Philosophy of Love and Friendship
Tiberiu Popa
This course is meant chiefly as an introduction to the philosophy of love and friendship. It is not a philosophy course strictly speaking, though, and we will tackle plenty of literary and sacred texts – among other things – that are relevant to our topic and that encourage reflection on the nature of love and friendship. Our survey of some of the most influential views on the subject will be decidedly interdisciplinary, and we will consider carefully the connections between love and topics as diverse as morality, personal identity and mysticism. During the second half of this course (i.e. in the spring of 2013) we will also explore a range of types of love and attachment that are not (or not only) interpersonal: patriotism, adherence to certain ideologies, consumerism etc.
Philosophy, Psychology & Perso nhood
Virgil G. Whitmyer II
Is Star Trek’s Commander Data a person? What about Hal, the computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey? In this course we will think about just what it means to be a person. We will examine what philosophers have historically thought makes us persons. Using various media (including books, films, and lab work) we will also consider how this question has been transformed by more recent advances in psychology, robotics, and other cognitive sciences. An important question will be whether human beings are the only persons, or whether other things like non-human animals and robots might qualify. Finally we’ll explore the relation of these questions about personhood to other things we care about — like rationality, autonomy, responsibility and free will.
Faith, Doubt and Reason
James McGrath
This is a two-semester course. Students who enroll in this topic in the fall are expected to enroll in this topic in the spring. Semester one is a prerequisite for semester two. Faith Doubt and Reason. Reading and discussion of classic philosophical religious and literary texts exploring the ways in which human beings have reflected on their relationship to God; the world and their fellow human beings. In the first semester (‘The Search for God’), we will focus on how human beings have sought to know and understand God and the world and on how that search has shaped the way humans define themselves. In the second semester (‘The Search for Community’), we will focus on how human beings have sought to define themselves in terms of the various communities to which they belong, including families and clans, ethnic communities, nations and faith communities. The interaction and interconnections of faith, doubt and reason will receive attention in both semesters.
Sex & Politics: Helen of Troy
Margaret Brabant
The story of Helen of Troy literally and figuratively embodies the struggle between sex and politics and the human propensity to forsake politics for war. In this course, we will examine how the myth of Helen is intimately connected with misogynistic attitudes, romantic and sexual fantasies, and notions of political power that may been seen throughout twenty-eight centuries of the telling and retelling of the story of the “face that launched a thousand ships.” Course readings include Bettany Hughes’ Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore; Euripides’ Helen; Aeschylus’ Oresteia, among others. Those who take this topic in the fall will not be permitted to repeat the topic for FYS102 credit.
Travelers and Tourists
Robin Turner
Studying travel and tourism allows us to look deeply at ourselves, our communities, and the world. When we leave home for a day, for a few weeks, or for many months, we have the opportunity to engage with the unfamiliar, to engage directly with difference, and to develop new perspectives. But travel and tourism are not innocent. Tourism involves privilege-the ability to choose to go somewhere else-and tourism affects “natives”-those people who live in the places to which we travel-as well as travelers. Travel brings people into what Mary Louise Pratt calls the “contact zone,” a space in which people with different histories, experiences, and unequal power and privilege encounter and affect one another. In this two semester seminar, we will examine travel and tourism from multiple perspectives, reading, discussion. This is a two-semester course. Students who enroll in this topic in the fall are expected to enroll in this topic in the spring. Semester one is a prerequisite for semester two.
Spellbound: The Quest for Magic in Speculative Fiction and the Arts.
Stephan Laurent-Faesi
Throughout the ages, the fascination with the otherworldly, the supernatural, the magical element has been a great source of inspiration for writers, choreographers, musicians, and other artists. From the tales of 1001 Nights to A Mid-summer Night’s Dream, from The Lord of the Rings to contemporary fantasy literature, magic is ever-present, sometimes for the good, now and again in the purpose of evil. Similarly, the art of dance abounds with tales of the fantastic; musicians have given a voice to many a fairy tale; and artists have painted or sculpted countless mythological figures. This course will explore the many faces of this quest for magic in an inter-disciplinary way, with selected readings from the genre of fantasy literature, viewings of masterworks of ballet and modern dance, and musical examples from great symphonic and operatic works. Note: Semester one is prerequisite to semester two.
La Musica!: Classical Music in the 21st Century
Lisa Brooks
Students will consider the relevance of classical music to 21st century American life. We will study classical music as a “product” and ourselves as “consumers”. Finally, we will focus on the music of a particular society-Nazi Germany-to examine even broader implications of music, including propaganda and censorship. Semester one is not a prerequisite to semester two.
