Spring 2004
Topic/Seminar Course Descriptions
(as submitted by the departments)
ANTH 194-01
Nomads of Inner
Spring 2004
Jack Weatherford
**********
Inner
ANTH 394-01
Advanced Medical Anthropology, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Sonia Patten
**********
This course will focus on the
anthropology of infectious diseases. It
will examine the rich body of Anthropological research in infectious diseases,
categorized according to three basic orientations - socioclutural,
ecological, and biocultural. Anthropologists have explored the
implications of sexual behavior, populations displacement, ethnic conflict and
genocide, funerary practices, transnationalism,
political-ecomonic constraints, and more for ancient
(malaria, syphilis, tuberculosis) and "emerging" (AIDS, Ebola,
Hantaviruses) infectious diseases. These
and other topics will be included in the course. Assigned readings will include the works of
physician-anthropologists.
Elementary Chinese II, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Yaliang Jin
**********
Elementary Chinese II is a
course of teaching Chinese as a foreign language. It is the second semester of
a two-semester sequence in first-year modern Standard Chinese. This course continues
to introduce elementary Mandarin pronunciation, grammar, and orthography (in
both Pinyin and characters) to students who have completed the course of
Elementary Chinese I or its equivalent.
Elementary Chinese II consists of three classroom meetings per week,
plus one lab session.
Chinese Character and
Chinese Culture, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Yaliang Jin
**********
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.
Classical Chinese Poetry, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Zhengming
Zhu
**********
This course will introduce classical Chinese poems to our
students through the English translations done by some prominent American poets
of the 20th century. It aims at students in Asian Studies program, but suits
students with general interests in American poetry and/or Eastern civilization
as well. In history, the unpredictable effects of exotic poetry from Asia had
served as catalytic agents for Western poetry -- a fourth century poet from
Gupta India becomes a founding father of German Romanticism, the Buddhist Jataka tales turn up in Chaucer, and an 11th century
Persian (Omar the Tentmaker, or Khayyam)
transfixes the Victorians. Thus, in the 20th century, American poetry is inextricable
from classical Chinese poetry and the Chinese language itself. In this course,
we will briefly study the major forms of classical Chinese poetry (from about
400 B.C. to 1280 A.D.). However, the main focus of our attention is to
examine the Confucian ideas about poetry, the earlier humanitarian concern of
Chinese poets, the significance of Taoism and Buddhism in classical Chinese
literature, and other related important topics in traditional Chinese culture,
poetically epitomized in these classical works of ancient
CLAS 394-01
Ancient Sculpture, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Mireille Lee
**********
This new course will be offered
in conjunction with a special exhibit of Roman portrait sculpture on display at
the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The first part of the course will include a
short chronological overview of the development of Greek and Roman sculpture,
as well as an introduction to the historiography of the study of ancient sculpture,
techniques of bronze- and stone-working, the identification of sculptors,
organization of workshops, and patronage.
The second part of the course will consider Greek and Roman sculpture in
context: sacred (votive dedications, cult statues, architectural sculpture);
civic (honorific statues, historical reliefs,
imperial portraiture, propaganda); funerary (grave stelae,
funerary portraits, sarcophagi, monumental tomb sculpture); and private
(domestic spaces, gardens); as well as the special problems of Roman copies of
Greek originals, provincial sculptors, and spolia. Finally, we will trace the influence of Greek
and Roman sculpture on later Western art.
CNAS 394-01
Reel Indians: American Indians and the Cinema, 4 credits
Spring 2004
STAFF
**********
This course will examine
representations of American Indians in film, both historically and
contemporarily. We will examine not only
what such representations assert about Native experience and cultural
viability, but also what they reflect about particular relationships of
power. In what ways, for example, have
images of Indians in the movies served the interests of the "nation"
in "playing Indian" - interests often at odds with those of Native
peoples themselves? And, at what points
and in what ways have Indian peoples asserted their own authority in the
representation of their identities and particular cultures? This is a recent trend among Native peoples,
as filmmakers, writers, and producers of film, which will indeed be a major
component of class discussions and material.
In a sense, what happens when Natives are in the driver’s seat of
filmmaking?
Required readings:
Kilpatrick, Jacquelyn, Celluloid
Indians: Native Americans and Film
Alexie, Sherman, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
Louis,
(Selected articles on reserve)
Possible Films:
Drums Along
the Mohawk
The Silent Enemy
Imagining Indians
Rabbit Proof Fence
Smoke Signals
Powwow Highway
Surviving
Grand Avenue
The Business of Fancy Dancing
Skins
Whale Rider
Men With
Guns
CNAS 401-01
Senior Seminar: Race,
Identity & Social Movements, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Josie Fowler
**********
This course examines the history and current state of
American Studies, and the pivotal role that students can play in expanding the
field for the future. With the formation of an American Studies department at
Open to non-majors.
COMM 194-01
Lesbian and Gay
Communication, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Phillip Voight
**********
A study of the communication strategies of
the contemporary Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender movement in the
COMM 294-01
Documentary Video:
History/Theory/Practice, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Michael Griffin
**********
This course explores the history of documentary practices in film and video, the epistemological issues and critical debates surrounding documentary’s attempt to depict reality, and to comment on it, and the implications of cinematic technique and style for documentary representation and function. Building from critical readings on documentary history and theory, and time spent viewing numerous documentaries, class members will experiment with their own video projects. Issues addressed include: the role of documentary genres in different media, and across new contexts of knowledge and representation. Students are encouraged to reflect critically on the potential for visual media to transcribe and communicate about “reality” in their own video work.
COMM 356-01
Advanced Journalism:
Print, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Doug Stone
**********
In-depth reporting and writing of news, feature and opinion pieces for newspapers and magazines. This course stresses effective writing and editing and the development of a strong sense of journalistic ethics. Emphasis is placed on field reporting on campus and throughout the community, on-site visits to newspaper rooms and frequent discussions with practicing journalists, writers and policy makers. Students will examine the changing role of print media and the impact of media and journalists on culture, politics, government, education, the legal system and the community. Taught by a 20-year veteran print and broadcast journalist and former U.S. Senate press secretary. Prerequisite: News Reporting and Writing (COMM 114) or permission of instructor.
