The Manhattan Project
ISP 101-39-301  M W F 8:30-9:30 am  Christopher Goedde, Physics Department  This seminar examines the events surrounding the construction of the first atomic bomb, beginning with the discovery of the atomic nucleus at the turn of the century, and continuing through to the first three nuclear explosions: the Trinity test in New Mexico and the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The main goal of the seminar is to understand how and why a group of scientists (supplemented by thousands of technicians, construction workers, machinists, etc.) came to build what they called "the gadget." We will first discuss how and why the bomb came to be built, including both the scientific discoveries that made an atomic bomb possible and the historical events that led to the large-scale, secret military-run project to build the bomb. We will then focus on the relationship between science and society: how society affects the way science is done and how society decides whether and how to use the technological products of science. Finally, we will discuss the ethics of the Manhattan Project from the perspectives of the scientists involved, the government, and the citizenry at large.  

This course is by nature interdisciplinary—it draws on topics and methods from several different academic areas. It is partly a science course, partly a history course, partly a political science, and partly a philosophy course. Because of this, we will draw upon and develop skills from all these disciplines. Much of our introduction to this wide range of subjects will be through the assigned readings and selected videos; the main focus of the seminar is on learning to analyze and synthesize this material and on developing the ability to communicate, both verbally and in writing, at the university level. However, we will also make use of some of the quantitative reasoning skills that are characteristic of the physical sciences.  

This is also a seminar course, in which all students are expected to participate in the classroom discussions. Most days will be spent discussing and analyzing the assigned reading for that day. In addition to discussing the readings, students will write a series of two-page papers throughout the quarter. The topic of each writing assignment will be a question based on the readings and classroom discussion. Students will be expected to answer the question, basing their responses on the material in the readings, or formulate an opinion on the topic and support it with facts. There will also be a midterm and a comprehensive final exam.

Fidel Castro
ISP 101-39-302  M W F  9:40-10:40 am  Rose Spalding, Political Science Department  Is he a nationalist hero, the savior of his poor, colonized nation? A brilliant Marxist who version of socialism has endured while weaker form collapsed? A patriarch who rules his country like an old-style plantation master? Cuba's revolutionary leader, Fidel Castro, is one of the most controversial political figures of out time. Competing images and interpretations of his life and impact are presented with great passion by his advocates, rivals, and enemies. 

This course is designed to bring you into that debate. It will let you sort through the competing perspectives and construct your own interpretation of the man and his revolution. In the process, you will become familiar with the history of Cuba and inter-American relations, competing theories of revolution and social change, the major transformations that have been made in Cuban society (class, power, gender, race) during his rule, and the debate within the Cuban-American community about how to understand and respond to him. 

Students in this class will read competing biographical materials, steep themselves in his speeches and writings, talk with some Cubans who have left the island to escape his rule and others who have stayed, and debate the current U.S. policy toward the Castro regime. Assignments include essays comparing competing biographical texts, interviews with Cubans and Cuban Americans, archival research in the Venceremos Brigade collection in the Richardson Library, and participation in formal class debate. 

Darwin, Evolutionary Theory, and Society
ISP 101-39-303 M W F 9:40-10:40 am George Michel, Psychology Department  Ever since its initial presentation, Darwinian notions about evolution have engendered much controversy in western societies. This course examines the history of the impact of Darwinian theories of evolution on society by comparing Darwin's notions with those evolutionary notions prevalent before Darwin. Then, we will examine how Darwin’s notions lead to the Eugenics movement via the influence of his cousin Galton. Early in the 20th C., Mendel’s genetic theories were rediscovered and incorporated into a Darwinian framework to create the modern Synthetic Theory of Evolution. This theory then became manifest in several theories about human behavior (Ethology, Sociobiology) that focus directly upon societal issues, structures, and institutions. For example, Sociobiology attempts to integrate social and biological sciences by treating many aspects of human psychology (e.g., violence, racial attitudes, intelligence, altruism, gender differences in values and behavior, homosexuality) and culture (e.g., incest taboos, marital customs, crime, religion, racial, sexual, and ethnic discrimination) as products of naturally selected genes. The common assumptions of the Synthetic theory (that natural selection underlies all directed evolutionary change and that it acts on genes) are critically examined. Sociobiology is shown to rely on outdated notions about genetics and is incompatible with modern understanding about development. Alternative Darwinian accounts of evolution are presented that address the same social phenomena addressed by sociobiologists but, in contrast, are not reductionistic and deterministic. In organism environment coevolution, individual organisms are part of a system in which genes are just one component and in which individuals play active roles in evolution. In evolutionary ontogenesis, which has emerged from the synthesis of phylogenetics and developmental biology, variations in developmental systems, not in gene pools, are the source of evolution. 

This course involves lectures and assigned readings and their integration via small group discussions, classroom individual presentations, and classroom discussion. Evaluation will depend upon qualitative assessment of the student's oral presentations, classroom discussion and quantitative assessment of student written assignments and their portfolio. I hope to organize some trips to the Chicago Academy of Sciences and the Lincoln Park Zoo to provide some more tangible demonstrations of certain principles of evolution.