Roots and Regions
Bruce Bigelow
Students will read and write about fiction and nonfiction that reflect the cultural regions of the United States. In the fall we will examine literature from the Midwest, the South, and the Northeast. In the spring semester we will shift our focus to Southern California, Texas, and the Pacific Northwest. Two questions we will consider are, do we find regionalism an important influence on our identities and where is home or homeland for us, and why? Semester one is not a prerequisite to semester two.
Gettysburg in History & Memory
George Geib
Our topics are the battle of Gettysburg and Lincoln’s powerful address. We will use primary sources and two Pulitzer-Prize winning texts to help you develop your thinking and writing skills.
Eureka, I’ve Found It!
Bill Johnston, Kathie Jane Freed
This course develops an appreciation for deductive analytic reasoning and the discovery of new ideas, especially in modern science and mathematics. It will describe ten great breakthroughs in history and the individuals who made each one, including (the beginning date of discovery is also given): Special Relativity (early 1900s); the Course of Planets (ca. 1667); the Modern Formulation of Infinity (ca. 1850); the Way to Calculate Probabilities (1654); the Pythagorean Theorem and Properties of Whole Numbers (ca. BCE 300); the Square Root of -1 (1806); Non-Euclidean Geometry (late 1800s); the Solution to Cubic Equations (1539); How to Shoot Rockets to the Moon (1969), the Method of Statistical Experimentation (1925); and a Secure Method to Send Your Credit Card Number Over the Internet (1973). Students will write papers telling the story of these events.
Writing on Drugs
Bonnie K. Brown
Drugs, both licit and illicit, are ubiquitous in our everyday lives, whether through personal consumption, consumption by others, or through informational, advertising, and entertainment media. Given this ubiquity it is no surprise that various forms of writing “on” drugs, drug use and abuse, and drug culture arise and engage/enrich our consciousness about drugs. This course investigates the various types of literary writing concerning drugs, the scholarship that arises concerning this subject, and the various issues with drugs (rehabilitation, addiction, public policy) within the framework of literature.
Scary Stories: The Metaphor of the Zombie
Readers of zombie literature and followers of zombie film will verify the ease by which the zombie contagion spreads, infecting all through bites, splatters, and exchanges of bodily fluids. This metaphor is our starting point for analysis of the zombie metaphor and its subsequent appearances in thought, scholarship, and practices, in a wide variety of disciplines. We’ll start by examining the tradition of the zombie as it originates in the spiritual side of various cultures, moving then to consider how the zombie functions in social, political, economic, and intellectual spheres. We’ll culminate with developing our own applications of, and antidotes for, the zombie contagion as it threatens areas of our own interest.
The Call of the Wild
Angela D. Hofstetter
Drawings of horses, stags, and bulls on the caves of Lascaux illustrate that animals have captured the human imagination since the dawn of the Paleolithic era as food, workers, companions, and fellow warriors: our path to modernity tells the tales of a relationship paradoxically fraught with violence and love. The intensity of this primordial fascination erupted with new vehemence in nineteenth-century America, England, and France as discussions of transmutation (what became evolution) destabilized the already fragile line distinguishing man and beast. This First Year Seminar adopts an interdisciplinary approach to how questions of animals and animality were developed across both generic and national boundaries: the burgeoning fields of anthropology, zoology, and sociology will be read alongside art and literature of the period. In addition to the controversial writings of Charles Darwin, Carol Adams, and Marc Bekoff, texts will include Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.”
Imaginative Sojourns
Alessandra J. Lynch
In this course we will be reading texts from various genres (personal essay, memoir, graphic “novel,” and poetry), each focusing on some aspect of the Self- self-image, self and community, self and culture. We will discuss how self-expression manifests itself in each genre–how each genre reveals or clarifies particular insights about the self. The class will be discussion-based, but students will keep a journal, respond to a variety of writing prompts and write essays triggered by the readings. This course is the first semester offering of the year-long First-Year Seminar. Semester one is not prerequisite to semester two, but students who enroll in this topic in the fall are expected to enroll in this topic in the spring.
Contemporary Writers
Susan Neville
Michael Dahlie
A year-long course focusing on the works of contemporary writers. Texts for the course will be chosen primarily from the works of writers who will be coming to campus during the year as part of the Visiting Writers Series, the James J. Woods Science Writers Series, and other events and series that bring writers to campus. In the course of reading and discussing the works of contemporary writers, students will cultivate the skills necessary for critical thinking, oral communication, and effective writing. The course will also serve as an introduction to the vitality of the liberal arts. Class will involve discussion, student presentations, and writing strategies. This course is the first semester offering of the year-long First-Year Seminar. Semester one is not prerequisite to semester two, but students who enroll in this topic in the fall are expected to enroll in this topic in the spring.