COMM 372-01
Interpersonal/Multicultural
Communication Theory, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Margret McCue
**********
A study of contemporary theories and perspectives used to interpret or frame communication acts and setting including: dyadic communication, interpersonal, multicultural, and small group communication, as well as organizational and intercultural communication. Class discussion will evaluate the social use of theories and assumptions and values embedded within them. Evaluation will be based on class discussion, a midterm examination, and a final paper in which the student will use one of the theories and/or perspectives discussed in class to interpret and analyze a communication act.
ECON 294-01
Collective Action & Public Choice, 4
credits
Spring 2004
Robert J. Kozlowski
**********
Why do some groups succeed in
pursuing their goals while others fail miserably, even when all of the members
of the group agree on what
the “best” outcome is?
This course addresses this question and a number of related issues by
examining how group decision-making occurs
and why groups often fail to reach optimal outcomes as well as
mechanisms for reaching group consensus.
Rational economic analysis,
especially Game Theory, will be applied to a range of group
decision-making issues, such as lobbying, special interest politics, “Rent-
Seeking,” political
institutions, “Rational Ignorance,” Condorcet’s
Paradox and alternative models of vote-counting (including “Instant Run-
off Voting” and “Winner-Take-All” contests). Group decision-making issues will be examined
in detail by applying rational choice theory to
real-world group situations,
including The United Nations, The World Trade Organization, NATO, The European
Union, OPEC and other cartels.
ECON 294-03
Economics for Not-for-Profit Institutions, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Paul Aslanian
**********
This course focuses on the economics of not-for-profit institutions. The course will deal with both underlying theoretical concepts and
their applicability to
analysis acquired in the Principles course, we will examine the mission/purpose/aims of the college and how they relate to
governance (the interplay between the Board of Trustees, the President and his/her staff, the various faculty/staff committees,
students, and other constituencies); planning and goal setting; resource allocation (both operating and capital budgets); the
interplay between human capital, financial capital, and physical capital; agency matters and incentives; and the issues that must be
confronted in deciding whether to spend more from the endowment now vs later. We will also study how not-for-profits tend to
self-evaluate their progress and how external evaluating methodologies (eg U.S.News) might influence all of the above.
ECON 294-05
Antitrust, Regulation
and Public Policy, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Steve Holland
**********
When markets fail the government is often called upon to intervene. Monopoly, oligopoly and collusion among competitors are among the possible sources of market failure but each might call for a very different policy response. Students in this course will look carefully at different market structures and assess which circumstances justify government intervention. We will also try to determine which form of government intervention is most appropriate. Should the government make the anti-competitive conduct illegal by enacting antitrust laws or is it better to redress the market failure by imposing regulations such as price controls or entry and exit restrictions? Students will explore these and other public policy issues in the context of historical and contemporary instances of government intervention. Prerequisites: Economics 119, Principles of Economics.
ECON 442-01
Labor Economics, 4
credits
Spring 2004
John Winstandley
**********
This course uses theoretical and empirical research to examine the economics of work from the point of view of both the firm and the worker. Economic models will be used to analyze important labor economic issues, such as wage elasticities, minimum wage laws and other income support programs, job training, occupational choice, the employment-hours tradeoff, investments in education, the relationship between pay and productivity, labor market discrimination, the role of unions, and recent developments in the patterns of income inequality.
ENGL 375-01
African American
Writers:
African American Literature from 1900 to the Present, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Daylanne English
**********
This course will trace the development of an African American literary and cultural tradition from the turn of the century to the present and will include writers from W. E. B. Du Bois and Pauline Hopkins to Walter Mosley and Toni Morrison. It will examine the ways that modern and contemporary African American writers and artists have explored political, social, racial, and aesthetic issues in a variety of genres—including autobiographies, poetry, novels, blues songs, photographs, short stories, plays, essays, film, visual art, and literary and cultural criticism. Among the many topics the course will consider are: the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Migration, the Black Arts Movement, and the current flourishing of African American arts and letters and cinema. Requirements for the course will include: three medium length (5-7 page) papers, an in-class presentation, and a final examination.
ENGL 394-01
Exile and the
Literary Imagination, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Stuart McDougal
**********
Exile – both as an idea an as an experienced condition – has shaped literature in the west since Homer’s Odyssey. One of the earliest works in English literature is “The Seafarer,” an anonymous poem about the rigors of exile. One of the seminal works of English literature is Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, which chronicles the “life and strange, surprising adventures” of an individual who is exiled on an island for nearly three decades. Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ends with the protagonist choosing a life of exile. Exile has functioned as a topos, a site, a condition, and as a metaphor for fiction in general.
In this course we will read a variety of modern authors who deal with one or another aspect of the exilic experience, including among others, Henry James, Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, James Baldwin and J.M. Coetzee, as well as such essayists as Edward Said, V.S. Naipul and Salman Rushdie.
Requirements: a willingness to sail to foreign ports, to talk, to listen, and to write (2 short papers and a final paper).
ENGL 394-03
From Non-Fiction to
Fiction: 19th Century African American Narrative, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Daylanne English
**********
In this course, we will examine and analyze the remarkable shift from nonfiction to fiction that occurred in narratives written by African Americans during the 19th century. Reading slave narratives, spiritual autobiographies, and multiple versions of autobiographies, and novels, we will explore the possibility that fictionalized representations of an African American literary and political subject functioned as a necessary counterpart in the (contested) emergence of modern African American citizenship. At the same time, we will challenge the nonfiction-fiction distinction itself – for example, by closely examining the generic instability of slave narratives, which often relied upon the conventions of fiction in order to deliver the “truth” of slavery. We will develop strongly historical contexts for our exploration and will read extensively in literary criticism and theory about 19th century African American literature. Texts will include Douglass’s My Bondage and My Freedom and “The Heroic Slave”; Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl; John Jacob’s “A True Tale of Slavery”; Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig; and William Wells Brown’s Clotel. Requirements for the course will include: weekly written responses to the readings, one brief paper of about 3 pages, one long research paper of about 15-20 pages, and an in-class presentation.
