1. Atomic Peril: The History of the Atom Bomb
We will explore the science and the history of the atomic bomb and examine the earliest tensions and fears surrounding its use. We will discuss the science behind fission and fusion bombs and how scientists developed and grappled with the consequences of these weapons. Beginning with the Trinity project that developed the atomic bomb, we will use magazines, films, newspapers, books, and more to explore how scientists, politicians, and the public grappled with the fear associated with nuclear weapons. How did things like "duck and cover drills," where school children practiced hiding under their desks in the event of a nuclear attack, reflect anxiety during the Cold War? How has that history shaped how we treat nuclear science and nuclear weapons?
Professor: Kendall Thompson
Time: MR 3:00
2. Playing to Learn: Harnessing Technology in K-12 to Facilitate Deeper Mathematical Understanding in the Post-COVID Era
One silver lining of the pandemic is that electronic media are now more widely available in K-12 than ever before. This FYS will explore ways that this can be harnessed to let students play to learn. The class examines a new take on an old idea. String art was developed more than 100 years ago to teach habits of the mind to children (Boole, The Preparation of the Child for Science, 1904). Electronic string art brings these habits of mind into the 21st Century. Children can create beautiful images with needle and thread or with nails and string, but in an electronic environment they can watch those images change just by pointing and clicking. This ability to quickly change and see the results, allows for informal testing of ideas and the discovery of patterns -- the key to mathematical understanding even for those in early elementary years. Additional parts of the emerging book Playing with Polygons (PwP) allow users to create spirals or cardioids using different kinds of counting rules. FYS students will initially play with the files that form the basis for PwP but will then transition to creating supplementary pedagogical materials that teachers at various levels within K-12 could use to teach from using these files. Successfully created materials will become part of the ancillary material for PwP with acknowledgement of student authorship included. A service-learning focus will come as students test-drive their materials (as well as the underlying files) in K-12 and after-school settings either in person, or electronically, via zoom.
Professor: Steve Erfle
Time: MF 11:30
3. Pinnacles and Pitfalls: Basic Science in the Service of Human Health
The contributions of biomedical science to the welfare of humanity are unarguably impressive. Between 1840 and the present, human life expectancy has almost doubled. This is largely a function of societal embrace of evidence-based public health initiatives and clinical practice. Amid these tremendous accomplishments, however, are unanticipated challenges. In this seminar, we will explore human health from two perspectives. First, we will investigate the role of basic science in solving, and sometimes simultaneously creating, humanity’s most significant existential threats. Second, we will evaluate the often unequal and always convoluted management of health care delivery. Readings for this course will include: Pandora’s Lab by P.A. Offit, An American Sickness by E. Rosenthal, and articles from professional clinical and research journals. Guest speakers will also enrich and inform our debate of these timely issues.
Professor: Chuck Zwemer
Time: MF 11:30
4. Cancelled
5. State of Denial: Recognizing, Understanding, and Responding to Science Denialism
We will critically examine the phenomenon of science denialism, which can be defined as denial of the validity of scientific claims despite overwhelming evidence and expert consensus. Although the origins of contemporary denialism can be traced to efforts since the 1950’s by tobacco companies to obscure the health effects of smoking, denialism has since come to take a major role in US political discourse, including "debates" over climate change, vaccine safety, and GMO foods. This seminar will examine some of the reasons why these “post-truth” arguments have proliferated in our current moment: political polarization, the loss of trust in experts, a changing media landscape, cognitive biases in human psychology, and the nature of scientific inquiry itself. Members of the class will also learn to recognize what various forms of denialist arguments over climate change and other scientific claims look like, and identify ways to respond effectively, in both public and personal discourse.
Professor: John Katunich
Time: MF 11:30
6. It’s Not Easy Being Green: The Psychology of Sustainable Behavior
The changing environment is one of the most critical challenges of the 21st century. Heat waves are becoming more frequent, stronger storms are damaging coastal areas, sea levels are rising, and there are more floods and droughts. The message from scientists and climate activists is that we must act quickly and aggressively to avoid devastating consequences for human and animal life. Meanwhile, we see little decisive action and little change in terms of government policy or individual behavior. How can we understand this disconnect between the urgency of the situation and public inaction, and what can we do to counteract it? Psychological science offers important insights. In this course, we will examine how human behavior contributes to environmental problems and explore the personal, social, and cultural factors that explain why people engage in sustainable or unsustainable behaviors. We will also consider how insights from research in psychology can be applied to motivate sustainable choices. We will address several relevant questions. What can we learn from psychological science about why some people ignore or deny the reality of climate change? What are the psychological barriers that prevent even those individuals who understand the urgency of the situation from taking action? How can we apply psychological knowledge about persuasion and behavior change to change attitudes and encourage action? We will cover relevant psychological theories, methods, and research findings and apply this knowledge in class projects including a self-change project, a community-based project, and a communication project.
