| Fall 2009 |
Charry,Eric S.
10/03/2009 - 10/24/2009
Note: Special Schedule 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
Music Studios 301
Special Schedule: Saturday & Sunday, October 3-4; Saturday,October 17; class trip to NY on Sunday, October 18; Saturday, October 24
Since the early 20th century, downtown New York has been one of the most artistically vital and creative geographic areas in America, known for its avant-garde, counter, and alternative cultural tendencies. Home or workplace of Upton Sinclair and the muckrakers, Jackson Pollack and the abstract expressionist visual artists, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and the beat poets, and Merce Cunningham and the modern dancers, Greenwich Village and neighborhoods to the east and south continue to attract a special breed of artists and activists. Musical artists were not only integral to this scene--one can argue that they defined it.
The unique confluence of musical currents in downtown New York in the 1950s and 60s was extraordinary. The intensity, diversity, and critical inclinations of the music communities that lived and worked side by side within the roughly one square mile below 14th Street were unparalleled. In this course, we will study the history and simultaneous flourishing of four distinct music communities that inhabited and shaped downtown New York culture: Euro-American experimentalists (Edgard Varese, John Cage, Lamont Young), an African American jazz-based avant-garde (Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, and Sun Ra), blues and folk revivalists (Leadbelly, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan), and Lower East Side rock groups (The Fugs, Velvet Underground). Although they had much in common, most notably a drive to create something new that critiqued, countered, or provided an alternative to mainstream American values, they also had significant, even insurmountable differences. Much of the course will be devoted to understanding their points of convergence and divergence, especially in conversation with broader currents of the time (e.g. the civil rights movement and related notions of freedom, shifting youth subcultures, and avant garde aesthetics).
We will read about and listen to recordings of a wide variety of musicians, identify aesthetic trends, and study the local industry that supported them. This will include examining the catalogs of record labels (Folkways, Vanguard, Elektra, ESP), analyzing the environments and bookings of coffee houses, clubs, and concert spaces (Village Gate, Five Spot, Gerde's Folk City, the Electric Circus, the New School), and reading primary local sources, such as the Village Voice (inaugurated in 1955), and the East Village Other (inaugurated in 1965).
The culmination of the class will be a walking tour of downtown New York on Sunday October 18, visiting the sites of key performance venues and residences.
Dave Van Ronk's memoir The Mayor of MacDougal Street should be read in its entirety before the first class. Additional required reading includes chapters from Beard and Berlowitz (eds.), Greenwich Village: Culture and Counterculture, Bob Dylan's Chronicles, A. B. Spellman's Four Lives in the Bebop Business, Amiri Baraka's Black Music, Clinton Heylin's From the Velvets to the Voidoids, Sally Banes's Greenwich Village 1963, and others, which will all be available on online electronic reserve from the Olin Library.
Assignments include a midterm paper (due two weeks after the first class) and final paper (due two weeks after the last class) as well as short classroom presentations.
Click here to view a Googlemap for the course.
Course tuition: $2022.
Eric Charry (B.M., M.M. New England Conservatory of Music; M.F.A., Ph.D. Princeton University) is associate professor of music. He is author of Mande Music: Traditional and Modern Music of the Maninka and Mandinka of Western Africa (University of Chicago Press, 2000), and has two books in progress: The Emergence of an Avant Garde in Jazz, 1956-1965 and Downtown: Music as a Cultural Force, New York in the 1950s and 60s. Click here for more information about Eric Charry.
ENROLLMENT INFORMATION
Consent of Instructor Required: No
|
Format: Seminar | Level: GLSP | Credits: 3 | Enrollment Limit: 18 |
READING MATERIALS ARE AVAILABLE AT BROAD STREET BOOKS, 45 BROAD STREET, MIDDLETOWN, 860-685-7323 Order your books online
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Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459
| Fall 2009 |
Rudensky,Sasha
09/14/2009 - 12/18/2009
Monday 06:00 PM - 09:00 PM
Zilkha Gallery 106; Science Tower 72
From its earliest days, photography was mistakenly perceived as a fundamentally objective, scientific medium concerned with truth and fact. Quite the opposite, by its very definition, the photographic image—a flat, two dimensional, black and white artifact—is anything but an accurate representation of reality. Despite its indexical relationship to the subject, a photograph is a thing onto itself: a creation; a fiction. Taking this into consideration, students will be asked to explore the hybrid nature of photography through creation of original and personal images, some of which are staged and some observed. As background and inspiration we will examine the work of artists who have worked in both the documentary and directorial traditions, including Cindy Sherman, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Larry Sultan, Gregory Crewdson, An-my Le, and others.
Class time will be primarily devoted to intensive critique and discussion of work as well as slide lectures. In addition there will be a comprehensive review covering Photoshop techniques including digital workflow, color correcting, making selections, and working with layers.
The emphasis of the course will be placed on shooting done outside of class: students will shoot 100 pictures for each meeting and submit 40 selected images to the instructor every week. This is a digital course. (Camera should be supplied by the student and have manual controls. Although not a requirement it is strongly recommended that a digital SLR be used for the duration of the course). The final portfolio will consist of 10 unique and cohesive images.
The reading will consist of handouts that will be available in class and on reserve in the Art Library. No other text will be required.
This class can accommodate a wide range of experience, but it is expected that the students be comfortable with digital camera operation and be familiar with the Mac platform. Students will be required to have access to their own printers to make work for the course.
Course tuition: $2022. Additional course fee: $75.
