Fall Semester 2002 Courses |
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| Anthropology |
Chemistry |
Chinese |
Comparative Literature | | English | Environmental Science | General Studies | Geology | | History | Mathematics | Physics | Political Science | Psychology | | Russian | Sociology | Southwest Studies | Spanish | | Studies in the Humanities | Women's Studies | See courses from 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2001, 2000 |
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The "First Course" is intended to provide a stimulating introduction to Colorado College, to enhance the research and writing skills important to academic success, and to reinforce excitement about learning, rigorous analysis and creative expression. First Courses include a substantial writing component and a research project. The seminar format and class size encourage active student involvement. The First Course also introduces students to the CC Library, the Writing Center, other academic support systems, and the Honor system. The courses are only a part of the first year; the entire first-year experience includes interaction with first-year peer advisors and student-organized events, such as speakers, films, performances, and workshops. The offices of Student Life, Residential Life and Community Service will work with first-year students throughout the academic year. Find out about picking courses with the point system. Winter Start Program Approximately 60 students (ten percent of the entering class) are expected to enter the freshman class in Spring 2002 as the first class in the winter start program. These students are free during the fall for work, travel, or off-campus study, and begin their studies in January. Click here for Spring 2003 courses. Anthropology Susan Carrese: AN 102 / 308 "Defining Culture: Boundaries in Anthropology And Literature" (1 unit of AP:B credit; 2 units of Social Science credit) This two-block course will explore the human propensity to seek cultural definition through identification of one’s own community and of ‘the other,’ thereby creating frontiers and boundaries in social relations. The modern university, too, has a propensity to classify knowledge and to impose disciplinary boundaries. Our aim is to examine social and cultural definitions as well as some of the various methods and classifications that have been used to understand such human phenomena. Students will be introduced to some of the basic concepts in cultural anthropology: kinship, tribe/nation, race/ethnicity, religion, and gender, among others, through texts that will be both ethnographic and literary, Western and non-Western. Our readings will begin with poems and parables to include the "veiled sentiments" of Bedouin women, Robert Frost’s "wall," and Plato’s "cave." Other readings will include Shakespeare’s Othello and two ethnographic novels, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and J.M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians. The methods, theory, and writing of anthropologists such as Bronsilaw Malinowski, E.E. Evan-Pritchard, Franz Boaz and Clifford Geertz will help to illuminate larger themes. Finally, we will examine the boundaries between anthropology and literature; indeed, our final project will be an experiment in ethnographic fieldwork and "writing culture." A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together, taught by one instructor. |
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Chemistry Nate Bower and Ted Lindeman: CH 113 / NS 109 "Art and Alchemy: Investigating the Origins of Chemistry" and "The Material World" (Fulfills the AP:A requirement; 2 units of Natural Science credit.) The first block of this course provides a topical and historical overview of some of the events of history that have led to the unifying principles of chemistry and its current view of reality. It also explores some of the historical, chemical, and archeological methods we use for rediscovering this past. Beginning with the development of ceramics, medicine, metallurgy and other "arts" coaxed from "Nature" starting before the bronze age and continuing into the industrial age, the complex interaction of "world views" and ideas about matter and energy as one culture encountered another will be explored through art, artifacts and experiment. Topics will range from early metallurgical practices to Galileo's theory of matter. Labs will include experiences such as trying to duplicate ancient recipes for pigments and perfumes while attempting to understand the reasoning behind the formulation. A focus on learning skills such as the use of electronic web resources, writing, and critical thinking is included. The first block is designed to prepare students for the discussion and content in block two:NS109, "The Material World." This course is a study of natural and synthetic materials, their properties at both the gross and the molecular level, their functions in living and engineered structures, and the environmental impacts of their use. This block will also consider such applications as human-powered vehicles, lasers, superconductors, medical prostheses, and other systems both familiar and exotic. A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together, with one instructor for each block. Prerequisite: At least one year of high school algebra. Sally Meyer: CH 107 / EV 121 "Basic Environmental Science: The Entropy Crisis" (2 units of Natural Science credit; 1 unit of Natural Science field/lab credit) This First Year Experience involves combining a Block of General Chemistry 107 and a block of Introduction to Environmental Science 121. The descriptions of these individual courses are given in the Colorado College : Catalog of Courses. By linking these two courses together we will be prepared to use the Chemistry we learn Block 1 to better learn about complex environmental issues Block 2. The catalog description of EV121 states "the complex interactions of the "biosphere", the human systems that make up the "sociosphere", and the Physical Earth systems that support them are considered". If you did not limit the topics covered this course could last an entire four years! This first year experience will limit the environmental topics to those that involve energy choices. We will use our Chemistry to understand some of the major concerns with burning fossil fuels, using nuclear energy, and other nonrenewable energy sources. The Chemistry of global warming, acid rain, and photochemical smog are just a few of the topics we will discuss. We will try to get an understanding of these issues in the broader context of the people and earth systems that are involved. We will take several local field trips to such places as a coal power plant, the National Renewable Energy Lab, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and the National Ice Core lab. The last week of the class we will focus on solutions. Students will do group projects on renewable energy technologies and the impact to the U.S. economy of a transition to renewable energy. This course is a unique opportunity to use Chemistry to understand Environmental problems. Students that need to take General Chemistry as a prerequisite for another major course or as part of a Chemistry major or prehealth professional program will benefit from this set of linked courses. We will have an opportunity to really understand how Chemistry is needed for an understanding of many other fields in science. A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together, with a single instructor. Prerequisite: Two years of high school algebra and one year of high school chemistry or consent of instructor. |
