2011 Seminars

1. Alternate Realities of Dystopian Futures

*This seminar has been designated as part of the Learning Community, “The Future is Unwritten.”  

This course examines the science fiction genre as a way of understanding alternate futures that explore a number of issues in contemporary society and reveal the ways that we make sense of our current world in our everyday lives. How do these dystopian visions reflect our current anxieties about issues such as our dependence on technology, experiments with genetic engineering, widespread environmental devastation, poverty, reproductive rights, racism and sexism? What do these alternate realities and potential futures reveal about human nature, the ways we build our societies and how we structure our relationships within them? This seminar will analyze various media forms including novels, short stories and films, and ground them in the particular historical, political and economic context in which they were written. We will be taking “science fiction” seriously as a way to explore “serious” matters in contemporary culture.

Professor: Helene Lee, Sociology
Time: 11:30 MF

2. American Cities: Past, Present and Future

*This seminar has been designated as part of the Learning Community, “Cities in Imagination, Representation and Reality.”  

Seventy percent of the U.S. population and 50% of the world population live in urban areas. The urbanization of the U.S. and world populations is expected to increase in coming decades, posing both challenges and opportunities for the creation of environmentally sustainable communities that promote creativity, social connection, economic opportunity and physical and mental health. This course will examine U.S. cities through multiple disciplines: history, art history, sociology, community psychology and environmental studies. The course will address such questions as: How and why did cities develop in the U.S.? Is urban poverty unique from other forms of poverty? How does urban living affect lifespan development? Are cities needed for artistic innovation? Is gentrification a good or bad thing? Can better building/neighborhood design make better people? Are cities the new sustainable future? The final section of the course will involve using what we have learned about cities to develop a plan for the revitalization of depopulating cities such as Detroit and Flint Michigan.

Professor: Sharon Kingston, Psychology
Time: 11:30 MWF

3. Between Two Cultures: Hispanics in the U.S.

Hispanics are the fastest growing minority in the U.S. Hispanic persons are frequently between two cultural realities; at the same time that they maintain important links with the culture of origin, they have to adapt to the realities of everyday life in the U.S. The result of this situation produces some confusion and sometimes ambivalence. We will study this ambiguity in selected Hispanic novels (in English).

Professor: Alberto Rodriguez, Spanish, Portuguese
Time: 12:30 MWF

4. Can a Machine have a Mind?

This course will consider the question of whether it is possible for a machine to have a mind. We will examine this question from philosophical, scientific and technological perspectives. Classic arguments both for and against the possibility of machine intelligence will be studied. Current trends and techniques in the quest for intelligent machines will be explored. The exploration of these trends and techniques will be reinforced by hands-on activities using mobile robots and simulations. Ultimately students will be expected combine resources and experiences from the course with resources of their own discovery to formulate and justify an opinion on the question of whether a machine can have a mind.

Professor: Grant Braught, Math/Computer Science
Time: 11:30 MF

5. Coming of Age in a Multimedia Age

In an age where Multimedia seems to be turning humanity increasingly globalized, one tends to assume that cultural differences are more easily understood; however, it seems that the more one knows about other cultures through Multimedia (because of its nature and format) and not through human experience and/or artistic or literary media, the more exposed one is to cultural misunderstandings. The focus of this seminar will be that of beginning to understand these cultural misunderstanding through the reading of a specific type or literature, the Bildungsroman, also known as ‘the coming of age story.’ This course will emphasize the reading of foreign ‘coming of age’ novels, in English and in English translation, written by men and women. The study of this type of literature will expose ‘coming of age’ students to their own assumptions of cultural differences, including gender, religious and ethnic differences, hopefully leading them to better understand the complexities of living in a globalized age.

Professor: Jorge R Sagastume, Spanish/Portuguese
Time: 12:30 MWF

6. Dangerous Moves: Dance, Subversion, and the Policing of the Body

Fairies, willies, nymphs, cowboys and Indians, these are just a few of the characters we find in dance on the concert stage that are part of a complex web of imagined identities.

This seminar will examine dance histories in which choreographers, administrators, police, and missionaries harness dance as coded representation in attempts to create, reinforce, or subvert particular visions of the social world. From the shifting image of the dancing female body on stage, to the outlawed dances of indigenous Americans, the seminar involves critical reading of texts and “social texts,” approaching scholarly writing as a way to make argumentative contributions to complex and often controversial discourses. We will draw on historical and theoretical texts, video, and film in order to analyze the moves and the languages of various dance practices.

