THE HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY HONORS COLLEGE
HEMPSTEAD, NY 11549
COURSE SYLLABI
FALL 2001
This is a temporary website designed to give current Hofstra UHP students access to information regarding UHP Courses that are scheduled for fall 2001.
In addition to these course, UHP we will be introducing the "Individually Negotiated Honors Option" in the fall 2001 semester. Students who find it difficult to fit one of the UHP courses listed below into their schedules may consider proposing an honors option, which would allow them to earn honors credit in a regular Hofstra course. For more details on how to put together a proposal for an honors option, come to the UHP student meeting on:
Wednesday March 21 - 11:30
Honors College Offices 037 Axinn Library
(outside entrance faces Heger Hall)
If you can't make the meeting and would like more information contact Acting Deans Warren Frisina (warren.frisina@hofstra.edu /3-7292) or J. Stephen Russell (engjsr@hofstra.edu/3-5465).
To register for UHP classes you must stop by Heger 210 to sign up and have your forms stamped. Courses will be assigned on a first come first serve basis beginning on Monday 3/19 at 9:00AM.
Fall 2001 UHP Course Listings:
UHP 012 01 - Struggle to Know and Communicate - Rustici MWF 10:10AM-11:05AM UHP 012 02 - Character and the Good Life - Singer TTH 9:35AM - 11:00AM UHP 012 03 - Forbidden Knowledge - Kern - TTH 2:20PM - 3:45PM UHP 020 01 - Contentious Politics - Welsh - MW 2:55PM - 4:20PM UHP 020 A - Contracting Visual World - Fendrich - MW 4:25PM-5:50PM UHP 101 01 - Women, Ethics, and Community - Schwab & Wallace MW 4:25-5:50_______________________________________________________________
Return to top. RusticiUHP 012 Sec 01 Fall 2001
Studies in the Human Condition:
The Struggle to Know and Communicate
Dr. Craig Rustici
Calkins 208A, 463-5463
engcmr@hofstra.edu http://people.hofstra.edu/people/craig_m_rustici
Course Objectives
: As human beings, we are social creatures, eager to mate and form connections with one another. On the other hand, our bodies isolate us, ensuring that our minds can only know as much of the world as our nervous systems will reveal. We long to know as much as we can about our world and about one another, but being human brings a consciousness that our knowledge will always be limited. In Western literature, knowledge is often represented as something forbidden, something that will cause great pain if revealed. Through language, knowledge has become associated with sexuality, and people's complex desires to form meaningful bonds with one another have frequently been played out through the less complicated drive of sexual desire. Why has this been the case? Is knowledge desirable, and is it attainable? In this course, we will study some provocative Western literary works about people striving to communicate and understand their worlds, examining how the authors represent knowledge and the people trying to attain it.Texts: Sophocles, Antigone in Three Theban Plays (Viking)
Aristotle, Poetics, selections (handout)
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, selections in Inferno (Dutton) & hondouts
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Pocket Books)
William Shakespeare, Othello (Pocket Books)
John Donne, selected poems (handout)
Herman Melville, "Bartleby the Scrivener" (handout)
Rebecca Harding Davis, "Life in the Iron Mills" (handout)
Henry James, The Turn of the Screw (Bantam)
Charlotte Perkins Gillman, "The Yellow Wallpaper" (handout)
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (Penguin)
James Joyce, "The Dead" in Dubliners (Bantam)
Diana Hacker, A Pocket Style (St. Martin's)
Hofstra Writer's Guide
Course Requirements: As an honors course, this class will build itself around your own, intelligent responses to what you read and will emphasize individual initiative in learning. Your active participation will be the single most important requirement, for it will be reflected in everything you do for the course.
1) Twice during the course of the semester, you will be asked to give a short (5-10 min.) presentation at the beginning of class, offering ideas you have had about the reading, questions that you think are worth discussing, and calling the class's attention to passages that you think are important to analyze.
2) Once a week, you will be asked to bring in a brief (one-page) typed reading response to provoke class discussion and to help give you ideas for your papers. If you are uncertain about what to discuss in your response, try to select one detail (an image, metaphor, or choice of words) that you find most interesting or important. Then, explain that detail's significance: what does it mean, what does it reveal or imply about characters, themes, or issues in the text?
3) You will be required to write one short (4-6 pp.) paper near the middle of the semester and one longer one (6-8 pp.) near the end. Since most writing in life involves many drafts, you are strongly encouraged to revise these papers. The grade of the revision(s) will be averaged with the original grade. You will be expected to choose your own paper topics based on questions that have arisen in your reading responses and class discussion. To help you develop a topic, I will require and comment on introductory paragraphs before the papers are due.
