HNR 134-A Forging Culture: Books, Politics, and Children
Professor Megan Isaac
General Studies Distribution: Expression
Meeting Time: 1:40-3:20 MW
This course will examine children's and young adult literature as a pivot point for cultural, political, and historical identity in the United States. Children and the issues related to them are often the focus of cultural conflicts in the U.S. Members of the class will explore these overt and covert conflicts as they appear in children's literature. We will investigate how books for children and young readers help shape the values that provide us with a cultural identity and a sense of community. Simultaneously, we will examine the complicated or contentious ideas embedded in books for children and young adults. Beginning with authors from the late 19th century and working our way forward, we will explore ideas of intellectual freedom and censorship, nostalgia and innovation, didacticism and entertainment, and the constant tension between conservative and subversive trends in books for young readers. Our study will center on books (both textual and visual elements) but include a consideration of production, distribution, and merchandizing methods as well. Ultimately, we will work to understand the ways ideas about childhood, story, books, and U.S. cultural identity are produced and contested.
Movements, Mindfulness and Mayhem: Sociological Perspectives
Professor Lisa Peloquin
General Studies Distribution: Society
Meeting Time: 10:30-12:10 TTH
From monks in silent meditation to the frenzied protests of the masses, humans pursue myriad paths towards fulfillment and community. This course will cultivate sociological mindfulness of the ways in which time, place and circumstance shape individual agency and movements for social change. From the most public domains of political life to the most private experiences of solitude, sociology examines how thought, feeling, and action remain inextricably linked to historical conditions and the norms and values of the collective.
In this course, students will engage in a sustained and systematic study of the ‘art of living together’ within an environment of perpetual change, social solidarity as well as distance. In contrast to arm-chair theorizing and mass media induced fatalism, this course will introduce students to sociological theories and methods that promote a social scientific understanding of collective action.
Team-Taught Courses for Second-Year Students
HNR 278: Who's Leading Whom? Press, Politics and Public During the Cold War
Professors Laura Roselle (Political Science) and Harlen Makemson (Communications)
General Studies Distribution: Civilization or Society
Meeting time: 10:30-12:10 TTH
Fears of Communism and the nuclear bomb, questions about America's role as the free world's lone superpower, and concerns about changing social mores were shaped and filtered during the Cold War by an increasingly omnipresent mass media. The advent of television brought about unprecedented opportunities to inform an increasingly uneasy public, but also proved to be an effective vehicle for manipulation by savvy politicians and media consultants through news events and campaign advertising. At the same time, new media voices appeared in the alternative press that emboldened citizens to question the status quo. This course will explore the interrelationship among the press, the political system, and public opinion during the Cold War era and seek to understand how each influenced the others.
HNR 235a: Transitions to Adulthood
Professors Jean Schwind (English) and Katie King (Psychology)
General Studies Distribution: Expression or Society
Meeting time: 1:40-2:50 MW
Where does adolescence end and adulthood begin? Perhaps we need to think about the time of life between teenage angst and adult responsibility as a time unto itself, a provisional or emerging adulthood. How universal is this developmental stage? How is it influenced by categories such as race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation and gender? This seminar will explore the psychology and literature of emerging adulthood, with emphases on the development of complex adult thought processes and the formation of a mature sense of self. Our investigation will include in-depth reading and discussion of literature, film, and other media produced for and about this demographic (e.g. lad lit by Nick Hornby and the films of Judd Apatow), review of selected social science research, and a class project presenting our collective understanding and experience of this period of the lifespan.
