2016-2017 Graduate Academic Catalogue [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Course Descriptions
|
|
| |
Liberal Studies: Historical Approaches |
| |
-
LS 711 - Comedy and the Novel (3.00 cr.)
The novel was born under a comic sign: the ribald satire of Gargantua and Pantagruel; the zany burlesque of Don Quixote; the comic prose epic of Tom Jones; and the baroque playfulness of Tristram Shandy. While comedy in its generic purity has resided comfortably through the centuries in stage drama and later film, it has undergone a delightful and instructive mongrelization in narrative. This course blends historical and theoretical texts on the nature of comedy in its diverse forms with an eclectic grouping of comic novels.
|
| |
-
LS 712 - Nature: The History of a Philosophical Concept (3.00 cr.)
"Nature tends to hide itself." This adage by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus was one of the first philosophical statements about nature-and we are still seeking. This course explores how the concept of nature has evolved: the early Greeks made it the foundation of metaphysics; Christian thinkers like Augustine despised it, or they made it overlap with the concept of God before early modern thinkers like Descartes gave it a mechanistic outlook; then it turned out that nature seems to have a history and an "evolution"; the twentieth century witnessed the dissolution of the concept of nature in relativity and indeterminacy as well as the revival of nature as a "person" that suffers and has its own rights, so that through environmentalism nature has turned into a political asset. Participants read and discuss exemplary primary sources of all areas; they are encouraged to contribute from their professional points of view. The inclusion of science, current affairs, or literature will depend on the specific engagement of participants. As it spans all epochs of Western philosophy and touches upon a variety of disciplines, this course may serve as a general overview of philosophy.
|
| |
-
LS 713 - The Many Faces of Immigration (3.00 cr.)
The United States has long been known as a nation of immigrants. Most current residents originally came from someplace else, or at least their forebears did. This course examines immigration primarily as a cultural phenomenon, focusing on the process and its impact on the individual immigrant. Students investigate the political, social, and economic conditions that may have motivated someone to leave his or her native country, as well as the adjustments a person had to make upon arrival in North America. Students also have an opportunity to consider the subject from the vantage point of their own family background.
|
| |
-
LS 715 - Detective Fiction and the Quest Romance (3.00 cr.)
Students examine the unique appeal of the detective story. Students are urged to reflect on what the detective story reveals about the culture of the intended audience. They also examine the theories developed to discover to what psychological and cultural needs the fantasy of the detective-hero responds. Readings and film adaptations include stories or novels by Poe, Doyle, Hammett, Chandler, Parker, Grafton, Lippman, and others.
|
| |
-
LS 720 - Forgiveness and Revenge (3.00 cr.)
How and when is forgiveness possible, and is revenge ever justified? Such deliberations underlie peace negotiations and conflict resolution, retributive versus distributive justice, and conflicting views of the prison-industrial complex. This course examines forgiveness and revenge through the rich philosophical tradition of Western and Eastern thought, applying this to analyses of contemporary cases. Aeschylus, Tolstoy, the Baghavad Gita, Gandhi, excerpts from the Koran and the Gospel of St. John will be among the texts studied. Students will be invited to reflect on the philosophical-historical consequences of adopting particular strategies of forgiveness/revenge.
|
| |
-
LS 723 - Challenges of Radical Dissent (3.00 cr.)
Mindful of the figure of Socrates as gadfly critic, this course asks what radical dissent might mean in our contemporary society, assesses how such dissent impacts (or fails to impact) our political reality, and, remembering the fate of Socrates, evaluates our responses to radical critics. Readings come from both classical and contemporary thinkers. Themes in the Modern Experience
|
Liberal Studies: Themes in the Modern Experience |
| |
-
LS 640 - Contemporary Mysticism and Spirituality (3.00 cr.)
A mystical world-view attentive to the unity of all things, the possibility of release from suffering, an awakening to a "higher" plane of reality or to the richness of the natural world, has long been a theme of ancient philosophies, both Eastern and Western. Such spiritual themes are also central to contemporary authors writing in both popular and explicitly philosophical ways. Students explore a series of such twentieth- and twenty-first-century (American) texts, as well as their own beliefs and experiences.
|
| |
-
LS 642 - Science, Magic, and Religion: European Cultural History of the Scientific Revolution (3.00 cr.)
Key social, political, and philosophical changes facilitated a radical shift in the European world view between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries: the rise and decline of the witch craze, the scientific revolution, the evolution of positivism, and recent efforts to deal with relativity in mathematics and physics.
|
| |
-
LS 644 - African American Religious Thought (3.00 cr.)
This course begins with an investigation of the religious world the African slaves brought to North America. Although conversion to Christianity from Islam or African tribal religions was problematic, African American churches began to flourish by the end of the Civil War. Students reflect on a cluster of problems: racism, biblical interpretation infrastructure, doctrine, and tradition. Next, students turn to understanding how the "Great Migration" diversified and challenged the religious ideas popular in urban areas of the country. The course ends with a study African American Christianity in the present era, a transitional period that can be understood as a conflict between classic revivalism, the remnants of the civil rights movement, and the rise of hip-hop culture.
|
| |
-
LS 645 - The Pre-Civil Rights Movement: The Generation before Brown, 1932-1954 (3.00 cr.)
An investigation of the beginnings and growth of the struggle for African American civil rights in the United States from 1932 to 1954. This study looks at the early roots of segregation in the late nineteenth century; the role and influence of the labor movement on civil rights in the early to mid-twentieth century; the impact of the Great Depression and World War II on the civil rights movement; and finally, culminates in the efforts and events which produced the landmark decision of Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954.
|
| |
-
LS 646 - The Philosophy of Happiness (3.00 cr.)
