Freshman Seminars for Spring 2007
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.
anth 018.401 or afrc 018.401 or afst 018.401 | Wednesday | 2:00
- 5:00
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
Is there an ethicist in the house?
Prof. Moreno
Stem cells. Schiavo. Face transplants. Health insurance. Try getting
through the day without hearing about an ethical issue. In this seminar we
will get back to basics, exploring the role of the ethicist, the nature of
ethical decision-making in the hospital, the ethics of human experiments,
brain research, all key issues of the last 25 years.
hsoc 038.301 | Tuesday | 4:30
- 7:30
Issues in American Democracy
Henry Teune, Professor of Political Science
The main issues facing the U.S. in the democratic development
of its political system are the content of this seminar. Most
of these issues inhere in the constitutional structures of federalism,
divided national political authority, and limits on governmental
powers. Others derive directly from social and economic changes,
now global in scope. These changes also impact other democracies—declining
voting participation, increased distrust in government, transformations
of the economy, and rising insecurities from global terrorism.
They challenge the traditional democratic liberties and practices
of the U.S. as well as the prospects of a democratic world order.
The topics include American political development, distrust of
authority, political participation, inequality, personal security,
the place of the U.S. in the world, cross-generational obligations,
American culture and national security. The seminar will be divided
into task forces that will take positions on issues for presentations.
Assignments include short position papers for discussion in the
seminar, a longer research paper, and two final essays.
psci 010.301 | Tuesday | 1:30 - 4:30
Sector II: History and Tradition
The Rise and Fall of Ancient Maya Civilization
Gregory Borgstede, Lecturer in Anthropology
The civilization of the ancient Maya, which flourished between
approximately 1000 b.c. and the Spanish Conquest of the 16th
century a.d. in what is now southern Mexico and northern Central
America, has long been of wide public interest. The soaring temples
of Tikal, the beautiful palaces of Palenque, the sophisticated
carved monuments and sculpture, and the complex writing, astronomical
and mathematical systems of this pre-industrial civilization
have been widely photographed and written about. However, revolutionary
advances in archaeological research which have provided important
new data about the farmers and craftspeople who supported the
great Maya rulers, and the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphics
writing over the past two decades have led to the overthrow of
the traditional model of Lowland Maya civilization and the growth
of new understandings of the development of Lowland Maya civilization,
the rise of urban states, and the successful adaptation to a
difficult and varied tropical environment. Through a series of
case studies, this seminar will examine the research that has
led to these new insights and will evaluate the exciting new
models of Maya civilization and its achievements that have emerged
in recent years.
anth 032.401 or lals 032.401 | Tuesday | 1:30 - 4:30
The First
Crusade
Edward Peters, Professor of History
This seminar will examine the penitential military expedition
to Jerusalem that was launched in November, 1095, conquered the
city in July, 1099, and was subsequently called by historians,
but not by participants, the First Crusade. We will study the
individuals, ideas and events of those years through the close
examination of primary historical sources (texts and other materials
produced at the time or shortly after) and through the consideration
of selected secondary source materials (historical and other
scholarship). We will also consider serious disputes among contemporary
historians of the crusades. We will consider the three distinctive
civilizations, parts or all of which were affected by the expedition:
Latin Christian Europe, Greek Christian Byzantium (the Empire
of East Rome) and the Middle Eastern (and Mediterranean western)
Islamic world, as well as the culture of Jews in all three worlds.
We will also consider the later interpretation of the expedition
by historians, novelists, poets, politicians and others—that
is, the First Crusade in cultural memory.
hist 101.301 | Monday | 2:00 - 5:00
Girls Gone Wild: Reading Women’s
Journeys, from the Wife of Bath to Thelma and Louise
John Ghazvinian, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Penn Humanities
Forum
Women have been going on journeys for at least as long as men
have, yet the female version of travel has always been proscribed,
negotiated or compromised in some way. As early as the 4th century,
women went on religious pilgrimages and wrote about their journeys.
