2017- 2018 Upper Division Seminars

Richard Simon, Honors Program

TR 10:00 - 11:20 am

Ten years ago, “fake news” was a sarcastic self-reference used by purveyors of biting political satire and media criticism. In 2016, “fake news” took on a new connotation: false stories disseminated to purposefully misinform the public for fun and profit, with social networks the medium, and the levers of national power the stakes. Political commentators tell us that we now live in a “post-fact” reality – that verifiable facts are no longer relevant to those who seek power or to the public, and that journalists, long the safeguards of the free and accurate flow of information that is the life’s blood of democracy, are powerless to demand them.

What is happening? And why? And what can we do about it?

In this course, we’ll look the differences between legitimate persuasion, where facts and evidence are presented logically, and propaganda, in which communicators use sophisticated psychological techniques to manipulate viewers, readers, listeners, and scrollers into doing their bidding. We’ll learn to recognize, resist, defang, and debunk this type of message when we see it in any medium. We will read novels that imagine information dystopias – societies whose governments control their populations through the manipulation of information, to the extreme. And we will ponder how such visions relate to our message-dense 21st Century reality.

Selvi Zabihi, Honors Program

TR 11:00 - 12:20 pm

The USA is one of the richest countries in the world, but its wealth is concentrated in the hands of very few, and the trend is toward ever-greater concentration. Extreme inequality is a broad and complex issue that is getting growing attention in the media and academics; it is also controversial and can be hard to talk about in a constructive way. This seminar provides an opportunity to examine the nature, extent, and dynamics of inequality in the US; its causes and consequences; and certain means of addressing inequality that have been used both here and in other countries. An additional theme of investigation will the question of discourse. What are the assumptions (often implicit) and lines of reasoning that underlie our system as it is and the various views about it? How can understanding these help us contribute to constructive discussion about inequality? This requires that we examine our own attitudes and assumptions, look at different sides of the questions involved and seek to have probing, nuanced and respectful conversation in the class. Course work includes readings, film, writing assignments and presentations, and simple primary research.

Scott Linneman, Honors Program

MW 02:30 - 03:50 pm

Slickwater horizontal high volume hydraulic fracturing, more commonly known as “fracking” is a major environmental, economic, and social issue. This technology has created a shale gas boom that has dramatically reduced the use of coal for power generation in the U.S. Discourse on this topic has become especially extensive and heated over the last decade at municipal, state, provincial, national, and international levels. Policy debates have emerged throughout the world– shale gas basins have been identified on six continents. Understanding why and how to regulate shale gas development unearths an exceedingly complex set of policy issues. <em>What are the effects of shale gas development? How do these compare with effects of other energy options? What is (are) the appropriate level(s) for regulation? How does one handle scientific uncertainty? What values are relevant to policy discussions and decision-making on this issue? What role should ethics, morality, normative claims, and philosophical reasoning play in this debate? Which actors are relevant in the policy process? How does one effectively communicate about this issue to a range of audiences? Can one change a person’s views on this issue? If so, how? </em>If you want to know more about “fracking” from biological, geological, psychological, sociological, economical, philosophical, and policy perspectives, this is the right class.

Craig Moyer, Biology

WF 02:00 - 3:20 pm

For nearly all of Earth’s history, before plants and animals arrived, the world was dominated by microbes of immense metabolic diversity, complexity and variety. All living organisms tap the flow of thermonuclear energy from the sun or the nuclear fission energy from deep in the Earth’s crust to process simple chemicals to build and maintain their cells. In so doing they excrete chemicals, such as carbon dioxide, oxygen, methane, hydrogen, hydrogen sulphide and numerous organic compounds. When did these processes all start? How have they evolved and changed the Earth’s surface and climate over the nearly 4 billion years since life began? Now that agriculture, industry and urbanization are transforming the biosphere and destabilizing the climate, it is more important than ever to understand how living organisms change and are changed by their environment. Until these anthropogenic changes, the effects of macrobes were puny compared to the profound impact of microbes.

Goals and Objectives: Understanding of the cooperative molecular basis of microbial life has recently deepened through advances in cell biology and genomics. Evolutionary biology and phylogenetic analysis have drastically improved our ability to reconstruct the relationships of all organisms and build a realistic picture of the big tree of life. Study of microfossils and geochemical biomarkers provide complementary evidence and real dates for what happened when. New understanding of the global carbon cycle and other biogeochemical cycles, and their interaction with the Earth's climatic system are bringing exciting new insights into our own future.

