Difficult Dialogues

Difficult Dialogues Courses

Difficult Dialogues (DD)-affiliated courses—an average of fifteen offered each semester—approach the process of dialogue in a variety of ways and across a number of disciplines, and relate as is relevant to our public symposium programming.

Fall 2013 Difficult Dialogues courses (PDF) »

Sample of DD Courses

The Dialogue Semimnar

HS 010 The Dialogue Seminar: Freedom
Sarah Buie & DD Fellows (section 1)
Jason Zelesky & DD Fellows (section 2)
Jennifer Plante & DD Fellows (section 3)


The focus of this course is on in-class dialogues that draw from the experiences and issues raised by the public events in the Difficult Dialogues fall symposium. The topic of the Fall 2013 dialogue symposium is “Freedom.” How do we define freedom? As in the past, the symposium will seek to explore our topic from a variety of vantage points — academic, artistic, and political freedoms as well as the relationships among them. When do we seek “freedom to” and when do we want “freedom from”? How is freedom defined by different people in varied circumstances; how does “freedom” bring groups together and when does it pull them apart; are there circumstances under which we must give up our freedoms? Our programming on these topics will include a film series, talks by scholars including cultural historians, environmental scientists and writers, arts events, film screenings, and community conversations. Each section of this half-credit course will be led by a faculty member paired with experienced DD fellows. The course includes readings and short papers, and attendance at 6 to 8 DD symposia events over the course of the semester is a requirement of the class.


Dialogue First Year Intensive Courses

COMM 050 Communication and Culture in Main South | Sarah Michaels
This seminar covers the same content as COMM 101 which is a requirement for the Communication & Culture major and minor. However, this course will be run as a hands-on, discussion-based seminar, with students doing original research and taking an active role in class discussion. All of the ideas and tools introduced in the course will be put to use in investigations of communication and culture in the Main South Neighborhood of Worcester. We will investigate local media, public art, and both formal and informal learning in the neighborhood. Seminar participants will have a chance to collaborate with neighborhood students on multi-media projects, contributing to a community-based website. The course will be interdisciplinary, drawing on psychological, anthropological, sociological, technological, aesthetic, cinematic, semiotic, and cultural studies points of view and methodologies. There will be a particular emphasis on the roles of talk, text, and image in social life and how they relate to power, access, and equity in the world. Fulfills the Values Perspective requirement.

ENG 114 American Talk | Fern Johnson
This seminar explores the distinctive character of talk in the United States, with emphasis on the ways in which talk is associated with groups and situational identities. The course revolves around understanding the dynamic and diverse nature of talk as a cultural code and resource. Topics include the linguistic markers of regional and social dialects, styles of speaking, public discourse forms such as presidential debates, and television and film representations of American talk.

ENG 122 Terror of the Gothic | Lisa Kasmer
This course explores our paradoxical delight in terror through the world of nineteenth-century gothic fiction, like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. In tracing the recurrent themes of family dynamics, sin, politics, and nature within the Gothic, we will examine both the relationship of this fiction to the dominant culture of the nineteenth century, as well as the dark underside this literature represents. Following current literary scholarship, we will pose questions about representations of violence; the significance of fantasy and fear; and the role of gender, sexuality, race, and class in this body of work. Throughout the course, we will discuss the legacy of this fiction in our modern obsession with horror in film, novels, and culture. This course satisfies the Verbal Expression (VE) requirement.

IDND 021 Queer Horror | Jennifer Plante
From Frankenstein to Freddy Krueger, the horror monster has thrilled and terrified horror fans for decades. What the general audience might not recognize is how the monster embodies society’s anxieties, particularly those involving sexuality and gender. In this class, we will analyze a selection of horror novels and films, paying attention to how the monsters are “coded” as queer, exploring how the monsters are representations of popular culture’s changing views on queerness, and considering how and why the queer monster has evolved over the decades. We will also consider how a queer audience might have responded to these monsters.

PHIL 50 Absolutism and Relativism Across the Disciplines | Wes Demarco
We explore rival claims of relativists and absolutists in ethics, religion, math and the sciences, and consider some varieties of pluralism as option to these claims. Ours is a case-study approach. We study and evaluate the ‘Asian values argument’ against the universality of human rights, a feminist criticism of empirical science, and consider the exclusivism of contemporary religious fundamentalism. We begin with experiments in color perception and some simplified examples of alternate mathematics, and then study claims of cognitive differences across cultures. These case studies prepare us for an engagement with texts from Wittgenstein, Quine, Davidson, Nietzsche, Hegel, Habermas and Tillich that help us to think about a family of issues concerning meaning, interpretation, and truth that span disciplinary divides. Fulfills the verbal expression requirement.

