Made in God's Image? Women and Men in Medieval and Renaissance Europe

Instructor(s): Penny Jolly, Art History

Were males and females created equal, according to Genesis and its later interpreters? This seminar explore ways in which early Christian, medieval and Renaissance societies (from ca. 100CE to 1550) constructed gender difference and expressed those ideas publicly through painting and sculpture. The topics we will examine include what the Christian Church taught about gender and human nature; what philosophers and scientists believed regarding male and female bodies; and what social practices and customs can reveal about marriage and domestic life. While examining gender difference from these several perspectives, our focus will be on how artists expressed these various ideas visually, especially in cautionary representations of Adam and Eve and exemplary scenes of Christ and Mary. Our explorations will extend from Early Christian catacombs through Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling.

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Hollywood's Portrayal of Science

Instructor (s): Kyle Nichols, Geosciences

Can glaciers advance to New York City in just a few weeks? Can a car drive over molten lava? Is a magnitude 10.5 earthquake possible? Can we really travel to the center of the earth? Hollywood would lead you to believe that the answers are yes; however scientists would most likely respond with "Are you serious?" Sometimes the portrayal of science in Hollywood is accurate, while other times science is trumped by poetic and artistic license. In this seminar, we will watch some of Hollywood's most successful "science-based" movies, identify the fiction therein, learn the real science behind these stories, and discuss Hollywood's role in science education, shaping how the public perceives science, and portraying non-traditional scientists. For additional perspective, we will watch documentaries and other visual media that are thought to portray science accurately. Through these investigations, we will explore the role of visual media in science communication or miscommunication.

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The Music Between Us

Instructor(s): Gordon Thompson, Music

Music can bind us together and drive us apart. Music is an element of our individuality and can help us disappear into a group. How do individuals define themselves in the context of musical communities? What kinds of communities are there? How can we describe musical communities? What is the relationship between musical change and social change in the context of these communities? What is the role of music in the relationship between the self and society? This seminar will reason through a number of descriptions of how humans employ music to define themselves.

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Fall 2007

SSP-100 (039) The Nuclear Legacy
William Standish, Associate Professor of Physics

What is the fallout from the Nuclear Age? Nuclear energy, fission and fusion weapons (and the vehicles to deliver them), radionuclides for research and medical use, waste and environmental degredation, proliferation of nuclear materials, and nuclear terrorism all come quickly to mind. Students in this seminar will consider how achievements in nuclear science and breakthroughs in technology have combined with actions of governmental and non-state entities to leave use this incredibly multifaceted legacy. Students will also evaluate and debate the efficacy of historical and proposed efforts to manage this legacy for the benefit of humankind rather than for its destruction.

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Fall 2007

SSP-100 (041) In the News: Science Sound Bites
Shannon Stitzel, Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Science is everywhere in the media today, in the headlines of newspapers and magazines, on the evening news, and even featured in our art and entertainment. Now more that ever, we are inundated with different sources of scientific information, all of which subtly influence our personal and societal perspectives on issues of the day. But what is fact and what is media hype? In this seminar, students will examine four topics that have recently been in the news: global warming, alternative fuels, viral pandemics, and the exploration of Mars. We will explore these topics via pop culture (films), books, newspapers, magazines, and other sources, and examine how our perspectives on these issues shift or change during the process. We will discuss the political, societal, environmental , and ethical issues that arise from each topic and learn to express thoughtful opinions about them in writing.

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Fall 2007

SSP-100 (044) Thinking for Yourself
Robert Boyers, Professor of English

What do we mean when we say that we value one thing more than other? Are there works of art—movies, paintings, works of pornography—that are contemptible and ought to be avoided? How powerful is the influence upon us of clichés, political formulas, ideas that sound "advanced" or "correct"? What is the relationship between authority and liberty? Is it possible to be religious and to be genuinely committed to reason? In this seminar, we will confront the idea of modernity and reflect upon the difficulty of thinking for oneself by asking these questions and others. Readings will be drawn from such authors as Matthew Arnold, John Stuart Mill, Virginia Woolf, Jean Paul Sartre, James Baldwin, Susan Sontag, Edward Said, and other contemporary writers and thinkers.

