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A Mission Statement for the Core:
The purpose of the Core Curriculum is to provide the Millsaps student with a firm foundation in the Liberal Arts Abilities, those habits of mind the college considers essential in the development of mature scholars and productive citizens. Specifically, the Core fosters reasoning, communication, historical consciousness, and social and cultural awareness. Designed by faculty from all divisions and based on the methods of every academic discipline, the Core Curriculum introduces our students to the tools of scholarly inquiry needed for success at Millsaps College and in life at large.
CORE 1: INTRODUCTION TO THINKING AND WRITING
IDST-1000-01: From Speedy Gonzalez to Shakira: Latin American and Latino Pop Culture
Instructor: Dr. Judith Caballero. This course is an introduction to the study of Latin American and Latino popular culture through the media of film, music, and cultural icons. We will pay special attention to how race, gender/sexuality, ethnicity, and class are represented (or omitted) and with what objective this was done. We will delve into the historical, political, and social context of these media, utilizing theories of popular culture and cultural analysis. Our examination will include not only foreign media, but also Latino representations in US popular culture. This class will be taught in English; no previous knowledge of Spanish is required.
MWF @ 8:00 + T @ 8:00
IDST-1000-02: "There are too many idiots in this world:" Humanity in the 20th century
Instructor: Dr. Nick Brown. A long time ago, St. Paul said something about love, Leonardo da Vinci dressed up like a woman and laughed at people, time passed, Leonardo DiCaprio could not save the Titanic, but Celine Dion had a hit song, an angry man named Frantz Fanon said "there are too many idiots in this world," the U.S. Supreme Court sterilized a family of idiots, some other important stuff happened, and then there was Hitler. What do these people, as well as all human beings, share in common: we all address and express the question of "humanity?" In this class, we will historicize and attempt to ascertain the concept and reality of humanity (and so- called human rights) as pertains to a contemporary century that nearly destroyed human existence. And we will sing, dance and laugh. We will seriously attempt to answer the principal questions: 1) What defines "humanity;" 2) Who defines it; 3) Does anybody practice it; 4) Can human rights exist anywhere if they do not exist everywhere; 5) and ultimately: do human rights really exist, really?
MWF @ 8:00 + T @ 8:00
IDST-1000-03: Writing Well For College and For Career
Instructor: Dr. Ming Tsui. Good writing is essential for our academic and career success. Over the course of your four years at Millsaps, your professors will ask you to write many papers, from short literary essays to research papers and business reports. This section of IDST1000 will focus on the reading and writing of short essays in various academic disciplines. We will read and discuss different aspects of essay-writing, such as the narration of events, the interpretation of evidence, and the structure of argumentation. Readings will exemplify the various ways to write essays and will also allow us to explore broader questions about persuasion, credibility, and ethics.
MWF @ 10:00 + TH @ 8:00
IDST-1000-04: The Many Faces of Beauty
Instructor: Dr. Ramon Figueroa. In this class we will review a variety of visual and literary texts to facilitate a discussion on what our society understand as beautiful and the many factors that contribute to this definition. We will see beauty as a relative value and also look at its commercialization as well as works that try to sidestep ethical issues by focusing on the aesthetic value of such works.
MWF @ 10:00 + TH @ 8:00
IDST-1000-05: Bodybuilding and Culture
Instructor: Dr. Annie Blakeney-Glazer. When Andreas Munzer died of internal bleeding 12 days after coming in 6th at the 1996 Arnold Classic, it was clear that professional bodybuilding had become a deadly enterprise. At the point of his death, pumped full of chemical enhancers and the recipient of multiple operations, was Munzer still human? Was he a monster? Was he an animal? This course addresses the limits of humanity through the lens of professional bodybuilding. Bodybuilding, from its modest origins in 19th century strongman exhibitions to its near deadly obsession with drugs and supplements today, demonstrates a unique history of the human body. Arnold Schwarzenegger compared bodybuilding to art, claiming to be a sculptor of his own body. As women entered the sport in the early 1980s, gender became a pivotal issue as both sexes attempted, through natural and synthetic means, to reform their bodies. As we trace the historical evolution of the sport, we will note how race, class, gender, sexuality, and global politics connect in the figure of the bodybuilder. The guiding question for our course will be: What are the limits of the human? We will use films, journalism, and scholarship on bodybuilding to think and to write about what makes humans human.
