Fall Semester 2007 Courses |
| | Anthropology | Asian
Studies | Biology | Chemistry
| | Classics |Comparative Literature | Drama/Dance | Economics | English | Environmental Science | Feminist & Gender Studies | Film Studies | French | General Studies | Geology | History | Mathematics | Music | Philosophy | Political Science | Religion | Sociology | | Studies in the Humanities | See courses from 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000 |
|
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 Learning Commons , 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 FYE mentors and student-organized events, such as speakers, films, performances, and workshops. The offices of Student Life, Residential Life and Center for Service and Learning will work with first-year students throughout the academic year. Find out about picking courses with the point system. Winter Start Program Approximately 30 students are expected to enter the freshman class in Spring 2008. These students are free during the fall for work, travel, or off-campus study, and begin their studies in January. Although it will not be required, winter start students will be encouraged to stay for the college’s impressive Summer Session so that they can start the following fall with sophomore standing. Click here for Spring 2008 courses and to read more on the program from our admissions office. Anthropology Anthropology: AN208/CS185/SW200 & FG210/CS212 Blocks I: Mario Montaño & Laura Padilla, AN208/CS185/SW200, Introduction to American Cultural Studies Block II: Mario Montaño & Laura Padilla, FG210/CS212, Race, Class, and Gender These team-taught, linked one block courses will explore the interdisciplinary scholarship of cultural anthropology and literature. Students will examine key concepts and theories, both literary and cultural. We will analyze the concepts of culture, cultural relativism, ethnocentrism, race, feminism and gender, as they are portrayed in cultural anthropology and American literature. Course readings will range from theoretical essays, to short stories, poetry, and novels. In addition, students will examine the interconnections of the concepts in these readings in an array of cultural forms: visual media, music, cooking, religion, and the plastic arts. During the Anthropological component of this course, we will examine some of the intellectual foundations and research methods of anthropology. In particular, we will examine: 1) the concept of culture and its multiple meanings, 2) people as social and cultural beings, 3) ethnographic research into how people make sense of life, and 4) post-colonial, post-Modern, feminist, and Marxist approaches to making conclusions from that research. Our discussions of American literature will be another point of entry into the conundrums of culture. We will discuss: 1) how expressive and theoretical documents inform us about our cultural and historical worlds, 2) how literature and critical scholarship have implications for how people have dealt with struggles of the past and the present, 3) how the concept of intertextuality can provide a basis for synthesizing the lessons of many fields of knowledge and many arenas of cultural performance, expression, and conflict. We will apply a broad array of assignments to aide students in learning to apply, analyze, and integrate key ideas in American Cultural Studies and American literature. Students will produce writing assignments, fieldwork, conceptual journals, photographs, and online research, all of which will be incorporated into a final assignment, an electronic course portfolio. A set of linked one-block, team-taught courses that must be taken together; separate grades will be given for each block. |
| Back to Top |
Asian Studies Asian Studies/Art History: AH115/PA115 Blocks I and II: Tamara Bentley, AH115/PA115, Confluence & Conflict in Asian Culture Confluence and Conflict in Asian Culture The course will move through three thematic segments. The first, revolving roughly around India, includes early Buddhist sculpture, Hindu and Buddhist temples, textile trade between India and Indonesia, the arts of the Mughal empires of North India, the British Colonization of India, and an in-depth look at Gandhi. The second segment, based in China, includes early Chinese philosophies and their connection to mortuary art, the rise and development of landscape painting in China, new mixed art markets in the Ming, conflicting interpretations of Mao Zedong, and modern Shanghai. The third segment, mainly concerning Japan, covers court art and poetry of the Heian period, Zen arts of the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, urban culture of the Edo period, Korean responses to Japanese Colonization, and conflicting responses to Western-style modernization in the writings of Jun’ichiro Tanizaki. We will read primary sources, art historical articles, literary analyses, biographies, excerpts from Edward Said’s Orientalism and other theoretical texts, and novels. We will also see five films. We will travel up to Denver to see the Denver Art Museum and look at Islamic carpets. A two-block course with a single instructor; one grade will be given for the course as a whole. Block I: Hong Jiang, CN101/PA101 Elementary Chinese Block II: Hong Jiang, CN250/PA250 Chinese Language and Culture Language opens the door to culture. This course will then pay attention to the relationship between Chinese language and culture; or in other words, the relationship between word and image, poetry and painting. The course begins with the study of Chinese language with emphasis on basic grammar, speaking, and listening comprehension as well as mastery of some 280 Chinese characters for reading and writing (mainly in Block I). Students can continue their language study in Block IV to fulfill the college's language requirement. The second block introduces students to the Chinese concept of Family, Nature, and Self, and how Chinese language and philosophical thinking (Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism) transformed ways of life for the East. This is an introductory course, which attempts to lead students to study Chinese language and culture in a broader historical, philosophical, and social context. A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together, with a single instructor; separate grades will be given for each block. Block I: Joan Ericson, JA/PA130, Japanese Culture Block II: Joan Ericson, JA/PA250, Topics in Asian Studies: Contemporary Asian Cultures This set of combined courses explores the invention of tradition and contemporary innovations in Asian