ENGL 394-05
Theatre and Performance, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Laura Engel
**********
This course
will give students the exciting opportunity to see a variety of plays and
theatrical events currently being performed in the Twin Cities. Each week we
will attend a performance and/or hear from guest speakers (directors, actors,
playwrights, designers). Plays will be considered along with readings in
performance theory, cultural theory, and theatre history. Writing assignments
will include essays, response papers, reviews, and creative pieces. The class
is limited to 10, and students must have the permission of the instructor to
register. If you would like to apply please visit the English Department
bulletin board for more details. Class meets Wednesdays from 7-10pm, and
several Thursday evenings for performances.
ENGL 403-01
Seminar in American
Authors: Angels and Demons, 4 credits
Spring 2004
James Dawes
**********
In the middle of the 19th century, as the country tottered on the brink of a murderous civil war, a group of strange, passionate, and visionary artists set out to discover the soul of America. From 1850 to 1855, in one of the most astonishing creative convergences in literary history, they produced a canon of literature that revealed both the demons and angels of our nature, inventing a uniquely American spiritual movement of unprecedented optimism at the same time that they damned it all to hell. The works of what would come to be known as the American Renaissance were spiritual and blasphemous, elegant and profane, beatific and pornographic, irreverently comic and heartwrenchingly sentimental. Everything that was written in America after this period would, in one way or another, have to come to terms with the brilliant and disturbing achievements of this small cluster of artists. In this course we will read the landmark texts of this era from literary, historical, and philosophical perspectives.
FREN 394-01
Identity/Difference/Pluralism
in Contemporary France, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Nicholas Dobelbower
**********
A nation can achieve equality for its citizens, France has long argued, only by effacing ethnic, regional, religious, and sexual differences from the public sphere. The effects of post-World War II immigration trends have reinvigorated reflection on the politics of cultural assimilation, as second-generation children now try to locate themselves within the dominant culture. New identity categories, especially those organized along the lines of gender and sexuality, have emerged from the private sphere, while older established communities seek new public visibility. The perceived drift towards pluralism, and what is being called “communautarisme”, has spurred public intellectuals to address changing notions of individualism, community and national identity. Many see in France the irreconcilable encounter of two opposing models: American multiculturalism and particularism on the one hand, and French assimilation and universalism on the other. In this course, we will examine notions of nation, community, cultural difference, and equality by reading texts produced by intellectuals, sociologists and political theorists. We will also question the ways in which French identity is experienced in relation to community identity by studying the history and cultural production of the Jewish, North African, West African, LGBT, and Breton communities. In each case, we will analyze literary, artistic, theoretical and political tests produced by members of the community.
FREN 394-03
Violence et Littérature, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Françoise Denis
**********
Based on literary texts from the Middle Ages up to the 21st century, the course studies how literature describes and reflects violence in a world constantly in evolution through social, cultural, economical and political upheavals. It also considers the many aspects violence can take, involving class, genre, language, race, religion, colonization, etc. The readings include well known classics from different centuries, but also contemporary writers from different origins: Algeria, Belgium, France and Québec. The course will develop the historical and cultural backgrounds specific to each author. It will also look at violence through the critical lens of different philosophers from different periods including our own, i.e. Girard, Foucault, Arendt, Fanon. Several films will add to the diversity of perspectives and interpretations. Course taught in French. Prerequisite: French 306 or permission of instructor.
GERM 294-01
Spring 2004
Kiarina Kordela
**********
Meant as both a topics course and an intro to cultural studies, this course requires absolutely no pre-knowledge on philosophy, critical theory or film theory, while being very rigorous and demanding. As such, this course requires instead a high motivation in learning and understanding—from the multiple perspective of both intellectual history and cultural studies, which foregrounds the ideological, social, and political function of concepts and other cultural artifacts—some of the central tenants of thought since the advent of modern secular capitalism in the seventeenth century, which continue to inform contemporary thought and culture. The course will introduce students to (or further their existing knowledge in) central theories (including philosophy, critical theory, literary theory, theory of ideology, film theory, and issues of otherness, whether racial or sexual) and methodologies involved in the analysis of theory itself, literature, and film, without the knowledge of which one cannot function as an informed, critical subject.
On a first level, the course is divided in four sections, corresponding to the names: Descartes, Kant, Hegel, and Marx. These thinkers will be addressed in chronological order but simultaneously with contemporary commentaries and revisions of their work. On a second level, these four sections are supplemented by film and literary analysis.
HIST 194-01
Modern Africa, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Hilary Jones
**********
This course offers students an introduction to Africa during the period of colonial rule. We will examine the development of colonialism and the implications of European rule for African societies. The course will address broader themes of European conquest and imperialism, African resistance and responses to colonial rule. We will begin with a study of the state of the continent in the 19th century and the conditions that set the stage for colonial conquest. The course will concentrate on the development of colonialism in the late nineteenth century and conclude with Africa at the eve of Independence. We will examine case studies of African resistance to conquest, the affects of the colonial economy, African participation in World War I, and the emergence of nationalist movements in the early twentieth century. Students will be evaluated by geography assignments, short papers and essay examinations.
HIST 194-03
The Rebirth of Indian
Activism in the United States:
The 1940s to the
1970s, 4 credits
Spring 2004
John Sayer
**********
The course will focus on the resurgence of American Indian activism that turned militant in the 1960s and brought to the national political stage issues that are still with us today. Coming on the heels of decades of apparent quiescence, this activist surge thrust Indians into the headlines and the consciousness of the public and shook the White establishment that had been running Indian affairs for years. Through books, articles, web sites, film, primary documents and guest speakers we will look at the historical background for this period and place this resurgence activism in the context of the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s, a period that included the Vietnam War, Watergate and the other social movements involving students, African-Americans, Latinos, gays and lesbians who came together to protest the war, police brutality and racial inequality in education, housing, jobs and healthcare.
