Freshman Seminars for Fall 2006
Class of 2010 and Later may count no more than one Freshman Seminar towards the Sector Requirement. |
Desire and Demand: Culture and Consumption in the Global Marketplace
Marilynne Diggs-Thompson, House Dean, Riepe College House
Does consumption shape culture or does culture shape consumption?
Does the archaic term "errand running" now fall under
the heading of "power shopping"? As even the most
mundane purchase becomes socially symbolic and culturally meaningful
we can now persuasively argue that the concept of "need" has
been transformed. Selling electronics, music, food, clothes
and accessories who are the players behind the crafting of
some of these to be elaborately seductive shopping spaces?
When successful selling must account for differences in age,
gender, ethnicity, language and even religion, how is demand
created and how are diverse populations "sold"? From
New Delhi to New York, we ask the question has the process
of globalization also homogenized consumption? Is shopping
really pop culture and exactly how has this pastime become
inextricably bound to issues of self-image, social status and
identity? Analyzing a variety of physical and virtual shopping
venues in different countries, this seminar examines the process
of shopping in the global marketplace. We ask how have issues
of culture, consumption, marketing, and global capitalism become
intertwined around the world?
anth 086.301 | Monday | 2:00- 5:00
Identity, Intimacy, Maturity
Vivian C. Seltzer, Professor of Human Development and Behavior,
School of Social Policy and Practice
Psychological development is ongoing throughout life. Specific
age periods are defined as critical periods of development
when psychological identity is either resolved or remains unfulfilled
as a result of premature closure or identity diffusion. Identity,
intimacy and maturity are related concepts, independent but
intertwined. A full identity reinforces psychological readiness
for intimacy (which may or may not be accompanied by physical
intimacy). Possession of identity and the ability it brings
to engage in intimate relations profoundly affects attainment
of psychosocial maturity. This course examines both the process
and content of critical areas of psychosocial functioning.
Both the idiosyncratic nature and the interrelated dimensions
of each of the three periods are examined as are definitions,
positive and/or negative contributing forces, manifestations,
irregularities and so forth. Readings introduce the theoretical
framework that underpins these three concepts. Class seminars
present their theoretical linkages and raise further issues;
class projects and assignments allow for pragmatic analyses.
frsm 104.301 | Wednesday | 2:00 - 5:00
Dilemmas in International Development
Richard Estes, Professor, School of Social Policy and Practice
World social development has arrived at a critical turning
point. Economically advanced nations have made significant
progress toward meeting the basic needs of their populations;
however, the majority of developing countries have not. Problems
of rapid population growth, failing economies, famine, environmental
devastation, majority/minority group conflicts, increasing
militarization, among others, are pushing many developing nations
toward the brink of social chaos.
This seminar exposes students to the complex social, political
and economic forces that influence national and international
patterns of development. Particular attention will be given
to the development dilemmas confronting the developing nations
of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Attention also will be given
to helping students understand the possible choices that more
economically advanced countries can make in helping poorer
countries advance their development objectives.
Students will be exposed to the interplay of international
forces that inhibit the progress of developing nations and
can actually add to their mal-development. They will undertake
an original piece of research on an international development
topic of special interest to them. They will also be invited
to meet with prominent professionals in the international development
community.
frsm 106.301 | Wednesday | 2:00 - 5:00
Integrity
Joan Goodman, Professor of Education, School of Education
The concept of integrity as a moral value has been aptly called
both fundamental and elusive. It has been described as the
master virtue and as no virtue at all. In this course we examine
the meaning of integrity and the reasons underlying its centrality
and elusiveness. We also consider the ways in which it may
come to be decisive in determining decision-making across a
variety of intersecting roles: in our personal lives as students,
teachers and citizens, and in the ethics of such professions
as business, medicine, education, law and journalism. Our reflections
will be guided by readings from literature (for example: Leo
Tolstoy, Arthur Miller, Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekov, George
Orwell), philosophy (for example: Plato, Alisdair Macintyre,
Sissela Bok, Gabriele Taylor) and the social sciences (for
example: Robert Coles, Robert Bellah, Stanley Milgram, Mordecai
Nisan).
frsm 128.301 | Tuesday | 1:30 - 4:30
Mad, Bad and Sad: Defining,
Preventing and Treating Mental Disorders in Children
David Mandell, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics,
School of Medicine
The idea that there are mental disorders that affect children
is a relatively new idea. Over the last 100 years, public and
professional groups have taken very different approaches to
determining what constitutes psychopathology in children and
what to do about it. This class is designed to help students
think critically about research and debates surrounding these
issues. In addition to learning about the presentation and
treatment of different disorders, they will be introduced to
concepts in epidemiology, psychology, psychiatry and health
services research, and learn about the history of the science
surrounding psychiatry and how different beliefs at different
times have influenced policy, systems, services and treatment.
hsoc 050.401 or stsc 059.401 | Tuesday & Thursday | 3:00
- 4:30
Worlds in Collision: A Culture of Safety
Meets “Bad
Apple” Torts
Bruce Kinosian, Associate Professor of General Internal Medicine
and Geriatrics, School of Medicine
When people deal with health issues, undesired outcomes can
happen. How this is viewed–as mistake, as human error,
as system failure, as the “best they could do,” or
as malpractice–can be crucial in determining what the
problem is, and how to deal with it. The traditional approach
to medical errors–proving negligence and compensating
those who suffered the negligent acts–runs directly counter
to an emerging understanding that health care is a complex
system in which errors occur because of poorly designed systems.
This seminar takes a current problem (medical malpractice)
at the intersection of two professions (medicine and law),
and in Escheresque fashion views it from a variety of perspectives,
seeing how the proposed methods to deal with the problem depend
upon the view taken. The seminar design will be a reciprocating
exploration of a particular view, followed by a vigorous discussion
with a representative of that view.
hsoc 103.301 | Thursday | 1:30 - 4:30
Dying in America: Caring
for the Dying
Joseph B. Straton, Assistant Professor of Family Practice and
Community Medicine, School of Medicine
The very public end-of-life experiences of high profile figures
during the past few years have brought death and dying to the
forefront of public discourse. Many questions continue to be
debated publicly, including: How do people want to live as
they are dying? What are the needs of people who are seriously
ill at the end of life? How, as a society and as individuals,
do we address these needs? Starting with reading Nulands’s
How we Die and Kubler-Ross’s On Death and Dying, this
course will explore the answers to these questions from the
perspectives of medicine, sociology, religion and anthropology.
hsoc 104.301 | Monday | 2:00 - 5:00
Ethics
Milton Meyer, Lecturer in Philosophy
Four sorts of questions belong to the study of ethics in the
analytic tradition. Practical ethics discusses specific moral
problems, often those we find most contested (e.g., abortion).
