FYE Courses - Colorado College

Fall Semester 2008 Courses

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 Tutt 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.

Anthropology: AN101/AN102

Blocks I and II: Mario Montaño and Christina Torres-Rouff, AN101/AN102, Introduction to Biological and Cultural Anthropology

Fulfills one unit of Critical Perspectives: Diverse Cultures and Critiques credit; one unit of Critical Perspectives: Scientific Investigation credit

Students completing this First Year course will receive credit for two required courses in the Anthropology major. This course introduces students to the foundations of Anthropology by exploring humanity from multiple viewpoints. Team-taught by an ethnographer and a biological anthropologist, this course will examine issues from both a cultural and biological perspective. We will focus on several themes of great importance for humans in both a historical and modern context. Students will explore topics including the origins of modern humans, social order and conflict, food production, and treatment of the dead from cross-cultural perspectives. All of these will help to demonstrate the holistic approach anthropology takes to the study of humanity. This year’s incarnation of this FYE will take the role of food in human culture as one of its structuring themes, exploring topics such as cultural traditions around food and the importance of diet in health, evolution, and human prehistory.

Students will be introduced to the study of cultural anthropology through the examination of basic concepts, research methods, and theories. This course will address several important characteristics of anthropology: (1) the concept of culture and its multiple meanings; (2) people as social and cultural beings; (3) linguistics and how it relates to the construction of cultural meaning; (4) ethnographic research and how people make sense of their way of life; (5) comparative analysis and how it helps us to understand human behavior in different periods and places.

At the core of biological anthropology are several issues. Students will learn about the scientific theory of evolution by means of natural selection and how it applies to all living organisms including humans. We will come to understand our own status as a primate and witness the physical and behavioral similarities among the living primates. There will be exploration of those traits that make us uniquely human and how they have developed throughout time including the cultural record of modern Homo sapiens.

The course will directly engage students in anthropological practice and teach the methods used by anthropologists in their fieldwork, be it ethnographic or biological. This includes primate observation at the Cheyenne Mountain and Denver Zoos in order to explore the relationship between humans and the non-human primates, our closest living relatives. Additional fieldwork will occur throughout Colorado, where students will investigate folk art of the Southwest, food production, mortuary practices, and different native and modern traditions.

A team-taught two-block course; one grade will be given for the course as a whole.

Asian Studies/Art History: JA101/JA130

Blocks I and II: Joan Ericson, JA101/JA130, Japanese Language and Culture

Meets one unit of language credit. Class as a whole fulfills Critical Perspectives: Diverse Cultures and Critiques (2 units.)

This course explores the intersection of Japanese language with the concepts that inform Japanese culture, both traditional and modern. Through an introduction to Japanese, you will have easier access to the underlying aesthetics of literature (from classical poetry and drama to manga) and art forms (from calligraphy and gardens to anime). By the end of the two blocks, you will be able to appreciate recent anime such as "Princess Mononoke" or "Spirited Away" through a better understanding of the cultural and historical referents, as well as catch the excitement through sections of the original dialogue.

Equal time will be spent on learning language (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) and discussing readings and videos about the history, literature (including portions of The Tale of Genji, the world's first novel), and other aspects of Japanese culture. You will have many hands-on opportunities, including calligraphy sessions and cooking Japanese meals. Readings, discussions, and writing assignments on the cultural component will be in English.

Students of this course can continue their language studies by enrolling in the second block of JA101 "Beginning Japanese" in Block 4. This two-block sequence (JA101 in Blocks 1 & 2 and in Block 4) will fulfill the college's language requirement. You will also be able to continue practicing your language skills by enrolling in the Japanese language adjunct course.

A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together, with a single instructor; separate grades will be given for the language portion and the cultural portion of this class.

Chemistry: CH107 and CH100

Block I: Nate Bower, CH107, General Chemistry I.

CH107 provides one unit of Critical Perspectives: Scientific Investigation (SI) laboratory/field credit in the Natural Sciences. This FYE course is integrated with CH100, Criminalistics: An Introduction to Forensic Science and both blocks should be taken together to complete the sequence.

Block II: Murphy Brasuel, CH100, Criminalistics: An Introduction to Forensic Science.

CH100 provides one unit of Critical Perspectives: Scientific Investigation (SI) in the Natural Sciences, building upon the principles introduced in the FYE CH107.

This linked and integrated course combines General Chemistry (CH107) and an Introduction to Forensic Science (CH100). By linking these two courses, some of the basic science foundation used in the rapidly growing fields of forensic science can be introduced in a context with broad applications. A mix of historical and fictional case studies of crimes, evidence collecting from crime scenes, and methodologies employed in the forensic sciences will be used to introduce basic chemical principles in the first block. Library and laboratory research coupled with written and oral presentations will be used to develop observation, critical thinking, and forensic reporting skills. The distinction between rules of evidence allowed in court, in science, and in the popular media will be developed. If you are a fan of CSI and murder and mayhem mysteries, and are always wondering if they have gotten the science right, then this is the course for you!

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.

