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| CRN: | 16542 |
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| Section: | RESC 098 01 |
| Title: | Discovery of Expressive Self |
| Instructor: | Martincich, Dustyn R. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 16853 |
| Section: | RESC 098 02 |
| Title: | Fairytales & Retellings |
| Instructor: | Agbo, Elinam |
| General Course Objectives: | In this foundational seminar, students will explore a range of fairy tales and folktales, alongside their contemporary retellings. By studying the techniques of accomplished writers, students will learn to read like writers, craft their own retellings, and discuss how craft elements like point of view, characterization, setting, and form work together to amplify a story’s themes and conflicts. The goal of the course is for students to participate actively in a community of writers, critically examine the traditions that influence their imagination, develop a consistent writing practice, and acquire strategies and skills to revise their own work. |
| Description of Subject Matter: | Student work will be the primary focus of the class. One’s writing, however, never exists in a vacuum. The author must be aware of the tradition he is writing within, and in this course, we will look specifically at folkloric traditions and how fairy tales remain relevant to contemporary writers. As such, the work of published writers—short stories, essays, literary events—will be instrumental to class discussion and assignments. |
| Method of Instruction and Study: | Throughout the semester, students will be expected to draft new work in response to prompts, complete short reading responses, discuss published work, and participate in peer review. During the first half of the semester, we will close-read assigned texts (fairy tales, short stories, and essays) and discuss how students may learn and emulate specific narrative and analytical strategies. The second half of the semester will be dedicated to full-class workshops, where students will critique one another's work. This is a discussion-heavy course, and faithful attendance is essential to the success of the class. |
| Instructional Materials and Sources: | Texts will include a broad anthology of fairy tales and folktales, from Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm to excerpts from the Shahnameh and One Thousand and One Nights. We will also study retellings from writers like Angela Carter, Nalo Hopkinson, Helen Oyeyemi, Kelly Link, Aimee Bender, and Sabrina Orah Mark. Campus literary readings will provide an additional source of instruction and inspiration. Please also list what requirement this course fulfills. FOUN FRST W1 |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 16807 |
| Section: | RESC 098 03 |
| Title: | Business of Contemporary Art |
| Instructor: | Alexander, Raquel M. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 15444 |
| Section: | RESC 098 04 |
| Title: | US & Asia in the 21st Century |
| Instructor: | Zhu, Zhiqun |
| General Course Objectives: | Take a look at your clothes, footwear, laptop and phone. Most likely they are made or assembled in Asia. There is no doubt our lives are affected and will continue to be shaped by what happens in Asia. It is therefore imperative to learn about America’s interactions with Asia and understand the trends, problems, and challenges that lie ahead. |
| Description of Subject Matter: | This seminar addresses the fascinating and complex relationship between the United States and Asia today. Major topics include, but are not limited to, history of US-Asia relations, American perceptions and misperceptions of Asia and Asians, cultural exchanges, global supply chains, international security, and America’s relations with key players such as China, India, Japan, Korea, Australia, and Southeast Asia. |
| Method of Instruction and Study: | This is a Residential College course. If you choose this seminar, you are also choosing to live in the Global Residential College housing with students who have interests similar to yours. Please note additional required participation in the Symposium and the fall field trip (date/time TBA). Please refer to the Residential College website for a description of the program. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 15102 |
| Section: | RESC 098 05 |
| Title: | Controversies in Globalization |
| Instructor: | Magee, Christopher S. |
| General Course Objectives: | This course examines controversial issues that arise in economics, politics, and international relations as the world becomes more integrated. |
| Description of Subject Matter: | This course will examine controversial issues that have arisen as the world becomes more integrated and national borders become “thinner.” We will discuss questions such as: Does trade harm the environment? Is foreign aid a good way to reduce poverty in developing countries? Do humanitarian crises justify military intervention? Can international agreements limit global warming? Is democracy declining internationally? |
