The First-Year Seminar Program is a special opportunity for first- and second-semester students to take a small seminar class. First-Year Seminars are open only to first and second semester students. Each course is a small seminar (no more than 15-16 students) led or team-taught by UI faculty members. The courses do not offer credit you can apply to the General Education Program and you can't use these courses toward a major, but First-Year Seminars do offer you a chance to focus on unusual and interesting topics chosen by some of our most exciting professors.
First-Year Seminars are offered for 1 s.h. If you choose to take a First-Year Seminar please remember the College's guideline: student preparation time over the 15 weeks of a semester usually averages 2 hours of out-of-class work each week for every hour in class, or for every hour of credit earned. So a First-Year Seminar that meets all semester will probably require an average of 2 hours of work each week; one that meets for a shorter time will require more time each week.
First-Year Seminars use the A-F grading system. Instructors may also choose to use plus/minus grading. All of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences rules on adding and dropping apply to these courses. Talk to your adviser if you decide not to complete a course.
REGISTRATION: All First-Year Seminars are open only to first and second semester students. No special registration numbers are needed, simply add the course when you register. Be sure to check your course-and section number very carefully. In Spring 2006, there are three special sections of First-Year Seminars open only to honors students (see 143:030 Sections 001, 002, and 003, below)
For date/time of the courses listed below, please check ISIS
First-Year Seminar: Meaning in Contemporary Storytelling Performance
01P:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Steve McGuire
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins
This seminar aims to illuminate storytelling's importance in our lives, to help each class member to develop a philosophy of the role of storytelling in his/her and others' acts of interpretation, and to help students accomplish storytelling performance skillfully.
Our capacity to created pictures of how lives should be led and how our own lives intertwine with others' lives come down to telling stories. To be sure, storytelling has an entertainment value, but stories are also told for the purpose of explaining why something happened one way instead of another. What are the culturally relative aesthetics of contemporary story telling? In this seminar, students will tell stories and consider what constitutes a good story performance. Discussion, reading, self-critique, and performance are all part of the course, intended to advance each member's skill as an effective storyteller, ability to interpret stories that others tell, and understanding of the philosophical concepts that underpin storytelling. Emphasis will be placed on evaluating and enhancing performance, so students will not be graded on storytelling "talent" but on making discoveries about storytelling form and approach. Students will compose written critiques of their own performances using a guide provided by the instructor, and will complete a number of creative exercises.
Grades will be based on: storytelling performances (33%); written homework (33%); in-class contributions (33%).
Steve McGuire is an associate professor in the School of Art and Art History and the College of Education. As a storyteller, he has performed across the United States and in Mexico and Canada. He has bicycled across 504 miles of the American Discovery Trail, and 1400 miles around Iceland, gathering stories and visual images.
First-Year Seminar: Insect Societies
002:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Barbara Stay
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins
This seminar will introduce students to the fascinating subject of insect societies. We will study how they are organized into "superorganisms," how they communicate, and how hormones influence the development of "castes" that perform different tasks. The class will discuss scientific research papers on these subjects and perform laboratory observations of social insects and insect anatomy. Each student will choose one topic and (with the help of the instructor) gather background information and at least one journal article on the subject. The entire class will read each of the journal articles, with each student helping to present the background and lead the class discussion of his/her topic.
Grades will be based on: class participation, the in-class presentation, and a short paper summarizing the material on the topic the student chose.
Barbara Stay is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. Her research focuses on the relationships of nervous and endocrine systems in the regulation of insect reproduction and development. In the past, Professor Stay used a viviparous cockroach in her experiments; now she is studying the action of neuropeptides on caste determination in termites.
First-Year Seminar: Theater’s Poet of 20th Century Black America: August Wilson
010:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Vershawn Young
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins
This seminar examines the rhetorical and artistic construction of August Wilson’s plays. Wilson, who has been recently called by the New York Times, “Theater’s Poet of 20th Century Black America”, wrote 10 plays, each one depicting a different decade of black experience in 20th Century America. Wilson recently died just after completing the last play in the cycle, but not before becoming one of Broadway’s premier playwrights and one of the most vocal and enriching voices on race in America.
