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Topics Descriptions

Fall 2005 (last updated August 22, 2005)
This page includes the following:
-Topics descriptions
-Seminar descriptions
-Descriptions for new or revised courses

Courses are listed alphabetically by department. Additional descriptions are posted as departments submit them.

AMST 194-01
Locating Asian America in the Midwest, 4 credits
Cynthia Wu
Fall 2005
**********
When we think of Asian American history and culture, California and other parts of the West Coast most readily come to mind. The gold rush, transcontinental railroad, Chinese Exclusion Acts, and World War II Japanese American internment have together put a West Coast-based Asian American history on the map. What often gets overlooked in these narratives, however, is the presence of Asian America in regions other than those that might seem immediately obvious. Asian American history and Asian American people—though present all over the U.S. —get elided in these other regions when we privilege a West Coast perspective, and these oversights result in an incomplete understanding of U.S. racial politics at large.

This course examines the presence of Asian America in the Midwest . We will begin by looking at how “Asia” was articulated in early twentieth-century world's fairs in Chicago and St. Louis . We will then examine the resettlement of second-generation Japanese Americans in the Midwest after World War II by reading Monica Sone's Nisei Daughter . Next, we will read the autobiography of Detroit-based activist Grace Lee Boggs on her involvement in the civil rights movements of the 1960's and 1970's. The latter part of the course will cover more recent topics, beginning with the documentary Who Killed Vincent Chin? concerning anti-Japanese sentiment in 1980's auto-industry Detroit . We will cover Bharati Mukerjee's 1999 novel Jasmine , set in Iowa . Jane Jeong Trenka's autobiography The Language of Blood will begin our discussion of Korean adoptees in the Upper Midwest . Finally, we will address the development of a Hmong American arts and culture movement in the Twin Cities.

AMST 294-01
Race, Place and Space, 4 credits
Karin Aguilar San Juan
Fall 2005
**********
In this discussion-based course we focus on the racialized places of U.S. cities, rural towns and suburbs in an effort to understand how social, historic, and spatial forces have colluded to bring about complex and enduring racial formations. We will look for race and related social categories in places around St. Paul and Minneapolis . By engaging theories about visuality and representation, urban development and suburban sprawl, and social movements for racial justice, we will develop a specialized vocabulary for explaining how race, place, and space are connected. This course requires prior exposure to at least one of the following areas: American Studies, human geography, sociology of race/ethnicity, or urban studies.

ANTH 257-01
Peoples and Cultures of Mongolia, 4 credits
Jack Weatherford
Fall 2005
**********
Through a combination of ethnography and history, the course analyzes the impact that the tribes of Mongolia have had on the surrounding civilizations and the world. The course also examines the contemporary people of Inner Asia as they struggle to deal with their dramatic legacy in the modern world system.

ART 194-01
Asian Art Survey I, East Asian Art in Context: China , 4 credits
Winston Kyan
Fall 2005
**********
This course provides a broad thematic survey of artistic production in China from prehistoric pottery and jades to experimental installations in contemporary Beijing . While encouraging the close analysis of visual materials and exploring the methods appropriate to interpreting works of art, this course also emphasizes the specific historical, political and religious contexts that produced, used and inspired these materials. Topics include ancient imperial tombs, Buddhist cave temples, court paintings and ceramics, and the gardens of the scholar elite. Same as ASIA 194-01.

ART 194-07
Chinese Art & Culture: The Visual Culture of Chinese Religions , 4 credits
Winston Kyan
Fall 2005
**********
Interdisciplinary in scope, this course explores the visual culture of Chinese religions. While focusing on the art and architecture associated with the three major traditions of Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism, this course also attends to popular devotional imagery that question the boundaries of organized religion. Particular emphasis is placed on the relationships between pictorial programs and spatial configurations. Topics include the visual culture mortality and immortality, hell and paradise, and deities and ancestors.

ASIA 101-01
Elementary Chinese I, 4 credits
Yaliang Jin
Fall 2005
**********
This course is an introduction to Chinese language and culture. It offers instruction and practice in basic sentence patterns and conversational expressions to enable students to speak and write in Chinese.

ASIA 194-05
Chinese Characters and Chinese Culture, 4 credits
Yliang Jin
Fall 2005
**********
This course focuses on the study of Chinese script, including its cultural origin and the history of its evolution. Some familiarity with Chinese writing system will be helpful. Lectures will not only introduce the structure and formation of Chinese ideograms, but will also expose students to the history of Chinese characters and their cultural background. By taking this course, students will have the opportunity to learn to write and understand characters correctly, an initial step to achieve a deeper understanding of the Chinese language, one of the world's most ancient and beautiful languages, and its culture. Through a series of carefully designed and graded practice of character writing with Chinese brush and ink, students will be able to not only appreciate the beauty of Chinese script, but also express themselves through this ancient form of scripted art.

ASIA 294-01
Intermediate Chinese I, 4 credits
P. Anderson
Fall 2005
**********
A continuation of ASIA 102. While the emphasis is placed on listening and speaking skills, students continue their study of characters and begin to work with short texts. Prerequisite: ASIA 102, Elementary Chinese, or its equivalent.

BIOL394-01 / COMP 394-01
Bioinformatics, 4 credits
Libby Shoop
Fall 2005
**********
This course is interdisciplinary in nature, and will be treated as an opportunity for both biology students and computer science students to work together to learn why and how computing is becoming an essential component of most areas of biological research today. Biology is quickly becoming a science overwhelmed with data and information that remains to be completely understood. In its 2003 report entitled "BIO 2010, Transforming Undergraduate Education for Research Biologists", the National Research Council stressed that the next generation of biology researchers will need skills in manipulating data and that successful research projects of the future will involve interdisciplinary teams where computer scientists and biologists work together to better understand the complexity of biological systems. To be successful members of such teams, biologists need to understand some basic aspects of computing, and computer scientists need to appreciate the complexity of biological information, and they both need to learn how to work together and understand each other's vocabulary. In this course we will work in interdisciplinary teams and study these major aspects of bioinformatics: DNA and protein sequence alignments and similarity algorithms, phylogenetic trees and how they are used to study evolution, genomics and the large amount of data produced by sequencing and microarray studies, and proteomics and visualization of protein interactions. Students will learn some basic programming using the language Perl, and will learn how to store and manipulate data in database management systems. Course activities will include reading and reporting on important papers from each major area we will study, team projects using existing bioinformatics tools, building your own programs, and downloading and exploring existing datasets. The following textbooks will be used for foundational knowledge and supplemented with web sites:
• Fundamental Concepts of Bioinformatics, by Dan E. Krane and Michael L. Raymer, Benjamin Cummings, 2003. ISBN 0-8053-4633-3
• Beginning Perl for Bioinformatics, by James Tisdall, O'Reilly, 2001. ISBN 0-596-00080-4
Biology Student Prerequisites: Either BIOL190 (Genetics) or BIOL205 Cell Biology & Genetics II or Permission of the instructor.

CHEM 115-01
Principles of Chemistry, 4 credits
Tom Varberg
Fall 2005
**********
This course combines topics from both Chemistry 111 and 112 and is meant to be an accelerated one-semester version of General Chemistry. The course begins with a rigorous treatment of atomic and molecular structure, and explores various modern models of chemical bonding. These ideas are applied to a thorough discussion of chemical thermodynamics and kinetics. Conceptual and mathematical methods for quantifying chemical equilibrium are also explored, with particular emphasis on the chemistry of acids and bases. Prerequisites: AP chemistry score of 4 or 5; IB chemistry score of 5, 6, or 7; or satisfactory performance on a placement examination (administered during Orientation Week). Some knowledge of calculus is recommended. Three lectures and one three-hour laboratory per week.