Professor: Sarah Skaggs, Theatre/Dance
Time: 11:30 MF

7. Discerning Fact from Fallacy in Nature and Medicine

*This seminar has been designated as part of the Learning Community, “Knowing Science/Scientific Ways of Knowing.”  

Scientific information comes to us from many sources, including the media, friends and associates, doctors, teachers, books and articles, web sites, documentaries, and the like. Often the information conflicts, and the consequences of the conflicts can be puzzling, expensive, or even life-threatening to individuals. Using nature and health as our general topic areas, in this seminar we will ask how can one sort out good information from false or misleading information, how good information is gathered, and how (ideally) information should be presented to the general public. We will begin with select examples of studies in behavior, ecology, and human impacts on wild and domestic animals, in order to establish the nature of good vs. bad science and to look at the ways that scientific information is disseminated. We will then move to controversial issues in human health, such as the validity of claims for herbal medicine. We will cover some simple experimental design and data analysis techniques to establish a firm basis for evaluating the validity of scientific information. Field trip options on certain Saturdays or Sundays will allow opportunities to hike the local area and see natural phenomena relevant to the class, such as effects of white-tailed deer overpopulation and distributions of medicinally valuable wild plants.

Professor: Carol Loeffler, Biology
Time: 11:30 MWF

8. Don Juan: Rebellious Eros in the Modern World

Who is Don Juan? Why is he so universally appealing? And why have so many plays, movies, and books (over 1700) been written about him? This seminar will study the legend of Don Juan, beginning with his literary origins in a 17th century Spanish play by Tirso de Molina, El burlador de Sevilla/The Trickster of Seville. We will then examine representations of Don Juan in several different countries and time periods. We will also analyze and discuss the transposition of the Don Juan archetype to film. Throughout this seminar we will consider the wider implications of our search for Don Juan, including the origins of our ideas of love, its links to sex and eroticism, the conflict of traditional society and modern love, and the ways in which power is wielded through love.

Professor: Eva Copeland, Spanish/Portuguese
Time: 12:30 MWF

9. Engaging Cultural Ideas via Twentieth-Century Music

*This seminar has been designated as part of the Learning Community, “Music and Meaning.”  

Over time, philosophers and audiences alike have described music as an “abstract” and “universal” art-form, denying the medium its roots in social, historical, and intellectual movements. And yet, throughout history music has meaningfully engaged with current events, philosophical ideas, and artistic currents to express the attitudes and ideas of a generation. This seminar seeks to challenge such assumptions by placing specific twentieth-century musical masterpieces in their creative, political, and cultural context, thus allowing students to understand how recent composers have encoded their pieces with social and humanistic meaning. Students will explore the historical and cultural contexts of twentieth-century classical music through myriad interpretive lenses, including historical and interpretive writings, compositional manifestos, critical listening exercises, concert reviews, and first-hand interactions with guest performers. The class culminates in a formal concert, in which students will contextualize and perform a variety of post-1950s compositions written for performers and non-performers alike.

Professor: Amy Wlodarski, Music
Time: 11:30 MF

10. Environmental Ethics and the End of the World

*This seminar has been designated as part of the Learning Community, “The Future is Unwritten.”  

A great deal of literature, and particularly science fiction, concerns itself with the end of the world. This catastrophe may be the result of a nuclear war, or an environmental disaster, but it is almost always brought on humanity by its own actions. From nuclear terrorism, to the spectre of global warming, to the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012, we are still buffeted today by warnings about the apocalypse. In this seminar, we will consider what lessons we can learn from the previously imagined ends of the world. Is the apocalypse a result of technological change, or the inevitable product of human nature? Who is lost when the world ends, and who is saved? We will consider specific examples of political apocalypse (nuclear war), environmental apocalypse (global warming; Malthusian catastrophe), as well as the slow decline of society into a dystopia.

Most importantly, at its root, the apocalyptic story is a cautionary tale, and we will consider the consequences of these lessons for our own actions. For example, both global climate change and nuclear war can be seen as the result of the cumulative choices (environmental or political) of entire societies. With these examples in mind, in what ways do our personal choices really affect other people in the world? To what extent are we responsible for these effects of our choices on others? How can we act together to build an ethical culture--one, hopefully, that will avoid an apocalypse?