What is happiness? How can we create and discover it within our own lives? What are the barriers-personal, social, and existential-that seem to make this so difficult? Classical and contemporary answers to these questions are explored, including figures such as Aristotle, Epictetus, and the Buddha, and their modern re-interpreters. This course also considers the findings of modern psychology, and how these findings shed light on the perennial questions of human happiness.
|
| |
-
LS 647 - Jesus and Relationships (3.00 cr.)
A study of Jesus with a focus on his attention to the dynamics of human living, the conditions of human existence, the problem of dissatisfaction, and the pursuit of wholeness, as well as how the social sciences might help us understand Jesus' teachings. Readings include the Gospels and interpretations of the teachings of Jesus from the second through the twentieth century, including Augustine, Howard Thurman, and Flannery O'Connor.
|
| |
-
LS 649 - Philosophical Anthropology in Slave Narratives (3.00 cr.)
The most frequently used argument against slavery is that slaves are human beings. This is a problem of philosophical anthropology. Students read American slave narratives with the purpose of uncovering the picture of humanity which emerges from those sources. The course leads students to investigate the philosophical foundations of the phenomenon of slavery that brought a very specific kind of diversity of human perspectives into the United States. Its purpose is to utilize the literary productions of African Americans for philosophical anthropology.
|
| |
-
LS 650 - The Absurd in Life and Literature (3.00 cr.)
Traces the concept of absurdity from first principles to modern postulates. The first principles are assembled from writers as diverse as Kierkegaard, Freud, Camus, and Kafka. The modern postulates include the notion of an absurd hero (or antihero) in modern fiction and absurd tragedy (or tragic farce), called Theater of the Absurd. Writers studied include Edward Albee, Paul Bowles, Michael Chabon, and John Irving.
|
| |
-
LS 651 - Fashion and Philosophy (3.00 cr.)
Fashion is impossible to escape. One's phone, clothes, car, house, hobbies, all connect at the same place: where design and industry meet. This course examines multiple issues surrounding the art and business of fashion. Ethical and social philosophy is used to explore topics that include the body, working conditions, design leaders, film portrayals, and fashion's contribution to art and civilization.
|
| |
-
LS 652 - Making Foreign Policy (3.00 cr.)
Who makes American foreign policy, and how? This course looks at making foreign policy with cases from World War II through today. What ideals, institutions, personalities, and constraints are at work with various countries, economic crises, the environment, cyber security, and more? Students examine the making of foreign policy as told by distinguished practitioners, mostly presidents and their key advisors. Lessons are drawn from these experiences as students design and debate their own foreign policy strategies for current and emerging issues.
|
| |
-
LS 654 - Spiritual Classics from the East (3.00 cr.)
What is the meaning of human existence? Is there a guiding spirit and purpose within the universe? If so, how can we discover it and live in harmony with it? How can we escape the stresses and suffering which infect our daily lives? Timeless answers to these questions are offered up by two of the great classics of world spirituality: the Indian Bhagavad Gita, and the Chinese Tao te Ching. Each work combines a mystical sensibility with down-to-earth practical advice for daily living. The expressive richness of each work has resonated across diverse cultures for over two thousand years. These books are placed in dialogue with each other, with Western thought and religion, and with students' own personal journeys.
|
| |
-
LS 655 - World Short Fiction: Diversity and Common Ground (3.00 cr.)
A variety of modern and contemporary short stories by authors from all over the world are examined. Students learn about other cultures, yet also discover that many of the themes and emotions revealed in the stories are universal. Readers can connect with the stories even if the specific experiences are not ones that they themselves have had. All works will be read in English.
|
| |
-
LS 656 - Numeracy: A Language of the World and the Imagination (3.00 cr.)
Mathematics is a way of thinking, of questioning, analyzing, and synthesizing information about the world around us. It can lead to wonder and awe, as well as increased understanding which improves decision making in our personal lives and in public policy. The aim of this course is to provide the student with a deeper appreciation and understanding of mathematical thinking and the importance of its role in our highly technological society. Topics include the scale of things and the power of ten; lies and statistics; the shape of things and visualization; the world in motion, the world of bits and bytes.
|
| |
-
LS 657 - Democracy and Democratization (3.00 cr.)
An ambitious introduction to modern democracy and democratization, content is drawn from academic scholarship, political rhetoric, historical documents, analytical video, and current events. Larry Diamond's The Spirit of Democracy is referenced in order to explore the surge, and partial retreat of democratization in the last forty years. Two partially intertwined, issues of particular interest in the last few years are considered: nation-building and the Arab Spring. Today's challenges to American democracy are also examined. Finally, students look ahead at the uncertain future for democracy in the United States and the world.
|
| |
-
LS 658 - Revisiting the Classics (3.00 cr.)
This course revisits some ancient classics to see what they have to tell us about the big questions-good and evil, life and death, suffering and redemption, God and humanity. Selections from the Bible, Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and Milton converse with each other and with modern retellings in print and on film by authors such as Elie Wiesel, Derek Walcott, T. S. Eliot, Tom Stoppard, and William Young.
|
| |
-
LS 659 - Violence and Competition in Urban America (3.00 cr.)
The character and origins of ethnic and racial conflict in America's cities: cultural, social, and political factors associated with competition and violence between and within these communities. Among the issues studied are political contest and coalition building, intergroup violence, economic restructuring, drug warfare, welfare and welfare reform, housing opportunities, and school desegregation.
|
| |
-
LS 660 - Practicing Death (3.00 cr.)
