Fall 2006 Descriptions
First Semester 2006-2007
Anthropology 295.01 (Also Sociology) "Special Topic: Managing Organizational Cultures." This course is sponsored by the Wilson Program in Enterprise and Leadership. Everyone spends most of their working lives in organizational cultures, whether they are in businesses, non-profit organizations, or governmental agencies. This course examines the concept of organizational culture from a critical pluralist perspective in anthropology and sociology. Integrated into this pluralist perspective is the empirical work of business management theorist Jim Collins, who asks what makes "great" effective organizations, both for-profit businesses and non-profits. Recommended particularly for students preparing for or returning from internships. Prerequisite: A social studies division course chosen from the departments of American Studies, Anthropology, Economics, Education, History, Political Science, or Sociology.
Anthropology 395.01 (Also Sociology) "Advanced Special Topic: Action Research: Optimizing Social Change." . This course is sponsored by the Wilson Program in Enterprise and Leadership. Action research involves local community members as well as social scientists in seeking to improve the life of the community. Examples will be taken from a variety of development projects In addition to developing the Action Research paradigm, the course will consider the imperative for a more engaged social science and will explore career possibilities, using visiting alumni careers as case studies. Prerequisite: ANT-280 or SOC-285 or permission of instructor.
Art 295.01 "Special Topic: History of International Cinema." This course looks at the history of film from the 1930s to the present. Its focus is on the major developments that transformed the American film industry and international cinema, starting shortly after the transition to sound film. Important films, genres, movements, and directors from the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Latin America will be discussed in relation to significant historical moments - with an emphasis on Asian and Latin American films. A weekly screening is an integral part of the course. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing and ART-103 or permission of instructor.
Art 360.01 "Exhibition Seminar: Piranesi and the City of Rome through the 18th Century". Piranesi's vast number of large format etchings of sites and buildings in Rome from antiquity to his time constitute the most complete and highest quality, visual record of the history of any city, its built environment, and culture across the ages. More famous to a broad audience is his fascinating series of imaginary prison interiors. We will use the college collection of Piranesi prints of all these subjects, historical maps of the city, and loans from other institutions, including 18th century paintings, as the materials for our research and an exhibition in Faulconer Gallery. Students will be responsible for planning all stages of the exhibition, including the preparation of essays for a published catalogue. Prerequisite: one 200-level art history course or permission of instructor.
Biology 150.01 "Introduction to Biological Inquiry: The Language of Neurons." In this course students will actively learn how biologists study the nervous system. Specifically, students will work as neuroscientists for a semester and will attempt to learn something novel about how nerve cells communicate with one another at chemical synapses. Students will present their findings at the end of the semester via both oral and written presentations. Papers resulting from a substantial independent project will be published in the class journal, Pioneering Neuroscience: The Grinnell Journal of Neurophysiology. Students with a strong background in high school physics will benefit most from this section of Biological Inquiry. Prerequisite: none.
Biology 150.02 "Introduction to Biological Inquiry: The Effects of Climate Change on Organisms." We will examine the effects of predicted changes in temperature, moisture and carbon dioxide levels on organismal and ecosystem function through experimental investigation. We will focus on the effects of such changes on the physiology and metabolic functioning of soil and aquatic organisms, as well as on biogeochemical processes of ecosystems, including respiration, decomposition and nutrient-cycling. This course will be taught in a workshop format, meeting twice a week for three hours. Class time will be devoted primarily to discussions and lab work examining theoretical aspects of organismal and ecosystem functioning, design and implementation of lab-based experiments, and the interpretation of our results in the context of extensive ongoing climate change research. Prerequisite: none.
Biology 150.03 "Introduction to Biological Inquiry: Prairie Restoration." As a way to explore how biologists ask questions and develop answers to them, this class will focus on the biological problems involved in the restoration of tallgrass prairies. It will be taught in "workshop" format at Grinnell College's Conrad Environmental Research Area (CERA), where we will use the college's prairie and savanna restorations as our laboratory. Students will be required to formulate research questions based on readings of the scientific literature, design experimental or observational studies to test these hypotheses, and communicate the results of these studies after the conventions of professional biologists. Papers resulting from a substantial independent project will be published in the class journal, Tillers. Prerequisite: none.
Biology 150.04 "Introduction to Biological Inquiry: What Does It Mean to Be a Plant?" Many people regard plants simply as 'green animals'. While there are many important similarities between plants and animals at the cellular and sub-cellular levels, there are profound differences as well, differences shaped by the migration of plants from the oceans onto dry land. This migration required a variety of evolutionary adaptations, anatomical, physiological and developmental, in order to survive in this new, harsher environment. Students will explore these adaptations by asking questions about the structures, physiological functions and developmental strategies plants have evolved to meet this challenge. They will design experiments, analyze data and communicate their results in the form of scientific papers, posters and oral presentations as they endeavor to understand what it means to be a plant. Prerequisite: none.