Professor: Christine Guardino
Time: MWF 12:30
7. HIP, HIP, Hooray! Three Cheers for Impactful & Transformative Experiences
What do you want to get out of your college education and what types of learning experiences do you want to pursue? How can you plan for impactful and transformative learning? Our seminar will explore “High-Impact Practices” (HIPs) in higher education, which include first-year seminars, service-learning, undergraduate research, internships, study abroad, and more. The pursuit of multiple types of experiential learning opportunities can influence a student’s goals, educational gains, and outcomes. Research shows a positive association between HIP participation and student engagement, integrated learning, and gains for all students, particularly among underrepresented, new majority, and first-generation students. But how equitable and accessible are HIPs, and how can students maximize their educational journeys? We will explore the history, barriers, and benefits of HIPs that are “done well.” Students will engage in discussions, research, guest presentations, and reflection. They will complete an interview project, identify goals, write an action plan for their pursuit of more HIPs, and create a portfolio that will allow them to collect their work and reflect upon their personal and academic growth across their time at Dickinson.
Professor: Amity Fox
Time: MWF 11:30
8. Home Sweet Home: Reading the Home in 1920s
What is a home? How do the spaces and objects in our homes change our understanding of home? Do different populations and cultures understand home in different ways? In the aftermath of WWI, Central Europe witnessed transformations of social life and began to see the impacts and potentials of emerging technologies. These made new forms of living both imaginable and possible. In this course, we will focus on the writing about homes and being at home in Central Europe. Are some homes healthier than others? What makes a home more livable and functional? We will look at fictional and non-fictional texts about housing and the innovations in housing and ask how these perpetuated norms or upended notions of family, gender, and place. At the end of the semester, we will ask how much of the innovation of the period – from the modern, open-plan windowed villa to Viennese housing blocks – are still a part of our understanding of what a home should be.
Professor: Sarah McGaughey
Time: MF 11:30
9. I Am Not Who You Think I Am: Fictions of Self, Identity, and Difference
How do we embrace, fashion, and embody our identities and differences? Can others imitate and falsify our unique personal experiences? If so, what does this appropriation say about our authentic sense of self? Through readings of literary, cinematic, and pop culture narratives, we will closely analyze how individuals and groups accept, resignify, or reject their social categorizations, and we will unpack how they perform and negotiate these subject positions. Through academic, creative, and personal dialogues, activities, and assignments, we will examine and contextualize key ideas such as self-fashioning, cross-dressing, passing, stereotyping, assimilation, code-switching, and disidentification. Through observations of the Dickinson College community, conversations with its members, and explorations of our present and future place and journey in and beyond the institution, we will articulate what it means to belong, fit in, be included.
Professor: Amaury Leopoldo Sosa
Time: MWF 11:30
10. America in the Eyes of the World
This seminar will explore the way America (i.e., the United States) and Americans are viewed in various countries throughout the world. The aim of this seminar is to help students to shed their ethnocentric views and opinions and to begin looking at their own country from the perspective of other countries and cultures. We will concentrate on continents and countries in which Dickinson has a program of studies and where our students are likely to spend a semester or a year: Latin America (Mexico); Europe (Britain, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Russia); Africa (Cameroon, Tanzania and Morocco); Asia (China and Japan). We will adopt a historical and cultural approach to determine why each country holds its specific views about the U.S. The course will involve intensive monitoring of the foreign press through the internet and will therefore introduce the students to the major issues in international relations. The tragic events of September 11, 2001, illustrate how essential it is for Americas to become more keenly aware of how their country is perceived throughout the world and this seminar will initiate that process.
