First-Year Seminars

Instructor: Michael Wedlock

Title // Department: Associate Professor // Chemistry

The chemistry going on in the air around you is critical to everything you do, and changes to the atmosphere will have a profound effect on all human lives. In this seminar, we will learn about the chemistry that underlies critical atmospheric phenomena such as climate change, acid precipitation, and ozone depletion that are changing the world we live in every day. However, understanding science is not enough. It is essential that scientists are able to communicate the things they have learned to the people around them. Society needs to make its decisions based on data people can understand. We will think about how to illustrate and write about the science we have learned so that you can clearly and effectively communicate the things you have learned to the many different audiences who should hear what you have to say.

Instructor: Megan Benka-Coker

Title // Department: Associate Professor // Health Sciences

In this seminar STEM Scholars students will learn what distinguishes science from other modes of inquiry, and be introduced to skills used throughout the various STEM disciplines. Through readings, analyses, discussions and engaging group activities, the STEM Scholars will learn what scientists do and how they do it, with special emphases on the importance of problem solving, quantitative skills, and clear communication with fellow scientists and the general public. Students will learn about the history of science, proper experimental design, uncertainty, and methods for collecting, interpreting and analyzing data. We will discuss how basic scientific research informs technological applications used in our daily lives; learn about cutting-edge scientific discoveries as well as discuss the ethical issues involved in the pursuit and application of science. This seminar focuses on a multidisciplinary approach to learning, understanding, discussing and practicing the specific skills necessary for students participating in the STEM Scholar program in preparation to a successful career in the STEM fields at Gettysburg College and after graduation.

Instructor: Lindsay Reid

Title // Department: Assistant Professor // Political Science

Beyoncé empowers women everywhere to believe: “Who run the world? Girls!" When we look at the reality of who runs the world, however, a different picture emerges. In 2018, a record number of women were elected to the United States Congress, yet the United States still ranked a mere 88th worldwide in women’s representation. And, in 2019, while women held the highest positions of power in countries ranging from Bangladesh to New Zealand to Germany – women only led 19 countries. Ultimately, women have to close large representation gaps before they “run the world." At the same time, it is pretty apparent that women bring unique – and strong – experiences and perspectives to their political, economic, and social roles. This seminar delves into understanding questions about women in positions of political power. What do we know about women’s leadership in international politics? Are women leaders different than their male counterparts? What are the implications of increasing women’s participation in political, economic, and social leadership roles? Using a variety of academic and popular sources, we will engage, debate, and question theories and implications of women’s empowerment to better understand the pathways to and implications of a reality in which women run the world.

Instructor: Anne Douds

Title // Department: Associate Professor // Public Policy

Throughout your life, you have sought opportunities to be a difference maker, to be an agent for change in your school, your family, your community, and the world. This course celebrates your desire to work on social problems and provides the next step in your change-making and policy education. In this course, you will study how change happens at the community and societal levels, best practices for becoming a leader of social change, and how to advocate for social reform. The course incorporates traditional forms of academic scholarship on change, advocacy, and reform with up-to-the-minute literature in students’ specific areas of policy interest. Throughout the semester, we will take field trips related to policymaking and community change; meet with local policymakers; craft individual policy reform proposals; and learn from peers in a highly engaged, interactive, collegial environment. We work closely with the Center for Public Service and community partners throughout this course. You should leave this course feeling empowered and equipped to seek and effect social change.

Instructor: Hannah Greenwald

Title // Department: Assistant Professor // History

Chocolate is one of the most familiar and beloved foods on the planet. But when we eat chocolate, we rarely pause to consider its historical, cultural, and economic significance. This course will examine the origin story of chocolate and chart its transformation from a Mesoamerican ritual object into a global commodity. In this course, students will learn about the history of chocolate while asking and answering broader questions about culture, commerce, labor, human rights, and the environment.

