Freshman Seminars
for Spring 2004
Culture
Clash
Paula Sabloff, Adjunct Associate Professor of Anthropology
This course is designed to introduce students to the connection between
anthropology, philosophy, and personal experience. Starting from the
anthropological position that many of the social problems of our time
are the result of conflict between or within cultures, we will read
anthropological accounts-ethnographies-of problems such as globalization,
cultural survival, class and ethnic conflict. We will also read the
political philosophers from Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith to
Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu quoted by the anthropologists. In
this seminar, students will form their own social theory by integrating
the readings with first-hand experience in the West Philadelphia community
as they perform community service. In this Academically Based Community
Service (ABCS) course, they will turn their personal experience into
an anthropolo practicum, seeing social theory and anthropology operating
“on the ground.” (Distribution I: Society)
ANTH (025) 115.301 | Tuesday | 1:30 - 4:30
Popular Culture in Africa
Sandra Barnes, Professor of Anthropology
This course concentrates on
popular culture in sub-Saharan Africa. It examines the way people
reflect on and represent various aspects
and issues in their daily lives, in public media, and through a diverse
range of performative and creative outlets. It explores the way
cultural traditions are created, promulgated and perpetuated. It looks
at
the
way popular culture deals with pleasure and pain; identity, difference
and diversity; wealth and power; modernity and history; gender
relations; suppression, resistance and violence; and local versus global
processes.
In short, popular culture will serve as a window through which
to observe
contemporary life. (Distribution I: Society)
ANTH (025) 018.401 or AFST (010) 018.401 or AFAM (009) 018.401
Monday | 2:00 - 5:00
Politics & Poetics Of Religious Conversion
Kate Ramsey, Mellon Fellow in Anthropology
This seminar will examine
religious transformation as both a personal experience and a socio-historical
force. We will consider the ways in
which conversion experiences have been narrated by those who experience
them, those who incite them (e.g. missionaries), and those who seek
to analyze and explain them (e.g. historians and social scientists).
We will study the close historical relation between conquest and
conversion, while also examining how conversions of the colonized
have led to conversions
of the colonizers and their cultures as well. Finally, we will examine
cases in which conversion might be understood as an act of dissent
and
consider the liberatory possibilities of such transformations. Throughout
the seminar, we will focus on what the process of conversion can teach
us about human subject-hood, identity, cultural contact and historical
change. Readings will include autobiographical accounts, novels, and
scholarly works by authors such as Chinua Achebe, Bartolomé de
Las Casas, Jonathan Edwards, Clifford Geertz, Robin Horton, William
James, C. S. Lewis, Vicente Rafael, Sojourner Truth, Gauri Viswanathan
and Malcolm X. (Distribution I: Society)
ANTH (025) 026.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 3:00 - 4:30
Architecture Today
Witold Rybczysnki, Professor of Urbanism
Why do buildings by different architects look so different? The Getty
Museum in Los Angeles, for example, is quite different from the Bilbao
Guggenheim; Rem Koolhas’ proposed library in Seattle is worlds
apart from Tom Beeby’s Harold T. Washington Library in Chicago.
In addition to site, function, and construction, architecture is affected
by style, and today there are many different stylistic approaches.
Style is neglected in most discussions of architecture yet it is central
to the design and appreciation of buildings. The seminar will examine
the role that style plays in the work of prominent contemporary architects
(e.g., Frank Gehry, Robert Venturi, Robert A.M. Stern, Norman Foster,
Jean Nouvel) both in the United States and abroad. Selected readings
will form the basis for written assignments that will include two 5-page
papers and one 10-page term paper. (Distribution I: Society)
ARCH (029) 102.001 | Monday & Wednesday | 2:00 - 3:30
Society & History
Ewa Morawska, Professor of Sociology
American society has traditionally been very much oriented toward
the future. New things and approaches have been assumed to be naturally
superior to the old ones and, thus, the past has never attracted much
of Americans attention except as just that—the past. And yet the
past exerts a profound influence on the present: social institutions,
culture, politics, and intergroup and personal relations. Using comparative
illustrations from individual biographies and national, religious,
racial/ethnic, and urban group experiences, this seminar explores different
ways in which the past shapes the present. In particular, we consider
the long-and short-term impact on personal and (small and large) group
lives of different dimensions of time (duration, sequence, pace and
trajectory of events) and space (physical and geopolitical locations,
size, boundaries, distance, density).
