Course Descriptions
Table of Contents
Behavioral Sciences
BHSC 6110/ The Articulate Voice
This short course is designed to help the student understand and practice the vocal skills that contribute to an effective and pleasant speaking voice, focusing on the processes underlying speech production: projection, articulation, and resonance. The emphasis in this class is not what you say, but how you say it. This is a skills course. Students are graded on individual performances, development, class participation, and improvement. Students present two oral presentations along with some written work. Earns one credit hour.
BHSC 6115/Classic Texts in the Behavioral Sciences
This one-hour course focuses the student's attention on a single, seminal text in the Behavioral Sciences through close, directed reading, seminar discussion, and a final paper. Texts and topics change each semester. Topics include, but are not limited to: Freud, Five Lectures in Psycho-Analysis; The Prehistory of Egypt.
BHSC 6314/Native American Heritage of North America
An anthropological consideration of the historical and cultural background of the native peoples of North America. Emphasis is given to the nine major native culture areas of the continent and the role that their heritage plays in their participation in modern American life.
BHSC 6315/The Lively Mind: Creative and Critical Thinking
Explores ways to develop intellectual powers through a twofold approach: an examination of the biological and historical evolution of the human mind; and the development of perception, memory, imagination, and judgment.
BHSC 6319/Professional Ethics and Organizational Responsibility
Studies ethical issues connected with organizational management; designed to develop the student's capacity to recognize and reason through such issues. The cases and readings integrate ethical reflection and decision making. The materials are selected because of their topical relevance to contemporary managers, curricular relevance to Liberal Studies, and conceptual relevance to applied ethics.
BHSC 6320/Organizational Leadership
Describing and analyzing a wide variety of different theoretical approaches to leadership, this course gives special attention to how each theory can be, or has been, employed in real-world situations. Special application is made through the readings of contemporary leadership books, classic cases, and great films.
BHSC 6322/Psychology of Mind, Body, and Health
Explores the relationship between emotions and illness and the role of psychological factors in health and illness. As an introduction to major concepts and issues in the field of health psychology, methods of coping with and treating illness are discussed.
BHSC 6324/Language, Culture, and Beliefs
Since all humans have an innate, biological ability to acquire language, we usually take it for granted and overlook its true power. The course examines our assumptions about the relationship between language, culture, and belief. It seeks to illustrate how language is manipulated to maintain and manufacture status; disparities regarding gender, class, and race; and power and ideology in the information age.
BHSC 6325/Anthropology of Speech and Body Language
Examines in depth the two major systems of communication upon which human interaction is based -- language and non-verbal communication -- and explores their use in daily life.
BHSC 6326/Communication and Persuasion
This course analyzes nonverbal communication’s role in structuring our experiences and in shaping our interactions with and understanding of others. Topics include the effects of space, time, body movements, environment, objects, and voice quality on human communication. Persuasive communication ideas and issues are discussed--including modern mass media, classical foundations of persuasive communication theories, and the ethics of persuasion.
BHSC 6363/The Immigrant Experience
An interdisciplinary approach to immigration in the United States. Explores the historical, ethical, social, cultural, legal, and political dimensions of the immigrant experience as well as America's ambivalent and changing attitudes toward the immigrant. It begins with an examination of the peopling of America before the Civil War and concludes with discussion and analysis of current waves of immigration. Questions addressed include the causes of migration, the growth of ethnic communities, the role of women, bilingual education, illegal immigration, and America as a multicultural society.
BHSC 6371/Cognition: How We Think and Learn from Infancy to Aging
This exploration of the mind is divided into three parts: cognitive development, memory, and aging. The course examines the evolution of thought, knowledge, and memory from infancy until death. Lecture and discussion address what processes transform the brain and mind of a newborn into that of an adult, what infants and children know, where children's ideas come from, and how intellectual functioning changes with age.
Provides a balanced overview of health and aging, distinguishes aging facts from myths, and explores the physiological and psychological processes of aging from middle age through old age.
BHSC 6398/The Child in Contemporary Society
Normal child development stages, both psychological and physiological, are the focus. Discussion of the impact of societal changes, such as family disharmony, divorce and remarriage, drug and alcohol abuse, and the influence of media. Special emphasis is given to the changing role of the school and public policy in the life of the child.
Fine Arts
Focuses on a single, seminal text or work of art in music, drama, or the visual arts through close, directed reading, and seminar discussion. Topics can vary each semester. One study begins with the premise that there are more ways than one to "read" a painting by considering a variety of different scholarly interpretations of Manet's major painting, Bar at the Folies-Bergere. Critical readings will be supplemented by background lectures on Manet's significant place in the movements of Realism and Impressionism.
FNAR 6309/Art of the Renaissance in Italy
Explores painting, architecture, and sculpture during the Italian Renaissance from its beginning in the early fourteenth century through the High Renaissance in the sixteenth century. Major artists and their works are discussed within their cultural contexts, and focus is given to technique, stylistic influence, and iconographical developments.
FNAR 6310/Art of the Ancient Maya
This course presents an introduction to the art and history of the ancient Maya of Central America, the principal sites and monuments of Mayan civilization, along with a working knowledge of Maya hieroglyphic writing system. This art history survey approaches the Maya artistic tradition through the methods and insights of anthropology, archaeology, epigraphy, and history.
FNAR 6311/Etruscan Art and Archaeology
Surveys the art and society of the Etruscans and other peoples of ancient Italy from the beginning of the Iron Age to the Roman Conquest. Topics, which are studied in their geographical and cultural context, include Etruscan cities and cemeteries, architecture, tomb painting, sculpture, and metalworking.
FNAR 6312/Art and Architecture of Ancient Pompeii
Surveys the history, monuments, and society of ancient Rome from c. 300 B.C.E. to A.D. 79, as reconstructed from the excavations of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and other cities and sites of ancient Camoania.