Facing his own approaching execution, Socrates proclaims (as recounted in the Phaedo) that "it seems to me natural that a man who has really devoted his life to philosophy should be cheerful in the face of death." For Socrates, the philosophical manner of existing, what he called "care of the soul," is properly practicing death. Much more than a morbid consideration driven by darkness and fear, the thoughtful examination of death is precisely an engagement with life. This course examines the notion of practicing death, noting its foundations in diverse philosophical systems (such as ancient Greek philosophy, Eastern thought, and existentialism) and locating its more immediate presence in specific examples from literature and film. Underlying the examination is the question of the creation of individual value and the determination of individual meaning in response to the inevitability that is one's death.
|
| |
-
LS 661 - Exploring Digital Culture (3.00 cr.)
Since the early 1990s, the Internet has emerged as a powerful new platform for communication. Students investigate the social, political, cultural, intellectual, and economic impact of new communication services such as Facebook, Twitter, blogging, Second Life, the World Wide Web, and others. Discussions address such critical issues as privacy, cyber-bullying and civility, identify theft and security, free speech, and more. They also assess the way the Internet and its applications have influenced the way we see ourselves and others, the way we interact, and even the way we think. The class is conducted primarily online. No expertise in the specific internet applications examined or used is required.
|
| |
-
LS 662 - Generosity (3.00 cr.)
An interdisciplinary seminar on generosity interested in giving and sharing as a theme in the humanities, arts, and social sciences. Particular attention is paid to generosity as an expression of divine and human natures. Topics include stewardship, cooperation, stinginess, greed, hoarding, noblesse oblige, the greater good, and nonfinancial aspects of generosity critical to living well such as forgiveness, empathy, and optimism.
|
| |
-
LS 663 - Between the Cracks: Reviving Neglected Texts (3.00 cr.)
The course focuses on works which too often go untaught, unread, unseen, and underappreciated, because they do not readily fit traditional, generic, or disciplinary expectations. Each of the works taken up will challenge received ideas and settled interpretive strategies. Students are encouraged to read against the grain in ways both unsettling and liberating. The reading list varies from semester to semester. May be repeated for credit.
|
| |
-
LS 664 - Work and American Identity (3.00 cr.)
Integrating academic scholarship, personal reflection, fiction, and popular culture, this course traces the transformation of work from unpleasant necessity to vocation or calling, and explores how we as Americans have come to mark our identities by our occupations. In tandem with this theme, participants explore the well-documented erosion of leisure, especially among professionals, and the peculiarly American expressions of alienation that accompany it.
|
| |
-
LS 665 - The Law as a Tool for Social Change (3.00 cr.)
The law (legal theory and practice) serves as a powerful tool of suppression, both maintaining unjust status quos and motivating social legitimacy. The course examines whether law is an appropriate tool of social reform or a harmful distraction reaffirming existing hierarchies. In seeking to refine the possibilities and limitations of this tool, the class examines ancient and current appeals to the law by outsiders, ranging in diversity from Socrates to Martin Luther King, Jr. to Supreme Court decisions from the present term.
|
| |
-
LS 666 - Personhood at the Extremes (3.00 cr.)
Humans have persisted in thinking of themselves as a species apart, but what makes humankind unique, both individually and as a species, remains unclear. Advances in neuroscience and computer science, as well as ethics, generate questions about the nature of intelligence, consciousness, and personhood and the rights and protections associated with being human. In this course students tackle classic readings from Descartes to modern ruminations on artificial intelligence, examine our relation to our creations and pets, and the way our various identities affect how our personhood is perceived and protected.
|
| |
-
LS 730 - Tragedy, Comedy, and the Human Condition (3.00 cr.)
Too often people tend to think about tragedy and comedy primarily in terms of dramatic structure: do things end poorly or well, in death and destitution or in communion and procreative hope. Instead, what if people thought about tragedy and comedy as modes rather than genres, as tragic and comic ways of seeing and understanding themselves in the world rather than handy descriptors of plot? Nowadays, when comedy and tragedy too often serve as degraded semantic markers (everything's "tragic," everyone's a "comedian") or flatten out into melodrama and farce, is there still value in a genuinely tragic or comic vision of the human condition? Students examine these questions.
|
| |
-
LS 731 - The American Sixties: Transformations in Film and Fiction (3.00 cr.)
Focuses upon the search for an escape from the wasteland in the narratives of a decade of political and social change and instability. Emphasizes film and fiction as products of the culture and as commentators on the culture. Updike, Kesey, Bellow, Roth, Elkin, and others. Films include The Graduate and Easy Rider.
|
| |
-
LS 733 - Philosophy of Culture and the American Dream (3.00 cr.)
The philosophy of culture examines the following questions: what defines culture? Where do we start in thinking about cultural difference? What is the role of the symbolic world-mythic, artistic, religious, linguistic, scientific-in determining a community of humans? How can culture be seen as liberating or as imprisoning? This course examines the difference between human beings and other animals in an attempt to define human being as a cultural or cultured being. It focuses on the notion that human culture is centered on the human capacity for symbolic action, and that human cultures are formed around a common grounding in a set of myths.
|
| |
-
LS 735 - We Are What We Buy: The Culture of Consumption (3.00 cr.)
Understanding the modern world begins with the recognition of capitalism as its most distinctive facet. Drawing from microeconomics, history, philosophy, marketing, and popular culture, this course focuses specifically on how the powerful and ubiquitous forces of capitalism serve to shape, not just culture, but the individual's sense of self. Desire is conditioned by market forces, and the individual forms his or her identity through material consumption. Students use a variety of reflective techniques to come to a deeper understanding of their place in a culture of consumption.
|
| |
-
LS 736 - The Experience of Evil (3.00 cr.)
