HUHC Past Seminars

Each semester HUHC offers exciting educational opportunities in varying disciplines. HUHC seminars are small, discussion based courses, taught by professors from around the university, who are invited to come teach their dream course. Like Culture & Expression, these seminars often tend toward either greater multidisciplinary or greater particularity in the definition of the topic (see listings and descriptions of recent and future seminars below.) With class sizes limited to no more than 20 students, they are special opportunities to learn by sharing the enthusiasm of professors who are working on well-defined topics in their areas expertise. In some instances seminar credit may count toward a major or minor with departmental approval.

• Spring 2019

  SPRING 2019 HUHC SEMINARS

  HUHC 020J H1 THE EARTH SYSTEM
  Professor Christa Farmer, Geology
  MF 11:15-12:40PM
  CRN: 24632
  BROWR 0202

  Our planet operates in interlocking systems, each of which contains feedback cycles that influence each other. Students in this course will investigate the solid, fluid, and living systems of planet Earth, and how they interact with each other to keep the planet in a stable condition. We will also investigate how humans are perturbing the systems through sparking a loss of biodiversity, tipping the scales of climate change, and augmenting the Nitrogen cycle, among many other impacts. Course goals include learning how to quantify measurements of these various systems, through solving problem sets; refining communication skills, through written and oral debates; and utilizing library resources to find cutting-edge scientific knowledge of the Earth's systems.

  (The chair of the geology and sustainability department has indicated this course may, with permission, be counted as a geology or sustainability elective toward the completion of the requirements for majors or minors.  The chair of the geography and global studies department has indicated this course may be counted as a topical elective toward the major or minor in geography.)

  HUHC 020K (H1) FANTASTIC LITERATURE AND ITS MAGICAL OBJECTS
  Professor David Powell, Romance Language and Literature
  TR 2:20-3:45PM
  CRN:  25092
  BRESL 029

  Beyond the compact structure of the short story – we will study only short stories – , the fantastic genre relies on the vacillation between truth and illusion, believability and unreality, and perhaps most importantly between reasoned explanation and tolerance for the unexplainable. Various terms exist for the fantastic technique – or what in Spanish is called "magical realism," included in what in "Object Oriented Ontology" (OOO) philosophy is called "speculative realism" – offering a variety of perspectives from which to study both technique and reader reception.

  We start with classic reading techniques (identifying the moments of what Freud called the uncanny; describing how the uncanny functions; locating the attempts to undo the uncanny with reasoned explanation; examining the final moment in the story, when reasoned explanations are not enough, of the unsatisfying but tantalizing conclusion). Students will articulate clearly what is purposely made unclear in the fantastic story. As we move from story to story, working sometimes in groups, we will classify the types and techniques of uncanny (linguistic; structural; psychological; pseudo-scientific).

  Finally, we will apply OOO philosophies to the uncanny. OOO is a Heidegger-influenced school of thought that rejects the privileging of human existence over the existence of nonhuman objects. It is an enticingly useful lens through which to view the fantastic in literature. This segment of the course will cover the final 3 weeks. After reading a couple studies in philosophy plus one applying OOO to fantastic literature, students will make group presentations about separate parts of the last short story. The discussion – a graded component of the course – should produce commentary that will heighten students' appreciation of the uncanny elements of the story, culminating in the final paper.

  HUHC 021F* H1 ALGORITHMS IN DATA SCIENCE
  Professors Kira Adaricheva and Simona Doboli
  MW 4:30-5:55PM and T 4:30-5:20PM
  CRN: 23641
  RSVLT 0201
  In this course we will study and implement popular algorithms with applications in finances, logistics and data analysis. Most of these algorithms are very wide in their applications and could be adapted to new situations. We will study the background mathematics to understand how they work and why they terminate, also how effective they are in terms of the time needed for the computation. The course has a laboratory part devoted to learning and programming these algorithms in Python. Some background in mathematics and programming is recommended but not required.

  * HUHC 021's are non-Liberal Arts Courses.

  HUHC 020A (H1) U.S. FOREIGN POLICY AND THE MIDDLE EAST
  Professor Bernard Firestone, Political Science
  MWF 9:05-10:00AM
  CRN: 23762
  BROWR 0102

  Over the past seventy years, the Middle East has attracted a major portion of America's foreign policy attention. Although the region is characterized by a high level of political, religious, and ethnic diversity, many Americans tend to view the Middle East as an undifferentiated whole --  "the most troublesome and dangerous region of the world." But as much as American policy-makers have invested enormous time and resources in the Middle East, our strategic goals have appeared frequently muddled and our policies not only ineffective but even counter-productive. This course will examine American foreign policy toward the region and attempt to explain what motivates that policy. We will explore a number of subjects, including the Arab-Israel conflict, Iran, terrorism, Syria, and the Arab Spring and attempt to provide historical context for American policy. Students will be organized into small groups and asked to come up with new ideas about how the United States can best meet the challenges posed to our interests by events in the Middle East. In addition to a midterm and final, students will participate in a small group presentation and submit a short essay based on that presentation. 

  (The chair of the political science department has indicated this course may be counted as a political science elective toward the completion of the requirements for majors or minors.  The chair of the global studies department has indicated this course may be counted as a regional elective toward the major or minor in global studies.)

  HUHC 020B (H1) CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE FIRST KIND: EXPLORING "OTHER" (NON-WESTERN) CULTURES THROUGH ETHNOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTARIES
  Professor John Pulis, Anthropology
  TR 2:20-3:45PM
  CRN: 20386
  DAVSN 0102
  This course will introduce students to the diversity of non- western societies and cultures through ethnographic or documentary film tradition in anthropology.  Visual media, motion, still, and most recently digital imagery, has been a primary research tool in the methodological took kit of American anthropology since the discipline was first established by Franz Boas in the late 19th-century. Boas used photography to document his field work among the Kwakiutl in British Columbia, legitimizing the medium as a tool, setting in motion what became a rich ethnographic documentary tradition.  We will explore this tradition, from its beginning with Boas and his ongoing confrontation with Hollywood, to contemporary ethnographers documenting the affect of climate change, globalization, and the Internet on indigenous societies.  We begin with a classic, "Nanook of the North," a silent film documenting the life  of an Inuit hunter-gather in the Arctic, and move globally to the Amazon (Jivaro), Australia (Aborigines), Asia (Genghis Blues),  Oceania (Once Were Warriors), South Africa (Kung), and North America (Navajo), and a host of indigenous films and filmmakers (Smoke Signals, Fast Runner, Ten Canoes). 
  (The chair of the anthropology department has indicated this course may be counted as an Anthropology elective toward the completion of the requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 020C H1 RELIGION AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
  Professor Timothy Daniels, Anthropology           
  MW 2:55-4:20PM
  CRN: 21105
  DAVSN 0102

  In this course, students will explore how diverse religious traditions conceive of and work toward building a just society.  Domestic and international conditions in our contemporary world demand that we take a nuanced look at the way religions motivate believers to make change.  We will discuss a variety of topics, including the civil rights movement, peace and anti-violence campaigns, and religious responses to class, ethnic, racial, and gender inequities.  In order to gain critical insight, we will engage with scriptural sources from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and other religious traditions, as well as the writings of contemporary religious activists and thinkers. As a class, we will also seek opportunities to dialogue with local religious advocacy groups.

  (The chair of the anthropology department has indicated this course may be counted as an anthropology elective toward the completion of the requirements for majors or minors.  The chair of the religion department has indicated this course may be counted as a religion elective toward the completion of the requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 20D (H1) WOMEN'S HEALTH AND REPRODUCTION
  Professor Katrina Sims, History
  TR 2:20-3:45PM
  CRN: 23788
  MEML 0010B

  This course will explore women's health care from midwifery to reproductive freedom. Throughout the semester, students will interact with various community groups including Planned Parenthood and the Hispanic Counseling Center to gain interview skills, determine contemporary health care needs of women on Long Island, and serve the community through volunteerism. 

  (The chair of the history department has indicated this course may be counted as history elective toward the completion of history requirements for majors or minors.  The chair of the global studies department has indicated this course may be counted as a non-regional elective toward the major or minor in global studies.)

  HUHC 20H H1 DIRECTOR'S SANDBOX: TV & SERIAL DIRECTING
  Professor Nicole Franklin, RTVF
  MW 4:30-5:55PM                                                                                                 
  CRN: 23793
  RSVLT 0111

  In the genre of scripted television or streaming series, it is the responsibility of visual storytellers to capture scenes, episodes and the evolution of a series concept with conscious intent.  In order to master this technique when developing stories for the screen, it is the director and their production team who must work diligently on their artistry while mastering a signature style. The Director's Handbook provides a platform for innovative learning techniques to uncover what is required for successful storytelling on the stage and screen:  Diving into the subtext in order to infuse life and character objectives into compelling narrative.  This seminar brings the human connection, whether watching a story based in fantasy or unfamiliar territory, to the surface. In addition to the writer of the work, it's the director who brings the clear and persuasive vision no matter the complexities of the plot. With this seminar, students have the chance to develop one more storytelling skill to help them succeed.

  HUHC 20I H1 THIS IS THE END: LITERATURE AND APOCALYPSE
  Professor Adam Sills, English                                    
  TR 2:20-3:45PM
  CRN: 23063
  MASON 0020

  Judgment day, zombie apocalypse, nuclear and cyber war, global pandemic, alien invasion, environmental collapse, meteor collision, machine uprising: all of these represent the various ways in which humanity has, over the course of history, imagined "the end" of its existence. Whether by our own agency, by the hand of some unseen, uncontrollable force, or some combination of the two, we have always contemplated the end of things, often in a religious or spiritual context but, just as often, as a routine part of our collective desire to be entertained by such shocking and horrific events. That desire is manifest in many current film and television offerings, from 2012 to World War Z to the Matrix and Terminator trilogies, from the reality show Doomsday Preppers to The Walking Dead to Falling Skies. There is even the recent emergence of the so-called apocalyptic comedy, such as This Is the End, Seeking a Friend of the End of the World, and Zombieland.  What exactly compels us to watch such apocalyptic fare? Why are we drawn to narratives depicting the end of humanity and the world as we know it? And why do we find such narratives to be "entertaining" in any sense? This semester, we will seek to answer some of these questions, and perhaps generate a few of our own, by reading and discussing literary works that speak to our enduring preoccupation with the apocalypse and its aftermath, including Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year, Cormac McCarthy's The Road, Mary Shelley's The Last Man, H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, Alan Moore's Watchmen, Colson Whitehead's Zone One, and Lucretius' On the Nature of Things. In addition, we will read a variety of apocalyptic and prophetic literature from the Bible, including the Book of Revelation.

  (The chair of the English department has indicated this course may be counted as an English elective toward the completion of English requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 020G H1 DESIGNER DRUGS
  Professor Ling Huang, Chemistry
  TR 9:35-11:00AM
  CRN: 24642
  BRESL 0208

  Designer drugs, such as "Spice", "Bath Salts" and "Molly", have spread rapidly around the world in the past decade. They are synthetic analogs or mimics of controlled substances made to evade law enforcement, often used for recreational purposes. Many of these designer drugs came from research labs where medicinal compounds are being explored. Most of these designer drugs also have natural origins and initial applications in folk medicine. Recently the national opioid pandemic and the subsequent controlling of traditional opioids fueled the emergence of many designer opioids.

  In this course, students will learn the history of designer drugs, the chemistry behind the synthesis of these drugs, the analytical methods used for the detection and quantification (some done at Hofstra), toxicological effects, and the chemical challenges facing law enforcement and legislations. No previous background in chemistry is needed as layman terms and Lego-block analogy will be used to describe the chemical reactions. In the seminar, relevant laws, war on drugs, dark web, social media's roles will be discussed. Majority of the reading materials will NOT be on chemistry, rather on the overall phenomenon of designer drugs. Honor students are encouraged to think about the complex societal impacts designer drug causes and propose viable solutions.

• Fall 2018

  FALL 2018 HUHC SEMINARS

  HUHC 20I (H1) READING AND WRITING ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE AND OTHER 'HOT' TOPICS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
  Professor Jase Bernhardt, Geology
  TR 9:35-11:00AM
  CRN: 95834
  DVSN 102

  In an era featuring increasing concern for the environment, but at the same time, an increase in partisanship, how do we consume, interpret, and communicate information about topics such as climate change and sustainability? Throughout this seminar, we will learn how to analyze scientific writing in the mainstream media, academic journals, and governmental reports. Students will have the opportunity to select articles of interest, prepare critiques, and lead group paper discussions. In addition to reading and critiquing the work of others, students will learn how to write about science for both technical and broader audiences. Enhancing these reading and writing assignments will be background lectures demonstrating, at an introductory level, how the various Earth systems operate, how we as humans influence them, and how we can limit our impacts in a just and efficient manner.  Field trips off campus to the Hempstead Plains and an Escape Room experience will complement in-class activities and create opportunities for students to get to know one another.
  (The Director of Sustainability Studies has indicated this course may be counted as a Sustainability elective toward the completion of the requirements for majors or minors.)   

  HUHC 20D (H1) WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE
  Provost Gail Simmons, Biology
  MW 4:30-5:55PM        
  CRN: 92052
  BARND 102

  "Water, Water Everywhere" is an interdisciplinary exploration of the most curious and pervasive substance in the universe – water.  We will explore several "big ideas" about water:  the ubiquity, pervasiveness and anomaly of water in the universe and on our planet; and humanity's relationship to and agency over water -- its power, its limits, its necessity for our survival as a species.  We'll delve, at a basic level,  into the science of how water is put together —  the role of water in the human body, our planet, and the universe; the economics, politics, and sociology of water; and water's power as a metaphor, religious symbol, and theme in literature.  Individual students will write a mid-term paper that explores some aspect of water that matches their interest.  Students will then work in teams that bring together diverse majors and interests to produce a final research-based multimedia project that tells a compelling story about water. 

  HUHC 20G (H1) MASS COMMUNICATION AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN LATIN AMERICA
  Professor Mario Murillo, Radio, Television, and Film (RTVF)   
  TR 2:20-3:45 PM
  CRN 93059
  DAVSN 102
  
  This course examines how social movements in Latin America have deployed mass communication as a tool of their grassroots mobilizing efforts across the continent. Using historical and contemporary case studies in the region, students will be introduced to the variety of strategies that have been applied by Indigenous, peasant, Afro-descendant, student and women's organizations to contest the political, social and economic status quo in their respective countries. From Bolivian Miner's Radio in the 1940s to the Zapatista National Liberation Front in Mexico in the 1990s, from community-published newspapers, to contemporary social media campaigns, we will critically assess the successes and the challenges of constructing a bottom-up counter-narrative to the mainstream, establishment media system in Latin America.
  
  The class will have a combination lecture and seminar format, with students expected to participate actively in discussions of readings, extensive video/film presentations, guest lectures, as well as unfolding issues making news in the region.
  (The chair of the RTVF department has indicated this course may be counted as an RTVF elective toward the completion of the requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 20C (H1) JUSTICE FOR ALL: AN AMERICAN REALITY OR ILLUSION?
  Judge Fern Fisher, Law School
  TR 2:20-3:45PM           
  CRN: 92049
  DVSN 014

  Through an exploration of past and recent court decisions, historical and sociological materials, we aim in this class to discern whether race, ethnicity, national origin, gender and poverty provide barriers to obtaining justice in the United States. Students will also observe a court or administrative proceeding and be challenged at the end of the semester to provide suggestions for changes they identify as necessary in the American justice system.  
  (The chair of the Sociology department has indicated this course may be counted as a departmental elective toward the completion of the requirements for the Criminology major or minor.)

  HUHC 20E (H1) BITTER/SWEET: BRITISH LITERATURE, CONSUMER CULTURE, GLOBAL CONTEXTS
  Professor Irene Fizer
  MW 4:30-5:55PM                                                                  
  CRN: 92053
  BROWR 102

  This course traces the emergence of modern concepts of consumption through selected works of British literature that span the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries.  We will look at literary texts--such as Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, George Orwell's 1984, Jean Rhys' "The Day They Burned the Books," and Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market"--through an interdisciplinary lens, and in relation to contemporary works of cultural criticism, such as Stanley Mintz's Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History, Bee Wilson's Consider the Fork, and Wolfgang Schivelbusch's Tastes of Paradise:  A Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and Intoxicants.  Beginning in the late 1600s, new products, including coffee from Arabia, tea from China, and sugar from the Caribbean, began to flow into English ports.  In the wake of the institutionalization of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the expansion of the British Empire's overseas territories, English writers began to consider how global trade was at once creating a seemingly insatiable consumer demand for imported commodities, and giving rise to new arenas of social interaction, such as coffeehouses, tea shops, and urban pleasure gardens.  At the same time, many of the commodities upon which the English were now dependent were being produced by men, women, and children who were either enslaved or exploited for their labor.  As the literary texts in this course juxtapose the worlds of the imperial capital and the colony, they foreground questions relating to broader issues of the free market, economic injustice, racial division, and gender.  
  (The chair of the English department has indicated this course may be counted as an English/Creative Writing elective toward the completion of the requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 020F (H1) SUFISM: ISLAMIC MYSTICISM OR A FORM OF SOCIAL NETWORK?
  Professor Elyor Karimov, Fine Arts, Art History and Design
  TR 4:30-5:55PM
  CRN: 92051
  DAVS 0014

  Sufism is best known as the Islamic Mysticism. This, however, is only a part of the story. In fact, Sufism emerged as a social phenomenon parallel to the mainstream Islam by the 11th century CE and by the 14th century started assuming the role of the state ideology in all major non-Arab regions of Islamic world. As social networks, Sufi brotherhoods (orders) have been responsible for Islamic missionary activity from Asia (China and India) to Africa and to Europe's Balkan Peninsula. In the last several centuries Sufism served as the middle class Ideology and the source of inspiration for Persian, Turkic and Indian literature. Poetry brought Sufi philosophical and spiritual ideas beyond Muslim world deeply affecting European and American culture. For centuries Sufism provided social and political stability. Unfortunately, beginning with the 20th century Salafi ideologies started seeing local Sufi Islam as its principle foe and now are waging a major war on Sufism. Yet, in many places Sufi tolerance still serves as alternative to Islamic fundamentalism.  This course will examine both the history of Sufism and its place in contemporary religious and political discourses.

  HUHC 20B (HA) CABINET OF CURIOUSITIES
  Professor Sophie Hawkins, Religion
  TR 4:30-5:55PM
  CRN: 91107
  LIBRARY 245

  This seminar takes its inspiration from 17th century cabinets of curiosities or wunderkammern (wonder rooms).  These were collections of the exotic and the bizarre, including both natural specimens and cultural artefacts brought back from distant lands. Whilst these cabinets served to prove the collector's social status, they were also invitations to think. Objects were grouped in fluid taxonomies rather than rigid hierarchies, and viewers were invited to marvel at the wonders of the world.

  In this seminar, we will seek to create our own cabinet of curiosities—each object to be selected by an individual student but researched collaboratively by us all. Hence there will be no predetermined curriculum for the seminar; rather, the areas of research will be determined by student's  own intellectual and cross-disciplinary interests.
  (The chair of the Religion department has indicated this course may be counted as a Religion elective toward the completion of the requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 20J (H1) THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON POLITICS: MANIFESTATIONS AND APPLICATIONS IN POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY
  Professor David Green, Political Science
  MW 2:55-4:20PM
  CRN: 94569
  BARND 102

  The standard model for explaining political behavior is Enlightenment rationalism, updated by the rational-choice model prevalent in the social sciences.  However, both contemporary political events and new brain-scanning technology increasingly remind us of how incomplete that approach is.  Enter the discipline of political psychology.   In this course, which surveys the prominent applications and manifestations of this new approach to explaining political behavior, we'll examine the political psychology of identity, ideology, racism/intolerance, voting behavior, leadership, international conflict and cooperation, terrorism, decision-making, social movements and more.
  (The chair of the Political Science department has indicated this course may be counted as a Political Science elective toward the completion of the requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 021A (H1) DEVELOPING A NEW PRODUCT OR SERVICE
  Professor Boonghee Yoo
  TR 11:10 12:35
  CRN: 96241
  GALW 013

  A business requires three steps to develop and launch a new product or service successfully: Market Segmentation (Identify and profile distinct groups of buyers who differ in their needs and preferences), Market Targeting (Select one or more attractive and fitting market segments to enter), and Product Positioning (For each target segment, design a right quality product and change customer beliefs and attitudes). The objective of the course is to help students to learn those concepts in depth and develop necessary skills to implement the concepts to real business situations for innovative products/services. The course will consist of lectures, journal article discussions, a new product design, and consumer data collection and analysis.

• Spring 2018

  Spring 2018 HUHC SEMINARS

  HUHC 20D (H1) WHO GETS TO SPEAK?: THE FIRST AMENDMENT IN THE 21ST CENTURY
  Professor Akilah Folami, Law School
  MW 9:05-10:30 AM
  CRN 24832
  Law School

  This course will explore the actual Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press clauses in the Constitution and take a deep dive into juridical interpretations of each as found in most of the major Supreme Court decisions. Topics explored will include, hate speech on college campuses and beyond, speech that incites, defames, is deemed obscene, offensive or profane, and conduct that may also express messages, such as clicking the "Like" button on Facebook and advertising to sell a product, etc. The course will begin with a solid introduction of the philosophical theories that undergird the concept of freedom of expression in the U.S. given the intensely diverse and interpersonal world in which we live, both on a national and global level. At the completion of this course, you will have been exposed to key elements of First Amendment jurisprudence and will have applied such to varying historical and contemporary contexts.

  HUHC 20A (H1) SCIENCE AND SOCIETY: CLASHES AND COLLABORATIONS
  Professor Sabrina, Sobel, Chemistry
  MWF 9:05-10:00 AM
  CRN: 24805
  BROWR 102

  Throughout history, the pursuit of knowledge has been influenced by the prevailing culture. In this seminar, we explore how the development of math, physics and chemistry have been shaped by culture by reading and discussing select science history books.

  HUHC 20B H1 PHYSICS AND POETRY
  Professor Charles Anderson, Writing Studies, Composition and Rhetoric
  TR 2:20-3:45 PM
  CRN: 20400
  DAVSN 0014

  Is there a common denominator between physics and poetry? Physics basically asks the questions, "Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? What is the nature of reality?" The history of physics has been linked to the literature of its time, and poets have been asking the same question for centuries. We like to think that life has a purpose. Einstein said, "God does not play dice."

  There are parallels between science and literature: the creation myths and cosmology, pre-Socratic philosophy and elementary particles; the metaphysical poets such as John Donne and Renaissance physics; Locke, Pope, Blake and Newtonian physics; Kierkegaard and Bohrs' theory of the atom; Einstein as scientist and humanist; relativity, quantum physics, and modern art; and thermodynamics, entropy, and ecology. In their efforts to describe the natural world, poets and physicists alike depend on metaphors and other literary devices, even if they use different kinds of tropes. In "A Brief History of Time," Stephen Hawking talks about "the arrow of time" and "black holes" in the universe. Readings will range from Einstein to T.S. Eliot.

  HUHC 20H (H1) DRAMA, OPERA & DANCE: INTERACTIONS AND OPPOSITIONS
  Professor James Kolb, Drama
  MF 11:15-12:40 PM
  CRN: 24838
  LOWE 217

  Drama dates from the 5th century B.C.E. in Greece, opera started in 1597 in Florence, Italy, and ballet started at Italian banquets in the late 15th Century, evolving into story ballet at the French court by the late 16th Century. Both opera and ballet as story forms can be traced back to ancient Greek tragedy and, in fact, opera sought to recreate the combination of music, story and dance that was typical of the ancient form.

  Shakespeare, in the early 17th Century had to compete with Masques presented at court, so he included song and dance in many of his later plays. Molière was obliged to work at the French court with both opera/ballet composers and choreographers, and adjusted his plays acordingly. In turn the dramas of Shakespeare, Molière, Beaumarchais, Sheridan, Goethe, Schiller, Victor Hugo and numerous other poets and playwrights provided the subject matter and story lines for both ballet and opera into the 21st Century. Even in modern dance, Martha Graham was regularly inspired to create modern dances based on ancient Greek stories and myths, including those dramatic ones involving Clytemnestra, Oedipus, and Medea.