Course requirements include, besides active participation in class discussions,
(1) review of a book (student’s choice) dealing with micro-or macro-level
contemporary event/development with historical roots; (2) term-paper based
on a mini-study conducted by students on the selected contemporary social problem
considered historically (it may be focused on micro-event(s) and involve interviewing
of a small sample of informants, or a macro-development and involve additional
reading of secondary material); and (3) taking over one class discussion (introduction
of the main themes/issues from the readings, management of the discussion;
students‚ choice of date and topic). (Distribution I: Society)
SOCI (589) 041.301 | Thursday | 1:30 - 4:30
Crime & Punishment
Eric Schneider, Adjunct Associate Professor of History
How have definitions of crime and forms of punishment changed over
time? What have been the uses and legacy of extra-legal violence? How
have the forms of crime and punishment reflected the structure of American
Society? Using both historical and contemporary texts, this seminar
will explore these and other questions and in the process analyze the
development of juvenile justice, the organization of corrections, the
application of the death penalty, and the rise of the drug economy.
(Distribution II: History and Tradition)
URBS (657) 110.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 3:00 - 4:30
Sector II: History and Tradition
Classical Architecture
Lothar Haselberger, Professor of History of Art
Comparing and contrasting
outstanding examples of Greek and Roman architecture-single buildings
as well as larger architectural compositions and city plans-forms the
focus of this freshman seminar. Special emphasis will be laid on the
guiding principles of these structures and the diverse, or common,
Greek and roman approaches to comparable building tasks (such astemples,
theaters, market places, fortifications, city plans). Methodological
'tools' for these analyses will be discussed and a broader historical
context developed. Field trips to the Second Bank Building and the
Art Museum in Philadelphia. No Prerequisites. (Distribution III: Arts & Letters)
ARTH (033) 100.301 Monday 3:00 - 6:00
Women and Family in the Ancient Near East
Dr. Tonia Sharlach-Nash, Researcher, Babylonian Section, University
Museum
History, especially ancient history, is often written as the
deeds of kings and elite males. But how did the majority of
the population, men and women, live in the ancient Middle East? What
were the basic family units and where and how did they live? What
were their legal rights and religious beliefs? How did institutions
such as temples and palaces impact on their lives, and how much freedom
did they have? In this class we will work from
ancient texts
in translation to follow ancient women and men through the course of
their lives, from cradle to grave, and explore their experiences of
life at work and at home, love, marriage, and divorce, until death
and beyond. (Distribution II: History& Tradition)
AMES (465) 048.401 or WSTD (677) 048.401
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:30PM - 3:00PM
Native Peoples And The Environment
Clark Erickson, Associate Professor of Anthropology
The relationship between the activities of native peoples and the environment
is a complex and contentious issue. One perspective argues that native
peoples had little impact on the environments because of their low population
densities, limited technology, and conservation ethic and worldview.
At another extreme, biodiversity, and Nature itself, is considered the
product of a long history of human activities. This seminar will examine
the Myth of the Ecologically Noble Savage, the Myth of the Pristine
Environment, the alliance between native peoples and Green Politics,
and the contribution of native peoples to appropriate technology, sustainable
development and conservation of biodiversity. (Distribution II: History
and Tradition)
ANTH (025) 133.401 or LTAM (383) 133.401 | Tuesday & Thursday |
12:00 - 1:30
History of American Education
Anita Gelburd, Assistant to the Deputy Provost and Lecturer in
History
A survey of how American educational institutions developed from the
Colonial era to the present, in the context of social, cultural and
economic trends during the same time period. It offers students a chance
to research and report on topics of particular interest to them. This
course is affiliated with the Communication within the Curriculum program
and will involve two oral presentations. (Distribution II: History
and Tradition)
HIST (317) 104.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 10:30 - 12:00
Introduction to Philosophy
Robert Thompson, Lecturer in Philosophy
In this introduction to philosophy, we will explore the philosophical
problem of skepticism by considering skepticism about two domains:
morality and the external world. We will examine (1) the nature of
knowledge (What is knowledge? Under what circumstances can we be said
to know something?), (2) the nature of value (morality or goodness)
(What things have value and what makes them valuable?), and (3) the
nature of the external world (Is there a world that exists apart from
how we think about it? Is it like we perceive it to be? How can we
be confident that it is as we perceive it to be?). (General Requirement
II: History and Tradition
PHIL (493) 001.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 3:00 - 4:30
Introduction to Philosophy
Morgan Wallhagen, Lecturer in Philosophy
An introduction to such topics as our knowledge of the material world,
the relation of mind and body, the existence of God, and the nature
of morality. Readings from both
historical and contemporary sources. (General Requirement II: History and Tradition)
PHIL (493) 001.302 | Tuesday & Thursday | 10:30 - 12:00
Introduction to Philosophy
Lecturer in Philosophy
An introductory survey of some central philosophical issues, including:
Is there a God? What is the relationship between the mind and the body?
