The Hutchins Upper Division Major consists of 40 units and includes the
introductory courses LIBS 302 and LIBS
304 (Fall semester) and 308 (Spring
semester) which are normally taken in the student's first term in the
program. Elective seminars LIBS 320 are
classified in one of four Core Areas: A: Society and
Self, B: Individual and the Material World,
C: Human Experience and the Arts, and D:
Consciousness and Reality. The core classes are grouped together
in this document after all the non-core classes rather than being listed
in numeric order. All 320 classes are seminars. 321 classes are core courses
but not seminars.
| LIBS
302 INTRODUCTION TO LIBERAL STUDIES (3 units) |
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This is a course required of all incoming upper
division students to acquaint them with the specific skills and
concepts basic to a Liberal Studies education: 1) analysis of assigned
readings, 2) participation in seminar discussions, 3) development
of writing skills, 4) introduction to the Portfolio, 5) researching
of materials leading to the completion of an Independent Study Project,
and 6) application of these skills to issues developed in LIBS
304. *This course will be closed until seats are needed.
Hutchins Portfolio is available on the web.
The divider categories are: Major & Portfolio, Introduction
to Liberal Studies, Core Areas, Senior Synthesis, and Advising Keys.
SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF LIBS
302 IS REQUIRED TO CONTINUE IN THE HUTCHINS PROGRAM. Students
earning a grade of C- or lower will not be allowed to continue in
Hutchins. [top]
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| LIBS
304 WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS (3 units) |
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This first course in a two-semester sequence (304
& 308), is designed to examine the
fundamental beliefs, assumptions, and "self-evident" truths that serve
as the foundation for American culture, and then to consider those
truths in light of challenges provided by multicultural perspectives.
[top] |
| LIBS
310 DIRECTED STUDY FOR JUNIORS (1-4 units) Graded |
|
Contract course. Must use form to register. All
tenured or tenure-track faculty.
May be repeated for credit. Prerequisites: LIBS
302 and consent of instructor. Contracts available in department
office (#16 in rack). Students propose a particular study they want
to do, and advisors assist with completion of agreement. Form with
advisor's signature is then left in Director McGuckin's mailbox (top
right, outlined in blue) for signature. [top]
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| LIBS
312.1 SCHOOLS IN AMERICAN SOCIETY (3 units) |
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This course is an interdisciplinary examination of
the American Educational System. The course reviews the history of
American schooling, philosophical issues that continue to shape its
foundations, the effect of ethnicity, gender, class and disability
on it, and the ways in which curriculum affects it. Appropriate readings
and papers will explore these areas. In addition, students will perform
forty five hours as volunteers in public school settings. This will
allow students to complete their volunteer prerequisite requirement
of the School of Education. Students will share their experiences
from volunteering with the class. [top] |
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| LIBS
315 DIRECTED STUDY FOR SENIORS (1-4 units) CR/NC |
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Contract course. Must use form to register. All
tenured or tenure-track faculty.
See additional information under LIBS
310. [top]
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| LIBS
327.1 Literacy, Language & Pedagogy (3 units) |
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Intended for elementary credential students, this course introduces the language arts as they are taught in grades K-6. Related topics - e.g., the history of the English Language, language acquisition, basic elements of linguistics - are briefly considered. [top] |
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| LIBS 327.2 Literacy, Language & Pedagogy (3 units) |
Intended for elementary credential students, this course introduces the language arts as they are taught in grades K-6. Related topics - e.g., the history of the English Language, language acquisition, basic elements of linguistics - are briefly considered. [top] |
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| LIBS
330 THE CHILD IN QUESTION (3 units) |
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Developmental processes do not simply unfold-they are constructed in real time through processes of living. Child development, then, is the examination of individual change within a particular context. This course will be a close inspection ofthe pathways child development through the windows of Western culture, emphasizing relevant behavioral, social, linguistic and cultural factors as well as major theoretical views of perceptual, cognitive, physical, emotional, and personality growth. We will contrast subjective views of childhood experiences with objective methodologies and will use a variety of disciplinary approaches and levels of analysis to shape our understanding. There will be a service learning assignment as well as some work in the Hutchins Pedagogy Project.
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| LIBS
337 SPECIAL LITERARY PROJECT (2 Units) |
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Intended for students seeking an elementary credential
and wishing to assemble resources in children's literature projects.
[top] |
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| LIBS
338 SPECIAL ART PROJECT (2 Units) |
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Intended for students seeking an elementary credential
and wishing to assemble resources in children's art projects. [top] |
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| LIBS
340 SPECIAL SCIENCE PROJECT (2 Units) |
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Intended for students seeking an elementary credential
and wishing to assemble resources in children's science projects.
