Course Descriptions

This upper division honors seminar traces the evolution of race policy in the United States from the development of the color line, through the current policy of equal opportunity, to alternative forecasts about the role of race in America’s future.  Emphasis will be placed on understanding the circumstances that led to particular policies.  Students will be encouraged to read and develop their own interpretations of primary sources such as Supreme Court cases, rather than to rely solely on the interpretations of scholars.  

Texts

Taylor Branch, Parting The Waters: America in the King Years, 1954 – 63, (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1988).

W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk, any edition

James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, The Federalist Papers, any edition.

Melvin Oliver and Thomas Shapiro, Black Wealth, White Wealth (New York: Routledge, 1997)

Edward Telles, Race in Another America: The Significance of Skin Color in Brazil (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004).

“Drama Queens” will examine the relationship between the performed nature of gender, cross- dressing, and expressions of powerful femininity in a broad survey of Western theatrical literature. Students will explore some of the most dynamic women and gender-bending characters ever written for the stage, while contextualizing Classical and Renaissance works in the tradition of portraying women with cross-dressing actors in all-male productions. We will explore how this tradition may have influenced assumptions about the qualities of women and femininity portrayed on stage throughout history—and how modern and contemporary plays featuring powerful women and cross-dressing men respond to these assumptions.

Texts/Films:

 Aeschylus, The Oresteia

Sophocles, Antigone

Aristophanes, Lysistrata

Shakespeare, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, and Antony and Cleopatra (selections) 

Ben Jonson, Epicœne

Henrik Ibsen, Hedda Gabler

August Strindberg, Miss Julie

Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife

David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly

Caryl Churchill, Top Girls

Neil Labute, The Shape of Things

David Harrower, Blackbird

This course explores the nature and consequences of money in American politics and why, at this point in history, we find ourselves embroiled in the most significant debate over campaign finance reform in over thirty years. The debate goes to the heart of the U.S. Constitution, pitting the First Amendment rights of speech and assembly against the perceived fairness and efficacy of a republican government awash, some claim, in increasingly unaccountable money.

Campaign finance issues lie at the crossroads of a bewildering number of analytical perspectives.  We (must) examine the work of historians, social scientists, legal scholars, and interested parties on all sides of the debate in an effort not only to assess current policy debates but also to understand how we got here.  During the course we confront and seek answers to a host of questions, including, but by no means limited to:

     - How will corporations respond to the Supreme Court’s recent decision permitting unlimited    political advertising? 

     - Why did most 2008 presidential candidates abandon the system of public financing for presidential elections?

     -Why does the public believe that corporations play such a large role in funding federal election campaigns?

     -Why does the Supreme Court allow public perceptions to determine the constitutionality of campaign finance laws?

     -Why do U.S. Senators refuse to report their campaign finance activity electronically to the Federal Election Commission?

     -How and why is the Internet treated differently than other means of political communication by campaign finance laws?

     -What are the consequences of unlimited individual contributions to state election candidates in Texas?

Texts

Corrado, Anthony, et al. The New Campaign Finance Sourcebook. 2004. Washington D.C.: Brooking Institution; 

Corrado, Anthony and David Magleby Financing the 2008 Election. 2010. Washington D.C.: Brooking Institution; 

McChesney, Fred. Money For Nothing: Politicians, Rent Extraction, and Political Extortion.  1997. Cambridge: Harvard University Press; 

Urofsky, Melvin., Money & Free Speech: Campaign Finance Reform and the Courts. 2005. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press.

La Raja, Raymond.  Small Change: Money, Political Parties and Campaign Finance Reform. 2008. University of Michigan Press

Course Description

This course will attempt the impossible: to explain why Americans are so fascinated by Russia . The answer may lie in the fact that this expansive maxi-country (or mini-world), separated from our own country at the Bering Strait by a mere 2.5 miles of shallow seawater, is both a mirror-image of America and its opposite. The feeling is mutual: Russia has gone from a colonial conquerer of its continent and indigenous people to being the Anti- (Bizarro?) America to unbridled commercial capitalism, all the time trying to relate itself to Europe in particular and history in general. Understanding this relationship could lead to better understanding ourselves.

Coursework will consist of lectures, reading, and discussion in English on the political and cultural history of Russia , from its prehistoric origins to the events of 1917 leading to communist rule.. Special emphasis will be on enduring themes of cultural identity, imagination, and conflict, both with neighboring peoples and within.

The backbone of the course is a sketch of the history of the Russian people, from their origins to today. From this structure we will make forays to sample the best of the cultural world at each period in time. Class presentations will highlight creative work especially in art, architecture, and music. Included will be tours of Russia 's capitals Moscow and St. Petersburg as fascinating preserves of historical and cultural values, alongside the delights of modern urban life.

Text 

Hosking, Geoffrey. Russia and the Russians: A history . Cambridge , MA : Harvard University Press, 2003. Paperback.

Additional readings will be made available in a course packet.

Requirements and Grading

Three in-class exams:         40%

Four writing assignments:    50%

Class participation:            10%

Supervised Research. Individual instruction. Prerequisite: AUniversity grade point average of at least 3.50 and consent of theliberal arts honors program adviser. Only one HMN 358Q may be applied towards college honors.

A tutorial program of supervised reading and writing, including an individual paper or papers in which the student draws together the central directions and discoveries of his or her studies in the humanities. Humanities 370 and 679HB may not both be counted.

Prerequisite: Consent of the humanities adviser.

Individual instruction in a topic approved by the instructor and the humanities adviser.

Prerequisite: Upper-division standing and consent of the humanities adviser.

Hour(s) to be arranged. May be repeated for credit.

Class meets Thursdays from 3:00 -4:00 in GEBAUER 1.206  Commons Room.

Class meets Thursdays from 3:00 -4:00 in GEBAUER 1.206  Commons Room.