MWF @ 10:00 + TH @ 8:00
IDST-1000-06: Adventure and Survival: Thinking and Writing in the Natural World
Instructor: Dr. Jamie Harris. The course will focus on exploration of the natural world. We will analyze some classic adventure and survival stories and discuss human responsibility in dealing with nature. Readings include the work of Jack London, Norman Maclean, Edward Abbey, John McPhee, and Jon Krakauer.
MWF @ 10:00 + TH @ 8:00
IDST-1000-07: Art Talk
Instructor: Dr. Elise Smith. We will consider key monuments or moments in the visual arts as flashpoints that have generated questions, debates, and multiple and often conflicting viewpoints. Our course material will range widely from the Renaissance to the contemporary world, and some of the works we look at will be beautiful and meaningful by almost any standard while others will be difficult to look at and hard to talk about. In order to develop into active, engaged citizens who understand and appreciate the importance of cultural products in fashioning our individual and communal identities we need to figure out how to analyze images, assess the range of conflicting views about them, and articulate our own positions. This course, like all Core 1 offerings, is about analytical thinking and the communication of ideas; in our particular case we’ll do our thinking, talking, and writing about art that has been seen at some point as contentious (and maybe still is). Come with an open, exploratory mind and a willingness to look carefully, listen respectfully, and communicate thoughtfully.
MWF @ 11:00 + TH @ 9:00
IDST-1000-08: Thinking, Writing and Making Your Way through Fields of Reading
Instructor: Dr. Priscilla Fermon. The purpose of this course is to embark on voyages toward becoming better thinkers, readers and writers. Participation in the journey requires that each one of you asks yourself the following questions: Who am I? How do I know? How do I act responsibly? Throughout the semester you will gain insights into who you are, how you know and how you act responsibly and you will share those insights with others. Beginning questions will lead to other questions as you work on developing strategies for finding honest answers in order to reach valid conclusions.
MW @ 1:00
IDST-1000-09: Terrorism Through History
Instructor: Dr. Michael Reinhard. We look at the terrorism down through the ages. Who is a terrorist? Is there anything different about terrorism and war? Does who gets labeled a terrorist depend on anything more than which side the observer is on? How do different definitions of terrorism implicate different political actors and ideologies? We will examine a range of actions that have been called terrorism from the Ancient Jewish Fanatics in the 1st century B.C. To al Qaeda in ours. We will examine different theories about the causes and consequences of terrorism and weigh different policy responses. We will watch several movies as well as read a range of original source material and research articles on the topic of terrorism.
MW @ 1:00
IDST-1000-10: Leadership Lessons from Readings and Movies
Instructor: Dr. Jesse Beeler. The goal of this course is to develop skills in the areas of reasoning, communication, historical consciousness and social and cultural awareness. To accomplish this we will explore issues in Leadership using classic literature texts and selected readings. This activity affords students the opportunity to enhance their personal understanding of leadership theories, concepts, contexts, and competencies. Additionally, students should gain a greater understanding of the moral responsibilities of leadership and become better prepared to exercise leadership in service to society. The course is intended to assist students in learning to interpret people and situations from multiple perspectives, to envision multiple possibilities from a given situation, to move beyond literal thinking to metaphorical thinking and to synthesize ideas into meaningful concepts or theories. The students in this course will learn that leadership ability is fostered by focusing on attributes such as vision, communications ability, understanding interpersonal behavior, creativity, and a sense of humility. Such concepts are elemental components of the liberal arts and humanities.