Instructor: Jing Li

Title // Department: Associate Professor // Asian Studies

Imagine two human tribes at the dawn of history: one called the Practical People and the other, the Story People. They are equal in every way except for the qualities reflected in their names. Which tribe will prevail? This is a thought experiment posed by Jonathan Gottschall in The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human: Yes, "t [T]he Story People prevail. The Story People are us. If those strictly practical people ever existed, they don’t anymore." In light of Gottschall’s argument that storytelling is an innate part of human cognition — our way of processing reality, experiences, and emotions, this course embarks on an intellectual journey into one of the most enduring genres of storytelling: the tales of myth an d magic, which have profoundly shaped cultural narratives across both the Western world and China. By studying the histories, practices, and transformations of these tales in oral traditions, literature, theatre, and film, we will explore the social and cultural forces behind their enduring popularity and vitality. This course encourages students to develop a reflective perspective on these seemingly everyday tales, which have fueled human imagination since ancient times. Far from being mere pastimes or children's entertainment, we will examine myths and magical tales as profound art forms that mediate fundamental human questions—about love, death, heroism, gender, identity, morality, and nationhood—while continuing to resonate with and challenge contemporary life.

Instructor: Karim Samji

Title // Department: Associate Professor // History

From the pulpit to the public sphere, the power of persuasion and dissuasion permeates every aspect of ‘argument culture.’ For two millennia, rhetoric as the art of persuasive speech reigned as the queen of the liberal arts from Aristotle until the dawn of Enlightenment rationalism. The need to understand the history of rhetoric as its own subject area continues to be of critical importance even today. It is true that rhetoric alone wields the power to pierce through problems of practical reasoning that elude the public and pundits alike. Drawing on a range of disciplines, including history, philosophy, linguistics, and literary studies, this seminar examines an extensive range of scholarly approaches to rhetorical criticism, including argumentation theory, speech-act theory, and pragmatics. While historical thinking will be the primary focus, the comparative methods developed in the seminar are equally applicable to contemporary texts.

Instructor: Dr. Susan F. Russell

Title // Department: Associate Professor // Theatre Arts

This course explores the world of the American musical: the most popular form of theatre in the United States for over a hundred years; one of the only truly "American" art forms; and, arguably, the most complex of all the arts because of its fusion of literature, poetry, music, dance, and the visual arts. The class will provide remarkable case studies of the struggles and triumphs of American multiculturalism in its history and development. Topics explored include the roots of the genre in Greek drama and later, opera, operetta and minstrelsy; the huge influence of African American and Jewish composers, writers and performers, as early as the 1920s; its use for political messages during the Great Depression; the so-called "Golden Age" of musical theatre in the 1940s and 1950s; and the gradual inclusion of more diverse voices and styles during the 1960s and into the twenty-first century. Intrinsic to the course is a hands-on approach where students also learn some of the mechanics of the genre, culminating in original collaborative creative projects and research. No prior theatrical or musical experience is required.

Instructor: Randall K. Wilson

Title // Department: Professor // Environmental Studies

Smokey Bear is one of the most highly recognized icons in American culture today. But while many know of his efforts to prevent wildfires, fewer are aware of the contentious issues surrounding the issue of fire policy on national forests. What would Smokey say if he knew that many foresters currently promote forest fires as part of efforts to maintain a healthy forest? Likewise, could he make sense of the fact that bison can be defined as a protected "threatened" species, a threat to livestock, or as "burger on the hoof" simply as a function of where they graze? Or how the strongest advocates for the wildlife refuge system are those who most enjoy shooting it? Or the way environmentalists have worked to eliminate grazing on public rangelands....by becoming ranchers themselves? Such conundrums can be a bit much for any level-headed bear to take in. This course investigates the surprising and often contradictory environmental policy and management challenges facing national parks, forests and wildlife refuges in the United States. To make sense of them, students visit a number of such places, interact with real managers, conduct a project, and consider the "big ideas" of nature that quietly underpin America's system of public lands.