In this seminar, students will read or view a recording of at least 5 of Wilson’s plays, and as a class we will seek to understand them through two lenses of critical black thought: race and the function of art. We will read some background materials by theatre critics and scholars of Wilson's work and some historical material by W.E.B DuBois. There will be some background lectures that will help students see how, as DuBois teaches us, “the problem of the twentieth century will be the problem of the colorline,” and how this insight informed Wilson’s work. DuBois also makes the argument that black art should have a deliberate and explicit rhetorical function. He said “I don’t give a damn about art for art’s sake” and “all art is propaganda.” We will also look at Wilson's plays in light of this argument. This course will ask students to examine Wilson’s plays within this context, giving special focus to Wilson’s ninth play “King Hedley II” for the ways in which it depicts and critiques America’s love/hate relationship with race. We will read some critical background material together, and study "King Hedley II" as a group. Each student will also read 3 or 4 of the other plays in the cycle, and share portions with the rest of the class. Students will write several short response papers about what we read together and what they read separately, and a longer paper on one (their choice, except "King Hedley II) of the plays in Wilson's ten-play cycle.
Grades will based on: Short papers (20%), longer paper (20%) and active class participation (60%).
Vershawn Young is an assistant professor in the Department of Rhetoric. He is currently working on two book manuscripts. The first, tentatively titled, Your Average Nigga: Language, Literacy and the Rhetoric of Blackness, seeks to answer why education aggravates the gap between the black under class and the black middle class. His second project, which is closely related to the first, looks at how the class division in black communities is predicated upon what he calls the burden of racial performance.
First-Year Seminar: Looking Under the Hood: Structure and Function of Materials in the Modern World
004:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Edward Gillan
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins
A myriad of unique solids are important components of our everyday lives. These include plastics in bottles and clothing, semiconductors in cell phones, portable electronics and computers, metals used in vehicles and space exploration. This course will give an overview of how the properties of solids are closely tied to how their smallest building blocks (atoms and molecules) are linked together. Hands-on examples and demonstrations will take place in most sessions.
Grades will be based on: class participation, a few homework assignments, and a written analysis of a particular materials used in modern life.
Edward Gillan is an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry. He is part of the Department's "materials & catalysis" and "organometalic" groups which are part of inorganic chemistry. His own research hopes to "utilize the advantages of molecular compounds as precursors in the growth of solid-state materials that are technologically important and difficult or impossible to produce by conventional syntheses..."
First-Year Seminar: Being Young in Africa
016:049 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: James Giblin
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins
What is 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 about sexuality -- faced by young people in the United States. They also face situations which are utterly unfamiliar to most US young people -- like a devastating AIDS pandemic, incomes of less than a dollar a day, and catastrophic warfare in some countries. This course ill look at the familiar experience of being young in some unfamiliar social and cultural settings. By doing so, class members will learn how to ask the sorts of questions about culture and history which help us make sense of unfamiliar societies. We will view films and videos, read some short novels and brief social studies (all of which have been written or produced by Africans), and discuss what we learn.
Grades will be based on: participation in class discussion, brief response essays, and one short paper.
James Giblin is a professor of History, whose primary research interest is Tanzania and East Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He is currently working on a collaborative research project on the oral history of the Maji Maji war, a major rebellion against German colonialism in Tanzania during 1905-06.
First-Year Seminar: Love in Twelfth Century France
016:049 Section 002 1 s.h.