We will study the proliferation of organizations including the National Congress of American Indians (1944), the National Indian Youth Council (1961) and the American Indian Movement (1968), key events including the Alcatraz takeover (1969), the occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington D.C. (1972), and the confrontation at Wounded Knee (1973), along with the appearance of a new nationalistic Indian news media and the rapid increase in Indian-initiated litigation. Students will discuss the relevance and legality of centuries old treaties, how activists both used and were adversely affected by stereotypical images in popular culture and the media coverage and why Indian demand for “self-determination” and “sovereignty” is not necessarily the same as the African-American demands for civil rights.
HIST 194-05/MUSI 194-03
Telling Labor’s Story Through
Music, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Peter Rachleff
and Robert Peterson
**********
This is a
cross-listed, interdisciplinary course, linking History and Music. We will explore the use of music by working
people and the labor movement in the United States as a way to process and
comment upon their experiences at work, in communities, and in struggles, and
as a way to tell their stories to others in order to elicit understanding,
empathy, and solidarity. We will also
pay particular interest to the relationship between working people's music and
the development and popularization of folk music from pre-WWII through the
protest songs of the 1960s and 1970s. We will read a variety of historical
studies, memoirs, and primary sources, and we will also listen to recorded
music.
The course will
also work towards a concertized production of a newly
written labor musical, "Forgotten: Murder at the Ford Rouge
Plant." This musical tells the
story of the struggle to unionize the biggest factory in the world, the Ford
River Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan, in 1937. All students in the class will be expected to
contribute to this project, if not by performing in it, then by working back
stage, producing lobby displays and ancillary materials, and the like. Students from outside the class will be allowed
to audition for roles in the production.
Students in the class and the production will be matched with
"partners" in United Auto Workers Local 879 at the Ford Truck plant
in St. Paul to arrange factory tours, attend union meetings, and develop a
deeper understanding of the work and lives of autoworkers. There will be two concertized
productions, April 29, 2004, at the UAW Union Hall on Ford Parkway and April
30, 2004, at Macalester's Music Hall. Students do not
need background in History or expertise in Music in order to take this course. It is open to all. Students may register for
credit in either Music or History.
HIST 194-07
Peoples and Spaces in
Early North America, 1500-1800, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Florence Mae Waldron
**********
This course will examine the colonial history of the Americas from a comparative perspective. Its goal is to compare the “new world” actions and reactions of its three most important groups of European colonizers – the Spanish, the English, and the French – with the underlying assumption that such comparisons will reveal a more complete understanding of the colonization process and the ensuing history of the Americas than studying the actions of any of these colonizing societies in isolation.
This is note intended to be a survey course. Rather, it seeks to compare colonial societies by examining a variety of topics, selected around the theme of “spaces of interaction.” Some of these “spaces” represent literal geographical locations that were contested by several groups, but other spaces are more figurative ones, in which different sets of ideas interacted or various historical actors created their own place in colonial societies. Among the questions we will consider: What validity (if any) is there to the Spanish “Black Legend”? Was French colonization truly “benign,” benign only in comparison to English and Spanish, or far from being benign? How do the English fit into this picture – and how do indigenous populations and forced migrants (i.e. African slaves) fit into English colonial history in the New World?
HIST194-09
Gender and Sexuality from Colonial through
Nineteenth-Century North America, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Robert Frame
*********
No one today is surprised that
gender and sexuality are up in the air; what constitutes appropriate roles for women
and men, and their responsibilities to themselves, to their families, and to
society are questions that resonate today.
What comes as more of a surprise is that contests and confusion about
gender and sexuality are not new; in fact, change in beliefs about them has
been a consistent theme of American history at least since the beginning of
colonization. Gender and sexuality permeated language about the Americas and
shaped and were re-shaped by interactions of its people in social, cultural,
and political realms.
Gender and sexuality do not just
describe roles and expectations; they constitute useful and often-used tools
for trying to control both change
and behavior. In this
course, students will examine gender and sexuality within topics such as cultural
encounters, homosexuality and
heterosexuality, race and class, work, marital expectations, and family
and community to grasp their pervasive and central impact in American history.
This course is designed to
exercise students’ critical thinking and writing skills. Since it is primarily a readings course,
students are expected to come to each class prepared to discuss the assigned
readings. Expect approximately 250-300 pages of reading each week.
There will be a consistent
writing component as well. Students will
either maintain an intellectual reading journal for each week or write a series
of short response papers and thought pieces on the readings. These assignments
will be due throughout the term.
Students will also produce two comprehensive critical analysis papers,
one each at the middle and the end of spring term.
HIST194-11
War Crimes and Memory
in Contemporary
Yue-him Tam
Spring 2004
**********
This course’s main goals is to
help students understand the contemporary geo-political and socio-economic forces
that affect how East Asians and Westerners collectively remember and
reconstruct World War II in Asia. A related task is introducing new evidence on
facets of the history of the war, which started in 1931, several years before
the first shot was fired in
HIST 394-03
West Africa:
Colonialism, Commerce and Culture, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Hilary Jones
**********
This course is designed to offer a focused investigation of West Africa in the 19th and early 20th century. The three major themes we will address are the impact of colonialism, the nature of commercial relations and the role of cultural change in African societies. Students will examine topics such as the legacy of the Atlantic slave trade in this region, the nature of British and French colonialism and the emergence of cash crop economies. We will study the impact of cultural change through case studies of Islamic movements and the rise of missionary Christianity in this region. This course will address West African responses to the changing environment through case studies of African traders, interpreters and religious leaders. Students will be evaluated by writing assignments and examinations.