MW @ 2:45
IDST-1000-11: Everything Bad is Good for You
Instructor: Dr. Stacy DeZutter. Television makes us lazy, rap music makes us violent, and the internet is making us illiterate. Right? Warnings about the negative affects of popular culture abound, but how much truth is there in such fears? Could there be positive effects to these things as well? Could television actually make us think harder? Could rap music calm us down? Could the internet be the birthplace of a new and more potent kind of literacy? We’ll investigate the intellectual and social effects of various forms of popular culture – television, music, video games, text messaging, the internet, and more – and consider whether there are surprising ways in which these things may indeed be good for us.
TTH@ 10:00 + W @ 12:00
IDST-1000-12: From Spice Trade to eBay: Making Sense of Business
Instructor: Dr. Blakely Fender. This class will explore the nature of business by reading what people from across time and cultures have said about it. As we consider a variety of perspectives, our own beliefs and assumptions about business will become clearer. We will ponder numerous questions that people have been asking through the centuries. For example: How costly is a “free market”? Does the “invisible hand” of the marketplace provide a handshake or a shove? Do shareholders ever share? Why does fuel cost so much????
TTH@ 10:00 + W @ 12:00
IDST-1000-13: Clarifying My Beliefs Through Writing and Discussion
Instructor: Dr. Lee Lewis. This class uses class discussions and writing to focus on learning the skills of recognizing bias and persuasion in writing and how to prevent these in our own writing. To learn these skills—as well as to answer the three questions of “Who am I?”, “How do I think and know?”, and “How do I make decisions?”—we will examine and discuss writings of differing belief systems. (Note—This class is not designed to change any person’s ideals but to examine all the evidence surrounding an issue and to learn to fairly present the issue with evidence that firmly supports one’s personal opinion on the issue.)
TTH @ 10:00 + W @ 12:00
IDST-1000-14:
Instructor: Staff
TTH @ 10:00 + W @ 12:00
IDST-1000-15: The Problem and Promise of Race in America
Instructor: Dr. Kristen Oertel. In his 1903 work, The Souls of Black Folk, black intellectual W.E.B. DuBois argued that “the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line.” Just over one hundred years later, DuBois’ concerns continue to resonate with the American people, as we struggle to reconcile the promise of America with its reality. In this course, we will study DuBois and others who have written about race and racism, focusing especially on the idea of whiteness and how white, black, brown, and ethnic or immigrant Americans have forged their racial identities in the land of equality and opportunity.
TTH @ 10:00 + W @ 12:00
IDST-1000-16: The Good Life: Philosophy of Happiness
Instructor: Dr. Kristen Brown. We all want happiness, and many of us believe we know what it is. But classic philosophers and contemporary scientists continue to disagree about it. Just what is happiness? Is it an emotion or feeling? Is it the activity of a flourishing life of moderation? If it is an emotion (the viewpoint of many current investigators) does that mean the joyous insane person is happy, and that the pleased serial killer is happy too? If it is a life of moderation (as the ancients espoused) does that mean a prudent person who rarely feels joy, is happy?! These are just a few of the questions we will ask in our inquiry into human happiness, the thematic focus of our class through which students will tune their writing and thinking skills.
TTH @ 10:00 + w @ 12
IDST-1000-17: Science, Religion, and Politics
Instructor: Dr. Sarah McGuire. Science and society are intricately intertwined: scientific advances can change societies, and societal issues can significantly impact science. In this course, we will critically examine several seminal scientific discoveries throughout the course of history and consider how these discoveries changed society, as well as how society affected these discoveries. Central to the discussion will be considerations of the influences of science, religion, and politics on each other. Class discussions and essays will focus on critical analysis of these interactions and will require evidence-based arguments in support of your analysis.
TTH @ 1:00
IDST-1000-18: From Medici to Citibank: Making Sense of Business and Finance
Instructor: Dr. Walter Neely. This class will explore the nature of business and finance by reading what people from across time and cultures have said about it. As we consider a variety of perspectives, our own beliefs and assumptions about business and finance will become clearer. We will ponder numerous questions that people have been asking through the centuries. For example: Why did the renaissance flourish in Florence? Why “free markets”? Does the “invisible hand” of the marketplace work better than enlightened administrators? Is it a sin to borrow and lend money? Why do markets seem to sometimes go mad?
