Freshman Seminars - Spring 2007-2008
Descriptions

 
 
African-American Studies 101-6, Sec. 20
THE BROWNING (LATINIZATION) OF AMERICA
INSTRUCTOR: John D. Marquez
TIME: TTH 11:00-12:20
OFFICE ADDRESS: Crowe 3-130
PHONE: 847-467-0503
E-MAIL: j-marquez@northwestern.edu
 
BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Seven of the nine largest U.S. cities achieved a “majority-minority” population for the first time ever during the past decade.  The major reason for this shift was the exponential growth of the U.S. Latino/a population.  This growth has been spurred, primarily, by an epic wave of poor immigrants from Latin America.  There are two particularly notable effects of the Latino/a boom that are central to this course.  The first is that Latinos/as have surpassed African Americans as the largest group of color in the U.S.  More significantly, this shift has taken place in cities where African Americans have historically predominated and have heavily influenced the contours of urban culture and racial politics.  Hence, the fact that Latinos/as are not only the largest but also one of the most aggrieved groups of color verifies the need to look beyond black-white relations when analyzing the social salience of race in many urban locales.  The second notable effect of the Latino/a boom is that the U.S. Latino/a population is now more diverse than ever before.  Relatedly, it is also more linked to and influenced by histories, cultures, and conditions in Latin America.  This enhanced transnationality is important considering the uniform assumptions about Latinos/as that often underlie discussions about their political (im)mobility.  Bearing all of these conditions in mind, this course examines how the recent “Browning of America” has structured spaces, identities, and relations of power in U.S. cities.
 
TEACHING METHOD: Lecture/Discussion/Visual Media
 
METHOD OF EVALUATION: One take home essay assigned midterm, one final essay assigned at quarter’s end and that is a continuation of the previous essay.  Also individual and groups presentations and activities will be incorporated to facilitate dialogue.  An occasional pop quiz over assigned readings to ensure students are on task while out of class.
 
NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: 2 essays.  Each no more than 6 pages, double spaced. 
 
READING LIST: I am considering assigning: Opening the Floodgates: Why America Needs to Rethink its Borders and Immigration Laws by Kevin Johnson, Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race by Laura Gomez, Domestica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadows of Affluence by Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, and/or Working the Boundaries: Race, Space, and "Illegality" in Mexican Chicago by Nicholas De Genova.  I will also assign a course read with articles regarding recent Latino/a immigration and its effects
 
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: John D. Márquez is a recent graduate of the Ph.D. program in Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego where he was also the Assistant Director of the Center for California Cultures in Comparative Perspective.   He's been trained to analyze the fundamental theoretical and political questions regarding the social construction of race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality, and nation in a comparative, relational, and multidisciplinary fashion.  He is currently an Assistant Professor in the African American Studies Department at Northwestern University.   He specializes in comparative twentieth century race relations with a specific focus on relations between Blacks and Latinas/os.

 
 
 
Anthropology 101-6, Sec. 21
CLOTHING AND CULTURE
INSTRUCTOR:  KAREN TRANBERG HANSEN
TIME:  TTH 2:00-3:20
OFFICE: 1810 Hinman Ave, #208         
PHONE:  847-491-5402 or 847-491-4826
EMAIL:    KTH462@northwestern.edu                                                         
 
 
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Fashion as a global force today challenges the conventional boundaries of the West’s “fashion system” by moving dress influences from across the world into the mainstream.  Fashion systems everywhere go hand-in-hand with power, as do dress practices both at home and abroad: they all demonstrate the cultural politics of their specific time and place.  But the relationships are often complex, if not oppositional.  This seminar examines clothing from several perspectives: culture and anthropology; fashion and style; and history and globalization. Different types of readings will be discussed to highlight themes of historical dress, non-western dress, popular culture and sub-cultures and, the interaction between Western influenced fashion and local forms of dress. The seminar explores several questions about the significance of dress, including: how dress codes are acquired; how everyday dress practices are constructed and changed; and how dress contributes to identity formation.
 
TEACHING METHOD: Discussion. Students are expected to read all the assigned readings and to participate actively in class discussions.  Some class discussions will be lead by students.
 
METHOD OF EVALUATION: Class participation, discussion and oral presentation will account for 1/3 of the final grade and the written assignments for 2/3 of the final grade.
 
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS: The written requirements consist of five short typed pages (4-5 pages each).  Toward the end of the quarter, there will be an oral presentation, consisting of discussions by students of the findings of their class projects that comprise the fifth paper.  Plagiarism will not be tolerated.  Familiarize yourself with Northwestern’s regulations about Academic Integrity.
 
REQUIRED READINGS:
Christopher Breward and David Gilbert, eds. Fashion’s World Cities. Berg 2006.
Alexandra Palmer and Hazel Clark, eds. Old Clothes, New Looks: Second Hand Fashion.  Berg, 2005.
James Sullivan, Jeans: A Cultural History of an American Icon. Gotham Books 2006.
 
Plus several required readings on electronic reserve in the library/blackboard.
 
BIOGRAPHY:  Professor Hansen is a specialist in African Studies.  She has published several books about urban livelihoods and everyday life in Zambia including her prize-winning book, Salaula: The World of Secondhand Clothing and Zambia (2000).  She has also written several articles and book chapters on dress and fashion.  At the moment, she is completing a collaborative research project focusing on urban youth in three developing countries: Zambia, Vietnam, and Brazil.
 