[top] |
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| LIBS 342 ART SHOW PREPARATION (2 Units) |
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Intended for students seeking to participate in the creation of a Hutchins Community Art Show.
[top]
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| LIBS
402 SENIOR SYNTHESIS (4 units) |
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A capstone course required for students who are
developing portfolios and are Hutchins majors. Drawing on the papers
collected for their portfolio, students will write a major paper
synthesizing aspects of their own intellectual development, and
will also write and present a senior synthesis study at the end
of the semester.(3 units with 1 unit of non traditional) [top]
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| LIBS
403-1 SENIOR SYNTHESIS - STUDY AWAY (4 units) |
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| LIBS
410 DIRECTED STUDY FOR SENIORS (4 units) |
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Contract Course
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Must use form to register
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All faculty
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Graded
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Contract course. Must use form to register. All tenured
or tenure-track faculty. See additional information
under LIBS 310. [top] |
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| LIBS
415 DIRECTED STUDY FOR SENIORS (1-4 units) |
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Contract Course
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Must use form to register
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All faculty
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CR/NC only
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Contract course. Must use form to register. All tenured
or tenure-track faculty. See additional information
under LIBS 310. [top] |
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| LIBS 480 Teaching Assistant - Seminar Facilitation (1-3 Units) |
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Consent of instructor |
All faculty. |
This course provides studetns with an opportunity to enhance their facilitation skills through serving as a seminar leader in large lecture/discussion courses. Requires the consent of instructor. [top] |
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| LIBS
499 INTERNSHIP (1-4 Units) |
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Contract Course
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Must use form to register
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All faculty except lecturers
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Contractual internship based on student career interests.
Evaluation based on student project. Your internship must have three
qualities: 1) It must be theoretical - treat a larger issue than itself.
2) It must be practical and relate to the placement you are doing.
3) Your student project should be portfolio in nature and have YOUR
name on it. Form is # 14 in rack. [top]
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NOTE ABOUT LIBS 310, 315, 410 AND 415:
May be repeated for credit. Prerequisites: LIBS 302 and consent
of instructor. Contracts (Independent Project Form - #13 in rack)
are available in department office. Advisors assist with completion
of agreement. Completed form with advisor's signature is then left
in Provost's mailbox for signature (top right). Approved forms will
be hand carried by staff to Admissions & Records.
NOTE ABOUT PORTFOLIO: Don't forget to include
your major essays and projects under the corresponding core in your
Portfolio at the end of the class. [top]
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CORE A OFFERINGS
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Courses in this area address the following issues
and themes:
- Problems and possibilities
before us at the start of a new century as we move toward a genuinely
global culture.
- The relationship between the individual and all
kinds of human groups, the context of human interaction in which
the individual finds many of the dimensions of the self.
- Ideas, attitudes, and beliefs that flow between
society and the individual and which result in the political and
economic arrangements that make life-in-common possible.
- Historical and economic developments, geographical
facts, analytical models, and moral questions necessary to understand
the dynamics of individuals and their communities.
- Moral and ethical underpinnings of our patterns
of social interaction and how these affect issues such as race,
gender, and class.
- Questions concerning whether the goals of human
dignity, political justice, economic opportunity, and cultural
expression are being enhanced or destroyed by specific historical
developments, cultural practices, economic arrangements, or political
institutions. For example: How, in the face of that compelling
force, do we shape the kind of society that values and protects
the individual? How do we become the kinds of individuals who
understand and help foster the just society?
