|  | | | | | WEEKDAY SCHEDULE FALL 2010 See the Spring 2010 Schedule
Please click on the section letter for the syllabus for that class.
Humanities 1:
Art and Music | Section | Instructor | Days | Time | 5 Credits
(IIT Equivalent: HUM 100-Level) | A | Barbara Stone | MWF | 10:00am - 11:20am | | B | Harold Stone | MWF | 11:30am - 12:50pm | | C | Barbara Stone | MWF | 1:45pm - 3:05pm | In this first course in the Humanities sequence, you will learn about the elements and forms of the musical and visual arts while developing active listening and viewing skills. Through conversation about famous art works, pieces of music, and various texts that deal with art and creativity, you will become more attentive to and more articulate about art.
Readings include texts by Plato, Balzac, Kafka, Steinberg, and Alberti. | Humanities 3:
Philosophy & Theology | Section | Instructor | Days | Time | | 5 Credits | A | Albert Fernandez | MWR | 3:15pm - 4:35pm | | B | Albert Fernandez | MWR | 5:00pm - 6:20pm | Philosophy and theology are formally introduced in this third Humanities course. You will build on the reading skills you developed in Humanities 2 as you delve into some of the Western tradition’s most influential and significant texts, ranging historically from the ancient Greeks through the 17th century. Through close reading and collaborative analysis, you will learn to understand these texts on their own terms and to situate them within your own developing intellectual framework.
Readings include texts by Plato, St. Augustine, St. Teresa, and Descartes in addition to the Bible.
(Prerequisite: Humanities 1 and 2) | Integrative Studies 2:
The Nature and Creation of Mathematics | Section | Instructor | Days | Time | | 5 Credits (IIT Equivalent: Evaluated on individual basis) | A | Bev Thurber | MWF | 11:30am - 12:50pm | | B | Bev Thurber | MWF | 3:15pm - 4:35pm | Integrative Studies 2 is devoted to the development of an understanding and appreciation of mathematics. The student studies the axiomatic method by examining various mathematical and geometrical systems throughout written history. Through involvement in such mathematics the student learns accuracy in the use of terms, rigor in reasoning, and precision in expression. The development of these basic intellectual skills is another principal aim of the course.
Readings include texts by Euclid, Aristotle, Descartes, Einstein, and Lobachevski. | Integrative Studies 5:
History and Philosophy of Western Civilization | Section | Instructor | Days | Time | | 8 Credits | A | Eileen Buchanan | Tue {3 Hours} | 10:00am - 12:50pm | Integrative Studies 5 & 6 are designed as a unified, full-year sequence to be taken in the student’s last full year of residence. Further, they are intended to emphasize the essential unity of the Shimer curriculum. The works in this sequence are chosen for their historical significance and their potential for integrative analysis. They are arranged chronologically in order to demonstrate their historical relationship to one another.
Readings include works of unknown authorship like Innana, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the Bible, in addition to texts by Homer, Hesiod, Sappho, Plato, Aristotle, Herodotus, Thucydides, Virgil, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Dante.
(Prerequisite: Senior Status) | Natural Sciences 1:
The Laws and Models in Chemistry | Section | Instructor | Days | Time | 5 Credits (IIT Equivalent: Evaluated on individual basis)
| A | Jim Donovan | MTR | 10:00am - 11:20am | | B | Jim Donovan | MWR | 3:15pm - 4:35pm | In Natural Sciences 1 you will learn to think and reason about matter in ways that scientists have done in various historical periods. Beginning with the Ancient Greek philosophers, you will puzzle over why Thales believed that matter is composed of a single element while Empedocles understood there to be four. After surveying ancient and modern ways of thinking about matter, you will consider the logic behind our contemporary model.
Readings also include texts by Aristotle, Lucretius, Pascal, Bacon, Lavoisier, and Cannizzaro. | | Natural Sciences 2: Evolution, Genetics, and Animal Behavior | Section | Instructor | Days | Time | 5 Credits (IIT Equivalent: Evaluated on individual basis)
| A | Bev Thurber | MWF | 1:45pm - 3:05pm | Natural Sciences 2 explores the interaction amongst living organisms. Consideration is given to the level of genetic units within the organism, the level of species, the environmental level, and the level of human concern. The concept of evolution provides a groundwork for this inquiry into biological organization.
Readings include texts by Aristotle, Lamarck, Darwin, Mendel, and Goodall. | Natural Sciences 3:
Light, Motion, and Scientific Explanation | Section | Instructor | Days | Time | | 5 Credits | A | Jim Donovan | MTR | 11:30am - 12:50pm | Within the context of the physical sciences, this course explores the nature of scientific explanation. We examine the development of the theories of falling bodies, gravitation, light, electromagnetic forces, and relativity. The investigation of physical theories leads the student to attempt to answer such crucial scientific questions as these: What phenomena need to be explained? How are they explained? What constitutes a satisfactory explanation? What is the nature of physical reality?
(Prerequisite: Natural Sciences 1 and Integrative Studies 2) | Social Sciences 1:
Society, Culture, and Personality | Section | Instructor | Days | Time | 5 Credits (IIT Equivalent: SOC 200-level)
| A | David Shiner | MWF | 10:00am - 11:20am | | B | Ann Dolinko | MWF | 11:30am - 12:50pm | | C | Barbara Stone | MWF | 3:15pm - 4:35pm | In the first course of the social sciences sequence, you will read about the relationship between human beings and society from a variety of perspectives. How do cultural norms about gender and race, for example, shape who we are? The class will discuss foundational works in the fields of anthropology, psychology, and sociology, and will explore topics ranging from the notion of the self to the question of human freedom.
