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. Because we can offer no more than 400 seats in First-Year Seminars each semester (and often offer fewer than 300) we ask that each individual student enroll in only one seminar. 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 2007, there are also two special sections of First-Year Seminars open only to honors students -- information on these courses is available from the Honors Program. Courses will be listed on ISIS under the course number 143:030 Sections 001 and 002.
For date/time of the courses listed below, please check ISIS
First-Year Seminar: Image, Text, and Story -- an Exploration of Graphic Novels
01P:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Rachel Williams
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins.
This interdisciplinary class is designed to explore a variety of graphic novels that focus on social issues, politics, and war. The graphic novel is a literary form that has grown in popularity over the past thirty years. They are a compelling juxtaposition of image and narrative. Students will discuss the visual construction and written content of excerpts from graphic novels from writer/artists including Joe Sacco, Sue Coe, Art Speigelman, Keiji Nakazawa, Marjane Satrapi and Eric Drooker. Students will also work on their own graphic novellas, based on a political or social issue.
Texts will include a course packet with chapters from graphic novels and from Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud and Graphic Novels: Everything You Need to Know by Paul Gravett.
Grades will be based on: discussion and the creation of the short graphic novella. Students will be expected to add 3-10 frames to their project each week.
Rachel Williams is an Associate Professor in the School of Art and Art History and in the College of Education. Her research has been focused on the art making of incarcerated women and their experiences. She has worked as an artist, evaluator, and researcher with incarcerated populations in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Florida.
First-Year Seminar: Sex -- Why We Do It
002:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: John Logsdon
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins.
Sex is one of the unsolved mysteries in biology. Why do organisms have sex when other alternatives for reproduction are possible -- and simpler? In this seminar, we will discuss the importance of sex in the evolution of life on earth and its very curious consequences for biology. The sex lives (or lack thereof) of a wide variety of organisms ranging from bacteria to humans will be considered through the lens of evolutionary biology. Following a brief introduction to evolutionary thinking, a broad range of topics on the biology of sex will be explored through discussion of readings from scientific articles and popular sources. The course will include attending research seminars given by prominent scientists working on the evolution of sex. By attending these seminars and meeting with the speakers, students will experience first-hand some of the excitement and discovery of science. All first-year students are welcome to enroll; those considering a major in Biological Sciences are especially encouraged to take this seminar.
Grades will be based on: attendance, active participation in discussion, and a short presentation/paper on a topic discussed in class.
John Logsdon has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences since 2003. His research considers how eukaryotic cells have evolved, with a focus on the origin and evolution of genes involved in sex and meiosis.
First-Year Seminar: John Dos Passos and the USA Trilogy
008:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Douglas Trevor
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins.
This seminar examines one of the more ambitious literary projects of Depression-Era America: John Dos Passos's USA Trilogy, comprised of The 42nd Parallel (1930), 1919 (1932), and The Big Money (1936). Dos Passos intended these books to serve as a "long narrative which deals with the more or less entangled lives of a number of Americans during the first three decades of the [twentieth century]." To create his desired effect, he absconded with a number of conventional features of the novel as he inherited the form, and instead invented new ones. We will consider these innovations in the context of the broader question of what it means to write about an epoch, rather than about a single character or family. We will also learn about the literary movement known as "modernism," in which Dos Passos played a pivotal -- if now largely overlooked -- role. Materials on Dos Passos himself, and historical information about the early twentieth century, will also be discussed, with each student presenting a set of such materials once during the semester. Students will also develop a paper topic and write a final paper. Note: the basic reading assignment in this course will be about 80 pages each week.
Grades will be based on: Class participation; a 10-15 minute class presentation; and the final paper.
Douglas Trevor is an Associate Professor of English. His primary research and teaching spans the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but he is also a writer of fiction whose work has appeared in numerous journals, including The Paris Review and Glimmer Train, and has been anthologized in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2005 and The O. Henry Prize Stories 2006. He is currently writing a novel set in Boston. He has taught a number of First-Year Seminars in the past, including courses on Hemingway, James Joyce and Hamlet.
First-Year Seminar: College Education and Democratic Citizenship
010:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Takis Poulakos
Course Meets: Check ISIS ! Note: This course meets for only part of the semester.
We will begin this course by raising one important question: what, if any, is the relationship between college education and democratic ideals? Framed around this question, the course will explore a variety of views as to whether or not higher education can be said to improve democracy and to contribute to the making of better citizens. In addition to readings that address this question generally, we will also do a number of readings that approach this question from the specific viewpoints of natural sciences, social sciences, the humanities, and the arts. This will enable students to investigate the broader links between liberal education and democratic citizenship from within the specific field of study they are majoring in or are considering to major in.
Grades will be based on: Students will give a 10-15 minute oral presentation on readings of their choice, classical and contemporary. They will also write a 6-8 page paper that extends the breadth and depth of the presentation through additional readings.
Takis Poulakos is an associate professor in the Department of Rhetoric. He has served as President of the American Society for the History of Rhetoric and has received numerous grants and awards for his scholarship on classical rhetoric and the history of rhetoric.