HIST 494-01
Minnesota History, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Peter Rachleff
**********
This seminar in
Minnesota History is intended for advanced students, although it is not restricted
to History majors. Through reading and discussing the history of Minnesota, we
will explore critical issues and movements of broad interest such as Populism,
Farmer-Laborism, Socialism, and other forms of third
party politics, the emergence and evolution of the labor movement, the impact
of immigration and the experiences and roles of immigrants, the role of race
and racism in shaping our communities, political lives, and popular culture,
and the construction and reconstruction of gender roles and identities. In addition to reading secondary studies and
participating in close discussions of them, each student will be expected to
conduct a research project which involves the use of primary sources such as newspapers,
personal manuscripts, oral history interviews, organizational records, and
more.
INTL 294-01
Contemporary Arab
Society, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Mohammed Bamyeh
**********
This course aims at presenting a survey of contemporary Arab society, culture and politics. It draws on a mix of recent materials (including media, reports, fiction, and cultural criticism) to contribute to an understanding of modern Arab history and society, and the place of the Arabs in the contemporary world. Designed as a collaborative seminar, the course will cover the field through student reports on cultural and social debates permeating Arab newspapers, magazines, films, literature, and public intellectual discussions. Knowledge of Arabic is not required. Open only to First Years and Sophomores, or by permission of instructor.
INTL 294-03
Media, Pop Culture,
and National Identity in
and the West, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Soek-Fang Sim
**********
What is a nation, as opposed to a state or other ethnic communities? Why does ‘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. One part of the course is thus the study of how nations present themselves to their subjects through the popular media culture (especially films and soaps), the uses of nationalism and how subjects consume nations. However, in a globalized world, national subjects are often confronted with different and contradictory images of nation, especially as represented by foreign/global media. Drawing on Said’s idea of Orientalism, the course will contrast local and foreign representations of the national Self and situate this symbolic contestation within the context of historical shifts in international relations. Course available only to First Years and Sophomores, or by permission of instructor.
INTL 394-01
Writers & Power: The European
"East" in the 20th Century , 4 credits
Spring 2004
Nadya
Nedelsky
**********
The
long-standing influence and prominence of the writers and filmmakers of the
European East stand in contrast to the relative anonymity of their western
counterparts. This is in part a reflection of their confrontation with the
three most powerful ideological systems of the past century: fascism,
communism, and democracy. Fascism produced a literature that included dire
warnings, passionate endorsements, and chilling stories of horror and survival.
During the Cold War, unpublished diaries, illegally published novels and
journals (samizdat), and smuggled novels and plays were major literary events.
Individual writers, Czeslaw Milosz,
Milan Kundera, and Eugene Ionesco,
provided enduring metaphors for understanding the implications of totalitarian
power. Some, like Adam Michnik and Vaclav Havel, became figures of esteem and concern in the West for
their defiance in the face of Communist repression. Others, like Christa Wolf,
made uncomfortable alliances with power. Still others went into exile. The
region’s writers thus enter the post-Communist era as veterans and heirs of
profound encounters with regimes based on the extremes of both Right and Left.
With those regimes in ruins, writers and filmmakers confront anew the question
of the limitations and scope of power in a just society.
In this course,
we explore the interactions between writers and power during these three
periods by studying a number of important works. We follow the development of
the assessments of writers and filmmakers concerning the implications of
particular systems of power for both society and the individual over time and
change of regimes. This ultimately leads us to a consideration of history’s
lessons for the construction of new communities.
INTL 394-03
Global Media in an
Age of Neoliberalism, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Soek-Fang Sim
**********
In the area of information and media industries, globalization frequently involves two different processes: deregulation of media and telecommunication industries nationally and regulation by international bodies such as the World Trade Organization. Along with the increasing conglomeration of global media industries, these developments suggest the shifting of power from nation-states to international bodies to transnational corporations. By examining international telecommunication policies and the global regulation of media industries, this course seeks to critically evaluate contemporary theories of globalization and if possible, encourage new articulations about the condition of global media and global politics today. With sustained de-regulation, have we resolutely left late-capitalism behind and moved into a post-modern era? For a long time, global inequalities have been articulated in terms of West/Rest, North/South, America/Other, First/Third world. As we move towards an information age and with new media technologies transcending national boundaries, has the nation-state become obsolete in an era of neo-liberalism? If so, how are we to talk about inequality? Do we need a new vocabulary, a new theory? Course available only to Juniors and Seniors, or by permission of instructor.
INTL 494-01
Society and State in
Islam, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Mohammed Bamyeh
**********
How was the relationship of state to society conceived in
Islamic history, and how is it being argued today? How do these conceptions
articulate such basic concerns of political life as “justice,” “social order,”
“equality,” “unity,” “freedom,” and so on? These are the questions which inform
this survey course. Structured as a research seminar, the course compares European
and Islamic conceptions of civil society, classical and contemporary Islamic
political philosophy, and various forms of non-state forms of social
organization in Islamic history—for example: tribes, religious communities,
merchant guilds, family networks, the urban notables, the scholarly
communities. The course will include frequent comparisons to and studies of
contemporary conditions.
JAPA 294-01
Japanese Women:
Literature and Film, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Sarah Pradt
**********
In western cultures, and perhaps in Japan, too, stereotypes about Japanese women abound: Japanese women are passive; Japanese women are subordinate to men in a stubbornly patriarchal culture; there is no feminist movement in Japan. This course examines a wide range of Japanese texts, images, and artifacts to ask questions about representation, gender, and nationality: how are images of women in Japan created? How and why have some images circulated outside Japan? How have women writers in Japan posed challenges to gender expectations or to gendered institutions? How do women writers, comic or animation artists, and filmmakers describe female identity? Japanese identity? The intersection of those two? How have portraits of archetypal women in Japanese film given way to other representations? Are Japanese films directed by women different from those made by men? Focus is on the present but the rich history of women’s literature in Japan will provide an important context. Texts include fiction and poetry from the nineteenth, twentieth, and present century, manga (comic or graphic novels), films, and criticism and theory by men and women, by Japanese and non-Japanese. All readings and class discussions in English.
