Academics First-Year Programs 2008

Print Page

2008 Seminars

Growing a Healthy Community: The Story of One Community’s Response to America’s Health and Health Care Challenges

*This seminar has been designated as part of a Learning Community.

The poor health status of many Americans and the weaknesses of the American health system have been well chronicled. Health problems associated with personal choice have been documented in films such as Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation and the shortcomings of the American health care system have been portrayed in films such as Michael Moore’s Sicko.

This seminar will explore one community’s response to inherent American health and health system problems. Since its formation in June 2001, a Carlisle area community health foundation, The Carlisle Health & Wellness Foundation (CAHWF), has led efforts to ensure the continuous improvement of the Carlisle area’s community health status by advocating for individual accountability and the elimination of barriers to health care services. Community stakeholders believe CAHWF’s efforts to improve the overall status of community health have been effective in the short run. The objectives of the seminar will be to answer the following two questions: Are there lessons from CAHWF’s early successes that may benefit other communities focused on community health improvement? Will CAHWF’s efforts lead to sustainable health status improvement in the Carlisle area community?

Dave Sarcone, IB&M

Language Games: Historical Truth Through the Historical Novel

*This seminar has been designated as part of a Learning Community.
German Romantics proposed that "Truth is not discovered but rather created." And how is it created?: through our descriptions —through language. Language, then, began to be perceived not as a medium between reality and the human self, but rather as a self-contained entity by which we play a specific language game. Different disciplines, in turn, play different language games, and truth is expressed in different fashions. Historical events too, may be described by means of different language games, from historical documents to forensic work, from archeological artifacts to personal records. Literature, however, traditionally considered fiction, also serves as a powerful medium to portray historical truths. In this course we will begin by focusing on the Historical Novel from a theoretical perspective, trying to see how the writer through metaphors builds a historical narrative by which history is told anew, with the intention to focus our studies for the rest of the semester on Historical Novels from different epochs and different countries; each one of them depicting historical events not necessarily as they happened, but as they could have happened.

Jorge R. Sagastume Spanish/Portuguese

Pardon my French! Americans in France - Ce je ne sais quoi! The French in America

This course explores the writings of famous French and American travelers from the 16th to the 21st century. From historical figures such as Benjamin Franklin and Alexis de Tocqueville to today’s public intellectuals such as Adam Gopnik and Bernard-Henry Lévy, we will cover the history of French-American relations. Our approach will be cross-cultural. For example, we will examine how these writers’ traveling logs reflect on their own national values. In doing so, we will discuss key issues such as democracy, cosmopolitanism, and tolerance in the ever-global world. Students wishing to follow up the themes of this seminar are encouraged to apply to the Summer 2009 language immersion program in Toulouse, directed by Prof. Duperron.

Lucile Duperron, French/Italian

Are We Alone in the Solar System?

Popular culture and science fiction teems with depictions of aliens and their encounters with human beings, whether here on Earth or elsewhere. But what if microorganisms were discovered on the moons of Jupiter or the planet Mars? What would be the ramifications, both socially and scientifically, of such a discovery? In recent years, there have been a number of very successful missions supported by NASA to explore planets and their satellites, asteroids, and comets. This is in accord with one aspect of their new vision for the Space Sciences program – to search for extraterrestrial life. This search, however, depends greatly on what we know life to be: the Earth and its inhabitants. If the requirements for life as we know it are liquid water, a source of energy, organic molecules, and biogenic elements such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, then NASA has already found multiple arenas in which “life” may reside. If current and future missions find that there is a second genesis, what will that say about God and our religious beliefs? Does it prove that life is not an accident? Is there a built-in bias towards life and mind, resulting in a Purpose and a God? Or is life simply chemistry? This seminar will focus on the budding science of Astrobiology and the implications it has for religion. We will begin by learning how planets form and discuss what is needed for a planet to be considered habitable, thereby defining “life.” Students will research and present the scientific findings of current NASA missions at Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn that support the search for life. By reading excerpts from books such as How We Believe: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God and The Fifth Miracle: The Search for Origins of Life, group discussions will be conducted regarding science and religion.

Catrina Hamilton-Drager, Physics/Astronomy

Art and Memory

At least since the ancient tale of the Corinthian maid, who traced the outline of her departing lover on a wall to record his image, art has served as an agent of memory. Today, the simple act of viewing a childhood photograph is a familiar reminder of how we continue using images to recollect the past. Yet what if a memory is not only personal, but also collective? What if it brings together a group of people defined by race (such as African slaves in America), a historic event (such as war) or a disease (such as AIDS)? How are these experiences to be remembered in visual form? What media – film, photography, painting, sculpture or architecture – is best suited in each case? Who gets to decide? This seminar will explore such questions through analyses of the difference between the spare, abstract design of the Vietnam War Memorial, for instance,and the heroic, figurative approach in the new World-War II Memorial. We will conduct close readings of both texts and images to consider the tensions that have shaped the design for a 9/11 memorial and to ask why artists creating Holocaust memorials have taken a “counter-monument” approach to form. Using methodologies drawn from art history, critical theory and related fields, we will analyze such examples from modern and contemporary times to better understand the issues at stake in translating memory into objective form.

