TO: Drake University Faculty, Staff, & Students
FROM: Arthur B. Sanders, Director of Honors Program
DATE: October 23, 2008
RE: Registration for Honors Courses, Spring 2009
With an Honors Program curriculum that is continually changing, Honors Program seminars unite the diverse interests of faculty and students to explore topics that cross the boundaries of traditional disciplines. The Program’s small class size and unique subjects promote independent thinking, intellectual creativity, and the courses are writing-intensive and follow a discussion based, collaborative inquiry format. Honors Program classes are open to all motivated students, and Honors Student Council activities are generally open to the entire campus community. Student leaders are elected to Honors Executive Council leadership positions each academic year.
Questions about the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum should be directed to the Honors Program office, (515) 271-2999, or to the Director of the Honors Program.
NOTICE: The courses are numbered as follows:
1-49: intended for first-year students
50-99: first-year students, sophomores, juniors and seniors (unless otherwise designated)
100-149: suggested for sophomores-seniors
150-189 : junior-senior cross-listed seminars
198: Honors Program Independent Study (or approved alternative)
199: Honors Program Senior Thesis (or approved alternative.)
Honors Track restrictions:
Only one web instructed class may be applied towards Honors elective hours.
No more than two courses (for a total of 6 credits) from the same department may apply towards Honors elective hours. This applies to travel seminars cross-listed with the Honors Program as well as traditional cross-listed seminars.
Honors 072 Modern Spiritual Masters: A Dialogue with Life in the 20th Century
Jim Laurenzo
CRN 1388
3 credits
TR 11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
"At its best our age is an age of searchers and discoverers, and at its worst, an age that has domesticated despair and learned to live with it happily." Flannery O'Connor
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course will read, explore and discuss the writings and vision of some of the great “spiritual masters” of the twentieth century. Selections of their writings will be augmented with an introduction to the author’s life and writings in context and draw attention to points of special relevance to contemporary spirituality.
Some of these authors found a wide audience in their lifetimes. In other cases recognition has come long after their deaths. Some are rooted in long-established traditions of spirituality in this case Roman Catholicism, but each was also augmented in their thinking and living with untested paths. In each case, the authors have engaged in a spiritual journey shaped by the influences and concerns of our age. Such concerns include the challenges of modern science, religious pluralism, secularism, and the quest for social justice. These religious thinkers interrelate their spirituality with different forms of modern thought: theology and philosophy, the narrative of the short story, our modern world and science, service to the poorest of the poor. Karl Rahner, Flannery O’Connor, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Dorothy Day each will challenge one’s personal spirituality, but quite differently.
While the goal for each was much the same, the path for each was unique as every spiritual journey must be. These modern spiritual masters, seekers themselves, can surely serve as guides and companions to a new generation of seekers today.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
This course is intended for students who want to engage a wider level of discussion, spiritual and religious wise, but also history wise.
Majors / Minors / Concentrations: Religion; the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum – while this special topics course may be taken more than once for credit, only three credits may apply towards the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Jim Laurenzo is pastor of the Drake Catholic Student Center and professor adjunct for Drake's Philosophy and Religion Department. Before this, he spent seven years as Adult Education Director for the Catholic Diocese of Des Moines where, although he abhors winter, he helped direct the ecumenical program, January Thaw (which in Des Moines is a lie). He has also taught during the summer for Grandview, Creighton and Mercy School of Nursing -- because Iowa summers are dreadful weather too. "Why not spend time inside, studying and learning and discussing the bigger questions of life?"
Honors 078 Public Intellectuals
Arthur Sanders
CRN 2306
3 credits
TR 12:30- 1:45 p.m.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
In this class, we will take a look at the role that public intellectuals have played and could play in contemporary American society. While we will begin the class by looking at the history of public intellectuals in America, our primary focus will be on the role that these individuals have played over the past twenty years. We will focus on four different areas, race, science, the "new conservatism" and gender, reading and thinking about the ideas of a prominent public intellectual in each of these areas. And we will think about whether or not the development of the World Wide Web and the Internet makes these people obsolete - or more important than ever before. Hopefully, some of what we read will inspire you, some of it will infuriate you, and some will cause you to rethink some things that you "know" are true.
Readings: We will be reading The Public Intellectual: Between Philosophy and Politics, a collection of essays that discusses the role of public intellectuals, and Public Intellectuals: An Endangered Species? a collection of essays that examines whether or not public intellectuals have lost their way. In addition, in each of the four areas, we will read a collection of essays by a single pubic intellectual. I am leaning toward the following people, race: Cornell West; science: Robert Ehrlich; conservatism: George Will; and gender: Gloria Steinem, though those assignments are subject to change.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
This course is intended for first-year students and sophomores.
Majors / Minors / Concentrations: the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Arthur Sanders is Associate Provost, Professor of Politics and International Relations and Director of the Honors Program. He has written a number of books and articles about the American political system. He just completed a book about the presidential election process and is working on a study of the role of money in elections and policy-making here in Iowa. All of his writing on American politics has been concerned with how ordinary citizens can (or do) participate in our political world, and thus, he has a strong interest in the writings of public intellectuals and their role in fostering public, democratic debate.