What is the nature of evil? What are its causes? In what forms or guises has it appeared in human history? How is our understanding of evil influenced and informed by concepts like fate, guilt, freedom, responsibility, providence, God and human nature itself? This course explores such questions by drawing upon a variety of philosophical, religious, and literary sources in an attempt to better understand the all too common experience of evil.
|
| |
-
LS 740 - Bargains with the Devil: The Faust Legend in Literature, Film, and Popular Culture (3.00 cr.)
Narratives of a pact with the devil have served as a metaphor for the desire to surpass the limits of human knowledge and power at any cost. Starting with the sixteenth-century Faust Book and featuring recent cinematic, musical, and literary versions of the devil's pact, this course explores our enduring fascination with the forbidden: evil, devil worship, witchcraft, magic, and sexuality.
|
| |
-
LS 741 - Stories of the South (3.00 cr.)
Southern writers in the past century exhibited a stylistic, philosophical, social, and regional individuality. Some of them are just plain quirky. Their writings look at the future from the perspective of an illusion of the past order, often presenting themselves as the last spokespersons for an order which is needed in modern experience. At the same time, they saw that order as decadent and based on ideals that were hardly realized in actual experience. Finally, many of these writers felt the need to impose a theological perspective they found lacking in mainstream American literature. Participants study the modern myth of the south as revealed by its foremost writers: William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, John Crowe Ransom, Robert Penn Warren, Tennessee Williams, Bobby Ann Mason, and others. Poems by Ransom, Warren, Donald Davidson, and Allen Tate are included, as well as analysis of film versions of this myth in such features as Birth of a Nation, Gone with the Wind, In the Heat of the Night, The Liberation of L. B. Jones, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Driving Miss Daisy.
|
| |
-
LS 742 - Shades of Black: Film Noir and Post-War America (3.00 cr.)
The darkest genre in American cinema, with tales of crime, corruption, and anti-heroism. Film noir has its origins in German expressionist film, but as it developed, it reflected and shaped post-World War II cultural anxieties about gender, race, power, and violence. Students view films, read source novels, and consider important critical writings about the genre.
|
| |
-
LS 743 - We Are What We Eat: Food and the American Identity (3.00 cr.)
Although most Americans will consume well over 75 tons of food in their lifetimes, food has remained on the margins of academic scholarship. This course brings cooking and eating from the margins using food as the focal point for an examination of culture, class, gender, and finally, the self. The preliminary thesis is that how we gather, prepare, and eat food reveals, and even establishes who we are. Intentionally and unintentionally, we express who we are by what we eat.
|
| |
-
LS 744 - American Manhood in the Making (3.00 cr.)
With the dawn of the American democratic experiment came new opportunities for identity and gender construction. Men and women from all over the world poured into America and brought with them their own notions of what it meant to be men and women. Although manhood is often viewed as stable and fixed-rooted in biological truths-history and literature tell a story of gendered contingency and uncertainty, often paired with intense anxiety. Students look at the way manhood has changed in America by reading the historical and literary documents that influenced Americans' perceptions of themselves and their individual and collective manhood.
|
| |
-
LS 745 - After King: Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Movement, 1968-1985 (3.00 cr.)
An investigation of the changing parameters of the struggle for African American civil rights in the United States from 1968 to 1985. This study begins with the pivotal year of 1968, a year which saw the splintering of the Civil Rights Movement in the aftermath of the deaths of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy and the siphoning off of many of its most important activists into other movements. The study continues into the critical years of the 1970s with the variety of efforts at integration and equality related to housing, education, and employment. The study concludes with the middle years of the Reagan administration and the shifting sands of public and governmental opinion regarding Affirmative Action.
|
| |
-
LS 747 - New Myths on the American Landscape: Writing (and) the American Dream (3.00 cr.)
Classic and contemporary presentations of the American Dream's promise and challenge. Students explore the ways writers from many differing communities define the American Dream, where these dreams come together, and where they diverge. Readings include works by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Arthur Miller, William Faulkner, Martin Luther King, Jr., Toni Morrison, and Louise Erdrich.
|
| |
-
LS 748 - The Psychoanalysis of Culture (3.00 cr.)
The wager posed by this course is that Freud, even almost 70 years after his death, is still a uniquely potent resource for understanding the current historical and cultural situation. Participants examine late capitalist society with an eye to the continuing relevance of key Freudian concepts, with the general aim of defining and exploring the shift from a traditional ethic of sacrifice toward a postmodern ethic of satisfaction. Readings from Freud are liberally augmented by others in the psychoanalytic tradition (Lacan, Lefort, Zizek, McGowan) and a number outside it (Marx, Berger, Arendt, and others).
|
| |
-
LS 750 - Studies in Catholic Autobiography (3.00 cr.)
Some literary theorists propose that Christianity may fairly be credited with creating the genre of autobiography. Under the influence of Augustine, modern writers, whether religious or secular, continue to explore and expand the relationship between private life and public confession. This course puzzles with questions of conversion, calling, and commitment along with the value and limits of autobiography as a method of theological reflection.
|
| |
-
LS 751 - Holy Land: Freedom and Truth in a Violent World (3.00 cr.)
Jews, Christians, and Muslims have long debated and fought among themselves and between each other over "the holy land." Why? This question is pursued by reading, talking, and writing about traditional Jewish, Christian, and Islamic scriptures, as well as competing contemporary accounts-including competing accounts urging religious views of the whole planet as holy, as well as nonreligious views of land as not holy at all.
|
| |
-
LS 752 - Sex and Modernity (3.00 cr.)