COMP 394-01
Bioinformatics, 4 credits
Libby Shoop
Fall 2005
**********
This course is interdisciplinary in nature, and will be treated as an opportunity for both biology students and computer science students to work together to learn why and how computing is becoming an essential component of most areas of biological research today. Biology is quickly becoming a science overwhelmed with data and information that remains to be completely understood. In its 2003 report entitled “BIO 2010, Transforming Undergraduate Education for Research Biologists”, the National Research Council stressed that the next generation of biology researchers will need skills in manipulating data and that successful research projects of the future will involve interdisciplinary teams where computer scientists and biologists work together to better understand the complexity of biological systems. To be successful members of such teams, biologists need to understand some basic aspects of computing, and computer scientists need to appreciate the complexity of biological information, and they both need to learn how to work together and understand each other's vocabulary. In this course we will work in interdisciplinary teams and study these major aspects of bioinformatics: DNA and protein sequence alignments and similarity algorithms, phylogenetic trees and how they are used to study evolution, genomics and the large amount of data produced by sequencing and microarray studies, and proteomics and visualization of protein interactions. Students will learn some basic programming using the language Perl, and will learn how to store and manipulate data in database management systems. Course activities will include reading and reporting on important papers from each major area we will study, team projects using existing bioinformatics tools, building your own programs, and downloading and exploring existing datasets. The following textbooks will be used for foundational knowledge and supplemented with web sites:
• Fundamental Concepts of Bioinformatics, by Dan E. Krane and Michael L. Raymer, Benjamin Cummings, 2003. ISBN 0-8053-4633-3
• Beginning Perl for Bioinformatics, by James Tisdall, O'Reilly, 2001. ISBN 0-596-00080-4

EDUC 280-01 / POLI 211-01
Re-Envisioning Education and Democracy, 4 credits
Ruthanne Kurth-Schai
Fall 2005
**********
This course explores the design, implementation, and evaluation of public education policy as a primary means for engaging more active, inclusive and effective approaches to social inquiry and civic participation. Drawing from classic and contemporary theories of education and democracy, complemented by recent developments and controversies in public policy studies, students work to design innovative, principled, educationally sound and politically feasible responses to significant civic concerns.

ENGL 380-01
The Harlem Renaissance, 4 credits
Daylanne English
Fall 2005
**********
In this course, we will ask a wide variety of literary, aesthetic, political, and historical questions about an equally wide variety of cultural productions from the Harlem Renaissance (roughly 1910-1935). We will study figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, Angelina Weld Grimke, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Oscar Micheaux, and James Van der Zee, among many others. Our texts will include: ragtime, the blues, film, photography, poetry, novels, short stories, plays, autobiographies, fictional autobiographies and autobiographical fictions, and literary and cultural criticism. As we closely read, view, and listen, we will investigate: the movement's chronological, geographic, and cultural boundaries; the ways that Harlem Renaissance artists and writers constructed and represented a “New Negro”; class, gender, and color conflict within the movement; tensions regarding “highbrow” versus “lowbrow” cultural production; modern urban representations of a rural past; the trope of “passing”; the power and presence of gays and lesbians in what one critic has termed “the gayest Renaissance in history”; debates regarding white patronage and audience; the relationship of the Harlem Renaissance to Modernism; and the various “criteria of Negro art” being advanced by a range of Harlem Renaissance figures. We will, finally, explore the current status of the Harlem Renaissance as a field of study and interest. Requirements for the course include: weekly 1-page responses to the reading, one essay of about 5 pages, one term paper of about 20 pages, and one 20-minute presentation. This course will fulfill the college's domestic diversity requirement and the English department's “emergent voices” requirement for majors.

EDUC 480-01
Urban Education in Theory, Policy, and Practice, 5 credits
Ruthanne Kurth-Schai
Fall 2005
**********
This course draws from an extensive theory and research base—educational psychology, curriculum and pedagogy, educational philosophy, and policy studies grounded in the social sciences—to support interdisciplinary explorations of the peril and promise of urban public education. An intensive school-based internship (6-8 hours/week) is integrated with weekly seminar sessions (2-3 hours/week) to study advanced topics in teacher preparation and policy analysis relevant to learning and life in public school settings serving students who represent diverse cultural, linguistic, and economic backgrounds, a broad range of academic interests and aptitudes, and varied forms of exceptionality.

ENGL 368-01
Literature of the Americas: Caribbean Literature, 4 credits
Gabrielle Civil
Fall 2005
**********
What happens when we read the Caribbean not just as a place but as a zone of linguistic, literary, cultural and bodily encounter? In this course, we will read juicy poetry, novels, short stories, plays and experimental texts from the English, French and Spanish-speaking Caribbean region. Course topics include: slavery, Negritude, imperialism, revolution, tourism, emigration, exile and love. Course authors include: Mary Prince, Aimé Césaire, Jacques-Stephan Alexis, Janine Antoni, Dionne Brand, Cristina Garcia, Edwidge Danticat, Kamau Brathwaite, Derek Walcott and Junot Diaz. Course assignments include essays, a take home examination, and engaged discussion full of bravery, rigor and joy. These are my capsule fields of interest: Diasporic Black Literature: African-American, Caribbean, African, Afro-Canadian; Performance & Conceptual Art; Contemporary Women?s Poetry; Twentieth Century & Contemporary World Poetry; Black Feminist Theory; Creative Writing & Composition; Multicultural Higher Education

ENGL 394-01
Twentieth-Century Science Fiction (And Fantasy)
Steve Burt
Fall 2005
**********
What is science fiction? What is it good for? How did it evolve and where is it going? What does it have to do with the literary kind we now call "fantasy"? Do its major categories and subgenres have anything in common? What are those major kinds, anyway? Is "first contact story" a literary genre? What about "artificial intelligence story"? Or "sword and sorcery"? Can we use the tools developed for examining realist literary fiction to examine (and to better enjoy) tales of aliens and telepaths? Do these tales imply other tools all their own? We'll try to answer those questions (and more) with representative and exceptional works of sf (and fantasy) from the last hundred-odd years. Likely, but by no means certain, authors: H. G. Wells, H. P. Lovecraft, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Cordwainer Smith, Philip K. Dick, Samuel R. Delany, Ursula K. LeGuin, Michael Moorcock, Joanna Russ, Richard Powers, Octavia Butler, and Ted Chiang. (If you have a favorite author who's not on the syllabus, you may get a chance to research that author anyway.) NOTE: If you are a senior English major and want to use this course for senior seminar or capstone, speak to (or email) Steve Burt beforehand, in order to work out details for registration.

ENVI 294-01 / POLI 294-01

Water and Power, 4 credits

Roopali Phadke

Fall 2005

**********

This course develops an interdisciplinary approach to studying water resources development, drawing from political science, geography, anthropology, history, hydrology and civil engineering. With a focus on large river basins, the course examines historical and emerging challenges to the equitable and sustainable use of transboundary waters. After first exploring the American water development model, the course will examine the promulgation of this model in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East Dam development for irrigation, electricity, navigation and flood protection will be discussed.

ENVI 294-03

Environmental Hydrology, 4 credits

Nikki Strong

Fall 2005

**********

We should all seek knowledge of hydrology as an aid in understanding the physical environment in which humanity has developed and in which we now live. The population of the world could increase by 50 percent some time this century. The majority of this global population increase of more than 3 billion people will occur in developing countries that already face shortages of potable water and food. -Ward and Trimble

Environmental Hydrology is the study of the processes that influence the formation, circulation, and modification of water at or near the surface of the earth, i.e. as surface flow (e.g. via rivers) and groundwater (e.g. via aquifers.) This course includes a detailed analysis of the physical aspects of the hydrologic cycle and the chemical and physical nature of water on Earth. We will review some very basic concepts in fluid mechanics and flow through porous media and touch on such topics as surface runoff and streamflow, the hydrology of extreme events, the hydrologic aspects of water quality, watershed hydrology, confined and unconfined aquifers, and fluvial sediment transport. We will also review developing environmental policy on issues such as toxic and nuclear waste disposal, agricultural non-point source pollution, flood control, dam removal, and river, lake, and groundwater pollution. The objective of the course is to give a general, semi-quantitative overview of hydrology. Aside from a traditional lecture-based format, the course will also involve the use of field observations, physical experiments, and some simple modeling techniques as basic tools in understanding and managing our most precious natural resource, water.

ENVI 294-07 / HIST 294-09

American Environmental History, 4 credits

Chris Wells

Fall 2005

**********

In this course, we will examine the variety of ways that people in North America have shaped the environment, as well as how they have used, labored in, abused, conserved, protected, rearranged, polluted, cleaned, and thought about it. In addition, we will explore how various characteristics of the natural world have affected the broad patterns of human society, sometimes harming or hindering life and other times enabling rapid development and expansion. By bringing nature into the study of human history, and the human past into the study of nature, we will begin to see the connection and interdependence between the two that are often overlooked.

