Fall 2012 Course Descriptions: PDF / word (has been updated)
***THIS INFORMATION WILL BE UPDATED SHORTLY!***
ILS 157
Bradly Roundtable Seminar
1 credit.
Prerequisites: Open to Freshmen.Students must be residents of the Bradley Learning Community.
Course description: The Bradley roundtable seminar addresses various topics of interest to the residents of the Bradley Learning Community
ILS 198/199
Directed Study
1-3 credits.
Prerequisites: Graded on a Cr/N basis; requires cons inst and con reg in two ILS courses.
Open to Freshmen.
If you are interested in pursuing an undergraduate thesis, please talk to a professor who shares your area of interest.
ILS 200
Critical Thinking & Expression
Dr. Kristin Hunt
2:25-3:15 T
What does it mean to think critically? To find fault? To employ intellectual rigor? Can we imagine a method of critical thought that produces writing with the potential to change the world? This course takes the definition of “critical thought” seriously in order to expand our idea of what critical communication is and has the potential to be. Getting beyond the standard connotation of “critical” thought as finding fault with others’ ideas, we will explore other definitions of the word “critical,” including:
- Constituting a crisis
- Involving grave uncertainty or risk
- Crucial or essential
- Constituting a turning point
Taking these definitions as versions of what critical thinking is or can do, we will examine critical pieces of writing and other forms of expression from Western, colonial, and post colonial experience, asking ourselves what part the simple act of thinking critically had in the most important events in our history, and honing our own writing and thinking skills along the way. Material for the class will include texts and artwork from the history of colonization and independence in the Atlantic Rim, seminal works from the contemporary avant-garde, important speeches from the American Civil Rights movement and the radical youth movements of the 1960s, as well as a variety of other examples of truly critical human thought and expression. Through a semester of careful investigation of the power of critical thinking, students will be asked to broaden their own ideas of what their own writing and thinking have the capacity to do or become in the world.
Assignments for this course emphasize the development of written and oral communication skills essential for a variety of kinds of real-world success, as well as academic excellence. This course fulfills the Communications B requirement.
ILS 201
Western Culture: Science, Technology, Philosophy I (HONORS option available)
Professor Florence Hsia
1:00 - 2:15 T & R
This course is the first in a two-term sequence that examines the development of science in cultural and intellectual context from antiquity to the twentieth century. These two courses (ILS 201 and 202) are, in turn, part of a sequence of four courses that fulfill the Letters & Science breadth requirement in natural science. This course begins with an examination of perspectives towards the natural world in poetry, philosophy, and medicine of ancient Greece. It follows the movement of the classical tradition into medieval Islam and Christendom, and concludes with the transformation of European science during the 16th and 17th centuries. Throughout our investigation of what 'science' has been in the past, we will pay particular attention to issues which still have relevance today, such as the interaction between science and religion, the importance of different institutional settings for science, and the relationship between science and government. Grading will include frequent quizzes in discussion sections, class participation, and three exams.
ILS 202
Western Culture: Science, Technology, Philosophy II
Visiting Associate Professor Erik Peterson
11:00 - 11:50 M & W
This course offers an introduction to the history of the sciences between the late seventeenth century and the early twentieth century, with the aim of understanding the varied ways of knowing that have come to be known as “science.” In pursuing this question, we will treat such pivotal intellectual developments as Newtonianism, the conservation of energy, and Darwin’s evolution theory. At the same time, we will seek to understand the relationship between these ideas and the broader cultural context in which they took place, paying particular attention to the processes by which scientists and non-scientists have assimilated new information and changed their ideas about nature. We will see how scientific ideas have developed in relation to religious belief systems, on the one hand, and technology and medicine, on the other. These big, messy, important relationships are among the most important in our culture’s history and remain central to understand the condition of modern Western and global culture today.
ILS 203
Western Culture: Literature & the Arts II
Professor William Aylward
9:55 - 10:45 T & R
This course examines Western art and literature from the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt to late medieval times, with substantial emphasis on Graeco-Roman antiquity. The syllabus is diachronic, with a view toward revealing how art and literature of western culture shape today's modern world. Students gain foundational knowledge of the Western intellectual tradition, and this includes acquiring critical skills for viewing art and reading literature. Grading is based on periodic exams, as well as participation, attendance, and quizzes in discussions sessions.
ILS 205
Western Culture: Political, Economic & Social Thought I
Professor Richard Avramenko
11:00-11:50 T & R
The objective of this course is two-fold. First, this course introduces students to the basics of Western political, economic, and social thought. Through a careful reading of canonical texts, the elementary symbols and concepts of Western thought will be discussed. Our second objective is to learn how these symbols and concepts can be brought to bear on contemporary problems and how they can inform questions concerning our own political and social order. What part, for instance, does reason play in our world? What does a good citizen look like? What is the good human life? What is the place of violence? What does justice look like? Thinkers such as Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, Aristophanes, Aristotle, and Augustine may be considered.