Human beings have always been interested in sex, but modern civilization is downright obsessed with it. Indeed, revolutions in both sexual behavior and attitudes toward love and sex are central to the phenomenon called "modernity." Questions of sexuality now preoccupy political struggles, religious debates, social movements, and psychological theories, to say nothing of the role played by sex in the emergence of a commodity culture. Sexuality is the central metaphor, the privileged myth of modern world. Students examine the nature and function of sexuality in modern life through readings from psychological and political theorists and from literature. In doing so, they consider questions about the history of conceptions of love and sex, a history that takes them back to the ancient world. Students are also required to absorb some key lessons from some of greatest thinkers of the modern period, including Foucault, Freud, de Beauvoir, and Arendt. Literary works by Fauset, Wedekind, Nabokov, and others. Taught from a feminist perspective.
|
| |
-
LS 753 - Philosophy of Peace (3.00 cr.)
Key issues in peace studies are approached from a philosophical perspective. The primary focus is on thinkers who conceive of peace as a realizable option for humanity, and not merely as the incidental absence of war. Readings are drawn from major figures in the history of the Western philosophical tradition-from Thucydides to Tolstoy, Russell and beyond-as well as some twentieth- and twenty-first-century voices in the Eastern world, such as Gandhi and Thich Nhat Hahn. Classroom philosophical discussions of peace are placed in a contemporary context through readings of current journalism which provide political and philosophical analyses of the current world situation.
|
| |
-
LS 755 - The Dynamic of the City (3.00 cr.)
An exploration of modern discourses on and of the city. For centuries the city has captivated the mind and the spirit of human beings in numerous ways. As a locale, the city has frequently inspired the imagination. It has often been the site of avant-garde experimentation and the testing ground for new theories. As an environment, the city has been home to burgeoning technology and often the embodiment of social order as well as disorder. A cross-sectional examination of the modern city is undertaken from the vantage point of a variety of disciplines. The city under scrutiny varies from semester to semester.
|
| |
-
LS 756 - Service and Meaningful Work (3.00 cr.)
What is service? Why is it so important to the human spirit and community? What are the problems and pitfalls one encounters as one tries to serve others? How can one integrate other-directed service with one's own need for financial stability and personal fulfillment? How can one's work in the world be meaningful and satisfying? These are not merely theoretical questions; each life is an expression of the answers formulated by the individual. Still, philosophers and spiritual texts, both Western and Eastern, can do much to help students think through these crucial issues. Throughout the course, theoretical understandings and personal experience are woven together. Students have the opportunity to reflect upon their own lives, and to be challenged and illuminated by a variety of rich texts.
|
| |
-
LS 757 - The American Short Story (3.00 cr.)
Traces the development of American short fiction from the late nineteenth century to present times. Works by Hemingway, Fitzgerald, O'Connor, and Cheever, as well as contemporary practitioners including Latin American and European writers whose work has been influential in the United States.
|
| |
-
LS 758 - How to Read the World: First Signifiers (3.00 cr.)
This course focuses on three "first signifiers": geography, tattoo, and the human face. Land and sea formations precede human signification. Writers who present the first scripts created by landscapes and seascapes and who consider the way humans inhabit and reshape those scripts using borders, boundaries, and maps are investigated. Students then analyze tattoo, which Jacques Lacan proclaims to be the first signifier and which writers use to consider how people make meaning and mark belonging. Tattoo may indicate variously and sometimes simultaneously the profane and sacred, the extravagant and essential, the personal and public. Finally, depictions of the human face are examined. According to Emmanuel Lévinas, the human face creates discourse and ethics: students use that insight to read graphic novelists who use word and image to consider the human face (and who see at once joy and love, repression and genocide). All three first signifiers ask us to consider how to interpret the scripts we are given and how to create new ways of reading the world.
|
| |
-
LS 759 - That Shakespearean Cinema (3.00 cr.)
A study of selected Shakespeare plays in their Renaissance theatre context and in their evolution as texts for film. Special attention is given to the conditions of theatre production in Elizabethan and Jacobean England, and intense focus is placed on the cultural, economic, and creative reasons for the renaissance of Shakespeare as a film source during the 1980s and 1990s. Analytical and performance projects. No previous acting or directing skill required.
|
Literacy |
| |
-
RE 510 - History and Foundations of Literacy Instruction (3.00 cr.)
Students analyze and explore topics including various theories, processes, and models of reading and writing; definitions of literacy; knowledge of language development, cueing systems, metacognition, vocabulary, and comprehension formal and informal assessment; and multiple instructional strategies adapted to the specific needs and interests of all literacy learners K-12.
|
| |
-
RE 523 - Elementary Literacy and Literature (3.00 cr.)
Explores the major theories of language development, phonological processing, cognition, and learning as related to emergent and elementary literacy learners. In conjunction, current children's literature is explored to support the development of young learners.
|
| |
-
RE 524 - Assessments in Bilingual and Second Language Education (3.00 cr.)
Designed to give students a deep understanding of issues related to the testing and assessment of language minority students and offers practical suggestions for using assessment to inform student learning. Course content includes the study and evaluation of the means of assessing language and content proficiency, the consideration of relationships between second language proficiency and academic achievement, and sociocultural dimensions of testing and assessment. Teachers evaluate the outcomes of their curricular and instructional changes on English language learners' literacy and language proficiency. The final course in the TELL program.
|
| |
-
RE 531 - Adolescent Literacy and Literature (3.00 cr.)
Investigates the situated and multi-layered conceptualizing of adolescent literacy with an eye toward practical implications for teaching and learning inside and outside the classroom contexts. Current young adult literature is explored as a way to support adolescent learners.
|
| |
-
RE 601 - Media Literacy Education (3.00 cr.)
