|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Course Criteria
Add courses to your favorites to save, share, and find your best transfer school.
-
3.00 Credits
Soul food. Soul music. Soulless. No-soul. Over-soul. Who will save your soul? WHAT IS SOUL? Do some people have it while others don't? Do some things (a song, a chicken wing) have it while others don't? Can it be lost? Found? Does it live beyond the body, the grave? In this seminar, we will explore the cultural history of soul. Cultural history is the history of meaning. So we will be exploring the different meanings of soul in different cultural contexts, from the teachings of Moses, Jesus, and the Buddha to the music of Sam Cooke, Zap Mama, and the Black Eyed Peas, from the church to the kitchen to the hospital bed. Co-led by a professor of medicine and a professor of religion, we will be especially interested in how people understand illness and death in relation to ideas about the soul. How do different concepts of soul figure into the ways people make sense of their sickness and mortality? Course requirements include class preparation and participation, weekly short papers, discussion leadership in one seminar session, and a final essay. Three field trips (to the Rock Hall, the VA Hospital, and a good soul food joint) will be scheduled. Prereq: Passing letter grade in a 100 level first year seminar in USFS, FSSY, FSCC, FSNA, FSSO or FSCS. Prereq or Coreq: FSTS 100
-
3.00 Credits
Students in this seminar will explore how the language and images that shape our national discourse contribute to the increasing polarization of American society. What techniques do partisan media manipulators, including politicians, political pundits, bloggers, documentary film makers and televangelists use to shape the perceptions of their audience to reflect an "us vs. them," "good vs. evil" worldview? Students will also learn how individuals like Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy used language and imagery to draw us together, and we will explore and practice the use of dialogue as a method of non-polarizing communication in discussions of contemporary issues. The primary reading will be "The Argument Culture," by Deborah Tannen, a well-known, linguist, and this will be supplemented with articles on dialogue and social psychology. In addition to these readings, the class will view samplings of recent documentaries, political speeches, print and television punditry. Students will be asked to write several papers designed to help them identify polarizing language and see through its manipulation. Prereq: Passing letter grade in a 100 level first year seminar in USFS, FSSY, FSCC, FSNA, FSSO or FSCS. Prereq or Coreq: FSTS 100
-
3.00 Credits
How are new symbols created out of the ashes of the old? In this seminar we explore the history and interpretation of the destruction of images. We will consider several diverse world historical case studies: from Byzantium and the Reformation to Islamic art, the Modernist avant gardes, and attacks against monuments during the fall of the Soviet and apartheid ideologies in Russia and South Africa. We will read classic theoretical texts on the question of iconoclasm, and examine the connections between a number of categories of the "Image" that often share symbolic destruction as one of their important aspects: propaganda, pornography, avant-gard art, and censorship. We will also explore how destruction is integral to the creation of new symbols, new ideas, and new ideologies. This seminar is reading-and writing-intensive. It is a student-led reading group whose object is to understand the symbolic life of destructive acts and the destructive life of symbolism. Individual students will be responsible for introducing readings and initiating class discussion several times during the semester. Prereq: Passing letter grade in a 100 level first year seminar in USFS, FSSY, FSCC, FSNA, FSSO or FSCS. Prereq or Coreq: FSTS 100
-
3.00 Credits
From the Galapagos to the Arctic, from the Laguna Pueblo to the barrier islands of Mississippi, the course explores the territory of "nature writing." We'll read Aldo Leopold's account of life in a Wisconsin "sand county," a short book nicknamed "the environmentalist's Bible." With Barry Lopez as our guide and interpreter, we'll imagine visiting the frozen tundra. In a memoir of life with the artist and nature writer Walter Anderson, we'll ponder the limits of passion and sacrifice. Through reading a poetic novel by Leslie Marmon Silko, we'll experience an unforgettable vision of a journey toward salvation and harmony. Additional readings include essays, poems, and other short works, plus a survey of commentary from interdisciplinary fields like environmental ethics; ecocriticism; feminism; and biography. We'll visit Cleveland nature centers and museums, and we'll hope to have a few guest speakers. After several short assignments (both written and oral), each student's individually designed research project will recommend a specific means of integrating nature writing into the activities of a local organization or school. Prereq: Passing letter grade in a 100 level first year seminar in USFS, FSSY, FSCC, FSNA, FSSO or FSCS. Prereq or Coreq: FSTS 100
-
3.00 Credits
How does one attempt to understand people who seem radically different from oneself? This is a question that fiction writers and anthropologists grapple with in different ways. In this course, we will examine how difference is performed in a variety of texts ranging from ethnographic studies to science fiction. By juxtaposing fiction with ethnography, we will examine the claims that different texts make to represent reality and the "Other." We will also explore how these claims are linked to writing styles. Prereq: Passing letter grade in a 100 level first year seminar in USFS, FSSY, FSCC, FSNA, FSSO or FSCS. Prereq or Coreq: FSTS 100
-
3.00 Credits
