Past Courses

COMMUNITY STUDIES 225: Community and Environment (Spring 2006)
Professor Jim Ellison and Lauren Imgrund
This course is intended to provide students with knowledge and skills to be active participants in solving environmental problems. Students in this course will learn an array of social science fieldwork methods, an appreciation of how such methods are applied to ascertain community knowledge and needs, and the means to negotiate the interests and needs of local communities and local government to produce a positive environmental outcome. Students will examine the intersections of community lived experience, appropriate environmental practice, and the interests, abilities, and constraints of local government. In the Spring 2006 semester, the course will focus on the issue of stormwater management, using the Borough of Carlisle as a unifying theme. Students will work together to develop a multidisciplinary project that will be of direct community benefit.

ECONOMICS 496D: Urban Policy in Central Pennsylvania (Spring 2006)
Professor William Bellinger
There are two general goals for this course. The first goal is to learn some basic concepts from urban and regional economics and apply them to local and regional problems and policies . The second is to gain experience as economic analysts through a professionally supervised “real world” study of an economic topic in the Carlisle or Harrisburg areas. Past class research topics have included the Whitaker Center in Harrisburg, a survey of citizen satisfaction with Carlisle public services, and an analysis of the economic and social conditions of the Hope Station neighborhood in Carlisle. Class research activities are likely to include data collection and analysis, interviews with local leaders, local or regional field trips, and a presentation of our results in a public forum.

ENGLISH 214B: Writing in the Schools (Spring 2006)
Professor Sha’an Chilson
The coursework will prepare students to teach the elements of poetry to grade school children. Students will study contemporary American poetry and learning and determine what makes a poem before focusing on methods of teaching poetry and poetic elements that are specifically designed for grade school students. Students will spend time preparing creative lesson plans for fourth and fifth grade students.

Student service will be based on field placements in which teams of students go into local elementary schools and lead poetry workshops with grade school students.

FIRST-YEAR SEMINAR: Will the Poor Always Be With Us? (Fall 2006)
Professor Kjell Enge, Anthropology
The course will examine poverty and related issues regarding education, healthcare, and ways to improve the quality of life in countries all over the world, including Bolivia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, Jamaica, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua and Spain. Students will examine ongoing activities to address the issues of poverty in order to develop an understand what is happening, why the poor are getting poorer and why their numbers appear to be increasing. Discussion topics will include HIV/AIDS in Africa; dangerous forms of child labor in Latin America, Africa, and Asia; the lack of basic education, especially for girls; and what people are doing for themselves to make their lives better.

Student service will force students to ask difficult questions: What are our responsibilities or duties to do something about poverty? Do we have any responsibilities at all, and is it up to the less fortunate to work hard to improve their own situation? Students will meet people who are devoting their lives to this work and will see videos and pictures to develop a true understanding of what is happening around the world and in America.

FIRST-YEAR SEMINAR: Discourse and the Social Poet (Fall 2006)
Professor Ashley Finley, Sociology
The coursework is designed to engage students in a critical discussion surrounding poetry as a form of social commentary. This will be done through the examination of a number of works by social-political poets, such as Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Marge Piercy, Langston Hughes, Sandra Cisneros, Chrystos, Maya Angelou, and Yehuda Amichai. Students will critically analyze, evaluate, and respond to themes of political and religious oppression, feminism, sexism, homophobia, and racism. Furthermore, discussion will be informed by complimentary readings and material that examines the reality of social inequality in the United States today. By reading the words of others, the aim is to begin to listen.

Student service will enhance discussions that focus on hearing voices that are often silenced, and understanding the social consequences that underlie their words. Students will work with the Domestic Violence Services of Cumberland and Perry Counties to increase community awareness by staffing an information booth at community events and festivals. Furthermore, students will provide office support and general assistance with special projects.

FIRST-YEAR SEMINAR: Education and Democracy (Fall 2006)
Professor Lance Landauer, Education
The coursework will examine the philosophical and political debates which have been a part of America’s evolving educational system from its founding. From the one-room school house to today’s large and complex schools, students will explore the links between theory and practice, philosophy and implementation, and politics and pedagogy. Students will examine the historical and philosophical underpinnings of education in relation to contemporary philosophy, research, and political thought. Significant reading, writing, research, and discussion comprise the work for this course.

Student service will rely on fieldwork done at Hamilton Elementary School, one of Carlisle Area School District’s most economically diverse grade schools. Students will engage in 15 hours of one-on-one tutoring in reading and math under the supervision of classroom teachers. While in the school, students will observe their surroundings, which will provide depth to classroom discussions regarding the role of scholars, practitioners, politicians, and citizens in shaping schools and the pride and controversy that surrounds our nation’s education system.