Moral theory tries to develop systematic answers to moral problems,
looking for general principles that explain moral judgments
and rules (e.g., consequentialism, contractarianism). Meta-ethics
investigates questions about the nature of moral theories and
their subject matter (e.g., are they subjective or objective,
relative or non-relative?). Finally, there are questions about
why any of this does, or should, matter to us (e.g., why be
moral?). We will investigate all four of these types of questions
during the course, but a disproportionate part of the course
will be focused on discussing two moral problems: abortion
and terrorism. The central aim of the required readings and
discussion is to develop each question deeply and sharply enough
for us to really feel its troublesome character. We will focus
on how to read complex philosophical prose in order to outline
and evaluate the arguments embedded within it. This will provide
the basis for writing argumentative prose.
phil 002.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 10:30 - 12:00
Declining Birth Rates: Causes
and Consequences
M. Frank Norman, Professor of Psychology
Decisions to have children are influenced by cultural norms
and economic constraints. Cultural and economic conditions
have changed drastically, and as a result, recent years have
seen a sharp, nearly worldwide decline in birth rate and exceedingly
low birth rates in Europe and Japan. The history, causes and
consequences of this “fertility transition” are
the central topics of this seminar. Historical topics include
the emergence of the concept of deliberate family size restriction,
which fostered birth rate declines in some countries long before
the introduction of efficient contraceptives. Causes include
the escalating cost of rearing children. Consequences include
population aging and resultant difficulty funding pensions
for retirees. (The “social security crisis” is
much worse in Europe and Japan than in the U.S.) The seminar
also considers contemporary women’s career/family conflicts,
which illustrate some of the psychological, sociological and
economic factors with which the seminar is concerned.
psyc 006.301 | Thursday | 1:30 - 4:30
Planning to be Off-Shore
Srilata Gangulee, Assistant Dean, The College of Arts and Sciences
In this course we will trace the economic development of India
from 1947 to the present. Independent India started out as
a centrally planned economy in 1949 but in 1991 decided to
reduce its public sector and allow, indeed encourage, foreign
investors to come in. The Planning Commission of India still
exists but has lost much of its power. Many in the U.S. complain
of American jobs draining off to India, call centers in India
taking care of American customer complaints, American patient
histories being documented in India, et cetera. At the same
time, the U.S. government encourages highly trained Indians
to reside in the U.S. We will try to find out how 1991 essentially
follows 1949.
sast 010.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 1:30 - 3:00
Introduction
to the Social Sciences
Ivar Berg, Professor of Sociology
In an investigation into “nation building,” in
accord with the logics of the 17th and 18th century Enlightenment
Project, we will read three short preparatory books and then
embark on a very “close reading” of Alexis deTocqueville’s
classic, Democracy in America, 1835. Our current adventures
in Iraq and Afghanistan will afford us weekly opportunities
to consider a number of recent historical and comparative dimensions
of “nation building” in contrast with deT’s
report, early in the 19th century, as we observe our 2008 federal
election and the campaign that brings us another chapter in
the story of our own development as a democratic (and economic)
republic; readers of a major newspaper, especially, will enjoy
this prospectively measurable experience! Benjamin Franklin
Seminar; seats are available for both honor and non-honor students.
soci 001.301 | Wednesday | 2:00 - 5:00
Homelessness and the
Urban Crisis
Dennis Culhane, Professor, School of Social Policy and Practice
This seminar in urban studies introduces students to many of
the major social issues confronting our nation’s cities
by focusing specifically on the problem of urban homelessness.
The course examines the treatment of homelessness and extreme
impoverishment as social problems historically, as well as
through contemporary debates. Several areas of intensive study
will include the prevalence and dynamics of homelessness, the
affordable housing crisis, urban labor market trends, welfare
reform, health and mental health policies, and urban/suburban
development disparities. Particular attention is also paid
to the structure of emergency services for people who have
housing emergencies. The course concludes by examining current
policies and advocacy strategies.
urbs 100.401 or soci 041.401 or afrc 041.401 | Monday | 2:00
- 5:00
SECTOR II: HISTORY AND TRADITION
Erudition and Superstition: Daily Life in the Middle
Ages
Francis Brevart, Associate Professor of Germanic Languages
and Literatures
Individuals in Medieval times lived basically the same way
we do today: they ate, drank, needed shelter, worked in a variety
of ways to earn a living and planned their lives around religious
holidays. They talked about the weather and had sex; they had
to deal with cold, hunger, illness, epidemics and natural catastrophes.
Those fortunate few who could afford the luxury went to local
monastic schools and learned how to read and write. And fewer
still managed to obtain some form of higher education in cathedral
schools and nascent universities and became teachers themselves.
Those eager to learn about other people and foreign customs
traveled to distant places and brought back with them much
knowledge and new ideas. The similarities, we will all agree,
are striking. But what is of interest to us are the differences,
the “alterity” of the ways in which they carried
out these actions and fulfilled their goals.
This course concentrates on two very broad aspects of daily
life in the Middle Ages (12th to 16th centuries). The first
part, Erudition, focuses on the world in and around the university.
Taking Paris and Bologna as our paradigms, we will discuss
the evolution of the Medieval university from early cathedral
schools, the organization, administration, financing and maintenance
of such an institution, the curriculum and degrees offered
at the various faculties, and the specific qualifications needed
to study or to teach at the university. We will familiarize
ourselves with the modes of learning and lecturing, with the
production of the instruments of knowledge, i.e., the making
of a manuscript; we will explore the regimented daily life
of the Medieval student, his economic and social condition,
his limited, but at times outrageous distractions, and the
causes of frequent conflicts between town and gown. Finally,
we will investigate the role of the Medieval university in
European history.
The second part, Superstition, revolves around astrology, medicine
and pharmacy. Taking the German Volkskalender, the Medieval
predecessor of the modern Farmer’s Almanac, as our point
of departure, we will gain insights into the ubiquitous role
of astrology in the daily life of Medieval individuals—for
example, in activities and decisions concerning farming, slaughtering
of animals, personal hygiene, marrying, escaping from jail,
conception of a male child, appropriate days to let blood,
et cetera.
Medicine, frequently referred to as astromedicine because of
its inextricable dependence on astrology, encompasses a multitude
of characteristics. The course will explore the precarious
state of Medieval medicine and pharmacology, the specific diseases
of men and women and their frequently barbaric treatments,
and the use of so-called wonderdrugs, produced by professional
physicians and medical charlatans alike, from exotic plants,
precious stones, animal parts, blood or human excrements. Special
topics are also planned on the astrological causes and magical
treatments of the Black Death, embryology and the causes of
homosexuality/lesbianism, sex as therapy, et cetera.
grmn 008.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 10:30 - 12:00
What's
Packed in the Pirate's Trunk?