PHIL 65 Talking Freedom | Walter Wright
Freedom and liberty are regular topics in public discourse, and we often assume that they are well understood. However, the significant questions surrounding them suggest that this is not true. What exactly does the word “freedom” mean? When, and under what conditions, do we experience it? Is freedom a single thing or are there many kinds of freedom? Is it synonymous with liberty? How far does freedom extend? Are people really free, or are we constrained by physical, biological, or social factors? If our thoughts and actions are determined by external factors, is liberation possible? How might one attempt to achieve it? And how are constructive conversations about such contentious questions best conducted? Talking Freedom is a dialogue-based, first year intensive (FYI), philosophy course that will investigate these matters.


Dialogue Courses

ARTS 102 Drawing: Eye, Mind, Hand | Deanna Leamon
Addresses the mechanics and expressive potential of drawing. Traditional illusionist drawing techniques will be combined with exercises that facilitate personal expression and subjective response. In exploring the relationship among seeing, thinking and making, the beginning student will acquire fundamental skills in image making and insight into the creative process in general. Each faculty member will bring his/her unique perspective and personal studio practices to bear in the teaching of this course. Fulfills the Aesthetic Perspective.

ARTS 132 Painting: Self Made Worlds | Toby Sisson
Self Made Worlds/Rotating Faculty: Emphasis on constructing alternative realities. The painted image has been with us since the first handprint appeared on a cave wall. It remains an intimate and powerful index of an individual's quest for self-expression, and acts as a mirror of culture's changing image of itself. The basic toolbox of painting techniques will be explored along with an introduction to painters and painting concerns from the past through to the contemporary moment. The emphasis of this course will shift depending on the professor. Students who have taken ARTS 132 Painting I: Seeing and Believing may take ARTS 132 Painting I: Self Made Worlds for full credit or its equivalent is highly recommended. Fulfills the Aesthetic Perspective.

ARTS 208 Typography | Sarah Buie
Study of the informational and expressive dimensions of typographical language. The history and technology of type is considered, with an opportunity to handset metal type, as well as do extensive work on the computer. Applications to a variety of problems, including letterhead, poster and publication design.

ARTS 280 Encaustic: Contemporary Practice in an Ancient Medium | Toby Sisson
Advanced work in various media. Students will be encouraged to develop personal iconography and content, refine technique, and expand awareness of the relationship of their work to the larger world. This class will not be assignment-driven, but will enable the serious student to engage in focused work, serial studies, and autonomous investigation under the guidance of a faculty mentor Ms. Crocker or Ms. Sisson/Offered periodically.
Encaustic is a versatile medium with a fascinating history. A blend of beeswax, resin and pigment, it was developed by the ancient Greeks to waterproof and then embellish sailing vessels. Encaustic was later used by the Romans to adorn ceramics and sculpture, and adopted by Egyptians to paint funerary portraits entombed along the Nile River basin in the 1st century BCE.
This course will examine encaustic’s venerable traditions, its rediscovery by modern practitioners, and the medium’s recent revitalization among contemporary artists. Studio projects will investigate a variety of methods for working with molten wax and explore many of its most compelling properties — luminosity, translucency malleability and adhesion. Sculpture, photography, printmaking, painting and drawing techniques will be employed to create works that combine multiple practices.

EDUC 255 Ethnography at School | Eric DeMeulenaere
This course will use the lens of ethnography to examine the process by which social inequality related to race, class, gender and nation becomes manifest in classrooms and schools. Conversely, we will use the space of schooling to better understand the basic practice of ethnography as one tool for making meaning of social dynamics. To achieve this, we will critically examine several modern and classic school-based ethnographies to better understand the ways that social inequality is constructed and challenged in schools. These analyses will be contrasted with students' own critical interrogation of their own schooling experiences. Further, students will become situated in local urban classrooms to employ the tools of ethnography in support of teacher action research projects. Thus, in addition to a critical examination of inequality in schooling, this course will provide students with methodological training in the construction of ethnographic field notes and ethnographic interviewing. Such analytical training is valuable not only for students interested in qualitative research, but also for anyone interested in working in schools and seeking to better understand the ways that culture is dynamically negotiated in social groupings. Registration by permission, only.

