College of Arts & Sciences Courses with a Substantial Diversity or Multicultural Content

American Studies

AMS 150: Introduction to American Studies: Arts and Values

American Studies 150, “Introduction to American Studies: Arts and Values,” explores cultural changes and artistic expression in America from the 1890s through the 1960s. The main objective of the course is to analyze how American culture and history combine to impact social values and mores. Through this examination, students are expected to come to a thorough understanding of the origins and evolution of 20th-century American identity. A cross section of elite art (the abstract paintings of Stuart Davis, for example), popular art (movies and Rock ‘n’ Roll), and folk art (the dust bowl songs of Woody Guthrie) in four eras of American history will be used as a way of exploring the cultural values that these works embody and reveal, affirm, or change.

AMS 201: Introduction to African-American Studies

This course provides a basic outline of the diversity and complexity of the African-American experience in the United States. It surveys the early academic and social concerns of Black Studies advocates; the changes in the field’s objectives which arise from its connections to contemporary social movements for Black Power, women’s liberation, and multiculturalism; and its major theoretical and critical debates.

AMS 203: Southern Lives

This course examines the lives of individual Southern figures—who lived, are living, or live only in our imaginations—to explore critically the characteristics that constitute a “Southern life,” the history and popular understandings of the South, and the role of the individual, biography, and narrative in history and contemporary culture. Moving chronologically, we will consider how the attributes of Southern lives change over time, while keeping mindful of the ways in which regional identities and stories are always contested, dialectic, and variable. The class draws upon a variety of texts, including historical and theoretical work, visual arts, music, literature, material culture, and documentary and feature film.

AMS 205: Working Lives

This lecture/discussion course focuses on individual American lives in their working experiences as they are expressed in the personal forms of autobiographies, oral histories, diaries, and letters. What does work mean to Americans as they construct their lives and judge their personal success or failure? What is the role of work in constructing a “good life” in this culture? And do these views vary according to the individual’s position in the ethnic, gender, class, and regional richness and diversity of the American experience?

AMS 251: American Folklore

This course offers a survey and analysis of such genres of American vernacular expression as legends, ghost tales, humor, music, and sermons, as they express and shape particular regional and/or ethnic American identities. Course materials include ethnographic writing, sound recordings, film, and folklore scholarship. Attention also given to the competing and sometimes contradictory definitions of “folk” culture from the 19th century to the present.

This course offers a survey and analysis of such genres of American vernacular expression as legends, ghost tales, humor, music, and sermons, as they express and shape particular regional and/or ethnic American identities. Course materials include ethnographic writing, sound recordings, film, and folklore scholarship. Attention also given to the competing and sometimes contradictory definitions of “folk” culture from the 19th century to the present.

AMS 321/532: African-American Folk Art

This course will focus on the examination of objects by African Americans variously classified as “folk,” “self-taught,” and “outsider” artists. Course material will address the African origins and American transformations of traditional arts and crafts (quilting, basketry, carving), as well as the work of selected 20th-century artists in such media as painting, sculpture and assemblage. Key concerns will include not only analysis and cultural/historical contextualization of these artists and their works, but also political and theoretical debates with respect to issues of collection, modes of exhibition, and use of the above-listed classifications.

AMS 340: Women in the South

This course is an interdisciplinary examination of cultural concepts, myths, and experiences of women from a variety of economic and social backgrounds in the American South. Special attention will be given to the interaction of race, class, sexuality, and gender in southern women’s lives. Texts include historical studies written by and about women in the 19th and 20th Century South. The class should also generate further thought about concepts of regional difference and the significance of women’s experiences in the study of American culture.

AMS 401: The African-American Experience

This course is an interdisciplinary investigation of the complexities of the African American experience in American culture. The course will explore important comparative questions about race and gender relations, the American education system, and the human condition.

AMS 492: Women in America

This course is designed to give students from all backgrounds a better grasp on the role of women in American culture. It will focus on some of the major social and cultural contributions of women from all backgrounds and walks of life. We will question the historic roles of women in America and how class, race, and other factors affected them. We will determine how the status of women reflects on the status of society as a whole. Since this scholarly field is so broad, we obviously will not be able to cover everything. Most of our readings will focus on the 20th century and the relationships between individual women and the cultural networks, which they participate in and help, create.

AMS 492: Race and Essentialism in American Culture

This seminar will consist of an interdisciplinary investigation of the cultural construction of race in the United States and its attendant politics, moving from the 19th century to the present. The course will examine scholarship pertaining to and primary documents drawn from such sources as: American photography, painting and sculpture, literature, film, music, popular culture, legal history and public policy. The seminar will place special emphasis on grappling with the complex ways in which works of creative expression have acted not only to reflect but to (re)shape the contours of the nation’s discourse on racial identity.

Anthropology

ANT 100: Introduction to Anthropology

Introduction to the study of man from an anthropological perspective. Contributions to understanding man from the humanities, as well as the biological, social, and historical sciences are considered.