Instructor: Constance Berman
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins
The twelfth century is famous for the Courts of Love presided over by Eleanor of Aquitaine and Marie de Champagne, the love-affair of Abelard and Heloise, the love letters of the troubadours, the Love of God of Bernard of Clairvaud, the love stories of Marie de France, the love and faith owed by a knight to his lord, and the textbook on love by Andrew the Chaplain. In this first-year seminar, students will read short (5-10 page) selections from these texts and write brief (one page) responses each week to prepare for a class discussion. No previous work in medieval history is necessary.
Grades will be based on: attendance, participation, and individual improvement in reading and analysis as demonstrated by discussion and written work.
Constance Berman is a professor of History. She received the Iowa Regents' Award for Faculty Excellence in 2005. Her research has focused on the economic and religious roles of women in the medieval world, especially those who became nuns.
First-Year Seminar: From CAT Scans to Google: Great Ideas in Computing
22C:002 Sections 001 and 002 1 s.h.
Instructors: James Cremer and Alberto Segre
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins
NOTE: Each of these sections will be team-taught by Professors Cremer and Segre
From 3-D Movies and game animation to medical imaging, "Googling," and text messaging, computing concepts have had enormous societal and economic impact over the past thirty years. In this course -- which requires no prior computing background -- we will study and discuss some of the great scientific ideas that made these things possible.
Grades will be based on: class participation and occasional readings-related homework assignments.
James Cremer and Alberto Segre are professors in and Chair and Associate Chair, respectively, of the Department of Computer Science. Professor Cremer is interested in virtual environments and how they can be used to study perception. He has worked recently with faculty members in his department and in the Department of Psychology on how bicyclists perceive the environment. Here's a link to more information about his research. Professor Segre studies "nagging" -- which in computer science means "a distributed search paradigm that exploits the speedup anomaly by playing multiple reformulations of the problem -- or portions of the problem -- against each other."
First-Year Seminar: The History of Mathematics as a Murder Mystery
22M:014 Section 001
Instructor: Raúl Curto
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins
The central text for this seminar is a murder mystery by Denis Guedj, The Parrot's Theorem, (translated by Frank Wynne, Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Griffin, 2000). Here are some excerpts from the novel’s back cover: The protagonist of the story is Mr. Ruche, a Parisian bookseller, who “receives a bequest of a vast library of math books from a long lost friend,” a recluse who moved to the Amazon many years before. The receipt of the books and learning why they were sent to him propels Mr. Ruche to study the story of mathematics. “Meanwhile Max, whose family lives with Mr. Ruche, takes in a voluble parrot who will discuss math with anyone. (…) [S]oon it becomes clear that Mr. Ruche has inherited the library for reasons other than enlightenment, and before he knows it the household is racing to prevent the parrot and vital, new theorems from falling into the wrong hands.”
The author, Denis Guedj, is a Professor of the History of Science at Paris VIII and has woven the tense hunt for the murdered friend's secrets with an equally compelling account of the history of mathematics - which must be understood in order to solve the riddle of the murder. Guedj exposes the reader to a number of high spots in the development of mathematics, beginning at the beginning and ending with A. Wiles's proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, ca. 1990. Along the way one learns of the many cultures that have contributed to the development of mathematics as well as something about the personalities in the mathematics pantheon.
Grades will be based on: class participation, completion of short weekly questionnaires on assigned readings, and a short term paper on a topic of the student’s choice.
Raúl Curto is a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Executive Associate Dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He is also the College's Director of Diversity. His mathematical research includes work in the areas multivariable operator theory, C*-algebras, several complex variables, and classical theory of moments. He also follows international soccer and tennis.
First-Year Seminar: The Beauty of Chamber Music
025:009 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Christine Rutledge
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins
Students in this seminar will be introduced to the historical roots of classical chamber music (both musical and sociological), the various forms of chamber music and chamber ensembles, and to the chamber music repertoire. They will learn about the smallest chamber music ensembles (duos) and everything in between, up to the largest chamber orchestras. In addition to classroom discussion, students will attend chamber music concerts on campus and do some independent listening to recordings. No previous musical experience is required.