ENVI 394-01 / HIST 394-07

The Automobile and the American Environment, 4 credits

Chris Wells

Fall 2005

**********

At the dawn of the twentieth century, automobiles were newfangled playthings of the very wealthy; by century’s end, they had become necessities of the modern world. This momentous change brought with it a cascading series of consequences that completely remade the American landscape and touched nearly every aspect of American life. This course will explore the role that cars and roads have played in shaping America’s interactions with the natural world, and will seek an historical understanding of how the country has developed such an extreme dependence on its cars. In the process, we will engage with current debates among environmentalists, policymakers, and local communities trying to shape the future of the American transportation system to come to grips with the environmental effects of a car-dependent lifestyle.

FREN 394-01
La Culture Francaise Contemporaine, 4 credits
Joelle Vitiello
Fall 2005
**********
This course addresses issues in modern and contemporary France. It will include some review of important historical events and their consequences for French society, in particular WWII and the French-Algerian war. Contemporary issues will include French multiculturalism, major current cultural events and trends, the relationship between France and the European community, and its current relationships with the United States. Materials include the use of various media (newspapers, films, video, TVnews, radio). The course is designed at an intermediary-advanced level. Prerequisite: French 204 or equivalent.

GEOG 294-01

Feminist Geographies, 4 credits

Katrinka Somdahl

Fall 2005

**********

The aim of the course is to provide a forum in which students can learn and discuss the diverse approaches and practice within feminist geography. The class will be a combination of lecture and seminar interspersed with a series of interactive workshop-type meetings. The major themes of the course will be: the history of feminist geography; women in the field of geography; feminist methodologies in geography; feminist geography in action; understanding global feminisms.

GEOG 294-03
Regional Geography of Latin America, 4 credits
Helen Hazen
Fall 2005
**********
Latin America is a diverse and dynamic region, but one that is often prone to stereotypes and over-generalizations. After all, Latin America is mainly jungle, full of ruined pyramids, and prone to ceaseless political upheavals and devaluing currencies…isn't it? This class moves beyond such easy and inaccurate generalizations to provide an overview of Latin America —its peoples and environments—that looks at the importance of place as a way to understand a region. This geographical approach involves investigating the changing relationships between places, peoples, and ideas, and how these relationships define and influence a particular region.

The class is divided into five parts that explore some of the forces that have shaped, and continue to influence, contemporary Latin America and its relations with the rest of the world: the natural environment, the people, the economy, urbanization & migration, and development & health. Each of these topics will be explored independently and in ways that emphasize the connections and inter-relationships among topics. We will also look at two broader themes throughout the whole course. First, what is the value of taking a regional approach—why have a course focused on Latin America? Second, we will explore connections between the U.S. and Latin America—why should North Americans be interested and concerned with events in Latin America?

This structure is designed to: 1) provide information vital to understanding the region, 2) investigate a variety of detailed case studies to illustrate the broader issues raised, and 3) encourage critical thinking skills by questioning and analyzing the issues covered. I strongly encourage you to participate fully in all class activities. Feel free to ask questions and provide comments at any time, or share experiences of your own.

GEOL 294-01
Field Methods in Science, 4 credits
Karl Wirth
Fall 2005
**********
This course introduces students to the methods of collecting, recording, and presenting field data. The field scientist must know how to extract and record data from complex environs. Field data often involve spatial components, so the interpretation and generation of maps are essential skills, including the use of global positioning and geographic information systems. Mapping projects will be conducted outdoors during the early and middle part of the semester, followed by computer-aided mapping and analysis. Prerequisites include: Geology 150, 155, or permission of instructor.

GERM 223-01
Culture Component for Study Abroad, 2 credits (Taught in German)
David Martyn
Fall 2005
**********

The course provides preparation for students who plan to study abroad, but is open to all interested participants. We will discuss cultural, social, and political topics relating to Vienna and Berlin, concentrating on the period from 1890 to 1938. A collateral goal is to improve German language skills. Discussion will center on the culture of turn-of-the-century Vienna, including literature, drama, and design, especially Jugendstil or art nouveau; and on the social and cultural turmoil in post-war Berlin: Dada, post-war inflation, the communist uprising around Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht ("The Spartacus League"). Course materials will include short stories and plays by Gerhard Hauptmann, Arthur Schnitzler, Alfred Döblin, Stefan Zweig, and Kurt Tucholsky, as well as four films: Sissi (with Romy Schneider as the ingenue who marries the king of the Austrian empire); Bob Fosse's Cabaret; Werner Maria Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz; Margaretha von Trotta's Rosa Luxemburg. (We will NOT see The Sound of Music.) Prerequisite: German 204, or concurrent enrollment in German 204 or equivalent, or permission of the instructor. Requirements: one oral report, one 3-page paper based on the oral report, with re-write. This course is taught in German.

GERM 305-01
German Through the Media, 4 credits
Gisela Peters
Fall 2005
**********
The objective of German Studies 305 is to help students acquire the necessary tools and strategies for writing and speaking on a relatively sophisticated level about a variety of social and academic topics. Students will explore contemporary issues through a variety of texts from the print, cinematic, and electronic media as well as fictional and non-fictional texts. Class time is spent on 1. learning to "mine" German texts for information, vocabulary, and structures, 2. discussing issues raised in the texts, 3. reviewing important grammatical structures, and 4. developing discursive strategies for expressing one's own opinions, and taking issue with somebody else's opinions. Lab required.

GERM 306-01
Intro to German Studies, 4 credits (Taught in German)
Rachael Huener
Fall 2005
**********
An introductory course to the German major. It's four goals are: 1) To introduce students to the critical questions that inform German Studies, such as “What is culture?,” “What processes, things, persons, etc. constitute culture?,” “How has German culture functioned at certain historical junctures?”; 2) to provide students with a general historical framework for roughly the last 150 years of German history; 3) to develop students' competence in reading and expressing themselves concerning academic discourse; 4) to equip students for future independent language work. Preparation for the course includes readings in German history and from autobiographical and literary texts, as well as viewing and listening to a variety of works from other media such as films, music, and spoken interviews. Class time is spent in discussion of selected cultural-historical questions and artifacts, and students then extend their reflections on these questions, texts and artifacts in a series of short multimedia essays created in a web-based multimedia authoring environment. At the end of the course, students receive a CD copy of their course portfolio of essays, as well as other materials they have assembled for future German Studies work. This course is taught in German.

GERM 360-01 / HMCS 394-03
Proseminar in German Studies: Before, During, and After Marx, 4 credits
Kiarina Kordela
Fall 2005
**********
While the antiquity and the subsequent eras of Hellenistic and Medieval theocracy organized themselves, albeit in different ways, around one and the same persisting opposition, that between matter and spirit, the secular era of Western capitalist modernity constitutes itself around a new opposition: matter versus value. Due to the fact that Karl Marx provided the first adequate formalization of value within the field of political economy, and, further, due to the traditional division between ‘base' (economy) and ‘superstructure' (culture), the centrality of the shift from spirit to value within the entirety of secular thought and culture, including the constitution of human subjectivity - a shift already occurring, prior to Marx, since the seventeenth century - remains little conscious. Through the analysis of various theoretical texts from the seventeenth century to twentieth-century postmodernity, this course will trace the gradual predominance of value as the secular function displacing spirit, while raising questions regarding the consequences of this shift on historical consciousness. What is the destiny of concepts such as God, immortality, truth, and even need, pleasure, and desire, once the human subject is no longer conceived as a spiritual being but as a being of value? Readings will include: Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Saussure, Freud, Lévi-Strauss, Lacan, Foucault, and Karatani.

GERM 364-01
Birth of Modern Germany , 4 credits (Taught in German)
Rachael Huener
Fall 2005
**********
This course is an interdisciplinary investigation into the development of German national identity in the course of the 19th century. Cultural-historical topics will include the revolutionary ferver of Vormärz, the political ambivalence of the German bourgeoisie following the failed revolution of 1848, the development of the Kulturnation and the construction of a national past, the founding of the German empire and the swift -- and unsettling -- ascendency of the German empire to the status of Weltmacht. Literary-artistic movements will include pre-revolutionary theater, late romantic painting, bürgerlicher Realismus, the crime novella, the rise of the epic opera and the symphony, Märchen and children's literature, the design school Werkbund, the avante-garde Berliner Secession, and the socially critical novel of turn-of-the-century urban life. Works will include Georg Büchner's Woyzeck, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff's Die Judenbuche, poetry of Heinrich Heine and Eduard Möricke, Marx' und Engel's Manifest der kommunistischen Partei, Gottfried Keller's Romeo und Jullia auf dem Dorfe, Wagner's Das Rheingold, Theodor Fontane's Effie Briest, and Gerhard Hauptmann's Vor Sonnenaufgang. This course is taught in German.

