These additional courses are taught on a recurring basis. The most recent semester and the professor are noted, in case students are interested in particular topics and want to contact the instructor.
Africana Studies 220-02: Social Justice in the African American Imagination (Spring 2016)
Instructor: Lynn Johnson
The current socio-political climate in the U.S. has fostered a new awareness of social justice within African American communities. Therefore, this course explores the meanings and importance of social justice, as African Americans grapple with issues of police brutality, incarceration, poverty, political subjectivity (voting rights), institutional and environmental racism, and food justice. In the process, we will evaluate modes of activism, from political campaigning and protest literature to #hashtag activism. Moreover, the course will incorporate experiential learning by working with community partners that are involved in social justice work.
ANTHROPOLOGY 240: Qualitative Research Methods
Professor Kjell Enge
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 will undertake community-based research projects.
ANTHROPOLOGY 241/SOCIOLOGY 244: Quantitative Research Methods (Spring 2013)
Professor Kjell Enge
This course focuses on quantitative data analysis. Students learn how to design, code, and analyze interviews and surveys. Selected databases and statistical programs are used to analyze current social issues and compare samples.
ART AND ART HISTORY 260: Post Studio Project (Spring 2015)
Instructor: Anthony M. Cervino
Permission of Instructor Required. This special topics class will investigate art making outside the traditional studio or art classroom. Students will devise and execute multiple art projects through individual and collaborative research. Projects may include performances, site-specific interventions and installation-based art, among other non-media specific approaches to making art.
Biology 131-01: Introduction to Organisms, Populations, and Ecosystems: Topics in Field Natural History (Fall 2017)
Instructor: Harold Eugene Wingert
This introductory course spans levels of biological organization from basic multicellular microanatomy to organismal physiology and ecology, as understood through the lens of evolution. Course content will be focused around a specific theme determined by the instructor, and will include evolutionary principles of variation, selection, competition and cooperation, and how their operation at different levels of organization accounts for form and function of organisms, communities, and ecosystems. We will investigate homeostasis, reproduction and development as physiological processes that take place within organisms, and as ecological processes that interact with the environment and generate diversity of form over evolutionary time. Finally we will take stock of the existing forms and levels of biological organization and ask how their relationships establish the biosphere in which we live.
Three hours classroom and three hours laboratory a week. This is one of two courses required of all Biology majors before entering the upper level. It is complementary to BIOL 132 – Introduction to Molecules, Genes, and Cells, and the courses may be taken in either order.
Biology 131-02: Introduction to Organisms, Populations, and Ecosystems: Topics in Field Natural History (Fall 2017)
Instructor: Harold Eugene Wingert
This introductory course spans levels of biological organization from basic multicellular microanatomy to organismal physiology and ecology, as understood through the lens of evolution. Course content will be focused around a specific theme determined by the instructor, and will include evolutionary principles of variation, selection, competition and cooperation, and how their operation at different levels of organization accounts for form and function of organisms, communities, and ecosystems. We will investigate homeostasis, reproduction and development as physiological processes that take place within organisms, and as ecological processes that interact with the environment and generate diversity of form over evolutionary time. Finally we will take stock of the existing forms and levels of biological organization and ask how their relationships establish the biosphere in which we live.
Three hours classroom and three hours laboratory a week. This is one of two courses required of all Biology majors before entering the upper level. It is complementary to BIOL 132 – Introduction to Molecules, Genes, and Cells, and the courses may be taken in either order.
Computer Science 491-01: Fall Senior Seminar (Fall 2017)
Instructor: Grant William Braught
Students define and begin a year-long project. Written and oral presentation of project progress reports will be required. Contemporary social, ethical, technical and philosophical issues in computer science will also be examined.
Prerequisite: Senior standing. Offered every fall.
ECONOMICS 496-02: Political Economy of Health (Spring 2016)
Instructor: Mesude E Kongar
In a world of unprecedented wealth, the average life-expectancy in some parts of the world is 46 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 nutrition, 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? In this course, students will examine the relationships between health and political and economic conditions world populations face today. The emphasis throughout the course will be on how socioeconomic inequalities based on gender, race, class, sexual orientation, nationality and other social categories affect health and well-being outcomes. Students of this course will contribute to community health by participating in community-based research in collaboration with a community agency serving health and well-being needs in the Carlisle-Harrisburg area.
ECONOMICS 314: Economic Policy and Recreation (Spring 2008)
Professor Bill Bellinger
This course introduces the economic techniques used in the analysis of public policy and applies these techniques to a variety of social problems and policies. The economic techniques taught include the analysis of market failure, benefit-cost analysis, and economic impact analysis. This semester's extended case study was the economics of recreation in South-Central Pennsylvania.
Students focused on such subtopics as hunting, hiking, fishing, state parks, and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. How do you value a natural resource, a National Park, or a fishing trip? The class developed a report to provide information for the community on the recreation capabilities of South-Central Pennsylvania.
EDUCATION 221: Education Psychology (Spring 2013)
Professor Elizabeth C. Lewis
An examination of physical, cognitive, linguistic, social, and moral developmental theories as well as theories of learning and the teaching and assessment practices in middle-school and secondary classrooms derived from those theories. The course also provides an introduction to designing, delivering, and adapting instruction for special needs students with a range of disabilities and for English Language Learners. The course includes an introduction to standardized tests and teacher-made assessments. In this course, students continue to develop their individual philosophies of education begun in EDUC 121 and to reflect on how their beliefs about learning, teaching, and assessment compare with those of major theorists. The course includes a 20-hour field experience in an area secondary school.