JAPA 294-03
Lost in Translation: American Travel Accounts of Japan, 4
credits
Sara. Pradt
**********
Within the enormous body of
travel writing by Westerners on
LING 294-01
Comparative &
Historical Linguistics, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Sarah Dart
**********
Languages are constantly changing. The English written by Chaucer 600 years ago is now very difficult to understand without annotation, not to 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. Why did the /m/ and /n/ of Proto-Nootkan disappear in Makah and Nitinat and remain in Nootka? What is it about the evolution of the meaning of the Bislama word “melek” since its original borrowing from English that makes younger speakers now avoid it and reborrow, instead, the form “milk”?
This is a practical course, most of class time will be spend 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 Linguistics 104, Sounds of Language.
LING 394-01/PSYC 394-01, 4 credits
Bilingualism
Spring 2004
Janet Oh
**********
This course is designed to help
students understand the phenomenon of bilingualism from a variety of
disciplinary perspectives, including (but
not limited to):
psychology, sociology, linguistics, education, and public policy. Students will explore topics such as: definitions of bilingualism, bilingualism and
cognitive processes, second language acquisition in the adult vs. the child,
bilingual education, and heritage language loss/maintenance. Through class readings, discussion, and
writing assignments, we will explore both basic research and policy-related
issues in bilingualism. Prerequisites: Psychology 100 or Linguistics 100 or
permission of instructor. Students who
have taken Linguistics 102 should not
take this course.
MATH 194-01
Statistics with Biological Applications, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Danny Kaplan
**********
This is an introductory
statistics course --- intended for students who have never studied statistics
before at a college level --- that takes a novel approach. The course is about
statistical modelling; using data to construct models
of real-world phenomena. Topics that are
traditionally considered advanced --- analysis of variance, multiple regression, analysis of covariance, logistic regression,
experimental design --- are introduced at an elementary but mathematically
sophisticated level. The course is suitable for two groups of students: 1)
those who have previously taken Math 194 (Calculus with Biological
Applications, formerly numbered Math 50A); and 2) math, physics, chemistry,
economics, computer science or other students who have already had a course in
multivariate calculus or linear algebra. There is no biology pre-requisite for
this course --- examples will be drawn from biology, physics, economics, and
other subjects.
PHIL 294-01
Minds, Genes, and
Quanta: Computation in Nature, 4 credits
Spring 2004
David MacCallum
**********
In this course we will look at the way in which people claim that various parts of nature (for example, minds and genes) perform computations. Models of computation will be covered, but emphasis will be on the ways in which science employs the notion of a computation. Included will be extensive discussions of relevant philosophical distinctions such as abstract/concrete, a priori/a posteriori, and synthetic/analytic. The course will be self-contained and not highly technical, though students can choose to do research projects on more technical topics. The course has no prerequisites, and is appropriate for students with a wide variety of interests including those in philosophy, computer science, psychology, and biology.
PHIL 394-01
John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism and On Liberty, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Henry West
**********
John Stuart Mill was the foremost British philosopher of the nineteenth century. He wrote in all fields of philosophy as well as economics, but his most widely read works in the 21st century are in ethics and political theory: Utilitarianism and On Liberty. In this course we shall study these two texts in detail and discuss the controversies that have arisen concerning them. Secondary reading will include the instructor’s forthcoming book, An Introduction to Mill’s Utilitarian Ethics (Cambridge Press, 2004). Prerequisites: either Philosophy 125 (previously 25) Ethics, or Philosophy/Political Science 160 (previously 24) Foundations of Political Theory, or permission of instructor.
POLI 294-05
Work, Wealth, and
Well-Being, 4 credits
Spring 2004
David Blaney
**********
Wealth has held an allure for many modern thinkers; the creation of a wealthy society often associated with “civilization” itself. The relationships among work, wealth and well-being are a perennial concern and has been central to the study of political economy, since its inception in the mid- to late- 18th century. How does work produce wealth for the individual and for society? How, or when, does individual and social wealth translate into individual and/or social well-being? And, how does the character of work affect individual well-being or happiness? This course will examine the answers given to these questions (and myriad corollary questions) by writers within the political economy tradition.
POLI 294-13
Democratization in
Spring 2004
John Guidry
**********
This course examines the causes, contexts, and prospects of
democratic change in
POLI 294-15
Democratic Theory, 4
credits
Spring 2004
John Guidry
**********
This course exposes students to a selection of modern
approaches to democracy.
POLI 294-19
Legislative Politics,
4 credits
Spring 2004
Julie Dolan
**********
As part of the Project Pericles
initiative on campus, this new topics course explores legislative politics
through a combination of academic theory and focused field experiences. Each
student in the course will simultaneously enroll in a 4-credit legislative
internship and a 4-credit course on Legislative Politics. Through legislative
internships at the
POLI 394-01
Social Movements in
Spring 2004
John Guidry
**********
This course is designed as a writing practicum which will
help students to focus on a specific topic and develop the processes of
critical thinking and argumentation that go into a sustained paper of about 30
pages. Class discussions will center on both selected texts of social movement
theory and students’ own research on a particular movement or movements in
POLI 404-01
Honors Colloquium, 2
credits
Spring 2004
David Blaney
**********
Instructor will assist students in preparing Honors proposals and completing the numerous steps required for fulfilling the requirements for Honors. The course will be organized as a workshop that will emphasize oral presentations of student results at each step of the project. Required for all students pursuing Honors in Political Science. Prerequisite: Senior standing.