GERM 394-01
Deutsches Judentum, 1782-1939, 4 credits (Taught in German)
David Martyn
Fall 2005
**********
For a century and a half, Jews were an essential part of German culture – and German culture rapidly became an essential part of them as well. This has led some to describe this period as that of a great “German-Jewish symbiosis”; others speak of a “150-year misunderstanding.” The goal of the course is to examine the relationship between Jews and Germany for what it was, emphasizing its extraordinary productivity and resisting the temptation to see it only through the lens of the Holocaust. We will begin with 18 th -century autobiographies and writings on Judaism, centering on the relationship of Jews to the Enlightenment. We will then pursue the development of German-Jewish culture from the Berlin Jewish “salons” around 1800, through the period of emancipation in the 19 th century, and up through the flourishing of Jewish culture in turn-of-the-century Vienna. Autobiographical writings will predominate, but readings will also include stories, poems, and discursive (essayistic and argumentative) texts. Possible authors are Glückel von Hammeln, Moses Mendelssohn, Salomon Maimon, Henrietta Herz, Heinrich Heine, Fanny Lewald, Theodor Herzl, Arthur Schnitzler, Stefan Zweig, Jacob Wassermann, and Sigmund Freud. Given time and interest, we may at the end of the semester pick up the thread again in texts written after 1980 by Jewish writers who remained in Germany after the war, such as Jurek Becker, Fred Wander, and Hilde Domin. Prerequisite: German 306 or permission of the instructor. Requirements: 3 five-page papers, one re-write, oral report, daily reading notes. This course is taught in German.

HISP 308-01
Locating U.S. Latino Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches, 4 credits
Galo Gonzalez
Fall 2005
**********
By 2003, individuals of Latin American descent living in the United States numbered approximately 38 million, constituting the country's largest “minority” group. In this course, we will study the interdisciplinary field of contemporary U.S. Latino Studies that has emerged in response to this growing population. Here we will trace the fundamental questions and concerns within Latina/o Studies, ranging from the field's activist origins in the Chicano and Puerto Rican movements of the 1960s and 70s to its current emphasis on pan-Latino, comparative, and "new Latino" avenues of inquiry. For example, what is a U.S. Latina/o? What is U.S. Latina/o Studies, and how is it different from (and similar to) Latin American Studies? Where does U.S. Latina/o Studies “belong” in institutions of higher learning? In addition to these questions regarding the academic location of U.S. Latina/o Studies, in this class you will learn to describe the main demographic features of the various U.S. Latino communities and compare each group's unique migration history, settlement patterns, and transnational activities. Finally, we will devote a significant portion of the course to a broader discussion of U.S. Latina/o identity as it relates to questions of class, race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and national origins.

HISP 441-01
Hispanic Film and Other Media, 4 credits
G. Dapena
Fall 2005
**********
The course views feature films, documentaries, and other media from Spain , Latin America, and the U.S. from cultural, political, and linguistic perspectives. We will examine various strategies of film analysis through lectures, discussions, projects, and presentations. Themes include political struggles, human rights, race, class, gender, family, and identity. Prerequisite: 307 or consent of the instructor.

HIST 194-05

The Global in the Local: Minnesota History in Worldwide Perspective, 4 credits

Peter Rachleff

Fall 2005

**********

Macalester students are typically drawn to the college by two seemingly antithetical aspects of the college program: study at home grounded in our magnificent urban setting and study abroad global in scope and experience. This course is intended to make clear that these curricular features are not contradictory but complementary. We seek to demonstrate that thinking globally and acting locally is not a slogan but an inescapable historical experience. We are confident that this unorthodox consideration of how these cities have evolved through time will prove an enjoyable and illuminating introduction to understanding the world we live in historically.

To this end we will employ the entire metropolitan area as our classroom making every possible use of local resources through excursions and off campus activities designed to get you out of the fables Macalester “bubble”. We will visit obvious sites such as Fort Snelling or Saint Anthony Falls but hope to surprise you as well with visits to community meetings, ethnic restaurants, places of worship, and cultural institutions from “A”[AFL-CIO Meeting Halls] to “Z”[Zander Café.] Don’t misunderstand, we are not promising you Ferris Bueller’s Day Off though we do aspire to a history class that neither he nor you would want to cut. Throughout our process, we will place these local sites within analytical frameworks that enable us to move from the micro to the macro, from the local to the global. We’ll spend more time in the cities than in the classroom, but our extramural adventures are explanatory rather than escapist in nature and always fully complemented with reading, discussing, and writing about a wide variety of materials intended to underscore the historical significance of all we encounter. Likely reading selections include: A. Bester, “The Men who murdered Mohammed”; C. Becker, “Everyman His Own Historian”; C. Eastman, Memoirs of an Indian Boyhood; F. Fukuyama, “The End of History”; and Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie. Possible viewings range from Dances with Wolves to The Immigrants, and even The Farmer’s Daughter.

At the very least we expect to have persuaded you by the end of the term that “you had better be interested in history because history is interested in you” leaving you well situated to move on to further study of what history is, how it can be studied, and, above all, how it is created. More optimistically, we desire to make you fully appreciative of just how lucky we all are to be where and when we are. Indeed, we even presume to hope that you will finish agreeing with us that far from having “ended”, history begins anew each time people ask not “what will happen?” but “what is to be done?” History doesn’t just happen; it is made. Historians true to our calling, we planned a course not for passive voyeurs satisfied merely to contemplate on the past but one intended to serve activist scholars both eager to study history and determined to make it!

HIST 194-07

The Local in the Global: World History in Minnesota Perspective, 4 credits

Paul Solon

Fall 2005

**********

HIST 194-09

Gandhi, Non-violence, and Nationalism in India, 4 credits

Brendan LaRocque

Fall 2005

**********

Mohandas K. Gandhi’s leadership of the anti-colonial struggle in India based on the practice of non-violent civil disobedience helped to bring down the mightiest empire in the world. In this course we will examine Gandhi’s laborious efforts to develop a successful nationalist movement in the 19^th and 20^th centuries, focusing on his nuanced understanding of the principles of non-violence, his critique of modern civilization, and attempts to reform Indian society. At the same time, the period of Gandhi’s struggle was also a time when numerous other powerful nationalist currents emerged in the Indian subcontinent. We will therefore examine the historical forces and the people which comprised these alternative socio-political movements, in an effort to understand the complex and intriguing ways in which Gandhi’s movements variously incorporated economic, political, ethnic and religious elements into their ideologies and practices. We will also look at the ways in which South Asian nationalist movements developed and changed over time as they interacted with the forces of British colonialism.

HIST 294-01

Wars, Rabbis, and Messiahs: History of Jews of the Second Temple and Early Rabbinic Period, 4 credits

Alexandra Cuffel

Fall 2005

**********

In this course we will explore the political, cultural, intellectual and religious history of the Jews from the building of the Second Temple through to the 6 century CE with the completion of the Babylonian Talmud. The political struggles between the Jews and the Roman and Persian empires, messianic movements, and the developments of different interpretations of what it meant to be Jewish will receive particular emphasis. Students should leave with a good sense of the historical, literary, and artistic development of Jews during this period.

HIST 294-03

History of Brazil, 4 credits

Sharon Giestfeld

Fall 2005

**********

This course examines how the forces of colonization, migration, and the interaction of diverse peoples shaped the history of Brazil from the early sixteenth century to the present. Principal topics include: indigenous civilizations; 16^th century European contact and colonization; the slave trade, expansion of plantation slavery, and slave resistance; imperial administration and exploitation; comparative labor systems; independence from Portugal; early republic, oligarchies and elite; nationalism and national identity in a multicultural context; and contemporary dictatorship and reforms. We conclude with Brazil’s movement back to democracy by examining such social movements as the Black Nationalist Movement (MNU), the Landless Movement (MST), and the issues and election of the Worker’s Party (PT) candidate, President “Lula” da Silva.