ENGLISH 212: Writing: Special Topics (Fall 2012)
Professor Claire Bowen
A course in analytical thinking and writing which develops expository skills through the exploration of such topics as literature, popular culture, sport in American life, and journalism. Seminars, workshops, group tutorials, or individual instruction. This course fulfills the WR graduation requirement.
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 111: Environment, Culture and Values (Spring 2012)
Professor Mara Donaldson
A study of the effects of scientific, religious, and philosophical values on human attitudes toward the environment and how these attitudes may affect our way of life. By focusing on a particular current topic, and by subjecting the basis of our behavior in regard to that topic to careful criticism, alternative models of behavior are considered together with changes in lifestyle and consciousness that these may involve.
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 311: SUSTAINABILITY 301: Reducing Dickinson's Carbon Footprint (Fall 2012)
Professor Neil Leary
Dickinson College, along with several hundred other colleges and universities, has made a commitment to advance sustainability in higher education by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change. Students in the course will work as a team to evaluate the climate action plans of Dickinson and other institutions, evaluate additional measures that could be taken to meet Dickinson’s target of zero net emissions by 2020, develop recommendations for action, and present their recommendations to senior officers of the college. To place their analyses and recommendations in context, students will be introduced to climate change science and policy and will explore the implications of climate change for environmental, social and economic sustainability. Students will gain practical skills for climate action planning and team work. They will also build literacy about sustainability and climate change.
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 311/SUSTAINABILITY 301: Building Sustainable Communities (Fall 2012)
Professor Neil Leary
Many communities are embracing sustainability as a goal of community development, giving weight to social equity, economic security and ecological integrity as they work to build the capacity of their residents to improve the quality of their lives. In this practicum course we will learn about different conceptions and models of sustainability and community development through case studies and a community-based research project with community partners in Carlisle. The research project will help students develop skills for building sustainable communities, working in teams and working with community partners. Lab hours will be used for in-class exercises, guest speakers, field trips to partner sites, and fieldwork for the research project. There may be one or two weekend field trips.
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 310: Estuarine Management, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 330: Environmental Disruption and Policy Analysis, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 335: Analysis and Management of the Aquatic Environment (Fall 2007)
Professors Candie Wilderman, Michael Heiman, Katherine McGurn Centellas
These courses are part of the LUCE semester. During the LUCE semester, students enroll in a single interdisciplinary, integrated course, for the equivalent of a student's normal 4-course load. The course combines classroom activities, community-based fieldwork research, independent study, and extensive travel and immersion. During the LUCE semester, students develop an understanding of the deep connections between natural resources and humans from multiple perspectives and within an immersion experience while gaining training in ecosystem analysis field techniques and being exposed to the cultural contexts in which environmental problems are created and in which solutions are conceived and implemented.
Student service is provided through community-based fieldwork research, independent study, and extensive travel and immersion in two comparative watershed regions: the Chesapeake Bay and the lower Mississippi River Basin. Students spend a week in September in the Chesapeake Bay and along the Atlantic coast and three weeks in November in southern coastal Louisiana, studying the ecosystems and learning from the local residents. The remaining nine weeks of the semester are spent closer to campus, in the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay drainage basin. All students will also complete an independent research project in consultation and collaboration with a community group.
(Note: Student work from the LUCE Semester can be found on Dickinson's Blog. Student photographic work has also been posted. Detailed information about the integrated coursework and fieldwork is available at the Environmental Studies web site, with extensive links.)
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 311:02: Environment & Society (Spring 2016)
Instructor: Heather Bedi
Cross-listed with SOCI 230-05. Society defines how collections of humans are organized around shared bonds including cultures, contexts, or identities. Margaret Mead famously warned, we wont have a society if we destroy the environment. This course aims to understand how society is intimately dependent on natural resources, and how human actions alter the environment. Drawing from social science methods, this class highlights how societies are intimately dependent on natural resources, and how human actions alter the environment. Students will examine how collections of humans experience, use, and change the environment. They will gain knowledge in social change, and how social movements and activists frame challenges. Concepts of development, justice, and power will be examined in relation to pressing environment and society challenges.
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 311-03: Energy Justice: People, Politics, and the Environment (Spring 2015)
Instructor: Heather Bedi
Cross-listed with INST 290-03. This class surveys the energy landscape of our carbon-centered civilization. From the local to the global, we question the social, political, and environmental implications of non-renewable energy resource extraction, transportation, and use. We will examine how energy associated risks and benefits are managed across people and places. The contemporary social and political landscape for global energy demand and extraction provides the foundation for the class. Analysis of individual and university-wide energy consumption will allow for localized reflection on course themes. Drawing from examples in India and the United States, we will explore development and justice considerations associated with natural resource extraction for energy purposes. A review of the social, economic, and health impacts for people directly impacted by energy procurement and transport will provide further lenses to explore justice concerns. Political and scientific efforts to improve the sustainability of energy extraction will also be analyzed. The class is structured to be accessible to students across disciplines.
FIRST YEAR SEMINAR: Profiles in Courage: Nobel Peace Prize Laureates (Fall 2010)
Professor Jeremy Ball
For over a century, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has bestowed an annual Peace Prize to an organization or individual who, in the words of Alfred Nobel, "has done the most and best work for the brotherhood of nations and the abolishment or reduction of standing armies as well as for the establishment and spread of peace congresses."
