Seminar Summaries
There are two kinds of First-Year Seminars: those that are Living-Learning Communities and those that are not. If you are interested in being part of a Living-Learning Community, please select five seminars from the LLC list in addition to five regular seminars. Learn more about Living-Learning Communities.
Following are brief summaries of the 2009 First-Year Seminars.
Tuning the Hemispheres: Music and the Brain (LLC)
Why do we have such strong responses to certain pieces of music? What happens in our brain when we listen to music? Can music make you smarter? How and why does music help us to create and define our sense of identity and place within social structures? This seminar will seek to answer these questions by examining the psychological and physiological effects that music has on the human brain. We will consider the relationship between music and the brain in broad contexts and in specific case studies. We will ask how, in the age of the iPod and Pandora, music is shaping our future.
Roadside America (LLC)
What images come to mind when you hear someone say "road trip"? A convertible kicking up dust as it flies down the highway, surrounded by vast open spaces and adventure? Weary travelers staring numbly out the windshield, longing for home? Who produces these images? Who consumes them? What do they mean? How are they shaped by cultural ways of seeing, doing, knowing, and representing? This seminar explores representations of road trips, highway landscapes, car culture, and "the road" in road movies such as Thelma & Louise, road novels such as Jack Kerouac's On the Road, and in the popular visual culture of roadside America as well as our own personal stories of road travel.
Unraveling the Technology Tapestry (LLC)
This seminar will use the increasing pervasiveness of technology in society as a means to learn how to better educate ourselves about its many implications. Students, together with the professor, will bring current topics from a variety of news sources and then learn how to learn about the issues involved. The seminar will focus on methodology of further research, and presentation and discussion of the results of our investigations, including technical, societal, ethical and legal implications. You don't need to be a geek to know how technology affects us all and how the implications of technology are woven into our lives.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
The "love story" is a traditionally devalued genre of reading, a guilty pleasure that is usually indulged in solitary settings, and is seldom discussed in the space of the classroom. This seminar, however, will focus entirely on narratives of desire, courtship and marriage that we produce and reproduce in Western culture. Although spontaneity, passion, and unpredictability seem to be the cherished substance of romance, "stories" of love are strangely predictable, even uniform, in the parables and plausibilities they conjure up for our enjoyment. We will ask a range of questions about "love" as a literary commodity and as a structural inevitability, measuring and mapping the "marriage plots" of Pride and Prejudice against Twilight, and the romantic heroism of Heathcliff against Hannibal Lecter.
Forbidden Fruit: Religious Conceptions of Food (LLC)
Food can be used to connect with the sacred, feed divine beings through ritual offerings, and transform the human self physically, morally and spiritually. Religious conceptions of food and drink infuse cultural ideas about the human body and about the relationship between humans and sacredness. Through a variety of texts and films, we will investigate specific rituals and traditions in some of the world's major religions; decipher some useful cross-cultural themes; and gain a broad understanding of religious concepts and behaviors surrounding food. Students will begin the class over the summer with a comic novel about the cultural construction of food.
Global Powers: The Rise and Fall of Empires: Great Britain, the U.S., and China
The sun never set on the vast, powerful British Empire. But now its glory days are long over. Will this be the fate of the U.S., which has taken over Britain's position of world dominance? Did Britain and the U.S. possess something special or unique that led to their rise, or could China or some other global power soon take over? Is decline inevitable? These and other such questions will guide our seminar and provide us with some perspective with which to examine the present global financial collapse.
Do They Really Drink Green Beer?: The Irish in America (LLC)
Every March sees massive St. Patrick's Day parades, rivers and beer are dyed green, and revelers wear "Kiss Me - I'm Irish" buttons. Popular images of Irish Americans range from the kindly priests in Bing Crosby movies to murderous thugs in films like Gangs of New York. This seminar will study who the Irish in America really are: how they survived starvation during the great famine to seeing one of their own elected President of the United States. Students will use the framework of the Irish-American story to look at their own families' immigration histories, and analyze the issues facing those who are immigrating to the United States today.