When the Grand Tour of the 17th century was off-limits to them,
they used restorative trips to Spa as an excuse to go abroad
and see the continent. When Victorian ladies traveled through
Africa by themselves, they were dismissed as dilettantes and
scientific lightweights. Even in our own “liberated” age,
a film about two women on a road trip is instantly labeled “feminist” or
a “chick flick”. Why have men in almost every period
of history found the idea of female travelers so threatening?
What strategies have women wanting to see the world adopted over
the centuries to help them avoid (or perhaps invite) the accusation
that they are dangerous, loose or lustful? As historians, we
have to work harder, look closer and think more creatively to
find evidence of women’s journeys, yet we are always richly
rewarded when we do, and this seminar will be devoted to understanding
how to discover and read the female journey amidst centuries
of obfuscation and dissimulation.
hist 102.301 | Wednesday | 2:00 - 5:00
Philadelphia Through Travelers’ Eyes:
Tales in a Capital City, 1790-1800
Neil Safier, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Penn Humanities
Forum
The ratification of the constitution and the establishment of
Philadelphia as the
new capital of the United States brought a flood of interest
and a deluge of immigrants and travelers to the city during the
period immediately following the establishment of the American
republic. What might it have been like to walk the streets of
Philadelphia during those heady times? Other than the owner Martha
Smallwood, what characters was one likely to meet at the Man
Full of Trouble tavern or the Merchant’s Coffee House,
and what might they have been discussing?
What interactions might one have had with individuals of the
many social classes, religious persuasions, and ethnic groupings
that populated the city? French immigrants, African-American
slaves and freedmen, fishmongers, merchants, cobblers, constitutional
signers and other participants in the drama of daily life in
Philadelphia created a diverse urban panorama which this course
will examine through travel accounts penned by foreign observers
and magazines and other periodicals published during this period.
Using historical maps and visual documents, students will narrate
their way through Philadelphia describing the sights, sounds
and smells of life in the capital of a new nation. With contemporary
Philadelphia as a backdrop, the class will be able to visit the
landmarks of the city and speculate on the cultural customs one
might have observed there 225 years ago. And by examining the
earliest racial, ethnic and social stratifications of a city
built through the coerced labor of another immigrant class, African
slaves and their descendants, the course will attempt to understand—through
eyewitness accounts—the roots and legacies of institutionalized
social and economic inequality in early American life.
hist 103.301 | Thursday | 1:30 - 4:30
Disability
Matters
Beth Linker, Assistant Professor of History and Sociology of
Science
According to the latest statistics, almost one-fifth of Americans
are disabled. Whether able-bodied or not, all of us encounter
disability policy at work on a daily basis-from handicap parking
and automated doors to accessible drinking fountains. The purpose
of this seminar will be to explore the history of disability
as a lived-experience, as the basis for 19th-century “freak
shows,” as a medical diagnosis, as a common outcome of
America’s wars, and as a personal identifier that has sparked
political controversy and activism throughout the last two hundred
years. Some of the topics in this course will include the history
of the “normal” body, plastic surgery, prosthetic
design and engineering, eugenics, the development of the Veteran’s
hospital system, as well as the passage of the Americans with
Disabilities Act of 1990.
hsoc 041.301 | Wednesday | 2:00 - 5:00
Science, Magic and Religion
Henrika Kuklick, Professor of History and Sociology of Science
Throughout human history, the relationships of science and religion,
as well as of science and magic, have been complex—and
often surprising. This course will cover topics ranging from
the links between magic and science in the 17th century to contemporary
anti-science movements.
stsc 028.401 or hsoc 025.401 or folk 025.401 or rels 116.401
Wednesday | 2:00 - 5:00
Crime and 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 freshman 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.
urbs 110.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 3:00 - 4:30
Spiegel Freshman Seminar
Art/Architecture/Public Space: 1964-2000
Monica Amor, Professor, Maryland Institute College of Art
Join curator and critic Monica Amor in an exploration of the
new kinds of modern art and architecture that emerged out of
a discontent with the ideals of modernist “functionalism” on
the one hand, and with technoscientistic artistic practices,
such as Kinetic art, on the other. Throughout the Americas and
Europe, the postwar situation was marked by a crisis of rationalism
and an ethos of reconstruction: in Europe, the horror of recent
mass extermination; in the U.S., the dominance of capitalism
and mass consumption; and throughout the Americas, the clash
between modernity and underdevelopment. The vibrant interdisciplinary
arts that grew up in this environment were marked by a critique
of monumentality, an investigation of social space, an embrace
of pop culture, and an interest in public sites and architecture.