Professor: Dominique Laurent
Time: MWF 11:30
11. Cancelled
12. Don Quixote in the Twenty-First Century
Have you ever wanted to read a famous work of literature but keep putting it off because it seems like such a daunting task? Here is an opportunity to read in a supportive, group setting one of the most celebrated novels in world literature: Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote. In this course we will study some of the key cultural and social contexts that informed Cervantes’ writing. We will also reflect on why so many critics believe this novel is still relevant to contemporary readers, and how our reading of the novel may impact our thinking about contemporary debates on identity, truth, and freedom. (Students proficient in Spanish will have the option of reading and discussing the novel in Spanish.)
Professor: Mark Aldrich
Time: MF 11:30
13. From Kyoto to Paris to Carlisle: Human Impact on Global and Local Environments
In the 1970s, the environmental movement popularized the saying “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” to remind consumers to consider the environmental impact of their choices. Does that mantra still make sense in the 21st century? How much do various aspects of our daily lives contribute to the climate crisis? In this course, we will explore how different actions (personal, corporate and governmental) contribute to climate change and other environmental concerns. We will discuss past and current efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the US and globally, such as the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. What are the consequences of climate change beyond aspects of weather and ecosystems? Who is the most vulnerable as the climate changes? The effects of climate change on marginalized and indigenous communities will be a focus of our study of environmental justice. Readings for this course will include proposed solutions for aspects of the climate crisis that may be either political or technological. We will also consider how scientists can best communicate their concerns and relevant results to the public. What is the role of social media in the climate change debate? What are the difficulties that scientists face in publicizing their results beyond the scientific community? Students as citizen scientists will get their hands dirty in a focused environmental study using chemical methods and will practice reporting their methods and results through scientific writing. No prior knowledge of chemistry is required and background information will be provided for the project.
Professor: Rebecca Connor
Time: MF 11:30
14. Ethics and the History of Economic Thought
The aim of this course is to familiarize students with the formation and development of ethical reasoning in the history of economic ideas and the role ethical assumptions (explicit and implicit) played in pivotal debates in the history of economic thought. Particular attention is paid to the classical and post-classical schools, neoliberalism, the Chicago school, the American radical school, and others. Themes of particular importance include: the economist as ‘expert,’ human sociality, economic development as human development, human capabilities, how people are shaped and formed by their economic environment (endogenous agents), the preference debates, the golden rule, the greatest happiness principle, spontaneous order, the role economists played in the slavery debates, the rise and spread of eugenics, the Scottish Enlightenment and others. The course will require you to engage in challenging reading and writing assignments.
Professor: Edward McPhail
Time: MWF 12:30
15. Fictions of Migration in Global Perspective
Why do people leave their home country for another? How have authors, artists, and filmmakers represented these experiences in their work? This seminar will explore shifting definitions of belonging, identity, and borders as we read texts with migration experiences as a central theme. We will discuss how these authors talk about home and family, exile, alienation, memory, culture, and loss. We will also explore how these themes intersect with broader social categories such as race, class, gender, citizenship status, and language. Finally, we will examine how these authors respond to challenges and how they actively reshape cultural and popular perceptions by telling their experiences. We will potentially read texts by authors from Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the United States, including Dan-el Padilla Peralta, Richard Rodriguez, Shaun Tan, Donato Ndongo-Bidyogo, Laila Lalami, Nieves García Benito, and others.
Professor: Eva Copeland
Time: MF 11:30
16. Inequalities and Social Justice in Sports: How Unequal Power and Privileges Make Leveling the Playing Field Impossible
How can we use the social world of sports to understand power and privilege within society more broadly? Many people have participated in sports both formally and informally from an early age. From the worldwide pageantry of the Olympics to casual pick-up games at local parks, millions spend a lot of time watching and talking about sports. But how can we think about sports as not just fun, neutral activities based on natural talents, dedication and practice, or some combination of the two but as a pivotal institution that shapes and maintains uneven social relations? We will explore the political, economic, and social dimensions of sport with particular attention to the ways race, gender, socioeconomic status, sexuality, among other identities become important factors in who can participate and under what conditions, which sports get media coverage and which do not, how money and the economic market shape athletics and sport culture. The course will tackle what it might mean to “level the playing field” from the perspective of social justice. What would it take for sports to offer true inclusion and equity for all?
