2009-2010 Freshman Seminars
SCIE 030a and 031b
Current Topics in Science
Charles Bailyn, Douglas Kankel
Lecture and discussion
F 1.30-3 | Sc | SC | Credit per term (0) | Cr/Year only | Fr sem
A series of modules in lecture and discussion format addressing scientific issues arising in current affairs. Topics are selected for their scientific interest and contemporary relevance, and may include global warming, human cloning, and the existence of extrasolar planets. One course credit is awarded for successful completion of the year’s work.
Fall courses:
AFAM 040a/FILM 040a
Spike Lee
Terri Francis
MW 1-2.15 | Screenings M 7 p.m. | Hu | (36) | Fr sem
Introduction to the study of film and issues in contemporary black culture through study of Spike Lee’s films and writings. Close analysis of Lee’s style, sources, creative dilemmas, and collaborations, as well as the conversations he and his films generate. Topics include concepts of black leadership, cinematic reflexivity, early film history, race and racism, stereotypes, auterism, cinema of attractions, defining black cinema, and questions of audience and authenticity.
AMST 009a/HIST 004a
Revolutionary America
Jon Butler
MW 1-2.15 | WR | Hu | (0) | PreInd | Fr sem
Colonial America and the coming of the Revolution, with special attention to population, economy, religion, slavery, and politics. Students will read Revolutionary-era classics--Crevécoeur, Franklin, Paine, and the Federalist Papers--as well as source materials from ordinary colonists, and also visit both the Yale Art Gallery and Yale Manuscripts and Archives for a hands-on experience in historical study and research.
ANTH 011a
Reproductive Technologies
Marcia Inhorn
TTh 2.30-3.45 | So | (0) | Fr sem
Introduction to scholarship on the anthropology of reproduction. Focus on reproductive technologies such as contraceptives, prenatal diagnostics, childbirth technologies, abortion, assisted reproduction, surrogacy, and embryonic stem cells. The globalization of reproductive technologies, including social, cultural, legal, and ethical responses.
ART 001a
Studies in Visual Biography
Jessica Helfand
MW 1-2.15 | 1 HTBA | Meets RP | (0) | Fr sem
Diaries, journals, and scrapbooks studied as authoritative examples of visual autobiography. Social history and visual methods, focusing on American and British cultural life between the world wars. Exercises in collecting, collage, and composition; methods of visually navigating space, time, and memory; discussion of the asynchronous nature of biography.
ASTR 030a
Search for Extraterrestrial Life
Hector Arce
TTh 4-5.15 | Sc | (0) | Fr sem
Introduction to the search for extraterrestrial life. Review of current knowledge on the origins and evolution of life on Earth; applications to the search for life elsewhere in the universe. Discussion of what makes a planet habitable, how common these worlds are in the universe, and how we might search for them. Survey of past, current, and future searches for extraterrestrial intelligence.
EENG 001a
Introduction to Nanoscience
Mark Reed
TTh 4-5.15 | QR | Sc | (27) | Fr sem
An introductory survey of the emerging discipline of nanotechnology. Topics include realistic nanosystems, methods used to fabricate and create nanostructures, the physical properties and applications of nanostructures, microelectromechanical systems (mems) and biological applications, and system architecture. Prerequisites: strong background in high school mathematics and science.
EVST 012a/F&ES 012a
Urban Ecology in New Haven
Gordon Geballe
TTh 9-10.15 | (0) | Fr sem
Methods from ecosystem ecology, landscape ecology, and industrial ecology applied to questions of how cities work and how they can be more sustainable. Guest speakers, community projects, and field trips in New Haven. Application of theory to New Haven and to cities around the world.
GMST 016a/HUMS 088a/LITR 016a
Truth and Lies in Fiction and Film
Carol Jacobs
MW 2.30-3.45 | Hu | (0) | Fr sem
Exploration of the concepts of truth, fiction, art, and representation in works of literary and filmic fiction. Emphasis on both textual interpretation and theoretical analysis. The relation between linguistic and visual signs and their claims to various kinds of truth.