Biology 395.01 "Advanced Special Topic: Biogeochemistry w/lab." Study of the effects of life on the Earth's chemistry. This course will examine the interactions among biological and chemical processes that determine the cycling of biologically-significant elements in soils, sediments, waters and the atmosphere. For more than 3 billion years the geochemistry of the Earth has been shaped by the presence of biota. Photosynthetic organisms exposed the Earth's surface to oxygen, denitrifying bacteria have maintained the nitrogen concentration in the atmosphere, and terrestrial plants have shaped the rate of chemical weathering. Life determines the global biogeochemical cycles of the elements of biochemistry, especially C, N, P and S. Lectures and discussions focus on current topics, with particular emphasis on the effects of human activity on biogeochemical cycles. Field and laboratory investigations emphasize quantitative analysis and experimental design. Three lecture/discussions and one la boratory per week. Prerequisite: BIO-252 or BCM-262 or permission of instructor.
Economics 295.01 "Special Topic: Empirical Methods in Economics." This course covers basic descriptive statistics, sources and useful transformations of economic data, and the application of probability theory and statistical inference in bivariate and multiple regression frameworks. Students are expected to complete and present a term project based on their data analysis. Prerequisite: ECN-111.
Economics 295.02 (Also Political Science) "Special Topic: Consumption and Citizenship in Wider Europe." During this course we will explore the changing role of the consumer and of consumption in the process of European transnational integration. In addition to paying attention to divergence and convergence theories regarding consumer and citizen identities, we will provide examples of innovative approaches to consumer participation and representation in the democratic realm. We shall also seek to find possible economic and political spill over benefits of consumption habits during the enlargement process, and we will investigate the global impacts of European discourse as influenced by EU consumer law. Prerequisite: Second- year standing, ECN-111 or POL-101 helpful.
Economics 312.01 "Advanced Econometrics." Formerly number ECN-288. Note title and description change. The use of statistical techniques to test and estimate economic models. Topics include multiple regression, multicollinearity, serial correlation, heteroskedasticity, simultaneous equations, limited dependent variables, and time series/forecasting. Prerequisite: ECN-211 (or equivalent), MAT-209 or MAT-335, or permission of instructor. Not open to students who have completed ECN-288.
Economics 395.01 "Advanced Special Topic: Seminar in Environmental Economics." This course will familiarize students with the theory and application of economics to environmental problems and prepare them for analyzing issues in environmental economics and policy. It will focus on the design of cost-effective environmental policies and on methods for determining the value of environmental amenities. Prerequisite: ECN-280.
English 120.01 "Literary Analysis." An introduction to the use of language in literature, the use of language about literature, and the problems of interpretation. We will focus on lyric poetry and the short story. Prerequisite: none.
English 120.03 "Literary Analysis." An introduction to the close reading of the literary text and a consideration of the literariness of literature. Accordingly, in our study of a variety of literary genres such as poetry and fiction we will focus on the literary devices and techniques that constitute the literariness of the literary text. The course will also explore the functions, if any, of literature in our life as a society and as individuals. Prerequisite: none.
English 120.04 "Literary Analysis." This section will explore methods of literary analysis for poetry, short fiction, novels, and drama. We will begin by developing a vocabulary for the discussion and interpretation of poetry and focus on the analysis of imagery, sound, theme, rhyme and meter, and other elements. We will then turn to close reading of eight or nine short stories and two novels and conclude with a consideration of drama and of the specialized approaches-historical, psychological, feminist and gender, and others-to analyze literature. Prerequisite: none.
English 120.05 "Literary Analysis." This course will provide an introduction to the study of poetry and prose. We will begin by learning the skill of close textual analysis-that is, paying careful attention to the formal aspects of a given work (its figures of speech, tone, diction, etc.). During the second half of the course, we will turn to the various schools of literary criticism that have developed in this century, exploring how different assumptions about the nature of literature can generate vastly different interpretations of it. Prerequisite: none.
English 223.01 "The Tradition of English Literature I." Note new description. Study of English literature from Old English to the early 17th century, including include such works as Beowulf, the Canterbury Tales, the Faerie Queene, and Paradise Lost. Prerequisite: HUM-101 and ENG-120.