POLICY MANAGEMENT 401: Policy Management Senior Seminar (Spring 2007)
Professor James Hoefler
The coursework will echo the key principles covered in the Policy Foundations class with an additional focus on developing critical thinking skills in a series of case studies. The constraints and demands of social justice, the politics of public sector decision making, the economics of private choice, and the problems associated with reconciling competing values will be examined. Students will be encouraged to continue to inform their thinking as they hone and polish their abilities to dissect policy problems and evaluate viable sets of recommendations.

Student service will be based on the compilation of an informational DVD for a local nonprofit organization. The DVD, made using iDVD software, will aid a community partner in communicating their mission, launching a capital campaign or securing volunteers. Emphasis will be placed on acclimating students to the processes of complex problem solving that exist in the nonprofit sector. At the conclusion of the semester, the short 3-5 minute videos will be screened in various campus and community locations as public service announcements.

RELIGION 201: Buddhism in Tibet (Fall 2006)
Professor Daniel Cozort
The coursework will include studies of Buddhist philosophy and practices in Tibet. The esoteric tantric tradition, particularly its use in mandalas, will be examined, as will Tibetan Madhyamika philosophy. Additionally, students may examine how these philosophies apply to meditation theory and practice and explore the material expression of Tibetan Buddhism.

Student service will be in coordination with the Tibetan Meditation Center in Frederick, Maryland. The Tibetan Meditation Center is a community of ordained and lay practitioners dedicated to offering Dharma classes and various meditation practices for people of all levels of experience. Students will conduct a survey research project on the attitudes and understandings of people in the United States who are drawn to Tibetan Buddhism and the Center.

RELIGION 260: Religion and Non-Violence (Spring 2007)
Professor Mara Donaldson

The coursework will explore how Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr, and other Nobel Peace Prize winners used their religion to change the world. Students will study Gandhi’s philosophy of ahimsa (non-violence), Martin Luther King, Jr.’s rhetoric of nonviolence and his strategies for passive resistance, Thich Nhat Hanh’s concept of mindfulness as a strategy for dealing with anger, and Dorthy Day’s philosophy of knowing your community and its needs.

Student service will follow Ghandi’s premise: “Be the change you wish to see in the world”. Students will primarily work with Elaine Livas, the director of Project SHARE. This local leader uses Dorothy Day as a model for her community work and to explore these ideas in action. Additionally, the class will glean in the Dickinson College Student Garden and write reaction papers on how these experiences relate to class.

SOCIOLOGY 214: Venezuela: Democracy, Development, and the Bolivarian Process (Fall 2006/Spring 2007)
Professor Susan Rose
The coursework will provide both an historical background and a first-hand exposure to the new model of participatory democracy, endogenous development, and regional integration that is evolving in contemporary Venezuela. With a focus on current issues, the course offers a brief history of Venezuela in the context of Latin and North American history, and then focuses on the Bolivarian process. Background readings, lectures, and film on the history and contemporary social, economic, and political realities of Venezuela will be included.

The service aspect of the course takes place during the January 2007 Winterim in Venezuela. Students will spend the Fall 2006 semester preparing to do their own research in Venezuela where they will have the opportunity to do service-learning projects, interviews, and video documentary projects. Students will be working in coordination with established non-governmental organizations in Venezuela.

(Note: The student work in this course can be seen at dedicated Venezuela course web page.)

SOCIOLOGY 230: Conflict and Conflict Resolution Studies (Spring 2007)
Professor Shalom Staub
The course will examine conflict as an inescapable aspect of social life.  It often seems that conflict is a chronic aspect of the human experience, and yet, as social beings living in mutually dependent social groups, we have developed various simple and complex strategies for managing and resolving conflicts.  Students will explore these mechanisms to manage or resolve conflicts of different kinds—inter-personally, in families, workplace-based, among ethnic, racial, and religious groups, and internationally. The course will examine the growing literature on conflict studies, and will draw on inter-disciplinary perspectives to examine conflict and conflict resolution processes and strategies.

This course will provide students the opportunity to engage in research with direct public benefit.  Recently, the PA Legislature approved Senate Resolution 160 which directed the Joint State Government Commission (JSGC) to establish a bipartisan task force with an advisory committee to conduct a comprehensive review of the current status of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) services within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and to identify best practices and recommend ways to improve conflict resolution in the Commonwealth.  Students in this course will research best practices in ADR locally and nationally in various settings within the public and private sectors to contribute to the work of the JSGC Task Force on ADR. 

SOCIOLOGY 240: Qualitative Research Methods (Spring 2007)
Professor Pauline Cullen
This course introduces students to the theory and methods of social science research, beginning with an examination of the philosophies underlying various research methodologies. The course then focuses on ethnographic field methods, introducing students to the techniques of participant observation, structured and informal interviewing, oral histories, sociometrics, and content analysis.

Students in this course worked in collaboration with the Sadler Health Center in Carlisle to assess the Center's services from the patients' perspectives.