cultures. The first block, “Japanese Culture,” presents a critical appreciation of popular Japanese icons (Shintoism, Buddhism, samurai, martial arts, haiku poetry, tea ceremony, kabuki theatre, and rice) that scrutinizes how cultural practices and institutions have evolved and been adapted to symbolize Japan, both by Japanese and foreign observers. Through an in-depth examination of innovation in classical and modern cultural dynamics, students acquire the tools to appreciate and appraise how traditions come to be formed in such fields as literary aesthetics (from classical poetry and drama to manga) and artistic artifacts (from calligraphy and gardens to anime). The second block, “Contemporary Asian Cultures,” focuses on the intersection of classical and popular cultural forms with global cultural dynamics that has recast what it means to be Asian. Strategies for interpreting culture that emerged in the American academy (Geertz, Benedict), as well as their post-modern critiques, will be put to the test in examining everyday cultural phenomenon, such as McDonalds in China, Disneyland in Tokyo, MTV in India. We will also study intra-Asian cultural influences (the spread of manga and forms of pop music) as well as the political ramifications of the claims for Asian values and Asian identities. You will have many hands-on opportunities: calligraphy sessions; cooking Japanese, Chinese, and Indian meals; analyzing aesthetics of gardens across Asia; and evaluating cultural artifacts from Asia at the Denver Art Museum. A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together, with a single instructor; separate grades will be given for each block. |
Biology Biology: BY101 |
| Back to Top |
Chemistry Chemistry: CH107 and CH100 Block I: Ted Lindeman, CH107, General Chemistry I Block II: Ted Lindeman, CH100, Studies in Chemistry: The Science of Biomaterials CH107: General Chemistry I. Chemistry 107 emphasizes the basic principles of atomic structure, periodic properties, molecular structure and bonding, chemical reactions, and stoichiometry. Laboratory included. In its FYE Materials Science manifestation, this course will especially emphasize structure and properties of solids and polymers. CH100: Studies in Chemistry: The Science of Biomaterials. This course builds upon a foundation of atomic structure and bonding to explore biomechanical structures such as teeth, bones, tendons, spider webs, shells, and flea legs, and the biomaterials that organisms have evolved to optimize these parts and mechanisms. For comparison, we will examine some prosthetic and biomimetic products of human invention that utilize metallic, ceramic, and polymeric materials. Prerequisite: Two years of high school algebra and one year of high school chemistry or consent of instructor. 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.
|
| Back to Top |
Classics Classics: CL/HY130 Block I: Patricia FitzGibbon, CL/HY130, The Reinvention of the Greeks: Identity, Empire, and Diaspora Block II: Owen Cramer, CL/HY130, The Reinvention of the Greeks: Identity, Empire, and Diaspora Greek contributions to American life are many and various. But what does it mean to be Greek? In more than 3,000 years of history, Greeks have been masters, slaves, war-mongers, and pacifists. They gave us the word "democracy" but also "tyranny." Culturally and geographically, they started as both Asian and European. Homer's Iliad, Euripides' Medea and the New Testament remind us how much of Greek culture has roots in Western Asia. The new library in Alexandria, Egypt, reminds us that Hellenism was most at home in northeast Africa. Through a millennium of Byzantine, and 400 years of Ottoman rule, through the founding of modern Hellas in the 19 th century and the disasters and renewals of the 20 th century, the Greek language has been a continuous (if problematic) presence, and at most of these periods Greeks produced wonderful literature, from folk poems to novels and film. We will examine questions of ethnicity and identity—first, in Block I, in the ancient epic, philosophy and drama, and then in Block II, in modern poems and stories: the nationalist Dionysios Solomos; the island story-teller Alexandros Papadiamantis; the Alexandrian C.P. Cavafy, whose sense of estrangement involved sexuality as well as history; the Cretan novelist and poet Nikos Kazantzakis; the Nobel Prize-winning poet George Seferis, who lost his childhood home in Asia Minor in 1922. We will read works by recent women writers, and examine key perceptions of Greece by non-Greeks from Byron on down. Because Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire for 400 years, contemporary geopolitical questions concerning Christianity and Islam will also form part of our discussions. The course is a good introduction to literary and historical studies, classics, and cultural studies. No knowledge of Greek is required. A two-block course with one instructor in each block; one grade will be given for the course as a whole. |
| Back to Top |
Comparative Literature Comparative Literature: CO100 Block I: Corinne Scheiner, CO100, Introduction to Comparative Literature Block II: Robert Kendrick, CO100, Introduction to Comparative Literature Introduction to Comparative Literature: The Speaking Voice A two-block course with one instructor in each block; one grade will be given for the course as a whole. |
Drama/Dance Drama/Dance: DR/DA100 Block I: Tom Lindblade, DR/DA100, History of Performance Block II: Lián Sifuentes, DR/DA100, History of Performance This class surveys performance in Western Tradition, starting with the beginnings of sacred ritual and ending up with cutting-edge performance art. The class will proceed chronologically, thematically, and theoretically, covering Greek theatre and Roman spectacle, the medieval performance tradition of masque and revelry, the combination of Lully's ballets with Moliere's plays, and Renaissance burgeoning of public forms of performance. Further, we will consider the notions of class, genre, industrialization, and expression represented in 19th century traditions of dance and drama, including the birth of realism and revolt against established forms. The late 19th and early 20th centuries, respectively, introduce the elements of technology, reproduction, and multimedia forms as central to the history of performance. As a result, we will consider film, installation, and early performance art as critical additions to performance in general. Creative projects and fieldtrips augment the course. A two-block course with one instructor in each block; one grade will be given for the course as a whole.