Professor: Greg Howard, Environmental Studies
Time: 11:30 MF 

11. Family Drama

Tolstoy said: “All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." The family is often at the center of our history, our hopes, our dreams, and our very understanding of the world. What happens when the family unit is confronted with lies, substance abuse, illness? What happens as the family ages and children become adults, and parents become elderly? How does family define us? We will discuss these issues and more as we read plays from the modern and contemporary American theatre. As we read plays, we will discuss how the playwright works to create his meaning in the play, and what the play says about families and the individuals who make them up, and about society in general. Such plays as “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” “Fences,” “God of Carnage,” “Buried Child” and “August: Osage County” may be included.

Professor: Sha’an Chilson, English
Time: 11:30 MWF

12. Founders of Modern Discourse: Marx, Nietzsche, Freud

In this class we will examine some of the most important works by three authors who are considered the main founders of modern discourse. Marx’s critical analysis of capitalism, Nietzsche’s radical nihilism and Freud’s explorations into the collective and individual unconscious constitute the foundations upon which our contemporary visions of the world were constructed. Many philosophical, artistic and social movements originated through an intertextual dialogue (either in agreement or disagreement) with the theses put forward by these three thinkers. We will look at how these theories were (mis)appropriated throughout history and will try to determine whether or not they are still relevant in today’s world.

Professor: Tullio Pagano, French/Italian
Time: 11:30 MF

13. Freedom

In my daily life, I think about what to wear; what to eat; who to call; where to go when. My options are limited in various ways, but I still seem to choose freely among those options. I also often praise my wife for being so patient with our son; I sometimes help my sister see that she should apologize for being too hard on one of her employees; and sometimes I get frustrated with my neighbors for being noisy late at night. In these ways, I treat others as though they too are free. Are we really free? We sometimes can’t help ourselves from doing what we do (because of anxiety, depression, or addiction); our actions are shaped by our characters, which are in turn shaped by our parents (who endow us with their genes, and inculcate certain habits in us); we are surprisingly obedient to perceived authority; we rely on government and society more generally for accurate information about the world around us. Do those facts limit or undermine our freedom? What is freedom anyway? In this course, we will focus on these questions by studying works of fiction, social psychology and philosophy. Among other things, we will read work by George Orwell, Aristotle, Immanuel Kant and Stanley Milgram.

Professor: Chauncey Maher, Philosophy
Time: 11:30 MWF

14. From Genesis to Metropolis: The Image of the City in Western Civilization

*This seminar has been designated as part of the Learning Community, “Cities in Imagination, Representation and Reality.”  

This course aims to provide students with an understanding of urban centers, and attitudes towards them and the people who live in them. Students will analyze the image of the city from a variety of perspectives (visual, literary, musical) to address why it continues to grip much of modern thought. It will consider ideal cities and utopias (Paradise, New Jerusalem), real cities (New York, London, Florence, Venice, etc.), cities of the dead, cities of evil (Babylon), the mythic origins of cities (Aeneid), cities of the future (City of Tomorrow), literary cities (City of Ladies, Invisible Cities), dystopia (Metropolis), suburbs and the garden city, among others. Students will examine the dynamic polarity between the built environment and nature, cities and sustainability, and how people shape cities and how cities shape people.

Professor: Phillip Earenfight, Art/Art History
Time: 11:30 MF

15. Get Up, Stand Up!: Bob Marley as Artist and Activist

The face of Bob Marley is emblazoned on T-shirts sold in mainstream department stores, and figures prominently on posters and textiles that adorn American college students’ dorm rooms. His music is celebrated in regions as diverse as the UK, Japan, New Zealand, and Tanzania. We’re all familiar with commercials promoting tourism in Jamaica that feature Bob Marley’s track, “One Love.” Less familiar is the history of Bob Marley—the socio-political environment in which he was raised, the cultures that shaped his music, the historical figures that influenced his ideology and politics, and the development and nature of his spirituality. These are among the issues that will be explored in this seminar. Bob Marley is a cultural icon whose music continues to have a very significant impact on the development of postcolonial and counter-hegemonic consciousness, artistic production and activism. The course will introduce students to scholarly and popular writing about, as well as filmic representations of, Bob Marley’s life, art, and politics, and will consider his work in the context of transnationalism and global capitalism.