HIST 003a
The First World Historians
Valerie Hansen
TTh 1-2.15 | WR | Hu | (0) | PreInd | Fr sem
An introduction to the historical traditions of Greece and Rome, Islam, and China. Focus on Polybius, Herodotus, al-Tabari, Masudi, Sima Qian, and Sima Guang. Particular attention to their treatment of people and events outside their borders.
HIST 006a/HSHM 005a
Medicine and Society in American History
Rebecca Tannenbaum
TTh 11.35-12.50 | WR | Hu | (0) | Fr sem
Disease and healing in American history from colonial times to the present. The changing role of the physician, alternative healers and therapies, and the social impact of epidemics from smallpox to aids.
HIST 009a/HUMS 079a
The Viking Age
Anders Winroth
MW 9-10.15 | WR | Hu | (0) | PreInd | Fr sem
The ambiguous role of the Vikings in the history of the early Middle Ages. Focus both on the Vikings’ impact in Europe (raids, trade, and settlement) and on developments in their Scandinavian homelands (Christianization and the creation of kingdoms).
HIST 022a
What History Teaches
John Gaddis
MW 9-10.15 | WR | Hu | (0) | Fr sem
An introduction to the discipline of history. History viewed as an art, a science, and something in between; differences between fact, interpretation, and consensus; history as a predictor of future events. Focus on issues such as the interdependence of variables, causation and verification, the role of individuals, and to what extent historical inquiry can or should be a moral enterprise.
HIST 030a
Writing Japanese History
Fabian Drixler
TTh 1-2.15 | WR | Hu | (0) | Fr sem
Training in different modes of historical writing, including narrative history, biography, and microhistory. Introduction to important debates and key moments in Japanese history. No previous knowledge of Japan required.
HSAR 007a
Art and Science
Carol Armstrong
MW 2.30-3.45 | Hu | (0) | Fr sem
The historical relationship between art and science in the West, from the Renaissance to the present. Case studies illustrate the similarities and differences between the way artists and scientists each model the world, in the studio and the laboratory.
HSHM 008a/HUMS 090a
History of Scientific Medicine
Sherwin Nuland
TTh 1.00-2.15
The development of scientific medicine traced from classical antiquity to the dawning of the modern biomedical era. Focus on the biographies of major contributors and on cultural and intellectual currents affecting discovery. Enrollment limited to freshmen.
HUMS 076a
Epidemics in Global Perspective
William Summers
MW 2.30-3.45 | Hu | So | (0) | Fr sem
Interaction of epidemic diseases and society. The response of government, medicine, and the public to the threat or actual presence of widespread contagious diseases. The notion of major epidemics as one of the key contingencies of history, critically examined through contemporary medical, political, and literary accounts. The changing responses of societies and governments to epidemics as well as the reasons for those responses.
HUMS 087a/LITR 015a
The Experience of Being Foreign
Alice Kaplan
MW 1-2.15 | WR | Hu | (0) | Fr sem
Memoirs and novels on the experience of being foreign in various national and psychological settings. Writers include Nabokov, Tanizaki, Baldwin, and Salih. Readings from a variety of genres, such as autobiography, field notes, and stylistic analysis. Focus on issues of exile, travel, and translation.
MUSI 001a
Exploring the Nature of Genius
Craig Wright
MW 11.35-12.50 | WR | Hu | (34) | Fr sem
Manifestations of genius explored in the works of selected creators: Hildegard von Bingen, Brunelleschi, Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare, Mozart, Picasso, and Stravinsky. A rudimentary introduction to medieval chant; Renaissance art, architecture, and drama; music of the classical period; and avant-garde painting and dance of the twentieth century. Introductory studies in cognitive psychology, focusing on the phenomenon of the prodigy and the nature of exceptional artistic creativity. Historical readings reveal the “what” of genius, while psychological studies may shed light on the “why” and the “how.” Recommended preparation: ability to read musical notation.
