Freshman Seminars - Winter 2011-2012 - Descriptions

Freshman Seminars by Department
Freshman Seminar Descriptions
Freshman Seminars by Time

African-American Studies
African-Asian Languages
Anthropology
Art History
Biological Sciences
Chemistry
Classics
Comparative Literary Studies
Earth and Planetary Sciences
Economics
English
Environmental Sciences
French
General Music
German
History
Linguistics
Music
Philosophy
Physics
Political Science
Psychology
Religious Studies
Slavic
Sociology
Spanish

AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDIES

African-American Studies 101-6, Sec. 20
DIASPORA STUDIES
Instructor: Richard John Iton
Time: TTH 3:30-4:50
Office Address: 1860 Campus Dr. Crowe 5-139
Phone: 847-467-3467
E-Mail: r-iton@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: What is the relationship between place and belonging, between territory and memory? How have the experiences of migration and dislocation challenged the modern assumption that the nation-state should be the limit of identification? What effect has the emergence of new media of communication had upon the coherence of cultural and political boundaries? All of these questions and many more form part of the subject matter of diaspora and transnational studies. This seminar examines the historical and contemporary movements of peoples and the complex issues of identity and experience to which these processes give rise as well as the creative possibilities that flow from movement and being moved. The area of study is comparative and interdisciplinary, drawing from the social sciences, history, the arts and humanities. Accordingly, this course provides the background to the subject area from diverse perspectives and introduces students to a range of key debates, questions, and concepts in the field, with particular attention to questions of history, globalization, cultural production and the creative imagination.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion

METHOD OF EVALUATION:
Class attendance 10%
Students are expected to attend class and participate in an informed manner in the seminar discussions.

Seminar presentations 30%
Each seminar participant will make at least one presentation of a reading during the quarter (the final number will be determined by the number of students in the seminar).

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS:
Final paper proposal 10%
A two or three paragraph discussion of the proposed approach to the final paper that clearly identifies the topic and the particular arguments that will be engaged, and includes a sample bibliography including at least ten academic sources (internet and popular press sources will not count towards this total though they may be used for the essay itself). Students are encouraged to discuss their proposals with the instructor in advance. A proposal must be submitted and approved before a final essay will be accepted. The approved proposals—the original draft including the instructor's comments—must also be resubmitted with the final essay.

First draft of topic and thesis statement 20%
A draft of the first two pages of the final essay (400-500 words) including an exposition of the topic and the thesis statement that will encourage early attention to researching and writing the final paper.

Final paper 30%
A research paper developing an argument related to the course of around ten pages length (roughly 2500). The best papers will 1) present a clear thesis, 2) analyze rather than describe, 3) consider the full range of arguments relevant to the topic chosen, 4) define significant terms as clearly as possible, 5) be effectively organized (which can be achieved by stating the argument explicitly in the first paragraph, and by co-ordinating the thesis, contents, and conclusions), 6) avoid unnecessary grammatical errors (e.g., by means of proofreading), and 7) provide evidence of thorough and relevant research with appropriate referencing (i.e., footnotes or endnotes, and a bibliography).

READING LIST:
Sample Readings (to be found in Course Reader):
Robin Cohen, “Introduction” and “Conclusion: Diasporas, Their Types, and Their Futures,” Global Diasporas: An Introduction, pp. ix-xii and pp. 177-196
S. Sayyid, “Beyond Westphalia: Nations and Diasporas—the Case of the Muslim Umma,” in Un/settled Multiculturalisms: Diasporas, Entanglements, Transruptions, Barnor Hesse, ed., pp. 33-50
Saidiya Hartman, “Prologue: The Path of Strangers,” Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route, pp. 3-18
Román de la Campa, “The Latino Diaspora in the United States: Sojourns from a Cuban Past,” Public Culture, 1994, Vol. 6, pp. 293-317
Rina Cohen and Gerald Gold, “Constructing Ethnicity: Myth of Return and Modes of Exclusion among Israelis in Toronto,” International Migration 35/3, pp. 373-392
Anthony Alessandri, ‘My Heart’s Indian for All That’: Bollywood Film between Home and Diaspora,” Diaspora 10/3, pp. 315-340
Yu Shi, “Identity Construction of the Chinese Diaspora, Ethnic Media Use, Community Formation, and the Possibility of Social Activism,” Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, Vol. 19, No. 1, March 2005, pp. 55-72

AFRICAN-ASIAN LANGUAGES

African-Asian Languages 110-6, Sec. 20
THE ART OF LANGUAGE THROUGH THE SOUTH ASIAN LENS
Instructor: Dr. Rami Nair
Time: TTH 12:30-1:50
Office Address: 1880 Campus Drive - Kresge Centennial Hall 4-406
Phone: 847-467-7581
E-mail: rnair@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Has the grammar of a foreign language ever given you a hard time? When at a loss for a word in the foreign language, have you tried to use an English word with an accent? Or maybe you have tried to put on an accent in order to sound like you are from a different country? And have you ever paid attention to what people do with their hands or head when they talk?

In this course, we will look at what constitutes human language in general. We will establish how languages can be similar, and how they may differ from one another. We will look at what makes a language sound funny or ‘weird’ to us. We will do so by examining, in particular, the Indian variety of English. However, we will consider language properties of some South Asian languages as well.

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Home assignments, class participation, final paper. NO Final Exam.

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: Final paper, home assignments (problem sets)

READING LIST:
Textbook: “Indian English” by Pingali Sailaja
Additional Materials: Selected readings, video and audio clips, hand outs

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Rami Nair grew up as a multilingual in India and Poland. She received her Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics from the University of Warsaw, Poland, and her PhD in Linguistics from Northwestern University. She started the Hindi Language Program at Northwestern University in 1998, and has been heading that program since then. She teaches Introductory and Intermediate Hindi language classes. Her academic interests revolve around language (especially the sound system), culture, and language acquisition.

ANTHROPOLOGY

Anthropology 101-6, Sec. 21
CLOTHING AND CULTURE
Instructor: Karen Tranberg Hansen
Time: TTH 2:00-3:20
Office Address: 1810 Hinman Ave. #209
Office hours: MO 1-3 pm
Phone: 847-491-4826
E-mail: KTH462@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION:   By moving dress influences from across the world into the mainstream, fashion as a global force today challenges the conventional boundaries of the West’s “fashion system.” Fashion systems everywhere go hand-in-hand with power, as do dress practices both at home and abroad: they all demonstrate the cultural politics of their specific time and place. But the relationships are often complex, if not oppositional. This seminar examines clothing from several perspectives: culture and anthropology; fashion and style; and history and globalization. We will discuss different types of readings to highlight themes of historical dress, non-western dress, popular culture and sub-cultures as well as the interaction between Western influenced fashion and local forms of dress. The seminar explores several questions about the significance of dress, including: how dress codes are acquired; how everyday dress practices are constructed and changed; and how dress contributes to identity formation.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion. Students are expected to read all the assigned readings and to participate actively in class discussions. Students will prepare discussion points for each class, responding to prompts by the professor. And students will lead some class discussions.

METHODS OF EVALUATION: Class participation, discussion, and oral presentation will account for 1/3 of the final grade and the written assignments for 2/3 of the final grade. Participation means: perfect attendance; completion of all reading assignments; and taking active part in class discussions and presentations.

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: The written requirements consist of five short papers (4-5 pages each). Toward the end of the quarter, there will be an oral presentation, consisting of discussions by students of the findings of their class projects, which comprise the fifth paper. Plagiarism will not be tolerated.

READING LIST:
TBA.
Plus several readings on electronic reserve in the library.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Professor Hansen is a cultural anthropologist who specializes in African Studies. She is the author of several books about urban livelihoods and everyday life in Zambia, including the prize-winning book, Salaula: The World of Secondhand Clothing and Zambia (2000). She recently completed a collaborative research project about urban youth in three developing countries (Zambia, Vietnam, and Brazil): Hansen et. al, Youth and the City in the Global South (2008). She wrote a major review article on the anthropological study of dress and fashion for the 2004 edition of Annual Review of Anthropology, and has written many book chapters on matters related to dress, fashion, and globalization.

Anthropology 101-6, Sec. 22
ANCIENT WOMEN AND MEN
INSTRUCTOR: Cynthia Robin
TIME: MW 11:00-12:20
OFFICE ADDRESS: 1812 Hinman Room #104 Ev Campus
PHONE: 847-491-4835
E-MAIL: c-robin@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION:   What was it like to be a woman or a man in the ancient world? Did men always hunt animals and women always gather food? Were their powerful ancient cities ruled by women? This class explores the archaeology of the ancient world: excavations of ancient cities and homes, ancient texts, art, and figurines. What can we learn from buildings, artifacts, art, and texts about what gender relations in the past were like? This class will also explore how a feminist critique has transformed archaeological research.

In this class students will read principle texts about ancient gender relations. They will learn the skills needed to analyze gender relations from archeological data. For the final course paper participants will pick and ancient society and explore the roles of women and men in that society.

Ancient gender relations are a key specialization within the archaeology program in Northwestern’s anthropology department. The course papers from a Northwestern graduate seminar on gender in archaeology taught by the professor were published in 2008 and we will read the resultant book in this class. One of the student authors in the book was an undergraduate.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion, Powerpoint Presentations.

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Written assignments, in-class discussions, discussion group notes, and presentations.

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: Four essays. Three short 5-page essays will be due across the quarter. One longer final research paper (15 pages) will be due at the end of the quarter.

READING LIST:
There are two required books and an additional coursepack of readings:
Sarah Nelson, Gender in Archaeology, 2004
Cynthia Robin and Elizabeth Brumfiel, Gender, Households, and Society, 2008

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Cynthia Robin is an Associate Professor of Anthropology. She is feminist archaeologist who has sought to make the lives of ancient women more visible in archaeological research. Her research specialization is in the ancient Maya civilization where she has been working as an archaeologist for the past 30 years. She is primarily interested in using archaeology as a tool to explore the everyday lives of ordinary people (women and men) in the past to show how the lives of ordinary people make an impact on human societies. She is in the director of the Chan archaeological project in Belize, Central America (http://www.northwestern.edu/anthropology/chan). The Chan site is a small ancient Maya farming village that was occupied for over 2000 years from 1000 BC to AD 1200. The people who lived at Chan were ordinary farmers and the goal of research at Chan is to explore the importance of farmers’ everyday lives. She has written a book with her students on gender in the ancient world.

ART HISTORY

Art History 101-6, Sec. 20
LOOKING AT WAR
Instructor: Prof. Hannah Feldman
Time: MW 11:00-12:20
Office: Crowe 3-107
Phone: 847-491-7788
Email: h-feldman@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION:   This course examines the contemporary proliferation of images depicting or representing catastrophe and war in order to understand what these images tell us about the ways in which war is experienced in the contemporary moment and in the very recent past. In looking at photographs, films, videos, and artistic projects, we will ask what such images can teach us about how representation works in relationship to questions of information dissemination, affect, and the possibilities of opposition engendered by both.