Professor: Patricia van Leeuwaarde Moonsammy, African Studies
Time: 12:30 MWF

16. Globalization, Sustainability, and Security

*This seminar has been designated as part of the Learning Community, “Security, Sustainability and War.”  

Over the past two decades, the nature of international relations and the structure of the international system have changed, an evolution associated with the process of globalization. Furthermore, the people of the world have become increasingly interdependent, a state of affairs that these days is often linked to concerns about sustainability. In this course, we will explore the way those developments have influenced the thinking of experts who study challenges to the national security interests of the United States. We will also examine the strategies that have been formulated and implemented by national security professionals in response to those perceived challenges.

Professor: Michael Fratantuono, International Business & Management
Time: 11:30 MWF

17. Health, Illness, and American Culture

What is it like to experience illness in America? This course will focus on narratives of illness in contemporary American culture created by both patients and health practitioners. We will explore the ways in which illness is located at the crossroads of biology and culture, seeing how people experience illness as both a bodily and a social phenomenon. We will ask such questions as: How do race, gender, and economic position affect the reality of illness, access to medical care, and the ability to have one’s story heard? Why do some illnesses (cancer, AIDS, mental illness) acquire stigma in American culture? What role do forms of creative expression—fiction, poetry, memoir, film – play in shaping the experience of illness and healing? How can we connect biology and medical research with the stories patients and doctors tell?

Our reading will include books such as Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks; William Styron, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness; Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors; and Miriam Engleberg, Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person. Films will include Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?; Supersize Me; and Wit.

Professor: Sharon O’Brien, English and American Studies
Time: 12:30 MWF

18 - 20. Ideas that Have Shaped the World

Why do ideas matter? What is the relationship between the individual and community? How can we define human nature? What is Justice? Are there universal moral principles? Or are our actions considered moral according to the moment and place in which we find ourselves? Explore these and other fundamental issues of humanistic inquiry through a series of compelling and influential texts. As a new initiative in Dickinson’s First-Year Seminar Program, fifteen faculty members from nine different disciplines developed this exciting course.

This year, fall 2011, three professors will join with students to read and discuss the work of authors as diverse as Homer, Plato, Augustine, Shakespeare, Labe, Nietzsche, Jefferson, Marx, DuBois, Duras, and Achebe. Faculty have focused the seminar reading list around the question, “How do the ideas of these authors – all from different cultures and eras – resonate across time and help us to understand our present experience within a global community?” Furthermore, studying carefully the work of outstanding thinkers, readers, and writers is one of the best ways to learn to read, think, and write well yourself. Because all sections of the course will read the texts simultaneously, conversations will extend beyond the classroom. The seminar also features six plenary lectures by guest speakers and Dickinson faculty on themes and issues central to the readings that students and faculty in all course sections will attend together.

Find additional information on the seminar, list of texts and faculty for 2010 on the Humanities Collective page.  

18. Professor: Christopher Bilodeau, History
Time: 11:30 MF

19. Professor: Christopher Francese, Classical Studies
Time: 11:30 MF

20. Professor: Andrea Lieber, Religion/Judaic Studies
Time: 11:30 MF

21. Mediated Realities

Most people would say they want to know the truth about the world -- to know fact from fiction, genuine from fake, real from imaginary. But it isn’t that easy. On the one hand, we are constantly targeted by groups seeking to shape, or “mediate” our view of reality to serve their own social, ideological or economic purposes – using powerful techniques to exploit our most deeply held, often invisible, wishes, weaknesses and prejudices to get us to behave in certain ways. Truman Burbank and the millions of fans of The Truman Show would certainly understand that. At the same time, new technologies are making the line between the real and the imaginary, never very well defined, increasingly unclear, as Thomas Anderson, also known as Neo, came to understand in The Matrix. In this seminar, we will explore these issues by examining some of the lenses through which our reality is filtered -- including the advertising industry, political propaganda, the news media, social networks and “virtual” realities. Underlying all this are important questions about how we wish to live as individuals and as members of a free society – and to what extent we can hope to ever know what is real and what is not.

