LSFY 103 Course Descriptions, Spring 2013/14
2/10/14
Music’s Role in War (Keehn)
LSFY 103-01
MWF 1:00-2:15 pm
LSFY 103-15
MWF 2:30-3:45 pm
Music is a unique facet of humanity that has long been a part of daily life. This class will examine the use of music
as a tool: one that inspires, creates unity, and creates disparity. More specifically we will look at the role music has
played in selected 20th – 21st century wars as a form of propaganda, protest, entertainment, and control. This class
will reach far beyond the traditional role of music in warfare and look to how music infiltrated the daily life of those
affected by war. We will explore such issues as: What power did a musician hold in WWII? How has and does
music enhance military recruiting propaganda? How has music been used as a method of interrogation and weapon
of torture? And can music bring people together despite other fundamental differences?
Race in America (Croll)
LSFY 103-02
MWF 10:00 am-11:15 pm
What do you know about race in America? How often do you think about race? How do you feel about your own
race? Are you uncomfortable talking about race? What is the significance of race in the United States in the 21st
century? Are we post-racial? Are we colorblind? Should we be? These are just some of the questions we will tackle
in this course. As members of our society, each of you has distinctive life experiences and knowledge about race,
but we will be looking at race in American using a sociological framework. This means that we will be moving
beyond the individual, both in opinions and experience, to look at broad social patterns and social institutions. We
will be looking at race in a broad sense by examining how race affects all individuals.
Creating a New Community—The Gay and Lesbian Community after WW II (Bengston)
LSFY 103-03
TTh 12:30-2:20 pm
The course will study how, by intention, the gay and lesbian community changed attitudes towards homosexuality.
(In other words, there is such a thing as a “gay agenda.”) The course particularly looks at attitudes in America, but
also Europe. More broadly, we will consider the creation of the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender/queer community
itself. This community was created by those who felt a need for it. In other words, it did not spring up of its own
accord, but rather was the result of individuals working hard to make the world a better place. The major paper of
the course requires the student to select an institution with significant relevance to this process of change and
examine its history. Primary sources are, of course, the key to advancing the thesis that producing changes in
cultural attitudes and norms was intentional. Secondary sources will also be useful.
The Soul of Harry Potter (Priggie)
LSFY 103-04
MWF 2:30-3:45 pm
This course will consider the soul transformation that Harry Potter undergoes and that readers themselves experience
while reading the Harry Potter books. Special focus will be upon the final book in the series, Harry Potter and The
Deathly Hallows. We will read the primary text of that novel alongside an excellent interpretive work, The Deathly
Hallows Lectures, by John Granger. A special feature of the class is a weekend retreat, March 28-30, 2014. Each
student will choose a controversial issue in the interpretation of the Potter books and will write a major paper on that
theme.
Notes:
1. Because the class discussion assumes a familiarity with the Potter series, all seven books must be read
prior to the beginning of the course.
2. Because the Class Retreat is one of the course requirements, attendance is mandatory. Students who
cannot arrange to be present for the entire retreat, Friday evening, March 28, through Sunday midafternoon, March 30, should not register for this course.
3. This course carries a $50 additional lab fee per student to help defray approximately one-fourth of the
costs of the retreat. The other three-fourths of retreat costs are subsidized by Augustana College.
Urban (School) Legends? Examining Conditions in Inner City Schools (Egan)
LSFY 103-05
TTh
12:30-2:20 pm, plus a required volunteer commitment on Tuesdays from 3:00-5:00
In this course, students will engage with challenging questions related to urban schooling in America via academic
study (reading, discussion, library research) and direct experience (volunteer work in a west Rock Island elementary
school, communicating with south Chicago teenagers, visiting urban schools). Issues we’ll explore include
continuing concerns about segregation, disparities in the distribution of material resources across schools, disparities
in access to challenging curricula, problematic notions of educational opportunity, challenges posed by immigration,
and proposed yet unproven “solutions” to urban school problems. Students will focus their studies on a specific
issue and produce a qualitative research paper integrating arguments from the literature with original data gleaned
from their own work in urban schools. NOTE: This section of LSFY 103 carries Augustana's official servicelearning course designation. A weekly volunteer commitment on Tuesdays from 3pm-5pm is a course
requirement. Transportation to and from the volunteer site will be provided. Contact the instructor for more
information.
