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| CRN: | 15352 |
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| Section: | RESC 098 01 |
| Title: | Queer Country |
| Instructor: | Gregory, Chase P. |
| General Course Objectives: | This course explores social justice issues at the intersection of “queer” and “country,” defined expansively. Queer studies in the academy often focuses on urban areas, unfairly writing off rural spaces as backward, homophobic, or empty. In turn, social justice surrounding rural communities can discount or ignore queer experience. “Queer Country” examines these two words and worlds, so rarely read together. What material conditions does the assumed separation between “queer” and “country" create? What is to be gained from a greater understanding of “queer country”? |
| Description of Subject Matter: | To answer these questions, students will examine social justice issues through the lens of cultural studies, exploring a wide range of media including podcasts, pop music, film, memoir, political action, literary fiction, and the visual arts. Arming ourselves with historical and cultural knowledge, we will also pay close attention to those intersections of LGBT*QIA+ life and rural space that are particularly salient to our current space and place: rural central Pennsylvania. What does it mean to “queer” country—or to “countrify” queer—when pursuing social justice in our immediate surroundings? |
| Method of Instruction and Study: | Requirements: respectful and frequent classroom engagement; short assignment reflection posts; 1 midterm essay; 1 final essay. Classes will be discussion-based. |
| Instructional Materials and Sources: | Critical theory (Matt Brim’s Poor Queer Studies [2021], NYU Press’s Queering the Countryside [2016], Carly Thompson’s Visibility Interrupted: Rural Queer Life and the Politics of Unbecoming [2021], etc.) and cultural objects spanning a range of media (including political actions, podcasts, pop music, film, memoir, novels, and the visual arts). Please also list what requirement this course fulfills. W2, ALP, CZ |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 15064 |
| Section: | RESC 098 02 |
| Title: | American Apartheid |
| Instructor: | Thomson, Jennifer C. |
| General Course Objectives: | This course is an introduction to structural racism in the United States from 1865 to the present. In the course, students will engage with the long arc of structural racism since Reconstruction, through three units on convict leasing; redlining and residential segregation; and mass incarceration. Each unit will ask students to analyze the broader historical significance of the topic. Each unit will also problematize the national mythology of progress towards racial equality. |
| Description of Subject Matter: | From the arrival of European colonists until the Civil War, the United States was a slave-owning society with a fiercely defined and enforced racial hierarchy. Although slavery was formally abolished by the conclusion of the War and with the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, the economic imperatives and racial hierarchy upon which slavery was built were never dismantled. Rather, beginning in the post-Reconstruction period, structural racism was written into public policy, law, the housing and job markets, and cultural representations in such profound and compounding ways as to produce the radically racially unequal society the United States is today. American Apartheid introduces students to the history of structural racism in the post-Civil War period. It equips students to understand that racism in the United States, far from going away, has been deliberately expanded and entrenched within the fabric of society, economy, and politics. |
| Method of Instruction and Study: | Lecture; discussion; small group work; in class writing; take home essays. |
| Instructional Materials and Sources: | Primary and secondary historical materials. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 15491 |
| Section: | RESC 098 03 |
| 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: | 15444 |
| Section: | RESC 098 04 |
| Title: | US & Asia in the 21st Century |
| Instructor: | Zhu, Zhiqun |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 15102 |
| Section: | RESC 098 05 |
| Title: | Controversies inGlobalization |
| 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. |
| Instructional Materials and Sources: | Books, journal articles |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 13574 |
| Section: | RESC 098 08 |
| 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: | 15742 |
| Section: | RESC 098 09 |
| Title: | Never Eat Soggy Waffles |