Preparing for Travel in the Early Modern World
Neil Safier, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Penn Humanities
Forum
What was it like to travel before the advent of modern airplanes,
trains, buses and automobiles? How did early modern travelers
pack their bags for a journey that often lasted months if not
years? What books, instruments and personal accoutrements did
they take with them? What kinds of libraries were they able
to consult at sea or on land and how did they entertain themselves
during the voyage? Whose physical labor made it possible for
these objects to move from one place to another? Put in other
words, what was the early modern equivalent of the duffel bag
or carry-on suitcase? When we think about the nautical adventures
of a Sir Francis Drake or a Captain Cook, it is easy to romanticize
the conditions under which these travelers took to the seas.
This course, however, takes a historical approach to the study
of travel by focusing on the material ways that missionaries,
conquistadors, ambassadors, pirates and naturalists prepared
for their voyages, and how these preparations affected the
ways they observed and wrote about the world beyond Europe.
From Marco Polo’s Travels to Alexander von Humboldt’s
Personal Narrative to South America, and from the swashbuckling
adventures of William Dampier to Lady Wortley Montagu’s
accounts of Turkish customs, we will examine how the poetic
and visual representation of historical encounters were influenced
by the material realities of travel and portability during
this period.
hist 101.301 | Tuesday | 3:00 - 6:00
Business or Pleasure? A History of Vacations from the Grand
Tour to Let's Go: Europe
John Ghazvinian, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Penn
Humanities Forum
The ability to travel for pleasure is a comparatively recent
luxury, and the concept of “tourism” is barely
two centuries old. So who were the first people to say openly
that they wanted to travel, not as merchants, or diplomats,
or explorers, or soldiers, but just as ordinary travelers,
looking for a change of scene? How were they received by their
families, their communities, their peers, and by the people
in places they visited? And how did they adjust to life when
they came back from their trips? This seminar begins with the
English gentleman’s tour of the 16th to 18th centuries,
and goes on to survey the rise of mass tourism in Britain and
the United States, from the Cooks Tours of the 19th century,
through the package tour boom of the post-World War ii period,
to the various niche tourisms of today—eco-tourism, sex
tourism, “post-tourism,” et cetera. A key theme
will be how ideas about class, taste and cultivation intersect
with changes in tourism over time, as types of tourism enjoyed
by the elite become gradually democratized. Drawing on classic
texts, such as Thorstein Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure
Class and Dean MacCannell’s The Tourist, as well as newer
studies in tourism history and such cultural icons as National
Lampoon’s European Vacation, students will be expected
to answer a central question by the end of the semester: is
there a difference between a “traveler” and a “tourist”?
hist 102.301 | Thursday | 1:30 - 4:30
Asian-American Race Relations
Eiichiro Azuma, Assistant Professor of History
This course will delve into the continuing process of westward
American expansion into the Pacific after the 1890s. Such
questions as immigration, race relations and diplomacy will
be discussed in the class. Students who are interested in
U.S./Asia relations, Asian immigration, and histories of
Hawaii and the Philippines as part of the American Empire
are especially encouraged to take this course.
hist 104.401 or asam 013.401 | Wednesday | 2:00 - 5:00
Conspiracies
in History
Lee Cassanelli, Associate Professor of History
Throughout history, ideas of “conspiracy” have
helped people explain events that otherwise seem unexplainable;
have justified repressive measures against individuals or groups
believed to be conspiring; and have stirred the imaginations
and shaped the public agendas of communities and sometimes
entire nations. Case studies will include charges of conspiracy
raised against religious sects (European Freemasons, Chinese
secret societies, the Catholic Church), political and economic
movements (Mau-Mau in colonial Kenya, communist parties, Molly
Maguires), and such phenomena as the Mafia, the Broederbond
of South Africa, and the assassinations of Martin Luther King
and John F. Kennedy. Students will examine the historical evidence,
the social significance, and the political consequences of
particular “conspiracies” with the aim of comparing
and generalizing over time and space.
hist 106.301 | Monday | 3:00 - 6:00
Religion, Revolution and
Nationalism in the Modern Middle East
Eve Troutt Powell, Associate Professor of History
This seminar explores the major themes of religion, revolution
and nationalism in 20th-century Middle Eastern history. These
issues have all led to the current political and cultural shapes
of the region. We will pay particular attention to Egypt, Israel,
Palestine, the Gulf and Sudan.
hist 106.302 | Thursday | 1:30 - 4:30
Epidemics in History
David S. Barnes, Associate Professor of the History and Sociology
of Science
Dramatic and terrifying in their deadly immediacy, outbreaks
of epidemic disease have devastated and transformed human societies
since the beginnings of recorded history. From the Black Death
to cholera to aids to pandemic influenza, epidemics have wrought
profound demographic, social, political, and cultural change
all over the world. They provoke such powerful fear that while
thousands die everyday in the United States from mundane illnesses
such as heart disease, panic grips the land at the news of
a handful of deaths from seemingly exotic afflictions such
as West Nile encephalitis, “weaponized” anthrax
and avian flu. Through a detailed analysis of specific historical
outbreaks, this seminar will investigate the causes and effects
of epidemic disease, and will examine the ways in which different
societies in different eras have responded in times of crisis.
hsoc 048.401 or stsc 039.401 | Monday & Wednesday | 2:00
- 3:30
Worldviews in Collision: The Scientific Revolution and
the Counter Reformation
Victoria Kirkham, Professor of Romance Languages
This course explores the radical conflicts that developed in
16th- and 17th-century
Europe when Protestant reformers, scientific discoveries and
geographical explorations challenged a long-held Medieval worldview
and the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. We will compare
these developments with parallel modern issues
such as Darwinism, separation of church and state and multicultural religious
conflicts. Historical readings: Machiavelli’s comic play, Mandragola;
the vitriolic polemic involving Martin Luther, Thomas Moore and King Henry
viii; Tommaso Campanella’s Utopian dialogue, The City of the Sun; selections
from Copernicus and Galileo and from The History of the Council of Trent by
the Venetian Paolo Sarpi. Modern texts will include: Osborne’s Luther;
Brecht’s Galileo; a classic Hollywood film, Utopia; and Frank Capra’s
Lost Horizon. We shall also consider how 16th- and 17th-century poetry and
visual arts mirrored their turbulent times, with attention to the Petrarchan
tradition (Vittoria Colonna, Marino) and stylistic changes in Italian painting,
sculpture and architecture from Renaissance to Mannerist to Baroque (e.g.,
Michelangelo, Leonardo, Tintoretto, Bernini). Requirements will include a midterm,
final oral class report, final paper on class report topic and a final exam.
ital 260.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 12:00 - 1:30
Bilingualism in History
Gillian Sankoff, Professor of Linguistics
This course takes a historical approach to tracing (and reconstructing)
the nature of language contacts and bilingualism over the course
of human history. Contacts between groups of people speaking
different languages, motivated by trade, migration, conquest
and intermarriage, are documented from earliest records. At
the same time, differences in socio-historical context have
created different kinds of linguistic outcomes. Some languages
have been completely lost; new languages have been created.