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Fall 2007

SSP-100 (046) Who Governs Saratoga?
Robert Turner, Assistant Professor of Government

How well does democracy work in Saratoga Springs? How do we know? The foundation of democracy in the United States is its institutions of local government. The men and women chosen by their fellow citizens to govern them determine not only what their governments do, but the quality of the democratic process. The day-to-day operation of government and hotly contested 2007 election in Saratoga Springs provide a real life laboratory for studying the practice of democracy in 21st century America. In the first half of the seminar, we will study competing theoretical perspectives on the distribution of power in America and how democracy operates. In the second half, you will learn the logic and process of conducting empirical research in social science. Students will observe city council meetings, county board of supervisor meetings, school board meetings, planning and zoning board meetings, and campaign events; they will conduct interviews with local political elites and conduct a survey of citizens' vote choice in the 2007 Saratoga Springs city election.

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Fall 2007

SSP-100 (033) Money and Value: What's it Worth?
Susan Belden, Associate Professor of Management & Business

If you were to draw a $50 bill, could you expect to pay for your $40 lunch in Manhattan and get $10 in change? Probably not, but artist J.S.G. Boggs has done it many times. What are these "Boggs" bills he draws really worth? Are they art or money? Take other pieces of paper: a stock certificate or a lottery ticket. What are they worth? Or take happiness, that highly valued intangible thing that the Declaration of Independence says we have an unalienable right to pursue. What is it worth? How is it related to money? This seminar explores these questions by drawing on writings by economists and psychologists, with a particular emphasis on how psychology is changing the way economists view the world and understand the concepts of money and value.

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Fall 2007

SSP-100 (034) Movers and Shakers: An Exploration of Cloth and Dance Through Personal Practice
Margo Mensing, Associate Professor of Art

.Do you have what it takes to be a mover and shaker? Join us as we explore the distinct but intersecting expressions of cloth and dance in our own lives and in the lives of some of the most influential artists, political activists, religious factions and everyday people who make a difference. Through films, performances, and readings we will study African-American slave quilts, the ecstatic dances of the Shakers and Sufis, and contemporary dance – Bill T. Jones and Merce Cunningham and others. We will investigate Gandhi, his spinning wheel and homespun cotton as well as Chile's arpilleras made for The Disappeared during Pinochet's regime. In each study, be it individuals resisting oppression or the group itself using cloth and dance as the standard bearers, each example traces the paths of dancers, artists, and community leaders who express and embody change. Through guided hands-on projects, dance and movement studies, such as folk dances, yoga and quilting, we will make connections with our readings, viewings, and writings.

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Fall 2007

SSP-100 (035) Movers and Shakers: An Exploration of Cloth and Dance Through Personal Practice
Debra Fernandez, Professor of Dance

.Do you have what it takes to be a mover and shaker? Join us as we explore the distinct but intersecting expressions of cloth and dance in our own lives and in the lives of some of the most influential artists, political activists, religious factions and everyday people who make a difference. Through films, performances, and readings we will study African-American slave quilts, the ecstatic dances of the Shakers and Sufis, and contemporary dance – Bill T. Jones and Merce Cunningham and others. We will investigate Gandhi, his spinning wheel and homespun cotton as well as Chile's arpilleras made for The Disappeared during Pinochet's regime. In each study, be it individuals resisting oppression or the group itself using cloth and dance as the standard bearers, each example traces the paths of dancers, artists, and community leaders who express and embody change. Through guided hands-on projects, dance and movement studies, such as folk dances, yoga and quilting, we will make connections with our readings, viewings, and writings.