 
Anthropology 101-6, Sec. 22
UNFLESHED: FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY
INSTRUCTOR: Erin B. Waxenbaum, Ph.D.
TIME:  MWF 9:00-9:50  am – 1810 Hinman Ave., Rm. B08
OFFICE ADDRESS: 1810 Hinman Ave., Rm 54A
PHONE: 847-491-4818
E-MAIL: e-waxenbaum@northwestern.edu
 
 
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:  This course provides a broad overview of forensic anthropology – an applied subfield of biological anthropology.  Forensic anthropology focuses traditional skeletal biology on problems of medicolegal significance, primarily in determining personal identity and cause of death from human remains. In this course we will discuss the full range of issues associated with human skeletal identification from trauma analysis to the identification of individuals in mass disasters. These problems will serve as a model for understanding the broader aspects of applied anthropology.
 
TEACHING METHOD: Class discussion, case-studies, assigned readings, and in-class lab activities will be used to enhance the students’ understanding of a broad spectrum of issues in forensic anthropology.  
 
METHOD OF EVALUATION:  The course consists of 3 components: a critical book review (25%), investigative report (25%) and 2 written examinations (50%). Class participation in daily discussion is expected and required.
 
NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS:  The course involves 2 main writing assignments. First is a critical review of a non-fiction book which explores some aspect of forensic anthropology or the case history of a forensic anthropologist. This assignment should be between 5-7 pages in length. Secondly, each student is required to complete a forensic report highlighting the circumstances, background and specific forensic tools and anthropological evidence used to analyze human remains from a modern crime, human rights or archaeological investigation. This assignment should be between 7-10 pages in length.
Forensic report and book review selections must be approved by the instructor and will be evaluated through a 1 page proposal submitted by each student. Both writing assignments require a rough draft to be submitted 10 days before assignment due date.
 
READING LIST: Beyers, S.N. 2008. Introduction to Forensic Anthropology, 3rd edition. ISBN: 0205512291
 
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: I am a biological anthropologist and skeletal biologist specializing in human growth and development as well as human variation. I am also trained as a forensic anthropologist. I have spent the last 4 years working at the C.A. Pound Human Identification Lab at the University of Florida where I have been actively involved in forensic casework. I am currently working on: an analysis of variation in human growth and development among Native North American populations, morphological variation in the human knee and variation in body proportions among pygmy populations from Africa.

 
 
 
 
Art History  101-6, Sec. 20
WORK OF ANDY WARHOL
INSTRUCTOR: Huey Copeland
TIME:  TTH 9:30-10:50
OFFICE ADDRESS: 3-117 Crowe
PHONE: 847-467-5798
E-MAIL: h-copeland@northwestern.edu
 
BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The white wig, Campbell’s soup cans, 15 minutes of fame: these are just a few of the associations that spring to mind when the name “Andy Warhol” is uttered.  In this course, we will go beyond the surface of the artist’s myth to explore the range of work he produced over the course of his lifetime: paintings, books, magazines, sculptures, films, and more.  Our aim will be not only to examine the varied aesthetic strategies of one of the twentieth-century’s most influential figures, but also to understand how his practice relates to contemporaneous discourses on race, gender, and sexuality with important consequences for artists working today.
 
TEACHING METHOD: Discussion.
 
METHOD OF EVALUATION: Students will be graded on the basis of written assignments, active participation in class discussion, and an oral presentation.
 
NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: In addition to 1-2-page weekly response papers, students will write two short essays: the first should be about 4 pages, the second 6-7 pages.
 
READING LIST: In addition to books such as “The Philosophy of Andy Warhol from A to B,” students will be expected to purchase a course reader containing texts by biographers, critics, and art historians that approach Warhol’s life and times from a range of perspectives.
 
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Huey Copeland is an Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary art.  His current research focuses on the relationship between conceptual practice, histories of slavery, and African-American art historiography.

 
 
 
 
Biological Sciences 110-6, Sec. 20
RESEARCH UNIVERSITY AND THE BIOTECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY
Instructors: Daniel Linzer and Jennifer Cline
TIME:  TTH 9:30-10:50
Office Address: Rebecca Crown Center, Room 2-145
Phone: 847-491-5117 (Dr. Linzer)
Email: dlinzer@northwestern.edu
j-cline@northwestern.edu
Office Hours: TBD
 
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:  This team-taught freshman seminar focuses on how the creation of the modern research university gave rise to the biotechnology industry, while also paying special attention to helping students become strong writers and communicators.
 
Discussions and readings explore a range of issues on the development of biotech research and commercial applications; legal and regulatory changes; individual and institutional incentives and concerns; and the risks and benefits for society.   We will investigate these themes through various activities, including class visits from biotechnology entrepreneurs, whom students will also interview outside of class to create oral histories and/or case studies.
 
PREREQUISITES: None
 
TEACHING METHOD: Lecture and discussion
 
EVALUATION METHOD: Throughout the quarter, students will write steadily, both to improve their writing and to deepen their understanding of the issues they are exploring.  They will present their ideas in a variety of formats, and will be evaluated based on their written work, an oral presentation, and their participation.  There will be no exams.
 
