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Winter Seminars 2010 |
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"Each time I wrote a paper, I felt like I improved my writing skills and I learned a lot in the process."
AAD 199 The visual arts have remarkable power to generate controversy. Through readings, videos and guest speakers, we will study art and censorship, obscenity and pornography, international intrigue surrounding stolen art and cultural property, and art that serves as protest or propaganda or provokes civil disobedience. We will also examine bigotry and discrimination in art, how public art and museum exhibits have fueled local disputes and national debates, and how values and beliefs underlie all these controversies. DAN 199 This course provides an introduction to the spiritual and communal aspects of African history, culture, and dance. Dance and music are integral to African ceremonies and rituals that relate to many aspects of daily life. We will explore African spirituality and the way indigenous spiritual concepts are given form. Students will learn dances from a variety of cultural groups, while becoming familiar with the ideological and historical contexts that ground such forms of expression through readings, videos, discussion and dance. Previous dance experience is not required. GEOG 199 How do films both reflect and create culture? Beyond the plot, what do the visual images and the landscapes they depict communicate about cultural geography? Since the mid-twentieth century, television and film have served as major sources of cultural transmission, and world politics, economics, and "the screen," big and small, are increasingly intertwined. In this course, we will view six films organized around a range of thematic elements such as race, class, power, gender, and war to learn how to "read" cultural landscapes. GEOG 199 Living in the 21st Century City We live here, shop here, eat here, but have we ever really stopped to study Eugene? This urban studies course will inspire students to analyze, observe, and more deeply understand the urban landscape and culture of the North American city. The structure of Eugene’s local urban scene will serve as a case study throughout the class to help students learn more about how cities evolve through time as social, cultural, economic, and environmental constructions rooted in place and evolving through time. HIST 199 Iraq War 2003– The current war in Iraq remains one of most important foreign policy issues facing the United States today. The question of what the U.S. policy should be in Iraq is a contentious one, in part because there is no obvious policy solution to the problems, and in part because there is no consensus concerning the origins of the war, its course, and its significance. The aim of this course is to come to some understanding of how we got to this point. We will examine the decision to invade Iraq, the post-invasion occupation and insurgency, and speculate on what this war is about and where it is going. HIST 199 Uncovering the Past of the “Real” Wild West Are you tired of learning history passively from a textbook . . . memorizing and reciting names and dates? How about diving into primary sources such as Indian Treaties, Missionary Journals, Homesteader Diaries, White Captivity Narratives, Chinese Exclusion Act Case Files, Ku Klux Klan Chapter Records, photographs, maps, and oral interviews? In this course, students will perform an apprenticeship in the historian’s craft and become active participants in the study of a multicultural American West that served as the crossroads for immigrant and indigenous cultures. You will learn how Oregon’s history affects current events through hands-on archival research, guest speakers, field trips, film analysis, and interpretive essays. INTL 199 As the global economy has expanded over the last century, new patterns of food production and consumption have emerged: farming has become an increasingly commercialized activity and consumers with adequate means now have access to all manner of food, regardless of season or geography. This system has come under increasing scrutiny as oil prices and associated production costs soar; as the environmental side effects of industrial farming become more visible; as the detrimental health effects of a fast food diet become apparent; and as small-scale family farmers fade from the scene. This course offers a focused exploration of the process of thinking globally and eating locally and allows students to develop an informed perspective on their relationship with food. PPPM 199 Giving away money is tougher than it looks! This course introduces students to the history, psychology, economics, and “how-to” of philanthropy in the U.S. A grant from Wells Fargo Bank enables us to practice philanthropy by donating $5,000 to a local nonprofit organization. In groups, students will research potential organizations through fieldtrips, interviews, and online financial records. The course culminates in student presentations of the organizations and lively debate on the most deserving nonprofit. PS 199 How do we describe and understand leadership and acts of leading? Why does it matter? This seminar on the theories of leadership will investigate how theoretical concepts about interaction of personality, training, character, and environment help us explain the principled or unprincipled exercise of power and influence. We will examine various definitions of leadership from political theory, history, psychology, sociology, literature, moral philosophy, and organizational behavior and test insights of classical theorists from Machiavelli to Nietzsche.
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