Professor: Helene Lee
Time: MF 11:30
17. Beyond Baklava, Belly-Dancing, and the Burqa: Arab Women in Film, Literature, and History
Arab women are often portrayed as either sexual objects of desire and fantasy whose only occupation is to please and entertain, or as downtrodden and weak in need of a savior and protector. In this course, we will examine and deconstruct these two stereotypes and the cultural and historical phenomena employed to rationalize them. We will then look at Arab women across the Arab world as they see and present themselves in literature and film. We will have Arab and Arab-American women guest speakers – a poet, a novelist, and an academic. Dearborn, Michigan boasts the only museum documenting the history and contributions of Arab-Americans, and it hosts the largest Arab-American community in the US with many women of Arab descent playing a key role in fields ranging from national and local politics to gastronomy and comedy. We will explore the museum’s many cultural offerings virtually.
Professor: Magda Siekert
Time: MF 11:30
18. Mass Incarceration, Race, and the Politics of Abolition
In the summer of 2020, thousands of people across the United States, Canada, and elsewhere took to the streets to protest police violence in the wake of the murder of George Floyd during his arrest in Minneapolis. This overlapped with a different public outcry in the wake of reports and images documenting the U.S.’s detainment of large numbers of migrants, many from Latin America, in crowded facilities along the U.S.-Mexico border and other locations throughout the U.S. What ties these movements together are critiques of mass incarceration and systemic racism. "Mass incarceration" refers to the fact that the United States incarcerates more people than almost any other country in the world. (It vies for this dubious honor with China, a country with a much larger population). Like prisons, migrant detention facilities are a form of incarceration. "Systemic racism" is the idea that racism is embedded in U.S. laws and policies. Combining these concepts, critics point to the over-representation of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people in prison and the long history of race-based immigration policy to question whether racism is embedded in prisons, policing, and migrant detention, and, if so, what can be done about it. In this course, we will examines these phenomena by analyzing the works of leading scholars such as Angela Davis, Michelle Alexander, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Kelly Lytle Hernández, and Nicole M. Fleetwood. We will answer many questions: What is systemic racism? Are prisons and policing racist? What is abolition? What would it mean to “abolish the police” or “abolish ICE” (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)? Is such a thing necessary or desirable? What about the perspectives of people who are imprisoned? In addition to examinations of history, law, and activism, this course will examine works of art, letters, poetry and other expressive forms created by people who are incarcerated as another way of understanding these phenomena. This class may include a field trip to a Pennsylvania prison museum, such as Eastern State Penitentiary. This seminar will develop your skills in argumentative writing, critical reading, and critical thinking as you analyze this pressing social issue from multiple perspectives.
Professor: Jed Kuhn
Time: MWF 11:30
19. Fright Night: Perspectives on Halloween and the Supernatural
Halloween has evolved from an ancient Celtic festival to a multi-billion dollar industry filled with candy, costumes, horror films, and haunted houses. What makes Halloween so enduring? Why do we like being scared, anyway? This course explores belief in superstition, urban legend and the supernatural as well as the celebration of the creepiest holiday of them all: Halloween. We will engage with literature on the role(s) of supernatural folklore and urban legend in society, the psychological and sociological underpinnings of fear and superstition, and how these elements relate to the history and modern practice of Halloween. As a final project, students will interview a family member, friend, or a member of the Dickinson community about belief in the supernatural. Students will analyze and discuss how their interview reflects themes of fear, superstition, and/or the paranormal covered over the course of the semester.
Professor: Katie Marchetti
Time: MW 11:30
20. Composing Disability: How Identity and Power Shape Diverse Understandings of Ability
This seminar’s topic investigates how culture and politics shape our understandings of ability, and as a consequence, what we presume disability and normalcy to be. How would it change our social and political systems if instead of viewing a smaller population as “disabled,” we approached the larger human world as temporarily enabled by uneven access to resources ranging from medical care, learning accommodations and curb cuts to political rights, tax breaks, and racialized or gendered cultural norms? To address these questions, this course investigates the ways that disability, normalcy and identity are “composed” in culture and politics – whether through language, images, social structures, cultural events, and legal policies. We will explore dominant models of disability ranging from the medical to the social, with particular attention to how each model intersects with systems of power organized around gender identity, race, sexuality, class and nation. Students will investigate how disability studies writers, artists and policy makers expand our understandings of ability and normalcy. Through these texts, students will build their critical understanding of the relationships between disability, identity and power, aided by scholarly work on topics such as staring, passing, supercrips, invisible disabilities, intersectionality, extraordinary ability, universal design, and disability justice. The course culminates in a civic-minded “recomposition” project in which you and your classmates will work together to develop a podcast, op-documentary, visual essay, or zine recomposing dominant understandings of disability and normalcy.