 
Biological Sciences  107-6, Sec.20
PLANTS THAT CHANGED HISTORY
INSTRUCTOR:  Christina Russin
TIME:  MW 2:00-3:20 
OFFICE ADDRESS:  Hogan Hall, Room 6-110B 2205 Tech Drive Hogan Hall Evanston, Il 60208 PHONE: 847-467-4878
E-mail: c-russin@northwestern.edu
Office Hours: TBA

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Of the numerous factors that have shaped U.S. history, one of the most surprising is the role plants have played. We will examine 4 examples during the quarter: the impact of the spice trade on exploration, what the invention of the cotton gin did to slavery in the South, the Irish potato famine’s influence on American politics in the 1800’s, and quinine’s effect on tropical enterprises. A description of each plant and its properties will be followed by class discussion of the impact it had on U.S. history. We will then look for areas of the world in which similar circumstances are present which could lead to a repetition of history.

PREREQUISITES: None.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion.

EVALUATION METHOD: Grades will be based on writing assignments and class participation in discussions. There will be four 5-page papers.

READING: All reading material to be provided by the instructor

 
 
 
 
Comparative Literary Studies 105-6, Sec. 20  
DREAMS AND INTERPRETATIONS
INSTRUCTOR:  Anna Glazova
TIME:  MWF 10:00-10:50
OFFICE ADDRESS:  TBA
PHONE:  847-491-3864
E-MAIL:  a-glazova@northwestern.edu
 
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:  This seminar will examine the relationship between dreams and waking life. The peculiar relationship between these two states has fascinated thinkers and writers alike. We imagine that dreams allow us to peer into depths otherwise obscure to a waking mind. But do dreams also influence our reality? One of the most ancient thinkers of the Western tradition, Heraclites of Ephesus, also known as Heraclites the Obscure, thought so: "Even sleepers are workers and collaborators on what goes on in the universe." If dreams constitute reality, isn't all reality a dream? If not, then how much is "real"? Answers to these questions have varied greatly: from belief in the prophetic power of dreams to doubts about whether reality itself is an illusion. In this seminar, we will read texts exploring topics including prophecies received in dreams, the nexus of images of sleep and death, lethargy, hypnosis, communication between the sleeping and the waking, and, most prominently, interpretations of dreams. The question which we will ask ourselves will be: how can we distinguish our waking thoughts from our dreams?
 
TEACHING METHOD: Seminar discussion

METHOD OF EVALUATION: Grades will be based on written assignments, oral report and participation in in-class discussions.

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: Three short papers (5 - 6 pages), response papers (1 page), and an oral presentation are required.

READING LIST: Texts will include Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams, E. T. A. Hoffmann's "The Magnetizer," Nikolai Gogol's "The Portrait," E. A. Poe's "The Premature Burial," Pedro Calderon de la Barca's Life Is a Dream and Samuel T. Coleridge's "Kubla Khan." In addition to the readings, the course features a screening of  brothers Wachowski’s “The Matrix.”

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY: Anna Glazova's areas of expertise are German- and Russian-language literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She has published articles on German and Russian poetry and poetics, literary critique, and aesthetic theory. In her dissertation, focused on the poetry of Paul Celan and Osip Mandelstam, she examines problems of quotation, tradition, and translation. She has translated into Russian works by two important figures of European modernism, Rober Walser and Unica Zürn.


 
 
 
 
Earth and Planetary Sciences 102-6, Sec. 20
EARTHQUAKES AND OTHER EARTH-SHAKING EVENTS
INSTRUCTOR Suzan van der Lee
TIME:  TTH 2:00-3:20
OFFICE ADDRESS: 300-306 Locy Hall; 1850 Campus Drive
PHONE: 847-491-8183
E-MAIL: suzan@earth.northwestern.edu
 
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:  Earthquakes occur each hour, day, week, month, etc. Many go barely noticed while others turn catastrophic. Learn about earthquakes (what is an earthquake, how does the Earth quake, what makes it quake, how are earthquakes similar and different from other quakes, etc.) and about their causes and consequences. Learn about non-earthquake events that send tremors through our planet and alter its evolution in the case of meteorite impacts or that provide forensic information about underground bomb tests, plane crashes, submarine explosions, or mine collapses.
 
TEACHING METHOD:  Discussion of assigned readings, problem solving, summaries of presentations, lectures, discussions or homework, student presentations, feedback on student writing.
 
METHOD OF EVALUATION:  Final grade is a weighted average of written summaries,  two papers, one team paper, one or two student presentations, and class participation.
 
NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS
A maximum of nineteen summaries (less than one page)
Two individual papers (10 pages each)
One team paper (10 pages)
One presentation
 
READING LIST:  There will be a course reader with material from the following and other publications:
Susan Hough, Earthshaking Science, What we know (and don’t know) about earthquakes
 
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Seismic waves not only tell us stories of the shivers of Earth’s outer shell, but also about the secrets of an inaccessible realm: The Earth’s interior.  Although I am troubled by the devastating consequences of some earthquakes, they fascinate me as physical phenomena and as sources of clues to the vast planet concealed beneath the crust.  I use earthquake records (seismograms) in my research to infer the state of and processes in the Earth’s interior.  I traveled to unmonitored regions in four continents to record and ‘read’ seismic waves with my own portable seismometers. Currently I use the Earthscope facility to learn about the Earth’s interior beneath North America.