In still other cases, the nature and structure of language
has been radically altered. The course introduces the basics
of linguistic structure through a discussion of which aspects
of language have proved to be relatively stable, and which
are readily altered, under conditions of bilingualism.
ling 054.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 12:00 - 1:30
Lords of the Nile
Josef Wegner, Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages
and Civilizations
In this course we will examine the ways in which one of the
world’s most
ancient and longest lasting civilizations was governed. Egypt is renowned for
the ubiquitous images of its Pharaohs, divine kings who ruled Egypt under the
divine sanction of the gods. The king was only the top of a vast pyramid of
powerful officials which included viziers, treasurers, military leaders, local
governors, town mayors and scribes. The course aims to investigate the ways
in which the rulership of Egypt worked, from the highest levels of royal power
down to the running of towns and villages.
nelc 066.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 3:00 - 4:30
Indians Overseas: A Global
Worldview
Surendra Gambhir, Senior Lecturer in South Asia Studies
This course is about the history of Indian immigration into different parts
of the world. The course will consist of readings, discussions, observations,
data collection and analysis. The topics will include cultural preservation
and cultural change through generations of East Indian immigrants, especially
in North America, the Caribbean area, the United Kingdom, the African continent,
and some other countries in the Pacific Ocean.
This course will encourage organized thinking, observations and analysis
of components of the culture that immigrant communities are able to preserve
and of the cultural components that either change or get reinterpreted. In
this context, we will look at entities such as religion, food, language and
family. The course will discuss immigrants’ success stories, sad stories, their
contributions, their relationship with other groups in the host society and
the nature and extent of their links with their homeland. The course will include
discussion about victimization of and discrimination against immigrants in
their new homelands. Other issues will include social and cultural needs of
immigrants giving rise to new community organizations such as temples, ngos
and other cultural centers. The course will benefit from the study of other
immigrant communities for a comparative view.
sast 010.401 or asam 012.401 | Monday & Wednesday | 3:30 - 5:00
Transformation
and Power
John Tresch, Assistant Professor of the History and Sociology of Science
At the start of industrial modernity, new machines and new mechanical theories
of nature provoked extreme and opposed reactions. Would these new sciences
and technologies bring about a fantastic wonderland of abundance and harmony,
or an ongoing apocalypse of war, wage-slavery and Frankenstein-like monsters?
This course examines understandings of the action and impact of machines
and mechanism at the start of industrial modernity from the kaleidoscopic
perspectives of science, literature, philosophy and politics. Topics will
range from thermodynamics to evolution, from romanticism to realism, from
classical liberalism to utopian socialism. Readings will focus on the works
of influential authors whose responses to industry and mechanization have
shaped contemporary understandings of the relations of science, technology
and society.
stsc 023.301 | Tuesday | 1:30 - 4:30
Spiegel Freshman Seminar
The Emily and Jerry Spiegel Fund supports exciting opportunities
for students to get close to what is happening right now
in the visual arts. In addition to the freshman seminar below,
this program includes lectures, visiting artists and critics,
special symposia at Penn’s
famous ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art), events at the ICA
for the College Houses, and a residential
program in Harrison
College House.
Art Basel Miami Beach
Gwendolyn Shaw, Associate Professor of History of Art
This seminar will examine various issues of class, race,
power and privilege in contemporary art through the lens
of the increasingly ubiquitous international art festival.
During the course of the semester we will attend various
exhibitions in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast culminating
in a four-day trip, December 7-10, to Florida to attend Art
Basel Miami Beach, the American sister event of Art Basel
in Switzerland. Part of what makes Art Basel Miami Beach
more than simply an annual international art show is that
it combines the traditional features of an international
art show with a dynamic program of special exhibitions and
multi-media events including music, film, architecture and
design.
Transportation and lodging will be covered by funds from
the Emily and Jerry Spiegel Program on Contemporary Culture
and Visual Arts. Students are responsible for their own meals
and any incidental expenses. Application
for this course is required and will be available shortly.
Interested students should write a 200 word essay explaining
their interest in the course and send it to Professor Shaw
(gshaw@sas.upenn.edu).
Please include any experience with art history and/or art
viewing. Students may also contact Professor Shaw with any
questions about the course.
arth 100.301 | Monday | 2:00 - 5:00
Postmodernity and Performance:
Walking in Metropolis
Kinga Araya, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral
Fellow, Penn Humanities Forum
This course will examine one of the most provocative contemporary
art forms, performance art, focusing on those performances
that involve walking in the city and conceptualize walking
as a work of art. We will visit selected Western and Eastern
metropolises to critically analyze and compare the artistic
walks that took place in New York, Paris, Warsaw, Montreal
and Berlin. We will discuss how those contemporary artistic
interventions dialogue with the modern tradition of the urban
city walker, born during the architectural restructuring of
Paris in the 19th century. We will read the key critical essays
on the phenomenon of walking in the city that will teach us
to appreciate
the contemporary walking art performances and examine the aesthetic
feelings experienced by many modern and contemporary city
dwellers. Our readings may include Charles Baudelaire, The
Painter of Modern Life introducing the modern city stroller,
the flâneur; Walter Benjamin’s On some motifs in
Baudelaire and The Return of the Flâneur, offering a
critical re-reading of the Baudelairean stroller; and Michel
de Certeau’s
Walking in the City presenting a contemporary meditation on
walking in New York.
arth 100.302 | Monday | 2:00 - 5:00
Tragedy
Rebecca Bushnell, Dean of Arts and Sciences and Professor of
English
Most 21st-century readers find tragic theater alien or stuffy,
even while they eagerly consume tragic stuff through television
and film. This course proposes to reinvigorate the reading
of tragedy for readers who want to understand it and to feel
its power. The course will examine the theatrical and these
historical conditions that defined tragedy in the past and
examine the origins and evolution of the genre’s formal
qualities. We will review historical notions of the tragic
hero, from Aristotle to the present, and consider how this
hero has been understood to stand for his tribe, the common
man or the nation. The class will also think about the role
of plot in defining tragedy, and how a tragedy differs from
a catastrophe or a merely unhappy event. Finally, we will speculate
on the future of tragedy as a genre. This course will not pretend
to cover all the manifestations of tragic drama from the Greeks
to the present: texts will include plays by Sophocles, Euripides,
Shakespeare, Marlowe, Racine, Ibsen and Beckett, recent films
and relevant criticism and philosophy. Assignments will include
a reading journal or commonplace book, a class presentation
on a film, a meeting with the instructor and two 5 to 7 page
papers.
engl 016.301 | Wednesday | 3:30 - 6:30
Language Art: Visual
Artists Who Write
Aaron Levy, Lecturer in English
This introductory seminar will teach students about exciting
developments in contemporary visual art from a literary point
of view. The practices we will examine are indicative of a
relatively new cultural sensibility that is motivated not by
an interest in simply being creative, but in presenting a problem,
not simply by an interest in making something coherent, but
in creating something purposefully critical or provocative.