In today’s world, we spend so much time looking at war that we are hardly aware that we are doing so. Images of catastrophe float across our tv screens, interrupt the text of our newspapers, pop-up on the internet, dazzle and bewilder on movie screens, and sometimes even unfold right outside our windows. In this class, we will try to “slow down” this flood of information in order to ask how these images work or don’t work and how they frame our understanding of the world and our own agency within it. We will also spend time looking at how visual practices, including art and time-based media, have engaged the modern and contemporary phenomena of war and catastrophe. Looking at this hybrid constellation of practices will allow us to consider whether contemporary catastrophes may even be generated by representation.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion and in-class viewing

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Students will be evaluated on their written work (60%), class participation (30%), 2 collaborative, in-class-presentations (10%), and in correspondence with their overall improvement over the course. Written work will focus on short papers and the revision thereof.

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS:   Students are asked to write weekly or bi-weekly response papers (1-2 pages) that critically engage the assigned readings and viewings. Several of these will be revised and resubmitted and 1 will form the basis of the final (4-5 page) paper, which will be written in stages throughout the duration of the course.

READING LIST:
Readings will be drawn from art historical texts as well as those in cultural studies. We will also read artist’s statements, newspaper reports, and reviews. In addition, we will screen several films and artist’s videos, while also learning to analyze digital and analogue media.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Hannah Feldman studies modern and contemporary art, with a special focus on the ways urban space and visual practices engage or reflect the geo-political consequences of war, nationalism, and displacement in the post- and neocolonial world. She is particularly interested in how this has come to bear on art made in the United States, France, North Africa, and the Middle East, as well as how art and activism continue to intersect in these same regions.

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Biological Sciences 105-6, Sec. 20
GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS: SAFE OR SORRY?
Instructor: Christina T. Russin
Time: MW 2:00-3:20
Office Address: Hogan Hall, 2205 Tech Drive, Suite 6-110B
Phone: 847-467-4878
E-Mail: c-russin@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: This topic has become a lightning rod in recent years for biotechnologists and environmentalists alike. In this course, we will explore what it means to genetically engineer food crops and discuss the benefits and drawbacks of this technology. Our topics will include specific examples of engineered crops such as golden rice, StarLink corn, and Terminator seeds, as well as an exploration of individual opinion on labeling laws and the risks associated with this technology.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Grades will be based on writing assignments and class participation in discussions.

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS:
There will be four 5-page papers.

READING LIST:
All materials to be provided by the instructor

CHEMISTRY

Chemistry   105-6, Sec. 30
TIME TRAVEL AND OTHER STRANGE PARADOXES FROM PHYSICS, MATH AND PHILOSOPHY.
Instructor: Elad Harel
Time: TTH 11:00-12:20
Office Address: Technological Institute, Room K344
Phone: 847-467-7580
E-Mail: elharel@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Have you ever wondered which came first, the chicken or the egg? Or what would happen if you went back in time and encountered a younger you? The intellectual conflict arising from seeming contradictions have been the primary driving force in science throughout history and continue to define some of greatest challenges of our time. These and other paradoxes from science and philosophy will be considered in this seminar. We will discuss how most paradoxes may be resolved by careful consideration of the underlying premise and give examples of modern paradoxes that remain controversial to this day.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Grades for the class will be determined from class participation (20%), five writing assignments (60%), and a final project (20%) involving library research and an oral presentation.

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: There will be five writing assignments throughout the course. These will range from short 3 page assignments (3 total) to longer 10 page assignments (2 total).

READING LIST:
The following three books will be read:
William Poundstone, Color: Labyrinths of Reason
Ernesto Lee, Mauve: Space, Time, & Reality
R.M. Sainsbury: Paradoxes, 3rd Edition

Other short journal or magazine articles will be provided by me or by members of the class to introduce specific examples for discussion.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: I am the newest member of the core faculty of the Department of Chemistry. My research is involved in developing new tools to understand physical processes at the molecular level across all relevant time, energy, and length scales. The research in my group is broad, encompassing fields such as quantum information, photobiology, gene repair, and protein folding. Primarily, we use ultrashort optical pulses, on the order of one millionth of one billionth of a second to probe the earliest events that follow light absorption by specialized proteins critical to light harvesting and light regulation in biological systems such as bacteria and higher plants. Understanding the remarkable efficiencies by which these natural systems operate is allowing us to design biomimetic systems with tailored functionality for applications such as solar cells and quantum computing.

Chemistry 105-6, Sec. 31
DRUG DEVELOPMENT & THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY
Time: TTH 11:00-12:20
Instructor: Larry Trzupek
Office address: Tech M190 2145 Sheridan Road Evanston Campus
Phone: 847-467-0167
E-mail: l-trzupek@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION:   In contemporary times, the development of new medicinal agents has been carried out largely by the pharmaceutical industry. Today's drug makers have been characterized as everything from modern-day heroes who employ the latest scientific developments in the formulation of life-saving treatments, to unscrupulous profiteers, exploiting human suffering for unreasonably large financial gains.

In this seminar, we'll explore the development of pharmaceuticals from a variety of standpoints, including those involving historical, scientific, legal, regulatory and economic components. The course will include readings as well as several presentations from individuals involved in the production of pharmaceutical agents.

PREREQUISITES: None which are absolutely required; some background and interest in the sciences would be helpful.

TEACHING METHOD: Group discussions; student presentations; presentations by one or two visiting professionals.

METHOD OF EVALUATION: (% are only approximate) written papers, about 65%; individual presentations, about 15%; discussion participation, about 20%. At least one oral presentation will be required. No examinations are planned for the course.

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: Two short papers (3-4 pages); one longer paper (8 to 10 pages).

READING LIST:
"Drugs: From Discovery to Approval", 2nd Edition, R. Ng, Wiley (2009) ISBN 978-0-470-19510-9
"Powerful Medicines", J. Avorn, Vintage Books (2005) ISBN1-4000-3078-1 (The paperback edition of the Avorn book is preferred.).
The course will also require of “course-pack” of photocopied articles that will be available from University Readers, Inc. – details on the ordering procedure for this material will be made available during the summer or the first week of class, depending on the printing schedule. Last year the price of this course pack was about $60.

RESTRICTIONS: None.

Chemistry 105-6, Sec. 32
GREEN CHICAGO
Instructor: Shelby Hatch
Time: TTH 9:30-10:50
Office Address: Tech L214
Phone: 847-491-3430
E-Mail: slhatch@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION:   What makes a city green? What is the role of the scientist-civilian? We will study (and visit) a number of green projects in and around Chicago including the green roof on City Hall. We will discuss how individual decisions intersect with public policy and corporate responsibility. We will ponder the question of what it means to be “green enough”. The students will work on a green project in the community, culminating in oral and written presentations.

TEACHING METHOD: Instructor and peer-led class discussion.

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Students will be assessed on their meaningful contributions to class discussions (15%), entries in an on-going blog (10%), quality of writing and critical thinking in four written assignments (60%), and a final presentation (oral and written) on their projects (15%).

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: There will be four written assignments, one every two weeks, throughout the quarter. Each paper will be 5-7 pages in length. The final presentation will also include slides and a written report (4-5 pages).

READING LIST:
*Selected current articles from The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune and other media sources
*The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken
*The Necessary Revolution: How individuals and organizations are working together to create a sustainable world by Peter M. Senge, Bryan Smith, Sara Schley, and Joe Laur
*Kim Stanley Robinson's climate change trilogy: Forty Signs of Rain, Fifty Degrees Below, and Sixty Days and Counting
*Worldchanging: A Users Guide for the 21st Century

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: The chemical industry often bears much of the blame for the “ungreening” of our communities and cities, but chemists and other scientists are simultaneously in a position to create new, green technologies. I consider myself to be a scientist-citizen and, as such, I am aware of how my individual choices intersect with the larger communities of which I am a part. I am an avid year-round bicycle commuter and I am constantly evaluating how my decisions affect the planet.

CLASSICS

Classics 101-6, Sec. 20
FROM LOVE-GIFTS TO BEASTS: ANIMALS IN ANTIQUITY
Instructor: Claudia Zatta
Time: MW 3:30-4:50
E-mail: c-zatta@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Protagonists of myths, endearing pets and love tokens, objects of the hunt, and bridges to the unknown future and the remote gods: animals have played the most versatile and diverse roles in Antiquity. Animals are symbols of heroism for Homer, vehicles of economic capital in Hesiod, creatures of a mythical time for Plato, and political beings akin to humans in Aristotle. This course explores the rich literature about animals in the Greek and Roman world, focusing on the relationship between men and animals and how it developed over time. This course not only addresses how the ancients conceived of the life, identity and function of animals, but it also shows how their notion of the animal ultimately reflected their conception of the human.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion, students’ presentations, occasional short lectures and visual material (images, videos, films).

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Class discussion based on readings; presentations; short papers; final presentation; final paper.

READING LIST: selections (or works) from Homer, Hesiod, Aesop, presocratic philosophers, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, Aelian, Catullus, Martial, Pliny the Elder, Josephus Flavius, Tertullian, Apuleius; occasional secondary literature.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Claudia Zatta is a scholar of Greek language and literature, Greek historiography and philosophy. In addition to several articles on different aspects of the Greek world, she has published a monograph on the figure of Proteus in Homer and the subsequent literary tradition, Incontri con Proteo (Venice, 1997). Interested in the interface between literature and philosophy, she is now working on the representation of the polis as a figure of pathos in the literature of the fifth-century BC.

COMPARATIVE LITERARY STUDIES

Comparative Literary Studies 104-6, Sec. 20
WORLD LITERATURE AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Instructor: Firat Oruc
Time: MWF 12:00 -12:50
Office Address: Crowe Hall, Room 3-135
Phone: 847-491-5493
E-Mail: f-oruc@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: In this course, we will reflect on the challenges as well as the prospects presented to the modern world by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) that recognized the “inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family.” To this end, we will study world literature as an ethical-political concept, one that raises enduring questions about the uniqueness of the human being, the relation of the self to the other and the possibility of human understanding across cultural, ethnic, racial and national boundaries. Each selected text will provide us with a frame to interrogate a specific human rights issue (such as slavery, state oppression, and dispossession) in a particular space and time. By the end of this course, we will gain a deeper insight into how literary imagination actively participates in establishing the meaning of human rights and of enriching our understanding of what it means to be a human being entitled to freedom, life and liberty.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion

METHOD OF EVALUATION:
Class participation 10%
Short essays 45% (15% each)
Final paper 30%
Oral Presentation and peer review 15%

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS:
Short essays – 3 papers (3-4 pages each)
Final paper – 8-10 pages

READING LIST:
Death and the Maiden (Ariel Dorfman)
Fatelessness (Imre Kertesz)
Beloved (Toni Morrison)
Anil's Ghost (Michael Ondaatje)
Gifts (Nuruddin Farah)
If I Were Another (Mahmoud Darwish)

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Firat Oruc is Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in World Literature in the Comparative Literary Studies program. His research and teaching interests include world literature, postcolonial literatures and theory, modern discourses of Islam, literatures of the Middle East (with a concentration in Turkish), contemporary global fiction and transnational cinemas. His previous awards and fellowships include the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Award for Undergraduate Instruction (Duke University, 2006-2007) and the German Academic Exchange Service/DAAD Scholarship (Humboldt University, 2003-2004).

EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCES

Earth and Planetary Sciences 102-6, Sec. 01
GLOBAL WARMING: THE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE
Instructor:   Francesca McInerney
Time: TTH 2:00-3:20
Office Address: 200 Locy Hall
Phone: 847-494-3459
E-Mail: Cesca@earth.northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION:   Global warming is more than a media catch-phrase. It represents a massive global experiment with unknown consequences. In this course we will discuss the scientific evidence for modern-day global warming including melting ice sheets, long-term temperature records from ice cores and extreme weather events such as hurricanes. Current trends and the role of human activities will be examined in the context of the geologic record of natural climate variability and the feedbacks inherent in the climate system. Anticipated future impacts include droughts, floods, spread of infectious diseases, drinking water shortages, habitat loss and extinctions. Given these forecasts, strategies for managing the effects of global warming will be assessed.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Writing assignments (75%), class participation (10%), oral presentation (15%)

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS:
Four writing assignments totaling 15-20 pages divided in to three shorter (2-4 page) papers and one longer research paper (8-10 pages). Two of the papers will involve a first draft before final submission.

READING LIST:   We will read 2-3 books about climate change that will range from in style from science journalism to books by scientists. Shorter articles will also be used and posted on blackboard.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: My research focuses on global warming in the geologic past in order to better understand current and future global warming. In particular, I study fossilized leaf waxes and their chemical signature in order to characterize past ecosystem and climate changes. I teach this class because I believe climate change science is fundamental to planning for the future, no matter what field of study or profession you decide to pursue.

ECONOMICS

Economics 101-6, Sec. 20
ECONOMICS OF ALMOST EVERYTHING
Time: TTH 11am-12:20pm
Instructor: Martin Zelder
Office Address: Andersen 348
Phone: 847-491-4416
E-Mail: m-zelder@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Most people believe that understanding economics is important, but it is not clear how many people do understand it, or whether they appreciate the range of issues to which economics applies. This seminar provides a remedy for these two problems by: (1) providing a clear but non-mathematical outline of the major principles of economics, and (2) illustrating these principles in the context of a variety of practical contexts (including economic analysis of adultery, religion, psychiatric illness, war, rioting, and love, among others).

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion

METHOD OF EVALUATION: 4 papers (80 percent in total), class participation (20 percent)

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: 4 5-page papers

READING LIST:
Unpublished textbook, “The Economics of (Almost) Everything”, written by Prof. Zelder, plus selections from: Economical Writing (2nd edition) by Deirdre N. McCloskey (Waveland Press, 2000), The Elements of Style (4th edition) by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White (Longman Press, 1999), On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction (30th anniversary edition) by William Zinsser (Collins, 2006), and Doing Honest Work in College (2nd edition) by Charles Lipson (University of Chicago Press, 2008).

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT:
I grew up in Kalamazoo (Michigan), where I played the French horn and received excellent grades (I believe I was the model for the character of Martin Prince on “The Simpsons”). Had I not been an economist, I might (realistically?) have had a career as a Unitarian minister or a standup comedian, and would like to have had a career as the Cubs’ 3rd baseman. The best thing I ever did in my life was to get married (only a few years ago) to a (clearly) very understanding person. Our favorite place to visit is Italy (all of it, whenever we can).

ENGLISH

English 101-6, Sec. 20
FANTASIZING THE URBAN
Instructor: Brian Sheerin
Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
Office Address: Crowe 3-149
Phone: 847-491-7294
E-Mail: b-sheerin@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Cities are places of encounter -- matrices of contact zones that promise, threaten, or conceal the presence of others. These spaces can be inviting, but perhaps more often they are mysterious, claustrophobic, or even sinister. How does our imagination interact with and even help create the mystique of urban space? How does it affect the way we categorize people, objects, and our negotiation between them? Most of all, what kinds of fears or anxieties do cities elicit, and how do we process those anxieties? This class will address questions such as these as we explore the “dark regions” of the urban as depicted in literature, science fiction, popular culture, and film. Using the windy city itself as our point of reference, we will pay particular attention to the border regions that connect the familiar with the strange. A number of response papers and other writing exercises will mark our progress through the class, culminating in a research project that explores a specific aspect of the urban spaces around us.

TEACHING METHOD: This is a discussion-based class that facilitates conversations and encourages the consideration of multiple viewpoints regarding the material at hand. Students are expected to come to class ready to share thoughts and ideas, and willing to listen to and interact with the ideas of others. I will guide and participate in the discussion in order to keep the subject matter organized and moving forward.

METHOD OF EVALUATION:   Evaluation will take into consideration three brief writing assignments; one longer, research-based assignment; an oral presentation; participation in class; and attendance.

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: There will be three shorter papers (about 3 pages each) and one longer paper (about 7 pages).

READING LIST:   The reading for this class will consist of an eclectic variety of fiction that may include texts by Thomas More, Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, Paul Auster, and China Mieville.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Dr. Sheerin specializes in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature, and is currently working on a project that studies economies of urban interaction in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He is an avid reader of science fiction and an avid pedestrian of Chicago.

English 101-6, Sec. 21
FORMS OF GRIEF: EXPLORING THE LITERATURE OF LOSS
Instructor: Chanelle Fillion Gregersen
Time: MWF 11:00-11:50
Office Address: University Hall 420
Phone: 847-491-4991
E-Mail: chanelle.fillion@u.northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: In his famous elegy, In Memoriam, Alfred Tennyson questions the efficacy of attempting to put his grief into words, but later insists that, “for the unquiet heart and brain, / A use in measured language lies; / The sad mechanic exercise, / Like dull narcotics, numbing pain.” Reading across time periods and genres, this course will examine representations of death, dying, and mourning in order to interrogate “the use [of] measured language” in the face of the universal experiences of loss and grief. Some of the questions that will guide our reading this quarter: how do we express grief as individuals and as communities? What are the cultural practices and expectations that surround our responses to death and dying? How have they changed over time? We will pay particular attention to the categories of genre and form, considering the ways in which literary convention both shapes and is shaped by deeply individual expressions of personal experience.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion.

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Three formal essay assignments, weekly one-page responses, and active participation in class discussion.

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: Students will write one 3-4 page paper and two 5-7 page papers, in addition to weekly one-page responses (300 words).

READING LIST: Readings may include poetry by John Milton, John Donne, Thomas Gray, Alfred Tennyson, Thomas Hardy, Emily Dickinson, W. H. Auden, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Wallace Stevens, and Dylan Thomas; non-fiction prose by Thomas Lynch, Joan Didion, Sandra M. Gilbert, and Meghan O’Rourke; short fiction by Raymond Carver, Flannery O’Connor, and James Joyce; and Charlotte Brontë’s novel Villette.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Chanelle Gregersen teaches and writes about nineteenth-century British literature. Her areas of interest include narrative theory, Protestant theology, and the novel, with a focus on questions of textual interpretation and religious conversion.

ENGLISH 101-6, Sec. 22
LITERATURE, GOSSIP, AND SCANDAL
Instructor: Maha Jafri
Time:   MWF 12:00-12:50
Office Address: University Hall 420
Phone: 847-491-7294
E-Mail: mahajafri2013@u.northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: What is the relationship between literature and gossip? What can literature teach us about gossip, and what can gossip teach us about literature? Ranging from the trivial to the serious, from the everyday to the scandalous, gossip occupies a central role in novels of the 19th and early-20th centuries. Attending to the motivations and consequences of talking about friends and enemies, neighbors and strangers, we will examine how and why novels depend on gossip and scandal in representations of social life. What do characters gossip about and why? How does gossip both forge and fracture social relationships? What social functions does gossip perform? What good does it do and what damage does it cause? Who are its victors, and what happens to its victims? What does gossip do for plots, and how does it comment on literary form and purpose? Like the novels we will read, we will focus on the linguistic, psychological, and ethical significance of gossip, with close attention to the pleasures—and dangers—of entertaining ourselves with stories about the private lives of other people.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Papers, oral presentations, Blackboard posts, and participation in class discussion.

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: Two short papers (4-5 pages) and final paper (8-10 pages).

READING LIST: We will focus on novels from the 19th and early-20th centuries. Readings will likely include novels by Jane Austen, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Oscar Wilde, and Henry James. Shorter critical readings will be available in a course reader.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Maha Jafri teaches and writes about Victorian literature. Her research interests include gossip, the novel, narrative, psychoanalysis, theories of community and sociability, and etiquette.

ENGLISH   101-6, Sec. 23
HUMANITY OF ANIMALS IN GLOBAL LIT/CULTURES
Instructor: Evan Mwangi
Time: MWF 1:00-1:50
Office Address: Univ. Hall 326
Phone: 847-491-3529
E-Mail: evan-mwangi@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION:   The seminar explores the circulation of the image of non-human animals in Western and non-Western texts to appreciate and critique the different attitude towards minorities and the powerless in global literary art and films. We will focus on texts that have circulated across the globe and especially those that refer to other cultures using images of animals or using animal narrators and characters. Reading short fiction and non-fiction works by Balzac, Kafka, Anat Pick, Achebe, Narayan, Orwell, Carrie Rohman, Tolstoy, Ngugi, Kelly Oliver , Coetzee, Levinas, Darwin, and Descartes, we will assess if animals qua animals have any agency in the stories or if they only serve as stereotypical representations of human fears and interests. We will particularly critique the tendency of dominant categories to represent foreigners and racial and sexual minorities as wild animals to be tamed. Further, we will assess the appropriateness of comparing bad people with animals or criticizing human foibles by showing animals behaving better than humans. Our overall objective will be to discuss and write about the role of good and enjoyable literature in representing the interests of the powerless in society in a way that is appealing across cultural boundaries.

TEACHING METHOD:   Discussion

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Short writing assignments, self-evaluation, peer critiques, class participation, oral discussions, and ungraded pop quizzes and 1-minute papers.

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: Three 5-page essays.

READING LIST:   Honore de Balzac’s A Passion in the Desert; R.K. Narayan’s A Tiger for Malgudi; Emmanuel Levinas’s essay “The Name of a Dog, or Natural Rights”; J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace and The Lives of Animals; and a course reader of short essays and excerpts to be posted on the Blackboard site.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Evan Mwangi teaches World Literature in the English Department, focusing on the intersection of aesthetics, gender and nationalism in canonical and popular texts. He is also interested in narrative and literary theories.

ENGLISH 101-6, Sec. 24
UTOPIAN & DYSTOPIAN VISIONS OF AMERICA
Instructor: Nathan Leahy
Time:   MWF 2:00-2:50
Office Address: University Hall 419
Phone: 847-491-7294
E-Mail: NathanLeahy2010@u.northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION:   The Eurocentric literary tradition of envisioning the Americas as a utopia began shortly after the first colonies were established. “America” and, more narrowly, North America, and later still, the United States, have been regularly invoked in political and literary discourses with distinctly utopian terms, or terms considered utopian only when torn from their original context: a “New World,” a “New Jerusalem,” a “City Upon a Hill,” the “last best hope of the Earth,” and so on. This course will interrogate this intellectual tradition within U.S. cultural history by starting with an overview of key texts in early-American writing, especially the late 18th century foundational political and legal texts, that undergird much of the subsequent utopian and dystopian visions of the U.S. in literature. We will then leap ahead in history to focus on the enormous and unprecedented outpouring of utopian and dystopian literature written about the U.S. in the late 19th century as the nation was emerging as a global industrial and economic superpower while it was also grappling with the social volatility caused by rapid industrialization, a deregulated economy, waves of immigration with their attendant outbursts of nativism and racism, the failures of southern Reconstruction, the “closing” of the western frontier, the acquisition of territories and founding of colonies abroad, and the many ways in which these things prompted a rethinking of the U.S. as a utopian and/or dystopian “social experiment.” We will continue our investigation through the 1930s and into the early years of the Cold War when antagonistic visions of a utopian future held by the U.S. and Soviet Union—one capitalistic, one socialistic—dominated global politics. No background in U.S. history, utopian literature, or American literature is expected

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Three essays, in-class assignments, weekly blackboard postings.