Wax Dolls and Wrecking Balls: Gender and Sexuality in Scandinavia and the US (Mier-Cruz)
LSFY 103-06
TTh
2:30-4:20 pm
In your final sequence of LSFY, we will explore the question “How do we embrace the challenges of our diverse
and changing world?” In this particular course, we will survey the trajectory of diverse representations of gender and
sexuality in Scandinavian culture, public policy, and politics that reflect society today. We will then use the Nordic
countries as a point of reference for our study of gender and sexuality in the US. The Scandinavian countries
comprise an historically progressive region that champions gender equality within their individual social welfare
states, but the region is not without its gender troubles. This course will thus juxtapose American and Scandinavian
primary sources (and one Polish source) in a way that compares traditional and contemporary socio-cultural
approaches to the body, sex, and expressions of gender. For example, we will explore feminist and misogynist
responses to Europe’s turn of the century “Woman Question”; non-heteronormative narratives of lesbian, gay, and
transgender identities; and, finally, drag queens and the performativity of gender.
The Politics of Dystopia (Faber)
LSFY 103-07
MWF 10:00-11:15 am
Political thinkers have been considering the concept of a perfect society for thousands of years. From Plato’s
Republic to Thomas More’s Utopia, Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward, and B.F. Skinner’s Walden Two, not to
mention various communitarian ideological positions including Marxism, we continue to grapple with this idea that
society might be perfected. It is not difficult, however, to twist such utopias into darker visions in which freedom is
curtailed and the human spirit crushed. In many cases, all that is required for this shift is a different perspective: one
man’s perfection might be another’s nightmare. In this course we will examine this concept of dystopia, exploring
how and why utopias might go bad and why the concept of dystopia seems to have such a hold on our collective
consciousness. We will read Looking Backward, Brave New World, and several other dystopian works, and we will
watch several films. We will focus especially on the political aspects of both utopia and dystopia, and how
seemingly innocent policies might transform society into something unexpectedly dark and dangerous.
Welcome to the Anthropocene, or Who’s Steering This Ship? (Fockler)
LSFY 103-08
TTh
8:30-10:20 am
This course attempts to tell the story of how one species changed a planet. We’ve entered a period in the earth’s
history that some scientists are calling the Anthropocene – a new geologic epoch in which human activity, more than
any other force, steers change on the planet. Fueled by coal and oil, the industrial revolution connected the far
corners of the world. Medical discoveries saved millions of people and extended lives. Artificial fertilizers and
modified planting regimes meant we could feed more people. Population exploded. Globalization fueled enormous
growth. Cities grew and became even greater generators of invention and ingenuity. Never have so many people had
so much; yet, one billion people on the planet are malnourished. Thousands of species are threatened and
endangered. Humans move more earth and sediment than all natural processes such as erosion and rivers. We
manage ¾ of all land. Sea level is rising. Deltas are failing because of dams and water diversion. The world is losing
biodiversity. We are altering the earth’s natural cycles. Can the same inventiveness and ingenuity that initiated this
cycle help us find our way out? This course looks at the way man has altered the planet and asks students to conduct
research that very much embraces “the challenges of our diverse and changing world.”
Morality and Artificial Intelligence (Gould)
LSFY 103-09
MWF 11:30 am -12:45 pm
Machines are becoming more advanced every year, and so are developments in artificial intelligence. For
decades, researchers from a wide variety of disciplines have written about the philosophical implications of artificial
intelligence. However, scholars have only recently begun to seriously approach the connection between morality and
artificial intelligence. In this class, we will examine some of the recent, interdisciplinary questions that this topic
raises. For example, Could a machine ever be a moral agent? and, What can the challenge of programming artificial
moral agents tell us about human morality?
Civil Rights “Postracial” World (Chambers-Samadi)
LSFY 103-10
MWF 10:00-11:15 am
On this final term of your first year at Augustana College, you are expected to further develop skills and scholarly
habits in a particular disciplinary or in interdisciplinary study focusing on one specific research project. This section
of LSFY103 will focus on contemporary cultural exchanges between France and the United States. In order to
understand the concept of a ‘postracial’ world, we will look at the differences in perceptions of Race in France and
in the United States. This will enable us to examine the concept itself, allowing us to evaluate the contribution of
The Civil Rights Movement in contemporary debates on Race. Within the framework you will develop a question
that addresses diversity and the challenges facing a global world.
Risk and Rationality (Parvin)
LSFY 103-11
MWF 10:00 am-11:15 pm
The concept of rationality seems almost as basic as the concept of thought itself. Even though none of us is
perfectly rational, we'd like to think we can come close – especially when confronted with hard choices that affect
our well-being and the well-being of others. At the very least, we'd like to believe that we understand what
rationality is, even if it represents an unachievable ideal. But the closer we look, the less it seems there is a single
ideal. We will examine competing accounts of rationality and risk management from the perspective of different
fields, cultures, and times.