This course is not open to auditors.
A syllabus for this course is available at:
Course Syllabus
Sasha Rudensky (B.A. Wesleyan University; MFA Yale School of Art) is visiting professor of art. She was the recipient of the Mortimer Hays Brandeis Traveling Fellowship in 2004-2005, which resulted in the series Remains. She is currently working on a portrait series Demons. Her work has been shown in Danziger Projects, New York; Gallery 339, Philadelphia; Rooke Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa; Jen Bekman Gallery, New York and others. Click here for more information about Sasha Rudensky.
ENROLLMENT INFORMATION
Consent of Instructor Required: No
|
Format: Seminar | Level: GLSP | Credits: 3 | Enrollment Limit: 14 |
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glsinquire@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions.
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459
| Fall 2009 |
Shinohara,Keiji
09/14/2009 - 12/18/2009
Thursday 06:00 PM - 09:00 PM
Art Workshop 105
Sumi-e is a style of black-and-white calligraphic ink painting that originated in China and was introduced into Japan by Zen monks around 1333. Concentrating on the four basic compositions of sumi-e—bamboo, chrysanthemum, orchid, and plum blossom—we will explore the central techniques and principles of style. We will also study the works of the more famous schools, such as Kano. Students will be encouraged to work in the classical style and to build on that style toward expressing their own creative vision.
Students will create a portfolio of class exercises and their own creative pieces.
Course tuition: $2022. Additional course fee: $140.
Enrollment is limited to 14 students. This course is not open to auditors.
Keiji Shinohara, a master Ukiyo-e woodcut printmaker, is visiting artist in art and East Asian studies. His work has been exhibited at the Library of Congress, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Worcester Museum of Art, the Asia Society, and the Smithsonian. He is known for highly sculptural landscape prints, which speak to the spirit of Ukiyo-e in a modern voice. His Sumi-e paintings were featured in the collaborative artists' book, The Language of Her Body, with photos by Derek Dudek, fragments of text by Amy Bloom, and typography by Robin Price. Click here for more information about Keiji Shinohara and click here for more information about his work.
ENROLLMENT INFORMATION
Consent of Instructor Required: No
|
Format: Studio | Level: GLSP | Credits: 3 | Enrollment Limit: 14 |
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Contact
glsinquire@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions.
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459
| Fall 2009 |
Molomot,Lisa
09/14/2009 - 12/18/2009
Tuesday 07:00 PM - 09:30 PM
Public Affairs Center 107
Since the very first films, of workers walking out of factories, the documentary film has continually changed in response to the time. What began as an experiment with technology has evolved into a powerful means of storytelling. This course surveys the history of the genre from the first documentary "Nanook of the North" to avant-garde films of the 1930s, World War II propaganda films like "Triumph of the Will," the first cinema verite documentary "Chronicles of a Summer," and beyond. The goal of the course is to learn critical thinking skills as they relate to nonfiction film. We will look at groundbreaking films and discuss their historical contexts, as well as the issues surrounding documentary filmmaking like ethics, objectivity, and dramatic storytelling. Additionally, a guest filmmaker will offer an inside look at the painstaking processof making a documentary.
Assignments will include watching documentaries and weekly journal writing. Students will be asked to watch contemporary documentaries and write essays, comparing each contemporary film to other films viewed in the course, on a mid-term and in a final paper.
Course tuition: $2022.
Enrollment is limited to 16 students. This course is not open to auditors.
A syllabus for this course is available at:
Course Syllabus
Lisa Molomot (B.A. Hamilton College; M.F.A. The American Film Institute) is a documentary producer and editor. She has edited documentaries for A&E, The Discovery Channel, PBS, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Santa Monica Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles Unified School District. Her various credits include The Kentucky Theatre, The Last Hostage, Los Occultos, Manna From Heaven, Vivien Leigh: A Delicate Balance, On the Inside of: The World Series of Poker, Greg Ford For Congress, and Battle for the Minds. She recently completed a documentary, The Hill, about an unprecedented civil rights case in New Haven. Click here for more information about Lisa Molomot.
ENROLLMENT INFORMATION
Consent of Instructor Required: No
|
Format: Seminar | Level: GLSP | Credits: 3 | Enrollment Limit: 17 |
Lewis Jacobs, THE DOCUMENTARY TRADITION (W.W. Norton), Paperback
READING MATERIALS ARE AVAILABLE AT BROAD STREET BOOKS, 45 BROAD STREET, MIDDLETOWN, 860-685-7323 Order your books online
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Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459
| Fall 2009 |
Waite,Peter
09/14/2009 - 12/18/2009
To be announced -
Art is often a lonely enterprise and sometimes one needs feedback. This advanced, tutorial-like course is a weekly critique session designed for serious students or artists of all disciplines in the visual arts interested in making their work better by sharing it with other artists. Participants will develop new work outside of class and spend class time analyzing and responding to each other's work, offering suggestions, comments and ideas for possible directions each person's work could take. Content, technique, and presentation of work will receive equal attention. This salon-style gathering is ideal for those simply interested in showing their work to others, for those interested in creating a focused and clear body of work, and for those who wish to assemble a strong portfolio for future endeavors in the art world, e.g., applying to graduate school, applying for grants, or trying to approach a gallery or institution. All aspects of the presentation will be discussed, including framing, hanging solutions, and photo documentation (taking images of the work). The instructor plans on being an active participant, showing his current work-in-progress to the group for feedback.
Course tuition: $2022. Additional course fee: $65.
