| First-Year Seminars: Fall 2008 |
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The Honors Program also offers First-Year Seminars, restricted to Honors Students, see ISIS under the number 143:030 for sections and descriptions offered for Fall 2008. |
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First-Year Seminar: The Potential Impact of Nanomaterials on the Environment and Human Health
002:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Chi-Lien Cheng
Course Meets: Check ISIS
The use of man-made nanomaterials (particles with diameters 1 - 100 nm) in industries such as medicine, plastics, energy, electronics, and aerospace is growing rapidly. Because of their wide applications, it is unavoidable that these materials will be introduced in increasing amounts into the air, water, and soil. Nanoparticles can enter the human body directly or through the food chain. Only recently has attention been paid to their possible effects on human health. Very little is known about the possible impact of nanoparticles on our environment. In this course, we will identify the key nanomaterials being used in industry, with special emphasis on those that are used in Iowa, their possible routes for entering the environment, and what is known about their effects on living organisms.
Readings will include both non-technical "popular" articles and research articles. With help from the instructor, each student will choose a topic, identify reading materials to be read by the entire class, and lead a discussion.
Grades will be based on: attendance, participation in discussion, and a short term paper.
Chi-Lien Cheng is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut and studies land plants, especially maize.
First-Year Seminar: The German Reading Room -- History, Memory, Fiction
013:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Waltraud Maierhofer
Course Meets: Check ISIS
note: The readings in this course are in German; good German reading skills are needed. The discussions will be in English.
Students in this seminar will read some of the latest German bestsellers and controversial books and view some recent films as a way to improve their German reading skills and learn about history, historical persons, and the distinctions between fact and fiction. We will use the virtual "Reading Room" of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and its -- often not yet published in printed versions -- works and background information.
Out of class assignments will consist of reading the works and thinking about them. In class, students will discuss the works, make short presentations, and do some short in-class writing exercises that will help improve their rhetorical skills.
Students will be able to participate in an optional 10- day study tour "Berlin -- Weimar -- Prague -- behind the Former Iron Curtain" over Thanksgiving break.
Grades will be based on: attendance, class participation, and the short in-class writing assignments.
Waltraud Maierhofer is a professor in the Department of German. Her research focuses on German literature, mainly narrative prose of the 18th and 19th
centuries including the novel, the historical novel, autobiography and biography, women writers, and gender issues. She has previously offered First-Year Seminars on German Fairy Tales and German Film.
First-Year Seminar: Love in 12th Century France
016:049 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Constance Berman
Course Meets: Check ISIS
The twelfth century is famous for the "Courts of Love" presided over by Eleanor of Aquitaine and Marie de Champagne (for whom a textbook on love was written by Andrew the Chaplin [aka Andreas Capellanus], for the love-affair of Abelard and Heloise (whose letters have been preserved), and for the love stories of Marie de France (called the Lais). Over the course of this semester, students in this seminar will read selections (in translation) from Andreas Capellanus, the Letters of Heloise and Abelard, and the Lais of Mairie de France. No previous knowledge of medieval history is necessary. The instructor will also introduce students to a number of useful college-level research tools and techniques.
Grades will be based on: attendance, participation and individual improvement in reading and analysis as demonstrated in discussion and in short written work. Every week, students will prepare a short precis of the reading assignment, before class discussion, and submit it through the class ICON page.
Constance Berman is a professor in the Department of History and was awarded the Iowa Regents' Award for Faculty Excellence in 2005. Her research focuses on Medieval social, economic, religious, and women's history, particularly in France and Italy.
First-Year Seminar: Being Young in Africa
016:049 Section 002 1 s.h.
Instructor: James Giblin
Course Meets: Check ISIS
What's it like to be young in Africa? African children, teens, and young adults encounter many of the same problems -- uncomprehending parents, pressure to get good grades, anxieties over sex -- faced by young people in the United States. They also face situations which are utterly unfamiliar to most American young people -- like a devastating AIDS pandemic, incomes of less than a dollar a day in many families, and catastrophic warfare in some countries.
This course is a way to look at the familiar experience of being young in unfamiliar social cultural settings. Students will learn how to ask the sorts of questions about culture and history that help us to make sense of unfamiliar societies. Students will view films and videos and read a couple of novels as well as Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, the One Community - One Book title for Fall 2008.
Class sessions will be devoted primarily to discussion of the course materials.
Grades will be based on: participation in class discussion (including assignments that will help you learn to lead the class discussion), and on brief essays responding to the visual and reading materials.
James Giblin is a professor in the History Department. His primary research interest is Tanzania and East Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and his current work includes a collaborative research project on the oral history of the Maji Maji war, a major rebellion against German colonialism in Tanzania during 1905-06. He has been director of Undergraduate Studies in the History Department and has taught frequently in the First-Year Seminar Program.
