Upcoming Seminars
Fall 2009
ART HISTORY (to be counted as Honors fine arts)
“Images of Masculinity; Questions of Desire”, Dr. Simeon Hunter, W 6:20 (VISA H295 033)
Drawing on queer theory and feminist narratives of gender together with literary theories of pleasure and the production of meaning, this course will seek to encourage theorized analysis of the representation of masculinity in visual culture. Tropes of masculinity, scopophilia and surveillance, the policing and disruption of identities both of the viewer and their subjects and, perhaps most elusively, questions of desire will be considered. Examples will be drawn from a wide range of visual media dating from the 1950s to the present, from the paintings of Francis Bacon to the photographs of Wolfgang Tillmans, from Ull Edill’s dramatization of Last Exit to Brooklyn to David Soul’s theatrical work Jerry Springer the Opera. Both theoretical and visual materials may prove morally as well intellectually challenging to some students.
CHEMISTRY
“Radioactivity: Bombs, Energy, Medicine, and the Environment” Dr. Thorsten Schmidt, M 6:20 (CHEM H295 034)
We will discuss recent growth of interest in nuclear questions: Should we build more Nuclear Power Plants to defend our energy independence? Should we be worried about Nuclear Weapons countries like Iran develop? Is Nuclear Medicine the way to new health? Will we create a safe Environment using Yucca Mountain? These topics affect us yesterday, today and tomorrow and are related by creating, using, and emitting Radioactivity.
ENGLISH
“Ancient Epic”, Dr. William Cotton, MWF 12:30 (ENGL H295 033)
This course examines a number of classical epics, including the Iliad, Odyssey, and Æneid, and Beowulf. A great discovery of twentieth-century scholarship was the oral-formulaic composition of long narrative poems in primitive societies, whereby trained bards were able through a process of combined extemporization and memorization to create enormous verse narratives for public performance over a matter of days.The course is multicultural in two respects: geographical and chronological. The settings of the epics stretch from the Tigris/Euphrates River Valley to southern Scandinavia; the times go from the Third Millennium B.C.E., to possibly as late as the twelfth century C.E. Althoughthe epic works enshrined in college curricula are distinctively masculinist in focus--men fighting, men ruling, men voyaging, men enjoying close friendships--these poems have sufficient scope for strong female characters, mortal or divine.
"Capturing the Self, Interpreting Society" Dr. Janelle Schwartz, TR 3:30 (ENGL H295 034)
This course will be a comparative study of texts representative of interpreted realities, including novels, short fiction, drama, and Star Trek. Particular attention will be paid to the relationship between self and society, with an emphasis on how the modern self is constructed and explored through narrative technique. Readings may include works by Rushdie, Murakami, Coetzee, Kleist, Wolf, Kafka, Dunn, and Kantner.
LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES (will be counted as Honors history or literature)
“¡Revolution! Social Unrest in Guatemala and Iran in Literature and Film” Dr. Nathan Henne TR 2:00
We will focus on comparisons of literature and film between the Central American and Western Asian geographic regions with a special emphasis on Guatemala and Iran during the Marxist/indigenist and Islamic revolutions, respectively. Through novels, short stories and film we will engage in critical analysis of the specific revolutionary issues in these theaters and consider how the variety in the nuanced human element of political unrest changes the dynamics of revolution in three different stages: before it becomes violent, during the event itself and after the dust has settled.
PHILOSOPHY
“Interpreting Sex, Constructing Gender” Dr. Constance Mui, TR 11:00 (PHIL H295 033)
This course invites students to reexamine traditional notions about sex and gender. We will begin with a general survey of the problem of embodiment in Western philosophy, and then consider the works of Anne Fausto-Sterling, Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray, and other prominent theorists who question the conventional view that sex differences are biologically-based and are therefore natural. We will then explore related theories that challenge both the assumptions of sexual dimorphism and the acceptance of heteronormativity that such assumptions support. The second part of the course will begin with Simone de Beauvoir’s famous claim that "one is not born a woman", which gave way to a vast body of scholarship on the social construction of gender. We will examine many theories on this subject, including those taken from Butler (performative acts), Michel Foucault (disciplined bodies), Sandra Lee Bartky (alienated bodies), and Susan Bordo (the male body). Finally, we will consider Monique Wittig’s attempt to resist what she calls “the mark of gender” when she claims that lesbians are not women because they do not participate in the gender/class system of male/female.
“Freedom and the Self: Themes in Existentialism” Dr. Patrick Bourgeois, TR 9:30 (PHIL H295 034)
This course examines major philosophical themes in existentialism, such as freedom and responsibility, bad faith and authenticity, values and nihilism, anxiety and affirmation, despair and joy. Students will read the works of key proponents of the existentialist movement, including Kierkegaard, Marcel, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, and Ricoeur. The themes to be covered are designed to bring out the unique features of existentialism that set it apart from other philosophical movements, such as its emphasis on concrete human experience, its attempt to privilege subjectivity over rational truths, and its search for human meaning in the face of life’s many absurdities.
PHYSICS
“The Romance of Physics”, Dr. Carl Brans, TR 11:00 (PHYS H295 033)
Beginning with the 20th century, in an abrupt break with the physics of the human-scaled world, physics has opened the door onto some really weird, fascinating, and exciting aspects reality. With remarkable, but still limited, success, we can describe this world using two theories: Quantum Theory and General Relativity. Rather than trying to translate the language of these theories (mathematics) into natural language, we will talk about the world they describe, cautiously using metaphors, and similar techniques. The course will involve assigned readings and visuals, many extracted from recent science fiction.
RELIGIOUS STUDIES
“Art Experience and the Poetics of Devotion in India” Dr. Timothy Cahill, TR 9:30 (RELS H295 033)
The course will present Indian ideas on what it means to experience art, including religious aspects of such experience. The thousand-year development of an integrated theory of art and our experience of it will be the subject of the first half of the course. Testing our experience and understanding of art and the way emotions—particularly devotion— are conveyed through it will form the latter half. We will this aesthetic theory as a lens to evaluate films, poems and short stories from a wide variety of sources. Some questions to be addressed: Can art experience serve as a metaphor for knowing ultimately transcendent things? Can a well-defined poetics which organizes human emotions according to subjective hierarchies support a constructive theology? What is gained from organizing our subjective experiences of art?
Seminar Archives
Honors Seminars Spring 2009 (PDF)