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: three; two shorter essays (4-5 pages) and one longer final essay (8-12 pages), weekly blackboard postings of about 250 words

READING LIST: Primary texts will likely include most but probably not all of the following: excerpts from lJohn Smith, The Generall Historie of Virginia; William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation; John Eliot, A Christian Commonwealth; John Winthrop, “A Model of Christian Charity”; Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana; Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, his original draft of the “Declaration of Independence,” and selected correspondence with John Adams; Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, The Federalist Papers; Jonas Clopper, Fragments of the History of Bawlfredonia; Mary Griffith, Camperdown. Longer works will likely include some of the following: Walt Whitman, Democratic Vistas; Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward; Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court; Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland; Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Nathan Leahy is a lecturer in the department of English and completing a dissertation on represenations of financial crises in American fiction.

English 101-6, Sec. 25
THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME: THE LITERATURE OF DISLOCATION
Instructor: Bahareh Lampert
Time: TTH 9:30-10:50
Office Address: 215 Univ. Hall
Phone: 847-491-7294
E-Mail: b-lampert@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: What do we imagine when we think of home, and does such a place ever really exist? What happens when we insist on searching for homes, both real and ideal? What are the costs of having a home, or of seeking one and feeling homeless? And finally, what is erased, unspoken, buried, and crossed out in an attempt to preserve homes? In this seminar we will consider such questions as we investigate conceptions of home and belonging. Thinking critically about our own assumptions and definitions of home, we will begin to unravel the myth and mystery of what makes people feel at home in the world.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion, some Lecture

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Class participation, Two short papers (4-6 pages), One final paper (6-8 pages)

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: Students will write 2 short papers (about 5 pages each), as well as a longer essay (about 6-8 pages) toward the end of the quarter.

READING LIST: Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies, Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting, Randa Jarrar’s A Map of Home, Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North, Marjane Satrapi’s The Complete Persepolis, and Dinaw Mengestu’s The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears. This list is subject to change, so please contact me during registration if you have any questions.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Bahareh Lampert specializes in Middle Eastern diasporic imagination, transnational literature, and ethnic American women’s writing. Her current research focuses on home in diaspora and writing identity in cyberspace. Her main goal in the classroom is to convey the sense that education is a shared activity undertaken by a community of learners, of which both students and teacher are a part.

ENGLISH 101-6, Sec. 26
THE CIVIL WAR SOUTH
Instructor: Sarah Lahey
Time: TTh 11:00-12:20
Office Address: University Hall 420
Phone: 847-491-7294
E-Mail: sarah-lahey@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Frankly, Scarlett, you may have gotten it wrong. The Civil War does not necessarily resemble the tale of social ruin and lost causes inscribed on the pages of Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 epic novel, Gone With the Wind. In this course, we will consider literary representations of the Civil War beginning with Mitchell’s saga and moving backwards in time to Confederate-intellectual Mary Chesnut’s account of the firing on Fort Sumter. In this way, we commence with how the war has been memorialized in the public imagination and proceed to deconstruct this myth with real-life accounts of those who actually experienced the war. Specifically, we will focus on those whom Scarlett O’Hara criticizes or leaves out of her narration: poor whites, enslaved and freed blacks, Native Americans, Irish immigrants, and northern women (the object of much scorn). From this broader perspective, we will re-examine not only the events of the nation’s bloodiest war, but also the diverse peoples who fought in, witnessed, and survived it.

Students will be graded on class participation as well as a series of response papers based on the assigned reading. These responses will serve as starting points for three formal essays, of increasing length. The final paper must address a memoir or diary that we have not discussed in class. The course will conclude with a mock conference in which students present material from their final essays, thus expanding our working knowledge of Civil War literature.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion.

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Attendance and participation (15%). Response papers (10%). Essay 1 (15%). Essay 2 (25%). Essay 3 & Presentation (35%).

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: Students will complete three essays of increasing length. Essay 1 (4-5 pages), Essay 2 (5-6 pages), and Essay 3 (6-8 pages).

READING LIST: Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind. Walt Whitman, Drum-Taps. Elizabeth Keckley, Behind the Scenes. William McCarter, My Life in the Irish Brigade. G.W. Grayson, A Creek Warrior for the Confederacy. Cornelia Peake McDonald, A Woman’s Civil War. Excerpts from Mary Chesnut’s Civil War.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Sarah Lahey is a Ph.D Candidate in English and studies nineteenth-century American literature. Her dissertation, entitled “Fragmenting the Nation,” argues that ethnic and minority writing of the Civil War era crucially changes our perspective on the war as a binary conflict. Her other interests include women’s writing, gothic fiction, and autobiography.

English 101-6, Sec. 27
POCHOS, COCONUTS, AND PASSERS: ASSIMILATION IN EARLY 20TH C AM LIT
Instructor: Wanalee Romero
Time:   TTH 2:00-3:20
Office Address: Univ Hall 420
Phone: 847-491-7294
E-Mail: wromero@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION:   With the election of President Obama, much media attention has been given to the claim that the United States is a post-racial society. But how does such a claim ring in the ears of non-white bodies still navigating day-to-day in the streets of a nation with such bitter and brutal race and ethnicity-based inequalities in its not so distant past? How genuine are descriptors such as “color blind,” “multicultural,” and “melting pot” for a country with de facto segregated neighborhoods, Arizona’s HB1070, and gangsta rap? In this course we will think about and interrogate these pressing and decidedly twenty-first century questions through the lens of early twentieth century American literature. By reading texts written by racial and ethnic minorities before the civil rights movements, we will explore the ways that U.S. citizens of different colors thought about assimilation and Americanization before these became dirty words in the pop culture imaginary. We will also read texts by historians, philosophers, and sociologists, etc. to better inform our understanding of issues of race, ethnicity, and nationality. Weekly we will make mental trips back to the future to contextualize and complicate our opinions about the relevance and persistence of the plights of our authors.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion

METHOD OF EVALUATION:   Participation (includes: class discussions, attendance, and group work)—15%; Critical Thinking Exercises (includes: Class presentations and current events inquiries)—15%; Informal Writing Assignments (includes: Working essay drafts and Blackboard postings)—15%; Peer Evaluations—15%; Annotated Bibliography—10%; Revised Formal Essays—30%

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: Critical Reflection Essay—2-4 pp; Literary Analysis Essay—4-6 pp; Research Essay—6-8 pp

READING LIST:   Impressions of an Indian Childhood (1900) by Zitkala-Sa; Mrs. Spring Fragrance (1912) by Sui Sin Far, Dew on the Thorn (1920s-40s) by Jovita González; Passing (1929) by Nella Larson; Pocho (1959) by José Antonio Villareal; Shorter, more theoretical, texts available via CMS Blackboard

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Wanalee Romero studies and teaches about ethnicity and race in late nineteenth century and early twentieth century American literature. Interrogating conceptions of borders and national belonging, she concentrates on literary sentimentality, folklore, and the Gothic. When not drafting chapters or grading essays, Romero listens to reggaetón while walking her Chihuahua, Lucy, along the lake.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Environmental Sciences 101-6, Sec. 20
BIOFUELS: PRODUCTION AND ETHICS
Instructor: Thea Wilson
Time: TTH 11:00-12:20
Office Address: Tech A130
Phone: 847-467-3664
E-Mail: tmwilson@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The Earth contains a finite amount of fossil fuels, the formation of which required millions of years. While there may be enough fossil fuels to quench our energy needs for some time to come, we will eventually need to satisfy our energy needs by other means. This course will take a closer look at the feasibility of biofuels supplementing and/or replacing fossil fuels. The different types of biofuels will be examined from the perspective of production and whether or not it is ethical to produce each. Students will be expected to take an active role in discussions, research projects, and writing assignments. Efforts will be made to visit either a commercial biofuel plant or a laboratory researching biofuels.

TEACHING METHOD: Interactive discussion, short presentations (by instructor and students), and research projects.

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Student performance will be evaluated based on class participation (10%), oral presentations (20%), and writing assignments (70%).

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS:
Mini-review/blog entry: 1 page
Short reflection essays (3): 1 page
Research papers (2): 5-7 pages
Op-ed style paper: 2-3 pages

READING LIST:
Food versus fuel: an informed introduction to biofuels, Frank Rosillo-Calle and Francis X. Johnson (eds.)
Agrofuels: big profits, ruined lives, and ecological destruction, François Houtart
Articles from peer-reviewed journals and the news media, as well as government documents (TBD)

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT:
Thea Wilson has a diversified background in chemistry with research interests spanning from nanoscience to solar energy. Her present research focus revolves around studying the role of soil fungi in carbon sequestration and their potential as a biofuel source. She enjoys eating good, real foods and is passionate about knowing the journey they took in order to reach her mouth.

FRENCH

French 105-6, Sec. 20
FICTIVE SEDUCTIONS & LITERARY TRAPS
Instructor: Scott Hiley
Time: TTH 11:00AM -12:20
Office Address: Crowe 3-138
Phone: 847-467-0899
E-Mail: s-hiley@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: In this course, we will explore a pleasure and an anxiety that have animated readers across the ages: the feeling of becoming ensnared in fiction, of being changed by it, of coming to dwell in a fictional world rather than in one identified as “real.” Our readings may include selections from Plato, Ovid, medieval romance, Cervantes, Mme. de La Fayette, Rousseau, Flaubert, and contemporary films and graphic novels. As we both succumb to and resist the manifold temptations of these texts, we will investigate seduction, censorship, escapism, and the status of the real.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion, with peer review of written work to develop editing and communication skills.

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Evaluation will be based on class participation (30%), three 5-7 page papers (20% each, with the option to rewrite), and an in-class oral final exam (10%): a discussion without intervention by the instructor, where students will be graded both on individual participation and on the dynamics of the class discussion as a whole.

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: See above.

READING LIST: TBA

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: My scholarly training is as a specialist of medieval French literature, but I have always tried to be a generalist first and foremost, with interests ranging from classical epic to modern graphic novels, from popular fiction to economics and philosophy. I believe that critical study of language and literature plays a vital role in preparing students to participate meaningfully in political and social life; to that end, I consider the classroom a space of full democracy and civil debate.

GENERAL MUSIC

General Music 101-6, Sec. 20
ANATOMY OF A CONCERT
Instructor: Bernie Dobroski
Time: MW 2:00-3:20
E-mail: bjdobroski@northwestern.edu
(Not open to Music Students nor Double Degree WCAS/Music Students)

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: This freshman seminar is designed for the general campus student. The course is designed to provide opportunities for music aficionados to experience music and music theater events from the inside-out. The only prerequisite for the course is a love of the performing arts -- you don't have to read, perform, or understand music notation to succeed in this course. However, you have to be prepared to spend a lot of time attending rehearsals and concerts (minimally six hours a week), outside of the two required class sessions. During the in-and-outside of classroom sessions, the instructor and invited guests will attempt to nurture a heightened awareness of the challenges that conductors, opera and music theater directors and musicians/actors face when preparing for a performance. Through a series of observations, presentations, interviews, and interactive discussions/seminars, you will be better prepared to listen, observe, and critically analyze performing arts events on and off campus -- during this academic quarter, and hopefully for the rest of your life.