Elizabeth Lee, Art & Art History

Biophilia: Human Connections to Other Life Forms

Do we need the natural world? Beyond our needs for resources, how and why do we interact with nature? For most of our history as a species, we have coevolved with other life forms in natural environments. Today many humans, and certainly most Americans, grow up in a transformed landscape with little direct experience of other organisms in natural contexts. What are the consequences of this extinction of experience? As a point of departure the seminar will consider E.O. Wilson's "biophila hypothesis:" that humans have an innate, evolved, emotional tendency to affiliate with other life forms. We will evaluate this hypothesis by scientific methods, and explore its implications for citizens of the 21st century. Areas of focus will include conservation biology and practice, nature and mental health, animal rights, the roles of garden, zoo, and wilderness, and the substitution of virtual for real experience of nature. Insofar as much of the meaning of biophilia can only be appreciated subjectively, the seminar will seek to build awareness of biodiversity through field work at the College farm and other locations near campus.

Anthony Pires, Biology

Competition in Our Lives: What's fair and who decides?

Competition shapes our world. It directs the course of evolution, determines our social status within groups, and is a key component of our government, politics, and free-market economy. However, intense competition also tempts us to cheat, to violate the rules to gain a competitive advantage. Recent examples include: a slugger using a corked bat, a CEO convicted of insider trading, a famous novelist admitting plagiarism, a politician accused of accepting illegal campaign contributions, a singer lip-synching her songs on stage, and an Olympic sprinter testing positive for steroids. In this seminar we will ask the question: what’s fair in competition, and who decides? We will explore competition in nature, social groups, games and athletics, and government using selected readings, simple psychological and mathematical models, game theory, and class discussions.

Tom Arnold, Biology

Detecting Cultural Narratives

What could a Victorian adventure novel set in Africa, a mystery set in England on remote Dartmoor, and a classic detective novel that focuses on some “unpleasantness” in a gentleman’s club in London just after World War I tell us about England’s evolving sense of itself? What does Ian Fleming’s James Bond tell us about England in the 1950s? What might a Western dedicated to Teddy Roosevelt, a hard-boiled detective novel set in the 1930s, and a Western written just after World War II tell us about changes in the ways citizens of the United States thought about themselves and their country? What does a detective novel with a gutsy female private investigator tell us about changing ideas in and of the U.S. in the 1980s? In other words, how do these novels reflect or interrogate the cultures that produced them? Why have these sorts of novels remained so popular? These are some of the questions we will explore as we study the “cultural work” of several of the most popular forms of genre fiction. If time allows, we will also look at one or two films to see how adaptation to a different medium transforms works of literature. Expect energetic class discussion and a variety of written assignments.

Robert Winston, English

Discerning fact from fallacy in nature and medicine

Scientific information comes to us from many sources, including the media, friends and associates, doctors, teachers, books and articles, web sites, documentaries, and the like. Often the information conflicts, and the consequences of the conflicts can be puzzling, expensive, or even life-threatening to individuals. Using nature and health as our general topic areas, in this seminar we will ask how can one sort out good information from false or misleading information, how good information is gathered, and how (ideally) information should be presented to the general public. We will begin with select examples of studies in behavior and ecology of wild and domestic animals, in order to establish the nature of good vs. bad science and to look at the ways that scientific information is disseminated. We will then move to some more complicated and controversial issues of nature and human health, such as the validity of claims for herbal medicine. We will cover some simple experimental design and data analysis techniques to establish a firm basis for evaluating the validity of scientific information. Field trip options on certain Saturdays or Sundays will allow opportunities to hike the local area and see phenomena relevant to the class, such as hawk migrations and populations of medicinally valuable wild plants.

Carol Loeffler, Biology

Ethics of Hunting and Fishing

[This seminar is part of an Environment, Science and Sustainability Learning Community. Students in this seminar will also be required to take and automatically be enrolled in Introduction to Environmental Science (ES 131) & Microeconomics (Economics 111).For more information about the Environment, Science and Sustainability Learning Community, see the special note at the end of this description.]

Animal populations around the world face increasing pressure from habitat destruction and other environmental impacts of human population growth and economic development. Ironically, these same animal populations support hunting and fishing activities that provide recreation for millions of people and generate billions of dollars in revenue every year. In this seminar, we will examine issues such as the role of hunting in managing animal populations, the ethics of hunting and fishing for “wild” animals that have been raised in captivity, the environmental impacts of hatcheries and stocked fish, whether hunting and fishing cause animals to experience pain and fear, and the morality of catch-and-release fishing.

** ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND SUSTAINABILITY LEARNING COMMUNITIES:

As part of the new sustainability initiative at Dickinson College, we are offering an opportunity for first year students to engage in an integrative semester with a focus on environment and sustainability issues. Each of the specially-designed, interdisciplinary clusters below connects two first-year seminars with two regular courses in different divisions, which all students in the two linked seminars will take together. The fourth course slot will remain open for each student to choose (for example, to follow the College’s recommendation that all first-year students either begin or continue a language).