TTH @ 1:00
IDST-1000-19:
Instructor: STAFF
TTH @ 1:00
IDST-1000-20: Eat, Drink and be “Mary”: Cause and Effect of American Indulgences.
Instructor: Dr. Kurt Thaw. Overconsumption of Food and Drink and Sex along with more lenient views on such practices seems “acceptable” given such coverage of topics in the media. But what do we really know about recent increases in obesity, alcoholism rates and the percentage of persons engaging in nontraditional sexual behaviors? More importantly, can we identify factors contributing to these changes? Some surprising answers to these topics along with controversial discussions that touch on American culture, religion and science will be covered in this course. Readings will include books on the psychology and marketing of eating, scientific journal articles on the economic role of food and drugs, and a variety of articles and essays on sexual behavior (good and bad) in America. Students of this course should be open to discussing sensitive topics, arrive with an open mind (or at least opinions that you are willing to explore or challenge), and the ability to discuss the above topics in a collegial, intelligent manner.
TTH @ 1:00
IDST-1050-01: Mysteries of Human Thought and Human Behavior
Instructor: Dr. Laura Franey. Every day newspapers, television news shows, and web blogs report stories about strange and often horrifying things that human beings do to one another and to themselves. But the really strange thing is how many of these stories end up overlapping, thereby creating a sense that what at first appear to be unusual events might actually be somewhat common occurrences. In this class, we will explore together some of these mysteries of human thought and human behavior. We will explore these "mysteries" as generally educated people, not as trained scientists, but I hope that we will gain valuable insights through critical analysis of resources available to us as students of the liberal arts. There will be readings from a textbook in abnormal psychology, a literature anthology, and other sources, and we will watch at least two films, including a fascinating HBO documentary entitled "Capturing the Friedmans." The classroom discussions, readings, and paper assignments are all designed with the following goal in mind: to help students dramatically enhance their critical thinking skills, their oral communication skills, and their writing skills.
MWF @ 8:00 + T @ 8:00
IDST-1050-02: This Digital Life
Instructor: Dr. Anita DeRouen. Who are we when we’re on the web? What does it mean to be “digital?” How does our understanding of our lives change when we start “living” on the internet? These and other questions will guide us through a semester –long examination of our digital lives. We’ll consider the applications which have become almost requirements for our social lives (like Facebook), our understanding of the connections we have to the technology we use, and the way words like “community” and “privacy” take on different shades of meaning when we apply them to internet culture.
MWF @ 9:00 + T @ 9:00
IDST-1050-03: The Problem and Promise of Race in America
Instructor: Dr. Kristen Oertel. In his 1903 work, The Souls of Black Folk, black intellectual W.E.B. DuBois argued that “the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line.” Just over one hundred years later, DuBois’ concerns continue to resonate with the American people, as we struggle to reconcile the promise of America with its reality. In this course, we will study DuBois and others who have written about race and racism, focusing especially on the idea of whiteness and how white, black, brown, and ethnic or immigrant Americans have forged their racial identities in the land of equality and opportunity.
MW @ 2:45
CORE 2-5: THE HERITAGE PROGRAM
IDST 1118-1128: Heritage of the West in World Perspective
Instructors: Dr. Patrick Hopkins, Department of Philosophy; Dr. Lola Williamson, Department of Religious Studies; Dr. Andrew Paxman, Department of History; Dr. Eric Griffin, Department of English. Beginning with antiquity and continuing to the present, this program brings together history, literature, philosophy, religion, and the arts in an integrated approach to the study of Western culture within a global context. It is the equivalent of eight semester hours each semester extending throughout the year. This course meets the requirements of Core 2-5 and the fine arts requirement. Enrollment is limited to freshmen.