Professor: Katie Oliviero
Time WF 11:30
21. Calling Bullshit: Fighting for Facts in a Post-Truth World
We live in a post-truth world in which the line between truth and falsehood is increasingly blurred. This may be because there are more insidious methods of deception that mix truth with sloppy reasoning. In this seminar, we’ll discuss the differences between “bullshit,” misinformation, disinformation, and fake news and learn strategies to detect and defuse unreliable information. We will explore common and often subtle ways in which information is presented by those who wish to influence our thinking and behavior. The information skills fostered in this seminar – detecting, defusing, and refuting bullshit – will be further developed through knowledge of statistical traps, misleading data visualizations, and the role of the internet and social media. After learning how to detect unreliable information, understanding its growth and development, and developing strategies to refute it, students will be asked to apply their skills to study both sides of a topic of interest.
Professor: Jackie Campbell
Time: MF 11:30
22. “Jackpot”: Surveying the End(s) of the World
What do we know about the end of the world? Is there a single cause? Is there a single end? How is the end shaped by—and how does it shape—gender, race, and other identities, social positions, and experiences? Societies collapse, archaeologists and anthropologists teach us, and the world’s end is a cross-cultural worry with many different manifestations, histories, and perspectives. In novels, shows, and films, we encounter war, viruses, comets, and even technology causing collapse. The pandemic raised end-of-the-world discussions, as do the Anthropocene, nuclear weapons, nihilistic political trends, and economic unsustainability. The end, it turns out, is a much more everyday matter than extreme scenarios imply. “Jackpot” is novelist William Gibson’s term for society’s slow-rolling demise resulting from many forces and events coalescing. We will borrow this idea to explore the cultural work of collapse in three ways. First, we will analyze the end as constructed in novels, films, and scholarship. Second, through field trips and guest speakers we will learn about the jackpot in our lives. Finally, we will explore changing views of the future and altered understandings of life that are fundamental to framings of existential collapse.
Professor: Jim Ellison
Time MF 11:30
23. Ideas That Have Shaped the World
Why do ideas matter? What is the relationship between the individual and the community? How can we define human nature? What is justice? Are there universal moral principles? Or are our actions considered moral according to the moment and place in which we find ourselves? Explore these and other fundamental issues of humanistic inquiry through a series of compelling and influential texts. Faculty members from several different disciplines will join with students to read and discuss the work of authors as diverse as Homer, Plato, Augustine, Shakespeare, Jefferson, Descartes, Marx, Darwin, Du Bois, Duras, and Achebe, among others. The reading list is focused around the question, “How do the ideas of these authors – all from different cultures and eras -- resonate across time and help us to understand our present experience within a global community?” Furthermore, studying carefully the work of outstanding thinkers, readers, and writers is one of the best ways to learn to read, think, and write well yourself.
Professor: Chris Francese
Time: MWF 12:30
24. 'Old World,' New Problems? Europe in the Twenty-First Century
As Europe emerged from the Cold War, its future looked promising. An ambitious and unprecedented plan for economic and political unification appeared to ensure peace for the continent where two World Wars had begun. On the western half of the continent were prosperous stable democracies with well-established social safety nets and generous social benefits; countries in the east were expected to gradually join the club. The prospects for stability looked good. But, as we will explore in this seminar, the twenty-first century reality is less rosy, as Europeans grapple with a host of new problems: thorny questions of national identity, existential challenges to long-established social systems, unprecedented levels of migration, the rise of political populism, a belligerent Russia with a hand on Europe’s energy pipelines, and more.
Professor: Kristine Mitchell
Time: MWF 11:30
25. Memory, History, Story in the Fiction of Kazuo Ishiguro
Kazuo Ishiguro is one of the most important writers working today—winner of the Booker Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature, among other honors. Born in Nagasaki, Japan, he grew up in the UK and now lives in London. His work is varied: set in the far-distant past, the mid-twentieth century, and the possible future; exploring different places, some realistic and historical and some the stuff of half-probable dreams; and taking up the conventions of several genres. But Ishiguro is consistently interested in how human beings (and others!) remember and understand their own experience. Perhaps for that reason, most of his novels come to us through first-person narrators who may not be telling—or may not know—the whole truth. But then, is the whole truth ever possible? And how does the relationship of recollection and reality matter when it comes to questions of family, class, nationality, war, and technology? We will use Ishiguro’s beautiful and compelling books to explore the potential and problems of narration. Course materials will comprise mostly texts, with some attention to film as well.