HIST 294-05

Knowledge and Culture in Modern South Asia, 4 credits

Brendan LaRocque

Fall 2005

**********

In this course we will examine some of the major forms of culture and religion as well as the ways in which the acquisition and transmission of knowledge developed and was transformed in modern South Asia (including the contemporary nation-states of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh). We will initially focus on the major systems of political, social, and religious thought that existed prior to the period of British rule. We will then move on to study how colonial rule affected Indian thought and society, concentrating on ideas concerning just governance, the public sphere, social hierarchies and caste, Hinduism and Islam, the respective roles of women and men in society, and the meanings of religion and secularism. British perspectives and Indian views will both be examined in detail, and while intellectual history will be one of our topics of research, we will at all times give close attention to the social, economic, and political forces which shaped thought and culture in modern India. In addition to reading scholarly books and articles, our course material will include music, poetry, journalism, popular Bollywood cinema and “art films.”

HIST 294-07

Sports in America, 4 credits

Norm Rosenberg

Fall 2005

**********

This course will look, primarily through motion pictures and TV footage, at many different sporting activities. It will focus on the visual imagery that represents sports and, in turn, on the many ways in which we, as both active spectators and passive participants, imagine the sports in which we ourselves engage. This course will also try to see how sporting activities, over the course of the twentieth century, have provided ways of simultaneously bringing together and separating people on the basis of age; gender; racial, ethnic, and geographical identities; and economic circumstances. We will linger over certain specific, iconic movements in 20^th century sports, such as (but not limited to) the Black Sox Scandal, the Louis-Schmeling fight; the 1968 Olympics, and the many times that the Cubbies and the Red Sox played out (and in one case defeated ) their respective curses. Featured movies will include 8 MEN OUT, A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN, THE NATURAL, MAJOR LEAGUE(1), HAPPY GILMORE, BLUE CRUSH, WHITE MEN CAN’T JUMP, THE MIRACLE, GIRL FIGHT, ALI, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, FIGHT CLUB, SLAPSHOT, and thousands of others. There will also be representative sampling of documentaries, video games, and ESPN features. The rules of this particular game prohibit more than one (1) unexcused absence from class and require a weekly quiz; two (2) take home exams; and an in-class presentation on an iconic sports moment and/or image of one’s choice.

HIST 294-11
Slavery, Abolition, and the Civil War, 4 credits
L. Hudson
Fall 2005
**********
How did Americans of the nineteenth century experience slavery, the movement to abolish it, and the war that ended it? We will examine the systems of slavery that existed in the U.S. , and in particular, the world slaves made for themselves in antelbellum America . We will study a variety of locations—from slave markets to the Underground Railroad--to understand the ways slaves and their supporters resisted slavery and shaped the institution. Finally, we will consider the multiple ways that slavery and the Civil War have been remembered and represented since 1865.

HIST 392-01

Advanced Studies: Historians and Critical Race Theory, 2 credits

Peter Rachleff

Fall 2005

**********

This two-credit course is designed for advanced students, largely through the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program. The course will examine the historical development of critical race theory, its impact on historical study, and the development of race and racism in a U.S. context. We will also explore the place of critical race theory in graduate education today. Signature required for registration.

HIST 394-01 / HIST 394-03

From Pearl Harbor to 9/11: Images of Hope and Fear, 4 credits

Emily Rosenberg, Norm Rosenberg

Fall 2005

**********

During the years between 1941 and 2001(which some have called the” American Century”), the United States became the world’s preeminent superpower, and many of its citizens could claim one of the highest standards of living on the planet. Yet, for all the images of hope and wellbeing that circulated within U.S. culture, contrasting ones that displayed fear about the precarious state of national security and domestic welfare also abounded. Cultural discourses in this sixty year period, which began and ended with two very different “days of infamy”, projected (with apologies to Charles Dickens) both “the best of times and the worst of times.”

Contested images of confidence and of dread framed issues involving gender and sexuality, racial formations, the distribution of economic resources, corporate power, family structure, the role of government, national security, new scientific and technological changes, the media, youth and education, and environmental practices. Using motion pictures, TV programs, and popular journalism as its major sources, this course will examine these issues.

Featured filmic texts (shown during Wednesday night “lab” sessions) tentatively include From Here to Eternity; On the Town; Panic in the Streets; Strangers on a Train; On the Waterfront; The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit; Psycho; The Manchurian Candidate; Dr. Strangelove; The Fog of War; Godfather II; Missing; The China Syndrome; Being There; Bladerunner, 9 to 5; and Lone Star. Discussions of these films and assigned books and articles, along with presentations of related visual and written sources and brief lectures, will take place during the Tuesday and Thursday class meetings. Enrollment is limited to students with senior or junior standing.

HIST 394-05

The Modern U.S., 1900-1940: Hollywood Re-Views an Era, 4 credits

Norm Rosenberg

Fall 2005

**********

Claiming the mantle of “conservatism”, a loosely organized social-cultural movement now pledges to undo, rather than to conserve, many of the central values, institutions, and practices associated with the “modern” era. Although the various signs of the “modern” have always provoked criticism, there had never been, until relatively recently, a broad-based attack against them. For much of the 20^th century, the core commitments that took shape between about 1900 and 1940 remained contested but dominant. Might a rising “conservative tide” be ready to erode their hegemonic position?

Today’s conservatism sees a variety of targets closely associated with the “modern “era and not simply the oft-criticized Sixties. The conservative indictment seems to include the Hollywood movie industry; cultural relativism; welfare-state institutions, including social security; the “wall of separation” between religions and secular values; artistic modernism; special protection for “minorities” and “outsiders”; “freedom” of expression and inquiry; the preservation of natural and cultural resources; and “progressive” public education. A telling vignette: In late 2004, the hometown of John Steinbeck threatened to close its public libraries, including one that looks after the writer’s legacy, in order to avoid raising taxes.

This class will sample Hollywood motion pictures that represent, form differing perspectives, the values, institutions, and practices linked to the “modern” U.S. Many of the course’s visual sources- The Age of Mirth; The Wings of the Dove; The Grapes of Wrath; Native Son; It; The Magnificent Ambersons; Bound for Glory; The Wizard of Oz; They Shoot Horses Don’t They?; Imitation of Life; Lady of Burlesque; High Sierra; All Quiet on the Western Front; The Maltese Falcon; The Great Gatsby; Double Indemnity; Gabriel Over the White House; The Postman Always Rings Twice; All the King’s Men; Skyscraper Souls; Ragtime; etc. – have literary antecedents that Hollywood appropriated and re-viewed. In addition, we will look at other visual texts, without specific literary forbearers, that also represent this same historical era. These include: Intolerance; Modern Times; The Cameraman; 42^nd Street; Dames; Betty Boop, Bugs Bunny and Walt Disney cartoons; Citizen Kane; Bonnie & Clyde; Zelig; The Cat’s Meow; Rosewood; The Purple Rose of Cairo; Radio Days; The Sting; The Aviator; Titanic; Seabiscuit; Chinatown, etc. Enrollment is limited to students with junior or senior standing.

HMCS 110-01
Texts and Power: Foundations of Cultural Studies, 4 credits
Vincent Doyle
Fall 2005
**********
This course introduces students to the intellectual roots and contemporary applications of cultural studies, including critical media studies, focusing on the theoretical bases for analyses of power and meaning in production, texts, and reception. It includes primary readings in anti-racist, feminist, modern, postmodern, and queer cultural and social theory, and compares them to traditional approaches to the humanities. Designed as preparation for intermediate and advanced work grounded in cultural studies, the course is writing intensive, with special emphasis on developing skills in critical thinking and scholarly argumentation and documentation. Completion of or enrollment in HMCS 110 is the prerequisite for majoring in Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies.

HMCS 247-01
Documentary Video: History/Practice/Theory, 4 credits
Michael Griffin
Fall 2005
**********
What is a documentary? During the 2004 presidential campaign Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 provoked controversy about its status as a documentary film. Controversy has dogged documentary since Robert Flaherty's 1922 Nanook of the North . Can the camera contribute to our knowledge of the social reality around us? Or is it inevitably compromised by the context of its use? Can film- and videomakers document the world? Or do documentaries inevitably shape even as they show? Is documentary inevitably political?

This course explores the history and theory of documentary practices in film and video: whether and under what conditions documentary might claim knowledge of the world, the implications of cinematic technique and style for documentary representation, and the place of documentary film and video in social and political discourse. The course integrates critical readings and screenings in documentary history and theory with the making of student documentary videos within and against the documentary tradition. In class discussion, in writing, and in shooting and editing video, students reflect on the potential for visual media to offer the world to be seen, culminating in an exhibition of completed documentary videos by the class.