Farm, Town, Suburb, City
Carol Reeves
Through reading classic and contemporary American novels and stories set on farms, towns, suburbs and cities, we will explore how these places affect our psyche and our political values. In the process, we will make the familiar-the kind of place where we grew up-seem strange, by examining it from a different perspective. We will also make the strange-the place we did not grow up-familiar by discovering connections we can make with its inhabitants. Where is the best place to live? We will ask, and in doing so, we will find out more about ourselves and others.
The Heroic Temper
Rebecca S. Ries
Homer lays the groundwork for an examination of the epic heroes, with his very personal attention to the lives and characters of his chosen heroes in the Iliad and the Odyssey. Central to our concern in this seminar will be our own examination of these poems especially with an eye towards understanding what keeps generation after generation not only reading these classic epics but reworking the heroic form as well as the heroic themes. Besides our reading the Homeric epics, we will study the modern applications of them in film – such as Troy, Ulysses, and O Brother Where Art Thou? Semester two will look at further reworking of the Homeric model, with Roman works such as Virgil’s Aeneid and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, among others. This is a two-semester course. Students who enroll in this topic in the fall are expected to enroll in this topic in the spring. Semester one is a prerequisite for semester two.
Shakespearean Temper
Rebecca Ries
Shakespeare -The best playwright in the world- either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral” . . . this is the only man! Ben Johnson says of Shakespeare that “He was not of an age but for all time” and that will serve as our entry into an examination of one particular artist, William Shakespeare. Within the artificial world of his dramas he will supply the very real values, morals, and expectations of his time as they compete with the individual’s experience and his or her desire. Shakespeare’s characters must weigh their allegiances-to whom? And at what cost? In this course, in addition to reading some of the most famous of his plays, students will also come to an understanding of what it means to be a man or woman in this historic culture. We may also be able to answer for ourselves whether or not Johnson is right-that Shakespeare is indeed for our time too.
Rock and Roll High School
Rob Stapleton
Like rock and roll itself, this class will be a hybrid, an extended jam of threads and themes as we map the ideological geography of youth culture through literature, music, film, and art. This is not a history of rock and roll class, but rather an ongoing inquiry into the collective expressions of rebellion, coming-of-age, and generational battles. Semester one will examine the rise of youth culture through 1975. This is a two-semester course. Students who enroll in this topic in the fall are expected to enroll in this topic in the spring. Semester one is a prerequisite for semester two.
All about the Bike
William H. Watts
On both the local and the international level, cycling is going through a renaissance. Three years ago, Indianapolis had virtually no bicycle lanes; the city now has over sixty miles of lanes. Increasingly, both health experts and urban planners point to cycling as a tangible means of enhancing the quality of our lives. In this year-long course, we will consider this cycling renaissance in its historical and cultural context. Students will have the opportunity to go on group rides and develop their own personal cycling plan to fulfill the Physical Well Being requirement, and the course will include a service learning component in which students will work with local bicycle advocacy groups and thereby satisfy the Indianapolis Community Requirement of the Core Curriculum.
Contemporary Writers
Chris Forhan
The goal of the First Year Seminar is to immerse you in the culture of a liberal arts education and help you develop your skills in reading, writing, oral communication, and critical thinking. These activities are recursive: they interact with and reinforce each other. Therefore, we will continually be engaging in all of them, with an emphasis on reading texts analytically, discussing them together with purpose and intellectual engagement, and writing essays about’or at least inspired by’the assigned literature. Most of our reading will be of works by fiction writers and poets scheduled to appear this semester in Butler’s Visiting Writers Series; in discussing these works, we will focus not only on what they are about but on how they are written-our analysis of them will illuminate the strategies writers employ to make their work complex and memorable. An essential course requirement is attendance at several evening readings by the authors whose work we are studying.
Identity and Culture: Coming of Age in a Changing World.
Deborah Corpus
What tells us who we are? How does one develop an image of self? Students will use the lenses of literature, psychological theory, art, and history to examine depictions of “coming of age” across cultures and time periods. Aristotle wrote, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” Through this seminar, students will use “art” in its broadest sense to explore the significance of “coming of age.” Semester I: Coming of Age in America. Semester II: Coming of Age in Other Cultures and Other Times. Semester one is not a prerequisite for semester two.