We will engage work by visual artists who employ language as
their primary medium, such as Sophie Calle, Andrea Fraser and
Hamish Fulton, as well as literary authors and theoretical
influences such as Paul Auster, Thomas Bernhard and Roland
Barthes. These artists and authors explore new and unusual
forms of argument and audience and invite us to reconsider
the boundaries of literature and literary practice in an age
of interdisciplinary practice and scholarship. Course requirements
include a short writing exercise each week, as well as a final
paper. Familiarity with contemporary art is not required.
engl 016.302 | Tuesday & Thursday | 10:30 - 12:00
A Home
in the World: The Cultural Imaginary of Travel
Edie Wong, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Penn Humanities
Forum
As imagined and idealized in 19th-century literature and culture,
travel has long expressed a Euro-American romance of individuated
freedom and self-autonomy. Modern citizen-subjects were produced
through circuits of domestic and international travel as technological
developments including the telegraph, trains, steamboats and
road improvements helped produce a modern nation. Blurring
the boundaries be-tween fact and fiction, self and other, the
travelogue or travel narrative was a hybrid genre in which
travelers sought to record and make sense of their place in
this rapidly changing world. These representations of travel
abroad often articulated powerful forms of Western imperialism
and ethnocentrism as they helped constitute and shape the popular
imaginary of the “foreign” and “exotic” for
those who remained at home. We will examine the shifting meaning
of travel within our collective cultural imaginary in a variety
of texts that cut across literary genre, historical period
and geopolitics. Whereas Grand Tours of the European continent
were once requisite for the cultural gilding of only the cosmopolitan
elite, travel and tourism now have become something at once
mundane and familiar in a globalizing world. Does travel continue
to be an organizing trope for a particularly cosmopolitan worldview?
What, furthermore, differentiates travel from tourism? We will
draw upon poetry, novels, slave narratives, memoirs, newsprint
illustrations, short stories, film, and feminist and cultural
criticism to explore these processes of identification and
subject formation at the heart of Anglophone American travel
literature and travel culture in general
engl 016.303 | Tuesday & Thursday | 3:00 - 4:30
Freshman
Recitation: Masterpieces of French Cinema
Philippe Met, Associate Professor of Romance Languages
This course introduces students to the full scope and history
of French cinema through
the analysis of key works of the French film canon. Particular
attention will be paid to successive period styles (“poetic
realism, “French quality,” “the New Wave,” “le
cinéma du look,” cinema de banlieue”) and
a variety of critical lenses will be used (psychoanalysis,
socio-historical and cultural context, politics, aesthetics,
gender) to better understand the specificities and complexities
of French cinematic culture.
fren 230.401 (lec) | Tuesday | 4:30 - 7:00
| Thursday | 3:00 - 4:30
fren 230.402 (rec) | Tuesday | 3:00 - 4:30
Translating Cultures:
Literature On And In Translation
Kathryn Hellerstein, Senior Lecturer in Germanic Languages
and Literatures
“Languages are not strangers to one another,” writes the great critic
and translator Walter Benjamin. Yet two people who speak different languages
have a difficult time talking to one another, unless they both know a third,
common language or can find someone who knows both their languages to translate
what they want to say. Without translation, most of us would not be able to read
the Bible or Homer, the foundations of Western culture. Americans wouldn’t
know much about the cultures of Europe, China, Africa, South America and the
Middle East. And people who live in or come from these places would not know
much about American culture. Without translation, Americans would not know much
about the diversity of cultures within America. The very fabric of our world
depends upon translation between people, between cultures, between texts.
With a diverse group of readings—autobiography, fiction, poetry, anthropology
and literary theory—this course will address some fundamental questions
about translating language and culture. What does it mean to translate? How
do we read a text in translation? What does it mean to live between two languages?
Who is a translator? What are different kinds of literary and cultural translation?
What are their principles and theories? Their assumptions and practices? Their
effects on and implications for the individual and the society?
grmn 010.401 or jwst 101.401 | Tuesday & Thursday | 10:30 - 12:00
Beethoven
Jeff Kallberg, Professor of Music
In this course, we will explore the nature and evolution of
Beethoven’s
music. The seminar is divided into three separate parts, each of which focuses
on a single symphony and various “tangents” (formal, thematic,
conceptual) that relate other works of Beethoven to this symphony. We will
also consider aspects of his biography, particularly as they touch on his compositional
output. Listening to Beethoven’s music, discussing it, and thinking about
his life and art will constitute the heart of the course. No prior study of
music is required for this course.
musc 028.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 10:30 - 12:00
Russian Nights: Ghosts
in Russian Literature
Ilya Vinitsky, Assistant Professor of Slavic Languages
In this course, we will read and discuss ghost stories written by some of
the most well-known Russian writers. The goal of the course is threefold:
to familiarize the students with brilliant and thrilling texts that represent
various periods of Russian literature, to examine the artistic features of
ghost stories, and to explore their ideological implications. With attention
to relevant scholarship, we will pose questions about the role of the storyteller
in ghost stories, about horror and the fantastic. We will also ponder gender
and class, controversy over sense and sensation, spiritual significance and
major changes in attitudes toward the supernatural. We will consider the
concept of the apparition as a peculiar cultural myth that tells us about
the “dark side” of
the Russian literary imagination and about the historical and political conflicts
that have haunted Russian minds in previous centuries.
russ 130.301 | Monday & Wednesday | 3:30 - 5:00
India in the Traveler’s
Eye
Aditya Behl, Associate Professor of South Asia Studies
Historically, India has held a prominent yet paradoxical place in the Western
imagination—as a land of ancient glories, a land of spiritual profundity,
a land of poverty, social injustice and unreason. In this course, we examine
these and other images of India as presented in European and American fiction,
travel literature, news reportage and film. We will consider the power and
resonance of these images, how they have served Western interests, and how
they may have affected Indian self-understanding.
sast 012.401 or rels 012.401 | Wednesday | 2:00 - 5:00
SECTOR IV: HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
American Narrative
Cultures: Captivity and Release
Susan Lepselter, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Penn Humanities
Forum
In this class, students will conduct an in-depth exploration of memory
and narrative in America. We will approach our topic through the lens
of a fundamental American genre: the captivity narrative. The most popular
story form of Colonial times, captivity narratives still remain vital
in America. In the genre’s most typical case, a captive from a
majority group is kidnapped and taken on a journey by members of a minority
group, reporting on the ordeal until she or he is rescued, killed or
adopted into the captor’s world. The most widely-read form of the
genre, however—in which a white person is kidnapped by Native Americans—often
obscures other stories, in which Native Americans were kidnapped by Europeans.
