Senior Year

Hey kids, we have some choices to make! Following is my semi-final round choices for classes next fall. Registration is in two weeks, so we need to narrow the field. Some of these options are based on requirements (I need to take science both semesters next year; if there's an N next to the course title, it fulfills the requirement). What classes would be most enjoyable for you to have me take?

From Development to Globalization (Anthropology)
Goals: This course surveys the socio-cultural, economic, political relationships that bind the lives of those at the global center with those at the periphery-offering historical and contemporary contexts for understanding the profound disparities in wealth, health, life expectancy, population density, and access to opportunity evident in our world.Content: Socio-cultural and historical contexts are introduced and investigated through an emphasis on primary sources, theoretical essays and course lectures, supplemented with two ethnographic case studies. Throughout the course students will be challenged to understand the context of the contemporary world system and their place in it. Drawing broadly on contemporary literature from economics, political science, rural sociology, and anthropology this course will focus on issues such as: post-coloniality, the global division of labor, global production, cultures of consumption, global poverty, Cold War developmentalism, intellectual property issues, post-modernism, and social responses to globalization.

Creative Writing (English)
Goals: To introduce students to writing poetry and short stories.Content: Writing assignments designed to develop specific skills and techniques (dialogue, characterization, setting, point of view, metaphor, line breaks, persona, repetition, imagery, use of metric form, and free verse) and reading from contemporary authors.

Studies in British Literature: Renaissance Now! (English; taught by Prof K)
This course looks at the relatively recent resurgence in portrayals of the English Renaissance in Western--particularly U.S. and British--film which has resulted in new adaptations of Shakespeare plays as well as such popularized portrayals of the period as Shakespeare in Love, Elizabeth, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, or The Tudors.
Some salient questions: Why this resurgence now? How does the recent context of centurial transition evoke issues shared with the ”Golden Age” of England? Stated differently: Why does the late 20th (and early 21st) century reach to this particular moment of history? How does this historical retelling reflect our own contemporary moment? In what ways does it underpin precarious contemporary notions of nationhood, nature, selfhood, and social organization?
In addition to viewing and analyzing selected films (final selection will be announced on first day of class), we will seek to contextualize our understanding of the primary materials in relevant, frequently interdisciplinary critical scholarship in the Renaissance, gender studies, popular-culture studies, film studies, theater, and cultural materialism. Student learning will be assessed via participation, presentations, reflective writing, and independent research.

Studies in American Literature: American Pop Culture (English)
This course (team-taught) aims to define, test, and practice methods for the critical analysis of popular culture, via a survey of representative case studies from the United States. We will interrogate how television, music, and film work out there in the wild, focused on the tripartite problems of text (e.g., how does this show, that song, a given film work as an aesthetic object?), production (e.g., what factors-economic, historical, political-shape which kinds of objects get made, and who has access to such making?), and reception (e.g., how do audiences make or get made by what they consume? how do different kinds of consumers consume differently?). We will be particularly intent on examining the complex relations between popular culture and various factors in (and functions of) identity, examining race, ethnicity, gender, ability, class, sexuality, nation-culminating in a study of how ”America” travels abroad. The course will demand substantive critical reading and a willingness to dig into a variety of popular texts of sometimes dubious reputation; as an oral-intensive class, we will emphasize and assess critical group discussion and various forms of presentation; the course will conclude with a research project (and presentation) of your own design, developed using the tools we've shaped through the semester, applied to your own chosen ”object” for study.

Energy, Environment, and the Economy (Physics; N)
Goals: To investigate, for nonscience students, availability of energy in the world and environmental concerns and the supply-demand aspects of our nation's economy. Content: Conceptual understanding and measurement of relevant physical quantities; the impact of fossil fuels, nuclear power, solar and other ”alternative” forms of energy on air and water quality; the economy and lifestyles; the fragile world energy balance; research in energy and various models for extrapolation into the future.

Biology of Human Function (Biology; N)
Goals: To introduce non-science majors to human structure and function. To develop an appreciation of advances in biological technologies. Content: The function of cells and organ systems, emphasizing the physical mechanisms used to maintain a state of dynamic equilibrium.

Physics for Poets (Physics; N)
Goals: To introduce non-science students to the conceptual development and philosophical implications of some aspects of physics, allow students to gain insights into the practice of science, and give students experience with problem solving.Content: Topics will vary with instructor but may include motion, energy, solids, heat, sound, light, electricity, magnetism, atoms, the nucleus, particles, and astronomy. The laboratory will include a variety of experiences designed to allow students to practice investigative science and gain hands-on experience.

Intermediate German I
Goals: To review all topics of German grammar and to enhance all the skills required for proficiency. Content: Readings in German, exercises in grammar and vocabulary building; equal emphasis on speaking, understanding the spoken language, writing, and reading.

Culture, Illness and Health (Anthropology)
Goals: To introduce students to the subdiscipline of medical anthropology, and to study health, illness and healing from a cross-cultural perspective.Content: The study of affliction and healing in non-Western as well as Western societies; ways in which the social construction of well-being affects therapy managing strategies across a range of human societies; analysis of how power is utilized to privilege some sectors and deprive other groups of basic standards of community health; and the meaning of signs of sickness and suffering as a way of interpreting their relationship to broader social themes including technology, ritual, and religion. The course is designed to provide students with a framework for understanding the historical and social construction of healing practices and beliefs.

Introduction to Linguistics (English)
Goals: To examine the scientific study of language and language analysis.Content: Analysis of language in terms of phonetics and phonology (sounds), morphology (word formation), semantics (the meaning system), syntax (sentences and their structure), and language change. Discussion of the relationship between language and neurology, psychology, society, and culture.

Consuming Societies (Sociology)
Goals: To explore the topic of ”consumption” by analyzing the social functions of consumption and consuming practices in modern societies. A special focus is on social inequality and the way social differences are ”mirrored” in the way people make their choices and the consequences of an abundance of choices.Content: The seminar uses classical and contemporary texts to provide insights into the central issues of sociology of consumption, especially to fields of practice, where social phenomena and social differences (e.g. food consumption, fashion, luxury vs. cheap buying) occur. Please note: This section includes additional Saturday meeting times from 9:30-11:00 on 9/27, 10/4, and 10/11. There will also be a visiting instructor assisting with this section, Michael Jaeckel from the University of Trier in Trier, Germany.

Public Administration and Public Policy (Political Science)
Goals: To learn how to think critically and analytically about the formulation and implementation of public policy. To acquaint students with some of the more important concepts, issues, and problems in public administration. Content: Perceptions of bureaucracy; organizational theory and behavior; administrative leadership and decision making; personnel problems and public unions; agency clientele and the public interest; questions of administrative ethics, morality and accountability; individual in-depth studies of selected public policies.

We'll need to choose three of these (preferably three that will complement each other and not drive me to drink, er, more); piano will take care of the remaining spot.