Courses

Required foundation course in the Social Sciences concentration. Introduces students to research methods in the social sciences: Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Communication Studies, Economics, Political Science, and Geography. Topics will include epistemology, theory development, research ethics, study design, data collection, and data analysis.

TEXTBOOKS

• Babbie, Earl R. The Basics of Social Research, 5th ed. Cengage, 2010. ISBN 0495812242, 9780495812241

Required foundation course in the Social Sciences concentration. Analysis of a single contemporary issue using each of the academic disciplines in the Social Sciences concentration: Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Communication Studies, Economics, Political Science, and Geography.

TEXTBOOKS

• All required readings are online.

This course introduces major schools of social science theory from several areas of study, and applies them to the study and explanation of domestic and global inequality. Designed to provide participants in the BLS Social Sciences Concentration with mid-program guidance on theoretically treating research problems.

TEXTBOOKS

• All required readings are online.

This course provides students eager to understand Russia today with a more complex look at how people in Russia survived and sometimes even thrived in the years after Stalin’s death (1950s through 1980s). We will explore the everyday ways Soviet citizens responded to their government through literature, music, dress, and economic and consumer practices and compare these to similar practices in American culture of the same era.

Note: Course meets the Global Engagement and Intercultural Understanding through the Humanities and Fine Arts requirement of MAC.

TEXTBOOKS

• Alexander Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (any edition)
• Liudmila Petrushevskaya, There Once Lived a Mother Who Loved Her Children, Until They Moved Back In, ISBN 9780143121664
• Victor Pelevin’s The Yellow Arrow, ISBN 9780811213554

In this practice-based course, we will begin by examining the culture of speed, acceleration, and immediacy that defines much of modern life. Only then will we turn to the cultural movement known as “Slow.” Engaging in ongoing practices, analyzing case studies, and doing individual assignments, we will inquire into several iterations of Slow: the Slow Food Movement, which began in Italy; Slow Looking, an approach to developing our capacity for discernment; and Slow as manifested in the Arts, Literature, and Contemplative Practices, using case studies of the artist Andy Goldsworthy, contemporary poetry, and the work/life of a tenzo, or chef at a monastery, respectively. After all of that inquiry, we’ll respond to a critique of the Slow movement requiring both analytical skill and critical reflection on our experiences throughout the course. The final integrative project affords us the opportunity to creatively extend the ideas of Slow [and critique of those ideas!] in a form that can be taken forward beyond the bounds of the course.

Note: This course meets the Health and Wellness requirement of MAC

TEXTBOOKS

• TBD

Take a peek behind the Iron Curtain! Let’s go beyond the traditional Cold War views of the Soviet Union to explore a diversity of books, films, and music produced in response, first to the end of the repressive Stalinist era (Khrushchev’s “Thaw” in the 1960s), and then in the 1980s, to the collapse of the Soviet Union following Gorbachev’s glasnost’ and perestroika.

In both eras, the loosening of censorship led to both an unsettling detachment from the narratives that seemed to have always structured Soviet life, alongside an exciting sense of the creative potential of the present and future. How did people respond, in life, literature, film and music, to these great changes? What types of meaning, personal and collective, were people able to create in the spaces opened up by the cracks in the official narrative?

TEXTBOOKS

• Victor Pelevin’s The Yellow Arrow (ISBN 978-0811213554)
• Alexander Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (any edition)
• Liudmila Petrushevskaya, There Once Lived a Mother Who Loved Her Children, Until They Moved Back In, ISBN 9780143121664

Exploration of individual experience, interpersonal relationships, and cultural identity through the reading and critical analysis of works of short fiction from the 19th–21st centuries. Readings include works from canonical and contemporary American authors and authors from various minority and ethnic-American backgrounds. Writing Intensive: Course essay goes through multiple stages of draft and revision before the final draft is submitted for a grade.

TEXTBOOKS

• All required readings are online.

For the Russian reading public, literature has long been expected to raise social issues and express hard truths. The short works we read in this course vary greatly in style, plot, and historical setting, yet all of them share a focus on the individual’s search for truth amidst conflicts with authority, censorship, and rapidly changing gender roles. While the Russian historical and cultural context is important to our understanding of these texts, we will also discuss how these works illustrate a more universal context, the human quest for happiness and purpose.

TEXTBOOKS

• Tolstoy, Leo. Hadji Murad (trans. Louise and Aylmer Maude), from Great Short Works of Leo Tolstoy. Perennial, 1967. ISBN 0060830719. —or— Harper Perennial, 2004. ISBN 0060586974. Text is also available online here.
• Kovalevskaya, Sofya. Nihilist Girl. Modern Language Assoc., 2001. ISBN 0873527909
• Zamyatin, Yevgeny. We. (trans. Mirra Ginzburg) Viking, 1999. ISBN 0380633132
• Chukovskaya, Lydia. Sofia Petrovna. (trans. Aline Werth) NWUP, 1994. ISBN 0810111500

This course focuses on 21st-century works by authors—many of them relatively unknown—from a diversity of social statuses, cultures, and geographical locations. Short stories and personal essays have a unique ability to bring readers into unfamiliar cultures and subcultures, and to give them a glimpse at the vast diversity of human experience. This course will seek to take advantage of that power.

TEXTBOOKS

• All readings provided.

Obscene. Heretical. Defiant. Dangerous. Enlightening. These are the qualities that provoke legal action against books, and often the selfsame qualities that make them worthy of our attention. In this course we will examine books that have been banned in the US, the social and legal forces that censored them, and the contributions that those books (well, most of them) have made to our society.