In this class, captivity narratives will help us, first, to think about
how one kind of story becomes a tradition. Next, we will look at American
captivity narratives from many eras as they appear in non-fiction, fiction,
film and the news—from ufo abduction narratives, to stories of
incarceration, to media items such as kidnappings in Iraq. We will explore
the metaphors and material practices of “freedom” and “being
caught” in America, and analyze the ways in which people make meaning
of the travel and contact between worlds.
We will also ask questions that transcend the genre itself to think about
problems raised by seemingly self-evident personal narratives. What is
the role of fantasy and the uncanny in stories of American life? How
do stories create fields of social meaning? Why are the themes of “captivity” and “release” central
in so many different kinds of American imagination? Making use of anthropology,
literature, psychoanalysis and film studies, the course will approach
and explore various ideas of social containment and freedom, and the
narrative expressions of power, desire and trauma in America.
anth 062.301 | Monday & Wednesday | 2:00 - 3:30
Medicine, Culture and Bioethics in Japan CANCELLED
ealc 063.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 12:00 - 1:30
Censored!
The Book and Censorship Since Gutenberg
Bethany Wiggin, Assistant Professor of Germanic Languages
and Literatures
Although its pages may appear innocuous enough, bound innocently
between non-descript covers, the book has frequently become
the locus of intense suspicion, legal legislation and various
cultural struggles. But what causes a book to blow its cover?
In this course we will consider a range of specific censorship
cases in the West since the invention of the printed book
to the present day. We will consider the role of various
censorship authorities (both religious and secular) and grapple
with the timely question about whether censorship is ever
justified in building a better society. Case studies will
focus on many well-known figures (such as Martin Luther,
John Milton, Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, Goethe, Karl Marx
and Salman Rushdie) as well as lesser-known authors, particularly
Anonymous (who may have chosen to conceal her identity to
avoid pursuit by the Censor).
grmn 003.401 or coml 003.401 | Tuesday & Thursday | 1:30
- 3:00
Land and Landscape: Making, Reading and Writing the
Site
John Dixon Hunt, Professor of the History and Theory of Landscape,
School of Design
There is land all around us, underneath us. Its components
are still the same as they were for ancient peoples—earth,
air, fire, water. But except in rare moments and exceptional
places, what we see is not land but “landscape.” We
turn or transform land into landscape in many ways: we write
about it, map it, depict it in paintings, sketches or photographs,
and we remake it into new shapes and forms (this is called
landscape architecture). The seminar will explore this range
of transformations and ask how and why different cultures have
reformulated land in different ways. We’ll look at how
the land at such famous places as Yosemite or Delphi has been
represented in words and images, and discuss how and why other
sites like Versailles or Parc La Villette in Paris have been
landscaped and their sites transformed. We’ll compare
a Chinese example with western ones. Two prominent Philadelphia
landscape architects will share examples of their projects.
We’ll also look at examples of our own places—homes,
towns, suburbs—and explore how their landscapes have
been made, how we would describe, visualize and explain them.
We’ll turn at the end to enquire into ways in which the
modern cult of land art has opened new perspectives into the
relationship of landscape to land. Each student will select
one particular site for research and personal interpretation
and present this to the whole group. A set of texts and imagery
will be available in a bulkpack, and each week additional material
will also be presented in slides.
larp 111.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 3:00 - 4:30
Origins
of Music
Gary Tomlinson, Professor of Music
Music-making seems to be as universal an expressive mode
among humans as language itself. Historical evidence points
to the emergence of music early in human cultures, and, more
strikingly, recent findings in paleoanthropology and cognitive
studies suggest that musical capacities lie deep in the brain
and extend far back in hominid evloution. The seminar will
take up the age-old questions of when, how and why music
began. We will scrutinize this problem both from an anthropological
vantage—the
orgins of music are a recurring theme of myths around the world—and
from the vantage of recent scientific findings in a variety
of fields. We will attempt to relate these findings to the
forms and uses of music we experience in the world today. Prior
musical experience is not required for this seminar.
musc 018.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 1:30 - 3:00
Myths of
Ancient Mesopotamia
Stephen Tinney, Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages
and Civilizations
Iraq’s ancient civilizations, Sumer, Babylon and Assyria,
have emerged spectacularly from their ruin mounds over the
last century and a half. In this class we will read the core
myths of these cultures in translation and situate them in
their literary, historical, religious and cultural contexts.
The case of characters includes, among other, Enki, trickster
and god of wisdom; Inana, goddess of sex and war; and Marduk,
warrior son, slayer of the sea, king of the gods and founder
of Babylon. Themes range from creation to flood, from combat
to the dangers of humans acting in the worlds of the divine,
to the heroic peregrinations of Gilgamesh as he wrestles with
monsters, fate and the pain of mortality.
nelc 049.301 | Wednesday | 2:00 - 5:00
Fundamentals of Acting
James F. Schlatter, Director of the Theatre Arts Program
Acting “looks” easy. Audiences see actors portraying
characters, but often remain unaware of the intellectual,
emotional, physical and technical skills required to create
vivid theatrical behavior. What makes an actor effective? This
course is an introduction to acting theory and practice, with
primary emphasis on Stanislavsky-based techniques. Combining
practical experience (exercises, improvisations, scene work)
with intellectual exploration (theoretical readings, script
analysis, writing assignments), the class culminates in the
performance of a scene from the modern repertoire. Introduction
to Acting also serves as an ideal introduction to the practical
aspects of Penn’s
Theatre Arts major, with guest artists/teachers and trips
to theatrical productions. Students considering a theatre major
are especially encouraged to enroll.
thar 120.302 | Tuesday & Thursday | 10:30 - 12:00
Killer Viruses: What Threat Do They Pose in Contemporary Society?
Glen N. Gaulton, Professor of Pathology/Lab Medicine, Vice
Dean for Research
and Research Training, School of Medicine
We are all well aware of the recent emergence of multiple viruses
as potential threats to the public health; examples include
hiv, sars and West Nile and Ebola viruses. However, still greater
threats may arise by expansion of existing viruses, such as
smallpox and influenza, that we more commonly think of as being
either eradicated or harmless. Through this course we will
examine the general properties of viruses, our capacity to
ward off common virus infections using the immune response,
the general concept of vaccination, the emergence of new virus
pathogens, and the capacity of these pathogens to spread within
our population based on regional and global culture and finance.
