First Year Seminars - Fall 2008
ARTH 158: Art and the City of Worcester
This class is an introduction to art history, using the rich trove of art collections within the city of Worcester as primary objects of study. Each week we will be immersed in the art of a specific time and place, reading relevant articles and then examining, in person, actual examples of art from the period. Over the course of the semester, we will visit the collections of the Worcester Art Museum, the American Antiquarian Society, and the Higgins Armory, and will also study several examples of public art in the city. By the end of the semester, students will have gained a foundation in art history and will also have come to know the City of Worcester in greater depth.
This course does not replace the lecture ARTH 010: From the Stone Age to Our Age.
Fulfills the Aesthetic Perspective requirement.
Faculty: Kristina Wilson, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Visual and Performing Arts
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BIOL 100: Introductory Biology/First-Year Research Seminar In Fungal Molecular Ecology
Biology l00 will be a first-year research-oriented course that combines lectures and discussions with a semester-long, team-driven research project. The class will be restricted to ten incoming students with strong backgrounds in Biology and will satisfy the requirement for BIOL 100 in the Biology Major. BIOL lO0 will give first-year students an opportunity to pursue research in a small group setting in their first semester at Clark, and will simultaneously provide an introduction to the general topics treated in BIOL 100 and training in writing and study skills. The central theme of this course will be an investigation of the fungal symbionts of Monotropa uniflora, which is a locally abundant species of non-photosynthetic plants commonly known as Indian pipes. Monotropa uniflora steals carbohydrates from plants via fungal intermediates. We will collect plants in the field and identify their fungal partners using molecular tools.
Permission of instructor.
Fulfills the Science Perspective requirement.
Faculty: David Hibbett, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biology
CHEM 042: Science in Science Fiction
Students will explore aspects of science that are relevant to their lives through critical analysis of works of science fiction and subsequent writings and class discussion. The course will delve into topics such as evolution, genetic engineering and ecology. Science fiction books and films will be supported by readings from the popular press and scientific journals about the latest scientific advances that mirror the predictions of science fiction, especially those that have raised ethical and/or political issues in today’s world. After all, what was science fiction yesterday is reality today. Books will include The Time Machine—H.G. Wells, Ender’s Game-Orson Scott Card, and Neuromancer – William Gibson.
Fulfills the Verbal Expression requirement. You must be placed at the Verbal Expression level to be admitted into this seminar.
Faculty: Donald Crampton, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Chemistry
CHEM 103: Accelerated Introductory Chemistry/Lecture, Laboratory
This is a one-semester course for students with a strong background in chemistry who do not need the traditional two-semester sequence. Upon completion of CHEM103, students are eligible to go directly to CHEM131 (Organic Chemistry I) in the following spring semester, thereby accelerating their program in chemistry by one semester and allowing for additional elective courses during their junior and senior years. Topics include atomic and molecular structure, geometry, bonding, reactions, equilibria, thermodynamics, acids and bases, basic kinetics and stoichiometry.
Permission of instructor.
Fulfills the Science Perspective requirement.
Faculty: Luis Smith, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Chemistry
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CLAS 050/HIST 050: Jesus, History and the Apocalypse
Studies the many aspects of the “historical Jesus” issue. What can be known with certainty about Jesus of Nazareth? What do we know with reasonable historical confidence? How does one evaluate, as a historian, ancient texts (the canonical and non-canonical Gospels, among others) which supply inconsistent accounts and which make religious claims not subject to historical analysis? The course also focuses on the historical context of Jesus, as a first-century Palestinian Jew, under Roman authority. Throughout the course, we will confront a variety of ancient modes of writing about the past; these will include: secular biography, secular history (with historical bias), statements of religious faith with claims to historical factuality, and so on. Students will come away from the course with, among other insights, an understanding of how extraordinarily difficult it is to evaluate ancient historical texts and to determine “what really happened.”
Fulfills the Historical Perspective requirement.
Faculty: Paul Burke, Ph.D., Professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures
CMLT 129/SPAN 129: Revolution in Hispanic Culture
Explores the ways in which the arts (literature, cinema and painting) are both transformative and transformed by major changes in ideology, science and technology, psychology, and society at large. Shock and change also happen when cultures contact and collide. Examples of topics covered in this course could be: the birth of cinema, the influence of Marxism in figures like Che Guevara, Fidel Castro and Pablo Neruda, Freud's influence in Dali and the surrealists, Frida Kahlo as a feminist icon, and Africa's influence on Picasso. Different topics and periods will be covered each semester.