Honors 088 Prayer and Praise in the Bible
Dale Partick
CRN 4545
3 credits
MW 2:00 p.m - 3:15 p.m.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The bulk of Biblical prayers and praises are found in the Psalms, so these will be the primary focus of the course. We do find prayers and praises in the history and prophetic books of the Hebrew Scriptures as well, and in the New Testament they are scattered about the Gospels, Epistles and Revelation; we will analyze some of these as well. We will look for the poetic form, speech form and rhetoric of the passages under study; students will be taught the methods for ascertaining theses. From our analysis we can trace the history of what can be called “spirituality.” Since the study of these texts and their location in history is an essential theme in my book, Redeeming Judgment, we will correlate the piety and theological literature of each era.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
All levels. Please direct questions to Dr. Dale Patrick, 271-3836, Medbury Hall Office #202.
Majors / Minors / Concentrations: Cross-listed with Rel 148 (CRN 4377); the Honors Track of the Drake Curriculum.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Dale Patrick is Professor of Bible in the Department of Philosophy and Religion. He has taught in the honors program since its inception and has authored five books, the first of which was Arguing with God: The Angry Prayers of Job, and the most recent, The Rhetoric of Revelation in the Hebrew Bible.
Colin Cairns and David Skidmore
CRN 2469
4 credits
TR 12:30-1:45 p.m. AND Discussion lab (CRN 2470) W 6:00-6:50 p.m.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This is an interdisciplinary course focusing on different modes of reasoning and inquiry (i.e., "paths to knowledge") in the sciences and the humanities. It should help us to better navigate our way through an increasingly information- and knowledge-saturated society. In pursuing this aim, we will explore the modes of reasoning and inquiry that are typically employed in the production of various forms of knowledge. Among the questions we will examine are: Why do we seek knowledge? How is knowledge created? How should we judge the value and validity of knowledge claims? How should society make decisions about the uses to which knowledge is put? In seeking answers to these questions, we hope to hone those critical and analytical skills that will allow us to become sophisticated producers/consumers of creative output.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
This course is open to sophomore, juniors, and seniors with priority given to students completing the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
Majors / Minors / Concentrations: required course for the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS
Colin Cairns is Associate Professor of Chemistry (Synthetic Inorganic and Bioinorganic Chemistry.) He received his Ph.D. from The Queens University of Chemistry, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1980. While his research interests are in bioinorganic chemistry (ask him!) he is also interested in the history and philosophy of science and in the different ways in which knowledge is created. He is not sure whether he is a scientific realist or a pragmatist: maybe he’ll find out he’s something else entirely by the end of this course.
David Skidmore is a Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Drake University. He received his Ph.D. degree from Stanford University and taught at Hamilton College and the University of Notre Dame before arriving at Drake in 1989. During the 1996-97 academic year, he taught at the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China. His other travels have taken him to Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, London, Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina, Chile, Jamaica, Nicaragua and Brazil. Skidmore currently serves as Director of the Drake University Center for Global Citizenship and is past Director of the Drake Curriculum and First Year Seminar programs. His research and teaching interests lie in the areas of international political economy, American foreign policy, international relations theory and Latin American politics. Skidmore is author, co-author or editor of five books and has published numerous articles or chapters in various academic journals and books.
Honors 100 Paths to Knowledge
Maura Lyons and Vibeke Petersen
CRN 3358
4 credits
MW 11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m AND Discussion lab hour W 4:00-4:50 p.m., CRN (3361)
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Same description as previously listed.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
This course is open to sophomore, juniors, and seniors with priority given to students completing the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
Majors / Minors / Concentrations: required course for the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS
Maura Lyons is Associate Professor in the Department of Art and Design. She teaches courses on American art and architecture, modern and contemporary art, and introductions to art history. Her research interests include post-war U.S. art and culture. The architecture of the Drake campus has been an interest of hers since she arrived at Drake in 2000. The Saarinen exhibition represents a major step in raising awareness of the campus’s remarkable architectural history.
Vibs Petersen is Professor of Women’s Studies. She was Director of Women’s Studies at Drake, 1993-2000. She holds a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D., from New York University. She teaches seminars in the Honors Program on a regular basis: Space Matters II; Culture, Knowledge, and Power; Nazi and Resistance Culture; War and Memory; and Speaking with Many Voices: A Sampling of Native American Cultures.
Honors 100 Paths to Knowledge
Jennifer McCrickerd
CRN 688
4 credits
TR 11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m AND Discussion lab hour M 3:00-3:50 p.m., CRN (761)
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Same description as previously listed.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
This course is open to sophomore, juniors, and seniors with priority given to students completing the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
Majors / Minors / Concentrations: Cross-listed with Phil 151 (CRN 4399); required course for the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Jennifer McCrickerd is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Department Chair. The courses she teaches are regularly cross-listed with the Honors Program: Moral Relativism, Biomedical Ethics, Philosophy of Science, Environmental Justice, Theories of Justice, and Moral Truth. Her most recent work is in the area of Health and Social Justice and in the area of individuals’ responsibilities to one another. She will be one of the four Drake faculty leading a Summer Travel Seminar, Health Care in South Africa, July 2009.
Honors 118 Eastern Philosophy
Tim Knepper
CRN 2653
3 credits
MW 11:00 a.m – 12:15 p.m.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This honors seminar will examine the philosophical ideas contained within the core texts of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism, with special emphasis on the way in which these Southeast Asian and East Asian “philosophies” challenge the commonplace Western distinction between philosophy and religion. Texts, philosophies, and philosophers to be considered include (but are not limited to) Hinduism’s Upanishads, Bhagavad-Gita, and philosophical schools of Sankhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa, and Vedanta; Theravada Buddhism’s sutras, and Dhammapada; Mahayana Buddhism’s sutras and philosophical schools of Madhyamaka and Yogacara; Confucianism’s Analects, Mengzi, and the Neo-Confucianism of Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming; Daoism’s Daodejing and Zhuangzi; and the East Asian Buddhism of Chan/Zen and Pure Land. Philosophical topics to be addressed include (but are not limited to) the nature and role of god/s, the origin and order of the cosmos, the nature and extent of knowledge, the nature and role of language and rationality, the path and goal of “salvation,”, the nature and role of religious experience, the nature and destiny of human beings, the good life, the nature and role of spiritual disciplines and practices, and the similarities and differences between Eastern and Western philosophy.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
This course is open to all levels, but recommended for those who have taken at least one course in philosophy, as familiarity with basic philosophical terms will be presupposed.