The course will utilize oral and written presentations as the
main format for interaction and assessment. General biology
background preferred but not required.
biol 005.301 | Wednesday | 3:00 - 6:00
Descent with Modification: An Introduction to the Science of Evolution
Paul Sniegowski, Associate Professor, Biology
Evolution provides the unifying framework for the biological sciences
and has been confirmed by a huge and diverse body of evidence. Public opinion
polls show, however, that evolution continues to be socially and politically
controversial in the United States. In this seminar, we wil explore the scientific
basis for evolution by reading and discussing historical sources, a current
nonspecialist text on evolution, and selected papers and articles from the scientific
and popular literature. With our knowledge of evolutionary fact and theory as background,
we will also discuss social and political opposition to the teaching of evolution. Grading
will be based on participation in class discussions and on performance in several brief
writing assignments. There is no course prerequisite, but high school introductory
biology would be helpful.
biol 014.301 | Wednesday | 2:00 - 5:00
The Body Against Itself:
Allergy and Autoimmune Disease
Philip Cohen, Professor of Immunology, School of Medicine
The immune system is a remarkably efficient and adaptable mechanism
to protect people from infection. Unfortunately, it also has
the potential to cause harm by directing itself against normal
body tissues, or by engaging in inappropriate responses against
agents in the environment. We will become acquainted with the
cells and molecules that form the human immune system and will
explore how they normally function. We will consider the problem
of allergy–why and how does exposure to certain pollen,
drugs, dust and other things provoke wheezing, hives, rashes
and other “atopic” phenomena. Some people develop
autoimmune diseases, where the immune system seems to be directed
against self. We will review our understanding of how this
comes about, and what to do about it. Finally, we will step
back and consider how medical researchers go about deducing
mechanisms of these diseases.
biol 007.301 | Thursday | 1:30 - 4:30
Language and Cognition
David Embick, Assistant Professor of Linguistics
Because of its apparently species-specific nature, language
is central to the study of the human mind. We will pursue an
interdisciplinary approach to such questions in this course,
moving from the structures of language as revealed by linguistic
theory to connections with a number of related fields that
are broadly referred to as the “cognitive sciences.” A
number of specific topics will be addressed from these related
fields. The structures of language and its role in human cognition
will be set against the background of animal communication
systems. We will examine the question of how children acquire
extremely complex linguistic systems without explicit instruction,
drawing on psychological work on the language abilities of
children. Additional attention will be focused on the question
of how language is represented and computed in the brain and,
correspondingly, how this is studied with brain-imaging techniques.
ling 058.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 3:00 - 4:30
The Psychological
Impact of Trauma: Exploring the Nature of Posttraumatic Stress
Disorder
Shawn Cahill, Assistant Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry,
School of Medicine
Although the negative psychological impact of traumatic events
has been long recognized, several recent events have increasingly
brought this issue into public concern,
including the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and
the Pentagon of 9/11, mental health problems among veterans
returning from war in Iraq, and the Asian tsunami in December
of 2004. In this seminar, we will explore scientific research
on the nature and psychological impact of trauma to understand
the psychological effects of exposure to traumatic events,
the factors that may serve as risk factors or protective factors
for the development of serious psychological difficulties following
exposure to a traumatic event, and the effectiveness of psychological
and psychiatric treatments for ameliorating chronic posttrauma
reactions. The goal of this seminar is to help students not
only understand the nature and impact of traumatic events,
but to understand how knowledge about these topics is acquired
and to improve critical thinking skills. Advanced placement
psychology or a similar introductory psychology course is recommended
as background for this seminar.
psyc 054.301 | Monday & Wednesday | 3:30 - 5:00
The Big
Bang and Beyond This course is no longer a freshman
seminar.
Due to extremely
high demand for this course, the department has decided to
open it up as a larger class.
Ravi Sheth, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy
This is an introductory course for freshmen who do not intend
to major in a physical science or engineering, covering theories
of the universe ranging from the ancient perspective to the
contemporary hot Big Bang model, including some notions of
Einstein’s special and general theories of relativity.
Topics will include the solar system; stars; black holes; galaxies;
and the structure, origin and future of the universe itself.
Elementary algebra is used.
astr 007.301 | Monday, Wednesday & Friday | 12:00 - 1:00
Structural Biology and Genomics Seminar
Ponzy Lu, Professor of Chemistry
Structural biology is the scientific method of describing,
predicting and changing the properties of living organisms,
including humans, based on “complete” genome chemical
structures (sequence) and 3-dimensional structures of cellular
components. It is a direct outgrowth of the intellectual and
technical revolutions that occurred during the last decade
of the 20th century. It has become the approach of choice for
understanding biology and solving problems in medicine.
We will discuss how macroscopic biological properties, such
as reproduction, locomotion and viral infection, are determined
by chemical properties of proteins and nucleic acids. Changes
in biological function, such as those that accompany hereditary
diseases like cystic fibrosis or sickle cell anemia, result
from minute changes in individual proteins. Much larger changes
in genome and protein structure are often tolerated without
apparent consequence. This selectivity and tolerance provides
opportunities for the biotechnology industry to alter biological
functions in ways thought to guarantee profits.
We will also examine how research results in structural biology
are presented in various audiences. The broad range of medical,
social and political problems associated with the advances
will be considered. We will attempt to distinguish real progress
from fads and fashion. This two-semester seminar continues
in spring 2007 with 0.5 c.u. each semester.
chem 022.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 8:00 - 9:00 a.m.
Freshman
Recitation: Evolution of the Physical World
Hermann Pfefferkorn, Professor of Earth and Environmental Science,
and Gino Segre, Professor of Physics and Astronomy
This course will explore the Big Bang and the origin of elements,
stars, Earth, continents and oceans. Students must register
for both the lecture and a recitation. The recitation listed
below is restricted to freshmen and is led by the professors.
This course satisfies the Quantitative Data Analysis Requirement.
Note: This is a recitation and requires enrollment in the lecture
course.
geol 003.401 or phys 003.401 (lec) | Tuesday & Thursday
| 1:30 - 3:00
geol 003.402 or phys 003.402 (rec) | Tuesday | 3:00 - 4:00
Field
Approaches to Understanding the Earth and Environmental Science:
Landscape Analysis
Frederick Scatena, Professor of Earth and Environmental Science
Understanding landscapes and the relationships between the
natural world and society is fundamental to the natural sciences,
architecture, medicine and public health, real estate and
finance, urban studies and a range of other disciplines.