Professor: Siobhan Phillips
Time: MF 11:30
26. Ideas the Shaped the World
Why do ideas matter? What is the relationship between the individual and the community? How can we define human nature? What is justice? Are there universal moral principles? Or are our actions considered moral according to the moment and place in which we find ourselves? Explore these and other fundamental issues of humanistic inquiry through a series of compelling and influential texts. Faculty members from several different disciplines will join with students to read and discuss the work of authors as diverse as Homer, Plato, Augustine, Shakespeare, Jefferson, Marx, Darwin, Du Bois, Duras, and Achebe. The reading list is focused around the question, “How do the ideas of these authors – all from different cultures and eras -- resonate across time and help us to understand our present experience within a global community?” Furthermore, studying carefully the work of outstanding thinkers, readers, and writers is one of the best ways to learn to read, think, and write well yourself. Because all sections of the course will read the texts simultaneously, conversations will extend beyond the classroom. The seminar also features six plenary lectures by visiting speakers and Dickinson faculty on themes and issues central to the readings. Students and faculty in all course sections will attend these plenary sessions together.
Professor: Peter Schadler
Time: MWF 12:30
27. What Role Should Anger Play in Speaking Truth to Power?
We will begin the seminar by considering what it means to speak truth to power. What is truth? What is power? What tools and rhetorical skills do the most effective speakers have that allow them to speak to powerful people and institutions effectively and ethically? What is anger? Do expressions of strong emotions like anger, frustration, grief, disappointment, and hope empower or inhibit efforts to speak truth to power? As we examine these questions and others, we will rely on Audre Lorde's "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House" and "On the Transformation of Silence into Language and Action" to investigate if and how those who speak truth to power make use of the "master’s tools" to "dismantle the master’s house." We will read contemporary philosopher Myisha Cherry's The Case for Rage: Why Anger Is Essential to Anti-Racist Struggle (2021), in which she argues that "anger does not deserve its bad reputation. It is powerful, but its power can be a force for good." Then we will turn to contemporary work in critical disability studies to interrogate the role that anger plays in struggles to advance disability liberation. While this seminar will develop foundational academic skills like information literacy, ethical reasoning, argumentative writing, critical thinking, we will also practice speaking and listening to challenging ideas with a mind that is both open and critical. The seminar will culminate in a researched project on a speaking-truth-to-power and the role of moral emotions on a topic of your choosing.
Professor: Amy McKiernan
Time: MWF 11:30
28. Banned Books
In this class, we will explore book banning that is happening in schools and libraries in the United States right now. Of course, we will spend some time talking about the long and unsettling history of book banning, but our main focus will be on the most current challenged and banned books as documented each year by the American Library Association. We will discuss several of these books in depth and study a few current challenges -- some in our own backyard -- that have created layers of conflict among students, teachers, librarians, parents, administrators, and local and state officials. We will explore both the roots and the consequences – individual, educational, artistic, cultural, and political – of these increasingly common, and increasingly complex, situations.
Professor: Susan Perabo
Time: MWF 11:30
29. Consuming Mountains: Balancing the “Future We Want” with the Rocks We Need
Odds are that you don’t often think about dirt, sand, copper, or germanium. Yet you likely utilize them every day. These and other mineral resources are being consumed at increasingly unprecedented rates to support our modern lifestyles. As we look toward the future, we find that mineral commodities are essential to sustainable technologies and cities, but in discussions surrounding sustainability their role is at best implied or at worst ignored. Consider electric vehicles (EVs), a major player in the conversation to reduce our carbon footprint, which are the product of a complicated supply chain that begins with dozens of mines found around the globe. Reporting on EVs focuses toward the benefits of rechargeable batteries, but not the required cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the lithium from Chile, or manganese from South Africa. Even so, metals are only a small fraction of the minerals we consume. Industrial materials such as sand and lime used for construction of buildings, roads, and bridges are extracted in substantially larger volumes. There are even entire mafias being formed around sand mining as the world starts running out of this essential resource. Yes, you read that right: We are running out of sand! So how do we balance the “future we want” with the resources we need? This seminar will focus on how mineral resources are used in ordinary life and the extraordinary measures taken to find, extract, and refine them. We will examine the narratives surrounding resource development and discuss the challenges to using minerals in a sustainable future. Our analysis will be informed by books, articles, and documentaries. Students will choose a commonplace technology and research the required natural resources for that technology in a final writing assignment.