Environmental Change and Human Decisions - (First-Year Seminars: Vetter or Wahls, 1:30MR)
This cluster investigates human interactions with the natural world, emphasizing how decision-making for sustainability can only operate through a sound understanding of nature and society. The first-year seminars focus either on ethical frameworks for evaluating human decisions or on past and present examples of social conflict over how to sustain valued places. Then, by integrating classroom learning with field and lab experiences, Introduction to Environmental Science (ES 131, Prof. Wilderman, 10:30TR, lab 1:30T or W) provides a scientific foundation for sustainability education. Students will learn about vital natural processes such as nutrient cycles and energy flows, along with the impacts of human disturbances and decisions. Microeconomics (Economics 111, Prof. Tynan, 10:30MWF) focuses on human rational decision-making under economic constraints. By learning about general principles such as scarcity, markets, utility, profit, consumer choice, efficiency, resource allocations, and externalities, and by applying these principles to environmental problems, students will gain a solid grounding in the challenges of economic sustainability. By combining a lab science course with a social science course that together build a foundation for many different fields of study at the College, this cluster could lead to a wide variety of majors that address problems related to human involvement in environmental issues. It will be especially suitable for students intending to major in Environmental Studies or Environmental Science, since both Introduction to Environmental Science and Microeconomics are required foundational courses for those majors. For all students, these courses also help meet the Division II and III distributional requirements.

Tim Wahls, Math/Computer Science

Explaining Illness to Ourselves

*This seminar has been designated as part of a Learning Community.
A 70 year-old learns she has breast cancer. A 30 year-old receives a positive HIV test result. A college student catches a cold during the last week of the semester. Each scenario prompts its own explanation, which includes images of the kind of person it describes and how the affliction came about: an explanatory model. The goal of the seminar is to explore and critically appraise explanatory models of illness.
We’ll investigate the historic and cultural evolution of such models, their relationship to medical and scientific understanding of disease, and the consequences of our explanations for how we treat both the sickness and the sick person. What do our explanatory models reveal about our notions of causality, contamination, morality, and responsibility? Why are some illnesses more “legitimate” than others? How can we use scientific methods in studying explanatory models? The seminar will use nonfiction, fiction, discussions, and student-administered experiments to explore what Susan Sontag called “the kingdom of the ill.”

Andy Skelton, Psychology

Extraordinary accomplishments and advancements: Creative geniuses and their rivalries

One could argue that most progress, in many fields of endeavor, has come about because of rivalry. Whether in science, art, or sports, recognition or competition to be first or best has been the driving force for many people. In addition, these people of accomplishment have led lives that one would not consider, in the words of George Bernard Shaw, reasonable.

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." - George Bernard Shaw

In this seminar we will explore the people and the rivalries that have led to great advancements in our society.

Barry Tesman, Math/Computer Science

Green Science for the iPod Generation

*This seminar is part of an Environment, Science and Sustainability Learning Community.

The focus of this seminar will be on the science of sustainability. In this era of politically charged debate over the relative “green-ness” of various individuals and groups, the concept of sustainable behavior has become a muddled mess. As a result, the average person is understandably confused as to what to believe when someone makes a claim that a particular action is environmentally friendly or sustainable. This seminar, intended for science and/or mathematically inclined individuals, will explore ways to evaluate such claims, based on a scientific definition of sustainability.

Michael Holden, Chemistry

Hollywood on Hollywood

This course will explore the notion of Hollywood as a construct, a world that is both literal and figurative, whose individual films map its contours. Through a selection of films and novels that narrate Hollywood's mythology from the 1920s to the present day, we will investigate the cultural meaning of the stories Hollywood tells about itself--the stars, the studios, the screenwriters--and the paradoxes that arise when self-referential cinema strips away the illusions that normally characterize classic Hollywood style. Our goal will be to understand the role of the movies in American culture as it is articulated within mainstream Hollywood cinema and to explore the ways in which contemporary directors and screenwriters challenge and subvert classical narrative structure and its ideological project.

Nancy Mellerski, French/Italian

Law and Justice

What is justice? Why do people feel so strongly about it? What is the relationship between justice and law? What happens if the law is seen as a source of injustice? Who should resolve this situation? Is it solely a matter for the courts and public officials? Can or should individuals ever do this on their own? Is it sometimes necessary to break the law and put oneself in conflict with society in order to obtain justice? By reading from among the classics in the western tradition, such as Antigone, Billy Budd, The Trial of Socrates, and The Trial, as well as seeing such films as Breaker Morant, Sleepers, and Unforgiven, we shall grapple with these issues and hopefully arrive at some answers.