| Method of Instruction and Study: | Students will write several opinion papers adopting and defending a position on a controversial policy issue on which we will have a debate in class. Students will also write one original research paper on a topic of their choice and will present this paper in class and at a symposium with other residential college students. Through the papers, presentations, class debates, and discussions, students will develop their skills of doing academic research, writing, speaking, and listening. This is a Residential College course. If you choose this seminar, you are also choosing to live in the Global Residential College housing with students who have interests similar to yours. Please note additional required participation in the Symposium and the fall field trip (date/time TBA). Please refer to the Residential College website for a description of the program. |
| Instructional Materials and Sources: | Books, journal articles |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 16810 |
| Section: | RESC 098 06 |
| Title: | Feeding Latin America |
| Instructor: | Sammells, Clare A. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 16744 |
| Section: | RESC 098 08 |
| Title: | Energy |
| Instructor: | McGuire, Molly M. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 15742 |
| Section: | RESC 098 09 |
| Title: | Never Eat Soggy Waffles |
| Instructor: | Dryden, Emily B. |
| Description of Subject Matter: | North, East, South, West. You learn the compass directions at an early age, but how much have you thought about how maps are constructed? The earth is round and paper is flat, so there have always been challenges and choices in creating maps. We will examine some of these challenges and choices from different points in time. For example, we can use different types of projections to get from a globe to a map, we can use mathematical tools to analyze whether districts are gerrymandered, and we can use a geographic information system (GIS) to visualize and understand significant features of today’s world in new ways. |
| Method of Instruction and Study: | There will be readings, discussion, a variety of writing assignments, training in and use of ArcGIS, and a collaborative project. This is a Residential College course. If you choose this seminar, you are also choosing to live in the Discovery College housing with students who have interests similar to yours. Please note additional required participation in the Symposium and the fall field trip (date/time TBA). Please refer to the Residential College website for a description of the program. |
| Instructional Materials and Sources: | We will read from a variety of sources and the readings will be provided. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 12875 |
| Section: | RESC 098 10 |
| Title: | Illusions |
| Instructor: | Mitchel, Aaron D. |
| Description of Subject Matter: | We like to believe that we can trust what we see with our own eyes, but perception very rarely aligns with reality. In this course, we'll examine various types of illusions that demonstrate this disconnect. We'll see colors that aren't really there, fail to notice bears moonwalking right in front of us, and be tricked into hearing something entirely different than what was said. In addition, we will look at how illusions have been used by artists, magicians, engineers and marketing professionals. For example, we'll discuss why Monet's sunset shimmers and how a Hans Zimmer soundtrack builds tension throughout a movie. Not only will we study famous illusions created by others, through a combination of popular books and primary readings, but we will also create our own illusions. Through deception, we will reveal the mechanisms of perception. |
| Method of Instruction and Study: | This is a Residential College course. If you choose this seminar, you are also choosing to live in the Discovery College housing with students who have interests similar to yours. Please note additional required participation in the Symposium and the fall field trip (date/time TBA). Please refer to the Residential College website for a description of the program. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 16349 |
| Section: | RESC 098 11 |
| Title: | The City |
| Instructor: | Campbell, Claire E. |
| General Course Objectives: | Learning Outcome 1: Students will develop writing, reading, speaking, listening, and information literacy skills necessary for collegiate-level academic work. Learning Outcome 2: Students will develop capacities for independent academic work and become more accountable for their own learning. Learning to analyze, engage, and discuss historical scholarship, and primary (archival) sources. |
| Description of Subject Matter: | This course will explore the environmental history of the city. We will immerse ourselves in a series of cities to really get to know the stories of these streetscapes. By studying art, cartography, literature, and archival materials, we’ll ask how these places took shape over the past four centuries, their changing relationship with the natural world, and how they reflect larger historical and ecological dynamics. How can we make our cities more blue, more green, and more livable? Topics will include: the intentions and results of city planning; urban water and shorelines; gardens, parks, and public spaces; public and ecological health; environmental restoration; and many others. We will also look critically at Lewisburg, rich in evidence of urban aspirations and environmental impacts. |
| Method of Instruction and Study: | Lecture, discussion |
| Instructional Materials and Sources: | Readings and archival materials |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 16296 |