TEXTBOOKS

• Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow, 2010.
• Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1969.
• Blume, Judy. Forever, 1975.
• Harris, Robie. It’s Perfectly Normal, 1994.
• Lawrence, D. H. Lady Chatterley’s Lover, 1928.
• L’Engle, Madeleine. A Wrinkle in Time, 1962.
• Paterson, Katherine. Bridge to Terabithia, 1977.
• Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis (vol 1), 2003.
  
  Suggested:
• Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species, 1859.
• Jackson, George. Soledad Brother, 1970.
  
  Any edition is acceptable.

It was a dark night in the city that never sleeps. Almost anybody who reads this line would suspect that what they’re reading is the beginning of a detective story. (And some alert readers will recognize that line as the opening to a case for detective Guy Noir, one of Garrison Keillor’s characters on his radio show A Prairie Home Companion.) We’re familiar with the genre from movies, television, books, even stories on the news. If we read because we love a good story, we read mystery and detective fiction because we love a good story that keeps us in the dark. This course explores the appeal of the mystery and detective story, as well as investigates the methods and approaches that writers use to make the genre work. The course is more generally about stories, about the way we make them and the way we come to understand and enjoy them.

TEXTBOOKS

• Griffith, Kelley. Writing Essays About Literature, 7th ed. Heinle, 2005. ISBN 1413003958
• Christie, Agatha. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Berkley, 2000. ISBN 0425173895
• Mosley, Walter. Little Scarlet. Warner, 2005. ISBN 0446612715
• Highsmith, Patricia. The Talented Mr. Ripley. Vintage, 1992. ISBN 0679742298
• James, P.D. An Unsuitable Job for a Woman. Touchstone, 2001. ISBN 0743219554

A good memoir is shaped like a good story. If told well, with a sharp focus and a bit of self-effacing irony, events in the memoirist’s life draw us in and illuminate a wider world.

In this course we’ll read three contemporary book-length memoirs and a variety of personal memory essays. In addition, we’ll discuss some self-portrait paintings. At several points in the course, students will be asked to do some creative writing, conveying slices of their own pasts. There will be weekly discussion forums, small group exercises, and a final paper.

TEXTBOOKS

• See Bookstore for current textbook list

In the last half-century, China, Japan, and India have undergone enormous change and become world powers. Their relations with the West have been intimate and problematic, since all of them have experienced some degree of colonization or occupation by England or the United States. The U.S. continues to have a large and controversial military presence in Japan.

This course examines the effect of those political and cultural influences on the peoples of those countries through novels by indigenous authors, novels that exhibit the difficulties and delights that Asian countries have experienced as their indigenous cultures meet the culture of the West—especially those of Great Britain and the United States. Each novel exhibits the conflict between the modern, Western world, and the old, traditional cultural forms. The characters in these novels attain varying degrees of assimilation of Western culture, and all feel the strain in some way. The focus of this course is the way the novels show the authors’ being caught between two worlds: the old, traditional culture, and the new, modern one.

All of the novels in this course have enjoyed enormous popularity in the West; two are Booker Prize winners and the others are by prize-winning authors.

TEXTBOOKS

• Jin, Ha. Waiting. Vintage, 1999. ISBN 9780375706417
• Desai, Anita. Clear Light of Day. Mariner, 2000. ISBN 9780618074518
• Gojira. Dir. Ishirō Honda. Toho, 1954. ASIN B000FA4TLQ
• Murakami, Haruki. Kafka on the Shore. Vintage, 2005. ISBN 9781400079278
• Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. Random House, 1997. ISBN 9780060977498

Students will compare and contrast various cultural frameworks for visualizing disability in art, film, television, and other forms of visual culture. Initial readings provide background on major issues and arguments in disability studies, as well as draw connections between disability and other aspects of identity, especially gender. The course will then move toward establishing techniques, drawn from core disability studies criticism, to analyze visual representation of disability in art, film, commercial advertising, charity depictions, medical images, and the freak show.

Note: This course meets the Diversity & Equity through the Humanities and Fine Arts of MAC.

TEXTBOOKS

• The Disability Studies Reader 4th edition (2013)
• The Disabled Body in Contemporary Art (2010)

The Broadway musical is America’s unique contribution to world theatre. Combining romantic storytelling with song, dance, spectacle and stellar performances, musical theatre is a cultural mirror that both reflects and distorts the reality of a particular time and place. This course investigates how the musical has expressed and promoted the “American Dream” during the past century.

Historian James H. Adams was the first to use the phrase “American Dream” in his book The Epic of America (1931). Adams defined it as, “…that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” Adams’ definition will serve as the starting point for our examination of the musical.

Our study will include a consideration of the various forms and elements of musical theatre, the individuals responsible for its creation and presentation, and its relationship to U.S. social history. We will read John Bush Jones’ Our Musicals, Ourselves: A Social History of the American Musical Theatre as well as a representative sampling of classic musicals (Showboat–Hamilton).

TEXTBOOKS

• TBD

Documentary films cross and confuse notions of “truth,” or journalism, and “lies,” or fiction.  This course focuses on viewing, analyzing, and writing critically about documentary films.  Students will examine how and why selected documentary films convey various and overlapping identity components such as gender, race, class, dis/ability, and sexuality.  Assignments include discussion forum postings, quizzes, and first and final drafts of a term paper.

TEXTBOOKS

• Berry Keith Grant and Jeannette Slaniowski, eds, Documenting the Documentary: Close Readings of Documentary Film and Video (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2014) Note: Available as eBook from UNCG Library

From ancient times to the present, “spectacle” (the visual aspects of human performance — architecture, scenery, costumes, makeup, lighting, special effects, and staging) has been used to expressively embody and evoke meaning in rituals, ceremonies and artistic performances. This course will examine the use of spectacle as an expressive mode of communication in human performance from antiquity to the present. Students will study the elements of spectacle that have been employed throughout history in the performing arts (theatre, dance, music) and in life-performances such as rituals, ceremonies and rites. Students will explore the iconography of the performing arts and consider how this visual evidence has been interpreted by scholars. By the end of the course students should have an appreciation for the power and impact of spectacle on stage and in life.