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Chinese Hong Jiang: CN 101 / CN 250 Chinese Language and Culture (Fulfills the AP:B requirement; 1 unit of language/Humanities credit and 1 unit of culture/Humanities credit; instructor: Hong Jiang) Language opens the door to culture. This course will pay attention to the relationship between Chinese language and culture, and word and image. The course begins with the study of Chinese language, with emphasis on basic grammar, speaking, and listening comprehension as well as mastery of some 250 Chinese characters for reading and writing (mainly in Block 1); the course then introduces students to how Chinese language and philosophical thinking transformed ways of life in the East and to the major forms of Chinese literature and art such as poetry, painting, calligraphy and traditional Chinese garden (mainly in Block 2). This is an introductory course which attempts to spark an interest in Chinese language and art and to lead students to study Chinese language and art in a broader social and cultural context. Students of this course can continue their language studies by enrolling in the second block of CN 101 Beginning Chinese in block 4 (2 units, Blocks 3 & 4); this two-block sequence (CN 101 in block 1 and in block 4) will fulfil the college’s language requirement. FYE Chinese language students are also expected to attend Professor Harrison Tu's class "Chinese Brushwork" in blocks 1 & 2 (which will meet once a week throughout the blocks) to get hand-on experience on Chinese calligraphy and painting. A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together, with a single instructor. |
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Comparative Literature Solomon Nkiwane and Ibrahima Wade: GS 234 / CO 200 "An Introduction to Africa: History, Politics, Literature and Culture These two blocks will provide a survey of African Cultures and Civilizations, and an introduction to the Literatures of Africa, in a two-block linked sequence. After a brief survey of African history, Block One will focus on politics, society and culture in Sub-Saharan Africa. Particular emphasis will be paid to issues of contemporary interest and concern. Some African states have been more successful than others in achieving political order and economic growth since independence in the 1960s and 1970s. What steps are currently being taken in the continent’s more troubled nations to reach these goals? Indeed these Issues and others will be explored and discussed within the frame of this course. Block Two will deal with many of these same issues and themes but from the perspectives of traditional and contemporary African writers from the continent’s several regions. African literature deals with a variety of themes amongst which we can discern the ever-present theme of Cultural Rehabilitation and Renaissance; Confrontations between indigenous traditions on the one hand and colonialism, Arabo-Islamization, Westernization and modernization on the other. The ideologies of Negritude, Pan-Africanism and the African Personality will also be studied in the novels, poems and drama of Anglophone and Francophone African writers. The class will include reading and discussion and we expect our students to do analytical writing. Final research projects will focus on issues and themes covered in the two blocks. A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together, with one instructor in each block. Owen Cramer, Corinne Scheiner, William Davis, and Regula Evitt: CO 100 "Introduction to Comparative Literature: Literary Metamorphoses" (AP:C -- meets either the AP:A requirement or the AP:B requirement; 2 units of Humanities credit) What is literature? What are genres? How should they be read, interpreted and evaluated? What social and personal functions does writing have? How is writing related to oral tradition? How do writers compare themselves to others (admiration and imitation, rejection, transformation)? Why are so many authors obsessed with the morphic qualities of the human and of language? As a First Year Experience with the theme of frontiers and boundaries, this course will treat literature as a venue for experiences of transformation and recognition such as Odysseus' return in Homer's Odyssey, Marie de France's self-discovery of the bestial human in the werewolf-self in Bisclavret, Dante's journey of self-judgment in Hell, Shakespeare's exploration of performative selves in The Taming of the Shrew, Blake's inquiry into the transposition of innocence and experience, Orlando's experience of gender morphing over time in Woolf's Orlando, and Gregor Samsa's awakening as a bug in Kafka's The Metamorphosis. As the texts above suggest, we will also look at the morphic capacity of genre itself. This course emphasizes close reading of literary texts as well as critical research, analysis, and writing. CO 100 fulfills the entry course requirement for the Comparative Literature major. A team-taught, two-block course. |
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English Dan Peddie: EN 221 / EN 280 "The Orders of Poetry: Introduction to Poetry & The Anglophone Epic Tradition" (2 units of Humanities credit; the EN 221 is one of the core requirements for the English major) Oh! Blessed rage for order ...Interpreting a poem means, among other things, discerning its principles of order -- the architecture of its argument, the syntax of its imagery, the patterning of its sounds, and the logic of its figurative language. The text becomes increasingly meaningful to us as we begin to grasp how these and other elements of organization work together to produce a unified reading. In many respects the conventions of poetry have been remarkably consistent since Antiquity, and yet if we are to believe the poets and poetic theorists themselves, the ideal of poetic order has not always and everywhere been the same. There are different orders of order in poetry, so to speak, and distinguishing among them will involve us from time to time in philosophic questions that go beyond strictly literary concerns. The objective of the first block will be to practice critical thinking, speaking, and writing in the presence of the text. After considering such fundamental "ordering" elements as line length, mode and genre, and open and closed verse-forms, we shall address the more technical issues of figurative language and prosody. The class will work together to produce readings of some of the finest shorter poems in English -- including a wide variety of works by women writers of the past three hundred years. Along the way we shall also examine a few celebrated documents of poetic theory. The written requirements of this unit will include three brief "close-reading" papers, as well as daily worksheet assignments to focus our discussion of the texts. The second block will apply these interpretive skills to an intensive study of how the Anglophone epic tradition has invoked figures of order at moments of profound social, political, and cultural crisis. We shall read epics by Spenser, Milton, Pound, and Walcott in excerpt, and Wordsworth's The Prelude in its entirety. Through peer review and library and Web work each student will develop a longer essay combining research with formalist textual analysis. A set of linked one-block courses with a single instructor. |