Grading: Your final grade will consist of your grades on your two papers (15% and 25%, respectively), your reading responses (20%), final exam (20%), and class participation (20%). Your two in-class presentations will count as part of your participation grade.
Schedule
Week 1
Introduction; Genesis 3; What is Knowledge?
Sophocles, Antigone
Week 2
Sophocles, Antigone
Group A: Hand in Reading Response.
Aristotle, Poetics
Group B: Hand in Reading Response.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, "Inferno" Cantos I-II
Group C: Hand in Reading Response.
Week 3
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, "Inferno" Cantos III-V
Group A: Hand in Reading Response.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, "Inferno" Cantos VI-VIII
Group B: Hand in Reading Response.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, "Inferno" Cantos XI-XV
Group C: Hand in Reading Response.
Week 4
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, "Inferno" Cantos XXXII-XXXIV
Group A: Hand in Reading Response.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, "Purgatorio" Cantos I, II, XIX;
reread "Inferno" Cantos III, VII, and VIII
Group B: Hand in Reading Response.
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 1
Group C: Hand in Reading Response.
Week 5
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Acts 2-3
Group A: Hand in Reading Response.
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 4-5
Groups B and C: Hand in Reading Response.
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream
Everyone: Hand in Introductory Paragraphs.
Week 6
William Shakespeare, Othello, Acts 1-2
Groups A and B: Hand in Reading Response.
William Shakespeare, Othello, Act 3
Group C: Hand in Reading Response.
Week 7
William Shakespeare, Othello, Act 4
Groups A and B: Hand in Reading Response.
William Shakespeare, Othello, Act 5
Group C: Hand in Reading Response.
William Shakespeare, Othello
Everyone: Hand in First Paper, 4-6 pp.
Week 8
John Donne, "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,"
"A Nocturnall upon S. Lucies Day."
Group A: Hand in Reading Response.
John Donne, " Batter my heart, three person'd God; for, you," "Show me deare Christ, thy spouse, so bright and clear,"
"Thou hast made me, And shall thy worke decay?"
Group B: Hand in Reading Response.
Herman Melville, "Bartleby the Scrivener"
Group C: Hand in Reading Response.
Week 9
Herman Melville, "Bartleby the Scrivener"
Rebecca Harding Davis, "Life in the Iron Mills"
Henry James, The Turn of the Screw, Prologue-Chapter VIII
Group B: Hand in Reading Response.
Week 10
Henry James, The Turn of the Screw, Chapters IX-XVII
Group C: Hand in Reading Response.
Henry James, The Turn of the Screw, Chapters XVIII-XXIV
Everyone: Hand in Introductory Paragraphs.
Charlotte Perkins Gillman, "The Yellow Wallpaper"
Week 11
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, Section 1 (pp. 15-55)
Groups A and B: Hand in Reading Response.
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, Section 2 (pp. 55-90)
Group C: Hand in Reading Response.
Week 12
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, Section 3 (pp. 90-124)
Everyone: Hand in Second Paper, 6-8 pp.
Week 13
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
E. M. Forster, A Passage to India, Chapters I-XI
Group A: Hand in Reading Response.
Week 14
E. M. Forster, A Passage to India, Chapters XII-XXII
Group B: Hand in Reading Response.
E. M. Forster, A Passage to India, Chapters XXIII-XXXVII
Group C: Hand in Reading Response.
E. M. Forster, A Passage to India
Week 15
James Joyce, Dubliners, "The Dead"
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Return to top Singer
University Honors Program 12
Professor Singer
Office 109 Heger, phone 3-5319, email
Socrates famously claimed that "the unexamined life is not worth living." This claim is itself one sketchy vision of a good life; it is also a call to describe and to reflect on various visions of living well. What sort of life (or what sorts of lives) should count as genuinely "good," that is as admirable and worthwhile? This opening question quickly raises other questions, ranging from the abstract (what is the distinctive human place in the scheme of things?) to the concrete (how should people be educated, what kinds of communities should they live in, what should they believe, in order to live well?).
In this course, we will read and think about literary and philosophical classics that come to grips with these issues about the good life. We will begin with Plato’s Apology, in which Socrates raises the question of how to live if life is to have value, and literally stakes his own life on his answer. Each subsequent reading will propose, flesh out, and argue for a particular vision of the good life, of the kind of person who can live such a life, and of the kind of community that fosters good living.