Grades will be based on: attendance, class participation/effort, and brief reviews of concerts the students attend.
Christine Rutledge is an associate professor in the School of Music, where she teaches Viola. She also continues to play the viola as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician throughout the United States and abroad.
First-Year Seminar: The Crucible -- History, Hysteria, and Humanity
025:009 Section 002 1 s.h.
Instructor: Gary Race
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins
In Spring 2006, the Martha Ellen Tye Opera Theatre will perform Robert Ward's opera, The Crucible. The opera is based closely on Arthur Miller's play of the same name. Both works explore the nature of hysteria, misplaced power, and personal conviction. The plot is based on historical events surrounding the 17th century Salem (Massachusetts) witch trials, and was inspired by the 20th century "witch trials" led by the House Unamerican Activities Committee and its attempt to blacklist members of the Communist Party in the United States. Students will examine historical documents, audio recordings, and films as well as read the texts of the play and opera to stimulate discussion on a wide range of topics in the areas of art, culture, politics, ethics, and the nature of US society past and present. They will also attend rehearsals and a performance of the opera during the closing weeks of the semester.
Grades will be based on: participation in discussion and classroom presentations.
Gary Race is an associate professor in the School of Music, where he is the Director of Opera. He has also taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he served as Director of Opera for six years and was also Artistic Director of Lyric Opera Cleveland for two seasons. His 30-plus years of experience includes the direction of operas in Europe as well as all over the US.
First-Year Seminar: Power, Status, Leadership in a Diverse Environment
034:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Michael Lovaglia
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins
Power, Status and Leadership in a Diverse Environment is a study of leadership which appeals to a wide variety of capable students who inevitably will rise to leadership positions if they have not already done so. Because the leaders of society are drawn from the pool of graduates of top universities such as The University of Iowa, it is understandable that many students would like to know more about how to lead.
The study of leadership is crucial now because our knowledge has become outdated. Most of what we know about how to lead comes from situations where older white men lead younger white men. Organizations and their leaders are now more diverse. Not only are women and minorities more often leaders, but the people they lead come from diverse backgrounds with diverse experiences that make assumptions about common goals difficult. We want to learn more to help women and minority leaders overcome the resistance they so often face and we want to help all leaders be more effective in promoting the effectiveness of the diverse individuals they lead. Curiously, leadership has much in common with roles that many of us play. It is not so different than being a good parent or teacher for example. How can we learn to be better leaders in all of the arenas of our lives: family, school, community, work, and the larger society?
In addition to learning about leadership in diverse settings, we will help to develop a new leadership training program that will train undergraduates to reach out to high school students at risk of dropping out. By identifying students who are likely to benefit from a university education but who might not consider attending, we can bring a new generation of diverse leaders to the university who in turn can bring others to follow. Your experience and knowledge of current youth culture will be valuable in shaping an effective training program.
Grading: This course will be taught as a high-level seminar. Emphasis will be on thorough preparation and contribution to class discussion. Two short papers will be assigned during the semester. Other assignments may be completed in class. Should you miss an assignments, get notes from a friend, do the assignment and turn it in as soon as you can. I tend to grade late papers a little harder. Grades are based on participation in class discussion that demonstrates an understanding of assigned readings, contribution to group activities, and two short essays.
Michael Lovaglia is a professor in and chair of the Department of Sociology. His research area is social psychology, and current research projects involve power in exchange networks, group process effects on IQ scores, the effects of emotions on status processes, and explaining why more women than men now attend colleges and universities. He has also recently attempted to quantitatively examine which schools are best for male athletes in football and basketball. See: http://www.sociology.uiowa.edu/bestschoolsforathletes/
First-Year Seminar: Latin American Current Events via the Web
035:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Philip Klein
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins
There's a lot going on South of the Border these day, and the best thing about Latin American current events (besides their novelty and variety) is that they are easy to witness and track on the World Wide Web. This course meets weekly to do just that, and the "homework" is to surf relevant sites (some recommended by the course, others that you discover yourself), then share the information and explore some URLs on-line together. The course is conducted in English (with other-language surfing encouraged by those who have the skills) is designed for those with an interest in political, social, economic, and cultural development in modern Latin America.