  As much as we may see these forms as different, drama, opera and dance have much in common as, for the most part, they are all grounded in character depiction and story telling. Each form has also explored abstraction and has taken different directions in some of its work, but by and large these three forms of performing art share more than they differ. This seminar will explore the commonalities among these three forms from the 16th through the early part of the 21st Century. Because these are aural and visual forms, many examples from all three art forms will be seen and heard in class. Readings in the history of drama, ballet and opera, and readings of a number of plays will assist in connecting the dots among and between these three "differing worlds."

  HUHC 20C H1 MONSTERS, POLITICS, AND ROCKETS: A CENTURY OF ITALIAN COMIC BOOKS
  Professor Simone Castaldi, ROmance Languages and Literatures
  MW 4:30-5:55 PM
  CRN: 21163
  BRESL 103

  This course follows the development of the comic book medium in Italy from its inception at the beginning of the 20th century to the present. In addition to familiarizing themselves with the major trends and movements in Italian comics -- including the early experimentations with modernism, the colonialist adventure epics of the fascist period, the literate narratives for mature readers of the '70s, and the postmodern sci-fi dystopian visions of the '80s -- students will learn about Italian society, history, and politics while gaining an understanding of the present-day political situation. Furthermore, as we examine the richly intertextual works that are the subject of the course, the students will be presented with narratological tools in order to appreciate the structural complexity of the comic-book medium and to examine the deceptive divide between works of so-called high culture and those of the popular media.

  HUHC 20I H1 FROM PAGE TO SCREEN: THE ART OF ADAPTATION
  Professor Paula Uruburu, English
  TR 2:20-3:45 PM
  CRN: 23726
  MASN 0020

  The word "adaptation" describes the translation of a text from one form into another. Adaptation covers a wide range – from sources such as literary genres (including the novel, short story, poetry, drama, non-fiction), graphic novels, biographies, foreign source material into English (and vice versa), etc. Frequently, a text can be "lost in translation," with adaptations failing to capture the full meaning or intent of the original source material. However, there are those adaptations that not only survive the process, but, perhaps improve on that material or help it "translate" better in terms of changing environments and shifting tastes and time periods. But what difference does a genre or form make? What are the opportunities for improvement and challenges in adapting a text from one form to another? This course will explore the nature of adaptation across a broad spectrum, during which time students will expand their critical skills in analyzing a text, investigating past and current adaptation theory, and discovering how certain historical and cultural forces shape interpretations of texts and their contexts.

  (The chair of the English department has indicated this course may be counted as an English elective toward the completion of English requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 21A* H1 MIND GAMES: PSYCH OF PERFORMANCE
  Professor Steven Frierman, Physical Education and Sports Sciences
  TR 9:35-11:00 AM
  CRN: 24440
  BRESL 208

  This course is designed to introduce students to the relationship between the mind and body in sport. Students will learn how the mind affects sports performance and how sports performance affects the mind by acquiring an understanding of contemporary principles and theories developed in sport and exercise psychology and then applying them to real sport and exercise situations in both recreational and competitive settings. Topics include: (1) identifying personality differences between successful and unsuccessful athletes; (2) motivational strategies; (3) learning how to concentrate on what is in your control; (4) playing with optimal confidence; (5) arousal regulation; (6) group dynamics; (7) overcoming barriers that stop you; (8) substance abuse; (9) coaching strategies; (10) designing your own mental training programs and so much more...

  HUHC 21E* H1 BASEBALL ANALYTICS
  Professor Richard Puerzer, Engineering
  MW 12:50-2:15 PM
  CRN: 24837

  Statistical analysis tools are utilized in many fields as a means for measuring and better understanding systems. The sport of baseball is perhaps the most statistical of sports. Because of its long history and the discrete nature in which the game is played, a great deal of useful data on player and team performance is available. This data can be analyzed statistically, providing the opportunity to better understand the complex systems which make up the game of baseball. This course will introduce a number of statistical methods and tools which can be used to study baseball. Students will develop the analytical skills necessary to study baseball or any other complex systems.

  * HUHC 021's are non-Liberal Arts Courses.

• Fall 2017

  Fall 2017 HUHC SEMINARS

  HUHC 20D (H1) BLACK CINEMA
  Professor Jennifer Henton, English
  MW 12:50-2:15PM
  CRN: 92052

  This course examines the production, image, and theory of the black presence (and aesthetic) in cinema. Students will be exposed to the historical trajectory of black people in film (Birth of a Nation [1915]) as well as "black film" production (Oscar Micheaux to Dee Rees/Spike Lee) and emergent theories of the black aesthetic. Since thinking, studying, and writing about film studies depends on precise terms and articulation of ways of seeing, a strong theoretical component will accompany this course. Our goal by semester's end is for students to master historical and theoretical knowledge and be able to articulate a deep understanding of the black cinematic tradition in the U.S. Students will communicate their grasp of the area through essays, quizzes, mid-term and final exams, and a final project designed to give students an opportunity to display the insights they have gained.

  HUHC 20A (H1) INTRODUCTION TO ARCHITECTURE: CASE STUDIES
  Professor Joseph Masheck, Fine Arts and Art History
  TR 2:20-3:45PM
  CRN: 90708

  Architecture may be the most ubiquitous of the fine arts (painting, sculpture, architecture); but except for obvious fashions, most people hardly notice it, even though it shapes their experience almost every day. Also: it is by and large the most expensive fine art, of seemingly durable materials; and yet it is the least preserved and most destroyed. Whenever it survives, however, it shows more physically than anything else the 'frame of mind' of people at a certain time: notions of space (by no means always the same); social hierarchy versus equality; not to mention the art's basis in available materials and techniques—everything from physics (e.g. the principle of the cantilever) to metaphysics (the principle of monumentality). We deal in this course with fundamentals of both theory (including the distinction of architecture from mere building) and historical practice in the classical as well as the modern tradition. Students learn how to analyze buildings in terms of structure, style, and cultural function. Two or three field trips. Readings by architects and art historians; but you will also learn how to read a ground plan!

  HUHC 020C (H1) POETRY OF WITNESS
  Professor Maria C. Roberts, Department of English
  TR 9:35-11:00AM
  CRN: 92049

  Motto
  In the dark times, will there also be singing?
  Yes, there will be singing.
  About the dark times. --Bertolt Brecht

  In this workshop we will study "poetry of witness," a genre of poetry described by Carolyn Forche in her anthology Against Forgetting: Twentieth Century Poetry of Witness written by "significant poets who endured conditions of historical and social extremity during the twentieth century—through exile, state censorship, political persecution, house arrest, torture, imprisonment, military occupation, warfare and assassination." Poems that "bear the trace of extremity within them, and [that] are, as such, evidence of what occurred." We will also study 21st century "poetry of engagement" by both established and emerging poets that deal with the public events, government policies, ecological and political threats, economic uncertainties, and large-scale violence that have defined the century to date.

  In addition to working on a new poem every other week, each student will give an oral presentation on a poetry collection chosen from the recommended reading. Each student is responsible for photocopying his/her work, distributing it to the class, and then reading it aloud. Those not presenting work are responsible for contributing to the discussion by offering constructive criticism, praise, suggestions for revisions, etc.

  During the course of the semester, two poets will visit our class to talk about poetry of witness. Professor Mario Susko, a survivor and witness of the war in Bosnia and Liv Mammone, a Hofstra alum who writes about disability and bearing witness in her work.
  (The chair of the English department has indicated this course may be counted as an English/Creative Writing elective toward the completion of the requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 20E (H1) THE ECONOMICS OF INEQUALITY
  Professor Massoud Fazeli, Economics
  MW 2:55-4:20PM
  CRN: 92053
  THE ECONOMICS OF INEQUALITY:

  What does it mean to say we are all equal? Is this merely a positive expression of facts, stating our inherent equality in basic rights, or is it rather a normative statement promoting equality? What do people mean when they say we want equality in opportunity but not artificially imposed equality in result? Is it not true that inequality in result today will inevitably generate unequal opportunity for the next generation?

  Isaiah Berlin, a prominent philosopher, stated that: 'the assumption is that equality needs no reasons, only inequality does so… If I have a cake and there are ten persons among whom I wish to divide it, then if I give exactly one tenth to each, this will not, at any rate automatically, call for justification; whereas if I depart from this principle of equal division I am expected to produce a special reason'. Not all agree with this view. Another philosopher, Harry Frankfurt, maintains that equality has no intrinsic moral value. We must rather strive to improve the conditions of the poor and less privileged: 'inequality in incomes might be decisively eliminated, after all, just by arranging that all incomes be equally below the poverty line'. According to this perspective, equality in poverty and misery has no intrinsic moral advantage and will definitely not promote social welfare.

  We are facing very critical and politically volatile issues here. For instance, there is growing populist anger in many countries, including the United States. Did those who voted for president Trump do so to express their frustration with growing inequality or was this vote an attempt by the mostly white nativist working class to recreate the "white privilege" as some have called it?

  We will discuss three main topics in this course: egalitarianism and its advocates and foes, growing inequality in the distribution of wealth and income in the U.S. in recent decades, the role of social movements and policy in addressing and alleviating these trends.
  (The chair of the Economics department has indicated this course may be counted as an Economics elective toward the completion of the requirements for majors or minors, if the student has not already taken an HUHC seminar for Economics credit previously.)

  HUHC 20F (H1) SOUNDSCAPES: MUSIC IN THE 3^RD WORLD
  Professor John Pulis, Anthropology
  TR 2:20-3:45PM
  CRN: 92051

  This course will introduce students to cultural anthropology and the way indigenous, native, or first peoples in Asia, Oceania, Africa, and the Americas practice and perform music. Our approach will be historical and descriptive. Using the culture-area approach and the idea of a "soundscape," we will listen, watch (film, live performance- Mohegan drummers, Scottish fiddle players, Brazilian capoeira ), and we will explore the role of "sound" among Tuvan pastoralists, Aboriginal hunter-gathers, South American head-hunters, Navajo-Sioux flute players and various groups in modern and post-colonial societies (Calypso, Ska, Mento, High-Life et al.). Along with the above, we will discuss theory, cultural formation (syncretism, and the way various genres (Hip-Hop, Reggae) have been invented and reinvented across and through time.
  (The chair of the Anthropology department has indicated this course may be counted as an Anthropology elective toward the completion of the requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 20G (H1) PALEOBIOLOGY OF THE DINOSAURS
  Professor J. Bret Bennington, Geology, Environment, and Sustainability
  TR 2:20-3:45PM
  CRN: 93059

  Dinosaurs were first unearthed almost 200 years ago and ever since paleontologists have been trying to work out what living dinosaurs were like from their fossil remains. This is particularly challenging because dinosaurs were so enormous and so unusual in their physiology – nothing quite like them exists today. Our ideas about dinosaurs have changed so much over the years that one has to wonder, will we ever really know what living dinosaurs were like? New fossils and new methods of analysis constantly surprise us (who would have guessed twenty years ago that Tyrannosaurus rex had feathers?) yet they do bring us ever closer to seeing these extinct titans as they really were. In this seminar we will explore the methods of analysis paleobiologists have developed for reconstructing the biology of extinct animals and review the latest fossil discoveries and research studies concerning dinosaur physiology, evolution, ecology, behavior, growth, and reproduction. Trips to the American Museum of Natural History and to see dinosaur fossils in the field will be offered. Felt fedoras are optional.

  HUHC 20B (H1) VISUALIZING PERCEPTION: DEMO FABRICATION LABORATORIES
  Professors Elizabeth Ploran, Psychology and Jackson Snellings, Computer Science
  TR 4:30-5:55PM
  CRN: 91107

  This seminar will be team-taught by a cognitive neuroscientist and an interactive technologist as a hands-on course in teaching science concepts through physical demonstrations. Students will learn the basics of certain sensation and perception concepts (e.g., color perception, how the ear works) while simultaneously considering how to demonstrate those concepts to lay audiences through short physical laboratory exercises using commonly available objects. The focus will be on how to accurately represent science concepts in an accessible, easy-to-learn way that can reproduced across multiple contexts (e.g., classrooms, museums, home schooling). This course will be equal parts traditional content and project development, with heavy emphasis on interdisciplinary discovery and incorporation of artistic skills into the practice of science communication. Students should be prepared to actively discuss the science behind the concepts while also stretching their creative skills and practicing disseminating information to the public.
  (The chair of the Psychology department has indicated this course may be counted as a Psychology elective toward the completion of the requirements for majors or minors. This course will also count for credit towards the Neuroscience minor by petition to Dr. Elisabeth Ploran, chair of the minor.)

  HUHC 20I (H1) READING AND WRITING ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE AND OTHER 'HOT' TOPICS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
  Professor Jase Bernhardt, Geology
  TR 9:35-11:00AM
  CRN: 94558

  In an era featuring increasing concern for the environment, but at the same time, an increase in partisanship, how do we consume, interpret, and communicate information about topics such as climate change and sustainability? Throughout this seminar, we will learn how to analyze scientific writing in the mainstream media, academic journals, and governmental reports. Students will have the opportunity to select articles of interest, prepare critiques, and lead group paper discussions. In addition to reading and critiquing the work of others, students will learn how to write about science for both technical and broader audiences. Enhancing these reading and writing assignments will be background lectures demonstrating, at an introductory level, how the various Earth systems operate, how we as humans influence them, and how we can limit our impacts in a just and efficient manner.
  (The Director of Sustainability Studies has indicated this course may be counted as a Sustainability elective toward the completion of the requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 20J (H1) SURVEY OF POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES
  Professor David Green, Political Science
  MW 2:55-4:20PM
  CRN 94569

  What are political ideologies, and how do you classify them? Is the left-right dimension of ideology adequate for a discussion of politics? Is it possible to construct a more complex classification? How does one treat nationalist ideologies, or environmentalist ideologies, or religious or multicultural ideologies using a left-right formulation – even an elaborated one?

  This course begins with a discussion of the function of ideology in societies, from the anthropological, psychological and analytical perspectives. What are some of the problems of categorizing in ideological terms? Next, the course considers some historical background on the idea of ideology itself, and the way in which our formulations have changed over time.

  The course finally examines a wide variety of established ideological belief systems, including conservatism, liberalism, socialism, communism and fascism. Also included will be some other ideologies of rising importance today: nationalism, neoliberalism, anarchism, libertarianism, feminism, environmentalism, liberation ideologies, various multiculturalist ideologies and religious fundamentalisms, including case studies.
  (The chair of the Political Science department has indicated this course may be counted as a Political Science elective toward the completion of the requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 20K (H1) THE PEN AS A BRUSH: HISPANIC POETRY AND PAINTING
  Professor Miguel-Angel Zapata, Romance Languages
  TR 11:10-12:35 PM
  CRN 94570

  The focus of this course pertains to poets from Spain and Latin America. All of the poets selected have centered some of their key works around certain paintings; these paintings have also influenced their development as poets. A truncated list of the poets and paintings to be studied includes: Jose Angel Valente (Spain: "Picasso-Guernica" and "Lyriker, 1911" by Egon Shiele), Jose Emilio Pacheco (Mexico: "Crist on the Cross" by Bosch), Jose Watanabe (Peru: "The Scream," Edvard Munch), Piedad Bonnett (Colombia: "The Wounded Deer," Frida Khalo), Oscar Hahn (Chile: "Self-Potrait of Van Gogh" and "The Annunciation" by Fra Angelico) and Cristina Peri Rossi (Uruguay: "Hotel Room" by Hopper and "The Sleepers" by Gustave Courbet"). In the poems I have selected, one discovers the transformation of the brush stroke into the written word and an image that reappears as a new work of art. This encounter between poet and painter opens new doors of research into the intrinsic relation between the arts. It is not on a mere whim that so many writers have felt themselves attracted to works of visual art, and at the same time have expressed their interior selves through the contemplation of paintings, and that this exploration has caused them to work their way into the canvas itself, and to reside inside the brilliant house of color.
  (The chair of the Spanish department has indicated this course may be counted as an elective toward the completion of the requirements for majors in Spanish, provided the student has not received previous credit for a course in Spanish Literature in Translation, SPLT)

• Spring 2017

  Spring 2017 HUHC SEMINARS

  HUHC 020F H1 MAPPING THE NATION: CARTOGRAPHY, CENSUS, AND SURVEY IN 17TH AND 18TH CENTURY BRITAIN
  Professor Adam Sills, English
  MW 2:55-4:20PM
  CRN: 24463
  DAVS 0014

  The central question for this seminar is what role, if any, do the map, census, and survey play in the creation and consolidation of early modern Britain? To answer that question, we will examine the evolution of cartography and demography from the Renaissance through the eighteenth century and the impact those practices have had not only on the geography of Britain but also on the very creation of the idea of Britain itself. Since the Renaissance, improvements in the accuracy and legibility of maps, the proliferation of empirically-based chorographies, and the popular vogue for travel narratives served to order, package, and commodify space in a fashion that was critical to the formation of British national identity. To "ground" our discussions, we will examine maps and literary works from the period, as well as contemporary theory and criticism, in order to better understand the relationship between cartography, demography, and national identity. Works may include Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year, Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent, Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's The Turkish Embassy Letters, Aphra Behn's Oroonoko, Tobias Smollett's Humphrey Clinker, and Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.
  (The chair of the English department has indicated this course may be counted as an English elective toward the completion of English requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 20E H1 PERFORMING THE AVANT-GARDE
  Professor Isabel Milenski, Music (w/ guest visits by Assistant Dean Lauren Kozol)
  MW 12:50-2:15PM
  CRN: 22986
  DAVS 0014

  In this class, we will study the roots and flourishing of the avant-garde in America from 1900 to today. At the end of the semester, we will engage in both the creation and production of a collaborative avant-garde extravaganza. Throughout the 20th century, artists from all disciplines forged previously unimagined and often shocking pieces in the visual arts, music, theater, literature, dance and film, and at times, all of these, all at once. Avant-garde artists broke down the boundaries of media, cultural norms and political/aesthetic conventions. Moved by their time in a war-torn century, these artists produced works that were dark and subversive, but also humorous and absurd.

  We will encounter the now legends of the 20th century avant-garde across the disciplines - including E. E. Cummings, Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, Igor Stravinsky, Sonia Delaunay, Hannah Höch, Florence Henri, Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dali, Jean Cocteau, Erik Satie, Man Ray and Peter Sellars. In addition, we will explore some of the key movements from Dada and Surrealism to Pop art (Andy Warhol) and Fluxus (Yoko Ono), and the influences on these movements from the circus and mime to collage and chance. We will also meet New York's premier avant-garde collaborators including John Cage, Merce Cunningham and Robert Rauchenberg, and explore more contemporary forays into aesthetic innovation.

  This course will be both rigorous and ridiculous. We will study, and we will perform. We will create art and anti-art, and we will do our best to analyze "happenings" that deliberately resist analysis. In addition, we will write and publish a professional program with articles in the spirit of the avant-garde for our final production. The class will culminate in a chance to be part of chance pieces as both experimental cultural creators and consumers.

  No background in music or the allied arts are required for those taking this course. Just bring your creativity and passion.
  (The chair of the Music department has indicated this course may be counted as a Music elective toward the completion of Music requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 020C H1 LOVE AND EROS IN LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY AND CINEMA: LOVE AT FIRST AND LAST SIGHT
  Professor Pellegrino D'Acierno, Comparative Languages and Literatures
  MW 4:30-5:55PM
  CRN: 21252
  BRESL 103

  Adopting a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, this course will attempt to elaborate an anatomy of love by examining a wide range of literary, philosophical and cinematic texts in which the art of love and the act of enamorment is thematized. It will trace the evolution of the idea of love primarily in western culture, with some references to non-western cultures. Beginning with Plato's Symposium, the course will examine the development of the amorous discourse that extends from paganism (Ovid's Art of Love) through the Bible (the Song and Songs) and Christianity to courtly love (the troubadours, Dante, and Petrarch), from the Renaissance (Boccaccio and Shakespeare) and Romanticism through modernism (T.S. Eliot, André Breton, Pablo Neruda) to the present day ("Hollywood love" and "liquid love"). Although the primary emphasis will involve close reading of literary, philosophical, and cinematic representations of love, the work of theorists such as Octavio Paz, Roland Barthes, and Luce Irigaray will also be considered.
  (The chair of the Comparative Languages and Literatures department has indicated this course may be counted as a CLL elective toward the completion of CLL requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 20A H1 SCIENCE FICTION: THE GOLDEN AGE AND BEYOND
  Professor Barbara Bengels, English
  TR 11:10-12:35PM
  CRD: 22236
  DAVS 0014

  In Future Shock, Alvin Toffler argued that science fiction is the most important form of literature to prepare young people for the technological and sociological changes before them. Professor Bengels will discuss the development of science fiction in the twentieth century, its Golden Age, and how it has helped create the twenty-first century. Based on her personal acquaintance with many prominent science fiction writers, she will also use their letters to describe how they were encouraged--or brutally discouraged--from becoming authors. Students will read the best of SF past and present (authors such as Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Heinlein, Benford), as well as critical articles, and then produce their own comparative analyses.
  (The chair of the English department has indicated this course may be counted as an English elective toward the completion of English requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 020G H1 WHO GETS TO PLAY? ISSUES OF DIVERSITY IN THE PERFORMING ARTS
  Professor Jean Dobie Giebel, Drama and Dance
  TR 9:35-11:00AM
  CRN: 24493
  BRESL 208

  This course uses the racial history of Shakespeare performance in the United States and its legacy, including the development of the concept of "colorblind" casting and the backlash against that concept, as basis for discussing current performance practice and issues of diversity in the performing arts. It will begin with a critical examination of nineteenth century Shakespeare productions, and will continue by investigating the history and development of American Shakespeare theater practice through the early twentieth century custom of casting Caucasian actors to play such characters as Othello and Aaron (Titus Andronicus). We will then turn to the concept of "colorblind casting" championed in the latter half of the twentieth century by the Public Theater, producer of the acclaimed Shakespeare in the Park, and contrast that practice with August Wilson's famous rejections of "colorblind casting" in the 1990s. Our ultimate aim will be to explore current issues of equality in racial representation in American performing arts through a discussion of incidents such as Tonya Pinkin's public statement upon leaving the Classic Stage Company's production of Mother Courage, and the public examination of casting practices in Broadway's Hamilton.
  (The chair of the Drama and Dance department has indicated this course may be counted as an Drama elective toward the completion of Drama requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 020B H1 TEN PHOTOGRAPHS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
  Professor Barbara Jaffe, Fine Arts and Art History
  TR 2:20-3:45pm
  CRN: 20416
  CALKS 0013

  The invention of photography in 1839 had a profound impact on the human race. The photographic image has become our global language, often more influential than words. But what is a photograph, really? What are its working parts? Where is its power? We will study 10 photographs that altered human thought, changed the arc of history and transformed world cultures.
  (The chair of the Fine Arts and Art History department has indicated this course may be counted as a Fine Arts and Art History elective toward the completion of requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 020D H1 ECONOMICS AS AN EVOLUTIONARY SCIENCE
  Professor Roberto Mazzoleni, Economics
  MW 12:50-2:15
  CRN: 20417
  GALWG 0014

  The goal of this seminar is to introduce students to various aspects of the conception of economics as an evolutionary science. Evolutionary theorizing in the social sciences predates the elaboration of Darwin's theory of natural selection in 1859, but since the late nineteenth century several economists embracing an explicitly evolutionary approach to the study of economic development established varied and interesting connections among evolutionary processes in biology and in economics. However, the evolutionary approach failed to establish itself as a dominant paradigm in economics. In 1898, Thorstein Veblen wondered in dismay "Why Isn't Economics an Evolutionary Science?". And Alfred Marshall, whose work contributes key aspects of the 'neoclassical standard' in contemporary textbook microeconomics, wrote in 1920 that "economics, like biology, deals with a matter, of which the inner nature and constitution, as well as the outer form, are constantly changing." The emerging neoclassical approach astonished Joseph Schumpeter, whose view of capitalism led him to write that "the essential point to grasp is that in dealing with capitalism, we are dealing with an evolutionary process." After learning about the roots of evolutionary theorizing in economic thought, we will fast forward to contemporary research and debates among economists that explicitly or implicitly embrace an evolutionary approach. In particular, we will read and discuss recent writings concerned with the characterization of human actors in economics, the evolution of technology, institutions, business firms, and industries.

