Past Forum Seminars

Read below for descriptions of Forum Seminars offered in past semesters. Courses under “2202-Present” may be offered again in the future, while those listed under Past Courses will most likely not be repeated. Note that in the past, courses currently offered under the BDP 101 number have been offered as FS 118 and CXS 118 courses.

2002-Present

The following courses may or may not be offered in a given semester. Please check the course schedule or our Current Courses page for the courses offered this semester.

BDP 101: Children and Society
BDP 329: Clinical Ethics: Theory and Practice
BDP 101: Cultural Studies
BDP 101: Environmental Change and Sustainability
BDP 329: Ethics, Law and Health Care
BDP 101: Exploring Digital Arts and Media
BDP 306: Fundamentals of Ethical Leadership
BDP 101: Going Global: Topics in International Studies
BDP 101: Health Inequality in Childhood and Adolescence
BDP 101: Image and Society: Exploring Visual Culture
BDP 101: Introduction to Film Studies
BDP 101: Introduction to International Studies
BDP 101: Intro to the Nonprofit World
BDP 101: Law and Culture
BDP 129: Leadership Principles in the Real World
BDP 101: Lessons in Ethical Leadership Studies
BDP 101: Professional Ethics in Law/Business/Medicine
BDP 319: Science of Wonder: Natural History Museums
BDP 101: Social Inequality, Health & Policy
BDP 101: Sport and Society

BDP 101: Children and Society
Instructors: Catherine Echols, Psychology; Alba Ortiz, Special Education

Children and Society focuses on children and their development within topic areas such as children and health, families, education, and the media. Faculty members from across campus will introduce students to the breadth, complexity, and interdisciplinary nature of issues pertaining to children and development.
Children and Society syllabus (PDF)

BDP 329: Clinical Ethics: Theory and Practice
Instructor: William Winslade, UTMB and Philosophy

This three-hour interdisciplinary seminar brings together upper-level undergraduates, medical students, medical residents, and Pharm D. graduate students. Each session will include a seminar discussion of key topics in clinical medical ethics and a clinical case presentation by a student team. Topics included, among others, are orders not to resuscitate, determination of death, informed consent, and refusal of treatment for competent and incompetent patients, advance planning, quality of life and life-sustaining interventions, euthanasia and assisted suicide, confidentiality of medical information, ethics committees and ethics consultation, and allocation of scarce health resources.

BDP 101: Cultural Studies
Unique Number 08420
Wednesdays 3:00-5:00 p.m.
Professor Mary Celeste Kearney

What is culture? How is it practiced? How do we differentiate culture from other aspects of our lives? What is the difference between high culture, popular culture, folk culture, and mass culture? What are subcultures? What is the significance of economics and politics to culture? What is the relationship of culture to identity, taste, and ideology? How do modes of production affect cultural content and form? What roles do consumers play in cultural meaning? How has contemporary popular culture been affected by digital media? How are power and knowledge exercised and negotiated in culture? Can culture contribute to social change?

These questions provide our foundation for an introduction to cultural studies as an interdisciplinary field of critical inquiry and scholarly analysis. In this course we will study culture from a variety of perspectives, including artifacts and practices, ideas and emotions, events and rituals, spaces and institutions, identities and communities. In addition, we will consider the relationship of cultural practices to sociohistorical context and everyday life. While many of the cultural phenomena discussed in this class are U.S.-based, we will be exploring several that are not American, while also examining issues of migration and globalization.
Introduction to Cultural Studies syllabus (PDF)

BDP 101: Environmental Change and Sustainability
Instructor: Jay Banner, Geological Sciences

This forum seminar will explore the range of environmental challenges that our society faces, including those involving water resources, climate change, and ecosystems, as well as possible solutions to these problems. The roles of science, policy-making, economic interests, and sustainability will be examined in the context of these issues.

BDP 329: Ethics, Law and Health Care
Instructor: William Winslade, UTMB and Philosophy

This course will explore real medical and legal cases that create ethical controversies. An interdisciplinary approach will combine legal and ethical case analysis with medical and psychological perspectives. Topics include, among others, emergency lifesaving treatment; organ donation; definition of death; brain injury treatment enhancement and research; mental illness; treatment and punishment of sex offenders; legal responsibility and brain function; competency and consent to or refusal of medical treatment for children and adults; physician assisted suicide and euthanasia; privacy, confidentiality, and privileged communications; termination and treatment of devastated patients; and responses to medical error.