Professor: Richard Lewis, Interdisciplinary
Time: 11:30 MF

22. Mexico 2011: A Failed State?

Current news reports from Mexico are disturbing. Almost every week we read stories about violent clashes between Mexican government forces and the nation’s powerful drug cartels. In addition, journalists regularly report on social inequalities, political corruption, and economic decline in Mexico. Problems such as these have played a role in the controversial surge in illegal immigration from Mexico in recent decades. Is Mexico, as some analysts assert, on the verge of political collapse? Is the Mexican state failing? Or are these assertions exaggerated? This seminar will study the current situation in Mexico in depth and attempt to answer these questions. We will also examine Mexico’s 20th century history in order to place recent developments in historical perspective.

Professor: J. Mark Ruhl, Political Science
Time: 11:30 MF

23. Molecules of Madness

How does the brain function? How does the mind falter? What is the relationship between these two? The field of medicine has greatly benefited from our understanding of the molecular basis of normal human functioning, and we’re now able to treat diseases using this knowledge. But what about mental illness and its treatment? There is a growing public awareness that mental disorders can be inherited, but without a basic understanding of the role that the nervous system plays in mental illness, we cannot begin to find truly effective treatments.

This course will delve into the field of clinical neuroscience, an emerging interdisciplinary science that attempts to provide a basic understanding of both the human nervous system and the complex behavioral patterns we describe as mental illnesses. We will examine the biological foundations of mental disorders such as addiction, anorexia, autism, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder, phobias, depression and schizophrenia. We will be reading two texts (Molecules and Mental Illness by Samuel H. Barondes and Clinical Neuroscience by Lambert & Kinsley), and each student will read a popular first-person account of a mental disorder and present this topic to the class. Writing assignments will range from reaction papers, poetry (about the brain?), posters and letters, to research reports on both normal brain function and mental illness.

Professor: Teresa Barber, Psychology
Time: 12:30 MWF

24. Musical Performance as a Liberal Art

*This seminar has been designated as part of the Learning Community, “Music and Meaning.”  

The composer Aaron Copland once described musical performance as collaboration between a “creative mind” (the composer), and “interpretive mind” (the performer), and a “gifted listener.” His description situates musical performance at the center of an interpretive exchange, in which composers translate their ideas into musical notation, performers prepare and execute these ideas based on their reading of the score, and listeners appreciate and critique the concert experience. This seminar explores select genres and composers of twentieth-century classical music – including chamber music, opera, and avant-garde performance art – from the vantage point of all three figures, providing students with an experience of music as an integrative, liberal art. Students will engage with diverse materials, such as musical scores, performance treatises, recordings, critical listening exercises, and guest performances. The class culminates in a formal concert, in which students will realize a variety of post-1950s compositions written for performers and non-performers alike.

Professor: Jennifer Blyth, Music
Time: 11:30 MWF

25. New Literacies: Living and Learning in the Digital Age

The “Millennial Generation” is often lauded and criticized for how intrinsically immersed in digital, social, and multi- media its members are. In contrast with older generations who experienced the advent of new technologies – including the Internet, “digital natives” can hardly imagine a world without the context of cyberspace. Cognitive development, social practices, and academic tasks have radically evolved in light of these technological advancements. How we “read” the world; represent ourselves and our ideas to others; and what “counts” as knowledge have all changed drastically. Is this generation (and future ones) comprised of more critical creators and consumers of information and resources than previous ones? Defining literacy as the ability to represent one’s ideas and understanding using multiple media, this seminar will examine what it means to be literate and successful – socially, academically, and professionally – in the 21st century. Key theoretical perspectives will be explored through the lenses of literature, popular culture, and educational theory.

Fiction and non-fiction works studied in whole or part will include Brave New World; 1984; Persepolis; Literacy in the New Media Age; Digital Literacies: Concepts, Policies, and Practices; New Literacies: Changing Knowledge and Learning. In addition, a selection of digital and multimodal texts will be read and analyzed in this seminar.

Professor: Elizabeth Lewis, Education
Time: 12:30 MWF

26. New York and Paris: Poets and Painters Extol the Modern City

*This seminar has been designated as part of the Learning Community, “Cities in Imagination, Representation and Reality.”  