Enrollment is limited to 10 students. This course is not open to auditors.
Peter Waite (B.F.A. Hartford Art School; M.F.A. School of the Art Institute of Chicago) has been a Guggenheim fellow and has taught at Wesleyan University and at the University of Connecticut, Fairfield University, and Bennington College. His work is represented by the Edward Thorp Gallery in New York City. He has had 15 solo exhibitions, including the Edward Thorp Gallery (2005, 2002, 2001, 1996, 1994), the Winston/Wachter Gallery (Seattle, 2006), and the Olin Gallery of Roanoke College (Salem, VA, 2005). View his paintings on his Web site at www.peterwaite.com.
ENROLLMENT INFORMATION
Consent of Instructor Required: No
|
Format: Studio | Level: GLSP | Credits: 3 | Enrollment Limit: 10 |
| Register for Courses |
Contact
glsinquire@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions.
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459
| Fall 2009 |
Karamcheti,Indira
09/26/2009 - 10/12/2009
Note: Special Schedule 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
285 Court Street
Special Schedule: Saturday & Sunday, September 26-27; Saturday-Monday, October 10-12
Stories told to children have an ancient history, dating back to orally transmitted folktales, myths, and legends. They have many different aims: they are variously intended to teach, amuse, and give moral guidance. By the 1700s, children's literature was an active category in the publishing industry, and books intended specifically for children were being written and published. The 1800s are a kind of "Golden Age" of children's literature; it saw the publication of some of the titles we now regard as "classics": The Wind in the Willows, Tom Sawyer, Alice in Wonderland, Little Women, Peter Pan, and so on.
In this course, we will begin with the history of children's literature, and during the course of the term, read and analyze classic fairy tales, classic boys' stories and classic girls' stories, and contemporary tales, including some that attempt to revise in the direction of racial/ethnic/gendered diversity. Peter Hunt's Children's Literature, an Illustrated History will provide the historical overview with which we will begin. Maria Tatar's Classic Fairy Tales will give us several versions of these stories, including Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, and Hans Christian Andersen, as well as examples of some of their famous illustrators. Bruno Bettelheim's classic study of the psychological value of these tales in the formation of the child will provide one means of interpretation, supplemented by Jack Zipes' Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion, which discusses them in the framework of class and economics. From the fairy tales, we will move to the Golden Age of children's literature and some contemporary classics: Peter Pan, Tom Sawyer, Little Women, Harry Potter, and The Golden Compass. We will end the course with an examination of some revisionary texts, including Lemony Snicket's The Bad Beginning, the first of his series A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Texts for this course may include: Peter Hunt, Children's Literature, an Illustrated History; Maria Tatar, Classic Fairy Tales; Bruno Bettelheim, Uses of Enchantment; Jack Zipes, Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion; J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan; Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer; Louisa May Alcott, Little Women; J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone; Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass; Lemony Snicket, The Bad Beginning.
Course tuition: $2022.
This course is not open to auditors.
Indira Karamcheti B.A., M.A., Ph.D. University of California, Santa Barbara) is associate professor of English and American Studies. Her teaching and research interests include postcolonial literature and theory, the literature of the South Asian diaspora, and the writing of ethnic and racial minorities in the U.S. She has written on such authors as Salman Rushdie, Anita Desai, Simone Schwarz-Bart, and Aime Cesaire. Click here for more information about Indira Karamcheti.
ENROLLMENT INFORMATION
Consent of Instructor Required: No
|
Format: Seminar | Level: GLSP | Credits: 3 | Enrollment Limit: 18 |
J.M. Barrie, PETER PAN (Puffin), Paperback
M.O. Grenby & Andrea Immel, THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO CHILDREN'S LITERATURE (Cambridge University Press), Paper
Philip Pullman, THE GOLDEN COMPASS (Turtleback), Paperback
J.K. Rowling, HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE (Scholastic), Paperback
Lemony Snicket, THE BAD BEGINNING (Harper Trophy), Paperback
Maria Tatar, CLASSIC FAIRY TALES (W.W. Norton), Paperback
Mark Twain, THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER (Vintage), Paperback
READING MATERIALS ARE AVAILABLE AT BROAD STREET BOOKS, 45 BROAD STREET, MIDDLETOWN, 860-685-7323 Order your books online
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Contact
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Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459
| Fall 2009 |
Basch,Rachel N.
09/14/2009 - 12/18/2009
Wednesday 06:00 PM - 09:00 PM
Downey 100
"The writer has to judge himself with a stranger's eye and a stranger's severity. The prophet in him has to see the freak. No art is sunk in the self, but rather, in art the self becomes self-forgetful..." Flannery O'Connor
This is a course for students interested in tapping into "the voice that's great within" them. Students will explore the sub-genres of creative nonfiction, especially memoir and personal essay. The focus will be on producing work that connects the writer's deepest truth with the reader's deepest truth.
In the early part of the semester, the assignments will consist of writing exercises geared toward the mining of vital subject matter. As the term progresses, students will be asked to complete three creative nonfiction essays. The final project will consist of a deep revision of one of the essays.
The course will be conducted as a workshop. All student writing will be shared and critiqued by the other members of the class.
Weekly reading assignments will be given along with the writing assignments. We will be reading essays by a number of writers, including: Andre Aciman, Susan Cheever, David Denby, Andre Dubus, Kathleen Norris, Cynthia Ozick, Tobias Wolff, Mary Gordon, Joan Didion, Phillip Lopate, Thomas Lynch, John Edgar Wideman, Mary Carr, Jamaica Kincaid.