  While no background in economics or mathematics is required, awareness of basic economic principles and familiarity with mathematical modeling will be helpful.
  (The chair of the Economics department has indicated this course may be counted as an Economics elective toward the completion of Economics requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 020I H1 EMBODIMENT AND THE CREATIVE PROCESS
  Professor Robin Becker, Drama and Dance
  TR 9:00-11:00AM
  CRN: 24649
  LOWE 110

  In this course we will explore the relationship of the body in movement to the creative processes of thought and perception. We will be working with the somatic practice of Continuum Movement and with texts that support an inquiry into the role and meaning of the body. In this time of technological advancement and great speed, there is a tendency to disassociate from the slower sensory intelligence of the body. Western culture often views the body as a form to objectify in ways that are similar to how machines are viewed and understood. Continuum Movement challenges that perspective and views the body as an unfolding creative process that is in a dynamic exchange and communication with all life forms. The body is primarily water, and at its essence, Continuum Movement is an exploration of the properties and movement of fluid systems as they shape and form life both within the body and throughout the larger world. Possible texts for the course will be Engaging the Movement of Life by Bonnie Gintis, DO, A General Theory of Love by Thomas Lewis, M.D., Fari Amini, M.D., and Richard Lannon, M.D., and How Life Moves by Caryn McHose and Kevin Frank. The course will also include DVDs documenting current research on movement and perception. The practice of Continuum Movement in no way resembles a dance or movement class in which one is asked to learn a prescribed set of movements. No prior movement experience is required for this course. Instead, this course will offer a process of engaging one's own personal exploration of movement with the goal of becoming more conscious of the sensation of life as it unfolds into our awareness through the communication and expression of movement.
  (The chair of the Drama and Dance department has indicated this course may be counted as a Dance elective toward the completion of Dance requirements for majors or minors.

  HUHC 021A* H1 COLLABORATING ACROSS CULTURES
  Professor Kara Alaimo, Public Relations
  MW 12:50-2:10PM
  CRN: 24464
  RSVLT 110

  This honors seminar will teach students how to successfully communicate in different countries and work as part of multicultural teams comprised of colleagues with very different workplace practices and expectations. We will study cultures across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America. Students will learn the key dimensions on which people of different cultures differ - from our conceptions of time to whether we conceive of ourselves as individuals or part of groups - and examine the business and communication practices that work best in each of the world's ten "cultural clusters."
  (The chair of the Public Relations department has indicated this course may be counted as a Public Relations elective toward the completion of Public Relations requirements for majors or minors.

  HUHC 021B* H1 GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISES
  Professors Anoop Rai, Salvatore Sodano, Frank Zarb, Finance
  R 1:30-3:30PM
  CRN: 24465
  STARR 209

  In this course we examine financial crises around the globe and the ensuing evolution of financial regulations and public policy. These include analyses of the Tulip mania in the Netherlands in 1637, the South Sea and Mississippi Company bubbles in 1720, the economic panics of 1837, 1873, 1907 in the U.S., the Great Depression in 1929, the Japanese real estate crash in 1991 and the Great Recession of 2008. Misguided economic policies, financial innovation, regulatory forbearance and weak corporate governance are identified as common factors that precede major financial crises. Financial innovation will be shown to be both a catalyst and resolution to financial crises. Students will complete the course with a detailed analysis of the Dodd-Frank Bill of 2008.
  (The chair of the Finance department has indicated this course may be counted as a Finance elective toward the completion of Finance requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 021C* H1 MORAL DEVELOPMENT
  Professor Arthur Dobrin, Management and Entrepreneurship
  TR 11:10-12:35PM
  CRN: 24648
  GALW 0014

  "The essence of it is simple, but the process by which it is established is a great complication." While Simon Schama's remarks refer to art, it applies equally well to ethics. The essence of morality is simple but how we become moral and what it takes to remain moral is far from simple. Using insights from biology, psychology and philosophy the course examines the development and social factors that contribute to becoming a moral person. The course uses the social and hard sciences, fiction, film and self-examination for understanding the foundations and structures that provide the tools necessary for the development of an ethical personality.

  * HUHC 021's are non-Liberal Arts Courses.

• Fall 2016

  Fall 2016 HUHC SEMINARS

  HUHC 020F (H1) MAKING BABIES: RELIGIONS RESPOND TO NEW REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES
  Professor Ann Burlein, Department of Religion
  TR 12:45-2:10PM
  CRN: 92236

  This course explores the reception of reproductive technologies such as IVF and surrogacy in different religious and cultural contexts. How do such technologies change when they are used by people whose cultural background includes belief in karma, multiple lives, and ancestors? Why do some religions define the use of donor sperm or eggs as adultery? What new forms of spirituality are emerging around the rejection of all artificial technology regarding birth?

  (The chair of the Religion department has indicated this course may be counted as a Religion elective toward the completion of Religion requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 20B (HA) QUEER FRENCH FILM
  Professor David Powell, Romance Languages and Literatures
  MW 12:50-2:15PM
  CRN: 91206

  This course offers the opportunity to explore how films featuring same-sex desires reflect gay life and its concerns as they are manifested in French life. The dual goal seeks to clarify (1) aspects of same-sex culture in France (as distinct from in the US) and (2) how they are depicted in film. We will encounter and attempt to answer how films typically represent gay issues (where we will deal with stereotypes) and how these issues, and thereby their representations, differ in France from how they typically work in the US (so, different stereotypes and difference emphases).

  The theoretical lens through which we will examine these films is queer theory, an academic field of inquiry that has proliferated over the past 25 years. We will also use various literary critical methods to analyze the queer message, symbols, context, and significance of queer cultural artifacts. Because we will be dealing with French culture, and French gay culture, you will be acquainting yourself with a social construct that, in many ways, in very different from American society and thus different from the American typical gay experience.

  At the same time as we encounter elements of gay filmic culture, we will come across diverse social and political constructs and events that have shaped French gay culture and its response to these constructs. The linguistic element is naturally particularly pertinent; I will provide nuances between the English subtitles and the French dialogue. As in any study that involves reading a translated text, sensitivity to cultural and linguistic differences is key here.

  Your participation in the course will be participatory, which will include daily contributions to classroom discussion and an individual or group presentation, as well as analytical, which you will demonstrate in writing assignments. By the end of the course, you will be prepared to better appreciate French queer film, French film in general, and queer film in general. And maybe you’ll end up being fluent in French….

  HUHC 20D (H1) ENLIGHTENMENT!
  Professor Terry Godlove, Philosophy
  MW 12:50-2:15
  CRN: 92237

  Many of us have been taught that something of world-historical significance happened in Europe in the eighteenth century—a victory of reason over superstition, freedom over tyranny, science over religion.  In a word, Enlightenment.  But is that an accurate picture?  Contemporary critics claim the Enlightenment’s legacy is one of exploitation, dehumanization, colonialism, and the loss of human dignity.  In this course, we will examine the work of Immanuel Kant, one of the Enlightenment’s chief spokesmen.  Among other works we will read his, Critique of Pure Reason (1781, 1787), which clears the way for his claim that persons must never be treated simply as means to ends.  This claim looms large in history, as it helped shape the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, and the United Nations charter.  We will see that Kant was decidedly ambivalent about the prospects for enlightenment, and that he anticipated many of its contemporary critics, even as he championed its values.  Some background in philosophy recommended.

  (The chair of the Philosophy department has indicated this course may be counted as a Philosophy elective toward the completion of Philosophy requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 20G (H1) FAMILY LAW, HISTORY, AND CULTURE
  Professor Herbie DiFonza, School of Law
  TR 11:10-12:45PM
  CRN: 93517

  The course will study the dramatic changes in American family formation in the 20th and 21st centuries: the demise of the “traditional” two-parent family; the rise in cohabitation, single parenthood, and same-sex partnerships; and the coming-of-age in surrogacy and assisted reproductive technologies.  The course would begin with the post-World War II family and trace the cultural evolution from Leave It to Beaver to Modern Family.  The approach would blend history, law, and social science data, focusing on the contrast between marriage and cohabitation as the starting point for a family, and an analysis on how our society is shifting to a functional redefinition of the family, with significant cultural consequences.  

  HUHC 20C (H1) ANALYZING THE 2016 ELECTIONS
  Professor Andrea Libresco, Education (Social Studies) and Center for Civic Engagement
  TR 12:45-2:10PM
  CRN: 92234

  This course examines the process of electing a president in 2016 and in historical perspective.   Participants will investigate and assess the nominating procedure; the candidates’ stands on the issues of our time; the roles that media, money, parties, debates, advertisements, and the Internet play; the influence of race, class and gender on both voters and candidates; and the domestic and foreign policy challenges that the new president and Congress will face.  Attention will be given to the ways in which citizens participate in the political process and to their quest for the kinds of reliable knowledge that are necessary to make informed judgments.

  HUHC 20A (H1) INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION: CAUSES, EFFECTS, AND RESPONSES
  Professor Tina Mavirkos-Adamou, Political Science
  MW 12:50-2:10PM
  CRN: 90758

  This seminar will focus on the causes, effects, and responses to international migration and the relationship between the international legal environment and that of the nation-state where these crises play out domestically.  The course will begin by defining the legal differences between economic migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, and move on to discuss various humanitarian crises that have resulted from large-scale migration and displacement.  Cases of mass migration will be selected for examination representing several regions of the world, including Central America, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.  The ongoing Syrian crisis, considered to be the worst humanitarian crisis of the 21st century, will be taken up as a case study representing the complexities and challenges brought on by large-scale forced migration.  As of January 2016, the Syrian war has resulted in more than 11 million Syrians either being killed or forced to flee their homes, representing half of the country’s pre-war population.  This unprecedented movement of people poses formidable challenges for both the international community in responding adequately to this humanitarian crisis, and for nation-states receiving such large numbers of people.  These and other related issues surrounding international migration will be discussed throughout the course.

  (The chair of the Political Science department has indicated this course may be counted as a Political Science elective toward the completion of Political Science requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 20H (H1) MUSIC AND THE MOVING IMAGE
  Professor Jonathan Waxman, Music
  TR 11:10-12:35
  CRN: 93518

  Since the beginning of motion pictures, music has been a significant part of explaining the action on screen. Today, music is incorporated in far more media than just contemporary films, playing a major role in television shows, commercials and video games. This course will begin by covering the history of film music beginning with silent films and then continue by examining current trends in film scoring techniques, including the use of popular and original songs, and preexisting music in more recent films and television shows, and analyzing the different ways music is used in commercials and video games over the past three decades.

  HUHC 20E (H1) DESIGNER DRUGS: CHEMISTRY AND BEYOND
  Professor Ling Huang, Chemistry
  MW 2:55-4:20
  CRN: 92238

  Designer drugs such as “Spice”, “Bath Salts” and “Molly” have spread rapidly around the world in the past decade. In order to avoid law enforcement, the manufacturers of these synthetic compounds keep adjusting formulas to stay in the legal gray area. On the other hand, many users are unware of the dangers that are associated with these poorly-controlled products with unknown chemical identities, resulting in increased emergency room visits and high-profile incidents frequently reported in the media. Law enforcement and legislative bodies throughout the world struggle to keep pace with the changing nature of designer drugs. In this course, students will learn the chemistry behind the synthesis of these drugs, the analytical methods used for the detection and quantification (some done at Hofstra), toxicological effects, and the chemical challenges facing law enforcement and legislations.

  No previous background in chemistry is needed as layman terms and Lego-block analogy will be used to describe the chemical reactions. In the seminar relevant laws, war on drugs, web 2.0, silk road, social media’s roles will be discussed. Majority of the reading materials will NOT be on Chemistry, rather on the overall phenomenon of designer drugs. Honor students are encouraged to think about the complex societal impacts designer drug causes and learn the instructor’s perspective as a chemist

  HUHC 021A (H1) SERIOUSLY?: WHAT IS TRULY IMPORTANT? – LOOKING AT MEDIA HYPE, ISSUES, AND NON-ISSUES
  Professor Ellen Frisina, Public Relations
  TR 12:45-2:10PM
  CRN 92235

  Are you “too sensitive”?
  
  On the one hand, much has been written about your generation suggesting you are too sensitive and overly aware of “feeling hurt” by words and –isms.  On the other hand, some believe that your generation has the moxey and ambition to rid the world of prejudice and bias. 
  
  So, are you “too sensitive” or “highly aware”?

  This course will look at popular books, magazine articles, internet sites and television shows that focus on whether we are becoming “wimps” or “renegades.”  We will look at what many say is the reason behind this – the 24-hour news cycle that “hypes” issues like Snowmageddon or political discourse or “reality” TV – and turns what may be a non-issue into another reason to rail against societal wrongs.  The spread of information is a major focus of this issue as your generation knows more, sees more, is hyper-aware of your world (which is quickly shrinking, as well, because of this).  Is it “TMI” or an important concern?

  One need only watch a few episodes of The Daily Show or Talk Soup to see one side of the story – making mountains out of molehills.  On the other side, one can point to several organized and effective campaigns by college students to change the status quo – many may say the Supreme Court decision about gay marriage is a result of your generation arguing that the world “needs to change.”

  Several well-documented protests on college campuses highlight how your generation is “hyper-sensitive” to words and actions. Every issue from Halloween costumes to graduation speakers has taken on the mantle of freedom of speech – with both sides arguing that not only do words matter, but also the meaning of words has changed. Again, is it over-sensitivity or focused analysis of a wrong?

   

  According to a recent article in The Atlantic titled “The Coddling of the American Mind”, “….college students are increasingly demanding protection from words and ideas they don’t like.”  Is this good or bad?  Let’s decide together with some deep critical analysis of both sides of this issue (or non-issue!)

  (The chair of the Public Relations department has indicated this course may be counted as an elective toward the completion of PR, JRNL and Media Studies requirements for majors or minors.)

• Spring 2016

  Spring 2016 HUHC SEMINARS

  HUHC 20A (H1) DOUBLES IN LITERATURE
  Professor Susan Lorsch, English
  TR 11:10am – 12:35pm
  Breslin 202
  CRN: 22487

  Narrative and the Idea of the Double: The notion of the divided self is deeply embedded in Western conceptions of identity--whether the parts of the self represent such easy divisions as "good" and "evil" or more subtle distinctions between ego and superego or between the subconscious and the conscious. Writers of fiction and filmmakers use ideas of the double or "doppelganger" to reflect psychological struggle and to explore the relationship of the self to the self and to the world outside the self. In narrative literature and film, one's shadow-self--whether mischievous, malicious, friendly or forbidding--appears as a reflection of a crisis in identity and offers its alter ego the opportunity for self-exploration. This course will examine some of the ways narratives have explored identity and probed human psychology through the use of the double. In addition to investigating the tales that are told, we will also be studying the variety of techniques fiction and film employ in order simultaneously to demonstrate and embody the divisions and conflicts, the complexities of desire, within the self. Emphasis will be on class discussion and analysis; thus, class attendance and participation, along with written work, will figure significantly in final grades.

  (The chair of the English department has indicated this course may be counted as a English elective toward the completion of English requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 20B (H1) FIRST AMENDMENT IN MEDIA AND LAW
  Professor Akilah Folami, Hofstra University School of Law
  MW 9:05am – 10:30am
  Breslin 203
  CRN: 20449

  The First Amendment to the United States Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press....” The objective of this course is to give students a solid grounding in the Constitutional principles of free speech and free press; the limits of the government’s authority to prevent or punish the reporting of information by traditional journalist, blogger, FB poster and the like; and the rights of reporters to access and confidentiality in newsgathering. The course will also explain the law of defamation, copyright, freedom of information, privacy, the regulation of radio, TV, cable and the Internet as it relates to the rights of expression in the U.S. and other legal concerns important to journalists, broadcasters, advertisers, and bloggers.

  HUHC 20C (H1) GODEL, ESCHER, BACH
  Professor Charles Anderson, Psychology
  TR 4:30pm – 5:55pm
  ADAMS 212
  CRN: 21360

  Do you watch the "Big Bang Theory"? Have you wondered whether our digital world will end with a bang, a whimper, or singularity? Did you know that the first computer was named "Maniac"? Have you heard of Alan Turing and the Enigma Code? These questions and others will be answered when we read and discuss the provocative book "Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid," which explores the inter-relationship of math, music, and art. One paper, one oral presentation, and a lot of interesting discussion.

  HUHC 020D (H1) GREEK TRAGEDY IN LITERATURE AND PERFORMANCE
  Professor Ilaria Marchesi, Comparative Languages and Literature
  Professor Christopher Dippel, Drama
  MW 12:50pm – 2:15pm
  GALWG 0014
  CRN: 20450

  In this co-taught seminar we study Greek Tragedy both as literary text and as performance. In addition to reading, discussing and writing about the texts, students will prepare a performance as one of the class projects.

  (The chairs of the Classics program and Drama have indicated this course may be counted as a Classics or Drama elective toward the completion of Classics or Drama requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 20E (H1) GUIDES TO LIVING
  Professor Ira Singer, Philosophy
  TR 11:10am – 12:35pm
  GALGW 0014
  CRN: 23717

  What is the most effective path to a tranquil and satisfying life? Three ancient Greek philosophical movements aimed to answer this question. The Stoics advocated relying on reason, and making a sharp distinction between our lack of control over what happens in the world and our complete control over our own attitudes and efforts. The Skeptics advocated a practice of developing strong arguments on both sides of every issue, leading to the obliteration of all firm beliefs, and then to an untroubled, natural way of living. The Epicureans advocated a life devoted to pleasure, but to pleasure of a modest and durable kind; they preferred quiet friendship and frugal meals over great passions and riotous revels. These so-called Hellenistic philosophical schools fell out of favor for a millennium after the fall of the Western Roman empire, but became influential again at the start of the modern era, when figures like Montaigne, Spinoza, and Hume mixed and matched doctrines from the Stoics, Skeptics, and Epicureans. In our own time important philosophers (like Martha Nussbaum, especially in her work *The Therapy of Desire*) have been inspired by the seriousness and ingenuity with which the Hellenistic philosophers addressed the most profound human concerns. This course will examine ancient, early modern, and contemporary texts, aiming to develop and evaluate Stoic, Skeptical, and Epicurean perspectives on life and its challenges.

  (The chair of the Philosophy department has indicated this course may be counted as a Philosophy elective toward the completion of Philosophy requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 20F (H1) MEDIEVAL SEX
  Professor Alfonso Garcia-Osuna, Romance Languages and Literatures
  MW 9:05am – 10:30am
  LOWE 203
  CRN: 23718

  Sex and gender are intimately connected to each other throughout history, and the medieval era (roughly 500 to 1500 C.E.) played a critical role in the construction of modern Western sexual and gendered identities. It can be argued as well that many of our ideas about modern love originated in the narratives of medieval romance literature, where there is also a rich tradition of the creative subversion of traditional gender and sex roles. Located at the boundary between the biological and the cultural, human sexuality has been feared for its radical potential to disrupt various structures of human order- and meaning-making, and has been assumed to be a central key to understanding human nature and identity. Through readings of various medieval texts (literary and otherwise), as well as critical readings in body, gender, and sexuality studies, we will explore the critical role of sexuality in shaping the Western human subject and its radical powers for disrupting and transforming bodies and selves over time. By way of making some cross-temporal connections between the medieval world and our own, we will also view some contemporary films such as Cuba’s Strawberry and Chocolate(1993) that explore, in complex fashion, various themes of sexuality and sexual identity. As this is a seminar-style course, preparing for and participating in class are vitally important to your ultimate success, and therefore, your contribution to in-class discussions as well as your attendance record will be factored into your final grade. Although I will provide much guidance and commentary, the students are essentially the
  discussion leaders of this course. As this is also a reading-intensive course, not keeping up with the reading could be extremely detrimental to your progress and final evaluation. One final (but important) word: coming to class without the text will count as an absence.

  HUHC 20H (H1) RITUAL AND PERFORMANCE
  Professor Patricia Hardwick, Anthropology
  MW 12:50pm -2:15pm
  RSVLT 110
  CRN: 24650

  Anthropologists, ethnomusicologists, and folklorists acknowledge the importance of the study of the performing arts for the understanding oftraditional systems of healing, alternative histories, cultural memories, gender relations, ethnic identities, political movements, regional conflicts, and religious revival. Drawing on a varied source of ethnographic studies of the performing arts from North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, this course will focus on how performers embody cultural knowledge, interpret their experiences, construct their realities, offer cultural critique, resist cultural norms, and even facilitate healing through their performances. Throughout the course we will investigate what these embodied ways of knowing can tell us about the individuals that perform them and their relevance within particular cultures. We will examine the importance of the context of performance, and study what effects rapid cultural change, colonialism, tourism, nationalist movements, and religious revival can have on particular performance forms and traditions. We will also evaluate how issues such as mental and physical health, piety, gender, class, ethnicity, social status, and nationalism can be interpreted, mediated and expressed through performance and the performing arts. A series of demonstrations and workshops will be arranged with local performance groups as part of the class in order to allow students to experience and document how cultural knowledge can be embodied through he learning of particular performance forms. A significant portion of the theoretical work that addresses the performing arts as embodied knowledge has been based on ethnographic studies of Latin American and Caribbean music and dance. This literature stresses the importance of the study of dance, music, and the body in order to investigate issues of gender, colonialism, violence, rupture, and cultural continuity. The body is emphasized as one aspect of life that the poor and socially oppressed were able to control, thus the music and social dances of the disadvantaged have been viewed as metaphors of their understanding of the colonial experience. Ethnographies of the sacred performance traditions in South Asia and Southeast Asia emphasize the healing and restorative properties of traditional music and theater. Studies of the public performances and multi-vocal retellings of the great epics of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana reveal how individuals in South Asia can use these performances to construct an intimate understanding of themselves and how the well known epics can be recast to emphasize social issues important to the performer. Ethnographies of the performing arts and traditional martial arts of the Muslim majority nations of Indonesia and Malaysia contradict imaginations of Islam as an abstract, undifferentiated, and unchanging religion, and reinforce the understanding that the interpretation and re-interpretations of Islam and Islamic practice is a historical and ongoing process in Muslim Southeast Asia.

  HUHC 20I (H1) Black Mountain Culture

  Professor Ron Janssen, Writing Studies

  MW 2:55-4:20

  Room: DAVSN 014
  CRN: 24651


  Have you ever had the experience, even for a moment, of thinking that maybe everything you have ever believed or learned (even in C&E!) might be wrong? If so, you are well positioned to enjoy and benefit from a study of the artists and thinkers associated with Black Mountain College. For example, the design engineer Buckminster (Bucky) Fuller, troubled by the distortions in our customary representations of the world (globes, Mercator maps – you probably have had them in every schoolroom), set about to invent his own Dymaxion map. Looking for a way to provide affordable housing for people around the world, he invented the geodesic dome. Charles Olson, dissatisfied with what he saw as the shortcomings in the Greco-Roman traditions of Western thought, turned for correctives to prehistory and Mayan culture. Robert Rauschenberg made paintings with no images and even went so far as to buy and erase a drawing by a famous contemporary. John Cage composed music with no sound. Merce Cunningham used chance operations to replace carefully designed programs of traditional choreography. All of these people were a chief influence on American culture 1950-1975 and beyond. In this course, you will study the writing, visual art, music, dance, and social and scientific developments of this fascinating group of people in order to identify something that we might call “Black Mountain Culture.” In the spirit of Black Mountain College itself, your work will be highly independent of traditional strictures, meaning that term projects will be of your own design (with as much help from me as you want and need) and focused in fields of your own interest. If you have ever wanted to build a geodesic dome before, maybe you will now – or invent your own design. Who will like this course? Arts and science and communications students endowed with curiosity, intuition, and creative imagination. If that’s you, come on in!