Grades will be based on: a weekly 1-page "news digest" essay (40% of the grade); two class presentations (based on five-page papers, each 20% of the grade); and a final 5 page summary essay..
Philip Klein has spent more than 4 years in residence in Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, and Cuba and has traveled in Peru, Ecuador, Panama, and Bolivia. He has also lived for a year in Spain. In 2006, he will travel again to Chile and Argentina.
First-Year Seminar: American Political Rhetoric in the 21st Century
036:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Bruce Gronbeck
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins
This course explores three major changes in the American political process in the 21st century:
1) the impact of cable television and the WWW on selling political policies (post-9/11 policies as case studies); 2) the impact of campaign finance reform and the WWW on campaigning (2004 presidential election events as case studies); and 3) the rise of "smart mobs" as tools for citizen pressure on institutions (with case studies including the WTO agitations and the anti-war demonstrations of spring 2003). The course will involve readings and discussion of the case studies.
Grades will be based on: on in-class analytical exercises and a final poster presentation in a projects fair.
Bruce Gronbeck is the A. Craig Baird Distinguished Professor of Public Address in the Department of Communication Studies. He works primarily in the area of rhetorical and media studies, with particular interests in contemporary television and politics.
First-Year Seminar: Gandhian Thought and the Modern World
042:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Thomas Walz
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins
This course explores the ideas of M.K. Gandhi and his protégés and how this thought might apply in addressing local, national and world problems in the 21st century. Gandhi's cultural background, childhood development, and life experiences will be analyzed, along with outside influences that affected the basis of his "moral philosophy." The seminar provides an opportunity for students to examine their own values and to explore new possibilities for their own lives.
Grades will be based on: class participation; assigned "mini research" questions; class presentations, and a final paper (also presented in class).
Thomas Walz is an emeritus professor in the School of Social Work. He is an international traveler and a former director of Peace Corps operations in Honduras. He was the first North American social worker to teach social work students in Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union. He has been a life-long scholar of Gandhi's work.
First-Year Seminar: Environment/Society Classics: The Power of Enduring Ideas
044:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: R. Rajagopal
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins
Thoreau's Walden, Leopold's Sand County Almanac, Carson's Silent Spring, Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons, and the more recent Kidder's Mountains Beyond Mountains, Barker's And the Waters Turned to Blood, and Colborn's Our Stolen Future have all captured our imagination through their insightful scholarship or provocative research findings. They appear on environmentalists' bookshelves and are considered classics by many in the field. In this course, the students will have the opportunity to critically explore, analyze, discuss, and debate the major ideas contained in four of these classics. Students will find out why such books endure the test of time and leave an imprint on the readers' consciousness. Using the techniques of improvisation, comparison, dramatization, and visual representation, students will be encouraged to explore the central premise or contention of these classical thoughts and ideas.
Grades will be based on the following: Active and passionate participation in the discussion of two books to be read by the entire class (40%), moderating and leading the discussion on two books of your own choice (40%), and active participation and discussion during all other class meetings when other student's books are discussed (20%).
Notes: 1)Your involvement is the key to a good learning experience: "Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will understand (Confucius, 450 BC)."
2) Honors Students are encouraged to work with Professor Rajagopal and the Honors Program to add an "Honors Designation" to their work in this course.
Professor Rajagopal joined the UI geography department in 1979. He is the founding editor of the journal "The Environmental Professional," currently published as "Environmental Practice" by the Cambridge University Press. His research interests are at the interface of science, technology, and public policy, especially as they relate to the protection of water quality.
First-Year Seminar: Oil, Past, Present, and Future
052:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructors: Alec Scranton and David Murhammer
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins.