PSYC 294-01
Children, Families & Social Policy, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Jennifer Wenner
**********
In this course we will use a
developmental perspective to focus on various issues regarding children, teens,
and their families in society. Children
both influence and are affected by the social contexts and
relationships in which they develop, and we will explore some of these complex,
multidirectional effects in depth. We will examine how social policies
(both formal, such as foster care, and informal, such as the popular media)
influence child development and family functioning. Beginning with a
brief historical overview of the place of children in society, we will spend
most
of the semester discussing children and families in
contemporary American society.
Prerequisite: Psychology 100 or permission of instructor
PSYC 394-03
Intuition, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Brooke Lea
**********
How prevalent
is unconscious thought? What role does
it play in our everyday decisions? In
this course we will examine how intuition affects our feelings, judgment, and
behavior. We will look at unconscious
thought from a social-cognition point of view, and consider the power and peril
of intuition in situations such as psychotherapists deciding whether someone is at risk of
suicide or crime, judges and jurors determining who is telling the truth,
psychics claiming to be clairvoyant, among many others. Our discussion may well
lead us to question the extent to which conscious will is illusory. This advanced course carries a prerequisite
of Cognitive Psychology, or Social Psychology, or Developmental Psychology, or
the gut feeling of the instructor.
RELI/HIST 394-01
The Sacred and the Sword, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Paula Cooey/Paul Solon
**********
What role does the modern state
play in the social construction of religion?
Conversely, what is the impact of religion on the state? Is the traditional western distinction
between religion and state or faith and ideology historically valid and
analytically useful around the globe?
This course explores the production and regulation of the concepts of
religion and state focusing on the reciprocal relations between specific
religious traditions and the formation and evolution of particular states and
polities in the context of globalization.
We will begin our consideration with a brief survey of the historical
origins of the modern state and religious world systems. We then proceed on to a substantive
consideration of selected examples of political and religious modernization and
globalization designed to approach this study comparatively and from an
interdisciplinary perspective focusing on newly formed political entities in
societies recently liberated from colonialism or other hegemonic systems of
coercion. The course concludes with
consideration of further examples based on student research and a concluding
discussion considering the prospects for further change in the twenty-first
century. Signature of Professor Cooey required.
RELI 494-01
Paul and Corinth, 4
credits
Spring 2004
Cal Roetzel
**********
This course will focus on the interaction of the Jewish Paul, the apostle to the gentiles, and his interaction with the Jesus communities in Corinth – a vital, bustling, cosmopolitan, commercial, and diverse city in Greece. Paul’s famous love poem, his teaching on celibacy that influenced the church’s thinking for a thousand years, an account of his vigorous engagement with religious enthusiastic radicalism, and his most heated and nuanced exchanges with competing apostles all appear in these letters. We shall begin with background readings from J. Murphy O’Connor’s St. Paul’s Corinth, Wayne Meeks’s The First Urban Christians, and Gerd Theissen’s, The Social Setting of Early Christianity in which we will examine the extended Corinthian correspondence in its social, cultural, political and religious context. Thereafter, we will do a close reading of 2 Corinthians, a collection of fragments of multiple letters between Paul and the Corinthians. We shall take note of Paul’s rhetorical strategies and his emergent theology. The seminar will follow a discussion format that attends to issues of gender, class, economic resources, religion, and politics. There will be weekly short reaction papers, and a final research paper.
RUSS 294-01/ENGL
294-01
Nabokov, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Hilde Hoogenboom
**********
The scandal surrounding Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 novel about the nymphet Lolita finally made him a hugely successful celebrity, allowing him to retire from teaching at Cornell University and move to Switzerland to devote himself to fiction, translation, criticism, and lepidoptery. This was only one of the many metamorphoses Nabokov underwent while in exile. Members of the Russian nobility, the Nabokovs lost everything with the 1917 Revolution except for their immense cultural capital, which Nabokov transformed into a tremendously productive career as a writer and scholar in Russian, French, and English. This course examines both the Russian (in translation) and English novels – his first novel, Mary (1926), The Defense (1929), Invitation to a Beheading (1936), The Gift (1938), Lolita (1955), Pnin (1957), and Pale Fire (1962) – his memoirs, Speak, Memory (1966), and some of the essays and short stories. We will also watch the films of Lolita (1962) by Stanley Kubrick and more recently (1997) by Adrian Lyne, and The Luzhin Defense (2000). A mercurial defier of national, linguistic, cultural, and theoretical categories, Nabokov remains paradoxically elusive and monumental, a thrilling and exasperating genius.
RUSS 488-01
Senior Seminar: Investigating Russian Web & Press, 4
credits
Spring 2004
Jim von Geldern
**********
Life and society in
In this seminar, we will be
learning how to access electronic text and media sources on the internet, and
to use them to research and discuss contemporary developments in various fields
of Russian life. First, we will learn to use Russian language computer systems,
and the new computer vocabulary that has developed over the last decade. Next,
we will investigate the most important general sources of electronic
information, including electronic newspapers and the main Russian web
servers. We will study specialized web
sites for specific topics of current interest, such as contemporary culture,
politics and social trends. Individual classes later in the semester will be
devoted to specific topics and areas, when students will do independent
research and short class presentations.
Classes will be conducted in Russian. Students will be required to research and write a short paper in Russian at the end of the semester.
SOCI 194-01
Affirmative Action
Policy, 4 credits
Terry Boychuk
Spring 2004
**********
This course has three primary objectives. The first is to provide and overview of the historical development of affirmative action policy in the US. The second is to explore contemporary debates over the principles of affirmative action. The third is to survey empirical research on the effectiveness of affirmative action practice.
SOCI 294-01/POLI
294-03
Comparative and Historical Sociology, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Terry Boychuk
**********
This class provides a basic
introduction to comparative-historical analysis in the social sciences. Course readings,
lectures, discussions, and assignments survey major theoretical approaches,
methodological precepts, and empirical contributions that have animated the
study of large-scale social transformations over broad historical periods.
Primary considerations is given, but not limited, to central topics in the
field such as the rise of modern states, the sociology of
democracy and authoritarianism, and the sociology of revolution.