CORE 2: ANCIENT WORLD
IDST-1200-01: Ancient Literature and Modern Film: Gods and Heroes of Greece, Rome, and India
Instructor: Dr. Anne MacMaster. By asking “What is a hero?” and “What is a god?” we’ll explore the ways in which ancient societies viewed the proper relation between the human and the divine, and we’ll also consider what we have inherited of their view. We’ll read selected portions from three epics – the Iliad, the Aeneid, and the Mahabharata – as well as three shorter dramatic works in their entirety: Euripides’ tragedy Medea, Aristophanes’ comedy Birds, and Plato’s philosophical dialogue The Symposium. Alongside our readings of these ancient works of literature, we’ll view excerpts from film adaptations (very loose adaptations in some cases) of the works of literature that we read, as well as scenes from other films that dramatize archetypal themes and patterns that cut across literatures from many cultures. We’ll analyze these scenes from the films with a view toward gaining a better understanding of the corresponding scenes of the ancient works of literature, and we’ll also consider in film our own modern versions of the epic, the tragic, and the comic: What gods do we worship in our modern epic of film? What religious beliefs about war, and heroism, cultural contacts, and about our own mortality have we inherited from these ancient cultures?
Foci: Literature and Religious Studies
MWF @ 9:00 + T @ 9:00
IDST-1200-02: Permanence and Change
Instructor: Dr. Ted Ammon. The primary focus of this course is roughly 600-200 BCE in Greece, India, and China. Special attention will be given to the rise of Greek philosophy, Buddhism, and Taoism against the backdrop of Pre-Socratic Philosophy, Hinduism, and Confucianism respectively. Since the religious and philosophical movements we will consider are in part reactions to longstanding traditions and since further these movements offer alternative ways of living, we in religion and/or philosophy, or any other area of inquiry that affects culture, has succeeded without considerable controversy, the gnashing of teeth, anxiety, perhaps bloodshed and war. Underneath the proposed changes is a basic conflict between those who want the prevailing ideas to remain and those who want them to change. The problem of “permanence and change” has many facets and can be understood best through a series of questions: What permanent substance and/or principle of order governs the changes in the natural world? What is constant in the human condition? Is there an enduring self or soul? Is the individual or society primary? Another central concern of the course is that of understanding the social and political conditions that precede the development of the new philosophical and religious traditions.
Foci: Philosophy and Religious Studies
MWF @ 9:00 + T @ 9:00
IIDST-1200-03: Kiss Me, Kill Me: Violence and Friendship in the Ancient World
Instructor: Dr. Kristen Brown. Despite a legacy of awesome technological achievements, America in 2009 cannot seem to avoid war and its horrors. In this, our nation and cultural fabric are certainly not unique. The theme of violence, whether external like war and homicide or internal like personal anguish, comes up routinely in ancient texts. In this course we will read some of the most beautiful and unforgettable literature and philosophy ever written. The texts will span the cultures of Mesopotamia, China, Greece and India and will present the human condition as predicament or ailment in need of being fixed! If these traditions agree that humans need fixing, they don’t agree on what the problem is or on how to treat it. As we address the broad question of human fulfillment, we will ask why violence is so pervasive in classic texts and what relationship does it have to the big questions humans have asked about life’s meaning throughout the ages. Finally, in many of the texts, cultural wisdom is conveyed through stories of friendships profound and ordinary. Just how does the idea of friendship figure in this inquiry into the human predicament and answers for flourishing? These questions and themes will absorb us throughout the course as we discover lasting connections between ancient problems and remedies, and contemporary ones.
Focus: Philosophy
MWF @ 10:00 + TH @ 8:00
IDST-1200-04: Civilization and Its Second Thoughts
Instructor: Dr. Steve Smith. Ways of thinking that are “classic” for people today were revolutionary and counter-cultural in their origins. The middle of the first millennium BCE, dubbed by Karl Jaspers the Axial Age, saw a new generation of religious and intellectual leaders in all the civilizations centers of the Old World offering radical criticisms of society and a more individualized approach to life. Since we are still trying to be ideal individuals, the “classic” Hebrew prophets and Chinese and Greek philosophers continue speaking to us today. Drawing on the perspectives of philosophy, religious studies, and other humanities disciplines, and using a selection of primary source texts, we will visit three different ancient cultures: Israelite (with some Mesopotamian background), Chinese, and Greek. Our study of the cultures will be guided by these questions about civilized life: What are its main features? What are its main requirements? What are its main benefits? What are its main problems, and what can an individual do about them? We will text the extent to which we still see the problems and solutions today in the same way that the Axial Age thinkers did.