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Environmental Science Hillary Hamann and Phil Kannan: EV 121 / EV 120 "Scientific and Regulatory Approaches to Environmental Problems" (1 unit Natural Science without lab and 1 unit Social Science credit) These two linked blocks will explore the interdisciplinary nature of environmental issues and will apply concepts, methods and models from many disciplines to the major problems facing a sustainable management of the environment. During Block 1, Introduction to Environmental Science, students will explore key environmental problems of the 21st century, including human population, air and water pollution, deforestation, loss of biodiversity and global climate change. The course will review the science needed to help understand these problems—basics in ecology, geology, atmospheric and hydrologic processes—and will examine the power of science to mitigate them. We will also address the gap between the technical power of science and the political and social limitations on the implementation of science. This discussion will set the stage for Block 2 where the role of government and environmental regulations in bridging this gap will be studied. In Block 2, Environmental Protection and Property Rights: Competing Interests, students will consider role of regulations in protecting the environment. Regulating the use property owners can make of their land has emerged as a primary focus of environmental protection. For example, development of coastal land has been prohibited, commercial grazing permits on public land have been limited to accommodate the needs of wild burrows, and fencing of private rangeland has been prohibited to allow elk migration. While such regulations may be beneficial for the environment, they can cause economic harm to the property owner. This course will seek to understand both sides in this conflict and will search for principles that define the boundaries between permissible regulation for the public environmental benefit and the "taking" of the private property subject to the regulations. We will trace the history of this conflict from the chaotic lassie fare stage to present regulatory structure. Block 2 will be taught primarily by the case study method - students will be assigned court cases (opinions) each day. Early cases will show the environmental harm that resulted from individuals pursuing their own self-interest in an unregulated society and the powerlessness of that society to prevent environmental degradation. Later cases will introduce governmental structure that, as a means to protect the environment, limits individuals’ freedom to use property. By comparing cases in which the regulation has been held to be so severe as to be a taking of private property with cases in which the regulation was judged to be a proper exercise of governmental authority, we try to understand the uncertain boundaries in this conflict. In addition to cases, we will read articles, laws, and regulations. A linked set of one-block courses that must be taken together, with one instructor for each block. |
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General Studies Bill Davis, Director: GS 101 "Freedom & Authority" (Fulfills the AP:A requirement; 2 units of general college credit) This coming academic year will be the 50th anniversary of "Freedom and Authority," the first interdisciplinary course at Colorado College. The course focuses on the conflict between individual freedom and the limits imposed on this freedom by governments, religions, other individuals, and social groups. As an interdisciplinary course, it studies literary, philosophical, religious, historical, and scientific texts in a thematic context, focusing on four main themes: personal authority, social authority, political authority, and religious authority. Behind all of these themes are questions such as: What constitutes personal identity? How does the individual relate to the group? How do authority and power work to constrain and mold individuals? How do sources of authority legitimate themselves? Through reading, writing, discussion, and critical thinking students and faculty will grapple with these questions central to the human condition. A two-block course with one instructor in each block; one grade will be given for the course as a whole (for both blocks together). Section One will have one professor each block, while Sections Two and Three will be team-taught both blocks. Section OneKeith Kester: GS 204 "Spirit and Nature: Religion and Science" (Fulfills the AP:A requirement; 1 unit of Humanities credit and 1 unit of non-laboratory Natural Science credit) Both science and religion seek meaning in the cultural and natural worlds. Both seek to tease order out of chaos, understanding out of confusion. Both have to take seriously things that "don't fit." This course will explore the ways in which scientific and religious communities have developed theories of knowledge, cosmological systems of meaning, and a common creation story. The course will look at the development of the theory of evolution through the eyes of Charles Darwin and his voyage on the Beagle; explore faith and the plurality of religions through Paul Tillich’s Dynamics of Faith and Diana Eck’s Encountering God; consider The Sacred Depths of Nature with Ursula Goodenough; share E. O.. Wilson’s concerns about Conserving Earth’s Biodiversity, reflect on human-human and human-nature interactions and the nature of evil with the aid of Rosemary Ruether’s Gaia and God; and experience different religious communities and the nature poetry of A. R. Ammons. There will be field projects in bio-diversity, the geologic history of the Garden of the Gods, and the teaching of science and religion in Colorado Springs public and private schools. A two-block, single-instructor course. Lisa Hughes: GS 202 / WS 206 "Women on the Edge: Boundaries in the Ancient World Click here for course homepage What happens when a boatload of Greece's finest specimens of masculinity, bound for the edges of the earth, land on an island in habited only by females, who had killed all their husbands and are running things themselves? In this introduction to the study of gender in Greek and Roman antiquity you will discover the wealth of resources that the ancient world provides in tackling complex modern questions. The theme of "Boundaries and Frontiers" will guide our readings. Beginning with the myth of the Voyage of the Argo we will investigate the earliest framings of the questions of boundaries. What are they? Are they natural or constructed? Are the consequences of challenging them positive or negative? In myth the idea of the geographical boundary is closely associated with the physical and conceptual boundaries that distinguish the lives of men and women. Space itself is gendered, and there are masculine spaces, and feminine spaces. What happens when this boundary is transgressed? The many boundary questions we will consider include lines between city-states and countries, what constitutes sacred space for the Greeks and the Romans? and how is the sanctity observed? On a more personal level, we will consider private life, and the significance of the domestic threshold, marriage, and puberty rituals for males and females. Who creates the boundaries, and what power does that provide? In the second block we will continue to read the ancient texts–literary, historical, religious, political and medical, shifting our emphasis to the Romans, and their responses to the Greeks. As the questions progress from the global to the personal, we are challenged to consider the boundaries that constrain our own political, social, and domestic lives. Now you will begin to work independently on an issue of particular interest to you. You will use some aspect of the ancient world as a paradigm against which to study how some problem is played out in other cultures, especially our own. In a research paper you will begin to investigate this problem, which may not have arisen yet, as you read this, or may not have attained the full form you will address. A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together, with a single instructor. |