Oil and petroleum products are essential for the American way of life. Products derived from petroleum are ubiquitous, including fuels for our vehicles and heating our homes and a wide range of other products used every day. Petroleum has had, and will continue to have, a profound impact on the economic, political and environmental conditions of the United States and the rest of the world. In this seminar, we will explore the history and politics of petroleum production and use. Furthermore, we will examine theories and opinions regarding future oil production and use, and potential alternatives. Each student will also choose a specific petroleum related issue for a written report and a brief presentation to the class.
Grades will be based on: attendance and discussion (40%), a written report (30%) and an oral presentation (30%).
Alec Scranton and David Murhammer are Professors in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering in the College of Engineering. They both work both in "pure research" and in cooperation with industry.
First-Year Seminar: Reading Borges
610:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Daniel Balderston
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins. Note: This is and intensive course that will meet twice a week for part of the semester (beginning mid-February), with the final paper completed and discussed later in the semester (April).
This course focusses on the short stories of Jorge Luis Borges (1899 - 1986), the most influential Latin American writer of the twentieth century. We will read one story for each class meeting, and spend the class time discussing the ideas in each story. The course is for students interested in literature in general and for those interested in Latin America.
Grades will be based on: participation in class discussion (25%), two short papers (2 pages each, 25%) an oral presentation (25%) and a longer final paper (8-10 pages, 25%). Students are encouraged to submit drafts or outlines to the instructor who will work with them to revise their work.
Daniel Balderston is a Professor of Spanish. He has taught at Tulane and has been a visiting professor in Columbia, Argentina, Brazil and Norway, as well as at institutions in the US. Among his many books and other publications are a number of books on Borges as well as sexuality in Latin American life and literature.
First-Year Seminar: Understanding Human Social Behavior through Experimental Research
610:029 Section 002 1 s.h.
Instructor: Lisa Troyer
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins.
In this seminar students will be introduced to experimental research methods for studying human social behavior. Students will collaborate as a team with the instructor to conduct an experiment during the semester, with the opportunity to become co-authors of a journal article based on the collaborative research. Students will learn about both the ethical issues in experimental research and how experiments can be used to understand social behavior. In addition to the collaborative project, each student will create an individual research proposal which will outline an experimental design for studying a particular social behavior in which the student is interested.
Grades will be based on: 1) obtaining certification for research involving human subjects (10%); 2) participation in class discussion (25%); 3) participation in the administration of a team experiment (25%); 4) the quality of the student's individual research proposal (40%).
Lisa Troyer is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology. She has earned several teaching awards, and was the faculty speaker at CLAS commencement in May 2000. Her research interests include group decision making, the effects of computer technologies on social processes in group decision making, and investigating the social dimensions of virtual reality. Currently, she is also a member of the Provost's Office, as an administrative fellow who assists the Provost with special projects.
Honors First-Year Seminar: The Faces of Injustice: Thinking Politically about Cruelty
143:030 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Alfonso J Damico
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins.
Plato taught us that justice is the first virtue of politics. Injustice then is the worst sort of political failure. In this short course we will consider the nature and meaning of injustice and how it differs from misfortune. We will also look at some of the major explanations for injustice, ranging from those that blame human nature to those that blame impersonal institutions. In this connection we will discuss crimes of obedience such as the 1968 My Lai massacre during the Vietnam war and issues arising out of America’s war on terrorism, especially the question of whether or when the ends justify the means.
Honors First-Year Seminar: Doing Well and Doing Good
143:030 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: John Solow
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins.
Does doing well (pursuing your own well-being) inevitably conflict with doing good (respecting the legitimate interests of others)? Is it naïve to expect people to restrain themselves for the common good in a competitive environment in which other people are trying to get ahead? What role do social norms and law play in solving social dilemmas, where self-interest and group interest collide? This seminar will explore these issues from the viewpoint of economics and psychology, by reading and discussing scientific research and conducting simple experiments.