EDUC 152 Complexities of urban schooling | Eric DeMeulenaere
An inquiry into the challenging social and academic questions that pervade urban education using linguistic, sociological and psychological perspectives. Through lecture, discussion and field work, students will explore challenges faced by educators. For undergraduate students interested in educational studies. The course is also a prerequisite for the Education minor and for the Master of Arts in Teaching graduate program.

EN 103 The Sustainable University | Jennie Stephens
Urgency for the societal need to promote a sustainability transition is increasing as risks associated with climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, and other types of environmental degradation are increasingly threatening human well-being in complex ways. This course explores both the theory and practice of sustainability and sustainable development by examining the role of the university in promoting a sustainability transition. The role of universities in society involves more than providing formal course instruction for enrolled students; universities are also critical places of discovery and innovation, centers for political discourse, and catalysts for political action. This course focuses on sustainability at the university because institutions of higher education have unique potential to catalyze and/or accelerate a sustainability transition. In addition, the focus on the university provides a lens for examining how institutions with complex structures make a myriad of decisions with environmental consequences, a context for considering the broad role of education in sustainable development, and a framework and perspective with direct and personal connections for students to consider the challenges of promoting sustainability. In addition to reading and writing about theoretical perspectives on sustainability, social change, organizational change, and the role of the university in promoting a transition to a more sustainable society, students engage directly with the practical challenges associated with promoting sustainability through team projects focused on the Clark University campus and the Worcester community.

ENG 290 Capstone | Betsy Huang
The capstone's purpose is to deepen and broaden each senior major's knowledge and interpretive skills. We will spend time on the aspects of literature that the department feels every major should know. Throughout the semester, each student will work on a paper of his or her choosing (e.g., a research paper for another seminar, a part of an honor's thesis). For undergraduate English majors, this course satisfies the Capstone (E) requirement. Seniors only.

HIST 219 History of American Women | Amy Richter
This course moves through the chronology of American history to examine the broad themes that have shaped women's lives in the United States from the colonial period to the present. While tracing larger trends and identifying common experiences, we will also pay close attention to the specific experiences of individual women in order to shed light on the differences and divisions among them. Throughout, we will investigate the ways in which notions of gender difference have changed over time and how a wide variety of women both created and responded to shifting and contested cultural, political, and social roles.

HS 114 Freedom Battles | Doug Little and Kristen Williams
In 1923, Mohandas K. Gandhi published Freedom’s Battle, a collection of his political writings that had first appeared in the journal Young India during the preceding decade. A staunch critic of British imperialism and a firm believer in the power of nonviolence, Gandhi prophesied that by the end of the 20th century, all the peoples of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East would secure their freedom from Western control and achieve national self-determination. This course will evaluate the accuracy of Gandhi’s prophecy, with special emphasis on means and ends: which approach—civil disobedience and moral suasion OR civil war and political violence—was more successful? Did the tactics adopted by the imperial powers affect the struggle for self-determination? Using historical and contemporary case studies of self-determination movements, several themes will be explored, including the role of great powers (both colonial and non-colonial powers), and the emergence and evolution of the norm of self-determination (and the link to self-determination/nationalist liberation movements and the creation of new states from former colonies). We will also explore the link between nationalist liberation movements and women’s liberation movements, related to the intersectionality of class, race, sex, ethnicity, religion, and gender.

IDCE 360 Development Theory | Anita Fabos
An interdisciplinary graduate seminar which provides a critical overview of classical and contemporary theories of development by introducing students to writings on development across many disciplines (political economy, anthropology, geography, sociology, feminist theory). The seminar encourages students to think historically, politically and analytically about the multiplicity of development processes and the complex relations of power that underlie them.

IDCE 30185 Sustainability and the Role of Higher Education | Jennie Stephens
This course explores both the theory and practice of sustainability and sustainable development by examining the role of higher education in promoting change toward sustainability. The societal role of higher education involves more than providing formal course instruction for enrolled students; institutions of higher education are also critical places of discovery and innovation, centers for political discourse, and catalysts for political action and social change. This course explores the unique potential that institutions of higher education have to contribute to a sustainability transition. The focus on the university provides a lens for examining how organizations with complex structures make a myriad of decisions with environmental consequences, a context for considering the broad role of education in sustainable development, and a framework and perspective with direct and personal connections for us consider the challenges of promoting sustainability. In addition to reading and writing about the challenges of sustainability and the role of the university in promoting sustainable practices in society, we will engage directly with the challenges associated with promoting sustainable behavior and fostering institutional and social change through team projects right here in the Clark and Worcester communities. Graduate students enrolled in this course should be prepared to take on a leadership role with an associated team of undergraduate students.