In the 19th century, poets and painters extolled the exuberance of the modern city. Our seminar’s journey will begin in New York with the poets Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman. We will cross the Atlantic, reading the poetry of Victor Hugo and Charles Baudelaire. Once in Paris we will study the French and American painters who depicted Paris, like Winslow Homer who illustrated scenes of Parisian life for Harper’s Weekly. Once the French Republic was restored, a new “aesthetic of everyday life” was coming into fashion. In 1872, Monet’s Impression, Sunrise began the impressionist movement. Americans were the first to appreciate it. Mary Cassatt, among others, left for Paris to study with Degas and Pissarro. Childe Hassam came to Paris for Harper’s Weekly, he then returned to paint New York cityscapes. He said, “The Brooklyn Bridge is worth the coliseum of Rome”. Frédéric Bartholdi’s Statue of Liberty inaugurated in 1886 remains the colossal achievement of the French and American relations in the arts. Baudelaire’s Salons will serve as the model for writing our own art criticism.

Professor: Catherine Beaudry, French/Italian
Time: 11:30 MWF

27. Profiles in Courage: Nobel Peace Prize Laureates

For over a century, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has bestowed an annual Peace Prize to an organization or individual who, in the words of Alfred Nobel, “has done the most and best work for the brotherhood of nations and the abolishment or reduction of standing armies as well as for the establishment and spread of peace congresses.”

In the years after the Second World War, the judges’ definition of peace expanded to include humanitarian concerns, producing laureates such as Wangari Maathai, Mother Teresa, Elie Wiesel, and Muhammad Yunus. This seminar will examine the transformation of the award and its political ramifications over the course of its history. We will discuss the selection process and consider whether the choice has always been, as a former chairman of the judging committee wrote in 2001, “to put it bluntly, a political act.” The course will be organized into four broad categories corresponding to the work of past laureates: arms control, peace making, advocacy for human rights, and the environment.

Professor: Jeremy Ball, History
Time: 11:30 MWF

28. Recreation in Carlisle and Surroundings

Carlisle and the surrounding communities in the Cumberland Valley provide a multitude of activities for residents to experience when not working, ranging from nature preserves to working out in local gymnasiums. This seminar will explore what the people of Carlisle are doing for recreation, why they are participating in these activities, and what are the perceived benefits for them and their families. Each student will become an expert in a specific activity by doing extensive library research on its origins and development, visit recreational sites and interview the people who participate in the activities. For example, a student may be interested in wildlife or the preservation of natural areas and chose the Audubon Society as an institution to be studied. Becoming an expert will involve talking with members and visiting sites such as the Hawk Watch at Waggoner’s Gap. Another example would be examining the local auto racetracks and the people who race as well as those who come to watch. Yet another would be a student interested in the multiple activities carried by the very active Carlisle YMCA; the possibilities are virtually endless, limited only by one’s personal interest. The information collected by the students will include written materials, photographs, video/sound recording. Student presentations to the class during the semester will incorporate these multimedia sources.

Professor: Kjell Enge, Anthropology
Time: 12:30 MWF

29. Revolution: Thinking Political and Social Change

This seminar will investigate the concept of revolution, or the call for overturning of reigning political and social systems. We will examine major movements, texts, and thinkers that put forth influential revolutionary arguments in diverse areas of social, political, and economic life through the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. The class will consider revolutionary ideas such as Marxism, anarchism, radical ecology, atheism, feminism, primitivism, queer political thought, free love, and anticolonialism.

Professor: Laura Grappo, American Studies
Time: 11:30 MF

30. Science or nonsense?

*This seminar has been designated as part of of the Learning Community, “Knowing Science/Scientific Ways of Knowing.”  

We are rational beings. Our beliefs are founded on good science, we use logical reasoning to make decisions, and we have left behind the mystical beliefs of our ancestors. If this is true, then why do we spend billions of dollars each year on alternative medicine? Why do we buy lottery tickets? Why do we carry lucky charms, knock on wood, and avoid strolling under ladders. Why do we believe in the paranormal, UFOs, astrology, and the Loch Ness Monster? Why are we more afraid to fly than to cross a busy street? In this seminar we will explore the mathematical, statistical, psychological, historical, and social reasons that these seemingly irrational beliefs still have a strong hold on us. We will learn how to nurture a healthy skepticism and to develop critical thinking skills that will enable us to face these issues with our eyes and minds wide open.

Professor: David Richeson, Math/Computer Science
Time: 11:30 MWF

32. Serious Comedy

This course will study “serious comedy” in two ways. First, we will look at the history of comedy, pausing on such central figures of Western culture as Aristotle, Shakespeare, Freud and Charlie Chaplin. We’ll ask questions about the characteristics of comic form as well as the nature of laughter itself. The texts will be drawn both from the rich, though always undervalued, tradition of comic theory as well as comic practice. This survey will take up a little over half the course.