Instructor: Rud Platt

Title // Department: Professor // Environmental Studies

A first-year seminar designed to engage students in a critical evaluation of the viability and effectiveness of common strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We will start our journey by building a foundation in climate science – from the greenhouse effect, climate systems, evidence of change, and impacts of change. We will then direct our attention to potential actions that people, communities, countries, or the international community could take to reduce greenhouse gasses. The course will focus on actions that are most salient to you as a first year college student (for example changes to how we get around, heat buildings, eat, and shop). Students will explore each potential solution through the lenses of science, policy, economics, and culture. At the end of the course, we will be ready to implement viable solutions – what levers are most effective for reducing greenhouse gasses, and how can we do it equitably? This course will fulfill the first-year data curricular requirement, and thus will emphasize interpreting and communicating data in mathematical and graphical forms and applying statistical reasoning.

Instructor: Sushmita Sircar

Title // Department: Assistant Professor // English

Why do we need to work? What counts as work? How does the work we do shape our identities and our relation to the world around us? We will read novels, poetry, artwork, and philosophical and critical texts drawn from a wide range of literary traditions how individuals and their social relations are formed by various kinds of work, including agricultural, industrial, reproductive, artisanal, and creative, labor. The course aims to get students to think critically about their relationship to work. We will read a number of texts that portray the different attachments that people develop for the work they do—whether in the form of a job or not. The course will consider how alienated labor under capitalism produces certain kinds of workplaces and workers, allowing students to read Marxist conceptions of the evolution of labor under capitalism. We will also linger on forms of work--reproductive and emotional labor, creative work, idleness, the desire for a different relation to the material world—which appear to exceed the commodification of the capitalist workplace, while also inevitably coming under its sway. Finally, we will think about how we might theorize other categories to understand our relationship to the work we perform.

Instructor: Jesse Cordes Selbin

Title // Department: Assistant Professor // English

Is reading children’s literature an act of work or play? From novels as distinct as The Governess; or The Little Female Academy (1749) and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (1997) and The Hate U Give (2017), the genre has long navigated the poles of education and entertainment, socializing children alternately as miniature adults, docile innocents, or imaginative rebels. After spending the semester surveying didactic primers, fairytale fantasies, beloved classics, and curious outliers from the Golden Age of children’s literature, we’ll end by asking how modern YA fiction upholds or subverts earlier ideals of childhood. Along the way, we will analyze the social, historical, and pedagogical contexts of our objects of study and ponder the surprisingly large philosophical, psychological, and aesthetic questions raised by these seemingly small texts.

Instructor: István A. Urcuyo

Title // Department: Associate Professor // Biology

Did you know the U.S. has nearly 23,000 miles of ocean shoreline and that half of the population lives within 250 miles of the coast? Were you aware that in the year 2000, beach pollution was to blame for at least 11,270 beach closings and swimming advisories in the U.S.? Does it surprise you to learn that almost 30 million pounds of pesticides are applied annually in areas that drain into the nation's coasts? Did you ever think of air pollution as the beginning of ocean pollution? Why is it that every year the practices of many fishing industries strip bare a section of the sea floor twice the size of the continental U.S.? Did you know that over the past 25 years a large ?Dead Zone? (the size of Massachusetts) has formed in the Gulf of Mexico? Were you aware that for every pound of commercial fish caught, up to 20 pounds of other marine life is discarded? Why are 58% of the world's reefs at risk from human impacts? Did you know that the largest oil spill on a marine environment occurred during the Gulf War? Would you know what seafood to choose at your local markets that's good for you and also good for the oceans? This seminar course will focus on the diverse environmental problems that have and currently are affecting our oceans and all of its organisms. It will examine and discuss the important role of the ocean in our planet, the interdisciplinary aspects of human use of marine resources (economical, political and biological) and how the current marine environmental problems affect all of us regardless of our location. We will investigate what steps have been taken (or need to be taken) to minimize and remove the multiple negative impacts that our growing human population has on our world's ocean. Critically reading, evaluating, discussing, and writing about the primary scientific literature as well as websites and books for the general public will accomplish this. A strong student participation and commitment is expected.

Instructor: Vernon W. Cisney

Title // Department: Chairperson/Associate Professor // Interdisciplinary Studies

What did you think of that movie? This seminar is a philosophical exploration, through both text and film, of the nature of the self and its relationship to the world. Along the way it addresses questions concerning the experience of time and its relation to memory, the meaning of suffering in and out of the context of religious faith, the nature and value of thinking as a practice of everyday life, and the roles and limitations of human knowledge and technology. In addition to textual analysis, the course examines these questions with some of the more provocative films in the history of the cinema (such as Blade Runner, Fight Club, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and others), mining and developing strategies for watching movies at various intellectual levels, thereby enriching the overall experience of the capabilities of film, and illuminating the significance of philosophy as a living activity of thought that finds and transforms us in even the most seemingly mundane moments.

