Honors Colloquia: Fall 2011

Click on a course name to read a description.

All course materials can be purchased at Shakespeare & Co. Booksellers, located at 939 Lexington Avenue.

Course Descriptions

The Gothic in Literature and Visual Culture

Professor Rebecca Connor (English)

Long thought to be aberrant in the history of literature, the Gothic has become in recent years an enormously popular and respected field of study.  At its inception, Gothic texts and art voiced concerns that were otherwise difficult to approach or even taboo; we will concentrate primarily on the 18th and 19th centuries, examining - in both literary and visual culture - such transgressive themes as the supernatural, the aestheticizing of violence, the relationship of humans to machines, the horror at illness and bodily decay, incest, miscegenation, and homosexuality.  Our reading will start in the 18th century, with Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and Burke's theory of the sublime, moving on to novels which will include Matthew Lewis' The Monk, Shelley's Frankenstein, and Stoker's Dracula. Visual texts will range from images of Notre Dame Cathedral, to Goya's 'Disasters of War,' to John Singer Sargent's Portrait of 'Madame X,' to Georges Franju's film 'Eyes without a Face,' to the photographs of
Joel-Peter Witkin and Francesca Woodman, to the installations of the Chapman Brothers, to the music videos of Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson.  Throughout, we will examine and question the resurgent popularity of 'Goth' culture today

 Requirements and assignments: Class attendance and participation is required.  Movie viewings are mandatory.  Two 3-5 page essays, one 7-10 page essay, mid-term and final exams.

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Bodies Using Bodies

 Professor Philip Alcabes (School of Public Health)

What problems arise when people make use of the bodies, organs, or tissues of other people for our own physical benefit?  In this course, we will study how American society deals with the medical, social, technical, and ethical problems that arise when "bodies use bodies" in this way.  And we will try to reach some conclusions about fair and just policies for accommodating both health needs (organs for transplantation, for instance) and moral concerns about the use of other people's bodies, organs, etc. 

We will take up current controversies, including (but not necessarily limited to):

• The procurement of organs (especially kidneys) for transplantation and the possibility of payment for transplanted kidneys
• Gestational surrogacy, the possibility of contracting for surrogacy, parental custody of babies produced by artificial techniques, and outsourcing pregnancy
• Trading sex for money, drugs, rent, or other commodities
• Reconstructive surgery
• Human participation in medical research; autonomy and respect; the regulation of research; payment for tissues from which profit-making commodities are produced

Readings (provisional list)

Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Crown, 2010)
Richard Titmuss, The Gift Relationship: From Human Blood to Social Policy (1970)
Martha Nussbaum, Sex and Social Justice (Oxford, 1999)
Margaret Jane Radin, Reinterpreting Property (U. of Chicago 1996)
Michael Sandel, Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? (FSG, 2009)

Selections from:

John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism
Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice
In the Matter of Baby M. 109 N.J. 396 (1988)

Grading

• About five short papers taking a stand on a controversy, e.g., paying for kidneys, legalizing sex work, receiving payment for research participation, 25%
• Revisions of at least one of the short papers, 25%
• In-class discussion and debate, with one written summary, 20%
• Research paper (draft, peer editing, revision, final version), 30%

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Medea

Professor Ronnie Ancona (Classical & Oriental Studies)

Objective:

The purpose of this course is to explore the contradictory and compelling figure of Medea in literary and artistic sources from ancient Greece and Rome and the contemporary world. This will be accomplished through close examination of a wide range of literary and artistic works as well as through selected secondary readings. Students will come to know "Medea" in all of her complexity through the sources themselves, class discussion, and written response.

 Overview:

The figure of Medea is hard to define and that is part of her attraction. Variously seen as the lovely foreign Colchian princess who aids the Greek hero Jason in his quest for the Golden Fleece, a magical witch, a murderous, vengeful woman, a wife left and betrayed in Corinth, a rational, careful, planner and an irrational, emotional force, she resists pinning down. Local princess who helps visiting hero, is later betrayed by him, and then kills their mutual children is only one version, although a very popular one. While there are earlier appearances of Medea, Euripides' 5^th c. BCE Greek play provides her best known depiction. She is then reinterpreted in Hellenistic Greek epic as well as in Roman poetry and drama. Contemporary artists working in different media have been powerfully drawn to Medea. The fact that "the Medea story" resonates with issues of women, the other, family, power, emotion, and reason explains its continuing appeal. The varied "Medeas" that have emerged over time are testimony to the fact that her story invites multiple, diverse, and passionate responses.

 Schedule:

Part One - The early context of Medea in art, myth and literature. Euripides' Medea: the play itself and its literary, historical, and social context. The Greco-Roman Medea Tradition after Euripides.  Part Two - Modern Receptions of Medea in Literature, Art, Music, and Dance.