Classics: CL/HY114

Block: I Marcia Dobson, CL 114, Goddesses, Heroes, Sages and Statesmen: An Introduction to Greece and Rome

Block II: Patricia Fitzgibbon, HY 114, Goddesses, Heroes, Sages and Statesmen: An Introduction to Greece and Rome

Meets 2 units of Humanities credit

This course offers an introduction to ancient Greek and Roman cultures through readings of original sources and some study of the original languages. The ways in which human beings conceived the order of nature and culture and the sacred and secular in these periods constitutes the common inheritance of western culture and predisposes the views of self and individual in contemporary western thought. The emphasis in this course is upon how these cultures understood the destructive and creative powers of chaos and what forms of order they thought best for human beings. Block 1 will include selections from Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Hesiod's Theogony, the Presocratics, the ancient Greek dramatists Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, the historians Herodotus and Thucydides, Aristotle's Poetics and Plato's Symposium and Phaedrus. Block 2 will include selections from the statesmen Cicero and Caesar, the historians Sallust and Livy, and lyric and epic poetry of Lucretius, Catullus, Vergil, Horace and Ovid.

A two-block course with one instructor in each block.

Comparative Literature: CO100

Block I: Corinne Scheiner, CO 100, Introduction to Comparative Literature: Literary Metamorphoses

Block II: William Davis, CO 100, Introduction to Comparative Literature: Literary Metamorphoses

The course as a whole meets Critical Perspectives: The West in Time (2 units).

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? An exploration of literature as a venue for experiences of transformation and recognition such as Odysseus’ return in Homer’s Odyssey, Satan’s mutation from angel to serpent in Milton’s Paradise Lost, Shakespeare’s exploration of performative selves in The Taming of the Shrew, Blake’s poetical account of the transformation of spirit into matter, and Gregor Samsa’s awakening as a bug in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. As the course texts suggest, we will also look at the morphic capacity of genre itself. Emphasis on close reading of literary texts as well as critical research, analysis, and writing. Fulfills the entry course requirement for the Comparative Literature major.

A two-block course with one instructor in each block; one grade will be given for the course as a whole.

Drama/Dance: DR/DA100

Block I: Tom Lindblade, DR/DA100, History of Performance

Block II: Lián Sifuentes, DR/DA100, History of Performance

The course as a whole meets Critical Perspectives: The West in Time (2 units).

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 field trips augment the course.

A two-block course with one instructor in each block; one grade will be given for the course as a whole.

Economics: EC150

Block I Esther Redmount and Pedro DeAraujo, EC 150, Principles of Economics

Block II: Esther Redmount, EC 150, Principles of Economics

Two units of Social Science credit

Economics is the study of how we make choices among options. Economic decision-making weighs preferences over outcomes against the resources available to realize those desires. In most, if not all, instances, we face a scarcity of resources, of time, of skills, or of knowledge that restrict what we can have or can accomplish. Do we want health care for all? Does the environment matter to us? Is there fairness in trade and employment contracts? All of these are questions economists engage everyday.

The Economic toolkit comes to us from the social sciences – as they are practiced world wide – and the mathematical sciences. From mathematics, we get a logic and a statistical method of analysis that enables us to formulate and answer questions about choice in a pretty, precise way. From Anthropology, History, Sociology and Political Science we get a world view that values diversity of method and outcome. Economics is not done in a vacuum and if its intellectual product is to be useful, it must make sense in the context of social and historical realities.

This First Year Experience course uses as its foundation a long-standing two-block course in the Principles of Economics, a course that explores the economics discipline by developing analytical techniques and conceptual approaches. Building upon this understanding of the "fundamental axioms" in the field, several "current challenges" are explored, including: 1) the benefits and costs of technological progress; 2) the impacts of international trade and migration; 3) pollution and environmental disruption; 4) poverty and wealth on a community, region, national and international scale; 5) the formulation of tax, welfare and health policy while balancing competing objectives.

At its core, this is a two-block introduction to economics, the study of how individuals, businesses and governments make decisions about resource allocation: what they buy, when they work, what they produce, how they produce, and what policies to pursue. We also explore and evaluate the impact of those choices and policies, using our own experience, current events, and historical data. EC 150, as an introductory course, will touch briefly on many topics, providing a foundation for (and hopefully whetting your appetite for) future courses in microeconomics or macroeconomics.

Students completing this course will receive credit for two required courses in the Economics major.

A two-block course with one instructor in each block; one grade will be given for the course.

Economics: EC160/EC110

Blocks I and II: Judy Laux, EC160/110, Principles of Financial Accounting & The Economic Novel

Two units of Social Science credit

The two linked courses from the Economics and Business curriculum that make up this First Year course offers contrasting perspectives on the allocation of scarce resources in our society.

The first half of this course will introduce you to the principles of accounting while helping you master the business and economics vocabulary. We will focus on the operating, investing, and financing activities that give rise to accounting data, how these data are reflected in financial statements, and how accounting data are used to make resource allocation decisions. In addition, we will discuss the historical development of accounting and debate the quality of information produced by accounting systems. Upon completing this part of the course, you should know and understand:

• the major operating, investing, and financing activities of business firms
• how accounting data are accumulated and then reflected in financial statements
• the key interrelationships among financial statements
• how to analyze and interpret financial statements
• the threats to the integrity of financial statements
• the strengths as well as the limitations of accounting data

The last half of the course includes a brief look at economic history and economic ideas as revealed in several major novels, including the impact of the Industrial Revolution, the effect of depressions, revolutionary movements, abuses of developing and unrestrained capitalism, problems of modern corporate relations, and the development of the labor movement. We look at how economic ideas (poverty, capitalism, people’s reactions to work, the quest for profit, entrepreneurial drive, corruption of power, etc.) are portrayed in novels such as The Jungle and The Grapes of Wrath. This portion of the course has a writing emphasis component and is designed to help students achieve proficiency in writing critical essays, gain confidence and ability in classroom discussion, and improve critical thinking.