Readings for the course will include: Homer, The Iliad; Plato, The Apology and The Republic; St. Augustine, Confessions; Epictetus, The Handbook; John Stuart Mill, On Liberty; Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals; Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice; and Sophocles, Antigone. All books will be available at the bookstore.
Assignments will include an in-class writing exercise, two five-page papers, a take-home final exam, attendance, and class participation (including one short presentation, occasional written comments or questions, and contributions to an on-line discussion board). The different components of the course grade are as follows: up to 5 points for the in-class writing exercise; up to 25 points for the paper with the higher score of the two, and up to 15 points for the paper with the lower score of the two (up to 40 points overall); up to 30 points for the final exam; and up to 10 points for attendance; and up to 15 points for participation.
Some details about assignments
A small seminar puts a premium on attendance and participation.
Attendance is mandatory for this course. You may accumulate up to three unexcused absences without penalty (although perfect attendance is always welcome!); if you provide suitable documentation, I will be willing to count up to three other absences as excused. Past that point, each absence will result in your losing two points from a ten-point attendance budget. Each instance of lateness, or of leaving early, counts as at least half an absence. Note that missing more than ten class meetings, for any reason, may result in a failing grade for the course.
All of us will get more out of the seminar if everyone participates actively. Speak up! Aside from that most common form of participation, occasional written comments and questions, contributions to an on-line discussion board, and one short presentation (details and a sign-up sheet will be available early in the semester) will also figure into your participation grade.
For the in-class writing exercise, I will announce a topic at the preceding class meeting. You will have half an hour to write about that topic. The exercise will be open book, but not open notes.
The two papers will be on assigned topics, distributed at least a week in advance of the paper due date. I enforce strict penalties for lateness, and take active measures against plagiarism; so make sure your papers are timely and honest.
The take-home final exam will emphasize comparisons of texts and of ideas, and will probably require roughly ten pages of writing.
Tentative Schedule of Topics, Readings, and Assignments
| Class |
Date |
Topic |
Reading |
Assignments |
|
1 |
|
Introduction: The Issue of Character and the Good Life |
|
|
|
2 |
|
|
Plato, Apology |
|
|
3 |
|
The Warrior Ethic: Pride and Prowess, and the Rage of Achilles |
Homer, Iliad, Selections from Books 1 through 8 |
|
|
4 |
|
|
Iliad , Selections from Books 9 through 16 |
|
|
5 |
|
|
Iliad , Selections from Books 17 through 24 |
|
|
6 |
|
What is Justice? |
Plato, Republic, Book I |
In-class writing exercise |
|
7 |
|
|
Republic , Book II |
|
|
8 |
|
Education for Virtue, and Philosopher-Kings |
Republic , Books III and IV |
|
|
9 |
|
|
Republic , Books V-VII |
First paper assigned |
|
10 |
|
Justice, Reality, and Happiness |
Republic , Book IX |
|
|
11 |
|
|
Republic , Book X |
|
|
12 |
|
The World and Perversion |
Augustine, Confessions, Books I-VIII |
First paper due |
|
13 |
|
|
|
|
|
14 |
|
God and Conversion |
|
|
|
15 |
|
|
|
|
|
16 |
|
Freedom and the Retreat to the Inner Citadel |
Epictetus, The Handbook |
|
|
17 |
|
Freedom, the Public Arena, and Truth |
Mill, On Liberty, Chapter 1 |
Second paper assigned |
|
18 |
|
|
On Liberty , Chapter 2 |
|
|
19 |
|
Self-Development as Virtue |
On Liberty , Chapter 3 |
|
|
20 |
|
Morality and Resentment |
Nietzsche, Genealogy, Preface and First Essay |
Second paper due |
|
21 |
|
Creativity and Value |
Genealogy , Second and Third Essays |
|
|
22 |
|
|
|
|
|
23 |
|
Care and Connection |
Gilligan, In a Different Voice |
|
|
24 |
|
|
|
Take-home final exam available |
|
25 |
|
Conclusion: The Persistence of Moral Dilemmas |
Sophocles, Antigone |
|
|
|
||||
_____________________________________________________________________________
Return to topUHP 012 03
Forbidden Knowledge: The Boundaries of Knowing and the Human Condition
TTH 2:20pm-3:45pm
Instructor: Professor Louis Kern
110 Heger Hall
(516) 463-5608
The course will consider the fundamental conditions of human nature as it approaches the natural, socially constructed, or self-imposed boundaries on what is knowable or what it is considered desirable to know.