FNAR 6314/Arthur Miller: Art, Activism, and Life
Arthur Miller was, arguably, one of the greatest playwrights of the twentieth century. In addition he was a prolific essayist, often addressing political and social issues, as he did in his collection On Politics and the Art of Acting. The course examines Miller’s art through a variety of plays, including All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and The Crucible; and it examines his activism and social conscience through his writing on the subject and his life experiences, such as his stand against the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1957.
FNAR 6315/The Owl and the Nightingale: Sacred and Secular Music in Medieval France
This course considers sacred and secular modes of music making in medieval France within appropriate social and political context. Plainchant is considered as an outgrowth of liturgical and artistic life within monasteries and cathedrals; secular music, such as that of the troubadours and writers of motets, within the ambiance of French courts and cities.
FNAR 6316/On Being Funny: Physical Comedy and Beyond
This class explores the roots of comedy and asks what it is -- historically as well as currently -- that makes people laugh. Using Commedia dell'Arte and the European clown as a basis, the class researches and recreates physical comedy from its classical expressions to modern versions in film and television. Individual performance assignments complement the research and scholarship of the course.
FNAR 6318/Women in American Theatre: Actresses, Playwrights, and Directors
Throughout the history of American theatre, women have made significant contributions as actresses, playwrights, directors, and managers. Despite this, most of this history has been invisible or defined as “exceptional.” This course examines the influence and impact of women artists in the development of American theatre as aesthetic, cultural, and economic phenomena. Students attend live productions and view filmed plays from female theatre artists as available; in-class visits from local or national female artists are arranged when possible.
FNAR 6319/Theatre Live and Local: A Performance Seminar
A study of contemporary and traditional theatre performance which strives to enhance students' understanding and appreciation of theatre performance, their critical judgment and vocabulary, and their ability to place a performance in a historical/cultural context.
Seminar work is based on attendance of live, local theatre productions as assigned by the instructor.
FNAR 6320/Mummies, Myths, and Monuments: Egypt of the Pharaohs
Provides an overview of Egyptian art against its cultural background from the formation of Pharonic Egypt through the height of the New Kingdom. Aspects of applied technology, social and religious issues, and political matters of ancient Egypt are considered, concentrating on the vibrancy and meaning of art as a reflection of social and religious practice.
FNAR 6321/Great Books of Art History
An introduction to the profound, humane, and entertaining scholarship of art history through the principal movements, methods, and writings of the twentieth century. Emphasis falls on theory and practice of the discipline, but the course is tailored for students who love to read and showcases a selection of influential, topical, and elegantly written books and articles. Through such topics as the biography of the artist, philosophies of art, connoisseurship and historicism, and modernist, feminist, and other current critical modes, the student is encouraged to formulate his or her individual place and voice in this evolving humanistic discipline.
FNAR 6322/Modern Movements in European and American Painting
Beginning with realism and impressionism, this course traces the development of the avant-garde through such "modern" styles as expressionism, cubism, futurism, Dadaism, surrealism, abstract expressionism, pop and op art, and photo realism. Readings about the works of representative artists and critics are stressed.
FNAR 6323/Modern Painting in France
Art history tour to France. The tour explores modern French painting and the significant contributions of Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, and the Nonobjective. All lectures are delivered on site, explaining the works of Courbet, Manet, Renoir, Degas, Pissarro, Cézanne, Ganguin, van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, Kandinsky, Mondrian, and more. Highlights include special visits to artist' studios and residences. A research paper is required to receive credit for the course.
FNAR 6330/Social and Musical History of the Symphony Orchestra
This non-theoretical course investigates the historical background of the modern symphony. Students are introduced to important orchestral works and movements from the 17th century to present. The course also examines the contruction of the symphony orchestra as a cultural institution.
FNAR 6337/Imagining Reality: History and Aesthetics of Nonfiction Film
This course explores the issues and concepts of nonfiction film, using work from a variety of cultures and styles, and including issues of sponsorship and distribution. The course presents an historical overview of the genre from the silent film era to the new social documentaries, with the dual goals of increased understanding of the filmmaker’s decisions concerning style, camera angle, and other techniques, as well as increased awareness of social, ethical, and legal issues surrounding “documentary” film.
FNAR 6339/Mortals, Myths, and Monuments: Art and Culture of Ancient Greece
The course is designed to familiarize the student with the primary concepts inherent in ancient Greek art and literature as seen through their cultural contexts. Delving into the works of Greek philosophers, painters, and architects, the course is designed to establish, to a large extent, the foundations of Western civilization.
A visual analysis of the rich tapestry of ancient Greek culture, while visiting museums and archaeological sites, with an emphasis on the mythological, archaeological, and historical settings in which the art and architecture was created. The course touches on various aspects of ancient Greek life, including religion, Olympic contests, theatrical performances, political developments, and artistic expression.
FNAR 6342/Conservation and Preservation: Etruscan Archaeology in Italy
Students get first-hand experience in excavating an important Etruscan site, Poggio Colla, just northeast of Florence. MLS participants join other faculty and students at this ongoing dig, and are housed on site in a converted farmhouse. Archaeologists, art historians, conservators, and other professionals instruct participants in the cultural heritage of Tuscany, the archaeological process, and conservation and preservation technique. Side trips to Rome and Florence introduce students to local museums of Etruscan art.
FNAR 6380/Music, Society, and Politics in Nineteenth Century Paris
The course examines the roles played by music in Parisian society between the years of 1789 and the first World War. In nineteenth century France, music was both a passive and an aggressive force in the unfolding of political agendas, social stratification, religious empowerment, and the struggle for national identity. Selected musical works which were performed in Paris and their performers, performance spaces, and audiences are considered. Neither previous musical knowledge nor the ability to read music notation is necessary.