 
 
 
 
 
Economics  101-6, Sec. 20
FROM ECONOMIC DISASTERS TO ECONOMIC MIRACLES: LATIN AMERICA AND INDIA
INSTRUCTOR: Francisco Buera
TIME:  TTH 9:30-10:50
OFFICE ADDRESS: Andersen Hall, Room 3221
PHONE: 847-491-8233
E-MAIL: f-buera@northwestern.edu
 
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:  Why is the typical American 13 time more productive than the typical Indian? Why is the average American in the 21st century 18 times more productive than his XIX century counterparts, while Latin Americas had fallen behind? In short, which are the causes of the wealth and poverty of nations? Are these economies going to become the economic miracles of this century? These are probably the most ambitious questions any economist can ever hope to answer, and among the most challenging questions any intellectual can hope to address. We will start exploring these questions, and discuss alternative answers to them from a variety of perspectives.
 
TEACHING METHOD: Discussion
 
METHOD OF EVALUATION:
Grades will be based on papers (70%), comments on peer's papers (10%), and class discussion (20%).
 
NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: There will be four papers, each three to five pages in length, each with an accompanying short version of the paper.
 
READING LIST:
- Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel
- Javier Santiso, Latin America's Political Economy of the Possible: Beyond Good Revolutionaries and Free-Marketeers
- Gurcharan Das, India Unbound: The Social and Economic Revolution from Independence to the Global Information Age
- Various articles.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: I’m a macroeconomist with a particular interest in entrepreneurship and economic development. My recent research has focused on understanding the determinants of new firms' creation and entrepreneurial behavior, and its relationship with economic development. I’ve also studied the changes in the structure of production of modern economy, including the decline of manufacturing production in the US, and the corresponding rise of the service economy.


 
 
 
 
English 101-6, Sec. 20
VICTORIAN SECRETS
INSTRUCTOR: Joyce Kelley
TIME:  MWF 10:00-10:50
OFFICE ADDRESS: UH 214
PHONE: TBA   
E-MAIL: j-kelley@northwestern.edu
 
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:   While the Victorians were deeply preoccupied with outward appearances, it was often the  inner thoughts, hidden feelings, and clandestine schemes that were most crucial to determining true identities.  Victorian secrets signify the inexpressible and unnamable aspects of a tight-laced society.  From a period fraught with anxieties instigated by profound social and economic change, moral and religious turbulence, and great scientific and industrial development, Victorian literature reveals insecurities and fears about what might lurk beneath the surface of respectable society, hidden away but ready to emerge when least expected.  As we will see, secrets do not remain secret for long. 
 
Looking at texts that explore the shadowy and sensational side of the Victorian imagination, from the pre-Victorian era through the 1890s, we will uncover and examine these strange secrets of our Victorian protagonists.  To enrich our understanding of Victorian culture and its social anxieties, we additionally will peruse Victorian magazines from the era.  At the end of the course, students will have the opportunity to undertake a research project on a social or historical subject of their choice and apply that research to a class text.
 
TEACHING METHOD:  Discussion, Essay Workshops
 
METHOD OF EVALUATION:  Active and engaged participation (includes attendance) and one day of leading discussion/group presentation (total 25%); one 2-3 page project working with Victorian periodicals (10%); drafts, peer workshops, and revisions of two 4-5 page critical papers (20% each); and one final 5-7 page research paper/project (25%). 
 
NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS:  Please see above.
 
READING LIST:
 
Shelley, Frankenstein (1818)
Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847)
Braddon, Lady Audley‚s Secret (1863)
Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)
+ some essays, poetry, and, if time allows, a few Sherlock Holmes stories
 
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT  Joyce Kelley is a visiting assistant professor who received her Ph.D.  from the University of Iowa in May 2007.  Her interests include British and transnational modernism, Victorian literature, women and literature, travel writing, and the relationship  between music and literature.
 
 
 
English 101-6, Sec. 21
POPULAR CULTURE IN AFRICAN LITERATURE
INSTRUCTOR:   Evan Mwangi
TIME:  MWF 11:00-11:50
OFFICE ADDRESS: UH 326
PHONE: 847-491-3529
E-MAIL: evan-mwangi@northwestern.edu
 
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:  This course examines the role of popular culture in African politics and African literature. We will read and write about the deployment of popular expression in prose, drama and other forms of artistic expression as the artists’ strategy for political and gender liberation in Africa. How do popular and serious texts intersect in nationalist and gender politics? Why would a serious literary artist invoke popular-culture texts? What are the shortcomings of popular-culture texts, and how are these weaknesses resolved in a literary text? To answer these questions, we will analyze a play and a novel about African politics and African editorial cartoons and videos that address themes covered in serious literary and political texts—e.g. corruption, abuse of power, gender inequality, war on terror, and weapons of mass destruction. As we discuss these texts, we will not only practice various ways of close reading but we will also critique the texts in writing.

TEACHING METHOD: Brief introductory remarks, assigned readings, class discussions.

METHOD OF EVALUATION: weekly short response papers, oral presentations and class participation. Writing assignments will account for 70 % of the final grade while class participation will account for 30 %.

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: Weekly 2-page response papers and three 5-page essays.  The essays will be written in stages, peer reviewed, and revised before submission.

READING LIST Will include Ngugi’s play I Will Marry When I Want, Uzodima Iweala’s novel Beasts of No Nation, cartoons by Godfrey Mwampembwa, music videos by Fela Kuti and Xerox packet of by Barthes, Ogude, Mitchel, Okediji, and Hall.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Evan Mwangi teaches 20th Century Anglophone African, focusing on the intersection of aesthetics, gender and nationalism in canonical and popular texts.
 