Are free will and determinism incompatible? Are there objective moral
standards? Readings will be taken from both contemporary and historical
sources. (General Requirement II: History and Tradition)
PHIL (493) 001.303 | Tuesday & Thursday | 10:30 - 12:00
Ex Oriente Lux: Eastern Christian Mystics of the Light
Andreas Andreopoulos, Mellon Fellow in Religious Studies
Eastern mystics
did not easily talk or write about their experiences. Nevertheless,
a tradition of contemplative prayer that starts in the Egyptian desert
in the fourth century and culminates with the flowering of the hesychastic
theology in the fourteenth century Byzantium, is characterized by the
experience of the Uncreated Light, the same light that was experienced
by Peter, John and James during the Transfiguration of Jesus, something
that is related to the ascetic ascent of hesychasm. This seminar will
discuss these experiences within their historical, cultural, and spiritual
background, and will present the thought of significant mystics such
as Evagrius of Pontus, Maximus the Confessor, Symeon the New Theologian,
Gregory Palamas, Theophanes of Nicea, the Slavic monastics who continued
the hesychastic tradition, as well as the hesychastic councils of the
fourteenth century.
Belief here will be approached as the agent that awakens the spiritual
senses, both in the lives of the saints and mystics whose faith was
transformed into experience, in the words of Maximus the Confessor "passing
from flesh to spirit," where the physical and the metaphysical
meet. Moreover, the mystical tradition of the light will be approached
from a contemporary point of view, discussing the relationship of the
contemporary reader with the mystical experience. (Distribution II:
History & Tradition)
RELS (541) 103.301 Tuesday & Thursday 9:00 - 10:30
Indians Overseas: A Global View
Surendra Gambhir, Senior Lecturer
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, especially
in North America, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom and the African
continent. (Distribution II: History and Tradition)
SARS (593) 012.301 | Monday & Wednesday | 3:00 - 4:30
The Art of Crossing: Americans Mixing it up in
the Jazz Age
Lydia Fisher, Lecturer in English
Who says I’m that? Who says I can’t be that? Who says art
has to look like that? African-Americans “passing” as white.
White Americans looking for themselves in Harlem. Cross-dressing and
gender bending. Hybridity. Expatriates finding home abroad. High class
meets lowbrow. Popular culture becomes art. The literature, visual
art, and music of the early 20th century is full of images and instances
of crossing over and trying on difference (a different place, a different
self, a different kind of expression), reveling in the mixed-ness of
the modern moment in which distinctions and divisions of all sorts
were cast into question. In this course we will interrogate American
texts of the modern era as productions of their cultural moment, asking:
What were the historical conditions that produced this art of crossing?
How were writers and other artists “mixing” their own ideas
and artistic goals with those of others? And what did this age of innovation,
exploration, integration, and revolution in art accomplish both aesthetically
and culturally? This was a period of great transformation and artistic
exchange that produced exciting and engaging works for us to experience
and talk about together.
The course is designed to get students involved in exploring modernity through
diverse course materials (poetry, short stories, novels, essays, music, visual
art), approaching the intellectual challenges and rewards of literary and cultural
study both independently and in collaboration with others. Course requirements
will include active participation in class discussions, short response papers,
a group researched presentation project, and a final longer paper (6-8 pages).