ILS 209
Introduction to Global Cultures (HONORS option available)
Professor Joe Elder
8:50-9:40 M & W
This is an interdisciplinary course taught by Professor Joe Elder (a sociologist who specializes in South Asia). It provides an introduction to a few of the globe's rich varieties of cultures (e.g., Chinese, Central American, West Asian/North African, Vietnamese, and Tibetan), illustrating how different the world appears when viewed from different perspectives. It examines what has happened when some of those cultures have encountered "the west." Many readings for this course were originally written in non-English languages (e.g., Chinese, Arabic, German, Hebrew, Spanish, etc.). This course is a prerequisite for, and encourages students to consider earning, a Global Cultures certificate. It also encourages students to study foreign languages and to participate in one or more of the University's many study-abroad programs.
ILS 251
Contemporary Physical Science
Professor Cathy Middlecamp
Not offered this semester
Real-world problems and societal issues draw us into the world of the physical sciences. In turn, this world connects to the biological sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. This course engages students in a contemporary topic such as energy, radioactivity, or global climate change. The course begins with stories in which real-world people must deal with real-world issues on some part of the planet. Students then choose a similar story elsewhere on the planet, research it, argue a point of view, and present it to their classmates.
ILS 252
Contemporary Life Sciences (HONORS option available)
Dr. Tom Brandner
1:20 - 2:10 M & W & F
Contemporary Life Science examines the biological underpinnings of modern human civilization. To understand the modern condition, we will explore history beginning with the evolution of humans and the principle plants upon which people depend. This course will consider plants and human evolution, human migrations, how the ice age influenced the origins of agriculture, the rise of cities, and the cultural and political evolution that followed. We will consider the expansion and collapse of civilizations in classical times, then shift to the age of exploration and discovery in the 15th century and the mass migrations of plants, people, and disease. As exploration shifted to settlement, growing populations set the stage for the industrial revolution. The products of the industrial era set the stage for the modern agriculture that has fueled unprecedented human population growth. Increasing human impacts on the global landscape today raise questions about how the future of humanity will unfold. Careful scientific practice has given rise to the incredible technical advances society enjoys today, but these same advances have led to unintended complications that are best addressed holistically. This course will use a systems approach to consider why modern human civilization has come to function as it does and where it is headed in this century.
You make decisions each day that help determine the shape of the world in which you will live. Near the end of our semester, we will consider how human civilization will rise to meet the challenges posed by the increasingly apparent modern ecological crisis. When situations are uncertain, people can turn away or they can work to direct the change. This course may leave you uneasy about the future, but it will also give you tools for moving forward. I hope you will be excited by the role you can play in shaping the future of our communities, our culture, and the world.
ILS 275 Special Topics in ILS
Lecture 1: The Vietnam Era
Professor Craig Werner
Dr. Doug Bradley
2:30 - 3:15 T & R
"The U.S. in Vietnam: Music, Media and Mayhem" provides a veteran-centered focus on the culture and events of the war in Vietnam and the Vietnam era. Framed around the music, film, journalism (both print and television) and war literature of the era, the class challenges students to look beyond the stereotypes of the 1960s, and of Vietnam vets in particular, to recognize the complexity of experiences which are much more complicated than the convenient labels of pro-war "Hawks" and anti-war "Doves." Over the course of the semester, students will also meet several other Vietnam veterans in addition to lecturer Doug Bradley and TA Wyl Schuth, who served in Iraq. Each class session begins and ends with a song which has particular, and sometimes surprising, meaning to Vietnam veterans while they were in Vietnam and when they returned home to what they called "the world".
ILS 275, Lecture 1 Fall 2011 Syllabus
Lecture 2: Democracy and Expertise
Professor Daniel Kleinman
9:30 - 10:45 T & R
As we move into a knowledge intensive economy, decisions about our social, economic, and political life are increasingly made by experts, and these decisions are often made on behalf of private and for-profit concerns. In this context, we need to ask questions like: When is it appropriate to cede decision-making authority to experts? Under what conditions can lay citizens intelligently participate in realms traditionally restricted to experts? Is participatory democracy possible in a knowledge intensive capitalist economy? If so, how and under what circumstances? Is it possible, in this context, to preserve or build a vibrant public sphere? Finally, what is the relationship between the increasingly specialized character of higher education and the problem of democracy and expertise? We will attempt to answer these questions in two ways. The course will integrate a seminar-style reading/ discussion format with class participation in a deliberative democratic forum. The semester will begin with a set of readings by Alexander Meiklejohn, the inspiration for this course and the founder of the UW’s Integrated Liberal Studies program.