In the years after the Second World War, the judges' definition of peace expanded to include humanitarian concerns, producing laureates such as Wangari Maathai, Mother Teresa, Elie Wiesel, and Muhammad Yunus. This seminar will examine the transformation of the award and its political ramifications over the course of its history. We will discuss the selection process and consider whether the choice has always been, as a former chairman of the judging committee wrote in 2001, "to put it bluntly, a political act." The course will be organized into four broad categories corresponding to the work of past laureates: arms control, peace making, advocacy for human rights, and the environment.
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.
FRENCH 300: Toulouse Colloquium (Fall 2016)
Instructor: Sylvie Toux
An interdisciplinary colloquium focusing on the history and contemporary culture of the city of Toulouse. This course is composed of intensive written and oral language study, and introduction to French university methods of argumentation, visits of local museums and regional cities, and exploration of the various neighborhoods of Toulouse. This course is designed to acquaint students with the city and the region in which they will be spending the academic year.
One-half course credit. Offered every semester at the Dickinson Study Center in Toulouse.
Attributes: INST France Course
FRENCH 364: Theatre as Public Service: Culture, Theatre, and French Society (Spring 2013)
Professor Ian MacDonald
In 1953 French theatre director and actor, Jean Vilar wrote that theatre could be seen as a public service on the same level as gas, electricity and water. In this class we will explore the ways in which Vilar's vision of a National Popular Theatre in France fits with French attitudes towards Culture and its relationship to the State. We will read and study French plays from the Middle Ages to the present in order to better understand the role theatre has played in French society over the centuries. We will also study more recent history and analyze how theatre has taken on roles in education, therapy, and political action. We will consider ideas such as "le théâtre d'intervention" and "le théâtre-action" that have given rise to theatre practices with populations varying from at-risk-youth to the mentally and physically challenged in such non-traditional contexts as schools, nursing homes, and prisons. We will study a variety of theories and practices of this kind of theatre as public service. We will also undertake a French theatre performance project as a class in order to test some ideas about the role theatre can play in society. This course may include a service-learning component
HEALTH STUDIES 400: Senior Seminar (Spring 2013)
Professor John Henson
The focus of this year’s health studies seminar is on community health. The course will specifically examine efforts to improve community health status through the provision of health promotion programs to targeted populations. The educational goals of the course are as follows: to provide students with a deeper understanding of community health concepts/models; to specifically improve student's understanding of health promotion program design and management; to acquaint students with research skills required to assess health promotion program activities in a disciplined and unbiased way. To accomplish these goals, students will complete community-based research projects that are of direct benefit to both the community partners and to their own education. Seminar students will work in teams, with input from community partners, to identify appropriate research questions, and then carry out literature review, develop appropriate research methodology, and carry out research. At the end of the course, student research will presented publicly.
HEALTH STUDIES 400: Senior Seminar in Health Studies (Spring 2014)
Instructor: James A. Skelton
The Senior Seminar in Health Studies is an interdisciplinary, topics driven course, with specific foci dependent upon the specialization(s) of the instructor. Students will survey the relevant literatures of at least two disciplines; identify specific problems or topics; complete a research project based on secondary and/or primary sources; and offer a final presentation of interdisciplinary work (in the forms of academic papers, oral presentations, or some other creative project (including film, narrative, performance, etc.). Prerequisite: 201 and at least two other courses in Health Studies (as accepted by Health Studies Coordinator), or permission of instructor.
HEALTH STUDIE 400-01: Senior Seminar in Health Studies (Fall 2016)
Instructor: Marie Helweg-Larsen
The course will take an interdisciplinary approach to understanding smoking and smoking cessation. We will examine the interaction of multiples causes of smoking such as economic, sociological, psychological, public health, economic, and biological perspectives on why people smoke and why they struggle to quit. We will also focus on the experiences of smokers of lower socio-economic status and the role of smoking in disparity in health.
In this community-based research course students will work with our partner agency, Sadler Health, on surveying two groups of people in their clinic: people currently in a smoking cessation program and patients who smoke but are not currently interested in quitting. The students will work with Sadler Health to develop the specific questions and survey instruments, will assist in data collection, and enter and analyze the data. Students will use the results of these surveys to write a report which will include academic background information, the survey methodology used, the findings, and specific recommendations. The reports will inform decision making at Sadler Health.
Learning goals:
- effective team building and collaboration
- professional conduct in communication and collaboration with a community partner
- high quality oral and written final reports suitable for a community partner
- interdisciplinary examination of smoking cessation attitudes (e.g., economic, sociological, psychological, public health, economic, and biological perspectives)
- skills associated with research including the development of hypotheses, selection of survey questions, data entry and analysis, and reporting of descriptive and inferential results
HEALTH STUDIES 400-02: Senior Seminar in Health Studies (Fall 2016)
Instructor: Sharon Kingston
The course will take an interdisciplinary approach to understanding childhood obesity and nutritional status among children in the U.S. We will examine the interaction of multiple causes of child obesity including sociological, psychological, economic, business, public health and medical perspectives in order to understand how to prevent childhood obesity and improve children’s nutritional status. We will also examine structural inequality as a social determinant of poor health.
