Integrated Studies Courses Summer & Fall 2010

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IS 300R | Introduction to Topics in Integrated Studies
Barbed Wire
First Block, Summer
MWF 10:30am-12:10pm
CRN 10625

Taught by Scott Abbott

The advent of barbed wire, invented simultaneously by three residents of De Kalb, Illinois in 1874, generated immediate conflict. Given the cost and scarcity of lumber and stone and the huge expanses awaiting fencing in the West, barbed wire was a heralded invention. Like other fences, it promised to control wayward animals, to create order out of chaos through physical separation. But the new fence did so by pricking and cutting animals that came too close. Early barbed wire was so effective in that regard that manufacturers and advertisers were quickly forced to modify both the physical form and the image of barbed wire. And here lay a major problem for the advertiser: how does one promote a dangerous fence (because if it’s not dangerous, it doesn’t work) and a non-dangerous fence (because if it injures stock, it works badly) in the same image? This interdisciplinary course will examine the manner in which late-nineteenth-century manufacturers constructed multiple and contradictory meanings for barbed wire in their advertising. It will investigate he ways barbed wire came to be used in warfare and especially in the Holocaust. And it will analyze twentieth-century depictions of barbed wire in fiction.

We'll read/study:

Late nineteenth-century advertisements for barbed wire.
The language of barbed wire patents.
Several histories of barbed wire: McCallum - "The Wire that Fenced the West", Rasac - "A Political History of Barbed Wire",  Krell -- "The Devil's Hatband: A Cultural History of Barbed Wire", Netz - "Barbed Wire: An Ecology of Modernity".
Fictional accounts in which barbed wire plays an important part: Annie Proulx - "Wyoming Stories", Brian Evenson - "Contagion", Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front", etc.

   

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IS 300R 001 | Topics in Integrated Studies
Law and Cinema
TR 10:00am-11:15am
CRN 15786

Taught by Alan Clarke, J.D.

This course will take a critical approach to cinematic representations of law and legal issues.  Broad in scope, discussions will range from films about the practical aspects of law, such as police and detective films, and courtroom dramas, to films that handle broader philosophical concepts such as civil rights law and international human rights law.  

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IS 300R | Advanced Topics in Integrated Studies
Death and Dying
Fall 2010
TR 2:30pm-3:45pm
CRN 19401

Taught by Nancy Rushforth and Reba Keele

This course examines information and data pertaining to death in the United States.  Discusses historical and cultural perspectives of death, causes, definitions, stages of dying, bereavement, legal and ethical issues, euthanasia, and suicide.  Focuses on attitudes and values of Americans concerning death.

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IS 300R | Topics in Integrated Studies
The Singularity
Fall 2010
T 5:00 pm - 7:30 pm
CRN 15158

Taught by Dr. Mark Wayne Hanewicz


The term “Singularity” is most commonly used in physics in reference to the collapse of space-time at the center of a black hole, causing the normal rules of physics break down. Thus, it is impossible to predict behavior of a physical system within the boundaries of the Singularity.  In terms of technology and society, the Singularity refers to a point in the future where the impact of technologically driven changes will accelerate so rapidly that predicting the social, legal, economic or human consequences will be impossible. Once passed, pre-Singularity humans will be unable to effectively communicate with post-Singularity humans.  For some, the Singularity will be the transition point from humanity to transhumanism.

Questions to address include:

• Will superintelligent machines appreciate beauty?
• Will these machines consider virtue, value, and love?
• How will these machines respond to humans?
• How will humans respond to these machines?

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IS 350R | Topics in Integrated Studies
Language the Most Dangerous Possession
Fall 2010
MWF 11:00-11:50
CRN 12572

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IS 350R | Topics in Integrated Studies
Evolution of Storytelling
Fall 2010
M 5:00 PM - 7:30 PM
CRN 12580

Taught by Mark Jeffreys

The emphasis in the class will be on studying storytelling as a puzzle of human behavior, with discussion of classic stories, both high & low brow, as a way of elucidating the mystery of why we spend so much time, in every known culture, living or historical, making and consuming story after story--particularly stories we know to be fictional or at least mostly so - e.g., The Odyssey or our contemporary "Based on a True Story" stories.

Some questions we will discuss include:

• Why do we create stories?     
• Why do we love stories so much?
• What good do stories do us?

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IS 4980 | Integrated Studies Capstone I

SUMMER 2010
M 3:45-4:35

FALL 2010
M 4:00-4:50pm
CRN 15166

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IS 4990 | Integrated Studies Capstone II

SUMMER 2010
W 3:45-4:35

FALL 2010
T 4:00-4:50pm
CRN (ask advisor - multiple sections available)

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