WGST 110-01
Intro to LGBT
Studies: Sexual Margins, Colonial
Legacies, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Scott Morgensen
**********
This
introduction to sexuality studies examines how sexuality and gender intersect
with race, class, and nationality. We study how U.S. activists of color and
their allies create anti-racist sexual politics, including in Queer of Color
coalitions, through community organizing and political art such as film,
stagecraft, and spoken word. The course questions ideas that sexuality or gender have a universal nature, by showing how both emerge
within power relations. Our core theme is that sexuality and gender as we know
them are shaped by legacies of colonialism, including conquest, racial
formation, nationalism, and global capitalism.
As an introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies, this course showcases how to study multiple power relations, and how to apply that knowledge in civic engagement. Students create Class Projects that engage sexual politics by participating in public debate and social movement. Each student creates a public activity or event at Macalester that critically engages and educates their peers on a topic related to the course. Students’ Final Papers examine literature on the topic, as well as how their event was enabled or constrained as a means to inspire social change. This course welcomes students of all class levels.
WGST 194-01
Imaginaries of the
Body, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Jennifer Caruso
**********
How does the body take form within the cultural imaginaries of different contexts? How does the freedom of the “imagined body” intersect with the groundedness of corporeal experience? What is the relationship between the machine and the human body?
Examining the cultural imaginaries of three different locations – “the body and the metropolis”; “sexuality”; and “resistant, self-styled and fashioned bodies” we will read “fantasies” of the body in texts and films, those mythic projections in which dreams are explored and in which one can read articulated resistance to the projections which form and shape it. If the embodied subject is the term used to give priority to one’s experience of feeling, suffering, experiencing and is part of a specifically feminist project which both de-essentializes the cultural constructs linked to bodies (race, class, gender) as it also undoes the binary opposition between body-mind and self-other (Grosz 241), what is the relationship between the body and the imagined body?
WGST 200-01
Feminist and Queer
Theories and Methodologies, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Scott Morgensen
**********
This course introduces current debates over theory and methodology in feminist and queer studies. The interpretive methods of standpoint, poststructuralist, deconstructionist, and postcolonial scholarship will be introduced and examined, from a grounding in studies of anti-colonial movement praxis and critical ethnography.
The course provides in-depth analysis of theories and movement practices of transnational and U.S. Third World feminisms alongside the variety of Western feminist theories they engage and transform. In tandem, the course examines how scholars render poststructuralism within theories of heteronormativity, while indicating the transformative work of transnational studies of race and sexuality, particularly queer of color theories and movement practices. Within this conversation we ask when, where, how, and why various queer and feminist projects may collude or collide.
This course is required for WGS majors and minors. Students must complete an introduction to WGS (100, 105, or 110) in order to enroll.
WGST 294-01/AMST 294-01
Manhood Politics and Social Change, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Scott Morgensen
**********
How have struggles over manhood in U.S. history defined racial formation, nationalism, industrial capitalism, imperialism, and migration? How are conflicts over formations of manhood shaping U.S. politics today?
This course is an anti-racist feminist study of the production of U.S. society through politics of manhood. Historical cases include wars of conquest and national resistance, abolitionism, immigration and exclusion, Victorian culture, male sexual community formations, and Civil Rights Movement. Contemporary cases include Chicana and Black feminist engagements within Chicano and Black Power movements, “men’s movements” (mythopoetics, Promise Keepers), transmen and FTM’s, the southwest Asian wars, and the expansion of the prison industrial complex. Students will conduct independent research on a contemporary conflict linked to our themes, and ask what feminist transformations of politics and manhood would look like in our age.
The course is designed for sophomores, juniors, and seniors. First-year students who have completed Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies (WGST 100) may enroll.
WGST 310
Gender and
Sociopolitical Activism in 20th Century
Utopias, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Sonita Sarker
**********
‘U-topia’
means ‘a place (topos) that doesn’t exist’ and ‘Eu-topia’ means ‘a good place.’ Implicit as well as explicit in much of the
20th century’s feminist critical analysis of the state of society and its
politics is a desire for a better state yet-to-be (utopia) as well as
a fear of catastrophe or nightmare (dystopia). This course investigates how women's literary
writing from different parts of the
world (Bangladeshi, English, African-American, to name a few)
produce visions of the present and the future, of the real and the
imagined, beliefs about masculinity and femininity, socialist and
capitalist philosophies, modernity, the environment (ecotopia),
and
various technologies including cybergenetics. Writers included are Margaret Atwood, Octavia
Butler, Charlotte Perkins Gilman,
Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain,
Suniti Namjoshi, and Marge Piercy. Literary, political, and philosophical
theories—such as those of
Seyla Benhabib, Donna Haraway, Thomas Hobbes, Thomas More, Paula Moya, Gayatri Spivak,
Alexis de Tocqueville, Virginia
Woolf—will inform our readings.
The collection of texts is intended also to provides us with genealogies
to construct as well as
analyze our own fantasies of sociopolitical change.
WGST 400-01
Senior Seminar: Linking Theory and Practice, 4 credits
Spring 2004
Sonita Sarker
**********
The questions that have been
haunting you through many courses will be addressed directly in this one: what
are the links between
theory and practice? Where
and how do they become linked? Do they
affect each other? How does all this
relate to my life and how
will it help in my post-college experience? We’ll read economic, political, cultural, and
literary theories and practices—socialism,
capitalism, democracy, nationalisms, grassroots movements, diaspora, (sur)realism, among
others. We’ll study how theory and
practice define each other in the works of writers such as Rosa
Luxemburg, Jean Rhys, Nella Larsen, Gayatri Spivak, Joanna
Kadi, Catherine Eschle, Paula Moya, and Nancy Naples, to name a few. Your own
experiences in academia, organizational work, and
imagined professions will be part of our study. An affiliation, membership, experience in a
group of students, workers, or other
colleagues, while taking this course, is highly encouraged.