| Section: | RESC 098 12 |
| Title: | The Animal |
| Instructor: | Chow, Jeremy H. |
| General Course Objectives: | RESC 098 introduces students to writing, reading, discussing, and preparing for a collegiate education. As a residential collection, we will operate as a living-learning community. |
| Description of Subject Matter: | This seminar explores the relationships among humans and nonhumans, and evaluates how authors deploy animals in different genres for different radical, social, cultural, and political purposes. |
| Method of Instruction and Study: | This is a first-year seminar, which prioritizes discussion. It is also a W1 course, which emphasizes formal and informal writing. The class will be part of the Environmental Residential College. |
| Instructional Materials and Sources: | Authors may include: Art Spiegelman, Haruki Murakami, George Orwell, Andre Alexis, Elena Passarello, Peter Singer V REQUIREMENTS FULFILLED FRST W1 |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 12745 |
| Section: | RESC 098 14 |
| Title: | Ancient Origins:Secret History |
| Instructor: | Larson, Stephanie L. |
| Description of Subject Matter: | In this course we’ll be examining origins of things we think we know: stories of heroes; our concept of human nature; gender and sexual identities; the fundamentals of democracy; uses and abuses of war and violence; and the properties and nature of the human body. We’ll be looking at these topics and writing about them through the lens of ancient Mesopotamian and Greek cultures, with perhaps a little Roman or Judaean evidence thrown in. We’ll be reading and discussing a variety of material from these civilizations (e.g., epic poetry, Sappho, Greek tragedy, Plato, and others), and all the while we will simultaneously contemplate what we also think we know from our own cultures about these topics. Can we find similarities to our own attitudes in these cultures from long ago, or is the past too foreign to us? How can we approach these ancient artifacts as modern citizens of the world? What does it mean that we as modern humans can read and explore ancient ideas? As we explore we will develop our skills in thinking creatively about these themes, and we’ll pay close attention to how we can write about them critically and convincingly. For your essays and papers you’ll be able to choose a variety of topics within these large thematic categories, and your final essay can be a topic of your own choosing. We will close the semester by presenting our work at the Residential College Symposium on a Saturday in early December. |
| Method of Instruction and Study: | This is a Residential College course. If you choose this seminar, you are also choosing to live in the Languages & Cultures College housing with students who have interests similar to yours. Please note additional required participation in the Symposium and the fall field trip (date/time TBA). Please refer to the Residential College website for a description of the program. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 16787 |
| Section: | RESC 098 15 |
| Title: | Love & Sex on the Silk Road |
| Instructor: | Shields, James M. |
| General Course Objectives: | The objective of the seminar is to have students engage critically with cultural products—both foreign and familiar—in a way that recognizes the reality of cultural diversity as well as the long history of cultural interaction and hybridization. Students will develop writing, reading, speaking, listening, and information literacy skills necessary for collegiate-level academic work. Students will develop capacities for independent academic work and become self-regulated learners. |
| Description of Subject Matter: | The seminar is constructed around the theme of the social and cultural construction of sex, love, gender and the body across diverse cultures, times and places. The seminar provides an intimate look at a few of the “highlights” in the global history of love and sex, as manifested in artifacts (philosophy, poetry, novels, paintings, sculpture), from various cultures, times and places, using the historical Silk Road bridging Asia and the West as a geographical frame and metaphor for our studies. |
| Method of Instruction and Study: | Students will be exposed to a number of historically significant cultural artifacts related to this theme, including texts, sculpture, painting, and so on, to which they will be required to engage on a critical and interpretive level. This will be accomplished via a number of short writing assignments (response papers) as well as in the context of regular class and online discussion / presentations. In addition to the material covered in class and via assigned readings, students will be required to engage in library / internet research as part of their in-class presentation and final paper on a topic of their own choosing (from a list of possibilities). On-line discussion questions, as well, will occasionally require some outside research. |
| Instructional Materials and Sources: | No required text; weekly readings available as printed coursepack. Multimedia sources may be employed. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 12755 |
| Section: | RESC 098 16 |
| Title: | Art of Protest |
| Instructor: | Rothman, Roger I. |