Humanities
HUMN 6115/Classic Texts in the Humanities
This one-hour course focuses the student's attention on a single, seminal text in the Humanities through close, directed reading, seminar discussion, and a final paper. Texts and topics change each semester. Topics include, but are not limited to: Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway; Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamozov; Whitman, Leaves of Grass; Melville, Billy Budd; Proust, Swann’s Way; Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics.
HUMN 6306/Major Philosophers of the Nineteenth Century
Studies the life, thought, and significance of major philosophers of the 19th century, including: Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Marx in Europe; Bentham and Mill in Britain; and Peirce and James in America. The course aims to develop the student’s critical assessment of their arguments and influence.
HUMN 6308/Women’s Lives and Women’s Literary Tradition
Examines classic texts in the American and British women's literary tradition. Study focuses on how texts reflect the ideals and conflicts in the portrayal of women’s lives, and is organized in stages from childhood to old age. Students are introduced to selected modes of literary theory as a context for reading women’s literature. Authors include Alcott, Morrison, Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and Eliot.
HUMN 6310/”Tell About the South”: Voices in Faulkner’s Novels
William Faulkner's novels belong to the tradition of "Southern Gothic,” but their material is typically presented through the multiple voices of conflicting narrators. This course confronts Faulkner's modernist "difficulty" through the exploration of several novels, focusing on their value for us as readers and citizens. Works include: The Unvanquished, As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, and Light in August.
HUMN 6313/Shakespeare, From Page to Stage
It takes imagination to invest an armchair reading of a play with immediacy. Conversely, “live” Shakespeare can baffle those unfamiliar with the text. This course examines the dynamic relationship between text and stage. Students view and read examples of the major Shakespearean genres, including comedy, tragedy, history, and romance. Readings are based to some extent on live productions available in the Dallas area.
The hero (either male or female) is a mythical construct through which a society embodies its values, transmits them to the young, and celebrates what it wishes to believe about itself. The course begins with the classical or Greek conception of the hero and the Hebraic-Christian ideal. It then examines how these traditional views of the hero were modified in the Middle Ages by the writers of the tales of chivalry and romance. Shakespeare's Hamlet is read as the embodiment of the Renaissance idea of the hero. Works by Shaw, Woolf, and Camus grapple with the modern and contemporary question of heroism.
HUMN 6318/Americans in Paris:The Lives and Literature of the “Lost” Generation
After World War I American artists and writers poured into Paris, and the friction between the two cultures sparked some of the great arts and letters of the 20th century. This course examines works by these expatriate, their influential precursors, and their European contemporaries. In the process, the course examines modernism and its major works in painting, science, philosophy, and music.
HUMN 6319/Ethics and Literature
Because of their complexity and density, literary works are fruitful texts for the study of moral philosophy. The works studied in this course evoke questions about individual responsibility, free will, the nature of evil, and the resolution of conflicting moral claims. The course examines a variety of literary works in the context of such traditional philosophies as utilitarianism and Kantianism.
HUMN 6320/Jewish American Literature
From the Yiddish literature of the European shtetl through Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg, and the greatness of such writers as Bellow, Malamud, and Roth, this course is an exploration of the themes, issues, and development of Jewish American literature. Course units include immigrant literature from the turn of the century, American Jewish responses to the Holocaust, and modern interpretations of ancient themes. The course also addresses the particular issues that arise in studying any distinctive cultural/ethnic literature.
HUMN 6321/Marcel Proust and the Modern Tradition
This interdisciplinary course examines modernism through the lens of Proust's In Search of Lost Time. By reading carefully chosen excerpts from this monumental literary work, the course traces the arc of modernism, pairing Proust’s literary evocations with major modernist movements in painting, science, music, and contemporaneous literature.
HUMN 6322/Making Sense of the American Spiritual Landscape
The American spiritual landscape is quickly changing, shaped by trends both old and new that have left their marks on the way in which people understand and practice their faith. This course is designed to provide an understanding of the most significant trends affecting American spirituality today, as well as a theological, conceptual, and historical framework in which to consider them. Among the topics: separation of spirituality from theology and religion; diversity and fragmentation in the spiritual communities; and changing attitudes toward authority and individualism in religion.
HUMN 6323/Psychological and Religious Significance of Dreams
Do dreams contain important insights, and even messages, about human life and destiny? Or are they merely accidental byproducts of brain activity, of no real importance to the psyche and to human development? This course explores the meaning of dreams in human experience, with particular attention to the integration of psychological and religious understanding of dream material. This study includes a close look at what several orientations in psychology, and one ancient religious tradition, have to say about the significance of dreams in human experience. Opportunities are provided for students to learn basic principles of dream interpretation, which they can apply to their own dreams.
HUMN 6324/Evil and the Concept of God
An in-depth scrutiny of both classic and contemporary discussions of evil, a problem judged to be a central issue in philosophy of religion and in theology. Attention also is paid to thinkers who sought to deny or evade the problems of evil.
HUMN 6325/Women in Modern Literature and Film
The course examines the representation of women in modern literature and film from the turn of the century to the present. The course begins with late nineteenth century works by Chekhov and Ibsen that present a crisis in the cultural context of woman's traditional role, and thereafter examines how women writers from Europe and the United States have struggled in their works against narrow gender definitions in their writings and have tried to define women as active, autonomous, and intelligent beings. The course also looks at how women are represented in more recent European films that deal with the legacy of National Socialism and that pose the question of women's historical agency.
HUMN 6328/The Muse in Arms: War and the Literary Imagination
A survey of writing about war from Homer to O'Brien, this course examines changing attitudes towards war as a human activity, and confronts the perennial problem of rendering "extreme" experience in accessible terms. The course encourages critical thinking about the cost of war and the moral dimensions of conduct in wartime.
HUMN 6330/Wit and Humor in African American Literature
The goals of this course are to reach a better understanding of the aesthetics, cultural/historical experiences, and literary conventions of African American writers. The focus is on traditional wit and humor in the selected works. Authors include traditional writers such as Hurston and Hughes, and contemporary writers such as Toni Morrison, J. California Cooper, and Ishmael Reed. Since African American literature is based on oral tradition, students are expected to present individual readings/performances.