Course Themes:
Readings:
Answers to the basic questions posed by the idea of forbidden knowledge will be explored through an examination of theological, philosophical, historical, anthropological, psychological, and literary texts. Discrete bodies of "forbidden knowledge"--superstition, the occult, the taboo, conspiratorial constructs, and the pornographic will be examined in considering restrictions societally imposed on knowledge. The course will begin with short excerpts from Plato and Aristotle, posing the question of the right of the state to restrict certain kinds of knowledge and certain approaches to learning. The main reading of the semester will be drawn from the following list. Not all of these books will be read, but those marked with an * certainly will be on the reading list (subject to availability)
Boyer, Paul. When Time Shall Be No More.
Camus, Albert. The Stranger.*
Cooper, Bill. Behold a Pale Horse.
Crane, Frank.Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden.*
Darnton, Robert. Forbidden Bestsellers of Pre-Revolutionary Franc
DeGrazia, Edward. Girls Lean Back Everywhere: The Law of Obscenity and
the Assault on Genius.
Freud, Sigmund. Totem and Taboo.*
Goethe, Johann W. Faust*
Hunt, Lynn, ed. The Invention of Pornography: Obscenity and the Origins of
Modernity, 1500-1800.
Kevles, Daniel. In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human
Heredity.
LaVey, Anton. The Satanic Bible.*
Levy, Leonard.Blasphemy: Verbal Offence Against the Sacred, From Moses
to Salman Rushdie.*
Martin, Andrew. The Knowledge of Ignorance: From Genesis to Jules
Verne*
Mircea, Eliade. The Sacred and the Profane.*
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil.*
Rescher, Nicholas. "Forbidden Knowledge," in his Forbidden Knowledge
and Other Essays on the Philosophy of Cognition.*
Sade. Justine; or, the Misfortunes of Virtue.*
Shattuck, Roger. Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to Pornography*
Weber, James. The Occult Underground.
Wesley, Valerie. Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do.*
Mircea, Eliade. The Sacred and the Profane.*
Writing Assignments:
There will be no exams. Instead, there will be two papers of approximately 7-10 typewritten pages (2,100-3,000 words) and a critical reading journal that will be kept over the course of the semester.
The class will be conducted as a seminar focusing on discussion of assigned readings.
____________________________________________________________
Return to top WelshContentious Politics
University Honors Program Seminar 20, Fall, 2001
2:55-4:20 Monday/Wednesday
Professor Bridget Welsh
HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY
Department of Political Science
107B Barnard Hall X35602/ Department X35616
Email: pscbbw@hofstra.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays 2:30-4:00, 6:00-7:30 or by appointment
Course Home Page: people.hofstra.edu/hu/faculty/bridget_welsh/seminar/uhp21.htm
Course Description:
Conflict has been an integral part of the 20th century. From World Wars and nationalist struggles against colonialism to civil wars involving ethnic, class and gender cleavages and even genocide, contention and violence have become uncomfortably familiar in our time. This course examines the factors that have led to the rise of contentious politics in societies throughout the world. By looking at how political identities are formed, why individuals opt for violent solutions to their problems and why states have increased their capacity to use violence, this interdisciplinary course will help students understand the causes of contention and violence and interpret different forms of conflict. The course will draw from studies in a variety of disciples including history, literature, sociology, anthropology and political science. The course is divided into three parts. The first part will focus on different political identities, particularly class, nationalism and gender-based identities. The second part of the course examines the expansion of state power in Europe and the developing world. The final section of the course focuses on different forms of conflict from everyday resistance to civil war. Students will learn how to interpret conflicts and deepen their understanding of contention in the modern era.
Course Requirements:
a) Class attendance/Participation (15% of total grade): Students are required to attend class and participate in discussion. More than three absences will significantly lower a student’s final grade. Absences will only be excused with a doctor’s note or funeral director’s notice. Students are expected to come prepared for class and complete the assigned reading before class. Students are expected to arrive on-time for class. A repeated pattern of tardiness with result in a deduction in a student’s participation grade. Students should respect the views of other students, even though they may disagree over issues. Failure to meet these guidelines will also lower a student’s class participation grade.
b) Article/Video Commentaries (10% of total grade) Students are required to bring in three articles/video presentations during the semester that raise issues discussed in the course. The articles must come from reputable sources, e.g. leading newspapers, magazines. The student must bring in a copy of the article and newspaper and briefly explain the main points in the article/video presentation and its connection to the themes raised in class discussion.