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Fall 2007

SSP -100 (036) Myth Conceptions: The Making and Taking of Legends

Dan Curley, Associate Professor of Classics What is a myth? Or, rather, who makes myth, and why? Students in this course will explore the process and purpose of mythography, or the composition of myth. Starting with examples of poetry, painting, and sculpture from ancient Greece and Rome, students will establish some ground rules for working from and creating innovations within an established tradition. Students will then put their theories to the test by examining mythography in modern-day contexts, such as novels, film franchises, television series, comics, and fan fiction. Of particular interest is how modern-day mythographers use copyrighted characters: what happens when their stories strain against the confines of corporate standards, or take on lives larger than the intentions of their original creators? Ultimately, students will understand myth not only as a certain type of story, but also as a social discourse, through which mythographers reveal themselves and their values to the world.

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Fall 2007

SSP-100 (London Program) The River Thames
Tom Lewis, Professor of English

Why do the English sometimes call the Thames "Liquid History"? Is this metaphor apt? Students in this seminar will examine this characterization of the Thames, on whose banks monarchs have been crowned and beheaded, cities built and burned, and where, in 1215, on that flat but marshy plain of Runnymede, King John affixed his great red royal seal to the document that serves as the foundation of democracy, the Magna Carta. For centuries, the Thames been not only the economic and geographic heart of England, but also its spiritual center; as T.S. Eliot once wrote, the spirit of the Thames is "within us." This seminar introduces students to the place of the River Thames in English life, through the study of the part it has played in English history, art history, literature, and the environment.

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Fall 2007

SSP-100 (004) Blacks in Film
Kristie Ford, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work

What are the most memorable images of blacks in film? How have these images changed over time? Images in film reflect social trends. We learn a great deal about the African-American experience—which includes racism, gender relations, intra-group color dynamics, and passing—by investigating the various representations of blacks in film. In this seminar, students will examine these questions, while additionally exploring the controlling images of blacks in film, including Uncle Tom, Mammy, Coon, Buck, Tragic Mulatto, Jezebel, Sapphire, Aunt Jemima and Black Sambo. Through the lens of visual analysis, students will develop the skills necessary to critically analyze constructions of black identity. Readings and exercises involving intersectional analysis will help students unpack the power and problematic nature of stereotypes.

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Fall 2007

SSP-100 (008) The Mathematics and Politics of Secure Digital Communication
Gove Effinger (Math & Computer Science)

What actually happens when a message you send or receive by computer or phone is "encrypted"? Is it possible for a third party to "decrypt" this message? When is it ethical or legal for third party to try that? How does the current political climate affect how we and our leaders decide where the line between ethical/legal and unethical/ illegal gets drawn with respect to digital privacy? The course examines questions like these while focusing on the simple but very beautiful mathematics behind creating secure digital communications.

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Fall 2007

SSP-100 Human Dilemmas

(013) Kate Berheide, Professor of Sociology
(014) Janet Casey, Visiting Associate Professor of English & American Studies
(015) Beth Gershuny, Assistant Professor of Psychology
(016) Sarah Goodwin, Professor of English
(017) Susan Layden, Associate Dean of Student Affairs
(018) Peter McCarthy, Lecturer in Social Work
(019) Mark Rifkin, Assistant Professor of English
(020) Patricia Rubio, Professor of Spanish and Muriel Poston, Dean of the Faculty
(021) Sheldon Solomon, Professor of Psychology

Description: As you begin college, you are confronting the recurring dilemmas that define and shape our lives: Who am I? What exactly am I? What is my relationship to others? What is my responsibility to them and to the world? As biologist E. O. Wilson contends in his 2003 book The Future of Life, life is "an insoluble problem, a dynamic process in search of an indefinable goal. [It is] neither a celebration nor a spectacle but rather, as a later philosopher put it, a predicament" (xxii). "Human Dilemmas" will challenge your conventional assumptions surrounding these predicaments as we focus our attention on interdisciplinary readings, critical thinking, and academic inquiry. Debates, field trips, and writing will move us toward an understanding of what it means to be human in our contemporary world.

