Spring 2011
FRESHMAN SEMINAR PROGRAM
UNCG College of Arts and Sciences
Marker Abbreviations:
WI: Writing Intensive
SI: Speaking Intensive
GL: Global Perspectives
GN: Global Non-Western
Perspectives
These seminars are open only to students who will be freshmen in the Spring 2011 semester. For the most current information including location of
the class, see UNCGenie on the web: www.uncg.edu. (TBA means To Be Announced) We encourage students not to sign up for a seminar without
first reading the course description and not to sign up for more than one seminar. Talk with your advisor about registering for a seminar. A more
in depth description of the class is available on the web at http://www.uncg.edu/aas/fms .
REASONING AND DISCOURSE II
Also carries credit equivalent to ENG 102. You may not receive credit for both FMS 116 and ENG 102.
Course
GEC category: GRD
Days/Time/Place
Course Title/Description
Instructor
FMS
116-01
SI
T, R
8:00-9:15a.m.
TBA
Jacob
Babb
FMS
116-02
FMS
116-03
SI
T, R
9:30-10:45a.m.
T, R
12:30-1:45 p.m.
TBA
FMS
116-04
SI
T, R
2:00-3:15 p.m.
Eyes on the Street: Reading Cityscapes, Real and Imagined. Cities figure prominently in our understanding
of the human condition. In the United States, more than three-quarters of the population resides in cities. From
television shows such as Sex and the City and Deadwood to films such as Metropolis and Inception, the image
of the city plays a prominent role in our cultural imagination. This course will focus on ways of interpreting
cityscapes, real and imagined. We will look at visuals of cityscapes, read non-fiction accounts of life in/of
cities, and read fictional works that depend heavily on cityscapes. The projects, both written and spoken, will
be built on our inquiries into questions concerning urban life.
Eyes on the Street: Reading Cityscapes, Real and Imagined.
See FMS 116-01 for course description.
Drama, Scandal, and Rhetoric in American Life. Be the star lawyer or key witness in a gripping court
battle; use cunning arguments to win the minds of a jury of your peers. Fill the shoes of a community leader
who makes decisions that affect thousands; further your own political agenda while protecting your
scandalous secrets. In this course, we will use large-scale role-playing activities to explore of the ethical
challenges that face modern democratic societies. The course will begin with philosophical readings and
discussion of concepts in moral and political theory, apply those concepts in a series of role-playing mock
legal trials where your character will try to persuade a jury, and conclude with a three-week-long role-playing
game where you will fight for your character’s agenda and try to uncover the secrets of your rivals.
Drama, Scandal, and Rhetoric in American Life.
See FMS 116-03 for course description.
Days/Time/Place
Course Title/Description
Instructor
Kaleidoscope Eyes-- Sliding Realities in Literature. Friedrich Nietzsche claimed “There are no facts, only
interpretations.” In recent years, this notion has been utilized in television and film in order to construct
interpretive realities. Popular shows such as Lost, The Wire, and Six Feet Under along with films as varied as
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button all play with the
construction of unstable or shifting realities. In this cultural climate, then, one begins to wonder at what point
does our shared conception of reality begin to break down and individual perceptions begin to prevail? This
class seeks to explore that complex territory through the lens of multiple realities present in some key literary
texts. Throughout the course, our exploration of sliding realities will require that we delve into the scientific,
the spiritual, the esoteric, and, finally, the artistic planes. We will read texts from a variety of genres in order
to better understand how shifting realities inform literature and our larger cultural climate. The answers we
generate will likely lead to more questions…yet, hopefully, also offer up some points of synthesis and
comparison from which we can move forward.
Kaleidoscope Eyes-- Sliding Realities in Literature.
See FMS 120-01 for course description.
Urban Imaginaries: Literature and The City in the 20 th Century. In this class we will look at texts that both
celebrate and denigrate the rise of the city and its accompanying technologies, speed, social mobility and
alienation. We will examine ways of reading and representing the city and the new forms of identity that city
dwellers could claim and manipulate. This class will consider how the rapid rise of the city has changed our
ways of thinking about and operating in the world today. We will read literary reactions to the rise of the city
focusing on the twentieth-century with an emphasis on cosmopolitan viewpoints. In addition to primary texts,
we will read theory that uses the city as a model for ways of reading texts and modern urban spaces. We will
examine the development of differing cultural and aesthetic representations of the city over time, ending with
recent postmodern turns toward post-urban representations and their global consequences.