English 226.01 "The Tradition of English Literature III." Study of English literature of the 20th century, including such authors as Joyce, Woolf, Beckett, Orwell, Eliot, Winterson, Kureishi, and Walcott. Prerequisite: ENG-120.
English 228.01 "American Literary Traditions II: Renaissance, Romance, Realism." Note new description. Study of American literature from 1830-1893, including such authors Emerson, Melville, Whitman, Dickinson, Twain, James, Chopin, Chesnutt, and Zitkala-Sa. Features works from a variety of genres including fiction, poetry, nonfiction prose, and drama. Prerequisite: ENG-120.
English 232.01 "Traditions of Ethnic American Literatures." Study of the major traditions of American ethnic literatures. Features works from a variety of genres, including fiction, poetry, nonfiction prose, and drama. Prerequisite: ENG-120.
English 295.01 "Special Topic: Melville: Towards a Philosophy of Existence." This course is being offered through the Center of International Studies by Pawel Jedrzejko, a leading international Melville Scholar. A six-week short course devoted to the "sea-locked" novels of Herman Melville, with special attention to questions of literary philosophy. Dates: Sept 5 to Oct 12. Short course deadlines apply. Prerequisite: ENG-120.
English 314.01 "Milton." This class will cover Milton's major poetic works and some of his prose work chronologically by considering the contradictions in Milton's writing and self-presentation along with the way that these contradictions reflect the turbulent period during which Milton was writing. We will look at Milton's interest in presenting a conventional pattern of poetical development (from lyric and pastoral to epic), even as he redefines these traditional forms; we will look as well at how Milton filters some of the major religious controversies of his time via his self-representation as a writer who is at once deferential to God and in competition with him as a creator. The course will focus on Milton's early lyrics, Lycidas, Areopagitica, Paradise Lost, and Samson Agonistes. Prerequisite: ENG- 223.
English 326.01 "Studies in American Poetry I: Making Free with Poetry: Emerson, Whitman, Dickinson." Note prerequisite change. This course will explore the affinities and divergences between Emerson's ideas about the role of the poet and scholar in the cultural life of the nation and the poetry of Whitman and Dickinson. We'll discuss concepts such as antinomianism, Unitarianism, transcendentalism, and pragmatism as a way of coming to terms with a Puritan and European past that was, as Nathaniel Hawthorne reminded readers of The Scarlet Letter, "not dead." The "undead" of the past will be linked with the "undead" and "un-free" of present-tense 19th century America, as both Dickinson and Whitman (whom I now cite) seek to "clarify and transfigure" the "forbidden voices" of women and slaves (among others). Prerequisite: ENG-227, 228, or 231.
English 327.01 "Romantics: War and Romanticism ." This seminar will focus on ways in which the writers who created Romanticism-a famously introspective literary movement-explored the relationship between their writing and their political context, especially that of the wars Britain fought against France, the United States, and other nations during the early nineteenth century. Assigned texts will include writings by, among others, William Blake, William Wordsworth, Charlotte Smith, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, and Jane Austen. Assignments will include responses, a mid-semester paper, an annotated bibliography, and a research paper. Prerequisite: ENG-224.
English 329.01 "Studies in African American Literature." Note prerequisite change. The seminar will focus on the history of the idea of Islam in African American writing, primarily slave narratives, autobiographies and essays written by black Muslims. To many historians, the idea of Islam was brought to the New World with the Africans who were captured by Europeans and sold as slaves in the New World. Our approach will focus on exploration of Muslimness or what specifically constitutes the idea of being a Muslim? What are the particular significations in food, clothes, manners, attitudes, body language, and beliefs that define and indicate Muslimness? In order to engage students' full participation in class and in research, each student will do two 12-15 minute formal oral presentations, two double-spaced 10-page papers as well as a double-spaced 15-page final research paper. Among authors to be studied in addition to the early Muslim slave narrators are Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Farrakh an, Muhammad A li, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Ishmael Reed, James Baldwin, Imamu Amiri Baraka, as well as African American critics of Islam in the African American experience. Prerequisite: ENG-225, 227, 228, 229, or 231.
English 345.01 "Studies in Modern Poetry: Poets & Their Prose." Note prerequisite change. This seminar will look at a range of poet-critics writing in English during the 20th-century-from T.S. Eliot to R.P. Blackmur to W.H. Auden to Gwendolyn Brooks to Adrienne Rich to Derek Walcott to Seamus Heaney to Julia Alvarez to Lyn Hejinian. By examining the criticism of poets in the context of their poems, we will get a better purchase not only on the works themselves, but also on the crucial process of creating literary value. In the course of our investigations, we will explore the various movements and schools of poetry that have dominated this hundred-year period. Prerequisite: ENG-224, 226, 227, or 228.