The scope of the course will be international. Readings will
deal with public space, art and the city, and theories of site
and place-—complementing class discussions of movements
such as Minimalism, Post-minimalism, and Site Specific Art, and
very recent work that is not yet named and classified. The class
will visit museums and sites.
arth 100.301 | Friday | 2:00 - 5:00
Performing Exile
Kinga Araya, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Penn Humanities
Forum
How can we define “performance art” and “exile” when
those two terms complement each other offering a new understanding
of such difficult human experience as exile? This course will
present a critical survey of performance art from the 1960’s
to the present. We will explore the notion of the live art form
and exile as represented by significant performance art works
and selected theoretical writings.
We will pay special attention to those performance artworks,
in which the actual and metaphorical crossings of countries,
cultures, and languages become a creative expression and political
statement of the states of exile. Taking into consideration a
variety of performative artistic interventions and critical writings,
we shall be led to question the monolithic concept of modernity
as a rational and progressive force, and to open ourselves to
postmodern discourses of hybridity, nomadism and diaspora.
Drawing on the provocative concept of the Palestinian-American
cultural historian Edward Said, that an exiled intellectual performs
mobile, marginal and estranged work, we shall investigate how
the creative “performing exile” can help to define
the ethics and aesthetics of a responsible intellectual. We will
read and discuss such diverse intellectuals as Walter Benjamin
(the figure of the modern walker and social outcast), Edward
Said (the exilic figure), Homi Bhabha (the nomadic figure) and
Amelia Jones (the performing figure).
arth 100.302 | Monday | 2:00 - 5:00
Monsters of Japan: Weird Creatures in Legend, Literature and
Film
Frank L. Chance, Associate Director of East Asian Languages and
Civilizations
A look at monstrous beasts and other strange creatures in Japanese
history, literature, mythology and film. From the eight-headed
Orochi described in the 8th century Kojiki to the cute “pocket
monsters” popular in anime of the 1990’s, we will
look at many strange creatures, focusing most on the “King
of the Monsters,” Godzilla, and his many subjects in the
Toho films of the last half-century. The course will be paralleled
by a (required) film series on Tuesday nights.
ealc 055.401 or cine 055.401 | Tuesday | 3:00 - 6:00
American
Literature and American Painting from the Civil War to World
War II
Peter Conn, Professor of English
The course will offer a selective but intensive introduction
to American literature and American painting in the decades between
the Civil War and World War II.
The authors to be studied will include Mark Twain, Edith Wharton,
T.S. Eliot, Henry James, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ernest Hemingway and
William Faulkner, among others. The painters will include Thomas
Eakins, Winslow Homer, the “Ash Can School” of the
early 20th century, Georgia O’Keefe, the artists of the
Harlem Renaissance and Edward Hopper. We will visit at least
two museums, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania
Academy of Fine Arts, both of which contain exceptional American
paintings. The course requirements will consist of critical and
creative short papers, class discussion of the literary and visual
material, quizzes and a final exam.
engl 016.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 10:30 - 12:00
Literary
Genealogy
Erin O’Connor, Associate Professor of English
What do you know about your family’s history? What kinds
of “family stories” have been handed down to you?
Have you ever wondered how accurate or truthful those stories
are? Have you ever checked? If you wanted to, how would you?
And what would it mean—for your understanding of family,
your understanding of story, and your understanding of history—if
you found that your foundational family stories were not quite
true? These are some of the questions that will occupy us this
semester as we study a range of American writers who have approached
the complex question of the “family story” through
fiction.