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Geology Jeff Noblett: GY 140 / GY 150 / EV 150 "The Earth System: Patterns and Perspectives" (2 units of Natural Science Lab credit) This course will examine the scientific perspective on the Earth System from order (atomic structure) through chaotic behavior (weather, El Nino, earthquake prediction). Interwoven through this scientific theme will be the question raised from the perspective of ecofeminists of what our connection to place (Earth) consists of. This journey begins with personal feeling (chaos!) and continues towards patterns of human perspectives on the Earth (order?). We will examine the Earth System with the tools of a geologist, from the atomic-scale order of crystal structures through the larger subsystems of lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere, with some acknowledgment of the biosphere. Emphasis will be on learning to recognize minerals, rocks and fossils in outcrops; to observe and interpret combinations of these to reveal ancient environments; to record this data on maps; to unravel folds and faults which change these patterns. After understanding the lithosphere in some detail, the course will review patterns found in the other three subsystems of the Earth, aspects of which behave in chaotic manners. This course will also include discussion of issues in environmental geology such as earth catastrophes, mineral and energy resources, and human-induced problems. Throughout this examination, the course will pursue questions raised by ecofeminists and other critics of traditional science concerning the place of humans in this system. What is environmental racism? How could Native American perspectives change our approaches? What perspectives do we bring to science and how do these perspectives limit our understanding of solutions to environmental issues? A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together, with a single instructor. |
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History Carol Neel: HY 105 "Civilization in the West" (Fulfills the AP:A requirement; 2 units of Social Science credit) This course treats the Western past by emphasizing what we have NOT become-the ways in which the past was deeply different from the modern world by which our imaginations are bounded. Drawing heavily from primary texts and images-works created by people who lived long ago, not works written or crafted by moderns about the people of the past-it asks students to grapple with the ways in which others have invested meaning and beauty in their lives. Sources for Mediterranean antiquity will include Gilgamesh, elements of the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian gospels, and works of classical Greek and Roman mythology and philosophy. Medieval readings will treat visionary experience and secular love, works such as Hildegard’s Scivias and the Lais of Marie de France, along with chronicles and cathedrals--that is architecture and glass expressing and eliciting an emotional connection to the divine. As we turn to consideration of the development of modernity, course participants will encounter historical popular culture in works like The Return of Martin Guerre, novels (among which Flaubert’s Madame Bovary), and film as pathways, again, to seeing in their own terms what was important, inspiring, and disturbing to the people of the past. A two-block course taught by one instructor. Bryan Rommel-Ruiz and Peter Blasenheim: HY 105 "Western Civilization: The Atlantic World" (Fulfills the AP:A requirement; 2 units of Social Science credit) When people study Western Civilization, they often look to the past to see how the societies of the Atlantic World continue to practice the classical and medieval traditions of the Mediterranean and Northern Europe—and how they don’t. This course challenges us to think about this question from a trans-Atlantic perspective. We begin with the rise of the Roman Republic circa 300 B.C.E—spectacle, slaves, gladiators and human sacrifice. How did the Romans define themselves vis-à-vis the peoples they conquered and incorporated into their Empire? And what about medieval Europeans—particularly the English, the Spanish and the Portuguese who eventually carried their civilizations across the Atlantic Ocean? We will then cross the Atlantic and look at the Aztecs and what spectacle, slaves and human sacrifice meant to them. Next we will focus on Portugal in the Age of Discovery, its contact with the Kingdom of Kongo in Africa and the origins of the Atlantic slave trade and then on Spain and England in the new world. Finally, we will compare and contrast specific aspects of Argentine, Brazilian and North American history and culture: race, class, gender, economics and politics. A two-block course, with one instructor in each block. Robert McJimsey and Dennis Showalter: HY 105 "Civilization in the West (Fulfills the AP:A requirement, 2 units of Social Science credit) This course surveys European history from the ancient to the contemporary world. Reading and writing assignments will focus upon problems based upon the study and analysis of contemporary writings. For example: What did Martin Luther mean by "liberty" when we composed this tract in 1520? Christian faith has appeared to many an easy thing; nay, not a few even reckon it among the social virtues, as it were; and this they do because they have not made proof of it experimentally, and have never tasted of what efficacy it is. For it is not possible for any man to write well about it, or to understand well what is rightly written, who has not at some time tasted of its spirit, under the pressure of tribulation; while he who has tasted of it, even to a very small extent, can never write, speak, think, or hear about it sufficiently. For it is a living fountain, springing up into eternal life, as Christ calls it in John iv. Milton, Concerning Christian Liberty How has Luther joined together a personal exploration of faith with a doctrine that will fuel the Protestant Reformation? Class meetings will explore such questions and students will compose essays addressing this and other central topics in western civilization. In addition to Luther and the Reformation other topics include Greek Democracy, Roman Republican values, Religious authority in the Middle Ages, the Scientific Revolution, The French Revolution, Marxism, Imperialism and modern warfare and the rise of the national state. Writing assignments will feature the presentation and discussion of essays in a tutorial format with the instructor and one or two other students. A two-block course, with one instructor in each block. |