Rebels with a Cause
Christine Smith
This First Year Seminar will analyze challenges to authority, with attention to the way those challenges are reflected in fiction and non-fiction. Larger questions such as – what constitutes a rebellion? why and how do we rebel? what role does the rebel serve in society? – these will become topics for discussion and writing integrated with the texts used. In the course of reading and discussing these works of literature, students will cultivate the skills necessary for critical thinking, oral communication, and effective writing. The course will also serve as an introduction to the vitality of the liberal arts. As a seminar the class will be structured around student discussion as well as student presentations, in class writing and writing workshops. The second semester will consider the American Civil War, called at its outset the War of the Rebellion, will emphasize the common soldier and his family, and will require a genealogy project. Semester one is not prerequisite to semester two.
The Art of Literature Now
Grant Vecera
We will study recently published essays and short stories from the Best American Series in order to better understand ourselves and the human condition at large. Such texts will function to some extent as models for the types of writing students will perform, but the texts will also function as artifacts with which we can hopefully make deep & complex philosophical, psychological, social, religious, historical, political, & aesthetic inquiries intrinsic to the liberal arts tradition. Because the texts will be almost exclusively American, cultural criticism will pervade our intellectual investigations, and students will obtain many opportunities to reflect upon their roles and identities as members of various communities and as earthlings. This course is the first semester offering of the year-long First-Year Seminar. Semester one is not prerequisite to semester two, but students who enroll in this topic in the fall are expected to enroll in this topic in the spring.
Re-enchantment:The Grimm Truth
Mindy Dunn
This is a two-semester course. Students who enroll in this topic in the fall are expected to enroll in this topic in the spring. Semester one is a prerequisite for semester two. Once upon a time, in lands all over the world, fairy tales were passed on through generations, carried over continents by the voices of storytellers. This semester we will be re-learning how to read fairy tales, working to uncover the layers of meaning hidden to us by our modern eyes too readily satisfied by the obvious morals of Disney movies; will ask why fairy tales are important, why their shelf lives are so long; will investigate how the tales themselves have shape-shifted from the oral into text and media and how this affects their worth; all while asking ourselves “what is a fairy tale”? Our second semester will take a giant leap from the fantasy of fairy tale into the genres of “reality”: creative non-fiction and memoir. This course is the first-semester offering of the year-long First-Year Seminar.
Change Agents, Leaders, Decision Makers
Laura Rodman
In this class we will examine the role and characteristics of change agents and leaders on the individual, community and organizational level within a society. Modern day, historical, fictional and personal perspectives will be explored, examined and compared. We will consider the dilemmas involved in ethical decision-making and examine the choices change agents and leaders make. The student will have the opportunity to reflect on their own decision-making process and their roles as change agents and leaders.
Seriously Funny
Bryan Furuness
Comedy can be serious stuff, as rich and dark and heartbreaking a path toward meaning as anything more sober. When it’s done right, the ridiculous is the sublime. In this course, we’ll look at serious stuff in a funny way, and funny stuff in a serious way, all to explore the question of whether comedy is a valid way to create meaning, raise serious questions, and make social commentary. Texts for this class will include works by Kurt Vonnegut, Lorrie Moore, Ambrose Bierce, and Chris Rock. Semester one is a prerequisite to semester two. Students who enroll in this topic are expected to enroll in this topic in the spring.
Looking for Shangri-La
Jim Keating
This year-long seminar will explore the works of several important writers in their search for their Shangri-La–the perfect personal expression in the fictions they create. Shangri-La is, of course, elusive for all of them, and our work will be to examine where their searches have taken them and the legacies they have left behind, found in their novels, plays, prose, and poetry. The writers for our study will likely include William Shakespeare, Mary Shelley, Joseph Conrad, and Graham Greene, among others.
Our Millennia: A History
John Cornell
Where do we come from? What makes us human? What happens to us when we die? How are men and women different? What makes a good society? What is the best form of government? Is morality relative? What will the future be like? This course adopts a philosophic approach to world history. For each millennium from 5000 bc to the present, we will focus on a single pivotal event, asking one of our questions. We then will examine different testimony–from different ages–upon that core issue. When asking “where do we come from”, for example, we will evaluate creation myths, cosmological calendars, evolution, even the precise dating of human creation to 4004 bce (by James Ussher, 17th century), as different ways of conceptualizing human origins. Each unit culminates in a student project using historical texts to build contemporary answers.