TEXTBOOKS

• Hartnoll, Phyllis. The Theatre: A Concise History. Thames & Hudson, 1998. ISBN 0500203121

An opportunity to consider in depth some of the outstanding masterpieces in Western art while reading narratives, essays, poems, and plays inspired by them. You may already be familiar with some of the painters: Pablo Picasso, Leonardo da Vinci, Jan Vermeer, Diego de Velazquez, Francisco de Goya. By the end of this course you will be talking knowledgeably about these and other painters and writers, the historical and cultural contexts in which they worked, the relationship between visual images and literary imagery, notions of truth and beauty, and the principles of aesthetics. No particular background in art and literature is expected or required, but curiosity and a willingness to look, to think, to analyze, and to appreciate are essential.

The course emphasizes online class discussion, critical reading of original literature (rather than textbooks), and practice in writing and argument. Students must interact with each other as well as with the instructor. Lecture material will appear in text and image; additional activities will include exploration of links, puzzles, self-tests, and written responses. Through a series of assignments, students will create online journals and then critique them, challenging and encouraging each other on the discussion board. Three tests and a final exam will evaluate student progress through the topical units.

TEXTBOOKS

• Brown, Dan. The DaVinci Code: Illustrated Edition. Doubleday, 2004. ISBN 0385513755
• Chevalier, Tracy. Girl with a Pearl Earring. Plume, 2001. ISBN 0452282152
• Levey, Michael. From Giotto to Cézanne. Thames & Hudson, 1985. ISBN-13 9780500200247
• Martin, Steve. Picasso at the Lapin Agile and other plays. Grove, 1996. ISBN 0802135234

Throughout history theater has served as a site for the imaginative exploration of big ideas in dramatic stories. This course will examine fifteen big plays (comedies, tragedies and dramas) that grapple with significant issues and ideas. These are plays that have survived the ‘test-of-time’ and through the power of words, characters and actions illuminate the human experience. They are plays that address fundamental questions that are central to the Humanities such as “Who am I”, “What is my purpose in life,” “What is the truth,” “Why is there suffering” and “How is happiness achieved?” The plays will be examined both as works of literature and ‘scores’ intended for performance.

TEXTBOOKS

• Klaus, Carl H., Miriam Gilbert & Bradford S. Field. Stages of Drama: Classical to Contemporary Theater, 5th Ed. Bedford/St.Martin’s, 2003. ISBN 031239733X

This course analyzes the uses and abuses of photography in science, art, commercial culture, documentary, journalism and the other media, and personal collections to examine how photography inevitably crosses, merges, and confuses genres of visual culture. The course will examine intersections of photography with social constructions of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and disability and investigate how photography reflects and creates human experience, identity, and notions of self and other. Course activities will include critical readings, exchanges with classmates in online forums, displaying and discussing photographs with discussion groups, essay exams, and a final photography project.

TEXTBOOKS

• Wells, Liz. Photography: A Critical Introduction, 4th ed. Routledge, 2009. ISBN 9780415460873
• Wells, Liz, ed. The Photography Reader. Routledge, 2002. ISBN 041524661X

This course draws its title and inspiration from The Accidental Masterpiece: The Art of Life and Vice Versa, a volume of essays by The New York Timesart critic and columnist Michael Kimmelman. The book’s central premise is that “art provides us with clues about how to live our own lives more fully.” Kimmelman frames his most memorable explorations of art and artists within semi-autobiographical essays, which illuminate the significance of individual perception to experiencing the world of, and the world as art.

Art, in this course, is defined in a broad sense to incorporate the visual, performing, and interactive arts, and everyday culture. Through Kimmelman’s and other writers’ creative and personal meditations on art, and by tapping into our own, we will explore the relationships between art and human values, ideas, and emotions.

A theme of getting lost or losing oneself in the creative process, or in a state of identity transformation, emerges across course subject matter. Such loss catalyzes discovery, insight, creative production, and indeed, often “accidental” (unexpected and fortuitous) masterpieces. This course will expand your definitions of and require your participation in the art of life and life of art. You will document your creative, intellectual, physical, and perhaps emotional journeys, and by the end of the course, you will conceptualize and produce your own “accidental masterpiece.”

TEXTBOOKS

• Kimmelman, Michael. The Accidental Masterpiece: On the Art of Life and Vice Versa. Penguin, 2006. ISBN 0143037331
• Solnit, Rebecca. A Field Guide to Getting Lost. Viking, 2005. ISBN 9780670034215
• Grizzly Man. Dir. Werner Herzog. Lions Gate Films, 2005. UPC 031398186366

William Shakespeare’s plays are among the most widely read, studied, analyzed, anthologized, and criticized works in all of literature. His plays have been performed on stages around the globe for four hundred years without going out of fashion. Why Shakespeare? This course will examine the universality of human behavior depicted in Shakespeare’s stories, his understanding of the human psyche demonstrated by his complex characters, his contribution to modern language and rhetoric, the historical and cultural contexts in which each play was written, and the appeal of his works today. This course will examine Shakespeare’s plays including a history (Richard III), tragedies (Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet), and comedies (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, and The Taming of the Shrew) and analyze each play not only as a work of literature but primarily as a blueprint for the production of film and live theatre. Students will examine the performance considerations of each play and explore how Shakespeare’s ideas can be interpreted for modern audiences.