|
| Back to Top |
Economics Economics: EC151/EC390 Blocks I: Mark Griffin Smith, EC151, Principles of Microeconomics Block II: Mark Griffin Smith, EC390, Advanced Topics in Economics: Water: A Thematic Introduction to Microeconomic Theory Water: A Thematic Introduction to Microeconomic Theory Water in the western United States is a scarce resource. Allocating scarce resources is the fundamental problem of economics. This course will use the problem competing demands on the West’s limited water supplies – competition from cities, farmers, industry as well as for recreation and ecosystem services to motivate the basic principles of microeconomic theory. In addition to microeconomic theory, fundamental principles of hydrology, water law, and water resource systems will be studied. The course will involve afternoon labs and field work, a number of one day field trips and an extended field trip in the second block of the course. Prerequisite: Knowledge of algebra and ability to swim. A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together, with a single instructor; separate grades will be given for each block. |
| Back to Top |
English English: EN207 Blocks I: Lisa B. Hughes, EN207, Masterpieces of Literature: Greeks to Modern Block II: David Mason, EN207, Masterpieces of Literature: Greeks to Modern This introduction to the study of literature addresses many of the vital questions that recur across time and human culture. Starting at the intersection of nature, myth, and history, we will read major works of literature and to a lesser extent philosophy by authors from antiquity to modern times, in various genres such as epic, tragedy, comedy, pastoral, and the modern novel. Homer's Iliad, a meditation on mortality, friendship, passion, and the individual's relation to society, provides the basis for reading Greek tragedy and selections from the Old Testament. The philosophers weigh in on these issues, and we will read Aristotle's Poetics and Plato's Symposium. Nietzsche revisits The Birth of Tragedy and Virginia Woolf investigates the role of classical learning in "On Not Knowing Greek." Our understanding of the literature of the ancient world will offer a vitalizing context for these and other later authors such as Shakespeare, Milton, Larsen, and Pynchon, who see their own work as grounded in this rich tradition. This is a good general introduction to the humanities and to western civilization, and is especially useful for those considering a major in English, Classics or other literatures. A two-block course taught by one instructor in each block; one grade will be given for the course as a whole.
English: EN280 Blocks I & II: Lilian Osaki & Adrienne Lanier Seward, EN280, Topics in Literature: Introduction to African Literature This two-block exploration of African literature offers a fascinating body of fictional works from indigenous writers. Using a postcolonial lens this course will examine the historical development sub-Saharan of African literature. Though we will focus on novels—beginning with celebrated authors like Chinua Achebe, Buchi Emecheta, Ama Ata Aidoo, and Camara Laye—we will also examine other genres including oral narrative, short stories or popular drama. Our study of the literature also extends to providing insight into traditional cultural practices and other art forms. The second segment of the course models the first half in its emphasis on literary aesthetics in connection to specific cultural practices. In Block II we will engage more with texts from the younger generation of African writers, especially those by women writers. Issues of gender, nationalism, language, and the politics of postcolonialism shape our literary choices and critical readings. This part of the course also offers an introduction to African cinema. A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together with two instructors in each block; separate grades will be given for each block. |
| Back to Top |
Environmental Science Environmental Science/Geology: EV128/GY140 Block II: Eric Leonard, GY 140 Physical Geology The first block will be an introduction to the contemporary Earth climate system and evidence of near-future changes, focusing on the role of the atmosphere, oceans and land surface. Course includes the use of mathematical models to describe complex systems and the role of policy, economics and ethics in mitigating the human impact. Close reading of scientific articles and texts will be used in a critical examination of popular literature. Fieldwork will include measurements of carbon cycling, and radiation balance. Field and laboratory data analysis and an introduction into complex systems modeling will enhance student analytical skills. The course will include a substantial writing component consisting of a critical review of scientific climate change research on student’s topic of choice. The second block will introduce the fundamentals of geology, making use of the local Rocky Mountain setting as a natural laboratory in which to investigate the record of the Earth’s history preserved in the rocks, the dynamic earth processes in effect in the mountain environment, and how human activities relate to these processes. The course will continue the first-block focus on development of scientific observational and analytical skills and on written and verbal presentation of scientific material. We will devote time to learning the language of geology and to developing skills for identification of the origins and uses of earth materials, in the classroom and the field. A substantial portion of the class will be devoted to field projects and to lab/computer analysis of samples and data collected in the field. Field/lab projects may range from geological mapping of faults and folds to aid in understanding mountain building processes, to study of sedimentary rocks and fossil assemblages for paleoenvironmental interpretation, to measurement of stream flow and stream chemistry for environmental hazard assessment. Fieldwork will include both local day trips and multi-day trips in the Colorado mountains. The latter will involve camping out in occasionally less-than-optimal weather conditions! 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.