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Fall 2007

SSP-100 (025) Jewish Christian Relations from Jesus Christ to Mel Gibson
Matthew Hockenos, Associate Professor of History

What is anti-Semitism today, and how has it evolved over the centuries? This seminar introduces interdisciplinary perspectives on Jewish-Christian relations, from medieval depictions of Christ's passion and crucifixion to more contemporary settings such as Nazi Germany and Mel Gibson's 2006 anti-Semitic rant. In this seminar, students read texts by historians, theologians, philosophers, and political scientists as well as view films and analyze Holocaust memorials, concluding with an examination of the growing anti- Semitism in parts of the Muslim world.

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Fall 2007

SSP-100 (027) The Killing State: Capital Punishment in America
Beau Breslin, Associate Professor of Government

Supporters of capital punishment often justify the practice by appealing not only to ancient custom and historical tradition, but also to the social benefit that accompanies killing our most dangerous offenders. Opponents of capital punishment, in contrast, suggest that the practice is outdated and effective. They insist, with similar passion, that imposing a death sentence is so rare and so unsettling that its place in the criminal justice system is, at best, tenuous. Of course, both of these positions beg a number of important questions: Is capital punishment morally justified or barbaric? Why is it that America continues its tradition of executing when the rest of the western world has condemned the custom as evil? The primary purpose of the seminar is to explore the many contradictions that inform America's system of capital punishment. As part of the seminar, students will work on an actual death penalty defense. Students will be responsible for conducting primary research with the aim of providing the most effective defense possible for a specific death row inmate.

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Fall 2007

SSP-100 (001) Africa Through Its Changing Cinema
Hédi Jaouad, Professor of French

In this seminar, we explore through film and other visual documents the causes and effects of colonialism on the African people, their society, and their culture. The colonial experience, in all its political and psychological aspects, provides a historical, economic, social, and aesthetic context in which to study and understand African film. Although our main focus is Sub-Saharan Africa from the Second World War to the present, we will refer, whenever pertinent, to the North African filmmaking experience in our discussions. We will examine the practice of filmmaking in Africa, the forces that shape this practice, and strategies of reading this creative medium.

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Fall 2007

SSP-100 (005) Blacks in Film
Joshua C. Woodfork, Assistant Professor of American Studies

What are the most memorable images of blacks in film? How have these images changed over time? Images in film reflect social trends. We learn a great deal about the African-American experience—which includes racism, gender relations, intra-group color dynamics, and passing—by investigating the various representations of blacks in film. In this seminar, students will examine these questions, while additionally exploring the controlling images of blacks in film, including Uncle Tom, Mammy, Coon, Buck, Tragic Mulatto, Jezebel, Sapphire, Aunt Jemima and Black Sambo. Through the lens of visual analysis, students will develop the skills necessary to critically analyze constructions of black identity. Readings and exercises involving intersectional analysis will help students unpack the power and problematic nature of stereotypes.

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Fall 2007

SSP-100 (003) Ancient Genes in the Land of Plenty
Paul Arcerio, Associate Professor of Exercise Science

We have inherited genes dating to the late Paleolithic period (>10,000 yrs ago) that evolved to support high levels of daily physical activity and a nutrient dense, high-fiber, low-fat food intake. So, why is the modern-day American lifestyle so dangerous and preventing us from achieving optimal health? We will study this evolutionary collision of our ancient genes with the current state of relative inactivity and poor nutrition, and how this collision results in the epidemic of obesity. With this knowledge, we will explore the consequences of being considered one of the most technologically sophisticated societies in the world, yet the leader among lifestyle related death and chronic disease. Why does this paradox exist? Why are the healthiest cultures of the world immune to these chronic diseases until they adopt our American lifestyle?

Students will analyze strategies and perform various physical activity and nutrition experiences to understand what it means to attain optimal health.