HUMN 6335/The Bible and Literary Creation
This study approaches the Bible from the standpoint that it is, among other things, a literary anthology, providing its readers with a cosmic vision and models of literary forms. In that sense, it is both a product of, and a means of stimulating, the imagination. The course aims to raise Biblical literacy and awareness of the presence of the Bible in English and other Western literatures.
HUMN 6336/Searching for Humanity: Aliens, Humans, and Machines in Science Fiction
This course examines works in the genre of science fiction that go beyond entertainment to provide a vital “literature of ideas” through which we may consider a variety of practical and ethical questions facing the post-industrial world. Through a variety of novels, films, and short stories, the course focuses on the question of what it means to be human in relation to the alien/other and the alien/machine. Authors include Lem, Heinlein, Le Guin, Dick, Gibson, and others.
HUMN 6338/The Fire of Transformation: Exploring the Mystical Life
In this course students explore how certain individuals throughout the world and during different periods of history came to have powerful and transformative spiritual experiences. Students carefully examine the ways in which different religious traditions understand mysticism. They investigate a variety of spiritual techniques designed to catalyze, deepen, and stabilize these alternate levels of consciousness. Students delve into philosophical and social-scientific analyses of the dynamics of mystical states of awareness; and they probe the metaphysical, ethical, and psychological implications of mysticism in the modern world.
HUMN 6340/Psychoanalysis and Religious Belief
An exploration of the origins and development of individuals' religious beliefs about the ultimate source(s) of power, meaning, and value in and beyond the cosmos. Particular attention will be given to the appraisal of several classical and contemporary psychological interpretations of the functions that such beliefs serve in human beings' quest for mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. The course will focus especially on psychoanalytic thought, both Freudian and Post-Freudian.
HUMN 6341/Ethical Implications of Children’s Literature
The course examines a wide range of children’s literature, both historical and current, with an emphasis on building an adult understanding of the moral and cultural themes in these works. Issues of colonialism, race, ethnicity, gender, and class are confronted, and students become acquainted with different approaches to children’s literature by using a variety of literary criticism.
HUMN 6342/The Spiritual Vision of Jesus
This course attempts to define the spiritual vision of Jesus as it can be reconstructed from New Testament texts. Attention is given to methodological challenges, the shape of Second Temple Judaism, and other issues of relevance, including the attitude of Jesus toward the temple, law, and prayer. The course considers recent scholarship from the Jesus Seminar and the search for the historical Jesus, as well as how these considerations impact our contemporary view of Jesus and spirituality.
HUMN 6344/The Kabbalah and Jewish Mystical Tradition
This is a historical overview of the Jewish mystical tradition, commonly known as the Kabbalah, from its inception in the biblical times (or, more precisely, in the period when the Bible was written) until the end of the eighteenth century. By reading and discussing the primary texts that have been most influential in shaping this tradition, we shall examine how the esoteric experiences and otherworldly journeys of the mystics reflected the condition and needs of the Jewish community, helping it to sustain its identity and to affirm, develop, and hone its beliefs and practices. Unraveling the highly symbolic, metaphoric, and allusive language of the mystical literature, we shall plumb its sometimes outlandish, but invariably fascinating ideas about the structure of the godhead and the human soul, about creation and end-time, good and evil, sin and repentance, suffering and redemption, angels and demons, and much, much more...
HUMN 6346/Shakespeare’s Cultural Productions
In this course we study a number of the sonnets and plays of Shakespeare in relation to the contexts of their production; that is, to the political, social, and economic conditions of their times. Initial reading of selected sonnets leads to analysis of a number of major plays, a study involving issues of political, social, racial, familial, and sexual identity. In pursuit of an understanding of how staging and performance inflect these issues, we view selected films and read a variety of cultural texts, ranging from contemporary history to City of London statutes to travel narratives, in order to engage with the idea of the theatre as an important institution of cultural production.
HUMN 6349/King Arthur’s Britain: Landscapes, Legends, and Literature
This course explores the physical and cultural world surrounding the legend of King Arthur. Beginning with the basic themes and motifs of the Arthur story as recorded in literature, the course considers social and cultural geography in which these stories are set to reach a better understanding of what King Arthur has meant to the land he was supposed to save.
HUMN 6350/The Art of African American Storytelling
The course is designed to establish the traditional roots of African American storytelling. In tracing the roots of African American storytelling from Africa through the diaspora, students examine the survival, uses, and importance of verbal arts in the African American culture. The course also allows examination of cultural clashes between descendents whose experiences are disparate: one group dominated by respect for oralities; the other dominated by reliance on authorized written texts.
HUMN 6352/Interpretation of Folklore in African American Fiction
Examines selected African American novelists whose works are strongly influenced by the legacy of the African oral tradition. Students are required to engage in lively discourse and acquire basic performance skills from selected readings.
HUMN 6354/Remembering the Sixties: Culture and Change
Was it the decade that America came unraveled, or was it the dawning of the Age of Aquarius? This course examines eyewitness accounts, participants’ recollections, and fictional and film representations of our most controversial decade in order to discover how mass media influence our cultural perceptions, and how later commentators on this era have constructed nostalgic or demonized versions as ammunition in continuing contests over values.
HUMN 6355/Virgins and Goddesses from Prehistory to Modern Mexico
The course aims to develop a better understanding of contemporary culture and society in Mexico and Latin America by examining pre-Hispanic belief systems, especially regarding female deities and their modern counterpart, the Virgin of Guadalupe. Students study recent archaeological research and learn to identify similarities among mythic/symbolic female images of prehistory from around the world, while also examining the pivotal role of the feminine in belief systems and its impact on modern traditions, including those of Mexico.