Instructor: Mercedes Valmisa Oviedo

Title // Department: Assistant Professor // Philosophy

Students will explore monsters in literature, myths, movies, art, pop culture, and philosophy as manifestations of cultural symptoms and counter-values. What do we mean when we call something a “monster"? What does the monster tell us about us versus the other? What are the limits of the monstrous, and how do these limits overlap with, challenge, and extend notions of normality? Which cultural and social roles do monster play, and what can we learn from them? A parade of zombies, crippled, witches, cannibals, cyclopes, gigantic cockroaches, dragons, robots, and many other extravagant figures will guide us in answering questions about normativity and power (gender and ethnic norms), fear and fascination (the confrontation of the dissimilar and the other), perception (phenomenological approaches to what appears), self-representation (the monster as external repository of human dubious features), and critique (the power of the monstrous for challenging accepted views). Choose your own monster and let the abominable journey begin!

Instructor: Nathifa Greene

Title // Department: Assistant Professor // Philosophy

In this seminar, we will analyze forms of meaning created by individuals and communities with plants, reading texts from a broad range of philosophical traditions around the world. Although botanical metaphors are pervasive in philosophy, plants are often treated as a mere aide to thought, leaving the plants themselves behind in order to develop ideas. We will consider insights on plants from multiple perspectives, integrating the multisensory experience of gardens and landscapes, and social, ecological concerns about food systems into our thinking. Each student will develop a semester- long research project on a specific plant life form in our environment. Throughout the semester we will connect key concepts and consider questions raised in texts by learning about plant species in our local environment through campus walks and community engagement at the on-campus Painted Turtle Farm.

Instructor: Brent Harger

Title // Department: Associate Professor // Sociology

Every day, people make claims about what is “true.” Many of these claims come in the form of statistics, and we are often confronted with contradictory claims based on statistical information. Although many people are skeptical of statistics, it is not always easy to know when statistics are being misused and when the information presented is accurate. In this First Year Data and Society Seminar, we will discuss what people think they know and how they think they know it. To do so, we will scrutinize the types of claims that we see in our daily lives and see if they hold up to analyses with real data. Through this process, we will learn about data sources and sampling, the construction of tables and graphs, and basic statistical analyses, including both descriptive and inferential statistics.

Instructor: VoonChin Phua

Title // Department: Professor // Sociology

Examination of what, why and how information is converted into numerical data. The course educates students on the quantification of information in creating social categories, how we use data and the boarder societal implications. The course uses interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks but filters them through a sociological lens to understand how the construction and use of data underscore prevailing ideologies. The course reviews the explicit and implicit biases in the process of data formulation and analysis, and how they reflect, maintain, or even promote systematic societal inequalities and stereotypes. The course will teach students basic descriptive statistical analyses and how they are relevant in their lived experiences. Topics will include GPA, class ranking, budgeting, compounding interest rates, market segmentation and research design.

Instructor: Jack Ryan

Title // Department: Associate Professor // English

This first-year seminar is designed to introduce students to the culture, language, and history of rock music and its representation in American cinema. At one level the class will survey trends and styles in how rock was used in American cinema, focusing first on how rock originally entered cinema in Blackboard Jungle and moving through cinematic history to recent offerings like Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story. We will track the rise of rock’n’roll in film and explore the backlash against rock influenced narratives. Our focus will be on film soundtracks as an expression and extension of the social, cultural, and political changes over time reflected in our domestic cinema. The class will also examine the paradoxical developments of the evolution of music videos with the emergence of an abrasive, often angry music of all types by the end of the 1970s and into the 1990s. In the end, this class will examine and define the technological, business, and social forces that helped cement rock music as an essential language of our contemporary cinema.