In this community-based research course, students will work with our partner agency, Partnership for Better Health, on an evaluation of the availability of healthy options in children’s menu’s in non-chain restaurants in the Carlisle area. The class will use a variety of social science research methods to assess the quality of the current offerings, the barriers and facilitators faced by restaurant owners and chefs in offering healthy options and parents’ willingness and ability to get their children to eat healthy meals. Students will use the results of this evaluation to develop a set of recommendations to area restaurants. The Partnership for Better Health will then disseminate these recommendations and support local restaurants in adopting them.
Learning goals:
- effective team building and collaboration
- professional conduct in communication and collaboration with a community partner
- high quality oral and written final reports suitable for a community partner
- interdisciplinary examination of childhood obesity (sociological, psychological, economic, business, public health, and medical perspectives)
- skills associated with research including content analysis, interview and survey research
HISTORY 211-03: American Landscapes (Spring 2016)
Instructor: Gregory Kaliss
This course will explore how Americans have historically conceived of, represented, created, and contested a wide range of American landscapes. From the Hudson River Valley to the Yosemite Valley, from Central Park to the World's Columbian Exposition, and many more noteworthy sites in between, this course will explore the history of artistic representations of landscapes, preservation campaigns, and landscape architecture and park design. By exploring the battles fought between groups over the use and "misuse" of public landscapes, students will also gain insights into the class, race and gender divides that affected individuals' relationships to the land.
HISTORY 311/ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 311: Food and Sustainability
Professor Jeremy Vetter
This course is a historical reading and research seminar on food and sustainability. Using quantitative evidence and geographic information systems along with traditional written sources, we analyze the development of the modern food system on multiple scales from the local to the global, with a focus on North America. Topics for collective study and research may include: what is sustainability, especially for the food system; global exchange of plant and animal species; population and food supply; changes in food consumption patterns, health, diet, and nutrition; historical shifts in agricultural production and land use; the rise of the industrial food system; the origins and development of sustainable and alternative agriculture; energy systems and agriculture; shifting land uses; the effects of climate change on agriculture; water use--irrigation, aquifers, reclamation projects; historical changes in international food trade and policy; depletion of soils over time; pest control and pollution from agriculture; changing farm size and consolidation; changes in rural life and the countryside, including gender roles; technological changes on the farm; and the rise of new agrarian thinking and the local food movement. Students will have first-hand experiences with local farmers and systems of food distribution.
International Business and Management 100-01: Fundamentals of Business (Fall 2017)
Instructor: Steven J Riccio
This course features an introductory focus on a wide range of business subjects including the following: business in a global environment; forms of business ownership including small businesses, partnerships, multinational and domestic corporations, joint ventures, and franchises; management decision making; ethics; marketing; accounting; management information systems; human resources; finance; business law; taxation; uses of the internet in business; and how all of the above are integrated into running a successful business. You will learn how a company gets ideas, develops products, raises money, makes its products, sells them and accounts for the money earned and spent.
This course will not fulfill a distribution requirement.
International Business and Management 100-02: Fundamentals of Business (Fall 2017)
Instructor: Sherry Y Ritchey
This course features an introductory focus on a wide range of business subjects including the following: business in a global environment; forms of business ownership including small businesses, partnerships, multinational and domestic corporations, joint ventures, and franchises; management decision making; ethics; marketing; accounting; management information systems; human resources; finance; business law; taxation; uses of the internet in business; and how all of the above are integrated into running a successful business. You will learn how a company gets ideas, develops products, raises money, makes its products, sells them and accounts for the money earned and spent.
This course will not fulfill a distribution requirement.
International Business and Management 100-03: Fundamentals of Buisness (Fall 2017)
Instructor: Sherry Y Ritchey
This course features an introductory focus on a wide range of business subjects including the following: business in a global environment; forms of business ownership including small businesses, partnerships, multinational and domestic corporations, joint ventures, and franchises; management decision making; ethics; marketing; accounting; management information systems; human resources; finance; business law; taxation; uses of the internet in business; and how all of the above are integrated into running a successful business. You will learn how a company gets ideas, develops products, raises money, makes its products, sells them and accounts for the money earned and spent.
This course will not fulfill a distribution requirement.
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT 230-01: International Organizational Behavior (Spring 2016)
Instructor: Steven J Riccio
This course looks at how human systems function within the structure of the organization and how individual and group behaviors affect collective organizational culture and organizational effectiveness. Students study individual, interpersonal, and group processes; the relationship between attitudes and behavior; ethical decision-making; and the management of organizational conflict and change. Approaches for developing leadership, managing conflict, communicating effectively, enhancing efficiency, and encouraging organizational adaption to changing environments are explored. Examples taken from domestic and international organizations are used throughout the course.
International Business and Management 300-01: Comparative Business Ethics (Fall 2017)
Instructor: Steven J Riccio
A topics course examining important issues in international management. Examples of course possibilities include issues in cross-cultural communication and ethics, issues in international marketing, issues in international dimensions of financial reporting, issues in government regulation of business, and issues in financial decision-making.
Prerequisite dependent upon topic/topic area.
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT 300-04: Fundamentals of Nonprofit Management
Professor David Sarcone
The major course components will include the following: a historical review of management theory to include a discussion on the similarities and differences between for profit management and nonprofit and public management; the governance of nonprofit organizations; nonprofit strategic management; nonprofit operational management; and the management of newly emerging models of nonprofit collaboration - the development of inter -organizational networks created to more effectively address complex and recurring community problems. The course will be taught utilizing Carlisle area community health care task force as the context for the course material. Students will be actively engaged in working with local organizations associated with the community health care task force.