HMCS 358-01 / INTL 358-01
Pop Culture, Media, and National Identity, 4 credits
Soek-Fang Sim
Fall 2005
**********
What is a nation, as opposed to a state or other ethnic communities? Why does the “nation” command so much of our identity? The nation, unlike the state, is an entity that exists in the hearts and minds of its members and is a bond that must be sustained on a daily basis through imagining community - a project that the media are especially tasked with. Thinking of the “nation” as a media product, the course will examine its production (political economy), textual construction and its consumption/reproduction. .

HMCS 394-01 / THDA 394-03 / AMST 394-11
Hip Hop Performance, 4 credits
Johnson/Waters
Fall 2005
**********
Hip Hop Performance is an interdisciplinary course on an how hip hop culture informs contemporary theatrical practices in the United States . Students will read books and essays about the history of hip hop culture (e.g., Jeff Chang's Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, with an introduction by DJ Kool Herc); and about social, political and aesthetic problems in hip hop representation (e.g., Gwendolyn D. Pough's Check It While I Wreck It: Black Womanhood, Hip Hop Culture, and the Public Sphere). In addition, all members of the class will be required to participate in staging a hip hop theatrical performance. Sophomore standing and permission of instructor required for registration.

INTL 112-01
Introduction to International Studies: Globalization, Media, and Cultural Identities, 4 credits
Soek-Fang Sim
Fall 2005
**********
This course investigates the effects of globalization on worldwide cultural identities, with media and popular culture as the primary focus of inquiry. We will interrogate where cultural identity and symbolic communities come from and consider the politics of common culture. We will ask who defines meanings, and what meanings are omitted. Combining theory, diverse worldwide media (film, video, e-media, music and more), and case studies, we will explore numerous paradigms (modernization, cultural imperialism, commodification, post-modernism, post-structuralism) as frameworks of understanding. Open to first- and second-year students.

INTL 211-01
Contemporary Arab Society, 4 credits
Mohammed Bamyeh
Fall 2005
**********
This introductory course offers a selective survey of contemporary Arab society, culture, and politics. It draws on a mix of recent materials (including media, fiction, reports, and cultural criticism) to develop an understanding of modern Arab history and society and the place of Arabs in the contemporary world. Students will also develop an individual focus on a given country, sub-region, or pan-Arab theme or issue.

INTL 487-01
Senior Seminar: Modernity and Tradition: Global Perspectives, 4 credits
Mohammed Bamyeh
Fall 2005
**********
The opposition between "modernity" and "tradition" resides at the heart of debates on global culture. The seminar examines the literature on this old and ongoing discussion, offers comparative perspective on it from various world regions, explores the various meanings of "modernity" and "tradition," and assesses the whole debate in light of contemporary transformations. Readings and projects include classical and contemporary works in the social sciences, philosophy, and world literature, as well as commentaries situated in specific regional contexts.

LING 201-01
Historical and Comparative Linguistics, 4 credits
Sarah Dart
Fall 2005
**********
Languages are constantly changing. The English written by Chaucer 600 years ago is now very difficult to understand without annotation, not mention anything written a few centuries before that. This course investigates the nature of language change, how to determine a language's history, its relationship to other languages and the search for common ancestors or “proto-languages”. We will discuss changes at various linguistic levels: sound change, lexical change, syntactic change and changes in word meaning over time. Although much of the work done in this field involves Indo-European languages, we will also look at change in many other language families. This is a practical course, most of class time will be spent DOING historical linguistics, rather than talking about it. We will be looking at data sets from many different languages and trying to make sense of them. In the cases where we have examples of many related languages, we will try to reconstruct what the parent language must have looked like. Prerequisite: either Linguistics 100 (Introduction to Linguistics), or 104 (Sounds of Language).

MATH 135-01,03,05
Applied Calculus, 4 credits
Dan Flath, Karen Saxe
Fall 2005
**********
Calculus is a mathematical language for describing relationships and discovering the consequences of those relationships. This introductory-level course focuses on those aspects of calculus that are particularly useful in applied work in the natural and social sciences. There is a strong emphasis on developing mathematical modeling skills. The topics include functions of one and several variables, the gradient and partial derivatives, differential and difference equations, and the geometry of high-dimensional space. Case studies are drawn from varied areas, including biology, economics, and physics. The course is designed both for students with no previous calculus, and students who have had one or two semesters of AP calculus (but who do not intend directly to take Math 236 or 237).

MATH 137-01,03
Single Variable Calculus, 4 credits
Stan Wagon
Fall 2005
**********
Differentiation and integration of functions of a single variable, with applications. Main topics: Limit definition of the derivative and integral, exponential growth, chain rule, Riemann sums, numerical integration, integration by substitution and parts, improper integrals, geometric series, Taylor polynomials. Prerequisites: high school calculus or Math 135.

MUSI 194-01
Introduction to Music Cultures of the World, 4 credits
Lei Bryant
Fall 2005
**********
This course examines music cultures of the world through the study of music in its cultural, political, and historical context. We will develop the listening skills and vocabulary necessary to discuss music and sound through an exploration of case studies selected from diverse musical cultures. In addition to expanding our understanding of the diversity of world music cultures, we will discuss and identify the relationships between music and culture by focusing upon key concepts of life cycles, migration, worship and belief, dance, memory, identity, politics, and tourism.

PHIL 294-01
Law and Ethics of Genetic Engineering, 4 credits
Martin Gunderson
Fall 2005
**********
Developments in genetic engineering have generated great legal and ethical interest. The seminar will be primarily concerned with genetic engineering in humans. In general, we will consider somatic-cell engineering, germ-line engineering, genetic screening, and even cloning. We will also discuss genetic engineering used for enhancement as well as therapy. Genetic engineering, especially germ-line engineering, raises ethical issues regarding human dignity, human integrity, and what it means to be human. Issues of justice will also be considered. After discussing ethical issues regarding genetic engineering, we will explore United States heath care law as it is applicable to genetic engineering, especially law that protects human research subjects. We will also consider international treaties that deal with genetic engineering.

POLI 245-01/LATI-294-01
Latin American Politics, 4 credits
Paul Dosh
Fall 2005
**********
Comparative study of political institutions and conflicts in several Latin American countries. Through a mix of empirical and theoretical work, we analyze concepts and issues such as authoritarianism and democratization, neoliberalism, state terror and peace processes, guerrilla movements, party systems, populism, the Cuban Revolution, and U.S. military intervention. Themes are explored through diverse teaching methods including discussion, debates, simulations, partisan narratives, lecture, film, and poetry. Political Science 140 or Latin American Studies 111 recommended.

POLI 294-03
The Politics of the Middle East, 4 credits
STAFF
Fall 2005
**********
The Middle East has always been one of the most contentious regions in the world. Today is no different. Problems there are played out daily in the printed media and on our TV screens. The crises in the region -the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the rise of political Islam and the issues related to women's status among others - have grabbed the attention of the world, especially the Western world, for a long time now. What is often missed, however, is the geographical, intellectual, cultural and political history of this troubled region. With this in mind, the main purpose of this course is to answer the following two questions: 1) how is today's Middle East influenced by its past?; and 2) to what extent are our ("Western") theories fitting for the study of the Middle East and the politics of Middle Eastern countries? To answer these questions, we will first briefly study the history of the region. We will then examine various viewpoints about such issues as colonialism, Islamism, nationalism, secularism, authoritarianism and modernism. Finally, we will investigate the nature of contemporary politics in the region with a special emphasis on the rise of political Islam and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Students are expected to be able to think critically about the Middle East and to have a working knowledge of opportunities and challenges that this region holds for the peace and security in the world by the end of the semester.

POLI 305-01
Womens Voices in Politics, 4 credits
Adrienne Christiansen
Fall 2005
**********
The course examines significant women persuaders as a force in Western history and culture. Concentrates on women's efforts to participate fully in public affairs and the social, political, religious, scientific, and rhetorical obstacles that have restricted women's access to the polis. Fundamental to the course is an analysis of how women have used speaking, writing, and protesting in attempts to overcome such obstacles, influence public policy and/or win elective office. Political Science 170 or 272 recommended.