MUSI 007a
Noise
Brian Kane
MW 1-2.15 | WR | Hu | (0) | Fr sem
The topic of noise as an introduction to the problems of sound and signification. The surplus of information in white noise, and the meaning perceived when noise is filtered. Contexts in which noise has become filtered for political and aesthetic ends. Topics include sound poetry, literature, electronic music, noise pollution, and consumption.
MUSI 023a
Music and Melancholy
Seth Brodsky
TTh 1-2.15 | WR | Hu | Meets RP | (0) | Fr sem
Melancholy and its influence on Western music from the Middle Ages through the present day. Melancholy and artistic genius; melancholy, idleness, and immobility; and melancholy as sadness and fear “without cause.” How music functions as melancholy’s private symptom (the composer as melancholic, music as melancholy’s product, expression, or depiction); melancholy’s public agent (melancholy as trend, style, public persona, cultural capital); and melancholy’s cure or coping mechanism (concepts of musical genius and the restorative powers of the creative act).
PHYS 095a
Radiation and the Universe
Peter Parker
TTh 2.30-3.45 | Sc | (0) | Fr sem
An exploration of nuclear physics in the cosmos and on Earth, without intense mathematics. Nuclei as the heart of matter and the cores of stars; nuclear reactions as they power the stars and are responsible for the existence of every element; the role of radioactivity in our lives, including nuclear medicine, X rays, nuclear power, nuclear weapons, and terrorism.
PLSC 051a
The Ethics of War
Stephen Carter
TTh 2.30-3.45 | So | (0) | Fr sem
The development and application of “Just War Theory” in the Western tradition. Practices that might justify killing that would otherwise be considered mass murder; rules for traditions of just and unjust prosecution of war.
PORT 002a
Cultural Encounters in the Portuguese World
K. David Jackson
MW 9-10.15 | Hu | (32) | Fr sem
Cultural encounters in Africa, Asia, and Brazil after the voyage of Vasco da Gama (1497–99). Themes include voyages, the question of the other, modes of interrelationship, religion, trade, creole languages and hybrid cultures; music and oral tradition; ecology, cuisines, and the arts. Readings include the epic, travel and discovery literature, memoirs, anthropological and ethnographic works, and the “Cannibal Manifesto.”
RUSS 021a
Literature and Painting in the Age of Tolstoy
Molly Brunson
TTh 1-2.15 | Hu | (0) | Tr | Fr sem
An interdisciplinary study of artistic culture during the age of classic Russian novels. Close readings of Dostoevsky’s The Idiot and Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Topics include the representation of daily life, the Russian landscape, spirituality, and dialogue between the arts. Attention to contemporaneous developments in painting and visual culture. Readings and discussion in English.
SOCY 041a
Sociology of Social Control and Criminal Justice
Philip Smith
WF 2.30-3.45 | So | (37) | Fr sem
The criminal justice system from a sociological perspective. Transformations in social control arising with the onset of modernity. Topics include policing, courts, the law, and prisons; costs and benefits of contemporary solutions to the problem of social control; and the role of power and culture in shaping current policy and activity.
SPAN 060a
Freshman Colloquium: Literary Studies in Spanish
Ernesto Estrella
tth 1-2.15 L5, Hu (0) Fr sem
Introduction to the study of literature in general and to some of the most important texts in Hispanic literature. Selected texts in Spanish include narratives (Borges, García Márquez, Fuentes, Unamuno), essays (Paz, Fuentes, Sor Juana), lyric (Neruda, Paz, Valle-Inclán), and theater (Lope de Vega, García Lorca). Conducted in Spanish. Counts toward the requirements for the Spanish major.
WGSS 145a
Cross-Cultural Narratives of Desire
William Summers
TTh 4-5.15 | Hu | (0) | Fr sem
This course has been changed to a Freshman/Sophomore Seminar. For information about enrolling, attend the first class meeting or contact the instructor.