TEXTBOOKS

• Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Washington Square, 1992. ISBN 074347712X*
• — The Tempest. Washington Square, 2004. ISBN 0743482832*
• — Richard III. Washington Square, 2004. ISBN 0743482840*
• — A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Washington Square, 2004. ISBN 0743477545*
• — Julius Caesar. Washington Square, 2004. ISBN 0743482743*
• One of the following:
  • — Romeo and Juliet. Washington Square, 1992. ISBN 0743477111*
  • — Taming of the Shrew. Washington Square, 1992. ISBN 0743477574*
• Film adaptations:
  • Hamlet. Dir. Michael Almereyda. Perfs. Ethan Hawke, Julia Stiles, Bill Murray. Miramax, 2000.
  • Richard III. Dir. Richard Loncraine. Perfs. Ian McKellan, Annette Bening, Robert Downey Jr. United Artists, 1995.
  • Shakespeare in Love. Dir. John Madden. Perfs. Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow, Judi Dench. Miramax, 1998.
• Computer microphone for voice recording.
• * For those who prefer a complete anthology, this one is recommended:
  The Complete Pelican Shakespeare. Penguin, 2002. ISBN 0141000589

Focuses on women as the producers, consumers, and subjects of visual culture. Course materials center on the visual arts and the Feminist art movement, yet also engage Feminist critiques of film, television, advertising, and other forms of popular culture. Analyzing the representations of women in these media, the course asks questions about the significance of visual representation to political representation and to women’s rights.

TEXTBOOKS

• Jones, Ameila, ed. The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader, 2nd ed. Routledge, 2010. ISBN 9780415543705
• Slatkin, Wendy. Women Artists in History, 4th ed. Prentice Hall, 2001. ISBN 9780130273192

This course looks at the changing relationship between religion and the environment. We begin with the criticism that Western religion is largely to blame for the worldview that has precipitated the ecological crisis, consider specific religious doctrines from the major world religions that are important from an ecological perspective, and conclude by looking at how, in the last two decades, the major world religions are dealing with the current environmental crisis.

TEXTBOOKS

• TBD

In this course, we shall examine the nature of love and friendship. After a brief introduction to what philosophy is and the structure of an argument, we will ask questions such as: What does it mean to say you love chocolate? Is love of chocolate different from love for your mother? Must love come prior to marriage or are arranged marriages equally effective? Does a person need friends in order to achieve happiness? What are the minimal requirements of friendship? How do relationships impact who we become? Upon examining these philosophical questions, we will identify, define, and find examples of four types of love: storge, philia, eros, and agape. The outcome of this course should be a deeper understanding of the concepts of love and friendship, a familiarity with the breadth of potential relationships, and an ability to reflectively analyze our individual relationships.

TEXTBOOKS

• Pakaluk, Michael, ed. Other Selves: Philosophers on Friendship. Hackett Publishing, 1991. ISBN 0-87220-113-9
• Baldwin, James. If Beale Street Could Talk. Dial Press, 1974. (any edition) ISSB 978-0307275936

India has the fastest growing population in the world, as it currently boasts nearly 18% of the world’s populace. Its people are a fabulous and varied mix of ethnic groups who derive from an amalgamation of various cultural, language, religious, and philosophical traditions. This course examines India’s vast diversity as it relates to the major cultural, religious, and social factors that have shaped and altered the course of Indian history. The course engages students with enduring and emerging debates relating to classic and contemporary studies on caste, untouchability, gender, poverty, conflict, development, major religions, and religious nationalism. In engaging with these debates, the course encourages students to think critically about the nature and origins of knowledge in the anthropology of India.

TEXTBOOKS

• India: Brief History of a Civilization, 2016, 2nd Edition, ISBN 0190202491, 9780190202491

This course would allow students to delve into the topic of seasonal migration/seasonal farmworkers in the U.S. Readings, discussions, and assignments will focus on:

• The history of migrant workers /past and present immigration to the US
• The impact of seasonal workers’ immigration as it relates to:
  1. Labor / Workplace disparities
  2. Health disparities
  3. Environmental effects
• Contemporary immigrant activism and organizing

The primary goal of the course is to utilize varies theoretical frameworks to describe the experiences of immigrants in the U.S. Students will communicate what they are learning through discussion forums, weekly reading reflection, academic essay. A variety of teaching methods will be employed including lectures, discussions, and video presentations.

TEXTBOOKS

• Proposed Text: Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States, Seth Holmes, PhD / ISBN-13: 978-0520275133

Race and ethnicity are social constructs that have for years been used to categorize all groups and individuals. While many are accustomed to conflating the terms ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’, these categorizations have distinct meanings. Within this course, we take a general look at the impact of race and ethnicity, and how their intersection has impacted cultural diversity in America’s past and present. This course examines how social issues such as poverty, healthcare, education, and activism are impacted by race and ethnicity. The course also allows learners to deepen their understanding of the manner for which race, ethnicity, and cultural diversity have shaped American institutions, ideology, law, and social relationships from the colonial era to the present.

TEXTBOOKS

• Race and Ethnicity in America, by John Iceland, ISBN: 9780520286924

What happens after you die? Where do you go? Is there even a “you” anymore? Is there any evidence? These are just some of the questions raised by the possibility of life after death that we will consider. This course studies some of the views of the afterlife from the perspective of religion, philosophy, mythology, and modern science, considering the teachings of the major traditions as well as the philosophical and psychological questions that arise.

TEXTBOOKS

• Moreman, Christopher M. Crossing the Threshold: Afterlife Beliefs and Experiences in World Religions, 2nd Edition. Rowan and Littlefield. 2017.