c) Analytical Review: (4-6 pages, 20% of final grade) This assignment evaluates a student’s ability to analyze arguments and write persuasively. Students are asked to critically review one (or two) of the readings on political identity (class and nationalism). Students are expected to identify the argument(s) in the reading and discuss the strengths and arguments of an author(s) approach. Students should 1) identify the main arguments of a reading or pair of readings; b) examine the assumptions and evidence of the arguments; c) identify strengths and weaknesses of the argument/assumptions or problems with evidence; and d) state the author’s view of the readers. Students are expected to form their own opinion of the material. Papers will be graded based on the presentation of the material, strength of a student’s analysis, understanding of the issues and development of an independent opinion.
d) Research Paper (15-20 pages, 30% of total grade): This is a research paper that focuses on a one form of conflict in a specified area. Examples include civil war in Kosovo, or the current "globalization" protests. The topic must be confined to one country. Papers will be graded on the substance of the paper, the research thoroughness and the presentation of the material. See course handout.
e) Internet Assignment: (3-5 pages 10% of final grade) Students are asked to review a series of web sites in their portrayal of a violent event. The student must find a minimum of five web sites dealing with an event and assess the differences and accuracy of the portrayal of the event.
f) Film Review: (2-3 pages 15% of final grade) Students are asked to critique one of the five films in the course with regard to how it portrays identity and contention. Papers will be graded based on the presentation of the material, strength of a student’s analysis, understanding of the issues and development of an independent opinion.
Reading/Required Texts: Students will be required to read the following books, sections of the books recommended for purchase and a number of articles placed on reserve in Axinn Library. A packet of articles for purchase will also be available for purchase.
Benedict Anderson, (1991). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.
Asef Bayat. Street Politics: Poor People’s Movements in Iran. New York: Columbia University.
Roddy Doyle. 1999. A Star Called Henry. London: Vintage.
Philip Gourevitch, (1998). We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families. New York: Picador USA
E.J. Hobsbawn. (1994) Nations and Nationalism since 1789. Programme, Myth, Reality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sudhir Kakir, (1996) The Colors of Violence: Cultural Identities, Religion and Conflict. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Pramoedya Aman Toer. Children of all Nations. New York: Penguin USA Reprinted 1996.
Recommended for purchase:
Paul Brass. (1997) Theft of an Idol: Text and Context in the Representation of Collective Violence. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Frantz Fanon (1967) Black Skin: White Masks. New York: Grove.
Jeffrrey Herbst, 2000, States and Power in Africa. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
James C. Scott. (1990). Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Charles Tilly, (1990). Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990-1990. London: B. Blackwell
E. P. Thompson. (1964) The Making of the English Working Class. New York: Pantheon Books.
V. Class Policy
Students are required to complete the assigned reading before class. This is absolutely essential for learning the material in this course.
Students are required to keep a copy of each assignment they submit.
Hard copies of assignments submitted are due by 5pm on the due date. Late assignments are to be turned into the professor directly or stamped with the delivery date by a representative of the Political Science Department in 205 Barnard Hall. Emailed assignments are due by midnight of the due date. Students are required to keep a record of the time and date when an emailed assignment was sent. Students are responsible for sending all sections of the paper in a readable format (ASCII or Macintosh Compatible software—not Word Perfect). Students will receive a confirmation that their assignment was received and readable via email within a week of the due date for a particular assignment.
Students will be held accountable to standards of ethical academic behavior in this course. Plagiarism and cheating will not be tolerated. Offenders will face university action.
A make-up exam for the midterm will not be scheduled without a doctor's note, funeral director's note or a letter from the Dean.
No late assignments will be accepted after 6:00pm on May 15th for this class.
"Incomplete" grades will not be awarded in this class, unless there are very serious circumstances that have been discussed with the professor prior to the end of the semester
Course Schedule and Reading Assignments:
Week 1 Introduction: What is Contention?
1/30 Course Introduction
2/1 In-class session cancelled. Rescheduled later in the semester.
Part I: Political Identities
Week 2: Class Identity in Europe
Class Identity and Modernity
Reading: Marx, Selections, in Giddens and Held, 1982, pp. 12-39; Weber (Selections) in Giddens and Held, 1982, pp. 60-69; Thompson, 1966, pp. 711-832
Modern Class Conceptions
Assignment : Film: "Billy Eliot"
Internet Readings
Week 3: Class Formation in the Developing World/Nationalism
Colonialism and Race
Reading: Fanon, 1967, Intro, Chapter 1, 4, 5, 7, 8
Nationalism in Europe
Reading: Hobsbawn, 1990, Entire
Week 4: Nationalism in the Developing World I
Imagine Communities: A Cultural Understanding of Nationalism
Reading: Anderson, 1991, Entire.
