First Year Seminars - Fall 2009
ARTS 103: Drawing: Structure and Process
This course provides an introduction to visual language. Unencumbered by the technical concerns of other media, drawing serves as a springboard in developing perceptual ability and aesthetic sensibility. In exploring the relationship between seeing, thinking, and making, students will acquire fundamental skills in image-making and critical analysis, as well as insight into the creative process. This course will address both the mechanics of representational drawing and the powerful expressive potential of this medium. An in-depth study of traditional illusionistic drawing devices such as perspective, blocking, and structural line will be combined with exercises which facilitate personal expression and subjective response. The essential balance between the cognitive and intuitive that defines our humanness will be exercised through drawing.
Fulfills the Aesthetic Perspective requirement.
Faculty: Elli Crocker, M.F.A, Associate Professor Studio Art
BIOL 108: Annotation of a Microbial Genome
When an organism’s genome is sequenced, a computer program will attempt to find genes and assign possible functions to the gene products. This process is called annotation. However, it is estimated that between 30% and 40% of automatic gene annotations performed by a computer are incorrect, and it is widely acknowledged that human beings can do a better job. In collaboration with the Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute, Clark students will participate in the manual annotation of a microbial genome from the Genomic Encyclopedia of Bacteria and Archaea (GEBA). The Clark University team will “adopt” a microorganism from a poorly characterized branch of the Tree of Life. Through annotation, students will examine the genome of this microorganism, and explore topics in microbial physiology, genetics, and gene regulation. Students will learn to use state of the art bioinformatics tools and databases. Annotation will be performed using the Joint Genome Institute’s Integrated Microbial Genomes Annotation Concepts Tool.
Fulfills the Science Perspective requirement.
Faculty: Heather Wiatrowski, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biology
CHEM 103: Accelerated Introductory Chemistry/Lecture, Laboratory
This is a one-semester course for students with a strong background in chemistry who do not need the traditional two-semester sequence. Upon completion of CHEM103, students are eligible to go directly to CHEM131 (Organic Chemistry I) in the following spring semester, thereby accelerating their program in chemistry by one semester and allowing for additional elective courses during their junior and senior years. Topics include atomic and molecular structure, geometry, bonding, reactions, equilibria, thermodynamics, acids and bases, basic kinetics and stoichiometry.
Permission of instructor.
Fulfills the Science Perspective requirement.
Faculty: Luis Smith, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Chemistry
CMLT 109/LAS 109: Human Rights and Literature
In this class, we will read literary and cultural documents to contemplate the concept of “human rights.” What rights do all humans have, simply by virtue of being human? Who counts as human? Do current understandings of human rights exclude some people? Do humans have more rights than other species? How do questions of gender and sexuality fit into the discussion of human rights? As we seek to answer these questions, we will trace the development of human rights discourses from the Enlightenment to the present, looking at literature from a variety of cultures and human rights documents from a variety of sources. We will supplement our readings with outreach to local human rights organizations..
Fulfills the Global Perspective requirement.
Faculty: Robert Tobin, Ph.D., Professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures
CSCI 100: Can Computers Think
In this course we will follow several different lines of inquiry. We first need to explore what it means for a computer to "think". Is a computer "thinking" when you use it to play a game, or when you use it to calculate something? After that, we will figure out the methods we as humans use to "think" - specifically how we solve problems. A good part of solving any problem is putting it in a form that we can work with. So we will look at how we state problems in ways that make them solvable. We'll then concentrate on problems that can be approached with a computer and we'll program the computer to solve those problems. For further information see http://cs.clarku.edu/~jbreecher/public/Can_Computers_Think/.
Fulfills the Formal Analysis Perspective requirement.
Prerequisites: No computer programming background is required; however, previous experience in logical thinking is essential.
Faculty: Jerry Breecher, Ph.D., Professor of Math/Computer Science
ECON 100: Local Eating to Global Warming: Case Studies in Environmental Economics
This seminar focuses on case studies in environmental Economics. Economics is a social science that studies the allocation of resources in society, focusing specifically on how individuals make choices in organized markets as well as in informal situations. In this course, we will develop understandings of: the fundamentals of economics, including the normative foundations of economics and what we mean by efficiency; the requirements of efficient markets, and the conditions under which markets fail; economic techniques for measuring the value of environmental goods and services that are not traded in markets; the economics of natural resources, including the optimal management of both renewable and non-renewable resources and methods of management of common property resources; the economics of externalities and the environmental policies designed to reduce them; environmental regulation and the use of market-based incentives. With this background we will apply these tools to a number of different case studies including water and forest management, local food systems, and global warming.