BDP 101: Exploring Digital Arts and Media
Instructor: Bruce Pennycook, Music

This seminar will present a survey of the wide variety of ways that digital technologies are changing how we create art and media. The seminars will include presentations on digital sound design, digital cinema production, interactivity especially in gaming and live performance, real-time “show control”, visualization, networked audio/visual presentation and performance, “wearable” computers for new expression in dance and movement, interactive story telling. We will also examine some current software and hardware systems used by professional artists, designers, and producers.
Exploring Digital Arts and Digital Media syllabus (PDF)

BDP 306: Fundamentals of Ethical Leadership
Instructor: Geoffrey Tumlin, Center for Ethical Leadership

This course will explore fundamental concepts in leadership and ethics and is divided into four interdependent sections. In the first section, we will explore the interactional nature of ethical leadership and develop a practical lens to view this process. The focus of the course’s second section is on self-awareness as an essential cornerstone of effective leadership and followership. In the third section we will turn our attention to the difficult decisions that we have to make as leaders. The final section will focus on salient topics that are central to the practice and the process of ethical leadership. These topics include gender issues in leadership, the dilemma of social proof, peer leadership, leadership while in college, deception as a leader’s tool, and the successful navigation of the tension between individual and collective goals.

BDP 101: Going Global: Topics in International Studies
Instructor: Karin Wilkins, Radio-Television-Film

This course introduces students to explore a variety of issues in a global context. Building respect and understanding of our global environment is crucial in our educational system as well as our social and political engagement beyond the classroom. This introductory seminar will address current global concerns, particularly in the areas of conflict and negotiation; human rights and social justice; international development; and media systems.
Going Global: Topics in International Studies syllabus (PDF)

BDP 101: Health Inequality in Childhood and Adolescence
Instructor: Robert Crosnoe, Sociology

Health inequality in childhood and adolescence appears in all stages of the human life course as a function of the stratification of American society by race, social class, gender, and other factors. In childhood and adolescence, inequalities emerge in mental health, obesity, health behavior, and other aspects of health that lay a foundation for the even greater inequalities in health, including life expectancy, that characterize adult populations. Thus, combating early health inequalities can have long-term, lasting effects on the general well-being of American society as a whole. Because the first step in combating such early health inequalities is to understand them, this seminar will investigate in detail the various inequalities in health that arise and persist during the early life course by listening to experts from the health field, reading research articles on health, and discussing both the causes of health problems and possible methods of preventing such problems.
Health Inequality in Childhood and Adolescence syllabus (PDF)

BDP 101: Image and Society: Exploring Visual Culture
Instructor: Charles Ramirez Berg, Radio-Television-Film

This course explores the many kinds of images that we encounter in daily life. Faculty members from across campus will speak about how they use images in their work. Students will learn how to appreciate and read images from a variety of sources. In previous semesters we have had presentations on a wide variety of images including movie and circus posters, advertising, maps, photographs, movies, animation, building design, theater sets, the design of the University of Texas Commencement, comics, Japanese anime, painting, graphic art, and digital media.
Image and Society syllabus (PDF)

BDP 101: Introduction to Film Studies
Instructor: Janet Staiger, Radio-Television-Film

The primary goal of this course is to introduce the “Bridging the Disciplines” program in film studies. What is film? Why do we go to the movies? What is the function of film in society? The BDP in Film Studies introduces students to film as a subject of critical analysis and scholarly inquiry. Through courses in foreign languages and literatures, English, Radio-Television-Film, History, Music, and other disciplines, students learn about how filmmakers tell stories, the relationship of film to other mass media, and how film functions in cultures and societies.
Introduction to Film Studies syllabus (PDF)

BDP 101: Introduction to International Studies
Instructor: Eugene Gholz, LBJ School

This course surveys a selection of issues in contemporary international affairs such as the rise of China, the war on terror, the war in Iraq, urbanization in the developing world, and the protection of human rights. Encouraging an understanding of our global environment is a crucial part of modern university education, and understanding international affairs will build a foundation for students’ social, political, and economic engagement beyond the classroom.
Introduction to International Studies syllabus (PDF)

BDP 101: Intro to the Non-profit World
Instructor: Cal Streeter, Social Work

The nonprofit sector is the fastest growing sector in the U.S. economy. This phenomenon presents enormous opportunities for communities, nonprofit managers, Boards of Directors, and those who fund nonprofit organizations. This course introduces students to the nonprofit sector and provides them with the knowledge they need to understand the role of nonprofit organizations in contemporary American society. Students will learn what distinguishes the nonprofit sector from business and government, with particular attention to mission, organizational structure, funding, and culture. We will examine the statutory and regulatory requirements of nonprofit organizations and explore the ways in which philanthropic giving and volunteers shape the work of the nonprofit sector. Readings and class activities provide students with a broad understanding of the nonprofit sector and help them weigh the pros and cons of a career in the nonprofit world.