Course tuition: $2022.
This course is best suited to students with some writing experience.
Enrollment is limited to 14 students. This course is not open to auditors.
A syllabus for this course is available at:
Course Syllabus
Rachel Basch (B.A. Wesleyan University; M.A. New York University) is the author of two novels. The Passion of Reverend Nash, published by W.W. Norton, was named one of the five best novels of 2003 by The Christian Science Monitor. Degrees of Love, her first novel, was published in 1998 by W.W. Norton and is available in paperback from HarperCollins. Degrees of Love was translated into Dutch and German and was a selection of the Hartford Courant's Book Club. Basch's non-fiction has appeared in Parenting magazine, and she has reviewed books for The Washington Post Book World. A dedicated teacher of creative writing for the past 20 years, Basch is a contributor to Now Write!: Fiction Writing Exercises From Today's Best Writers & Teachers. Basch has been a visiting writer at Trinity College in Hartford and in Wesleyan University's Graduate Liberal Studies Program.
ENROLLMENT INFORMATION
Consent of Instructor Required: No
|
Format: Seminar | Level: GLSP | Credits: 3 | Enrollment Limit: 14 |
Bich Nguyen & Porter Shreve, CONTEMPORARY CREATIVE NONFICTION: I & EYE (Longman), Paperback
Lex Williford & Michael Martone, TOUCHSTONE ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY CREATIVE NONFICTION: WORK FROM 1970 TO THE PRESENT (Touchstone), Paperback
READING MATERIALS ARE AVAILABLE AT BROAD STREET BOOKS, 45 BROAD STREET, MIDDLETOWN, 860-685-7323 Order your books online
| Register for Courses |
Contact
glsinquire@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions.
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459
| Fall 2009 |
Greene,Anne F.
09/14/2009 - 12/18/2009
Monday 07:00 PM - 09:30 PM
Downey 100
This is a course for those who want to write with greater facility and with increased attention to the design of each piece. Students may choose to focus on narrative essays, memoir, or fiction. Exercises will focus on the organizational strategies that are most effective in each kind of writing. The class is informal, allowing participants to work collaboratively and to adapt the assignments to meet their own interests.
Readings will be from contemporary prose writers including Annie Dillard, Jamaica Kincaid, Joan Didion, Philip Gourevitch, W. G. Sebald, and many others.
Course tuition: $2022.
This course is not open to auditors.
Anne Greene (B.A. Radcliffe College, M.A. Brandeis University) is adjunct professor of English, director of writing programs, and director of the Wesleyan Writers Conference. She was awarded the 2006 Binswanger prize for excellence in teaching. Click here for more information about Anne Greene.
ENROLLMENT INFORMATION
Consent of Instructor Required: No
|
Format: Seminar | Level: GLSP | Credits: 3 | Enrollment Limit: 18 |
| Register for Courses |
Contact
glsinquire@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions.
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459
| Fall 2009 |
McCann,Sean
09/14/2009 - 12/18/2009
Thursday 06:30 PM - 09:00 PM
285 Court Street
This course will look at the literature and culture of the United States during the Great Depression. The emphasis will be on literature and film placed in the broader context of intellectual history, with some attention to music and politics, as well. The course will be designed as a research seminar that encourages students to pursue independent projects looking at any aspect of the profound cultural transformation of the era.
For the first class meeting, students should have ready Willa Cather's The Professor's House.
Course tuition: $2022.
Sean McCann (B.A. Georgetown University; Ph.D. City University of New York) is professor of English and American studies. He is author of A Pinnacle of Feeling: American Literature and Presidential Government, (Princeton University Press, 2008) and Gumshoe America: Hard-Boiled Crime Fiction and the Rise and Fall of New Deal Liberalism (Duke University Press, 2000). He was awarded Wesleyan's 2004 Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching. Click here for more information about Sean McCann.
ENROLLMENT INFORMATION
Consent of Instructor Required: No
|
Format: Seminar | Level: GLSP | Credits: 3 | Enrollment Limit: 18 |
James Cain, THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (Random House), Paperback
Raymond Chandler, THE BIG SLEEP (Random House), Paperback
William Faulkner, AS I LAY DYING (Modern Library), Paperback
Michael Gold, JEWS WITHOUT MONEY (Public Affairs), Paperback
Zora Neale Hurston, THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD (Harper), Paperback
John Steinbeck, THE GRAPES OF WRATH (Penguin Classics), Paperback
Nathaniel West, MISS LONELYHEARTS & THE DAYOF THE LOCUSTS (New Dimensions), Paperback
Richard Wright, UNCLE TOM'S CHILDREN (Harper), Paperback
READING MATERIALS ARE AVAILABLE AT BROAD STREET BOOKS, 45 BROAD STREET, MIDDLETOWN, 860-685-7323 Order your books online
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Contact
glsinquire@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions.
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459
| Fall 2009 |
Meyer,Priscilla
09/14/2009 - 12/18/2009
To be announced -
We are what we read; the critical reader has the ability to form his/her identity consciously, while literary characters are destroyed by failing to recognize the forces and assumptions shaping them. Active interpretation of texts allows the reader to become an author instead of a character.
Readings for this course will include: Sophocles, Oedipus Rex; Pushkin, Eugene Onegin; Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary; Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man; Philip Roth, The Human Stain; Vladimir Nabokov, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight; Nikolai Gogol, "The Diary of a Madman;" "The Nose;" Isak Dinesen, "The Flood at Norderny;" and Gustav Meyrinck, The Golem.