English 349.01 (Also General Literary Studies) "Medieval Literature: Riddle, Romance, and Dream Vision." We will consider two related topics, the construction of meaning and the process of interpretation, in Old English, Old French, and Middle English literature. Both topics were thematized by medieval writers and are rooted in problems of language. Works include Old English riddles, Chretien de Troyes' romances, Marie de France's lais, and Chaucer's dream visions . For students with sufficient background, there is an option of doing reading in Latin or Old French. Prerequisite: ENG-223.
English 386.01 "Writing Seminar: Poetry." This seminar is conducted as an advanced workshop for students with a strong background in verse writing. Writing requirements include nine original poems and revisions, impromptu poetry writing exercises (in-class), and an anthology of contemporary poetry in English (6-8 poets) with a brief critical introduction and biographical/critical entries for each poet. We will also read five individual volumes of poetry by contemporary American poets. Prerequisite: ENG-206 and permission of instructor.
Gender and Women's Studies 295.01 (Also Humanities and Global Development Studies) "Special Topic: African Women Novelists and the Postcolonial Scene." See HUM-295-01.
General Literary Studies 349.01 (Also English) "Medieval Literature: Riddle, Romance, and Dream Vision." See English 349.01.
German 354.01 "The Turbulent Century: Literature and Culture in 20th-Century Germany." Conducted in German. The focus will be on the post-World War II period through unification. Through literary and non-literary texts and film we will explore such topics as the Federal Republic's confrontation with its Nazi past, its reaction to terrorism, the GDR, the post-unification struggle for identity, and minority voices. Prerequisite: GRM-302 and 303.
Global Development Studies 295.01 (Also Gender and Women's Studies and Humanities) "Special Topic: African Women Novelists and the Postcolonial Scene." See HUM-295-01.
History 195.01 "Introductory Special Topic: Chinese in the Global Village: Overseas Migration and Settlement since the 1700s." This course is being taught by the visiting Heath Professor, Ming Chan. This course delineates some of the major dimensions of the Chinese global diaspora since the 18th century, and traces the historical roots of Chinese overseas migration to and the patterns of their settlement/assimilation into host societies in Southeast Asia, Australasia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. While primarily historical in its orientation, this course will follow an interdisciplinary and comparative approach with particular emphasis on some of the key issues and basic concerns relevant to the Chinese experience in North America. The forces of race, class and gender shaping the complex processes of immigration, labor, community formation, ethnicity and identity, socio-economic mobility as well as the transformation of family, cultural and national loyalties will be examined as main theme s in this stud y of personal, local, national, international and cross-cultural history. Requirements for the course include two short book review-issue critique essays on some aspects of the reading and in-class discussion, and a research paper/project report on a specific issue or subject of interest. Prerequisite: None.
History 295.01 "Special Topic: Modern Sub-Saharan Africa." An introduction to the processes of political, economic, social, and cultural transformation in various sub-Saharan regions from the end of the slave trade to the present. In approaching the historical dynamics of trade, migration, disease, forced labor, agricultural and technological development, colonialism, urbanization, the spread of Islam and Christianity, national independence movements, apartheid, and genocide, the course explores the ways in which human agency and creative adaptability have addressed structural change on a local, regional, and global level. Prerequisite: Second year standing required; HIS-105 is recommended.
History 315.01 "The United States and Vietnam." This course examines the historical context of United States intervention in Vietnam from 1945 to 1975, with an emphasis on the social, economic, and political turmoil within Southeast Asia as well as the Cold War concerns that led American leaders to wage a full-scale war against an elusive and ill-defined "enemy" during the Johnson and Nixon administrations. The course will also consider the ongoing legacy of the United States loss in Vietnam and its impact upon recent American history. Sources utilized in the seminar present a wide array of perspectives and experiences, including policy documents from leaders in Vietnam and the United States, memoirs by soldiers, reminiscences by reporters, and accounts by others who witnessed the war. Students will be expected to initiate and carry the class discussions, define a major research project, produce an original paper, and present an oral report on their topic. The class will first focus on common r eadings and di scussions, then shift to individual research and class reports. Prerequisite: HIS-112 and additional course work in history at the 200-level.