The second meaning of “serious comedy” here is “comedy that treats serious things.” For this unit, the second half of the course, we will stay firmly in the last several decades. What are the limits of comedy? Are there places comedy shouldn’t go? Possibly, but it seems there are few places it hasn’t gone. For example, the recent British film Four Lions (Chris Morris, 2010) treats the unrelentingly serious and horrific subject of terrorism. The film, beyond all odds, it seems, manages to be both genuinely funny and painfully disturbing—frequently at the same time. Such texts ask us to reflect on how comedy can become an effective and useful tool for the most serious kinds of inquiry.

Professor: Paul Gleed, English
Time: 12:30 MWF 

33. Tell Me Why: The Role of Information in Society

In this seminar, we will examine the history of recorded information from the oral traditions of ancient philosophers through the age of the Internet, and how different methods of communication affect the circulation of information. We will discuss issues critical to the dissemination of information such as censorship, plagiarism, and the true cost of information. We will do this by exploring the power of questions, and how the many different kinds of questions shape the answers that we find. In this seminar we will learn to develop our intellectual curiosity by becoming proficient seekers, finders, and reporters of information. We will explore how multiple points of view relate to truthfulness and reliability of information, and we will verify information others present to us. Emphasis will be placed on how to properly and ethically engage in research, and how to skillfully and creatively report the findings of that research using traditional, paper-based methods of communication as well as the newest technological methods.

Professor: Christine Bombaro, Associate Director for Library Collections
Time: 12:30 MWF 

35. The End of Oil?

This seminar will focus on when we will run out of oil and the resulting societal implications of our unsustainable natural resource exploitation We will address topics such as how much oil we have used, how much is left, and where it will be discovered. Are there technical solutions or will we be required to change our lifestyles? What alternative energy sources are available in the short and long term (e.g., natural gas, coal, wind, solar, nuclear, etc.)? And finally, what are the economic and political implications of the peak in oil production?

Professor: Marcus Key, Earth Sciences
Time: 11:30 MF 

36. The Interplay of Disease, Biomedical Science and Society

This course will critically examine a series of examples of the complex interplay between disease, biomedical science and society. A subset of the issues to be addressed include:

• Influenza pandemics: past, present and future.
• Biological weapons: development, detection and efforts at nonproliferation and control.
• The anti-vaccine movement: comparing the development of the polio vaccine with the controversies surrounding vaccines today.
• Culturing cells: the development of immortalized human cell cultures, embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells.
• Bioscience and religion: comparing views of the evolutionary biologist and outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins with the molecular biologist, NIH Director and evangelical Christian Francis Collins.
• The impact of global climate change on disease.

Professor: John Henson, Biology
Time: 11:30 MWF

37. The Politics of Inequality

Due in part to the current economic climate, we have witnessed recent high-profile political debates over unemployment benefits, social welfare programs, tax policies and other issues geared towards economic stimuli. What we haven’t seen much of, as we consider and reconsider these issues, is a comprehensive historical analysis of economic inequality in the United States. While unemployment rates offer some understanding of the American economy, little attention is paid towards inequality in terms of wealth. In this course, we will explore the political roots of wealth inequality, the lived realities of the “working poor” and the contemporary policies that shape the world we live in. Constructs such as race and gender, along with historical research on jobs, education, and welfare, will be carefully considered

Professor: Vanessa Tyson, Political Science
Time: 12:30 MWF 

38. Time

Time is one of the most important aspects of human life. From ancient civilizations watching the periodic motions of the stars in order to know when to plant crops to modern societies using atomic clocks to coordinate Global Positioning System technology, humans have constructed time to govern our daily lives and our lifetimes.

In this seminar, we will examine how this social construct has affected human institutions. How do individuals perceive time? How do we think about the past and the future – and the present? The short-term and the long-term? We will discuss the invention of timepieces, such as the clock, the watch, and the calendar. How have these technological innovations influenced human society?

Taken together, our look at time and timekeeping will help us understand the links between the two, as well as our understanding of history, technology, and our own experiences.