Fulfills the Verbal Expression requirement. You must be placed at the Verbal Expression level to be admitted into this seminar.
Faculty: Belen Atienza, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Foreign Languages
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COMM 050 / EDUC 050: Communication & Culture in Main South
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. More information...
Fulfills the Values Perspective requirement.
Faculty: Sarah Michaels, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Education
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CSCI 100: Think Like Computers
We try to make computers to think more and more like humans because, after all, we are at a higher level of intelligence. However, as we have already witnessed, there are tasks that computers can perform amazingly well, like online search, airport scheduling, calculation of credit scores, etc., and there are areas that computers can out-smart us - like poker, chess, puzzles, games, etc. How do computers do that? What can we learn from the lines of logic that computers use? Can we use the methods designed for computers to reflect upon the essence of our human intelligence, and to help us sharpen our own ability of thinking, thus improving our own intelligence? In this course, we will talk about the differences between machine intelligence and human intelligent, learn some of the computational methods used in computers, their applications, and discuss what we can learn from them.
Fulfills the Formal Analysis Perspective requirement.
Prerequisites: No computer programming background is required; however, previous experience in logical thinking is essential.
Faculty: Ping Xuan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Math/Computer Science
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CSCI 110: Diving Into Research
For a number of years I’ve had an interest in programming microcontrollers to perform simple tasks. I’ve been using them as part of my teaching and in various other projects. One of our recent seniors used microcontrollers to oversee his honors projects. (Visit his video on YouTube)
In our Diving Into Research Class we will learn how to program a microcontroller, as part of a simple circuit, and then build electronics that can be managed by the computer. You can get an idea of our starting point from the picture shown here. This is the device we will be programming and teaching to do tasks. This will lead us to robotics, “intelligent devices”, and a lot of other interesting topics.
The purpose of this class is to have FUN. You should have an interest in computers and how they work. We’ll do together some simple programming so ideally you’ll be taking CSCI 120 or equivalent. This is a 0.5 credit course each semester – the total course goes for a full year giving you 1.0 credit. Many people take CSCI 110 along with another First Year Seminar.
Fulfills the Formal Analysis requirement.
Faculty: Jerry Breecher, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Math/Computer Science
ECON 100: Economics of Environmental Regulation
This course uses basic economic tools to consider a variety of environmental problems, ranging from resource issues (water rights, over-fishing, agricultural policy) to pollution problems (conventional air and water pollution, toxic pollutants, global warming). Our approach to each topic will begin with an analysis of the problem based on economic theory, trying to define the optimal solution(s) to the problem, as well as predicting what barriers will stand in the way of reaching that optimum. We will then examine how the problem has (or hasn't) been solved in different countries, and compare those practical outcomes with the predictions of economic theory. Since no economics background is required, the course begins with an introduction to basic economic tools such as the theory of supply and demand, and benefit-cost analysis.
This course is a substitute for ECON 10 (Economics and the World Economy) in the requirements for the Economics major (and other departments).
Fulfills the Global Perspective requirement.
Faculty: Wayne Gray, Ph.D., Professor of Economics
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EDUC 060: Are Public Schools Serving Democracy?
From Colonial times to the present, Americans have looked to free public
education to be the main instrument for all citizens to access political
maturity and equality, as well as economic opportunity. In 1848, educator Horace
Mann wrote: "Education ... is the great equalizer of the conditions of men—the
balance—wheel of the social machinery." In this seminar, using primary
documents-laws, reports, and court decisions—both historical and contemporary,
we shall explore both the historical context and, especially, the current
realities in public schools, to determine how effective they have been and are
at present in carrying out this crucial responsibility.
Fulfills the Historical Perspective requirement.