Our Music, Their Music (LLC)
This seminar examines American culture through some of its popular music. Our approach will be multidisciplinary; we will consider music and musicians from aesthetic, historical, economic, and sociological perspectives. The seminar will begin with Louis Armstrong and end with Techno and Hip-Hop. In between, we will read about, listen to, and discuss other popular and significant figures including Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Madonna, Willie Nelson, and Nirvana. Thoughtful, well-articulated, and supported ways of listening to, discussing, and writing about music and culture will always be at the heart of the seminar.
Why People Believe Weird Things: Science and the Paranormal (LLC)
Why do people believe weird things? Police departments hire psychics to solve crimes, hotels are built without 13th floors, athletes fear the "Sports Illustrated Jinx", and a significant percentage of Americans believe in UFOs, Bigfoot, ESP, the Bermuda Triangle, voodoo curses, etc. Because our beliefs shape everything from the way we interact with others to governmental decisions, we have an obligation to critically evaluate our own beliefs whenever possible. We will use the methodological tools of psychological science to critically examine the evidence for a variety of paranormal phenomena. We will also explore the psychological processes that contribute to irrational beliefs and behavior.
Knitting: It's Not Just for Grannies (LLC)
Knitting has enjoyed a huge comeback in the U.S. in the last decade, largely thanks to interest in DIY and environmentally sustainable consumption. In this seminar, you will not only learn to knit (or develop your skills as a knitter), but also come to see knitting as a fascinating window onto the rest of the world. We will explore the craft's history, women's and men's work, the politics of art vs. craft, scientific and mathematical inspirations, and the craft's role in activism. Come explore the pleasures of making and thinking about making. Men and women, novices and experts welcome.
Political Spin Back in the Day: Alexander the Great (LLC)
Alexander the Great was one of the greatest political spin meisters of Classical antiquity. Modern day politicians could take lessons! His state machinery projected marvelous imperial images and programs. Alexander spun his political images through the use and abuse of the multimedia of his day, that is, state-inspired literature, dedications, sculpture, coins, and architecture. We will read selected ancient sources in translation and observe ancient art and architecture to see exactly how Alexander was portrayed. We also will compare contemporary use/abuse in, and by, the media in coverage of presidential politics. No background in Classics is assumed.
Going to the Dogs
Dogs appear at every major juncture in human history, with over 70 million dogs in the U.S. today. A recent National Geographic stated, "Dogs are not just our proverbial best friends in the animal world ... They evolved from wolves long ago, found a home alongside humans before history makes a record, and never left." We will analyze portrayals of dogs in various media, examine the biology of dogs, and explore the Homo sapiens--Canis familiaris relationship. So, has the relationship between humans and dogs impacted the development of human culture?
Educational Equality: Myth or Reality? (LLC)
When John Adams set forth his "Thoughts on Government" in 1776, he asserted that "Laws for the liberal education of youth, especially of the lower class of people, are so extremely wise and useful, that, to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant." Many critics of American public education would argue, however, that this vision of providing equal access to a quality education for all children is essentially a dream unfulfilled. This seminar will provide students with an opportunity to examine and critically analyze trends and issues related to equal educational opportunity in America.
Wheels and Deals: A Survey of Television Game Shows (LLC)
What is a game show? What is The $64,000 Question? Who is Monty Hall? Would you like the final answers to these and many other questions? Then come on down as we explore the fascinating world of television game shows. We will begin by studying the history of game shows. Then, we will attempt to define the genre by asking questions such as, "Is Survivor a game show?" In addition, we will study optimal strategies of various game shows to determine the best way to win big bucks.
The Amazing Adventures of Michael Chabon
Jewish comic book artists. U.S. immigration quotas during WW II and the Shoah. Suburban life and its discontents. Life in pre-Stonewall America. This is the stuff of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning historical novel. By focusing on this text and a few of Chabon's earlier works, we will explore the ways in which literature represents and shapes our ideas about ethnicity, religion, gender and sexuality. Along the way we will also reflect upon and expand our assumptions about the role that authors and readers play in determining the meaning of literary texts.
Seduced by Money - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (LLC)
Money rewards risk-taking, fuels consumption and also often gets in the way of people making smart choices in businesses and as individuals alike. Here's a chance to consider who you want to be in the world. In this seminar, you will learn about the trade-offs to getting business done in the world. You will see where lipstick and other products come from and what it takes to make them magically appear in your hands. You will learn what it really means to "act locally" and decide what choices you will make. And you will get to consider money and greed from the perspectives of popular movies.