Majors/Minors/Concentrations: Cross-Listed with Philosophy 151/CRN 4397 (Eastern Philosophy) and Religion 111/CRN 4537 (East Asian Religion); Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Timothy Knepper is an assistant professor of philosophy at Drake University. With a Ph.D. in philosophy of religion from Boston University, Tim’s current interest concerns the use of language to undermine language by a late-ancient Christian Neoplatonist referred to as Pseudo-Dionysius, and therefore involves research into the fields of late-ancient philosophy (Athenian Neoplatonism), philosophy of language (speech act theory), and mysticism (theories of ineffability). Eventually Tim would like to carry out this investigation in comparative, cross-cultural fashion—thus his interest in “eastern” philosophy (especially Madhyamaka and Zen Buddhism).
Honors 122 Religion as Lived Experience: Religious Autobiographies
Brantley Gasaway
CRN 4533
3 credits
TR 12:30 p.m – 1:45 p.m.
“We travel through life guided by an inner life plot — part the creation of family, part the internalization of broader social norms, part the function of our imaginations and our own capacity for insight into ourselves, part from our groping to understand the universe in which the planet we inhabit is a speck.
— Jill Ker Conway, When Memory Speaks: Reflections on Autobiography
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This interdisciplinary class begins with reading theoretical issues surrounding both the subjective nature of religious experience and the subjective nature of self-representation in literary works. We then explore these issues in eight autobiographies that introduce students to a diverse set of religious traditions. Emphasizing critical reading, class sessions entail discussions of the texts, the authors’ intentions, and our own reading responses. Rather than focus on religion as doctrine and belief, we will explore how religious people live in both mundane and extraordinary settings.
Students will write analyses of six of the eight assigned texts; complete a comparison of The Autobiography of Malcolm X and the film Malcolm X by Spike Lee; and compose a final comparative paper. In addition, students will respond to several of their classmates' papers. These short responses will train students to engage not only with a text but also with another person's interpretation of that text.
As with all Religion courses at Drake University, the purpose of this class is not to debate religious truths or evaluate the validity of the religious claims and practices of the people whom we study. Our critical engagement will center upon historical and literary rather than theological analyses. This course will enhance, therefore, a deeper understanding of not only students’ own respective religious heritages but also the (perhaps unfamiliar) religious experiences of other Americans, past and present.
Tentative Texts and Reading Material
• John G. Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks
• Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness
• Mary McCarthy, Memories of a Catholic Girlhood
• Chaim Potok, The Chosen
• Malcolm X and Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X
• Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
• Lauren Winner, Girl Meets God: a Memoir
• Mel White, Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America
• selected readings posted on the course’s Blackboard site
At its most basic level, this course offers students a general introduction to a variety of religious beliefs and practices in America. Yet in addition to becoming merely acquainted with such diversity, we will also develop our critical thinking skills by practicing interpretation of these autobiographical documents. Students will learn how to analyze these writings and their authors within their social and cultural contexts. Thus this course emphasizes the importance of identifying evidence and reaching interpretive conclusions within the process of critical engagement.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
This course is open to all levels, both upper-division and first-year students.
Majors / Minors / Concentrations: Cross-listed with Rel 151 (CRN 4379); the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Brantley Gasaway is Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, Politics & Society, with a joint appointment in the Department of Philosophy and Religion. His primary research interests concern the intersections of religion, politics, and law in the United States. Professor Gasaway believes that autobiographical writing--and particularly a religious autobiography--is an audacious and courageous act that allows readers to admire, to interrogate, to criticize, and to learn from the lives of others. He has no plans to write an autobiography.
Honors 124 Salem Witchcraft Trials
Lisa West
CRN 3421
3 credits
TR 9:30-10:45 a.m.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
What caused the infamous witch trials? Religious attitudes? A social crisis? Introduction of new ideas from the West Indies? Trauma from recent Indian attacks? Changes in the status of women? This course will read a variety of explanations of the Salem witch trials. However, rather than decide what "really" caused them or argue about what "really" happened, this course will focus more on the nature of evidence. When we read a description of "what happened," what constitutes the evidence? Who gets to decide what is valid and what is not? How do these ideas of evidence come into play with various strategies of writing from personal narrative to sermon to other forms? How does this increased awareness of the way evidence is "embedded" in social reality affect your views about your own reading, writing, and judging?
In addition to thinking and writing about these questions, we will assess similarities and differences between the witch trials and the trial of Anne Hutchinson. We will do this through a "Reacting to the Past" curriculum which provides selected readings and role playing. This unit will be about a month of the semester and will give us another "body of evidence," so to speak. Reading will include historical and sociological explanations of the witch trials, 17th century readings (diaries, accounts of trials, etc.), and 19th 21st century imaginative writings about the Salem event, such as The Crucible. There will be several short papers rather than a single large project.
INTENDED AUDIENCE AND DISTRIBUTION
This course is intended for sophomores, juniors and seniors and counts as a pre-1900 English course.