Metamorphosis
Mary Jo Wright
In this course, we’ll use the frameworks of literature, performing arts, liberal arts, and technology to enter into conversation around the central topic of metamorphosis and its stages and how this process applies to our community, our world, and us. We will study a variety of novels, such as The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, graphic novels, media clips, videos and other resources as we explore our topic. We may even dissect a grasshopper or two! This course is designed to help you develop the skills necessary for critical reading and thinking, oral communication, and writing. In accordance with the liberal arts curriculum at Butler University, this seminar will encourage you to ask the most significant of questions: who you are, what shapes your identity, and where you are in this process of metamorphosis.
The Significance of Place
In this class, we will analyze how the components of a place–its landscape, architecture, cultural geography and population–reflect upon and influence the people who live within it. For this class, we will look at places as rhetorical–that is, we will learn to “read” places to better understand what they claim about the people who inhabit them. Through analyzing various mediums, including literature, film, advertisements and travel writing, we will answer several important questions: Is a person necessarily shaped by the places in which she or he lives? What does it mean to be from a place? How can we capture the spirit and essence of unique places through writing and film? How do advertising companies and travel industries take advantage of our associations with specific places?
Science and Sustainability
Nathan Tice
Recently, the concept of “sustainability” and “going Green” have pervaded our society, media, and culture. However, this terminology runs the risk of just becoming “buzz words” with either ambiguous meanings or very little content to support its claims. Being Green ends up to be little more than a ploy used to sell products or boost public image. Using scientific principles to critically analyze the facts behind these sorts of sustainability claims, including energy efficiency, reducing carbon footprint, limiting waste or toxic byproducts, is essential to understanding the myths and realities that accompany the sustainability movement. This course will cover various sustainability topics relevant in a 21st Century society and seek to critically analyze them through the lens of science, including chemistry, biology, and agricultural and ecological studies. During this course, students will engage and evaluate these sorts of environmentalism claims through reading, writing, and oral presentations.
Yielding in Chinese Culture
Michael Heinz
Since ancient times the concept of yielding has been used in China as a productive method of problem-solving in fields as (apparently) diverse as medicine, the arts, mathematics, nutrition, martial arts and philosophy. This one-semester seminar will focus on the concept of yielding (and its cognate concepts `emptiness’, ` softness’ and `Yin’) in order to explore questions directly related to self, community and world: What is yielding good for? How did it develop as a problem-solving technique, and why has it been applied in so many venues? Is yielding best understood intellectually or experientially? (The answer is “both”: with experiential learning in mind, part of the course will involve exploration of yielding through practice of Tai Chi). By reading, discussing and writing about the works of ancient and modern commentators, students will hone their critical thinking and communication skills. A research project and class presentation will be required.
The World of J.R.R. Tolkien
Jon Porter
J. R. R. Tolkien is best known for his novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, works popular since they were first published, even more so now thanks to Peter Jackson’s cinematic adaptation of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. But Tolkien was more than just a fantasy writer; he was a ground-breaking medieval scholar who loved his work so much that he created fictional works rooted in the language and traditions of the Anglo-Saxon, Norse, Gothic, and Celtic cultures that he studied. In this seminar, Tolkien’s works and Jackson’s films will serve as vehicles for engaging a study of the medieval past and its cultures, while also comparing the novelist’s intentions with those of the film-maker.
The State: Benevolent Dictator
Robert H. Dale
All of us live in societies. The society we are born into is a geographical accident. The society we advocate should not be so. To live in a society is to engage in Politics. What should our leaders be like? How should we pick them? Who should pick them? Greater minds than ours have considered these issues over the years. This course will give you the opportunity to examine what you, a citizen, owe your government – and what the government owes you. We will look at works by Sun Tzu (The Art of War), Plato (The Republic), Machiavelli (The Prince), Shakespeare (Coriolanus), Rousseau (The Social Contract), Marx (The Communist Manifesto), Orwell (1984), and Rand (Atlas Shrugged), among others.
Voyages to Terra Incognita
Maria Brockman Dannenmaier
When European colonial powers arrived in the “New World” they found complex societies full of riches – in resources, peoples, and cultures. From present-day Arizona, California, Texas, and southward, the Spanish and Portuguese – later the French, British, and Dutch – imposed colonial governments, resettled populations, exploited minerals, and cultivated agricultural resources, and they also transformed the cultural organization of the peoples inhabiting this region. Geographic and temporal voyages will allow this class to examine some of the impacts of this “encounter” – impacts that still reverberate in the present day Americas and the world. Students will consider how new world “others” have been conceptualized since the colonial encounter, and also examine how we view Latino “others” and ourselves.