Readings include texts by Mead, Benedict, Freud, Marx, DuBois, and Durkheim. | Social Sciences 3:
Modern Theories of State and Society | Section | Instructor | Days | Time | | 5 Credits | A | AnnDolinko | MWF | 10:00am - 11:20am | | B | Ann Dolinko | MWF | 1:45pm - 3:05pm | In this course you will learn about influential movements in political and social thought in the 19th and 20th centuries. Discussions will focus on approaches to understanding the social, economic, and political structure of the modern world, and you will be able to explore the usefulness of these approaches in analyzing contemporary political reality.
Readings include texts by de Tocqueville, Hegel, Marx, Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Arendt.
(Prerequisite: Social Sciences 1 and 2) | Indian Thought - The Four Yogas
| Section | Instructor | Days | Time | | Credits (IIT Equivalent: Hum 300-level) | A | Ron Kidd | MW | 5:00pm - 6:20pm | | In this course, we will explore the foundations of thought and religious devotion in India: the gods, relations between gods and humans, inspiration, the structure of the cosmos and its origins, the depths of the human mind, the afterlife, karma and reincarnation, release from rebirth, desire as the engine of karma, the brahmin, the warrior, the guru, and the devotee. The four yogas in the title are: the yoga of action (i.e., sacrifice to the gods) in hymns of the Rig Veda, the yoga of knowledge in the early Upanishads, the yoga of devotion and love--the Bhagavad Gita-- and the yoga of the mind's ascent to ultimate purity, the Yoga Sutra. | | Bioethics | Section | Instructor | Days | Time | | 5 Credits (IIT Equivalent: Hum 300-level) | A | Jim Ulrich | TR | 11:30am - 12:50pm | Advances in the life sciences often outpace government regulatory procedures, and more importantly, some advances may be outpacing our own moral and cultural development. Cloning, stem cell treatments, and the commercialization of an increasing number of genetically modified organisms are but a few of the complex issues facing societies in the 21st century. We begin Bioethics with an overview of the philosophical theories and events shaping the field and then delve deeper into specific issues including classic medical ethics cases. Our goal is to analyze and formulate a balanced understanding of real-world issues by applying philosophical theories in an organized manner.
Selected Course Readings:
Bioethics – An Introduction for the Biosciences. B. Mepham. Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle
Utilitarianism. J.S. Mill
A Theory of Justice. J. Rawls
Behavioral Studies by Stanley Milgram
Classics Cases in Medical Ethics: Accounts of Cases That Have Shaped Medical Ethics. G. Pence
Reprints from Scientific Journals | Film - Alfred Hitchcock: Auteur of Discontent
| Section | Instructor | Days | Time | 3Credits (IIT Equivalent: Hum 300-level)
| A | Marc Hoffman | R | 10:00am - 11:20am | | B | Marc Hoffman | R | 11:30am - 12:50pm | | A & B | Marc Hoffman | T | 5:00pm - 6:20pm | Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) left a body of work consisting of fifty-seven films spread across almost all stages of commercial cinema art: silent, sound, black-and-white, Technicolor, wide-screen format and television. Our study of his filmography is equally a study of the history of film technique and narrative style in the Twentieth Century. Even today his unique method of misdirection (the MacGuffin), paranoia-inducing camera techniques, and complex psycho-sexual story lines stands as the benchmark for creating audience tension.
We’ll read essays exploring his personal aesthetic and the connection his films have to emerging views on modernism, feminism, politics, romance and sexuality. Weekly screenings and discussion. | Performance Studies
| Section | Instructor | Days | Time | 3 Credits (IIT Equivalent: TBD)
| A | Eileen Buchanan | MW | 6:30pm - 8:00pm | This course will examine the theatrical work of William Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov, George Bernard Shaw, and Tom Stoppard through performance. Students may work alone – on monologues - or in pairs, or as a group – depending on preference. Although this is primarily a scene study class, those interested in a more analytical /comparative/theoretical approach may also participate by writing a longer essay on a subject of his or her choosing.
Works studied may include:
Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, The Winter’s Tale, Cymbeline, Twelfth Night.
Ibsen, A Doll’s House, The Wild Duck, Hedda Gabler.
Chekhov, The Bear, The Marriage Proposal, The Seagull, Three Sisters.
Shaw, Man and Superman, The Doctor’s Dilemma, Pygmalion.
Stoppard, The Real Thing, Arcadia, The Coasts of Utopia (selections), Rock n’ Roll.
Additional reading may include:
Stanislavsky, An Actor Prepares
Sanford Meisner, Sanford Meisner on Acting
George Bernard Shaw, selected essays
Bertolt Brecht, essays from The Development of an Aesthetic
Richard Gilman, Anton Chekhov: An opening into Eternity; selections from Uncommon Masks | Math Workshop 1
| Section | Instructor | Days | Time |
| A | David Lukens | MW | 11:30am - 12:50pm | | Math Workshop 1 | Math Workshop 2
| Section | Instructor | Days | Time |
| A | David Lukens | MW | 1:45pm - 3:05pm | | Math Workshop 2 | | |
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