| Description of Subject Matter: | In response to a world plagued by war, oppression, and inequality, artists of all stripes rise up in protest. Some do so aggressively, assaulting us with words and images that tear at our souls. Others provoke us less violently, by guiding us with images of a better world imagined but not yet realized. Some artists make their art for museums, where only an elite minority can experience them, but others--and more and more each day--make artworks that live on billboards, city streets, and public buildings, and still others that exist only in the virtual world of instagram, twitter, and facebook. This course will dig deeply into the ways that contemporary artists are using art to make the world more just, more kind, more equal. |
| Method of Instruction and Study: | This is a Residential College course. If you choose this seminar, you are also choosing to live in the Languages & Cultures College housing with students who have interests similar to yours. Please note additional required participation in the Symposium and the fall field trip (date/time TBA). Please refer to the Residential College website for a description of the program. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 16742 |
| Section: | RESC 098 17 |
| Title: | Latinx Experience in the US |
| Instructor: | Rojas, David M. |
| General Course Objectives: | Improve skills of writing, oral communication, and critical thinking • Critically explore the historical roots of contemporary social issues • Analyze how systemic conditions shape personal experiences. |
| Description of Subject Matter: | We explore the experiences of people who live in the United States and were born in Latin America (or have roots in the region). We examine how they grapple with challenging circumstances (from immigration policies to the "war on drugs" and gender violence) by building diverse and vibrant communities. |
| Method of Instruction and Study: | Class time includes a mix of lecture, discussion, student presentations, and small group discussions. Students are expected to read assigned materials prior to each meeting as well as to complete scheduled assignments that are to be submitted online. These assignments will help students prepare for the classroom-based activities as well as for the quizzes, tests, and papers that they are expected to complete. |
| Instructional Materials and Sources: | Course materials include films, short videos, documentaries, book chapters, journal articles, and news pieces. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 16436 |
| Section: | RESC 098 20 |
| Title: | Whose Story Is History? |
| Instructor: | Ponnuswami, Meenakshi |
| General Course Objectives: | In recent years, the United States has been embroiled in spirited and sometimes bitter struggles over confederate flags and monuments, sports mascots, museum exhibits, national holidays, reparations, cultural appropriation, and cancel culture. Underlying these disputes are deep divisions over national and group identity, historical truths, and the meaning of the past. Our course will explore several such controversies and the possibilities for consensus and reconciliation. Whose story is history? Do we own our own past? How do we understand where we came from and tell stories about our origins? Are some stories more true than others? Who gets to decide? How do our histories (and stories) define who we are? How can they shape our future? |
| Description of Subject Matter: | Each units of our class will focus on a specific contemporary debate. We will examine a range of theoretical questions concerning the politics and techniques of history-making and history-telling: what’s omitted from dominant narratives of history; how history is altered by perspective (e.g. top-down vs. bottom-up or male vs. female); how untold stories shape our understanding of the past; the aesthetics and politics of memorializing. |
| Method of Instruction and Study: | Students will write weekly response papers, two formal essays, and a research paper. Expect plenty of reading, writing, and discussion. |
| Instructional Materials and Sources: | Texts to be assigned. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 16631 |
| Section: | RESC 098 21 |
| Title: | Religious Diversity in America |
| Instructor: | Gasaway, Brantley W. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 16525 |
| Section: | RESC 098 22 |
| Title: | Revolution! A Global History |
| Instructor: | Dosemeci, Mehmet |
| General Course Objectives: | Since 1776, humans have initiated and participated in over 300 revolutions. This course will introduce students to the global history and theory of revolution in the modern period. Its basic premise is that revolution, and the attendant attempts to counter, cordon, or direct it, has defined the modern era of humanity. |
| Description of Subject Matter: | The course begins by asking a simple question: How did revolution become something that human beings can do? What made it possible for humans to first think about then enact an abrupt, transgressive, and intentional transformation of the society in which they live? From this initial question, the course will examine the viral spread of revolution across the earth over the past two centuries. Topics that we will engage with include: Changes in the meaning and practice of revolution, the relation of revolution to ideologies of nationalism, democracy, socialism, secularism, and religion; the emergence of people who call themselves revolutionaries (and conservatives); revolutionary spaces/time; and the concepts of permanent and counter revolution. The course will conclude with discussion of the global uprisings that have rocked the world since 2011 and the prospects for revolution in the United States today. |