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Mathematics Marlow Anderson, Jonathan Bredin and Peter Staab: NS 150 / MA 221 "Chaos and Computing" (2 units of Natural Science credit) In this course we will examine some of the exciting mathematical and scientific developments in the study of chaotic systems. Woven in with the chaos will be a full course in Computer Science. Our goal in this course is to study the mathematical meaning of chaos, and how we can find order within it. This order is often captured by the beautiful graphs known as fractals. During the two blocks of the course, we will use techniques from computer science and mathematics to create and analyze many examples of fractals, employing concepts such as iterated function systems, fractal dimension, bifurcation diagrams and sizes of infinity. The computational material of the course will be supplemented by plays, films, short stories, and guest appearances by faculty from other disciplines. The fundamental idea that generates chaotic systems is iteration, and so it will be natural for us to study the fundamentals of computer science, while inquiring into chaos, and graphically representing it on the computer screen. The course introduces the design of algorithms, data structures and computer programs, using the computer language JAVA. By the end of the two blocks, students will have completed the first course at Colorado College in computer science. Some previous programming experience is helpful, but not required. A team-taught, two-block course, with professors Anderson and Bredin in the first block, and professors Anderson and Staab in the second block. Jane McDougall and Kathy Merrill: NS 150 / MA 127 "Chaos and Calculus" (2 units of Natural Science credit) In this course we will examine some of the exciting mathematical and scientific developments in the study of chaotic systems. Woven in with the chaos will be a review of the major concepts and techniques of first year differential and integral calculus. Our goal in this course is to study the mathematical meaning of chaos, and how we can find order within it. This order is often captured by the beautiful graphs known as fractals. During the two blocks of the course, we will use mathematical techniques to create and analyze many examples of fractals, employing concepts such as iterated function systems, fractal dimension, bifurcation diagrams and sizes of infinity. The mathematical material of the course will be supplemented by plays, films, short stories, and guest appearances by faculty from other disciplines. Because calculus offers explanations of both change and accumulated effects, it provides a useful tool in understanding how chaotic systems develop and evolve. In this course, we will review first-year calculus topics within the framework of our study of chaos. This review will cover the definitions of both derivative and integral, methods of differentiation and integration, applications such as max/min problems and volumes of revolution, and a brief introduction to differential equations and infinite series. The pace will be appropriate for students who have mastered most of these calculus topics in a full-year high school calculus course, but would like to review and fill any gaps in their background before going on. After completing this course, students will be prepared to take Calculus III at Colorado College, if they choose to do so. A two-block course, with one instructor in each block. Prerequisite: One year of high school calculus. |
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Physics Barbara Whitten: PC 123 / 124 "Revolutions in Physics: The Copernican Revolution and Relativity" (2 units of Natural Science credit; fulfills the Lab and AP:A requirement) 'Tis all in pieces, all cohaerence gone;In 1543 Copernicus took the earth from its central position in the world and replaced it with the sun. By 1611 Galileo had turned his telescope to the heavens and found them as changeable and imperfect as the earth. Because the structure of the universe was intimately woven together with religion and social structure, these changes in the physical world shook the foundations of our relations with each other and with God. John Donne's poetic response illustrates the disorientation of losing your place in the world. Just what was the world in 1611, and how was it changing? We read from Plato, Copernicus, Galileo and Newton to sample the way thinkers have thought about the heavens from the ancient Greeks to the Eighteenth Century. We read Donne and others to sample the cultural response to the Scientific Revolution. We also repeat experiments and astronomical observations (with CC's 16" telescope) on which these models of the solar system were based. Newton's mechanical universe, with its particles moving through a Euclidian three dimensional space, exerting forces on each other, and marking time with a universal clock, dominated physical thought for more than two centuries. However, early in the Twentieth Century questions about the propagation of light spurred Einstein to revise our ideas of space and time radically. In his theory, moving clocks tick slower than stationary clocks, and moving objects measure short, at least in their direction of motion. Weirder yet, moving sets of clocks cannot be synchronized to the satisfaction of all observers. How can we possibly believe such things? If we can accept this, what else can we, or must we, accept? We read from Einstein, Picasso, Woolf and others to learn the elements of the theory of relativity and the relation of the theory to its cultural context, especially Art and Literature. A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together, with a single instructor. Henceforth space by itself, and time by itself, |
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Political Science Lief Carter: PS 101 "What is Politics?" and PS 296 "Politics of the Legal Process" (2 units of Social Science credit) Click here for course homepage And so, to the end of history, murder shall breed murder, always in the name of right and honor and peace, until the gods are tired of blood and create a race that can understand.PS 101 officially serves as an introduction to the Political Science major. It explores political power (e.g., force and coercion) and influence (e.g., rhetoric and other forms of persuasion), and contrasts both of these to economic processes of social organization. PS 296 introduces the nature of legality and legal reasoning. Power is the rawest and most primitive form of imposing social order. Influence and then law serve as successive ‘civilizing’ steps toward more effective and peaceful forms of social ordering. These linked courses provide a good introduction to the perennial problem of social chaos and to the solutions that liberal thought in Western Civilization has thus far offered for that problem. Obviously the gods have not yet managed to "create a race that can understand." A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together, with a single instructor. Eve Grace: PS 103 "Western Political Traditions" (Fulfills the AP:A requirement; 2 units of Social Science Credit) This course asks students to reflect upon and engage the claims of political and moral orders which guide not only our communities, but inform our private lives. Among the primary questions we will raise: What is the nature and foundation of political rule? What is the basis, character, and extent of our public and private concern for such principles as justice, equality, and freedom? What might we mean by them? Are they informed or supported by an account of "human nature?" Is there such a nature and can we determine what it is? How do we go about accounting for and defending our political and moral values? What is the relation between politics and principle? Stress is placed on situating students in the midst of controversy among a variety of basic but competing perspectives. Students will consider whether and how these questions affect not only "politics" but their own lives. This course fulfills the entry requirements for Political Science, History/Political Science, and Classics/History/Politics. A two-block course taught by one instructor. |