Tracey Pyscher, Woodring College of Education

TR 02:00 - 03:20 pm

In this seminar, we will explore the ways that race and childhood experiences of domestic violence intersect in the exploding US prison population. We will investigate how this narrative does not begin in our nation’s penitentiaries, but begins in our nation’s schools. The goal of this course is to understand and then deconstruct how these pipelines emerge and are sustained. Emphasis is on issues of power and institutionalized racism including the educational segregation and attempted deculturalization of historically racialized/minoritized youth and youth from domestic violence-marginalized groups and how these realities create and sustain school-to-prison pipelines (STPs). Philosophical, legal, cultural, and ethical perspectives related to STPs are explored as honor seminar students develop critical awareness of issues and their own philosophies for dismantling school-to-prison pipelines through a final project design from their respective fields of study/programs. The course is primarily experienced through in-class debates and other discussion formats.

Guiding questions include:

• How did we get here? How are school-to-prison pipelines created and sustained?
• Who are the players in the creation and sustainability of school-to-prison pipelines?
• What are the major factors in the emergence and sustainability of school-to-prison pipelines?
• What are the future implications of school-to-prison pipelines for marginalized communities and the country as a whole?
• What now? How do you envision dismantling school-to-prison pipelines from your respective fields of study?

Fletcher Scott, Communication Sciences & Disorders

TR 10:00 - 11:20 am

How has the world viewed this mysterious condition throughout history? Should autism be considered a disability or simply a different way of thinking and interacting with the world? How have people with autism navigated and influenced our world to become extraordinary scientists, artists and contributors in a variety of fields? Should we adapt our environments to more effectively include people with autism or should we continue down a path that enforces conformity? We will discuss these questions and others as we enter the always fascinating and sometimes confusing world of people with autism. In addition, we will examine how recent advances in technology and our understanding of the brain have allowed people with autism across the developmental spectrum to interact with the modern world. Overall themes of social justice and the neurodiversity movement will be discussed. Coursework will focus on the exploration of a variety of technologies and how they can lead to the development of meaningful supports and outcomes for people with autism.

Jordan Sandoval, Modern & Classical Languages

TR 10:00 - 11:20 am

In no part of our lives is our identity more on display than through our language. This display is not always a conscious decision, but our use of language can at times be intentionally manipulated to create the identity we wish to project to the world. Though we do the same through our clothing choices, our Instagram account, and our selected hobbies, the domain that infuses and even mediates our whole lives is language. This is a critical area for reflection, inquisition, and analysis for us all; it touches on what it means to be human and how we engage with the rest of humanity.

In this seminar we explore the display of identity in and through language, focusing on themes of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and power. Class discussions will be guided by a variety of readings in socio-linguistics research and the course will culminate in the presentation of your individual research papers on how individuals create and maintain identity through language.

Lori Martindale, Honors Program

MW 01:00 - 02:20 pm

Magic realism is an international artistic genre characterized by inclusion of the mythical and elements of folk lore into realistic art and fiction. The fantastic is combined with more traditional realist methods in the visual arts and literature. The famous author and musicologist Alejo Carpentier recognized this combination of myth and realism as a characteristic in Latin-American Literature and Art. Social significance (such as gender, race, and class) varies greatly in works of magical realism from different social, political, historical, and cultural contexts. Postcolonial scholars have posited that magical realism is a study of at least two separate realities to make sense of identity, culture, and history. In this class, we will study magical realist works from Chile, Columbia, Argentina, Mexico, America, Czech Republic, and India to review these works in an international context. A few authors under study include prominent works by: Chilean Isabel Allende, Columbian Gabriel García Márquez, Argentines Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortazar, Brazilian Clarice Lispector, India: Arundhati Roy, and American author Toni Morrison.

Susanne L. Seales, Honors Program

TR 11:00 - 12:20 pm

A children’s book might present what appear to be airy bubbles on the surface; but if composed by an author whose intent was to produce a fine piece of literature, it will contain treasures that are fascinating to the reader of any age. This is especially true of many works published during the Golden Age of children’s literature (c. 1862-1928), when Mad Hatters and March Hares staged wild tea parties, and taught the passing child some important life lessons – but also had some pure whimsical fun in the process. However, beyond this era, one continued to encounter familiar themes and archetypes in many children’s books, as well as a root structure that extends back into the mists of fairy tale and folklore; and each decade’s stories wrestled with whole new sets of concerns, reflecting shifting views across the past century. This seminar will examine a selection of these works, focusing mainly on British and American authors, but also leaning on some theoretical views to light our way. Dissecting each story from its surface through the many layers of its cultural topography, and working within the expansive parameters of an interdisciplinary approach, we will attempt to answer a number of overarching questions, including, but not limited to: What is so golden about some children’s books, and given the rich catalog of works dating from the 1920s to the present, should we redefine the so-called Golden Age? How do these stories reflect the interstitial life of children, as well as shifting views on race, class and gender? Why are children drawn to certain characters and themes? Again, these present just a few of the queries that one might ask when critically approaching works of children’s literature; the best of which, according to the author C. S. Lewis (in his essay “On Fairy Stories”), “give us experiences we have never had and thus, instead of ‘commenting on life’, can add to it.” Or as a rather famous bear by the name of Pooh once said, when musing on the poetic sides of storytelling, “Poetry and Hums aren’t things which you get, they’re things which get you. And all you can do is to go where they can find you.” For those of you who would like to undertake the journey at hand, please heed the wise words of this silly old bear!