Students completing this course will receive credit for one required course in the Economics major.

A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together, with a single instructor; separate grades will be given for each block.

English: EN203

Block I: Lisa B. Hughes, EN 203, Tradition and Change: Athens, Rome, and Hollywood

Block II: Lisa B. Hughes and Barry Sarchett, EN 203, Tradition and Change: Athens, Rome, and Hollywood

This course fulfills Critical Perspectives: The West in Time (2 units)

The Greeks gave us the myths that have launched a thousand movies. From the Cocteau classic La Belle et La Bete, to Mark Water’s quirky independent, The House of Yes, the movies have mined ancient myth for material. Sometimes consciously, and sometimes not, filmmakers rework the abiding questions of love, family, friendship, politics, personal identity, and death, putting on them their own imprint which locates them in time and place. Thus, movies have come to reflect our zeitgeist in many of the same ways myth does. In this class we will read Homer’s Odyssey, Cupid and Psyche, and selected other myths to see how characters and themes are developed through time and from artist to artist. At the same time, we will learn the vocabulary and critical tools to study film in its formal dimensions, fictional and documentary; how meaning and pleasure are created visually. Emphasis on film style (the shot, mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing (montage) and sound) and genre. Films may include: Broken Blossoms, Double Indemnity, The Deer Hunter, The Graduate, The Maltese Falcon, Citizen Kane, Battleship Potemkin, and Star Wars. This course is a good introduction to classics, English literature, and Film Studies.
Counts toward “Introduction to Film Studies” requirement in Film-Track English major.

One two-block course with two professors. One grade for courses as whole.

 English: EN203

Block I: George Butte, EN 203, Tradition and Change: The Voyage Out and Back

Block II: Laura Padilla, EN 203, Tradition and Change: The Voyage Out and Back

Gives 2 units of Humanities Division Credit. The course as a whole meets Critical Perspectives: The West in Time (2 units).

This course will examine paradigms of voyage in two basic ways: the voyage out (Odysseus into the world) and the voyage back to the interior (Frankenstein's monster: understanding the self, the unconscious). The readings will introduce several master plots and several theoretical frameworks, from voyaging to the Other and the Orient (Said) to navigating the shadows inside the self (Freud's uncanny).

The first block will begin with Homer's The Odyssey, and include at least one ancient Greek play, Sire Gawain and the Green Knight, one Shakespeare play, among other texts, and conclude with Shelley's Frankenstein, as a culminating example of both kinds of voyage.

In the second block we will investigate how literary journeys change in the absence of landmarks, in worlds where the distinctions between "home" and "away" become less and less clear. Works read may include Castillo's The Mixquiahuala Letters, John Rechy's City of Night, as well as short stories by Edgar Allen Poe and Oscar Wilde. The block will conclude with a viewing of Richard Linklater's rotoscoped film of Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly, at which point we will return to themes of uncanniness, otherness, and Shelley's definitions of monstrosity.

The course is one two-block class, with a separate instructor for each block and one final grade.

 English: EN280

Block I: Lilian Osaki, EN 280, Introduction to African Literature

Meets one unit of Critical Perspectives: Diverse Cultures and Critiques.

The first block will introduce students to the works of African writers and the issues they deal with in these writings. The writers will be broadly selected from across the continent and will likely include Ama Ata Aidoo from Ghana, Camara Laye from French Guinea, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from Nigeria, and Susan Mann from South Africa. The focus of the course is mainly on the novels and critical responses to them. The course will provide a cultural and physical overview of Africa as we try to answer the questions: What is Africa? Who are the Africans? We will explore these questions while dealing with the central question of the course: What is African literature all about?

The second block of the course continues the literary conversations begun in the first block with the inclusion of additional sub-Saharan writers. In some instances, you may become reacquainted with authors from Block 1 by reading and analyzing different works by them. Though we will continue the discussion of the range of styles and themes of African fiction, we will also read works by African playwrights. One purpose here is to expose students to a diversity of written literary productions and practices as well as the traditional cultural and social concepts that may inform them, and the issues they generate for African writers. We will also consider, then, questions such as those related to language, audience, gender representation, nationalism and postcolonialism as we attempt to discover what African literature is all about.

A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together; separate grades will be given for each block.

Environmental Science/Geology: EV128/GY140

Block I: Miro Kummel, EV 128 Introduction to Global Climate Change.

Meets one unit of Natural Science divisional credit

Block II: Paul Myrow, GY 140 Physical Geology

Meets one unit of Natural Science divisional credit and one unit of Critical Perspectives: Scientific Inquiry (SI) laboratory/field credit.

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. This 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.

GY140 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!

Block I counts towards the Environmental Studies/Science major and toward the Geology, Environmental Science and Environmental Policy majors.

Block II Counts towards the Geology and Environmental Science majors and may count towards the Biology major.

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.

Feminist and Gender Studies: FG110/FG200

Block I: Tonja Olive, FG110, Introduction to Feminist and Gender Studies

Meets one unit of Critical Perspectives: Diverse Cultures and Critiques.

Block II: Eileen Bresnahan, FG200, Introduction to Feminist Thought

Meets one unit of Critical Perspectives: Diverse Cultures and Critiques.