Faculty: John Ameer, Ed.D., Assistant Professor of Education
ENG 104: To The Woods: Walden Today
In a workshop setting, students will read Walden, other selections by Henry David Thoreau including “On Civil Disobedience,” and some related contemporary writings such as The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey, The Survival Of The Bark Canoe by John McPhee, Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, Walden Two by B. F. Skinner, and Last Child In The Woods, by Ricard Louv. The class will take a field trip to Walden Pond. Class discussions and exercises and weekly reflective essays will focus on understanding and analyzing the writings in their own context and on applying their perceptions and values to contemporary American concerns and issues such as self-reliance, solitude, our connections with nature, and the individual’s relationship with government. The final term paper will allow students to use Walden and the other writings as windows into issues in disciplines of particular interest to them, including politics, religion, economics, science, art, literature, psychology and philosophy.
Fulfills the Verbal Expression requirement. You must be placed at the Verbal Expression level to be admitted into this seminar.
Faculty: William Tapply, M.A.T., Instructor of English Top
ENG 118: Webs and Labyrinths: Imagining Globalization in Art and Literature
The globalized world calls for a new language to describe it: new metaphors, new stories, and new modes of storytelling. We now live (we so often hear) in a world of webs, labyrinths, and networks--metaphors that suggest the breaking down of borders and increased connectivity across cultures, nations, markets, and geographies. This course will introduce you to writers, poets, painters, photographers, sculptors, architects, and filmmakers who are trying to find a language in their work to address a sense that we live in an age of constant “newness,” always just coming into being. We will consider different sorts of border crossings associated with the era of global culture: reflexive modes of storytelling that break down boundaries between artists and audiences; sweeping historical novels that weave together the real and the “magical”; multimedia narratives that combine texts and technology. We will think about new thematic concerns that surface with the rise of commercial societies: how to construct a “self” in a global world; the idea of empire; technology and social surveillance; the rise of global English; cross-cultural conflict and encounter. We will also consider the problem of narrative form: experiments in art and literature that bend the rules of genre, so that it is not always easy to distinguish, for example, between fiction, poetry, and drama. And we will draw parallels between literature and recent work in visual and popular culture—including painting, photography, film, and television—to help us understand how global culture creates a need for new modes of expression and novel ways to articulate protest and resistance.
Fulfills the Global Perspective requirement.
Faculty: Stephen Levin, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English
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ENG 122: Terror of the Gothic
“The apparent delight with which we dwell upon objects of pure terror . . . is a paradox of the heart,” claims Romantic writer Anna Barbauld. In this course, we will explore our delight in terror through the world of nineteenth-century Gothic fiction, a world of pain and destruction, fear and anxiety. In tracing the recurrent themes of sin, family dynamics, politics, and nature within Gothic fiction, we will examine both the relationship of this fiction to the dominant culture of the nineteenth century, as well as the dark underside this fiction represents. Following current literary scholarship, we will pose questions about representations of violence; the significance of fantasy and fear; and the role of gender, race, class and sexuality in this body of work. Throughout the course, we will discuss the legacy of this fiction in our modern obsession with horror in film and culture.
Fulfills the Verbal Expression requirement. You must be placed at the Verbal Expression level to be admitted into this seminar.
Faculty: Lisa Kasmer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English
ENG 131: Border Crossings: Narratives of Travel, Exile, and Immigration
The course examines narratives of travel, exile, immigration, and displacement in modern literature and film that trespass geographical, political and linguistic boundaries, and create new literary spaces that define and reshape modern identities. We will explore North American, Chicano, Native-American, African, and Middle Eastern literature.
Close reading of texts will ground our interrogation and discussion of such themes and issues as travel and tourism, margins, borders and borderlands, immigration, language and culture, community, hyphenated identity, war and conflict, race, gender and religion. The course will be run as a seminar with student presentations, written responses, and class discussion as important parts of the requirements.
Fulfills the Verbal Expression requirement. You must be placed at the Verbal Expression level to be admitted into this seminar.
Faculty: Lucilia Valerio, Ph.D., English Department Instructor
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ENG 147: Mythology
What is a myth? Is it something false, illogical, unreal, or otherwise outside of our serious consideration? Or does myth have a viable, seminal, even fundamental, relationship to our lives and how we see the world around us? Does myth function cosmologically? Ontologically? Epistemologically? Aesthetically? That is, does it have a shaping capacity that not only enables us to negotiate the world, but also is responsible in many ways for what we abstract from that world---allowing for a richer, more meaningful existence. This course engages with these questions as it attempts to establish the base and context for myth’s relationship to life. We read a number of myths from various cultures (Greek, Norse, Celtic, Native American, among others), as well as texts that reinvigorate mythic sensibilities (poetry, drama, fiction) from the classical world to the contemporary.