Discourses of desire as reflected in literature, history, popular culture, medicine, and science, with both Western and non-Western examples. Connections with shifting notions of gender and sexuality; intersections with race, class, and culture.
Spring Courses:
AFAM 095b/AMST 001b/HIST 001b
African American Freedom Movements in the Twentieth Century
Glenda Gilmore.
TTH 1-2.15 | Hu | (0) | Fr sem
Introduction to the study and writing of history, focusing on how African Americans fought for civil rights throughout the twentieth century. The civil rights movement placed in its historical context; African American freedom struggles placed in the larger narrative of U.S. history.
AMST 003b
American Literature and World Religions
Wai Chee Dimock
TTh 2.30-3.45 | WR | Hu | (0) | Fr sem
A study of the complex trajectories of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and Buddhism in American literature. Readings range from Anne Bradstreet to Bharati Mukherjee.
AMST 010b/HIST 002b/RLST 010b
The Rise of Religion in Modern America
Jon Butler
MW 1-2.15 | WR | Hu | (0) | Fr sem
The survival and prosperity of religion in America from the 1870s to 2000. The relationship of religion to urbanization, industrialization, and American corporate life; efforts to realign religion to meet conditions of modernity; and ways that pluralism, gender equality, race, class, and expanding debates about values and culture challenged religion even as they expanded its influence in unexpected ways.
ANTH 010b
Urban Culture, Space, and Power
Erik Harms
MW 11.35-12.50 | So | (0) | Fr sem
Urban environments as spatial landscapes infused with power relations. Anthropological perspectives are used to analyze spatial dimensions of cities and to understand how social life transforms, and is transformed by, the cities we live in. Enrollment limited to freshmen.
ANTH 030b/ARCG 030b
Inca Culture and Society
Richard Burger
MW 1-2.15 | So | (0) | Fr sem
History of the Inca empire of the Central Andes, including the empire’s impact on the nations and cultures it conquered. Overview of Inca religion, economy, political organization, technology, and society. Ways in which different schools of research have approached and interpreted the Incas over the last century, including the influence of nationalism and other sources of bias on contemporary scholarship.
APHY 050b
Science of Modern Technology
Daniel Prober
TTh 2.30-3.45 | Sc | Meets RP | (0) | Fr sem
Examination of the science behind selected advances in modern technology. Focus on the scientific and contextual basis of each advance. Topics are developed by the participants with the instructor and with guest lecturers, and may include nanotechnology, quantum computation and cryptography, optical systems for communication and medical diagnostics, transistors, satellite imaging and global positioning systems, large-scale immunization, and dna made to order.
APHY 060b/ENAS 060b/PHYS 060b
Energy Technology and Society
Paul Fleury
TTh 2.30-3.45 | QR | Sc | (27) | Fr sem
The technology and use of energy. Impacts on the environment, climate, security, and economy. Application of scientific reasoning and quantitative analysis. Intended for non–science majors with strong backgrounds in math and science.
ARCH 003b
Making an American Architecture
Turner Brooks
TTh 9-10.15 |1 HTBA | (0) | Fr sem
Study of architecture from the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. Focus on the work of Frank Furness, H. H. Richardson, Louis Sullivan, early Frank Lloyd Wright, McKim, Mead, and White, and other exponents of the Shingle Style. A series of field trips.
ART 002b
Paper
Siobhan Liddell
TTh 1-2.15 | 1 HTBA | Meets RP | (0) | Fr sem
Paper as a material from which to make art. How paper is made; myriad ways that it is used in the collections of Yale’s galleries and libraries. Creation of paper objects to explore the formal properties of sculpture including volume, mass, line, and structure.
CLCV 051b
Performance and Society in Ancient Greece
Pauline LeVen
MW 4-5.15 | WR | Hu | (37) | Fr sem
A survey of the culture and society of ancient Greece through an examination of the notion of performance. Readings in translation include passages from the Iliad and the Odyssey, Sappho, and other Greek poets, playwrights, and orators. Topics include song-culture; spectacle in ancient Greece from the dramatic stage to courtroom drama; and the importance of display for the construction of the political and social self.