History 326.01 "History of Nineteenth-Century American Popular Culture." Students in this seminar will examine the creation and expansion of American popular culture in the nineteenth century as they focus on diverse cultural forms: dime novels, newspapers, music, sports, cartoons, material culture, theater, minstrel shows, magazines, etc. The seminar will focus particularly on how ideas and structures of race, class, and gender were changed and reinforced by American popular culture, and students will consider the questions from a variety of theoretical approaches. Research papers will analyze popular culture in a historical context to consider how popular culture created or changed power dynamics in American society. Prerequisite: History 111 and any 200-level American History course (HIS-211, HIS-212, HIS-214, HIS-221 HIS-222, HIS-227, or HIS-228) or permission of instructor.
History 332.01 "Gender and Empire in Victorian Britain." This course will examine the centrality of women, gender, and sexuality to British colonialism in the "long nineteenth century." Readings in common will synthesize primary and secondary accounts in the context of three related investigations: women's historical experience in the empire through travel, emigration, and philanthropy; the role of a national-imperial identity in shaping metropolitan feminist and reformist movements; and the gendered construction of both colonial encounters abroad and British imperial culture at home. We will also consider the impact of poststructuralist and postcolonial theory on studies of gender and empire. Prerequisite: HIS 236, 295 (British Empire, Spring 2005), GWS-111, or permission of instructor.
History 342.01 "Stalinism." This seminar will concentrate upon the major historiographical divide over Stalinist Russia and evaluate the evidentiary bases that sustain these interpretations. Traditional historiography of this era has concentrated upon the "totalitarian" model, and has depended upon official documents, as well as the memoirs and public statements of major figures and ‚migr‚s. More recent interpretations have sought to complicate the story, and give voice to more ordinary historical actors-as preserved in the archives of the secret police, in private diaries, and in the collections of unprinted denunciations and letters to the editors of Soviet publications and Soviet leaders. Through scrupulous reading of some major representatives of these views, as well as through careful consideration of representative examples of the various sources, participants in the seminar will develop a better understanding of the historiographical issues and the way that these issues inform historical research. The first part of the seminar will depend upon our common reading, but students will also select a project of their own on which to work the entire semester, culminating in a written paper and oral presentation to the seminar. Prerequisite: HIS-242 or its equivalent.
History 395.01 "Advanced Special Topic: Identity, Democracy and Modernity in Greater China: Development and Transformation in the 20th Century." This course is being taught by the visiting Heath Professor, Ming Chan and will examine the developmental patterns and transformative experiences of the people in Greater China-mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong-and their quest for identity, democracy and modernity during the 20th century. It focuses on the processes of nation building, ideological search, democratization, political and economic experimentation amid international realignment of the Chinese nation in its problematic transition from a Confucian agrarian society under a dynastic monarchy to true modernity in an age of globalization and marketization. With competing visions and shifting paradigms, the Chinese search for identity, democracy and modernity has been a saga of reform and revolution, war and regime change that reshaped the topographies of modern and contemporary Grater China. The impact o f foreign imperialism on Chinese nationalism and security consciousness, and the international dimensions of the Chinese drive for affluence and national reunification will be emphasized, along with contrasting developments in colonial Hong Kong and Kuomintang Taiwan. Besides factual knowledge, this course also affords the students with a number of conceptual, interpretive and interdisciplinary approaches to key issues essential to an informed analytical appreciation of the 20th century Chinese experience in a comparative and global context. Prerequisite: 3rd year standing.
Humanities 295.01 (Also Gender and Women's Studies or Global Development Studies) "Special Topic: African Women Novelists and the Postcolonial Scene." This four-week course addresses postcolonial novels produced by both Francophone and Anglophone female writers from the black continent. Their selection is essentially based on the variety and topicality of the issues and themes as their particular literary experiences run across different countries from Nigeria and Senegal in West Africa, to Zimbabwe and South Africa. In this intensive course students are encouraged to pay special attention to issues relevant to the postcolonial such as the Western legacy, colonization and de-colonization, language and cultural identities, gender, patriarchy, polygamy, family and womanhood, education and the African communality. Dates: Sept 4 - Sept 29. Short course deadlines apply. Prerequisite: ENG-120 or HUM-101.
Humanities 295.02 (Also Social Studies) "Special Topic: Multicultural Japan: Race, Class, Gender, Identity, and Education." The Japanese society is being challenged today by a range of issues related to globalization and diversity which herald the advent of a multicultural society. These issues challenge the traditional Japanese identity as well as social policy, especially concerning Japanese education. Foremost among them are questions of race, class, gender, and identity. The government and media have viewed these issues, however, as not worthy of larger, nation-wide policy deliberation, while the society at large has skirted these multicultural challenges. What, then, are the key issues and prospects for Japan as it becomes transnational and multicultural? Who are these Others in Japan? What are their needs? What do reflections on diversity in Japan mean for oldcomers and newcomers in Japan, for old and new communities? Where are the needs for the society and especially the education system? Finally, how do these issues get situated in terms of the broader concerns of citizenship and human rights in the Japanese and global contexts? Dates: August 24 - September 14. Short course deadlines apply. Prerequisite: ANT-104 or EDU-101.