| Method of Instruction and Study: | Seminar, Discussion of readings and films, Individual Papers, Collective Project |
| Instructional Materials and Sources: | Primary and secondary historical material, Theory, Films. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 13895 |
| Section: | RESC 098 27 |
| Title: | Both EdgesofTechnology’s Sword |
| Instructor: | Knoedler, Jan T. |
| General Course Objectives: | To develop writing, reading, speaking, listening, and information literacy skills in a seminar format, and to think critically about the use and impact of several modern technologies on society and the economy. |
| Description of Subject Matter: | In this class, we will be considering the following features of technological change: while it is undeniable that new technologies have, at least in modern times, improved the standard of living for many and made possible the previously impossible, in doing so, technology has too often created winners and losers, creating technology’s double-edged sword. To get a better sense of the winners and the losers, we will consider several of these double edges: the widened South Fork dam that eased travel for Pittsburgh’s new industrial elite but also and Johnstown workers; CRISPR’s life saving tools that can eliminate cruel genetic diseases but also create a new eugenics; emerging AI and robotic tools that will reduce onerous, backbreaking, repetitive work but also eliminate the livelihoods for many; communications tools that have allowed us to communicate instantaneously with friends and family wherever they are but have also led to addiction, social isolation, and political polarization. We will look at both of technology’s edges – the edge that sometimes aids those with advantages due to geography, skills, genetics, and more, and the other edge that often leaves the rest further and further behind. |
| Method of Instruction and Study: | Seminar class, including discussion, some group projects, writing assignments consistent with the goals of W1 classes, and a presentation as part of the Residential Colleges symposium.
This is a Residential College course. If you choose this seminar, you are also choosing to live in the Society & Technology College housing with students who have interests similar to yours. Please note additional required participation in the Symposium and the fall field trip (date/time TBA). Please refer to the Residential College website for a description of the program. |
| Instructional Materials and Sources: | Texts TBD, but a combination of texts and Moodle readings are planned. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 13574 |
| Section: | RESC 098 28 |
| Title: | Once and Future Plagues |
| Instructor: | Stowe, Emily L. |
| General Course Objectives: | This W1 course is designed to help students develop their writing, reading, speaking, and listening skills at the collegiate level through an exploration of the impact of past pandemics and possible future pandemics. At the end of the course, students will develop their analytical skills necessary for independent academic research work. . |
| Description of Subject Matter: | From the mid-19th century to today we have seen a continuous drop in deaths due to infectious disease in the United States. Antimicrobial drugs, immunization, water treatment and sanitation all played a role in bringing those death rates down. Relatively few individuals will have lost a family member to an infectious disease but this safety is new. This class will explore how infectious diseases shaped society throughout history, focusing on specific diseases (for example: plague, tuberculosis, cholera), and time points (for example: the colonization of the Americas by Europeans and the decimation of native populations that followed). We will look at how the development of microbiology and public health lead to the decline of these diseases. Finally, we will end by examining how modern life has brought about new infectious foes and allowed others to return (HIV/AIDS, MERS, SARS, Ebola, antibiotic resistance). |
| Method of Instruction and Study: | Students will explore the scientific and cultural issues surrounding communicable disease through a combination of reading and writing assignments in addition to in-class activities. Students will practice reading and interpreting primary scientific literature, learn how to participate in seminar discussions, work with small groups to actively learn new concepts, conduct independent research, and develop written, oral, and video media presentation skills
This is a Residential College course. If you choose this seminar, you are also choosing to live in the Discovery College housing with students who have interests similar to yours. Please note additional required participation in the Symposium and the fall field trip (date/time TBA). Please refer to the Residential College website for a description of the program. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 16828 |
| Section: | RESC 098 29 |
| Title: | End of the World as We Know It |
| Instructor: | Vollmayr-Lee, Ben P. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
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