The U.S.C.T.: African-American Soldiers in the Civil War 
ISP 101-39-304 M W F 9:40-10:40 am Margaret Storey, History Department   For further information please contact the professor in the History Department at 773/325-7470 or via e-mail at mstorey@wppost.depaul.edu

The Scopes 'Monkey Trial' of 1925: Religion and Science in American Culture 
ISP 101-39-305 T TH 10:10-11:40 am David Breed, Religious Studies Department  Throughout the 20th century in America, controversies over the teaching of evolution in public schools have focused attention on the problematic relationship of religion and science. We study the first and most famous of many court cases, the Scopes Trial, and its impact on American culture. 

In the summer of 1925, in Dayton, Tennessee, a high school teacher John Thomas Scopes was tried and found guilty of violating Tennessee law and fined $100. The Scopes Trial raised the controversial issue of deciding the relative merits of religious doctrines and scientific theories about human origins: creation or evolution. Are humans created by God as the Bible teaches? Are humans descended from a lower order of animals according to the Darwinian theory of evolution? Does the teaching of evolution undermine the moral character of American society? Is science opposed to religion? How can science and religion be related? Through reading, writing, discussion, and a course project you will discover and articulate a your own way of relating religion and science. See www.depaul.edu\~dbreed\ for more information.

World's Fair, Museums & Empire(formerly: Museums and World Fairs: Spaces of Representation) 
ISP 101-39-306 M W F 10:50-11:50 am Fassil Demissie, Public Policy Program  For further information please contact the professor in the Public Policy Program at 773/325-7336 or via e-mail at fdemissi@wppost.depaul.edu or visit his website at http://www.depaul.edu/~fdemissi/. 

Shaky Ground: The Border between Journalism and Entertainment 
ISP 101-39-307 M W F 10:50-11:50 am Lisa Barr, Communication Department "All the news that’s fit to print," is the credo of the New York Times. News considered unfit is sometimes tagged "entertainment," or  "sensationalistic." Consider the Monica Lewinsky/ Paula Jones/ Bill Clinton story. Was it fit to print?  This course will use whatever is news at the time of the course in order to expose students to the issues and theories concerning media  sensationalism. The class will explore definitions of the journalistic " norm," as explained in the codes of ethics for organizations, which issue awards and define boundaries for journalists, editors, producers, and managers. The class will also explore definitions of the Journalistic "norm" from the perceptive of "outsiders," such as sociological Todd Gitlin and others.

Mainly, the course will allow students a chance to evaluate local news media stories for the issues explored in class lectures, videos, and discussions: the merging boundary between entertainment and journalism. The class will explore several stories, analyzing them for their place on the entertainment/ journalism spectrum according to standards established at the start, of the class. Tours of relevant media outlets will be arranged so that students can see where all this activity takes place, giving them an idea of how the professional and personal values are wrestled with for the stories we are considering.

The Myth of Narcissus: A Story of Self-Love
ISP 101-39-308 M W F 10:50-11:50 am Pleshette DeArmitt, Philosophy Department  This course will examine the complex theme of self-love by tracing the telling, retelling and analyzing of the Narcissus Myth. This myth of the beautiful Greek youth, who falls fatally in love with his own image reflected in a silvery spring of water, has remained an undying theme in the arts and human sciences and poignantly addresses the moral, psychological and aesthetic make-up of human beings. Through the figure of Narcissus, this course will explore a number of interrelated themes that center on the issue of love and desire: the theme of one’s own image, the fleeting nature of youth and beauty and, most importantly, the problematic of self-love as opposed to love of the other. 

This course will be divided into three parts: (I) Narcissus in the Arts, (II) Psychoanalysis and Narcissism, (III) Morality and Self-Love. In Part I of the course, we will first read the myth of "Narcissus & Echo" by the Roman poet Ovid, then we will discuss the retelling of this myth by the English writer Oscar Wilde in his book entitled The Picture of Dorian 

Gray, and finally we will view the haunting English film Black Narcissus. In Part II, we will look at how the great psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (re)interprets the ancient myth of Narcissus as a psychological phenomenon, one where self-love becomes a pathology—what Freud called "narcissism." We will also read two critiques of Freud’s claim that woman is by nature a narcissistic creature. In Part III, we will turn to the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau to ask the question: "Can a person love him or herself without being selfish and vain?" 

This course is structured in a seminar format and is writing and discussion intensive. The three main requirements for this Focal Point Seminar are as follows: (1) Reaction Papers—a short (1-2) page reaction paper will be due for each assigned reading or viewing, (2) Presentation—each student will give a ten minute presentation of a draft of his or her final research paper, (3) Research Paper—a final research paper related to the figure of Narcissus or the theme of narcissism will be due at the end of the term. 