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Psychology Carole Martin and Tricia Waters: PY 100 / PY 116 "An Introduction to Psychology in Western and Non-Western Settings" (2 units of natural science credit; one unit of which receives a natural science lab credit). These two linked blocks will provide an exploration of universals and individual differences in human behavior. Students will discover that through a process of systematic observation and analysis, behavior that may have at first appear chaotic or impenetrable assumes meaning and order. The first block provides an overview of psychological science from biobehavioral and sociobehavioral perspectives. Topics include the brain, perception, learning, intelligence, development, abnormal behavior, motivation and social behavior. This course provides an introduction to methods of scientific inquiry and ways in which research findings are applied in contemporary society. Students will participate in labs that elucidate the course content. This course fulfills the entry requirement for the psychology major. The second block, Introduction to Cultural Psychology, will examine cultural variation in psychological phenomena. The course will emphasize cross-cultural continuities and differences in normal developmental processes (e.g., attachment, socialization, schooling, intellectual and cognitive development) and explore cultural variation in the definition and expression of clinical phenomena. Students will study quantitative and qualitative/ethnographic approaches to research in non-western settings A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together, with one instructor in each block. Cathey Weir and Tomi-Ann Roberts: PY 111 "Introduction to Psychology: General Laws and Individual Differences" (2 units of Natural Science credit, 1 unit of which is also Natural Science Lab credit) "All people are the same; only their habits differ."PY 111 is an introduction to academic psychology. Two major views of the scientific study of behavior and experience will be explored by studying original readings by researchers whose main effort is either (1) to make generalizations about average performance of people, or (2) to find out sources of individual differences between them. One topic is perceptual development, especially how our visual system works and is affected by early experience, and also how we learn to recognize speech. Another topic is social psychology where researchers have attempted to understand the conditions under which conformity and prejudice occur. Some readings will examine answers to nature/nurture questions by allocating genetic and environmental causes for cognition (like intelligence test scores), gender roles, and personality (like extraversion and neuroticism). This is a laboratory course and students will participate in laboratories including speech recognition, animal conditioning, memory, and emotional expression. The course will emphasize the way that academic psychologists do research in an effort to impose order on the seeming chaos of human behavior. This course fulfills the entry requirement for the Psychology major. A two-block course with one instructor in each block; one grade will be given for the course as a whole (for both blocks together). |
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Russian Alexei Pavlenko and David Finley: RS 200 / RU 256 : "Russians and Americans: Visions of Order" (1 unit of AP:B; 1 unit of Humanities credit and 1 unit of Social Science credit) Two competing ways of organizing modern society preoccupied the second half of 20th century global politics: democratic capitalism as epitomized by the United States, and Leninist socialism as epitomized by the Soviet Union. Each concept was an effort to provide for domestic order conducive to a good society. Each also produced a vision of a good global order based on the projection of its own principles abroad. The result was monumental competition and conflict, the "Cold War," which engrossed most of the world. In our course we will look at the nature of Russian and American perceptions of self and the other. We will focus on the defining ideological struggles as expressed in the literature and politics of the respective cultures. We will also examine the Cold War and its legacy for international order or chaos today. Block 1 will explore Russia's national consciousness as revealed through the medium of Russian literature from the 19th century to the present. Block 2 will focus on Americans' self-image and image of Russia, through the history of Cold War conflict and the subsequent decade of post-Cold War relations. A two-block course with one instructor in each block; separate grades given for each block. |
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Sociology Gail Murphy-Geiss: SO 100 / 235 "Family and Social Change" (1 unit of AP:B credit; 2 units of Social Science credit) This course will look at family structures and relationships over time and across cultures, with continued focus on the wider social contexts, especially industrialization, feminism, race, class, sexual orientation and technology. What is family? How have our definitions changed? What social factors influence those changes? What are the current issues related to family and what lies ahead? Is the family in decline or undergoing social change? Which of these–decline or change–translates to chaos and which to order? The first block will explore sociological thinking in general, including basic theory, methods, and an introduction to the terminology and themes in the field. The goal will be to provide the tools and set the context for deeper sociological analysis. The second block will focus specifically on sociology of family. Assignments will include classic and contemporary readings, debates over controversial issues, as well as research into local family service organizations. This course fulfills the "Thinking Sociologically" requirement for sociology majors. A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together, with a single instructor. |
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Southwest Studies Victoria Levine and Susan Scarberry-Garcia: SW 175 "The American Southwest" (Fulfills the AP:B requirement) 
"The American Southwest" Introduces diverse perspectives on the region's histories, peoples, and cultures through an interdisciplinary and intercultural approach. The course asks how people construct and articulate a sense of place, and explores the implications of this for the relationships people develop between themselves, the environment, and others. Block 1 focuses on Pueblo and Athabascan peoples, while Block 2 focuses on Spanish New Mexicans and Texas Mexicans. Local field trips and a four-day trip to southern Colorado and northern New Mexico provide opportunities for experiential and reflective learning. A team-taught, two-block course.