Stephen Weinberger, History

Mediated Realities

Most people would say they want to know the truth about the world -- to know fact from fiction, genuine from fake, real from imaginary. But things aren't that easy. Sometimes we fool ourselves; sometimes we are fooled by others; and sometimes we really don't want to know or accept the "truth" because the "lie" is more comforting or useful. In this seminar, we will look at a variety of forces that "mediate," or stand between, us (whatever "we" are) and reality (whatever "it" is). We will begin with some broad questions about reality that have puzzled philosophers since the time of Plato, and have been the basis for popular movies such as "The Matrix" and "The Truman Show." We will go on to consider some of the ways our deeply held, and often invisible, biases and prejudices shape our realities -- issues raised in Malcolm Gladwell's intriguing book, "Blink." We will look at some specific ways in which others attempt to influence our beliefs about reality to serve their own ideological or economic purposes -- including the advertising industry, politicians and news outlets. And we will consider how rapidly developing technologies are creating new "real" worlds and further complicating the picture. Underlying all these topics are important ethical and political questions to which we will return again and again -- about how we wish to live as individuals and as members of a free society.

Richard Lewis, adjunct

Meditation

Meditation, the deliberate practice of directing awareness, is used widely in religious traditions to pray, to seek self-understanding, and to seek enlightenment about the nature of reality, but also for many other purposes: to train for musical or sports performance, to study, to improve relationships with others. This course will look at theories of meditation in eastern religions but also at the many applications of mindfulness training in other areas. In addition to theory and writing, students will do various types of meditation and go on field trips to meditation centers. This course will require an open mind and a willingness to try new ideas and practices.

Dan Cozort, Religion

Mental Illness: From Movies to Memoir

In the movie, Trainspotting, the actor, Ewan McGregor, portrays the character, Mark Renton, a young heroin addict. How accurate is the movie’s portrayal of drug addiction? What can we learn about drug addiction from watching a movie such as Trainspotting? This course will attempt to answer such questions by studying the topic of mental illness from a variety of perspectives. First, we will examine selected mental illnesses (e.g., drug addiction) from a scientific perspective, reading scholarly articles on a particular condition. Such articles will focus on the etiology, symptoms, treatment and prognosis of a particular illness. Second, we will examine mental illness from a “popular” or media account of the condition. To this end, we will read about selected mental illnesses as described in non-scholarly publications (e.g., Time Magazine) and depicted in classic movies (e.g., Psycho). Finally, we will examine mental illness from a “first-person” perspective, reading memoirs or autobiographies from people suffering from certain mental illnesses. In the end, the goal of the course is to help students recognize that our understanding of mental illness is influenced by the many ways mental illness is depicted and represented in our society.

Gregory J. Smith, Psychology

Mind, Knowledge, and Evolution

This course investigates the evolution of human minds and human knowledge production and reproduction in the very long run. After introducing the basic concepts of the Darwinist theory of evolution, it discusses various theories on the evolution of the cognitive capabilities of behaviorally modern Homo Sapiens, the academic name for our own species. After that, it will explore the cognitive foundations for the Agricultural Revolution, the Urban Revolution, and Axial Age Breakthrough, and the Scientific and Industrial Revolution since the seventeenth century, the four major revolutions in human prehistory and history. The focus of the course will be on the origins of revolutions in science and technology in cognitive and comparative perspectives.

Dengjian Jin, INBM

National (In)Securities and Human Rights

The attacks of September 11th, 2001, brought an intense public discussion of “security” in the U.S. We encounter this discussion in our everyday lives through new forms of identification and the threshold requirements to obtain it, routine surveillance of our movements, phone calls, e-mails, and purchases, and even requirements to remove our shoes at the airport. Most of us do not pay attention to these matters. Those who do may either be relieved that someone is watching out for “our security” or be alarmed that someone is monitoring us out of concern for “security.” These concerns with “security” also involve the lives of others, both inside and outside the U.S., people who are not always considered to be a part of “our” community. Do efforts to gain “security” happen at the expense of others? Do they raise human rights issues? In what ways is the pursuit of “security” a cultural issue? Are there economic interests in the pursuit of “security”? In this seminar we will develop a critical ethnographic perspective to explore issues of (in)security and human rights, with examples that range from home security to surveillance and militarism in our communities, and from increased obsessions with borders and belonging to global profiteering, “extraordinary renditioning,” and the “Global War on Terror.” We will consider what anthropologists and other scholars have to say about these matters, and we will learn about the experiences of ordinary people in a range of contexts as they encounter the quest for security.

James Ellison, Anthropology

Order and Chaos in Science and Society

How do fireflies manage to flash in synchrony? How can concert audiences go from clapping randomly to clapping rhythmically in the absence of a “conductor”? How might social movements emerge from the apparent randomness of daily events? Why do we only get to see one side of the moon?

Although these questions seem to be unrelated at first glance, there is an underlying common thread: they all address the emergence of order from chaos, synchrony from randomness. Of course, order can just as easily give way to chaos. This seminar will deal with such questions and the exciting new approaches to addressing them. Even though our examples will be drawn from such diverse fields as physics, biology and sociology, the underlying principles at work will prove to be universally applicable. Class projects involving some elementary computer programming will serve to highlight this point.