  HUHC 20J (H1) REMAKING IRELAND
  Professor Gregory Maney, Sociology
  Professor Maureen Murphy, Education
  TR 12:45pm – 2:10pm
  BROWR 102
  CRN: 24652

  Participants in the Easter Rising of 1916 envisioned alternative futures for Ireland, politically, economically, socially, and culturally. While defeated soundly in military terms, heightened Irish nationalist mobilization in its aftermath brought about some but not all of these changes. The Easter Rising demonstrates the power of vision and acts of sacrifice. It also shows how one event can simultaneously galvanize and divide a population. As a historic event, the Easter Rising provides a lens through which we can interpret the present and chart a course for the future. The 100th anniversary of the Rising provides us with an opportunity to reflect upon the contemporary implications of the Easter Rising and related events. What, if any, lessons does the Easter Rising hold for the peace process in Northern Ireland, transatlantic relations and the role of the Diaspora in Irish affairs, European and global integration, economic and fiscal crises, class inequalities, growing ethnic diversity, the status of women, environmental challenges, and church-state relations? This course draws upon a wide range of disciplinary lenses to answer these important questions.

  (The Directors of the Irish Studies Program have indicated that this course may be counted as an elective toward the completion of requirements for Irish Studies minors.) This course DOES NOT satisfy the Cross-Cultural (CC) distribution requirement.

• Fall 2015

  Fall 2015 HUHC SEMINARS

  HUHC 20A (H1) UTOPIA: POSSIBLE WORLDS, POSSIBLE SELVES
  Professor Scott Harshbarger, English
  MW 2:55-4:20PM
  CRN: 90842

   “The idea that reality,” writes Marie-Laure Ryan, “may include other worlds than the world that we experience every day ranks near the very top of the topics that fascinate the human mind.”  This course will take a good long look at various possible worlds -- from Alice in Wonderland to The Giver, from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to The Ocean at the End of the Lane – and the nature of the selves who inhabit them.  We will consider how authors create worlds within which characters conform, rebel, or otherwise do their best to survive and thrive within the parameters set by their creators.  We will draw on cognitive psychology and narrative theory in order to understand how story-tellers, by tapping into the mind’s capacity to create maps and models of reality, create the fictional worlds that transport and shape us.

  Literary Texts:
  William Shakespeare, The Tempest
  Edgar Allan Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher”
  Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
  Frank L. Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
  Yevgeny  Zamyatin, We
  Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
  Lois Lowry, The Giver
  Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

  Theoretical reading will be drawn from the following:
  Frith, C. (2009). Making up the mind: How the brain creates our mental world. John Wiley & Sons.
  Gerrig, Richard J. Experiencing narrative worlds: On the psychological activities of reading. Yale University Press, 1993.
  Markus, H., & Nurius, P. (1986). Possible selves. American psychologist, 41(9), 954 – 969.
  Pavel, T. G. (1986). Fictional worlds. Harvard University Press.
  For more information, please contact Dr. Harshbarger at engsbh@hofstra.edu.

  (The chair of the English department has indicated this course may be counted as a English elective toward the completion of English requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 20B (H1) CHINA AND INTERNATIONAL LAW
  Professor Julian Ku, Hofstra University School of Law
  MW 4:30-5:55
  CRN: 91353

  This class will explore how the rise of China will impact the development of international legal institutions and the application of international law more generally.   The class will begin with a brief introduction to contemporary international law and its use and relevance to contemporary international relations.  It will then consider China’s use and treatment of international law with respect to a variety of contemporary global issues including: the use of military force to intervene for humanitarian reasons, the protection of foreign investment, and the settlement of maritime and territorial disputes.  

  Over the past forty years, China has gone from one of the poorest and most isolated countries in the world to one of the leading and most influential nations in the world.  As the world’s largest economy (and carbon emitter), and as the second largest military power, China’s impact on the rest of world is, and will continue to be, huge in areas as diverse as international trade, use of military force, the response to climate change, the rise of transnational terrorist groups, and the promotion of human rights.   

  As China has continued to rise in global power and influence, the use of international law as a mechanism for regulating and limiting the actions of nation-states has come under strain.  While international institutions like the United Nations and the World Trade Organizations continue to promote the use of international law, scholars and policymakers have questioned the efficacy and importance of international law as a factor in international relations.  Moreover, the relative decline of United States economic and military power compared to nations like China have called into question the future viability of international institutions that the U.S. has long supported. 

  For these reasons, there is little doubt that “the rise of China” is one of the most important factors in the future of international law.

  HUHC 20C (H1) 100 OBJECTS: DO WE OWN THINGS OR DO THEY OWN US?
  Professor Sophie Hawkins, Religion
  MW 2:55-4:20
  CRN: 92556

  In this seminar we will examine our relationship to the things that surround us—from seemingly mundane household items (e.g. the table, the cardboard box) to treasured keepsakes (e.g. love letters) to city monuments (e.g. Statue of Liberty). Through fieldwork and a case study approach we will learn about the often surprising historical and cultural formations that underpin both the objects themselves and our relationships with them. We will question whether we are in fact defined by the things we own/consume/collect, and if so whether it then makes sense to talk about the agency of inanimate things. We will be reading widely from contemporary scholars of material culture, anthropologists, poets, and essayists, and we will be visiting several museums in NYC. The end goal of the seminar will be to collaboratively create a digital cabinet of curiosities of 100 objects whose stories we can tell. 

  (The chair of the Religion Department has indicated this course may be counted as a Religion elective toward the completion of Religion requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 020D (H1) SCIENCE AND SOCIETY: CLASHES AND COLLABORATIONS
  Professor Sabrina Sobel, Chemistry
  MW 2:55-4:20
  CRN: 92560

  Throughout history, the pursuit of knowledge has been influenced by the prevailing culture. In this seminar, we will explore how the development of math, physics and chemistry have been shaped by culture by reading and discussing select science history books.

  HUHC 20E (H1) THE WEST WING VS. THE REAL THING: THE POLITICS, PEOPLE, RESEARCH AND WRITING ABOUT THE MOST POWERFUL OFFICE IN THE WORLD AS PORTRAYED IN THE MOST POWERFUL MEDIUM IN THE WORLD
  Professor David Negrin, Radio, TV, Video, Film
  TR 2:20-3:45
  CRN: 92561

  Centered on the award winning television drama The West Wing, this honors seminar will analyze the legislative goals of the fictional Bartlett presidential administration and compare them to those of true-life presidential administrations in the last three decades. We will also study the research methods, writing techniques, and biography of the creator and show runner Aaron Sorkin. Of the numerous policies, laws, and achievements of the Bartlett administration on The West Wing, some have come to pass in our federal government and some have not. We will trace these domestic and foreign policy issues, analyze their portrayal on the show, and gauge any effect the show itself has had on policy successes or failures. At the same time we will reveal the ingenious writing, production, and overall creative process that made The West Wing one of the greatest dramas in the history of television. This course combines aspects of TV Writing and Production, Political Science, and Civics.

  (The chair of the RTVF department has indicated this course may be counted as a Television elective toward the completion of requirements for Television/Video majors or minors.)

  HUHC 20F (H1) HOW HAS THE LYNDON B. JOHSON PRESIDENCY INFLUENCED AMERICAN POLITICS IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY?
  Professor Meena Bose, Political Science
  TR 12:45-2:10
  CRN: 92558

  This honors seminar will examine the political leadership and legacy of President Lyndon B. Johnson.  Fifty years after Johnson signed the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, an evaluation of Johnson’s presidential record and continuing debates about those policies is timely and necessary.  Johnson’s presidency set the foundation for current policy discussions about the role of the federal government in social-welfare policy and civil rights.  While the seminar will focus primarily on domestic policy, we also will examine decision making in the Vietnam War, as those choices inform current deliberations about U.S. military intervention.

  A unique resource that the seminar will study closely is a collection of special monthly film reports of the Johnson presidency prepared by the Naval Photographic Center from mid-1966 through the conclusion of the presidency in 1969.  Hofstra’s Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency recently acquired this collection (donated by the estate of Naval Photographer Tom Atkins, who made the films), which is available on DVDs in Axinn Library’s Special Collections section.  Students will conduct independent primary research through these films and other archival resources, including documents and oral histories, to develop their own analyses of leadership and policy making in the Johnson presidency.

  Students additionally will have a special opportunity to participate in a symposium focusing on the Johnson presidency, particularly developments in voting rights, on December 3, 2015.  Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Robert A. Caro is expected to deliver the keynote address for the symposium, and students will have a special meeting with Mr. Caro to discuss their research on the Johnson presidency.

  (The chair of the Political Science department has indicated this course may be counted as a Political Science elective toward the completion of Political Science requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 20G (H1) FOUNDERS: EUGENE O’NEILL, ARTHUR MILLER, TENNESSEE WILLIAMS AND THE MAKING OF MODERN AMERICAN DRAMA
  Professor Iska Alter, English
  TR 11:10-12:35PM
  CRN: 94475

  Although theatre has been a part of American culture since colonial days, it does not become drama nor do plays become dramatic literature until the 20th century. Most responsible for that transformation were the playwrights Eugene O'Neill, Arthur Miller, and Tennessee Williams. These three dramatists attempt to stage not only the complexity of individual action and behavior, but they attempt as well to represent particular American concerns as they emerge through the personal.

   (The chair of the English department has indicated this course may be counted as a English elective toward the completion of English requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 20H (H1) ANIMALS IN FILM:  King Kong to Twelve Monkeys
  Professor Isabelle Freda, Radio, Television, Video, Film
  MW 4:30-5:55PM
  CRN: 94476

  The way that “nature” is conveyed to us visually is a story which includes some of the best known “stars” of the twentieth – century: King Kong, Flipper, Lassie, Willy and Jaws, to name only a few. The representation of the natural world through film began at the turn of the century in the development of early cinema techniques to tell stories, and continues today in the dramatization of the natural world in film, television, and across digital platforms.  This course examines how nature has been displayed across media and genres: the horror-nature film (Jaws, Willard, The Birds), Science Fiction (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Twelve Monkeys, Them!), the Western (Red River, Stagecoach), animation (The Lion King, Princess Monanoke), and the species-based narrative (Flipper, Lassie, The Black Stallion and Born Free), as well as examining the precursor to the spate of wildlife programming on television beginning in the fifties (Disney’s Living Desert). We will ask how the changing imagery of nature reflects social, cultural, and political trends and events in American society as well as within the film industry.

  Students will watch films outside of class. Readings, screenings, written reports required. Students may enroll for this course without having taken RTVF 10, though it is highly recommended.

  (The chair of the RTVF department has indicated this course may be counted as a Television elective toward the completion of requirements for Television/Video majors or minors.)

  HUHC 21A (H1) THE ART AND SCIENCE OF NEGOTIATION
  Professor Paul Martorana, Management and Entrepreneurship
  TR 2:20-3:45
  CRN: 92557

  Negotiation is a craft that holds cooperation and competition in creative tension.  While managers need analytical skills to develop optimal solutions they also need negotiation skills to win acceptance and implementation of these solutions.  This course is unapologetically experiential (and therefore fun!). The best way to learn negotiation skills is to negotiate in a safe environment with opportunities to take risks and receive feedback.  This highly experiential course involves interactive exercises and discussions that teach the skills, tactics and strategies for more effective one-on-one, multiparty, team, cross-cultural, one-time, and repeated-interaction negotiations.  Students learn by participating in exercises involving buyer-seller transactions, conflict resolution, ethical dilemmas, cross-cultural, labor-management and environmental issues.  The course is sequenced so that cumulative knowledge can be applied and practiced.  If you discover a tendency that you think needs correction, this is the place to try something new.  The negotiation exercises will provide you with an opportunity to attempt strategies and tactics in a low-risk environment, learn about yourself and build your confidence.

  HUHC 21B (H1) WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT BUSINESS
  Professor Simon Jawitz, Finance
  TR 2:20-3:45PM
  CRN: 94477

  This course is designed for students who have no prior exposure to business courses. It will provide such students with the tools they need to understand the business world from the inside.  It begins with the assumption that to make sense of our very complex world everyone needs basic information about how businesses come to be and function in relation to one another.  To that end, it will provide a basic understanding of corporate finance, accounting, the debt and equity capital markets and the central role that financial analysis and decision making play in our integrated global economy. Students will learn about how corporations are created and organized, the respective roles and duties of boards of directors, management and shareholders and how conflicts arise and may be resolved.  Students will begin to develop the ability to read and understand financial statements and gain some familiarity with the basic tools used in valuing a business. Students will explore in some depth the concepts of risk and return and learn the fundamentals and key drivers of financial analysis.  Real world examples will be used to illustrate these concepts as we develop them throughout the semester.

  The objective of the course is not to encourage students to pursue careers in business.  Nor is it intended as a substitute for courses offered in the Zarb School of Business. While students considering studies in accounting or finance may wish to take this course as an introduction, the purpose of this course is to provide students with information and analytical skills that they will be able to apply in any career.  As it will cover material discussed in Zarb core courses it is not appropriate for current Zarb students.

• Spring 2015

  Spring 2015 HUHC SEMINARS

  HUHC 020A (H1) LAW AND FAMILY
  Professor Joanna Grossman, Hofstra University School of Law
  TR 11:10-12:35 – BRES 202
  CRN: 22815

  This course will explore the law's regulation of families through historical, contemporary, and interdisciplinary perspectives. It will cover topics such as cohabitation; marriage; divorce; child custody and support; child abuse; adoption; and parent-child relationships in the age of sexual freedom, gay rights, and reproductive technology.

  HUHC 20B (H1) J.M. COETZEE AND POST MODERNISM
  Professor Lynne Cohen, School for University Studies
  TR 2:20-3:45 – BRES 208
  CRN: 20502

  This course will explore three novels of Nobel Prize Winner, J. M. Coetzee (born in South Africa in 1940): Disgrace (1999); Elizabeth Costello (2003) and The Childhood of Jesus (2013) from the perspectives of postmodernism and contemporary literary criticism. Two other texts will be required to look at against Coetzee's: Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899) and Cormac McCarthy's The Road (2006). The course will also reference the renewed interest in South Africa owing to Nelson Mandela's recent death, the Pistorius trial and literature of Nadine Gordimer.

  HUHC 20C (H1) IRISH DRAMA AND THE POLITICAL STAGE
  Professor Patricia Navarra, Writing Studies and Composition
  TR 2:20-3:45 – NETH 020
  CRN: 21523

  This course examines Irish drama as cultural and political collaboration, inflected through ideology, staging and programming. We will consider the origin and international influence of the Irish Literary Revival (Yeats, Lady Gregory, Synge) in the midst of Ireland's republican revolution, with its roots in Dublin and the Aran Islands; the 1980 formation of the Field Day Company by writer Brian Friel and actor Stephen Rea in Northern Ireland, and the tradition of Theater Festivals in Dublin and Galway during the rise and development of one of the most powerful national dramas of the twentieth century. Beckett, O'Casey, and Edward Martyn, along with the contemporary works of McDonagh and McPherson will be considered. We will examine the public discourse of Irish drama in the spirit of poet Seamus Heaney, who, having seen the first production of "Translations" in Derry, declared, "This is what theater was supposed to do."

  HUHC 20D (H1) CREATIVE WRITING IN THE WISE FOOL TRADITION
  Professor Janet Kaplan, English & Creative Writing Department
  MW 2:55-4:20 – GALLWG 013
  CRN: 20503

  Students will study the tradition of the fool in literature, from early Chinese poetry through Shakespeare and the Native American tradition, then move on to look at the Dadaists and the Surrealists, and at absurdist works by such 20th century writers as John Cage, Barbara Guest, Eugene Ionesco, and Samuel Beckett. Finally, we'll consider work by contemporary writers such as Sherman Alexie, John Ashbery, Dave Eggers, Harryette Mullen, Sarah Vowell, Matvei Yankelevich, and others. Students will respond to these works by writing poetry, short fiction, hybrid texts that include visual collage, and short plays.

  HUHC 20E (H1) SIX GREAT PAINTINGS
  Professor Laurie Fendrich, Fine Arts and Art History
  MW 2:55-4:20 – BRES 206
  CRN: 24672

  This is an exciting course for students who wish to develop a rich approach to understanding the meaning of painting. The course requires no previous study of studio art or art history, but is open to sophomores, juniors and seniors only. Through the close study of six great paintings selected from the history of Western art, students will examine individual paintings from multiple perspectives. The list of artists whose work we study is as follows: Memling, Leonardo, Velásquez, Cézanne, Picasso and Warhol. Students will learn to look at individual paintings the way painters look at them—with close attention to the brushstroke, the composition, the way the details fit into the whole, and the means by which color, light and shadow reinforce the painting's structure. We will also ask questions about the historical, sociological and economic "surround" of the individual paintings. What was life like when the painting was painted? What were other artists doing at the time? How well known was the artist at the time? Who was his audience? What happened to the painting after it was painted, and where is it now? Students will read essays or informative chapters from books that have been written about the individual paintings--e.g. the art historian Leo Steinberg's well-known analysis of Las Meninas. Seminar discussions will focus on studying and discussing projected images and discussing the reading assignments; these are kept to a minimum in order to allow students the necessary time it will take to research and write their research papers. The course requires visiting three New York City museums in order to directly look at a few paintings. In exchange for fulfilling this requirement, as well as for individual extended tutorial meetings with the instructor regarding the research paper, two class meetings will be cancelled. The major part of this course is a library research paper (15 pages) on a work of art the student chooses (in consultation with the instructor). Students will submit the paper in various stages (there will be fixed dates)—the thesis, bibliography, outline, first draft, and final draft (due the last day of class). Note that the entirety of the last part of the course is devoted to individual student seminar presentations, based on the research paper, which will be modeled on the approach to looking at paintings students learn during the first half of the course.

  HUHC 20F FROM THE PAGE TO THE STAGE: CONCEPTUALIZING AND CREATING LIVE OPERA PERFORMANCE
  Professor Isabel Milenski, Music
  TR 4:30-5:55 – LOWE 203
  CRN: 24673

  Opera is one of the most complex, dramatic and visceral forms of art. The very nature of opera is interdisciplinary. It is storytelling through music, word, theater and spectacle, a celebration of the beauty and violence of human expression framed in aesthetic experience. This will not be a traditional academic course on opera. Instead, theoretical study will launch our visionary work into the realm of performance. We will gain the skills to create one's own production concepts. This course will examine the influences, probe critical discussions and generate creative reflections around three exciting operas, Monteverdi's Orfeo, Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann and Richard Strauss' Elektra. Through study of textual and musical methods of storytelling, we will discover their mythological themes and their sources in literature and the visual arts. We will uncover a prism of perspective to approach each work through philosoply, psychoanalysis, gender studies and politics. Students will encounter operatic mis en scènes by some of the most infamous avant-garde directors and designers of recent times. This exploration of contemporary performance practice will deepen our understanding of the questions these productions ask, as well as how one creates a conceptual language for the stage. Throughout our theoretical study, students will weave their own artisitic visions, applying them to concept building, aesthetics and dramaturgy in order to create their own directorial concept and stage design for each opera we study. We will attend a dress-rehearsals or performance of one of these productions at the Metropolitan Opera. You do not need a background in music or any of the artistic disciplines related to opera. Just bring your creativity! Possible works to study beyond our three representative works include: Orphée by Philip Glass, Orfeo ed Euridice by Gluck, Orphée by Cocteau, Tales of Hoffmann by E.T.A. Hoffmann, Elektra: Production directed by Patrice Chéreau, Film: Mourning Becomes Elektra, Electra by Sophocles, Electra by Euripides, Elektra by Hoffmanstal Background material and theroetical texts for full or partial reading include: The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche, The Cambridge Introduction to Tragedy by Jennifer Wallace, Opera as Drama by Joseph Kerman, Unsettling Opera by David J. Levin, Orpheus and the Roots of Platonism by Algis Uzdavinys, Mad Loves: Women and Music in Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Electra After Freud: Myth and Culture by Jill Scott, and then, you act by Anne Bogart, The Cambridge Introduction to Richard Strauss, Edited by Charles Youmans

  HUHC 20G (H1) THE WORLD'S NEXT PLAN FOR ENDING GLOBAL POVERTY
  Professor Kara Alaimo, Public Relations
  MW 2:55-4:20 DAVSN 014
  CRN: 24674

  The United Nations is currently in the process of developing the world's next plan to end global poverty and achieve sustainable development. This honors seminar will focus on how the U.N. and the broader international community can build global support among key constituencies – including citizens, governments, civil society, and the business community – in order to implement this new agenda. The class will begin with background on global poverty and its root causes as well as the Millennium Development Goals - the world's current plan for ending poverty, which expires in 2015. We will follow developments in real time as the international community negotiates the world's next anti-poverty plan. Next, we will study global advocacy tactics. Students will craft their own strategies for how the U.N. can build the international support it will need in order to finally eradicate extreme poverty and its root causes and protect the environment.

  HUHC 021A (H1) DEVELOPING A NEW PRODUCT
  Professor Boonghee Yoo, Marketing & International Business
  TR 11:10-12:35 – CV STARR 304A
  CRN 24306

  A business takes three steps to develop a new product or service successfully: Market Segmentation (Identify and profile distinct groups of buyers who differ in their needs and preferences), Market Targeting (Select one or more attractive and fitting market segments to enter), and Product Positioning (For each target segment, design a right quality product and change customer beliefs and attitudes). Specifically, the course will help students to learn those concepts in depth and develop necessary skills to implement the concepts to real business situations. The course will primarily consist of lectures, discussions, case study, journal articles, real data collection and analysis, and computer applications.

• Fall 2014

  FALL 2014 HUHC SEMINARS

  HUHC 20A (H1) THE IMAGE OF THE ARTIST IN SOCIETY
  Professor Anna Troester, Dance
  MW 2:55-4:20PM
  CRN: 90955

  From the Bohemian Greenwich Village art circles of the early 1900’s, to the Balanchine Ballets that graced the halls of Lincoln Center, to the activist Folk movement of the 1960’s, the artist has played many roles in society. They include that of the elite virtuoso, the common entertainer, the vagabond philosopher, the activist and the celebrity. The “starving artist” writing his novel, the nameless cabaret dancer performing in nightclubs, the touring pop star showing live at Madison Square Garden, and the designer for major media companies like Apple or Google are just a few of the diverse examples of creative influence in our society. Using 20th Century United States history as a lens, this course will examine the distinct social roles of the artist exhibited through some of the major cultural movements of the past 100 years. This course will consider the questions, What is an artist? What social, historical, political or economic factors make certain social roles possible for the artist? How might the artist’s area of influence change considering current trends in our society and what might be the potential impact? Course materials will include sociological and historical texts, work samples from selected artists, as well as media that reflect perceptions of those artists in their respective times.

  HUHC 20B (H1) THE SIMPSONS – BROADWAY BABIES: THE STORIES WE TELL ABOUT OURSELVES
  Professor Richard J. Pioreck, English
  MW 4:30-5:55
  CRN: 91518

  Any regular viewer knows that The Simpsons are ever ready to break into song.  The musical is America's contribution to world art.  Overwhelmingly, the subject of these musicals is relationships.  While some musicals have explored other topics and ideas in the last 35 years, the musical was founded on the tried and true story of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl.  This central purpose works very well for the writers of The Simpsons to explore the plethora of characters who inhabit this all-American town.  What the writers do is explore relationships through the grotesque lens rather than through the melodramatic lens that supplies the happy ending that is stereotypical of the musical. 

  The thing the musical does better than most other forms of art is to handle serious subjects in an off-handed, non-confrontational way.  Music takes the bite of of the implied criticism.  Music allows us to recognize and smile at the foibles in the story, but because the problem is part of the music, not the plot, we can say as Homer often does, "it's true, it's true.  It's so funny because it's true."  But then because we are laughing at the problem, we do not have to deal with the problem.  So while we laugh at the parody, we are also laughing at the foolishness that we recognize, and we are laughing because we realize we might keep laughing, but in Brechtian terms, most likely we will not be galvanized to act.

  The musical is America's first sustained cultural export. The form was embraced by the world, and it gave among the first enduring statements about whom Americans believe themselves to be. The stories portrayed on the stage in the American musical have come from the literature of the world as well as from American sources. Regardless of the source, the subject matter is adapted to express thoughts about American ideas and ideals. Looking at the librettos rather than the performances of these plays, but considering the historical context of these plays, provides an insight into the consciousness of the national literature. This course looks at this literature thematically while framing the works in an historical context, providing an overview of the musical's place and cultural importance.