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Spanish Brigitta Alkofer and Marie Daniels: SP 201 "Hispanic Language and Culture" (Fulfills the College’s language requirement and provides 2 united of language credit towards entry into the Hispanic Studies or Romance Languages major or the Spanish, Romance Languages, Central American Studies, Latin American Studies or Mexico Today minor) This course will help students with previous Spanish experience to achieve proficiency in the language, and also introduce them to the diversity of cultures of the Spanish-speaking world. In a favorable, non-threatening environment (in which Spanish is the only language heard and spoken) we will practice all four language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Through texts, videos and movies, students will experience the rich culture(s) of the Hispanic World. In addition to the language, we will ground topics like the history of Spain and Latin America (Pre-columbian cultures, the Conquest, colonial times, independence, revolution and democratic movements), the Arts (music, dance, literature, painting), significant individuals (Frida Kahlo, Gabriel García Márquez, Pablo Neruda), daily life in Latin America and Spain (food, traditions, religion, challenges and problems), geography (differences between Europe, the Caribbean, Central America and South America) and politics (the quest for independence, revolutions and military coups, dictatorships, abuse of human rights). We will particularly focus on Mexico and Mexican Americans living in the United States. A two-block course, with one instructor in each block. Prerequisite: At least 3 years of high school Spanish or equivalent. |
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Studies in the Humanities Marie Daniels, Michael Grace, Jane Hilberry, Edith Kirsch, Bob McJimsey, Dick Hilt: HS 120 Renaissance Culture (3 blocks) (Fulfills the AP:A requirement; A team-taught, THREE-block course with 3 units of Humanities credit) Click here for full description Block One: "Vision and Self: The Renaissance Eye/I" Edith Kirsch (Art History), Maria Daniels (Spanish) Click here for course homepage Block One of Renaissance Culture examines the re-ordering of European culture through the lens of classical art and literature in Italy from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries. In literature, we study the works of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Castiglione and Machiavelli and the impact of their ideas on such fundamental issues as the authority of classical antiquity, the "chaos" of the Middle Ages, the imitation of nature, and the power and meaning of love (as grounded in the writing of Plato). We also examine the work of visual artists who, like their literary counterparts, expressed and at the same time gave shape to the principles of the Italian Renaissance. These artists include Giotto, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Block Two: "The Evolution of the Creative Artist" Michael Grace (Music), Jane Hilberry (English) In Block Two of Renaissance Culture, we will explore twin issues in the development and representation of the creative artist during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. First, we will look at the way that innovation in the arts, particularly music, was often perceived as threatening to disrupt the established (and God-given) order. We will consider such innovation in the musical compositions of Leonin, Guillaume de Machaut, Josquin des Pres and Claudio Monteverdi. Secondly, we will examine the way artist-figures within literary texts (characters such as Walter in Chaucer's Clerk's Tale and the Duke in Measure for Measure) seek to order their "materials" -- the people and events taking shape around them -- and the way those materials resist shaping. In both cases, art is seen to arise from the fruitful tension between the forces of order and chaos (or tradition and innovation, control and resistance). Block Three: "Revolution or Reform: How Shall the World Be Ordered" Robert McJimsey (History), Dick Hilt (Physics) This block examines those writers who kept alive the traditions of Humanist thought and criticism. Criticism of the established order was especially sharp during the Renaissance. The Reformation, the Wars of Religion and the expansion of Europe overseas demonstrate the conflict and chaos of transition to new ways to view the world and our relationships with it and with each other. Michael Grace, Tom Lindblade, Dave Mason, Gale Murray: HS 180 Revolution in the Arts (2 units of Humanities credit) When major changes occur in the arts, often the new genres, styles and media at first seem chaotic to audiences, viewers, and readers; only the older arts are judged to be rational and ordered. Human sensibilities have, however, proven remarkably adaptable to new aesthetic ideas. And it is this adaptability, manifest in a desire to find order in apparent chaos, that has allowed the arts in the western world to progress. During periods of profound societal change and ruptures with tradition the artist has often been the first to express new values which define the individual's place in a changing world. This course will examine periods of artistic revolution in four media - the visual arts and music in Block 1, drama and literature in Block 2. The periods of change that will be examined are: 1) the emergence of Romanticism in the 19th century from the18th-century Enlightenment; 2) the dawn of Modernism in the mid to later 19th century; 3) the growth of modern arts in the first half of the 20th century. A team-taught, two-block course. Block 1 Michael Grace (music) and Gale Murray (art) - Study of three revolutionary periods in art and music: the emergence of a new romantic aesthetic in reaction to the rational balance of form and feeling in the 18th century; the transformation of 19th-century Romanticism into the pre-modern movements of Realism, Impressionism and Symbolism; the growth of modern art and music under the banners of Expressionism, Cubism and Surrealism. Block 2 Lindblade (Drama/Dance) and David Mason (English) -- Study of three revolutionary moments in literature: the Enlightenment revolution of satire and humor; the Romantic revolution of self and identity; and the Modernist revolution of perspective and form. Several genres will be considered in light of these great changes in culture and consciousness. |
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Women's Studies Eileen Bresnahan and Tonja Olive: WS 110 / WS/HS 118 "Sex and Power: An Introduction to Gender’s Role in Shaping Self and Society" (One unit of General Studies credit, one unit of Humanities credit; one unit of AP:B credit.) In all human societies, gender is an important organizing principle, shaping some of the frontiers and boundaries that each of us confronts everyday, as individuals and as a member of various social groups. These two linked courses will introduce students to some of the scholarship, the theories, and the debates that presently surround the attempt to understand gender, both in its present-day expressions and as historically organized. We will explore the ways in which gender forms an important aspect of our social existence as specific, embodied people living in a diverse social world, as well as how gender expresses and interacts with larger social, ideological, and cultural structures to produce normative regimes with which all of us constantly contend. The first block course, Introduction to Women’s Studies, will provide students with the critical thinking skills and beginning information necessary to start to engage with the thorough-going and rigorous critique which feminism offers of human social organization. By its nature, feminism’s social vision is radical, meaning that it seeks to "go to the root" of the deep structures of organization that create and keep in place women’s social subordination. The pursuit of this vision is both intellectually and psychologically demanding, requiring careful study as well as a willingness to "think outside the box" in ways that students may, at least initially, find frightening and even threatening. However, the "pay off"–for those who diligently persevere–is the potential to achieve a transformed, liberatory vision of self and social life. The second course, Gender and Communication, will examine the central role of communication in the shaping and development of gender and sex. The course operates from the position that what we know as reality is constructed, consciously and unconsciously within a system of power, through our society's use of a shared verbal and nonverbal symbol system. Students will examine different communication contexts and their role in the construction of gender, including family, education and organizational communication; public communication about gender in the media; and the personal and cultural ramifications of miscommunication. A set of linked courses that must be taken together, with one instructor each block; separate grades given for each block. |