To approach these questions, we will read a number of “literary
genealogies.” These will include novels by writers who
are using the novel form to meditate on the question of where
family stories come from and what they mean (Marilynne Robinson’s
Gilead and Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex). We will also
read novels by writers who are using the novel form to invent
stories—and even entire histories—for their own families,
building character, plot and symbol from the unpromising but
provocative hints contained in the few scattered facts they possess
(John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, Charles Frazier’s
Cold Mountain and Alex Haley’s Roots). We will even read
a novel by a writer who used one family’s real history
to anchor the invented story of an old man who is researching
his fictional family’s history—in Angle of Repose,
Wallace Stegner reprints the actual letters of 19th-century illustrator
and pioneer, Mary Hallock Foote, but presents them as the correspondence
of his main character’s imaginary grandmother.
Our aim in this course will be to sort through the complex, confusing,
and deeply intriguing questions that are contained within the
seemingly simple concept of the “family history” and
the “family story.” We will ask what history is (or
what histories are); we will examine how stories and histories
separate and merge and we will work from these considerations
to a broader reflection on the idea of family itself. Along the
way, we’ll familiarize ourselves with the vast and growing
body of electronic resources for those who do family history.
Requirements include regular attendance, weekly weblog postings,
two formal papers and an in-class presentation.
engl 016.302 | Monday & Wednesday | 2:00 - 3:30
Beast Culture: Animals, Identity and Western
Literature
Chi-ming Yang, Assistant Professor of English
The 18th century was a period of increasing contact between England
and other parts of the globe, and hence, the infusion of foreign
characters, fashions, and perspectives into the world of English
literature. So-called discoveries of new worlds, cultures, and
species lent themselves to literary innovations in narration—imagine
the world as seen through the eyes of a pet monkey, parrot or
well-traveled poodle. (And imagine the secrets they could tell,
given their access to the private.) Such animal-centric narratives
mark a heightened consciousness about human-animal relations
amidst the rise of domestic pet-keeping, explorations of distant
jungles, and heated social and scientific debates over the blurring
of boundaries between species and peoples, public and private,
self and other.
In this course, we will explore the English fascination with
animals and animal perspectives in 18th-century print culture.
One of the main questions will be how understandings of animal
difference intersect with understandings of cultural and racial
difference in this period. Readings will cover a range of genres:
philosophical accounts of human uniqueness, beginning with Descartes;
the phenomenon of talking animals in Aesop’s fables and
satiric novels like Gulliver’s Travels; and Oriental tales
of narrators reincarnated into animal bodies. We will study scientific
and theological texts on species and race classification; radical
vegetarian manifestos and publicized cultural hoaxes such as
that of Mary Toft, a woman who claimed to give birth to rabbits.
Assignments will include several short essays and one final research
paper on an animal of your choosing.
engl 016.303 | Tuesday & Thursday | 3:00 - 4:30
Shakespeare/Not Shakespeare
Zachary Lesser, Assistant Professor of English
In this course we will undertake an intensive study of Shakespeare
by reading some of his plays side-by-side with plays by other
contemporary dramatists on the same subject. This approach will
help us not only to put Shakespeare back into his historical
context and into his collaborative, rivalrous conversations with
fellow dramatists, but also to “isolate” Shakespeare’s
distinctive contribution to Renaissance discussions of such issues
as travel and exploration; racial and religious difference; English
history and the politics of kingship, war and rebellion, love
and marriage. Our readings will likely include Shakespeare’s
The Merchant of Venice and Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew
of Malta; Shakespeare’s The Tempest and John Fletcher’s
The Island Princess; Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew
and Fletcher’s The Tamer Tamed; Shakespeare’s Henry
V and the anonymous Famous Victories of Henry V; Shakespeare’s
Macbeth and Ben Johnson’s Sejanus His Fall.