Instructor: Craig Dennis Lair

Title // Department: Associate Professor // Sociology

Great thinkers are made, not born. The focus of this class will be on developing the skills and abilities needed to become a great thinker. In particular, we will look at proven ways of learning, strategies used to acquire good data, and how to effectively marshal data when making an argument (this is the “good” part of this course’s title). However, we will also look at what not to do in terms of data and learning by exploring conspiracy theorists, unsound arguments, and the misuse of data among other related issues (these are the Bad and Ugly in the course’s title). By the end of the semester, you should be able to know when an argument stands on solid ground, and when it does not.

Instructor: Dave Powell

Title // Department: Professor of Public Policy // Public Policy

The famous inscription Woody Guthrie placed on his guitar in 1943 declared his personal commitment to the fight against fascism but also said something profound about how many artists and musicians view their work: while art entertains us, it also can enlighten and liberate us as well. This seminar revisits the history of select social and political movements in America to emphasize how musicians and activists have attempted to right wrongs, educate sensibilities, and awaken the consciences of people in an effort to make America a place that lives up to its promise

Instructor: James Day

Title // Department: Director // Sunderman Cons. of Music

What role can the arts play in building a vibrant, healthy community? In this FYS you will explore the importance of the arts in our society, experience how the arts strengthen communities by engaging with a variety of community-based arts programs, and discover the many ways in which you can play an active role in the cultural development of your community, and in the process find your path to becoming a more ethical leader and socially responsible citizen. In addition to utilizing class time to debate and discuss theories of placemaking and public policy, we will complete action research through several local site visits and a regional field trip to meet a diverse array of amazing people building exciting, vibrant communities through the arts.

Instructor: Eleanor J. Hogan

Title // Department: Chairperson/Associate Professor // Asian Studies

Godzilla, Astro Boy, and Hello Kitty are all Japanese nationals who have become global citizens. Beginning with Godzilla, this course examines Japanese popular culture from the immediate post-war period to the present. People of all ages enjoy Japanese characters, stories, and culture through varied media such as film, animated films (anime), comics (manga), video games, game shows, fanzines and fan sites, and novels. Scholars write of Japan’s “Gross National Cool” and “soft power” as they joke about the cultural invasion of Japan. Using a variety of interdisciplinary methods, the course examines the sustained presence of these popular icons and cultural works in Japan and beyond. Identifying these cultural products/art forms as reflections of Japanese identity, culture, history, art, and literature, we then examine the portability of these icons/media into other cultures. We seek to answer such questions as: How and why do some characters survive and thrive outside of Japan, while others such as Sweetbread-man (Anpanman), Bacteria-man (Baikinman) have not made the trip across the ocean? What, if anything, has been changed to make a character/story/game more appealing to another culture? What is an otaku and how has the definition changed over time and place? What do these products say about post-war Japanese culture? Informed discussion, writing, research and presentations provide a thorough examination and analysis of the appeal of Japanese popular culture and its relation to Japanese identity and globalization.

Instructor: Stephen Jay Stern

Title // Department: Chair, Jewish Studies, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies & Interdisciplinary Studies // Interdisciplinary Studies

The topic of death raises more questions than answers. What happens when a person dies? Is there an afterlife? How does one deal with the loss of a loved one? How do our funeral practices compare with those of other religions and cultures? But the topic of death also raises personal questions of life: What is the meaning and purpose of our existence? What can I accomplish in my time here? How should I treat my elders, my peers, and my juniors who will predecease or survive me? While we will all experience death, too few of us talk about death. This course intends to begin that life-long discussion by considering death from a variety of angles. We will look at death and popular music and culture, death and the medical profession, the business of death, and the psychological impact of death. We will look at how other religions and cultures view death and deal with the dead. We will also explore various types of death, from illness and disease to suicide, murder, and genocide.

Instructor: Joseph Robert Radzevick

Title // Department: Chairperson/Associate Professor // Management

This course examines the operation of the studio system that gave rise to Hollywood’s “Golden Age” during the middle of the 20th century. Along the way, students learn about the business and creative elements that combined to create these films while they explore a number of specific films from the major Hollywood studios released during this period. We also look closely at the economic, political, and social forces intertwined with film making at this time. The course places emphasis on reading, writing, discussion, and film screenings.