Globalization and Its Discontents (Zhang)
LSFY 103-13
MWF 1:00-2:15 pm
From many sources we hear the constant refrain that our world is increasingly globalized, interconnected, and
interdependent. We also see evidence of this here and there in our own lives. But the story of globalization is more
complex than this. In this course, we will explore the many dimensions of globalization—the global mobility of
money, information, cultures, and people, to name a few. Just as there are many dimensions to globalization, there
are many competing visions of it, the most dominant of which is the neoliberal vision. While it is uncontroversial
that globalization is happening, one of the most important questions of our time is what it should look like. Many
other questions will also be explored. How global is globalization? Do men and women benefit/suffer equally in a
globalized economy? Can globalization ensure transnational justice? These questions will motivate us throughout
the course.
Think Globally, Eat Locally? (Strunk)
LSFY 103-16
MWF 10:00-11:15 am
Americans are increasingly interested in knowing where our food comes from. While local and organic food
movements have become popular in recent years, the global food system remains highly unequal and continues to
have negative social and environmental impacts. In this course, we will critically examine industrial agriculture,
focusing on the environment and the health of workers and consumers as well as recent global food crises and
disease outbreaks. We will consider the ethics of food and the welfare of non-human animals involved in the
production process. As a class, we will take part in efforts to develop alternative food systems in the Quad Cities
through a service learning project at Augie Acres and local community gardens.
“Latin/o” Music, Migration, and Identity (Masterson)
LSFY 103-17
MWF 2:30-3:45 pm
Students in this course will work to better understand the intricate relationship between popular music, migration
and the formation of social and cultural identities. After exploring some of the recent literature on cosmopolitanism,
diaspora, postcolonialism, and transnationalism, we will turn specifically to forms of musical expression, and
academic responses to these expressions. The broad questions of the course are what is the nature of the interaction
and interface between global and local music processes? That is, how do musical expressions that are perceived as
‘local’ illustrate global dynamics, and, how does music as a global product speak to experiences of locality?
Drawing from examples of so-called 'Latino' music, we will discuss and analyze music as inseparable from
migration dynamics, and from the contexts in which it is produced and consumed.
Self, Community and Identity in Multi Ethnic America (Al-Wazedi)
LSFY 103-18
TTh
12:30-2:20 pm
In this course we will study the idea of multi-culture, immigrant experiences, “strangeness,” and cultural encounters
with “others” in texts written by Asian Americans, Arab Americans and Chicano authors. Many of the texts we will
study this semester will be of a more or less autobiographical nature; some are deeply rooted in the author’s life
experiences, and others are fictionalized histories and personal narratives. One common theme among these writers
is that they are trying to figure out their individual position as well as what that position means to others outside
their own community. Throughout the semester I’d like us to consider several issues: (1) how does one construct a
self? to what extent does a community shape a sense of self?, (2) problems and possibilities of difference (racism
and ethnic prejudice, “the melting/khichri pot”), and (3) the complexities of language choice and usage (dialect,
formal, and dual languages).
Ill Communication: Culture Clashes in American Medicine (France)
LSFY 103-19
MWF 8:30-9:45 am
LSFY 103-28
MWF 10:00-11:15 am
If a condition is not recognized by the person who carries it as a disease, is a doctor still required to treat it?
Medicine is studied as a hard science, yet the ways diseases are identified and approached are hopelessly infected by
the classic subject of soft science, culture. What doctors diagnose as a disability can be, for the “afflicted,” the entry
into a rich trans-national culture, as we will see by studying Oliver Sacks’ stories of deafness and Deaf culture. Ann
Fadiman’s account of the clash between a Hmong family and their health care providers in central California will
allow us to explore the moral and ethical responsibility of an American medical establishment that dispenses
uniform treatment to increasingly diverse populations. We will also consider the way illness has become an identity,
as cultural assumptions about mental and chronic illness keep sufferers “in the closet.” By the end of the course, you
will become an expert on the culture around a disease of your choice, and you will share with us how a culture either
informs the treatment and understanding of a particular illness, or the way an affliction has caused a culture to grow
around it.
Lennon and More (S. McDowell)
LSFY 103-21
MWF 8:30-9:45 am
LSFY 103-29
TTh 2:30-4:20 pm
Many of us wish the world we live in were a better place, and many people—writers, philosophers, psychologists,
musicians—have imagined what that “better place” might look like. But what comfortable or familiar elements of
our world might we have to give up to achieve utopia? In this course you will encounter fictional utopian visions
created by Ursula K. LeGuin, John Lennon, Kazuo Ishiguro, Thomas More, Jonathan Swift, B.F. Skinner, and
Aldous Huxley, and you will research real utopian experiments that have taken place or currently exist in our
world. Your reading and writing assignments will require reflection, imagination, and inquiry as you consider the
value of your own way of life, imagine better worlds, and research the attempts others have made to create utopias.