ANT 102: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Introduction to the study of contemporary cultures and societies and the linguistic components of human behavior.

ANT 103: Great Discoveries in Archaeology

This course deals with the major archaeological discoveries made in the past two centuries and their impact on Western thought.

ANT 106: Indians of North America

Comprehensive overview of the prehistory, history, and contemporary culture of native North American Indians.

ANT 107: Introduction to Archaeology

Overview of the methods archaeologists use to study prehistoric cultures and an introduction to the study of human culture over the past two million years.

ANT 113: Indians of the Deep South

Introduction to the Native Americans of Alabama and their nearby neighbors. Focuses on describing and explaining life ways of indigenous peoples using ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archaeological studies.

ANT 210: Language and Culture

Human activity in its linguistic, cultural, and social contexts; interrelationships between culture and natural language; and the influences of language and culture on thought and behavior.

ANT 269: Field Archaeology

Supervised participation in the excavation and analysis of archaeological deposits.

ANT 270: Introduction to Physical Anthropology

Introduction to the study of human biological and cultural evolution.

ANT 275: Race, Ethnicity, and Human Variation

Historical and contemporary perspectives on human biological diversity, including the concepts of race, ethnicity, adaptation, and some of the social implications of these views.

ANT 311: Population, Health, and Human Origins

Focuses on the relationships among human ecology, population growth, health and disease, and adaptation in modern and prehistoric societies. Explores the origins of infectious diseases, emphasizing the principles of epidemiology and evolution of pathogens.

ANT 319: Ancient New World Civilizations: The Aztec, Maya, and Inca

An introduction to the ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica and South America. Explores the development of economic and political institutions as well as hieroglyphic texts, art styles, and religious rites.

ANT 368: Souteastern Archaeology

Origin and development of pre-Columbian and early historic cultures of the Southeast. Offered according to demand.

ANT 401: Anthropological Linguistics

Scientific study of natural language—phonology and grammar, lexicon and meaning—and the role of linguistics in anthropological research. Offered according to demand.

ANT 402: Gender, Ethnicity, and Health

Explores the gendered, ethnic, cultural, and class dimensions of sickness worldwide, with attention to the long-term health effects of sexism, racism, and poverty.

ANT 405: Culture, Mind, and Behavior

Cultural and linguistic basis of cognitive organization, systems of folk classifications, and collection and analysis of data of shared cultural and social information. Offered according to demand

ANT 408: Ancient Mexican Civilizations

Survey of the origins and development of ancient civilizations in Mexico.

ANT 409: Ancient Maya Civilizations

Ancient Maya civilizations in Mexico and Central America from the earliest inhabitants until the Spanish Conquest.

ANT 411: Culture, Health, and Healing

Survey of health, illness, and healing among and within different cultural systems.

ANT 412: Peoples of Europe

Offered according to demand.

ANT 413: Peoples of Latin American

Offered according to demand.

ANT 414: Peoples of Africa

Offered according to demand.

ANT 415: Peoples of East Asia

Offered according to demand.

ANT 416: Peoples of Southeast Asia

Offered according to demand.

ANT 417: Peoples of South Asia

Offered according to demand.

ANT 418: Development in Non-Western Culture

Theoretical and descriptive study of social change and development in non-Western societies. Major emphasis is placed on the effects of change on indigenous institutions. Both ethnographic and theoretical literature are examined. Offered according to demand.

ANT 419: Myth, Ritual, and Magic (Same as REL 419)

Survey of the anthropological literature on religion, including such topics as myth, ritual, magic, witchcraft, totemism, shamanism, and trance states. Offered according to demand.

ANT 420: Background of Anthropological Thought

Intensive review of the work of several early figures in the development of social theory (e.g., Marx, Freud, Durkheim, Weber), emphasizing their relevance for modern anthropology. Offered according to demand.

ANT 423: Legal Anthropology

Overview of legal systems and practices worldwide, with a focus on current issues of cross-cultural importance.

ANT 424: Cultural Resource Management

The theory and strategies of, and processes for, undertaking research within the legal and practical setting of CRM-driven archaeology.

ANT 436: Social Structure

Social organization and structure, social life and institutions (especially in non-literate societies), kinship, descent groups, marriage, residence, and local group composition. Offered every third semester.

ANT 444: Anthropology and Cemeteries

Using approaches developed in the discipline of anthropology and, more particularly, in the subfield of archaeology, an exploration of the different ways in which local cemeteries can yield information on cultural, societal, and historical matters.

ANT 450: Problems in Anthropology

Devoted to issues not covered in other courses. May be repeated for a total of 6 hours.

ANT 455: Africans in the Americas

Examination of the society and culture in communities of Africans in the New World. The emphasis is on diversity within the Western Hemisphere, with a focus on the three main centers of New World African society: Brazil, the West Indies, and the United States.