Professor: Jorden Hayes
Time: MF 11:30
30. Local Poverty and Food
All people should have the right to regular access to safe, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food. However, poverty remains a barrier to food access. What are poverty levels like in and around the town of Carlisle, the home of Dickinson College? Who does and doesn’t have regular food access in the area, and why? What are local and national innovations to address these challenges? We will examine these questions, and more, through walking field trips, readings, and discussions. We will question why children are vulnerable to food insecurity and why north Carlisle lacks a grocery store. You will explore these concepts through presentations and writing. Students will complete the course with a better understanding of regional local food and poverty challenges and opportunities.
Professor: Heather Bedi
Time: MF 11:30
31. Calling Bullshit: Fighting for Facts in a Post-Truth World
We live in a post-truth world in which the line between truth and falsehood is increasingly blurred. This may be because there are more insidious methods of deception that mix truth with sloppy reasoning. In this seminar, we’ll discuss the differences between “bullshit,” misinformation, disinformation, and fake news and learn strategies to detect and defuse unreliable information. We will explore common and often subtle ways in which information is presented by those who wish to influence our thinking and behavior. The information skills fostered in this seminar – detecting, defusing, and refuting bullshit – will be further developed through knowledge of statistical traps, misleading data visualizations, and the role of the internet and social media. After learning how to detect unreliable information, understanding its growth and development, and developing strategies to refute it, students will be asked to apply their skills to study both sides of a topic of interest.
Professor: Marie Helweg-Larsen
Time: MF 11:30-12:45
32. The Beauty Myth: A March Towards Perfection
The Beauty Myth, written by Naomi Wolf and published in 1991, posited that images of idealized beauty perpetuated by the media harmed women physically and psychologically. Although the book was written over thirty years ago, and its author has come under fire over recent comments made during the pandemic, the text’s basic framework continues to resonate. As more evidence surfaces about the negative effects of social media on teenagers, especially young women, Wolf’s topics ring true today. Our muscles, face, hair, butts, thighs, breasts, and waistline -- the female body -- are parts of a whole under relentless scrutiny. Yet despite corporate soap maker Dove’s “Real Beauty” ad campaign, impossible beauty standards continue to proliferate. In our seminar, we will examine the state of contemporary beauty standards for women. Through study of classical texts on beauty to contemporary readings in feminist scholarship, we will ask questions about the proliferation of fat phobia, the obsession with thinness, colorism, and perfectionism. Working with examples from dance, sports, and music – from Sappho to Taylor Swift, Misty Copeland to Serena Williams - our seminar will empower students to read, think and write critically about the state of the female body in the twenty-first century.
Professor: Sarah Skaggs
Time: MF 11:30
33. Cancelled
34. Living with Algorithms
Once upon a time, the power of algorithms was a topic of interest to a relatively small group of mathematicians and computer scientists. These days few of us live lives that are not touched on a daily, hourly, or even minute-by-minute basis by the operation of computer algorithms. This seminar looks past technical understandings to examine the influence of algorithms on experience of everyday life. We will examine in particular the relation of algorithmic systems to the shaping of culture, the performance of work, the provision of care, the operation of power, the maintenance of inequality, the manufacturing of taste, and the consumption of media. Our guides will be the research and writing of anthropologists and other social scientists. In addition to algorithmic systems in the United States, the course will draw on case studies from East Asia.
Professor: Shawn Bender
Time: MF 11:30
35. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Migrants in History, Media, and Popular Culture
The history of the modern world is marked by population movement, but reception of people on the move have ranged from open arms to outright rejection. Current debates about migration and refugee crises in North America, Europe, and the Mediterranean are part of a broader historical phenomenon. Perspectives about migrants have changed over time in connection with cultural, economic, and political developments, but there is also a recurrent repertoire of topics and stereotypes which have proven flexible and adaptable. This seminar will examine current experiences about the reception of migrants and the changing images of particular migrant groups in broader historical context. We will analyze migration in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe in comparison, looking at connections, parallel developments, similarities, and differences. Discussions and research projects will engage with historical and contemporary sources. Students will explore these topics through discussions, writing, and a digital project.