This course is a substitute for ECON 10 (Economics and the World Economy) in the requirements for the Economics major (and other departments).
Fulfills the Global Perspective requirement.
Faculty: Jacqueline Geoghegan, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Economics
EDUC 060: Are Public Schools Serving Democracy?
From Colonial times to the present, Americans have looked to free, universal public education to be the main instrument for all citizens to access political maturity and equality, as well as to have equitable economic opportunity. In 1848, educator Horace Mann expressed this goal: "Education, then, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men—the balance-wheel of the social machinery." In this seminar, using primary documents—laws, reports, essays by educators, and court decisions—both historical and contemporary, we shall explore the historical context for comparison with the current realities in public schools, in order to determine the effectiveness of this history in establishing equitable public schools. Are public schools successfully carrying out the crucial responsibility asked of them throughout the nation’s history?
Fulfills the Historical Perspective requirement.
Faculty: John Ameer, Ed.D., Assistant Professor of Education
ENG 104: To The Woods: Walden Today
In a workshop setting, students will read Walden, other selections by Henry David Thoreau including “On Civil Disobedience,” and some related contemporary writings such as The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey, The Survival Of The Bark Canoe by John McPhee, Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, Walden Two by B. F. Skinner, and Last Child In The Woods, by Ricard Louv. The class will take a field trip to Walden Pond. Class discussions and exercises and weekly reflective essays will focus on understanding and analyzing the writings in their own context and on applying their perceptions and values to contemporary American concerns and issues such as self-reliance, solitude, our connections with nature, and the individual’s relationship with government. The final term paper will allow students to use Walden and the other writings as windows into issues in disciplines of particular interest to them, including politics, religion, economics, science, art, literature, psychology and philosophy.
Fulfills the Verbal Expression requirement. You must be placed at the Verbal Expression level to be admitted into this seminar.
Faculty: William Tapply, M.A.T., Instructor of English
ENG 115: Speculative Fiction
Speculative fiction (more popularly known as science fiction) entertains the "what if" and presents alternative conceptions of history, society, and identity. Committed to exploring the possibilities and limitations of the alternative and the different, these works interrogate established boundaries of identities and provide critical perspectives on prevailing beliefs and ideologies. The course moves chronologically through works that fall loosely under the SF subgenres of fantasy/horror, alternative histories, future dystopias, and political allegories. We will also devote some attention to formal analysis, specifically the ways in which SF narratives experiment with and break from traditional literary conventions to offer new ways of perceiving, constructing, and deconstructing our social realities. Authors include Mary Shelley, Edgar Allen Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, H.G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Ursula Le Guin, Octavia E. Butler, William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Ted Chiang.
This seminar will be offered in the Spring 2010 semester. If you wish to select this seminar, please e-mail your choice to advising@clarku.edu. You will be assigned to Prof. Huang as your faculty advisor.
Fulfills Verbal Expression requirement. You must be placed at the Verbal Expression level to be admitted into this seminar.
Faculty: Betsy Huang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English
ENG 131: Border Crossings: Narratives of Travel, Exile, and Immigration
The course examines narratives of travel, exile, immigration, and displacement in modern literature and film that trespass geographical, political and linguistic boundaries, and create new literary spaces that define and reshape modern identities. We will explore North American, Chicano, Native-American, African, and Middle Eastern literature.
Close reading of texts will ground our interrogation and discussion of such themes and issues as travel and tourism, margins, borders and borderlands, immigration, language and culture, community, hyphenated identity, war and conflict, race, gender and religion. The course will be run as a seminar with student presentations, written responses, and class discussion as important parts of the requirements.
Fulfills the Verbal Expression requirement. You must be placed at the Verbal Expression level to be admitted into this seminar.
Faculty: Lucilia Valerio, Ph.D., English Department Instructor
GEOG 086: Losing Ground: Examining the Drivers, and Consequences of Land Change since the Nineteenth Century
How do land use decisions made one hundred years ago and today impact the habitability of our planet? This seminar introduces the topic of land change science to students interested in environmental sustainability, wildlife conservation, and forest management. The theories of why humans alter their landscapes and how they alter natural landscapes will be presented using case studies and field trips. Analytic tools for mapping land change will be presented in concert with satellite data that are used to detect change or large, inaccessible areas.
Fulfills the Science Perspective requirement.