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT 300-05: Human Resources Management (Spring 2016)
Instructor: Steven J Riccio
Sustained organizational success is directly related to the effective management of human resources. Leaders widely acknowledge the challenges associated with developing this competency, particularly from a global perspective. This course will examine human resource practices that organizations face regularly while attempting to remain competitive in the current global economy. These include strategic initiatives such as:
- Human Resource Planning
- Employment Law
- Workplace Diversity
- Employee / Career Development
- Performance Management
- Compensation and Benefits
- Organizational Health and Wellness
- Global Human Resources
This course will be interactive providing students with real-life activities including case studies, assessments, and a variety of application exercises. It is important throughout the course to examine each topic from the perspective of a human resource professional and operational manager.
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT 300/POLICY AND MANAGEMENT 390: Applied Empirical Analysis of Middle School Obesity
Professor Steve Erfle
Obesity and chronic diseases associated with obesity have reached epidemic proportions in the United States. Fully one-third of school-aged children in Pennsylvania are overweight or obese. The Pennsylvania Department of Health instituted the "Active Schools" program during the 20090-2010 school year with 40 middle schools to require vigorous daily physical activity and to assess the results. This course will analyze the data obtained from this program. Pre- and Post-acticity and stature measures as well as academic information (such as PSSA scores and attendance information) on 10,000-15,000 middle schoolers will be available for analysis. Students will work in teams on various aspects of the project using regression analysis. Students will work in teams on various aspects of the project using regression analysis as well as other stuatistical methods to examine the efficacy of the active schools program. At the end of the course, students will brief senior staff in the PA Department of Health on their findings.
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT 300-07: Human Resources Management (Spring 2015)
Instructor: Steve Riccio
Sustained organizational success is directly related to the effective management of human resources. Leaders widely acknowledge the challenges associated with developing this competency, particularly from a global perspective. This course will examine human resource practices that organizations face regularly while attempting to remain competitive in the current global economy. These include strategic initiatives such as: Human Resource Planning Employment Law Workplace Diversity Employee / Career Development Performance Management Compensation and Benefits Organizational Health and Wellness Global Human Resources This course will be interactive providing students with real-life activities including case studies, assessments, and a variety of application exercises. It is important throughout the course to examine each topic from the perspective of a human resource professional and operational manager. Learning Outcomes After completing all of the required components of this course, students will be able to:
- Identify the value of the human resource function within the organizational structure.
- Recognize how a successful partnership between organizational management and human resources can yield an empowered, motivated workforce.
- Give examples of harassment and discrimination in the workplace while appreciating the vital role supervisors must exercise within the organization.
- Compare and contrast human resource management practices in the United States and other countries.
- Outline techniques that support the recruitment and retention of a highly qualified, well-diverse workforce. 6. Design a compensation model that supports the strategic goals of an organization.
- Determine appropriate methods to address employee relations issues from both a performance and legal perspective.
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR 230 (Spring 2013)
Instructor: Steven J Riccio
This course looks at how human systems function within the structure of the organization and how individual and group behaviors affect collective organizational culture and organizational effectiveness. Students study individual, interpersonal, and group processes; the relationship between attitudes and behavior; ethical decision-making; and the management of organizational conflict and change. Approaches for developing leadership, managing conflict, communicating effectively, enhancing efficiency, and encouraging organizational adaption to changing environments are explored. Examples taken from domestic and international organizations are used throughout the course.
Prerequisite: 100 or permission of the instructor. This course may fulfill Comparative Civilizations graduation requirement, depending upon topic.
INTERNATIONAL STUDIES 290-03 Energy Justice: People, Politics, and the Environment (Spring 2015)
Instructor: Heather Bedi
Cross-listed with ENST 311-03. This class surveys the energy landscape of our carbon-centered civilization. From the local to the global, we question the social, political, and environmental implications of non-renewable energy resource extraction, transportation, and use. We will examine how energy associated risks and benefits are managed across people and places. The contemporary social and political landscape for global energy demand and extraction provides the foundation for the class. Analysis of individual and university-wide energy consumption will allow for localized reflection on course themes. Drawing from examples in India and the United States, we will explore development and justice considerations associated with natural resource extraction for energy purposes. A review of the social, economic, and health impacts for people directly impacted by energy procurement and transport will provide further lenses to explore justice concerns. Political and scientific efforts to improve the sustainability of energy extraction will also be analyzed. The class is structured to be accessible to students across disciplines.
International Studies 401-01: Globalization, Sustainability and Security: Whole of Society Approaches (Fall 2017)
Instructor: Michael J Fratantuono
In the 2010 National Security Strategy of the United States, President Obama articulates the need for whole of society approaches to tackling tough transnational issues. Furthermore, some experts believe that in the decades ahead, global governance will be a characterized by complexity and ambiguity, with governance structures reflecting the influence of states, NGOs, IGOs, for-profit companies, and other agents. In this seminar, we will investigate collaborative approaches to addressing national and transnational security related matters, especially those that are rooted in the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of sustainable development.
INTERCULTURAL SEMINAR, Dickinson's Program in Malaga, Spain (Spring 2008)
Professor Mark Aldrich
This intercultural seminar discusses ways that Malagans form community. The community based research and learning component will focus on helping a group of Malagans restore and preserve a rural chapel on a mountain above the city. This little chapel is very important to the community of people involved in 'verdiales', a kind of music that is 'native' to the countryside surrounding Malaga. The research component will involve researching the history of the chapel and trying to help the community document this treasure. The students will spend three Saturdays on site at the chapel where they will get direct experience understanding how Malagans form community.