Course texts may include works by Langston Hughes, Anzia Yezierska, Nella Larsen,
W.E.B. Dubois, William Faulkner, Jessie Fauset, Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway
and Gertrude Stein. (Distribution III: Arts and Letters)
ENGL (197) 016.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 10:30 - 12:00
The Body as Politics: Case Studies in the Relationship
between the Body, Society, Culture and Art
Marion Kant, Lecturer in English
This seminar will examine historic situations in which the human body
has been used to symbolize, literally to embody, political or other
forces in a given society. The cases will focus on concepts developed
in the 20th century though they will trace their origins from as far
away as the ancient world through courtly behavior in the early modern
period to the Nazi regime. The examples will focus on the representation
of the body in the performing arts and particularly in dance. The movements
and dance concepts will be considered part of a social and political
framework; they will be understood as attempts to educate and condition
people to incorporate desirable or reject undesirable conventions and
values. These conventions and values reach back to historical as well
as psychological patterns and uncover deep-seated fears, anxieties,
hopes and ideals.
The course will examine the way in which utopian theories—from the notion
of the natural to that of the artificial—vary from society to society
or even at one particular time. It will examine through literary texts, images,
paintings and videos how attitudes to the body have emerged, how and why notions
of dangerous dancing women coincided with the emergence of health cults and
nudism or the notion of the virtual body. The course will develop critical
thinking skills in class discussions as well as research assignments and introduce
students to academic conventions and scholarly methods of working. (Distribution
III: Arts and Letters)
ENGL (197) 016.302 | Wednesday | 2:00 - 5:00
Early Anglo Feminisms
Yaakov Mascetti, Mellon Fellow in English
It is no accident that early modern feminism arose at the same
time that empirical science did, and this course will chart their relation.
At a time when objectivity was being invented, writers and philosophers
became interested in a set of questions about sex and gender very similar
to those we ask today. Are men and women fundamentally different?
Does eac have its own way of knowing? Is female learning possible,
and do women need their own centers of learning? While we will read
widely in early feminism, we will also read the work of two women closely:
Margaret Cavendish and Mary Astell. These two women blazed a trail
a 100 years before Mary Wollstonecraft and 200 before Virginia Woolf;
yet you'll find their writing to be as fresh and relevant today as
it was then -- perhaps even moreso. We will engage as well with many
contemporary philosophers and scientists, focusing on reactions to
this early feminist rise in conscience. There will be two papers and
some short research assignments.(Distribution III: Arts & Letters)
ENGL (197) 016.303 | Tuesday & Thursday | 3:00 - 4:30
Feminist Fairy Tales
Vicki Mahaffey, Professor of English
In this course, we will address the question of how young American
women are acculturated to see some roles as desirable and others as
unacceptable. In particular, we will explore the impact of popular
culture, especially fairy tales, on the formation of a woman’s
self-image. We will examine the value of beauty, kindness, youth, sexuality
and wealth from a variety of angles, and we will also assess what fairy
tales from different cultures suggest about a woman's optimal size,
age, intelligence, and aggressiveness.
We will begin by reading several versions of fairy tales from different time-periods
and cultures, and we will contextualize those readings with commentaries that
are also written from a range of perspectives: psychoanalytic, feminist, and
sociological. Students will be required to see several film versions of the
fairy tales we examine, although there will be no formal screenings. Once we
have a fuller grasp of the variants of a given tale, it will be easier to appreciate
what values are being endorsed by the popular dissemination of one particular
version. We will then contrast the most well-known and influential versions
of fairy tales with feminist revisions of those tales by Angela Carter, Jeanette
Winterson, Tanith Lee, Jane Yolen and others. (Distribution III: Arts and Letters)
ENGL (197) 016.304 | Tuesday & Thursday | 9:00 - 10:30
Sex, Love and Laughter in French Renaissance
Literature
Lorraine Sterritt, Dean of Freshmen and Director of Academic
Advising, Adjunct Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures
In this course, we will examine the ways in which 16th-century French
writers make use of humor, from the sublime to the bawdy, in their
treatment of relationships between the sexes and in their social commentaries.