Professor: Marcelo Borges
Time: MF 11:30
36. Calling Bullshit: Fighting for Facts in a Post-Truth World
We live in a post-truth world in which the line between truth and falsehood is increasingly blurred. This may be because there are more insidious methods of deception that mix truth with sloppy reasoning. In this seminar, we’ll discuss the differences between “bullshit,” misinformation, disinformation, and fake news and learn strategies to detect and defuse unreliable information. We will explore common and often subtle ways in which information is presented by those who wish to influence our thinking and behavior. The information skills fostered in this seminar – detecting, defusing, and refuting bullshit – will be further developed through knowledge of statistical traps, misleading data visualizations, and the role of the internet and social media. After learning how to detect unreliable information, understanding its growth and development, and developing strategies to refute it, students will be asked to apply their skills to study both sides of a topic of interest.
Professor: Rui Zhang
Time MF 11:30
37. Galileo’s Commandment
Bertolt Brecht, in his play The Life of Galileo, wrote that Galileo Galilei, the father of the scientific method, said: “Science knows only one commandment: contribute to science.” This seminar will focus on those men and women who have dedicated their lives to this commandment, how they view the activity called science, and how their efforts to follow its one commandment are viewed by society. By reading the best of their writings, we will explore how they used their energy and imagination to assemble the edifice of modern science. We will explore how the rest of society has understood and mis-understood science and its creators. We will confront two contrasting views of scientists as seen through the eyes of Hollywood, the “Mad Scientist” and the “Scientist as the Romantic Hero.” In addition to reading and discussing great science writing and plays such as Brecht’s The Life of Galileo, Stoppard’s Arcadia, or Frayn’s Copenhagen, seminar members will also view and discuss films that highlight stereotypes about scientists. Other activities may include a trip to a national laboratory, a science museum, or a performance of one of the plays we will read.
Professor: Robert J. Boyle
Time: MWF 12:30
38. Wade in the Water Project – Using Music to Examine Human Interactions with Place and Water.
Art mediates between the world of what we know and what we don’t know. It illuminates and places us in intimate relationship with both worlds. As such, Art intensifies the experience of being in the world. It elucidates mystery. It engenders awe, instead of just analysis. It moves. This seminar examines the phenomenon of place as a history of landscape / waterscape and as a nexus of concurrent stories. In an effort to connect America’s contemporary moment to this nation’s history and a sense of reverence for the future, we will explore the ways in which art and music, when used to observe place and change, opens our ears and reveals the human faces from within the maelstrom. Students will engage directly with musicians, scholars, and institutions working on these topics, including experiential opportunities like a trip to LeTort Spring Run, participating in a Climate Change Symposium, working with our 2023 artists-in-residence, and collaborating on stage.
Professor: Jennifer Blyth
Time: MF 11:30
39. Art is Money, Art is Power: The Myths of the “Masterpiece” in World Art
Why would a Leonardo da Vinci painting, one that is not even genuine, sell for $450 million? Who collected and donated the dazzling art objects we admire in museums? Why do we love French Impressionist paintings and the works of Vincent Van Gogh? How could a painting of persimmons be used for tax benefits and institutional expansion in medieval China? Is contemporary Chinese art a good investment? This class attempts to answers these questions by examining case studies that reflect the political, social, religious, racial, gender, and cultural power of art in the global history of art. This cross-cultural topic reveals art history as a history fraught with colonial domination, regional politics, gender inequality, racial discrimination, and cultural biases. We will focus on training visual literacy through in-depth visual analysis of artworks in addition to developing skills of verbal articulation, critical thinking, and effective writing. A fieldtrip to the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art and the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. will allow us to view some of the world’s most powerful artworks.
Professor: Wei Ren
Time: MF 11:30
40. The Middle Ages on Screen
The Middle Ages has proved a rich treasure trove of ideas, images, and narratives for modern filmmakers. Yet "medieval" as a descriptor is also often hurled as an insult, indicating outmoded or backwards-looking modes of thought. In this class, we will consider the ramifications of the resurgence of medievalism in popular film, taking on questions of gender, race, historical influence, and the individual in society. We will move beyond questions of whether a film is "really medieval" and instead ask ourselves what creators and audiences gain from drawing upon medieval influences. What do we think about medieval culture? How do we use these ideas about medievalism in our own art and culture, and what does that say about us? Our goals will include your enhanced ability to understand, discuss, and write about the ways in which these texts respond to each other and the particularities of their own time. Films will include A Lion in Winter, Excalibur, A Knight's Tale, The Green Knight, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Professor C. Skalak
Time: MF 11:30