Instructor: Christopher Zappe

Title // Department: Professor // Management

The First World War was one of the greatest upheavals in history, involving an estimated 70 million combatants -- 9 million of whom lost their lives – and setting off shock waves that have been felt worldwide for nearly a century. In fact, the civilizational impact of an industrialized conflict on this scale was so significant that the First World War set the 20th century on a violent trajectory, culminating in a perfected total war which commenced in 1939. In this seminar we examine the experiences of ordinary soldiers and civilians, including both men and women, whose lives were shattered by the continuous series of brutal surprises and shocks that the First World War brought forth. In particular, we engage a number of diverse disciplinary perspectives to understand fully how total war, including the dynamic role played by technological developments, impacted soldiers and their care-givers along the Western Front. Readings includes memoirs, works of fiction, poetry, as well as scholarly articles and book chapters. Students enrolled in this seminar should be prepared to engage vigorously in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and critical thinking.

Instructor: Tres Lambert

Title // Department: Associate Professor // German

At and around the turn of the twentieth century, the proliferation of technology transformed people’s relationships to work, art, knowledge, and the production of data. This course delves into the statistics of German modernism and examines the rise of data-centric intellectual cultures, the creation of new strategies for representing data, and the dissemination of data into the public sphere via the booming print and media cultures of the early twentieth century. The course draws on major historical events—World War I, hyperinflation, the rise of fascism—to provide sources of data, either as historical statistics or as objects capable of yielding data via methods of digital humanities inquiry. We also engage in cultural debates on the role of data, and more broadly, of scientific and mathematical inquiry, in representing social, cultural, and historical events. By placing data in dialog with DADA, this course enables reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of modes of representation in social context and forges links to contemporary socio-economic, political, and aesthetic debates.

Instructor: Jennifer Collins Bloomquist

Title // Department: Professor // Africana Studies

What kind of linguistic choices do people make, and why do they make the choices they do? This course entails the study of regional and social varieties of American English from sociolinguistic perspectives, focusing on the forces that influence different types of language variation in the United States. We will investigate the social basis of language, and the linguistic basis of social life; what happens when languages come into contact, how dialects form, how and why language changes and how and why different social groups (age, gender, ethnicity, and class) speak differently. Through the use of film, literature, music and poetry, we will examine issues of linguistic identity, language status, and communicative pride and prejudice, and in doing so will develop a multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary perspective on the role of language in daily life.

Instructor: Timothy J. Shannon

Title // Department: Chairperson/Edwin T. Johnson & Cynthia Shearer Johnson Distinguished Teaching Chair in the Humanities Professor // History

The lives and fates of humans and whales have been intertwined for millennia. Whaling became the world’s first global industry during the nineteenth century and the focus of the first international conservation movement in the twentieth. The peculiar biology of whales has long fascinated marine biologists and contributed to our understanding of evolution. Writers, filmmakers, and other artists have used whales to reflect on humankind’s own place in the cosmos and natural world. In this seminar, we will examine whales and their relationship with humans from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including history, literature, and science. Our primary focus will be on the rise and fall of the American whaling industry, c. 1780-1920, but we will also examine modern conservation efforts to “save the whales” and representations of whales in popular culture. We will assess the place of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick in American literature as well as the experiences of women, African Americans, and indigenous peoples in the whaling industry.

Instructor: Jill Ogline Titus

Title // Department: Interim Director, Public History Minor & Civil War Era Studies // Civil War Institute Office

The American Civil War itself may have ended in 1865, but its fault lines, reverberations, and unfinished business continue to shape American society today. Americans of every generation since Appomattox have approached the war with one eye on the past and the other on the present. This course will provide an introduction to the diverse ways that memories of slavery and the Civil War have shaped American culture and politics from the immediate postwar years through the present day, and look ahead to the discuss possible futures for these narratives of memory. Topics to be discussed include preservation of sites related to slavery & the Civil War; monuments & memorials; the emergence of Juneteenth as a federal holiday; slavery & the Civil War in popular culture; the reparations movement; and the place of Confederate symbols in the 21st century US. Expressing ideas in writing and experimenting with different forms of written expression will be central to this course, and we will devote considerable attention to the process of writing and revising.