JUDAIC STUDIES 215/RELIGION 215/ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 215: Jewish Environmental Ethics (Spring 2013)
Professor Andrea Lieber
Since the 1960's many writers on environmental issues have blamed our contemporary environmental crises in part on a so-called "Judeo-Christian" worldview, rooted in the Hebrew Bible. Such writers assert that the biblical heritage shared by these two religious traditions, advocates an unhealthy relationship between humanity and nature, one in which human beings are destined to conquer the earth and master it. In this course we will explore Jewish perspectives on nature and the natural world through close readings of biblical and other classical Jewish theology, history and ritual practice, we will also examine the ways in which this motif is re-conceptualized in modern secular contexts (ie, Zionism, and the kibbutz movement). We will conclude by studying contemporary varieties of Jewish environmental advocacy. In addition to texts focused specifically on Judeo-Christian traditions, the syllabus will include other classic works of Environmental ethics foundational to the field of Environmental studies.
MINI-MOSAIC: Oral History and Jewish Immigration to Argentina
Sociology 313 Oral History and Jewish Immigration to Latin America, Prof. Susan Rose and Professor Shalom Staub, with Winter 2010 research trip to Argentina
½ credit in Fall 2009, Winterim in Buenos Aires with ½ credit in Spring 2010
This course will focus on Jewish immigration to Argentina, engaging students in the collection and analysis of oral histories with members of Jewish communities in and around Buenos Aires. We will begin the course by focusing on oral history methodology, drawing upon relevant oral histories and ethnographies of Jewish immigration to and experience in Latin America. Students who take this course must be concurrently enrolled in Religion 260/Sociology 230-03, and participate in the Winterim research trip to Buenos Aires. This trip involves home stays and an additional program fee and airfare. While in Buenos Aires, students will work in research teams with Argentine students to collect oral histories. Upon return, students will process, transcribe, translate, analyze, and present their research.
(Fall 2009: Religion 260/Sociology 230 Ethnography of Jewish Experience, Professor Shalom Staub)
Drawing upon ethnographies of Jewish communities around the world, this course focuses on such questions as what is Jewish culture. What is common to Jewish cultural experiences across time and place? How might we understand the variability and local adaptations of Jewish life? These are the guiding questions and issues for this course, all to be considered within multiple contexts-- from pastoral and agricultural roots to modern urban experience, from Middle Eastern origins to a Diaspora experience stretching across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.
POLICY MANAGEMENT 401: Policy Management Senior Seminar (Fall 2016)
Professor Jim Hoefler
This course will focus will serve as a capstone experience for Policy Management majors. It will echo the key principles covered in the Foundations class, including an appreciation for (1) fluid interdisciplinarity, (2) the contingent nature of knowledge, (3) connections to the wider world beyond the college, (4) principle-based models of leadership, (5) the meaningful application of ethics, and (6) the role of stakeholder values in problem analysis and decision making processes. Emphasis will be placed on acclimating students to the processes of complex problem solving that exist in a variety of contexts, including the public, non-profit, and private sectors, as well as in various comparative cross-cultural settings. "Policy Management" majors conclude their academic study of the various frameworks, orientations, stakeholders, and value sets that exist in different policy contexts by completing a comprehensive, hands-on policy management exercise.
PSYCHOLOGY 165: Psychopathology (Spring 2012)
Professor Suman Ambwani
An introduction to various psychological disorders and techniques of diagnosis and treatment. Students will work in area agencies serving clients with a variety of psychological disorders.
PSYCHOLOGY 375-01: Research Methods in Community Psychology (Fall 2016)
Instructor: Sharon Kingston
This course will emphasize gaining advanced knowledge and skills in the research methodologies of community psychology, answering the question: How does community psychology seek to scientifically understand relationships between environmental conditions and the development of health and well-being of all members of a community? Students will gain and practice skills in consultation and evaluation of programs to facilitate psychological competence and empowerment, and prevent disorder. Specifically, students will: (a) consider ways to assess and be responsive to the needs of people from marginalized populations with diverse socio-cultural, educational, and ethnic backgrounds; (b) become familiar with innovative programs and practices geared towards prevention and empowerment of disenfranchised groups; (c) apply learning (of theory and research strategies) to a problem in the community; and (d) develop skills in collaborating with Carlisle-area community members in identifying, designing, implementing, and interpreting community-based research.
PSYCHOLOGY 440-01: Seminar in Social Psychology: Intimate Partner Violence (Spring 2016)
Instructor: Kiersten R Baughman
Cross-Listed with WGST 300-04. Social psychology is the science of how people interact with, relate to, influence, and motivate one another. Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an area of research within social psychology that examines extreme aggressive actions that occur within the context of a romantic relationship. This course will expose students to in-depth scientific research in the area of IPV in order to more fully understand the nature of IPV, its many precursors, how and when it occurs, and ultimately offer some suggestions for interventions. Students in this seminar-based course will read original journal articles, critically evaluate empirical findings and in-class discussions, compose individual and group presentations, and collaborate very closely with a local non-profit agency working in the area of preventing and responding to IPV. Course work will address critical research questions that will directly impact both clients of the agency and the greater Carlisle community. Through this service-learning course, you will forge a lasting partnership with a local Carlisle agency while gaining a solid research background from which to understand and address the real problems faced by victims of IPV not only in Carlisle, but around the world.