The primary goal of this course is to expose students to
the science of reading landscapes and disciplines that are
founded in observation and hypothesis testing in the field.
In addition, the course will orient incoming students to
the physical environment in which they will be living while
they are at penn.
The course will be centered around lectures and discussions
that are based on ten or more field trips that will take
place on weekends and afternoons throughout the semester.
The trips will be led by faculty members and will cover topics
of plate tectonics, bedrock and surficial geology, geomorphology,
hydrology, environmental geology, pollution and field ecology.
geol 096.301 | Thursday | 1:30 - 4:30
Freshman Recitation: Introduction
to Geology
Gomaa Omar, Instructor of Earth and Environmental Science
Earth is a unique place. No other planet yet discovered has
the same delicate balance among its multiple systems that include
the atmosphere, lithosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere. Understanding
each system separately and the interaction between systems
is crucial to prevent or lessen the relentless abuses of Earth’s
environment and to support the preservation of life on the
planet. To make wise decisions about social, political and
economic issues that will affect Earth’s environment,
present and future generations will have a tremendous need
for scientific literacy in general and an understanding of
geology in particular. This conviction is brought alive in
this course. Topics covered include, but are not restricted
to, building a planet, minerals, rocks, volcanism, earthquakes,
oceans, groundwater, glaciers, deserts, Earth’s interior,
the Plate Tectonic Theory, geologic time scale, rock deformation,
and Earth system and human impacts. This course satisfies the
Quantitative Data Analysis Requirement.
Note: This course is a recitation and requires enrollment in
lecture course.
geol 100.001 (lec) | Monday, Wednesday & Friday | 11:00
- 12:00
geol 100.201 (rec) | Monday | 10:00 - 11:00
Honors Physics I
Eugene Mele, Professor of Physics and Astronomy
This course parallels and extends the content of phys 150
at a significantly higher mathematical level. It is the first
semester of a small-section, two-semester sequence recommended
for well-prepared students in engineering and the physical
sicences, and particularly for those planning to major in
Physics. Topics include: classical laws of motion, interaction
between particles, conversation laws and symmetry principles,
rigid body motion, noninertial reference frames, and oscillations.
Prerequisite: math 104 or permission of the instructor. Corequisite:
math 114 or permission of the instructor. Students must register
for the lecture and the lab. This is a Benjamin Franklin
Seminar; seats are available for both honors and non-honors
students.
phys 170.301 (lec) | Monday, Wednesday and Friday | 10:00
- 11:00
| Monday | 2:00 - 3:00
| Tuesday | 5:00 - 6:00
phys 170. 302 (lab) | Wednesday | 1:00 - 3:00
phys 170.303 (lab) | Friday | 1:00 - 3:00
SECTOR VII: NATURAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS
Crystals: The Science
and Power Behind the Realities and Myths
Krimo Bokreta, House Dean, Kings Court English House, and Lecturer
in Earth and Environmental Science, and Jorge Santiago-Aviles,
Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Faculty Master
at Kings Court English College House
From the daily vitamin supplements to the cosmetics we wear,
crystals are prevalent in our life. They are present in the
water we drink, in the food we eat, in the air we breathe.
They are the topics of myths and legends, the rise and downfall
of civilizations. They are at the core of our current technological
revolution and the centerpiece of frontier science.
This seminar will explore the basics of the scientific principles
underlying the architecture and design of crystals, their properties
and applications. We will examine the environments where they
are formed: in rocks, in the bottom of the oceans, in space,
in the human and animal body, and in factories. We will also
take a look at the relationship, through time, between man
and crystals, the impact on health and the environment, as
well as the development of legends, folktales and today’s
pop culture.
envs 097.301 | Tuesday | 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.
Writing Seminar in
Anthropology: Writing Multiculturalism
Peggy Reeves Sanday, Professor of Anthropology
Diversity is a fact of life, characteristic not only of the
U.S. national culture but of the global culture as well. This
course introduces anthropological theories of culture and multiculturalism
and the method of ethnography. Students will read and report
on selected classic readings. After learning the basic concepts,
students will be introduced to the concept of culture and the
method of ethnography. The core of the course will revolve
around “doing ethnography” through participant/observation
in multicultural settings. Students can use their life experience,
home communities, or Penn as their field of observation. The
goal of the course is to introduce beginning students to public
interest anthropology. No background in anthropology is required.
This course fulfills the Writing Requirement.
anth 009.314 | Tuesday | 1:30 - 4:30
Writing Seminar in Sociology:
Poverty and Social Exclusion
Kristin Harknett, Assistant Professor of Sociology
In every society, resources, power and prestige are distributed
unequally. This course takes a broad look at the ways in
which certain segments of the U.S. population lack access
to societal goods, to positions of power, and to social and
economic mobility. We start by examining who lacks access
to basic necessities such as food, shelter and health care.
Then we consider who has access to the best neighborhoods
and the best schools and the processes by which others are
excluded. We will also discuss who performs the most dangerous
and the lowest paying jobs in the U.S. labor market and who
lacks access to jobs of any type. The course will be organized
around discussions of readings and case studies. Students
will be required to turn in short, written assignments each
week. Students will also be required to write and revise
a final paper on a relevant topic of their choice. This course
fulfills the Writing Requirement.
soci 009.301 | Tuesday | 1:30 - 4:30
Freshman seminars in mathematics
give students an early exposure to the creative side of mathematics,
with an emphasis on proofs, reasoning, discovery and effective
communication. Small classes permit an informal, discussion-type
atmosphere, and often the entire class works together on a
given problem. Homework is intended to be thought-provoking,
rather than skill-sharpening.
A freshman seminar in algebra will be offered in the spring.
Students may register for one or both semesters. One or the
other of these seminars is required for the math major, but
both are open to all students interested in mathematics. The
best time to take these seminars is in the freshman or sophomore
year. These courses do not satisfy a Sector Requirement, but
virtually all students who take them will also take calculus,
which does satisfy the Formal Reasoning and Analysis Requirement.
Proving
Things: Analysis
Herman Gluck, Professor of Mathematics
This course focuses on the creative side of mathematics, with
an emphasis on discovery, reasoning, proofs and effective communication,
while at the same time studying real and complex numbers, sequences,
series, continuity, differentiability and integrability. Small
class sizes permit an informal, discussion-type atmosphere,
and often the entire class works together on a given problem.
Homework is intended to be thought-provoking rather than skill-sharpening.
Students must enroll in both the lecture and a lab.
math 202.001 (lec) | Tuesday & Thursday | 12:00 - 1:30
math 202.101 (lab) | Monday | 6:30 - 8:30
math 202.102 (lab) | Wednesday | 6:30 - 8:30