Unpacking Gender: Analyses and Theories
This course will explore gender as a primary organizing principle of social life and of human consciousness. It brings together the two introductory courses of the Feminist and Gender Studies (FGS) curriculum, offering a comprehensive look at gender’s historical and contemporary importance to social structure across cultures, at its continuing importance in the individual lives of women and men in modern societies, and at some of the theories that feminists and others have developed in attempting to understand and explain the origins, perpetuation, and reproduction of gendered understandings and social differentiation. Issues that intersect with gender – such as race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, and nationality – will as well be considered throughout the course. Students who complete this course will have earned two required units of the 5.5 units needed to complete the FGS minor (or of the 11.75 units needed for an FGS major).
The first block will introduce students in an interdisciplinary fashion to the basic concepts, theory, terminology, methods, and questions of the discipline of feminist and gender studies (also often known as women’s studies). These will include sex/gender; patriarchy; masculinity/femininity; violence against women; women’s movements, achievements, and resistances; media representation; and social construction.
The second block will focus specifically on feminist theory, continuing from the understanding that both masculinity and femininity are socially constructed to explore some of the theories and theorists that have been important to the development of feminist thought. Students will gain the analytical tools needed to critically evaluate the plausibility of various theoretical explanations of, and proposed remedies for, women’s subordination in Western liberal societies. They will as well be asked to consider that if gender is constructed by society, it might also be reconstructed over time, and to critically consider whether in this process of construction and reconstruction present norms of gender should be kept, transformed, or eliminated, and in what ways. Furthermore, FG110/FG200 will consider the relationship between theory and practice and between ideas and social and political life.

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.

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

Block I: Bill Hochman (History) and Sam Williams (Religion)
Block II: Owen Cramer (Classics)

The course as a whole meets Critical Perspectives: The West in Time (2 units).

A two-block course with two instructors in each block; one grade will be given for the course as a whole.

Section 2: GS101-1222, Freedom and Authority

Blocks I and II: Dennis McEnnerney (Philosophy)

The course as a whole meets Critical Perspectives: The West in Time (2 units).

Block I of this section will begin with a brief consideration of differing contemporary perspectives on freedom and authority and then turn to a study of ancient Greek beliefs and practices, with a focus on how the Athenian attempt to balance freedom and authority by means of democratic action may offer a useful critical perspective on modern society and government. The course then will examine the question of whether modern peoples, lacking the traditions of earlier eras, can in fact develop moral perspectives that could frame or inspire meaningful and autonomous lives. Here the focus will be on the cultural and religious forces that offer individuals direction and meaning in their lives. Next, the course will turn to the modern social and economic structures that both promote a sense of individuality and limit actual autonomy.

Block II will begin with a critical examination of enlightened rationality, scientific progress, and technological society. Finally, the course will seek to unpack some dilemmas of governing for freedom, particularly as large-scale quasi-democratic states become absorbed in global orders. Here we will concentrate on developments that corrode critical engagement with others and the broader civil order, and on the ambiguities of power. Our question will be, how can democratic freedom be made substantive in an age of manipulative political marketing, inhumane struggles for power, and elusive global structures?

GS101-1222 will likely spend 2-3 days away from Colorado Springs, either at the BACA campus or at the Colorado College cabin.

A two-block course with one instructor in each block; one grade will be given for the course as a whole.

General Studies: GS204

Blocks I & II: Keith Kester, GS204, Spirit & Nature, Religion & Science

The course as a whole meets Critical Perspectives: The West in Time (2 units).

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. 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. 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. Field projects 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 two community service learning projects: 1) surveying parts of the newly-developed Cheyenne Mountain State Park for signs of wildlife; 2) studying the effect of prescribed burns on plant diversity in riparian zones at the Baca campus. 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.

Geology/Anthropology: GY140/AN103

Block I: Henry Fricke, GY 140, Introduction to Geology.

Meets one unit of Critical Perspectives: Scientific Investigation (SI) laboratory/field credit in the Natural Sciences

Block II: Richard Wilshusen, AN 103, Introduction to Archaeology

Meets one unit of Social Science divisional credit.

Geologists and archaeologists both study the past, often using the same scientific approaches to piece together a series of events or to describe a set of ancient relationships. Furthermore, both geologists and archaeologists rely on evidence obtained from materials found at, or below, the surface of the earth. What differs for geologists and archaeologists is the exact focus of their research: the former study 'natural' events and processes that have taken place over billions of years, while the latter seek to understand 'anthropological' changes associated with past societies and cultures.

The two blocks that make up GY140/AN103 will introduce students to both geology and archaeology. In the first block students will learn how to make geological observations, and will use them to create their own record of the rise and fall of mountains and oceans and the life that occupied these environments. During the second block, students will focus on three transformative moments in the human past: the emergence of fully modern humans, the invention of agriculture, and the rise of ancient states. Although these topics will be taught separately in different blocks, the courses will be linked by a constant set of study areas and themes. In particular, students will focus on their study on the southwest (Colorado and New Mexico) region, often visiting the same areas multiple times in order to view them from the differing perspectives of a geologist and of an archaeologist.

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.


Geology/Math:NS160

Blocks I & II: Megan Anderson & Amelia Taylor, NS160, Mathematics and Geology of the Great American Desert.

Meets one unit of Critical Perspectives: Scientific Investigation (SI) laboratory/field.

This integrated course will explore the role of mathematics and geology in understanding the natural and human development of the Western United States, (historically named the "Great American Desert"), including what this means for our future. The course is based on the geologic, water resource, and human development of the Western United States, centered on the Colorado River, the Yellowstone Caldera, and the Ogallala Aquifer. We will combine readings, field work, and mathematical modeling to study the effects of both natural and human development. We will study sedimentary rocks, canyons, dams, and aquifers and the use of resources related to each. In particular, we will take two major week-long field trips during the course: one to the Grand Canyon and one to Yellowstone National Park. Both of these field trips will include projects that combine field work and modeling and which are designed to prepare students for their final project on the Ogalla Aquifer, a major water source in the West that is rapidly being depleted.