First-Year Seminar: 1-800-CALL INDIA -- Cultural Life in Indian Call Centers
010:029 Section 002 1 s.h.
Instructor: Aimee Carillo Rowe
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins.
This course examines popular, academic, and interview discussions surrounding the emerging global service industry of Indian call centers. This new form of labor requires call center agents to "perform" US identities by night, while managing their cultural lives as Indians by day. We will consider what these work pressures mean for the identities of Indian workers, as well as for those of us, half way around the globe, who consume their labor. Students will read popular and academic work on the global service economy; they will be invited to study the actual stories shared by call center agents; and they will be asked to write and discuss these issues.
Grades will be based on: on attendance, participation, journal entries and "free writing," and response papers.
Aimee Carillo Rowe is an Assistant Professor in Rhetoric and POROI. Her research and teaching focus on feminist alliances, third world feminisms, whiteness and antiracism studies, critical pedagogy, and the politics of spirituality and justice.
First-Year Seminar: Discrete Dynamics and Chaos
22M:14 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Juan Gatica
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins.
This seminar offers an elementary introduction to the fascinating subject of dynamical systems. Dynamical systems are used to describe the evolution of systems with respect to time, such as how the population of a species changes either with regard to the number of generations considered or with respect to continuous time, how a pendulum swings, how a tumor grows in size, what happens when there is competition between species, and many other fascinating phenomena. Starting with the notion of composition of functions, we arrive at generational models that exhibit many different types of behavior, ranging from complete predictability to situations where two identical systems start very close but the ultimate behavior observed is quite different, which is the essence of chaos in a deterministic model. An example of this is the the logistic model for population changes for a single species. This seminar will center on the mathematics behind the systems and the use of calculus to predict which of the situations will arise in particular models.
This seminar will be of interest for students in mathematics, in the biological sciences, political science, economics, medicine, engineering and many other areas. The book Chaos, an Introduction to Dynamical Systems by Kathleen T. Alligood, Tim D. Sauer and James A. Yorke will be the text for the seminar, and students will learn to use powerful mathematical software.
NOTE: Participants should have a strong background in high school mathematics. Calculus is a plus for any participant but even without it the seminar will be interesting, informative and fun. Any participants with little (or non-existent) calculus background will get sufficient information about it to be able to enjoy the seminar, provided that they have a good pre-calculus skills.
Grades will be based on: active class participation and an in-class presentation on a subject that will be selected by collaboration between the student and the instructor.
Juan A. Gatica is a professor in the Department of Mathematics and has written research papers on the general topic of dynamical systems and applications to biology.
First-Year Seminar: Understanding Weapons of Mass Destruction
030:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Brian Lai
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins.
After the events of September 11, 2001, a great deal of discussion among policy-makers, the media, and academics has been over the possible use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against the United States. President Bush even highlighted the growing threat of weapons of mass destruction in a state of the union address. What are these weapons? Historically, when have they been used? Who has used them, and why? What efforts have been taken to prevent and prepare for a possible attack by states or terrorists using these WMD? How have these efforts fared? Finally, what is the threat that these weapons pose to the US? This seminar will address these questions in the context of the current policy debate about how the US should prevent and prepare for a possible WMD attack. We will also examine the development and use of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons over time. We will also examine efforts by states to prevent the development and use of these weapons as well as prepare for a possible attack. Finally, we will examine the current threats posed to the US and what measures the US can take to address those threats.
Grades will be based on: participation, a short research paper, and a class presentation.
Brian Lai is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, where he teaches courses on International Relations.
First-Year Seminar: Power, Status, and Leadership in a Diverse Environment
034:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Michael Lovaglia
Course Meets: Check ISIS !
This seminar examines the challenge of effective leadership in organizations with increasingly diverse memberships. Students will read and discuss the best current research on effective leadership and then apply their new knowledge to help develop an effective leadership training program for young leaders of groups in which women and minorities are well represented as both members and leaders.
Grades will be based on : Participation in class discussion that demonstrates an understanding of the assigned readings; contributions to group activities, and two short essays.
Michael Lovaglia is a professor in the Department of Sociology. He frequently teaches first-year seminars, and also the large introductory sociology courses. His research interests include exploring 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.
First-Year Seminar: Reading Borges
035:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Daniel Balderston
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins. Note: This course is offered on an off-cycle schedule, please note start and end date carefully.
This course focuses 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. Course is taught in English and the readings are in English.
Grades will be based on: participation, two short papers, an oral presentation and a final project.
Daniel Balderston is a Professor of Spanish and Cinema & Comparative Literature. 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. He currently directs the UI Borges Center (and edits the journal Variaciones Borges) and is the current president of the Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana.
First-Year Seminar: Latin American Current Events Via the Web
035:029 Section 002 1 s.h.
Instructor: Philip Klein
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins
The best thing about Latin American current events (besides their variety and vitality) is that they are often easy to witness and track on the World Wide Web. We meet weekly to do just that, after our "homework" of surfing to relevant sites (some recommended by the course, others discovered by students in the class), sharing URLs and exploring the background of the day's events. This is a course for those with an interest in political, social, and economic developments affecting modern Latin America: its peoples' struggle for a better life for their families and their communities. Course is taught in English.