Metamorphoses: Literature, Film, & Radical Change in the Modern World. The class will first read a few
of the “miraculous” myths from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, such as Arachne turning into a spider. Then from the
“empirical” modern era radical change in such writers as Wallace, Kafka, and Woolf. Films will be viewed
that treat “morphing” and scientific concepts delved into such as genetic mutation and sub-atomic physics.
Every time a baby is born 400 mutations take place in the genome and 4 of them probably significant ones. In
a few seconds the atoms of Hiroshima looked like a mushroom. One scientist has determined that since the
Big Bang around 70 major emergences have occurred such as biotic life or human speech. There is no reason
not to think a 71st is on the way.
Erotic Poetry in Greece and Rome. This course surveys concepts of love, both emotional and physical, in
ancient Greece and Rome through their expression in poetry. We will attempt to understand what love was—
and was not—to an ancient reader of erotic poetry and how this conception may differ wildly from modern
ideas of love. This course also examines ancient concepts of sexuality and gender, which provide the
essential background to Greco-Roman love poetry. The importance of Greco-Roman love poetry to the
creation of the modern concept of “romantic love”—and its enormous influence on Western literature and
music—will be a focus throughout.
This class is cross-listed with Strong Residential College; 5 spaces are reserved for Strong College
Cheryl
Marsh
SI
LITERATURE
Course
Christopher
Metivier
GEC category: GLT
FMS
120-01
WI
T, R
12:30-1:45 p.m.
TBA
FMS
120-02
FMS
120-03
WI
T, R
11:00-12:15 p.m.
T, R
2:00-3:15p.m.
TBA
FMS
120-04
WI
T, R
5:00-6:15 p.m.
TBA
FMS
120-05
WI
T, R
2:00-3:15 p.m.
WI
Jacob
Babb
Christopher
Metivier
Cheryl
Marsh
Craig
Morehead
Charles
Tisdale
Patrick
Beasom
FMS
120-06
WI
M,W,F
8:00-8:50 a.m.
FMS
121-01
WI
GL
T, R
2:00-3:15 p.m.
Reading Daniel Boone. Who was Daniel Boone: Patriot or Tory? Indian killer or Indian lover? Solitary
wanderer or family man? And what was it really like to live in the North Carolina and Kentucky
backcountries, 250 years ago? This class considers these questions by asking what fiction can possibly teach
us about history. We will read a biography of Daniel Boone and historical documents; we also will consider
poem, novels, TV, and films such as The Last of the Mohicans. Students may write about historical
documents or on one historical novel of their own choosing.
Collision, Collusion, and Connection: Cross-Cultural Experience in Contemporary Fiction. In this course
we will read contemporary fiction that depicts the intermingling of cultures, traditions, and worldviews. From
Chang-rae Lee’s harrowing narrative of espionage, Native Speaker, to Tayib Salih’s recent novel Season of
Migration to the North, the story of man who comes home to Sudan to be an educator after studying at
Oxford, we will read texts whose characters “collide, collude, and connect” with people, places, and traditions
different from what they know. We will read novels and short stories, as well as a graphic novel, Marjane
Satrapi’s acclaimed Persepolis. Classes will be discussed based and led by student facilitators. Assignments
will include two shorter papers and one longer reader-response paper.
Days/Time/Place
Course Title/Description
Instructor
Acting Change in America: Human Rights Onstage. In this course we will look at the rich legacy of
American plays that have, at their center, the struggle for equality in a chaotic world. These dramas reflect the
nation’s political, social, and moral norms which have been in constant flux in the tumultuous 20th century
and they bring into sharp focus the troubling prejudices and conformities that have influenced and sometimes
dominated our culture.
Modern American Art through Controversy. The history of modern American art has been shaped by
themes and issues that have reappeared over the course of the 20th century, frequently becoming highly
publicized controversies. The rapid sequence of styles and movements (Realism to Abstract Expressionism to
Pop Art to “art off the easel”) are woven together by an aesthetic of independence and individualism.
American artists of the 20th century simultaneously embraced and challenged standards of public taste. This
course will examine many of the controversies that shaped modern American art, including the role of art
critics, outsider art, public funding, and the role of museums.