Prerequisite: RE 510 , RE 523 , RE 531 . Introduces media literacy education, its curriculum and pedagogy. Media literacy education is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate media in a variety of forms. It expands notions of "reading" beyond traditional print texts to acknowledge various twenty-first century multiple literacies and consider perspective and difference. It can be integrated into a variety of subjects.
|
| |
-
RE 602 - Second Language Development: Theory and Practice (3.00 cr.)
Focuses on facilitating understanding of language and language use, especially as it pertains to learning and teaching with emerging bilingual K-12 students. It introduces linguistic topics such as phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics, as well as the interdisciplinary areas of psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics.
|
| |
-
RE 603 - Language, Literacy, and Culture (3.00 cr.)
Prerequisite: RE 510 , RE 523 , RE 531 . Explores various social, cultural, and political aspects of language and language use, such as ideology; identity; language change, variations, and dialects; and classroom discourse. Students examine philosophies and theories of bilingual education policy, practice, and research. Topics include second language acquisition, English-only mandates, testing practices, and curricular programs.
|
| |
-
RE 604 - Methods for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (3.00 cr.)
Focuses on the theories and methods of second language teaching and learning, and develops skills in applying those methods to classroom practice through lesson plan development and demonstration. Students explore the techniques, strategies, and materials for delivering ESOL-focused instruction across the content areas. Students develop appropriate, research-based teaching strategies for application across language proficiency levels and grade spans.
|
| |
-
RE 605 - Principles and Practices of Teaching Writing (3.00 cr.)
Prerequisite: RE 510 . Introduces theory and research related to writing, its curriculum and pedagogy including the writing process, development of writing abilities, and writing instruction and assessment. This course explores the application of the literature to classroom practice at elementary, middle, and secondary school levels. Closed to students who have taken RE 601 .
|
| |
-
RE 609 - Disciplinary Literacy (3.00 cr.)
Introduces the research and application that addresses literacy as a tool for learning content-specific material. Students explore a wide range of disciplinary strategies related to reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing. Particular attention is given to vocabulary, comprehension, study skills, and writing strategies for all learning, including struggling readers and English Language Learners.
|
| |
-
RE 622 - Guiding Classroom Instruction in Literacy (3.00 cr.)
Prerequisite: RE 510 , RE 523 , RE 531 .
Explores procedures and research-based strategies for guiding literacy instruction in the general K-12 classroom for instructional improvement and student achievement. This course connects theory and practice.
|
| |
-
RE 670 - Teacher Research and Inquiry (3.00 cr.)
Prerequisite: RE 737 . Investigates aspects of action research including choosing a topic to study, examining ethical issues, planning and implementing methodologies, conducting a literature review, becoming a reflective practitioner, and analyzing data.
|
| |
-
RE 725 - Literature for the Adolescent (3.00 cr.)
An overview of current literature published for middle and high school students. Various genres are explored in order to illustrate the broad literacy approaches present in texts aimed at youth.
|
| |
-
RE 733 - Teaching Reading in the Content Area I (3.00 cr.)
Introduces a wide variety of strategies which use reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing to support content learning. Particular attention is given to the development of vocabulary, comprehension, study skills, and writing strategies for all learners including struggling readers and English Language Learners. The Maryland State Department of Education has approved this course for the required Reading in the Content Area I course.
|
| |
-
RE 737 - Literacy Assessment I (3.00 cr.)
Prerequisite: RE 510 , RE 523 , RE 531 , RE 601 . Examines the processes, models, and instruments for assessing the literacy development of diverse learners. Students develop the ability to critically select, administer, and implement appropriate literacy assessments for the purposes of formal and informal data collection. Students also synthesize a variety of data points to facilitate curricular and pedagogical decisions. Students learn methods to effectively and professionally communicate assessment results and corresponding instructional plan suggestions with stakeholders including: teachers, administrators, parents, guardians, and advocates.
|
| |
-
RE 739 - Literacy Assessment II (3.00 cr.)
Prerequisite: RE 510 , RE 523 , RE 531 , RE 601 , RE 737 . This seminar-style course explores current topics and issues in literacy assessment at the individual and institutional level. Particularly, the course provides students additional opportunities to select and administer assessments for the purposes of facilitating curricular and pedagogical decisions. Furthermore, students learn to critically evaluate the impact of program, district, or state-wide assessment decisions on students, parents, teachers, administrators, and other stakeholders.
|
| |
-
RE 740 - Literacy Leadership (3.00 cr.)
Prerequisite: RE 510 , RE 523 , RE 531 , RE 601 , RE 609 , RE 622 , RE 670 . Examines the role of the reading specialist as a literacy leader as it relates to students, parents, staff, and other stakeholders. Analyzes current trends as they affect the role of the reading specialist.
|
| |
-
RE 744 - Teaching Reading in the Content Area II (3.00 cr.)
Prerequisite: RE 733 . The second of two courses relating to the research and application that addresses literacy as a tool for negotiating and comprehending content area material. Students revisit and add to a wide range of strategies related to reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing in the content areas. Particular attention is given to the instruction/assessment cycle, uses of technology, and supporting diverse learners. The Maryland State Department of Education has approved this course for the required Reading in the Content Area II course.
|
| |
-
RE 756 - School Year Practicum in Literacy I (3.00 cr.)