Internet Readings
Nationalism in Indonesia
Reading: Pramoedya 1996, Entire
Make-up class: Film: "The Year of Living Dangerously." 6-8pm
Week 5: Gender Identities
What is a man?
Reading: Segal, Chapters 2, 3, 5, 6; Internet Readings
Female Identity
Film: "Thelma and Louise"
Internet Readings
Week 6: Gender Roles and Identity Continued
Transgender?
Film: "Boys don’t Cry"
Internet Readings
Reflections on Identity
Part II: State Power
Week 7: State Formation
State Formation in Europe
Reading: Tilly 1990, pp. 1-187
State Formation in the Developing World
Reading: Herbst, 2000, pp. 9-136, 199-248
Week 8 State Power/Conflict
State Power Manifested
Reading: Scott, 1990, pp. 17-69: Internet Reading
Analytical Paper Due
Part III: Forms of Conflict
Everyday struggles in Iran
Reading: Bayat, 1997, Entire.
Week 9 Communal Riots in India
Communal Identity in India
Reading: Brass, 1997, pp. 204-288
Film: "Earth"
A Psychoanalytical Explanation
Reading: Kakar, 1996, Entire
Week 10 Civil War in Rwanda
In-class documentary: "Rwanda: The Untold Story"
Genocide
Reading: Gourevitch, 1996, Entire.
Week 11 Nationalism in Ireland
Making Revolutionaries
Reading: Doyle, 1999, Entire
The Irish Question Revisited
Internet Readings
Research Paper Topic/Outline Due
Week 12 Struggles against Globalization
Globalization as a concept
Reading: Held, 1999, pp. 1-31; Friedman, 1999, pp. 1-58
Internet Readings
Protests from Seattle and Prague to Washington D.C.
Internet Readings
Week 13 Reflections
Discussion of Film Reviews
Film Review Due
Discussion: Violence portrayed
Internet Assignment Due
Week 14 Reflections
Discussion: Research Papers
Presentation of Topics and Problems
Research Paper Due 5/11
Week Final Exams
Final Course Dinner Time and Location TBA
Bibliography: (not including required or recommended books)
Thomas L. Friedman, 1999. The Lexis and the Olive Tree. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Anthony Giddens and David Held, 1982, Classes, Power and Conflict. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
David Held et. al. 1999, Global Transformations. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Lynne Segal, 1990. Slow Motion: Changing Masculinities and Changing Men. London: Virago Press.
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Return to top FendrichUniversity Honors Program, 020 Sec. A
Seeing through Making: Constructing a Visual World
Fall 2001
Professor Laurie Fendrich
Department of Fine Arts/Art History
127 Calkins Hall, ext. 35476 email: falzf@hofstra.edu
Course Description (See end for syllabus)
This course is a seminar/discussion course, combined with five specific studio projects. It culminates in individual seminar presentations.
We study five art models from the history of Western art (from the renaissance through modernism). Although there is some art history, the course mainly studies the meaning of the selected visual inventions. Each model helps students understand how art makes as well as describes the world, and each model is explored in reading, seminar discussion, and studio work. The course is designed for the non-studio major. The studio problems teach a fuller understanding of the ideas encountered in the reading and discussions, and studio projects are not assessed for their quality. The seminar discussions are based on the reading assignments, which emphasize the philosophical implications of the different visual models that we examine.
The studio projects are mostly concerned with the "objective" parts of art, such as linear perspective or the modeling of form, rather than the "subjective" parts of art. The readings range from writings by individual artists (such as Leonardo and Cézanne on painting, as translated by Martin Kemp and Herschel Chipp, respectively) to philosophical and art historical essays (such as David Hume’s inquiry into whether or not judgments about art are relative, Gombrich’s analysis of Leonardo’s working methods, or Anthony Grafton’s study of the relevance of renaissance humanism to the renaissance artist ).
Purpose
The purpose of the course is to teach students that art is not something "out there," already defined. Rather, it is something artists continuously change, throughout history, in order to speak to and about their own times. The course aims to increase the overall cultural awareness of the student, and to challenge clichés and unexamined opinions about art. The emphasis is on 1) analyzing how art works as art; 2) the meaning of art as artists respond to the specific problems of their times.