HUMN 6356/Oral Interpretation of Literature
This course introduces the student to the study of literature through performance. Based on the assumption that performance is a method of understanding and enjoying literature, the student participates in performance readings of prose, poetry, and dramatic literature. Written work is assigned, but the focus of this course is on the discovery and exploration of literature through the medium of vocal and physical performance.
HUMN 6358/Trances and Dances: Investigations into Aboriginal Religious Life
This course is designed to introduce students to the religious beliefs and practices of several non-Western (or pre-Western) cultures: eg., Australian aboriginals, African tribal peoples, and native North and South Americans. Through readings, videos, lectures, classroom discussion and in-class activities, we examine such phenomena as spirit possession, sacrifice, masks, shamanism, out-of-body experiences, spiritual healing, visions, and pilgrimage; we delve into the psychological and social functions of trance, exorcism, and magic; we explore the problems and possibilities of cross-cultural religious contact; and we search-out the hidden meanings of myths and dreams.
HUMN 6360/Philosophers Examine Religion I
From antiquity to the present, philosophers have studied religion seriously. Doing so has produced a significant literature worthy of careful reading and reflection. This two-part course studies the thought of notable philosophers about religion and its claims. Part I begins with the in-depth study of the four classical arguments for the existence of God. The remainder of Part I is devoted to careful consideration of such key topics in philosophy of religion as religious experience, revelation, miracle, and faith.
HUMN 6361/The Literature of Religious Expression
Examines primarily the expressions of belief (or human values) in literary forms (poetry, fiction, prose); that is, the attempts of artists who believe strongly in sharing the intensity of their religious feelings. Selections are drawn from the writings of Donne, Herbert, Bunyan, Defoe, The Book of Common Prayer, the Bible, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Arnold, Tennyson, Browning, and contemporary poets.
HUMN 6363/Philosophers Examine Religion II
Continues study of notable philosophers about religion and its claims (see HUMN 6360). The second part focuses on problems of evil and human destiny. It is not necessary to take the courses in sequence; Part I is not a prerequisite for Part II.
HUMN 6366/Reading St. John’s Revelations
The course reviews what is undoubtedly the most controversial and troubling book in the New Testament. Students review the history of St. John’s book, with attention to morality and other elements of the book’s socio-historical setting, including the larger context of Jewish apocalyptic literature. We also examine various approaches to interpretation of the text, and ways of both reading and appropriating the book’s message. Topics include literary and theological study of the book’s imagery and the theological implications of various interpretations.
HUMN 6370/The Literate Mind at Work (Required Course)
This course is designed to insure that beginning MLS students have mastered the critical academic skills -- reading, discussion, and writing the researched argumentative essay -- required to succeed in graduate liberal arts studies. The course is writing intensive and includes drafting, rewriting, and editing as part of the writing process. Students are also responsible for learning basic research technique and styles of annotation, as well as a review of academic integrity and issues of plagiarism. NOTE: This course must be taken within the first 12 hours the MLS curriculum; it is highly recommended that the course be taken in the first semester, and that it be taken in conjunction with HUMN 7104/Research Methods.
HUMN 6373/American Regional Literature
This course explores the regional literary voices that form the roots of American literature. Out of the unique development of each region comes the diversity and richness of ethnic influence, literary genres, and thematic focus that constitute the foundations of American literature. Texts and topics vary from semester to semester. Topics include, but are not limited to: Literature of the Southwest, Southern Literature, New England Literature.
HUMN 6375/History of the Freedom of Expression
Since the invention of the printing press, there have been conflicts over the limits, if any, there should be to freedom of expression. Heavily influenced by the turn this debate took in England, guarantees of freedom of expression in America came with the Bill of Rights. But these rights have been the subject of constant controversy; many of the most important national issues reflect them. This course traces the history of those conflicts.
HUMN 6377/Gutenberg and the Rise of Printing
This course examines both the earliest development and the enduring impact of the printing press, which began with the typographic experiments of Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany, more than 550 years ago. The scope of the course traces the rise of the first “mass medium” from the earliest printed fragments to the much larger editions of following centuries, which accelerated the spread of learning, religious reform, and social change -- all of which profoundly shaped the world we live in today. Examples from the Bridwell Library’s Special Collections, works printed in first decades of European typography, are accessible to the class.
HUMN 6380/The News Media in Contemporary Society
The course examines the influence of the news media on policy-making and electoral politics and includes a consideration of news ethics. This course is designed to help the student become a more sophisticated news consumer, better able to apply rigorous standards to the products delivered by print and electronic news organizations.
HUMN 6385/American Society Through Film: The Twentieth Century
A look at American history and the nation's shifting social values through most of the twentieth century, using commercial film as a mirror. Issues under consideration include: changes in social mores, race relations, attitudes towards war, political idealism, the emergence of the youth culture, social adjustments and alienation, and personal responsibility in a changing world.
HUMN 6387/Story: Fact, Fiction, and Truth
Narratives may be a way of giving flesh to our desire to know more about what it means to be human. They are a means to express, to celebrate, to instruct others about that which we wish to be true about ourselves, but stories can explore the margins of humanity as well. This course sets out to explore the ways stories work, how we read and appropriate what we read, and the importance of narratives to our lives. Authors include Ovid, Chekhov, Welty, Joyce, Tolstoy, O’Connor, Faulkner, and Hemingway, among others.
HUMN 6390/Law and Literature: Parallel Interpretive Strategies
This course begins with the assumption that both law and literature require interpretation. From that point, we move to an examination of methods of interpretation -- both legal and literary. Ultimately participants should develop a sense of the law as a text requiring constant mediation and evaluation. Readings juxtapose case law with literary texts by such authors as Browning, Camus, Melville, and Glaspell.
HUMN 6393/Poetry Writing Workshop
This course is a studio/seminar course in the craft of poetry writing, offering constructive criticism and discussion of student poetry along with technical, theoretical, and aesthetic issues concerning contemporary poetry writing and the creative process.