No prior experience with Shakespeare or Renaissance drama is
necessary, as the course will introduce students to the exciting
range of plays produced in the period, to the sorts of critical
questions scholars ask of these plays, and to the research methods
they use to study them. Assignments will include explorations
in the rare book library and Early English Books Online, a brief
class presentation and a couple papers.
engl 016.304 | Monday & Wednesday | 3:30 - 5:00
The Politics
of Love and Religion in Renaissance England
Melissa Sanchez, Assistant Professor of English
When Henry VIII broke with Rome and declared himself Supreme
Head of the English Church in 1534, he asserted the identity
of religious duty and political loyalty. As the next hundred
and fifty years of English history show us, however, the link
between spiritual and secular obligation that Tudor and Stuart
monarchs employed to consolidate royal authority could just as
easily foment rebellion against it. This course will consider
the ways in which the period’s poetry participates in interrelated
debates over theology, church doctrine, sovereignty, law, gender
and private conscience, most prominently through its focus on
love as both basis of and metaphor for the individual’s
relation with divine and secular authority. Reading will focus
on two long poems, Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene (Books
I and V) and John Milton’s Paradise Lost, along with some
shorter work by Thomas Wyatt, Anne Askew, Philip Sidney, Mary
Sidney Herbert, John Donne, Aemilia Lanyer, Mary Wroth, George
Herbert and Andrew Marvell.
A series of short writing and research assignments will culminate
in a final research paper of ten pages or more.
engl 016.305 | Tuesday & Thursday | 1:30 - 3:00
Survey of Italian Theater:
Italian Drama and the Performance of a Nation
Frank Pellicone, Adjunct Professor of Romance Languages How did
some of the most influential Italian political theorists, philosophers,
artists, authors, and actors construct an Italian national identity?
In this course we will trace the trajectory of Italian drama
and film, discussing the stages of development of an Italian
national identity. We will pay particular attention to the contributions
of individuals such as Machiavelli, Aretino, Bruno, Goldoni,
Pirandello, Fellini, and Fo to discuss how their artistic achievements
provided the backdrop for the performance of various social constructs
such as gender roles, class, and ethnicity in the production
of what we might now recognize as an Italian identity. When possible
we will attend local theatrical performances and view screenings
of relevant productions. All works will be read in English (with
attention when possible to the original Italian). No prior knowledge
of Italian is expected.
ital 217.301 | Monday, Wednesday & Friday | 2:00 - 3:00
Sector IV: Humanities and Social Science
American Narrative Cultures: Captivity and Release
Susan C. 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 goup 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 captors’ 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 ad 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 | Tuesday & Thursday | 9:00 - 10:30
Introduction
to Philosophy
Susan Mills, 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.
phil 001.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 10:30 - 12:00
Introduction
to 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 artist/teachers
and trips to theatrical productions. Students considering a theatre
major are especially encouraged to enroll.
thar 120.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 10:30 - 12:00
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 is a two-semester seminar that continues from fall 2006
with 0.5 credit unit each semester.
chem 022.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 8:00am - 9:00am
Honors
Physics II
Eugene Mele, Professor of Physics and Astronomy
This course parallels and extends the content of phys 151, at
a somewhat higher mathematical level. Recommended for well-prepared
students in engineering and the physical sciences, and particularly
for those planning to major in physics. Electric and magnetic
fields; Coulomb’s, Ampere’s, and Faraday’s
laws; special relativity; Maxwell’s equations, electromagnetic
radiation.
phys 171.301 (lec) | Monday, Wednesday & Friday | 10:00 -
11:00
| Monday 2:00 - 3:00
| Thursday 5:00 - 6:00
phys 171.302 (lab) | Wednesday | 1:00 - 3:00
phys 171.303 (lab) | Friday | 1:00 - 3:00
Sector VII: Natural Science and Mathematics
The Unconscious Mind
Sharon Thompson-Schill, Associate Professor of Psychology
At the turn of the fifth century, Saint Augustine wrote “I
cannot grasp all that I am.” This was the first discussion
of a topic that has since fascinated not only philosophers and
scientists but poets, novelists, and artists: The unconscious
mind. In this seminar, we will consider philosophical, psychological,
and neuroscientific explorations of the unconscious mind, as
we discuss readings ranging from historical texts to breaking
scientific news, and we will gather data that reveal the operations
of our own psychological unconscious. We will examine unconscious
influences on perception, memory, decision making, social behavior,
and thought as we explore experimental approaches to studying
mental processes to which we do not have conscious access.
psyc 049.301 | Wednesday | 2:00 - 5:00
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 analysis is offered in the fall. 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.