ILS 275, Lecture 2 Fall 2011 Syllabus
Lecture 3: Narratives of Justice and Equality in Multicultural America
Dr. Shawn F. Peters
1:00 - 2:15 T & R
Evolving and contested concepts of justice and equality are an integral part of American public life – they play a key role in mediating our relationships with one another and with the state. But where do these ideas come from, and, as significantly, what kind of real-world impact do they have on the lives of individuals hailing from a diverse array of racial, ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds? Moreover, how are narratives about justice and equality rendered in American culture, and how do such stories reflect and/or influence the way we live today?
This interdisciplinary course examines such questions by engaging a variety of narrative texts, including the first season of the award-winning HBO drama The Wire. The critical inquiry sparked by these works will allow us to focus our discussion of justice and equality on four broad areas: economics and poverty; race and ethnicity; law and public policy; and the criminal justice system. One of our main goals throughout the semester will be to chart the overlaps and interconnections between these realms – the complex and sometimes unpredictable ways in which they shape, and are shaped by, one another. To help us make meaning of these linkages, we’ll scrutinize the myriad ways in which notions of justice and equality are rendered in cultural forms ranging from scholarly books and articles to songs, films, television programs, and even underground DVD’s.
ILS 275, Lecture 3 Fall 2011 Syllabus
ILS 338
Peer Mentoring for First-Year Liberal Education Seminar
Prereq: Consent of Instructor; Level: Intermediate; L&S Credit Type C. Credit range: 2. Not open to Freshmen.
ILS 371 - Interdisciplinary Studies in the Arts and Humanities - Special Topics
Continental Political Thought
Professor Richard Avramenko
4:00 - 6:30 T
This seminar will provide an in-depth introduction to a major thinker or topic from the Continental tradition. Topics such as Idealism, Existentialism, Phenomenology, or Hermeneutics may be covered. Thinkers such as Kant, Kierkegaard, Hegel, Marx, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Strauss, Voegelin, Arendt, Foucault, or Derrida may be the focus of the seminar. Topic will vary from year to year. Contact Professor Avramenko for details.
ILS 372 - Special Topics in ILS:
Classical Figures Grapple with Contemporary Controversies (HONORS COURSE)
Dr. Kathleen Sell, Emeritus
1:00 - 3:30 R
This course is an exciting opportunity to grapple with current political, social, and economic controversies from the perspective of past thinkers, in a venue where we occasionally act as these theorists and political figures in a "talk show" format. This course will follow the approach of the 1950's television show, Meeting of Minds, in which great thinkers and political figures came back from the dead to be interviewed together on a talk show using Jon Stewart's Daily Show format.
We will read and apply the theories and insights of classical to modern Western thinkers to pressing political and economic controversies, from growing income inequality to global warming. We will have representatives of homo economicus (economic man), homo moralis (moral man) and Aristotle's man as a political animal. Students will play the requisite roles (from Jon Stewart to interviewees to audience members who also will represent various viewpoints and be allowed to question the guests on the show) for 3 or 4 "Daily Shows" and each show will be preceded by a few weeks of study, discussion and preparation. We'll ask thinkers and political actors such as Aristotle, Thomas Jefferson, John Locke and Adam Smith to return from the dead, as it were, along with Barack Obama, to debate these problems with us. This should be seen as part improv and part prepared role-playing, in a casual class format in which everyone has a role to play.
ILS 400
ILS Capstone on Education, Leadership, & Character:Meiklejohn's Ideal
Professor Cathy Middlecamp
1:00-3:30 W
In a participatory seminar environment, we will examine our own notions of education, leadership, and character against those of historical and contemporary theorists and practitioners. We will have a chance to dialogue with one another and with guest speakers who are experts in these areas. As you prepare to go to graduate school or into the professions, this is a pivotal "turning point" when it is useful to look back over your education and forward to the opportunities and challenges of adult life. What will be your “ILS Toolkit” as you move forward?
ILS 490
Research in Integrated Liberal Studies
1-3 credits. If you are interested in pursuing a research program in ILS, please talk to a professor who shares your area of interest.
ILS 681/682
Undergraduate Honors Thesis
If you are interested in pursuing an undergraduate honors study, please talk to a professor who shares your area of interest.
ILS 691/692
Undergraduate Thesis
If you are interested in pursuing an undergraduate thesis, please talk to a professor who shares your area of interest.