In Cold Blood: A Study of American Violence 
ISP 101-39-309 M W F 1:10-2:10 Margaret Nellis, English Department  On November 15, 1959, Herbert W. Clutter, a wealthy farmer, and three members of his family were murdered in their home in Holcomb, Kansas, apparently without motive and for almost no profit. Truman Capote chose this crime as his subject for his proposed non-fictional novel, and for the next six years devoted his energies to investigation and writing about it, as well as creating detailed portraits of Perry Smith and Dick Hitchcock, the convicted murderers. Capote's book, In Cold Blood, was finally published in January, 1966.  This course will examine how Capote's book heralded changes in traditional journalistic writing. The "New Journalism" or literary journalism owes much of its success to Capote's book. We will also examine the influence In Cold Blood has had on the criminal justice system, the media's role in covering mass murders, and on society's attitudes toward capital punishment. 

Students will keep a reading journal which will be collected three times over the quarter. We will experiment with traditional journalistic writing as well as literary journalistic writing techniques. Students will write three to four essays which will be peer-critiqued, and which may be rewritten.

The Print Media and Live Music Performance in Chicago
ISP 102-39-310 M W F 12:00-1:00 pm Wesley Vos, School of Music  Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, "A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and time in which it is used." Nowhere is this adage more true than in the attempt to capture the essence of live music performance in the written word. This course will focus on news reportage, publicity, promotion, paid advertising, and critical commentary about live music in metropolitan Chicago print media, including newspapers, magazines, and other periodicals. Live music in Chicago ranges from the Lyric Opera and Orchestra Hall to Blues bars. 

Students will produce a portfolio of written projects, including an in-depth comparison of music coverage in two contrasting neighborhood newspapers, research on the music controversy at the Columbian World Exposition of 1893, and written critical commentary on several live music events. 

Homer’s Ghost: A History of the Phantom
ISP 102-39-311 M W F 12:00-1:00 pm Kas Saghafi, Philosophy Department   This course aims to trace the history of the notion of the ghost or the specter in Western civilization back to the writings of Homer. In the first part of the Focal Point, beginning with selections from Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, we shall examine what is meant by a "shade" or a "phantom" in Classical antiquity. The second part of the course shall be devoted to a theoretical and psychoanalytical exploration of the notion of the ghost. We shall read Freud’s pivotal essay entitled "The Uncanny," as well as Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok’s essay "Notes on the Phantom: A Complement to Freud’s Metapsychology," in order to examine the relation of the notion of the ghost or phantom to fear, shame, guilt, doubles and secrets, in particular family secrets. In the third and last part of the seminar, we shall read and discuss a number of "ghost stories" or "fantastic tales," including Henry James’ "The Turn of the Screw." 

Course Requirements: 

1. Two summary papers (approximately 2 pages long) will be required for the theoretical essays.
2. Group Presentations (3 or 4 pages in length) will be devoted to the analysis of the short stories.
3. A Final Research Paper (approximately 5 to 6 pages) that will involve an in-depth discussion of a particular issue, notion or text will be required. 

The texts and materials you will be asked to read in this class are old. They are products of a culture in many ways radically different from your own, if only because of the great historical chasm that separates us from them. Above all, I will expect you to dedicate focussed, patient effort to reading and understanding, as well as a certain amount of imagination in interpretation. I expect you to be interested in questions of language, linguistic history, and the challenges of translation (regardless of your specific linguistic abilities). Most of the texts we will be dealing with are translated from the Latin. Fear not: you are not expected to know Latin, but you are expected to have a certain amount of curiosity about the history of words from Latin and elsewhere. You will of course be expected to attend regularly, participate actively in class discussion, and work hard on improving your writing skills in response to the material. You will be expected to engage not only your verbal, but also your visual and musical imaginations as we look at medieval art and music. 

Wonders, Cons, and Scandals: Why People Believe Weird Things
ISP 101-39-313 M W F 2:20-3:20 pm David Brenders, Communication Department   For further information contact the professor in the Communication Department at 773/325-7585 or at dbrender@wppost.depaul.edu. 

Rebirth of the Goddess: Rhetoric of Wiccans
ISP 101-39-314 M W 3:30-5:00 pm Mary-Angie Salva-Ramirez, Communication Department  For further information contact the professor in the communication department at 773/325-7585 or at marysalvara@wppostdepaul.edu