ANT 466: Laboratory Methods in Archaeology

Instruction in the laboratory processing, classification, and elementary data manipulation of archaeological materials.

ANT 473: Human Osteology

Detailed introduction to human osteology emphasizing the identification of fragmentary remains and the criteria for determination of age, sex, and race. Two hours’ lecture, two hours’ laboratory. Offered according to demand.

Art History

ARH 252: Survey of Art I

Survey of major examples of painting, sculpture, and architecture from the Prehistoric through Medieval period.

ARH: 253: Survey of Art II

Survey of major examples of painting, sculpture, and architecture from the Renaissance through Modern periods.

ARH 254: Survey of Art III

Survey of major examples of painting, sculpture and applied arts of India, China, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia

ARH 355: History of Chinese Painting

Survey of Chinese pictorial art from the Bronze Age to the present day.

ARH 356: History of Japanese Painting and Prints

Survey of painting and woodblock prints of Japan.

ARH: 455/555: Medieval China

ARH 455/555: Arts of Zen

ARH 455/555: Art and Culture of Edo Japan

ARH 456/556: Arts of Buddhism

Major movements and styles inherent in the artistic products of India, china, Japan, Southeast Asia, Tibet, and Nepal

ARH 481: Special Topics in 20th Century Art: African-American Folk Art

ARH 481: Special Topics in 20th Century Art: New Negro to Civil Rights Eras

Blount Undergraduate Initiative

BUI 101: Blount Undergraduate Initiative Foundation: Origins

A text-centered exploration of major questions that integrate liberal arts education and form the basis of the Blount Undergraduate Initiative. Emphasis is on origins of the natural world, human culture, and human understanding.

BUI 102: Blount Undergraduate Initiative Foundation: Possibilities

A text-centered exploration of major questions that integrate liberal arts education and form the basis of the Blount Undergraduate Initiative. Emphasis is on significant issues in the discourse on human possibilities.

BUI 301: Thematic Seminar

This Blount seminar falls under the Blount theme of “The Individual and Society” and it focuses on issues of gender. The seminar is intended to be relevant to male as well as female students by investigating the broad question of how gender identity is formed. The course will focus on the cultural complex of contemporary America.

BUI 301: Thematic Seminar

What is the relationship between the individual and society? Can one person really change the course of history, or do great cultural forces simply create moments when certain individuals can be heard? How does an individual’s appeal to common – or even “universal” – religious values challenge accepted societal norms and lead to social change? These kinds of questions will guide our study of four significant public personages whose social activism was shaped by their religious convictions.

Communicative Disorders

CD 304: Multicultural Issues in Speech and Hearing

A framework for systematically analyzing cultural similarities and differences will be provided and will serve as a model to examine cultural differences in the clinical setting. Offered fall semester.

CD 506: Sociolinguistics in Speech-Language Pathology

A framework for systematically analyzing cultural similarities and differences. Examination of cultural differences, verbal and nonverbal, in the clinical setting.

CD 516: Multicultural Issues

Study of multicultural issues and how they affect speech and language Presentation and discussion of American cultures and communicative differences.

Criminology and Criminal Justice

CJ 303: Racial Minorities, Criminality, and Social Justice

Study of the role played by racial minorities at each stage of the criminal justice system. Special attention is devoted to theories and measurement of minority crimes and race relations and to the treatment of minorities by law enforcement officers, courts, and corrections.

English

EN 249: African-American Literature

This survey course will introduce students to a range of texts/discourses within the African-American literary tradition. From some of the earliest articulations to the most recent texts, the course will inquire into the diverse rhetorical/aesthetic, philosophical, and political preoccupations of African-American writers and histories these concerns by situating them in relation to the dominant economic, political, cultural, and ideological practices. In other words, the course will situate the question of difference historically and inquire into the stakes and interests involved in producing and maintaining hierarchically inscribed social differences. Although there are diverse concerns within the tradition, the course argues that the various tendencies converge along the axis of difference (whether race, class, gender, etc.); that is to say that the common underlying link between the various tendencies within the tradition is their concern with foregrounding difference. Hence, the course will situate the various texts in relation to the question(s) of difference and examine how difference is textually produced. The course will however extend beyond the textual examination of difference and also seek to identify causal mechanisms which explain why difference is produced.

While the course situates the question of difference within its historical/structural conditions of possibility, one of the intellectual challenges for students is to theorize what they take to be a productive understanding(s) of difference. To help frame the intellectual directions of the course students may wish to consider the following questions as they read the various texts: How difference is produced socially and how does it acquire social intelligibility? How do the writers textually signify difference and what are the tropes and aesthetic devices deployed to mark difference? Why is it produced and what are the stakes and consequences in its production? These core questions are aimed at facilitating among students a very careful and well-thought-out intellectual conceptualizations of difference.