PSYCHOLOGY 475: Seminar in Community Psychology (Spring 2013)
Professor Sharon Kingston
The practice of community psychology is typically directed toward the design and evaluation of strategies aimed at facilitating empowerment, preventing psychological disorders, and promoting social justice and change. The goal is to optimize the well-being of individuals and communities with innovative and alternative interventions designed in collaboration with affected community members and with other related disciplines inside and outside of psychology. This course is an advanced seminar that focuses in depth on special topics in the field of community psychology. Topics may include substance abuse and addiction, delinquency, stress and coping, prevention vs. intervention, social support, and program consultation and evaluation. Students will develop their understanding of topical issues by reading primary and secondary sources and participating in class discussions and direct engagement with a community agency.
RELIGION 215: Jewish Environmental Ethics
Instructor: Andrea Lieber
Since the 1960's many writers on environmental issues have blamed our contemporary environmental crises in part on a so-called "Judeo-Christian" worldview, rooted in the Hebrew Bible. Such writers assert that the biblical heritage shared by these two religious traditions, advocates an unhealthy relationship between humanity and nature, one in which human beings are destined to conquer the earth and master it. In this course we will explore Jewish perspectives on nature and the natural world through close readings of biblical and other classical Jewish theology, history and ritual practice, we will also examine the ways in which this motif is re-conceptualized in modern secular contexts (ie, Zionism, and the kibbutz movement). We will conclude by studying contemporary varieties of Jewish environmental advocacy. In addition to texts focused specifically on Judeo-Christian traditions, the syllabus will include other classic works of Environmental ethics foundational to the field of Environmental studies.
RELIGION 250: Religion and the Internet (Spring 2013)
Professor Andrea Lieber
Religion is everywhere on the web. This course explores such questions as: How do online religious communities and social media reshape traditional religious identities and practices such as prayer, meditation, evangelism and pilgrimage? How are traditional religious institutions responding to the challenges and possibilities presented by the internet? How are traditional systems of authority being challenged in an age when access to information is more democratic than ever?
The service-learning component involved field-based digitization of records of a Harrisburg Jewish cemetery, providing the opportunity to understand and reflect on the new on-line context for burial and memorialization.
Social Innovation/Entrepreneurship 400-01: Senior Seminar in Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Fall 2017)
Instructor: C Helen Takacs
This capstone course builds on and integrates the key concepts of the introductory course in this certificate program by requiring students to reflect on, synthesize, and apply knowledge gained through their academic programs and experiential learning experiences. The focus will be on creating shared value, which simultaneously enriches social, ecological, and economic systems. Through exercises in strategy formulation and implementation, students will gain an appreciation for the challenges and rewards associated with conceiving and transforming innovative solutions into new products, services, and/or initiatives that change our world in meaningful ways. In imagining these pathways for success, we will also address the importance of compassionate leadership, tools that nurture vital social connections, and the power of our own agency.
Sociology 230-01: Conflict Analysis and Resolution (Fall 2017)
Instructor: Shalom D Staub
Conflict seems to be an inescapable aspect of social life. Are we, as human beings, predetermined to live in conflict? Yet as social beings living in mutually dependent social groups, we have developed various simple and complex strategies for managing and resolving conflicts. We 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. This 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.
SOCIOLOGY 313: Oral History: Gay Lesbian (Spring 2015)
Instructor: Amy C. Steinbugler/Lonna M. Malmsheimer
Cross-listed with WGST 300-04.This course is focused on collecting and recording the individual life stories of LGBT people in central Pennsylvania during the latter half of the twentieth and the first years of the twenty-first centuries. Life for LGBT Americans has changed substantially over the past 50 years. As recently as the 1960s, gay citizens could be and were arrested, incarcerated, and hospitalized (against their will) as either sick, sinful or criminal. Gays and lesbians were widely seen as a threat to the family, religion and law to the American way of life. This social hatred and fear drove LGBT individuals to suppress their desires and hide their orientation. With the sexual revolution of the sixties and seventies, related movements for both womens and gay liberation developed. LGBT people came out and sought to change not only this ideology, but also the laws and structures that institutionally enforced sexual and gender conformity. In this course, students will be trained in oral history methods and will collect the stories of LGBT residents in our area. These interviews will contribute to the developing archival project that is sponsored by the Central Pennsylvania LGBT Center (www.centralpalgbtcenter/lgbt-history-project) and the Dickinson College Archives. In addition to collecting oral histories, students will transcribe their interviews and share their findings in research papers and class presentations. Please note that in addition to scheduled course meetings, students will schedule and conduct off-campus interviews with residents of central Pennsylvania.
SPANISH 238: Spanish for the Business Professions (Fall 2011)
Professor Erin McNulty
This Spanish course emphasizes the language of business. Students will study the lexicon and language skills appropriate to doing business in the Spanish-speaking world. Students will develop their Spanish skills in the context of working with local business owned by Spanish-speakers and/or business serving Spanish-speaking customers.
SPANISH 239: Spanish for the Health Professions (Spring 2014)
Professor Asuncion Arnedo
The coursework relies on developing skills in medical Spanish to tackle a pressing problem – the provision of culturally and linguistically competent healthcare to Spanish speakers. Coursework educates students in appropriate vocabulary for medical settings, an understanding of the importance of language and culture to medicine, and the problems that arise from a cultural divide in healthcare delivery. The class discusses language, public policy, anthropology, and sociology as such disciplines are related to cross-cultural healthcare.