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The Broadway Musical: An American Cultural Lens

Instructor (s): Charles M. Joseph, Professor of Music

Have you ever seen musical theater professionally staged on Broadway, or participated in a high-school show? Was the production merely entertaining; or did it also encourage you to think about the issues raised through the show's coordinated efforts of writing, singing, acting and dancing? Students in this seminar will consider the diverse artistic ingredients of a musical that must blend in achieving a collaborative balance. We will study the creative process: how a show evolves, why adjustments occur, and how artists make decisions; but we will also look beyond, by exploring recurring sociological perspectives evident throughout 20th-century American Musical Theater history. The Broadway Musical provides a looking glass into our nation's shifting cultural attitudes, challenging societal issues, and individual and collective struggles and triumphs. The musicals we will examine include South Pacific (gender, race and prejudice); West Side Story (urban violence); Hair (confronting established conventions); and Sweeney Todd (ethical and moral dilemmas). Students' final projects will focus on a specific musical and the questions it raises.

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Food: Why We Eat What We Eat and Where it Came From

Instructor(s): Una Bray, Associate Professor of Math

Why do we eat what we eat ? Is it nature, nurture, or do we just eat what's available? In this course students will use tools from many different disciplines to examine this question. Historical, sociological, economic, scientific, religious and aesthetic approaches to the subject of culinary choices will inform our discussions throughout the semester. We will proceed from the foraging of the ancient world, through early human civilizations, Greek and Roman times, medieval eastern cultures, the Far East, early European cultures, African cultures, to the contributions of the Americas, as we study how we arrived at the food we eat today. Along the way, we will share meals representative of the cultures and cuisines we study.

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Writing in America: The Contemporary Essay

Instructor(s): Linda Hall, Assistant Professor of English

What can a writer tell us about America that a scholar cannot? Students of history often turn to novels such as The Great Gatsby or Sister Carrie for a more nuanced description of the American experience than is available in many textbooks. But this country has also been defined and redefined by its literary nonfiction writers—men and women who produce not political documents or opinion journalism but beautifully crafted essays that, as Joseph Wood Krutch once claimed, "get closer to some all-important realities than any number of studies could." In this seminar we will examine the realities of art, education, race, class and gender in America by studying what James Baldwin, E.B. White, Joan Didion, and Zora Neale Hurston (among many others) have had to say about them. We will also use the work of the most celebrated essayists of the past century to inform and inspire our own writing on America.

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An Unsettled Place: 400 Years of Remaking the Hudson River Landscape

Instructor(s): Rik Scarce, Sociology

How does an ecological locale—a "landscape"—become geographically, socially, and temporally special? How does a people manage to keep it that way or change it? Many regions in the United States supply answers to these questions of space, time and place, but one of the oldest and most complex sets of responses emerges from the landscape that is home to Skidmore College. In 2009 the Hudson River will have existed for 400 years in the Euro-American consciousness, which makes this a unique moment to explore the region's landscape as a history of place-making. In this seminar, we will examine how and why both the conceptual understandings and the physical realities of the Hudson Region have changed the way the have over the past four centuries. The landscape's ecology is its lifeblood, and we will continually return to it. Yet human societies and their ecologies co- evolve, so we must look elsewhere to tell a complete ecological story. As such, we will explore the Hudson landscape as it has evolved through art, literature, warfare, technology, and shifts in culture and laws. (Includes three required Saturday field trips.)

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Italy, Fascism and Jews

Instructor(s): Shirley Smith, Foreign Language and Literatures

Mussolini marched on Rome in 1922 with a group of Black Shirts. What happened before and after this historic moment is the subject of this seminar. Who challenged the legitimacy of the government? How was Mussolini's Fascism able to last twenty-two years? Italian Jews were an integral part of the political process until the Racial Laws in 1938, but who are Italy's Jews? We explore the history and culture (holidays and cuisine) of Jews from the first colony in Rome till the end of World War II. Historic texts, novels, memoirs, films, and political science treatises uncover different perspectives on the rise and fall of Fascism, anti-Semitism, and the survival of Italy and the Italian Jewish community.