This course is a unique opportunity to learn mathematics in the context of geology and to model geologic processes. Students will also complete readings that place our studies in historical context. Projects throughout the course will teach field skills, scientific inquiry, mathematical modeling, critical reading and technical writing.

Prerequisite: High school algebra and trigonometry.

A two-block course taught by one instructor; one grade will be given for the course as a whole.

History

History: HY104

Blocks I & II: Mark Johnson, HY104, Culture, Society and History: Global Foundations of Education

The course as a whole meets Critical Perspectives: The West in Time (2 units) or Diverse Cultures and Critiques (2 units).

This course will introduce students to key theories and methods in world and comparative history through the prism of the history of education. We will analyze the origins of various approaches to education in the context of the great religious traditions, and consider how those ideas and practices were influenced and shaped in the pre-modern world through cross-cultural contact and patterns of conquest and conversion. We will then analyze the emergence of educational systems in the early modern world, with a special focus on the role of Western colonialism and the ways in which modern ethnic, religious, gender, and national identities were influenced through those cross-cultural encounters. Finally, we will consider how the contemporary globalization of education has grown out of those deeper historical processes of contact, conflict, and collaboration. This course will be of interest to students considering majors in history or education.

A two-block course taught by one instructor; one grade will be given for the course as a whole.

History: HY105

Blocks I and II, Carol Neel, HY 105, Civilization in the West: Cultures of the Book

The course as a whole meets Critical Perspectives: The West in Time (2 units).

This two-block course will explore the ways in which ancient Mediterranean and subsequent European peoples read, copied and used texts from the origins of writing to the contemporary electronic book. Its core reading list will be major primary sources in the development of western civilization. Attention to all these works from the deep and more recent pasts—including Plato’s Apology of Socrates, Hugh of St. Victor’s Didascalicon, Voltaire’s Candide, and Kundera’s Book of Laughter and Forgetting—will stress the ways in which they reveal and critique the power of the manuscript and printed word. Further studies by modern historians and critics—including Eisenstein’s Printing Revolution and O’Donnell’s Avatars of the Word—will establish a context for these primary materials in the history of book-making technologies.

Students in this course will write individual critical essays on the respective common readings and collaborate to choose, research, and print in limited edition a manuscript text from Colorado College’s Special Collections. Although the faculty coordinator of this course will be a member of History Department, Special Collections and Humanities librarians as well as the letterpress printer who oversees the Press at Colorado College will participate actively in all aspects of the course, especially in the special final publication. Class members will collaborate with these non-departmental experts in handling historical manuscripts, researching those manuscripts contents and contexts, and producing hand-set and hand-printed editions of their chosen text and historical commentary.

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; one grade will be given for the course as a whole.

 History: HY120

Blocks I and II: Bryan Rommel-Ruiz, HY120, The American Past

The course as a whole meets Critical Perspectives: The West in Time (2 units).

What is American history? Is it an extension of European history? Or a history that is unique unto itself, maybe even exceptional: the historical manifestation of the Hegelian philosophical ideal of human freedom? This course has us search for the meaning of America, from its distant past in medieval England through our current position as global leader. The first part of this class goes to the heart of the course by asking the question of whether colonial American history is an extension of English history or whether it is the pre-history of the United States. In this regard, it asks the question of whether the American Revolution was truly a revolution as a political, social, and cultural break from its European roots, or whether it was an affirmation of an independent society and culture that was moving inevitably towards political independence. The second half of this course picks up the theme of "Searching for America" by looking closely at its formative ideology: liberal democracy. Can a liberal democracy remain stable and prosperous over a large geographic space with a large population? This classic Madisonian question has been put to the test numerous times throughout our national history since 1776, and this class will look at the ways the emergence of the United States as a liberal democracy both affirmed Jeffersonion and Hamiltonian ideas of independence and prosperity and the ways the ideology of Lockian liberalism endured the challenges of racial slavery, geographic expansion, civil war, industrialization, and globalization. Is the United States truly exceptional in its achievement of Lockian liberalism, or can it be a model for modern liberal democracies throughout the world? If so, can we, or should we encourage the development of democratic societies? This last question has been the central idea behind American foreign policy since Woodrow Wilson's presidential administration, and has become more pressing as we remain the most powerful industrial democracy in an age of integrated political, cultural, and economic globalization.

A two-block course taught by one instructor; one grade will be given for the course as a whole.

  History: HY224

Blocks I and II: Peter Blasenheim, HY224, Survey in Latin American History

Meets two units of Critical Perspectives: Diverse Cultures & Critiques
.
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 class will move on to the nineteenth and twentieth century histories of four countries: Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Chile. Topics will include caudillismo (strong man, charismatic rule), the late 19 th-century export economies, the sometimes overt and sometimes covert presence of the Catholic Church, the military and the United States in the course of events, and the causes, controversies and legacies associated with industrialization, populism, bureaucratic authoritarianism, neo-liberalism and the re-emergence of populism in the 21 st century. Finally we’ll look at issues of gender and at the remarkable interplay between race and class over the centuries in Latin America.
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.

Mathematics: MA202

Blocks I and II, Jonathan Bredin, MA110/Cp122, Bits, Bots, and Bugs: Introduction to Computing and Its Societal Impact

Block I provides I unit of Natural Science Credit and Block II meets one unit of Critical Perspectives: Scientific Investigation (SI) laboratory/field.