After Week One's introduction to the course and the music library, the Week Two class sessions will concentrate on conducting lessons and video observations of concerts and rehearsals. In these initial sessions, you will learn many of the techniques needed to lead the world's greatest instrumental and choral ensembles (of course, with many additional years of practice). Course participants, using their required conductor's baton and music CD's will learn a variety of conducting techniques -- mastering beat patterns, the expressive use of the left hand, and using the conducting gesture to communicate "interpretation," "phrasing," and "dynamic shading." You may never conduct a major ensemble, but after meeting the requirements of the class you should have the knowledge and understanding to critically analyze conductors during your future career as a member of audiences for classical and popular music concerts
Projects and Evaluation: An individualized assessment contract will be negotiated during the first two weeks of the quarter to address the creative, musical or scholarly interests of students enrolled in the class. Specific assignments and projects will be determined after a private conference with Professor Dobroski.

In general, evaluation will be based on engagement in the various course components, including 1) completion of weekly readings, listening assignments, and participation in class discussions to be registered in a course log (20% of final grade); 2) attendance and a written analysis/critique-reactions to eight rehearsals and eight concerts (20% of final grade); 3) preparation of a collaborative oral/written presentation on music from the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth or the twentieth century (15%); 4) the preparation of program notes for two compositions being performed at a student solo or chamber music recital this academic quarter with the expectation of having to observe two rehearsals and attend the recital of your "assigned" student (15%); 5) the observation of a "master" professor in an applied lesson, and/or a class environment, (you will be asked to submit a brief paper reflecting your observations/impressions. (15%); and 6) prepare a final research paper and oral presentation on a topic related to a composer or composition being performed by a School of Music ensemble this quarter (15%).

TEACHING METHOD: Again, the choice of assignments will be discussed during our individual appointments at the end of Week One or the beginning of Week Two. There will be frequent exchanges with the instructor to insure formative and summative evaluative communication through the Spring Quarter. Course Outline (Weeks One, Two and Three) After meeting with members of the class in private conferences Dr. Dobroski will re-issue and distribute a revised course schedule (see Handout Two: Weekly Schedule and Initial Assignments, distributed during the second class

READING LIST:
Class Materials (Required)
Kerman, Joseph and Tomlinson. (2004). Listen (brief 6th ed) with a 3 or 6-CD set suggested but not required, Boston/NewYork: Bedfore/St. Martin's. (Available in the Norris University Book Store.) A "12," "15" or 17" conductor's baton. (Available in the Norris University Book Store.)

Class Materials (Suggested)
Additional recommended books, articles, CD's, DVD's and VCR's will be provided by the instructor or placed on reserve in the library. Recommended Websites for Periodic Reference and Review ¿ Musical America: http://www.musicalamerica.com ¿ Andante Magazine: http://www.andante.com) ¿ Web Sites referenced on pp. 432-436 in the Kerman/Tomlinson text

GERMAN

German 104-6, Sec. 20
AGAINST LIFE, AGAINST THE WORLD: THE ORIGINS OF SCANDINAVIAN NOIR
Instructor: Henrik Wilberg
Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
E-mail: HenrikWilberg2013@u.northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The recent success of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy of crime novels is only the latest in a century-long tradition of Scandinavian literature, drama, and film reaching a wide audience outside the cultures they originated in. What is remarkable about these works is that they tend to take an extremely brutal, dark, and nihilistic view of the future of society in general and human intimate relations in particular.

This course will look at a series of classic and representative works in this tradition. The course is divided into two thematic blocks, both which begin with the screening of a Lars von Trier film. The first, departing from Melancholia, tracks the theme of life-destructing and world-denying forces and their connection to and role in representation of phenomena such as mental illness, extremist politics, and religion. The second block, beginning with Antichrist, explores in more detail the specific role of gender relations in this tradition.
While a part of the course focuses on film and drama in the early and mid-20th century, from Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg to Ingmar Bergman, a large component of the course will focus on the contemporary scene, represented by playwrights Jon Fosse and Lars Norén, as well as the two recent von Trier films.
At the end of the quarter we will approach Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, of which the original Swedish title was the more grim Men Who Hate Women. Depending on student interest, we may also look at the emergence of Scandinavian, and especially Norwegian, black metal music in the early 1990s.

1. As a Freshman seminar, the course has the development of the basic requirements of university-level intellectual activity as its core aim. In this course, students are expected to further develop critical writing skills in confrontation with a variety of texts in producing three essays adhering to the discipline’s formal standards. Students are also expected to develop their ability to lead and participate in active group discussion.
2. Students will acquire an overview of major developments in 20th and early 21st century Scandinavian literature and film, as well as intimate knowledge of a selection of works within this tradition.
3. Students will acquire the methodic and comparative approach to analyzing works in different genres and time periods within literature and cinema, including classic and contemporary drama, the autobiographic novel, and popular crime fiction.

READING LIST:
Class Materials(Required)
August Strindberg, “Inferno. From an Occult Diary” (ISBN: 978-0140443646)
Henrik Ibsen, “The Master Builder and Other Plays” (ISBN: 978-0140440539)
Jon Fosse, “Melancholy” (ISBN: 978-1564784513);“Plays One” (ISBN: 978-1840022704); “Plays Five” (ISBN: 978-1849430746)
Lars Norén, “Blood” (ISBN: 978-0413774040)
Stieg Larsson, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” (ISBN: 978-0307949486)

HISTORY

History 101-6, Sec. 20
THE RISE AND FALL OF ANNE BOLEYN
INSTRUCTOR: Scott Sowerby
TIME: TTH 2:00-3:20
OFFICE ADDRESS: Harris Hall Room 207
PHONE: 847-491-7356
EMAIL: sowerby@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Anne Boleyn was a figure of scandal: she scandalized her own age and has continued to scandalize subsequent ages. Her life has been the subject of numerous plays, films, novels, histories, and even an opera (by Donizetti). Each of these works has advanced a different interpretation of Anne’s character. Her personality and motives remain elusive and contested nearly five centuries after her death, in large part because the surviving evidence is so fragmentary and so much of it comes from highly prejudiced sources. The goal of this seminar is not to uncover the truth about Anne’s character, but rather to discuss the nature of historical interpretation by looking at Anne as an example. What can we know about Anne and what can we not know? What sorts of evidence should a historian deem to be reliable and what evidence to be unreliable? How should a historian deal with two sources that are in direct conflict with each other? By learning about Anne Boleyn we will be learning how to think, write and argue historically.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Participation in discussion (10%), three essays (worth 20%, 30% and 40% each)

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: (1) 4-6 pp paper analyzing a film scene; (2) 5-7 pp critique paper; (3) 6-8 pp final paper

READING LIST:
George Bernard, Anne Boleyn: Fatal Attractions (Yale University Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0300162455)
Various readings from sixteenth-century England to be distributed via Blackboard.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Scott Sowerby (Ph.D., Harvard, 2006) specializes in the history of early modern Britain. He joined the Department of History in the fall of 2010 after three years as a lecturer at Harvard, where he taught courses on Shakespeare, politics, gender, sexuality, and empire. He is currently completing a book on the so-called “Glorious” Revolution of 1688.

History 102-6, Sec. 20
SEX CRIME PANICS IN MODERN AMERICA
INSTRUCTOR: Michael Sherry
TIME: TTH 3:30-4:50
OFFICE ADDRESS: Harris Hall Room 237
PHONE: 847-491-7191
EMAIL: m-sherry@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: What are "sex crime panics"? Have they happened more in US, and more so in recent times, and if so why? How have observers and scholars made sense of them? This is a course in history, not sexual pathology. It examines "panics" about sex crimes, not the causes of such crimes. It draws on work by contemporary observers, historians, and others scholars to explore why some sex acts get identified as crimes, why some sex crimes produce public panics while others do not, and how those panics reflect and shape American life. Prospective students should realize that they may find some materials for this course provocative or discomfiting. In terms of skills, the primary goal of this class is to enhance students' ability to read, analyze, discuss, and write about scholarship in the field.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion and presentation of weekly papers.

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Grades on papers will determine 75% of the final grade; attendance, participation, and initiative in discussion will determine 25%.

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: Short two-page papers most weeks and a final paper of 4-5 pages, for a total of 15-20 pages.

READING LIST: The central text will be Roger Lancaster, Sex Panic and the Punitive State (2011), supplemented by extensive shorter readings and by video materials.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT:
Michael Sherry, the Richard W. Leopold Professor of History, took his PhD from Yale (1975), has taught at Northwestern since 1976 and studies modern American war, politics, and culture. His most recent book is Gay Artists in Modern American Culture: An Imagined Conspiracy (2007), and he is currently at work on a project entitled "Go Directly to Jail: The Punitive Turn in American Life."

History 103-6, Sec. 20
THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS: FACT OR FICTION
INSTRUCTOR: Jeffrey Rice
TIME: TTH 9:30-10:50
OFFICE ADDRESS: 1908 Sheridan Road
PHONE: 847-491-8916
EMAIL: j-rice2@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Whether it is Samuel Huntington’s coherent thesis about the clash of civilizations (i.e. The West and the Rest) or off handed remarks about civil wars in Africa (what do you expect from tribal societies) or such and such a place (Iraq or Afghanistan) is not ready for democracy our present discourse and debates often assume some fundamental differences between and amongst cultures. This reality reflects both stereotyping and ranking of societies and has a major impact on international and domestic politics. In this class we will look at some of these assumptions from the 20th century and critically examine the myriad of meanings and implications contained within. The two cases we will focus on are: the Africa of Joseph Conrad and Robert Kaplan and the implications of a perceived barbarism on the world responses to famine, genocide, and civil war; as well as the post 2001 Islamaphobia in the Western World and its impact on understanding insurgencies and the military and diplomatic response.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion

METHOD OF EVALUATION: This will be based on three papers (75%) and class participation (25%)

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: Students will be expected to write a one page paper due in the second class (which will not be graded) and three 5 page papers which should ideally combine into what could be a single paper. The first two papers will be reviewed in one-on-one sessions with the instructor and students will be required to submit a rewrite (regardless of their first grade). Each paper will be worth 25% of the grade.

READING LIST: Readings will include “The Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad, essays by Samuel Huntington, Robert Kaplan, Bernard Lewis, Louis Leakey, John Lonsdale, Edward Said, Chinua Achebe (which will be collected in a course pack) and likely “The War for Muslims’ Minds” by Gilles Kepel. The final list will be available by February 1st.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: I am a senior lecturer in History and a WCAS College adviser. My interests reside in the continuities and discontinuities in societies from their pre-colonial status through colonialism and into the present (post-colonial) period. As an outgrowth of this research I have become fascinated by the pedagogical problems in teaching contemporary African history amidst poverty and war.