Prerequisite: RE 670 , RE 737 , RE 739 . Engages students in a clinical experience applying the theory and pedagogy learned throughout their coursework. Candidates administer assessments, analyze data, make instructional decisions, and collaborate interprofessionally with other disciplines. The practicum is housed at one of the three Loyola Clinical Centers locations where students work with K-12 students and families throughout the duration. All candidates work with at least one individual student and one small group. Candidates also produce professionally written case reports, progress reports, and a professional ePortfolio. RE 756 and RE 757 constitute the full internship required.
|
| |
-
RE 757 - School Year Practicum in Literacy II (3.00 cr.)
Prerequisite: RE 670 , RE 737 , RE 739 , RE 756 . Engages students in a clinical experience applying the theory and pedagogy learned throughout their coursework. Candidates administer assessments, analyze data, make instructional decisions, and collaborate interprofessionally with other disciplines. The practicum is housed at one of the three Loyola Clinical Centers locations where students work with K-12 students and families throughout the duration. All candidates work with at least one individual student and one small group. Candidates also produce professionally written case reports, progress reports, and a professional ePortfolio. RE 756 and RE 757 constitute the full internship required.
|
| |
-
RE 758 - Summer Practicum in Literacy (6.00 cr.)
Prerequisite: RE 670 , RE 737 , RE 739 . Students engage in a clinical experience applying the theory and pedagogy learned throughout their coursework. Candidates administer assessments, analyze data, make instructional decisions, and collaborate interprofessionally with other disciplines. The practicum is housed at one of the three Loyola Clinical Centers locations where students work with K-12 students and families for the duration. All candidates work at least with one individual student and one small group. Candidates produce professionally written case and progress reports, and a professional e-portfolio. This is a summer intensive practicum which runs Monday through Friday for a full month. (Summer only)
|
| |
-
RE 760 - Processes and Acquisition of Literacy (3.00 cr.)
Assists students in understanding the reading acquisition process. Course content is organized around current, accepted, research-based theoretical models that account for individual differences in reading. The Maryland State Department of Education has approved this course for the Processes and Acquisition requirement.
|
| |
-
RE 761 - Materials for Teaching Reading (3.00 cr.)
Prerequisite: RE 760 . Addresses selection and evaluation of print and electronic texts and identification of strategies used when teaching reading at children's instructional and developmental levels. The Maryland State Department of Education has approved this course for the Materials for Teaching Reading requirement.
|
| |
-
RE 762 - Assessment and Instruction in Reading I (3.00 cr.)
Prerequisite: RE 760 , RE 761 . Students learn a comprehensive array of instructional and assessment techniques and strategies for emergent and developing readers. A 20-hour field experience in a school setting is included. The Maryland State Department of Education has approved this course for the required Instruction of Reading course.
|
| |
-
RE 763 - Assessment and Instruction in Reading II (3.00 cr.)
Prerequisite: RE 760 , RE 761 , RE 762 . Students learn a comprehensive array of instructional and assessment techniques and strategies for independent readers. The Maryland State Department of Education has approved this course for the required Assessment of Reading course.
|
| |
-
RE 770 - Literacy Education Seminar (3.00 cr.)
Prerequisite: RE 670 , RE 737 , RE 739 . Students explore current issues in literacy education using a seminar approach and complete individual action research projects initiated in RE 670 . This course emphasizes effective written and oral communication skills and the ability to collect, interpret, organize, and report research. In addition, students design a professional development proposal focused upon an original area of research.
|
Media |
| |
-
ME 601 - Exploring Digital Culture (3.00 cr.)
Students investigate the social, political, cultural, intellectual, and economic impact of new communication services such as Facebook, Twitter, blogging, the World Wide Web, and others. Students assess the way the Internet and its applications have influenced the way we see ourselves and others; the way we interact and govern ourselves formally and informally; the ways we do business; and even the way we think. Critical issues such as privacy, cyber-bullying and civility, identify theft and security, and free speech are addressed. Must be taken in the first semester of enrollment.
|
| |
-
ME 602 - Content Creation Seminar (3.00 cr.)
Prerequisite: ME 601 . A workshop in the skills--both writing and visual--needed to develop content for social media platforms. Basic concepts associated with search engine optimization and marketing are explored. Students work toward certification in social media planning and assessment as Host Suite professionals. A one-week course which must be taken on a Loyola campus. (Summer only)
|
| |
-
ME 701 - Ethics and Policies Seminar (3.00 cr.)
Prerequisite: ME 601 . Ethical issues are examined, from the use of new media for sourcing in journalism to product and brand promotion. Students engage in discussions about their ethical beliefs as they relate to our ever-changing, technologically-based society. Students examine social media policies of corporations, government, and nonprofit organizations. A one-week course which must be taken on a Loyola campus. (Summer only)
|
| |
-
ME 710 - Media Innovation (3.00 cr.)
The most important characteristic of emerging media is that it is new. Baseline concepts such as where good ideas come from, how innovation moves through society, and the relationship of emerging media to existing media are explored. Students develop a set of tools that enable them to assess the potential use and impact of emerging media.
|
| |
-
ME 715 - Emerging Media in Strategic Communication (3.00 cr.)
Students learn how new media technologies are being integrated as part of emerging advertising and public relations campaigns, as well as how they are being used to deliver traditional messages in novel times and spaces. In an increasingly competitive and diversifying media space, communicators are finding new ways to reach their intended audiences. This course fosters an understanding of the roles and limitations of new media for delivering messages and engaging with key audiences, publics, and markets, while allowing students to critically analyze how to best utilize new media to connect with consumers.
|
| |
-
ME 720 - The User Experience (3.00 cr.)