Instructor: Florence Ramond Jurney

Title // Department: Kermit O. Paxton & Renee A. Paxton Endowed Teaching Chair and Professor // French

How does a woman create a relationship with men in the #Me Too Era? What does beauty mean in a world of beauty-enhancing apps? How do you navigate the social media scene when it can make or break you? This course will focus on these issues and other pivotal concerns in a young woman’s development from adolescence to the years of early adulthood.

Instructor: John P. Murphy

Title // Department: Chairperson/Associate Professor // French

Food is always about more than just what’s on our plates. It’s a medium of communication used as much to drive wedges among us as it is to foster feelings of community. It’s thus no wonder that food often incites conflict and debate. This seminar examines some of the controversies surrounding food by critically considering the following questions: How did French cuisine come to dominate the global elite food scene in the first half of the 20th century and why is its importance receding today? What explains the rise of foodie culture and what role does it play in maintaining or producing new forms of social distinction? How have industrial methods of food production and processing changed what and how we eat and what are the consequences for our health and for the future of our planet? In what ways has home cooking evolved in recent decades and what does this evolution tell us about gender roles? How does the American food safety net work and in what ways has its implementation shaped definitions of human value and worth? What is culinary tourism? How might this phenomenon reflect or express an entrenchment of local, regional or national identities? Inversely, how might it promote new forms of cosmopolitanism?

Instructor: Ian Andrew Isherwood

Title // Department: Associate Professor // Interdisciplinary Studies

Good versus evil. Unlikely heroes. Impossible quests. Epic battles. Hobbits eating. The fantasy worlds of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien have inspired generations of children and adults since they were penned. This seminar will examine the lives and writings of Lewis and Tolkien within the historical context of their times - the period of the two Great Wars. Students will immerse themselves in both the real and imagined worlds of these two influential writers and emerge from their quest with greater understanding of each author and their works.

Instructor: Aristides Dimitriou

Title // Department: Assistant Professor // English

Toward the end of the twentieth century, many science fiction and fantasy writers took interest in the subject of “disembodied consciousness" an imagined byproduct of life in the virtual terrain of “cyberspace." New currents in science fiction and fantasy, however, are returning to an older engagement with the subject of “embodiment," especially within the representation of technologically advanced, near-future societies marked by ecological crises and dystopian regimes. A renewed focus on the status of the body within the context of contemporary, imminent, and potential scientific revolutions revisits the historical tensions between Romantic and Enlightenment thought, famously portrayed, for example, in the nineteenth-century works of E.T.A. Hoffman, Mary Shelley, and H.G. Wells. Returning to this subject, as questions of racialization and proletarianization grow larger in the popular imagination, the broad field of science fiction and fantasy—often termed “speculative fiction"—interrogates with renewed intensity the social legibility and legitimacy of bodies. As such, speculative modes of writing, especially those written by authors that belong to marginalized groups, give expression to the embodied experiences of class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and disability: experiences that often shape identity by way of exploitation, alienation, and disempowerment. In this course, we will engage with literature, film, and other media to examine the speculative representation of embodied experience. As we explore the projected realities of genetic engineering and cloning; of cyborgs and hybrid life-forms; of orphaned monstrosities and disposable androids, we will focus on what it means to be human, precisely as the human subject enters a new stage of posthuman and transhuman redefinition. How and why might speculative fiction endow the non-human body with a greater sense of humanity? Why do some works assume that subhumanized bodies, such as monsters and zombies, deserve unmitigated violence (even to comedic or effect)? How does speculative fiction interrogate what it means to exceed the human, i.e., to be “more human than human" within an economic structure that renders such excess illegitimate for society yet suitable for the maximization of profit? In other words, how and why does the representation of embodied experience represent the way that society defines human, posthuman, or non-human subjects? In this class, we will read, watch, and interact with various media to explore these questions, while developing our critical thinking skills to improve our writing and composition.