Fulfills the Verbal Expression requirement. You must be placed at the Verbal Expression level to be admitted into this seminar.
Faculty: Louis Bastien, Ph.D., Instructor of English
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FREN 108/CMLT 108: Paris and 20th Century Artistic Movements: Art, Theater, and Cinema
This seminar traces from 1897-1970 the artistic movements in 20th century Paris that sought divergent artistic paths from the dominant realistic-naturalistic style of the period. We will concentrate on two major themes: 1) The way painters, playwrights and filmmakers sought to reinvent artistic form in order to challenge conventional modes of representing the world. 2) How Paris as a distinct and unique place provided the setting for the flourishing of unconventional artistic creation and life. We will study three movements and urban places: 1) the early 20th century avant-garde (Montmartre); 2) Surrealism (Montparnasse); and 3) Existentialism (Saint-Germain-des-Près). During our study, we will consider questions of aesthetics and their relationship to social and political ideologies. Artists studied include Pablo Picasso, Alfred Jarry, Guillaume Apollinaire, Luis Bunuel, Jean Cocteau, Albert Camus, and Jean-Paul Sartre.
Fulfills the Verbal Expression requirement. You must be placed at the Verbal Expression level to be admitted into this seminar.
Faculty: Michael Spingler, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures
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GOVT 095: Transnationalism: Individuals, Networks, and Global Politics
The field of International Relations (IR) examines such wide-ranging subjects as the causes of war, the conditions for peace, the consequences of global commerce, the conundrums of international organization, and a host of other topics of interest. Inquiry is typically conducted by focusing on one of three 'levels of analysis': the international system, the state, or the individual. In recent years, the complexity of these subjects and the questions they inspire has been magnified by increasing interdependence, and in particular the rise of transnational and trans-boundary activity, interaction, and networks.
This seminar serves as an introduction to the study of IR in light of the emergence of transnationalism as a critical force shaping global politics. Students will work closely with the instructor to identify a topic for inquiry with a transnational dimension (e.g., something that has both global significance and local implications). Students will analyze that topic through evaluation of the prevailing systemic context, the impact of relevant state and social factors, and insights gleaned from interviewing an affected individual (from one of the Worcester-area's large and diverse migrant populations). As such, students will apply all three levels of analysis in an integrated fashion, allowing for thorough examination of some transnational phenomenon as well as for critical appraisal of the prevailing approach to the study of IR itself.
Fulfills the Global Perspective requirement.
Faculty: Michael Butler, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Government
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HIST 039: At Home in 19th Century America: Domesticity and American Culture
In order to underscore both the unity and diversity of nineteenth-century cultural life, At Home in Nineteenth-Century America revisits the variety of places Americans called home - middle-class suburban houses to working-class tenements, frontier dugouts to urban settlement houses - while considering the shifting interpretations of these spaces from within and without. Beginning with the rise of home as a haven from the uncertainties of public life, it traces the popular celebration of home as a moral force, notes the movement of domesticity into the public worlds of politics and reform, and concludes with a consideration of home's relationship with and penetration by and of the marketplace.
Fulfills the Historical Perspective requirement.
Faculty: Amy Richter, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History
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HIST 042: Nazi Germany
In the early 20th century, Germany was considered as one of the most civilized countries in the world. In the 1920s, Germans were at the forefront of developing and experimenting with new and modem lifestyles, and they had installed one of the most democratic constitutions. Why, then, was it Germany that switched within a couple of years to one of the most brutal dictatorships? How could Hitler and the Nazi Party establish its power in a country which was seen as a heart of Western culture? Why did so many Germans support the Holocaust? And why did so few Germans oppose Hitler and his racially based, terrorist regime? To answer these questions, the First Year Seminar will explore the rise of the Nazi movement and the ambivalences of modernity in Germany before 1933. The course will then take a closer look on the ideology, the propaganda and the instruments of terror used by the regime to persecute its supposed enemies and to make ordinary Germans conform. Special attention will be paid to the regime's impact on the working class, the youth, family life, gender relations, and not least on opposing and resistant groups. The course will show why only Total War and the Holocaust guaranteed the realization of Nazism and Nazi ideology. Finally, the aftermath of the Third Reich will be discussed. The course will make students familiar with a broad variety of different primary sources and with the main paradigms of historiography.