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| LIBS
320A.1 COLBERT NATION (3 units) |
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Contact professor for description. Prerequisite:
LIBS 302 or LIBS 101-202. [top] |
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| LIBS
320A.2 QUEST FOR DEMOCRACY (3 units) |
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In this course we study how a quest for democracy is manifested first in English and Spanish America and later in the relations between the United States, Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico. We explore the nature of democracy self-determination, colonialism, and the classification of citizens according to class, gender and culture. For this explorations we use theoretical tools such as economic, discursive (the intersection between power and language) and patriarchical analyses of power relations and their impact on human bodies in the present. Prerequisite: LIBS
302 or LIBS 101-202 [top]
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| LIBS
320A.3 MONEY MATTERS (3 units) |
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As President Clinton often quipped in his election campaign, “it’s the economy, stupid.” With the recent crisis in the mortgage market, it is becoming increasingly apparent that our economic system could use some serious rethinking. And it is also clear that the average citizen needs to be more informed about the hidden structure of our monetary system. This course will explore the nature of money in the 21st century, the implications of a debt-based and interest bearing system, the role of the Federal Reserve, the meaning of the Gross National Product, distribution of wealth, taxes, and a variety of related topics. We will examine our national (and international) priorities as they are reflected in federal and state budgets and, on a more personal note, we will explore the significance of money in our own lives. Prerequisite: LIBS
302 or LIBS 101-202 [top]
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| LIBS 320A.4 COMMITMENT, COMPROMISE AND THE ELECTIONS (3 units) |
This semester, two of the communities with which all of us are involved will experience major events: the
Hutchins School will celebrate its 40th anniversary, and the United States will hold national elections. If
you want to actively contribute to these community events and others, and analyze the implications of
doing so, this theory-practice course should appeal to you. On five Tuesday mornings we will meet to discuss community, commitment, and compromise; one weekend, we will contribute to the Hutchins Anniversary events; and leading up to the November elections, each of us will volunteer at least 25 hours with a political party or a non-partisan organization. (With appropriate documentation, you may carry out some or all of these hours during summer break.)
. Prerequisite: LIBS 302 or LIBS 101-202 [top] |
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| LIBS 320A.5 CUT DUE TO BUDGET CONSTRAINTS (3 units) |
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Prerequisite: LIBS 302 or LIBS 101-202 [top] |
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CORE B OFFERINGS
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Courses in this area address the following issues
and themes:
- Science and technology
and their relationships to the individual and society.
- The methods of science and important information
that has been discovered through their applications.
- Some of the crucial issues posed by our cultureís
applications of science and technology and, adversely, the cultural
consequences of a materialist world view.
- How science and technology impact all areas of
our lives.
- How, for better and for worse, as inheritors
of the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions, we intervene in
our material world technologically.
- Scientific aspects of particular social issues,
or an issue of personal concern, the sense of science as a social
endeavor.
- The values implicit in a particular technology.
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| LIBS
320B.1 WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE (3 units) |
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Water, the most indispensable substance for all life on earth, has always played a vital role in the development of human society and culture. Today, our understanding of and the choices we make about this “Blue Gold” are increasingly central to the future of both human civilization and the natural world on which it ultimately depends. This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of the changing meaning and use of water in various eras and cultures as well as its pivotal role at present as the most vital natural ingredient capable of helping reestablish a healthy and balanced human relationship with the natural world.. Prerequisite: LIBS
302 LIBS 101-202 [top]
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| LIBS
320B.2 GLOBAL FOOD WEB (3 units) |
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1840
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M
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1:00-3:40
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Debora Hammond
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CH 59
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This course will provide a multi-faceted analysis of the system of food production and distribution in the modern world, and its implications for both human and environmental health. We will explore the global food web through a variety of lenses, including economics, politics, health, ecology, chemistry, aesthetics, and psychology. We will examine the consequences of industrial agriculture and developments in genetic engineering, as well as the recent emergence of farm to school projects in our local community, which are building stronger connections between schools and local farmers, and integrating food and gardens into all aspects the curriculum. We will explore a variety of perspectives on diet and nutrition. The course will include a service learning or community-based research component, and will hopefully add new meaning to the notion that “you are what you eat.”
. Prerequisite:
LIBS 302 or LIBS 101-202 [top] |
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| LIBS
320B.3 MACHINE AS METAPHOR (3 units) |
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Mechanization and automation, concepts born of the industrial revolution, continue to dominate our lives and economic means of production well into the information age. We need to understand the human fascination with the construction of devices and the aesthetic of the artificial if we are to avoid greater "dis-integration" with our present and future roles in society. This course will survey the spectrum of responses to the artificial landscape in the ninetheenth and twentieth centuries, from the "Zen of machine" consciousness of the practitioner to the fearful jeremiad of the alienated observer. Several up-close class activities with both the artist's and gadgeteer's perspectives will complete the reconnaissance. Prerequisite:
LIBS 302 or LIBS 101-202
[top]
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| LIBS
320B.4 GARBAGE (3 units) |
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2133
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T
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9:00-11:40
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Richard Zimmer
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CH 69
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An interdisciplinary look at what constitutes "garbage." Students will learn the chemistry of garbage, the technologies of disposing of garbage, the social definitions of garbage presently and in history, the social dimensions of garbage, and the finances of garbage. Recycling will be explored. Students will make a number of field trips and perform service learning projects with schools and community agencies. Field trips to be arranged. Prerequisite: LIBS 302 or LIBS 101-202
[top]
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| LIBS 320B.5 CUT DUE TO BUDGET CONSTRAINTS (3 units) |
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CORE C OFFERINGS
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Courses in this area address the following issues
and themes:
- Why humans create literature, epics, poetry,
drama, and other literary forms, the visual arts, languages, architecture,
music, dance, the writings of philosophers, and the thought and
literature of the worldís religions.