First-Year Seminar: The Italian Immigrants in America
018:029 Section 001
Instructor: Deborah Contrada
Course Meets: Check ISIS
The United States prides itself on being a land of diversity, a haven for those seeking political or religious freedom, a refuge for the poor and disenfranchised. But how does the country built on the labor of immigrants treat its immigrants? The rags-to-riches success stories are well-known (and much envied and admired) but the land of opportunity also harbors a seamier side: bigotry, job discrimination, exploitation, internment. This course will examine the fortunes and misfortunes of one immigrant group in particular: The Italians. From Christopher Columbus to the Sopranos, from William Pace (signer of the Declaration of Independence) to Rudy Guiliani, from Antonio Meucci ("first" inventor of the telephone) to executed anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, the course will focus on how the Italian Americans have shaped the American landscape, how they have been regarded and portrayed in return, and the stereotypes that continue to dog them.
Grades will be based on: homework assignments, class participation, and short "reaction" papers.
Deborah Contrada is an associate professor in the Department of French and Italian, where she teaches Italian Language and Literature. Her research includes Medieval Lyric Poetry, Italian Women Writers, and Italian-American Studies.
First-Year Seminar: Paul Erdös, Ramsey Theory, and the Question of Beauty in Mathematics
22M:014 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructors: Victor Camillo and Peter Blanchard
Course Meets: Check ISIS
This course is an examination of the motives of mathematicians as examined through the story of Paul Erdös and one of his favorite subjects: Ramsey Theory. Because questions in this field can be very simple to state, they hold the allure of being solved by a sudden flash of insight. Paul Erdös, the most social mathematician in history, and one of the most unusual, was fascinated by these questions and was a life-long proponent of Ramsey Theory. Students will also learn what an "Erdös Number" is and how they might, someday, acquire their own.
Readings will include a biography of Paul Erdös.
Grades will be based on: class participation, a short paper, and a student project.
No special mathematics background is needed for this course.
Victor Camillo is a professor in the Department of Mathematics and sometimes teaches Business Calculus. He also writes poetry and travels regularly with a small circus. Peter Blanchard is a lecturer in the Department of Mathematics. His "Erdös Number" is 2.
First-Year Seminar: Exploring Mt. Everest
028:039 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Susan Birrell
Course Meets: Check ISIS
As the highest point on the globe, Mt. Everest occupies a lofty position not just topographically but culturally and symbolically as well. In this course, we will consider Mt. Everest as more than a site for adventure, we will investigate it as a cultural text and we will develop methodologies for critical analysis to help us explore the meanings that surround it. Using expedition accounts, excerpts from autobiographies, and contemporary news accounts, we ill explore four particularly famous expeditions to Mt Everest:
- the 1924 British expedition in which George Mallory vanished,
- the "conquest" of Everest in 1953 by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay,
- the 1996 "tourist" expeditions detailed in Jon Kraukauer's Into Thin Air, and
- the 1998 discovery of the body of George Mallory
We will not be asking why people climb Mt. Everest (Mallory has already told us it is "because it is there"); we will be exploring how their exploits are framed for the rest of us. What is the effect of these stories, which are usually presented as tales of tragedy, courage, and heroism, and what sort of cultural meanings are we supposed to take from them?
Grades will be based on: participation in class discussions, a brief report on contemporary accounts of the four expeditions, a journal of responses to class discussions and readings, and a report tying independent reading to the course materials.
Susan Birrell is a professor of Health and Sport Studies, American Studies, and Women's Studies. She has served as chair of Health and Sport Studies, and of Women's Studies. Her research investigates many aspects of sport, and also the cultural meanings generated in and through the experience of "vacations."
First-Year Seminar: The Politics of Terrorism
030:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Brian Lai
Course Meets: Check ISIS
One central element of US foreign policy is to reduce the threat of international terrorism. After September 11, 2001, this issue has become central to US national security policy as well as US domestic politics. President Bush and all the 2008 candidates have proposed policies to reduce the threat of international terrorism. For many voters, dealing with the threat of terrorism is the primary issue for the upcoming election. Because international terrorism has received tremendous attention from the media and policy makers, it is important to critically analyze some fundamental questions that drive both the political and policy debates around the issue. What is terrorism? What are terrorists? Why do individuals and groups chose to use terrorism? How have terrorist organizations responded to different policies aimed at them and at society more broadly? Finally, what can the empirical record of terrorist - state interactions tell us about the efficacy of current approaches as well as theoretical arguments about terrorism? This seminar will address these questions in the context of the current policy debate about how the US should prevent and address the threat of international terrorism. This seminar will examine why groups and individuals use terrorism, how states have responded, and the effect of these policies. Finally, it will examine both current and historical terrorist organizations to illustrate and critically examine the theoretical arguments about terrorist group formation and the effect of states' policies.