Fulfills the Historical Perspective requirement
Faculty: Thomas Kuehne, Ph.D., Professor of History; Strassler Family Chair in the Study of Holocaust History
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IDCE 011/MGMT 011/UDSC 011: Making a Difference
This course will offer a scholarly perspective on making a difference, with two emphases: youth involvement in social change, and the university partnership approach to community development. Themes of personal growth, leadership, collaboration and activism will be explored. Students will learn how to make a difference at various levels: in their lives, on the Clark campus and in the city of Worcester. This is a multidisciplinary course in which readings will be derived from the fields of sociology, psychology, community development, urban studies, education, social policy and political science. In addition to reflection papers and discussions, students will complete interviews with community leaders, take leadership roles in on-campus activities and have a community placement in the Main South or Piedmont neighborhood. The concluding assignment will be a proposal for a summer Making a Difference project, or another community-based social change activity.
New Making a Difference Scholars have already been enrolled
in this First Year Seminar. The seminar is open to other interested students
on a space available basis.
Fulfills the Values Perspective requirement.
Faculty: Mary Ellen Boyle, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Graduate School of Management; Laurie Ross, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of International Development Community Environment
MATH 110: Diving Into Research – Rigidity and Geometry
In elementary geometry you have learned the SSS Theorem:
Given two triangles in the plane, if the three corresponding sides of the triangles have the same length, then the two triangles are congruent.
This simple theorem has the practical consequence that triangles cannot be distorted, and for that reason triangles are a fundamental unit in many rigid structures. Just check out the Eifel Tower. While engineers have been building such rigid structures successfully for centuries, the mathematical theory underlying them is not yet complete.
In our Diving Into Research Class we will examine the connection between rigidity of engineering structures and elementary mathematics. We will use the example of rigidity to introduce new mathematical ideas from geometry, algebra, and combinatorics. We will survey the state of current research and identify where new questions are waiting to be answered.
This is not a course in engineering, but the mathematics behind engineering. The object of the course is to both see mathematics you already know in a new context, as well as to introduce new mathematics in a practical, intuitive, and geometrically pleasing setting.
There are no prerequisites.
This is a 1 credit course with 0.5 credit course each semester.
MA 110 is intended for freshmen and MA111 for upperclassmen.
Many people take MA 110 along with another First Year Seminar.
Professor Herman Servatius, Ph.D., Visiting Associate Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science
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MGMT 020: Strikes in America
Strikes are the most exciting, controversial and unpredictable events in labor relations. In this seminar, we examine the evolution of strikes in the United States from their early use for organizing workers to their later use during collective bargaining. We examine the workers’ right to strike and the employers’ right to replace strikers, the various forms of strikes, the theory and practice of striking, the unions’ reliance on community coalitions and political allies during strikes, and the ways that unions and employers manage legitimacy during strikes. The class will review the causes, tactics and outcomes of several recent strikes including those of nurses, baseball players, engineers, janitors, longshoremen, coal miners, teachers and slaughterhouse workers. Finally, we ask whether strikes are still effective in this age of globalization, plant relocation, low union membership, public indifference and management’s frequent use of striker replacements.
Fulfills the Values Perspective Requirement.
Professor Gary Chaison, Ph.D., Professor, Graduate School of
Management
PHIL 075: Questioning Gender
Gender is a pervasive feature of our social life. We acquire a gender at
birth, and this gender is typically assumed to stay with us throughout our
lives. Gender organizes much – perhaps all -- of our experience.
Furthermore, gender is often assumed to be a natural and immutable fact of
human life. But what is gender, really? Is it necessary to have only two
genders? Are more genders possible? In this seminar we will explore
challenges to gender. We will read and discuss historical and contemporary
texts which have questioned gender in various ways. Some of these texts
question the naturalness of gendered traits; some question the fairness of
gendered upbringing; and some question the reality of gender itself. Along
the way, students will work on developing their competence in analyzing
texts and arguments.
Fulfills the Values Perspective requirement.