EN 444/500: Advanced Studies in Literary Criticism and Theory/Special Topics

This course situates the question of race and African-American literature in relation to psychoanalysis and materialism—two contesting modes for theorizing race in the contemporary academy. In broad terms, the course inquires into the problematics of subjectivity, the question of alienation, and the unconscious. In addressing race, the course intersects race with questions of class, ideology, language, sexual difference, gender, desire, the formation of revolutionary and collective subjects, the state, and the politics of identity and ‘experience.” The course provides such a sustained encounter with desire and materialist knowledges to test their emancipatory effects for African Americans.

The course opens with Hegel’s influential conception of the Master/Slave dialectic, and then we situate Hegel’s narrative in relation to African-American subjectivity as represented in Frederick Douglass and Gayl Jones. Then the course shifts to examine the concept of ideology (Althusser) and Richard Wright’s deployment of ideology critique in Black Boy. The next section explores the implications of desire-based theories (psychoanalysis and queer theory) for theorizing race and African-American literature. Finally, the last section stages the debate within African-American literary and cultural theory over race. Ultimately, the course argues for a materialist reading of race, and students are expected to articulate their theories of race.

The purpose of undertaking such a sustained investigation of subjectivity, (un)conscious, class, and class politics, gender, labor, and race is to enable the student to become aware of the historicity and constructedness of cultural meanings and identities and the political economy of representation of subjectivity. In short, the course aims at enabling the student to participate critically in building a multicultural democracy based on economic and not merely discursive equality (i.e., “freedom of speech”)

EN 467

From Shakespeare’s “Dark Lady” sonnets, to Aphra Behn’s popular Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave, blackness as a literary trope increasingly fascinated English authors as colonialist expansion brought more and more Europeans into contact with a racial or ethnic Other-known variously as “Blackamoore,” “Moor,” “Ethiope,” or simply “black.” This course examines the early rhetoric of black versus white—whether it arises in the sonneteer’s (seeming) celebration of “dark” beauty, or in more straightforwardly proto-racist depictions of blackness as the counterpoint to the ”white” skin of an idealized Petrarchan lady—in the process of uncovering the anxieties about cultural identity, miscegeny, etc., which attended upon English imperialism. Using Othello (on page, stage, and screen) as our central text, we will trace the development of this racialist aesthetic and the responses of black critics and authors to it, from Shakespeare’s day to the present.

EN 470

The object of this seminar is to become familiar with the dialects, literatures (oral and written), and cultures of Francophone Louisiana from the inception of the Colonial period (1682) up until the present time. We will be concerned not only with the experiences of European colonizers and their descendants, but also with Native Americans with people of African origin, and with people of multiethnic identity.

French

FR 480/680: Special Topics: Francophone Louisiana

Subject matter includes the languages, history, oral & written literatures, and cultures

of Native Americans, Cajuns, Creoles of Color, African Americans and other ethnic groups associated with the French colonization and subsequent development of the Lower Mississippi Valley.

German

GN 260: The Holocaust in Film and Literature

Geography

GY 105: World Regional Geography

Introduction to geography through a survey of the world’s major geographic regions. Examines their physical and cultural features, economies, and populations.

GY 341: Geography of the United States and Canada

Study of the physical and human geography of the United States and Canada.

GY 344: Geography of Africa

Study of the physical and human geography of Africa.

GY 350: Geography of the South

Study of the physical and human geography of the southeastern United States.

GY 358: Urban Geography

Examines the growth of cities, their spatial distributions, internal dynamics, functional bases, and social and political patterns.

GY 377: Cultural Geography

Study of the way in which culture influences elements of both physical and human landscapes with emphasis on how cultures are spread over space and how cultures make sense of space.

GY 444: Field Studies in Africa

Three-week intensive field study in Ghana. Explores geographical perspectives on Africa’s level of development and the responses of the African peoples to their circumstances.

GY 470: Special Topics in Geography: Focus China (Field Course)

History

HY 101: Western Civilization to 1648

HY 101 examines the development of a distinctively Western civilization from the time of the ancient Greeks to the mid-17th century. The course samples Western historical experience, introduces several modes of historical understanding, and provides opportunities to develop analytic skills. As the range of Western historical experience is great, so is the range of this course: the histories of values, religions, and ideas join topics in art, architecture, and material culture, as well as those traditional to historical studies—states, institutions, economies, and leaders.

HY 203: American Civilization to 1865

John Garraty and Mark Carnes, A Short History of the American Nation, Eighth Edition, Volume I. Robert J. Allison, ed., The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Written by Himself. Louis P. Masur, ed., The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green, eds., The Cherokee Removal: A Brief History with Documents. Neal Salisbury, ed., The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, By Mary Rowlandson, with Related Documents. Sam R. Watkins, Co. Aytch: A Confederate Memoir of the Civil War.

HY 204: American Civilization since 1865

This course will survey American history since the end of the Civil War through the 1990s. It will consider such themes as industrialization, urbanization, and the impact of race, gender, ethnicity, and class on American culture, society and politics.