The Bicycle: Technology, Culture, Aesthetics 
ISP 102-39-315 M W 3:30-5:00 pm Bill Martin, Philosophy Department  Albert Einstein called the bicycle "the most noble invention of humanity." The premise of this course is that it is possible to do some interesting thinking about the bicycle. The bicycle represents a very important breakthrough in technology. A well-made bike can support ten times its own weight. The bicycle is the most efficient form of land transportation. A ten-mile trip by bike consumes about 350 calories, the amount in one bowl of rice. To travel the same distance in the average car requires the equivalent of 18,600 calories. And yet the bicycle, as anyone who rides one regularly knows, is in some sense the "proletariat" of the transportation world. Bikes are very often pushed--sometimes quite literally--into the margins of the road. There are very interesting issues of power and space that arise around the bicycle--again, quite literally. Two questions concerning technology and power that I would like to try out in the course are: 1) Does the bicycle tell us something about sustainable technology? and 2) Is there a close connection between a bicycle-friendly city and a good city? We will also consider the aesthetic and even erotic aspects of the bicycle (by the latter I mean the way that bicyclists experience an intimate connection with their bikes). Two of the greatest films of all time have featured bicycles, and we will watch them: The Bicycle Thief and Breaking Away. Other materials we will use include Heidegger's The Question Concerning Technology, and a book by Wiebe E. Bijker ("We be biker"?), Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs: Toward a Theory of Sociotechnical Change. 

I hope that you can see from these readings that, though our inquiry will be enjoyable, it will also be serious and intellectually sophisticated. I don't think there is a contradiction between those two aspects of the course--on the contrary, rigorous intellectual inquiry can be highly pleasurable as well. Your main assignment will be to ride in the Tour de France. If you aren't able to do that, then your assignments will be: regular attendance and participation in the discussion, a few pop quizzes, and a final paper on the topic of the course. I look forward to a productive quarter with you. 

The Land Ethic: The Evolution of Environmental Ethics in the United States "
ISP 101-39-316 M W 3:30-5:00 pm Nancy Clum, Environmental Science Program  For further information please contact the professor in the Environmental Science Program at 773/325-7447 or at nclum@wppost.depaul.edu

The Shakespeare Mystery
ISP 101-39-317 T TH 8:30-10:00 am Melissa Meltzer, The Theatre School  For further information please contact the professor in The Theatre School Admissions Office at 773/325-7999 or via e-mail at mmeltzer@wppost.depaul.edu

W.E. B. Dubois And The International Context Of The African-American Struggle 
ISP 101-39-318 T TH 10:10-11:40 am Azza Salama Layton, Political Science Department  This course is an exploration of the life, writings, and achievements of W.E.B. DuBois. DuBois was a civil rights activist, sociologist, historian, philosopher, and feminist, among other things. For seventy years he championed the human and civil rights struggle not only on behalf of African-Americans but of all people of color worldwide. Because of his convictions and efforts to expose the exploitation of people of color by the West, DuBois endured discrimination and alienation. Some of his persecutors were prominent African-Americans. 

This course has an historical component. It also has a practical component as we examine how DuBois used moral arguments to help bring down the walls of discrimination and racial segregation in the United States. With the technological advances in mass media, especially television, moral pressure has become an effective weapon. It contributed to the breakdown of Apartheid in South Africa. We will look at the origins of moral pressure--why and when it fails and succeeds. The timing of DuBois' activities will help provide the appropriate context for the course. Some of the historical marks we will discuss include the Holocaust, the isolation-internationalization of the United States, the formation of the United Nations, the Cold War era, the Peace Movement of the 1950's, and the wave of independence which swept Africa and Asia following World War II. We want to see what we can learn from DuBois and from history and how we can apply what we learning to the practical world of today. 

The Nuclear Age 
ISP 101-39-319 T TH 8:30-10:10 am Pat Callahan, Political Science Department  On August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb destroyed the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The bomb was a revolutionary weapon. Its explosive power allowed it to do the destruction and killing of 1000 heavy bombers. Worse, it released a new and insidious way of killing: radiation. For the first time in human history, humans had the ability to destroy civilizations intentionally and perhaps even to exterminate human life. 

Albert Einstein said, "The atomic bomb has changed everything except our way of thinking." Was he right? In what ways has human life been changed by the existence of the bomb? That is the guiding question of this focal point seminar. We will examine the scientific principles behind nuclear power and nuclear weapons, the history of the nuclear arms race, the ways in which nuclear weapons have served as a source of peace and a danger of war, the ethical challenges posed by nuclear weapons, and the psychological, cultural, and social ramifications of nuclear weapons. 

The seminar seeks to develop learning skills--close, analytical reading, critical thinking, and writing. Students will write several formal and informal papers as a means of achieving that objective. They also will be expected to participate actively in class discussion. Regular participation based on preparation for the class will be rewarded in the assignment of the course grade. 

Maps and Power 
ISP 101-39-320 T TH 11:50-1:20 pm Jim Krokar, History Department  This course examines maps in multiple cultures and seeks to look at maps as windows into a culture’s view of itself and of the world. It explores the relationship between mapmaking and power, so that students will come to understand how maps might empower or render powerless individuals, societies, or cultures that produce them, adopt them, use them, or are affected by them. The course will also look at the development of maps and mapping techniques throughout history, but particularly in the last 500 years. The students will use the map collection in the DePaul University Archives/Special Collections and will also visit the Newberry Library, one of America’s foremost repositories of historic and contemporary maps. 