Readings will include works by François Rabelais, Louise Labé,
and Marguerite de Navarre. As background, we will also read brief selections
from classical and Italian authors. The class will be conducted in
English, and all the readings will be in English translation. No prior
knowledge of Greek, Latin, Italian or French is needed. (Distribution
III: Arts and Letters)
FREN (229) 209.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 4:30 - 6:00
Italian Postcards
Stefano Cracolici, Assistant Professor of Italian
Picture postcards represent an easy and pleasant way to share our
views and feelings about a specific place. By going repeatedly back
and forth from image to text and from text to image, we let ourselves
be mentally invaded by the presence of the place portrayed in the picture,
while feeling both emotionally and intellectually close to the person
who wrote and sent us the card. Taking this rather intimate activity
as a model for exploring a foreign culture, this course will try to
capture some of the most alluring contradictions of the Italian scene:
enduring tradition and trendy consumerism, ravishing landscapes and
urban sprawl, demonic bureaucracy and unvanquishable human warmth.
Written and visual records (including films, paintings, and photographs)
from different cultures and different time periods will lead our conversations
towards a better understanding of what is arguably one of the most
amiable and beloved countries in the world. Among the authors to be
covered will be Virgil, Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Montaigne, Goethe,
Leopardi, Eliot, Stendhal, Hawthorne, Ruskin, Pasolini and Calvino.
Readings and discussions will be conducted in English. (Distribution
III: Arts and Letters)
ITAL (349) 288.301 | Monday, Wednesday & Friday | 11:00 - 12:00
Sounding Film
Laura Basini, Lecturer in Music
What roles do sound and music perform in film? How does sound interact
with visuals, communicate to a cinema audience, and affect a viewer's
response? While sound in film is often assumed to be mere accompaniment
to visual events, this course investigates the possibility that it
plays a more vital role in shaping our understanding of the story.
We shall consider sound when it is used as part of the plot scenario,
and when it is unheard by characters in the film; how sound can complicate
or contradict visual events and the effect of using particular musical
styles and genres; and how sound helps define film genres such as comedy,
suspense, propaganda and documentary. Films to be studied include David
E. Kelley’s Ally Mcbeal (1990s), Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca
(1942), Oliver Stone’s Platoon (1986), Charlie Chaplin’s
The Great Dictator (1940), Disney’s Steamboat Willie (1928), Alfred
Hitchcock’s Rear Window, Joseph Ruben’s Sleeping With the
Enemy (1991), and Gédéon and Jules Naudet’s 9/11
(2001-2). (Distribution III: Arts and Letters)
MUSC (441) 016.001 | Monday, Wednesday & Friday | 1:00 - 2:00
Ways of Making Music
Sidney Boquiren, Mellon Fellow in Music
Students will explore the plurality of ways that composers today and
in the previous century have approached the creation of music. Simultaneously,
they will familiarize themselves with the diversity of materials and
sound available for use at the hands of composers. In the process,
students will become acquainted with some of the seminal works of the
20th century as well as more recently composed pieces, examining how
composers have dealt with a host of compositional, aesthetic and philosophical
concerns.
This seminar is not intended just for musicians and music majors. Indeed, “Ways
of Making Music” is designed as an introduction to inquiries on the nature
of music. We will challenge and examine preconceived notions and understandings
of music. We will also locate the music we study within broader contexts by
relating the pieces we examine and discuss to other forms of art. Through exploring
a gamut of compositional approaches from modern and experimental Western music,
students will begin to question, challenge and carefully reconsider their long-held
beliefs and unexamined assumptions regarding what music is, expanding their
understanding of what music can be.
Students will be required to attend a certain number of performances. They
will also be required to comment (aurally or in writing) on each performance.
Additionally, students will be guided, as a class or in groups, through the
creation of musical works and projects, as well as their performance, thereby
affording them a glimpse of the creative and the performative questions and
issues that composers and performers often face. (Distribution III: Arts and
Letters)
MUSC (441) 016.002 | Monday, Wednesday & Friday | 11:00 - 12:00
Sector IV: Formal Reasoning and Analysis
Freshman Seminars in Math
Freshman seminars in the math department at Penn aim to give the student
an early exposure to the creative side of mathematics, with an emphasis
on discovery, reasoning, proof and effective communication. 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.