In this First Year Experience course, we will look at the role of the computer and information technologies in our society, and also learn programming in the modern object-oriented language Java. The course will involve an exciting mix of reading, writing and computer programming.

Over the past fifty years, information technologies have presented many conundrums to society, which we will encounter and discuss in this class. What are and have been the promises of artificial intelligence? What does it mean for a machine to exhibit intelligence? How have and how should humans and computers interact? How can we protect privacy though cryptography or other security measures? How do businesses conduct secure transactions?

The course will interweave the discussion of these important questions with a careful introduction to computer programming in the Java language, where we will consider such topics as control structures, arrays, files, searching, sorting, and string processing.

Students who complete the two-block course will receive credit for CP122 and MA110.

Prerequisite: High school algebra.

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

Music: MU104

Blocks I & II: Elizabeth Macy, MU 104, World Music

The course as a whole meets two units of Critical Perspectives: Diverse Cultures and Critiques.

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.

Music: MU191

Block I: Michael Grace, MU 191, Great Hits in American Music: From Plymouth Rock to Rock

Block II: Nilanjana Bhattacharjya, MU 191, Great Hits in American Music: From Plymouth Rock to Rock

One unit counts toward the Critical Perspectives: Diverse Cultures and Critiques requirement.

This course will examine selected highpoints in American music and their cultural roots in American society. Both popular and classical music traditions will be studied with special attention given to the social and political circumstances in which they developed. In the first block, the emergence of innovative U.S. musical traditions in the19th Century (such as civil war songs, Sousa’s band music, the Boston School of the late 1800s, and Tin-Pan Alley) will be seen as the foundations for subsequent developments in jazz, musical theater, the nationalistic works of Ives, Copland and others, and the avant garde of the mid 20th Century.

The second block will focus mostly on popular music of the 20th Century through the present, with special attention given to African American contributions; traditions including the blues, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, soul, funk, and hip hop will be examined in terms of their sound and style and relation to the music industry, technological developments, race and gender relations, and other cultural issues.

A two-block course with one instructor in each block; one grade will be given for the course as a whole.

Philosophy

Philosophy: PH 201

Blocks I and II: Robert Steck, PH 201, History of Modern Philosophy

Meets two units of Critical Perspectives: The West In time.

A study of the evolution of philosophical "modernity" and of the "modern" concept of the subject or self. While the course focuses on major ethical, epistemological, and metaphysical developments from the beginning of the 17th century to the end of the 19th century, it begins by situating these issues in the history of medieval philosophy. Philosophers covered may include Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, Spinoza, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard, Mill, and Nietzsche, among others.

A two-block course taught by one instructor; one grade will be given for the course as a whole.

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Political Science

Political Science/History: PS103

Block I: Tim Fuller, PS103, The Western Political Tradition in Global Perspective

Block II: Juan Lindau, PS103, The Western Political Tradition in Global Perspective

The course as a whole meets Critical Perspectives: The West in Time (2 units).

This course will explore the genesis of the Western political tradition in ancient Greece, its expansion and development, and its encounter with the world. A tradition is neither static nor defined by a single thought or idea; it undergoes constant actions of both preservation and innovation and contains numerous voices establishing its character. A tradition is a complex, unsystematic whole encompassing both argument and agreement. We will consider a variety of writings on politics from ancient to modern times, paying attention to continuities and discontinuities in the tradition of thinking about politics. Assignments will also include materials covering the impact of the West on the rest of the world and the reaction of other cultural and intellectual traditions to the spread of Western ideas. We believe that understanding the contours of the tradition sheds light on the current ways we interpret and respond to the world and is of value to students as citizens, whatever major they may ultimately choose.

A two-block course with one instructor in each block; one grade will be given for the course as a whole.

Political Science/History: HY200 and PS203

Blocks I and II: Robert Lee, HY200 & PS203, The Search for Islamic Order: Yesterday and Today

Meets two units of Critical Perspectives: Diverse Cultures and Critiques.

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.

Political Science/Music: PS101/MU227

Block I: Tom Cronin, PS 101, What is Politics?

Meets one unit of Social Science divisional credit.

Block II: Tania Cronin, MU 227, Topics in Music: Music and Society

Meets one unit of humanities divisional credit.

Block I is an introduction to the great ideas and debates of Western political thought from Plato and Thucydides to Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King. What is power? What is justice? What is leadership? What is democracy? What is politics? Students will read several plays and original texts, view a few films, and discuss and debate competing theories of how people govern and are governed. This is a writing and discussion-intensive seminar.

Week 3 of Block I will include 4 days at the Baca Campus (away from the CC campus).

Block II is an introduction to great masterpieces of classical music, from Bach and Beethoven to Steve Reich and Henryk Gorecki. This course does not require any background in music. Students will read and discuss a variety of theories about the political and cultural values expressed in music. How does music reflect the power structures of society? How does music create desire? How are the values of the Enlightenment, or of totalitarianism, or of democracy reflected in music? By the end of the block, students should have a deeper appreciation of selected masterpieces of classical music, as well as the ways in which music and society are connected. This is a writing and listening-intensive course.

Two one-block courses that must be taken together, with two instructors; separate grades will be assigned for each block.

Religion: RE200

Block I: David Gardiner, RE200, Topics in Religion: Religious Responses to the Challenge of Suffering, Part I

Meets one unit of Humanities divisional credit.

