Agnes Scott College offers an exciting and distinctive program of required First-Year Seminars. Although there are no prerequisites, First-Year Seminars are not typical first-year courses. Instead, they are designed to introduce entering students to advanced study at the college level. In a First-Year Seminar, you will learn to write more effectively, begin to think more deeply, and develop an extensive knowledge of the seminar topic.
In each First-Year Seminar, students focus on a compelling question or critical issue selected by their professor. Together, they conduct a semester-long inquiry into the topic, and in the process, students learn how to evaluate information, formulate arguments and interpretations and pose and assess solutions.
First-Year Seminars are:
- Four-credit hour, academic courses
- Required of and limited to first-year students
- Led by professors who have selected and researched the special topics for these courses
- Representative of the humanities and the social, natural and physical sciences
- Often interdisciplinary, so that students may explore topics from more than one perspective
(If you are a transfer student or a Woodruff Scholar with more than 28 semester hours of credit you will be exempt from the First-Year Seminar requirement.)
2008-2009 Course Descriptions:
FALL 2008
A. The Ways of China: Building a Spiritual and Material Civilization
Dennis McCann
T/TH 8:00-9:15
This course provides students with historical, political, cultural and philosophical perspectives needed for interpreting sympathetically and critically China’s current struggle with tradition and modernization. It offers students an opportunity to explore interdisciplinary perspectives on the changes and transitions occurring among Chinese people, in such areas as religious and moral beliefs, rituals and festivals, family structure, gender roles, social ideology, political and economic organization, and their impact upon the lives of various groups, especially women.
B. The Witch in History: The Idea and Practice of Witchcraft in the Western Tradition
Michael Lynn
MW 2:30-3:45
Witches have existed throughout history in a variety of forms. Sometimes people have accepted witches as an integral part of society while at other times they persecuted those deemed witches. This course will analyze the place and image of the witch in western thought from antiquity to the present. In particular, we will explore both popular ideas about the practice of witchcraft (as imagined by those people who accused others of being witches) as well as the legal and historical development of those who studied the theory of witchcraft (called demonology). We will examine the history of the witch and the different ways in which historians approach the subject. In addition, we will investigate the image of the witch in film and television and the origins of modern witchcraft.
C. Mad in America: Mental illness in the movies, the media and the laboratory.
Barbara Blatchley
MW 11:00-12:15
There are any number of popular notions about the causes of mental illness, from blaming Mom, to blaming the sufferer’s genes. This course will examine popular depictions of three mental illnesses (depression, multiple personality disorder and schizophrenia) in the movies and the media. We will also examine what modern neuroscience and experimental psychology have to say about the causes of mental illness, along with new and innovative suggestions for treatment. Special focus will be put on the biology of mental illness, basic brain function, and how treatments address the underlying biological foundation of these disorders.
D. Temple, Text, Image: Buddhist Journeys
Anne Beidler and Donna Sadler
T/TH 3:30-4:45
This course will explore the art historical manifestations of Buddhism in the temples of China, Japan, and Korea. Students will draw from the literature of pilgrimage, on Buddhism, and on Asian temples in order to understand the richness of this tradition. As Sadler leads the students on this art historical venture, Beidler will lead the class in the process of artist book-making in the studio, so that each student may chart the text and vision that encompasses her own pilgrimage. The book, then, is the culmination of the individual student’s journey amidst the Buddhist monks of Asia.
E. So you want to save the planet
Paul Winget
MWF 11:00-11:50
One of the most important issues of the 21st century is the issue of how humans and technology impact our environment. This FYS is inspired by the following statement by Aldo Leopold “Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question of whether a still higher standard of living is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free.”