Majors / Minors / Concentrations: The course is cross-listed with ENG 124 (CRN 4267); Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Lisa West is Associate Professor in the Department of English. She received her BA in English and Environmental Studies from Williams College and a PhD in American Literature from Stanford University. Her primary interests are in early American literary culture, 18th and 19th century women writers, nature writing, and writings on "place." In her courses you can expect an interdisciplinary focus, exposure to popular writings of the past, and a dedication to the close reading of texts through a variety of methodologies.
Honors 135 Rhetorics of the American Family
Joan Faber-McAlister
CRN 4396
3 credits
TR 9:30-10:45 a.m.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Rhetorics of the American Family is a special topics course in rhetorical studies that focuses on the politics of public discourse about, and popular representations of, marriage and the family in contemporary American culture. Specific topics covered in the course will include:
• national debates over the status of same-sex relationships and/or marriage,
• usage of the political slogan “family values,”
• struggles over historical representations of the American family,
• discourse on the impact of changing gender roles in domestic space,
• arguments about the role the family plays in communal and national identity and changing representations of sex and love in marriage in popular film, television and magazines.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
This course is intended for students who have already completed SCSR 024 (Rhetoric as a Liberal Art). Honors students who have not completed SCSR 024 may obtain the instructor's permission to waive this pre-requisite.
Majors / Minors / Concentrations: Cross-listed with SCSR 134 (CRN 3173); the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Joan Faber McAlister earned her B.A. in Anthropology and her M.A. in Communication Studies from Boise State University and has a Ph. D. in Rhetorical Studies from the University of Iowa. Joan's research interests include domestic space, suburban culture, visual rhetorics, aesthetic theory, identity politics, and the performance of class, race, gender and sexuality in daily life. Joan has taught a variety of courses in communication and rhetoric, addressing such topics as argumentation, aesthetics, campaign politics, communication theory, rhetorical criticism, and public address.
Honors 137 Women, Madness and Culture
Janet Wirth-Cauchon
CRN 1312
3 credits
TR 12:30-1:45 p.m
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course explores the relationship between gender and socio-cultural definitions of mental health and illness, and examines the history of the treatment of women within the major settings of the mental health system; psychiatry, psychoanalysis and asylum. The first major goal is to understand the social relations of power within which psychiatry emerged and within which women became defined as "hysterical", "irrational" or "mad". A second goal is to chart the relationship between women's social roles and the experience and treatment of mental illness, making use of autobiographical and fictional accounts by women, films and other materials.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
Prerequisite: One entry level sociology or anthropology course or Introduction to Women's Studies (WS1/SOC 75/ENG 75) or instructor consent.
Majors / Minors / Concentrations: Cross-listed with SCSS 137 (CRN 1206); Women’s Studies; the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Janet Wirth-Cauchon received her BA in Anthropology from Western Michigan University and her Ph.D. in Sociology from Boston College. Her current research interests are in the areas of gender studies and feminist theory, the sociology of mental illness, the body and technology, and cultural studies. Her book, Women and Borderline Personality Disorder: Symptoms and Stories is an analysis of the gender meanings used in interpreting women diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. She has taught at Boston College and Bradford College. At Drake she teaches courses on feminist theory, women’s studies, women and madness, psyche and society, and introduction to sociology.
Honors 147 Race, Religion and Civic Culture
Jennifer Harvey
CRN 4438
3 credits
MW 2:00-3:15 p.m.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This honors seminar will engage students in exploring how race and religion have been, and remain, powerful venues of human activity in the United States. We will develop a broad understanding of critical race theories, which argue that race is a social construct. We will then use this understanding as a lens through which to explore ways religion has contributed to the construction of race and racial identities in select moments of U.S. history. This exploration will take into account how religious activity has created and maintained racial stratification, as well as how it has undermined stratification by fueling resistance movements for justice. Throughout the course, emphasis will be on Caucasian, African American and Native American communities. Through a combination of lectures, discussion, readings and research, students will be encouraged to develop critical tools for recognizing and accessing the impact of race and religion on civic culture in the United States. Students will also be encouraged to pursue and to develop "expertise" in a topic of their own choosing that pertains to matters of religion and race in the United States.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
Juniors and seniors only, sophomores with permission of the instructor.
Majors / Minors / Concentrations: Cross-listed with Rel 118 (CRN 4376); Women’s Studies; the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Jennifer Harvey is assistant professor of religion. She just moved to Drake from Brooklyn, New York where she was involved in cross-racial dialogue and organizing against police brutality. Her recently completed Ph.D. is in Christian social ethics and her most recent research has been on movements for reparations for slavery and struggles for sovereignty by Native Americans.
Honors 142 Speaking With Many Voices: A Sampling of Native American Cultures
Vibs Petersen
CRN 4389
3 credits
MW 12:30 p.m- 1:45 p.m.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Speaking with Many Voices aims to take a step toward making audible and visible some aspects of the rich and varied Native American cultures that have flourished on this continent for millenia. During the course of the semester, we shall read novels written by Native Americans, listen to Native American music, traditional and contemporary, get acquainted with Diné, Pueblo, Anashinaabe, Chickasaw, and Lakota histories and myths, and view films by and about Native Americans. We shall also have conversations with Native visitors to the class and speakers as well as visit the web to access Native news and issues important to current Native life. Among other things, we shall familiarize ourselves with some aspects of the quest for Native survival, its failures and successes; with the resistance to Western hegemony and with the fusion of Native and Western discourses. All the while, we shall be careful not to reduce live cultures and agents of such cultures to objects. Therefore, some of the questions we shall be examining are concerned with how we learn about an “Other,” how we engage with cultures we hardly know and often dismiss or exoticize. Should we speak for others, if so, why, and what are the consequences?