Reviews the latest theories and research methods developed to better understand how and why people use new media technologies. Students cover a diverse range of perspectives on how users come to identify and make meaning from media, individual motivations and behavior, and the role of user communities. Students then review and apply the latest qualitative methods used by scholars and media companies to better understand target user groups, including usability studies, focus groups, interviews, and web-based surveys.
|
| |
-
ME 725 - Emerging Media Applications (3.00 cr.)
Best practices in the use of the most current new communications tools and platforms are explored. Topics include how to set up appropriate accounts, use the latest technology in applied settings, assess and measure new media viability, and strategically integrate social media to the advantage of the organization.
|
| |
-
ME 730 - Social, Political, and Cultural Impact of New and Emerging Media (3.00 cr.)
Students analyze and interpret the ways that race, class, gender, and ethnicity impact the access to, use of, and knowledge of technology, information, and communication. By looking at both in- and out-of-country usage, students also discuss the technological divide between countries, communities, neighborhoods, and people.
|
| |
-
ME 735 - Emerging Media Law and Regulation (3.00 cr.)
Emerging media frequently test the existing legal and regulatory framework for speech. Key legal and regulatory issues raised by new media are explored, including copyright and piracy, net neutrality, free speech, privacy, and democratic governance.
|
| |
-
ME 740 - Global Communication and Social Media: Policy and Trends (3.00 cr.)
Recommended Prerequisite: ME 601 . New and emerging media are changing the ways in which people around the world communicate. However, access to new media is subject to local laws, regulations, and customs. Therefore, it is important for communication professionals to think globally, but act locally. Students research the political economy, media ownership, regulations, and laws of some of the fastest growing economies in the world. Students also review social media policies and gain an understanding of new and emerging media strategies that are utilized by global organizations and brands.
|
| |
-
ME 795 - Emerging Media Internship (1.00 cr.)
Prerequisite: ME 601 (may be taken concurrently). Provides students with a hands-on, professional experience engaging in off-campus internships in various areas of new and emerging media. Students must submit an initial internship proposal for approval, provide timed updates of internship activity, and submit a reflection of the internship experience at the end of the semester. Scheduled performance evaluations signed by the internship supervisor are required. Written or electronic permission of the instructor. May be repeated three times with permission of the advisor. Pass/Fail
|
| |
-
ME 796 - Emerging Media Capstone Project I (3.00 cr.)
Working under the tutelage of an instructor/practitioner in the department, students have the option to engage in original research on a subject relevant to new and emerging media, then present their findings in a format of their choosing; or, to develop a project in which they demonstrate their proficiency using new and emerging media. By arrangement with the faculty advisor. Pass/Fail
|
| |
-
ME 797 - Emerging Media Capstone Project II (3.00 cr.)
Prerequisite: ME 796 . A continuation of ME 796 . By arrangement with the faculty advisor. Pass/Fail
|
| |
-
ME 798 - Emerging Media Capstone Project I and II (6.00 cr.)
Working under the tutelage of an instructor/practitioner in the department, students have the option to engage in original research on a subject relevant to new and emerging media, then present their findings in a format of their choosing; or, to develop a project in which they demonstrate their proficiency using new and emerging media. By arrangement with the faculty advisor. Pass/Fail
|
| |
-
ME 799 - Capstone Continuation Guidance (0.00 cr.)
Prerequisite: ME 797 or ME 798 . Students work with their advisor toward the completion of their capstone project. By arrangement with faculty advisor. May not be repeated. A guidance fee is charged. Pass/Fail
|
Montessori Education |
| |
-
MO 599 - Montessori Elementary Preparatory Course (3.00 cr.)
The prerequisite course gives the prospective elementary student an overview of the content of the primary course. Montessori's theory of human development during the first six years of life is given extensive treatment. All basic elements of the activities offered to the child in a primary class are touched upon but are not fully developed. A fee is charged. Pass/Fail
|
| |
-
MO 624 - Practicum I (3.00 cr.)
Provides guided observation of children aged birth to three years in select settings, with emphasis on developing skills of observation and assessment.
|
| |
-
MO 625 - Practicum II (3.00 cr.)
Provides guided observation of children aged birth to three years in select settings, with emphasis on developing skills of observation and assessment. Students demonstrate their ability to implement developmentally appropriate practices with infants and toddlers.
|
| |
-
MO 626 - Practicum I (3.00 cr.)
Students develop the skill of scientific observation through guided observational exercises and the observation of young children in a Montessori prepared environment.
|
| |
-
MO 628 - Practicum II (3.00 cr.)
To practice the various professional and personal skills which a Montessori teacher uses, working with a group of children under the supervision of a qualified Montessori teacher.
|
| |
-
MO 630 - Human Relations and Self-Awareness among Young Children (3.00 cr.)
To show by demonstration and lecture a group of activities known in Montessori education as the practical life exercises. These exercises are designed to enable independent functioning, social grace, and self-esteem among children of three to six years of age. Content includes development of coordinated movement, health, safety in both indoor and outdoor environments, and play (spontaneous, free choice of activities).
|
| |
-
MO 631 - Language Arts/Reading Curriculum and Instruction (3.00 cr.)
To provide information about the development of spoken and written language in the areas of daily life, story-telling, composition, literature, geography, history, biology, science, music, art, as well as the functional aspects of grammar, syntax, and reading analysis.
|
| |
-
MO 632 - Mathematics and Science Curriculum and Instruction (3.00 cr.)
To show by demonstration and lecture the exercises of mathematics and science which give sensorial foundations for counting, arithmetic, geometry, algebra, and fractions of whole numbers, as well as for biological and physical science experiences appropriate for young children.
|
| |
Page: 1
| 2
| 3
| 4
| 5
| 6
| 7
| 8
| 9
|
|
|
|
Print this Page