In this course, we will examine how governments, organizations and individuals try to find solutions to environmental dilemmas. In order to do this we will explore the following topics: what we mean by the term and concept "environment"? How can a better understanding of the chemistry of the environment make us better stewards of the environment? How does environmental legislation work? What is the role of literature and film in the quest to solve environmental dilemmas? We will also debate current issues such as air quality, global warming and pesticide use. Because there are no simple solutions to environmental issues, the goals of this course are to increase your critical understanding of these issues, while helping you improve your writing and speaking skills.
F. Virtue and Happiness
Richard Parry
T/TH 9:30-10:45
Happiness is both the most vital and the most elusive of concepts. Virtually everyone wants to be happy; very few have a clear idea of what it is. Fewer still understand why we are in this predicament. Ancient thinkers held that happiness was incoherent unless it was intimately related to morality—or what they called virtue. In modern thought and culture the two are sundered; and both hard to understand. We will read, discuss, and reflect on ancient, modern, and contemporary thinkers and writers to see in what ways it is possible to recover an idea of happiness that is coherent with morality.
G. The Immigrant Experience in America
Madeline Zavodny
TTh 8:00-9:15
We often hear that the United States is a nation of immigrants. What does that mean? This course will examine the wide diversity of immigrant experiences in America, both contemporary and historical. We will discuss whether and how immigrants assimilate into the broader society and how immigrants change America as well. The course will incorporate readings from literature, sociology, and economics and a wide variety of disciplinary perspectives.
H. Radical Education: Possibilities for Freedom
Lesley Coia
MW 1:00-2:15
Education has played a vital role in movements for social change from the anarchist schools at the turn of the last century, through the Freedom Schools of Mississippi in 1964 to present day interest in education in social and ecological justice. This course provides the opportunity to study these and other radical school movements by asking fundamental questions about the role of education, both of children and adults, in movements for social, political, economic and ecological transformation. Students will have the opportunity to use their own extensive knowledge of education to reflect on the purpose of education and to inquire into the possibility of education for freedom.
I. Marie-Antoinette: Her Words and World(s)
Julia Knowlton
TTh 12:30-1:45
Did Marie-Antoinette really say “let them eat cake?” In this seminar we will explore the life and times of the last queen of France. Topics of study will include national identity and alterity, social and sexual politics at court, portraiture, and public versus private space. Emphasis will be placed on theories of Marie-Antoinette’s intricate sartorial strategies and her use of her body as voice. Literary and cinematic representations will be central to our study.
J. Don't Make Me Laugh: Women and Humor
Amber Dermont
TTh 2:00-3:15
In his ridiculous essay, "Why Women Aren't Funny," misogynist and public intellectual Christopher Hitchens argues that women lack a biological and social imperative to make men or other women laugh. Using Hitchens's essay as a jumping off point, we will examine the ways in which contemporary women writers, comediennes and filmmakers use humor to inform their art, to satirize gender roles and to address questions of race, class, identity, sexuality, politics, religion, motherhood and body image. We will consider the role of gender in creating humor and subverting stereotypes. By challenging Hitchens's assertions, we will make a serious study of just how funny women can be. Authors may include Lorrie Moore, ZZ Packer, Stacey Richter and Alicia Erian. Films may include Margaret Cho's "I Have Chosen To Stay and Fight," and Sarah Silverman's "Jesus Is Magic."’
K. Capitalism, Consumerism, and Citizenship
Cathy Scott
MWF 12:00-12:50
To what extent is political life in the U.S. increasingly defined by consumerist criteria? Should political campaigns be packaged for spectator consumption and the major news networks cover Anna Nicole Smith’s untimely death as much as they cover the Iraq war? What are the implications of the proliferation of a corporate model that treats students as clients, citizens as customers, and war as an outsourcing project? Should you view this course description as a sales pitch to take my class? This course will explore how capitalism cultivates both the consuming as well as the resisting and rebellious subject. We will study both consumer sovereignty and the state practices that support it as well as the possibilities of reform and resistance, with case studies of protesting Wal-mart, advocating fair trade, demanding the accountability of private security firms in war, and boycotting conflict diamonds.