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Japanese Animation

Instructor(s): Masako Inamoto, Foreign Language and Literature

What is anime and what are its origins? Why does it appeal to audiences beyond Japanese cultural boundaries? In this seminar, students will explore the world of Japanese animation, one of the most important and popular cultural products in contemporary Japan. After examining the origins of anime and its relationship to the traditional picto-centric culture in Japan, students will study some of the prevailing themes and genres of anime (i.e., apocalypse, gender and sexuality, and metamorphosis) in their cultural and historical contexts. Through this exploration, students will learn about some of the most important Japanese social and historical conventions that inform anime.

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Ireland: Myth, Reality, Conflict, Identity

Instructor (s): James Kennelly, Management and Business

Ireland did not really enter the 20th century until nearly the end of it. Yet, when it did so, it was at a dizzying pace. We will explore, in a broad interdisciplinary manner, patterns of modern and contemporary Irish life and culture, Ireland's unique "sense of place," and finally, the issue of Irish identity (including the conflict between the "two traditions" in Northern Ireland). We set aside simplified stereotypes of the Irish and explore instead the diversity and plurality of Irish identity. Ultimately, we seek to answer such questions as: What does it mean to be Irish in an Ireland that has radically changed the way it views itself and the world? Can the Irish remain the most "globalized" economy in the world, without becoming less Irish? If the country buries its past, what will replace it?

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Mind Design

Instructor (s): Flip Phillips, Psychology

What are the critical components of 'mind'? Can words like mind, conciousness, behavior, and awareness be adequately defined in order to properly answer this question? In this seminar, we survey the philosophical, psychological, biological, computational and design notions of what it would take to implement a mind. Discussions of the current and future state of our understanding of mind are replete with such notions as 'artificial intelligence', 'expert systems', and other trans- and post-human concepts. Are any of these existing frameworks adequate to yield a veridical implementation of mind? Will some other approach be necessary? Or, are we ultimately destined to fail at this task?

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Shakespeare was Jewish?

Instructor (s): Lary Opitz, Theater

Perhaps not, though a case can be made. Shakespeare and Judaism do, however, intersect in a number of ways. The study of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice will play a central role in this seminar. Student will encounter a number of film versions and stage adaptations of the play while grappling with the question of whether Shakespeare's work was anti-Semitic. Students will explore concepts of justice and mercy, racial stereotypes, usury, the history of anti-Semitism, Shakespeare's knowledge of the Old Testament and the Talmud, and his influence on Yiddish theater.

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Nothing Doing: The Space of Modern Thought

Instructor(s): Grace Burton, Foreign Language and Literature

What does nothing have to do with anything? When merchants from Muslim lands introduced nothing (zero) into Christian Europe in the 13th century, they brought with them an Eastern concept that would revolutionize Western thought. In this seminar we will consider the history of nothing—be that nothing zero, the void, space, absence or privation—to see how and why this dangerous idea would become the foundation of modern thought. Two great literary works – Shakespeare's As You Like It and Cervantes's Don Quixote—will serve as a springboard for our analysis of how Early Modern writers, artists, philosophers and mathematicians used the concept of nothing to re-imagine their world. We will end the semester with a consideration of how the very nothing that structures modern thought becomes the "nothingness" that serves as Postmodernism's principle critique of modernity.
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Afterlives: Cultural Constructions of Life After Death

Instructor(s): Regina Janes, English

What happens to the soul—the breath—that goes away when the body dies? Where does consciousness go? What happens to it? Since no one knows, everyone has imagined. Neurophysiology tells us about near- death experiences, and the process by which the brain shuts down, but what then, and why do we care? Western views of the afterlife have shifted and multiplied, from dismal undergrounds, transmigrating souls, nothingness or endless sleep, blissful heavens, horrible hells, to playful inventions. Students will look at classical and biblical texts, visual representations in medieval Christianity and medieval Buddhism—some heavens but mostly hells—and twentieth- and twenty-first century fiction and film to see what they tell us about our own beliefs, hopes, fears and values. Do we need concepts of an afterlife to behave morally? What does the proliferation of make-your- own afterlives in current popular cultural tell us about ourselves?