 
English 101-6, Sec. 22
MEDIEVAL ROMANCE
INSTRUCTOR: Joshua Smith
TIME:  MWF 12:00-12:50
OFFICE ADDRESS: UH 420
PHONE: 847-491-4991
E-MAIL:  j-smithj@northwestern.edu
 
BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Chances are you have already encountered aspects of medieval romance in some form or another, whether in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, modern adaptations of medieval literature, Science Fiction, or even in the plots of action-adventure movies. In this course we will explore those romance motifs that you may be familiar with—the quest, courtly love, and the fantastic—but we also will look more closely at the function of romance in medieval society.
 
What are the cultural origins of the genre—are they Celtic, French, British, Mediterranean? How does romance interact with other genres, especially religious texts? To what degree are various romance traditions in dialogue? How does romance approach gender roles?
 
We will read many of the most famous and influential romances in Western literature, focusing texts from Northern Europe (especially Britain). Overall, this course is a formal introduction to the themes, uses, and cultural contexts of medieval romance literature.   
 
TEACHING METHOD: Discussion
 
METHOD OF EVALUATION: Attendance and participation: 10%; Reading Quizzes 15%; Written Assignments: 75%
 
NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: annotated bibliography (2-3 pages); four short essays (3 pages each); peer review project (3 pages); final paper (7-9 pages).
 
READING LIST: Geoffrey of Monmouth, excerpts from The History of the Kings of Britain; The Mabinogion; Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances; Beroul, The Romance of Tristan; Marie de France, Lais; Gawain and the Green Knight; The Life of Christina of Markyate; Geoffrey Chaucer, excerpts from The Canterbury Tales; Selected Medieval Lyrics.  [Note: All readings are in Modern English]
 
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Joshua Smith is a doctoral student in Northwestern's English Department, where his research focuses on multilingualism in medieval Britain and the role that language plays in canon formation. He is writing his dissertation on the regional literature of the Welsh March, the borderlands between medieval England and Wales. Joshua is looking forward to introducing freshmen to the fascinating and rich literature of the Middle Ages.
 
 
English 101-6, Sec. 23
WHAT IS HIGHER EDUCATION
INSTRUCTOR: Abram Van Engen
TIME:  MWF 1:00-1:50
OFFICE ADDRESS: UH 420
PHONE: 847-491-4991
E-MAIL: a-vanengen@northwestern.edu
 
BRIEF DESCRIPTION: In order to get at the important skills of argument, organization, research and style, this course focuses on a common theme: undergraduate education.  The years spent at a university are unlike any  other, differing in demographics, financial expectations, social opportunities, educational offerings and much more.  While students inevitably experience these aspects of college life, they do not always take time˜or have time˜to think about how they experience them.  This course, therefore, intends to give students time.  It presents a space in which to think about what higher education means and how it works.  General debates will provide a forum in which to consider Northwestern‚s unique opportunities and limitations.  The goal, in the end, is awareness.  Once aware of how universities function and what Northwestern has to offer, students can take increased ownership of their own college experience.  With this course, I hope that students will be better able to shape their time in college, rather than just being shaped by it.
 
TEACHING METHOD  Discussion
 
METHOD OF EVALUATION:
Participation:  10%
Short Assignments:  15%
Paper 1:  20%
Paper 2:  25%
Paper 3:  30%
 
NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS
Paper 1: 5-6 pages
Paper 2: 5-6 pages
Paper 3: 7-8 pages
 
READING LIST
I will make and use a course packet.
 
Works from which students will read (the list is still somewhat tentative and will be expanded):
 
Andrew Abbot, „The Aims of Education‰
Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind
Derek Bok, Universities and the Future of America
- - - .  Universities in the Marketplace
- - - .  Beyond the Ivory Tower: Social Responsibilities of the Modern University
Dave Eggers, „Serve or Fail‰
Ralph Waldo Emerson, „The American Scholar‰
James Engall and Anthony Dangerfield, Saving Higher Education in the Age of Money
Benjamin Franklin, „Proposals for the Education of Youth‰
James Freedman, Liberal Education and the Public Interest
- - - . Idealism and Liberal Education
Eric Gould, The University in a Corporate Culture
Arthur Jensen, „Leadership through the Liberal Arts‰
Henry Lewis, „Slow Down‰
Robert Maynard Hutchins, The Higher Learning in America
George Marsden, „Theoloy and the University‰
Louis Menand, „Graduates‰
John Henry Newman, The Idea of the University
Barak Obama, „Commencement Address‰
Adrienne Rich, „Claiming an Education‰
Thorstein Veblen, The Higher Learning in America
Jeffrey Williams, „The Pedagogy of Debt‰
Tom Wolfe, I Am Charlotte Simmons
 
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT
I am a fourth-year graduate student, pursuing a Ph.D. in English.  My interests lay in American literature generally, and I have TA‚ed for each survey course in American literature covering the full range.  In particular, though, I study early American literature.  My dissertation researches the role of emotion in shaping seventeenth-century Puritanism.  In the fall I taught English composition, focusing the course readings and writing assignments on questions of higher education.  Now I hope to foreground the theme of higher education for English 106.
 