| Instructor: | Dryden, Emily B. |
| 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: | 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; our understanding of medicine and healing; the fundamentals of democracy; uses and abuses of war and violence; gender roles for women and men; and our concepts of faith. We’ll be looking at these topics and writing about them through the lens of ancient Mesopotamian and Greek cultures, with a little Roman and Judaean evidence from time to time. We’ll be reading and discussing a variety of material from these civilizations (e.g., epic poetry (Homer); Greek tragedy, Plato, Lucretius, Galen, Saint John), and all the while we will simultaneously contemplate what we also 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 thinkers as modern citizens of the world? What does it mean that we as modern humans can read and explore such 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. |
| Method of Instruction and Study: | This is a Residential College course. If you choose this seminar, you are also choosing to live in the Humanities 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: | 15351 |
| Section: | RESC 098 15 |
| Title: | Fiction! |
| Instructor: | Drexler, Michael J. |
| General Course Objectives: | Fiction! is a foundation seminar course in the Languages and Cultures Residential College in the Fall of 2023. Through a selection of readings—some theoretical and others more expository—students will be asked to reflect on keywords of humanistic study, the building blocks that make production of knowledge in the Humanities distinct from other disciplines in the university. These would include ambiguity, paradox, difference, the arbitrary, the imaginary, fluidity, flux, and disinterest among others. In a world that asks for constant engagement, snap judgments, swiping left or right, students will be encouraged to develop the capacity to linger: not to pause or take a break, but to dwell in time with objects of inquiry, things that—under closer view—reveal complexity, contradiction, and prompt wonder. The course takes an expansive view of the concept of the fictional beginning with a focus on language as the most basic level at which we engage reality through a mediated perspective. The meat of the course will concern reading short fiction and writing expository. Mindfulness exercises will be designed to model and encourage attentiveness and focus, to foster in students the joy of the particular, the queer, the unexpected, and the unbidden. Writing exercises will be at the forefront of creating the meditative mood in which the surprising need not be accidental or serendipitous. We will explore free flowing, open-ended writing prompts that provoke and invite wide-ranging, independent thinking. |
| Description of Subject Matter: | Short fiction and essays. |
| Method of Instruction and Study: | Frequent writing, discussion |
| Instructional Materials and Sources: | Arguing about Literature Please also list what requirement this course fulfills. FOUN AHLG ARHC W1 |
| 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 Social Justice 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: | 15738 |
| Section: | RESC 098 17 |
| Title: | Masks and Meaning |
| Instructor: | Williams, Elaine |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 15739 |
| Section: | RESC 098 18 |
| Title: | Amer. Musc. Theatre as History |
| Instructor: | Vandevender, Bryan M. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 15740 |
| Section: | RESC 098 19 |
| Title: | Craft - The Power of Making |
| Instructor: | Westbrook, John E. |
| General Course Objectives: | Why do we feel the urge to craft things? What might this desire say about our sense of ourselves in the larger world of learning, working, and consuming? At times of great economic and cultural change—industrialization in the 19th-century or the emergence of the knowledge and digital economies of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, craft emerges as an alternative way of thinking about working, making, consuming, and indeed, thinking itself. This course explores the turn to craft both as an object of intellectual understanding but also as an experience we undertake ourselves through creative craft practices. |
| Description of Subject Matter: | Craft raises the issues of autonomy and agency: our ability to take responsibility for the things we make and/or use. The question of care—care in creation, caring for or repairing—opens onto what it means to craft our work as learners and members of different communities. This course is the start of an apprenticeship in crafting a meaningful Bucknell experience.