Foci: Philosophy, Religious Studies
MWF @ 11:00 + TH @ 9:00
IDST-1200-05: Who Speaks for the God(s)?
Instructor: Dr. James Bowley. Discerning the divine will has always been a prime human concern. This course will involve a comparative study of how human beings have determined what God(s) say in ancient Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Israelite cultures, following this theme into the world religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Focus: Religious Studies
MTWF @ 9:00
IDST-1200-06: Sex, Religion, and Prehistory
Instructor: Dr. Robert McElvaine. After an examination of the effects of evolution on human nature, this course will explore the effects of the disruption in human life caused by the invention of agriculture. Effects on the roles of women and men, on scientific understanding, and on religious outlooks in the Neolithic and ancient worlds will be discussed.
Focus: History, Religious Studies
TTH @ 10:00 + W @ 12:00
IDST-1200-07: The Prophetic Imagination: Dreams and Visions of Patriarchs and Prophets
Instructor: Mary Louise Jones. The Theophanies: The Divine enters the earth through dreams and visions, clouds, fire, thunder and small voices. We will study how these visions move the Patriarch or Prophet or Messiah on to his road of understanding through his difficult journey of restoration and salvation.
Focus: Religious Studies
TTH @ 10:00 + W @ 12:00
IDST-1200-08: Have a Drink on Me!
Instructor: Emily Justice Greene. When people exchange gifts, who really holds the upper hand? Feasts, potlatches, and gift exchanges let people settle just who's in charge, (theoretically) without violence. Reading material will include classic ethnographies and archaeological examples of feasting and gifting. These prehistoric and historic sources will illustrate various views on gift-giving as power. Ultimately, we'll examine our own answers to the question, is the gift mightier than the sword?
Focus: Archaeology
TTH @ 1:00
CORE 4: MODERN WORLD
IDST-2400-01: Revolution and Romanticism
Instructor: Dr. Lynn Raley. This course will explore how music in the Age of Revolutions reflected European culture’s dominant concerns and contained within itself the seeds of a musical revolution which continued into the next century. Romanticism’s insistence on newness and originality continues to the present day. Although the primary focus of this course will be music, a reading knowledge of music is not necessary for success in the course. We will devote a significant amount of time to learning how to listen actively and intelligently to Western art music, but our approach will be truly interdisciplinary and will incorporate the visual arts, history, philosophy, and literature. Three major works will be studied in depth through close listening: the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven, the Symphonie Fantastique of Berlioz, and an opera (in alternating years "Salomé" by Richard Strauss, "Rigoletto" by Verdi, and "Carmen" by Bizet).
Focus: Fine Arts
MWF @ 9:00 + T @ 9:00
IDST-2400-02: On Liberty: The Idea of Freedom from the Early Modern Period through the 1890s
Instructor: Dr. Laura Franey. As with any abstract concept, the idea of what constitutes political, religious, and personal freedom has undergone significant changes over the centuries. In this course, we will study liberty as it factored in literature, philosophy, and historical events from the early 1600s through the cusp of the twentieth century. We will read and discuss a wide variety of texts, including famous plays about power, hierarchy, and autonomy such as Shakespeare's The Tempest and Ibsen's A Doll's House; influential political/philosophical writings such as Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man and John Stuart Mill's On Liberty and The Subjection of Women; and slave narratives by Olaudah Equiano and Harriet Jacobs. We will also focus on historically significant struggles for political freedom (e.g. the French Revolution), religious freedom (e.g. the martyrs of the Protestant Reformation and the creation of utopian societies in 19th-century America), and for freedom in personal relationships (e.g. the movement for easier divorce).