Professor: Windsor Morgan, Physics/Astronomy
Time: 11:30 MWF 

39. Transatlantic Tensions

The United States has had a love/hate relationship with Europe since before the founding of the American republic. On the one hand, as the American writer John Dos Pasos has observed, “Repudiation of Europe is, after all, America’s main excuse for being.” On the other hand, Americans cannot understand their history without reference to their European cultural roots. This first year seminar will focus on U.S.-European relations since World War II, with special emphasis upon developments since the end of the Cold War. We will employ a broad definition of “Europe” to include East and West Europe, Russia and Turkey. We will emphasize foreign and defense policy issues, but we will also look at cultural issues, economic issues, and disputes over climate change, energy, and the environment.

Professor: Douglas Stuart, Political Science
Time: 11:30 MF 

40. Urban Problems in Small Town America

The primary goal of this first year seminar is to explore a series of issues relating to urban America, and to experience how those issues apply to smaller communities such as Carlisle. Among the issues to be considered in this course are the reasons for development and decline of central cities and the problems and policies associated with housing, homelessness, education, and crime. Readings will include a personal memoir or other non-fiction work regarding urban youth, a novel, a text related to the homeless, and a series of shorter readings related to urban issues nationally or in Carlisle, Pa. Written work and class participation will be the primary basis for your grade. Out of class activities may include a cultural event, service work at the Salvation Army or another local agency, and one or more educational tours of Carlisle institutions or neighborhoods.

Professor: William Bellinger, Economics
Time: 11:30 MF 

41. War! A Study of its Causes, Characteristics, and Consequences

*This seminar has been designated as part of the Learning Community, “Security, Sustainability and War.”  

War has a dramatic and long-term impact on societies, individuals, and the international system as a whole. In fact, interstate warfare frequently tends to signify a turning point in history. This seminar seeks to better understand the causes, characteristics, and consequences of interstate war. Why do states often go to war against one another? How has the conduct of war changed over time? What are the ethics and human costs of this violent activity? These aspects of war will be discussed and studied using a variety of political science writings, military history, personal memoirs, literature, and film.

Professor: Andrew Wolff, Political Science
Time: 11:30 MWF 

42. Galileo’s Commandment

Bertolt Brecht, in his play The Life of Galileo wrote that Galileo Galilei, the father of the scientific method, said “Science knows only one commandment: contribute to science.” This seminar will focus on those men and women who have dedicated their lives to this commandment, how they view the activity called science, and how their efforts to follow its one commandment are viewed by society. By reading the best of their writings we will explore how, with their energy and imagination, they assembled the edifice of modern science. We will explore how the rest of society has understood and mis-understood science and its creators. We will confront two contrasting views of scientists as seen through the eyes of Hollywood, the ‘Mad Scientist’ and the ‘Scientist as the Romantic Hero.’ In addition to reading and discussing great science writing, and plays such as Brecht’s The Life of Galileo, Stoppard’s Arcadia, or Frayn’s Copenhagen, seminar members will also view and discuss films that highlight stereotypes about scientists. Other activities may include a trip to a national laboratory or to a performance of one of the plays we will read.

Professor: Robert Boyle, Physics and Astronomy
Time: 12:30 MWF 

43. Cryptology: The science and culture of secrecy

We use cryptography every time we talk on a cellphone, send email, use an ATM, or watch a DVD. In this seminar, we trace the history of secret codes from ancient Greece to contemporary times. Our approach will be twofold. First, we will investigate techniques of encoding and decoding information. The mathematics that you learned in high school (and an interest in puzzles) will provide you with sufficient background to understand the cryptological methods covered in this course. Second, we will explore some of the ways that the ability to send or break secret messages has impacted history and culture. We will trace the rising importance and complexity of cryptography to the present day with an emphasis on how issues of privacy and secrecy affect our daily lives in the digital age.

Professor: Lorelei Koss, Mathematics
Time: 11:30 MF

44. Music as a Prophetic Voice

 Music functions in unique ways in every culture. This course will explore a range of questions related to the origins of some twentieth-century musical masterpieces and provide some basic fundamentals of how a variety of musical styles have been employed to communicate in our society. What does being a prophet mean in today’s world? How does this translate into contemporary ethical and moral issues? Are these issues important in how we experience music? Building on selected readings, musical recordings and films as a framework for our discussion, we will explore the variety of ways that music functions in our lives.

Professor: Shirley King, Music
Time: 11:30 MF