Environmental Science: EV128/MA126 Block I: Michael Taber, EV128, Introduction to Global Climate Change Block II: Jane McDougall, MA126, Calculus I The first block, Introduction to Global Climate Change, is an introduction to the contemporary Earth climate system and evidence of near-future changes, focusing on the role of the atmosphere, oceans, and land surface. The course includes the use of mathematical models to describe complex systems and the role of policy, economics, and ethics in mitigating the human impact. Close reading of scientific articles and texts will be used in a critical examination of popular literature. Fieldwork will include measurements of carbon cycling, and radiation balance. Field and laboratory data analysis and an introduction into complex systems modeling will enhance student analytical skills. The course will include a substantial writing component consisting of a critical review of scientific climate change research on a student’s topic of choice. The second block will introduce the fundamentals of differential and integral calculus of algebraic and transcendental functions and applications, which solidify the understanding of how to describe motion and fluxes in the Earth system. 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. |
| Back to Top |
Feminist and Gender Studies Feminist and Gender Studies: FG110 and FG/HS118 Block I: Eileen Bresnahan, FG110, Introduction to Feminist and Gender Studies: Sex and Power Block II: Tonja Olive, FG/HS118, Gender and Communication: Sex and Power These two linked courses will introduce students to some of the scholarship, the theories, and the debates that presently inform our attempts to understand gender, both in its present-day expressions and as it has existed historically. We will explore gender’s role as an important organizing principle of human society, which affects how each of us exists within and experiences our diverse social world as specific, embodied people. We will also consider how gender expresses and interacts with larger social, ideological, and cultural structures to produce normative regimes with which all of us constantly interact and sometimes contend. The first block course, Introduction to Feminist and Gender Studies, will provide students with the critical thinking skills and beginning information they will need to start their own engagement with feminism as a thorough-going and rigorous critique of human social organization. Feminism's social vision is intrinsically radical, meaning that it seeks to "go to the root" of the deep structures of power which underlie the thought, attitudes, and assumptions that create and keep in place women's subordination. The pursuit of feminism’s critique is both intellectually and psychologically demanding, requiring careful study as well as a willingness to go beyond conventional thinking in ways that students may, at least initially, find threatening. However, the reward—for those who diligently persevere—is the potential to achieve a transformed vision of self and social life that appreciates the constructed nature of social reality and the deep implications of that realization. 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 one-block courses that must be taken together, with one instructor in each block; separate grades will be given for each block. |
| Back to Top |
Film Studies Film Studies: FS205 Blocks I & II: Richard Koc, FS205, American Film Noir and its European Connections The focus of this course is on a particular style of Hollywood film in the 1940s and 50s which was created by both American and European emigré directors. We will begin by investigating the visual and thematic roots of film noir in Expressionism and in early German cinema. Then we will examine films by Fritz Lang, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer, Jacques Tourneur, John Huston, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Nicholas Ray, Orson Welles, Ida Lupino, Boris Ingster, Edward Dmytryk, Tay Garnett, and Joseph H. Lewis. We will examine the films not only according to technical and aesthetic criteria, but also with an eye to the socio-historic and economic background of their production. The films’ themes range from standard detective stories (with their hard-boiled investigators working for femme fatale clients) to psychological thrillers, to exposés of social injustice and international political intrigue. In contrast to the optimism of much Hollywood fare during this era, film noir presents a darker, more critical view of America. We will note that it was the French who first observed and defined this trend in American cinema. For purposes of comparison I hope to screen at least one French film from this era, as well as one from the Italian neo-realist tradition. The screenplays of the films covered in this course were often adaptations of literary works by authors such as Graham Greene, Ernest Hemingway, James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Maxwell Anderson, Patricia Highsmith, et al. With the two-block format we will have time to read one or two of the original novels, as well as the scripts which were developed from them. This will provide a basis for discussing the different media of film and literature (as vehicles for story-telling, etc.). I also want to touch on other secondary areas, such as sci-fi-noir, noir parodies, neo-noir, noir-in-color, perhaps even Shakespeare-noir. And we will inquire into the reasons for the lasting popularity of film noir and its resonance with cinema goers. As an initial very accessible introduction to film noir, I will have the students read Foster Hirsch’s Film Noir: The Dark Side of the Screen. As we delve deeper into the aesthetics and sociology of the genre, we will read selections from the Film Noir Reader (edited by Alain Silver and James Ursini), as well as from James Naremore’s More Than Night: Film Noir in its Contexts, Edward Dimendberg’s Film Noir and the Spaces of Modernity, and Sheri Chinen Biesen’s Blackout: World War II and the Origins of Film Noir. Central objectives of the course are to develop critical film-viewing, reading and thinking skills, and to practice the oral and written articulation of one’s ideas. Students will be required to write a fair amount in the course, at first shorter critical responses to the films and the readings, and later in the course a research paper. There will also be a public speaking component to the course in the form of oral class presentations, and in learning to participate in and to lead a group discussion. 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. |
