This special program offers students a link between the academic programs of the College and the outside world through the experience of distinguished professionals from a variety of private and public areas of society. Challenging and often presenting a unique perspective and format, these seminars enroll about 15 students and usually meet once a week. The topics and instructors change frequently, and many seminars are offered only once. A list of the seminars available for each quarter is posted here sometime before registration and is also available in the Weinberg College Office of Undergraduate Studies and Advising, 1922 Sheridan Road. Although some places are reserved for senior majors in the sponsoring department, all students are eligible to register.
February, 2007
Dear Weinberg Student,
As you are about to register for spring quarter, I would like to call your attention to the distinctive Professional Linkage Seminars offered by Weinberg College. The seminars, taught by accomplished non-academic professionals, aim to link liberal education to significant public and professional issues and to demonstrate how theory and practice affect and enrich one another.
This spring there will be nine Linkage Seminars, which are briefly described below. For more detailed descriptions and registration information, you should consult the sponsoring department or its web site. Please note that you need not be a major in the sponsoring department or program to enroll in these courses.
In Linguistics, Erin McKean will teach Dictionaries A-Z: Using, Understanding, and Creating Dictionaries. McKean has a BA/MA in Linguistics from the University of Chicago and is Chief Consulting Editor for American Dictionaries for Oxford University Press, and was the editor in chief of the New Oxford American Dictionary, 2e. This course will cover the who-what-where-when-how and why of dictionaries, lexicography, and lexicographers, including the history of dictionaries, highlights from the lives of famous lexicographers, the technology behind how dictionaries are made, and what dictionaries may become in the future. Students will learn the basics of modern lexicographical practice, understand commercial and academic reference publishing and marketing, and become critical consumers of reference content. LING 394 will meet Tuesdays and Thurdays, 11:00-12:50. For further information please contact the Linguistics Department (847-491-7020, linguistics@northwestern.edu)
The Program in Asian American Studies will offer a new seminar entitled LGBT Policy in Asian America, taught by Myron Dean Quon. Legal, social, and political discourse on American law, policy, and social issues has traditionally marginalized Asian Americans and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans. As the fields of gay and lesbian studies and Asian American studies have grown, issues of race, class, and ethnicity have been pushed to the side by the former and LGBT issues have been barely addressed by the latter. This course will examine LGBT policy and related issues in Asian America through analysis of social science and policy journals, law review articles and judicial opinions, and contemporary readings on topics including marriage, immigration, discrimination, culture, identity, hate crimes, miscegenation, class, and community building. Trained as a lawyer, and with much legal experience at organizations such as the Legal Aid Society and the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Myron Quon is now a recent Kellogg MBA and a consultant for the Chicago Community Trust. ASIAN AM 394 will be taught Tuesdays, 6-8:50 p.m. Please contact the Asian American Studies Program for further information (467-7114, asianamerican@northwestern.edu).
The Department of African American Studies will offer a seminar entitled Public School "Renaissance," taught by Tim King, founder and CEO of The Philanthropy Group, and former principal of Chicago Catholic boy’s school. In the summer of 2004, Mayor Richard Daley announced that 100 new public schools would open in Chicago by the year 2010. This ambitious plan, called Renaissance 2010, has been met with praise and criticism. This course will examine the plan, the people and the possibilities surrounding the creation of these new schools. Players in the development of Chicago’s new schools will serve as guest speakers for the class, thereby giving students an opportunity to hear first-hand from the people behind the policies. Students will learn about Chicago’s existing charter schools by visiting those schools and meeting their leaders. Students will also have the opportunity to be a part of the development of an innovative new Charter high school in Chicago aimed at serving urban young men. The broader context of the course will include considerations of community and race -- specifically African-Americans -- as the majority of students in Chicago Public Schools are African-American. AF AM 394 will be offered on Mondays, 5:00-7:50. Please contact the African American Studies Department (491-5122, af-amstudies@northwestern.edu) for further information.