- The inner world of creativity and individual
values as well as the questions about how we arrive at a sense
of meaning and purpose, ethical behavior, and a sense of beauty
and order in the world.
- Deep and significant aspects of ourselves which
may otherwise remain obscure and therefore troubling.
- Important questions - and occasional answers
- about life and death, about feelings, and about the ways we
see things.
- The metaphors that help us recognize and become
aware of the interrelations of all the areas of inquiry humanity
has developed.
- Images from which we may learn about our reality
or realities of other times.
- Creative and intuitive thinking processes that
lead to an understanding of the aesthetic experience.
- How the arts can be an end in themselves, as
well as a means to an end.
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| LIBS
320C.1 VOICES FROM THE MARGIN (3 units) |
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In his dissent from McKlesky v. Kemp (107 S.Ct. 1756 [1987]), Justice William Brennan described the fate of prisoners on death row, arguing that a majoritarian chorus should not dictate the conditions of social life. "Those whom we could banish from society or from the human community itself," Brennan argued, "often speak in too faint a voice to be hears[.]" id. In this course we will approach the challenge of attending to voices from the margin. What are the social a historical mechanisms that suppress or marginalize the perspectives of those less powerful than ourselves? What perspectives or paradigms might we adopt to enable us to acknowledge, if not inhabit, worlds other than our own? Where is the line between societal empowerment/empathy and the acknowledgement of personal responsibility for suffering? Where voices are marginalized as a consequence of cultural difference, how can they be apprehended without turning them into a mere litany of cultural difference? These and other questions will be explored through an examination of historical criticism, legal cases, autobiography, poetry, and cinema, as well as a critical examination of news media and student focus on a selected "voice," as well as attention to her or his own. Prerequisite: LIBS 302 or LIBS 101-202 [top] |
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| LIBS
320C.2 MULTICULTURAL MUSICALS (3 units) |
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This course will examine musicals from around the world. From classical Hollywood numbers to Bollywood song and dance, from the early twentieth century to the early twenty-first, we will explore the multifaceted nature of the musical genre and how it has been and continues to be deployed by various cultures around the globe, even as it reformultates these cultures via its hybrid, innovative strategies. Along with frequent screenings of musicals, we will engage in readings spanning the disciplines, including film and theatre theory, queer theory, cultural studies, postcolonial theory, and gender studies, to name but a few. Prerequisite: LIBS
302 or LIBS 101-202
[top]
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| LIBS
320C.3 EARTH ART (3 units) |
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This course will explore Environmental/Earth Art Concepts, works and artists and the relationship between art and nature. We will study ancient and modern earthworks and use a variety of artistic and scientific techniques for observing, recording, and understanding nature. This is a hands-on class that will satisfy the core C requirement but is not a seminar. Prerequisite:
LIBS 302 or LIBS 101-202
[top]
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| LIBS 320C.4 TOURIST & TRAVELER IN FILM & LITERATURE (3 units) |
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Who is a tourist? What is a traveler? Is the difference, as Paul Bowles once wrote, partly one of time, where "the tourist generally hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or months," while "the traveler, belonging no more to one place than to the next, moves slowly, over periods of years, from one part of the earth to another?" Through an interdisciplinary and multicultural approach, then, involving critical essay, fiction, travel writing and film, this course will address these and other, interrelated questions concerning the experiences of travel and travelers, as well as their representations, from the post-WW2 era to the end of the 20th century. Prerequisite: LIBS 302 or LIBS 101-202
[top] |
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| LIBS 320C.5 MEMOIR, WRITING & PLACE (3 units) |
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In this course we will consider various examples of memoir writing, particularly in terms of the author’s use of place, that is, of a specific local as it relates to, or does not relate to, the writer’s depiction of his or her life story. We will want to ask questions such as: How has place shaped both the writer’s understanding of his or her world and, in turn, the issues themetized in the respective life story? How might the same environment be understood otherwise, say, in terms of a difference in gender, race, ethnicity, or religion on the part of the writer? How has our sense of place our coming from a particular locale shaped our reading of the memoir?