Grades will be based on: participation, class presentations, and two short research papers.
Brian Lai is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science, where he teaches courses on International Relations.
First-Year Seminar: How Other Democracies Choose Their Presidents or Prime Ministers
030:029 Section 002 1 s.h.
Instructor: Gerhard Loewenberg
Course Meets: Check ISIS
This seminar will investigate how major democracies (other than the United States) choose their chief executives. It will provide a comparison of alternative methods of selecting the head of government and explain why the United States developed an exceptional procedure of indirect election. The focus will be on how the Prime Minister is chosen in Great Britain, how the Chancellor is chosen in Germany, and how the President is elected in France and in Brazil. We will examine the constitutional provisions that exist in each country, their political party systems, and their political cultures and we will assess the importance of issues, campaign finance, and candidates personalities in different countries. Readings will include descriptions of recent elections and chapters from major works in political science such as "Presidents and Assemblies," "Leaders' Personalities and the Outcomes of Democratic Elections" and "Choosing the Chief."
Grades will be based on: frequent one-page papers on the readings; a 5-6 page paper on a recent election, and participation in class discussion.
Gerhard Loewenberg is UI Foundation Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Science and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also a former dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He has done much research on electoral systems and has been a consultant to countries developing new constitutions.
First-Year Seminar: Politics and Entertainment
036:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Bruce Gronbeck
Course Meets: Check ISIS
note: This is an intensive course which meets for only five weeks.
This seminar will focus on relationships between political films, television programs, and Internet-based sites featuring comedy/humor and US political culture. Does political humor created engaged or cynical citizen-voters? how do the romantic vision of the presidency in popular films and television relate to citizens' views of the actual presidency? Why do people pass around Internet-based political cartoons, streaming audio and video political parodies, and nasty jokes about politicians?
A textbook on politics and humor (Politicotainment, edited by Kristina Riegert) will form the basis for class discussion.
Grades will be based on: An oral presentation of a case study of entertainment and politics as well as a final written project (done alone or with another student).
Bruce Gronbeck was for many years a Professor in the Department of Communication Studies. He retired in May 2008 as the the "A. Craig Baird Distinguished Professor of Public Address." He was also the director of the University of Iowa Center for Media Studies and Political Culture.
First-Year Seminar: Mapping Human Rights
044:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Rex Honey
Course Meets: Check ISIS
Human Rights moved from the realm of distant goal to the realm of real possibility in the last few generations. Still the world has a distinct geography of human rights, with variations across the world in terms of which rights are regarded as important, which rights are challenged, and which rights are fulfilled. This seminar will examine those variation, with each participant doing a study of the degree to which a particular right is in fact fulfilled across the globe. Each participant will generate a map of a human right along with an explanation of the map. Putting together the maps and their explanations, with a general class-developed introduction and conclusion, the members of the seminar will produce a Human Rights Atlas.
Grades will be based on: participation (quality as well as quantity) in class discussion, the quality of the individual map and its explanation, and participation in the development of the final atlas.
Rex Honey is a professor in the Department of Geography, where he serves as Honors Advisor and teaches a number of different courses including "Urban Geography" and "The Geography of Justice." He participates in a number of International Programs units, including the African Studies Program and the Middle East and Muslim World Studies group. He is also the Director of the "Crossing Borders" program for graduate students.
First-Year Seminar: Theatre as Politics/Politics as Theatre
049:029 Section 001
Instructor: Art Borecca
Course Meets: Check ISIS
In his Lives, Plutarch reports that the Greek poet and politician Solon went backstage following a performance by Thespis (the first actor) and chastised him for encouraging a new form of lying that "we might one day find in our business." Ever since then, and especially in the modern era, artists, critics, politicians, and political commentators have been fascinated by the relationship between politics and theatre. In this presidential election season, this seminar will examine that relationship through two overlapping tracks of inquiry. First, we will examine selected essays by major theorists from the field of performance studies -- most notably Victor Turner and Richard Schechner -- who have advanced a "dramaturgical approach" to politics: the use of dramatic and theatrical concepts in interpreting political processes and events. As we read these essays, we will keep a close eye on the events of the 2008 presidential campaign via assigned media websites and blogs, and we will analyze those events, as well as the sites and blogs themselves, in dramatic and theatrical terms. Second, we will examine a series of plays that have made use of presidential figures and events, past and present, in order to explore the nature and dynamics of political power. We will examine these plays as examples of "creative political dramaturgy," that shed light on the theatrical aspects of presidential power and leadership.
Readings will include selected essays by performance theorists, and the following plays: Barbara Garson's MacBird (about LBJ and Vietnam); David Hare's Stuff Happens (about Bush and the Iraq war); and Donald Freed's Secret Honor and Peter Morgan's Frost/Nixon (both about Nixon and Watergate).