Africa: Which Way Forward (Cleveland)
LSFY 103-23
TTh
12:30-2:20 pm
LSFY 103-24
TTh
8:30-10:20 am
While the western media’s portrayal of life in Africa is arguably overly pessimistic, the continent undoubtedly faces
a shifting series of acute contemporary challenges, including political, economic, social and epidemiological. Yet,
as distant as these problems may seem, in our interconnected world we must embrace them as our own: the global
West increasingly relies on African oil, the continent represents a key front in the “war on terror” and diseases such
as AIDS pay no heed to international boundaries. In order to answer the question featured in the course title,
students will be prompted to identify and explore the various problems with which African governments,
communities and individuals are contending, as well as their organic and/or external roots. Students will then be
charged with advocating different solutions to these problems based on their examination of relevant political
science, history, sociology, economics, public health, legal and development literature, as well by “listening” to
African voices through film and fiction. Using media sources from the continent, students will also focus on an
issue of their choosing as it unfolds in an African country or community of their choice over the course of the
term. Via these complementary undertakings, students will develop an interdisciplinary framework in order to better
analyze their chosen topics and to develop their arguments concerning: “Which Way Forward?”
A central challenge for students as they embrace and dissect the challenges they identify and then advocate
corresponding solutions will be to navigate the spectacular diversity of thought and culture that shape potential
remedies. Indeed, the myriad prescriptions for Africa’s copious challenges can be organic or external, or “Western,”
in nature (or both), and even within these two often dissimilar approaches, sentiments range widely as to best
practice. By familiarizing themselves with the range of sentiments and cultural sensibilities, students will be better
positioned to understand the challenges on the continent, to embrace potential solutions, and to cogently argue their
merit in both written and oral form during the course of the term. Ultimately, the questions that students ask and
answer in this course are intended to increase awareness of the variability of thought and culture throughout our
diverse and changing world but also, in the process, to illuminate the increasingly intertwined plight of the global
community of peoples.
Post-Apocalyptic Visions (Marklevits)
LSFY 103-25
MWF 11:30-12:45 pm
In the last decade, literature has given us many compelling visions of humans struggling in a land suffering major
environmental and social pressures. These post-apocalyptic visions confront us with a world radically stripped of the
comforts we assume in the United States of 2014. In this class, we’ll investigate what post-apocalyptic stories can
show us about human relationships, social structures, and our relationship with the natural world beginning with a
reading you’ll be assigned to complete over break for the first class. We’ll read closely two novels, Cormac
McCarthy’s The Road and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. Also, we'll analyze and discuss essays and scholarly
articles, investigating and entering into conversation with writers and scholars who have things to say about what we
can learn from imagining our collective end. If you can’t tell, this class is reading intensive. To survive, you must be
prepared to read.
West Meets East: Self/Other Dynamics Represented in American Films and Japanese Literature (Nagase)
LSFY 103-26
MWF 11:30 am-12:45 pm
This course will examine the anxieties and fascinations with other cultures as expressed in selected modern and
contemporary Japanese literature and American films. We will explore the dynamic relation between the cultural
other and the self as they influence each other in constructing identities. Our discussion will include issues of
Orientalism, cultural othering, gender and cultural identities, and searching for “self.” We will expand our
discussion to consider our ability to accept “otherness” and the possibilities of transcending boundaries between
“us” and “them.”
America Is What It Eats (Leech)
LSFY 103-27
MWF 10:00-11:15 am
Many of us walk into the grocery store, pick a few items off of the shelf and then go home to cook. But how much
do we consider the origins of these vegetables, meats, and grains? Or do we normally consider what the food we
purchased says about us? Using food as a window into challenges facing the United States today, this course will
encourage students to look deeper into food commodity chains through an environmental, social, and cultural studies
approach. We will start with an examination of the end of the food commodity chain with which we are most
familiar: consumption. We will consider whether what we eat explains our ethnic, national, or racial identity. Does
“American” food even exist? Next, we will consider the other end of the food chain: food production. The course
will investigate the global market that transports bananas and rice as well as the environmental effects of food
production.
Food, Glorious Food?!? (Trotter)
LSFY103-32
TTh 12:30-2:20 pm
Do eggs and trans-fats cause heart disease? Does high fructose corn syrup cause diabetes and obesity? Are 1/3rd of
Americans really obese? Is raw food always better for you than cooked food? How do you decide what is “good” for
you? Is our food supply contaminated? Are genetically modified (GM) foods safe? Do McDonald’s and Monsanto
dictate our diet? Does the government subsidize junk food? There are a myriad of questions that come up when you
think about the food you eat and where it comes from. This course will consider important controversial issues and
myths about food and eating in modern America. We will also discuss pitfalls commonly made in thinking and
evaluating the messages presented to us, such that we can make more informed decisions about our diet.