Required course work will include three 4-page papers, and one term paper which is to be a short story.
Course tuition: $2022.
A syllabus for this course is available at:
Course Syllabus
Priscilla Meyer (B.A., University of California, Berkeley; M.A., Ph.D., Princeton University) is professor of Russian language and literature. Her most recent book, How the Russians Read the French: Lermontov, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy (University of Wisconsin Press), is forthcoming in fall 2008. Click here for more information about Priscilla Meyer.
ENROLLMENT INFORMATION
Consent of Instructor Required: No
|
Format: Seminar | Level: GLSP | Credits: 3 | Enrollment Limit: 18 |
Gustave Flaubert, MADAME BOVARY (W.W. Norton), Paperback
Gustav Meyrink, THE GOLEM (Dover), Paperback
Vladimir Nabokov, THE REAL LIFE OF SEBASTIAN KNIGHT (Random House), Paperback
Alexander Pushkin, EUGENE ONEGIN (Oxford University Press), Paperback
Philip Roth, HUMAN STAIN (Random House), Paperback
Sophocles, OEDIPUS REX (Prestwick House), Paperback
Tom Stoppard, THE REAL INSPECTOR HOUND AND OTHER PLAYS (Grove Press), Paperback
Virginia Woolf, MRS. DALLOWAY (Harvest Books), Paperback
READING MATERIALS ARE AVAILABLE AT BROAD STREET BOOKS, 45 BROAD STREET, MIDDLETOWN, 860-685-7323 Order your books online
| Register for Courses |
Contact
glsinquire@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions.
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459
| Fall 2009 |
Rider,Jeff
09/14/2009 - 12/18/2009
Tuesday 06:00 PM - 08:30 PM
Romance Languages 106
The roots of most modern Western ideas about courtesy, politeness, love, and good behavior are to be found in the Middle Ages and more specifically in French-speaking northern Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Social life, social models, and social ideals underwent a profound transformation during that period in the courts of Flanders, France, and England. New codes of conduct were elaborated for warriors (chivalry), for behavior in public settings (courtliness), and for relations between men and women (courtly love).
We will follow and study these changes and the elaboration of these new codes of conduct through medieval writings like St. Bernard's In Praise of the New Chivalry (written for the Knights Templar), Marie de France's Lais (a series of twelve short stories about love and marriage in the twelfth century), Chretien de Troyes' The Knight of the Cart (the first story of Lancelot and Guinevere) and The Story of the Grail (the story that created the Grail legend), and parts of the Lancelot-Grail cycle (the definitive multi-volume French story of the Arthurian world that formed the basis for Malory's Morte d'Arthur and all subsequent retellings of the legend), as well as scholarly works like Sidney Painter's William Marshal, Knight-Errant, Baron, and Regent of England, C. Stephen Jaeger's The Origins of Courtliness: Civilizing Trends and the Formation of Courtly Ideals, 939-1210, Maurice Keen's Chivalry, Georges Duby's The Chivalrous Society and The Knight, the Lady, and the Priest: The Making of Modern Marriage in Medieval France, John Baldwin's The Language of Sex: Five Voices from Northern France around 1200, Luce Irigary's An Ethics of Sexual Difference, and Judith Martin's Common Courtesy: In which Miss Manners Solves the Problem that Baffled Mr. Jefferson and Miss Manners' Guide to Domestic Tranquility: The Authoritative Manual for Every Civilized Household, However Harried.
Course tuition: $2022.
Jeff Rider (B.A. Yale University; Diplôme d’Études Médiévales, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium; M.A., Ph.D. University of Chicago) is professor of romance languages and literatures and chair of the Medieval Studies Program. He is a specialist in the history and literature of northern Europe from the 11th through the 13th centuries. His work has focused on the Arthurian legend and the history of northern France in the twelfth century. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright Commission, the American Philosophical Society, and the Rotary Foundation. He is currently at work on a variety of projects including a book on Chrétien de Troyes, an edition of a thirteenth-century French narrative poem, and a translation of a twelfth-century journal describing the assassination of the count of Flanders in 1127. Click here for more information about Jeff Rider and here for more information about his work.
ENROLLMENT INFORMATION
Consent of Instructor Required: No
|
Format: Seminar | Level: GLSP | Credits: 3 | Enrollment Limit: 18 |
Georges Duby, THE KNIGHT, THE LADY AND THE PRIEST (University of Chicago Press), Paperback
Marie de France, THE LAIS OF MARIE DE FRANCE (Penguin), Paperback
Luce Irigaray, AN ETHICS OF SEXUAL DIFFERENCE (Cornell University Press), Paperback
Stephen Jaeger, THE ORIGINS OF COURTLINESS (University of Pennsylvania Press), Paperback
Judith Martin, COMMON COURTESY (Scribner), Paperback
Sydney Painter, WILLIAM MARSHAL (University of Toronto Press), Paperback
J.R.R. Tolkien, SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT (Del Rey), Paperback
Chretien de Troyes, THE COMPLETE ROMANCES OF CHRETIEN DE TROYES (Indiana University Press), Paperback
READING MATERIALS ARE AVAILABLE AT BROAD STREET BOOKS, 45 BROAD STREET, MIDDLETOWN, 860-685-7323 Order your books online
| Register for Courses |
Contact
glsinquire@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions.