ProvingThings: Algebra
Florian Pop, 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 arithmetic, algebra, linear algebra,
groups, rings and fields. 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.
math 203.001 (lec) | Monday, Wednesday & Friday | 11:00 -
12:00
math 203.101 (lab) | Tuesday | 6:30 – 8:30
math 203.102 (lab) | Thursday | 6:30 – 8:30
Freshman Seminars with an Emphasis on Writing
The Development Debate in India
Gautam Ghosh, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
This course examines various meanings of and approaches to “development” in
the contemporary world. It will be guided by three questions:
1) what is “development”? 2) what are the “pros” and “cons” of
development? 3) what are the mechanisms for development (i.e.
who is empowered to “enact” it?)? A central concern
will be the complex interrelationships between “development,” on
the one hand, and “civilization,” “(post)colonialism,” “modernization” and “globalization” on
the other. Other issues will include: different perspectives
on development within the world system; appraising the changing
measures of development and underdevelopment; the role of the
main public and private development agencies; the cultural construction
of “well being,” including perceptions of underdevelopment;
development as consumerism; local resistance or acquiescence
to development; future/alternative development scenarios. Although
the course will consider general issues, the focus will be on
South Asia.
anth 009.305 | Tuesday | 1:30 - 4:30
Love in India
Christian Lee Novetzke, Assistant Professor of South Asia Studies
Perhaps no subject has received as much literary and creative
interest across cultures as has the matter of love. In India,
poets, saints, philosophers, aestheticians, novelists, and filmmakers,
among all religious and linguistic communities, have reflected
in multiple media on the nature and expression of love. This
course explores some of the most interesting examples of these
expressions, from ancient India to the present, and provides
students with an opportunity to contribute their own voice into
that moment when writing and love meet. We will survey key literary
works on love: such as the famous Kamasutra, one of the most-often
translated texts from India; the classic plays of Kalidasa about
love and memory; song-poems selected from India’s “bhakti” traditions
of love between god and devotee; Sufi romances of the 16th century;
stories of love in Mughal India; the Anglo-Indian romances of
the British; love in contemporary novels; and love in popular
Indian cinema.
sast 009.301 | Tuesday | 1:30 - 4:30
Classics of Popular Science
Mark Adams, Associate Professor of History and Sociology of
Science
The best scientific writing is able to express complex and
original ideas in a clear and engaging way. In this seminar,
we will mine those ideas by reading some of the classic essays
in the history of science (by Galileo, Darwin, Huxley, Einstein,
Haldane, Chargaff, Szilard and others) in which new concepts
are set forth for the lay public. Our discussions will emphasize
reading works for their intellectual content, and the writing
skills involved in making abstract and complex ideas come to
life.
stsc 009.303 | Wednesday | 2:00 - 5:00
Each year the Penn Humanities Forum explores a broad theme through lectures, seminars, and formal courses. This year the theme is Travel, and the following freshman seminars, sponsored by the Forum, provide a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary lenses for considering what we mean when we speak of Travel.
Girls Gone Wild: Reading Women’s Journeys,
from the Wife of Bath to Thelma and Louise FULL DESCRIPTION
John Ghazvinian, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Penn Humanities
Forum
hist 102.301 | Wednesday | 2:00 - 5:00
Philadelphia Through Travelers’ Eyes:
Tales in a Capital City, 1790-1800 FULL DESCRIPTION
Neil Safier, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Penn Humanities
Forum
hist 103.301 | Thursday | 1:30 - 4:30
Performing Exile FULL DESCRIPTION
Kinga Araya, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Penn Humanities
Forum
arth 100.302 | Monday | 2:00 - 5:00
American Narrative Cultures: Captivity and Release FULL
DESCRIPTION
Susan C. Lepselter, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Penn
Humanities Forum
anth 062.301 | Tuesday & Thursday | 9:00 - 10:30