Honors Program Advanced Electives
Spring, 2009

Freshmen are not permitted to enroll in Advanced Electives
without permission from the Honors Director

ART 334 Italian Renaissance Idols: Great Artists, Architects, Thinkers and Patrons 1400-1520
Professor Weiner
This is an intensive writing course that emphasizes critical thinking and serves as an Honors level introduction to Italian Renaissance art from 1400 – 1520. The course focuses on the contributions to Western Art made by outstanding Italian Renaissance and High Renaissance painters, sculptors, architects, thinkers, and patrons in context of the political, social, and economic climate in Italy from the Early Renaissance to the High Renaissance.

ENG 352 Imaginary Places: Utopias and Dystopias in Modern Fiction
Professor Hallissy

The course involves fiction, drama, and film which depict ideal societies, utopias, or their opposite, dystopias. The stimulus for the course came from a book entitled Why Read? By Mark Edmundson (New York: Bloomsbury, 2004). Edmundson, a critic of theoretical analysis of literature, believes that most readers read serious fiction for a purpose, and that purpose is to see what in the fiction is applicable to our own lives.

Utopian / dystopian literature lends itself to this kind of analysis in that the authors are asking us readers to talk about the imaginary societies they have created: Are these utopias as ideal as the author claims? What exactly is wrong with the sinister parallel universes, the dystopias? Are any of these works “desirable as a source of belief’? Can these fictional countries of the mind “make a difference”?

Edmundson’s book also directs our attention to the role of the specific language of a work. One characteristic that many of these readings (especially the dystopic fictions) share is their own peculiar ways of handling language. The works ask the reader to consider the psychological function of naming, defining, labeling. In some works, language has serious consequences, because linguistic acts imply power over those who are named, defined, labeled. It is up to the readers to decide how language creates the reality it claims to describe.
Pre-requisites: Eng 1 and 2 or 303 and 304 or equivalent

CMA 314 Representations of Truth in Popular Media
Professor Fowles
This course will explore representations of Truth as it is presented in several forms of popular media. Concepts of truth drawn from philosophy, the sciences, and ordinary language will be applied to a diverse range of media and media content. Particular attention will be paid to the language used to represent “the truth”, and, where applicable, to the relationship between that language and visual representations. Some of the media forms to be investigated are journalistic reporting, reality television, supermarket tabloids, documentary film, television advertising, web “worlds”, collaborative constructions such as Wikipedia, popular autobiography, daytime talk shows and others. Close first-hand analysis of media content will be stressed.

MUS 320 Beethoven’s Nine Symphonies
Professor Kim
Among the greatest artistic monuments of the Western civilization, Beethoven’s immortal nine symphonies have never ceased to inspire our imagination. Written during the momentous period of the early nineteenth century these works have defined the essence of the revolutionary ideal, the glory and pathos of Romanticism, and the triumph of the human will and spirit. This course will examine these and other key compositions through the analysis of the musical structure, the modes of interpretation, and the meanings these works impart to us. Correlating relationships will be traced along the contemporary artistic milieu and the political situations during Beethoven’s time. The personal dimensions, such as the social and internal conditions under which he worked the joys and the many sorrows in his life and other pertinent background will also be explored. The course will be a multimedia experience incorporating live piano performances by the instructor, listening to audio recordings, and viewings of DVI) orchestral performances and a documentary biography. Pending scheduling viability, the class will plan a trip into NYC to attend an orchestral performance.

PHI 342 Before Socrates: The Origins of Western Thought
Professor Magee
What is the origin of philosophy in the West? This course examines the fascinating question of how philosophical speculation developed out of ancient myth and religion. The Pre-Socratic philosophers are those who lived and worked before Socrates (who was born in 470 B.C.). They offered different answers to the most fundamental of philosophical questions, and in doing so are credited with inaugurating the Western philosophical tradition of pursuing truth independently of conventional opinion, or religious orthodoxy. Nevertheless, recent scholarship suggests that there are closer ties between the Pre-Socratic philosophers and traditional myth and religion than has so far been admitted. Evidence has come to light that some of these philosophers may have participated in initiatic religious societies. In some cases their works may represent the teachings of those societies, rather than the philosophical speculations of independent thinkers. (The Pythagoreans are the most well-known example of this, but recent research indicates it may have also been true of Parmenides, Empedocles, and others.) In this course we will explore the mythological background to Pre-Socratic philosophy and ask if there is any continuity between the mythic and philosophical ways of thinking. We will study the thought of the Pre-Socratics in detail. Their works have come down to us only in fragmentary form, but these fragments contain profound wisdom (and in many ways anticipate modern scientific theories). The focus of this course is not merely historical: our goal is to come to a new appreciation of the truly profound ideas that lie at the foundation of Western culture—ideas which in many ways have never been surpassed.

POL 328 Geo-Politics in the Age of Lincoln
Professor Cairns
This course provides an overview of the geo-political situation during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln’s foreign policy has received little attention yet, the president, and his Secretary of State Seward, were confronted with many serious challenges throughout the Civil War period. Potential flashpoints for war with the Great Powers included Canada & Mexico to name a few. The subject of international law, freedom of the seas and commerce were an ever-present source of anxiety for Lincoln and his government. This course will review Lincoln’s foreign policy in relation to the Great Powers, Mexico, South America, and China. The foreign policy of Lincoln’s counterpart Jefferson Davis will be reviewed. IR theory will be examined and Lincoln’s genius as the “diplomat-in-chief” will also be studied.
Pre-requisites: POL 303, 304, or the equivalent