History 103-6, Sec. 21
THE HISTORY AND POLITICS OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
INSTRUCTOR: Ipek Yosmaoğlu
TIME: MW 2:00-3:20
OFFICE ADDRESS: Harris Hall Room 214
PHONE: 847-491-3154
EMAIL: i-yosmaoglu@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: During WWI the Ottoman government was under the control of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). The leadership cadre of CUP enacted a number of measures ostensibly in order to prevent the empire’s Armenian population from collaborating with Russians in the eastern front. Most significant among these measures was the decision to deport the Armenian population of the “critical zones” to a location where they could not act against the Ottoman military. As a result, the empire’s Armenian population came to the brink of complete annihilation. The commonly accepted term used to describe this tragic event is “genocide.” Yet, this term has been, and continues to be, the source of a great controversy that has occupied Turkish diplomats and Armenian diaspora organizations as well as historians. This course will explore the roots of this controversy. We will read about, and discuss the developments leading up to the events of 1915, and question the role they play in different national narratives of Turks and Armenians.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Class participation, written assignments, and final paper.

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: Response papers (2-3 pp each, 7 total); final paper (12-15 pp)

SAMPLE READING LIST:
**Ronald Grigor Suny, Fatma Müge Göçek and Norman M. Naimark, A Question of Genocide: Armenians and Turks at the End of the Ottoman Empire, Oxford University Press, 2011.
**Donald Bloxham, The Great Game of Genocide: Imperialism, Nationalism, and the Destruction of the Ottoman Armenians, Oxford University Press, 2005.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY: İpek K. Yosmaoğlu is a native of Istanbul. She obtained her Ph.D from Princeton in 2005. She is a historian of the Ottoman Empire interested in questions of violence, nationalism and imperial disintegration.

LINGUISTICS

Linguistics 101-6, Sec. 21
THE HUMAN VOICE, SPOKEN AND WRITTEN
INSTRUCTOR: Robert Gundlach
TIME OFFERED: TTH 11:00-12:20
OFFICE ADDRESS: Crowe Hall 2-179
PHONE: 847-491-7414
EMAIL ADDRESS: r-gundlach@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: In this seminar, we will explore the power and complexity of the human voice as we encounter it in both speech and writing. We will begin by examining the physical and cognitive aspects of speaking and listening. We will then consider how the human voice conveys cultural meanings, and we will consider how "voice" is expressed in written form. Each student will have the opportunity to select a topic of individual interest for a final research project. Such topics might include (but are not limited to) the role of intonation in linguistic communication, voice and technology (e.g., telephones), voice and music, voice and emotion, voice and cultural roles, voice and gender, voice and age, voice disorders, the forensic use of "voiceprints," voice in acting and singing, voice recording, voice in human and animal communication, human-machine vocal interaction, variations of voice across languages, voice control as a factor in second language learning, the significance of voice in public speaking, and the representation of speech styles and spoken dialects in literature. Throughout the quarter, students will also work on developing their ability and confidence as writers, and may wish to take advantage of this seminar as an opportunity to experiment with their own written voices in a variety of forms.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion.

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Three short essays (3-4 pages) (each will count for 20% of the grade) and one longer essay (6-8 pages) (30% of the grade), with opportunities for revision. Participation in seminar discussions, reports on research (10% of the grade).

READING LIST:
Crystal, David, How Language Works
Karpf, Anne, The Human Voice: How This Extraordinary Instrument Reveals Essential Clues About Who We Are
Additional selections will be distributed in class or made available electronically.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Robert Gundlach teaches in the Department of Linguistics and directs the Weinberg College Writing Program.

PHILOSOPHY

Philosophy 109-6, Sec. 20
DEMOCRACY AFTER GLOBALIZATION
Instructor: Cristina Lafont
Time: TTH 1:00-2:20
Office Address: Crowe 3-155
Phone: 847-491-2550
E-Mail: clafont@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: This seminar will focus on the prospects of the democratic ideal of a society of free and equal citizens under the current conditions of globalization. Since the end of the Cold War, it has become apparent that individual societies or nations cannot achieve the democratic ideal in isolation. Recent transnational developments like the Occupy Movement and the Arab Spring indicate that the main political challenge of the 21st Century is to figure out whether necessary conditions for democracy, such as citizens' political participation, public deliberation, etc. can be reproduced at the global level. Can citizens have a say on political decisions that affect them even if they are reached outside the domestic borders of their own society? Is it possible to design a new international order in which the democratic ideal does not get totally diluted? In the second part of the seminar, we will analyze this difficult set of questions by discussing some interesting recent proposals for a new international order with a focus on how they handle issues of international human rights standards, the global economic order, world poverty, etc.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion

METHOD OF EVALUATION:
Oral presentation and class discussion (25%), two short papers (25%) and final paper (50%)

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS:
2 short papers (4-5 pages), 1 draft of final paper, 1 final paper (8-10 pages)

READING LIST:
Held, D. and McGrew, A., Globalization/Anti-globalization. Beyond the great divide, 2nd edition, Polity Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-7456-3911-6
Rawls, J., The Law of Peoples, Harvard University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-676-00079-X
Pogge, T., World Poverty and Human Rights, 2nd edition, Polity Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-7456-4144-7

Course Reader
Gutmann, A. and D. Thompson, Why Deliberative Democracy?, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004, ch. 1, 1-39, pp. 48-63.
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December 10, 1948), www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/eng.htm
Buchanan, A., “Rawls’s Law of Peoples: Rules for a Vanished Westphalian World”, Ethics 110/4 (2000), pp. 697-721.
Tan, Kok-Chor, “The Problem of Decent Peoples”, in R. Martin and D. Reidy, eds., Rawls’s Law of Peoples. A Realistic Utopia?, Blackwell, 2006, pp. 76-94.
Habermas, J., “A Political Constitution for the Pluralist World Society?” in Between Naturalism and Religion, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008, pp. 312-352.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT:
I am a professor in the department of philosophy and the author of two books, Heidegger, Language and World-disclosure (Cambridge University Press, 2000) and The Linguistic Turn in Hermeneutic Philosophy (MIT Press, 1999). My current work focuses on political issues beyond national borders: transnational democracy, global justice, human rights, etc.

Philosophy 109-6, Sec. 21
NEW MODELS OF (H)AC(k)TIVISM: FROM ANONYMOUS AND WIKILEAKS TO THE ARAB SPRING AND OCCUPY WALL STREET
Instructor: Peter Ludlow
Time: TTH 9:30-10:50
Office Address: Crow 3-159
Phone: 847-467-5594
E-Mail: peterjludlow@gmail.com

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The past few years have shown the growth of alternative forms of activism, often incorporating social media and often deploying organizational strategies based on network theory and dynamic theories of communication and confrontation. To some extent or another, these strategies have appeared in protest movements ranging from the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street and are also found in hacktivist movements ranging from the “Operations” by Anonymous to leaking of classified documents by Wikileaks. On the flip side, government agencies and other centers of power have been deploying new dynamic methods in response to these new forms of activism. In this class we examine the philosophical questions that arise concerning the methods themselves – how they are grounded, how they work, and whether in the long run their

TEACHING METHOD: Students will be required to follow current events in hacktivist and other political movements around the world, as well as strategies being deployed by governmental agencies to control these movements. Classes will be occasions to discuss these topics, synthesize the material, and reflect on the conceptual underpinnings of the movements. Classes will this involve a large discussion component.

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Two papers – 6-8 pages each. Weekly blog posts, and comments on blog posts will be required. Two power point presentations will also be required. Obviously, the idea will be to have a heavy writing component, including commenting on the posts of others. I find that this is the best way to get students to think about conceptual more generally.

READING LIST: All readings are available online.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Peter Ludlow (PhD Columbia U, 1985) taught at the state University of New York at Stony Brook, the University of Michigan, and the University of Toronto before joining Northwestern University. He has been working on a number of topics lately, ranging from the philosophy of language (particularly how word meanings can be controlled and manipulated, to topics in cyberspace, to conceptual issues surrounding wikileaks and hacktivism more generally.

PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY

Physics 110-6, Sec. 20
THE SCIENCE OF TIME: HISTORY, SCIENCE, AND SCIENCE FICTION
Instructor: Brian Odom
Time: TTH 3:30-4:50
Office Address: Tech 315
Phone: 847-467-5452
E-Mail: b-odom@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION:   We will begin by examining how the development of improved timekeeping devices played a pivotal role in the 18th century exploration and struggle for power among European nations. We will move on to discuss 19th and 20th century concepts such as entropy and relativity. Finally, we will move on to contemporary topics such as the history and fate of the universe and possibilities for time travel. Along the way, we will discuss important timekeeping science and technology, such as the atomic clocks at the heart of the Global Positioning System.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Students will be graded on the basis of their oral presentations, contributions to the class discussions, contributions to blog discussions, and a final writing assignment.

READING LIST:

•    Longitude, by Dava Sobel
•    Einstein’s Dreams, by Alan Lightman
•    From Eternity to Here, by Sean Carroll
•    Time Travel in Einstein’s Universe, by J. Richard Gott

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Professor Odom’s research involves using electromagnetic fields to trap and cool charged molecules, ultimately into their lowest quantum states. Applications of this research include searches for time-reversal symmetry violation in nature and searches for time-variation of fundamental constants.

POLITICAL SCIENCE

Political Science 101-6, Sec.20
PARTICIPATION AND PROTEST IN DEMOCRATIC POLITICS
Instructor: Dennis Chong
Time: W 3:30-6:20
Office Address: Scott Hall
Phone: 847-491-2642
E-Mail: dchong@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: This course examines the diversity of engagement in American politics including participating in elections, protests, citizens’ initiatives, voluntary organizations, and social movements. The focus of the class will be on understanding the individual, social, and institutional conditions that motivate people to become actively involved in the political process. Grading is based on seminar participation and several writing assignments including a research paper examining a particular case of collective action.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion

Learning objectives: to understand the causes, consequences and paradoxes of political participation; to write an original paper on this topic.

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Seminar contributions, term paper, and short writing assignments

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: Students will write several short (3 page) commentaries on the weekly readings, plus a final essay (10 pages) that develops a theme or argument initially introduced in the short commentaries.

READING LIST: A packet of readings available at Quartet Copies

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: TBA

Political Science 101-6, Sec. 21
POLITICS OF COMEDY
Instructor: Lars Toender
Time: W 9:00-11:50
Office Address: Scott Hall
Phone: 847-491-4850
E-Mail: l-toender@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: This course will consider the relationship between comedy and politics. The idea is both to see how comedy is used in contemporary democratic politics and to discuss how the genre of comedy provides a lens for thinking about politics in general. Apart from readings about comedy and politics, the course will draw on material from both film, television, and magazines.

TEACHING METHOD: Seminar with emphasis on discussion and participation

Learning Objectives: By the end of the course, students will be expected to know the basics theories of comedy, their implications for democratic theory, and their applications to contemporary politics. Furthermore, students will be encouraged to develop their skill in critical thinking and writing.

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Discussion, presentations, papers

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: The students will have to complete five response papers (each 2 double-spaced pages long) and one final paper, (15 double-spaced pages long, including end/foot-notes and bibliography).

READING LIST: Simon Critchley, On Humour (New York: Routledge, 2002). ISBN: 0415251214

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Professor Tønder’s research interests include early modern political thought, political theology, phenomenology, and new theories of democracy. Using his expertise in these areas, his research focuses on the concept of tolerance, freedom of expression, and the politics of pluralism. He is the co-editor of Radical democracy: Politics between abundance and lack (Manchester University Press, 2006), and has published single authored articles in Political Theory, Contemporary Political Theory, theory & event, Culture and Politics, and Politologiske Studier.