BDP 101: Law and Culture
Instructor: Sue Heinzelman, English

This course is titled “Law and Culture” but perhaps a more accurate definition would be “Law in Culture” because law does not operate outside of culture but is, in fact, produced by culture. The course will examine the various stories we tell about the law, about what the law does, about what the law means to individuals and to society, and about how the law helps both to produce culture and to reflect the culture that it relies upon. In other words, we will come to understand law as a dynamic, complicated, sometimes contradictory, sometimes ideal, sometimes practical, both abstract and embodied vision of what we believe brings about justice.
Law and Culture syllabus (PDF)

BDP 129: Leadership Principles in the Real World
Instructor: J.D. Howell, LBJ School

There are a dozen or so Principles or Eternal Truths of Leadership that have been taught by the military and other institutions for many years. It is the intent of this course to review these principles, discuss their meaning and show how they can be applied in our daily lives to help us in a practical way to become more effective leaders. The professor will also use examples from his own life experiences in the military and as Director of Johnson Space Center.
Leadership Principles in the Real World syllabus (PDF)

BDP 101: Lessons in Ethical Leadership Studies
Instructor: J.D. Howell, LBJ School

The purpose of this course will be two-fold. First, through a series of lectures, discussions and readings, the students will be introduced to the Principles of Leadership and shown how they can be applied to enhance their personal Leadership skills. Secondly, the class will be exposed to a series of guest speakers who represent various scholarly disciplines at The University of Texas. These speakers will discuss the challenges of Ethical Leadership in their particular fields of study.
Lessons in Ethical Leadership Studies syllabus (PDF)

BDP 101: Professional Ethics in Law/Business/Medicine
Instructor: John Dzienkowski, Law School

This course will examine 5-6 case studies presenting similar ethical dilemmas in the context of the professions of law, business, and medicine. We will first study each profession’s norms for resolving these ethical problems. We will then analyze the systems for regulating ethical issues in law, business, and medicine in an effort to determine whether the professionals are exercising appropriate self-regulation. Students will write three short papers on the class material throughout the course and a longer paper on an ethical dilemma in their own field of interest. Issues to be covered include disclosure of professional malpractice to clients/patients, disclosure of life-threatening situations to third persons in conflict with other professional goals, and ethics in marketing professional services. Guest speakers help broaden our perspective on the material we are studying.

BDP 319: Science of Wonder: Natural History Museums
Instructors: Chris Bell, Geological Sciences; Dean Hendrickson, Texas Memorial Museum

This class will introduce students to the University’s Natural History Museum collections in Botany, Vertebrate and Invertebrate Paleontology, Ichthyology, Herpetology, Entomology and Archaeology. Students will tour research collections that typically are not accessible to the public or to the general student body. Discussions will focus on the history and role of natural history museums in society and the complex issues facing them today.

BDP 101: Social Inequality, Health & Policy
Instructor: John Traphagan, Religious Studies

This course explores the causes and consequences of the huge disparities in health, life expectancy, and medical care delivery in the world today. We will focus on what national and local governments, as well as non-governmental organizations, can do to reduce the most glaring health vulnerabilities. As part of the course we will investigate how large-scale demographic and social developments—including international migration and growing numbers of refugees, changes in marriage and family patterns, and aging populations—affect nations’ population structures, the overall quality of life of their populations, and the evolution of their health care delivery systems. Faculty experts from fields such as sociology, anthropology, social work, demography, and public affairs will present on topics, including marriage and health; welfare reform and child well-being; global poverty and infant mortality; America’s health care crisis; health care and immigration; health and aging; racial/ethnic differences in chronic illness; and state health care financing reforms.

BDP 101: Sport and Society
Instructor: Jan Todd, Kinesiology and Health Educatio

This course explores the impact of sport on modern American culture through conversations with local faculty and journalists who study this complex phenomenon. Organized thematically, the course will explore the issues of Ergogenic aids and drug testing, race and sport, women and sport, amateurism, commercialization, violence, and technology and sport. Several films will also be shown. Students should leave the class with an understanding of the both the importance of the world of sport to our identity as Americans and the increasingly complex issues that modern sport confronts in the 21st century.

Take a look at past courses that will no longer be offered.