  Works Used in The Simpsons (choices made based on availability of the works)

  A Streetcar Named Desire – Tennessee Williams
  The Music Man –Meredith Wilson
  Marry Poppins – Travers/Disney
  Evita – Webber and Rice
  The Sound of Music – Rodgers & Hammerstein
  Bye, Bye, Birdie – Strouse & Adams
  Paint Your Wagon - Lerner & Loewe
  Guys and Dolls - Loesser
  42nd Street– Dubin & Warren
  My Fair Lady – Lerner & Loewe
  Beauty and the Beast – Menken & Ashman
  Camelot – Lerner & Loewe
  Fiddler on the Roof – Stein, Bock & Harnick
  Sound of Music – Rodgers & Hammerstein
  West Side Story – Sondheim & Bernstein
  Grease –Jacobs & Casey

  Texts
  Going Out – David Nasaw
  Broadway – Brooks Atkinson
  Our Musicals, Ourselves – John Bush Jones
  (A previous indication that this course may count toward the completion of English majors/minors was mistaken.  We regret the error.  Don’t hesitate to contact the HUHC office if you have questions or concerns.)

  HUHC 20C (H1) MEDIA ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION
  Professor Mary Ann Allison, Journalism, Media Studies, and Public Relations
  MW 2:55-4:20
  CRN: 92916

  Cell phones do more than distract us, they change everything in our society. Cell phones change how we get promoted at work, how we define what truth is, how large our families are, even what a country is. Not for the first time in human history, new communication technology is changing everything about human society. Some of changes are unprecedented; some recall earlier times. For example, humans are now responding to the Internet in some of the same ways people responded to the development of language. 

  Topics covered situate the interaction between media and society in "big history" (from the Big Bang to the present) and include a model of media-triggered social change, which facilitates examining the present and future for individual and social benefit.

  HUHC 020D (H1) COLLEGE LIFE ON SILVERSCREEN
  Professor John Munz, History
  MW 2:55-4:20
  CRN: 92921

  This course is a study of how College Life and Higher Learning have been depicted through popular American films, and how each film reflects the historical time period in which it was created. Students will examine how social identities are constructed and policed through popular films, and how fictitious narratives can offer important historical perspective into their contemporary zeitgeist.  By watching and discussing the selected films, and reading paired academic texts, students will utilize film as an historical primary source in order to critically analyze how cultural and social conflicts over race, class & gender are worked out on the silver screen. From the less known College (1927)to the widely seen but rarely analyzed Animal House (1978), students will view films spanning the 20th & 21st Centuries, with each film chosen to allow students to examine the historical time period through the window of popular film. 

  HUHC 20E (H1) POLITICS IN THE PRESS IN AMERICA FROM THE REVOLUTION TO WIKILEAKS
  Dean Evan Cornog, The Lawrence Herbert School of Communication
  TR 2:20-3:45
  CRN: 92922

  This course will explore the vital, and changing, relationship between politics and the press since the nation's founding. We will explore how changes in our political life have been both reflected in and shaped by the press. We will also examine how changes in how news and opinion are delivered (print, radio, TV, online, mobile) have transformed (and are still transforming) our political life. 

  HUHC 20F (H1) CROSS CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY
  Professor Sergei Tsytsarev, Psychology
  TR 12:45-2:10
  CRN: 92921

  The course’s goal is to increase the awareness of students of the cultural perspective on basic and applied issues in psychology; The objectives include a) to read the literature on diversity and multiculturalism and examine the implications of these concepts and perspectives on the training, delivery of psychological services, and policy development in professional psychology; and b) to develop initial skills of multicultural interviewing, assessment and cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy.

  Major theoretical and applied issues in cross-cultural psychology with the emphasis on topic are covered. Students learn about the impact of cultural diversity in the domains of human development, education, emotions, cognitions and psychopathology. Readings are assigned that are relevant to assessment and the counseling of children and families of various ethnic, cultural, economic background as well as members of some subcultures within the diverse American culture: individuals with various sexual orientations, alternative life styles, the rich, the poor, the homeless, members of the drug culture, etc.   Students are assigned to work on a) research project in the area of multicultural studies; b) an observational study of a community that must be different from their own, and on c) interviewing a person who has been in this culture for less than 5 years. Their findings are presented in class.  Students receive individual supervision from the course instructor.

  One objective in this class is to train students to be competent in a variety of topics in cross-cultural psychology, including some that are sensitive in everyday conversation.  These include questions to help us learn about cultural biases on diagnosis and treatment, drug and alcohol use, typical and atypical sexual behavior, homicidal and suicidal thoughts, peculiar thought patterns, culture bound syndromes, and so forth.  Acquisition of these skills is required for fully understanding the motivations and behaviors.  Students are expected to let their professor know if they are reluctant, unable, or uncomfortable when discussing those issues.

  (The chair of the Psychology department has indicated this course may be counted as a psychology elective toward the completion of psychology requirements for majors or minors.  Also, this course DOES NOT count for cross-cultural credit in the Hofstra Distribution System.)

  HUHC 20I (H1) WHAT’S NEW IN BRAIN RESEARCH – AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR OUR LEARNING AND OUR LIVES
  Professor Susan Zwirn, Teaching, Literacy and Leadership
  TR       2:20-3:45
  CRN: 92920

  This course explores what advances in neuroscience can tell us about learning. Brain imaging studies have given us new understanding of the brain's neural systems and how they relate to memory, attention, emotion and creativity. But what can these studies tell us about learning and other aspects of our lives? Through lecture, discussion and hands-on activities, students will discover strategies to apply to their own lives both in and out of school. Linking cognitive science with other disciplines, the course will examine ways to stimulate the brain’s natural approaches to learning. In this dynamic, rapidly changing field, the course’s content will remain open to the latest discoveries.

  HUHC 21A (H1) What Everyone Needs To Know About Business
  Professor Simon Jawitz, Finance
  TR 2:55-4:20PM
  CRN: 92917

  This course is designed for students who have no prior exposure to business courses. It will provide such students with the tools they need to understand the business world from the inside.  It begins with the assumption that to make sense of our very complex world everyone needs basic information about how businesses come to be and function in relation to one another.  To that end, it will provide a basic understanding of corporate finance, accounting, the debt and equity capital markets and the central role that financial analysis and decision making play in our integrated global economy. Students will learn about how corporations are created and organized, the respective roles and duties of boards of directors, management and shareholders and how conflicts arise and may be resolved.  Students will begin to develop the ability to read and understand financial statements and gain some familiarity with the basic tools used in valuing a business. Students will explore in some depth the concepts of risk and return and learn the fundamentals and key drivers of financial analysis.  Real world examples will be used to illustrate these concepts as we develop them throughout the semester.

  The objective of the course is not to encourage students to pursue careers in business.  Nor is it intended as a substitute for courses offered in the Zarb School of Business. While students considering studies in accounting or finance may wish to take this course as an introduction, the purpose of this course is to provide students with information and analytical skills that they will be able to apply in any career.  As it will cover material discussed in Zarb core courses it is not appropriate for current Zarb students.

  3/4/14

• Spring 2014

  Spring 2014 HUHC Seminars

  HUHC 20I (H1) SPIRITUAL MEMOIR
  Professor Donna Freitas, Religion
  MF 11:15 – 12:40PM
  CRN:23408
  BRESL 026

  In this class we will explore the genre of spiritual memoir/autobiography as a window onto the varieties of American experience and the meanderings of the contemporary self.  We will begin (albeit briefly) with a decidedly contemporary spiritual memoir, then quickly jump back in time to a classic figure, before moving forward again to 20th and 21st century efforts by Americans to become fully human or to become divine. We will address questions concerning the revelation (and concealment) of the self on the page in the context of discrete religious and spiritual traditions, in varying cultural contexts, as well as explore what it is like to search, to be spiritually “lost,” and to discover one has no faith at all. We read a diverse selection of women and men, young and old that will allow us to ask how gender, race, sexual identity, and class affect spiritual experience and its translation into prose. Texts may include works by Joan Didion, St. Augustine of Hippo, Richard Rodriguez, Elizabeth Gilbert, Marjan Satrapi, Eboo Patel, Kevin Roose, and Carlene Bauer. The major writing assignment will include a short work of narrative nonfiction.  There will be two weekend daytrips into NYC dates to be determined.
  (The chair of the Religion Department has indicated this course may be counted as a departmental elective toward the completion of requirements for religion majors or minors.)

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  HUHC 20A (H1) CHARACTER AND THE GOOD LIFE
  Professor Ira Singer, Philosophy
  TR 11:10-12:35PM
  CRN: 23406
  BRESL 202

  Socrates famously claimed that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” This claim is itself one sketchy vision of a good life; it is also a call to describe and to reflect on various visions of living well. What sort of life (or what sorts of lives) should count as genuinely “good,” that is as admirable and worthwhile? This opening question quickly raises other questions, ranging from the abstract (what is the distinctive human place in the scheme of things?) to the concrete (how should people be educated, what kinds of communities should they live in, what should they believe, in order to live well?). In this course, we will read and think about literary and philosophical classics that come to grips with these issues about the good life. We will begin with Plato’s Apology, in which Socrates raises the question of how to live if life is to have value, and literally stakes his own life on his answer. Each subsequent reading will propose, flesh out, and argue for a particular vision of the good life, of the kind of person who can live such a life, and of the kind of community that fosters good living.
  (The chair of the Philosophy Department has indicated this course may be counted as a departmental elective toward the completion of requirements for philosophy majors or minors.)

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  HUHC 20B (H1) OCCUPY SOMEWHERE: PUBLIC SPACE AND PUBLIC SPEECH IN THE UNITED STATES
  Professor Mary Anne Trasciatti, Rhetoric
  TR 2:20-3:45PM
  CRN: 20588
  BRESL 208

  Speech has to happen somewhere. Public speech requires public space. In this course we will investigate the nature, meaning, and availability of public space in the United States and its impact on the character and content of public speech. We will consider how material and ideological elements -- the natural landscape, movements in architecture and urban planning, technological developments, economics, law, immigration, war, cultural and political values-- interact to shape where, how, by whom, and for whom public speech happens in and out of doors. We will travel through time and "meet" stump speakers and soapbox orators, "tour" parks, squares, meeting halls, and other civic locations, "visit" rallies, riots, and parades. We will also travel through physical space: participation in at least one field trip is required.
  (The chair of the Rhetoric Department has indicated this course may be counted as a departmental elective toward the completion of requirements for rhetoric majors or minors.)

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  HUHC 20C (H1) THE MIND’S ALGORITHM: GETTING MACHINES TO “THINK” THE WAY WE THINK
  Professor Oskar Pineño, Psychology
  TR 2:20-3:45PM
  CRN: 21696
  NETH 013

  This seminar offers students with a dual interest in psychology and computer science an introduction to artificial intelligence (AI), the branch of computer science in charge of studying and developing intelligent machines and software. Instead of offering a broad theoretical perspective on AI, this seminar will provide the students with an interactive, hands-on experience in projects involving various techniques and skills, mainly related to computer programming and electronics, in order to build different “intelligent” systems. Students interested in mathematical models in cognitive psychology and willing to learn the C programming language for physical computing using the Arduino micro-controller are most welcome to join this seminar.
  (The chair of the Psychology Department has indicated this course may be counted as a departmental elective toward the completion of requirements for psychology majors or minors.)

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  HUHC 20D (H1) DEBATING DARWIN: A SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE CREATION VS. EVOLUTION CONTORVERSY
  Professor Daniel Varisco, Anthropology
  MW 2:55-4:20PM
  CRN: 20589
  BRESL 202

  With the 1859 publication of On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin inaugurated the modern biological theory of evolution. Within two decades virtually every prominent European scientist had abandoned earlier creationist and catastrophist thinking in favor of an evolutionary model, regardless of whether or not they believed in a God. Yet the debate over the scientific and religious issues has continued to the present. This course will look at the development of the creation myth in its biblical context and later interpretation within Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the importance of Darwin’s theory of evolution, the reception of Darwin’s theory in mid-nineteenth-century England, the subsequent controversy over Darwin and the teaching of evolution as science, “Social Darwinism” and “Intelligent Design.” Students will read a variety of primary texts on both sides of the debate.
  (The chair of the Anthropology Department has indicated this course may be counted as a departmental elective toward the completion of requirements for psychology majors or minors.)

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  HUHC 20F (H1) CROSSING BOARDERS: LANDMARK FIGURES OF SPANISH LITERATURE
  Professor Zenia DaSilva, Romance Languages
  MW 2:55-4:20PM
  CRN: 22264
  CALK 306

  You know some of the names... maybe most of them: El  Cid, Don Juan, Don Quixote, Mozart, Byron, Moliere, Man of la Mancha, Goya, George Bernard Shaw, Picasso, Verdi, Garcia Lorca, flamenco dance... But do you know how they are linked from times remote till this day? Do you know how they have evolved and been recreated in so many different ways? Read with us, listen with us, watch with us, and you will see how certain figures of Spanish literature have crossed the boundaries of nations and the borders of all the arts: from canvass and stone to theater, to novel, to opera, to film, to Broadway and to dance. And we will end with “Exit Laughing” sampling the current humor of Spain and relating it to our own. Are you ready to come out of the box?

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  HUHC 20G (H1) THE TRANSFORMATION OF MUSIC IN A CENTURY OF ELECTRONICA
  Professor Herb Deutsch, Music
  TR 12:45-2:10PM
  CRN: 24378
  MONR 119

  This course explores the inventions and artistic diversions that shaped musical thought from the early twentieth century into the digital age. The dramatic - sometimes often chaotic - changes in musical styles, the invention of electrical and electronic musical instruments and the interaction between “modernism”, abstract art and dadaism on musical thinking are all themes we will be exploring. Finally, a significant portion of our time will be spent discussing the profound effects of digital technology and audio manipulation on musical creativity and performance today. Original thought, ideas and projects will be encouraged.
  (The chair of the Music Department has indicated this course may be counted as a departmental elective toward the completion of the requirements for music majors or minors.)

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  HUHC 20H (H1) DRAMA, OPERA & DANCE: INTERACTIONS AND OPPOSITIONS
  Professor James Kolb, Drama
  MF 11:15-12:40
  CRN: 22265
  LOWE 217

  Drama dates from the 5th century B.C.E. in Greece, opera started in 1597 in Florence, Italy, and ballet started at Italian banquets in the late 15th Century, evolving into story ballet at the French court by the late 16th Century. Both opera and ballet as story forms can be traced back to ancient Greek tragedy and, in fact, opera sought to recreate the combination of music, story and dance that was typical of the ancient form.

  Shakespeare, in the early 17th Century had to compete with Masques presented at court, so he included song and dance in many of his later plays. Molière was obliged to work at the French court with both opera/ballet composers and choreographers, and adjusted his plays acordingly. In turn the dramas of Shakespeare, Molière, Beaumarchais, Sheridan, Goethe, Schiller, Victor Hugo and numerous other poets and playwrights provided the subject matter and story lines for both ballet and opera into the 21st Century. Even in modern dance, Martha Graham was regularly inspired to create modern dances based on ancient Greek stories and myths, including those dramatic ones involving Clytemnestra, Oedipus, and Medea.

  As much as we may see these forms as different, drama, opera and dance have much in common as, for the most part, they are all grounded in character depiction and story telling. Each form has also explored abstraction and has taken different directions in some of its work, but by and large these three forms of performing art share more than they differ. This seminar will explore the commonalities among these three forms from the 16th through the early part of the 21st Century. Because these are aural and visual forms, many examples from all three art forms will be seen and heard in class. Readings in the history of drama, ballet and opera, and readings of a number of plays will assist in connecting the dots among and between these three “differing worlds.”

• Summer Seminar 2013
  Summer Seminar 2013
• FALL 2013 HUHC SEMINARS

  HUHC 20A (H1) Literature, Psychoanalysis, and Narrative Medicine

  Professor Shari Zimmerman, English

  MW 2:55-4:20PM

  CRN: 91047

  This seminar explores the intersecting fields of literature, psychoanalysis, and narrative medicine by taking up a series of questions posed by and to each:  questions about memory and mourning, trauma and transference, evenly hovering attention and negative capability, the education and authority of the physician, the language of the unconscious, as well as the over-determined position of—and variously formulated relation between—doctor and patient, analyst and analysand, interpreter and text.  We approach these and other questions through a creative engagement with literary works as varied as Donne’s Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (selections) and Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”; formulations, advanced over the last century, by psychoanalytic theorists and clinicians ranging from (say) Freud and Ferenczi to Ferro and Laplanche; as well as texts composed by medical doctors (many of whom are also writers and/or analysts) such as Williams, Griffin or Charon.  Informing our study throughout will also be selected materials (from films to case studies to popular culture), that students will be invited to explore, along with several assigned critical essays—from the 2008 collection Psychoanalysis and Narrative Medicine—essays composed by literary scholars, psychoanalysts, and physicians whose parallel, cross-fertilizing, and at times competing discourses take up related ideas, problems, and concerns.  

  Given its focus, this course welcomes students majoring in the humanities, social sciences, as well as sciences (including those students who consider themselves pre-med); and it will strongly encourage the pursuit of individual passions and research interests. 

  (The chair of the English department has indicated this course may be counted as a departmental elective toward the completion of requirements for majors or minors.)

  HUHC 20B (H1) Gender Bending in French Literature

  Professor David Powell, Romance Languages

  MW 4:30-5:55PM

  CRN: 91669

  “The most far-reaching contribution [of feminist theory] is, of course,” AnnLouise Keating states on the site glbtq: an encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, & queer culture,[1], “feminists’ analysis of the social construction of gender. Often thought of as a recent phenomenon, transgressive images of gender identity can be found in literary texts from the Middle Ages to the present. In the French literary tradition, there are several important texts from the 13^th and 14^th centuries that explore possibilities of gender manipulation. There are several examples in the 19^th century in France as well as in the 20^th and 21^st centuries in France and Québec. An examination of these texts through a lens of queer and feminist theory will encourage students to engage in literary texts past and present with critical methodologies that will allow them to investigate the multi-layered structures of literary texts alongside sexual politics.

  Texts to be studied in this course are: Silence, Tristan de Nanteuil, and la Chanson d’Yde et Olive, all from the 13^th century. Portions of the philosophical treatise De planctu Naturae by Alain de Lille (12^th c.) will serve as a background to the medieval texts. Mademoiselle de Maupin (Théophile Gautier) and Gabriel (George Sand) will take the genderfuck into the 19^th century, followed by The Sand Child (Tahar Ben Jelloun) and Sex of the Stars (Monique Proulx) go into the late 20^th century, in Morocco and Québec. Comparative Literature, 50:4 (Autumn 1998): 265–285. 

  HUHC 20C (H1) Growing Up in Suburbia: Media Images and Realities
  Professor Carol T. Fletcher, Journalism, Media Studies, and Public Relations

  TR 2:20-3:45PM

  CRN: 93432

  This course will compare media representations of suburban childhood from the 1905s to present with the realities uncovered by investigative journalists and expressed in youth media projects. 

   

   Students will read such writers as William Finnegan (“Cold New World”),  Amy Harmon (“Autistic and Seeking a Place in the Adult World”), Jonathan Kozol (“Savage Inequalities”) and John Palfrey (“Born Digital”), as well as participate in a service learning project involving work with Long Island youth.

   

  Students will then produce a multimedia journalism project on an issue facing at-risk children on Long Island, drawing on resources from the Long Island Index and National Center for Suburban Studies, as well as reporting skills developed in class.

  HUHC 20D (H1) Creativity and Innovation in New York Culture

  Professor Victor Corona, Sociology

  TR 12:45-2:10PM

  CRN: 93437

  The course will trace how networks of social relationships that originated in 1960s downtown New York have continued to thread their way through cultural currents active in New York today. Focusing on three generations of underground performance artists, club personas, and stars of the city’s art world, course participants will examine distinct approaches to fame and creative expression. Studying these strategies will focus on how different waves of cultural producers tried to construct and sustain some experience capable of transcending mundane and oppressive strictures of modern life.

  (The chair of the Sociology department has indicated this course may be counted as a departmental elective toward the completion of requirements for majors or minors.) 

  HUHC 20E (H1) Religion, Entrepreneurship, and Community: Building for the Next Generation 

  Professor Hussein Rashid

  T/R 2:20-3:45

  CRN: 93438

   

  The new global economies of the 21st century demand high cultural literacy, including an understanding of religion’s role in society. In this course, we look at how ever changing religious attitudes and practices are shaping social justice thinking, business and community life. In addition to a discussion of academic studies, we will meet with social entrepreneurs, community organizers and business leaders who will talk about the realities of their projects, and the training they needed to be successful. Students with interests in social entrepreneurship, business, health sciences, global studies and sustainability are especially encouraged to enroll.

  (The chair of the Religion department has indicated this course may be counted as a departmental elective toward the completion of requirements for majors or minors.) 

  HUHC 20F (H1) Are We All Alone?: Exoplanets, Astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life

  Professor Stephen Lawrence, Physics and Astronomy

  TR 12:45-2:10PM

  CRN: 93434

  Are the Earth and our Solar System unique, or do other planets like ours exist?  How did life originate here on Earth?  Has life evolved elsewhere in our Galaxy?  Can we detect and communicate with an alien civilization?  Although NASA has identified the search for exoplanets and extra-terrestrial life as key goals for the coming century, astrobiology is still a very young and rapidly developing scientific discipline with many open-ended questions.  This course will sample a range of topics from exoplanetary science and astrobiology, including:  the study of planets around other stars, the origin and evolution of life on Earth, the search for life on Mars and other Solar System bodies, and the search for signals from extra-terrestrial intelligences.  In addition to astronomy, select concepts from biology, chemistry, anthropology, and information processing will be included.  Students should be very fluent with high-school-level algebra; prerequisite of MATH 050 or better, or consent of the instructor.

  HUHC 20H (H1) Embodiment and the Creative Process

  Professor Robin Becker, Dance

  TR 9:00-11:00AM

  CRN: 93435 

  In this course we will explore the relationship of the body in movement to the creative processes of thought and perception. We will be working with the somatic practice of Continuum Movement and with texts that support an inquiry into the role and meaning of the body.  In this time of technological advancement and great speed, there is a tendency to disassociate from the slower sensory intelligence of the body.  Western culture often views the body as a form to objectify in ways that are similar to how machines are viewed and understood. Continuum Movement challenges that perspective and views the body as an unfolding creative process that is in a dynamic exchange and communication with all life forms. The body is primarily water, and at its essence, Continuum Movement is an exploration of the properties and movement of fluid systems as they shape and form life both within the body and throughout the larger world. 

  Possible texts for the course will be Engaging the Movement of Life by Bonnie Gintis, DO,  A General Theory of Love by Thomas Lewis, M.D., Fari Amini, M.D., and Richard Lannon, M.D.,  and How Life Moves by Caryn McHose and Kevin Frank.  The course will also include DVDs documenting current research on movement and perception.

  The practice of Continuum Movement in no way resembles a dance or movement class in which one is asked to learn a prescribed set of movements. No prior movement experience is required for this course. Instead, this course will offer a process of engaging one’s own personal exploration of movement with the goal of becoming more conscious of the sensation of life as it unfolds into our awareness through the communication and expression of movement.

  HUHC 20I (H1) Who Are You?: A Critical Look at How the Media Views Your Generation

  Professor Ellen Frisina, Journalism, Media Studies, and Public Relations

  TR 2:20-3:45PM

  CRN: 93436

  Generation Z?  Millenials?  Echo Boomers? Internet Generation?  Trophy Kids? Boomerang Generation?  Peter Pan Generation?  

  Do you recognize yourself in any of these terms?  Each has been used in the media to describe your generation.  Each carries with it a weighty set of stereotypes that may or may not be true.  Each portrays a way that others view you – your attitudes, your accomplishments, your missteps, your future.  The media is powerful  – capable of making or breaking reputations and personalities, capable of setting the record straight or totally botching a situation.  And when that reputation is yours, and that situation is your future, it’s important to be able to understand the power of the media and its reach.  By critically analyzing the media’s view of your generation, we will use media literacy and media analysis skills to explore how these generalizations and categories affect how you see yourself; how your generation places itself in the global environment; how your opinions impact the future.  We will explore how your generation is perceived in all media and look critically at what journalists, columnists, essayists, pundits, and “experts” have to say about your generation. Are they spot on or dead wrong when they categorize the trends, fads, technologies, philosophies, music and cultural icons that define your generation?  And how does what they say impact what you think and how you achieve? 