This course is a poetry writing workshop that is designed to familiarize students, through close reading and imitation exercises, with a wide variety of twentieth century American poetry techniques, movements, and theories, and with the origins and evolution of the particular character of American poetry.
HUMN 7101/Summer Classics at St. John’s College, Santa Fe, NM
Each summer this Great Books college offers three week-long Summer Classics seminars, with optional campus room and board. Each week offers several different morning and afternoon topic choices, along with extra lectures, optional trips to the Santa Fe Opera, and invigorating social interaction with summer scholars from all over the country. MLS students who attend a St. John’s seminar (students must make their own arrangements to attend) may earn one credit hour by writing a journal and a substantial paper in response to the selected seminar(s).
HUMN 7104/Research Methods (Required Course)
Designed to familiarize students with the research strategies and resources central to the liberal arts. Students explore all aspects of modern computer searches and online access to library resources. NOTE: This course must be taken within the first 12 hours of the MLS curriculum; it is highly recommended that the course be taken in the first semester, and that it be taken in conjunction with HUMN 6370/The Literate Mind at Work.
HUMN 7212/Monastic Spirituality at St. Gregory’s Abbey
For five days students experience the life of the Benedictine Order, and consider ways in which that experience might inform their own spiritual practice. The schedule consists of meditation and prayer five times daily, following the practice of the monastery, and includes lectures and guidance provided by monastery brothers and a member of the faculty of SMU’s Perkins School of Theology. The purpose of the course is to experience disciplined thought and personal contemplation by placing oneself outside the daily routine of the secular world.
HUMN 7309/Medieval Pilgrimage: The Road to Santiago de Compostela
The phenomenon of pilgrimage, historical and contemporary, is examined through direct experience in France and Spain along the road to Santiago de Compostela. Students read literature from the medieval pilgrimage road, study first-hand the magnificent art and architecture of medieval France and Spain, and listen to the extraordinary music created at every major stop along the way. Although this pilgrimage is a product of Western European Christian culture, it is presented within the framework of sustained reference to Eastern European and Mediterranean (aka Byzantine), Jewish, and especially Muslim pilgrimage.
Science and Culture
The curriculum will provide sufficient knowledge of genetics, biology, and medical ethics so that students can intelligently engage in issues that permeate the headlines and present profound moral quandaries for all of us. Issues such as stem cell research, genetic engineering, cloning, and prenatal genetic diagnosis are some of the topics that will be explored.
SCCL 6308/Ecology in Balance: People and Planet
Studies the impact of population growth on the demand and availability of resources, energy, and food. Interrelated effects of people and environment are considered, along with constructive solutions to problems arising from growth.
SCCL 6335/Biological Man in a Technological World
Studies the hazards of the new technology upon men and women. This course examines critical problems confronting humanity in an age of rapidly advancing technology, including overpopulation, malnutrition, pollution, and major diseases.
SCCL 6349/Biology of Nutrition
Nutrition can be defined as the study of foods and how foodstuffs affect health and biological function. This course focuses on the composition and function of nutrients; that is, carbohydrates, fats (lipids), proteins, vitamins and minerals, and water (the “forgotten” nutrient). The course includes consideration of the chemistry of nutrients and their biological function; however, a prior background in chemistry is not required. Definition of terms is a key to understanding the facts and concepts that are presented, including terms often seen in the press or on food labels: low carb, unsaturated fats, saturated fats, high protein, and vitamin enriched. A diet analysis for the individual student is a term project for this course.
SCCL 6359/Frontiers in Astronomy and Cosmology
Studies current information and theories concerning Earth, moon, sun, planets, stars, pulsars, quasars, black holes, galaxies, and the structure of the universe. It is designed for the beginner and does not require a math or science background, even though the results of NASA space research and current astronomical and physics research are presented and discussed.
SCCL 6389/The Origins and Evolution of Life
Studies the biological aspects of the origin of life on Earth, the history of the subsequent evolution of animal and plant life, and the environmental and geological setting throughout the ages. The mechanisms of evolution and man as an evolving biological species are discussed.
SCCL 7205/Flowering Plants of the Southern Rockies
An intense introduction to plant identification and collections using field collected or observed specimens from the SMU in Taos campus and from surrounding areas. Students will learn the botanical language, plant names and classification. Students are required to learn 24 families, and collect plants from 20 plant families and press them. Can receive additional one hour credit by enrolling in SCCL 7105 and completing a paper on a medicinal plant.
SCCL 7206/Biotic Communities & Environments of the Southwest
A week of room and board near Taos, New Mexico and guided hiking through wilderness areas plus lectures on various vegetation zones of the Southwest, their evolutionary relationships, adaptations, and filed identification. Can receive additional one hour credit by enrolling in SCCL 7106 and completing a review paper after the trip.
Social Science
SOSC 6115/Classic Texts in the Social Sciences
This one-hour course focuses the student's attention on a single, seminal text in the Social Sciences through close, directed reading, seminar discussion, and a final paper. Texts and topics change each semester. Topics include, but are not limited to: The Federalist Papers; Walter Prescott Webb, The Great Plains; Josiah Gregg, The Commerce of the Prairies; Andy Adams, The Log of a Cowboy; Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto; The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.
SOSC 6300/Civil Rights Pilgrimage
Exposes students to the history, politics, and moral claims of the movement that destroyed Jim Crow, with the goal of assessing its social and political legacies for the contemporary United States. It combines readings and classroom discussion with an extended trip over spring break to critical civil rights sites in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee.
SOSC 6302/Nazi Germany and the Holocaust
Central to this course is the question of whether Nazism is a uniquely German phenomenon or a potential danger in any country. Examines the formation of Hitler’s personality and ideology, the conditions that permitted his rise to power, and the nature and purposes of his dictatorship.