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459
| Fall 2009 |
Taylor,Edward
09/14/2009 - 12/18/2009
Thursday 06:00 PM - 08:30 PM
Science Tower 109
Mathematics can be viewed as a language for describing the world around us. Indeed, this is largely how mathematics developed. For instance, Calculus was invented by Newton in order to describe how a cannon ball falls to the ground or to describe how the moon orbits the Earth.
This course will be very much in this tradition. We will consider problems or objects that we might observe or encounter every day, for instance: "Why (in terms of the reproductive function of a pine cone) is a pine cone shaped as it is?" Or "Can California water shortages be alleviated by towing icebergs from Antarctica?" Such systems as the human body, the stock market, and sports games are amenable to description, called models, via the mathematics that we encounter early in our college years (and of course, more advanced mathematics can provide more detailed models!).
The goal of this course will be to increase the mathematical literacy of the students taking it. We will provide a set of tools and frameworks with which students can use familiar mathematics to predict and analyze real world problems. The mathematics required will be a "just in time production:" that is, it will be taught when it is needed.
The principal text for this course is Towing Icebergs, Falling Dominoes, and Other Adventures in Applied Mathematics by R.B. Banks. On occasion we will use Slicing Pizzas, Racing Turtles, and Further Adventures in Applied Mathematics also by R.B. Banks, as well as Topics in Mathematical Modeling by K.K. Tung.
Each class will feature a focus problem or focus problems for which we will develop a mathematical model that attempts to describe and predict the system in question. These in-class projects will typically be tackled in teams, and thus attendance for each class is required. In addition to these in-class projects, there will be at least two large modeling problems given to teams for which 5 to 6 page research reports will be required. Some homework- as preparation for the coming discussion- will be required weekly.
Course tuition: $2022.
A syllabus for this course is available at:
Course Syllabus
Edward Taylor (Sc.B., Brown University; M.A., University of Texas; Ph.D., Stony Brook) is associate professor of mathematics. Click here for more information about Edward Taylor.
ENROLLMENT INFORMATION
Consent of Instructor Required: No
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Format: Seminar | Level: GLSP | Credits: 3 | Enrollment Limit: 18 |
READING MATERIALS ARE AVAILABLE AT BROAD STREET BOOKS, 45 BROAD STREET, MIDDLETOWN, 860-685-7323 Order your books online
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Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459
| Fall 2009 |
Poulos,Helen Mills
09/14/2009 - 12/18/2009
To be announced -
Scientists have been interested in understanding the mechanisms that underscore species distribution patterns across landscapes since the days of Darwin and Wallace. Landscape ecology examines the relationship between spatial pattern and ecological processes across hierarchical levels of biological organization and different scales in space and time. This course covers the basic concepts, principles, and methods of landscape ecology, as well as its important applications in nature conservation, resource management, and landscape planning and design.
The topics covered will reflect the diverse interests of landscape ecologists: species-area relationships, island biogeography, metapopulation theory, individual-based models, cellular automata, models of biodiversity, among others. The application of these concepts will be addressed through consideration of species viability, ecosystem management, and the design of nature reserves. Throughout the course the emphasis will be on when and how to integrate a large-scale perspective into consideration of major ecological questions. Readings from the primary literature will augment material covered in lectures. Students will also complete a project resulting in a manuscript on a landscape-related topic.
The texts for this course will be Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice, M. Turner, R. Gardner, & R. O'Neill; and Learning Landscape Ecology, S. Gergel & M. Turner, eds.
Required course work will include assigned readings, lab exercises, writing assignments, and a mid-term and final exam.
Course tuition: $2022.
A syllabus for this course is available at:
Course Syllabus
Helen Poulos (B.A., B.S., Pepperdine University; M.S., Penn State; M.Phil, Yale University) is a postdoctoral teaching fellow, Mellon Environmental Studies Program. Click here for more information about Helen Poulos.
ENROLLMENT INFORMATION
Consent of Instructor Required: No
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Format: Seminar | Level: GLSP | Credits: 3 | Enrollment Limit: 18 |
M. Turner, R. Gardner, R. O'Neill, LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY IN THEORY AND PRACTICE (Springer-Verlag), Paperback
READING MATERIALS ARE AVAILABLE AT BROAD STREET BOOKS, 45 BROAD STREET, MIDDLETOWN, 860-685-7323 Order your books online
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Contact
glsinquire@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions.
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459
| Fall 2009 |
Herbst,William; Gilmore,Martha S.
09/14/2009 - 12/18/2009
Tuesday 06:00 PM - 08:30 PM
Van Vleck Observatory 110
Our knowledge of the solar system—the planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and meteoroids that orbit the Sun—has vastly increased during the space age. NASA planetary probes as well as ground-based and orbiting telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope, have dramatically improved our views of what is "out there."
In this course, we will review what has been learned about the worlds around us from these studies and what it implies for the past and future of our planet—the Earth. We will discuss the increasing evidence that the solar system is not a unique construction in the Universe, but a common form; this includes the issue of searches for extraterrestrial intelligence. Telescopes and equipment of the Van Vleck Observatory will be used as weather permits to view objects under discussion.
Course tuition: $2022.