 
 
English 101-6, Sec. 24
AMERICAN MODERNIST POETRY & ITS CRITICS
INSTRUCTOR: Brent Mix
TIME:  MWF 2:00-2:50
OFFICE ADDRESS: UH 420
PHONE: 847-491-4991
E-MAIL: b-mix@northwestern.edu
 
BRIEF DESCRIPTION: It has often been recognized that American modernist poets such as Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, and William Carlos Williams employed varying degrees and modes of abstraction in their creation of a ‘difficult’ poetry.  At the same historical moment-- roughly the period between the World Wars --critics such as John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, Kenneth Burke, and Yvor Winters were putting forward frameworks by which these abstractions could be understood as virtues rather than vices. (It is no coincidence that this era sees the flourishing of the professional ‘poet-critic.’)  In this seminar we will read American modernist poems alongside work by the critics who would provide the template by which these poets were understood and valued for decades.  Several questions will guide our discussions: If the poet must “make it new,” as Pound insisted, is it then the critic’s job to ‘make it understood’?  Or could we say that the poets are teaching the critics, writing criticism-as-poetry?  Can an argument be carried back and forth between poetry and criticism, and if so how important is the distinction (if it exists) between form and content? 
 
TEACHING METHOD: Discussion, informal debate, essay workshop
 
METHOD OF EVALUATION: Attendance and active, engaged participation (20%); one brief presentation to begin discussion (10%); two short (4–5 pp.) papers, one of which may be revised (20% each); final, seven page paper (30%).

NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: See above: two short (4-5 pp.) papers, one 7-8 pp. paper.

READING LIST Poets will include: Ezra Pound (Selected Poems), T. S. Eliot (The Waste Land, Four Quartets), Wallace Stevens (Palm at the End of the Mind), William Carlos Williams (Imaginations [if in-print], Selected Poems [if not]), Hart Crane (The Complete Poems of Hart Crane), Marianne Moore (Collected Poems), and several others (from photocopied course reader).  Critics will include: John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, Kenneth Burke, Yvor Winters, R. P. Blackmur, and several others.  Critical readings will come from a photocopied course reader.
 

English 101-6, Sec. 25
DIVINE PUNISHMENT FROM DANTE TO DYLAN
INSTRUCTOR: Glenn Sucich
TIME:  MW 11:00-11:20
OFFICE ADDRESS: Crowe 3-149
PHONE: 847-476-7594
E-MAIL: g-sucich@northwestern.edu
 
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:  Readers of the Bible often note what many perceive to be two different depictions of God: the merciless God of the Hebrew Bible, who is quick to destroy people and places, sometimes for no good reason, and the more merciful God of the New Testament, who teaches his followers to forgive their enemies and to turn the other cheek.  This apparent disparity has led to a centuries-old debate about the true nature of divine justice in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
 
This course will explore this debate as it has been taken up by various theologians, writers, and artists, from Dante to Bob Dylan.  Our goal will not be to end this debate once and for all, but rather to deepen our understanding of why certain people and groups at specific moments in history might privilege one of these two depictions over the other.
 
TEACHING METHOD:  Discussion.

METHOD OF EVALUATION:  Evaluation will be based on one short paper (5-6 pages), one final paper (7-8 pages), and participation in classroom discussions and activities.
 
READING LIST: Readings will likely include selections from the Bible; Dante's Inferno; selections from Milton's Paradise Lost; selected poems and sermons from John Donne, William Blake, W.B. Yeats, and others; Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome; and selections from Christopher Ricks' Dylan's Visions of Sin.
 
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Glenn Sucich (Ph.D. Northwestern University) teaches and writes about early modern literature and culture. His areas of interest include Milton, Donne, and other seventeenth-century poets, the 
history of Christian doctrine, philosophy and literature, the sublime, and the relationship between early modern magic, science, and religion. He is currently working on a book that explores the influence of early modern natural philosophy on the poetry of Milton and his contemporaries.
 

English 101-6, Sec. 26
HISTORY OF HELL
INSTRUCTOR: Glenn Sucich
TIME:  MW 2:00-3:20
OFFICE ADDRESS: Crowe 3-149
PHONE: 847-476-7594
E-MAIL: g-sucich@northwestern.edu
 
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:  Historically, depictions of “hell” have differed dramatically. In the Hebrew Bible, for instance, the underworld, or Sheol, is represented as a neutral place where all people, both the wicked and the righteous, go after death. By contrast, the New Testament describes hell as a place reserved exclusively for the wicked, where the “Devil and his angels” are made to suffer “eternal fire” (Matt 25:41). Corresponding differences can be found in later texts as well. The physical hell of Dante’s Inferno, with its descending rings and fantastical torments, is far different from the internal, personal hell from which Satan and others suffer in Milton’s Paradise Lost. For Dante, hell is a physical place; for Milton, it is a psychological state. Why? 

This course will examine the ways in which interpretations of hell and its inhabitants reflect the religious, political, and intellectual ferment of particular cultures at particular historical moments. Virgil’s depiction of the land of the dead in the Aeneid reveals as much about the political climate of ancient Rome as George Bush’s identification of “an axis of evil” reveals about our world today. In both cases, hell and evil become vehicles to express cultural concerns and to debate moral values. Illuminating the ways in which the concept of hell becomes an instrument of cultural commentary will be the focus of this course.

TEACHING METHOD: Discussion.