HY 206: Honors American Civilization since 1865

This course covers the massive racial, ethnic, and gender upheavals that rocked America in this period. Every lecture deals with diversity one way or another.

HY 300: Slavery in American Popular Culture

Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Peter Kolchin, American Slavery, 1619-1877. Toni Morrison, Beloved. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. William Styron, The Confessions of Nat Turner. Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson. Course reader, available at University Bookstore.

HY 300: The American South

Covers the course of scientific and technological development in America; particular emphasis is placed on both the involvement of women and racial/ethnic minorities in science and technological change and the efforts to limit the participation and access to science and technology afforded to women and racial/ethnic minorities. Course addresses why science and technology have, for so long, seemed the province of white males and how and why that is changing.

HY 300: History of American Medicine

This course traces the trajectory of American medicine, including significant treatment of midwifery, nursing, the rise of female physicians, “gender” medicine in the Gilded Age, and the women’s health movement of the 1970s; slave medicine, “racial” medicine 1890s-1910s, and Public Health and African Americans (from Tuskegee to AIDS).

HY 300: History of American Science and Technology

Covers the course of scientific and technological development in America; particular emphasis is placed on both the involvement of women and racial/ethnic minorities in science and technological change and the efforts to limit the participation and access to science and technology afforded to women and racial/ethnic minorities. Course addresses why science and technology have, for so long, seemed the province of white males and how and why that is changing.

HY 300: African-American Women from Settlement to the Present

This course will examine the experience of African-American women, and explore the interaction of race and gender in American history.

HY 313: The American South since 1865

This course will examine the political, economic, and cultural history of the South, paying special attention to the role of race, class, and gender in the ideas about Southern identity and regional distinctiveness.

HY 319: Nineteenth Century Black History

HY 320: Twentieth Century Black History

Survey of African-American history since the Civil War. Deals significantly with African-American/Native-American Interaction, as well as gender issues within the course of black history.

HY 400: Reform Movements in Antebellum America

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance and Other Essays. Karen Halttunen, Confidence Men and Painted Women: A Study of Middle-Class Culture in America, 1830-1870. Paul E. Johnson and Sean Wilentz, The Kingdome of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in Nineteenth-Century America W.J. Rorabaugh, The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition Kathryn Kish Sklar, ed., Women’s Rights Emerges within the Antislavery Movement, 1830-1870 Amy Gilman Srebnick, The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers: Sex and Culture in Nineteenth-Century New York Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience and Other Essays

HY 428: Women in America

This course will examine the experiences of women based on their region, race, class, and ethnicity, as well as dominant ideas about women’s nature and role in society.

HY 446/546: The Age of Reason

This course treats that intellectual history of Europe in the 18th century. The readings include works that challenged traditional views of politics, religion and society. We will study the philosophies—scientists, scholars, and writers such as Locke, Newton, Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, Hume, Kant, Franklin, and Goethe. Through literature, art, music, and films, we also seek to appreciate lesser-known figures: Mary Astell, Damaris Masham, Ignatius Sancho, Phyllis Wheatley, Joseph Wright of Derby and Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. Special topics include gender, race, science, medicine, consumerism, and revolutionary movements.

Music

MUS 121: Introduction to Listening

Credit earned in this course may not be applied to a major program in the School of Music. The course presupposes no musical training on the student’s part. Emphasis is on what to listen for in music.

MUS 180: Introduction to Music Therapy

Study of music as a human behavior and of music’s use with the handicapped and those suffering from behavioral disorders.

MUS 182: Observation and Orientation to Music Therapy

Study of the functions of the music therapist with emphasis on the use of music in a therapeutic environment.

MUS 250: Music in World Cultures (Same as ANT 260)

Study of music in non-Western traditions (Africa, India, Japan, Indonesia, etc.)

MUS 251: Music History I

History of music from the ancient Greeks through the end of the 17th century, with emphasis on critical analysis of musical, historical, and cultural contexts. Offered in the fall semester.

MUS 252: Music History II

History of music in the 18th and early 19th centuries, with emphasis on critical analysis of musical, historical, and cultural contexts. Offered in the spring semester.

MUS 323: Music History III

History of music in the 19th and 20th centuries, with emphasis on critical analysis of musical, historical, and cultural contexts. Offered in the fall semester.

MUS 380: Introduction to the Psychology of Music

Basic study of acoustics, the ear and hearing, and the psychosociophysiological processes involved in musical behavior.

MUS 429: Proseminar in Chamber Music History and Literature

Lecture and class reports analyzing selected chamber music masterworks from the 17th to 20th centuries.

MUS 433: Proseminar in Symphonic Literature

Lecture and class reports analyzing selected masterworks from the symphony, symphonic poem, and concert overture repertoire.

MUS 436: Proseminar in Opera History and Literature

Lecture and class reports analyzing selected operatic masterworks from the 17th to 20th centuries.

