University of St. Thomas

Honors Seminars Academic Year 2008-09

 

 

Fall 2008

 

 

IDSC 480-05 (CRN 41647)  I Hear America Sing

Fall 2008 – R 3:25-5:00pm

How does America imagine itself?  What does it mean to be an American?  What is the American Dream?  Is the business of America business—or the work of America “life, immense in passion, pulse, and power”?  The seminar will begin to answer these questions through a careful reading and analysis of key texts in American culture.  These will include op/ed pieces, essays, treatises, as well as music, film, and video.

 

 

IDSC 480-02 (CRN 40614) The Challenge of Religious Diversity/Pluralism

Fall 2008 – T 1:30-3:10pm

The seminar explores attempts by philosopher and theologians to understand the phenomenon of religious diversity/pluralism.  The seminar will be organized topically, focusing on both the philosophical challenges of religious diversity and the theological possibilities about the past, present, and future of Christianity in a multi-faith world.  The views to be considered include, Vatican II’s  “Declaration of the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions,” the encyclical Dominus Jesus, John Hick’s pluralism, religious skepticism, religious exclusivism, and religious inclusivism.

 

 

IDSC 480-04 (CRN 43295) Product Design for an Aging Population

Fall 2008 – T 3:25-5:00pm

The aim of this seminar is two-fold. The first goal of the course is to develop an appreciation for the impact that the aging of the US population will have on society.  The seminar will incorporate readings and guest lectures on this topic. We will examine how society will need to change to accommodate a markedly different population demographic as well as how individuals can, and do, cope with the changes associated with aging.  The course will also be an immersive introduction to the field of product design.  Students will gain an appreciation for the processes involved in creating a useful and marketable product through work on a semester long group project designing a product for the elderly. 

 

Note that no engineering knowledge is necessary for this seminar.

 

 

IDSC 480-01 Political Cognition 2008 Election
Fall 2008  - T 9:55-11:35am

This seminar will focus on the perceptions of people who will decide the outcome of the November 4, 2008 national election for the presidency of the United States.  One of the instructors is a cognitive psychologist; the other is a political scientist.  Together they will guide a collaborative investigation into the relationship between “political cognition” (ways in which people acquire and use information within the political arena) and the “electoral process” (ways in which people who choose to participate in the selection of a president interact toward a preferred result).

Questions about which the seminar participants might expect to inquire include: How do people perceive political candidates and form attitudes about them?  What role does the context (e.g., speech, “infomercial,” debate, website) in which information is presented play in peoples’ evaluation of candidates?  How do people reason about political issues?  How do people make decisions about political candidates based on limited information?  How does overall cognitive ability relate to the choices that voters make?

 

 

IDSC 480-03 (CRN 40615) Nationalism Identity Modern World

Fall 2008 – W 12:05-1:30pm

The goal of this seminar is to introduce students to the continuing role that nationalism plays in the contemporary world.  While some philosophers dismiss nationalism as having no rational basis, resting instead on such primitive notions as tribalism, clan, or other pre-modern identities, others see nationalism much more positively as a partial source of personal identity or as a legitimate if not necessary focus of loyalty. Many political scientists see national identity as central to the functioning and operation of the state.  This seminar will explore the role of nationalism as it affects both the formation of the modern state and the many conflicts that nationalism continues to spawn.

 

Students will work with a class being held at the Belarusian State University (Minsk, Belarus) on a joint project exploring issues of American and Belarusian national identity.  The initial “meeting” with the BSU students will take place using the University’s videoconferencing facilities; subsequent communications between Minsk and UST will take place using individual e-mail accounts. 

 

 

IDSC 480-06 (CRN 40616) The Foreign Experience

Fall 2008 – R 5:15-6:45pm

This seminar gives Aquinas Scholars who study abroad the opportunity to 1) examine ways of approaching, understanding, and articulating the impact of foreign experience; 2) practice the techniques of observation, exploration, and self-reflection exemplified in the materials studied; and 3) communicate the particular discoveries that resulted from their experience abroad.

Procedures: Before you go abroad, you attend four classes held on Thursdays, 5:15 to 6:45 p.m., following midterm. While you are abroad, you write the instructors essays reflecting on your experience and (toward the end of your time abroad) register for The Foreign Experience seminar. During the semester you return to St. Thomas, (now registered for the course), you attend four more classes, again held on Thursdays, 5:15 to 6:45 p.m., following midterm.