In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired many Americans with his “I have a dream” vision of American identity. The question confronting this seminar is: Today, do we have an American Dream? During the past few decades, this question of American identity has emerged all around us in the series of debates about immigration, racial preference, education, family values, and the writing of American history. Are we citizens of the United States now, or have we ever been a nation? Multiculturalists have argued that American identity or nationhood is a repressive political myth. Opponents of multiculturalism have responded that Americanism is a timely or timeless set of ideals embodied in the principles at work in our federal republican democracy. Though they differ in their characterization of this issue, parties to it agree that both American cultural unity and diversity present us with both promises and problems. Readings will include historical, novelistic, and dramatic explorations of American identity.

TEXTBOOKS

• Jillson, Cal. Pursuing the American Dream. University Press of Kansas, 2004. ISBN 9780700613427

Morality and law often overlap. When this intersection occurs, a class of law targeting “vice” is created. This course examines a variety of philosophical concepts and issues focused on the connection of morality to American law. Theoretical questions include: What is the relationship between law and morality? What is the nature, scope, and limits of the law? What is a vice? What constitutes a crime? These theoretical questions in turn aid a survey of issues in American law including: gambling, prostitution, drug use, hate speech, pornography and gay marriage. Each issue will involve a historical, legal, and ethical component. After considering these issues, we conclude the course by looking at society’s justifications for punishment and the death penalty.

TEXTBOOKS

• All required readings are online.

This course examines ethical problems posed by technology. Students will examine several areas of technology from a historical, social, legal, and ethical perspective. Reoccurring questions include: How has technology changed our lives? Is this change good? How might the law and ethics adapt to technological changes in the present and near future? Each topic in the course is based upon technologies currently in use or in development for use in the near future.

TEXTBOOKS

• Book 1: Winston, Morton & Edelbach, Ralph. Society, Ethics, and Technology (2014): Edition 5 / ISBN-10: 1133943551
• Book 2: Jasanoff, Sheila (2016). The Ethics of Invention: Technology and the Human Future / ISBN-10: 039307899X

Have you ever wanted to know more about the spiritual landscape of our postmodern culture? Well, here’s your chance to study some popular trends in contemporary spirituality and uncover the historical roots that (may or may not) lie behind them. We will read both contemporary accounts and historical texts to try and better understand the alien implants that cause psychic trauma, the Sefirot that mediate between God and creation, the differences between mindfulness and no-mind, and the details the Evangelists left out of their Passion accounts. We may even encounter a few Wiccans and Druids and Purpose-Drive People—Oh my!

TEXTBOOKS

• Berg, Michael. The Way: Using the Wisdom of Kabbalah for Spiritual Transformation and Fulfillment. Wiley 2002. ISBN 0471228796
• Chestnut, R. Andrew. Devoted to Death: Santa Muerta, the Skeleton Saint. Oxford University Press, 2012. ISBN 0199764654
• Chödrön, Pema. When Things Fall Apart. Shambhala Publications 1997. ISBN 1570623449
• Williams, Angel Kyodo. Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace. Compass 2002. ISBN 0140196307

“As the Government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion…”

Thus begins the eleventh article of a treaty between the United States and the Islamic Kingdom of Tripoli that was ratified by Congress in 1797. Proponents of a strong reading of Thomas Jefferson’s “wall of separation” between church and state take this as incontrovertible evidence that the American Republic was founded as a secular—and not Christian—nation. Others disagree, however, and dismiss the treaty as “diplomatic window dressing” and Jefferson’s metaphor as a misinterpretation of the First Amendment’s establishment and free exercise clauses. The debate continues to this day: Is America a Christian nation? Was it founded as such? What ideas (and fears) did the founding fathers have about the role of religion in government—and of government in religion? And more to the point: how much influence should religion have in our current discussions of public policy?

This course is an attempt to understand the relationship between religion and democracy in America. Several themes will occupy our thought: the place of religion in the founding of our republic; the notion of America as a secular state and what this means for the practice of religion; the phenomenon of religious pluralism that characterizes our present context; the idea of “privatizing” religion; the role of religion in public discourse; and lastly, the religious threat to politics and the political threat to religion.

TEXTBOOKS

• Lambert, Frank. The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America. Princeton University Press, 2006, ISBN 069112602X
• Noll, Mark A. The Civil War as a Theological Crisis. University of North Carolina Press, 2006. ISBN 0807830127

Description for instructor Lieb: Who am I? How should I live? What is my purpose in life, and how do I pursue it? What is the meaning of life if death is the unavoidable end? Such questions sit at the core of existentialism, understood as a philosophical school of thought that found some of its greatest expression in literature and other creative genres. This course is designed to highlight philosophers, literary writers, and other artists/creative thinkers associated with existential philosophy. Through them, we will explore the possibilities of human existence based on concepts of individual freedom, subjectivity, choice, action, and responsibility. We will also consider the challenges to individual freedom and possibility as represented by the uncertainties of human existence, as well as the issue of mortality itself.

Ultimately, students will discover how the existentialist perspective emphasizes the individual’s freedom and capacity to make meaning of both life and death—all the while confronting life’s anxieties and absurdities—by consciously navigating the journey in-between. By engaging with philosophical, literary, cultural, and artistic works, students will have various opportunities to self-reflect and critically examine their own lives and, potentially, create greater meaning of them.

Description for instructor Maki: What is the meaning of life? Is my life meaningful or meaningless? Should I fear death? Is immortality really worth seeking? Do humans have an obligation to perpetuate their species? This course examines these classic questions of existential philosophy through the broader view of the humanities. Students in this course will read how philosophers have tried to answer these questions and will touch on how plays, poems, films, art and literature have addressed them, in order to grasp the broad impact these questions have upon the human experience.

The central objective of this course is to facilitate students self-reflection on their own lives. In the process students should gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of what constitutes a meaningful life and death. Students will also become familiar with various cultural, artistic, literary, and philosophical expressions of a meaningful life.