Block II: Dan Shaw, RE200, Topics in Religion: Religious Responses to the Challenge of Suffering, Part II

Meets one unit of Humanities divisional credit.

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:

• How does the understanding of suffering vary from tradition to tradition? What sorts of language (images, metaphors) are used to express insights into suffering?
• What similarities and differences can one detect among the methods proposed in various religious traditions for addressing the challenges of suffering?
• How do communal stories about suffering help make sense of an individual's suffering?
• How might communal stories of suffering be used in the practice of healing?
• Why is there so much emphasis on suffering in our religious traditions?

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.

Sociology: SO100/SO235

Block I: Kathy Giuffre, SO100, Thinking Sociologically

Meets one unit of Social Science divisional credit.

Block II: Gail Murphy-Geiss, SO235, Sociology of Family

Meets one unit of Critical Perspectives: Diverse Cultures and Critiques.

Families in Social Context
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?

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.

Southwest Studies: SW175

Block I Anne Hyde, SW175, The Greater Southwest: An Introduction

Block II: Eric Perramond, SW175, The Greater Southwest: An Introduction

Meets the Critical Perspectives: Diverse Culures and Critiques requirement (2 units) or Critical Perspectives: The West in Time (2 units.)

This course introduces students to our fascinating backyard by using diverse perspectives on the region's physical settings, histories and cultures. We will develop a set of interdisciplinary and intercultural approaches to answer important questions. How can we give context to current debates over immigration and the border? How can we both protect and use distinctive landscapes and cultures? How do water, altitude, and atmosphere shape the region? How does the past influence the present and future?

Taught by a historian and a geographer, the course explores the complex place we call the Greater Southwest and the varied peoples who have lived, fought, traveled in, written, raised families, farmed, and survived there. We will examine the strands of culture, both indigenous and imported, that intertwine in this place beginning in the fifteenth century. The course asks how people have constructed and articulated a sense of place over time, and explores the implications of this for the relationships people develop between themselves, the environment, and others.

The course will start with an examination of the deep past by looking at historical and anthropological records and the debates over whose voices get to define the region. We will then use a series of primary texts to examine the artistic and literary traditions of the region and assess the enduring impact of conquest. Our work will often consider the relationships between indigenous nations, the large Hispanic/Latino population in the region, and various Euro-American groups. Conflict, cooperation, and cultural blending among these groups, the various ways each group understands and affects landscape, and the ways in which land/nature has forged relationships within and between these groups are central concerns. The course includes an extended, off-campus, field component during Block 2 to a few significant sites. Students will do research, on issues of concern to the region, which they will include in a final 12-15 page essay.

The course is a two-block course with a different instructor in each block; one grade will be given for the course as a whole.

Studies in the Humanities: HS120

Block I:  Re Evitt and Rebecca Tucker, HS 120, Form and Function in the Arts: Embodying the Renaissance 

Block II:  Richard Hilt and Michael Grace, HS 120, The Worlds of Music and Science in the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and early Baroque

The course as a whole meets Critical Perspectives: The West in Time (2 units).

Block I - Form and Function in the Arts: Embodying the Renaissance
                 

During this block, we will examine the re-ordering of European culture through the lenses of literature and art from the 13th through 16th centuries. We will consider changing representations of the human body, sacred and profane, in both literary and visual texts as a means for exploring the authority of classical antiquity and the correlated functions of love and political power. We’ll examine how art and literature operated in the Renaissance: for patrons, for civic and religious institutions, and for different types of audiences. In literature, our readings will cover a range of genres important to the Renaissance.  Selections include Plato (Symposium), Dante (Vita Nuova, Commedia), Petrarch (Rime Sparza), Chaucer (The Pardoner's Tale), The York Crucifixion [anon.], Ficino (Commentary on Plato’s Symposium), Machiavelli (The Prince, Mandragola), Castiglione (The Book of the Courtier), Shakespeare (Sonnets, Measure for Measure). In the visual arts, we will look at a variety of works from the period in Europe, with a focus on in-depth study of crucial paintings, sculpture, and architecture by artists ranging from Giotto, Brunelleschi, Botticelli, and Michelangelo to Dürer and Pieter Bruegel.

Block II -The Worlds of Music and Science in the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and early Baroque. 

The course will spend the second week of Block 2 at CC's Baca Campus in the San Louis Valley.

During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, music was considered a “mathematical” art.  Its principles were best understood through number, which served as link between music and the order of the universe which it sought to represent, or to “mirror.”  On the other hand, music has always been an art in which composers and performers attempted to express human feelings and to move the hearts of their listeners without regard for number or mathematics.  We will examine music from these two perspectives at important phases of its development, including 1) the Gothic Era of the 12th Century, 2) the era known as the Ars nova  in the 13th Century (coincidentally the age of Giotto and Dante, 3) the emergence of Humanism in the 15th Century, 4) the High Renaissance and Mannerism in the 16th Century, and 5) finally the dawn of a modern world in the early Baroque.  We will relate music to readings undertaken in the block, as well as art history studied in Block I. 

During each of these historical eras our scientific world view was also developing.  In the middle of the 16th Century Copernicus argued that the Sun rather than the Earth was the center of the universe, and by the early 17th Century, Galileo used his telescope to see the moons of Jupiter, the mountains on our Moon, and Saturn’s “ears” (rings).  The science we take for granted today was new and exciting (or threatening) then.  We will explore some of the ways the “new science” influenced the literature and life of the Renaissance.  During our week at the Baca Campus, 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. Throughout the block, we will look for intersections between science, music, and literature.