Foci: History and Literature
MWF @ 9:00 + T @ 9:00
IDST-2400-03: The Failure of the Word: Faith and Doubt in Nineteenth-Century British Literature
Instructor: Lara Kees. In 1950, Stevie Smith wrote a poem called “Our Bog is Dood,” in which she mocks a certain kind of religion but also ridicules those who herald its demise. By writing a nonsense poem which addresses such a serious topic, she also confronts the ability of language to talk about spiritual matters. But the Romantic poets of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries believed that words were practically divine: both Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth wrote a great deal about how words make the transcendent real to us, as though a poem momentarily catches us up with divinity itself. What happened to endanger writers’ faith in words? To answer this question in this course, we will spend the first part of the semester discussing Romanticism, including poetry, history, and visual art. As we move into the Victorian period, we will see how the Victorians struggled with questions of faith and science in ways that may seem familiar to us. The questions with which they grappled affected the ability of artists to believe in the Romantic ideal of art. The Victorians had to come to terms with geological discoveries, the Industrial Revolution, Charles Darwin, linguistic discoveries, and more, all of which conspired to make it seem like the very foundations of faith were crumbling. They could no longer believe as readily as the Romantics could in a transcendent art or in religion. We will discuss how Victorian literature and art show this uneasy strain.
Focus: Literature
MWF @ 9:00 + T @ 9:00
IDST-2400-04: The Failure of the Word: Faith and Doubt in Nineteenth-Century British Literature
Instructor: Lara Kees. In 1950, Stevie Smith wrote a poem called “Our Bog is Dood,” in which she mocks a certain kind of religion but also ridicules those who herald its demise. By writing a nonsense poem which addresses such a serious topic, she also confronts the ability of language to talk about spiritual matters. But the Romantic poets of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries believed that words were practically divine: both Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth wrote a great deal about how words make the transcendent real to us, as though a poem momentarily catches us up with divinity itself. What happened to endanger writers’ faith in words? To answer this question in this course, we will spend the first part of the semester discussing Romanticism, including poetry, history, and visual art. As we move into the Victorian period, we will see how the Victorians struggled with questions of faith and science in ways that may seem familiar to us. The questions with which they grappled affected the ability of artists to believe in the Romantic ideal of art. The Victorians had to come to terms with geological discoveries, the Industrial Revolution, Charles Darwin, linguistic discoveries, and more, all of which conspired to make it seem like the very foundations of faith were crumbling. They could no longer believe as readily as the Romantics could in a transcendent art or in religion. We will discuss how Victorian literature and art show this uneasy strain.
Focus: Literature
MWF @ 10:00 + TH @ 8:00
IDST-2400-05: Faith, Reason, and the Colonizing Imagination
Instructor: Dr. Greg Miller. This course will focus on a period of great scientific, literary, artistic and social vibrancy and change. Religious faiths governed and permeated European cultures, and were sources of conflict within and between states. At the same time, new modes of inquiry and reason were evolving as European states began colonizing the Americas. We will focus on a powerful circle of British thinkers—politicians, patrons, clergymen, and scientists—who collaborated in the evangelizing project of the Virginia Company, reading poems and sermons by the dean of Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London, John Donne; a treatise imagining an ideal scientific community, the Novum Organum, by Sir Francis Bacon; and both a prose explanation of the duties of a minister and poetic representations of a believer’s inner life in George Herbert’s The Country Parson and The Temple. We will also read a besieged astronomer’s defense of his method in the 1610 Letter to the Grand Duchess Parson Christina byGalileo Galileiand an early defense of the freedom of conscience and inquiry inthe Areopagitica by John Milton. We will also explore historical accounts of encounters between colonizers and native peoples in both the Virginia Colony and Spanish colonial territories. We will examine how religious and scientific discourses shaped, and were shaped by, encounters between cultures. Possible writers to be considered include the Spanish theologian Bartolome de las Casas and an early member and defender of the Virginia Company, John Donne.