| Back to Top |
French French: FR159 Block I & II: Alistaire Tallent, FR159, French Civilization: From Charlemagne to Chirac French Civilization: From Charlemagne to Chirac These and many other cultural questions form the basis for this course, which will explore the historical and cultural development of the French hexagon from Charlemagne’s efforts to repel the Muslim invaders and unite the disparate tribes of France (and much of Europe) under his rule, to modern conflicts between the descendants of North African immigrants and members of the ultra-nationalistic Front National. Through a study of historical events and documents we will consider the role of race, religion and gender in the development and the metamorphosis of a French national identity—that is, how the French have come to see themselves. In addition, since works of artistic and creative expression often best present the feelings, desires and anxieties of a people and a time, we will also explore the interplay between artistic expression and historical context. Thus, we will examine significant examples of French literature (in English translation) such as the poetry of Rimbaud and the fiction of Camus, works of French painters like David and Monet, architecture from the Gothic cathedrals to the new national library, music such as the bloody and violent national anthem, La Marseillaise, and finally films, from cinéastes such as Renoir, Pagnol and Godard. Students will explore the many ways these works both reflected and influenced public reactions to and interpretations of historical events. The course will be organized chronologically, with Block I covering the period from the fall of the Roman Empire to the French Revolution of 1789, and Block II looking at France from Napoleon to the present day. Students will do close readings of literary and historical texts, write critical essays (based on their own insights and, later, on scholarly research), participate in class discussions, and give group presentations to the class. The goal of this course is not only to understand the history and culture of an American ally and a major world power, but also to appreciate the complexities of one’s own national identity (or identities) and the connections between any work of art and its historical context. A two-block course with a single instructor; one grade will be given for the course as a whole. |
| Back to Top |
General Studies General Studies: GS101 "Freedom and Authority" was the first interdisciplinary course at Colorado College and has been taught here for over 40 years. It is a two-block course focusing on the conflict between individual freedom and the limits imposed on this freedom by the state and its laws, by religious institutions and scriptures, and by attitudes of the society in which we live. As an interdisciplinary course, it studies literary, philosophical, religious, historical, and scientific texts in a thematic context. It focuses on four main themes: personal authority, social authority, political authority, and religious authority. Behind all of these themes are questions: What constitutes personal identity? What are the sources of our individual values and commitments? How much of what we are can be traced to ethnic and cultural background? What should one do when conscience and laws conflict? 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 we will grapple with these and other questions surrounding the human condition. Section 1 : GS101-1212, Freedom and Authority General Studies: GS204 Blocks I & II: Keith Kester, GS204, Spirit & Nature, Religion & Science Come and explore the realms of spirit and nature, and within those realms the human spirit and human nature. Examine where good and evil are to be found. Study the parallels and differences between religion and science. Discover meaningful relationships between: 1) the natural and the supernatural; 2) natural history and natural theology; 3) immanence and transcendence; 4) the animate and the inanimate; 5) the sacred and the secular. Consider how a person of integrity can be both religious and scientific. Explore our world in both natural and religious settings. Become aware of the diversity of life, and of religions, and look for ways to nurture and protect both diversities. Come away looking at our world and all its components, including the spiritual and the natural, in new and different ways. The course will trace the development of the theory of evolution in 19 th century Victorian England by both Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace and consider the response to the theory in both scientific and religious circles, both then and now. There will be re-enactments of meetings of the Royal Society of England in response to the publication of The Origin of Species and debates in those meetings. We will 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, reflect on human-human and human-nature interactions and the nature of evil with the aid of Rosemary Reuther's Gaia and God and Lance Morrow’s Evil: An Investigation, experience different religious communities, and read and recite nature poetry. Field projects (with on- and off-trail hiking) will include exploring 1) bio-diversity in the San Luis Valley, and 2) the geologic history of the Garden of the Gods and Queen's Canyon. We will be participating in a community service learning project surveying parts of the newly-developed Cheyenne Mountain State Park for signs of wildlife. Class will be held at the Baca campus (located about 175 miles southwest of campus) for one week during Block I. A two-block course taught by one instructor; one grade will be given for the course as a whole.