Grades will be based on: a series of short (1-2 page) analytical exercises, one short in-class presentation, and a final project involving writing a short play based on a dramaturgical analysis of events from the 2008 presidential election. No previous creative writing experience is necessary.
Art Borreca is an associate professor in the Department of Theatre Arts where he teaches courses in dramatic literature and dramaturgy and is head of the playwriting and dramaturgy programs. He has worked with playwrights and acting companies in Europe and Asia as well as here in the U.S.
First-Year Seminar: Diabetes and the World Wide Food Revolution
051:029 Sec 001 1 s.h.
Instructors: Edwin Dove and Lisa Scranton
Course Meets: Check ISIS
The focus of this seminar will be the impact of changing food consumption patterns on the
incidence of type 2 diabetes in different parts of the world. We will
look at the disease of diabetes: its definition, physiology and
diagnosis, treatments and preventions. We will discuss the increasing
incidence of type 2 diabetes world wide, and nutritional contributions
to the increase. We will take a close look at the world food supply,
including historical perspectives, the differences in food consumption
in tribal communities, developing countries and wealthy countries. We
will also consider changes in the food supply and nutrition over the
last 25 years. As we discuss the food environment, we will also
contemplate social, economic, and cultural influences on the increasing
rates of type 2 diabetes. Each student will examine a specific aspect
of the questions, "what will it take to slow the spread of type 2 diabetes?" and will give one report on an assigned class reading as well as a paper and presentation
Grades will be based on: A total of 200 points as follows: Participation in class discussion(60); report on an assigned reading (15); paper (75); presentation (50).
First-Year Seminar: The Energy Future
052:029 Sec 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: David Murhammer
Course Meets: Check ISIS
Modern day society is dependent upon an abundant supply of inexpensive energy to sustain our way of life. Today fossil fuels (petroleum, natural gas, and coal) are used to provide the majority of this energy. However, the supply of these fossil fuels is limited, and there are a number of political, economic, and environmental consequences for their use. In this seminar we will examine the current state of fossil fuel supply and demand, and will explore the political, economic, and environmental impact of a dependence upon fossil fuels (notably, the impact of carbon dioxide emissions on global climate change). We will then explore the advantages and disadvantages of alternative energy sources that could lead to a sustainable energy future that includes the use of wind, solar, hydrogen, geothermal, hydroelectric, wave/tidal and biofuels to satisfy our energy needs. Furthermore, the topics of energy conservation and future use of nuclear energy will be discussed. Each student will be required to choose a specific location to design a home that independently supplies all of its own energy needs (i.e., is “off the grid”)
Grades will be based on: attendance and discussion (40%), a written report (30%) and an oral presentation (30%)
David Murhammer is a Professor (and currently serves as Chair) in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering in the College of Engineering. He works both in "pure research" and in cooperation with industry.
First-Year Seminar: The Mind and Body of Yoga
137:029 Section 001
Instructor: Charlotte Adams
Course Meets: Check ISIS
Note: this course meets twice a week during the first part of the semester.
This studio course will involve the physical practice of yoga while examining the mental and anatomical aspects associated with yoga postures and breathing techniques. The course will include active physical participation for strength and flexibility, discussions of the benefits of mental focus, and an investigation of the anatomy of the postures.
Grades will be based on: class participation, discussions of class material and assigned readings, weekly writings in a yoga journal, and a final project/paper.
Charlotte Adams is an associate professor in the Department of Dance, where she is also the Director of Undergraduate Studies and Honors advisor. She is a choreographer and the artistic director of a dance group, Charlotte Adams and Dancers. Her dances have been performed in Australia, the Caribbean, South East Asia, and southern France as well as across the United States.
First-Year Seminar: Three Months, Two Languages: Exploring the World by Linguistic Teleportation
610:029 Section 001
Instructor: James Pusack
Course Meets: Check ISIS
How can you, a First-Year Student, remain in Iowa City yet somehow transport yourself to far off worlds? The answer is to subject your brain to some surprising new foreign language experiments this fall. And we don't mean the comfortable languages of your high school (French, or German, or Spanish). No, your experiences in this course may include place where no one you know comes from. How will this work? After two introductory session, you will take Turkish for six weeks and then Indonesian for six weeks. A trained native speaker will guide you. Your professor will join you in taking all the same risks of learning a new language -- twice!
Grades will be based on: class participation and preparation for weekly language learning sessions; quality of on-line discussion of the assigned readings; creativity in discussion of language learning experiences; and a final report assessing the value of the two types of learning that constituted the seminar.
James Pusack is the Chair of the Department of German and has just completed a term as Chair of the CLAS Faculty Assembly. His research focuses on the use of multi-media in second language acquisition.
Additional information on the First-Year Seminar Program and links to lists and descriptions of previous seminars are available here.