The goals are many. Some of the less obvious may be: the discovery of ideas and knowledges that will enhance your own production of knowledge; a glimpse of the histories and cultures of this continent going further back than the last 500 years; an acknowledgement of the presence of peoples who have influenced the American way of life; and a greater realization of your place in the world.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
This course is intended for sophomores, juniors, and seniors. There are no prerequisites.
Majors / Minors / Concentrations: Cross-listed with SCS 143 (CRN 4326); and Women’s Studies; the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Vibs Petersen is Professor of Women's Studies. She was Director of Women's Studies at Drake, 1993-2000. She holds a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from New York University.
Honors 144 War and Memory
Vibs Petersen
CRN 2501
3 credits
T 3:30 p.m - 6:20 p.m
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Some say that television functions as one of culture's primary historians. Movies function along similar lines. What does it mean when movies and TV are the major constituents of a nation's cultural memory? Is it important that most of us rely on commercial visual texts when we want to find out about the past? What about our own memories about events? Can we distinguish what we `really' remember from what others may have told us? Does it matter?
The main aim of the course is to better understand the role of the visual text as the most pervasive and persuasive medium for conveying the past to people of the present. We live in a time with many motivations for mining the past for specific uses - nationalism, reparations, law, trauma, and mourning are but some of the ends. How do we know what we know about the Vietnam War? What has shaped German `knowledge' about the Third Reich? There is no unmediated past and as conscientious citizens we must therefore grapple with the appropriation or creation of private/public memories and cultural memory.
War and Memory will focus on cultural memory and representation. The course will introduce students to various critical and theoretical concepts from (mostly) cultural theory. We shall be
working with visual texts (TV, film, documentaries), literary texts - fiction as well as non-fiction.
|
Possible Films: |
Possible Non/Fiction: |
|
Le grand Illusion |
Benjamin “Exvabation and Memory” |
|
The return of Martin Guerre Adorno |
“The Meaning of Working through |
|
Full Metal Jacket |
Brecht " Mother Courage" |
|
Night of the Shooting Stars |
Germany, Pale Mother |
|
Tim O'Brien |
Trin Min Ha |
|
84 Charlie Mopic |
Last Year in Marienbad |
|
Hiroshima Mon Amour |
and others. |
Gettysburgh, Oliver Stone's Vietnam Movies, and all those old WWII movies about how America won the war (think of Ken Burns TV series about baseball and jazz, or the history channel, for example).
INTENDED AUDIENCE
Junior or Senior level, or permission of instructor.
Majors / Minors / Concentrations: Cross-listed with SCS 150 (CRN 4327); the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Vibs Petersen is Professor of Women's Studies. She was Director of Women's Studies at Drake, 1993-2000. She holds a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from New York University.
Honors 149 Health and Human Rights
Jennifer McCrickerd
CRN 4445
3 credits
MW 9:30 - 10:45 a.m.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
In this course we will look at the intersection of issues in health and social justice. As such, this course pulls from a number of different fields (as it deals with real life and real life seldom fits into the nice disciplines we have), politics, economics, sociology, philosophy, epidemiology, medicine, biology and anthropology (and probably some others). We will spend time looking at international health and justice as well as domestic issues of health and justice. In particular we will discuss the impact of the health of a population on economic and political justice and the impact of economic and political justice on the health of a population. I view this course as an opportunity for intelligent, interesting and interested people to get together and discuss a world situation in a way that leads to better understanding, some avenues of change and, ideally, opportunities for change.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors.
Majors /Minors / Concentrations: Cross-listed with Phil 124 (CRN 4392); the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Dr. Jennifer McCrickerd is Associate Professor of Philosophy and chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion. Prior to joining the Drake faculty in 1994, she attended Wellesley College (B.A.), and her Washington University (M.A., Ph.D.) She has done extensive work on Rawls' Theory of Justice and is currently interested in the area of Health and Social Justice. She was also named the 2003 - 2004 Honors Teacher of the Year.
Honors 151 Science, Cyborgs and Monsters
Joseph Schneider
CRN: 1310
3 credits
R 3:30-6:20 p.m.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course takes a critical look at the production of scientific knowledge and aims to provide a more complex understanding of what kind of worlds and subjects/objects the practices and processes of science create or might create. Feminism provides one of the critical discourses that sees science differently and, as such, provides a center for the course. Other critical resources in the course come from history, sociology, ethnomethodology, postmodernism, literary criticism, cultural studies, and queer theory.
Course readings and discussions will bring about new awareness and understanding in: studying science or scientific practice; class and gender influences in foundational images of scientific practice; science and a “God’s Eye View” of nature as well as “man’s” place in it; feminist and other attempts to deconstruct dominant understandings of science and the production of scientific knowledge; “posthuman” perspectives on the body; the implications of new figures, namely cyborgs, monsters, and queers.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
This course is intended for juniors and seniors. Students studying physical or life science would be introduced to Philosophy of Science concepts and issues.
Majors /Minors / Concentrations: Cross-listed with SCS 150 (CRN 3170); Women’s Studies; the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Joseph Schneider is the Ellis and Nelle Levitt Professor of Sociology. He is interested in the sociology of knowledge and science and has published a paper or two on this question along with a recent short book on feminist science studies scholar Donna Haraway (Donna Haraway: Live Theory, Continuum, 2005).