A two-block course with two instructors in each block; with separate grades given for each block.

Biology/Psychology

Block V: Ralph Bertrand, BY 100, Studies in Biology: Science and Ethics of Biotechnology

Block VI: Lori Driscoll, PY 178, Topics in Psychology: Science and Ethics of Biotechnology

Readings and discussion of social, medical and ethical issues associated with contemporary biotechnology. The course will cover basic concepts in genetics, neuroscience, and cell biology with discussion on the current and future impacts of biotechnology. Students will improve their critical thinking, presentation, and writing skills through writing exercises, individual and group workshops, and hands-on data collection and analysis.

In Block V, students will learn the scientific method and the critical thinking skills needed when addressing scientific problems. Students will learn the basic principles of genetics and medical ethics. They will apply their understanding, through writing and discussion of cases involving medical, legal, and biological controversies in biotechnology. Students will be broken into mock trial groups to research a specific case. This will include specifics about the genetics of the case (statistics, definitions of technology, genetic evidence, etc), any legal precedence and legal arguments (similar cases, rules of law, etc). Student groups will present their case at the end of the class.

In Block VI, students will build upon the knowledge gained in Block V to specifically examine the scientific, social, and ethical issues associated with the research and implementation of "enhancement"
technologies in neuroscience, such as brain-machine interfaces, pharmacological enhancements, and genetic technologies not covered in the previous block. We will cover background material in neuroanatomy and neuropharmacology, and we will use this knowledge to critically evaluate popular books and primary scientific articles on current and future neural enhancement technologies. We will also design and conduct an experiment and write a report of our findings in scientific format.

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.

General Studies:GS101

Blocks V & VI: Tonja Olive (Feminist & Gender Studies), GS101, Freedom & Authority

The course as a whole meets Critical Perspectives: The West in Time (2 units).

"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 such as: 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.

A two-block course taught by a single instructor; one grade will be given for the course as a whole.

History: HY131

Blocks V & VI: Jane Murphy, HY131 Civilization in the Middle East

Meets two units of Critical Perspectives: Diverse Cultures & Critiques

As the Cold War came to an end, political scientist Samuel Huntington foresaw a Clash of Civilizations, positing an Islamic Civilization in conflict with Western ideals. Was he hauntingly prescient or did he misdiagnose the current conflict and its longer history? Can we make historical sense of struggles that are all too often presented as timeless? As we move through the pre-Islamic period and the emergence of Islam in the seventh century, to the height of Ottoman power in the sixteenth century, and the global problems of modernity, we’ll work together for some answers.

In the first block, we’ll retrace archeological and textual evidence from the seventh century to clarify what we know, and what we don’t know, about the first decades of Islam and the lives of ‘ordinary’ men and women through much of human history. We’ll consider early state formation and the negotiations between the religious and the governing classes as the Islamic World expanded to encompass much of the Mediterranean. In what ways were the histories of Islamic Civilization, Western Civilization, African Civilization, and Central Asian Civilization connected histories? Your research into a text or object that traveled through time and space will speak to the intellectual or cultural production of these societies and questions of appropriation.

The expanse of a global market of commodities and ideas sets the stage for the second block’s focus on the Ottoman Empire and its neighboring societies. At the macro level, we’ll continue the exploration of questions of political and religious institutions and the relationship of the Middle East to other regions of the world, and at the micro level explore the everyday life of a range of individuals. In what ways did men and women make sense of their lives and the world? How have people in the Middle East critiqued their own societies and those of the contemporaries? How have people told their history in this region? In the final project, you will engage in a collective synthesis of these approaches by engaging in a symposium on the question of what Islamic institutions and/or governments should look like in the modern world.

A two-block course taught by a single instructor; one grade will be given for the course as a whole.

• There are over 10,000 course changes at Colorado College every academic year. This means that there is a lot of change in class enrollments. Students will sign up for multiple waiting lists over eight blocks. As students add and drop courses, students on waiting lists are called by the Registrar and asked to come in and add a course, usually within 48 hours.



• Courses offered in the second semester are usually easier to get into than courses offered during the first semester.



• Students should have the appropriate prerequisite for the desired course. More importantly, courses with prerequisites have fewer students competing for available places.



• The best advise about the assigning of points to a particular course selection is available from a student's peers. You are encouraged to talk to other students and the resident advisor in the dorm. Students should also consult with the instructor.



• Beginning science courses are high demand courses; they require a lot of points.



• All-College requirements such as AP:A and AP:B courses are usually in high demand.



• Some professors are in high demand; again, lots of points will be needed.



• Multiple block courses will allow students to put points on fewer courses over the eight blocks; this allows the student to gain an advantage in course distribution over eight blocks. Example: a student uses 80 points on 6 courses instead of 80 points for 8 block courses.



• Advanced courses in a major usually require fewer points. The courses are aimed at majors (a finite number), usually require prerequisites, and have less students competing for a spot.



• Note how many times the course is taught during the academic year. A student's opportunity to get in a class is enhanced if the course is offered many times during the year.



• Students need to set priorities. If you really want a course in high demand, you must decide whether or not you should use most of the points for the course and take your chances on the other blocks. Prioritize the courses which you have selected, identifying the courses you "absolutely" have to take versus those which are less important for your course schedule. The allocation of points for the proposed schedule would then follow this priority list.



• The Registrar's office is willing to answer questions about courses and a student's schedule if any arise after they have met with their advisors.