MUS 439: Proseminar in Ethnomusicology

Introduction to the theory and methodology of ethnomusicology; its historical and philosophical developments, evolving definitions, and major figures.

MUS 447: Teaching Choral Music in Public Schools

The scope, organization, and administration of choral programs in public schools. Includes analysis of teaching techniques and materials appropriate to specific levels of development. Offered in the fall semester.

MUS 448: Teaching Instrumental Music in Public Schools

Problems encountered in the development of instrumental programs in public schools; analysis of beginning method books for heterogeneous and homogeneous groups; and development of a course of study to guide the new teacher. Offered in the fall semester.

MUS 461: The History and Literature of Jazz

History of the development of jazz to the present, from its African roots to its American florescence. Particular attention is paid to early styles and forms

MUS 474: Song Literature I

Survey of the performance criteria and historical significance of the solo song literature of the United States, the British Isles, Germany, Austria, France, and Italy. Performance and class participation are required. Offered in alternate years.

MUS 475 Song Literature II

Offered in alternate years.

New College

NEW 212: Humanities I Seminar

This first-level humanities seminar uses creativity as its organizing principle. Human culture, self-awareness, the creative process, and creative expression are explored through written texts (autobiographies, novels, poetry), film, research papers, oral and written reports, journals, individual and group projects, conversations with artists, and out-of-classroom experiences. This four-credit seminar carries both the Humanities and the Fine Arts designations. The “H” designation indicates that the course considers questions, of values, ethics, and aesthetics as they are represented in works of art, literature, philosophy, and theology. The “FA” designation indicates that the course is designed to increase the student’s awareness of the visual arts, music, theatre, and dance.

NEW 273: Social Science

This course is concerned with all areas of society and the ethical components of social issues and recent topics of discussion have included:  Culture Wars, Race Relations, Race and Ethnicity, Ethnic Conflict, Moral and Social issues of Sex and Gender, and many others of equally broad concerns.

NEW 415: Moral Inquiry in Contemporary Society

For subject matter, we’ll take up the seemingly intractable “problem” of race and racism in American social, cultural, and political life. We’ll do what we can to get a handle on what constitutes race and racism from a variety of perspectives and then pursue concrete (and difficult) examples where race and racism seem to function as barriers to a satisfying community life. We’ll look at two issues in significant detail: (1) transracial adoption; and (2) the representation of Native Americans in educational institutions, especially as sports ‘mascots.’

This will primarily be a reading and discussion course. Students should expect to do extensive reading and further expect (if not want) to actively participate in collective conversation. Course requirements will include several short response papers and a group project.

Likely reading: Wendell Berry, The Hidden Wound. Hawley Fogg-Davis, The Ethics of Transracial Adoption. C. Richard King, et al, eds., Team Spirits: The Native American Mascot Controversy. Colson Whitehead, The Intuitionist. Patricia J. Williams, Seeing a Color-Blind Future. Maomi Zack, Thinking about Race

NEW 472 and 474:Social Science II

Social Change and Human Survival-Both seminars are concerned with Genocide and the Holocaust and look at all forms of prejudice and conflict.

Political Science

PSC 205: Political Theory

The introduction includes (but is not limited to): (1) Arguments in defense of affirmative action. (2) A review of feminist thought especially that concerned with general conception of humanity that seems to exclude woman and woman’s perspectives and some feminist views on the toleration of free speech and ideas. (3) A discussion of a range of views on toleration, and an extended – roughly 2 to 3 week – discussion of Michael Walzer’s recent book On Toleration (1997) which is particularly relevant to issues of ethnic conflict, and discussion of forms of toleration that have emerged in different historical and political contexts. It includes specific discussions of the dynamics of individual and group toleration and the special challenges faced by Canada, France, Israel, the European Community, and America.

PSC 445/545: Ethnic Conflict

The power of ethnicity has become brutally evident in recent years, as ethno-nationalism has ripped apart countries and interethnic strife has erupted into bloody conflict in a growing number of locations across the world. “Ethnic cleansing” has become a household term, and major powers seem impotent to resolve these crises. The anticipated peace and “new world order” following the end of the Cold War has become a dream unfulfilled rather than a reality, as the lifting of superpower constraints in both Europe and parts of the developing world has enabled nationalism and interethnic conflict to surface once again. Ethno-nationalism is not a new phenomenon, yet its spread during the past few decades has become a more salient challenge both to the integrity and sovereignty of states and to the stability of regions and, perhaps, the international system itself. Why is ethnicity such a potent source of conflict? When does ethno-nationalism cease to be a celebration of one’s heritage and become a force for fragmentation of communities and the repression of others? Is ethnic conflict states, international organizations, and peoples of the world do to prevent or ameliorate interethnic strife? These are some of the key concerns of this class. The course will examine theoretical aspects of ethnicity, interethnic conflict and several conflict management policies, as well as specific examples of ethnic crises. It seeks to prepare students to analyze interethnic conflict and to evaluate critically proposed solutions to ethnic strife.