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Spring 2003 First Year Experience Courses Biology and History Liz Feder and Lamont Anderson: BY 107 / HY 200 "The Human Response to Infectious Disease" (1 unit of Natural Science Lab credit; 1 unit of Social Science credit) This course will explore interdisciplinary approaches to the concept of disease, with special emphasis on infectious diseases. It is designed to help students understand different ‘ways of knowing’ and to challenge the boundaries between "science and non-science." The second block seeks to provide students with the historical knowledge necessary for understanding contemporary responses to disease. Although we will study the development of specific medical ideas and techniques, our primary focus will be on investigating medicine as a complex social and cultural phenomenon. In particular, this class explores how powerful factors such as class, race, and gender shape both understandings of disease and the practice of medicine. As we shall see, diseases like cholera, tuberculosis, and AIDS are rarely understood in purely biological terms, but are also interpreted according to implicit or explicit cultural codes. Medicine, as practiced in laboratories, clinics, and hospitals, similarly is shaped by a range of "external" intellectual, cultural, and political influences. Among the central problems that will be considered throughout the block are: the variable meanings of illness, health, and disease; individual versus community rights in relation to disease control; the role of the state in caring for individual and public health; the rise of professional and scientific medicine; the role of race, gender, sexuality, and class in framing attitudes toward disease and the treatment of sick people. A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together with one instructor in each block; separate grades will be given for each block. For students considering Biology, Biochemistry or Neuroscience as a major, BY 107 serves as a prerequisite for the required course BY 210, Cell Biology. Comparative Literature Alberto Hernandez: CO 118 "The Juncture of Ethics and Aesthetics" (Fulfills the AP:A requirement; 2 units of Humanities credit) Since very early in the history of our Western philosophical tradition and up to the present, the beautiful has often been debated in terms of its connection with the good. Aesthetics, the discipline that occupies itself with issues of art and beauty, can be considered a privileged arena on which to probe ethical questions. Does appreciation of the beautiful make us morally better individuals? Must art be beautiful? The juncture between ethics and aesthetics is a fertile ground for students beginning a liberal arts education. In addition to sharpening their awareness of the fact that even such intimate feelings as the aesthetic experience are theoretically constructed, students will be encouraged to articulate different approaches to account for the artistic phenomenon. An important connection between things personal and things political will come to the fore. A two-block, discussion-based, single-instructor course. History Joy Hall: HY 105 "Civilization in the West" (Fulfills the AP:A requirement; 2 units of Social Science credit) The goal of this course is to try to make sense of the great sweep of "western" history from the most ancient times to the present. This may seem a daunting task, but we will structure our exploration by focusing, in the first block, on several of the most important and fundamental texts of the ancient world. Thus, we gain insight into how formative cultures of the Near East interpreted and ordered their world, then clashed and melded to form the great empires of classical Graeco-Roman civilization. In turn, new challenge fashioned a Mediterranean-centered medieval world out of the demise of antiquity. The major topics of our first block together include creativity, confrontation, religion, and power structures. In the second block, we will momentarily narrow our focus to Europe with the Renaissance and Reformation, only to broaden it again as European culture extends into much of the world in early modernity. You will have many opportunities to engage in close reading and discussion of primary literary and philosophical texts, as well as to explore films and research projects, in both blocks. The texts range from the Bible and ancient classics to thinkers such as Luther, Marx, and Nietzsche. We will delve into fundamental questions about belief and power, class, national differentiation and conflict. This course fulfills the entry requirement for the History, History/Political Science and Classics/History/Politics majors. A two-block course taught by one instructor. Music Ofer Ben-Amots and Daniel Raffin: MU 228 / AS 110 "Music and Movies: The Order and Chaos of Temporal Arts" (2 units of Humanities credit) The first block focuses on music. The very essence of music is creating order from the chaos of natural sound. The development of instruments, notation methods and systems of tuning enables the musician to control timbres and to organize them according to refined musical concepts. The past one thousand years have witnessed the dramatic development of Western art music, from its monophonic origins in Gregorian chant through the intricate forms of polyphony cultivated in the sixteenth century, and up to the complex and conceptual music of the twentieth century. In the first block, the course will trace the changes in musical style throughout the millennium, with emphasis on the creative use of chaos and order by 20th century composers. In addition, we will examine the special connection between music and literature in genres like song, lied, and opera. The second block focuses on art. We take for granted the complex multimedia of the present: moving images and sound are fused in seamless events of great emotive and communicative power. But this seemingly given world is in fact elaborately constructed of fragments and the refinement of it only recent. There was much debate over its significance at its emergence at the beginning of the 20th century and it continues to be questioned by various artists and thinkers. This course will examine the history and theory of the combination of moving images and sound. We will look into the genesis of multimedia and the motives for its creation, the debates over its merit, and the future of such ventures. We will also explore the structure of image/sound relations through analysis of examples and the creation of short films using the computer. A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together, with one instructor in each block. Southwest Studies Doug Monroy:: SW 200 "The American Southwest" (Fulfills the AP:B requirement) "The American Southwest" introduces the region's histories, peoples, and cultures through an multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural approach. The course has several themes: constructions of ideas about ethnicity, identity, and gender; matters of truth in fiction and the social sciences; law and social justice; the causes and consequences of immigration in the greater Southwest; the complexities of tourism; the politics and aesthetics of various artistic expressions from pottery and jewelry to oil painting. Block 1 will introduce students to the several cultures of the Southwest and explores Native and Mexican American culture and identity. Matters of war and peace, and how each group has formed ideas about the others will be emphasized. Block 2 focuses on history and how history has been reflected in the arts, and on the current controversies in the United States and Mexico over immigration. The overall goals of the course will be to introduce students to the primary culture groups of the region; the most prominent writers and artists; pre-modern, modern, and post-modern epistemologies; historical outlines; and to introduce students to literary, historical, and aesthetic interpretation. Local field trips and a four-day trip to New Mexico will provide opportunities for experiential learning. This course fulfills the entry requirement for the Southwest Studies LAS major and thematic minor. A two-block course, with one instructor. |
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The Point System for Bidding on Courses at Pre-registration Students pre-register for the following year's courses during the Spring semester. Each student receives 10 points per block and a total of 80 points to bid on their courses during pre-registration. Every student has the same number of points to work with. This allows every student to have the same chance to bid on a course. If the number of points bid on a course does not lead to the enrollment of the student in the class, the student will be placed on the waiting list for the class. Things to remember about the point system and pre-registration:
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