In the high and late Middle Ages (c1100-c1450), love songs accounted for much of the poetry and music composed at the secular courts and urban centers of Europe. At the same time, spiritual love songs were an important element of medieval Christian theology and worship. What may surprise a modern audience is that the worldly love songs were often intensely spiritual, while the religious ones were often highly sensual and erotic. This seminar investigates the convergence of worldly and spiritual elements in the poetry and music of medieval love songs. Students will learn basic tools for analyzing medieval poetry and music, and through such analysis, coupled with discussion of readings from the scholarly literature, they will explore the provocative interactions between literal and allegorical, sacred and profane, and ascetic and erotic elements in medieval culture. Primary texts will be drawn from Bernard of Clairvaux's commentaries on the Song of Songs, the courtly lyrics and melodies of the troubadours and trouveres, and the lyric poetry of Dante, Pertrach, and Boccaccio. No prior musical training required. Prereq: Passing letter grade in a 100 level first year seminar in USFS, FSSY, FSCC, FSNA, FSSO or FSCS. Prereq or Coreq: FSTS 100
-
3.00 Credits
The tapestry of history is replete with the irrational, complex, and hidden motives, genius, madness, deeds of religious inspiration, frenzy, and devotion. From the Slaughter of the Innocents, to the Crusades, to the rise of the Third Reich, we know evil from violence and destruction, from insidious and malicious acts, from immoral choices and the sting of conscience. But is evil what one intends to do, or is evil what happens when we remain ignorant, apathetic, unconcerned, or just follow orders? Do we define evil according to religious inspiration or by what frightens us? Tribal religions often conceive of evil as taboo, pollution, and dangerous magic. Religion in the Western tradition has alternately defined evil as the breaking of covenants, straying from the path of God, sinful acts, and malicious thoughts. Kierkegaard experienced evil as the experience of dread at one's finiteness and nothingness. This course will attempt to understand evil as the symbolization of human fear, rage, shame, and suffering. Readings will bridge anthropology, psychology, sociology, and history to delve into the nature of the human encounter and imagination of evil. Prereq: Passing letter grade in a 100 level first year seminar in USFS, FSSY, FSCC, FSNA, FSSO or FSCS. Prereq or Coreq: FSTS 100
-
3.00 Credits
We take it for granted that our cars and camels are our "property" but what about intangible objects like poems or songs on CDs? In this seminar we will examine the development of this relatively recent form of property through the lens of piracy. We will begin with piracy on the high seas. Through analysis of historical, literary, and cinematic representations of piratical activity in the early modern era we will develop a critical methodology to aid us when we turn our attention to the newer "intellectual" property. Intellectual property is rapidly becoming the linchpin of the burgeoning global "information economy," and the U.S. is among its staunchest and most powerful enforcers. Yet only a century ago the U.S. was itself a pirate nation. After examining this piratical moment in the history of intellectual property we will turn for comparison to a selection of present-day transgressions--from peer-to-peer file sharing, to Asian software and CD/DVD bootlegging, and South American patent busting. Our aim will be to develop an informed position in the current public debate about the legitimacy and limits of private ownership of ideas in our globalizing information economy. Prereq: Passing letter grade in a 100 level first year seminar in USFS, FSSY, FSCC, FSNA, FSSO or FSCS. Prereq or Coreq: FSTS 100
-
3.00 Credits
The history of the comic book is a vital site for critical questions about intersections of art and popular culture in America. In this course we will not simply read "funny books," but will examine a genre that is as unique as its many colorful protagonists: from Popeye to Superman, Wonder Woman to the X-men, comics have given us larger-than-life characters who are often caricatures of dominant (and sometimes subversive) American ideologies. We will learn not only the history of this unique genre, but will interrogate what it means to truly read comics artistically, politically, culturally, and symbolically. At heart, reading comics in an exercise in interpretation: given visual symbols, what meanings can we take from them? What can comics tell us? And how can we write about them in intelligent, critical ways? In this course we will learn to approach comics through critical thinking strategies; that is, questioning what they are, what they say, and where they come from. Prereq: Passing letter grade in a 100 level first year seminar in USFS, FSSY, FSCC, FSNA, FSSO or FSCS. Prereq or Coreq: FSTS 100
-
3.00 Credits
The idea of estrangement or alienation is seen as being central to science fiction; after all this is a genre that explores worlds that are different from ours. However, influential theorists of the genre have made the claim that science fiction offers ways of representing the present while appearing to be focused on the future. According to Darko Suvin's classic definition of science fiction, a tension between cognition and estrangement is built into this genre. The alien worlds of science fiction are perhaps not that strange and distant from our own, even when they seem to be on the surface. In this seminar, we will read a variety of science fiction texts in order to explore the idea of cognitive estrangement that is crucial to these narratives. We will also attempt to situate these narratives in specific historical and cultural contexts. Prereq: Passing letter grade in a 100 level first year seminar in USFS, FSSY, FSCC, FSNA, FSSO or FSCS. Prereq or Coreq: FSTS 100
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Privacy Statement
|
Terms of Use
|
Institutional Membership Information
|
About AcademyOne
Copyright 2006 - 2024 AcademyOne, Inc.
|
|
|