|
| Back to Top |
Geology Geology: GY130 A two-block course with one instructor in each block; one grade will be given for the course as a whole. |
| Back to Top |
History History: HY109/PA118 Blocks I & II: John Williams, HY109/PA118, Civilization in East Asia Meets two units of Critical Perspectives: Diverse Cultures & Critiques. Civilization in East Asia These are the central questions under consideration as we traverse the ages from Neolithic to 21 st century East Asia. Block I concerns the formation, development and interaction of East Asian societies before the 15 th century. We begin ca. 10,000 BCE, approaching the earliest human settlements and statebuilding efforts from an archeological perspective. Relating this evidence to the written legacy of the states that followed, we examine culture formation and the invention of ethics via the genesis of the Confucian tradition. The relationship between state formation and the invention of history is the subtext of our consideration of the Han empire, and its implications for societies from the Korean peninsula to the Red River valley in modern day Vietnam. The Han collapse ca. 200 CE leads to discussion of the dynamics of cultural syncretism: How was South Asian Buddhism transformed into an East Asian spiritual tradition? How did the spread of Chinese writing and Chinese-style imperial systems to Korea, Japan and Vietnam shape statebuilding processes there? Tension between nomadic and sedentary civilization is also a feature of premodern East Asian history, and we close Block I with the greatest nomadic empire the world has ever known: the Mongols. Block II focuses on modernity and nationhood. In order to understand contemporary China, Japan and Korea, we will debate the nature of ‘modernity’ and its relation to East Asia, examining first 15 th to 18 th century commercial and social transformations that force us either to redefine our understanding of modernity, or locate its East Asian origins before the arrival of the West. We then turn to the impact of Western imperialism in the 19 th century, and its implications for the creation of post-imperial, post-colonial states in the 20 th. Crucial to this discussion is the role of ideology and nationalism as political value systems, and in this connection we will compare the very different trajectories of China and Japan. We close with a look at the post-WWII economic transformation of East Asia: the rise of Japan, the ‘Tigers’ and finally China, interrogating the notion of an ‘East Asian’ development model and its implications for the world. A two-block course with a single instructor; one grade will be given for the course as a whole.
History: HY105 Blocks I & II: Tip (Bryant) Ragan, HY105, Civilization of the West This course will consider the ways in which various ancient, medieval, and modern cultures in the Mediterranean and in Europe have constructed community and identity. Source readings will include major works of literature, seen in the context of, on the one hand, the material culture of village and city life and, on the other, the spiritual and emotional lives of both elites and ordinary people. Class discussion, individual writing assignments, and group research initiatives will alike respond to the question, “How did the people of the past understand participation in society to make their lives meaningful?” This course fulfills the entry requirement for the History, History/Political Science and Classics/History/Politics majors.
History: HY224 Block I & II: Peter Blasenheim, HY224, Survey in Latin American History Latin America usually conjures up visions of political instability. Yet social stability, not political unrest, is the region’s most striking feature according to most social scientists. This course looks at the historical forces that help explain how and why Latin America came to be the way it is. To this end, our story traces Latin American history beginning in pre-contact times with an examination of the Iberian peninsula and the Amerindian Kingdoms of the Sun constructed by Aztecs and Incas in the 15 th century. How was the so-called Conquest viewed by participants and how have different historians explained it over time? And who conquered who anyway? What about the Indo-European silver civilizations of 16 th and 17 th century Peru and Mexico and how did they compare and contrast with the Afro-European, slavocratic sugar empire of Portuguese America? Traditionalists, liberals and neo-Marxists look at political independence in the 1810s from different perspectives and focus on different issues as did the makers of Latin American independence themselves and so will we. The course will include a heavy writing component, including a “final” twelve to fifteen-page research essay. Part of the third week will be spent at the Baca campus. A two-block course taught by one instructor; one grade will be given for the course as a whole.