METHOD OF EVALUATION:  Evaluation will be based on one short paper (5-6 pages), one final paper (7-8 pages), and participation in classroom discussions and activities.
Reading: Readings may include selections from Homer’s The Odyssey (esp. Book 11), Virgil’s Aenead, Dante’s Inferno, Milton’s Paradise Lost, and Blake. Full texts will include Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus, Faulkner’s “Dry September,” Shelley’s Frankenstein and Huxley’s Brave New World.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Glenn Sucich (Ph.D. Northwestern University) teaches and writes about early modern literature and culture. His areas of interest include Milton, Donne, and other seventeenth-century poets, the 
history of Christian doctrine, philosophy and literature, the sublime, and the relationship between early modern magic, science, and religion. He is currently working on a book that explores the influence of early modern natural philosophy on the poetry of Milton and his contemporaries.
 
 
English 101-6, Sec. 27
RESPONSE AND RESPONSIBILITY
INSTRUCTOR: JANINE TOBECK
TIME:  TTH 11:00-12:20
OFFICE ADDRESS: UH 415
PHONE: 847-491-3530
E-MAIL:  j-tobeck@northwestern.edu
 
BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Through texts united by a theme of personal responsibility, this course will focus on questions about how you are supposed to respond to something you see or read. In other words, what response are you responsible for? How do you know?
 
Framed by shorter, related units, our primary focus will be on texts related to the 1960s trial of Adolf Eichmann, which raised complicated questions about his personal responsibility for the Shoah. Using sources both directly related to the trial (such as Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem, a revised and expanded version of her coverage of the trial for The New Yorker), and indirectly related or inspired by the issues it raised (such as novels by Kurt Vonnegut and Kazuo Ishiguro), we will interrogate our assumptions about how we respond to different kinds of texts--e.g., reportage, documentary, fiction, and satire. As Eichmann's trial was the first ever to be televised, we will also study several different film documentaries since created from the trial footage, again comparing the ways in which presentations work to guide our responses toward different conclusions. (Group film showings for these--and for movies made from the novels--will be scheduled. Films will be made available for individual viewing for those who cannot make the scheduled times.)
 
TEACHING METHOD: Discussion
 
METHOD OF EVALUATION: Formal papers: 70% (15%, 25%, 30%).  Participation: 30% (in-class discussion and discussion list postings)
 
NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS: Three formal papers:   3-4 p. comparative analysis (of a story and a play about the same characters and events), 5-6 p. form and content analysis (including research) on a text of student's choice, 7-8 p. comparative analysis of primary course texts, discussion list postings (@ 4-5 pages total)
 
READING LIST:
 
    Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem
    Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night
    Kazuo Ishiguro, Remains of the Day
    Laura Blumenfeld, Revenge, A Story of Hope
    additional readings available online
 
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT: Janine Tobeck got her Ph. D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her dissertation, "Altered States: Authors, Subjects and Sovereignty in Postwar American Fiction" focused on a group of marginally canonical writers who worked to throw out the bath-water of conventional realism without the baby of social commitment after World War II. It unites these writers into a cohesive alternative tradition by relating their literary strategies to the theory of a “literature of power” and the strange autobiographical subject of Thomas De Quincey, the (similarly unconventional) romanticist best known as the English Opium-Eater.
 
 
English 101-6, Sec. 28
LOVE AND DEATH IN WESTERN LITERATURE
INSTRUCTOR:  Hyun-Jung Lee
TIME:  TTH  12:30-1:50
OFFICE ADDRESS:  UH 407
PHONE:  847-491-5157
E-MAIL:  hjlee@northwestern.edu

BRIEF DESCRIPTION:  This course will examine the relationship between “crime” and “punishment” in a series of novels from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will pay close attention to the concept of “transgression” in its various applications, as well as to its personal, communal, social, and political consequences. In exploring this issue as it played out in the pages of fiction, we will draw on a constellation of related ideas including sexuality, misanthropy, deviance, detection, scapegoating, and divine providence. We will utilize psychological, socio-historical, and narrative points of view in conducting our investigation into the dark side of humanity.
 
TEACHING METHOD: Discussion, brief lectures
 
METHOD OF EVALUATION: Papers, oral presentation
 
NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS:
2 papers and other writing assignments
 
READING LIST:
A Tale of Two Cities, The Trail of the Serpent, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, The Quiet American, Lolita, Atonement
 
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT 
Hyun-Jung Lee teaches nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature, with particular emphasis on the Gothic, death and trauma, desire and sexuality, narrative theory, and modern reinterpretations of myths and legends.
 





English 105-6, Sec. 20   (Writing Program)
MYSTERIES AND THRILLERS
INSTRUCTOR:  Edith R Skom
TIME:  TTH 12:30-1:50
OFFICE ADDRESS:  Kresge 2-265
PHONE:  847-491-7414
E-MAIL: e-skom@northwestern.edu
OFFICE HOURS: By appointment
 
COURSE DESCRIPTION: We will read five great English mysteries. Among topics for discussion: what readers can learn about English social history in the period between World War I and World War II. How a writer creates a fresh and intriguing plot. How a writer creates living, breathing characters that the plot requires. How a writer creates page-turning suspense – a riveting chase scene, for example. The class will also take up essential writing concepts that emphasize advancing an argument.
 
PROJECTS: Three essays, including second and third drafts for each.
 
TEACHING METHOD: Discussion.
 
EVALUATION METHOD: Grades are based on the quality of class participation (15%) and the quality of the writing in the essays (85%).
 