The Writing Program will offer Writing and Speaking About Medicine and Health. Designed for undergraduates interested in medicine, public health, and other health-related professions, this professional linkage seminar aims to help students learn to write and speak clearly and persuasively about science, medicine, and health. Students will develop skills for writing and speaking effectively to a range of audiences, including researchers, physicians, policy makers, and civic groups. Students will also have opportunities to explore the role that communicating scientific knowledge plays in shaping health-related decisions -- from counseling and treating patients to influencing local, national, and global health policy. Jennifer Cline, the instructor, was senior managing director of BSMG Medical and Health Communications until May 2001, when she started her own communication consulting practice. She has been writing, editing, and managing the publication of posters, papers, and presentations for clients in the pharmaceutical industry and their academic partners since 1989. ENGLISH 391 will meet on Wednesdays, 6:00-9:00 p.m. Please contact the Writing Program (491-7414, writing-program@northwestern.edu) for more information.
The Writing Program will also offer a new seminar, Writing India Right, taught by author and critic Vrinda Nabar. This linkage seminar aims to draw in students from across a wide range of subjects: literature, gender, economics, political science, history and international studies, and even the sciences. It offers a chance to students with an eye to India (and that’s a large number across disciplines at Northwestern) to get their perceptions of India "right," or at least more informed. Students would achieve this by discussing a series of Indian and international responses to various aspects of the Indian reality and writing short critiques of these through the quarter. Students would not merely read what the so-called pundits have to say but will learn to evaluate the complex balancing act between the compulsions of secular democracy on the one hand and the multiple problems of underdevelopment and regional politics on the other in a country that is already a global player in a variety of arenas. ENGLISH 391-0 will be offered Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:00-3:20. Please contact the Writing Program (491-7414, writing-program@northwestern.edu) for more information.
The Gender Studies Program will offer a seminar entitled: "Add Women and Stir": Economic Development and the Politics of Gender. This course will provide students with a practitioners’ perspective on how gender and the development field have progressed from the paternalism of colonization to the ambitious goals of the United Nations decade of the women. Through prepared case examples and their own research, students will study such questions: as how well have program and development specialists understood gender? What happens to finite resources when a “new” actor is suddenly given center stage? How have the competing objectives of different organizations, state policies and philosophies affected practical implementation? How reluctantly or willingly have professionals responded to the mandate of prioritizing gender? Using several real-life situations, students will study both the desired and the unanticipated effects that these projects have had on the quality of life for women in the developing world. As more women work as development professionals, how have they changed the goals and mechanisms of development projects? The instructor, Joan Sherman, worked for CARE International, one of the world's largest development and relief non-governmental organizations for several years. She will draw on her experience in Haiti and India working in sectors as varied as micro-credit, mother and child health, and water and sanitation. GNDR ST 394 will be offered Mondays, 3:00-5:30. Please contact the Gender Studies Program for further information (1-5871, gender@northwestern.edu).
Business Institutions will offer a seminar entitled Entrepreneurship, taught by Ivie Walker, executive director of the Runners' Club, an advanced entrepreneurial development program. In this course students will study the process of planning and creating new ventures; identifying and evaluating opportunities, resources, and financing; growing and harvesting a business; start-ups and acquisitions; and choosing entrepreneurship as a personal strategy. There will be case studies, guest lectures, and in-class presentations. BIP 394 will be offered on Thursdays, 6:30-9:00 p.m. Contact the Business Institutions program for further information (491-2706; bip@northwestern.edu).
Business Institutions will also offer Sports Marketing in the 21st Century. Its instructor, Jeff Bail, is the president and managing partner of S3/Sports and Sponsoring Solutions, Inc. This course will provide students with a solid foundation in the principles of marketing, with application focused on the sports marketing industry. Guests will include marketing staff from major teams, members of the sports media, and corporate-sponsor marketing executives. BIP 394-0 Sec. 20 will meet on Wednesdays, 6:30-9:00 p.m. Contact the Business Institutions program for further information (491-2706; bip@northwestern.edu).
The Business Institutions Program will offer Global Issues in Financial Markets, Part II, taught by Stephen M. Levin, an independent broker and member of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. This course will be a history of the evolution of the financial marketplace, and will cover contemporary issues, practical solutions, experiences and practices. Students will all do a trading project over the course of the quarter. BIP 394-0 Sec. 21 will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30-1:50 p.m. Please contact the Business Institutions program for further information (491-2706; bip@northwestern.edu).
We are pleased to offer this impressive group of seminars in our Linkage Seminar program, and I hope that you will consider one of them in winter quarter.
Sincerely yours,
Daniel Linzer
Dean of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