Humanities 395.01 (Also Science or Social Studies) "Advanced Special Topic: Freedom and Authority: The Control of Reproduction." How do social, biological, and cultural constraints affect decisions about reproduction? How do social institutions set and enforce the boundaries of what is possible and permissible? How do practices of reproduction generate meaning for human existence? This seminar examines conflicts between the freedom of the individual to make decisions about reproduction and the internal and external authorities of biology, evolution, the family, the state, health care systems, criminal justice systems, and religious hierarchies. The first half of the course will be divided into three case studies, respectively presented and guided by the three instructors. During the second half of the course, the students will take primary responsibility for determining what we should read and how our class time should be spent. You will work with a partner whom you will choose. Partners mu st not share a major, and should come from different divisions if possible. Prerequisite: 3rd or 4th year standing, or permission of instructor.
Humanities 395.02 "Advanced Special Topic: Pleasure." This semester-long course will be taught by four distinguished scholars each of whom will be on campus for three weeks. Their course modules will explore in an interdisciplinary way various themes related to pleasure. Professor Carolyn Dean: "Representations of Suffering". Professor Shuen-Fu Lin: "The Pursuit of Happiness in the Chinese Tradition: The First Episode." Professor Janice Radway: "Chick Lit". Professor Claire Colebrook: "Happiness and the Narrative Life". Prerequisite: Junior or Senior Standing, and at least one of the following: ART-231 or 232; CHI-230, 241, 275, or 277; ENG-273; GRM/GLS-227 or 233; GWS-249; HIS-238, 239, or 33x; PHI-231, 235, 265, or 268; REL-216, or 222; a 300-level literature class (instructor approval required), or permission of the instructor. For further details see http://web.grinnell.edu/centhumanities/studentsem/studsemf06/index.html.
Japanese 195.01 "Introductory Special Topic: Japanese Comics & War." This course consists of two parallel activities that occur simultaneously. The first activity is study; students study the history of war in Japanese culture, gradually focusing in on events of the Asian Pacific War (World War II, Pacific Theater). As they study the Asian Pacific War, the students also perform a role-playing activity. They become the people involved in the war. This is accomplished through a series of role playing exercises in which students develop their own characters from 1945 Hiroshima and construct an online community representing the city of Hiroshima as it was just before the end of the War. Conducted in English. Prerequisite: none.
Latin 395.01 "Special Topic: Cicero." Selections from Cicero's speeches, with attention to language, style, rhetoric, and historical content. Prerequisite: LAT-222 or 225 or equivalent, and HUM-101, or permission of instructor.
Library 295. 01 "Special Topic: Advanced Research Techniques." This is the first of three proposed courses, each class providing a focused overview of the process of academic research within one of Grinnell's three divisions. The fall 2006 offering will emphasize humanities research and is open to humanities majors as well as students from the social studies and science divisions. Class content includes topic development and refinement; sources of criticism and primary materials; the effective use of periodical indexes, online databases, library catalogs and the Internet; as well as source evaluation and citation. Each student will compile an annotated bibliography for a research project in a 300- or 400-level course or a MAP. Dates: August 24 to October 12. 1/2-semester deadlines apply. Prerequisite: Third- or fourth-year standing. Recommended: Concurrent or subsequent registration in a 300- or 400-level class or a MAP.
Music 321.01 "Advanced Musical Studies: Advanced Composition" A course for students who wish to further develop their skills and possibly prepare for graduate study or professional work as composers. In addition to composition assignments, students will engage in thorough analysis of recent works, discussions of compositional aesthetics, and explorations on a broad range of professional topics, including career options, performance opportunities, grant writing, and commissions. Prerequisite: Music 215 or permission of instructor
Music 322.01 "Advanced Studies in Music History and Literature: Mozart Opera." In this course, we will examine the five comic operas of Mozart's maturity - The Abduction from the Seraglio, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cos fan tutte, and The Magic Flute - and come to appreciate their significance: as musical, literary, and dramatic works, and in social, political, and historical contexts. Prerequisite: Music 262 or permission of instructor.