William Herbst, (B.A. Princeton University; M.Sc. University Toronto, Ph.D. University Toronto), is John Monroe Van Vleck Professor and chair of Astronomy and director of the Van Vleck Observatory. He and his team of students recently discovered a sun-like star that is eclipsed in a way never before seen—not by another star, planet or moon, but by dust grains, rocks and maybe even asteroids orbiting it in a clumpy circumstellar disk. Astronomers expect this discovery to open new doors in studying the origins and evolution of planets. He is primary or contributing author of more than 130 publications in the astronomical literature, including the recent "KH 15D: Unraveling the Mystery of a Peculiar Winking Star," American Astronomical Society (2004). Click here for more information about William Herbst.
Martha Gilmore (B.A., Franklin and Marshall; MSC, Ph.D., Brown University) is associate professor of earth and environmental studies. Her work focuses on the spectroscopy of planetary surfaces, including the mineralogy of Mars and its terrestrial analogues. Martha has guided algorithm development to improve the geologic capabilities of Mars rovers and orbiters, and has contributed to mission architectures for the future exploration of Venus and Mars. Click here for more information about Martha Gilmore.
ENROLLMENT INFORMATION
Consent of Instructor Required: No
|
Format: Seminar | Level: GLSP | Credits: 3 | Enrollment Limit: 18 |
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Contact
glsinquire@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions.
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459
| Fall 2009 |
Zeilinga de Boer,Jelle
11/02/2009 - 12/10/2009
To be announced -
This course will meet during a condensed 6-week schedule, November 2-December 10, including afternoon field trips on November 7, 14, and 21. See description for full course schedule.
A simple map of the world shows clearly that most ancient civilizations developed in or close to the tectonic belts where tectonic plates collide. It appears counterintuitive to believe that destructive natural events in such zones could have been potential catalysts of positive societal change. Yet, the correspondence is remarkable!
The course will begin with a discussion of the tectonic setting and geologic evolution of the Circum Pacific and Thethys (Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, Indus, Indonesia) belts and review of specific destructive events with emphasis on their recurrence frequency. This is followed by environmental determinism (fault zone topography, soils, geochemistry and water sources). In the final week we will discus the role (positive) stress may have played in survival and cultural changes. The course will include two or three fieldtrips.
Course Schedule: This course will meet Monday and Thursday evenings, 7-9pm, from November 2 through December 10. On the Saturdays of November 7, 14, and 21, the course will meet from 12-4pm.
Course tuition: $2022.
Jelle Zeilinga de Boer (B.S., Ph.D. University of Utrecht) is Harold T. Stearns professor of earth and environmental sciences, emeritus, and author, with Donald T. Sanders, of Earthquakes in Human History: The Far-reaching Effects of Seismic Disruptions (Princeton University Press, 2005) and Volcanoes in Human History: The Far-reaching Effects of Major Eruptions (Princeton University Press, 2002). Click here for more information about Jelle de Boer.
ENROLLMENT INFORMATION
Consent of Instructor Required: No
|
Format: Seminar | Level: GLSP | Credits: 3 | Enrollment Limit: 18 |
RECOMMENDED TEXT:
Jacquetta Hawkes, THE ATLAS OF EARLY MAN (St. Martin's Press), Paperback
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glsinquire@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions.
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459
| Fall 2009 |
Gottschalk,Peter S.
09/05/2009 - 09/20/2009
Note: Special Schedule 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
Public Affairs Center 104
Special Schedule: Saturday-Monday, September 5-7; Saturday & Sunday, September 19-20
This course examines how films, like religious texts and practices, carry and shape political ideologies and forge and express cultural mythologies. It investigates how films, like religion itself, construct, perpetuate, and sometimes disrupt and destabilize social structures, gender and social identities, religious beliefs, and cultural values. We will pay particular attention to the concept of myth and the differences between myth and history. In addition, we will explore how the depiction of non-western religions in Hollywood movies reflects American cultural assumptions. The range of films considered includes popular and independent productions, some of which consciously depict religious cultures, while others implicitly communicate religious themes.
Films include The Last Temptation of Christ, Star Wars, Monty Python's Life of Brian, The Passion of the Christ, The Apostle, The Message, Not without My Daughter, Seven Years in Tibet, and Kundun. Readings include John Lyden's Film as Religion, Jaroslav Pelikan's Jesus Through the Centuries, J. Shawn Landres and Michael Berenbaum's After the Passion is Gone, and a reader of materials drawn from diverse scholars of religion, myth, and film. Students will be responsible for renting a number of films to watch outside of class.
The course is designed as a seminar; regular attendance and participation in classroom discussion are expected and will make up part of the grade. Assignments include two papers and one in-class presentation.
Course tuition: $2022.
This course is not open to auditors.
A syllabus for this course is available at:
Course Syllabus
Peter Gottschalk (BA College of the Holy Cross; MA University of Wisconsin-Madison; PHD University of Chicago) is professor of religion at Wesleyan University. His research and teaching concentrate on the confluence of religious cultures in South Asia, with a particular focus on Muslims and Hindus in contemporary rural India . His work investigates issues of identity, social memory, modernity, and epistemology. Among other works, he has written Beyond Hindu and Muslim: Multiple Identity in Narratives from Village India (2000), co-written Islamophobia: Making Muslims the Enemy (2007), and co-designed the interactive website "A Virtual Village" (2001). Click here for more information about Peter Gottschalk.
ENROLLMENT INFORMATION
Consent of Instructor Required: No
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Format: Seminar | Level: GLSP | Credits: 3 | Enrollment Limit: 16 |
Edward Larson, SUMMER FOR THE GODS (Basic Books), Paperback
Chaim Potok, IN THE BEGINNING (Ballantine Books), Paper
Please Note: A course reader is also required for this course and is available through Pip Printing, Main Street, Middletown. Readers must be ordered online before obtaining it from the store. Order online here.