Please note: You must begin your work in the seminar before going abroad, and you must reserve the Thursday 5:15–6:45 class times both before and after your study abroad semester or year. However, you don’t register for The Foreign Experience seminar until you register for other courses to be taken the semester you return to St. Thomas. 

 

IDSC 480-07 (CRN40617) The Research Experience

Fall 2008  - Day & Time to be determined

Professor:  Dr. Stephen J. Laumakis

The Research Experience seminar offers the opportunity for Aquinas
Scholars to pursue study in a subject of special interest and to meet with other students
involved in research projects. Students interested in pursuing the Research Experience
seminar work under a faculty mentor who evaluates their progress. See the director of the
Aquinas Scholars Honors Program for more information. Open to seniors only.

 

 

 

J-Term 2009

 

 

Law and Society

J-term 2009  - TR 9:00-Noon 

The seminar provides an introduction to the role of law in society.  It asks such significant questions as “What is law?  What types of laws exist?  What is the relationship of law and morality and of law and justice?  What role does law play in large societal issues and controversies?

 

 

Remembering Jesus

J-term 2009 – MW 1:00-2:35pm

Memory plays a crucial but little-understood role in the transmission of Christianity.  No one doubts that the canonical Christian gospels were based on oral traditions that had been passed   along for several decades before being committed to writing.  These traditions began as recollections of eyewitnesses to Jesus’ ministry.  How reliable was this eyewitness testimony?  How faithfully was the eyewitness testimony transmitted in the process of oral tradition?  To what extent did the stories about Jesus undergo transformation and retelling?  Answering these questions requires detailed knowledge about the “final” written texts and the degree to which one can use the techniques of scholarship to reconstruct the oral traditions from which they were formed, as well as understanding of memory (both individual and social) and oral tradition.  Using new insights from the social sciences, biblical scholars are re-opening debate after years of inactivity and are proposing new answers to the age-old questions about the reliability of the Christian gospels.

  

IDSC 480-03 Community Action/Social Change - 2 credits
J-term 2009 – TR  4:00-7:00pm
IDSC 480-04 Fieldwork Community Action - 2 credits
J-term 2009  - Day & time to be determined

Professors: Dr. Kimberly Vrudny (UST, Theology) and Kevin Winge (Executive Director of Open Arms of Minnesota)
Both courses need to be enrolled in at the same time.
___________________________________________________________________________________

In this course, students will explore the meaning of service, citizenship, and social change within the context of a directed service experience in an urban setting and a classroom seminar setting. In the directed service experience, students will spend eight hours a week working in a community organization and will bring their experience to bear on the content of the seminar. In the seminar, students will study concrete social issues, institutions, organizations, and individuals involved in social transformation, as well as theories of social change. Students will work with Open Arms of Minnesota on the topic of HIV/AIDS. The global and local epidemiology of AIDS, the dynamics of poverty on access to health care and adequate nutrition, varying impacts of the virus on local immigrant and Minnesota-born residents, and the ethics of a Christian response are the four focal points of the seminar.

 

 

Spring 2009

 

Brain Machine Interface

Spring 2009 - Tentatively Tuesday afternoon

What if you could control your computer just by thinking about it? In this seminar, we will discuss the potential applications and limitations of direct brain-computer interfaces from both neuroscience and engineering perspectives.  Brain-Machine Interfaces are no longer just plot devises for science fiction movies.  In the last two years, recording electrodes have been used to move robotic arms for amputees and to suppress nausea in children with severe digestive disorders.  Stimulating electrodes have been used to provide sensations of sight and sound in blind and deaf individuals.  As our understanding of the neural code and nanotechnology improves, scientists will have the ability to record from and/or stimulate not just hundreds, but millions, of neurons.  Is mind reading or mind control really possible?  What are the ethical and practical concerns of such advances?

 

 

 

Athletics:  Building Character

Sport and athletics have been credited with improving self-esteem, enhancing the quality and number of friendships, increasing cooperation, accepting adversity, dedication to a cause, and perhaps many other desirable traits. However, one only needs to look in the daily newspaper to find many of the negative aspects of sports, from criminal behavior to illegal substance use to betting on and fixing contests.