PSC 452/522: American Political Thought

Description: American Political Thought is an advanced course taught to undergraduate students. Topics covered in the course include, but are not limited to: (1) The relationship between the premises of liberalism and the challenges of race. (2) The Lincoln-Douglas Debates. (3) The American South’s defense of slavery and its relationship to the liberal tradition. (4) Discussions of Early American immigrant (and anti-immigrant) politics, especially in 18th and 19th century New York City.

PSC 462/562

This course is designed to enhance scholarly knowledge, critical thought processes, and problem solving capabilities in relation to public personnel administration. It is also designed to clarify the values underlying different personnel systems, policies and issues. By the end of the semester, students should have increased capacities to perform such functions as the selection, motivation, and evaluation of public employees. Students should also be able to debate controversial personnel issues with greater objectivity and great tolerance for differing perspectives. The course exposes students to the breadth of public personnel systems, functions, theories, concepts, and issues, including diversity issues. It includes a political and managerial dimension and a theoretical and applied dimension. The course consequently focuses on both politics and business while emphasizing both abstract and concrete/practical analysis. It also exposes students to political realities, or how things are really done, in the personnel game.

Psychology

PY 101: Introduction to Psychology

Basic principles of psychology

PY 365: Psychology of Aging

The intellectual, social, cognitive, and physical development in adulthood with special emphasis on late adulthood

PY 371: Psychology of Gender

Review of the contribution of psychological theories and research to the understanding of sex differences in general and to women’s roles in particular

PY 372: Social Psychology

Major aspects of social psychology, including aggression, altruism, attitude change, interpersonal relations, prejudice, leadership, and group dynamics

PY 491 Seminar: Prejudice and Social Change

Looks at the role of prejudice in the development of movements such as the Holocaust and civil rights

PY 491 Seminar: Human Destructiveness

Looks at all forms of ethnic and other conflicts, consequence and possible prevention and control

PY 601: Research Methods in Psychology

This course introduces the concepts and strategies used to gather scientific information about psychological phenomena. It will familiarize you with fundamental principles and practices so that you can design and conduct sound research and also assess others’ work. One recurrent theme in the course is the ethical responsibility of the researcher. Another emphasis is the development of skills for critically evaluating psychological information in scientific journals and in the mass media.

PY 672: Advanced Social Psychology

Major aspects of social psychology, including aggression, altruism, attitude change, interpersonal relations, prejudice, leadership, and group dynamics

PY 690: Cultural Competency

The increasing cultural diversity in the United States has profound implications for psychological science and practice.  This seminar is designed to address a broad range of theoretical, research, and clinical issues in cultural competency.  Using readings, class discussions and student presentations, the seminar will emphasize the role of ethnicity, class, culture, gender, sexual orientation, and disability in mental health, and the impact of these factors on assessment, diagnosis and treatment.   Students will take an assessment at the beginning and the end of class designed to determine the growth in student knowledge, understanding, acceptance, and behavior change in regard to cultural competence.

Religious Studies

REL 100: Introduction to Religious Studies

Units on description and cross-cultural comparison, as well as significant survey units on ancient and modern Hinduism in India and ancient and modern Buddhism in India, Sri Lanka, and Japan; in the future, sections or REL 100 will be taught addressing some Native American traditions (e.g., the Lakota) as well.

REL 101: Western Approach to the Problem of Evil

The academic study of religion consists of many different sub-fields. These sub-fields are various theoretical and methodological approaches from which to study religion. No one approach gives us a complete understanding on its own, but each is necessary to build a rich and complex understanding of religion. Some of these approaches include: historical, philosophical, comparative, feminist, African-American, literary, anthropological, sociological, and psychological. They result in the sub-fields: history of religion, philosophy of religion, comparative religion, women and religion, African-American religious thought, religion and the arts, anthropology of religion, sociology of religion, and psychology of religion.

This course introduces you to Religious Studies by surveying four of these different approaches. We will look at how each addresses the problem of evil. We focus on evil in order to narrow the otherwise vast topic of religion and because evil is one of the most challenging and painful problems of religious reflection. How do these various sub-fields in Religious Studies explore this core issue? From their differing perspectives, what is the relation of religion to problems of good and evil? How do these approaches explain why innocent people suffer and how we should response? In their analyses, is religion itself ever “evil”?

Through readings, lectures, discussions, and assignments, the course highlights the interdisciplinary breadth of Religious Studies (one reason I majored in it!) and the field’s flexibility in exploring complex questions of value and meaning. The course focuses on the Western tradition and mainly Christianity.

REL 110: Introduction to the Old Testament

Various comparative, literary approaches to the study of Jewish documents in their ancient Middle Eastern historical and cultural context.

REL 112: Introduction to the New Testament

Various comparative, literary approaches to the study of early Christian documents in their ancient Middle Eastern historical and cultural context.

