Dr. Allison Carey, English

Monday and Wednesday || 2:00 - 3:15 pm || OM 353

Attribute(s): Writing Intensive

Recommended Credit: Literature

This seminar grows out of a project about some of the most popular boys' books of the late 19th century: the Deerfoot novels by American dime novelist Edward Ellis. (Dime novels were the comic books of their day: inexpensive and thought by many to be a corrupter of youth.) Ellis was one of the most popular dime novelists, and Deerfoot—a Shawnee Indian who becomes a friend to and savior of "the white man"—was his wildly popular character. What this project (tentatively entitled "The Only Good Indian is … a Christian") tries to account for is the fact that Deerfoot—largely the only "good Indian" in the course of the twelve Deerfoot novels—is a Christian. Indeed, Deerfoot is so devout that he not only actively tries to convert his fellow Native Americans but also chastises his Caucasian friends for their lack of piety. So what was the attitude in white America in the 1880s (when the Deerfoot novels were first published) regarding Native Americans and religion? How did Native Americans receive white attempts to convert them? And how did the Deerfoot books fit into the larger American conversation about dime novels, since an anti-dime novel crusade was in full swing? In this seminar, we would think critically about late 19th century American culture and religion, as well as the fate of the Native American tribes who are caricatured in these novels.

Dr. Jeffrey Powell, Philosophy & Dr. Charles Lloyd, Classics

Tuesday and Thursday || 12:30 -1:45 pm || OM 230

Attribute(s):

Recommended Credit: Humanities

A study of Plato’s Dialogues as literary genre is clearly a desideratum. Scholars and teachers have for so long mined them for their philosophical riches and then taken the valuable product thus obtained and from it created edifices that do not reflect well their source. Yet the form is inseparable from the meaning—it is the meaning. The genre itself as a genre has certain characteristics that separate it from the full-fledged novel, for instance, or epic. These characteristics shape the investigation and affect what readers find. We will thus discuss what some of these characteristics are for the dialogue as an art form, how they shape each work, and how they instruct a would-be investigator. Throughout the semester we will explore three dialogues in particular that take as their topic sexuality, love, and friendship. Since our investigation we will be concerned with the nature of the dialogue as genre, and the meaning of sexuality within that genre, our investigation will also concern how our own sexuality is shaped by that investigation.

Dr. Mary Moore, English

Tuesday and Thursday || 2:00 - 3:15p || OM 230

Attribute(s): Writing Intensive

Recommended Credit: Literature

It’s no accident that recent comic books (the Sandman series) and films (Shakespeare in Love) rely on the plays of William Shakespeare as their primary text and/or inspiration. This course will explore a particularly relevant aspect of his plays:  the treatment of power, knowledge and gender through political themes. Shakespeare’s plays illustrate how men and women confront the tensions between expediency and personal ethics and how aristocrats and commoners, males and females, colonizers and colonized, natives and foreigners negotiate differing stakes in and access to power. 

Readings in Shakespeare’s contemporary political thought and in modern theorists coupled with very informal in-class performance will provide an interdisciplinary approach to political plays, and to plays that are sometimes not treated through the lens of political ideas.  This writing intensive course will teach argument through informal and formal writing:  you will learn to make and support claims orally and in writing, use evidence, and express complex thoughts–skills useful in any profession.

Dr. Caroline Perkins, Classics & Dr. Kateryna Schray, English

Mondy || 4:00 - 6:20p|| CH 464

Attribute(s): Writing Intensive

Recommended Credit: Humanities or Literature

In this course we will look at views of the afterlife offered by ancient, medieval and more modern literature and other media with a view to discovering how similarities and differences among these views are culturally driven.  We will begin with ancient texts from Sumeria, Palestine, and Greece and Rome, progress through the works of Dante, Marlowe and Milton, and end with 20th-century literature, film and television.  Along the way, we will ask our students to examine works of art that depict the afterlife, to stage a play about the afterlife, and to examine and report on scenes from a 20th century film or television show that deals with the afterlife.

Dr. James Sottile, College of Education & Dr. Wendy Trzyna, Biological Science

Tuesday || 4:00 - 6:20p || JH B10

Attribute(s):

Recommended Credit: Social Science

This course will explore the current state of knowledge related to the contribution of environmental components and genetics to learning and motivation and other complex behavioral traits. Topics will include the biology and physiology of learning, theories of motivation and learning, the genetics of a variety of human conditions and disorders, and the contribution of environmental factors that influence their establishment, progression and outcomes. Historical and recent advances in the fields of learning and genomics will be discussed.

     The unifying theme will be the interplay between genes and environment (nature vs. nurture). Students will engage in active learning through the exploration of the many unanswered questions in these fields.   The class content is geared to biology and education majors, nevertheless, any student interest in the area of biology and education will gain valuable insight into the process of learning and biological change.

Dr. Susan Gilpin, Communication Studies

Wednesday || 4:00 - 6:20p || OM 353

Attribute(s): Writing Intensive, Multicultural

Recommended Credit: Social Science

Fashion and style have exploded as interdisciplinary areas of scholarship in the last decade.  Areas such as fashion and sexuality, style as a rhetorical construct, children’s fashion and the construction of gender, the burgeoning role of designer labels in popular culture, international production and consumption of the artifacts of style and the political consequences of the same, all impact our lives even as I write this.  We will draw primarily on the work of Edwards and of Brummett, who has defined style as “a system of communication with rhetorical influence on others.  And as such, style is a means by which power and advantage are negotiated, distributed, and struggled over in society.”

This seminar seeks to investigate the semiotic and rhetorical functions of fashion and style as cultural and political arguments and as a global language influencing contemporary political discourse.  Students will analyze and cultural artifacts of fashion and style and assess the meaning of their own participation in this cultural arena.

Prof. Robert Rabe, SOJMC & Prof. Cory Pillen, Art

Thursday || 4:00 - 6:20p || OM 353

Attribute(s): Women's Studies, Sexuality Studies

Recommended Credit: Social Science

This seminar is an exploration of the complex and sometimes contentious relationship between freedom of expression and censorship of allegedly obscene materials in American arts and popular culture from the late 19th century to the present day.  It examines issues like the boundaries between art and obscenity/pornography, evolving definitions of the obscene, shifting legal frameworks for limiting or protecting speech, and the politics surrounding public expression.  Arranged chronologically, the course seeks to historicize the study of obscenity and censorship and provide ample opportunity for discussion of related issues in the present day.