L. The Detective Novel and the Modern World
Steve Guthrie
TTh 2:00-3:15
Writers of detective fiction frequently straddle, cross, or ignore literary and social boundaries. They write escape literature for a popular audience, but they sell books by writing about the grittier sides of humanity and society—which they romanticize, satirize, mystify, and deconstruct, often at the same time. Their works can give us a perspective on our own views of the world and our own ideas about literature.
This course will survey some of the major voices of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries in Britain and America. Issues addressed will include social commentary in the genre, British and American forms, the mystery novel versus the suspense novel, female writers and male writers, and what we mean by terms like "art" and "pulp." Writers studied will include Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Josephine Tey, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Chester Himes, Walter Mosley, and Barbara Wilson. We will also compare several of the novels with their film adaptations.
M. All About Women on the Verge: Representations of Women in the Films of Pedro Almodóvar
Mike Schlig
M 4:00-6:00/W 4:00-5:15
Pedro Almodóvar, Spain’s best known film maker, has stood the test of time and come to personify the emergence of a revitalized Spanish culture in the wake of thirty-six years of military dictatorship. In fact, many attribute the international prominence of contemporary Spanish cinema to the popularity of films such as “All About My Mother” and “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” beyond the borders of his native country. But while few question the significance of his artistic vision, his works have often aroused strong criticism, in spite of his own claims that he “loves women,” for the questionable treatment of female characters. In addition to viewing the works of Almodóvar and other filmmakers, students will read and discuss the different kinds of texts that have been written about his films (i.e., scholarly journal articles, newspaper reviews and popular opinion) as well as consider more general notions regarding the interpretation of film and the portrayal of women in the arts.
N. Energy: Power Generation, Consumption and Sustainability
Amy Lovell
MWF 9:00-9:50
This seminar will investigate energy sources and human power consumption. Students will engage with national and international energy data to assess energy needs, sources, and usage. Class discussions and writing assignments will draw from this data as well as from readings in textbooks and articles of contemporary interest, enabling an assessment of the promises and challenges of various traditional and alternative energy sources, including environmental, political and economic impacts.
SPRING 2009
A. Trees and Forests
Jim Abbot
MWF 12:00-12:50
From the beginning there were trees, say the world's creation stories. But we cleared the primeval forest to plant our crops and build our cities; the forests themselves became an "abomination," as Robert Pogue Harrison puts it in Forests: The Shadow of Civilization (1992). The wilderness of the forest became a place apart, a haven for those who were in some way estranged from civilization: monsters, outlaws, heroes, wanderers, lovers, saints, and outcasts. Today, science is making clear just how dependent we are on the fate of the forests; new ideas of relationship and interaction are challenging traditional notions of estrangement and otherness. In this seminar, we will study trees and forests in human imagination and experience. The emphasis will be on the West, and our sources will include film, literature, myth, religion, and history. In addition to classroom activities, students will have an opportunity to participate in a tree planting, a guided tree walk, a tree climbing session, and a forest walk.
B. Latinas/Latinos in Atlanta: Contemporary Migration Issues
Martha Rees
TTh 11:00-12:15
The number of immigrants and nonimmigrants of Latin American descent has increased dramatically over the last decade, and Atlanta has not been left out of this new migrant flow. Governments, politicians, academics and service agencies have been caught largely unawares in the process, and, as a result, many pronouncements on the subject of migration are based on scanty information and embedded in worn-out concepts. The goal of this seminar is to introduce students to the culture, work and life of Mexican immigrants to Atlanta from an anthropological perspective.
We look at theories of migration, and compare these with data on migration to Georgia and Atlanta. The course reviews current events,
analyzes Latin cultures and spaces in Atlanta with fieldwork and interviews with migrants, especially women migrants, an even newer and
smaller group. The fieldwork will involve some really good tacos. Some Spanish is an asset, but not necessary.