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GSH 2007 Credit Courses |
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English 111 Composition: "Learning to Live with Each Other" In this class, we will be focusing on writing in an academic context; materials will include essays from ancient China and Greece; Renaissance Italy; Nineteenth Century England; and Twentieth Century Latin America. We'll be dipping our feet in streams far apart in time and in place. Our readings will all examine various aspects of social relations: what does it mean to be human? How can we best govern ourselves? What is the true means and end of education? Students in the course will be asked to do a lot of writing, both in clas and out. Since this is a composition course, we will use our readings and discussions as material for writing personal and academic essays. Writing and working within writing groups will occupy a large portion of our time together.
English 111 Composition: "Family, Community, Coming of Age" This section of English 111 is a multi-media course. We study literary texts, films and electronic sources in which family and community figure as major themes. The reading list includes William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, Mohja Kahf's The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf, Leslie Silko's Ceremony, and William Shakespeare's Henry IV. Students write analytical essays and short response papers about course materials. We also study the basic elements of MLA style so that students learn to effectively demonstrate and document relationships between their own ideas and those of other writers and thinkers. Additionally, students create a course blog to further develop skills needed for writing in an electronic medium.
Music 111 Masterpieces of Music We will begin this course by discussing the music of our culture and its contexts. We will then compare our observations with the contexts of previous eras as we survey Western art music from ancient Greece to early 20th century. Who wrote the music, and why did they write it? Who was the audience; were they rich or poor? How was the music used within its context -- for worship, as art, for entertainment?
Philosophy 160 Introduction to Ethics Are there any absolute moral truths? If so, (how) can we know what they are? If we were to sum up what it means to be morally good in a phrase, how would that phrase go? Is being a morally good person really good for you (and for others)? Should it matter? These are some of the questions we will be thinking through together in this introductory course in ethics. Because these questions will be new to (some of) us, we'll need help. Our guides will be some of the most influential moralists in the Western tradition: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas, Immanuel Kant, and John Stuart Mill. The course will also include chances to apply what we're learning to circumstances in life that raise practical moral questions, such as: is it always morally wrong to kill the human unborn? Can war be morally justified? What, if anything, is the moral problem with stem-cell research? Is it ever morally okay to lie? If it is sometimes morally okay to lie, under what sorts of circumstances is it morally okay to lie, and why those circumstances and not others?
Religious Studies 201: Religion and Contemporary Culture: The Role of Religion in the "Age of Terrorism" Judaism, Christianity and Islam are religions of peace and love. In spite of this, war and hatred exist around the globe. In this course we shall examine the scriptures of these religions to determine what they actually teach, and compare their teachings to the behavior of many of their followers. Students will read selections from the Torah and the New Testament. They will read the Qu'ran in its entirety, focusing on these questions: Does it condone or condemn terrorism? Is there evidence in the Qu'ran to support the terrorist belief that suicidal bombing missions reward one with a ticket to heaven? Or is it true, as most Muslims believe, that theirs is a religion of peace? Students will also watch videos on the history of Islam, speak with Muslims in their age group and have the option of visiting Muslim, as well as Christian, services. By the end of the course, students should be able to answer a critical question: To what degree have the major religions of the world made the world a more peaceful and loving place? Whatever the answers, this course will be taught objectively and in an atmosphere of mutual respect for all students. (NOTE: A Bible is required for this course.)
Religious Studies 201 - H Parker
Political Science 210 Intro to American Government UTM's typical Political Science 210 course focuses on the structure of the American political system, with an emphasis on the following topics: The development of the American Constitution; our system of federalism and how the national and state governments divide and compete for power; and the struggles between competing political parties, candidates, and interest groups for their share of power in the political system. For GSH 2008, the theme will be "21st Century Politics: Information and Privacy in Post 9/11 America." We will examine the usual 210 topics with an emphasis on the following questions: how have our government's responses to 9/11 affected our view of the relationship between the individual and the state? How have the rise of the internet and the telecommunications revolution affected citizens' understanding of policy issues and how our leaders deal with those issues? How have all of these events reshaped our understanding of the concept of privacy?
Am Gov and Politics 210 - C Baxter
Art 110 Understanding Visual Art This is a basic that introduces students to the vast array of issues, ideas and ways to look at, make and talk about visual art. Through class discussions, hands-on art activities, reading and writing, students will explore many objective and subjective approaches to art. The course involves a great deal of active learning and participation by the students.
English 111 Composition: "Stories of Innocence and Experience: Adolescence and the American Dream" As Lightning to the Children eased, With explanation kind, The Truth must dazzle gradually, Or every man be blind --
Is it desirable to know all the truth? What are the virtues of innocence? How much is too much information? And what does being an American teenager have to do with all of this? This class will use reading, discussion, research, and writing to examine the fickle relationship between innocence and experience in visual and literary representation of adolescence in America. We will construe "story" broadly to encompass literature, Disney animation, film, and other texts, and we will be doing a lot of writing -- informal, analytical, argumentative, etc. -- as a way to add our insight and knowledge to the concept as a whole. Students will learn how to decode texts, how to analyze film, how to construct a college-level argumentative paper, and how to create and critique their own personal writing.
English 111 Composition: "Sharing Our Stories: Family, Community, and Creativity" In this section of English Composition, we will embark on a reading and writing adventure to remember. With a primary focus on creative non-fiction (Eudora Welty's One Writer's Beginnings) and fiction from the South (William Faulkner's novel The Sound and The Fury, Fred Chappell's masterpiece of magic realism I Am One of You Forever, and James Agee's unforgettable work A Death in the Family), this section of English 111 offers students a rich weave of writing, discussion, film and independent research. Students will read stories, hear stories, and share their own stories through both personal and analytical essays. Writing will be a part of each class period. By focusing on literary works that all deal in some way with the complications that arise within families, students will be able to build rich conversations about a topic that concerns us all.
History 202 United States: Reconstruction to the Present This course is a survey of U.S. history from the end of Reconstruction to the present. It covers the major themes, including Populism, Progressivism, the World Wars, the Depression and New Deal, the Cold War, the Vietnam Era and the Civil Rights Movement, as well as trends of the period, their causes and effects, and the personalities involved. This survey will present political, social, cultural, military, economic, religious, intellectual and geographical aspects of this period in U.S. history.
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