At Northwestern University, Professor Tønder is affiliated with the Rhetoric and Public Culture program as well as the Critical Theory program. He is the recipient of the 2004 Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award and the 2007 Leo Strauss Award for best dissertation in political philosophy. He was a 2009-2010 Fellow at the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities, Northwestern University, and has twice been a Visiting Fellow at École Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Lyon

PSYCHOLOGY

Psychology 101-6, Sec. 20
DEFINING CRAZY: THE CONTROVERSIAL SCIENCE OF MENTAL DISORDERS
Instructor: Allen Rosenthal
Time: M 9:00-11:50
Office Address: Cresap 225
Phone: 847-491-3820
E-Mail: Rosenthal@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION:   For over half a century, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) has been the most widely used and accepted framework for classifying mental disorders. However, some scholars contend that the DSM is based on nothing more than politics and lacks a scientific basis. Others argue that mental disorders are simply behaviors that society has deemed bizarre or inappropriate. To understand the origin of these conflicting viewpoints, we must ask: What is a mental disorder? Is a mental disorder a curable disease that is distinct from the person—like a tumor? Or are its boundaries fuzzier? Maybe mental disorders are simply extreme expressions of behaviors, feelings, and personality traits shared by most people? Is a depressed person truly different from someone who is just really sad? Furthermore, should we even be worried about people who are sad from time to time? Does someone who is self-involved and narcissistic have a personality disorder, or is this type of diagnosis just society’s way of condemning self-involved people? Furthermore, if a person’s personality is disordered, how likely is treatment to be successful?

In this seminar, we will explore both theoretical and empirical psychological literature to answer these questions. Through readings, written assignments, and class discussions about controversial issues in the science of mental disorders, you will develop your critical thinking skills and sharpen your ability to write persuasively and clearly about complex topics. In addition to those listed above, course topics will include the infamous rise and fall of multiple personality disorder diagnoses in the 1980s and 1990s and the landmark removal of homosexuality as a mental disorder from the DSM in 1974.

TEACHING METHOD: Class time will be spent mainly in discussion but I plan on showing videos and listening to musical excerpts. We will also attend musical performances outside of class.

METHOD OF EVALUATION:
Discussion, debate, and a variety of writing assignments.

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS:
Weekly, in-class essays in response to class discussion/debate (1 page), four reaction papers (~2 pages), one (~8-10 page) final paper that involves an in-depth analysis of one of the course topics/readings.

READING LIST:
Caplan, P. J. (1996). They say you’re crazy: How the world’s most powerful psychiatrists decide who’s normal. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. (selected chapters)
Dawes, R. M. (1994). House of cards: Psychology and psychotherapy built on myth. New York: Macmillan. Chapter 3 (Prediction and Diagnosis).
Greenberg, A. S. & Bailey, J. M. (1994). The irrelevance of the medical model of mental illness to law and ethics. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 17, 153-73.
Kendell, R. E. (1989). Clinical validity. Psychological Medicine, 19, 45-55.
Lane, C. (2007). Shyness: How normal behavior became a sickness. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Chapter 3 (A decisive victory: Shyness becomes an illness).
Rosenhan, D. L. (1973). On being sane in insane places. Science, 179, 250-8.
Szasz, T. S. (1960). The myth of mental illness. American Psychologist, 15, 113-8.

Psychology 101-6, Sec. 21
MUSIC AND THE MIND
Instructor: H. David Smith
Time: TTH 9:30-10:50
Office Address: Swift Hall, 303C, 2029 Sheridan Road.
Phone: 847-491-4669
E-Mail: hdsmith@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION:   For many, music serves a valuable function in everyday life. Music can serve as a mode of artistic expression, a method of relaxation, a means of influencing mood, and an avenue toward transcendence. This course will focus on the human experience of music by integrating research and theory from cognitive, social, and developmental psychology. Special attention will be given to topics such as the perception of music, the development of musical expertise and creativity, the effect of music on cognition, the emotional impact of music, and effective musical instruction.

TEACHING METHOD: Class time will be spent mainly in discussion but I plan on showing videos and listening to musical excerpts. We will also attend musical performances outside of class.

METHOD OF EVALUATION:   Students will be evaluated based solely on written work.

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS:
Introductory paper to be assigned the first week: Why Music? (2-3 pages)
Research paper : Top musicians: What does the evidence say about the role of nature vs. nurture?   (3-4 pages)
Reaction paper based on attending a musical performance (2-3 pages)
Final paper based on research project. (8-9 pages)

READING LIST:
Primary text:
Levitan, Daniel J. (2006) This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of Human Obsession. Dutton, New York.

Plus a list of readings including the following:
Schellenberg E.G (2005) Music and Cognitive Abilities Current Directions in Psychological Science. 14, 6, 317-320.

Ho, Y. Cheung, M. & Chan, A. (2003) Music Training Improves Verbal but Not Visual Memory: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Explorations in Children
Neuropsychology, Vol. 17, No. 3, 439–450
Sloboda, J. (2005) Music: Where cognition and emotion meet. From Sloboda, J. Exploring the Musical Mind, Oxford University Press.
Krumhansl, CL (2002) Music: A link between cognition and emotion. Current Directions in Psychological Science. 45-51.
Trehub, S. (2003) The developmental origins of musicality. Nature Neuroscience, 6, 7, 6 69-673.
Trehub, S. (2003) Toward a developmental psychology of music. Annals of the New York Academy of Science. 999, 402-413.
Sacks, O. (2007) A Hypermusical Species: Williams Syndrome. From Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. Random House, New York.
Sacks, O. (2007) Two Thousand Operas: Musical Savants. From Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. Random House, New York.
Sacks, O. (2007) Things Fall Apart: Amusia and Dysharmonia. From Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. Random House, New York.
Brandler, S. (2003) Differences in mental abilities between musicians and non-musicians. Psychology of Music, 31, 2,   123 -138
Ruthsatz, J. & Detterman, D. (2001) Case study of a musical prodigy. Intelligence, 31, 509-518.
Sloboda, J. (2002) Individual differences in music performance. Trends in Cognitive Science. Oct 1; 4(10):397-403.
Steele, KM, Bass, KE, & Crook, MD (1999). The mystery of the Mozart effect: Failure to replicate. Psychological Science, 10 (4), 366-369

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: This course represents an integration of my professional and personal interests. As a Cognitive Psychologist, I am interested in the study of thinking, memory, and cognitive abilities. I am also an amateur musician with broad musical interests and a deep appreciation for the impact that music can have on people and the transcendent nature of musical performance.

RELIGION

Religion 101-6, Sec.20
THE OLYMPICS AND RELIGION
Instructor: Christine Helmer
Time: TTH 2:00-3:20
Office Address: 1860 Campus Drive Crowe Hall 5-179
Phone: 847-491-5488
Email: religion@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: This course will explore the relation of the Olympic Games to issues in religion, theology, and philosophy. We begin with the ancient Olympics and show how these games combined religious worship and the cultivation of athletic excellence. We look at dimensions of human existence that are disclosed by the Olympics, for example, regimens of training, beauty, virtue, ritual, and competition. We also look at the contemporary Olympics, particularly in relation to violence, ethics, and politics.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Class participation (15%); papers (75%, 25% each); class presentation (10%)

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: 3 papers, each 5-7 pages in length, submitted at regular intervals throughout the quarter

READING LIST:
Books:
Tony Perrottet, The Naked Olympics (Random House: 0-8129-6991X
Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, In Praise of Athletic Beauty (Harvard UP 978-0674-0217-23)
Stephen G. Miller, Arete: Greek Sports from Ancient Sources (U California Press, 3rd edn: 978-0-520-24154-1
Richard D. Mandell, The Nazi Olympics (U Illinois Pres: 978-0-2520-1325-6)
Heather Reid, The Philosophical Athlete (Carolina Academic Press: 978-0-8908-9405-7)

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: I am an academic theologian and my area of interest is German intellectual history from the 16th century Protestant reformation to the 20th century. I also have a degree in physical education and am passionate about sports.

SLAVIC

Slavic 105-6, Sec. 20
CONFRONTING STALIN AND STALINISM
Instructor: Connor Doak
Time: MWF 11:00-11:50
Office Address: 1860 Campus Dr., Crowe 4-130
E-Mail: c-doak@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Joseph Stalin, the self-styled “Father of Nations”, who led the Soviet Union from the late 1920s until his death in 1953, has since been reviled as “the world’s first totalitarian”, “the red Czar” and “history’s greatest butcher”. Blamed for more than 20 million deaths by some historians, Stalin casts a long shadow over modern history and continues to fascinate today.

In this Freshman Seminar, you explore both the ideology of Stalinism and its practical consequences in the everyday life of Soviet citizens. We begin with an overview of Soviet history and ideology, unpacking concepts such as Marxism, Communism, totalitarianism, words still frequently used (and misused!) in both popular and academic discourse. We then move to the social history of Stalin’s Soviet Union, exploring the consequences collectivization and the devastation of Great Famine, changes in city life resulting from the state’s drive towards urbanization and industrialization, and the effects of the Great Purges and the GULAG camp system. Finally, we consider the literature and culture of Stalinism, both the official state-sponsored culture and the culture of resistance. In particular, we ask whether a work of art ever provide a meaningful response to the horrors of history, and if so, how?

No prior knowledge of Russian history or culture is assumed for this course.

REQUIREMENTS:
*Regular attendance and active participation in classroom discussion.
*Five written papers, spread throughout the quarter, to assess how you use evidence to make an argument. The first three will be shorter papers (~3 pp); the latter two will be longer (~5 pp)
*Occasional written exercises to assess your critical understanding of the readings.

METHOD OF EVALUATION:
Three shorter papers each worth 10% of grade. Two longer papers each worth 25% of grade. In-class participation worth 20% of grade.

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS:
Five papers distributed throughout the quarter.    The first three
papers will be short response papers (3pp), the latter two papers will be more involved comparative papers (5 – 6 pp).

READING LIST:
The following required texts can be purchased at Norris:
(1) Ronald Suny, The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States. Oxford Univ. Press, 2nd ed, 2010. Please purchase only this edition.
(2) Shelia Fitzpatrick, Everyday Stalinism. Oxford Univ. Press (2000).
(3) Lewis Siegelbaum and Andrei Sokolov. Stalinism as a way of life:
a narrative in documents. Yale Univ. Press, 2004.
(4) Veronique Garros et. al. Intimacy and Terror: Soviet Diaries of the 1930s. New Press, 1997.
(5) Lydia Chukovskaya, Sofia Petrovna. Northwestern Univ. Press, 1994.
(6) Miron Dolot, Execution by Hunger: The Hidden Holocaust. Norton, 1987.
Excerpts from other required texts will be available on Blackboard.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT:
Connor Doak specializes in twentieth-century Russian literature. He is particularly interested in the intersection between culture and politics in Revolutionary Russia and the Soviet Union.