READING MATERIALS ARE AVAILABLE AT BROAD STREET BOOKS, 45 BROAD STREET, MIDDLETOWN, 860-685-7323 Order your books online
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glsinquire@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions.
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459
| Fall 2009 |
Keiser,R. Lincoln
09/14/2009 - 12/18/2009
To be announced -
This course examines how anthropology helps in understanding the war along the Afghan/Pakistan border. It begins by surveying the recent history of the war. Next, the course identifies the basic anthropological perspective. Its aim is to provide students with the conceptual tools necessary to understand current events in the Hindu-Kush Mountains. The course then moves to ethnographic studies of the region itself, including South Waziristan, Dir Kohistan, the Pech Valley and Northern Afghanistan. This section focuses first, on the principles of indigenous political organization, and then on the cultural conflicts among notions of honor, tribal allegiances and Islam. How these conflicts shape the armed struggle between Western forces and the Taliban is the primary focus of the course.
Course tuition: $2022.
Lincoln Keiser (B.A., Lawrence University; M.A., Northwestern University; M.A.A., Wesleyan University; Ph.D., University of Rochester) is professor of anthropology. Click here for more information about Lincoln Keiser.
ENROLLMENT INFORMATION
Consent of Instructor Required: No
|
Format: Seminar | Level: GLSP | Credits: 3 | Enrollment Limit: 18 |
Whitney Azoy, BUZKASHI: GAME AND POWER IN AFGHANISTAN (Waveland Press)
David Edwards, HEROES OF THE AGE (University of California Press), Paperback
Lincoln Keiser, FRIEND BY DAY, ENEMY BY NIGHT (Harcourt Brace), Paperback
David Kilcullen, THE ACCIDENTAL GUERRILLA (Oxford University Press)
Ahmed Rashid, DESCENT INTO CHAOS (Penguin), Paperback
READING MATERIALS ARE AVAILABLE AT BROAD STREET BOOKS, 45 BROAD STREET, MIDDLETOWN, 860-685-7323 Order your books online
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Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459
| Fall 2009 |
Schaller,Barry
09/14/2009 - 12/18/2009
Monday 06:00 PM - 08:30 PM
Public Affairs Center 421
Developments in biotechnology and the life sciences have called into question existing legal and policy approaches with respect to reproduction, health care, informed consent, privacy, medical futility and end-of-life decisions, along with a host of other issues. Relentless and rapid change in science and technology influences existing concepts of the self and its boundaries, family structure, property ownership, and the ethical and legal rights and obligations of people with respect to the government.
This course examines leading issues in bioethics, public policy and law in relation to these recent developments in medicine and the life sciences. After tracing the historical background of bioethical issues and law and deciding on methods of legal and ethical analysis, we will examine the ways in which these developments challenge traditional principles and policies.
In addition to key issues involving the physician-patient relationship, reproduction, research and experimentation using human subjects, and the end-of-life, including the special problems raised by Alzheimer's Disease and other dementias, we will consider some or all of the following subjects: genetic testing, screening, and engineering, biotechnology, organ transplantation and allocation, neuroscience and neuroethics, ownership and the commodifying of life, stem cell research, and health care. Recent and ongoing legal cases and controversies will be closely followed along with other current developments in bioethics.
The focus of this course involves critical examination of issues in their legal, ethical, social, economic, scientific, political, and religious context. We will evaluate the ethical questions raised, and explore the feasibility and effectiveness of legal and policy regulation. An important goal of the course is to encourage each student to develop a sound methodology of analyzing bioethical problems from legal, policy, and ethical perspectives.
The principal texts will be Steinbeck, Arras, and London, Ethical Issues in Modern Medicine, Seventh Edition, and Schaller, Understanding Bioethics and the Law: the Promises and Perils of the Brave New World of Biotechnology. Leading court cases in the bioethics field will be studied closely. They include In re Guardianship of Theresa Marie Schiavo (Schindler v. Schiavo); Gelsinger v. University of Pennsylvania; Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California;
Frequent short papers will be assigned in addition to one major essay of an analytical nature on an approved topic that provides the opportunity for legal, ethical and policy analysis. The course will emphasize analysis and problem-solving of cases and controversies and a portion of nearly every class period will involve individual and group exercises in applying legal and ethical principles to specific controversies.
Course tuition: $2022.
A syllabus for this course is available at:
Course Syllabus, and Course Guidelines
Barry Schaller (B.A. Yale College; J.D. Yale Law School) is justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, retired, who currently sits on the Connecticut Appellate Court. Barry is author of A Vision of American Law: Judging Law, Literature, and the Stories We Tell (1997, and Understanding Bioethics and the Law: The Promises and Perils of the Brave New World of Biotechnology (2007). Barry received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Quinnipiac Law School in 2008, and currently serves as Chair of the Connecticut Committee on Judicial Ethics.
ENROLLMENT INFORMATION
Consent of Instructor Required: No
|
Format: Seminar | Level: GLSP | Credits: 3 | Enrollment Limit: 18 |
Steinbock, London, Arras, ETHICAL ISSUES IN MODERN MEDICINE (McGraw-Hill), Paperback
READING MATERIALS ARE AVAILABLE AT BROAD STREET BOOKS, 45 BROAD STREET, MIDDLETOWN, 860-685-7323 Order your books online
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Contact
glsinquire@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions.
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459