   

  HUHC 21A (H1) What Everyone Needs To Know About Business

  Professor Simon Jawitz, Finance

  TR 2:20-3:55PM

  CRN: 93433

  This course is designed to provide students who have no prior exposure to business the tools they need to understand the business world from the inside.  It begins with the assumption that to make sense of our very complex world everyone needs basic information about how businesses come to be and function in relation to one another.  To that end, it will provide a basic understanding of corporate finance, accounting, the debt and equity capital markets and the central role that financial analysis and decision making play in our integrated global economy. Students will learn about how corporations are created and organized, the respective roles and duties of boards of directors, management and shareholders and how conflicts arise and may be resolved.  Students will begin to develop the ability to read and understand financial statements and gain some familiarity with the basic tools used in valuing a business. Students will explore in some depth the concepts of risk and return and learn the fundamentals and key drivers of financial analysis.  Real world examples will be used to illustrate these concepts as we develop them throughout the semester.

  The objective of the course is not to encourage students to pursue careers in business.  Nor is it intended as a substitute for courses offered in the Zarb School of Business. While students considering studies in accounting or finance may wish to take this course as an introduction, the purpose of this course is to provide students with information and analytical skills that they will be able to apply in any career.

  2/25/13

• SPRING 2013 HUHC SEMINARS

  HUHC 20A (H1) SHAKESPEARE AND OPERA
  Professor John DiGaetani, English
  TR 11:10-12:35PM
  CRN: 24454
  BRESL 202

  This course will study how William Shakespeare has inspired several major opera composers.  Giuseppe Verdi wrote three operas based on Shakespeare’s plays: Macbeth, Othello, and Falstaff.   We will look at all three of these operas.  We will also look at Wagner’s Meistersinger von Nuremberg since it was based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream.   We will also look at Byron’s The Two Foscari and The Corsair, which both became operas by Verdi.   We will also have some discussion on minor operas based on Shakespeare’s plays plus orchestral works by Tchaikovsky and Schubert.   This course will require an oral report, a paper, a mid-term exam, a final exam, plus some essay quizzes.   This course will investigate music, theater, and literature and how they can connect to create opera.

  HUHC 20B (H1) CENTRAL ASIA: THE NAVEL OF THE WORLD
  Professor Alexander Naymark, Art History
  TR 9:35-11:00AM
  CRN: 20685
  LOWE 203

  The course deals with the cultural history of the part of Asia which is called Central because it is situated in the very center of Eurasian continent. This “centrality” made it culturally connected to all great civilizations of Ancient and Mediaeval Eurasia. There were five periods when the people of Central Asia defined the cultural face of the world.

  1. Greeks who settled in Bactria after Alexander created in the 3rd and 2nd century BCE their own brilliant version of Hellenistic civilization in Indo-Afghan region that deeply affected art and culture of the Iranian and Indian worlds.
  2. From the 1st to the 3rd centuries CE most of India and Central Asia were united in huge Kushan Empire, which played a role of a major political and trade partner for Rome and China and served as the bridge allowing Buddhism to move from India to East Asia.
  3. From the 4th to the 8th centuries merchants of Sogdia, another Central Asian country, controlled the most profitable enterprise of the time – the Silk Road, using its enormous profits to create one of the most advanced cultures of the contemporary word.
  4. In the 8th century Central Asia was conquered by the Arabs and became a province of the Caliphate, but only a century later the members of Central Asian Samanid dynasty took up the role of the champions of Iranian traditions in Islamic civilization and developed rich and most advanced science, literature and art.
  5. Finally, one of the greatest conquerors in history, Timur, or as he was called in Europe, Tamerlane, created his great empire with its center in Samarqand, where he made a city that is one of the architectural wonders of the world. Science, literature and art flourished in Central Asia under his immediate successors, but beginning with the 16th century Central Asia gradually fell into a period of economic decay.

  In the 19th century Central Asia was conquered by Russia, forming colonial Turkestan, then became a part of the Soviet Union and most recently gained independence as five separate states. In this course we will examine how these newly independent states in Central Asia use its history for the purposes of political propaganda.

  HUHC 20C (H1) EAST AFRICA IN A GLOBALIZING WORLD
  Professor Arthur Dobrin
  TR 2:20-3:45PM
  CRN: 21939
  NETH 013

  The East African coast is now a flash point of conflict with Islamic fundamentalist groups active there. But there is much more to the area than this.  We will look at this part of the African continent in both its historic and contemporary settings. Through history and geography, literature and films, students will develop a deeper understanding of the underlying dynamics of contemporary Kenya, Uganda, and to lesser extents, Tanzania and Somalia.   

  HUHC 20D (H1) ENDLESS FORMS MOST BEAUTIFUL: EXPLAINING DESIGN IN NATURE, FROM ARISTOTLE TO DARWIN
  Professor Brett Bennington, Geology
  MW 2:55-4:20PM
  CRN: 20686
  BRESL 202

  This seminar will explore the problem of explaining design in nature from Aristotle to Hume to Darwin and up to the present.  Emphasis will be on understanding the problem of accounting for  “final cause” in organic beings and Darwin’s solution to this problem based on the mechanisms of Natural Selection and Sexual Selection.  We will also discuss how genetics and the new field of “evo-devo” have largely confirmed Darwin’s intuition by revealing the mechanisms by which selection is translated into “endless forms, most beautiful and most wonderful”.  Finally, we will consider whether “intelligent design” is a viable competing explanation the appearance of design in biology.

  Readings for discussion and written analysis will be drawn from:
  Aristotle
  De Rerum Natura - Lucretius
  Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion - David Hume
  The Voyage of the Beagle - Charles Darwin
  The Origin of Species - Charles Darwin
  The Descent of Man - Charles Darwin
  Darwinism and its Discontents - Michael Ruse
  Tower of Babel - Robert Pennock
  Your Inner Fish - Neil Shubin

  Supporting media will include excerpts from:
  What Darwin Never Knew (NOVA documentary)
  Darwin’s Dilemma (Creationist documentary)
  Expelled (ID documentary)
  Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial (NOVA documentary)
  The Rap Guide to Evolution (music/performance) - Baba Brinkman

  HUHC 20F (H1) THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS
  Professor Grant Saff, Geography and Global Studies
  MW 2:55-4:20PM
  CRN: 22604
  RSVLT 206

  Since 2008 the global economy has undergone a “crisis” resulting in major job loses, falling incomes for many, bank failures and bailouts, massive US home foreclosures and increasing political polarization and instability. Iceland went bankrupt; Greece has effectively defaulted on its debt; the Eurozone is in crisis; the US housing market is still below the level it was in 2006; yet the Chinese economy continues to grow and the US is officially no longer in a recession. This course tries to explain all of the above by situating the crisis into three converging and related process: neo-liberal economic policy, globalization of production (and consumption) and the shift from manufacturing to services (particularly financial services). 

  This seminar will trace the history and trajectory of “globalization” and show that the roots of the crisis run deep and that the current economic recession was not unexpected. In particular, we will explore how neo-liberal policies have not only make globalization possible but also have provided the ideological cover for the creation of an unregulated shadow banking system. We will attempt to demystify the complexities of the global system to provide the tools to allow you to clearly understand the economic challenges that we are all facing. 

  (The chair of the Geography and Global Studies department has indicated this course may be counted as a departmental elective toward the completion of requirements for Geography and Global Studies majors or minors.)

  HUHC 20G (H1) EDUTAINMENT, MEDIA AND SOCIAL CHANGE
  Professor Nancy Kaplan, Radio, Television, Video and Film
  M/W 12:50 -2:15PM
  CRN: 24455
  Dempster 306

  This course will focus on the use of entertainment education (E-E) in television, radio, and the web via dramatic programming to address social issues such as teen pregnancy, domestic violence, and HIV/AIDS.  The E-E strategy involves incorporating an educational message into popular entertainment content in order to raise awareness, increase knowledge, create favorable attitudes, and ultimately motivate people to take socially responsible action in their own lives.  Students will be introduced to projects done in the United States as well as in Africa and South America and the work of the World Health Organization and BBC International.

  HUHC 20H (H1) ANATOMICAL DRAWING
  Professor Nathan Wasserbauer, Fine Arts
  TR: 4:30-5:55PM
  CRN: 22605
  Calkins 115

  This course will offer a detailed visual analysis of human anatomy through the use of academic perceptual drawing.  Each week will offer a new area of focus beginning with an introduction to the skeleton, and moving toward more specific areas such as the hand & arm, the torso & the shoulders, neck & head, and foot & leg.  Students will draw from 2D Medical plates, classical drawings by old masters, a full-scale model of the skeleton, and a live model.  Supplemental visual material will also be explored for animal anatomy.  This seminar will cover topics ranging from art history to science, and will be an excellent opportunity for both pre-medical and humanities students to share their unique perspective in the learning process.  Prior drawing classes are not required, and the content of the course will offer challenges to both the beginner and advanced drawing student.

  HUHC 20I (H1) POMPEII: LIFE AND DEATH OF A ROMAN CITY
  Professor Ilaria Marchesi, Comparative Languages and Literatures/Classics
  MW 12:50 – 2:15PM
  CRN: 24456
  Breslin 208

  Buried in an eruption of the volcano Vesuvius in 79 CE and rediscovered only in the mid-eighteenth century, the town of Pompeii, with its massive forum, its many temples, baths, theaters, shops, houses and streets, offers an incredible opportunity for our understanding of Roman life. Through an examination of the surviving artworks (frescoes, sculpture, objects and architecture), and through the reading of primary sources (literary and epigraphic evidence), we will learn about the ways in which literature, combined with material culture and archeology, may reconstruct the life of a whole city with the help of its remains. We will explore Pompeii’s daily life, its economy, religious practices, entertainment, urban development, and politics.  From our work, we will be able to construct a fuller picture of Roman civilization as a whole.

  (The chair of the Comparative Literature department and the director of the Classics major/minor have indicated this course may be counted as a departmental elective toward the completion of requirements for the Comparative Literature and Classics majors or minors.)

  HUHC 20J (H1) IN SEARCH OF ENGLAND
  Professor Simon Doubleday, History
  MW 4:30-5:55PM
  CRN: 22796
  RSVLT 306

  What does it mean to be English? Since the loss of its empire, and particularly in the wake of nationalisms in other parts of the United Kingdom — Scotland and Wales — England has suffered an identity crisis. Many observers have sensed that the English have lost touch with their roots, and even their collective soul. Some historians have sought to restore national identity by re-connecting the country with its distant, medieval, past: the world of Robin Hood, King Arthur, and the Norman Conquest. Others have suggested that Englishness needs to be redefined in an age of mass immigration, from South Asia, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere: a development which has sometimes brought a xenophobic backlash. This course will ask whether there is such a thing as an English national character (dry humour? social awkwardness?); whether the distant past matters as much as the present in defining identity; and whether England is, or should be, part of ‘Europe.’ We will also ask about the relationship between ‘Englishness’ and the nature of “Britain”: “the country of long shadows on cricket grounds, warm beer, invincible green suburbs”, as John Major, former British Prime Minister, once suggested. Particular attention will be paid to the medieval legacy; to cricket; and to the work of modern novelists, musicians, and poets.  

  (The chair of the History department has indicated this course may be counted as a departmental elective toward the completion of requirements for the history major or minor.)

   

  10/11/12

• FALL 2012 HUHC SEMINARS

  HUHC 20A (H1) Secrets of the Studio: Artists’ Hopes, Demons and Achievements from the Renaissance to Now
  Professor Laurie Fendrich, Fine Arts
  MW 2:55-4:20PM

  This course begins with a brief look at the place and practice of the artist in antiquity and the Middle Ages, and from there moves to a study of artistic personalities, lifestyles, and work and business habits typical of artists from the Renaissance until now. We’ll consider the artist as craftsman and entrepreneur and, in modern times, as representative of the avant-garde. We’ll examine various stereotypes of artists—the artist as a solitary soul, the artist as hero, the artist as deliberate provocateur. In exploring the situation of contemporary artists, we’ll study the increasing importance of celebrity and fashion in the art world, the relationship of contemporary artists with patrons, collectors and dealers, and the role of the contemporary artist as political commentator. We’ll also look at the impact on contemporary artists of the rise of critical theory—manifested especially in feminism and postmodernism. Finally, we’ll look at the contemporary art market, where a few major international collectors exercise vast power, especially in the careers of young artists. Discussions will be based on readings, which include selections from two books and several essays drawn from a wide range of sources.

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  HUHC 20B (H1) Don Quixote and the World of Cervantes: An interdisciplinary view
  Professor Zenia DaSilva, Romance Languages
  TR 11:10-12:35PM

  Don Quixote may be the funniest psychological-philosophical-sociological novel ever to spread its compass over countless nations and ages, but it wasn’t spawned in a vacuum. It was born of a man called Cervantes –a soldier, a “failure”, and a genius who lived his moment, yet transcended it to ours.  It grew at a time when exploration and war were rampant, when pirates haunted the seas, when science and religion lunged at sword-stroke, when continents of old encountered others, and the arts sang a new song. It was the world of Shakespeare and Rabelais, El Greco and Rembrandt, Calvin and Loyola, Copernicus and Galileo, of Queen Elizabeth, the Doges of Venice and Suliman the Magnificent, of Jamestown and Pilgrims and the courts of Mexico and Peru.  And as we read the timeless tale of a … madman? … who dreamed of changing the world for the good, we will laugh at his delusions, marvel at his quest, and relive the world that he knew, even to the sound of its music, the savor of its foods and the contours of its dress. Will you join the adventure?

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  HUHC 20C (H1) Science and Society: Clashes and Collaborations
  Professor Sabrina Sobel, Chemistry
  MW 4:30-5:55PM

  Throughout history, the pursuit of knowledge has been influenced by the prevailing culture. In this seminar, we will explore how the development of math, physics and chemistry have been shaped by culture. To this end we will read and discuss the science history books: ‘Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea’, ‘Galileo’s Daughter’ and ‘Mendeleev’s Dream’.

  ---

  HUHC 20D (H1) Crisis and America's War on Terror
  Professor Boussios, Sociology
  TR 4:20-5:55

  Known as the "war on terror," this major shift in U.S. foreign policy is grounded in a powerful discourse in the aftermath of 9/11 that justified a series of controversial policies, including the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the enactment of the USA Patriot Act.  How the U.S. media and popular culture participated in the construction, diffusion, and sometimes, critique of this powerful discourse has been influential in shaping American attitudes towards the “war on terror” which in turn has been critical in formulating political, military, and law enforcement responses.  Part of this response has also been the tremendous efforts Western states have taken to control the growing threat of home-grown terrorism.  This course takes a closer look at these different types of domestic and foreign threats, and the cycles of political and discursive processes that constitute security crises and responses with the challenge of balancing these responses with the values of Western democracy. 
  (The chair of the Sociology department has indicated this course may be counted as a departmental elective toward the completion of requirements for majors or minors.)

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  HUHC 20E (H1) Analyzing the 2012 Election
  Professor Andrea Libresco, Teaching, Literacy and Leadership
  T/R 2:15-4:10PM

  This course examines the process of electing a president in 2012 and in historical perspective.   Participants will investigate and assess the nominating procedure; the candidates’ stands on the issues of our time; the roles that media, money, parties, debates, advertisements, and the Internet play; the influence of race, class and gender on both voters and candidates; and the domestic and foreign policy challenges that the new president and Congress will face.  Attention will be given to the ways in which citizens participate in the political process and to their quest for the kinds of reliable knowledge that are necessary to make informed judgments. Attention will be given to how the strategies we use in this class might be successfully deployed in elementary, middle and high school classrooms.

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  HUHC 20F (H1) Political Marketing and the 2012 Election
  Professor Shawn Thelen, Marketing and International Business
  MF 11:15-12:40P

  Political Marketing: The purpose of this course is to examine various techniques that are used to “market” political candidates and causes. The course will examine political campaigns from a 7P’s perspective (product, promotion, place, price, process, physical evidence, people) with an emphasis on the packaging of the candidate/cause. Students will be required to examine political marketing from a historical perspective, comment on contemporary marketing techniques, as well as develop a political marketing plan for a candidate of their choice. As this is a presidential election year, we will be paying special attention to the ongoing campaigns throughout the semester.

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  HUHC 20H (H1) Narrative and The Idea of the Double
  Professor Susan Lorsch, English
  TR 11:10-12:35P

  The notion of the divided self is deeply embedded in Western conceptions of identity—whether the parts of the self represent such easy divisions as “good” and evil” or more subtle distinctions between ego and superego or the conscious and the subconscious.  Writers of fiction and creators of film use the ideas of the double or “doppelganger” to reflect psychological struggle and explore the relationship of the self to the self and to the world outside the self. In narrative art one’s shadow self—whether mischievous, malicious, forbidding or friendly—appears as a reflection of a crisis in identity and offers its alter ego the opportunity for self-exploration.
  
  In this course we will be studying narratives which make use of the doppelganger in a variety of creative and often startling ways to dramatize psychological development and/or breakdown.  In addition to investigating the tales that are told, we will also be studying the variety of techniques fiction and film employ in order simultaneously to demonstrate and embody the divisions and conflicts, the complexities of desire, within the self.
  
  There will be two short analytical papers on the class texts, perhaps some brief response sketches, and a longer final paper on an additional work (novel or film) of each student’s choice, selected from a list I will provide.  Class texts will probably include some of the following:  Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Shelley’s Frankenstein, Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Plath’s The Bell Jar, and Nabokov’s Pale Fire.  Films will include Hitchcock’s “Strangers on a Train,”  Nolan’s “Insomnia” and “The Prestige,” and Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive.”
  (The chair of the English department has indicated this course may be counted as a departmental elective toward the completion of requirements for majors or minors.)

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  HUHC 20I (H1) The Evolution of the Literary Genres in Greece 750-350 B.C.: Epic, lyric, tragedy, comedy, history, and philosophical dialogue
  Professor William Thomas MacCary, English
  TR 12:45-2:10PM

  We shall trace at least three trajectories. First, how the mythopoeic thought of epic yields to the associative/conceptual thought of lyric and tragedy, then on to the analytical thought of history and philosophy. Second, the relation between individual and community changes: epic and lyric are aristocratic genres, but tragedy and comedy reflect the democratic life of the polis. Third, epic was originally orally composed, and always recited aloud at public festivals; lyric was sung at more intimate gatherings; tragedy and comedy were produced theatrically in honor of Dionysos; only with history and the philosophical dialogue do we reach periods and styles of writing which were meant to be read - and even here the texts are based on speeches and conversations, so they represent originally oral events.

  Readings assigned from the works of Homer, Archilochus, Sappho, Pindar, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato. 
  (The chair of the English department and the director of the Classics major/minor have indicated this course may be counted as a departmental elective toward the completion of requirements for the English and Classics majors or minors.)

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  HUHC 21 (H1) What Everyone Needs To Know About Business
  Professor Simon Jawitz, Finance
  TR 2:20-3:55PM

  This course is designed to provide students who have no prior exposure to business the tools they need to understand the business world from the inside.  It begins with the assumption that to make sense of our very complex world everyone needs basic information about how businesses come to be and function in relation to one another.  To that end, it will provide a basic understanding of corporate finance, accounting, the debt and equity capital markets and the central role that financial analysis and decision making play in our integrated global economy. Students will learn about how corporations are created and organized, the respective roles and duties of boards of directors, management and shareholders and how conflicts arise and may be resolved.  Students will begin to develop the ability to read and understand financial statements and gain some familiarity with the basic tools used in valuing a business. Students will explore in some depth the concepts of risk and return and learn the fundamentals and key drivers of financial analysis.  Real world examples will be used to illustrate these concepts as we develop them throughout the semester.

  The objective of the course is not to encourage students to pursue careers in business.  Nor is it intended as a substitute for courses offered in the Zarb School of Business. While students considering studies in accounting or finance may wish to take this course as an introduction, the purpose of this course is to provide students with information and analytical skills that they will be able to apply in any career.

• SPRING 2012 HUHC SEMINARS

  HUHC 020B, H1: Science Fiction: The "Golden Age"--and Beyond
  Professor Barbara Bengels
  T/R 11:10 – 12:35
  LOWE 203
  20873
  "In FUTURE SHOCK, Alvin Toffler argued that science fiction is the most important form of literature to prepare young people for the technological and sociological changes before them.  Professor Bengels will discuss the development of science fiction in the twentieth century, its Golden Age, and how it has helped create the twenty-first century.  Based on her personal acquaintance with many prominent science fiction writers, she will also use their  letters to  describe how they were encouraged--or brutally discouraged--from becoming authors. Students will read the best of SF past and present (authors such as Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Heinlein, Benford),  produce their own comparative analyses. as well as examine--and emulate--their unique styles."

  HUHC 020C, H1: Globalization and the U.S. Constitution
  Professor Julian Ku, Hofstra University School of Law
  T/R 9:35 – 11:10
  BRESLIN 202
  22403
  (The chair of the political science department has indicated this course may be counted as a political science elective toward the completion of political science elective requirement for majors and minors, and as a political science minor requirement for minors.)
  Globalization presents profound challenges to the American constitutional and political system because it demands unprecedented levels of international cooperation.  Efforts at effective international governance create tension with American constitutional rules on the use of government power.  Recent examples abound.  To what extent do international court judgments have force in American law, invalidating otherwise valid judgments by domestic courts? Can the President and the Senate together sign an international treaty that binds the United States either to legalize or criminalize abortion, or are issues of family law reserved, as a matter of American law, for the states? Should international and foreign laws be used to interpret the U.S Constitution? May Congress and the President delegate federal authority to international organizations to regulate domestic conduct, for instance, in arms control or carbon emissions?  While new regimes of global governance may well be needed, we must consider how globalization’s pressures mesh with the existing political and legal system of the United States. The American constitutional regime requires that power originate from the bottom up—from the people—and that it be subject to a specific system of federalism and the separation of powers.  Globalization, and its consequences for American law, create serious conflicts with this basic system.  This course will highlight these conflicts and explore ways of resolving them.
  The main text of the course will be:
  Julian Ku and John Yoo, Taming Globalization: The U.S. Constitution and American Sovereignty (forthcoming Oxford University Press, 2011).   Additionally, it will be supplemented by distributed materials, mostly judicial decisions, that will present the difficult constitutional and policy issues that lie at the center of this course. 

  HUHC 020D, H1: Science, energy, public policy and sustainability
  Professor Harold Hastings, Physics
  M/W 2:55 – 4:20
  MASON 223
  20874
  We are facing a growing world population, projected to reach 10 billion.  In addition, significant expected growth in middle class populations in China and India will provide additional demand for energy.  Although the green revolution allowed us to at least defer the Malthusian crisis forecast in the 1960’s, humanity faces the challenges of addressing global warming and nuclear energy.  Although the present trajectory of growing energy demand is unsustainable without change, change will require joint efforts of scientists, policy makers and the public.
  This seminar will explore some of the challenges of sustainability far from the Malthusian edge.  Topics include how we get scientific evidence, especially when we cannot repeat experiments, limits to predictability, population growth, the energy challenge, and the global warming challenge.

  HUHC 020E, H1: Godel, Escher, Bach
  Charles B. Anderson, Writing Studies and Composition
  T/R 12:45 – 2:10
  NEW ACADEMIC BUILDING 428
  22150
  This seminar will examine closely Godel, Escher, Bach, the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas Hofstadter, described as a “metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll.”  In addition to exploring the interrelationships among math, art, and music, the course will also discuss the prospects for artificial intelligence.

  HUHC 020F, H1:  The Transformation of Music in a Century of Electronica
  Professor Herb Deutsch, Music
  T/R 12:45 – 2:10
  BROWER 101
  23505
  (The chair of the music department has indicated this course may be counted as a departmental elective toward the completion of the requirements for history majors or minors.)
  This course explores the inventions and artistic diversions that shaped musical thought in the twentieth century. The dramatic changes in musical styles, the development of electrical and electronic musical instruments and the interaction between “modernism”, abstract art and Dadaism on musical thinking are all themes we will be exploring. Finally, a significant percentage of our time will be spent discussing the profound effects of digital devices on musical creativity and performance.