Lars English, Physics/Astronomy

Public Speaking in the 21st Century

This course will highlight the spoken word as a vehicle for introducing students to college-level work in the areas of research, writing, reading, critical thinking, and, of course, public speaking. Students will have the opportunity to enhance their ability to
(1) deliver prepared speeches and (2) participate in extemporaneous academic discussion. Public speaking continues to be one of the most feared and avoided of all experiences. Yet good public speaking has always been central to the liberal arts, and it continues to be among the aptitudes most associated with academic achievement and professional success. This course aims to do no less than arm you with the confidence and critical thinking skills necessary to convert what you research, read, and write, into informed spoken presentations that are both persuasive and defensible.

James Hoefler, Political Science

Science and Religion: Searching for Order, Searching for Meaning

How should we understand the relation between science and religion? Does genuine science necessarily exclude a religious perspective on life, or vice versa? Or, properly understood, can science and religion be viewed as mutually compatible endeavors? Some of the more extreme opponents in these debates have been quite vociferous in recent years, with a few scientists loudly insisting that all religious belief is mere irrational superstition, on one hand, and some religionists (e.g., creationists and proponents of intelligent design) vehemently attempting to undermine the legitimacy of science (at least in the form of evolution). At the same time there is a substantial and growing body of literature by a number of thoughtful scientists and theologians attempting to bridge some of the gaps between the two sides.

We will undertake an inquiry into a number of the issues involved in these debates. In order to do so profitably, however, we first need to develop as clear an understanding as we can of the over-arching objectives of modern science and of the essential functions of religious belief. In the course of doing so, we may come upon some surprising perspectives that have recently emerged in the context of these discussions and debates.

Philip Grier, Philosophy

Science on Stage

[This seminar is part of an Environment, Science and Sustainability Learning Community. Students in this seminar will also be required to take and automatically be enrolled in Global Climate Change (Geology 104) & History of Science (History 150). For more information about the Environment, Science and Sustainability Learning Community, see the special note at the end of this description.]

Plays inspired by the sciences have become a full genre. Playwrights often adapt scientific theories and personalities to express cultural ideas and illuminate social conditions. From works such as Brecht’s Galileo to Frayn’s Copenhagen, plays have investigated and challenged our notions of the nature of science and humanity and the implications of their intersection. Theater and science will be the focus of this seminar through reading of both scientific source material and the plays that incorporate scientific ideas.

** ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND SUSTAINABILITY LEARNING COMMUNITIES:

Science and Sustainability - (First-Year Seminars: Kirkham or Wingert, 10:30TR)

This cluster provides a foundation for an education in sustainability so that we can begin moving from understanding the problems that we face, to examining their historical roots, to developing and evaluating possible solutions, both local and global. We will consider how to design a liberal education to prepare ourselves for leadership roles in addressing the sustainability challenges of the future, whatever our particular major or career plans may turn out to be. We will seek to understand how science builds knowledge at scales that are larger (and smaller) than everyday experience—knowledge of the overall structure of the cosmos, the population and ecological dynamics of regional animal populations, the molecular constituents of the atmosphere, or changes in climate on a global scale—as well as how those scientific ideas are translated in wider cultural terms. The first-year seminars focus either on theatrical plays as wider forms of cultural expression about science or on the making of public policy that brings scientific knowledge into dialogue with competing social interests. Then, in Global Climate Change (Geology 104, Prof. Niemitz, 10:30MWF, lab 1:30M or T), students will learn how climate scientists study climate as a complex, interacting system on a global scale. And in History of Science (History 150, Prof. Vetter, 11:30MWF), students will trace major changes in how humans have understood the natural world in the context of global history. This cluster is suitable for students with an interest in environment and sustainability issues and how different forms of knowledge and cultural understanding might be used to address them. The Geology and History courses help meet the Division II and III distributional requirements. With courses in the cluster taught by instructors from a diverse array of fields, students can prepare for a wide variety of majors.

Karen Kirkham, Theatre/Dance

Sustaining Northeastern Wildlife

[This seminar is part of an Environment, Science and Sustainability Learning Community. Students in this seminar will also be required to take and automatically be enrolled in Global Climate Change (Geology 104) & History of Science (History 150). For more information about the Environment, Science and Sustainability Learning Community, see the special note at the end of this description.]

Wildlife worldwide is being influenced by human activities at an ever increasing rate. Species are becoming extinct at the rate of over 100 per day. This course will examine factors that have affected and are affecting wildlife in the northeastern United States. The course will include a survey of wildlife and then examine global warming, individual state management practices, habitat fragmentation, introduction of chemicals to the environment, introduced species, hunting, habitat destruction, and extermination of predators. Solutions to these problems will be a major focus of the course.

Two evening field trips are required for completion of this course. One evening field trip (or more if desired) will be to participate in the North American Saw Whet Owl banding project. The other trip will be to an autumnal vernal pond to witness the migration and courtship of marbled salamanders. We will also spend a weekend at an environmental camp in Elk County investigating Elk management with Ralph Harrison, the leading expert on Pennsylvania elk.

** ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND SUSTAINABILITY LEARNING COMMUNITIES:

Science and Sustainability - (First-Year Seminars: Kirkham or Wingert, 10:30TR)
This cluster provides a foundation for an education in sustainability so that we can begin moving from understanding the problems that we face, to examining their historical roots, to developing and evaluating possible solutions, both local and global. We will consider how to design a liberal education to prepare ourselves for leadership roles in addressing the sustainability challenges of the future, whatever our particular major or career plans may turn out to be. We will seek to understand how science builds knowledge at scales that are larger (and smaller) than everyday experience—knowledge of the overall structure of the cosmos, the population and ecological dynamics of regional animal populations, the molecular constituents of the atmosphere, or changes in climate on a global scale—as well as how those scientific ideas are translated in wider cultural terms. The first-year seminars focus either on theatrical plays as wider forms of cultural expression about science or on the making of public policy that brings scientific knowledge into dialogue with competing social interests. Then, in Global Climate Change (Geology 104, Prof. Niemitz, 10:30MWF, lab 1:30M or T), students will learn how climate scientists study climate as a complex, interacting system on a global scale. And in History of Science (History 150, Prof. Vetter, 11:30MWF), students will trace major changes in how humans have understood the natural world in the context of global history. This cluster is suitable for students with an interest in environment and sustainability issues and how different forms of knowledge and cultural understanding might be used to address them. The Geology and History courses help meet the Division II and III distributional requirements. With courses in the cluster taught by instructors from a diverse array of fields, students can prepare for a wide variety of majors.

Gene Wingert Environmental Studies

Sustaining Places: National Parks, Forests, Farms, and Communities

Why do places matter? How have human communities managed important places they care about such as national parks, forests, and farms? How can we best sustain these places for the future? Starting from the perspective of human communities and their interactions with the natural environment, we will examine how people have managed such places over time, paying special attention to social conflicts over land use. We will investigate how national parks, forests, and farm lands reveal the historical development of and conflict over cultural ideas of wilderness and conservation, in both U.S. and global perspective. We will also look at debates over the roles of scientific and local knowledge in making decisions about where to locate different land uses, how to manage these places, and whose interests they should serve. By paying attention to human rights and social conflicts, we will explore the complexity of human relations with the natural world and how those relations are intertwined with community struggles. Using historical and present-day case studies, students will work through these dilemmas by reading, discussing, writing about, and researching debates over the control and management of nature in national parks, forests and farms.

** ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND SUSTAINABILITY LEARNING COMMUNITIES:

Environmental Change and Human Decisions - (First-Year Seminars: Vetter or Wahls, 1:30MR)

This cluster investigates human interactions with the natural world, emphasizing how decision-making for sustainability can only operate through a sound understanding of nature and society. The first-year seminars focus either on ethical frameworks for evaluating human decisions or on past and present examples of social conflict over how to sustain valued places. Then, by integrating classroom learning with field and lab experiences, Introduction to Environmental Science (ES 131, Prof. Wilderman, 10:30TR, lab 1:30T or W) provides a scientific foundation for sustainability education. Students will learn about vital natural processes such as nutrient cycles and energy flows, along with the impacts of human disturbances and decisions. Microeconomics (Economics 111, Prof. Tynan, 10:30MWF) focuses on human rational decision-making under economic constraints. By learning about general principles such as scarcity, markets, utility, profit, consumer choice, efficiency, resource allocations, and externalities, and by applying these principles to environmental problems, students will gain a solid grounding in the challenges of economic sustainability. By combining a lab science course with a social science course that together build a foundation for many different fields of study at the College, this cluster could lead to a wide variety of majors that address problems related to human involvement in environmental issues. It will be especially suitable for students intending to major in Environmental Studies or Environmental Science, since both Introduction to Environmental Science and Microeconomics are required foundational courses for those majors. For all students, these courses also help meet the Division II and III distributional requirements.

Jeremy Vetter, History

The Black Arts Movement

The Black Arts was characterized by Larry Neal in 1968 as “the aesthetic and spiritual sister of the Black Power concept.” This course will therefore explore the ideologies and politics of Black Power as expressed in various African-American writings of the 1960s Black Arts Movement (BAM). We will consider such questions as: Which political circumstances gave birth to the BAM? What role did the Black Arts presses play in shaping the definition of black power? How did organizations such as the Black Panther Party and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), influence African-American authors’ articulations of black power? Who were the major voices of the movement? What led to the movement’s decline? What is the enduring legacy of the Black Arts Movement? See Neal’s essay, “The Black Arts Movement.”

Lynn R. Johnson, English

The Campus Novel and Cultural Contexts

In this seminar, we will read a selection of novels written over the last fifty years that depict various aspects of campus life and explore relations between academe and the so-called “real world.” We will examine the way that “academic novels experiment and play with the genre of fiction itself, comment on contemporary issues, satirize professional stereotypes and educational trends, and convey the pain of intellectuals called upon to measure themselves against each other and against their internalized expectations of brilliance” (Elaine Showalter, Faculty Towers: The Academic Novel and Its Discontents 4). Some of the questions we will address include: Why read campus novels? What do campus novels tell us about important issues of the times and cultures in which they were written and read? How do campus novels function as social commentary? How has the campus novel evolved over the past fifty years, and how are those changes related to changes in the larger culture?