Course requirements/assignments
Studio work (approx. 25% of in-class time)
Slide lectures and discussion seminars (approx. 75% of in-class time)
based on the reading assignments
Outside studio assignments (approximately 1-2 hours per project: this
consists primarily of completing unfinished class work)
Outside reading assignments (approximately 5-7 hours per week)
In-class critiques of studio work
10-page research/thinking paper on a particular artist’s visual
vocabulary and the meaning of the art
Occasional paragraphs or short essays, written either in class or due in class
The studio work in this course is different from usual studio courses in that it stresses mastery of concepts. It does not attempt to develop skills. Continued practice in studio courses is what leads to projects that display excellence on all fronts, but this course does not do this. Even so, some students will inevitably display more accomplished skills that will yield superior projects. Grading of studio projects is based on whether or not the student masters the conceptual issues at stake, rather than makes a work of art of a certain quality. Because there is a wide range of projects, students might be pleasantly surprised to find out they have a few areas of strength.
The following is a broad description of what the studio work entails:
necessary for students to understand the philosophical implications
of this radical revolution in Western art. In the studio work,
students will do analytic cubism with pencil on paper and learn
how to create ambiguous space by making shapes which are not
completely closed and can be "read" as simultaneously in front of
and behind what is next to them. They will also do a synthetic
cubist project, reconstructing an image through collage.
Dada will give students the foundation for understanding the philosophical assault on art that Dada represents. The studio project, which is actually an outside project later presented in class, requires students think up a work of conceptual art.
The most important part of this course is the seminar paper and report. Early in the course, students select an artist from a list of artists, provided by the instructor, whose visual vocabulary can be understood because of what we study in the course. All artists on the list are well-represented in the Hofstra Library, and their work is in museums in New York City.
The paper requires library research and an incorporation of the ideas and concepts learned in class. The paper combines research on the individual artist (including a brief summation of the artist’s biography, the place of the artist within the particular art historical moment, the overarching social/historical moment of the artist and art movement to which he or she belonged, and the understanding of what the art means) with formal analysis of the artist’s work. The student also gives a seminar report to the class.
The seminar paper, although briefly summing up the biography, art historical and social/historical situation of the artist, should be a study of the formal elements in the art.
The seminar paper requires an outline, based on preliminary research, due about a third of the way through the course. The first draft is due just after midterm, and the final draft due during finals week. The instructor’s main written response is to the first draft, and students are expected to fully develop the first draft. The instructor is available during office hours for individual consultations on research, ideas and analysis, and writing.
Grading criteria
Grading for the course follows Hofstra standards, as per the Hofstra Bulletin. More specifically, it is based on the instructor’s evaluation of the mastery of topics studied in the course as displayed in the following: seminar participation, studio work, the occasional short paragraphs or essays based on the reading, and the final seminar paper and seminar presentation.
Grading of the studio work stays close to the objective criteria of the problems. At a minimum, students must be focused, work hard, complete the assigned projects, and accept and incorporate criticism in order to do well. Studio project grades are pass/fail.
Grading for the paper is based on the quality of research, the organization and clarity of the paper, the quality of analysis, and the grammar and spelling. The oral presentation and leading of discussion during the seminar presentation is also a significant part of the final course grade. Students are expected to display oral mastery of their topics.
Grading distribution is as follows:
studio work approximately 10%
paper approximately 50%
seminar presentation approximately 10%
class participation, class preparation, approx. 20%
attendance and quizzes, short essays 10%
N.B. There is no final examination in this course; the final studio project is due for presentation during the scheduled examination period.
Syllabus
Texts for purchase:
1. Kemp, Martin, Ed. Leonardo on Painting. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.
2. Chipp, Herschel P., Ed. Theories of Modern Art. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988. Selections from, esp. Cezanne, Picasso, Braque, Duchamp.
Handout
David Hume, "Of the Standard of Taste" (handed out the first day of class).
Electronic Reserve Reading ( at the Hofstra Library web site, organized
in order of reading assignments)
J.V. Field, "Building, Drawing and ‘Artificial Perspective,’" pp. 20-42
in J.V. Field, The Invention of Infinity
E.H. Gombrich, "Leonardo’s Method for Working out Compositions,"
E.H. Gombrich, "From the Revival of Letters to the Reform of the Arts…"
Anthony Grafton, Ch. II: Humanism: The Advantages and Disadvantages of
Scholarship, pp. 31-70, in Leon Battista Alberti: Master Builder of the Italian Renaissance.