Philosophy 295.01 "Special Topic: Moral Philosophy and the Emotions." Is a tear "an intellectual thing," to quote William Blake, or an act of disobedience to reason? What role do the emotions play in our ethical lives and, moreover, what kind of role should they play? This course will explore the radically contested place of the emotions in the moral philosophy of Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Schiller, more recent virtue ethicists, as well as feminist advocates and critics of an ethics of care. We will consider whether emotions such as anger, fear, grief, shame, compassion and love impede moral action, or whether they can play a positive and/or indispensable role, for instance, by motivating us to act morally or by allowing us to perceive the morally salient aspects of our experience. Prerequisite: PHI-111 or permission of the instructor.
Philosophy 393.01 "Advanced Studies in History of Philosophy: Spinoza's Politics." This course will examine Spinoza's political philosophy and its historical and philosophical context. After an introduction to seventeenth century Dutch politics, we will turn our attention to three of Spinoza's texts: The Ethics, the Theological-Political Treatise, and the Political Treatise. We will pay particular attention to the relationship between philosophy, religion and politics in the seventeenth century, as well as to the relationship between Spinoza's metaphysics, epistemology, and political thought. Prerequisite: PHI-233 or permission of the instructor.
Political Science 219.01 "Constitutional Law and Politics." Note description change. An introduction to the role of the United States Supreme Court as a policy-making institution in American politics; the focus of the course is on how law gives shape to, and is shaped by, struggles over the development of the institutional structure of the polity, governmental powers, and citizens' rights. Prerequisites: POL 101 or permission of instructor.
Political Science 295.01 "Special Topic: Hospitality & Hostility in Western Political Theory." What role does hospitality play in interstate relations? Is politics reducible to nothing other than a distinction between friends or enemies? Starting out with an examination of the practices of guest-friendship in ancient Greece, then considering European empires' justifications for the conquest of American natives, Enlightenment arguments for cosmopolitanism, and finally more recent cases of political asylum, immigration, and border patrolling, we will examine and evaluate the various consequences that may result from hospitality and hostility between peoples or states. Prerequisite: POL-101.
Political Science 295.03 (Also Economics) "Special Topic: Consumption and Citizenship in Wider Europe." See Economics 295.02.
Political Science 295.02 "Special Topic: American Public Policy and Democracy." Most of the critical issues in public policy involve a complex relationship between politics, public values, and moral choices. This course is intended to extend your understanding of the institutions, politics, and values central to democratic governance. Some of the questions explored are: What role does public policy play in the lives of citizens? When do policies succeed in ameliorating social problems, how and why? How do democratic institutions shape the policymaking process? The first half of the course will consider the intricate process of policy design and implementation. Particular attention will be paid to issues of race, class and gender as students will analyze specific cases of policy design and implementation throughout the course. Prerequisite: POL-101.
Psychology 295.01 "Special Topic: Health Psychology." This course will examine the contribution of psychological processes to health utilizing a biopsychosocial model. Major topics to be examined will include: 1) health care seeking, medical setting, and illness behavior; 2) health compromising and promoting behavior; 3) stress and pain; 4) managing chronic illnesses; and 5) personality and disease. Students will become acquainted with the ways in which the mind and body are involved with each other, and be able to apply the principles of health psychology to their daily lives. Prerequisite: PSY-113.
Psychology 295.02 "Special Topic: Evolutionary Psychology." The goal of Evolutionary Psychology is to understand human behavior and the human brain and its circuits through the lens of our evolutionary past. Human behavior is influenced by its genetic code and the human genome is the result of millions of years of natural selection. In this course, we will learn about biological evolution, the evolutionary history of our hunter-gatherer ancestors and how the evolutionary pressures they faced selected genetically-based behavioral and physiological traits. We will then turn to modern humans and attempt to identify--and be critical of--evolved psychological adaptations, behavioral predispositions and behavioral tendencies that are predicted by our evolutionary past. Prerequisite: PSY-113.
Religious Studies 394.01 "Advanced Topics in Religious Studies: Religion, Law, and Privacy." American Christians have argued for the moral foundation of laws that seek to regulate the distribution and use of contraceptives, qualifications for marriage and remarriage, procedures for divorce, criminalization of certain sexual practices, criminalization of commercial sex, and criminalization of abortion. American courts have been required to test the rational basis and validity of such legislation, balancing the protected liberties of individuals against the rights of the majority of citizens to elect legislators who will pass and enforce public laws that reflect their concerns. Contests over sex and marriage law have tested the limits of shared freedom in the United States. This course considers the religious, political. and legal issues that are at stake in these contests. Prerequisite: REL-311 or permission of instructor.