CPSC 079b
Digital Photorealism
Julie Dorsey
TTh 1-2.15 | QR | (0) | Fr sem
Basic methods used to define shapes, materials, and lighting when creating computer-generated images. Mathematical models for shape, texture models, and lighting techniques. Principles are applied through the use of modeling/rendering/animation software. Proficiency in high school–level mathematics is assumed. No previous programming experience necessary. (Formerly cpsc 179b)
FILM 097b/HUMS 089b/ITAL 063b
Literature into Film
Millicent Marcus
TTh 4-5.15 | Screenings M 7 p.m. | Hu | (0) | Tr | Fr sem
Strategies employed by filmmakers who adapt literary works to the screen. Detailed comparisons between cinematic adaptations and the novels, plays, and short stories on which they are based. Focus on close textual interpretation and in-depth analysis of video clips.
FREN 095b
The French Enlightenment
Thomas Kavanagh
MW 11.35-12.50 | Hu | (0) | Tr | Fr sem
A study of the French Enlightenment through its literature, art, and social thought. The culture of eighteenth-century France as a transition from absolute monarchy to the foundations of a secular society based on new understandings of nature, value, sexuality, liberty, tolerance, and social concord. Readings and discussion in English.
HIST 014b
History of Higher Education in America
George Levesque
WF 2.30-3.45 | Hu | (0) | Fr sem
A survey of American higher education from the colonial era to the Cold War. Changes in the profile of students, the role of faculty, and the scope of the curriculum. Particular attention to how these changes reflected larger developments in American intellectual, cultural, and social history.
HIST 016b
History of Food and Cuisine
Paul Freedman
MW 2.30-3.45 | Hu | (0) | Fr sem
The history of food from the Middle Ages to the present, with a focus on the United States and Europe. How societies gathered and prepared food; culinary tastes of different times and places. The influence of taste on trade, colonization, and cultural exchange. The impact of immigration, globalization, and technology on food.
LING 007b
Varieties of English
Laurence Horn, Raffaella Zanuttini
MW 11.35-12.50 | So | (0) | Fr sem
Introduction to the range of variation in English, focusing on phenomena distinguishing U.S. dialects. Regional, social, gender, and age-based factors in variation. Linguistic approaches and “folk” attitudes to nonstandard language.
MUSI 008b
Music Cultures of the World
Michael Veal
MW 11.35-12.50 | Hu | (0) | Fr sem
An introduction to selected music cultures of the world, including those of South Asia (Hindustani and Carnatic classical music), Indonesia (Balinese, Javanese, and Sundanese gamelan), West Africa (traditional musics of Ghana, Mali, and Guinea), and the Caribbean (Cuba and Jamaica).
MUSI 021b
Music and Human Evolution
Ian Quinn
TTh 2.30-3.45 | Hu | (0) | Fr sem
The question of whether the human capacity for music is an evolutionary adaptation or a form of nonadaptive pleasure-seeking built on faculties adapted for other purposes. Evaluation of evidence and arguments pertaining to this question from evolutionary psychology; the relationship between the scientific study of the origins of music and musical aesthetics.
RLST 011b
Buddhist Saints and Sinners
Phyllis Granoff
MW 2.30-3.45 | Hu | (0) | Fr sem
Introduction to Buddhist doctrine and ethics through a reading of traditional biographies of very virtuous and very wicked Buddhists. Readings in translation.
WGSS 032b
History of Sexuality
Maria Trumpler
TTh 1-2.15 | Hu | (0) | Fr sem
Exploration of scientific and medical writings on sexuality over the past century. Focus on the tension between nature and culture in shaping theories, the construction of heterosexuality and homosexuality, the role of scientific studies in moral discourse, and the rise of sexology as a scientific discipline.