Students are required to serve once a week in a setting where healthcare is being delivered to Spanish-speakers. Many students accompany nurse practitioners from Keystone Migrant Health to labor camps for migrant fruit workers to register clients for health service at Keystone’s clinic in Gettysburg. Students assist with filling out forms and paperwork for Spanish-speaking clients. Bilingual students may serve at the Wellspan Health Connect van in Biglerville as receptionists and medical interpreters and help with paperwork and medical interpreting during patient appointments. Other students will volunteer at the Hamilton Health clinic in Harrisburg serving as interpreters and providing document translation.
SPANISH 239-01: Spanish for the Health Professions (Fall 2016)
Instructor: Asuncion Arnedo-Aldrich
This is a specialized course emphasizing Spanish language and culture as they relate to health and medicine. The course goal is written and oral communication and cultural fluency as they relate to Global Health Care, Food Security, Immigration, and the delivery of health-care services to Limited-English-Proficient, Hispanic patients. Off-campus volunteer work with native Spanish speakers is required.
SUSTAINABILITY 301-01: Practicum in Sustainability: Building Sustainable Communities (Fall 2016)
Instructor: Cornelius A. Leary
Many communities are embracing sustainability as a goal of community development, giving weight to social equity, economic security and ecological integrity as they work to build the capacity of their residents to improve the quality of their lives. In this practicum course we will explore different visions for sustainable communities, learn the goals, history and tools of community development in the United States, and gain competencies in using community development tools for building sustainable communities. These competencies will be developed, and conceptual knowledge reinforced, through a community-based research project that brings students, instructor and community partners together in research that is both useful to the community of greater Carlisle and of educational value to students and instructor.
SUSTAINABILITY 490: Baird Honors Colloquim (Spring 2016)
Instructor: Cornelius Leary
Permission of Instructor Required. Students accepted into the Baird Sustainability Fellows program will explore questions about sustainability from a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives and build leadership and professional skills as agents of change. The specific assignments and content of the colloquium will be decided in concert with the admitted students. These may include conversations with invited scholars and practitioners, discussions of selected readings and public lectures, individual or collaborative projects, written essays, presentations of student research and service projects, student led class sessions, workshops, and field trips. Each student will create an electronic portfolio to document attainment of sustainability learning goals. The colloquium is a half-credit course that will meet for 90 minutes each week. Grading for the course will be credit/no credit. Students accepted into the Baird Sustainability Fellows program will explore questions about sustainability from a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives and build leadership and professional skills as agents of change. The specific assignments and content of the colloquium will be decided in concert with the admitted students. These may include conversations with invited scholars and practitioners, discussions of selected readings and public lectures, individual or collaborative projects, written essays, presentations of student research and service projects, student led class sessions, workshops, and field trips. Each student will create an electronic portfolio to document attainment of sustainability learning goals. The colloquium is a half-credit course that will meet for 90 minutes each week. Grading for the course will be credit/no credit.
THEATRE AND DANCE 214: Special Topics in Dance: Community Engagement and Artistic Citizenship (Spring 2015)
Instructor: Erin Crawley-Woods
Special Topics in Dance: Community Engagement and Artistic Citizenship is a project-based learning course in which students will seek answers to questions such as: How do the arts affect social change? How do we define community? How can we engage with our community through the arts? Why does it matter? Through theoretical discussion and hands-on scholarship-in-practice, students will examine not only the societal role of the arts, but what we can do as artists to be active local and global citizens.
WOMEN'S AND GENDER STUDIES 300: Topics in Women's and Gender Studies (Spring 2015)
Instructor: Amy C. Steinbugler/Lonna M. Malmsheimer
This course will focus on specialized topics within Women's Studies, such as women and creativity; women and film; health issues for women; global feminism; and feminist theologies.
Prerequisite: one WGST course.
WRITING PROGRAM 211: Writing and Wellness (Fall 2012)
Professor Noreen Lape
This course uses a variety of disciplinary lenses to examine the link between writing and physical, emotional, social, and intellectual wellness. Starting with the work of research psychologist James Pennebaker in the 1980s, a multitude of studies have since shown the connection between expressive writing and wellness. Through the lens of social science, we will read Pennebaker's seminal research as well as articles by researchers who have further developed the writing and wellness connection. Through the lens of humanities, we will read autobiography in which authors self-consciously use writing to heal and fiction that represents writing as a healing practice. Theory will lead to practice as you deepen your investigations through service-learning and writing-intensive activities. Working with new groups of Dickinson students, you will learn to facilitate expressive writing groups in which students write and talk about the transition to college in order to assist them in achieving social and intellectual wellness. At the same time, you will learn journaling as a method of examining the connection between writing and wellness in your own lives. And you will write academic essays that explore writing and healing as manifested in the primary, secondary, and experiential sources you encounter in the course.
WRITING PROGRAM 211-02: Topics in Expository Writing (Spring 2013)
Professor Claire Seiler
In his autobiographical Narrative, Frederick Douglass calls learning to read “the pathway from slavery to freedom.” Reading is a consequential act that involves us in social, political, and economic power structures. This writing intensive course examines the connections between literacy, liberty, power, and identity in (mostly) the United States in the 20th and 21st centuri