IDCE 360 Development Theory | Anita Fabos
An interdisciplinary graduate seminar which provides a critical overview of classical and contemporary theories of development by introducing students to writings on development across many disciplines (political economy, anthropology, geography, sociology, feminist theory). The seminar encourages students to think historically, politically and analytically about the multiplicity of development processes and the complex relations of power that underlie them.

MGMT 100 The Art and Science of Management | Barbara Bigelow
This course is designed to encourage students to consider how business is embedded into the larger society. It will introduce students to basic management skills and the context in which they are applied. Whether a person is working in a complex organization, such as a bank, university, high-tech firm, hospital or manufacturer; participating in a student-run activity; volunteering for a local nonprofit; or working a summer job—management skills are necessary. For management majors and minors, the course provides an introduction to the topics they will study in greater depth in their future course work. For students not majoring in management, it provides an opportunity to learn basic skills that will be helpful in their current and future activities in organizations. The course structure includes readings, lecture, service learning, case analyses, role plays and experiential exercises. The course involves considerable interaction between the professor and students, and among students, because the practice of management is about people working with, listening to, and respecting people who have different backgrounds, experiences and opinions. This class fulfills the Verbal Expression requirement.

PHIL 270 Philosophy of Law | Judi DeCew
Examines fundamental questions in philosophy of law, such as: What is the source and purpose of law? What is the nature of judicial reasoning, and is it subjective or governed by some set of principles? How do alternative theories of law explain rights, duties, liability, responsibility and so forth? What is the relationship between liberty, privacy and justice? Readings include selections from legal theory and a variety of contemporary court decisions. Fulfills Values Perspective (VP) requirement.

PSYC 271 Creativity, Collaboration and Human Development | Seana Moran
Creativity is central to what makes us human. This capstone seminar explores what creativity is, its collaborative nature, and what role it plays in individual, societal and cultural development over time. We will use a Vygotskian and dynamic systems perspective to contextualize the ways creativity has been studied and to explore how creativity stimulates the purposeful generation of ideas and products in the arts, sciences, technology, business, and social institutions. We will examine theory and research as well as case studies to discuss the individual and collaborative experiences, opportunities, challenges, contexts, and effects of creativity. This course is open to graduate students.

SOC 263 Deviance | Patty Ewick
Why are some behaviors, differences and people stigmatized and considered deviant while others are not? This course examines theories of social deviance that offer answers to this and related questions such as: How and why are behaviors designated as deviant? How do individuals enter a deviant lifestyle? And how do various social statuses, such as sex, affect the incidence, type and responses to deviant acts?

SPAN 106 Intermediate Spanish II | Belen Atienza
Normally taken after, SPAN 106 further strengthens skills in the language through grammar reviews, readings on Hispanic themes and class discussions. Emphasis is on activities in reading, writing, speaking and conversational understanding as a preparation for more advanced work. Prerequisite: successful completion of or the equivalent. Discussion session required.

TA 230 Playwriting | Gino Dilorio
Students learn basic techniques of stagecraft including dialogue and character development, as well as dramatic structure and the technical elements of a play. Students will write every week and complete assignments to be read in class.


COPACE Courses

ES 1970 Sustainability and the Sacred | Rachael Shea
Our current culture is fast-paced, busy and isolating. Yet, there are people, whom we call indigenous, who live in rhythm with nature, who recognize the interconnectedness of all life-the sacred. While the rest of the world invests in new technologies to ensure the sustainability of human existence on the planet, many of the indigenous peoples continue to be living examples pointing to an ancient technology: connection to the Sacred or Divine or Nature or the Great Mystery. During this course we will move from recognizing the complexity of our society into the experiences of the simplicity-this is the voice of sustainability, the voice of the sacred.
Please be advised that some class meeting will take place outdoors.


Graduate Courses

MGT 5308 Women in Management | Margarete Arndt
This dialog course explores the position and role of women in the management of U.S. organizations. It focuses at the societal level on the representation of women in management and at the organizational level on gendered behavior. Topics are reviewed and discussed as enabling or hindering (1) women in performing to their capacity and (2) organizations in benefiting from women’s contribution. The course draws on literature that describes and conceptualizes occupational segregation and its causes, as well as different management styles and their relevance to management in general and to women in management in particular. The course uses a woman-focused lens to reflect on the practice of management, societal expectations, and organizational policies and behaviors. In order to facilitate this dialogue, the seminar is limited to 15 students.