The passing of time is a universal human experience, but the control, measure, and politics of time differ among cultures. This reading seminar addresses changing perceptions of time from the rise of astronomy and astrology in the ancient Near East to Medieval and Renaissance ideas of time, and the development of clocks and other modern ideas and scientific theories. The course concludes with an examination of the social and political consciousness of and control over time in American society. Readings incorporate the works of historians, archaeologists, scientists, novelists, and poets, from the Classical Greeks to H.G. Wells.
SOSC 6307/History of Consumer Culture in the United States
Considers the business, cultural, and political history of the rise of consumer culture in the U.S. between the colonial period and the present. Focuses on the development of institutions ranging from advertising, desire and luxury, and "charging it."
SOSC 6309/The Struggle for Human Rights: America’s Dilemma
The course examines certain violations of human rights within their historical context. Attention also is given to the evolution of both civil and human rights as entities within global political thought and practice. Students learn to recognize the use of propaganda to justify or deny violations of human rights, from torture to terrorism and from slavery to genocide.
SOSC 6310/Dignitas and Decadence: The Society and Culture of Imperial Rome
This course examines the main currents and ideas of Roman imperial society from the establishment of monarchical rule by the first emperor, Augustus, to the fall of the empire in the fifth century A.D. We examine the profound social changes experienced by Roman society as a result of its military expansion, the incorporation of new peoples, developments in polytheistic and monotheistic religion, the spread of Stoic philosophy, and changes in the definition of Romanitas and Roman citizenship, including developments in gender- and class-based rights.
SOSC 6312/Julius Caesar and the Fall of the Roman Republic
The course considers important historiographical questions concerning the fall of the Roman Republic and the rise of the monarchical Roman Empire as a direct consequence of the life and death of Julius Caesar.
SOSC
6313/Iroquois Indians in History and Culture
Studies the
history and culture of the Iroquois nations from Pre-European contact Colonial
and Revolutionary America to the present.
SOSC 6314/Living Through the American Revolution
This course explores the social history of the American Revolution and what the Revolution meant for the many different people who experienced it. Focusing on one stage in the historical process of “becoming American,” the course shows how these people took part in a set of large-scale transforming events that changed both the course of history and the people themselves.
SOSC 6315/From Hannibal to the Fall of Rome: Empire at War
An introduction to Roman warfare and diplomacy, with special attention to Roman theories of imperialism and the just war. These scholarly problems are particularly familiar to modern Americans. Focus is on primary texts, monuments, and artifacts that illustrate Roman expansionism and military life.
SOSC 6316/Farms, Plantations, and Towns: Diversity in the “New World”
This course explores the interaction of Native, British, and African cultures in the early period of settlement. Special attention is focused on the daily life of small communities, including Native villages, Southern plantations, and New England towns and the interaction between them. The course shows how America was a “new world” for all three groups, though in different ways for each.
SOSC 6323/History of Schools and Education in American Society
This course focuses on the evolution of schools in American society. Students use an interdisciplinary approach to explore schools from colonial America to the present. The focus is on the study of relationships and tensions between children, families, and schools; and between social and political ideals and the realities of mass education.
SOSC 6327/American Citizenship
Seminar which weaves together the disciplines of history, law, and political science to confront the problems of American citizenship in the past, present, and future. Components: Lecture
SOSC 6329/The American Presidency
The course examines issues concerning the “modern” or post-war Presidency, an institution at the center of the political system that is fascinating, perplexing, and in many senses paradoxical. This study exposes students to a variety of perspectives and methods that can be employed to analyze the institution, the decisions of its occupants, and the effectiveness of specific presidential administrations.
Designed to use film as a vehicle for enhancing our understanding of real-world politics and culture in the United States, the course considers political ambition, electoral politics, the nature of political leadership, theories of decision-making, and the role of the media in politics. Additionally, the course examines the “two faces of film:” as a portrayal (accurate or not) of politics; but also filmmaking as a political act in itself. From the 1940s to the present, films have had the potential to deepen our understanding of political change, but have also raised questions as to the political agenda of their makers, the use or misuse of history, and the extent to which filmmaking is motivated by the profit incentive and the cultural norms that govern the industry.
SOSC
6331/Presidential Elections and American Politics
This course will study presidential elections in the United States in two
tracks. In the first, the modern history of presidential elections, the
methods used to study these contests, and the conclusions produced by the
research community that analyzes these elections will be examined. Both
the nomination phase and the general election campaign will be covered.
This will provide the intellectual background necessary to follow and to
understand modern presidential election campaigns and American politics
generally. The second track will look specifically at "Campaign 2008."
You will use what is learned in class and the readings to analyze and interpret
the "hidden campaign" currently in progress and what it bodes for the start of
the formal campaign in January 2008.
SOSC 6332/Ideas Shaping the American Character I: 1607 to 1876
Through the biographies and writings of key early Americans, this course explores the political, economic, religious, social, intellectual, and artistic ideas that have shaped the American character. Specific attention is given to the free enterprise system and democracy as twin pillars upholding the edifice of our republic. Key figures begin with John Winthrop, Anne Hutchinson, and John Edwards; move through the founding members of the republic; continue through the eighteenth century figures such as Tecumseh, Emerson and Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, feminists Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, and Susan B. Anthony; and conclude with Civil War figures Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln.
SOSC 6333/Ideas Shaping the American Character II: 1877 to the Present
Through the biographies and writings of key Americans since the Civil War, the course explores the political, economic, religious, social, intellectual, and artistic ideas that have shaped the American character. Specific attention is given to the free enterprise system and democracy as twin pillars upholding the edifice of our republic. Key figures include Frederick Jackson Turner, Willa Cather, Eugene Debs, W.E.B. DuBois, Carrie Chapman Carr, Frank Lloyd Wright, Bob Dylan, Ronald Reagan, and Madeleine Albright. NOTE: This course constitutes the second half of Ideas Shaping the American Character, but is self-contained; the first half is not a prerequisite.