We will examine the ways in which conceptions of craft dialog with the social and cultural contexts in which they emerge. We will experience and discuss how the kinds of the knowledge produced through reading texts differs from the knowledge gained through making things. We will engage in different forms of making in different craft traditions (paper arts or textile arts, for example) and reflect on and tap into the environmental, economic, and political dimensions of craft practices. The roots of the word craft link to the idea of power. Cræft provides a framework to think about the power you hold to shape your world. |
| Method of Instruction and Study: | Seminar-style discussion. Presentations. Short analytic writing assignments. Creative craft projects undertaken in maker spaces and outside of class. A final essay, creative project and presentation at the Residential College Symposium. Emphasis through multiple assignments on reading, writing, speaking, and information literacy. |
| Instructional Materials and Sources: | Primary texts by craftspeople, theoretical texts and historical analyses of craft movements, craft materials and tools. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 15481 |
| Section: | RESC 098 20 |
| Title: | The Bad Place: Hell & Horror |
| Instructor: | Penniman, John D. |
| General Course Objectives: | In this course, students will fulfill two sets of objectives: content and skill set. In the content objectives, students will 1) sharpen their skills of religious literacy, learning how to study religion from an academic orientation; 2) gain understanding of the historical development of hell as an idea across different cultures and time periods; 3) evaluate the enduring impact of the idea of hell on art, culture, and American politics. In the skill set objectives, students will 1) learn how to read multiple types of sources (books, essays, films, artworks) actively and critically; 2) conduct independent research, evaluating primary and secondary sources; 3) write analytically, using proper citation techniques; 4) craft thesis-based arguments supported by evidence. |
| Description of Subject Matter: | This course explores the story of hell by tracing its beginnings in Greek & Roman mythology, its development within the Hebrew Bible & later literature of Judaism, and its forceful expression in the traditions of Christianity and Islam. We will also analyze the enduring legacy of hell in the American imagination and its relationship to the history of incarceration. Our goal is not to debate the existence of hell but rather to understand the role that the idea of hell has played in shaping human beliefs, cultures, & politics about punishment and moral or spiritual reformation from the past to the present. We will read primary sources from the ancient world, academic analysis of religious histories, and we will watch films and analyze artworks that depict hell. |
| Method of Instruction and Study: | This course will emphasize seminar-style, discussion-based methods of instruction. High levels of student engagement will be the norm in each class session. No quizzes or tests will be used. Rather, students will come prepared each session with questions and comments and reactions to the assigned material, ready to guide the discussion and participate collaboratively. There will be writing workshops, film screenings, and sessions dedicated to learning the basic skills of art interpretation. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 15425 |
| Section: | RESC 098 21 |
| Title: | Gender Revolutionaries |
| Instructor: | Delsandro, Erica G. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 15687 |
| Section: | RESC 098 22 |
| Title: | Speech, Harm, University |
| Instructor: | Burgos, Adam B. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 15743 |
| Section: | RESC 098 24 |
| Title: | Sustainable Harvest |
| Instructor: | Spiro, Mark D. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 15744 |
| Section: | RESC 098 25 |
| Title: | Food, Culture and Society |
| Instructor: | Durden, Elizabeth |
| 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: | 15353 |
| Section: | RESC 098 28 |
| Title: | Climate Fiction |
| Instructor: | Chow, Jeremy H. |
| General Course Objectives: | This Society & Technology Residential College course introduces students to the foundations of beginning a collegiate career. The goal is to prepare students for their subsequent coursework, regardless of major, by emphasizing the development of reading, writing, public speaking, and research skills. |
| Description of Subject Matter: | “Climate Fiction” provides an entry point for students to consider how society and technology have both produced issues of climate change and are also responsible for remedying these effects. Students will explore a variety of media, literature, and philosophy to grapple with the concerns prompted by climate change and how authors, filmmakers, poets, and writers take up these concerns. |
| Method of Instruction and Study: | This course is a Foundation Seminar, which emphasizes seminar-style discussion and interaction. |
| Instructional Materials and Sources: | Authors may include but are not limited to: Octavia Butler, Jeff Van der Meer, Becky Chambers, Elizabeth Kolbert, Naomi Klein, Amitav Ghosh, and K.A. Hays. Please also list what requirement this course fulfills. FOUN W1 |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
| CRN: | 15741 |
| Section: | RESC 098 29 |
| Title: | When IT Goes Bad |
| Instructor: | Ladd, Ned F. |
| Requirements: | Writing Level 1 |
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