Honors 156 Modes of Cultural Inquiry
Hosu Kim
CRN 4531
3 credits
T 4:00-6:50 p.m.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
How does a writer's social position affect the production of that writing? In this course students will engage in the practices of analysis, reading and writing which may include discourse analysis, textual analysis, various forms of ethnography, interviewing, and other methods of research and criticism.
In acknowledging that any representation of the social world is constructed by the author, how might an author undertake the ethical and epistemological issues inherent in speaking for others? How should an author construct knowledge about people, cultures, and texts within a given terrain of power relationships? How might we interrogate the notions of objectivity and positivism, and how do these concepts become constructed as the elements of "good research?" What alternative positions might one take in evaluating representations of the social world? As we work through these issues, the class will also examine the complexities of cultural relativism vs. universalism and the problematics as well as strategic uses of essentialism.
These themes will be explored through a consideration of global flows of people as tourists, migrants, and workers, as well as fantasies and objects of desire.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
This course is intended for sophomores, juniors, and seniors who have the following pre-requisites: an entry-level sociology, anthropology or rhetoric course (except public speaking) or permission of instructor.
Majors/Minors/Concentrations: Sociology, Rhetoric, Anthropology, International Relations; Cross-listed with SCSS 135 (CRN 3233); Women’s Studies; the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Hosu Kim received her B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Dong-A University in Busan, Korea, her M.A. in Sociology from Indiana State University in Terre Haute, IN and Ph.D. in Sociology from The City University of New York, The Graduate Center. Her teaching and research interests include Transnational Adoption, Performance Studies, Science & Technologies, Race & Ethnicities, and research methods.
Honors 161 Africa/Atlantic Slave Trade
Glenn McKnight
CRN 3159
3 credits
R 6:00-8:50 p.m.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The immense growth of slavery and slave trade research in the last quarter century has made examinations of unfree labor a major issue for world research. Studies of Atlantic slavery have generated the bulk of that research, and, as a result have challenged many traditional perceptions of that trade and its associated system of slavery. However, despite the unquestioned value of these recent analyses, most of these studies have looked at Atlantic slavery from the American side of the ocean. Consequently, the African nature of Atlantic slavery has often lacked close scrutiny.
This course has two goals:
1) to root Atlantic slavery and its trade in its African context, and
2) to help incorporate recent research findings into popular understandings of the Atlantic trade.
The major argument of this course is that one cannot know why the Atlantic trade happened as it did nor how Atlantic slavery developed as it did without understanding the context which produced the people who were sold into slavery. Therefore, the course looks at the influence political, social, economic, and cultural factors in Africa had on the making of slavery and the slave trade both in Africa and the Americas. In doing so, the course will challenge students to rethink their own notions of Atlantic slavery as they analyze and critique the ideas encountered in this course.
INTENDED AUDIENCE AND DISTRIBUTION
This course is intended for sophomores, juniors and seniors.
Majors/Minors/Concentrations: Cross-listed with HIST 161 (CRN 2505); Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
“When people consider issues of globalization, they often ignore the role Africa and Africans play in the world economy and in global politics; they consider Africa as marginal to processes of globalization. I don't think this is correct and part of my goal in teaching about Africa is to dispel that notion. Recently, myself and some colleagues from the College of Business took a group of Drake students to Uganda on a study abroad course. Once there, students became very aware of the impact of global forces on Uganda and its people and the impact Ugandans have in return. What's interesting is that this same dynamic exists historically in terms of Africa's relationship with the world - a dynamic that is very apparent, ironically enough, in the history of Atlantic slavery.” –Glenn McKnight
Honors 165 Technoscience, Culture and Practice
Joseph Schneider
CRN 3175
3 credits
MW 12:30-1:45 p.m.
This course offers an historical and theoretical overview of the interdisciplinary field called science studies or the social studies of science and technology as it has emerged mostly since the 1970s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The focus moves beyond looking for so-called "social factors" or "forces" thought to influence the social organization of technoscience and technoscientific work to taking the very contents and practices of that work as the objects of critical examination, including the very study thus constituted.
INTENDED AUDIENCE AND DISTRIBUTION
This course is intended for sophomores, juniors and seniors.
Majors / Minors / Concentrations: Cross-listed with SCSS 135 (CRN 3233); Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Joseph Schneider is Professor of Sociology in the Department for the Study of Culture and Society. He long has had an interest in the sociology of knowledge and science and have published a paper or two on this question along with a recent short book on feminist science studies scholar Donna Haraway (Donna Haraway: Live Theory, Continuum, 2005). While feminist science studies is the focus of another course he has taught in the Honors Program for a few years (Science, Cyborgs, & Monsters), this course is intended as a more over-arching look at the social study of science.
Honors 168 Storytelling as a Social Practice
Jody Swilky
CRN 3387
3 credits
M 6:00 p.m - 8:50 p.m AND either film viewing lab (CRN 3390) R 4:30-6:45 p.m. OR film viewing lab (CRN 4378) F 1:45-4:15 p.m.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Storytelling is ancient. As Trinh Minh-ha puts it, "[s]torytelling is the oldest form of building historical consciousness in community." And as a mode of professional discourse, storytelling is also, in one sense, nothing new. Autobiography, the "personal essay," the memoir, the travelogue, and other written genres of storytelling have long enjoyed an important position in the pantheon of Western literary genres. By contrast, there recently has been a move towards a practice of storytelling, which deliberately challenges the boundaries of this reserved space of Western culture for aesthetic self-reflection. What social roles have storytellers played? What are the functions and effects of different approaches to storytelling?