TEXTBOOKS

• Required textbooks for instructor Lieb:
• Solomon, Robert C. Existentialism (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN: 13 978-0195174632
• Sartre, Jean-Paul. Existentialism is a Humanism. Yale University Press, 2007. ISBN: 978-0300115468
• Camus, Albert. The Stranger. (any edition)
  
• Required textbooks for instructor Maki:
• Benatar, David, ed. Life, Death, and Meaning: Key Philosophical Readings on the Big Questions. Rowman & Littlefield, 2004. ISBN 0742533689
• Edson, Margaret. Wit: A Play. (any edition)
• Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson. (any edition)

This course will examine the changing—and unchanging—nature of the American South since the Civil War. We will examine various topics wrapped up in some essential questions: What makes a Southerner a Southerner? How different is the South as compared to the rest of the United States? In what ways has a southern distinctiveness shaped American society, culture, and folkways? Our examination of the New South will begin with the Civil War and its heritage; we will proceed to the effects of war and reform in the twentieth century; and we will conclude by examining the recent post-1945 transformation of Southern life. We will examine the impact that the Civil War had on Southern society; in particular, we will attempt to understand the process by which several million African Americans realized freedom through wartime emancipation and Reconstruction. We will also try to understand the sources of sweeping change affecting the South after the late 19th century; the impact of the industrial revolution, changes affecting the plantation system, and widespread urbanization. We will look, as well, at the consequences of Southerners who left the South in great numbers during the 20th century, how the South and its culture—its music, food, and way of life—moved into the national mainstream. The nature of change will also include an examination of the civil rights revoltion and its impact on Southern life after the 1950s.

TEXTBOOKS

• Blackmon, Douglas A. Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II. Anchor reprint, 2009. ISBN 978-0385722704
• McLaurin, Melton. Separate Pasts: Growing Up White in the Segregated South. University of Georgia Press, 1987. ISBN 978-0820320472
• Wilkerson, Isabel. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration. Vintage Books, 2011. ISBN 978-0679763888

Ancient Cities is a history course, but we won’t be memorizing names and dates. We’ll be looking at four ancient cities- Athens, Alexandria, Rome, and Constantinople. We’ll look at how these cities emerged and evolved over time, what circumstances contributed to their success and decline, and key factors that can shape a society. We’ll also occasionally take a moment to examine issues associated with present and future ownership, conservation, administration, and presentation of the cultural past. It’s a very visual course.

TEXTBOOKS

• All required readings will be available online.

Few issues rile American passions like gun rights and gun control. This course provides a comprehensive study of guns in America, including the origins of the Second Amendment, gun ownership in early America and the “Wild West,” laws prohibiting African Americans from possessing guns, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, the prevalence of machine guns in the 1920s and 1930s, the Black Panther Party, the evolution of the National Rifle Association (NRA) as one of the nation’s most influential lobbies, and the landmark Supreme Court case District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008, declaring that an individual has the right to possess a firearm. By the end of the course, students will have a firm grasp of the key arguments on both sides, enabling them to refine their position on America’s great gun debate.

TEXTBOOKS

• Winkler, Adam. Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America. New York: W.W. Norton, 2011.

This course focuses on the historic roots of the Southern Belle and examines how our understanding of this idealized identity has changed over time.  First nationally popularized through the 1939 film Gone with the Wind, the image of the Belle was deeply rooted in the romanticized culture often referred to as “moonlight and magnolias.” Belles were metaphorically placed on a pedestal and depicted as beautiful, charming, kind, submissive, and above all, pure.  Overlooked in this simplistic and perfectionist vision of women are the ways in which race and class defined who was worthy of the title.  Deeply rooted in a conservative patriarchal and religious culture, the social construct of the Southern Belle became the expectation for certain women and severely limited the possibilities for others.  Through a range of readings and films, we will analyze these ideas from a historical perspective as we look at race, gender, labor, education, religion, and politics.

TEXTBOOKS

• TBD

Entrepreneurs have been present at every stage of American economic development.  These innovators and risk-takers capitalized on the political, economic, social and cultural resources of their time to envision new markets and new products.  From Prince Henry of Portugal in the Age of Exploration to Steve Jobs in the Digital Age, this class will examine entrepreneurs who shaped the contours of the American economy from the first transatlantic trade routes to the first home computer.  In turn, we will use the lens of entrepreneurship to broadly trace the history of American capitalism from a continent of Indian tribes to string of coastal colonies to a commercial, industrial, financial, global and digital world power.

TEXTBOOKS

• TBD

“The Personal is Political” has become a catch-phrase or mantra through multiple women’s rights movements, especially in the later twentieth century to present. Most associated with the “second wave” of feminism, which scholars and activists such as Angela Y. Davis have charged with lack of concern for women of color and for all women of the lower classes, the “personal is political” serves in this class as a metaphor that expands beyond one specific socio/political movement. This phase has encouraged diverse women to place their personal experiences and perspectives into the political arena and demand rights not only for themselves, but also for members of their communities. In this class, students will read a selection of books and essays written by contemporary women activists in first person narration, which advocate for reform around the world. These authors vary in race, nationality, sexuality, class, and disability, and we will discuss how and why the notion of “the personal is political” relates to their work. We will also view and discuss visual examples that relate to the themes raised in the readings. Course requirements include discussion forum assignments and a final paper. Discussion forum assignments will be posted and exchanged on the course discussion board. Final paper topics will be selected from subjects raised in these assignments; students will write a first-person, argumentative essay that centers on personal experiences.