|
| Back to Top |
Mathematics Mathematics: MA202 Block I: Marlow Anderson, MA202, Foundations of Discrete Mathematics: a Cross-Cultural Approach Block II: Amelia Taylor, MA202, Foundations of Discrete Mathematics: a Cross-Cultural Approach This course is an opportunity to study new mathematical ways of thinking in a cultural context. Much like the division between plants and animals in biology, mathematics can be divided into continuous mathematics, which you may be familiar with through courses like calculus, and discrete mathematics, which is the mathematics we will discover in this course. This foundational course in discrete mathematics includes concepts that are fundamental in much of modern mathematics, and includes important mathematical concepts for computer science. We will also introduce mathematics with important applications to the social sciences. The concepts we will discuss, although modern, have an interesting history across many cultures. For example, the array of numbers we know as Pascal’s triangle, which is fundamental to many counting problems, was known in China and India centuries before Pascal. Similarly, the modern computing task of recording data in a tree structure was anticipated by the Incan use of knotted strings called quipus. We will explore these examples and many others and in this process learn both the modern mathematical formulation and why and how the equivalent problems were tackled in many ancient and modern non-Western cultures. You will have the opportunity to solve mathematical problems, using both modern methods, and methods placed within a particular cultural context. Also, you will have the chance to read and write independently about the mathematics involved, and the role that mathematics plays in a given culture. Prerequisite: One high school course in either calculus or computer science. A two-block course with one instructor in each block; one grade will be given for the course as a whole.
|
| Back to Top |
Music Music: MU104 Blocks I & II: Victoria Lindsay Levine, MU104, World Music This course explores the role of music in the fascinating cultures of Bali, Native North America, Africa, Ireland, India, and Japan. Students develop an appreciation of the rich and meaningful musical traditions the members of these cultures have developed and learn to interpret music and performance events using interdisciplinary methods. Working with musicians from the cultures represented, students learn to perform songs and instrumental music from Bali, Ireland, and Zimbabwe and perform a public recital of world music on authentic instruments. Students further enhance their musical skills through creative, analytical, and research projects. The course addresses both historic and new musical repertories, including popular music. No prior musical background is necessary. This course meets the ethnomusicology requirement for the Music minor. A two-block course taught by one instructor; one grade will be given for the course as a whole.
This course is a survey of music in the United States from the colonial era to the present. Both popular and classical music traditions will be studied with special attention given to the social and political contexts in which they developed. In the first block, classical music traditions will be examined, such as the emergence of innovative U.S. composers in the 18 th and 19 th centuries, seen as the foundations for the nationalistic works of Ives, Copland and others. After study of Tin Pan Alley, jazz, and the Broadway musical, the block will conclude with an examination of the modern and postmodern movements of the mid and late 20 th century. In the second block, popular music traditions from the same period will be examined, beginning with both European and African roots. The course will survey the evolution of popular genres such as minstrelsy, the blues, jazz, country and folk, and end with the rock and hip-hop cultures. |
| Back to Top |
Philosophy Philosophy: PH203 and PH203 Block I: Alberto Hernandez-Lemus , PH203, Topics in Philosophy: Modernity and Postmodernity in Philosophy and Art, Part I Block II: Alberto Hernandez-Lemus , PH203, Topics in Philosophy: Modernity and Postmodernity in Philosophy and Art, Part II One of the buzzwords in and out of academia today is the term "postmodern," a term often used without a clear referent. This course will help students get a handle on the condition that the buzzword unreflectively points to: the perceived overcoming of the project of modernity, which can be traced to European Enlightenment beginning roughly with the French Revolution, as well as the alleged bankruptcy of grand narratives of social and scientific progress. This course will prepare philosophy majors and non-majors to deepen their understanding of the history of philosophy with History of Modern Philosophy and 20 th Century Philosophy courses. Readings will include some of the following: Descartes, Rousseau, Voltaire, Sade, Kant, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Benjamin, Gramsci, Lyotard, Foucault, Deleuze, Goethe, Kafka, Woolf, Eliot, Baudelaire, Elison, Beckett, and Bataille. In addition, students will do research projects and presentations on visual artists. A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together, with a single instructor; separate grades will be given for each block. |
| Back to Top |
Political Science Political Science/English: PS115/EN115 Block I & II: Tim Fuller & John Simons, PS115/EN115, Concepts of Freedom from Ancient to Modern Times This interdisciplinary course explores enduring questions in the Western tradition: What does it mean to be free? What are the basic ideas of freedom that figure prominently in the Western tradition? What is freedom for? Is there a rational use of freedom? Discussion will spring from readings in ancient, medieval, Renaissance and modern philosophy, politics, religion and literature, and complementary films. Texts to be chosen from among the following philosophers, writers, filmmakers: The King James Bible, Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Sophocles, Shakespeare, Locke, Rousseau, Mary Shelley, Dostoevsky, Camus, Alfred Hitchcock, Ridley Scott, Kazuo Ishiguro. A two-block, team taught course; one grade will be given for the course as a whole. Political Science/History: HY200 and PS203 Blocks I & II: Robert Lee, HY200 & PS203, The Search for Islamic Order: Yesterday and Today Since September 11, 2001, Americans have begun to discover that it is not easy to speak about Muslims in general or the Islamic world as a whole. Is there an Islamic way of organizing society? What do Islamists mean when they talk about an Islamic state? Why do some Muslims insist that Islam offers a program for political action, while