First-Year Seminar Course Descriptions

Fall 2013

Art of the Social Imagination
Fletcher Boote

Starting as far back as ancient India, Art of the Social Imagination uses art and art history to explain the theory and practice of art as it relates to public and private audiences.Students will view “interventionists” ( yogis, musicians, and video artists) as people who interact with society to produce thoughtful and imaginative results. In class, students will develop proposals and construct projects that interact with academic, local, personal, and/or interpersonal realms. No prior experience in the arts is necessary for this course. The emphasis, here, is on an introduction to art history and hands-on learning.

 

Dystopia: Cautionary Tales of a Nightmarish Future

Tyrone Shaw

As opposed to the utopian vision of a more perfect world, dystopian literature and film depict the worst of all possible worlds. Probing basic questions of human nature and society, they reveal anxieties that remain chillingly applicable today. In this course, we will explore such issues as the self, alienation, freedom, complicity, citizenship, love, faith, sex, technology and happiness through a variety of novels and films.

Cultivating the Cross-Cultural Mind

Dr. Martha Lance

How does your cultural identity affect your understanding of the world and its people? In this course, we will first examine our own perceptions, attitudes, values, beliefs, and needs. Who are we as cultural beings? After this exploration, we will sympathetically cross into other cultures, new terrains. Here, we will come to identify, understand, and appreciate certain features of the new culture so that we may, as individuals, build our own bridges of understanding. As one former student expressed, "Cultivating the Cross-Cultural Mind is a fun engaging class that allows you to gain a greater knowledge of the people and world around you. It’s a class with an open atmosphere that encourages discussion, and enables thought about how, and why, people do things the way they do.”

Globalize It!

Thomas Ware 

Do you know how long it takes to make the shoes you are wearing? Do you have an idea how many countries are involved in the process of making your t-shirt? This FYS will explain that, and other important concepts involved in producing and trading in a global world. Concepts such as globalization, international trade and cultural differences will be explored in this course. Students taking this FYS will go on a day trip to Immigration Services Offices in northern Vermont. In addition, students will develop a Skype/email "pal" relationship with individuals in Spain and Mongolia.

 

iMe: Reinventing Yourself in the Digital Age

Sean Clute

Have you ever uploaded a photo to Facebook, viewed cats from around the world on Youtube, or conquered a video game with online teammates? Digital technology is making it easier than ever to express yourself and communicate on a global scale. With the advent of virtual realities like Second Life, you can reach beyond globalism and enter the realm of total imagination. With all of these exciting changes, how do you navigate this new world? In this seminar we will explore technology's role in our lives. Through an interdisciplinary approach we will examine science, art and literature’s take on topics including Web 2.0, cybernetics, and virtual reality. We will look at how these topics have influenced robotics, viral videos and most importantly, you.

 

If I Can’t Dance - Keep Your Revolution

Maris Wolff

History is not just about important revolutions, battles, politicians and changing borders. It is also about everyday people, and what is important in their everyday lives. This course is a multicultural exploration of the simple things that give people pleasure: their dance, games, social activities, cuisine; some of the things that make a nation’s culture. We see how geography, climate, work, religion/ritual, gender, and age all have their impact on a country’s customs.This course investigates the similarities and differences between the various cultures of people around the globe. This course celebrates what Emma Goldman called everybody’s right to beautiful, radiant things..

Journaling: Writing in New Territory

Rose Modry

“Laugh at yourself, but don’t ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don’t leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory,” advised Alan Alda. Every first year college student is in new territory, and the process of journaling is a journey of discovery. Through journal-writing, stu-dents will both explore their new surroundings as well as arrive at new places because of the mental mapping they embarked upon through this writing process. The daily writing assignments are designed for students to examine and experience their own unique world in ways that bring new insight into their lives and build connec-tions through their examinations of culture, interest, ideology, and community. In addition to keeping their own journals, students will read excerpts of other diarists/journal-keepers’ work.

The Language of Film

David Grozinsky

This course explores the richness of the art form of film through screenings, discussions, readings, writings, and hands-n video production.  This class is not a film history class, but instead will focus on the basic conventions of film expression including narrative, mise-en-scene,cinematography, editing, sound genre, and more. Over the course of the semester, we will watch a broad mix of international films from the past 100 years of cinema.  In class we will discuss films and required readings. Participation in discussion is necessary and expected, and you may also be called upon to lead a discussion yourself. Additionally, you will write film reviews and get to make a couple short films of your own.