SOSC 6334 From Pews to Bleachers: American Cultural Institutions
This course explores the institutionalization of culture in the United States between the American Revolution and the Great Depression, focusing on churches (religious culture), theatrical venues (performance culture), museums (artistic culture), libraries (print culture), and sports (physical culture). The course covers the emergence of an infrastructure devoted to the cultural life of Americans, and takes a broad view of culture, in that it includes sports and religion in addition to the usual cultural venues of the arts.
SOSC 6336/History of the Ancient Near East and Egypt
This course examines the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt from the origins of writing in the fourth millennium B.C.E. to the time of Alexander the Great. We examine the histories, literature, and archaeological remains, reading original sources in translation and viewing original artifacts. Topics include: The Epic of Gilgamesh, the law code of Hammurabi, Assyrian imperialism and warfare, the rise of the Egyptian empire, Egyptian myths and poetry, Egyptian religion and beliefs in the afterlife, and Egyptian medicine.
SOSC 6337/Texas and Tejanos: Seminar on Mexican-American History
This seminar examines the growing historiography on Mexican Americans, focusing on the relationship between Texas and their regional ethnic identity as Tejanos. Prior to 1980 few books specifically on Tejano history were written. However, the field has expanded rapidly in the last 25 years. Since social history has predominated during this period, the emphasis is on that branch of historiography, but other genres are included as well.
SOSC 6342/America’s Defining Moment: The American Civil War and Reconstruction
The modern South has yet to shake the tragedy of the War Between the States. This course examines the origins of this struggle, the battles, the reasons for Northern victory, the effect upon today’s South and the reason for its continued fascination to the American mind.
SOSC 6343/America: Conflicting Values in a Capitalist Democracy
This course examines the special relationship between American democratic politics and the free market economy, as well as the rationale of free enterprise. Individuals interested in the political and philosophical questions raised by our system of democratic capitalism finds the course particularly relevant. Current issues, problems, values, and criticisms of the free enterprise system are discussed.
SOSC 6346/Queen Victoria’s England
Queen Victoria’s long reign -- 63 years, from 1837 to her death in 1901 -- encompassed a time of remarkable change for Britain, moving from an early stage in which the polarizations of the class system came to the forefront, to a middle stage of relative peace and prosperity based on the economic and technological progress symbolized by the Crystal Palace, to, finally, a decline in the influence of the aristocracy and the rise of the political significance of the working classes. This, coupled with the erosion of confidence in the institutions of church and state, the challenges to Victorian patriarchy, and the problems of Empire and Ireland, made Great Britain at the end of Victoria’s life a nation that would have been hardly recognizable to her at the beginning of her reign.
SOSC 6348/The Changing Landscape of Political Thought
Political theory gives us ways of seeing, describing, and altering the political world. This course is an introduction to the way political thinkers do these things in the process of creating political theory. There is no single, agreed-upon definition of politics, no privileged methodology for examining politics, and no universal agreement as to the values that should shape politics. It is important to understand why this is so. The course addresses this situation and examines the questions raised by theorists such as Emma Goldman, Ayn Rand, John Locke, and John Stuart Mill among others.
SOSC 6355/America Enraged: From Integration to Watergate
The 20-year era spanning 1954 to 1974 was tumultuous, exalting, and foreboding -- and bewildering as well. A nation that had prided itself on political stability found its political system no longer equal to meeting the demands for change. A nation that had taken for granted a collective commitment to public order suddenly was stunned by the fragility of its institutions and the assault upon the values professed by the society. In this era Americans for the first time took to the streets by the thousands, sometimes by the tens of thousands, to resolve disputes once left to the established governmental processes.
SOSC 6367/Comparative Revolutions: A Historical Perspective
What is the nature of modern political revolutions? What are the conditions which tend to produce a revolutionary explosion? What are the characteristics of revolutionary leaders? Why do people follow them? By considering answers to these and other related questions, this course attempts to provide interdisciplinary perspectives on a topic of special interest in our age of monumental upheaval and rapid societal change. Drawing especially on the American, French, Russian, and Chinese revolutions as case studies, a comparative analysis underscores the common denominators of the revolutionary experience.
SOSC 6376/Cultural and Intellectual History of Modern Europe: Renaissance to Enlightenment
Analyzes predominant themes in the literature, philosophy, art, and music of European civilization, from the Italian Renaissance through the French Enlightenment. Emphasis is placed on those aspects of the European heritage that have been of primary importance in shaping Western culture in the twentieth century. Part I of a two-part series, which need not be taken sequentially.
SOSC 6377/Cultural and Intellectual History of Modern Europe: Romanticism to the Present
Explores major trends in the development of European literature, philosophy, art, and music in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Primary attention is devoted to the role of arts and ideas in the shaping of our contemporary world. Part II of a two-part series; Part I is not a prerequisite.
SOSC 7302/Studies at Oxford University: War and Diplomacy in Europe, 1815-Present
The course provides a study of the dynamics of nationalism that arose in Europe after 1815, and how those dynamics led to the twentieth century’s two cataclysmic global wars. On the campus of University College, one of Oxford’s oldest institutions, students are housed in college rooms and attend lectures by faculty of the SMU-in-Oxford program and guest lecturers from Oxford. The study of war and diplomacy continues with a visit to London and a tour of famous World War I and II sites in Belgium and France, including the American cemetery and memorial at Normandy Beach.
SOSC 7303/In the Camps: Historical Field Trip to Poland
In the West, the Holocaust plays a significant role in the memory and conscience of civilizations. This journey to sites in Poland, including the Warsaw Ghetto and several death campus including Treblinka, Auschwitz/Berkinau, Belzec, and Chelmno, among others, is designed to give students a deeper understanding of the Holocaust and both its victims and its perpetrators.