READING:
Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None.
Josephine Tey, Brat Farrar
Geoffrey Household, Rogue Male
Rennie Airth, River of Darkness
Peter Dickinson, King & Joker
Additional material, including essays and short stories, will be in the course packet.
 
 
 
 
 
 
French 105-6, Sec. 20
ENLIGHTENMENT, IT’S CONTAGIOUS
INSTRUCTOR:  Melissa Wittmeier
TIME:  MWF   10:00-10:50
OFFICE ADDRESS: Crowe 2-136
PHONE: 847-491-8259
EMAIL: m-wittmeier@northwestern.edu
 
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:  The French Enlightenment is generally viewed as a middle-class movement, a bourgeois ambition.   The philosophes, however, found much of their early support amongst the aristocrats.  Indeed, a quantity of nobles enthusiastically embraced the modern ideas championed by the enlightenment philosophers.  Likewise, as Voltaire wrote in a letter dated December 20, 1768 to the Marquis de Villevieille, a nobleman from Languedoc, “The people may be ignorant; the light nonetheless penetrates them… Be quite sure, for example, that… there are philosophers even in the boutiques of Paris.”   The enlightenment was, in fact, a cross-class communicable contagion.  How this new philosophy was transmitted to penetrate every level of the population is a most interesting, and exciting! phenomenon.  In this seminar, we will analyze the spread of the Enlightenment from a relatively small handful of intellectuals to the larger population as a whole.  The readings are selected from various media including poetry, drama, fiction, autobiographical memoirs, and philosophical treatise.  There are no prerequisites for this class.  All texts are in English.

TEACHING METHOD:  This class will operate through discussion of the various topics and texts included in the syllabus.  Every member of the class will be expected to prepare properly and to participate actively during the class hour.  The class sessions should be an exciting time to generate ideas together, to explore established paths and to discover new ones.

METHOD OF EVALUATION:  The seminar format depends on the active participation of all the students.  Intelligent participation in class discussions, demonstrating thorough preparation of the reading for each session, will, therefore, count for 20% of the student’s overall grade.   The remainder of the grade will come from three types of papers that will be written over the course of the term.  (These papers are described in greater detail under the next section: Number of writing assignments and their lengths.)  Each student will submit two (2) reaction papers, which will count for a total of 10% of the final grade.  Two seminar papers will be submitted and will count for 30% of the final grade.  One final term paper will count for the remaining 40% of the grade. 
                                Intelligent participation in class discussions: 20%
Reaction papers (2 @ one page, double spaced): 10%
                                Seminar papers (2 @ 3-5 pages, double spaced): 30%
                                Term paper (1 @ 7-10 pages, double-spaced): 40%
 
NUMBER OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR LENGTHS:
Two reaction papers will be required during the term.  A reaction paper is to be a written query or argument prompted by a given reading.  These reactions should be approximately one double-spaced typewritten page in length.  They must be posted to the class’s electronic blackboard at least 24 hours prior to the class meeting.  This will allow the other students time to read and consider the queries.
In addition, two seminar papers will be submitted.  These papers are expected to be more formal in nature and must present some form of original thought.  That is, they may not be mere summaries of a text.  A good paper will illuminate some obscure argument, develop an implicit consequence of a doctrine, criticize an interpretation, or propose and defend some innovative way to understand an important part of the text.
The final term paper will investigate the development of some concept characteristic of the century, the influence of one or several philosophers, or will be an analysis and/or criticism of the arguments of one or several important figures.  This paper should be more extensively researched and more carefully argued.  The student should carefully state the problem, explain its significance, assess its possible solutions, propose a hypothesis, argue that hypothesis convincingly, and eliminate the major competing hypotheses.  This paper is intended to be the outcome of the critical thought that occurs throughout the term.  The subject need not be different from those investigated in the other papers.  A formal prospectus of this paper, indicating the topic, describing the problem and outlining the anticipated procedure and probable conclusion will be submitted two weeks prior to the end of term.  A bibliography, including at least five books or articles, is likewise required for this paper.
 
READING LIST:
Texts:
Selected historical readings, TBD
Locke, John, Two Treaties of Government
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, Correspondence, selected readings
Pierre Bayle, Various Thoughts on the Occasion of a Comet, selected readings
Montesquieu, Persian Letters, selected letters
                Spirit of the Laws, selected readings
Voltaire:  "Poem on the Lisbon Disaster", "Épître à Horace,"
                Candide or Optimism
Diderot, Denis, Letter on the Blind  
The Natural Son  (le Fils Naturel)
Diderot and d’Alembert: The Encyclopedia, selected articles
Rousseau:  The Social Contract, selected books
Discourse on the Origin and the Foundations of Inequality Among Men.
                Confessions, selected readings
 
Films:  Ridicule, Liaisons Dangereuses
 
Note that the selected readings will be compiled in a photoduplicated  course reader.
 
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OR PERSONAL STATEMENT:  Melissa Wittmeier earned her Ph.D. from Stanford University where she specialized in the French revolutionary period.  Her ongoing research project focuses on the transition from the Ancien Régime to the First Republic.  Other areas of interest include female authorship and popular culture in the 18th and 19th centuries.  She has been on the faculty of the Department of French and Italian at Northwestern University since 2004.

 

 
 

German 104-6, Sec. 20
SECRET LIFE OF THE FETISH
INSTRUCTOR:  Jorg Kreienbrock
TIME:   MWF 12:00-12:50
OFFICE AD