Reading Art—A Visual Primer for Understanding Art in Its Historical Context. Everyone looks at art, but
what do we see? What did the artist think we’d see? What about the person who wanted the work made—the
patron—what would he or she have hoped we’d see? And how do we know? This class hopes to answer
these questions. By looking at six famous works of art (including architecture) from across time and around
the world, we will examine the tools necessary to look at and interpret art both as a thing with meaning for us
and as a document that reveals something of the time and place where it was made. No previous experience
studying art or art history is assumed. This class will include out-of-class fieldtrips to museums in the Triad
and Triangle regions.
French Films and Their American Adaptations: Cinematic Comparisons between French and American
Cultures. This course will focus on discussing French films and their American adaptations. One class
period, students will discuss a French film, and the next class period will be dedicated to its American
adaptation. Students will study the cinematic adaptation as well as French culture through a range of films.
While discovering French culture, students will also reflect on their own culture. We will begin the course by
reading and practicing writing about cinema and the study of film. Students will then watch and discuss
cultural, historical, and political issues found in the assigned films. French filmmakers Jean-Marie Poiré and
Francis Weber will provide the class with blockbusters comedies mixing humor with historical and
sociological issues with films such as Le Père Noël est une ordure, Les visiteurs, La chèvre, and Les
compères. Daniel Vigne, Luc Besson, Henri-Georges Clouzot will offer the students an opportunity to watch
other cinematic genres and address different cultural topics. Finally, students will study the cinema of the
French New Wave with Godard’s À bout de souffle. After watching and studying four films, there will also be
a class discussion to give students the opportunity to further their thoughts on the films and to complete a
group exercise in class.
Jeff
West
FINE ARTS
Course
WI
M,W,F
10:00-10:50 a.m.
FMS
130-02
WI
T, R
11:00-12:15 p.m.
TBA
FMS
131-01
WI
SI
T, R
3:30-4:45 p.m.
FMS
131-02
WI
GL
T, R
12:30-1:45 p.m.
PHILOSOPHICAL, RELIGIOUS, AND ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
Jennifer
Reich
A. Lawrence
Jenkins
Bertrand
Landry
GEC category: GPR
Days/Time/Place
Course Title/Description
Instructor
Philosophy and Science Fiction. Throughout the ages, philosophers have been concerned with formulating
and reformulating a variety of concepts trying to answer the big questions concerning the nature of reality,
morality, and the soul, as well as developing and defending the idea of the ideal society and the ideal person.
Under the umbrella of science fiction, both the film industry and the literary world have created stories that
challenge these philosophical ideals and offer up varying interpretations that stretch these concepts,
sometimes to the breaking point. This class will explore some of these stories and perhaps arrive at a better
understanding of these philosophical theories and how they might impact humanity.
Warfare and Morality. War brings whole nations into violent conflict. This course will examine questions
such as: How can we justify war when it is going to end up killing lots of people? If we can justify a war,
then what kind of moral rules should govern our military actions? Who should be targeted, and how should
we decide? How important is winning the war? Does it matter how we win? How should we treat our
opponents during and after a war?
Warfare and Morality.
See FMS 140-02 for course description.
Ethics and Cognitive Science. Recent advances in cognitive science have profoundly altered our
understanding of ethics and of the role of the mind in moral choice. This course will examine the implications
of cognitive science for ethics by examining moral traditions in a variety of the world’s religions in light of
these recent advances. After an initial discussion of the cognitive dimensions of morality and religion, we will
concentrate on three geographical areas and their dominant traditions—from South Asia: the Buddhist
tradition; from East Asia: Confucian and Daoist systems of thought and practice; and from the West:
Zoroastrian and Christian traditions. We will approach these traditions and their ethical systems through
reading a variety of classic and/or sacred texts and supplement these through lectures and secondary studies,
and then analyze ethical traditions through methodologies offered by cognitive science. We will also examine
how these ethical systems were instantiated through non-textual means, such as art and ritual, and how these
additional means also sought to inculcate moral practice.
Barbara
Hands
FMS
140-01
WI
T, R
11:00-12:15p.m.
TBA
FMS
140-02
WI
T, R
2:00-3:15p.m.
TBA
FMS
140-03
FMS
142-01
WI
T, R
3:30-4:45p.m.
T, R
2:00-3:15p.m.