Students will be expected to attend class regularly, read critically, participate in class discussions, work cooperatively on a project with other class members, give an oral report, and write an 8-10 page research paper. The cooperative project, the oral report, and the paper will involve interpreting a specific map from the DePaul Archives/Special Collections. 

Jean-Jacques Rousseau and His Life 
ISP 101-39-321 T TH 11:50-1:20 pm Guillemette Johnston, Modern Languages, Department  The eighteenth-century Swiss writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau has had a tremendous impact on several areas of modern life. His writings helped in bringing about the French Revolution, laying the foundation for developmental psychology, providing a theoretical base for the rise of anthropological inquiry, and stimulating the growth of self-expression in literary works of the Romantics. In this class we will read some of Rousseau’s autobiographical writings (passages from The Confessions and The Reveries of a Solitary Walker), analyzing his experiences to see how his emotions and sentiments influenced his views and helped stimulate the diversity of his interests. 

Because this course is a seminar, its organization will differ from that of standard lecture courses. Rather than concentrating on secondary or textbook interpretations of the significance of Rousseau’s work, we will focus exclusively on Rousseau’s own writings. This will let us share our views on Rousseau’s life and the complexity of his ideas. Students will have the opportunity to interact directly with the professor and the class, exchanging views on the readings. They are expected to come to class having read the material and written a few provocative questions to stimulate debate. Additionally, they will write short papers in response to the readings, which will from a journal of their experiences in reading Rousseau. This close examination of the life and emotions of a major contributor to modern life will hopefully inspire us to look at our own lives. 

Woody Allen: Jewish Culture in America
ISP 101-39-322 T TH 11:50-1:20 pm Janie Isackson, English Department  "The course will increase reading speed a little each day until the end of the term, by which time the student will be required to read THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV in fifteen minutes..." This is how Woody Allen himself once described a course. If this is amusing to the reader, then you will appreciate studying a course whose focus is Jewish Culture in America with comic, filmmaker, author, and saxophone player Woody Allen at its center. 

Course format will be class discussion, and course evaluation will be based on readings which will require short reading responses, a reading log, a mid-term, final, and the dissection of a caterpillar and the ability to program a VCR. As a class working together, we will attempt to understand the aspects of history that create a cultural perspective and indeed how a culture and person are both influenced and influence current society.  

A Raisin in the Sun and Lorraine Hansberry 
ISP 101-39-323 T TH 1:30-3:00 pm Carol Cyganowski, English Department  A Raisin in the Sun tells the story of the Younger family--Mama, trying to hold the family together; her son Walter, who has a dream of the business he can own if he only gets his hands on the money from his father's life insurance; her daughter Beneatha, a college student who wants to go to med school but whom her brother would marry off to the highest bidder. They're living together (with Walter's wife and son) in a way-too-small, way-too-tired apartment on Chicago's southside. Walter wants out of his dead end job. Mama wants a home for the family. But the only ones she can afford are in white neighborhoods. It's the 1950s. Whose dreams will prevail? Whose dreams will be deferred to "dry up/Like a raisin in the sun?" 

A Raisin in the Sun was the first play by a black woman to be produced on Broadway; it was also the first for a black director (Lloyd Richards) and marked the beginning of national prominence for Sidney Poitier, Diana Sands, and Claudia McNeil. It brought the black experience and black artists to national audiences and won the prestigious New York Drama Critics Circle Award. The film version followed, an outstanding success. The musical version, RAISIN, won the Tony Award and played for over two years in New York and on national tour. In the process, Hansberry, a native Chicagoan, became an icon of African American artistic accomplishment. That A Raisin in the Sun was a somewhat biographical account of her own family's struggle with racial segregation helped the process of transforming Hansberry into a national figure. (Her father's housing segregation lawsuit, Hansberry v. Lee, had gone to the Supreme Court with the support of the NAACP.) We needed Hansberry to represent many things; her subsequent theatrical career changed direction; she first married, then divorced, then came out as a lesbian. Her biography was created for her, as she died young of cancer. We have the play and an image of Lorraine Hansberry. The seminar will explore the significance of both. 

Members of the seminar will read drama, biography, and social history--as well as attending a production of A Raisin in the Sun at the Goodman Theater (ticket cost) and watching films. Writing will include journals, production reviews, summaries, comparisons of different versions, and a formal paper (which will incorporate much of the previous writing). Each member of the seminar will also contribute a non-written response, e.g., a photo essay, a website. 

The Parthenon and Sacred Space 
ISP 101-39-324 T TH 1:30-3:00 pm Catherine Zurybida, Art Department  The Parthenon is the best known temple to survive from the ancient Greek world. Its architecture and sculpture have been studied and appreciated for years. However, many people don't realize that its location had been sacred for centuries and remained. The Parthenon has been a Christian church and an Islamic mosque. This class will study the Parthenon in the traditional way and then branch out to explore the idea of how certain places become sacred and what kind of buildings we build in such places. We will also learn about the ritual activities that help to mark sacred spaces. The modern controversy about the British Museum's ownership of the Parthenon sculpture will let us ask about museums, one of the non-religious but somehow sacred spaces of our time. The class will look at material as diverse as the Australian beliefs in the Dreamtime and the American fascination with Elvis Presley's Graceland. 