  HUHC 020H,  H1 Transforming Love's Body: Science, Medicine, Technology and the Evolution of Modern Sexuality
  Professor Lou Kern, History
  T/R 2:20 – 3:45
  GTLNS 108
  23507
  (The chair of the history department has indicated this course may be counted as a departmental elective toward the completion of the requirements for history majors or minors.)
  The course will focus on the period 1900 to the present with particular emphasis on the post-1940 period and will consider the ways in which technological innovations (personal vibrators, contraceptive devices-condoms, diaphragms, IUDs, dermal implants, etc.), medical advances (as they affect contraception, reproduction, and body image, including the development of the birth control pill and in vitro fertilization, Viagra, and somatic elective surgery), scientific investigations and disr.nvNiAs(including changing perspectives on masturbation, explorations of the biology, function, and process of
  female orgasm, and the rise of social scientific statistical studies of sexual behavior-especially those conducted by Alfred C. Kinsey that inaugurated the modern era of sexology), and shifting cultural attitudes towards the broad range of human sexual behavior-homosexuality, bisexuality, transsexuality, and sex in later life-especially as they have been shaped by pop sexology, advice manuals and feminism . The intent ofthe course is to provide a multi-faceted approach to the broad range of influences that have resulted in the creation of contemporary sexual attitudes, the understanding of the sexual body, and current standards of sexual behavior.

  HUHC 020J, H1: Arabian Nights in History and Literature”.
  Professor Dan Varisco, Anthropology
  M/W 2:55 – 4:20
  LOWE 203
  23889
  (The chair of the anthropology department has indicated this course may be counted as an elective toward the completion of anthropology requirements for majors or minors.)
  “The famous collection of stories from the 1001 Arabian Nights has been the inspiration for generations of writers and filmmakers, including Disney’s successful cartoon version of Alladin. This course will survey the historical development of the tales in Arabic, the cultural representation produced in their translation into English, and the wide variety of media in which the stories have evolved to the present.  We will learn about the culture in medieval Baghdad and Cairo that produced the stories, the politicized academic nature of Orientalist analysis and the modern popular appreciation of the tales in print and film.”

  HUHC 021A,  H1:  Strategies in an Interdependent Business Environment with Global Supply Chains
  Professor Kaushik Sengupta, Zarb School of Business, Management
  T/R 12:45 – 2:10
  MASON 020
  23504
  (The Chair of the Management, Entrepreneurship, and General Department has indicated this course may be counted for students with at least junior status as an elective toward the completion of Management or Supply Chain Management requirements for majors or minors.)
  This course will introduce HUHC students to the multiple facets and issues being faced by businesses today as they operate in an increasingly dependent and global environment. A large part of many companies’ product and service delivery activities are outsourced to their supply chain partners, i.e. the suppliers and distributors. Many of these suppliers and distributors have globally dispersed locations. Because of this environment, companies have to deal with issues related to operating in different countries, across multiple cultures and time zones, and have to face issues related to moving products and delivering services over large distances. It is increasingly clear that this trend would grow and this class will serve as an introduction to Honors College students to this exciting world of global supply chains. It will give the students a vital understanding of the complexities involved in managing such globally dispersed operations. The course will use a combination of business cases, articles and research papers to stimulate discussions around these issues, and will take a non-technical approach so that students with no prior business courses can completely understand the materials.

• FALL 2011 HUHC SEMINARS

  HUHC 20A (H1) Religion and the State
  Professor Bernard Jacob, School of Law
  MW 2:55-4:20PM
  91394
  203 LOWE
  (The chair of the political science department has indicated this course may be counted as an elective toward the completion of PSC requirements for majors or minors).

  We will take a two-pronged approach to thinking about the relation between State and Religion.  Our first prong is to find out what some important philosophers have had to say about that relation.  Since the world rarely matches philosophers' musings, our second prong will look at that relation historically.  In the United States, for example, the 'establishment of religion' is prohibited, and in the view of some, we and our European cousins live in secular states.  We will ask, however, whether, in light of what philosophy and history tell us, a secular state really possible, and if so then how, and if not, why not?

  HUHC 020B (H1) Drugs in America
  Professor Charles Levinthal, Psychology
  TR 11:10-12:40
  92378
  LIBRY 231
  (The chair of the psychology department has indicated this course may be counted as an elective toward the completion of psychology requirements for majors or minors).

  The use, misuse, and abuse of psychoactive drugs present significant challenges to ourselves and the society in which we live.  These challenges arise not only from the consumption of illicit drugs such as heroin, hallucinogens, cocaine, amphetamines, and marijuana, but also the consumption of licit drugs such as alcohol, nicotine, and (when used for nonmedical purposes) prescription and nonprescription medications.  This course will explore the biological, psychological, historical, and sociopolitical aspects of drug-taking behavior in America.

  HUHC 20C (H1) Emperors, Icons, & Eunuchs: The Literature of Byzantium
  Professor Steven Smith, Comparative Languages and Literatures
  MWF 10:10-11:05
  94475
  BRESL 0026
  (The chair of the Comparative Languages and Literatures department has indicated this course may be counted as an elective toward the completion of Comparative Language and Literatures requirements for majors or minors.)

  What happened to the Roman Empire after the fall of Rome? Headquartered in Constantinople, it continued to thrive for over a thousand years. The cast of characters includes emperors and empresses, eunuchs, holy men, and heretics. This course will survey the literature of Byzantium's long, violent history. We will read samples of literary biography; political satire; religious, erotic, and epic poetry; theological treatises; hagiography; epistles; historiography; and even a romantic novel. Topics for discussion will include: the cultivation of Byzantine identity; Byzantine multiculturalism; the relationship between literature and autocracy; the tension between paganism and Christianity; gender and sexuality in Byzantium; and the classical legacy of literary mimêsis.

  HUHC 020D (H1) The "Swinging Sixties" and the Permissive Society in British Culture.
  Professor Patricia Smith, Department of English
  MW 2:55-4:20
  94475
  DAVSN 020
  (The chair of the English department has indicated this course may be counted as an elective toward the completion of English requirements for majors or minors.)

  The products of Britain's own postwar "baby boom" came of age during one of the most culturally dynamic decades of the twentieth century.  Between 1958 and 1971, the formidable British Empire came to a rapid end.  Among the immediate results were the abolition of mandatory military service for young men, which allowed for a flowering of youth culture, and an unprecedented influx of immigrants from the former colonies, which transformed Britain into a multiracial nation.  The virtual end of restrictive codes of censorship in the wake of the 1961 Lady Chatterley trial, along collapse of Conservative government in the wake of a 1963 sex scandal, paved the way for Harold Wilson's Labour government to proclaim that the most civilized society is a "permissive" one.  The consequent decriminalization of matters of personal life (e.g., divorce, birth control, abortion, homosexuality) created an atmosphere of relaxed sexual mores and attitudes. The course offers an overview of the dramatic, sweeping, and rapid changes in British culture and social mores between 1958 and 1971, and examines the multifarious reflections of these changes in the literature, film, popular music, fashion, and visual arts of the period. 

  HUHC 020E (H1) Turning Heads – the opinions that shape us, from advertising to politics:  How I Know What I Think
  Professor Ellen Frisina, Journalism, Media Studies, and Public Relations
  TR 12:35 -2:10
  94476
  RSVLT 201

  Everyone's got an opinion, and many share theirs readily.  From advertising slogans to political speechwriters, from Thomas Paine to Paris Hilton and Jon Stewart, our personal opinions and views of the world have been shaped and influenced by others.  Who are these masters of persuasion, these opinion makers?  This course will explore how personal and cultural opinions through the centuries have been influenced by others' opinions. We will look at how the written word has shaped persuasive techniques and how deep thinkers, humorists and even celebrities shape our actions and reactions, personally, as a nation, and as a world. Through examination of personal accounts of history, autobiographies, personal essays,  newspaper op-ed pieces, and e-opinions, blogs and vlogs, students will explore who the persuaders are, and how they became opinion-makers and decision makers in our world.  A clearer understanding of how we have chosen to view our personal world is the expected outcome!

  Possible readings include selections from:
  The New York Times (student discount for subscription)
  The Art of the Personal Essay – Lopate, Philip
  Eyewitness to History, Carey, J, Editor
  What I Know Now: Letters to my Younger Self, Spragins, E., Editor
  How to Get Your Point Across in 30 seconds or Less – Frank, M.
  Why Women Should Rule the World – Myers, D.
  Crystallizing Public Opinion, Bernays, E.
  Consistent review of e-pinions websites and blogs/vlogs chosen through class discussion

  HUHC 020F (H1) Law and the Family
  Professor Joanna Grossman, School of Law
  TR 11:10-12:35PM
  94477
  GALWG 014
  (The chair of the Political Science department has indicated this course may be counted as an elective toward the completion of PSC requirements for majors or minors).

  This course will explore the law's regulation of families through historical, contemporary, and interdisciplinary perspectives.  It will cover topics such as cohabitation, restrictions on marriage, divorce, the legal regulation of sex, adoption, parent-child relationships in the age of reproductive technology, and child abuse.  

  HUHC 020G (H1) Raising Engaged Citizens: Educating for Democracy
  Professor Andrea Libresco, Teaching, Literacy and Leadership
  TR 9:35-11:00
  94478
  HAGDN 0007

  A democracy's future depends on the education and commitment of its citizens. This seminar studies Americans' present level of civic engagement and what roles families, schools, government and other institutions play and ought to play in developing it. Participants will explore the literature about the extent to which civic engagement can be taught. Participants will create blueprints for families, schools, government and other societal institutions to nurture engaged citizens.

  HUHC 020H (H1) Modern Architecture: Case Studies
  Professor Joseph Masheck
  TR 4:20-5:50PM (with periodic field trips)
  94479
  CALK 204
  (The chair of the Art History department has indicated this course may be counted as an Art History elective toward the completion of Art History requirements for majors or minors for majors or minors.)

  After an introduction to early modernism in art and architecture, this course's topics include ornament and its abolition; functionalism as 'styleless style'; planning of particular projects; work of one or another architect in its development; modernism as negated by 'postmodernism' and then rediscovered. Slide-illustrated lectures; readings with discussion; several field trips during regular class time; final reports on topics of individual interest.

  HUHC 021A (H1) Moral Courage in Organizations
  Professor Debra R. Comer, Management, Entrepreneurship and General Business
  TR 2:20 – 3:45
  94474
  DAVSN 102
  (The chair of the Management department has indicated this course may be counted as an elective toward the completion of Management requirements for majors or minors.)

  Moral courage, the resolve to do what one believes is right, even in the face of unpleasant social or economic consequences, is what we need when organizational pressures threaten to compromise our values and principles. Students will 1) examine the effects of organizational factors on ethical behavior; 2) consider exemplary moral courage and lapses of moral courage; 3) learn information and skills that support moral courage; and 4) explore how to change organizations to promote moral courage, as well as how to exercise moral courage to change organizations. By reflecting upon the active roles they can play in ethical situations, students will prepare to take the high road in the workplace.

• SPRING 2011 HUHC SEMINARS

  HUHC 020A, (HA): TIMES OF OUR LIVES:  PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
  Professor Kathleen Wallace
  M/W 4:50 - 6:15pm
  BRESL 202
  23173
  (The chair of the Philosophy department has indicated this course may be counted as a philosophy elective toward the completion of philosophy requirements.)

  In this seminar we will consider the question, how ought we balance the interests of present people against those of past and future people. For example, do we have a duty to keep promises that were made to those who are now dead? If so, what is the ethical basis for that? In our personal lives, we often prefer present over deferred gratification; we "discount" the future. Is this rational? Is it moral? Do present people and considerations always take precedence over past and future ones?  If we have some moral duty to consider future people – whether our own immediate descendants (e.g., children and grandchildren) or future generations more generally – what is the basis for such a duty? Do we have a moral duty to live "sustainably"? But what does sustainability even mean?  What would be the basis of and scope of such a duty?

  Most of our readings will come from philosophy, supplemented with contemporary readings of concrete moral examples and issues.

  HUHC 020B (H1):  THE POLITICS OF HEALTH CARE
  Professor Richard Himelfarb
  Professor E. Rollins
  T/R 12:45pm – 2:10pm
  STARR 209
  20956
  (The chair of the Political Science department has indicated this course may be counted as a political science elective toward the completion of Political Science requirements.)

  Public Policy and Politics of American Health Care: An Introduction to How the System Works,  Its Performance, and Efforts to Improve It
  This course will focus on how and why the American health care system is different compared to those of other industrialized countries and whether this distinctiveness is an asset or liability. In doing so it will confront a number of paradoxes regarding American health care. These include: How is it possible for the American system to characterized simultaneously as the best and worst in the world? Why are many Americans critical of the system even as they purport to be satisfied with their own health care? If Americans agree that the system is broken or flawed  why are efforts to reform American health care inherently controversial and difficult to resolve? These and other questions will be examined in depth from both liberal and conservative perspectives. 

  HUHC 020C (H1):  CONTEMPORARY LIFE WRITING
  Professor Thomas Couser
  T/R 2:20 - 3:45pm
  GTLSN 0108
  22727
  (The chair of the English department has indicated this course may be counted as a English elective toward the completion of English requirements.)

  "Life writing" comprises various forms of representation of actual persons. Print genres include autobiography, biography, memoir, diary or journal (including weblogs and Twitter), personal correspondence (including email and texting), testimonio, personal essays, travel writing, family history, genealogy, scrapbook, and case history. Visual genres include portraiture, photo albums, the bio-pic, documentary film, and YouTube videos. Internet forms include Facebook and MySpace pages.

  The emphasis in this course will be on contemporary memoir. The course will be organized not as a chronological survey but as an inquiry into trends, issues, or problems distinctive of recent decades. Among these may be the following: the emergence of "relational" narratives--narratives focusing neither on the author (as autobiography does) nor on another person (as biography does) but on the relation between the writer and a significant other; the use of life writing to reckon with experiences that may threaten identity, such as illness, disability, and trauma; the use of visual media; the emergence of minority voices; the significance of the recent "memoir boom" and the backlash against it; and ethical issues inherent in life writing.

  HUHC 020D (H1): "DIAMONDS AND LIMELIGHT::  BASEBALL AND VAUDEVILLE LITERATURE  

  Professor Richard Pioreck
  M/F 11:15 – 12:40pm
  BRESL 202
  20957
  (The chair of the English department has indicated this course may be counted as a English elective toward the completion of English requirements.)

            "…[W]e were all entertainers.  And my job was to give the fans something to talk about each game."  -- Willie Mays

  Baseball and vaudeville were born during the boom decade following the Civil War.  Initially these leisure time entertainments competed for the time and money of men.  Each benefitted from the railroad in its early establishing of nationwide appeal.  The National League was founded in 1876.  Wine rooms, the forerunners of vaudeville houses, existed in New York and Philadelphia by 1875. 

  Between 1880 and 1930 vaudeville dominated live entertainment.  What baseball and vaudeville have in common is that they established twentieth century popular culture among the melting pot full of immigrants who were creating the urban America of the industrial age.  Today baseball and vaudeville's offspring, television, are so joined that they are dependent on each other. 

  Historian Jacques Barzun observed, "Whoever would understand the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball." Diamonds and Limelight explores the weave of baseball and vaudeville's ubiquitous presence in American life from its influence on language and expression to its connection with the American persona and identity.  Vaudeville that uniquely American stage show consisting of mixed specialty acts, including songs, dances, comic skits, acrobatic performances, etc., stands as a metaphor for the blending of cultures that became American popular culture.

  "Pizzazz, that's a show business word" – Gene Kelly

  
  HUHC 020E (H1): Nineteenth and early 20th Century (Melo) Dramas  of Race, Class, Ethnicity and Gender on the Stage and in the Streets of NYC.
  Professor Lisa Merrill
  W 4:30 – 7:30pm
  GTLSTN 108
  22398
  (The chair of the Speech, Rhetoric and Communication department has indicated this course may be counted as a Speech, Rhetoric and Communication elective toward the completion of Speech, Rhetoric and Communication requirements.)

  "The streets, theatrical stages, and speakers' podiums of 19th century New York were platforms where people observed, encountered and interacted with others they perceived as different from themselves. Competing beliefs about race, gender, and socio-economic class were played out in melodramas, novels, press reportage, and occasionally riots, such as the 1863 Draft Riots. Students in this seminar will read primary texts written in this period and walk through the very streets which served as their setting."
  
  HUHC 020F (H1 ) CROSS CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY
  Professor Sergei Tsytsarev
  T/R 11:10 – 12:35
  LOWE 0203
  24382
  (The chair of the Psychology department has indicated this course may be counted as a psychology elective toward the completion of psychology requirements.)

  The course's goal is to increase the awareness of students of the cultural perspective on basic and applied issues in psychology; The objectives include  a) to read the literature on diversity and multiculturalism and examine the implications of these concepts and perspectives on the training, delivery of psychological services, and policy development in professional psychology; and  b) to develop initial skills of multicultural interviewing, assessment and cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy.
  Major theoretical and applied issues in cross-cultural psychology with the emphasis on topic are covered. Students learn about the impact of cultural diversity in the domains of human development, education, emotions, cognitions and psychopathology. Readings are assigned that are relevant to assessment and the counseling of children and families of various ethnic, cultural, economic background as well as members of some subcultures within the diverse American culture: individuals with various sexual orientations, alternative life styles, the rich, the poor, the homeless, members of the drug culture, etc.   Students are assigned to work on a) research project in the area of multicultural studies; b) an observational study of a community that must be different from their own, and on c) interviewing a person who has been in this culture for less than 5 years. Their findings are presented in class.  Students receive individual supervision from the course instructor.

  One objective in this class is to train students to be competent in a variety of topics in cross-cultural psychology, including some that are sensitive in everyday conversation.  These include questions to help us learn about cultural biases on diagnosis and treatment, drug and alcohol use, typical and atypical sexual behavior, homicidal and suicidal thoughts, peculiar thought patterns, culture bound syndromes, and so forth.  Acquisition of these skills is required for fully understanding the motivations and behaviors.  Students are expected to let their professor know if they are reluctant, unable, or uncomfortable when discussing those issues.

  HUHC 020G (H1): THE EXPERIENCE OF MODERNITY: CULTURE, CONSCIOUSNESS, AND SOCIETY FROM THE ROMANTIC PERIOD TO POSTMODERNISM
  Professor Pellegrino D'Acierno
  M/W 6:30-7:55pm
  HEGER 101
  24383
  (The chair of the Comparative Languages and Literature department has indicated this course may be counted as a CLL elective toward the completion of CLL requirements.)

  This course will examine the experience of modernity as epitomized in the following blasts  that confront the alienation and negativity definitive of the modern condition: "By modernity I mean the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent" (Baudelaire); "All that is solid melts into air" (Marx); "God is dead" (Nietzscche); "Time and space died yesterday" (Marinetti);  "History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake" (Joyce); "The horror! The horror! " (Conrad). 
  
  Although the history of modernity is inevitably multiple, multifarious even, we shall attempt to establish a textual genealogy that will enables us to historicize the unfolding of  the so-called project of modernity —"the will to modernity" (Lionel Trilling) — as it emerges from the Enlightenment context (Goethe's Faustian man is our starting point) and crystallizes, in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century, in the Modernist movement that, in the name of "Making it New," produces a textual revolution in which the conception of the traditional or  organic work of art  is overturned and replaced by an aesthetics of shock in keeping with the consciousness and modes of perception definitive of modern life, particularly life in the metropolis.

  The course will be dedicated to the close reading of texts  by  critical theorists such as Marx, Freud, Nietzsche, Gramsci, Benjamin, Simone de Beauvoir, and  Debord and by transgressive writers and avant-gardistes such as Baudelaire, Dostoevsky, Marinetti, Breton, T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, Djuna Barnes, and D. H. Lawrence. Given the centrality of the visual  dimension to  aesthetic modernity, the work of a number of artists and filmmakers will be considered.   Attention will also be given to postmodernism, the end point from which we must now historicize and comprehend the project of modernity.

  HUHC 020H (H1): PHILOSOPHY, FREEDOM AND THE REVOLT AGAINST TRADITION
  Professor Eduardo M. Duarte
  T/R 11:10 – 12:35pm
  GTLSN 108
  24384
  (The chair of the Philosophy department has indicated this course may be counted as a philosophy elective toward the completion of philosophy requirements.)

  "Existentialism is not a philosophy but a label for several widely different revolts against traditional philosophy."  Thus begins Walter Kaufmann as he introduces his classic collection Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre.  Kaufmann's collection will provide us with our main text of study as we take up the principal thinkers who represent those widely different revolts against traditional philosophy.   However, before we begin our study of Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Ortega, Dostoevsky Sartre, Kafka, among others, we will step back and ask, in response to Kaufmann's assertion, Just what is 'traditional philosophy'?   In responding to this question we will discover that at its inception, with Parmenides, Heraclitus, and then Socrates, so-called 'traditional' philosophy arose in a kind of revolt against traditional ways of thinking and making meaning.  With this in mind, we will study the thinkers gathered by Kaufmann under the wide tent of 'Existentialism,' as recreating and reinventing that original 'revolt.'   We will see, further, that the 'existentialists' remain part of the 'tradition' in their understanding that the essence of philosophy is the desire for freedom, and thus one that inevitably places the singular, unique human being against their tradition(s). 

  HUHC 020I (H1):  RACE, NATION AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF MODERN AMERICA
  Professor James A. Levy
  M/W 2:55 – 4:20
  MASON 0020
  24832
  (The chair of the History department has indicated this course may be counted as a history elective toward the completion of History requirements.)
  
  This course will examine the parallel concepts of race and nation in the United States during the "modernist turn" in America (1880-1930) when Jim Crow segregation laws in the South, massive European immigration, and post-Darwinian ideas about racial and national destiny collided in American law, culture and politics.   By looking at a combination of popular artifacts (including movies, photography, literature and theatre), legal cases and political events, we will examine how legal and cultural ideas of belonging in America have depended on race and especially on the categories of "whiteness" and "blackness."  We will consider how neither whiteness nor blackness are fixed or stable terms but change according to cultural, legal and political contexts. Indeed, "whiteness" will be a recurring theme in the class and we will trace the ways in which it evolved and expanded from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries, helping to promote the notion of an expanding American citizenship, even while the category was often used to exclude people of Asian, Middle Eastern and especially African descent.    

  HUHC 020J: H1, New York, New York, the Last, Great Modern City, in Literature, Film, and Architecture
  Instructor: Professor Robert B. Sargent
  M/W 2:55 – 4:20
  LOWE 0203
  24845
  (The chair of the English department has indicated this course may be counted as an English elective toward the completion of English requirements.)

   In 1840, New York City was surprisingly small in comparison with London and Paris, but in the next 40 years it became, by far, the largest and most modern city in the world. New York's vast scale and radical openness spawned a new kind of literature, first in Whitman's poetry, expressing the excitement of walking alone through vast crowds, overwhelmingly diverse in dress, age, and attractiveness.  The New York writer's rapidly shifting focus tries to take in and name the vast ocean of humanity, passing. The speed and complexity of city life literature foreshadows the approach to subject matter and technique of film realism.  Manhattan's open grid and elegant stone architecture brings order and a cool beauty to this human chaos; the hardness against that flesh provokes desire, frustration, and sometimes violence. The course will focus on 1890-1970, when New York achieves its greatest literary and artistic achievement, when it goes from backdrop to major character. After a class walking tour to Manhattan, each student will go back to a place in the city they like and write an autobiographical urban narrative in the spirit of Whitman, Fitzgerald, Kerouac, Frank O'Hara, and J. D. Salinger.  The second paper involves an analysis of a contemporary TV series set and filmed in New York, such as Gossip Girls and Law & Order and will answer the question:  What role does New York City play in the drama? Finally, a term paper, will require students to use an interdisciplinary approach to develop a theme; it might explore how a film and a literary work differ in their understanding and use of New York or of how the 'real' architecture Toni Morrison describes functions in Jazz or how New York landmarks, such as the Plaza Hotel and the Yale Club, are used by Fitzgerald in his story "The Rich Boy."
  The authors we will read may include: Walt Whitman, Stephen Crane, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Toni Morrison, Eudora Welty, J.D. Ssalinger, Jack Kerouac, and Rem Koolhaas. In adition we will be screening several films such as "The Naked City" (1948), "Little Fugitive" (1953), "Mean Streets" (1973 and "New York: A Documentary Film" directed by Ric Burns (1997) with Hofstra's own Philip Lopate.