Paul Smith, "Cézanne and the Problem of Form," pp. 145-163, in
Paul Smith, Impressionism
Paul Smith, "Cézanne’s Optic," pp. 40-75, in Smith, Interpreting Cézanne
John Golding, "Cubism," pp. 50-78, in Golding, Concepts of Modern Art
Dawn Ades, "Dada and Surrealism," pp. 110-137, in Concepts of Modern Art
William A. Camfield, "Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain:…," pp. 64-94, in
Marcel Duchamp: Artist of the Century
Jerrold Siegel, "Desire, Delay, and the Fourth Dimension," pp.86-114, in
Siegel, The Private Worlds of Marcel Duchamp
Studio Materials (approximately $20.00)
1 pad "good" white drawing paper, 13 x 24 inches (20 sheets)
1 H pencil
1 4B pencil or 6B pencil
1 pink eraser
1 kneaded eraser
1 15-inch straight edge
1 bottle rubber cement
1 pre-stretched 9 x 12 inch gessoed canvas (readily available at an art store)
Acrylic paints: ( 25 ml tubes) white, ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, alizaron crimson, cadmium red light, vermilion green, raw umber, cadmium
yellow light (NOTE: we will pool resources for the paints so that students will need purchase only one or two tubes of paint)
Acrylic brushes: 2 brights, _ inch width; or 1 bright and 1 round
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Return to top of page. SchwabWallace
UHP 101, sec, A
WOMEN, SELF AND COMMUNITY:
LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL READINGS
FROM THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES
Dr. Schwab-- Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.
Dr. Wallace-- Department of Philosophy
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Women, Self and Community is not a senior honors thesis course. It is open to all honors students who have sophomore standing and above, and student papers will be assigned during the course.
Course Themes:
The concept of community has become increasingly problematic since the nineteenth century. In an age of atomistic individualism, of ethnic, racial and class-related fragmentation, do we even know what community means anymore? Is it possible for us to establish communities of shared values, where each of us takes some responsibility for furthering the well-being of all? Do these questions merely represent nostalgia for a by-gone era, for so-called "simpler times?"
Many writers and thinkers, from as early as Plato, Aristotle and the Greek dramatists, have represented community as requiring the self-sacrifice of some of its members for the good of the whole. Many of these thinkers have repeatedly represented women's sacrifice of their own personal fulfillment and happiness, their sacrifice of a separate individual identity, as the necessary basis for the establishment and continuing existence of the community.
The main concerns in this course:
• Can community exist without sacrificing some part of itself -- the personal fulfillment of some of its members, in particular women -- for the good of the rest?
•Is community necessary for the formation of the self and for the achievement of personal fulfillment.
• If community is important for the latter, what should be the balance between the demands of the community and the aspirations of the individual?
• Is society moving in the direction of increasingly isolated individual units, selfless but self-supporting and self-entertaining cogs in the machine of capitalism?
• Is there another vision of community and self, a non-violent, non-sacrificial alternative that would nurture the self, while valuing the other?
Course Outline:
1. Introduction:
We will initially look at some short selections from Plato, Aristotle, and the Greek dramatists in order to set a framework for discussion of some of these issues. The course will then be divided into two roughly equal segments.
2. Segment I: Nineteenth Century
The first segment will be devoted to the nineteenth century, to a reading of George Eliot's novel Middlemarch, accompanied by the study of theoretical texts by John Stuart Mill. We will discuss the decline of the small, close-knit, (if not claustrophobic) rural community in the nineteenth century, as represented in the town of Middlemarch, and debate both the positive and negative aspects of that decline, and its ramifications for women.
3. Segment II: Twentieth Century
The second segment will be devoted to the twentieth century with an eye to developing visions for the future. We will read a utopian vision of community represented by the twentieth-century novel, The Fifth Sacred Thing, written by the noted ecofeminist, Starhawk. The theoretical component of the second segment will consist of readings of René Girard, who theorized sacrifice and its essential importance to the community, and of twentieth-century feminist and American pragmatists philosophers who have theorized the tensions between self and community
Readings (subject to revision):
* You will not have to buy all these books! Most of the readings that are selections from texts will be available through E-reserve and xerox packets. You will need to buy the two novels.
Plato, The Republic (selection)
Aristotle, The Politics (selection)
Euripides, TBA
George Eliot, Middlemarch
John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women
Utilitarianism (selection)
On Liberty (selection)
Frederich Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (selection)
Starhawk, The Fifth Sacred Thing
Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (selection)
John Dewey, The Public and Its Problems (selection)
Individualism: Old and New (selection)
George Herbert Mead, Mind, Self and Society (selection)
Robin West, Jurisprudence and Gender
Luce Irigaray, TBA
René Girard, TBA
Jane Mansbridge, Democracy and community
Marilyn Friedman, Autonomy and Social Disruption
Assignments and Papers:
Student responsibilities will consist of
1) regular attendance and consistent, informed participation in class discussion;
2) oral presentation
3) three short papers (2-3 pages) on assigned topics dealing with the readings;
4) one longer research paper (7-10 pages).