TEXTBOOKS

• Linton, Simi. My Body Politic. University of Michigan Press, 2007
• Yousafzai, Malala. (with Christina Lamb), I am Malala. Little Brown and Co. 2013
• Anzualda, Gloria. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, 4th ed. Aunt Lute Books, 2012
• Essays on reserve by Theresa Man Ling Lee and Alice Walker
• Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. We Should All Be Feminists. Vintage Books, 2014 (e-book in UNCG library)
• Walker, Rebecca. “Becoming the 3rd wave,” Ms. (Spring 2002)12, 2, pp. 86

This course introduces key figures, movements, and developments from the French Revolution to the end of the Cold War and the formation of a new Europe. As western nations and societies are increasingly intertwined and interdependent, this online course traces the continent’s cultural evolution from its old imperial roots to its integration within the new European Union. The course emphasizes core themes and issues that explore a wide range of perspectives presented through Internet exhibits, online lectures, readings, and multi-media files. Course lectures, group discussions, student presentations and writing assignments center on engaging textbook collections of primary sources and reading selections. The study materials include memoirs of individuals who witnessed important social and political events; excerpts from popular works of fiction; writings of influential thinkers and theorists; and key cultural and historical documents that provide critical and interdisciplinary perspectives.

TEXTBOOKS

• All readings available online. There is no text to purchase for this course.

This course examines the origins, impact, and consequences of the social and political upheaval of the period in American history stretching from the early 1960s through the early 1970s. It will cover the civil rights movement, in many of its forms; the Vietnam War and the accompanying antiwar movement; and the origins of some of the other major and minor movements of the period—the feminist, environmental, and gay liberation movements. Other topics will include changes in popular culture, the rise and fall of the New Left, and the conservative reaction to these ideas and events. The course will conclude with a look at the legacy of this unique period and its continuing influence on contemporary America.

TEXTBOOKS

• Ward, Brian, ed. The 1960s: A Documentary Reader. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. ISBN 978-1405163309
• Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. Norton 2001 (1963). ISBN 0393322572
• Gosse, Van. The Movements of the New Left, 1950-1975: A Brief History with Documents. Bedford/St.Martin’s 2005. ISBN 0312133979
• Haley, Alex. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Ballantine 1999 (1964). ISBN 0345350685
• Herr, Michael. Dispatches. Knopf Doubleday 1991. ISBN 9780679735250

Throughout history, religion has frequently provided a rallying point around which peoples have organized to oppose an invading people, culture or ideology. Through a variety of overt and underground tactics, people often draw on the spiritual and material resources of faith communities to survive and often fight back against occupation by an outside entity or oppression at the hands of their own government. For example, the Catholic church has long played an active role in grassroots organizing in conflicts throughout Latin America. In more recent history, the breakup of Yugoslavia resulted in intensified religious feeling and identification among Catholic Croats, Orthodox Serbs and Muslim Bosnians as each of these groups resisted the aggression of the others. Today, radical Islamic groups form terrorist organizations to confront what they see as Western cultural, economic and political imperialism.

In this course, we will examine the ways in which different religious groups, through peaceful means or violent, through a cooptation of or radical assault on state structures, confronted the invasion of a common foe: the Communist Soviet Union, with all its attendant values and repressive structures. We will explore various forms of religious resistance to atheist Soviet doctrine in three contexts: within the Soviet Union itself, in Cold War Communist Poland and in Afghanistan following the Soviet invasion of 1979. In each unit we will examine how the dominant religion operated in each country (Russian Orthodoxy in the Soviet Union, Catholicism in Poland and Islam in Afghanistan) prior to the Soviet takeover and how these relationships between religion and society shaped how citizen actors responded to the occupation. We will look at examples of peaceful accommodation, cooperation and compromise along with examples of uncompromising, violent radical resistance. We will investigate how communism may have been seen or experienced by the occupied as a religion in itself and further explore the relationship between nationalism and religion. How, in one context, does faith work hand in hand with nationalism? How does it operate in another culture, where an idea of the “nation” has never existed? We will analyze a range of sources from the writings of workers and intellectuals, scholars native and Western.

TEXTBOOKS

• All required readings are online.

This course uses specific trials throughout American history, from the colonial period up to the twentieth century, as a way of illustrating changes in American culture, society, and legal customs. Students will be exposed to trials that came about for a variety of reasons such as religion vs. science, slave rights, and educational policy.

The law is the foundation of society, so by studying documented trials throughout history, we may hope to attain a greater understanding of our ancestors’ ways of life, how individuals from the past perceived justice, and the pertinent political, religious, and social issues of their time. Although we no longer burn individuals suspected of witchcraft, we do need to understand how the Salem witch trials have affected religion’s role in our present legal system. And while it has been decades since the court ruled on the Scopes trial and Brown v. Board of Education, we are still struggling with the practice of teaching evolution in public schools and the issue of desegregation. Therefore, through our study of these trials, we will trace the evolution of the major legal issues in our country’s history.

TEXTBOOKS

• Martin, Waldo, ed. Brown v. Board of Education: A Brief History with Documents. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1998. ISBN 9780312111526
• Moran, Jeffrey, ed. The Scopes Trial: A Brief History with Documents. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2002. ISBN 9780312249199
• Purdue, Theda and Michael Green, eds. The Cherokee Removal: A Brief History with Documents, 2nd ed. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005. ISBN 9780312415990

Across cultures, classes, races, and generations, a contentious debate is continuously evolving over the defining values and practices of motherhood, over the question of what makes a “good mother.” Since the publication of Adrienne Rich’s Of Woman Born in 1976, mothers, their rights and responsibilities in the family and in society, their challenges and choices, their career paths and character, have been endlessly analyzed, theorized, criticized and sensationalized. In this course, we will examine how motherhood has been represented in the media, evaluated in scholarly and creative literature and experienced by mothers from all walks of life. We will explore how each of these different discourses (generated by the media, academia and popular literature/the blogosphere) informs the other as we attempt to further our understanding of how ideas and experiences of motherhood have changed over the past few decades.