SOCIOLOGY

Sociology 101-6, Sec. 20
BORN TO BUY: THE SOCIOLOGY OF CONSUMPTION
INSTRUCTOR: Daphne A. Demetry
TIME: MW 11:00-12:20
PHONE: 404-384-0470
E-MAIL: daphnedemetry2013@u.northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The aim of this course is to examine and take a critical lens to the wide interdisciplinary field of consumption studies. We will be reading texts from a variety of disciplines, including history, anthropology, geography and sociology. We will investigate theories around what it means to consume, live in a consumer culture, and consumption’s broader consequences and impacts on society. In addition, we will focus on global consumption and what consumer culture means for third world nations. Lastly, we will question degrees of consumer agency and look at the “citizen-consumer” concept. As a freshman seminar, participation and writing will be the core requirements.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion

METHOD OF EVALUATION: In-class participation - Weekly memos on the readings: Reactions to or questions about the week’s readings. Guiding questions on the material are provided each week. The weekly memos may also be used as a space to develop a student’s final research project. 1-2 pages posted on Blackboard by Tuesday morning at 9am.   Final Project (10-12 pages) and Presentation: A final project of the student’s choice. It may be a response to a question addressed in class (for example, is the “citizen-consumer” hybrid a possibility?), using a case study to illustrate, or an issue from outside the classroom (for example, how has the Islamic religion shaped consumption in parts of the world?). Students are expected to bring in scholarly sources from outside the course readings. A proposal (approx. one paragraph) will be due in class during the fourth week.

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS:
9 weekly 1-2 page memos (see above for detailed description)
Final Project 10-12 pages (see above for detailed description)

READING LIST:
Consumer Culture Origins
Cohen, Lizabeth. 2004. A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Parts I and II)
Consequences of Consumer Culture, Local and Global
Schor, Juliet B. 1998. The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting, and the New Consumer. New York: Basic Books. (Introduction, Ch. 4)
Ritzer, George. 2010. The McDonaldization of Society 6. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Pine Forge Press. (Introduction)
Howes, David. 1996. "Cross-cultural Consumption: Global Markets, Local Realities." London; New York: Routledge. (Introduction)
Consumer Goods and Meaning
Appadurai, Arjun. 1986. "Introduction: Commodities and The Politics of Value." in The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, edited by A. Appadurai. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McCracken, Grant David. 1988. Culture and Consumption: New Approaches to the Symbolic Character of Consumer Goods and Activities. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. (Part II - “Theory”)
Classical Theories of Consumption
Simmel, Georg. 1997. Simmel on Culture: Selected Writings. Edited by D. Frisby, M. Featherstone. London: Sage Publications. (Excerpt - “Fashion”)
Cohen, Lizabeth. 2004. A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Part III)
The Theory of Omnivorousness
Peterson, Richard A. and Roger M. Kern. 1996. "Changing Highbrow Taste: From Snob to Omnivore." American Sociological Review 61:900-907.
Johnston, Josée and Shyon Baumann. 2007. "Democracy versus Distinction: A Study of Omnivorousness in Gourmet Food Writing." American Journal of Sociology 113:165-204.
“Voting with your Dollar” and Ethical Consumption
Cohen, Lizabeth. 2004. A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Part IV, Chapter 8 – “Purchasers Politicized”)
Johnston, Josée. 2008. "The Citizen-Consumer Hybrid: Ideological Tensions and the Case of Whole Foods Market." Theory and Society 37:229-270.
Modern Consumption: Downshifting and Escaping the Market
Arnould, Eric J. 2007. "Should Consumer Citizens Escape the Market?" The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 611:96-111.
Schor, Juliet B. 1998. The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting, and the New Consumer. New York: Basic Books. (Ch. 5)

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Daphne Demetry is a current doctoral student in the Sociology department. Her research interests include organizations and work, consumption, culture, space/time and food. She is currently conducting an ethnography of pop-up restaurants for her dissertation which is examining pop-up organizations and their stability.

Sociology 101-6, Sec. 21
WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THESE POOR PEOPLE? INCARCERATION AND WELFARE IN THE AGE OF AMERICAN DECLINE
INSTRUCTOR: Armando Lara-Millan
TIME: TTH 9:30-10:50
PHONE: 626-497-2281
E-MAIL: Armando@u.northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Sociology has long studied the changing public imagination of poverty and the government policies proposed to solve it. This class will examine these changes and how they have interacted with the shifting fortunes of the American economy. The class will be divided into four parts. First, we will discuss whether or not the United States is actually in “decline.” Second, we will explore poverty policy during the New Deal and its effect on the American middle class. Third, we will study the changes in poverty policy after the 1970s. Finally, we will investigate the growth of incarceration during the 70s, 80s, and 90s and its relationship to poverty. The class will be based on discussions and writing assignments, with some short lectures.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion.

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Writing assignments, Discussion, Oral Presentations.

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: There will be four short-essays concordant with each of the four parts of the class. Each writing assignments will be 4-5 pages in length.

READING LIST: We will be reading portions of the following books:
Richard Wolf, Capitalism Hits the Fan
Ira Katznelson, When Affirmative Action was White
Joe Soss, Richard Fording, and Sanford Schram, Disciplining the Poor
Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Armando is a PhD candidate in the department of Sociology at Northwestern. His research on incarceration and social welfare policy in Los Angeles is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the American Sociological Association. He is also an avid NBA fan and believes politics and public culture interact in very important ways.

Sociology 101-6, Sec. 22
SOCIOLOGY OF THE INFORMAL SPHERE: CORRUPTION, SHADOW ECONOMY AND WHITE COLLAR CRIME
INSTRUCTOR: Marina Zaloznaya
TIME: TTH 2:00-3:20
OFFICE ADDRESS 1810 Chicago Ave
PHONE 773-633-8315
E-MAIL m-zaloznaya@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION:   In this course we will explore the notion of informal sphere from a sociological prospective. We will begin by discussing what defines informality and how this concept has been used by social scientists. Using the examples of drug economy in East Harlem, the tradition of gifts and favors in China, white collar crime in the US savings & loan industry , Medicaid fraud, and the pervasive corruption in the former Soviet bloc, we will explore different categories and types of informality. Following this survey of informal social systems, we will learn about how they emerge and change over time. The course will end with a brief discussion of how informality affects the political and economic development of different countries. In addition to active participation in seminar discussions, students will be expected to research and write about an instance of informality that is of particular interest to them.
TEACHING METHOD Discussion

METHOD OF EVALUATION:
Class Participation: 20%
Class Preparation Assignments (5): 25%
Writing Draft Activities: 20%
Final Edited Paper: 30%
Final Presentation: 5%

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: The first draft of the term paper will be 5 pages long, the second draft will be 10 to 15 pages, and the third and final draft will be 20 pages. Additionally, the 5 class preparation assignments will range from 1 to 2 pages.

READING LIST:
Week I
Misztal, B. 2000. Social Theory and Contemporary Practice (Introduction + Part I, Chapter 1)
North, D. 1990. Institution, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance (pp. 36-46).
Helmke, G. & S. Levitsky. 2004. Informal Institutions and Comparative Politics: A Research Agenda.
Losby, J. et al. 2002. Informal Economy Literature Review (pp. 2-8).

Week II
Bourgouis, P. 2003. In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio (selections)

Week III
Yang, M. 1994. Gifts, favors, and banquets: The art of social relationships in China (selections)
Macaulay, S. 1963. Non-Contractual Relations in Business.

Week IV
Geis, G., Meier R., and L.Salinger (eds.). 1995. White-Collar Crime: Classic and Contemporary Views. (pp. 191-200; 200-228; 241-259).

Week V
Varese, F. 2000. Pervasive Corruption.
Bova, A. 2000. The Population’s Attitudes toward Bribery in Some Cities of Ukraine.
Jordan Smith, D. 2007. A Culture of Corruption: Everyday Deception and Popular Discontent in Nigeria. (pp 53-88)
Week VI
Ledeneva, A. 1998. Russia’s Economy of Favors: Blat, Networking, and Informal Exchange (selections)
Colignon, A. & C. Usui. 2003. Amakudari: the Hidden Fabric of Japan’s Economy (pp. 29-57).
Week VII
Mackie, G. 1996. Ending footbinding and infibulation: A convention account.
Sik. E. 1992. From the Second to the Informal Economy.

Week VIII
Pejovich, S. 2006. The Effects of the Interaction of Formal and Informal Institutions on Social Stability and Economic Development.
Stokes, S. 2006. Do Informal Rules Make Democracy Work?
Helmke, G. and Levitsky, S. 2006. Informal Institutions and Democracy: Lessons from Latin America. Conclusion (pp.274-285).

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT:
I was born and raised in Ukraine and moved to the United States to get my college education. I am currently in my 6th year of the NU Sociology PhD program, which I entered after getting my Master’s degree from the Sociology Department of University of Wisconsin at Madison and my Bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College, VT. My interests lie in sociology of law, criminology, and comparative historic sociology. I also have a specific geographic focus of interest – post-Soviet Eastern Europe. Thus, for my dissertation I am trying to explain the difference in corruption patterns and frequency between the universities of Ukraine and Belarus in terms of these countries’ divergent development trajectories after the breakdown of the Soviet Union.

SPANISH

Spanish 105-6, Sec. 20
SPANISH FLAMENCO CULTURE: MYTH AND REALITY
Instructor: Anna Diakow
MWF 10:00-10:50
Office Address: Crowe Hall 1-171
Phone: 847-491-8285
E-mail: a-diakow@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The seminar explores the demystification of flamenco cultural images laden with exotic and romantic references that have come down to us through the years, confronting them with social, political, religious and economic realities of Spain, both, in the past and the present. Since the beginning of the 19th century, flamenco has generated an extensive legacy of references in literature, poetry, plastic arts, photography, cinema and even advertising, in various media. An overall look at this corpus confirms that, despite its heterogeneous character and the distance in time among certain images, a mythical aspect - created from a distance and replete with symbolic elements - can be detected. Our exploration will focus on a diverse array of texts - poetry, theater plays, novels, short stories, films and critical essays.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Class participation 30%; 2-3 short papers 25%;1 final long paper 25%; 2 presentations 20%.

READING LIST:
Among others we will read theater plays, poetical works and prose by Federico García Lorca, Blood Wedding; Gypsy Ballads, Collected Poems, Deep Song and Other Prose, In Search of Duende, Selected Poems by Antonio Machado; More literary excerpts will be included in Course packet. We will read and discuss critical essays by Leblon Bernard, Gypsies and Flamenco: The Emergence of the Art of Flamenco in Andalusia; Washabaugh William, Flamenco: Passion, Politics, and Popular Culture;
Totton Robin, Song of the Outcasts: an Introduction to Flamenco; José Lebrero (ed.), No Singing Allowed: Flamenco & Photography; Editors, Patricia Molins, Pedro G. Romero, The Spanish Night: Flamenco, Avant-garde and Popular Culture, 1865-1936; Michelle C Heffner (eds.), Flamenco Bodies in History and Film; Jo Labanyi, Constructing Identity in Contemporary Spain: Theoretical Debates and Cultural Practice; Feature films by Carlos Saura, Flamenco Trilogy (Blood Wedding, Carmen, El Amor Brujo; short documentaries and video recordings; visual art by Spanish artists

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT:
Anna G. Diakow teaches in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. She holds her Ph.D. in Spanish Language and Literature from the University of Chicago.
Her areas of research and interest include twentieth-century Spanish literature with emphasis on the narrative of the 20th century and oral tradition, flamenco and its cultural meaning within the sociopolitical context of 19th and 20th-century Spain, the role of the arts as powerful critical vehicle and an agent of political and social change. Together with MMLC she created a flamenco website at NU that will be used for this seminar.

She enjoys travel, cultural and many outdoors activities.

Planning for Spring Quarter

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