Peace and conclude with Hadji Murad. Over 1000 pages long, War and Peace has been labeled “not a novel” (Tolstoy), “real Russia” (Ivan Turgenev), a “large loose baggy monster” (Henry James), and it provided sustenance for numerous readers during the WWII 900-day siege Leningrad (Lidia Ginzburg). We will form our own opinion based on a thorough reading of the entire text, contemporary contextual material (Tolstoy’s letters, critical reactions), critical analyses of the novel (formalist, semiotic, Bakhtinian, feminist, psychoanalytical, poststructural, postcolonial), as well as interpretations in other media (Bondarchuk’s film, Prokofiev’s opera, comic strips).
Hadji Murad is the only Russian work Harold Bloom included in his Western Canon as “my personal touchstone for the sublime of prose fiction, to me the best story in the world.” We will look at it through the lens of the theories we studied and in the context of the current Chechen war.
We will learn about the historical context of each novel, and ponder such “deep questions” as the individual in relation to history, free will, family values, nobility versus peasantry, love, and death. These different approaches and questions will familiarize us with different ways of analyzing literary texts.
Writing will be a major part of the course, and though the professor and writing assistant can’t promise to turn each student into a Tolstoy, his writing of Hadji Murad especially will inspire our own writing: Tolstoy spent over a decade writing it, he whittled it down from twice the size of War and Peace to some 100 pages, and editing took significantly more effort than plot construction.
Class meets MWF, 1:10-2:10 pm, in Humanities 212.
Living arrangement: Co-ed floor.
SOCI 190-01 Criminal Behavior/Social Control
Erik Larson, Sociology Department
Imprisonment as a form of criminal punishment is only about as old as the United States. By 2006, over 7.2 million people in the United States were under correctional supervision – equivalent to 3.2% of the adult population. How should we understand the growth of this form of criminal punishment? In what ways is it similar to other methods of attempting to control unwanted behavior? What insights can a sociological approach offer on these questions?
In the first volume of the American Journal of Sociology over 100 years ago, Edward Alsworth Ross published an essay on the topic “Social Control,” arguing for the importance of sociology as a moral science that could provide unique insight about “the moral upbuilding of [people] going on under the guidance of society” that makes possible “ordered social life” (1896: 535). Ross was hardly alone in his convictions, representing the dominant understanding of early American sociology as a science that could help build a better society by providing knowledge that could be used to reform social ills. Over the ensuing century, social control practices grew to be far more formal and widespread, witnessed by the growth of specialized institutions and professions.
In this course, we examine these developments in the processes and organization of social control, paying particular attention to criminal behavior and formal, legal responses to crime. After a brief introduction to the two central topics in the course title (Crime and Social Control), we turn our attention to attempts by sociologists to explain criminal behavior by analyzing classical and contemporary criminological theories. Our discussion of these theories will include both their policy implications (i.e., if we accept this theory as accurate, how would we respond to decrease crime?) and basic data analysis exercise about crime.
We then turn our attention to analyzing the political nature of societal responses to crime, drawing on both historical and contemporary evidence. In particular, we consider implications of the increased use of imprisonment on political and economic inequalities. We also attempt to understand why criminal punishments vary across societies.
After this study of crime and criminalization, we widen our focus to broader topics of social control, examining some of the formal institutions of social control that have developed and how these institutions operate. The institutions that we study include: police, medicine, social services, and socio-spatial organization. We give particular emphasis to the role of expertise and the dynamic relation between information, surveillance, privacy, and technology.
In most weeks, participants in the course will read articles and excerpts from classic and contemporary works on crime and social control. We will also read a small number of books (Bruce Western’s Punishment and Inequality in America, John Hagan’s Justice in the Balkans: Prosecuting War Crimes in the Hague Tribunal, and John Gilliom’s Overseers of the Poor: Surveillance, Resistance, and the Limits of Privacy) that examine contemporary issues in relation to the perspectives that we examine in the course. Participants will prepare brief, weekly critical summaries about readings; short papers based on data analysis exercises; and longer review and application papers. These written assignments, along with active participation in our class discussions, will form the basis of the course grades.
Class meets MWF, 2:20-3:20 pm, in Carnegie 105.
THDA 120-01  Acting Theory and Performance I
Harry Waters Jr., Theater and Dance Department
An introduction to the fundamental techniques of realistic acting. Through improvisation, physical and vocal exercises, text and character analysis, and scene studies, the student is introduced to the process of acting preparation and performance.
There is an indepth exploration of the craft of acting coupled with opportunities to visit institutions and artists in the Twin Cities, while researching many styles of performance to augment your own personal growth. There will be challenges to prior presumptive theater experiences, while learning and sharing intense intimate revelations among your peers.
This is a course about process; the process of learning how to write at a college level, the process of learning how to time manage homework and rehearsal, the process of approaching a monologue and scene work, and the process of stepping fearlessly into unknown territory within the safety of our Studio Theater. All students are required to volunteer 4 hours of tech time for each stage production in the fall, as well as ushering one night. We encourage students who have little or no theater experience to take this course as a part of their introduction to the Macalester College experience.
Class meets MWF, 12:00-2:10 pm, in Theater Studio.
Living arrangement: Co-ed floor.
Macalester College Mission and Statement of Purpose
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