This course is based on readings and discussions. There are no exams, two short interpretive papers (4 pages each) and one research paper (8 pages) based on applying one of the approaches studied in class to a sacred space. 

Falling Through the Safety Net: Chicago's Vulnerable Populations 
ISP 101-39-325 T TH 1:30-3:00 pm Lin Drury, Nursing Department  This course will focus on the growing number of vulnerable people in the Chicago area and the concept of vulnerability. The content of the class will show how, in the absence of resources, we are all at risk. According to author Lu Ann Aday, "Both the origins and remedies of vulnerability are rooted in the bonds of human communities" (1993, p. 1). Any of us, at almost any time, can find ourselves in need of "physical help, spiritual solace, or warm companionship" (Aday, 1993, p.1). Often, those in need depend upon a loose arrangement of health and social services commonly referred to as the "safety net;" however, recent efforts at governmental cost containment, combined with increased political conservatism, have reduced the availability of these services. The expanding numbers of Chicago area residents who have no safety net may be victims of domestic violence, the impoverished elderly, immigrants or refugees, working poor families, substance abusers, mentally ill individuals, or homeless. 

The primary product of the course will be a research paper exploring the vulnerability of a Chicago area population of interest to the student. Individualized readings will be recommended and an annotated bibliography will be required to demonstrate the student’s grasp of the reading material. An initial draft of the research paper will be required at midterm, with a final draft due upon completion of the course. A written case study analysis and a brief reaction paper will be required prior to midterm to assist in assessing and refining the student’s writing skills. 

Slavery Around the World 
ISP 101-39-326 T TH 1:30-3:00 pm Heidi Nast, International Studies Department  Slavery has existed for millennia in various forms around the world. But has it always and everywhere served the same purposes or meant the same thing? For example: Were the situations and powers of women who were royal concubines in African empires the same as those of African women working on southern United States or Caribbean plantations? Can we compare the experiences of male slave physicians in the Roman Empire and Mamluk slave military leaders to male slaves in ancient Athens or nineteenth-century Brazilian plantations operated by the Portuguese? 

This course explores different cultures of slavery from around the world at different periods in history, along the way examining why slavery was created at all. We will focus on five questions: 1) How did slaves become slaves in the first place? War? Inheritance? Purchase? 2) What were the kinds of labor tasks that slaves carried out in different geographical and cultural contexts? Did all slaves do the same kind of work? 3) Were there social hierarchies within slave groups themselves or can we say that all slaves everywhere were equal? 4) Can we point to different cultural expressions of slavery and, if so, do these expressions point to differences in the ways various social groups give meaning to their lives and to their actions? 5) Can we say that there were different kinds of slave bodies and, if so, how were these different bodies created and/or distinguished? 

To explore these questions, we will read or hear from guest speakers about slavery in a variety of contexts, beginning in ancient Rome and Greece and ending with plantation slavery in the Americas. Wherever possible, we will work on two scholarly fronts: First, we will examine the "objective" conditions of slavery using what are called secondary sources, that is, research works by scholars who study slavery. Secondly, we will examine the "subjective" or personal conditions of slavery through exploring fictional accounts of slave lives written in the first person by scholars who study slavery. To help us in our endeavors, a number of guest lecturers with expertise in different geographical areas will speak with us, and we will view several slave-related films. One field trip is required: You will visit Chicago's Field Museum (it? a freebie every Wednesday) to study and take notes on the Africa and African slavery exhibit (this exercise will be discussed in more detail in class). 

Brown vs. Board of Education 
ISP 101-39-327 T TH 3:10-4:40 pm Joan Lakebrink, School of Education  The Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education1954 focused the world's attention on the phrase "separation but equal" in terms of race relations in this nation. This phenomenon has deep roots in American culture beginning as early as 1619 and can be studied through the lenses of the American jurisprudence system, African-American culture, American history from the colonial times to the present, and in literary genre. 

The class will study primary and secondary sources including colonial slave codes plus Supreme Court documents from Dred Scott to Plessey v. Ferguson and other selected cases that help understand Brown in terms of its historical, political, social and educational contexts. In addition, writings, including speeches, essays and fiction written by such African Americans as Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, A. Leon Higginbotham, Zora Neale Hurston, Maya Angelou will be studied. Students are expected to be active participants in class, write short reflective essays, keep a journal, and write and present a summary paper reflecting on their own experiences and reflections relative to themes developed in the seminar. 