  .
  HUHC 021A (H1): CULTURE, CONSUMER ANIMOSITY, AND CORPORATE STRATEGY
  Professor Boonghee Yoo
  T/R 9:35-11:00
  HEGER 101
  24381

  An examination and analysis of the role of culture and consumer animosity on the behavior of international consumers and the formation of corporate strategies . Considering consumers as members of a particular culture or subculture, this course explores the impact of culture and consumer animosity (e.g., anti-Americanism) on a corporation's business strategies as well as consumer behaviors, consumer decision-making processes, and consumer evaluations of a variety of business activities.

• FALL 2010 HUHC SEMINARS

  HUHC 020A (H1) NEGRO LEAGUE BASEBALL
  Professor Richard Puerzer
  MW 2:55-4:20PM – Lowe 203
  91640

  The focus of this course will be the "Negro Leagues," the term used to define the organized baseball played by African-Americans in the United States from the late 19th century until the late 1960s. It will explore the experience of black baseball players both before and after the period of segregation in the United States.  Although the course will focus primarily on the lives of African-American baseball players, it will also examine the lives of team owners and fans, both black and white, impacted by the Negro Leagues.  Likewise, although this will be a course focusing on Negro League baseball, it is necessary to discuss the broader political, social, and economic circumstances of the times.  The lives of African-American baseball players, team owners, and fans will provide context as to the state of race relations in the United States.  Of particular interest will be the few successful Negro Leagues that operated from 1919 through the 1940s. Also, the decline of the Negro Leagues, beginning in 1946 with the signing of Jackie Robinson, and the integration of Major League baseball will be examined in detail. 

  HUHC 020B (H1) PERSONALIITIES OF MODERN ART
  Professor Alexsandr Naymark
  TR 12:45-2:10PM- Calkins 204
  92862

  Art is created by people and directly or indirectly reflects their personalities and their environment. The material culture and artistic practices of the time reconstructed in a serious film-study of artist's biography provides a convenient starting point of the discussion of his or her work. This class introduces students to the major processes in the formation of modern art through a combination of short lectures, biographic films and discussions based on the wide variety of reading materials.

  HUHC 020C (H1) MAPPING THE NATION: CARTOGRAPHY, CENSUS, AND SURVEY IN SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURY BRITIAN
  Professor Adam Sills
  MW 2:55-4:20PM – Davison 016
  92638

  The central question for this seminar is what role, if any, do the map, census, and survey play in the consolidation of the nation? To answer that question, we will examine the evolution of cartography and demography from the Renaissance through the eighteenth century and the impact those practices have had not only on the geography of Britain but also on the very creation of Britain itself. Since the Renaissance, improvements in the accuracy and legibility of maps, the proliferation of empirically-based chorographies, and the popular vogue for travel narratives served to order, package and commodify space in a normative and homogenizing fashion that was critical to the formation of British national identity. To "ground" our discussions, we will examine maps and literary works from the period, as well as contemporary theory and criticism, in order to better understand the relationship between cartographic space and literary space. Works may include Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year, Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent, Samuel Johnson's A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's The Turkish Embassy Letters, Tobias Smollett's Humphrey Clinker and Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.

  HUHC 020 D (H1) ENLIGHTENMENT
  Professor Terry F. Godlove
  TR 12:45-2:10PM – Lowe 203
  92659

  ENLIGHTENMENT: Many of us have been taught that something of world-historical significance happened in Europe in the eighteenth century—a victory of reason over superstition, freedom over tyranny, science over religion—in a word, Enlightenment.  But is that an accurate picture?  Contemporary critics claim the Enlightenment's legacy is one of exploitation, dehumanization, and the loss of human dignity.  In this course, we will examine the work of Immanuel Kant, one of the Enlightenment's chief spokesmen.  The course begins with a look at several of Kant's predecessors, including Descartes and Hume.  Most of the term will be spent on Kant's, Critique of Pure Reason, with some attention to his ethics, philosophy of religion, and politics.  We will see that Kant was decidedly ambivalent about the prospects for enlightenment, and that he anticipated many of the contemporary critics, even as he championed its values.  No prerequisites; some background in philosophy recommended.

  HUHC 020E (H1) GLOBALIZATION AND CITIZENSHIP
  Professor Margaret Abraham
  MW 2:55-4:20 – Davison 020
  92705

  Contemporary globalization has changed the social, economic, cultural, and political environment and the nature of global interaction. In this course, students will critically examine the transformations ushered by globalization, liberalization and deregulation and how it modifies the nature of state responsibility and notions of citizenship. We will discuss concepts, perspectives, meanings, and practices that enhance our understanding of the connections between globalization and citizenship. A range of issues such as immigration, ethnicity, class, nationality, political and economic participation, institutions and the private and public spheres will be covered in the context of globalization and citizenship. Drawing upon empirical research, we will also discuss the forms of active citizenship and the modes of contestation and agency that people engage in at local and global level to the forces of globalization.

  HUHC 020F (H1) EXPERIENCEING THE MUSEUM:  COMMUNITIES, STOREIS, AND POWER 
  Professor Christopher Matthews
  TR 2:20-3:45 – Davison

  Museums are public centers, storehouses, schools, and sites of community power and conflict. Museums also reflect the ideals and debates of the societies and communities that make them. For some, museums promote national or cultural unity while for others they delimit what communities value to the exclusion of some. This course considers the origins, developments, and debates that contribute to the making of museums and our sense of a museum experience. Modern exhibition efforts as well as critical and non-Western approaches will be examined. Discussions of diverse museum practices such as collecting, curation, and multi-cultural representation will be combined with field trips to prominent museums in New York City as well as local and community museums nearby.

  HUHC 020G (H1) NATIONAL MOTTO,  NATIONAL MEASURE?
  Professor Eric Lane
  T/R 2:20-3:45 - Lowe 203
  92959

  In 1956 the Congress of the United States unanimously changed our national motto.  Cast aside was E Pluribus Unum (from many one) the motto that had both described nearly 200 years of our history and prescribed a vision of inclusiveness and consensus.  In its place was In God We Trust.   According to both the Senate and House committee reports, it would "be of great spiritual and psychological value to the country to have a clearly designated national motto of inspirational quality, in plain, popularly accepted English," and, further, that the new motto was "superior and more acceptable for the United States" than the older one.  Why such a motto was thought to be superior and more acceptable was not anywhere discussed.  But one answer may be that 1956 was the Elvis Presley shook the nation by having three songs in the top ten, including the number 1 (Heartbreak Hotel).  The prior year the number 1 song has been The Ballad of Davy Crocket.  To quote Dylan:  the times, they are a changing.  And they were for many more profound reasons. 

  This course explores this change in motto from a number of perspectives, asking among other questions, whether the new fifty years older America has benefitted from this change.  The hypothesis of the course is that the change in motto represented a disavowal of the consensus building demands of the nations' constitutional governance and provided a license for levels of factionalism that today undermine the country's unity.  And that is what the course will explore.

  Please feel free to contact the professor Colette Mazzucelli or Honors College with questions or concerns.

• SPRING 2010 HUHC SEMINARS

  HUHC 020A (H1): RING CYCLES IN LITERATURE (AND OPERA AND FILM)
  Professor John DiGaetani
  T/R 2:20pm – 3:45pm
  24196 BRESL 202

  This course will read and discuss Ring cycles in literature, opera, and film. We will especially look at Wagner's ring and Tolkien's Ring to examine similarities and differences. We will also look at their literacy and musical implication and how cycles affect other works of art like opera ad film and how literacy allusions function as a technique. By the end of this course, the students will be able to improve their abilities to read, listen, understand art, and analyze it. We will also examine misogyny, misandry, and misanthropy as they appear in literature. Among the authors to be discussed in this course are: Sophocles, James Joyce, Theordor Adorno, D.H. Lawrence, Friedrich Nietzsche, Giambattista Vico, and Thomas Mann.

  HUHC 020B (H1): INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
  Professor David Frinquelli
  MWF 9:05am-10:00am
  21038 BRESL 206

  At 5:30 am Mountain Time on July 16, 1945, a spectacular light illuminated the early dawn over a part of the New Mexico desert known as the Jornada del Muerto – the Journey of the Dead Man. Upon witnessing this momentous event, J. Robert Oppenheimer famously remarked, "I am become death the destroyer of worlds." Once the dust had literally settled following the Trinity test those present finally realized just what they had wrought. The steel tower from which the weapon was suspended had been completely vaporized. The desert floor had been turned to glass in a 600 ft. radius from ground zero. And the greatest implement of peace had been created. Some might take issue with the preceding sentence and with good cause. Political scientists have debated the effect of nuclear weapons on peace and war since the weapons were first used over Japan. The study of international peace and conflict involves many such controversial issues, made such by the very theoretical nature of the field. The goals of this course are to survey contemporary political science research on international security and provide students with the analytical tools necessary for examining security policy debates. Topics to be examined include sources of peace and war, grand strategies, military doctrines, arms races, military alliances, military occupations and insurgency and credibility. In lieu of exams, students will be required to write two papers based on their own interests within the field.

  HUHC 020C (HA): THE EDITORIAL BOARD: THE ART OF FORMING OPINIONS WHEN EVERYONE ALREADY HAS ONE
  Professor Lawrence Levy
  M/W 4:25pm – 5:55pm
  23287 BRESL 202

  In a collaborative and interactive environment, students will come to understand the ethics, principles, practices and interpersonal relations that are crucial to the production of editorial opinions in a variety of media. Students will sharpen their skills and understanding through a blend of traditional lectures (including professional and political guests) and hands-on interviewing, researching, debating and writing. Ultimately they will learn to prepare convincing, intellectually honest and well-written editorials. This is a "reality-based" laboratory – taught once a week for three hours -- in which the class becomes the opinion-setting editorial board of a newspaper or other media outlet. During the course, students will "play act" the roles of editorial board members, including the editor who decides the board's consensus on an issue. To take advantage of the Honors college format, students from other classes could assume roles of public officials and be questioned or debate issues that the "board" would decide.

  HUHC 020D (H1): EASTERN EUROPEAN LITERATURE AND CINEMA: FROM THE COLD WAR TO THE PRESENT
  Prof. Alexandar Mihailovic
  TR 12:45-2:10
  21039 BRESL 202

  In this course we will examine contemporary literature and cinema from the Europe, viewing them as powerful tools of dissection that expose the difficult intricacies of life in a region where the past is never truly past. In the hands of Eastern European artists, historical and cultural revisionism becomes either a target of a moral critique or an instrument for visualizing untested possibilities for a viable future, ones that transcend the simplistic visions of economic globalism and shifting allegiances among the superpowers of Russia, the US, and China. The cinematic and literary texts will be drawn from the Slavic nations of post-Communist Europe, and will include iconoclastic writers and film directors such as Tatyana Tolstaya, Dorota Maslowska and Ilya Khrzhanovsky. We will also consider the exiled artist's more detached yet no less poignant perspective on political events, as exemplified by the work of the Bosnian writer Aleksandar Hemon and the Czech Milan Kundera.

  HUHC 020E (H1): ENDS UNFOLD, BECOMING STRANGE": FROM DARWINISM TO EVO-DEVO TO THE SINGULARITY--EVOLUTIONARY CULTURES AND HUMAN NATURE
  Professor Louis J. Kern, History
  T/R 9:35-11:00
  22827 BRESL 206

  The course will move from Darwin's theory of evolution as expressed in Origin of the Species (1859) and its sources to Ray Kurzweil's theoretical work on the Singularity (2005). It will consider the influence of evolutionary theory on a broad range of ideas affecting Western cultural development--economic and political theory and organization, anthropological and social constructs, social ethics (especially Social Darwinist ideology), psychology, eugenics, and the visual arts. The primary goal of the course will be to establish a foundation for an understanding of the intricate narrative of the mutual influences of biological evolution and the diverse forms of cultural evolution. Considerable attention will also be given to the relationship between past evolution as it has affected the development of human nature as compared to that of other animal species, particularly as reflected in forms of social behavior and sexuality. Some consideration will be given as well to the potential direction of future human evolution.

  HUHC 020F (H1 ) NAKED WITHOUT SHAME: THE EVOLUTION AND CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE HUMAN BODY
  Professor Daniel Varisco
  T/R 2:20-3:45
  22828 DAVSN 017

  This seminar will examine the human body, both its evolutionary significance in the history of human sexuality and its cultural construction as a marker of social and sexual identity. The course will comprise a comparative analysis of primate mating strategies, current theories about the role of sexual selection in hominid evolution, archaeological evidence about body representation from prehistoric and early Near Eastern sites, and the cultural construction of the human body as a societal symbol and identity marker in ethnographic perspective. The pedagogical purpose of the course is to introduce the student to the historical diversity of representing the human body as a culturally constructed social symbol. The focus will be on cross-cultural attitudes about nudity, body adornment and alteration. A central question is the extent to which the body symbolizes attitudes about gender relations and socially sanctioned sexual practices. The course will conclude with discussion of the moral implications of current representation of the human body in popular culture.

  HUHC 020G (H1): THEATRE OF THE 1960S
  Professor Cindy Rosenthal
  T/R 2:20 – 3:45
  22843 BRESL 206

  The decade of the 1960s is characterized by wide-ranging cultural experimentation, and tumultuous change. Radical, avant-garde theatre and performance was often at the center of the political turmoil of the 1960s – there was a powerful spirit of "groupness" and a fervor that was born out of the Civil Rights Movement and anti-Vietnam War activism, which was reflected in how and why plays were written, the ways actors lived and worked together, and where performances were produced – theatre frequently exploded out of buildings and into the streets. The focus of this course will be the dramatic works, the key players, and the cultural and political theories of the 1960s – many of which explored the blur between art and life that continues to inspire experimental art and artists today. "The times they are a changin'" and "the personal is political" were well-known, influential refrains of the period where art became known as a form of activism, but there continues to be a thrill and an attraction associated with the zeitgeist of the '60s, as in the excitement surrounding the current revival of HAIR on Broadway. Because of our proximity to New York's experimental theatre, film, dance, and art scenes there will be ample opportunities to experience the legacy of the '60s first-hand for our research, writing, and group creative work in the course.

  HUHC 020H, H1: Health, Illness, and the Ways We Understand Them
  Professor Theresa Horvath,
  T/R 11:10-12:35
  24635 BRESL 206

  Illness is a universal life experience. Yet the experience of being sick is shaped as much by culture and social life as by the nature of the illness and the extent of the disability. This course will examine the way the subjective experience of being sick and the expectations of the individual, the family, and the larger society shape the way people seek care and "get well". Using a variety of materials including fiction, autobiography, essay, memoir, film and poetry, we will explore how the disciplines of anthropology, sociology, psychology, religion, literature and art address medical themes involving life choices, loss, death and the experience of being sick.

• FALL 2009 HUHC SEMINARS

  The Queer Subject in French-Language Film
  Professor David Powell, Romance Languages and Literatures

  Of Human Bondage:  Human Trafficking and Globalization
  Professor Linda Longmire, Global Studies and Geography

  The Problem of Genocide
  Professor Johan Ahr, History

  Can Civic Literacy Save Democracy from Itself?
  Professor Eric Lane, Law School

  When the Past Isn't Dead:  From Freud to Obama
  Professor Shari Zimmerman, English

  Embodiment and the Creative Process
  Professor Robin Becker, Drama and Dance

  Climate Change and Global Warming: Physical Principles and Sustainable Energy Supplies
  Professor Flavio Dobran, Engineering

  Mind Games: The Psychology of Performance
  Professor Steven Frierman, Physical Education and Sport Sciences

• SPRING 2009 HUHC SEMINARS

  May Day: Performing a Politics of Resistance and Rebellion
  Professor Lisa Merrill, Speech, Communication, Rhetoric and Performance Studies
  Professor MaryAnn Trasciatti, Speech, Communication, Rhetoric and Performance Studies

  Language and Mind
  Professor Herb Seliger, Comparative Language and Literature

  East Africa through Literature, Art and Film
  Professor Arthur Dobrin, School for University Studies

  History and Memory in the 20th Century
  Professor Sally Charnow, History
  
  Growing up Is Hard to Do:  Adolescents in Literature, Design, and Film
  Professor Robert Sargent, English

  Debating Darwin:  A Social History of the Creation vs. Evolution Controversy
  Professor Daniel Varisco, Anthropology 

  Combinatorial Game Theory
  Professor Gillian Elston, Mathematics

• FALL 2008 HUHC SEMINARS

  The 2008 Race for the Whitehouse
  Professor Meena Bose, Kalikow Professor of Presidential Studies, Political Science

  America's Constitution
  Professor Eric Lane, School of Law

  Character and the Good Life
  Professor Ira Singer, Philosophy

  Philosophy of Food: Discourses and Practices of Edibility
  Professor Ralph Acampora, Philosophy

  Twentieth-Century Creativity and the Female Artist
  Professor Susan Lorsch, Department of English

  America Viewed from the Musical Stage
  Professor Jim Kolb, Drama Department

  Baseball Management: Management Innovation in Professional Baseball
  Professor Richard Puerzer, Engineering Department

  Poetry on the Edge: The Latin American Avant-Garde
  Professor Miguel-Angel Zapata, Romance Languages and Literatures

• SPRING 2008 HUHC SEMINARS

  Transforming Love's Body: Science, Medicine, and Technology and the Evolution of Modern Sexuality
  Professor Lou Kern, Department of History

  Free Will
  Professor Anthony Dardis, Philosophy Department

  America's Constitution
  Professor Eric Lane, School of Law

  The Politics of Comedy: Comic Freedom and Subversive Laughter from: Aristophanes to Borat
  Professor Pellegrino D'Acierno, Comparative Language and Literature

  The U.S. Supreme Court: The Evolution of its Power and its Impact on our Daily Lives
  Professor Glen Vogel, Department of Accounting, Taxation and Legal Studies

  Consumer Behavior Across Countries
  Professor Boonghee Yoo, International Business

  The Artist's Practice
  Professor Peter Plagens, Department of Art History and Fine Arts

• SPRING 2007 HUHC SEMINARS

  History and the Holocaust: Art, Memory and Representation
  Professor Stanislao G. Pugliese, History Department

  Reading Orientalism: How the West and Middle East View Each Other
  Professor Daniel Varisco, Anthropology

  Challenges in American Foreign Policy
  Professor Bernard Firestone, Dean, HCLAS, Department of Political Science
  Professor James Klurfeld, Department of Political Science

• FALL 2007 HUHC SEMINARS

  Haunted America: The Dark Side of the American Dream
  Professor Paula Uruburu, Department of English

  Neighborhoods, Watersheds and Public Health: Understanding Environmental Health through Service Learning in Urban Settings
  Professor Margaret Hunter, Engineering

  The American Dream: The Modern City and Its Suburbs
  Professor Robert B. Sargent, Department of English

  Defense and Foreign Policy in Post 9/11 America
  Professor David Frinquelli, Department of Political Science

  Six Great Paintings
  Professor Laurie Fendrich, Department of Art History and Fine Arts

  Truth (and Lies)
  Professor Peter Fristedt, Philosophy Department

  Christian Mysticism
  Professor Phyllis Zagano, Department of Religion

• SPRING 2006 HUHC SEMINARS

  Fundamentals of Forcasting
  Professor Irwin Kellner, Zarb School of Business

  The American Revolution through British Eyes
  Professor James Levy, School for University Studies

  Bodies and Machines: Physical Culture, Technology, Body Image, and the Nature of the Human
  Professor Louis Kern, Department of History

  Statistics in Baseball
  Professor Richard Puerzer, Department of Engineering

  Debating Darwin: A Social History of the Creation vs. Evolution Controvers
  Professor Daniel Varisco, Department of Anthropology

  Daughters of Decadence
  Professor Paula Uruburu, Department of English

  Challenges in American Foreign Policy
  Professor Bernard Firestone, Dean HCLAS, Department of Political Science
  Professor James Klurfeld, Department of Political Science

• FALL 2006 HUHC SEMINARS

  Sexual Difference and Narrative
  Professor David Powell, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

  The Democratization Process: Building and Sustaining Democracy in the 21st Century
  Professor Tina Mavrikos-Adamou, Political Science

  The Russian Idea and the West
  Professor Igor Pustovoit, Comparative Languages and Literatures

  History and Memory in the 20th Century
  Professor Sally Charnow, Department of History

  The Trouble with Artists
  Professor Laurie Fendrich, Department of Art History and Fine Arts

  Extraordinary Chemistry of Ordinary Things: Plastics and Polymers
  Professor Ronald D'Amelia, Chemistry

• SPRING 2005 HUHC SEMINARS

  The Experience of Modernity
  Professor Pellegrino D'Acierno, Comparative Languages and Literatures

  Food and Culture
  Professor Kasmir, Anthropology Department

  Evolutionary Psychology
  Professor William Sanderson, Psychology

  American Gothic, American Grotesque
  Professor Paula Uruburu, Department of English

  Literature of the American Musical
  Professor Richard Pioreck, Department of English

  Love and Its Cousins
  Professor J. Stephen Russell, Dean, HUHC, Department of English

• FALL 2005 HUHC SEMINARS

  The Double in Fiction and Film
  Professor Susan Lorsch, Department of English

  Women in Modern Europe
  Professor Sally Charnow, Department of History

  Are We Alone? Astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life
  Professor Stephen Lawrence, Department of Physics

  Mapping the Nation: Cartography, Census, and Survey in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Britain
  Professor Adam Sills, Department of Geography

  The Lost World, or Dancing on the Volcano: The Weimar Republic and the Creations of Modernity
  Professor Neil Donahue, Comparative Languages and Literatures

  Leadership, Morality, Success and Failure in Business
  Professor Luke Ng, Zarb School of Business

• SPRING 2004 HUHC SEMINARS

  Business Ethics and Society
  Professor Tara Radin, Zarb School of Business

  Intellectuals and Exile: From Socrates to Said
  Professor Stanislao G. Pugliese, Department of History

  Behind the Mask: Creating a Literary Identity
  Dr. Paula Uruburu, Department of English

  1968: A Year of Rebellion
  Professor Susan Yohn, Department of History

  Clothed in Flesh: Constructing the Self in the Middle Ages
  Professor J. Stephen Russell, Dean, HUHC, Department of English

  Cognition and Learning
  Professor Bruce Torff, Department of Curriculum and Teaching

• FALL 2004 HUHC SEMINARS

  The Cognitive Basis for Human Decision Making
  Dr. Charles F. Levinthal, Department of Psychology

  Mirror Up to Nature: Imitation and Creation in Art and Literature
  Professor Douglas Friedlander, Department of English
  Professor David Pushkin, Department of English

  Music, Women and Gender
  Professor Heather L. Feldman, Department of Music

  Ways of Knowing Science Wars, Science Peace
  Professor Karyn Valerius, Department of English

  World Literature and the Anatomy of Cultural Difference
  Professor Barbara Lekatsas, Department of Comparative Languages and Literatures

• SPRING 2003 HUHC SEMINARS

  Visual Literacy
  Professor M. Hollander, Department of Art History and Fine Arts

  Foundation of Disbelief
  Professor John Teehan, Department of Philosophy

  The Human Genome
  Professor Joanne Wiley, Department of Biology

  The Chinese Novel: The Dream of the Red Chamber
  Professor Zuyan Zhou

• FALL 2003 HUHC SEMINARS

  To Be a Woman & Artist: Female Creativity in Fiction
  Professor Susan Lorsch, Department of English

  Eugenics and Bioethics of the Well Born
  Professor Louis Kern, Department of History

  Character and the Good Life
  Professor Ira Singer, Department of Philosophy

• SPRING 2002 HUHC SEMINARS

  The New Testament and Early Christian Literature
  Professor Alexander Burke, Department of English

  Language: an Interdisciplinary Perspective
  Professor Evelyn Altenberg, Department of Speech, Language and Pathology

  Storytelling: The Intersection of Anthropology and History
  Professor Chris Matthews, Department Anthropology

• FALL 2002 HUHC SEMINARS

  Disability in Literature
  Professor G. Thomas Couser

  Thinking Images and Words
  Professor L. Otis, Department of English

  Engines of Life
  Professor Sina Rabbany, Department of Engineering
  Professor Margaret Hunter, Department of Engineering

  Hume and Kant
  Professor T. Godlove, Department of Philosophy