Grades will be based on: weekly assignments that include a short class web presentation and a supporting half-page outline; small-group collaboration on a topic and summary paragraph, active participation in class discussion, and a final 5-page essay.
Philip Klein is an Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese. He has spent more than four years in residence in Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, and Cuba, and traveled in Peru, Ecuador, Panama, and Bolivia as well as several different years spent in Spain.
First-Year Seminar: Entertainment and American Political Culture
036:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Bruce Gronbeck
Course Meets: Check ISIS! NOTE: This is an intensive course -- check time carefully.
This seminar will focus on relationships between political films, television programs, and Internet-based sites featuring comedy/humor and American political culture. Does political humor create engaged or cynical citizen-voters? How do the romantic visions 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 will serve as the basis for class discussion. Along the way, students will also learn more about how to talk and write in interpretive-critical ways.
Grades will be based on: Each student will do an oral presentation of a case study of entertainment and politics as well as a final written project (alone or with another student).
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: Reading Modern European Poetry
048:029 Sec 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Sabine Gölz
Course Meets: Check ISIS! NOTE: This course meets only part of the semester.
This course will introduce students to the intellectual pleasures of reading poetry, using selected poems from a range of European languages (French, Russian, German, and English), read in English translation. In each class period, we will focus on a few poems– by poets such as Charles Baudelaire, Guillaume Apollinaire, Osip Mandelstam, Rainer Maria Rilke, Else Lasker-Schüler, Marina Tsvetaeva, Paul Celan, Ingeborg Bachmann. We will explore the poems in detail, probing how they are formed, how they use language, how they allude to other poems, and how they address the reader. We will listen to the poems in the original languages, compare different translations with each other and (with the instructor's help) with the original. Knowledge of other languages is not required, but curiosity and interest regarding other languages as well as language in general is strongly encouraged. In our exploration of these carefully wrought texts, we will develop critical thinking skills, and become aware of the profound role which metaphor and figurative language play in our efforts to make sense of the world and our lives.
Grading will be based on: active participation in class discussion, a short class presentation and a short paper.
Sabine I. Gölz is Associate Professor of Cinema and Comparative Literature. She teaches courses in Comparative Literature, literary theory, and photography. She is the author of The Split Scene of Reading: Nietzsche/Derrida/Kafka/Bachmann , as well as of numerous articles on topics ranging from the poetics of early 19 th century women poets to the bridges of Moscow. She is currently working on a research project on the manuscripts of Walter Benjamin.
First-Year Seminar: Diabetes and the World Wide Food Revolution
051:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructors: K. B. Chandran and Lisa Scranton
Course Meets: Check ISIS ! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins.
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 prevention. 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 las 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 question, "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).
K. B. Chandran is Lowell G. Battershell Professor and Chairman of Biomedical Engineering, who has done research on artificial heart valves and ventricular assist devices. Lisa Scranton is a registered, licensed dietician whose research includes nutrition education and diabetes education through Internet technologies
First-Year Seminar: The Energy 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.
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, 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 topic related to our energy future 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: Unraveling Debates about Same-Sex Marriage
131:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Ellen Lewin
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins.
Same-sex marriage has emerged as a contentious issue in recent years, passionately debated by advocates and opponents, and often credited with encapsulating ongoing "culture wars" in American society. This seminar will explore the arguments -- legal, religious, historical, anthropological, political, psychological, philosophical -- that have surrounded the issue, drawing both on writings by scholars in various fields and on more popular materials (particularly political tracts and personal narratives) that offer specific perspectives on the debate. The course will draw attention to relationships between political agendas and ideas about gender, family, and citizenship.
Grades will be based on: Students will write short response papers on the various writings and other materials, and craft arguments about how this debate reflects other dimensions of US values and political realities. Students will be evaluated on their ability to explore these issues creatively, particularly with respect to drawing connections between seemingly disparate materials.
Ellen Lewin is a professor of Anthropology and Women's Studies. Over the course of her career, she has completed studies that focus on low-income Latina immigrants in San Francisco, lesbian mothers, and lesbian and gay commitment ceremonies in the US. Her current research is on gay fathers in the Chicago area, working with men who have adopted children either on their own or with male co-parents as well as men who became fathers through marriages and relationships with women.
First-Year Seminar: Learning and Loving Foreign Languages
610:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: James Pusack
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Departments will schedule courses before registration begins.
Are you one of those students who took lots of foreign language in high school and now plan to go on for advanced work or to sign up for a second or third foreign language? This course will unite you with some hard-to-find peers and encourage you to reflect on what language learning is all about. You will read some current theory on what is called "Second Language Acquisition" and then move on to explore the experiences of other students and your own family, culminating in the writing of some pages of your own linguistic autobiography, past, present, and future.
Grades will be based on: class participation, postings to an ICON discussion area (including commentary on other students' work) and the development of your Language Learning Portfolio.
James Pusack is a professor in and Chair of the Department of German. His current research is on the use of multi-media in second language acquisition.