From the Factory to the Computer Terminal: What is a job, anyway? 
ISP 101-39-328 T TH 3:10-4:40 pm Alexandra Murphy, Communication Department  For further information contact the professor in the Communication Department at 773/325-7585 or via e-mail at amurphy1@wppost.depaul.edu

Voluntary Motherhood in the 20^th Century 
ISP 101-39-329 T TH 3:10-4:40 pm Susan Poslusny, Nursing Department  For further information please contact the professor in the Nursing Department at 773/325-7280 or via e-mail at sposlusn@wppost.depaul.edu. 

Honor, Duty and the Viet Nam-American War 
ISP 101-39-330 M W 3:30-5:00 pm Rachel Snyder, English Department  No further information is available.  

Endangered Species and Habitats 
ISP 101-39-331 T TH 3:10-4:40 pm Dennis Meritt, Biological Sciences Department  This course will work to develop a definition of endangered and see how well the definition works as it applies to a range of life forms, including plants, animals, and natural habitats. The course will explore the probably causes of endangerment, consider the impact of our own species as well as that of natural occurrences, discuss possible solutions, and explore ways people can become involved and affect a long-term solution. 

Students will take periodic quizzes and examinations, write a major term paper, and give an oral presentation. 

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee 
ISP 101-39-332 T TH 3:10-4:40 pm Elizabeth Darovic, English Department  Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee will cover the later destruction of the Native Americans by the white man following Dee Brown's well-known account, as well a various Native-American narratives from early white colonization until the present. Also included will be some Native American myths and legends to give students some background on the culture, and a film. 

Students are expected to do all of the reading required for the course, to write two papers and to do a short group presentation. Much of the class will involve discussion, both small group and class. Students are required to generate some of the discussion by sharing responses to the material.

The Cyborg 
ISP 101-39-901 M 5:45-9:00 pm Randall Honold, Liberal Arts & Sciences  You know about the Terminator, Robocop, and (if you're into '70's nostalgia) the Six Million Dollar Man. But what about your grandfather with the pacemaker, your aunt with the artificial hip, and your roommate who spends hours in on-line chat rooms? What do they all have in common? They are cyborgs, cybernetic organisms, examples of humanity intertwined with the mechanical or electronic. Images and instances of the cyborg in contemporary culture raise fascinating questions about our relationship to technology, nature, and the future. The cyborg provokes us to think about who and what we are--physically, spiritually, culturally, racially, politically, and sexually. 

By choosing this course, you will commit to careful reading of texts, attentive viewing of video images, and above all, "seminar behavior": preparation for and participation in classroom discussions. A significant amount of writing will be required, including a journal of your encounters with cyborgs, weekly reaction papers, a text review, and a final paper/creative project. Also, be advised that a mature outlook toward the course is essential, as some of the material we will consider may be somewhat disturbing. 

The Holocaust 
ISP 101-39-902 T 5:45-9:00 pm Judith Rae Ross, History Department The Holocaust, the murder of over 11,000,000, the majority of whom were Jewish, continues to raise troubling questions. Why did a "civilizes" nation acquiesce to the butchery? Why did other nations in Europe either remain silent or participate? Why didn’t the Americans try to stop the industrialized march to death? " We didn’t know," or" We were only following orders" just doesn’t cut it. At some level most people did know. The Holocaust seminar raises questions often left rattling in the closet. Participation examines the events, and how they may have acted had they lived between 1993-1945. The material is graphic and includes videos, guest speakers, a field trip to the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C. This seminar will make you think. Warning….it’s a gut-wrenching experience, not for a faint of heart. 

The Holocaust: Poetry in Response 
ISP 101-39-903 T 5:45-9:00 pm Jennifer Firestone, English Department  Some of the most interesting, exciting and intense poetry ever written has been in response to the Holocaust. Our task is to understand how in times of crisis such brutally raw and honest artistry takes shape in the poetic form. Part of this process involves understanding both the history of the Holocaust and the poetry that sprung from its horrors.  Through the readings of poetry, short stories, history and literary criticism we will determine how the Holocaust did and still does haunt the poetic mind. Does Jewish poetry becomes inseparable from the times and conditions under which it was written? How do these poets develop distinct ways to mourn the massive loss of their people? In addition to doing the readings for this course, we will also complete a series of critical and creative projects. 

And Justice For All: The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights At 50. 
ISP 101-39-904 W 5:45-9:00 pm Kathleen Kirk, English Department  "Human rights are African rights. They are also Asian rights; they are European rights; they are American rights. They belong to no government, they are limited to no continent, for they are fundamental to humankind itself." --Kofi Annan  Do you agree with this statement by the Secretary General of the United Nations? Do we all have certain undeniable human rights? Do you agree in principal but think it unlikely to occur in practice? Is it even possible for one person, let alone a group of nations, to declare the universality of human rights if human rights violations occur the world over as a matter of course? These are the kinds of questions we'll pursue as we look into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), signed by 48 countries of the world on December 10, 1948. To celebrate the 50^th anniversary of this historic resolution, the Great Books Foundation and the Foreign Policy Association published a text that sets the UDHR in a context of related political documents and critical commentary. That book is the focus of this course, and we'll read it closely. 