Through reading and writing about different examples and theories of storytelling, you will investigate issues such as the relationship between writer (or speaker), story and reader (or listener), the functions of storytelling, and the place of experience in storytelling. We will consider how and why stories affect us-where we become engaged with parts of the story as well as where we resist or ignore other parts of the story. In other words, we will consider how an approach to storytelling does or does not have power, and consider how social determinants influence our responses to story. You will work in your writings towards a better command of yourself as a writing subject shaped by story and narrative as well as your relationship to communities, audiences, and the broader culture.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
Prerequisites: One course numbered Eng. 20-99 or above, a comparable course in philosophy, rhetoric, psychology, the study of culture, or permission from instructor. Contact jody.swilky@drake.edu to request permission if necessary.
This course should be valuable to students who have an interest in rhetoric, literature, social sciences, cultural studies, and discourse theory and practice.
Majors / Minors / Concentrations: Cross-listed with Eng 168 (CRN 3128); Women’s Studies; the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Jody Swiky is Professor of English and co-producer of a new documentary (A Little Salsa on the Prairie: The Changing Character of Perry, Iowa). He has taught honors courses since 1990. In graduate school and at Drake University, he has taught writing-intensive courses that emphasize student participation, critical thinking, and the close reading of texts. He also has taught courses in language theory and philosophical rhetoric.
Honors 169 Telling Our Lives: Narrative Medicine
John Rovers
CRN 3477
MW 3:30-4:45 p.m.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
There is no question that the health care professions are science-based. Our epistemology of health care practice - our way of knowing who we are and what we do - is increasingly evidence based. We know what to do based on our science and our science tells us what the right drug is, the best dose to choose and the adverse events to monitor for.
Patient care is taught according to the biomedical model. We know patients have a disease when we can measure a problem with their biology. Epilepsy is misfiring neurons and congestive heart failure is poor pumping action of the heart. This thinking is reductionist--it reduces the patient to her simplest elements of a few malfunctioning cells or a broken organ system.
Certainly health care education has been successful for many years, using the epistemology and reductionism I describe. But, the longer I teach and the longer I think about it, the more I am convinced that our epistemology and its attendant reductionism, although not actually wrong, are inadequate. It is this inadequacy that I will try to redress in this course.
In my view, although we as practitioners are our science and our patients are their biology, we are not only our science and our patients are not only their biology. Our patients and ourselves are also our stories. People lead biographical lives, not just biological ones. The most significant unmet need of any patient is the need to be heard as a person and not just seen as defective biology.
Science, with its attendant epistemology and reductionism will continue to be the cornerstone of the educational model for the healing professions. But it's not enough. Simply stated, my hope for this course is to mitigate some of health care education's epistemological and reductionist limitations by encouraging students to see patients in a fuller and more complete manner.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
The target audience is Juniors and Seniors but Freshmen and Sophomores may enroll if enrollment seats are available.
COURSE GOALS
After completing this course, the student will be able to:
1.Define and describe what narrative medicine is;
2. Explain how narrative medicine can be practiced by both health care providers and the lay public;
3. Apply the principles of narrative medicine to a written text;
4. Analyze the writer's medical narrative in a written text;
5. Create the medical narrative for a person with a chronic illness.
Course Content
The primary proponent of Narrative Medicine is Rita Charon who holds a PhD in English literature in addition to being a Board Certified Internist.
Initially, I will teach in an interactive lecture fashion, just what Charon is telling us. Then, using Charon's book, I will guide students in applying her principles to one of the secondary textbooks. We will read the book closely to see how each principle applies.
Once students have learned the principles of narrative medicine and seen it work, it then becomes time for them to apply the principles on their own. Students will be required to work in teams of 2 - 4 to apply them to the remaining books from the reading list.
Finally, students will work in pairs to interview a chronically ill patient. The principles of narrative medicine will be applied to each taped interview during class discussion. Each team of students will then write up their interpretation of their patient's narrative and turn that in as the course's capstone experience.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
This course is intended for all levels.
Majors /Minors / Concentrations: the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
John Rovers is Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice and has taught an FYS (Perceptions of Illness: How We View the Sick) since 2001. His teaching and research interests include unbundling the tacit knowledge that forms the practice of patient care. He was awarded the Honors Program Teacher of the Year prize, May 2008.
Honors 191 Women and Hebrew Scriptures
Sally Frank
CRN 1304
3 credits
M 4:00 p.m – 6:50 p.m
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The basics of the course include reading Biblical accounts involving women and various commentaries on those Biblical accounts with a critical eye. These accounts will include Genesis, The Red Tent and The Five Books of Miriam. The goal is to come to an understanding of how the Jewish Bible deals with issues involving women and how such an understanding can help us understand issues today.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
This course is intended for juniors and seniors.
Students should work with faculty advisor. Recommended for Communication-Writing Skills, Communication-Speaking Skills, Critical Thinking, Multicultural and International, Values and Ethics, and Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
Majors / Minors / Concentrations: Cross-listed Rel 151 (CRN 3337); Women’s Studies; the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Sally Frank, Professor of Law, studies Women's Rights and also brought and won a landmark sex discrimination case against Princeton University and its all-male eating clubs. Her publication "Eve Was Right to Eat the Apple: The Importance of Narrative to the Art of Lawyering," Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, is a re-examination of the Eve narrative that proposes criminal defenses that Eve might have used. Professor Frank organizes and provides representation for survivors of domestic violence, and she is an activist with peace organizations.