What are we to believe about the value of sport to society? This seminar will explore this relationship and examine the positive and negative educational, social, psychological, physical, and financial effects of athletic participation for both the athlete and society in general.

 

 

Race and Representation

Spring 2009 – R 1:30-3:10pm
Names of the leaders: 

• Dr. Heather Shirey, assistant professor, Department of Art History

Mail 57P, 2115 Summit Ave.

St. Paul, MN 55105-1096

hmshirey@stthomas.edu

• Dr. Dina Gavrilos, assistant professor, Department of Communication and Journalism

MAIL # 4090, 2115 Summit Ave.

St. Paul, MN 55105-1096
dgavrilos@stthomas.edu
_____________________________________________________________________________
Description of the seminar’s aim:  While popular culture was producing stereotypical images of race such as Jim Crow and Aunt Jemima, artists of color sought to define their subculture through empowering visual imagery.  Such is the tension between the production of racist imagery from mainstream media, traditionally controlled by the dominant class, and the images that emerge when artists of color seek to re-present, challenge, and resist negative stereotypes. What strategies do artists of color (including Native Americans, Latinos, African-Americans, Asians, and Arabs, among others) use to change racial stereotypes in the broader society while empowering their communities?  How do images from popular culture produced for mass consumption and art objects intended for a more limited, potentially more intimate viewing audience function differently in relation to racial stereotypes? And ultimately, can mainstream visual media productions ever be non-racist?  Students will grapple with these questions in this course that examines a visual history of racial representations from the 19^th century until today through two lenses: a) the images created by artists of color through non-mainstream paintings and sculptures and, b) the images of popular media’s construction of race in films, advertisements and television.  The course discussions will contextualize the construction of racial stereotypes in its broader historical, social, political, cultural context.  Particular attention will be paid to how race is articulated in relation to issues of sexuality, attractiveness, intelligence, and savagery in images.

 

Sectarianism, Peace & N. Ireland

Spring 2009 – T 1:30 - 3:10pm
Professors:  Dr. Bernard Brady and Dr. Thomas Redshaw

For more than three decades after the first civil rights march in Northern Ireland, dramatic and revolutionary events in that small country grabbed Irish, British, European, and North American headlines with disturbing regularity. The story of those events is easy to outline with journalistic “facts” by very difficult to tell as particular human truths.
 
This seminar proposes to examine the contentious intersection in those events—from the Burntollet  “Ambush” in 1969 to the Good Friday Accord of 1998—of sectarianism, nationalism, and liberalism by studying and discussing not only the fiction, drama, and poetry pertinent to the North, but also by examining a selection of public documents issued by the governments, political organizations, and churches.

IDSC 480-06 (CRN 40616) The Foreign Experience

Spring 2009 – R 5:15-6:45pm

This seminar gives Aquinas Scholars who study abroad the opportunity to 1) examine ways of approaching, understanding, and articulating the impact of foreign experience; 2) practice the techniques of observation, exploration, and self-reflection exemplified in the materials studied; and 3) communicate the particular discoveries that resulted from their experience abroad.

Procedures: Before you go abroad, you attend four classes held on Thursdays, 5:15 to 6:45 p.m., following midterm. While you are abroad, you write the instructors essays reflecting on your experience and (toward the end of your time abroad) register for The Foreign Experience seminar. During the semester you return to St. Thomas, (now registered for the course), you attend four more classes, again held on Thursdays, 5:15 to 6:45 p.m., following midterm.

Please note: You must begin your work in the seminar before going abroad, and you must reserve the Thursday 5:15–6:45 class times both before and after your study abroad semester or year. However, you don’t register for The Foreign Experience seminar until you register for other courses to be taken the semester you return to St. Thomas. 

 

IDSC 480-07 (CRN40617) The Research Experience

Spring 2009 - Day & Time to be determined

Professor:  Dr. Stephen J. Laumakis

The Research Experience seminar offers the opportunity for Aquinas
Scholars to pursue study in a subject of special interest and to meet with other students
involved in research projects. Students interested in pursuing the Research Experience
seminar work under a faculty mentor who evaluates their progress. See the director of the
Aquinas Scholars Honors Program for more information. Open to seniors only.