Because this course depends on a rigorous--yet free!--shared-inquiry method of discussion, students are expected to attend every class and to come ready to talk, having read each selection at least twice and written notes and discussion questions in advance. Short formal papers will of course pop up in this steady stream of informal writing! We'll also work on group projects, determined by particular interests and individual skills and inclinations, that may involve Internet research, letter writing, field trips, human rights activism, or the creation of a website. This should be an intellectually exciting, eye-opening seminar. 

Berlin: Reflections of A Great City 
ISP 101-39-905 TH 5:45-9:00 pm Lydia Giuliano, Modern Languages Department  This seminar focuses on Berlin, one of the greatest cities of the Twentieth Century. The seminar gives students deep insights into the culture, the history, and the politics of this great city that rose to prominence during the 19^th century. Berlin was swept up by social unrest during the Twenties, became the center of power of National Socialism during the Thirties, was nearly totally destroyed by the middle of the Forties, was the epicenter of the Cold War during the Fifties, Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties, and finally brought down the Iron Curtain. Throughout the tumultuous history, Berlin has been a city worth watching. The city’s history unfolds in this course through film. 

To understand and to comprehend the long-lasting and wide-ranging effects of the history, the culture, and the politics of Berlin, the students are required to attend all class and lab screenings, keep logs and/or journals, read original texts from a variety of sources, research the internet and the campus library, and write short sand specifically assigned weekly papers, as well as an eight-page research paper. The first draft of the research paper is due at midterm, and the final draft if due at the final. On the day of the final, each student is also required to present his or her discovery and/or point of view that is expressed in his or her paper to the rest of the class. The objectives of this course are to expose students to a specific place seen from various points of view, to help them develop study, thinking, and communicating skills, and to ease them into college life. 

Loop Campus

The Origin of Species and the Idea of Evolution 
ISP 101-39-601 M W F 12:00-1:00 pm Keith Peterson, Philosophy Department  The idea of "evolution" penetrates to the depths of twentieth century thought at the level of its very presuppositions. It is thus remarkable that so little genuinely philosophical thinking has addressed the idea of evolution as such in all of its diverse permutations and manifestations in social, ethical, political, scientific and religious thinking. It will be an assumption of the course that the idea of evolution is to be taken as a problem or question, which it will be the task of the ten-week seminar to explore in its various dimensions, its historical provenances, and its forward-looking trajectories, none of which it will pretend to exhaust. It presupposes none but the most rudimentary prior acquaintance with the biological concept of evolution, and hopes to illuminate the dark regions of the often unacknowledged philosophical genealogy of the idea both in the 19th century and preceding it. 

Along with the Darwin's Origin of Species itself, students will read selections from canonical figures in the history of philosophy on biology, scientific method, philosophy of nature, and evolution, such as Aristotle, Kant, Schelling, Bergson and Freud. Students will be expected to write three short essays, each addressing different facets (scientific, socio-political, philosophical) of this multifarious concept, with ample opportunity for revision, in-class presentation and discussion. 

Nietzsche: Ancient and Modern Experiences of Tragedy
ISP 101-39-602 T TH 10:10-11:40 am Peter Wake, Philosophy Department  This course will focus on Nietzsche and his book, The Birth of Tragedy, as a means of coming to understand what he calls "the craving for ugliness" that gives rise to the need for tragic narratives. Why do we tell stories about the most intense suffering? And perhaps more importantly, why do we like hearing, reading, and watching them so much? Attempting to account for this leads to the question of what a work of art is if it does not fall under the exclusive domain of the beautiful. When we take seriously Nietzche’s challenge that the existence of the world can only ever be justified as an aesthetic phenomenon, then the need to account for this "craving" becomes all the more imperative. In other words, if it stands that when we presume to make judgment about one culture as opposed to another, we judge according to the "artwork" of that culture, or perhaps the manner in which a culture creates itself as a work of art, then the definition and the role of morality as it is traditionally conceived comes into question. Issues like these will guide our reading of the tragedies. 

As a means of introducing these themes, we will read Nietzche’s "Attempt at Self-criticism" written fifteen years after The Birth of Tragedy and stories from Raymond Carver’s What we Talk About When We Talk About Love, as well as screening the film, The Sweet Hereafter. We will then work through plays by Sophocles and Euripides in order to get different ancient interpretations of tragedy, those of Plato and Aristotle in particular. 

In addition to close readings of the texts, students will be expected to actively engage in class discussion. In order to facilitate this, students will be required to write short papers each week (1-2 pages in length). The topics for these shorter papers will vary according to the nature of the reading assignments. Each student will be expected to give one protocol during the quarter. This protocol is a short presentation given in collaboration with one or two other students summarizing the central points of the reading and raising question aimed at guiding subsequent class discussion. A final paper roughly 6-8 pages in length will be required focusing on either a detailed reading of a specific text or a general theme raised in the course.