Faculty: John Rogan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Geography
GEOG /GES/HGS/RER 090: Native Americas, Land and Natural
In June of 1975, a gunfight between the F.B.I. and the American Indian Movement (A.I.M.) occurred in South Dakota. The shoot-out was due, in part, to the transfer of Indian land to the U.S. government for uranium and coal development. Some of the most extensive reserves of uranium, coal, oil and gas, gold, copper, timber, water, and other resources lie within reservation boundaries and their development has been fiercely contested by many Native Americans. This course deals principally with the efforts of Native Americans to manage resources, to resist land and resource seizures by corporations and federal and state governments, and to repair damage done to ecological systems.
We will examine the history of Native Americans; the appropriation of their lands; corporate natural resource development impacts; contested concepts of “development” and “progress”; and new approaches to resource management including salmon restoration, buffalo management, and wolf reintroduction. These cases will be complemented with others from those places now called Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Ecuador to gain an understanding of how indigenous peoples deal with and resist resource development efforts on and near their lands.
Fulfills the Global Perspective requirement.
Faculty: Jody Emel, Ph.D., Professor of Geography
GOVT 099: Public Opinion and American Democracy
This course provides an overview of trends in American public opinion over the past fifty years, techniques for measuring public opinion, and perspectives on the role public opinion plays (or should play) in government. Topics include differences in public opinion among different subgroups of the population, such as differences between men and women, or whites and non-whites; the causes of change in public opinion, and differences in public opinion between the United States and other nations. The goal of this course is to help students become educated consumers of information on public opinion and to develop critical perspectives on the role public opinion should be in democratic politics. The course will also introduce students to several major national and international surveys and discuss the mechanics of survey design.
Fulfills the Values Perspective requirement.
Faculty: Robert Boatright, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Government
GOVT 102: Political Science Fiction
Science fiction enables us to study the contemporary political world from a distance—to shed light on its problem and its weaknesses, and to be imaginative about alternatives, both hope-filled and deeply disturbing. This course will explore important questions and concepts in the study of politics through various works of science fiction, including novels, short stories, and films. Through science fiction, we will consider ideas like power, authority, legitimacy, and identity. We will also take up works of science fiction that examine and critique political systems, including democracy and dictatorship. We will read works that explore issues of racism and sexism through utopian and dystopian visions of society, and will consider the meaning and value of equality, as well as other controversial issues.
Fulfills the Global Perspective requirement.
Faculty: Valerie Sperling, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Government
HIST 045: Reconsidering the Harlem Renaissance
This first year seminar is designed to explore the history of African American art and literature during and preceding the period commonly identified as the Harlem Renaissance. Rather than examine the Harlem Renaissance uncritically, this course is designed to reinterpret the Harlem Renaissance in a way that takes into consideration the broader movement of black creative works between 1880 and 1940, which represent more accurately, perhaps, a “renaissance” of black creative achievement in the United States. Thus, students will consider the broader “New Negro Movement,” as they examine the history of African American arts and letters both in New York and beyond.
Fulfills the Historical Perspective requirement.
Faculty: Ousmane Power-Greene, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of History
MGMT/UDSC 011: Making a Difference
This course will offer a scholarly perspective on "making a difference," defined as the many varieties of social change ranging from philanthropy to political activism. Students will analyze how others have made a difference in a range of times and places, and will learn skills to make a difference" at three levels: in their lives, on the Clark campus, and in the city of Worcester. This is a multi-disciplinary course in which readings will be derived from the fields of sociology, psychology, community development, urban studies, education, social policy, and political science. Themes of personal growth, leadership, collaboration, and activism will be explored. In addition to writing assignments, students will be expected to participate actively in class discussions and experiential exercises, as well to complete a structured service placement in a neighborhood agency. The concluding assignment will be a proposal for community-based social change activity.
New Making a Difference Scholars have already been enrolled in this First Year Seminar. The seminar is open to other interested students on a space available basis.
Fulfills the Values Perspective requirement.
Faculty: Mary Ellen Boyle, Ph.D., Assistant Professor ManagementJAPN/AS/CMLT 180:In the Shadow of World War II Memory, Identity, and Nation in Japanese Fiction and Film
This seminar will explore Japanese literature and film from 1945 to the present as a response to dramatic and total defeat in World War Two. What is the legacy of WW2 for Japanese cultural production? How has the memory of the war shaped the themes of novels, manga, film and other forms of artistic expression? How has post-war literature both reflected and transformed issues of national identity? What do these works reveal about modern, and post-modern, Japanese constructions of the self? From atomic dessert to economic powerhouse, we will consider the cultural context of post-war trauma and subjugation, of war guilt and its denial, of affluence and anomie: the long shadow cast by World War Two.