REL 115: The Myth of Our Lives

A study of the various ways in which social groups re-create themselves by means of oral and written narrativization of the past, present, and future.

REL 124: Religion in American

An historical survey of religion in the U.S., from select pre-U.S. Native-American traditions, to the displaced European and African traditions, the role of Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, and other such contemporary groups as African-American religions.

REL 208: Hinduism

Detailed historical, textual, and comparative study of various ancient and modern Indian cultures, rituals and beliefs.

REL 210: Buddhism

Detailed historical, textual, and comparative study of various ancient and modern Indian, Sri Lankan, Tibetan, Chinese, and Japanese cultures, rituals, and beliefs.

REL 220: Survey of Asian Religion

General historical and comparative survey of several ancient Indian cultures, rituals, and beliefs.

REL 224: Judaism

A comparative survey of some of the leading schools of thought within the history of Judaism

REL 231: Twentieth-Century Religious Thought

The major systems of thought within modern Christianity, including developments within Protestantism, Roman Catholicism and Latin American liberation theology.

REL 234: Women and Spirituality

The role of women and feminist theology in several religious traditions.

REL 235: Native American Religion

Historical, comparative study of several pre-European, Native-American cultures, rituals and beliefs.

REL 238: Philosophies of Judaism

Historical and comparative survey of pivotal Jewish philosophers reflecting on the role and nature of Judaism throughout the world.

REL 305: Honors Religion and Science

Historical study of the relations between the religious and scientific worldviews, focusing on the work of feminist and environmentalist approaches.

REL 311: English Bible as Literature

Literary, critical study of the various genres of the Bible, read in its historical and various contemporary contexts.

REL 322: Figures in Jewish Thought

Detailed literary and comparative study of the work of several twentieth-century Jewish and mostly European writers.

REL 347: Jewish-Christian Relations

Historical study of the various points of contact and divergence between Judaism and Christianity, focusing on such topics as anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, the founding of the state of Israel, and diversity among Christian denominations.

REL 124: Religion Observed in Popular Film

Religious language, themes, and rituals appear with surprising frequency in contemporary American films. How does an awareness of this religious dimension in a work of “popular culture” affect our interpretation of its meaning? What do these often subtle traces of religion suggest about the American character? And what does the broad popularity of these films say about the nature of “being religious” in America? These are the kinds of questions we will explore together in Religious Studies 124. We will focus on the enduring dialogue (or “debate,” or even “culture war”) between American culture and religious identity or—in the language of the religious studies discipline—between the sacred and the profane. Our basic “texts” will be six films that have achieved box-office or video-rental success during the last twenty years. Our conversations about these films will be supplemented with careful readings of religious, cultural, and literary scholarship. The class will be conducted mainly as a seminar; it will also include occasional brief lectures.

REL 311: English Bible as Literature

This course offers a critical study of the Hebrew Bible (TANAKH) and the Christian Bible as distinct but related literary and theological traditions. Stories will be examined in light of their cultural and historical contexts. Emphasis will be placed on the literary—above all, the narrative—qualities of the texts (for example, the uses of symbol, metaphor, repetition; typology and myth; dialogue and type-scenes), though other approaches to the study of the Bible will be encouraged and explored throughout the semester. Goals of the course include: (1) An understanding of how the English Bible is constructed. (2) An understanding of the literary and theological relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament. (3) An appreciation for the significance of TANAKH as a distinct literary and theological tradition. (4) A greater familiarity with some of the stories that have provided the foundation upon which the Western Civilization has been constructed.

REL 371: Advanced Studies in American Literature

This course focuses upon Francis Ford Coppola’s film, Apocalypse Now Redux (2001), as both a paradigm of “intertextuality” and a site for the contestation of “religious themes” in literature, film, and popular song. We will follow Captain Willard and his crew on their “mission” up the river into Cambodia and study some of the texts that intersect and compose the film’s text. These will include the book of Revelation from the Bible; Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness; T.S. Eliot’s poems “The Waste Land” and “The Hollow Men”; Michael Herr’s Dispatches; the music of the Doors; Sophocles’ drama Oedipus Rex; Freud’s theory of the “Oedipus Complex”; selections from Jessie L. Weston’s From Ritual to Romance and James Frazer’s The Golden Bough (books Eliot cites in the footnotes to “The Waste Land” and Coppola situates in the film); television reports on the Vietnam war; and Hearts of Darkness, a documentary film about the making of the original Apocalypse Now (1979).

Sociology

SOC 315: Race and Ethnic Relations

Analysis of American social structure, race and ethnic relations, and demographic and institutional trends; studies of racial and ethnic issues

SOC 352: Social Inequality

Analysis of inequalities of wealth, power, and prestige, major theories of racial and cultural minorities, behavioral correlates of stratification, social mobility.

Women’s Studies

WS 470/570: Gender, Race, and Class

The major focus of this seminar is a cross-cultural approach to the study of gender, race, and class. Emphasis is placed on theories of and research on gender, race, and class