POLI 341-01
Comparative Social Movements, 4 credits
Paul Dosh
Fall 2005
**********
Comparative study of social movements in Latin America and other world regions. This research seminar engages several major theories that attempt to explain the origins and development of movements struggling for subsistence rights, labor rights, gender and sexuality rights, social rights, and racial and ethnic rights. The course focuses principally on Latin American movements, but also engages cases from the United States and Europe through an examination of transnational advocacy networks and global activism. Political Science 140 recommended.

PSYC 249-01
Cognitive Neuroscience, 5 credits
Graham Cousens
Fall 2005
**********
An inquiry into the mechanisms by which the nervous system supports higher mental functions, drawing on a variety of disciplines including cognitive psychology, neurobiology, computer science, linguistics, and philosophy. Discussion topics include perception, attention, learning, memory, language, executive function, emotion, development, social cognition, and consciousness. The laboratory will introduce empirical research techniques commonly employed in cognitive neuroscience research, with emphasis on the anatomy and physiology of the neocortex, and will provide an opportunity to develop a variety of student participatory research projects. Group A course. Prerequisites: Psychology 100 (Introduction to Psychology) and Neuroscience Studies 180 (Brain, Mind, and Behavior) or Biology 112 (Enchanted Cortex) or Biology 210 (Human Physiology).

RELI 123-01
Jesus, Dissent, and Desire, 4 credits
Paula Cooey
Fall 2005
**********
This course introduces students to Christian practice, doctrine, faith, and social organization by examining various historical controversies and the roles they have played in the formation and alteration of the traditions from Christian origins to the present. Specific controversies will be selected from historical events and movements, beginning with the earliest struggles over the significance of the person and nature of Jesus of Nazareth, the ethos and institutional structure of the early communities, and the canonization of scripture. The course will conclude with a brief discussion of contemporary disputes over internal ethical and denominational pluralism and relationships between Christianity and the State. This course is strongly recommended in preparation for Religion 346: Dissent, Reform, and Expansion in Sixteenth Century Europe and 348: Contemporary Christian Thought. No prerequisite.

RELI 194-03

Introduction to Islam, 4 credits

Ahmad Ahmad

Fall 2005

**********

This course attempts to offer a historical perspective covering Islam’s 14 century journey in areas as far apart as Indonesia, India, the Middle East, West Africa, Bosnia, and Spain. The course introduces themes of Islamic social and political history, such as the formation of a Muslim “imperium” and the evolution of various Muslim “communities.” It also covers aspects of Islamic intellectual history, including basic Muslim creeds and legalistic and mystical tendencies in practice.

RELI 194-05

Non-classical Mythology, 4 credits

Peter Harle

Fall 2005

**********

What is myth, and why have scholars spent so much time arguing over its nature? How have various groups used narratives and other related forms to describe the origins and nature of humans, animals, love, death, and the cosmos? Do myths exist in our present-day culture? How have people brought themselves into contact with myth through ritual, drama, possession, music, art, pilgrimage, and other activities? Do people really believe their myths? Do myths change the way in which we experience the world?

This class will explore the role of myth in religion and culture, with an emphasis on examples outside of the more familiar ancient Greek and Roman traditions. Our focus will be on the religious aspects of myth, but we will also explore perspectives drawn from Folkloristics, Literary Criticism, Art History, Philosophy and other academic disciplines. Through readings, lectures, slides, videos, and hands-on experiences, we will investigate case studies from many cultures and historical periods. We will explore aspects and uses of myth including myth theory, archetypes and psychological transformation, cosmology and the idea of social charters, myth as a kind of scientific thought, the use of myth in art and performance, political control and subversion, and recent efforts to utilize or create new myths in the form of literature and film Students will be expected to keep up with an intensive but interesting schedule of reading, to participate in class discussions and activities, and to complete written assignments including responses, several mini-projects, and a final library or field project on a topic of their choice.

RELI 235-01
Theory and Method in the Study of Religion, 4 credits
Rosamond Rodman
Fall 2005
**********
The course is an introduction to some of the important theoretical and methodological work conducted by scholars in various disciplines who hope to better define and understand religious phenomena. This seminar will include, first, an investigation of some of the early twentieth century texts that are often cited and discussed by contemporary scholars of religion. These authors pose questions about the nature of religious phenomena, their purpose (or function) in societies, their comparability across cultures, and so on. We then continue with a second set of texts that both challenge and extend these conversations and questions, either by directing critiques toward earlier discussions, or refracting new concerns in relation to earlier ones. We will focus in particular on the question of defining and analyzing religious cultures, and the researcher's position or positions in this analysis, as this has been approached from anthropological, sociological, and religious studies perspectives. Bearing in mind that theory is never separate from method, we turn in the final section to focus a few recent examples of how scholars conduct empirical investigations of religion.

RELI 294-01

Jews and Their Messiahs, 4 credits

Barry Cytron

Fall 2005

**********

Few ideas have so shaped the development of Judaism and Jewish existence as the hope for a savior. From Jesus of Nazareth to the Lubavitch Rebbe, Jews have proclaimed their leader to be the herald of redemption, personal and communal. In modern times, Socialism, Nazism, Zionism and orthodox fundamentalism derive their impetus from messianic visions. We will survey the ways this yearning for salvation has dominated both Jewish religious and secular life for 2500 years.

RELI 294-03

Truth, Language, and Community in Medieval Muslim Philosophy, 4 credits

Ahmad Ahmad

Fall 2005

**********

The course begins with an explanation of the concept of philosophy in Islam and explores Islamic philosophical writings addressing a broad range of themes. These include 1) natural disposition and knowledge, 2) how can we know that “we know,” 3) reconciling revelatory and philosophical knowledge, 4) the possibility of universal logic, 5) the evolution of religion in community, 6) the meaning of history and civilization, 7) the relationship between law and morality, among others. Philosophers discussed include Farabi (c. 950), Ghazalai (d. 1111), Ibn Tufayl (d. 1185), Ibn Rusd (d. 1198), and Ibn Khladun (d. 1406)

RELI 356-01
Buddhist Nirvana and Enlightenment, 4 credits
Sarah Horton
Fall 2005
**********
Nirvana, sometimes called enlightenment, is supposedly the goal of all Buddhists. But what is it? In an early sutra, Sakyamuni says that it cannot be described; any works would inevitably limit it.

Various schools of Buddhism, however, have sometimes explained in great detail what enlightenment consists of. For example, some schools hold that it involves “seeing the world as it really is.” Mahayana Buddhists believe that Nirvana is not different from samsara (the painful cycle of rebirth.) Many Zen Buddhists believe enlightenment is reached when one realizes that one already has Buddha-nature. Rather than deciding in class what Nirvana/enlightenment is or even if such a thing exists, we will examine what people have had to say on the topic over the past two-thousand years, beginning with statements in the earliest sutras and continuing to modern day accounts of people who believe they have attained enlightenment.

RUSS 255-01
Russian Culture: A Tale of Two Cities - Moscow and St. Petersburg, 4 credits
Tamara Mikhailova
Fall 2005
**********
This course surveys Russian culture by focusing on the two most famous Russian cities: Moscow (established 850 years ago) and its younger rival, St. Petersburg (established 300 years ago). These cities, each claiming the limelight in Russian history, have made an enormous contribution to Russian culture and civilization. The course will provide an opportunity to better understand Russian culture and mentality, both of which are inseparably linked to the image of Moscow , “the heart of Russia ”, and of St. Petersburg , “the window to Europe ”. Tthrough centuries the myth of Moscow as the Third Rome has contrasted with the image of St. Petersburg as a diabolical creation. The artificial beauty and splendor of St. Petersburg oppose Moscow 's allegedly more authentic grandeur. We will study fact and fiction, myth and reality, poetry and prose, classical and pop culture, thus exploring the variety of themes related to these two Russian cities. Tsars and tsarinas, autocrats and democrats, imposters and legitimate rulers, writers and poets, artists and musicians – all have contributed to the fame of these cities. The course will explore a wide variety of topics and will critique Russia 's precarious relationship with Europe , the rivalry between the church and secular state, tradition and modernity, and the role Moscow and St. Petersburg have played in collective identity. Taught in English – no prerequisites or knowledge of Russia or Russian language needed.