Study Abroad and Honors
Study abroad is an experience that the Honors Program would like to encourage. It can challenge student’s assumptions about the world and open them up to a better understanding of both cultures outside of the United States and to the culture they left behind here in the U.S. And so when students take a semester or year abroad in a program where they are transferring credit back to Drake, we would like to offer them the opportunity to apply some of those credits toward the Honors Program. Students will, therefore, be able to apply three credits from their study abroad experience if they do the following:
1) Fill out the request for study abroad credit form detailing the program you will be attending, the courses you expect to be taking, (we realize that can change), and the number of Drake credits you expect to earn while abroad. And obtain the signature of the Director of the Honors Program.
2) Keep a journal during their time abroad.
3) Upon return, write an analytical essay that reflects some aspect of their study abroad experience. The specific topic will be chosen by the student in consultation with the Director of the Honors Program. Potential topics include a look at how the experience of study abroad changed their thinking about some important topic, an examination of some aspect of the culture in which they studied, a contrast between the United States and the nation where they were, etc.
4) Make a public presentation, possibly as part of a panel made up of other Honors students who were abroad during the same semester they were, focused on their experiences abroad.
In order to do this, the student must fill out the study abroad credit form (available in the Honors office) prior to their going abroad. Students who return from study abroad and then decide they want to do this will not be allowed to do so.
The three credits that apply to the Honors Program are not additional credits beyond what was earned in the study abroad program. Rather, we will count three of those credits earned as being an “honors class.”
This offer only applies to a study abroad experience where the student is earning at least 12 credits for their study abroad experience. Single classes offered by Drake (in the interim, for example) would only count for Honors credit if they had been approved as Honors classes. Traveling on your own or with friends or family, no matter how educational it might be, will not count either. Summer programs could qualify if they earn 12 or more transfer credits.
Request for Credits for Study Abroad Experience
Name: ____________________________
Banner ID Number: _________________
Semester(s) of planned study abroad experience: ______________
Location of the program and sponsoring academic institution:
Courses expecting to take:
Credits expecting to be earned toward a Drake degree: _________
I understand that in order to have three of these credits apply toward the Honors Program, I will:
1) Keep a journal during my time abroad.
2) Upon return, write an analytical essay on some topic relating to my experience abroad. The topic will be chosen by me in consultation with, and with the approval of, the Director of the Honors Program.
3) Upon return, make a public presentation concerning my experience abroad. This presentation may be part of a group of Honors students who have also studied abroad, or it may be done as an individual presentation.
Signature: _____________________________ Date: ____________
Signature of Honors Director: ________________ Date: ____________
Honors 198 Honors Independent Study (CRN 3492)
Honors 199 Honors Senior Thesis/Project (CRN 1061)
Interested students and faculty advisors for honors independent studies or senior theses should direct their questions to Dr. Arthur Sanders, Honors Program Director. The preliminary agreement to enroll form is available at the HonorsProgram web-site, http://www.drake.edu/honors/forms. Students should sign the form and give it to the Honors Director, Dr. Arthur Sanders (Meredith Hall, room 212). The form must be submitted to Dr. Sanders before enrollment is allowed in the course. Course proposal forms (and senior thesis grant forms) are available in the Honors Program office as well. Students are asked to prepare a 1-2 page proposal summary and submit it, with the appropriate form, to the faculty project mentor and to the Honors Program Director for their signatures of approval. The form is due within three weeks of the start of the semester. Students will be asked to present their findings at a student/faculty forum held prior to the student’s graduation.
Intent to Change to Honors Program Track of Drake Curriculum Requirements
Name (print)
Advisor
Identification Number
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Major College(s)/School(s) |
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BN |
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JO |
PH |
Please read and check:
I wish to complete the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum "Areas of Inquiry” requirements, effective immediately (http://www.drake.edu/dc). Please change my computer and hard copy records accordingly.
I understand that if I decide not to complete the Honors Program Track, only those classes which the faculty adviser feels are suitable for the “Areas of Inquiry” category will count towards Drake Curriculum requirements.
I also understand that there is not a GPA requirement for completing the Honors Program Track of the Drake Curriculum, however a 3.5 GPA cumulative, an FYS and an Honors Senior Thesis is required in order to receive recognition for completing the Honors Program with University Honors at the Drake University Commencement.
Submit signed form to the Honors Program Office, Medbury 206/209. Copies will be sent to the appropriate Dean’s Office.
STUDENT SIGNATURE DATE
ADVISOR SIGNATURE DATE
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MW |
TR |
PM Classes (not incl. labs) |
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9:30-10:45 a.m |
HONR 149 (McCrickerd) |
HONR 124 (West)
HONR 135 (McAlister) |
"M 6:00-8:50 p.m HONR 164 (Swilky)"
“M 4:00-6:50 p.m. "MW 3:30-4:45 p.m. |
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11:00-12:15 p.m |
HONR 118 (Knepper) HONR 100 (Lyons/Petersen) |
HONR 72
HONR 100 (McCrickerd) |
“T 3:30-6:20 p.m
“T 4:00-6:50 p.m.
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12:30-1:45 p.m |
HONR 137 (Wirth-Cauchon)
HONR 165 HONR 142 (Petersen) |
HONR 78 (Sanders) HONR 122 (Gasaway) HONR 100 (Cairns/Skidmore) |
"R 6:00-8:50 p.m
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2:00-3:15 p.m |
HONR 88 (Patrick) HONR 147 (Harvey) |