Mathematical Puzzles Through History

Greg Petrics

What is the essence of mathematics? To a large extent, mathematics is not about “numbers” at all.  Mathematics is a discipline about thinking. It is an art form that has a rich history stretching literally thousands of years; a history not only of solving puzzles, but of deciding which puzzles were worth the attention of the many scholars who attempted to solve them. A historical study of mathematics can be viewed, in part, as a study of an intellectual development of the human mind. This course seeks to examine some of the greatest “puzzles” of mathematics while putting them into a historical context. We will study some of the greatest ideas put forth by the human mind, without getting bogged down (too much) with arithmetical detail.

 

Music and Culture of New Orleans

Clyde Stats

This course will look at the rich musical environment in New Orleans, and the cultures that have supported it. We will cover the following musical styles: jazz, r&b/funk, cajun, zydeco, brass bands, and Mardi Gras Indians music. In early November we will travel to New Orleans for 5 days to experience the music and culture firsthand. The trip will also include a day of community service, as well as visits to important cultural sites in and around New Orleans. The course fee of $850 covers everything (airfare, accommodations, food, ground transportation). Financial aid may be used to cover the course fee. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn about and soak up the sights and sounds of New Orleans and receive college credit while you’re doing it!

Songwriting for Beginners: Finding Your Inner Dylan  
Steve Blair

This course will give you a pathway to gain the ability to write original songs of various types. A wide spectrum of topics will include fundamental aspects of music, basics in writing skills, and a historical perspective on successful songwriters from the distant past to today. An extensive use of YouTube will allow you to observe, listen, and analyze songs directly performed by master songwriters. You will write at least three complete songs during the semester, along with many exercises during the process. Each song will be recorded, and at the end of the semester, a CD recording will be produced.  There will be a final performance of each student's best works.

 

Spoils of War: Art, War and Ethics

Mary Martin

This course examines in depth cases of art looting during wars. We will question what the relationship is between wars and art acquisitions. We will explore the question of how, if at all, do the means of acquiring art works impact their exhibition. Reading subjects will include:  Napolean, World War II, Native American Graves Protection and Reparation Act, King Leopold and the Congo, Nigeria, Egypt, Angkor Wat, and Iraq. We will also examine other legal issues in the art world such as forgeries, censorship and destruction of art.

 

Thinking Globally, Eating Locally

Russ Weiss

This course concerns itself with the growing field of study related to how colleges can best institute environmental innovations, particularly as relates to food production and consumption.  As this burgeoning new discipline of “Campus Greening” is explored, emphasis will be placed upon students developing the critical reading and thinking, expository writing, and research skills what will serve them well throughout their college career.  An important aim of the course will be to sharpen student awareness of how their social patterns related to their food consumption affects themselves and the local foodshed.  Another objective will be to “educate in order to activate,” inspiring students to play an ongoing role in the stewardship of the JSC Community Garden.  All students will choose a project related either to the garden or to the JSC cafeteria and also make contributions to the food-related sections in the pending “JSC Eco-Master Plan.”

Traditions and Identity

Emily Neilsen

As you transition to life at Johnson there will be so much that is new: where you live, the people who surround you, perhaps even the ideas you think about and activities you take part in.  You will be presented with a unique opportunity to redefine yourself.  But, as author Junot Diaz so aptly puts it, “You can never run away. Not ever. The only way out is in.”  In this vein, this class seeks to examine how we build identity.  It asks: how do cultural traditions shape who we become?  How does our heritage influence us, for better and for worse?  Are there parts of our current selves that we would like to leave behind as we enter a new chapter in our lives?  And, if so, from where can we borrow to imagine and construct ourselves anew?  Through contemporary literature - essays, fiction, memoir - we will investigate others’ relationships to familial, cultural, ethnic, and regional traditions in order to examine how individuals define and redefine themselves; and to tease out how we might do the same. 

Vampire

Sharon Twigg

This course focuses on the vampire in Western culture in order to ask the questions how and why does a culture   create outsiders, exiles, and scapegoats? Why has the vampire become a figure that fires our imaginations, our fears, and our desires? We will consider folklore, history, geography, literature, and film to study the cultural appeal of the vampire from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century, although the majority of the course will focus on the latter part of this chronology. We will also examine a selection of medical and psychological theories, such as Freud’s idea of the uncanny, to gain insight into why the vampire has remained a figure of attraction (or revulsion) for centuries. Bram Stoker's Dracula, largely responsible for Western ideas about the vampire, will be our central text.

 

What Is Called Thinking?

Richard Shanley

This seminar will explore the various ways people think and learn, and provide opportunities to examine your own learning styles, as well as develop an understanding of how others think and learn. Are you a visual learner, an auditory learner, a hands-on learner, or something else? How can you maximize your learning strengths, while building up your weaker areas, to get the most out of your college experience? What does it mean to think critically? How can your thinking style help or hinder your success in life? What do you need to know to make the best possible decisions? These are some of the questions we will explore, as you learn techniques and strategies to become a better thinker and learner - skills that will apply to your college classes, as well as your life.