Judy Gill, English

The Good, The Bad, and the Greeks: Ancient Origins of Ethics and Politics

For generations Western Culture has looked to Ancient Greek Civilization for answers to questions such as: "What is the good life for human beings?" "What is the best form of government?" and "What is justice?" Through the study of Homer's epic poetry, Thucydides' historical writings, the Philosophy of Plato, and the drama of Athenian playwrights, students will come to grips with the various responses Greeks gave to these questions. Past generations in the modern era assumed that Greek principles of ethics and politics are the foundation of a sound ethical and political system. But is this true for us today? By examining the rise and fall of the Athenian Empire, students will assess the meaning and relevance (if any) of the Greek legacy to early 21st century Americans.

Marc Mastrangelo, Classical Studies

The Political Economy of Health

*This seminar has been designated as part of a Learning Community.

In a world of unprecedented wealth, the average life-expectancy in some parts of the world is 41 years. Almost 2 million children die each year because they lack access to clean water and adequate sanitation. 100 million women are not alive today due to unequal access to health care and economic resources. In the United States, infant mortality rates are significantly higher among African-Americans. What are the political and economic conditions which lead to these differences in well-being across and within nations? What are the relationships between health and macroeconomic “ills” such as poverty, unemployment, recession, foreign debt, environmental degradation, and socio-economic inequalities between nations, genders, and races? How does globalization affect women and men in different parts of the world? In this course, we will try to answer these and other questions as we analyze the relationships between health and political and economic conditions world populations face today. We will also discuss alternative national and international policies that aim at promoting health in a globalized world. While our focus will be on the political economy of health, we will take an interdisciplinary approach and examine health and health-care issues also from the psychological and the community-level perspectives.

Mesude Ebru Kongar, Economics

The Religions of Early America

This course will analyze, within a comparative perspective, the importance of religion, religious beliefs, and ritual practices during the colonial period of early America (roughly 1600 to the American Revolution). We will not focus simply on the wide variety within English Protestantism (Anglicans, Separatist Puritans, Methodists, Quakers, and Baptists, just to name a few) but also on the religious traditions within other colonizing groups (English, French, and Spanish Catholicism, and Dutch Reformed), indigenous peoples (focusing especially on Algonquian Indian religious practices), Africans (“slave religion,” to quote a famous book on the subject), and the various mixtures of all of these religions to create new and dynamic forms of religious practice. We will end the seminar with a discussion of the role of religion in the buildup to the American Revolution.

Christopher Bilodeau, History

The Science of Being Human

This course will focus on the impact that advances in science and technology may have on the meaning of “being human.” Current advances promise to enhance our senses, rebuild our aging bodies, and possibly replace our minds. Obviously, bionic bodies and computer-like brains could significantly improve and extend our lives, but what are the potential costs of such progress to humanity and society alike? The course will investigate the development of such advances and potential new frontiers while also weighing the positive and negative consequences to humans as a race and as individuals. Topics will be investigated through relevant literature, class discussion, documentaries, and the composition of short papers throughout the semester.

Pamela Higgins, Chemistry

The Secret History of the Dismal Science

Recent work has lead to a new understanding of why economics is called the “dismal science.” It is commonly claimed that when Thomas Carlyle called economics the dismal science he was referring to the dismal predictions of economists and, in particular, the allegedly dismal and dreary predictions of the population theories of Thomas Malthus. While the phrase has taken on a life of its own, we will see that Carlyle actually labelled economics the dismal science because nineteenth-century economists such as JS Mill formed a coalition with evangelical Christians and waged a war against slavery. In this course we will study the role that economists (and their opponents in various disciplines) played in the nineteenth-century debates over slavery, and how economics, following the rise of eugenics in the late nineteenth-century, then shed much of its classical theoretical trappings and how it came to be a tool in the hands of eugenicists. We will pay attention to the formation and development of economic ideas, and how the anti-slavery and eugenics movements helped to shape the discipline.

Edward McPhail, Economics

The Uses and Abuses of the Drug War

Significant effort and money has been spent, both in the U.S. and globally, fighting the war on illegal drugs. Drug use continues, however, and with no end in sight. As with any war, the drug war is being fought for political, moral, and economic reasons. Our focus in this class will be on the ways in which drug use has been constructed as a social problem against which a war must be fought. We will examine the moral, political, economic, and social uses (and abuses) of this war, paying particular attention to the ways in which it, like any war, works to create enemies and allies. Important questions will include: Who is targeted in this war?, Who benefits from this war?, and In what ways do people suffer or gain from this war? We will of course look at academic efforts to assess the drug war, but we will also examine journalistic and popular culture portrayals of the war, including parts of the HBO television series The Wire.

Daniel Schubert, Sociology

The War on Terrorism & Civil Liberties

*This seminar has been designated as part of a Learning Community.

This seminar will examine how civil liberties has been affected since 9/11 and explore the academic and popular debates regarding the proper balance between national security and civil liberties during the ongoing war on terrorism. Students will be introduced to a variety of perspectives on this crucial issue through books, journal articles, editorials, and law blogs. Relevant topics will include detention, surveillance, interrogation, and criminal prosecutions. Particular attention will be paid to what the new administration should do regarding this question when it takes office in January 2009.