Foci: Literature and Religious Studies
TTH @ 10:00 + W @ 12:00
IDST-2400-06: The First World War
Instructor: Dr. William Storey. The First World War is generally thought to be a turning point in world history. Most scholars consider it to be the end of the modern era -- in which humanity placed its faith in the operations of reason upon nature -- and the beginning of a darker contemporary era in which modern science and technology helped to produce slaughter. Together we will examine the long-term and short-term causes of the First World War, stretching back into the nineteenth century, as well as the war itself. We will take a global approach, paying particular attention to imperial rivalries and diplomatic relations, as well as to the ways in which environmental endowments and technological developments were related to global inequality and international tension. After studying the war’s origins, we will examine the conflict itself, focusing on the soldiers’ experience of combat; life on the “home front”; and the environmental and technological changes associated with the war. We will examine the effects of war on Europe and the world, including the revolutions in Russia, Germany, Ireland, and Mexico, as well as changes in the Middle East, Africa, India, and East Asia.
Focus: History
TTH @ 10:00 + W @ 12:00
IDST-2400-07: Sappho in Southampton
Instructor: Dr. Paul Smith. Muse, matron, maiden, ravishing beauty, homely schoolmistress, alluring seductress, feminist, forsaken lover who throws herself into the sea—in various and contradictory ways, the figure of the ancient Greek lyric poet Sappho of Lesbos has captivated the poetic and popular imagination for 2,600 years. This course is an examination of the surviving fragments of Sappho’s poetry, and a number of nineteenth century British poets who appropriate the myth and work of Sappho for their own social and cultural contexts. Writers whose works will be considered include Felicia Hemans, Letitia Landon, Caroline Norton, Christina Rossetti, Mary Robinson, Michael Field, Mary Coleridge, Alfred Tennyson, and Algernon Charles Swinburne.
Focus: Literature
T @ 6:30
CORE 6: TOPICS IN SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
- Economics 2000
- Education 3200
- Political Science 1000
- Psychology 1000
- Sociology/Anthropology 1000, 1100
IDST-1610: Human Development in Cross-Cultural Perspective
Instructor: Dr. Stacy DeZutter. Human development permeates every aspect of our lives from our own individuation to our families, our work, and the rearing of our children. One can argue that all the compartmentalized studies of the social and behavioral sciences have as a source of origin human growth and development. It encompasses one's entire experience within this world. Human Development in Cross-Cultural Perspective demands an immediate and personal perspective, as well as a multi-disciplinary approach including such disciplines as psychology, biology, sociology, anthropology, education, and others.
TTh @ 1:00
CORE 7: TOPICS IN NATURAL SCIENCE WITH LABORATORY
- Biology 1001 + 1003, 1010, 1021 + 1023,
- Chemistry 1211 + 1213
- Geology 1000, 1100
- Physics 1001 + 1003, 1201+1203+
IDST-1710: Humans and Natural Disasters
Instructor: Dr. Stan Galicki, Professor Robert Nevins. Human & Natural Disasters is part of an integrated 2-semester course sequence (with IDST 1720) which encompasses geology and biology and emphasizes applications to real-world situations. Modules will include human evolution, plagues, biological and chemical warfare, climatic and geologic disasters such as earthquakes, and tsunamis. The two-semester course sequence fulfills Core 7 and Core 9 and is designed for freshman and sophomore non-science majors.
TTH@ 10:00 + TH @ 1:00
CORE 8: TOPICS IN MATHEMATICS
- Mathematics 1130, 1150, 1210, 1220, 2230, 2310
- Mathematics - Any mathematics course above 2310 (with departmental and Core Council approval) that has not been used to meet another core requirement.
CORE 9: TOPICS IN MATHEMATICS, NATURAL SCIENCE, OR COMPUTER SCIENCE
- Computer Science 1010, 1020
- Astronomy 1000
- All courses approved as satisfying (but not used as) Core 7
- Any mathematics course numbered 1210 or above that has not been used to meet another core requirement. Math courses above 2310 will need departmental and Core Council approval.
FINE ARTS
The following courses offered this fall meet the Fine Arts requirements:
- Art 2200, 2210, 2250, 2260, 2540, 2570 (all studio art and art history classes)
- THEA 1010
Any IDST course with a Fine Arts focus or the two semester Heritage sequence will meet this requirement. In addition, completing four semesters in Singers or a music ensemble, or completing four semesters of studio music lessons (voice or instrument) or significant participation in four Millsaps Players productions will satisfy the fine arts requirement.
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