TBA
WI
Will
Duffy
GEC category: GFA
FMS
130-01
Course
Hope
Hodgkins
Michael
Matteson
Michael
Matteson
D. Neil
Schmid
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES: Modern
Course
Course Title/Description
Instructor
Hollywood And History: Truth, Lies, and Videotape. The tragic elements of many eras in American history
are almost irresistible to script writers and producers who make them into big-budget films that often take
huge historical leaps over the real story. Of course, no one expects movie makers to be historians, nor is that
their job, technically—their job is to make good films. Yet the visual images of movies last far longer than
any lecture; the characterizations and plotlines in films persist even over the protests of frustrated historians.
Movies, in reality, represent history for many of us.
This class is cross-listed with Ashby Residential College; 11 spaces are reserved for Residential College
Shaking Things Up: Southern Movements for Social Justice from the Great Depression to the Present.
How do we know what we know about African Americans, women, LGBTQ people, working class people
and their allies in movements for social justice in the South? What do race, class, gender and sexuality have
to do with social movements? What difference do social movements make? How are the stories of social
movements presented and re-presented? In this active and interactive course, we will use a “case study”
approach to explore these questions and more. As part of our learning, we’ll do quite a bit of reading and
writing, as well as visit three local museums, watch a few films, and have lively small and large group class
discussions.
Latino Immigrants in U.S. Society. An analysis of Latino immigration to the United States with a special
emphasis on the diversity of the immigration experience by national origin, region of settlement, and gender.
In order to understand this experience, we will pay particular attention to the histories of Latino immigration
to the United States in order to identify similarities between the receptions of Latino immigrant groups and
other immigrants in history. We will also discuss predominant theories of international immigration,
relationships between the historical and contemporary context, immigration policy, and the adaptation of
Latino immigrants in the U.S
Christine
Flood
FMS
160-01
WI
M,W,F
10:00-10:50 a.m.
Mary Foust 128
FMS
160-02
WI
M,W
3:30-4:45p.m.
TBA
FMS
162-01
WI,
GN
T,R
11:00-12:15p.m.
TBA
SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL STUDIES
Course
Instructor
A. Leigh
Sink
FMS
170-02
WI
M,W,F
10:00-10:50a.m.
TBA
FMS
170-03
WI
M,W,F
3:30-4:45 p.m.
TBA
MATHEMATICS
WI
GEC category: GSB
War and Conflict. It has been estimated that there has been a war somewhere in the world 94% of the time
since the dawn of civilization. Why does mankind periodically organize himself for armed conflict and
warfare? This course will begin by asking these questions and try to answer them through an examination of
the United States’ involvement in war and conflict over the last hundred years.
Fans, Athletes, and Sports in Modern Society. This course investigates the place of sport in society with a
special emphasis on identity. Social identities are clearly an important factor in how a person understandings
his or her sense of self and place in society—and identities formed in and around the issue of sport are
becoming increasingly important in late modern societies. As such we’ll be looking at how these identities are
achieved and disengaged for both athletes and fans. Central to this discussion will be issues of race, gender,
and sexual orientation.
What Makes a Community? This course is designed to provide students with a theoretical and applied
understanding of community from a sociological perspective. The content and assignments of the course are
driven by the essential question, “what makes a community?” This question is given applied significance
through emphasis on service-learning experiences within the Greensboro nonprofit community, as well as
through oral and written reflections. Students will study the structure of communities, why communities
matter, and how communities may be formed, changed and/or dissolved. Students will examine the people,
relationships, and institutions that create communities. Students will address the attitudes and behaviors of
individuals through an exploration of society’s responsiveness to pressing social issues facing our
communities.
This course is restricted to residents of the Make a Difference House Program.
T,R
9:30-10:45a.m.
TBA
FMS
195-01
Antonio
de la Cova
Course Title/Description
WI
Course
Isabell
Moore
Days/Time/Place
FMS
170-01
SVL
GEC/CAR category: GHP/GMO
Days/Time/Place
Steven
O’Boyle
Cathy
Hamilton
GEC/CAR category: GMT
Days/Time/Place
Course Title/Description
Instructor
T,R
11:00-12:15p.m.
Mathematics in Modern Culture. Mathematics permeates our modern existence. Any time you make a credit
card payment online, play a game of Sudoku, unknot the cord of your laptop computer, or solve a Rubik's
cube there are deep mathematical principles involved. In this course we'll examine the background of these
and many other topics. We'll answer questions like, how many games of Sudoku are there. Why is it news
when they find a new prime number? What is the Butterfly Effect? What is a fractal?
Gregg
Bell