Harold Pohlman, Political Science

Theater and Human Rights

*This seminar has been designated as part of a Learning Community.

What role or roles can theater and theater artists play in the defining, establishment, and/or protection of human rights? How might playwrights and their work intervene in or diagnose social injustice and the abuses of or threats to individual and collective human rights? We will explore these questions through the study of selected plays, theatrical manifestoes, playwright and production histories, and censorship or persecution of playwrights and their work.

Victoria Sams, English

Time

Time is one of the most important aspects of human life. From ancient civilizations watching the periodic motions of the stars in order to know when to plant crops to modern societies using atomic clocks to coordinate Global Positioning System technology, humans have constructed time to govern our daily lives and our lifetimes.

In this seminar, we will examine how this social construct has affected human institutions. How do individuals perceive time? How do we think about the past and the future – and the present? The short-term and the long-term? We will discuss the invention of timepieces, such as the clock, the watch, and the calendar. How have these technological innovations influenced human society?

Taken together, our look at time and timekeeping will help us understand the links between the two, as well as our understanding of history, technology, and our own experiences.

Windsor Morgan, Physics/Astronomy

When Languages Die: How does language extinction affect us all?

According to some experts, there are as many as seven thousand languages in the world. However, some languages have as few as one living native speaker, and one to two languages go extinct every month. This seminar will examine the phenomenon of language extinction, the languages and cultures that are directly affected, and the efforts that exist to renovate disappearing languages. We will attempt to answer the following questions: Does language extinction affect us all? What effect does language extinction have on world diversity? Why should we in the United States, as speakers of a world-wide majority language, pay attention to language extinction?

Mark Overstreet, Spanish/Portuguese

Whose story is it?: History and Identity in Latin American Literature

*This seminar has been designated as part of a Learning Community.

How do people talk about themselves? In a growing multicultural and global world, how has individual identity played a role in the concept of community and nation? What is it like to grow up in or to arrive to a country in which you do not form part of its foundational narratives? In this class, we will read stories about being different in Latin America. From Jewish “cowboys” in Argentina to Sephardic brides in Mexico to political prisoners and indigenous activists, we will look at how narratives of marginalized peoples have helped to shape Latin American history. We will also consider how Latin America has shaped individuals. Does being different necessitate assimilation? How does national identity affect the way someone sees and writes about him or herself? Through reading a variety of texts, such as autobiography, historical fiction, and testimonial writing, we will investigate how twentieth-century authors wrote about immigration, exile, memory, language, and oppression to tackle the complexities of history and identity in Latin America.

Rebecca Marquis, Spanish/Portuguese

Why Do People Believe Weird Things?

This course is organized around the idea that the beliefs we hold – about ourselves, about others, and about the world – are much closer to quickly constructed and poorly tested hypotheses than established fact. One course goal is to learn critical thinking skills, the common thinking pitfalls, and the usefulness of the scientific method as one way of examining beliefs. We will practice these critical thinking skills with respect to examinations of paranormal beliefs. The second course goal is to use psychological science and its methodological tools to critically examine experiences and beliefs traditionally considered paranormal or occult. We will explore psychological processes that contribute to irrational, superstitious, and erroneous beliefs and behavior. These psychological processes include (1) our sensitivity to coincidence, (2) our tendency to develop rituals and habits to counteract feelings of anxiety or impatience, (3) attempts to cope with uncertainty, (4) a need for control of our destinies, and (5) our astounding ability to protect our beliefs from evidence that would suggest those beliefs are ill-founded. We will examine the specific contributions that psychologists have made including social influence processes, perceptual illusions, brain functioning, memory distortions, motivation, self-awareness, heuristic biases, and personal thinking styles that make paranormal experiences appear appealing.

Marie Helweg-Larsen, Psychology

Youth, Love and Revolution in Postwar Japan

The time between starting high school and finishing college is possibly the most volatile in our lives. It is a time in which we struggle over who we are and interact with others and society in increasingly complex relationships. This class deals with the struggles we encounter as we confront society in what could loosely be termed “growing up.” We will address such themes as love, sexuality, delinquency, and revolution through an examination of modern Japanese fiction, film and manga (Japanese comics). These works (in translation) will help us explore cultural and social issues surrounding growing up both in others and in our own experiences. The seminar will emphasize how to write analytically about these topics and their representation across various media for an academic audience. You will work closely with your peers and with me as the instructor to develop your written prose.

Alex Bates, East Asian Studies

Campus Life: The Cultural Meaning of College in Contemporary America (January, 2009)

These days in America a college education is an “experience,” a commodity, a necessity, a scarce resource, and a decisive measure of intellectual and social “merit”—but the cultural meaning of a post-secondary education has changed significantly since the liberal arts college was created in the foundling colonies in the eighteenth-century. We will study how and why college—specifically a college like Dickinson—has come to have the significance it has today, and what attitudes towards higher education tell us about (perhaps conflicting) American values.

Wendy Moffat, English