John Harris, Journalism

MW 02:00 - 03:20 pm

Americans have more access to photos of war and conflict than ever before. This seminar explores the history and ethics of conflict photography through readings and by examining images, mostly historical but contemporary as well when relevant. The purpose is to provide students with a better understanding of why they see the photos they do by studying the historical and ethical context in which they were published.

Charity McAdams, Honors Program

TR 01:00 - 02:20 pm

It seems like every book nerd over 30 likes The Smiths. Beyoncé inspires political artists of all media, whether or not they listen to pop music. Tune in to NPR, and you might hear in a knitted, tea-warmed monotone of a voice leading a discussion on Frank Ocean’s latest album and its poetry. Nirvana might have represented a musical revolution, but even Kurt Cobain can’t escape having his music analyzed by literature professors at around the world.…And remember when Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize? Why do people who obsess over letters also fixate on certain musicians?

Sometimes, the answer is simple: people who love literature also love it when other arts reference literature, like when Led Zeppelin sneaks Gollum into a track. Sometimes, the answer is more complicated: music and literature have been inextricable mirrors of one another for millennia, and they define one another. More recently, they’ve started interacting on a louder scale. In the 21st century, music critics have taken writing to a whole new level with authors like Lester Bangs transforming musical journalism into an art to match the music it describes. At the same time, we’ve seen the rise of musical movements with a focus on words before melodies (like the rap of the late 80s and early 90s).

“All art constantly aspires to the condition of music” –Walter Pater

Together, we will look at pop music albums, songs, videos, lyrics, journalism, and poetry to see the multiform and abstract connections between music and literature in the past forty years. We will do so with the sole purpose of discovering new relationships between them, and seeing how they influence one another and together continue to reshape our idea of what constitutes ‘art.'

Derek Moscato, Journalism

MW 02:00 - 03:20 pm

This seminar provides an in-depth understanding of public diplomacy, which is defined as communicating strategically on behalf of nations in order to establish dialogue and influence with other countries and their publics. In practicing public diplomacy, nations provide information and interviews to journalists; they facilitate cultural, educational, ecological, and sporting exchanges and dialogue; and they stage special events with the intent of influencing key stakeholders and publics. Such diplomacy also takes the form of national company communication (corporate diplomacy), Indigenous communication, corporate social responsibility, and transnational protest. Issues specific to the Pacific Northwest and Cascadia will also be explored. As part of this seminar, students will prepare a mix of theoretical and professional public diplomacy projects, including an international press release, a speech given by a public diplomacy official, a group project facilitating dialogue between two nations, and a final paper addressing a public diplomacy campaign deployed by the U.S. or another nation-state or tribal nation.

Kirsten Drickey, Modern & Classical Languages

MW 02:00 - 03:20 pm

Ever wondered why Che Guevara is still so popular? Or why the Virgin of Guadalupe shows up on everything from beach towels to urban murals? And who the heck is Evita and why doesn’t Madonna want Argentina to cry for her?

In this seminar, we will explore novels, essays, short stories, poetry, and film to make sense of the ways in which authoritarianism, nationalism, and various kinds of identities–regional, linguistic, ethnic, religious, gender–intertwine throughout Latin American history. Although we’ll read primarily translations of the literary texts, we’ll incorporate historical and theoretical readings to situate our understanding of these primary texts, as well as examples of popular culture. Our study will take a point-counterpoint approach in order to appreciate how language can be used to impose order even as related rhetoric can subvert that authority.

Throughout the course, we’ll examine how ideas become powerful and how the powerful use those ideas for their own ends, looking specifically at how language shapes social identity, sustains or resists authority, and–frequently–re-makes the past.

Brandon Dupont, Economics

TR 10:00 - 11:20 am

Substantial and rising wealth and income inequality is one of the defining events of our time. Indeed, the bottom half of the income distribution in the United States has been almost entirely shut off from economic growth over the last three decades. Our primary goal in this seminar will be to explore a variety of perspectives presented in the scholarly literature in an effort to better understand the forces that are shaping these trends. We will explore a number of issues relating to the economics of inequality including: how economists measure inequality; the evolution of inequality over time; the reasons for rising inequality; its longer-term implications for economic performance and possible policy and institutional solutions. Since patterns in the income and wealth distributions develop over fairly long periods of time, the seminar will take a largely historical approach to the question. Previous coursework in economics would be helpful, but is not required.