Fulfills the Verbal Expression requirement. You must be placed at the Verbal Expression level to be admitted into this seminar.
Faculty: Alice Valentine, Ph.D., Professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures
MATH 110: Diving Into Research: Geometry
We will explore themes and applications of geometry over a wide range of topics. These will be chosen from classical disciplines such as Projective and Differential Geometry, as well as Computational Geometry and even Game Theory. Our guiding principle for the choice of topics will be their accessibility to direct geometric intuition and imagination. The need for prior mathematical background will be kept at a minimum level. We will also be employing computer graphics and related software for visual exploration. The main purpose is to have fun while appreciating geometry.
There are no prerequisites.
Fulfills the Formal Analysis requirement.
Note: The year long course is 0.5 unit per semester, and the full year is necessary to obtain credit.
Many people take MA 110 along with another First Year Seminar.
Faculty: Gideon Maschler, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science
PHIL 080: Educating the Philosopher-King: Virtue and Education in Plato's Republic
In Plato’s dialogue The Republic, Socrates and his interlocutors undertake the task of describing the virtuous state and the virtuous soul. According to Plato, a virtuous, or just, state is possible only under the leadership of philosophers—individuals who possess wisdom and in particular, posses knowledge of the nature of reality and what is good. This wisdom is, according to Plato, the result of a rigorous educational curriculum. We will critically explore Plato’s proposals for how to educate these “philosopher-kings” and ask how Plato’s conception of education compares with our contemporary ideas. Among the questions we will ask are the following: What is virtue? Can virtue be taught? Could there be philosopher-kings? Is Plato’s educational curriculum plausible by contemporary standards? What is the best sort of education we can provide? And, how does one’s education contribute to a happy life?
Fulfills the Values Perspective Requirement.
Faculty: Scott Hendricks, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Philosophy
PHIL 104: The Aids Pandemic
The global AIDS pandemic presents a public health challenge of unprecedented dimensions -- a challenge which will test not only our scientific and medical establishments, but our commitment to social justice, professional fidelity, interpersonal solidarity and, especially, to the care of the world's poorest and most disadvantaged populations. This seminar will draw on the rich philosophical, biological, epidemiological, legal, medical, and sociological literatures in order to examine a number of the moral and public policy issues which have been raised by the AIDS pandemic. Particular attention is given to the issues raised by the pandemic in developing countries.
Fulfills the Verbal Expression requirement. You must have been placed at the Verbal Expression level to select this seminar.
Faculty: Patrick Derr, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy; Adjunct Professor of Environmental Science and Policy;
PHIL/LAS/EPP 108: Privacy Protection In Law And Ethics
We will first review in this seminar the history of privacy protection as it has evolved in American tort law and constitutional law. We will then analyze alternative philosophical characterizations of privacy, focusing on information, autonomy, property, access and intimacy. We will assess varied reasons for valuing privacy and then consider contrasting versions of the feminist critique of privacy as a tool for shielding abuse. Throughout the course we will study landmark legal cases invoking privacy from the early 1900’s to the present, with an eye toward understanding the scope and limits of privacy protection. We will consider numerous applications of privacy to ethical and public policy issues including the legislation of morals, drug testing, privacy and information technologies, and the balance between privacy and public safety in an age of terrorism.
Fulfills the Values Perspective requirement.
Faculty: Judith DeCew, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy
SPAN/CMLT 194: Repression and Revolution: Portraits of Indigenous People in Mexico
This seminar examines how the indigenous have been represented in Mexican arts, literature, and popular culture beginning with the post-revolutionary murals and continuing through the present-day communiqués of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation [EZLN], most notably, by their representative Subcomandante Marcos. Students will follow the trajectory of a long period of Indians’ being presented by others, by the non-indigenous or Ladinos, to today’s self-presentation of a native people seeking Land, Liberty, and Dignity.
Fulfills the Verbal Expression requirement. You must have been placed at the Verbal Expression level to select this seminar.
Faculty: Carol D'Lugo, Ph.D., Professor of Spanish
Alternative Introductory Level Courses - Fall 2009
As an alternative to selecting a First Year Seminar, you may choose to
register for one of the following introductory level courses.
Please click on the course title to read the course
description.
The professor who teaches the course will become your faculty advisor in
your first year.
You will be able to register online for EITHER a first-year seminar OR
an “alternative” course; you may not register for both.