Each seminar meets for one-and-a-half hours per week, and an entire year counts
for one credit unit. Students may register for one or both semesters. It is
recommended that math majors take 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. This course does not satisfy
the General Requirement; however, virtually all students who take it will also
take calculus; which does satisfy the Formal Reasoning and Analysis Requirement.
Introduction to Mathematical Analysis
Dimitri Gioev, Lecturer in Mathematics
(This course has a more calculus flavor.)
MATH (409) 201.301 | Tuesday | 1:30 - 3:00
MATH (409) 201.302 | Thursday | 1:30 - 3:00
Introduction to Modern Algebra
Peter Freyd, Professor of Mathematics
(This course has a more algebraic flavor.)
MATH (409) 205.301 | Tuesday | 12:00 - 1:30
MATH (409) 205.302 | Thursday | 12:00 - 1:30
Conservation Biology
Robin Sherwood, Lecturer in Biology
There is little doubt that humans have a significant impact on all
aspects of the environment. It is equally evident that we must make
important choices, both locally and globally, to manage and minimize
these environmental impacts. What resources do you use to inform your
decisions? Are you more likely to listen to the Sierra Club or the Earth
Liberation Front? Your parents might have looked to Rachael Carson,
Jacques Cousteau or even Al Gore for information. Do any of these people
still have influence? We will explore how people think about conservation
issues by looking at the writings of past and current naturalists and
conservation biologists. (General Requirement V: Living World)
BIOL (053) 010.301 Tuesday & Thursday 10:30 - 12:00
The Big Bang and Beyond
Vijay Balasubramanian, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy
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. (General Requirement VI:
Physical World and satisfies the Quantitative Data Analysis Requirement)
ASTR (037) 007.301 Tuesday & Thursday | 9:00 - 10:30
Structural Biology and Genomics
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 structures and 3-dimensional structures of
cellular components. It is a direct outgrowth of the intellectual and
technical revolutions that occurred during the last decade. It has
become a most powerful approach to 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.
A portion of the spring semester will address current fads/fashions in molecular
research.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. (General Requirement
VI: Physical World)
CHEM (081) 022.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 8:00 - 9:00
Freshman Recitation
Oceanography
Andrea Grottoli, Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Science
A
study of the two-thirds of the Earth covered by water. Composition,
structure, motions, and effects of ocean water. The ocean bottom, including
seafloor spreading and continental drift. Marine biology and geology.
Ocean resources. Web-based recitations use real-time data to solve
contemporary quantitative problems. Students must register for both
the lecture and a recitation. The recitation listed below is restricted
to freshmen and is led by Professor Grottoli. (General Requirement
VI: The Physical World)
GEOL (289) 130.001 (lec) Tuesday & Thursday 10:30 - 12:00
GEOL (289) 130.201 (lab) Tuesday 3:00 - 4:00
Honors Physics II: Electromagnetism and Radiation
Paul Heiney, Professor of Physics and Astronomy
This course parallels and extends the content of Physics 151 at a
somewhat higher mathematical level. It is the second semester of a
small-section two-semester sequence for well-prepared students in engineering
and the physical sciences, and particularly for those planning to major
in physics. Topics will include electric and magnetic fields; Coulomb’s,
Ampere’s and Faraday’s laws; Maxwell’s equation; emission,
propagation and absorption of electromagnetic radiation; and geometrical
and physical optics. Prerequisite: Successful completion of Physics
170 or permission of the instructor. Students must register for the
lecture and the lab. This is a Benjamin Franklin honors seminar. (General
Requirement VI: Physical World)
PHYS (497) 171.301 (lec) | Monday, Wednesday & Friday | 10:00 - 11:00
Monday | 2:00-3:00 and Thursday | 5:00 - 6:00
PHYS (497) 071.302 (lab) | Wednesday | 1:00 - 3:00
Knowledge and Social Structure
Henrika Kuklick, Professor of History and Sociology of Science
How does knowledge gain cultural authority? This course is designed
to consider that question, with special attention to the status of scientific
knowledge and the role of scientists in modern Western society. We will
approach the issues raised in the course by reading materials drawn
from a broad range of sources, from the science studies literature to
the popular press. (General Requirement VII: Science Studies)
HSSC (321) 270.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 12:00 - 1:30