Sources:

Ancient literary sources include Euripides, Apollonius, Seneca, and Ovid. Contemporary artistic sources include film by Jules Dassin, dance by Martha Graham, sculpture by Noguchi, and music by Theodorakis. The edited volume, Medea: Essays on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy, and Art, will provide useful commentary.

 Requirements:

• Attendance and class participation; study sheets - written responses to questions from assigned reading and viewing
• Two papers, each about 7-8 pages - drafts receive comments. final versions are graded
• Final exam - factual and interpretive response
• Class visit to the Noguchi Museum, Long Island City

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Russia Through Opera

Professor Elizabeth K. Beaujour (Russian)
Professor Richard Burke (Music)

This course sets itself several goals. It will trace the development of Russian opera, focusing on works where the subject matter comes from Russian history, folklore, and literature.  For each work, historical background and literary and musical context will be provided.  In most cases, the libretti of the operas are based on important works of Russian literature, which the students will read.  Class discussions will analyze the literary works and examine the kinds of adaptations these texts (themselves representing various genres and periods of Russian literature) undergo in their transformations into an entirely different art form. The class will take place in a multi-media classroom which will enable the students to watch scenes from the operas, see projected examples of sets and costumes, and permit the instructors to analyze specific passages and musical themes. There will be several writing assignments in the first half of the semester, with the opportunity to revise after feedback, a final paper, and a final exam. 

Prerequisites: Students who do not read music or play an instrument should have taken either MUSHL 101 or MUSTH 101 or obtain the permission of Professor Burke. Several background texts on Russian history will be assigned, some to be read before the first class.

 A tentative list of pairs of works to be considered would include:

Opera: M. Glinka:   Selections from Ruslan and Liudmila.
Reading:  Selections from A.S. Pushkin's "Ruslan and Liudmila"

Opera: M. Musorgsky: Boris Godunov
Reading: Pushkin: Boris Godunov

Opera: P. I. Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin or The Queen of Spades
Reading: Pushkin: Eugene Onegin or The Queen of Spades

Opera: A. Borodin: Prince Igor  (maybe)

Opera:  Rimsky-Korsakov The Golden Cockerel

Opera: L. Janacek: Katya Kabanova
Reading: N. Ostrovsky, The Thunderstorm 

Opera: S. Prokofiev: The Gambler (maybe)
Reading: F. Dostoevsky: The Gambler (maybe)

Opera: Prokofiev: Semyon Kotko (maybe)
Reading: V. Kataev: I am the Son of the Working People (not available in English, just the Kotko libretto)

Opera: Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of Mtensk District
Reading: Leskov:  Lady Macbeth of Mtensk District, Shakespeare: Macbeth

Selections from Prokofiev: War and Peace
Selections from Tolstoi: War and Peace

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Poverty in the United States: Sociological and Psychological Dimensions

Professor Anthony Browne (Africana & Puerto Rican/Latino Studies)
Professor Roseanne Flores (Psychology)

This interdisciplinary course explores how sociology and psychology explain persistent poverty and the attendant effects on individuals, communities and American society. Theories and concepts from both disciplines are utilized to examine the nature and extent of poverty in the U.S., its myriad causes and consequences, as well government programs and policies. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the intersectionality of class, race/ethnicity and gender.  Questions to be addressed include: What is poverty? Why is U.S. poverty higher than other industrialized nations? What are the perceptions of the poor by the non-poor? What is the effect of poverty on children and families? What are individual and structural explanations of poverty? And what is the psychological impact of being poor in an affluent society? Emphasis will be placed on urban poverty and the role of the state and civil society its amelioration.

Grading for this course is based primarily on a research paper, midterm and final exam, and class participation.

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Interdisciplinary Independent Study

HONS 301.99      
Section 01 - Code: 1670
3 hours, 3 credits
Hours to be arranged

Students wishing to take this course will need two readers, from different disciplines, one of whom generally should be a member of the Council on Honors. In principle, the Council must approve the subject matter of such a paper before the student can register for the course. This course may be taken only once and does not count towards the three Honors Colloquia required of every member of the Program.

HONS 301.99 cannot replace any of the three required Honors Colloquia.

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Advanced Interdisciplinary Study

HONS 491.51      
Section 001 - Code: 1671
6 hours, 6 credits
Hours to be arranged

Upon completion of 90 credits, certified Honors Program students may be admitted by the Council on Honors to Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, with the opportunity of engaging in advanced independent study under the Council's supervision. A project for a thesis or other appropriate report of the results of the student's research is presented to the Council, which must approve it the semester previous to registration. Three sponsors, from at least two departments, one of whom must be a member of the Council on Honors, will supervise the work. The final product must be approved by all three sponsors and the Council.

HONS 491.51 cannot replace any of the three required Honors Colloquia.

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