Russian 195.01 "Introductory Special Topic: History of Russian Film: From Eisenststein to Tarkovsky and Beyond." Through lecture, discussion and film analysis, this course will examine the fascinating and controversial history of Russian film in all its genres: from pre-Revolutionary melodrama to Eisenstein's famous "Battleship Potemkin," from the hilarious comedies of Stalin's era to the coded films of the 60's and 70's, from Tarkovsky's sophisticated "Solaris," to the daring films of the glasnost era, from chernukha (noir)films of the 1990s to contemporary cinema about the Russian mafia, New Russians, and the dramatic search for a new Russian identity. This course will be taught in English. Prerequisite: none.
Science 395.01 (Also Humanities or Social Studies) "Advanced Special Topic: Freedom and Authority: The Control of Reproduction." See HUM-395.01.
Social Studies 195.01 "Introductory Special Topic: Ethics in Business and in Life." This course is being sponsored by the Wilson Program in Enterprise and Leadership, and will be taught by Clinton Korver '89 and current Grinnell College Trustee. A professional who uses their knowledge in support of any individual, organization, or government has some ethical responsibility for the consequences. This course raises awareness to ethically sensitive situations and provides a set of principles and tools for forming coherent ethical judgments. This course does not promote a particular ethical point of view. Rather students will use the principles and tools to create their own personal ethical codes. These codes will be tested through class discussion and homework against a wide range of examples from business and life. Particular attention will be paid to issues of deception including lies, secrets, cheating, promises and other ethically sensitive activities that underlie the formation of human rela tionships. Dat es: September 26 to October 19. Short course deadlines apply. Prerequisite: none.
Social Studies 295.01 (Also Humanities) "Special Topic: Multicultural Japan: Race, Class, Gender, Identity, and Education." See HUM-295.02.
Social Studies 395.01 (Also Humanities or Science) "Advanced Special Topic: Freedom and Authority: The Control of Reproduction." See HUM-395.01.
Sociology 295.01 (Also Anthropology) "Special Topic: Managing Organizational Cultures." See ANT-295.01.
Sociology 395.01 (Also Anthropology) "Advanced Special Topic: Action Research: Optimizing Social Change." See ANT-395.01.
Spanish 295.01 "Special Topic: Studies in Spanish Cultures." This course examines Spain's past and present through a consideration of its art, architecture, literature, and films. We will consider Spain's plurality of cultures and languages that have been shaped by periods of tolerance and cultural brilliance, such as the co-existence of Arabs, Christians, and Jews in Medieval Cordoba, as well as censorship and repression, brought about by the institution of the Inquisition , or during the Franco Regime. We will consider the evolution of the Spanish national identity from the 18th century onwards, and how this identity is now being contested and challenged by regional separatist movements. Conducted in Spanish. Prerequisite: SPN-285 or permission of instructor.
Theatre 113.01 "Movement for the Performer." Formerly numbered THE-106. Note title and description change. Practical exploration of movement and bodily-based trainings such as pilates, yoga, body-minded centering, Barteneiff Fundamentals and/or Laban Movement Analysis as preparation for performance. Studio-based exercises will investigate somatic and movement improvisation practices as an alternative means to theorize the relationship of mind to body and to develop greater physical awareness. Not open to students who have completed THE-106. Prerequisite: none.
Theatre 211.01 "Performance Studies: Traditions and Innovations." New course. This course examines non-naturalistic forms of theatre and performance-making. It explores the work of foundational avant-garde director/theorists and performance practices that have developed since the 1960s, including performance art and community-based theatre. It also focuses on non-Western performances, including textual and non-textual practices, and the ways in which Western and non-Western theatre have intersected inter-culturally during the last century. Prerequisite: THE-111 or 113 (formally 106) or 117 or permission of instructor.
Theatre 260.01 "Contemporary Dance." Formerly numbered THE-160. Note title, description and prerequisite change. A study of Western concert dance from the 19th century to the present. Studio-based exercises in modern dance technique and composition are combined with readings, video-viewings and lecture/discussion to provide a physical, conceptual and historical understanding of dance as a performing art form. Not open to students who have completed THE-160. Prerequisite: Theatre 201 or permission of instructor.
Theatre 304.01 "Studies in Drama II: War and Response: Texts and Performances of Cultural Memory." Study of performative expressions of cultural remembrance in the aftermath of modern wars. This course explores traditional and non-traditional theatrical texts and performances commemorating the history, heritage, conflict, and loss endured by communities at war during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. A critical lens will be applied to a broad landscape of civil and world war, contextualizing the ways in which nation, ethnicity, gender, time, and place inform how cultures attempt to mourn and re-inscribe their community identity through performance. Prerequisite: THE 201, 202 or 203, or permission of instructor.