RUSS 294-01 (Same as THDA 294-03)
Chekhov and Russian Drama, 4 credits
Tamara Mikhailova
Fall 2005
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This course explores the life and dramatic works of Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), Russia 's most famous playwright and one of the most prominent figures in world theater. Chekhov's dramatic art opened new perspectives for the development of Russian and world drama and shaped its development from Realism to Symbolism, Existentialism and the Absurd. Absence of a clear division between positive and negative characters, diversity of motivations for actions, absence of a clear moral message, and a new approach to the traditional genres of comedy and tragedy make Chekhov still relevant today. Chekhov captured an alarming feature of the modern era – alienation. His characters seem separated from the world by an invisible wall, they do not hear what they say to each other, they speak past each other, they are lost in their own emotional worlds. If you understand Chekhov's heroes through the study of his plays you will also grasp some of the ambiguity of modern life.

This course will begin with a survey of Russian theater before Chekhov and of Chekhov's early prose. His dramatic works are then examined in two stages: early vaudevilles and the four major plays: The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard. Each of his dramatic works is examined from a variety of perspectives. We will compare different stage productions as well as different film versions of the plays. The students rewrite one of Chekhov's comedies as a detective drama and present it as a theatrical performance at the end of the semester.

RUSS 394-01
Accelerated Advanced Russian, 4 credits
Tamara Mikhailova
Fall 2005
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The course will expand students' abilities to speak, listen, write, and read in Russian while also introducing a wide range of topics from Russian classical and pop culture. On-line and audio materials supplement textbook and other grammar exercises. Speaking : besides expanding their vocabulary through a series of exercises based on contemporary Russian, students will learn how to speak Russian and how to behave like a Russian. This will be achieved through numerous inter-active creative exercises which will result in the production of a mini-soap opera “While in Russia , do as….” Listening : students will listen to various contemporary music genres, heightening their ability to recognize slang, dialect, etc., and analyze them in class. Writing : students will regularly write essays on in-class topics as well as topics of interest to a modern American student. The libretto of the soap opera will be based off of these student texts. Reading : students will read short stories from both academic culture (excerpts from novels, plays, historical writing, etc) and popular culture (music, lyrics, jokes). Work with on-line simplified and non-simplified news stories will combine development of reading skills with discussion of current events. Acting Russian : students will dramatize their Soap Opera at the end of the semester and present it to a Macalester audience. Prerequisite: Russian 204 (Intermediate Russian II) or equivalent.

SOCI 110-01,03
Introduction to Sociology, 4 credits
STAFF
Fall 2005
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The course provides an overview of the principal concepts that have informed sociological thought and theory. Class readings, discussions, and assignments also explore substantive issues that have served as longstanding concerns of sociological inquiry.

SOCI 194-01
Criminal Behavior / Social Control, 4 credits
Erik Larson
Fall 2005
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The use of imprisonment as a form of criminal punishment is only about as old at the United States . By 2003, nearly 7 million people in the United States were under correctional supervision. How should we understand the growth of this form of criminal punishment? In what ways is it similar to other methods to react to and to attempt to control unwanted behavior? What insights can a sociological approach offer on these questions? In this course, we examine these developments in the processes and organization of social control, with particular attention to criminal behavior and formal, legal responses to crime. We study and evaluate sociological theories of criminal behavior to understand how social forces influence levels of crimes. We examine recent policies and their connections to inequality along with the processes that lead to criminalization, to determine if there is a political nature to crime control. Finally, we compare the development of formal, bureaucratic systems of social control and informal methods of social control, paying attention to the social and political implications of these developments.

SOCI 272-01 / HMCS 272-01
Social Theories, 4 credits
STAFF
Fall 2005
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This course provides an overview of the key concepts and theories that have informed sociological perspectives on the complex and varied dimensions of human sociability. Class readings, discussions, and assignments explore the contributions of classical and contemporary sociologists to ongoing debates over the origins and nature of the great transformation: the transition from feudal, agrarian societies to modern, industrialized ones governed by emergent nation-states. The course also examines contemporary revisions and extensions of classical theories accompanying the reconstruction of the political, economic, and cultural landscapes of modern societies in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Further, the course surveys recent trends in theoretical scholarship devoted to understanding important social issues of contemporary relevance.

THDA 194-01
Frames & Methods for Performance Studies, 4 credits
Cleary/Howard
Fall 2005
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Ever looked at a city park and thought "theater"?! Ever sought to "direct" the scenes you're in at the mall? How are the lines we stand in "dances"? The clothes we wear "costumes"?! And why do military officials use so many theater metaphors to talk about war? These questions -- and their fascinating answers -- belong in the new and burgeoning field called "performance studies." Drawing from theater and dance history, cultural theory, gender studies, and a host of other disciplines, performance studies links non-intentional "performances" with performance and critical theories to illuminate new understanding about our human endeavors. In this course, we will read extensively from the interdisciplinary field of performance studies, and apply our readings about "performances" (intentional and happenstance!) to live performances in the Twin Cities and to our college campus community. This will be an excellent preparatory course for continuing work in the Theater and Dance Department; it also will introduce you to critical and cultural theory that you will read and work with in many other course throughout your Macalester career. This course will satisfy the "Fine Arts" requirement for all students, and count toward the major or minor in Theater and Dance.

THDA 294-01
Sources of Global Performance, 4 credits
Evan Winet
Fall 2005
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Sources of Global Performance is the first in a two-part historical survey of this exciting new terrain. We begin with an exploration of the origins and margins of theatrical performance in social play, ritual, storytelling, mask and puppetry. From here, we trace the emergence of theatrical traditions in ancient Greece , Rome , India and Africa and in the feudal societies of Europe and East Asia . We will read canonical plays from these traditions alongside consideration of social contexts and performance traditions from antiquity to early modernity (mid-17th century). Sophomore standing or permission of instructor required for registration.

THDA 394-03 / HMCS 394-01 / AMST 394-11
Hip Hop Performance, 4 credits
Johnson/Waters
Fall 2005
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Hip Hop Performance is an interdisciplinary course on an how hip hop culture informs contemporary theatrical practices in the United States . Students will read books and essays about the history of hip hop culture (e.g., Jeff Chang's Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, with an introduction by DJ Kool Herc); and about social, political and aesthetic problems in hip hop representation (e.g., Gwendolyn D. Pough's Check It While I Wreck It: Black Womanhood, Hip Hop Culture, and the Public Sphere). In addition, all members of the class will be required to participate in staging a hip hop theatrical performance. Sophomore standing and permission of instructor required for registration.

WGST 194-01
Introduction to LGBT, Queer, and Sexuality Studies, 4 credits
STAFF
Fall 2005
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This course will introduce current issues intersecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and sexuality studies. Course material will address the relationship of sexualities and genders to racial, economic, and national processes, and will offer an interdisciplinary analysis drawing from the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and/or arts. Specific topic to be determined by visiting instructor.

WGST 194-03
Women of Color and Third Wave Theory/Practice, 4 credits
Rachel Raimis
Fall 2005
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This course examines women of color feminisms, emphasizing activism by women of color, and including youth movements for social change. The course is structured around theory and writings from anthologies like Catching A Wave, Colonize This, Listen Up, To Be Real, Manifesta, and from articles that make connections to past social change movements, articulate the present, and look to the future. We will interrogate feminist theorizing and social movement theory to try to answer what constitutes effective social change in this late-capitalist, post-industrial, and post-modern society. We will examine specific activists, activist/artists, and specific actions as examples. This would include women like artist/activists Sarah Jones (whose feminist song "My Revolution" was banned by the FCC and she has since filed suit against the FCC), actions like Asian-American feminist mobilizing to stop racist t-shirts and sweatshops at Abercrombie and Fitch, and activist sites of feminist media-making (including zine culture, cyberrgrrl feminism, and indie videomaking). Through intersectional analyses of these activists and their spaces, we will examine the bridges, gaps, overlaps, spaces and places of feminist resistance and agency in third world/women of color feminist movements invested in social change.

WGST 294-01
Intermediate LGBT, Queer, and Sexuality Studies, 4 credits
STAFF
Fall 2005
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This course will examine how politics of sexuality and gender identities, communities, and/or movements arise within simultaneous and interdependent local and global processes. Grounded in international or transnational case studies, the course will examine how colonialism, im/migration, postcolonialism, diaspora, and/or globalization are contexts in which sexual politics arise. Specific topic to be determined by visiting instructor. NOTE: This course WILL NOT include a required internship or off-campus research.

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