At the same time, we will be writing and workshopping our own life stories, looking for ways to develop and strengthen our craft and voices as writers. Furthermore, we will take at least two fieldtrips one to an urban locale, another to a nature preserve in Sonoma County and think about these places from our point of view as writers shaped by our background and world views.
Prerequisite: LIBS 302 or LIBS 101-202
[top] |
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CORE D OFFERINGS
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Courses in this area address the following issues
and themes:
- Reality as a result of many factors, some of
them psychological, some biological, some philosophical, some
social and the many aspects of being or existence as reaching
from the physical to the metaphysical.
- Consciousness as, somehow, the result of our
gender, our ethnicity, our health, the ways in which we were reared,
the social stratum in which we find ourselves, the beliefs that
were engendered in us, and other factors.
- Consciousness as occurring across a spectrum
of potentials (conscious/unconscious, rational/irrational, egocentric/transpersonal,
masculine/feminine) that influence our personal and collective
realities.
- Human needs at various levels of emotional, religious
or spiritual, intellectual, and transpersonal or universal disciplines,
practices, and experiences.
- One of the major concerns
of people in all places at all times has been: what are the components
of being human?
- The range of answers which are sometimes perplexingly
inconsistent with one another, and yet their very divergence itself
suggests something about the powerful complexity of the human
individual.
- The study of biology as it relates to psychology,
and consciousness as it affects and is affected by perceptions
of reality.
- Meaning-making as a necessary human achievement,
and identity formation as it is understood in the light of developmental
psychology and the nature-nurture controversy.
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| LIBS
320D.1 PRODUCTION OF MEANING (3 Units) |
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2036
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M
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4:00-6:40
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Mutombo M'Panya
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CH 37
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Most of the information we receive about the world and ourselves seems to be a one-way flow from the dominant Western global discourse, which deploys various forms of representation to make
ourselves and “others” knowable. In this course students will develop awareness of the narratives, techniques, and representational strategies that condition our assumptions about ourselves, different
groups of people, and national identity. Students will engage in collective analysis of diverse media, personal reflection and writing, creative group collaboration, and reading texts from a wide
range of authors Prerequisite: LIBS 302 or LIBS 101-202
[top]
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| LIBS
320D.2 MADNESS AND CIVILIZATION (3 units) |
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Many of us have an increasing everyday sense that people are struggling these days- with anxiety, with depression, and with a general unease about their lives and the future. When so many people are finding difficulties in coping with their lives, are we to look outside the individual for causes and solutions? Is our society itself insane? Or are mental health and mental illness best seen as individual psychological/existential phenomena? Are mental health problems best treated with therapy and drugs or confronted with movements for social transformation? This course will address these wide-ranging and increasingly important concerns, and others such as the link between artistic creativity and insanity, through interdisciplinary readings and films- everything from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to Foucault’s Madness and Civilization. Prerequisite: LIBS 302 or LIBS 101-202
[top]
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| LIBS 320D.3BUDDHISM(S) (3 units) |
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Contact professor for course description. Prerequisite: LIBS 302 or LIBS 101-202
[top] |
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| LIBS
320D.4 RELIGIOUS QUEST (3 units) |
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"God is dead," wrote Nietszche in the 1870s, but more than a century later, religious fundamentalism is a primary factor in American and in world politics, and here in northern California, hybrid and brand new, individualistic forms of religion and spirituality are widespread. What is happening?
I believe that we can gain greater understanding of these developments - and gain insight into our own possibilities for growth -- by looking closely at how a few outstanding individuals responded to the dramatic and often traumatic events of the 20th century. We will see some of the stresses on "traditional" institutional religions, and we will also see some of the creative and critical ways in which people stretched and transformed those traditions to fulfill their personal quests. We will read biographies and autobiographies of such figures as Mahatma Ghandi, Elie Wiesel, Malcolm X, Mother Teresa, and others who lived extraordinary lives, but who asked questions about life similar to ones we might ask. In each case, these authors connected their own quests to wider issues of nature, community, and history. As a result, they changed not only themselves, but the world we live in.
As we read and discuss these examples, we will attempt to support each other on our own paths toward meaning and fulfillment with respect and understanding. And we will ask how personal meaning and public welfare coincide. Prerequisite: LIBS 302 or LIBS 101-202
[top]
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| LIBS
320D.5 CREATIVITY, INVENTION, DISCOVERY (3 units) |
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TBA
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W
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4-6:40
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Rob Weiner
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CH 54
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This course will open only if budget situation improves.
Prerequisite: LIBS 302 or LIBS 101-202
[top]
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