Among the questions we will consider: In what sense are the struggles of mothers an identity issue or, as mother and scholar Miriam Peskowitz argues, a labor issue? Who is to blame when mothers are overwhelmed or dissatisfied with their options for a fulfilling work and home life—society’s expectations? The culture of the workplace? Men/patriarchy? Women themselves (our peers or our own mothers)? What has been done and can still be done to address the burdens and inequity of the “institution of motherhood” so powerfully and incisively described by Rich? If much of feminism’s deconstruction of motherhood has come from “mainstream” white feminism, what vital perspectives and counternarratives can we draw from the traditions and analyses of African American motherhood and the mothering practices of other ethnicities and cultures? And lastly, how has the Internet equipped women to overcome some of the isolation and voicelessness of motherhood and provided a creative outlet from which to put forth a more positive picture and egalitarian practice of “mothering” today?

TEXTBOOKS

• Morrison, Toni. Beloved.

Nearly 70 years ago, on the eve of World War II, an invitation to join a peace society incited Virginia Woolf to respond with Three Guineas, an insightful and path-breaking analysis of women’s place in the political, economic, and social structures that produce war. How might we change politics as usual, she wonders, if women were empowered to propose their own solutions to war, to find their own words and means for reasoning with the forces of fascism, at-home and abroad? Throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first century, women and their stories have not always had a great deal of success in influencing the events that lead to war or terror, but thankfully they have continued to voice their opinions and document their experiences just the same. For some, it is a matter of survival; writing is sometimes the only thing that continues to give life meaning and make suffering bearable. Especially when a homeland has been lost or destroyed, oftentimes a memoir or other written text is all that remains with which to salvage and structure identity. For others, writing is a conscious act of resistance. Women write to challenge dominant discourses that rationalize irrational violence, to prove that they have not been broken, to show others the way to survive, to bear witness so that such suffering cannot be forgotten.

This course will examine women as victims and critics of war and terror, primarily through their autobiographical writings. We will examine women’s autobiographical writings in the context of three different 20th century tragedies: the Holocaust (1940s), the civil wars in Liberia (early 1990s and 1999-2003) and the ongoing conflict in Syria. Students will consider, in online discussions and written assignments, the different motivations behind this literature, as well as the relative effectiveness or appropriateness of the different forms and genres used by the authors. What role, if any, does gender (or one’s “outsider” status) play in these creative decisions? We will explore and compare the specific political, historical and cultural contexts in which these works were written along with broader questions about women’s place in history and the dynamics of language, power and resistance.

TEXTBOOKS

• Judith Isaacson’s Seed of Sarah
• Leymah Gbowee’s Mighty Be Our Powers
• Melissa Fleming’s A Hope More Powerful than the Sea.

This is the capstone seminar for students pursuing the Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies. Students in this course will read two current books that examine significant issues in the Humanities, actively participate in online discussions about the readings, write an extended essay that critically examines and evaluates the readings, compile a web portfolio of representative examples of work they have created for other online BLS courses, and complete the BLS Senior Survey. The course is designed to allow students to reflect on their work in the BLS program and showcase their achievements.

Senior Seminar requires the departmental permission to enroll. Students must have at least eight BLS courses completed before they can take the senior seminar. The final (9th) course toward your BLS major requirements can be taken concurrently with your BLS 400 seminar.

Please contact your advisor.

TEXTBOOKS

• Frankfurt, Harry G. On Bullshit. Princeton University Press, 2005. ISBN 0691122946
• Edmundson, Mark. Why Read? Bloomsbury, 2005. ISBN 1582346089

Required capstone course in the Social Sciences concentration.

Senior Seminar requires the departmental permission to enroll. Students must have all pre-requisite courses (300, 301, 350) completed before they can take the senior seminar.  Please contact your advisor.

TEXTBOOKS

• Eggers, David. Zeitoun. McSweeney’s, 2009. ISBNs 1934781630, 9781934781630
• Inside Job. Dir. Charles Ferguson. Sony, 2010. ASIN B0041KKYBA

(1–3 credits)

Prerequisite: Admission to the major, successful completion of at least one semester of course work at UNCG, and permission of an approved, cooperating instructor.

Directed program of reading and/or research in the Humanities. Available to majors upon recommendation of an instructor and approval of the program director.

The Individual Study option is made available to students who have an interest in studying a particular topic, related to the humanities, that is not currently represented in the BLS curriculum. Variable credit can be awarded based upon depth of study, amount or difficulty of reading, and complexity of gradable assignments.

Student submits a formal plan of study and time-line for completion of assignments, developed in cooperation with the overseeing faculty member, to be approved by the program director and kept on file in the program office. Failure to complete an Individual Study, or to formally withdraw from it prior to the withdrawal deadline, will result in a failing grade for the number of contracted credits.

Prerequisite: Admission to the major, SSC 300, SSC 301, and permission of instructor and program director.

Directed program of reading and/or research in the Social Sciences. Available to majors upon recommendation of an instructor and approval of the program director. Credits can be used to fulfill either “distribution” or “area of emphasis” requirements.

The Individual Study option is made available to students who have an interest in studying a particular topic, related to the social sciences, that is not currently represented in the BLS Social Sciences curriculum. Variable credit can be awarded based upon depth of study, amount or difficulty of reading, and complexity of gradable assignments.

Student submits a formal plan of study and time-line for completion of assignments, developed in cooperation with the overseeing faculty member, to be approved by the program director and kept on file in the program office. Failure to complete an Individual Study, or to formally withdraw from it prior to the withdrawal deadline, will result in a failing grade for the number of contracted credits.