Faculty: Catherine McKeen, Ph.D., Visiting Professor of
Philosophy
PHIL 100: “The Good Life”
Healthy human beings want to live good lives. We want to be happy. But what can a person do to live "a good life?" What makes one life "good" and another "not good"? What makes one person “happy” and another not? Are there significant connections between health, well-being, social involvement, ethical endeavor, worldly achievement, felt satisfaction, and living a “good” life? In this seminar we will use philosophical, psychological, religious, and literary works to explore some of the ways that human beings organize their lives, set fundamental goals and values, and try to assess these. Our seminar will examine a range of possible life aims including the search for pleasure, cultivating personal excellence, the pursuit of wealth and power, contributing to the pubic good, ecological attunement, seeking spiritual fulfillment, and having no “aim” at all.
Fulfills the Verbal Expression requirement. You must be placed at the Verbal Expression level to be admitted into this seminar.
Faculty: Wes DeMarco, Ph.D., Visiting Professor of Philosophy
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PHIL 104: The Aids Pandemic
The global AIDS pandemic presents a public health challenge of unprecedented dimensions -- a challenge which will test not only our scientific and medical establishments, but our commitment to social justice, professional fidelity, interpersonal solidarity and, especially, to the care of the world's poorest and most disadvantaged populations.This seminar will draw on the rich philosophical, biological, epidemiological, legal, medical, and sociological literatures in order to examine a number of the moral and public policy issues which have been raised by the AIDS pandemic. Particular attention is given to the issues raised by the pandemic in developing countries.
Fulfills the Verbal Expression requirement. You must have been placed at the Verbal Expression level to select this seminar.
Faculty: Patrick Derr, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy; Adjunct Professor of Environmental Science and Policy;
Cheryl Turner Elwell, Director of Academic Technology at Clark
University.
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PSYC 193: Discourse, Self and Feeling
This seminar explores how people make sense of themselves by what they say and how they say it (‘discourse’) – with a focus on how we speak about and make sense of particular emotions. Since this course carries the Language and Culture Perspective, it is expected that students will acquire the basic linguistic skills necessary for in-depth analyses of discourse. Students will be expected to commit themselves to a high-level academic atmosphere and to a challenging workload that will result in stimulating class discussions.
Fulfills the Language and Culture Perspective.
Faculty: Michael Bamberg, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology
SOC 085: The Corporate Planet
This seminar will examine the global influence of transnational corporations. Large corporations rose to prominence in the post-Civil War era and, since, have had an enormous impact on social, political, and economic systems within this country. More recently, in the emerging age of globalization, their effects have become increasingly internationalal. We will pay particular attention to both the historical rise to power of modern corporations and their contemporary impacts (often negative) on the populations of both rich and poor nations. Special attention will be devoted to the environmental impacts of corporate activities.
Fulfills the Global Perspective requirement.
Faculty: Bruce London, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology
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SOC 095: Why Marry?
Why do Americans continue to marry given the high rates of divorce (approximately 43%) and the increased acceptance and occurrence of alternatives to marriage, such as cohabitation and single parenting? This class looks at why people marry and expect to marry at such high rates (approximately 90%), including economic reasons, the belief that married households are the best place to raise children, and an expectation that marriage will last forever. Marriage as a social institution, and not just a personal arrangement, is highlighted. The course will consist of reading and discussion with some lecture. There will also be a class project where students, working in groups, will survey the Clark community on their attitudes towards marriage and analyze the results.
Fulfills the Values Perspective requirement.
Faculty: Deborah Merrill, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Sociology
TA 153: Modern Drama
This is a course designed to introduce the student to the major dramatic writers from the 19th century to the present. In studying the plays, a number of different points of view and reference will be considered including that of the playwright, the actor, the director, the historian, the dramaturge. The student is encouraged to formulate a personal opinion of these plays and dramatists. The major focus of the course is the text and the student’s understanding and interpretation of the work. However, a strong emphasis will also be placed on the performance aspect of these plays. This can take many forms, including coordination of our efforts with theatre classes on campus, field trips to theatres nearby, use of video, and even staged readings of the scripts in class.
Fulfills the Verbal Expression requirement. You must have been placed at the Verbal Expression level to choose this seminar.
Faculty: Gino DiIorio, M.F.A., Assistant Professor of Visual and Performing Arts
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