Political Ethics: A Contradiction in Terms?
This seminar explores the ethical issues posed by the practice of politics in the American system. Should a "good" politician act differently than a "good" person? Do ethical imperatives differ in the public as opposed to the private realm? Is there a difference between useful deception and simple lying? Should a public official ever willfully disobey the law? Should leaders use citizens as the means to an otherwise worthy end? Are there some things worth dying for? Killing for? Can a politician be both ethical and powerful?
Fantastical Leaders
Does literature like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings provide a source to explore the same leadership ideas as those proposed by Aristotle, Plato, and current leadership scholars? How has leadership been explored across time and disciplines? Is leadership a specialized role, or an influence process shared by followers? Why do some people emerge as leaders, and not others? We will read, discuss, and explore Elizabeth Moon's The Deed of Paksenarrion and selected scholarly works to gain a nuanced understanding of these leadership questions, and many more.
Salt Cod & Cool Whip: Adventures in American Gastronomica (LLC)
Food is an old subject. But the academic study of the way people produce, procure, prepare, and eat food as a path to understanding culture is relatively new. This seminar will situate itself at the multi-disciplinary interchange that characterizes this new field of inquiry and will introduce students to the ways in which practices of everyday life, as well as historical and literary texts, may be open to intellectual inquiry about food and eating. Among the questions we'll pursue are, what was the impact of West African slaves in the development of American food, what was the "home economics movement" and how did it effect gender roles, why is American food still considered inferior as a world cuisine, and how are food and politics intertwined?
A River Runs Through It: The Ecology and History of the San Gabriel River (LLC)
Running through the center of Georgetown and alongside Southwestern University is the San Gabriel River, mostly a tranquil, clear-flowing stream, but occasionally a raging, destructive torrent. This seminar explores the human-nature relationship, as illuminated by rivers in general and the San Gabriel River in particular. We will examine the science of water, the ecology of the San Gabriel River, and how the San Gabriel River has shaped the history of Williamson County. During the seminar, we will experience the San Gabriel River first-hand as we hike its banks, canoe its waters, and visit nearby historical sites.
Lessons from Chinese Writing: Words, Songs and Stories
Who's afraid of Chinese characters? There is a growing fascination with the written language of China, an ancient civilization of growing international importance. In fact, China can boast one of the oldest continuous written civilizations in the world. But for most people raised in the U.S., the written forms are intriguing, mysterious, and just a little intimidating. This seminar introduces the basics of the Chinese writing system with an emphasis on its origins, and then continues to address the idea of writing in Chinese civilization, from the earliest records to recent discussions.
The Secret History of the Twentieth Century (LLC)
How do you "know" what you "know" and what does it mean that you do? What's lurking in Anti-Flag's "Turncoat" or The Matches "Salty Eyes"? What does M.I.A. know that we don't (yet)? What do The Velvet Underground and silent French movie serials tell us? Medieval democratic pirate enclaves? How about the connections of Good Charlotte to 16th century Anabaptists and 20th century Delta blues singers with 11th century Assassins? The Paris Commune, Situationists, and "punks"? Our conceptions of what is (im)possible have been profoundly shaped by moments that barely left a trace in History, sites where people struggled to realize their private dreams and desires in public; counter-hegemonic space(s) where people sought to gain control over the material and ideological conditions of their everyday lives.
Why Did the 2008-09 Global Financial Crisis Happen?
This seminar addresses how the current global financial crisis evolved into the most severe and longest economic recession since the Great Depression. Knowing how globalization's second era (1970-2009) and emphasis on free-market capitalism contributed to the profound losses and unemployment suffered throughout the world is our first assignment. Next, we study past manias, bubbles, and crashes to understand how irrational crowd psychology and greed become key ingredients in creating a financial bubble. Finally, we will research and evaluate the various causes (regulation, Congress, corporate greed, etc.) and solutions (bailouts and other federal rescues) to the current global crisis.
September 11, Terrorism, and Response
The shocking event of September 11 merits attention beyond what the media have covered. Why was the U.S. the target of those terrible attacks? Who is Osama bin Laden, and what are the goals, strategies and tactics, and resources of Al Qaeda? What explains the rise of Islamic militancy in the Middle East? Why and how has terrorism become internationalized? How should the U.S. respond to terrorism?