others insist that religious belief has nothing to do with politics? How is it that a single set of revelations passed to Muhammad in the seventh century lends itself to so many interpretations and so many purposes? In the first block, the course examines the historical development of Islamic societies and orthodoxies. What was the nature of the Islamic state Muhammad established in Medina? How did the subsequent Arab Empires reflect and differ from that experience? In what atmosphere did scholars construct the legal system of Islam? How did the political order proposed by Shi'ism differ from that characterized by Sunnism? What was the appeal of mysticism in both the Shi'a and Sunni communities? To what extent did the Ottoman Empire, which brought together a significant portion of the Muslim world from 1300 until 1918, represent a new version of Islamic order? The second block confronts the questions of order and disorder in the contemporary Muslim Middle East, examining the rise of the nation-state; the impact of imperialism, liberalism, and socialism; the blossoming of Islamist movements; the impact of modernism on the position of women in the Muslim world; and the relationship of Islamic doctrine to human rights, democracy, and violence. It will consider the political thought of several prominent Muslim intellectuals, including both radicals and liberals. A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together, with a single instructor; separate grades will be assigned for each block. |
| Back to Top |
Religion Religion: RE200 and RE200 Block I: David Gardiner, RE200, Topics in Religion: Religious Responses to the Challenge of Suffering, Part I Block II: Dan Shaw, RE200, Topics in Religion: Religious Responses to the Challenge of Suffering, Part II This course will examine ways in which various religions provide a context for understanding and transcending suffering. While not a comprehensive survey of world religions, we will explore how Buddhist, Christian, Islamic, Jewish, Daoist and other traditions identify fundamental forms of suffering in life and the methods they present for healing suffering. The course will emphasize the role of stories in these traditions, both specific tales and legends that convey significant historic and symbolic meaning, and broader “meta-narratives” that provide a general ethos and worldview. Key questions we will address include:
Course materials will include readings from the scriptures of various traditions and secondary writings by contemporary scholars that examine these questions from various perspectives. The first block will introduce some theories about how stories (in both the specific and general senses noted) function to provide humans meaning, and will investigate stories about suffering mostly from Eastern traditions. The second block will focus primarily on stories about suffering from within Western traditions. 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.
|
| Back to Top |
Sociology Sociology: SO100/SO235 Block I: Kathy Giuffre, SO100, Thinking Sociologically Block II: Gail Murphy-Geiss, SO235, Sociology of Family Families in Social Context The first block will explore sociological thinking in general, with a focus on understanding inequality. Basic theory, methods, and an introduction to the terminology and themes in the field will be covered, culminating in a final paper summarizing original student research involving data collection and sociological analysis. The second block will focus specifically on sociology of family, especially cutting edge issues of our time, such as same-sex marriage, surrogate motherhood/sperm & egg donation, and international adoption. There will also be significant attention to domestic violence. Assignments will include classic and contemporary readings, class debates over controversial issues, poster presentations on research topics of interest, as well as data collection in local family courts. A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together, with two instructors; separate grades will be given for each block.
|
| Back to Top |
Studies in the Humanities Studies in Humanities: HS120 Block 1: Jane Hilberry & Dick Hilt, HS120, Renaissance Culture Block II: Michael Grace & Frances Gage, HS120, Renaissance Culture Block I explores representations of relationships between men and women and the world. How do we understand the possible relationships between men and women, between people and institutions, and between people and the "natural" world? How do men view women and how do women view men? How do the religious and scientific communities of the Renaissance affect individual men and women, and how do they interact with one another? Where does authority reside in each of these relationships? with men? with the church? with women? with science? Although our topic is wide-ranging, we hope to bring into focus some of the prevailing issues of the Renaissance. We will draw on literary and scientific texts, as well as secondary reading, to investigate questions of gender and authority in this period. We will spend the second week of the course at the Baca Campus, where we will see for ourselves astronomical phenomena that won Galileo a position at the Medici court and later led to his conflict with the church. In Block II, we will examine how Renaissance art and music carried on cultural traditions, while reinventing and sometimes radically breaking with the past. Each of these arts will be examined in historical and cultural perspectives, considering the following questions: why were these two arts so important to Renaissance culture and our understanding of it? To what extent can art and music reflect contemporary history? We will also look for formal and stylistic similarities between the visual and musical arts, and their relationships to aspects of literature and science studied in Block I. Periods of concentration will include the following: artistic foundations in the age of antiquity; the gothic age of cathedrals and early polyphonic music; the 14 th-century ars nova exemplified by Giotto in art and Machaut or Landini in music; the age of humanism and the high Renaissance in the art of Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo and the music of Josquin; mannerism in painting and the emergence of the madrigal; the early Baroque in art, architecture, and the birth of opera. During the block, students will be expected to write a paper and do an oral presentation for the class. Click here to visit the course website. A two-block course with two instructors in each block: separate grades will be given for each block.
|
| Back to Top |
Soon to be announced -- check back soon! |
| Back to Top |
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:
|
| Back to Top |