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Popular Kabbalah and Contemporary Culture

Instructor(s): Marla Segol, Religion

Why does kabbalah, a medieval system of Jewish mysticism, suddenly seem to be everywhere in popular culture? How do these popular forms of kabbalah compare with its traditional practice? Does Madonna do "real" kabbalah? Is the Kabbalah Center a cult? Is Superman a Golem? At the end of the 19th century, artists began to use kabbalistic texts and images imaginatively, as they created literature, film, comic books, and art. Today, emerging Jewish and non-Jewish groups and even conventional congregations use kabbalistic texts and images as the basis for New Age religious practices, using portions of traditional texts to generate new understandings of the self and of the cosmos. In this seminar, we will study a small selection of traditional Jewish mystical sources in historical and cultural context, and then trace their use in 20th and 21st century culture. Students will learn to evaluate popular artistic use of kabbalah in the creation of new public symbols, and will also critically examine the cultural production of new religion as old forms interact with contemporary cultural forces.

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The Garden of Forking Paths: Interpreting Latin American Images and Realities

Instructor(s): Aldo Vacs, Government

Why do societies that emerge in similar circumstances evolve so differently? Why is Latin America today so different from the United States after having started its development in similar conditions during the era of discovery and colonization? What makes it possible to refer to "Latin America" at all -- are the peculiarities and common features that make up this region the result of stereotyped (mis)perceptions, or do they correspond to reality? In this seminar, we will address these and other questions, analyzing the geographic, ethnic, gender, political, economic, religious and artistic characteristics that signify Latin America. Using an interdisciplinary perspective that draws on anthropology, art history, economics, literature and music, political science, sociology and religious studies, we will focus on issues such as: is Latin America a "racial democracy"?; why are income and class inequalities in this region so pronounced?; is "machismo" still the defining characteristic of gender relations in Latin America and Catholicism still the main religious component of Latin American identity?; is politics in the region as unstable and violent as is often depicted in movies and novels?; and, how does soccer contribute to and define Latin American identity?

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Self and Desire

Instructor(s): Reg Lilly, Philosophy

What do we mean by the desiring self, the topic of this seminar? Students in this seminar will examine the nature and different forms of desire and its role in the constitution of the human subject, as well as the destabilizing force desire exerts on the self. The figure of Don Juan—often presented in literature, opera and film—introduces the question of the relation of the self to the self, of the self to the other, of desire to (self-)mastery, of pleasure to pain, and of imagination to reality. Students will use philosophical, literary and psychological readings as well as films to bring critical concepts to bear on the phenomena of the desiring self.

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Waging War, Making Peace

Instructor(s): Roy Ginsberg, Government

Wars have taken 140 million lives in the past thousand years. Is war inevitable? This timeless question is the central focus of this seminar. We begin by exploring the political, economic, and other major causes of war and its effects on individuals, cultures, environments, and nation-states. It continues by examining how and why nation-states make peace through such means as diplomacy, treaty, reconciliation, and regional integration. The key concept of this seminar is international learning—the process by which the publics and political leaders in the world's nation-states learn to avoid the mistakes of wars past. Students analyze case studies of war and peace through a wide variety of creative media such as art, biography, film, novel, photography, and poetry. Scribner Seminar Program
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Law, Religion, and Society

Instructor(s): Chris Kopec, Management & Business

Do public school students have to pray before an athletic competition because the coach wants them to? Conversely, can those students start a public school Bible Study group? Does a Muslim woman have any recourse if her civil lawsuit is dismissed by a judge because she is wearing a headscarf that obscures most of her face? Can the Ten Commandments be posted on the walls of public buildings? Questions such as these have been faced by the courts, and the culture, since the founding of our republic. Students in this seminar explore the place of religion in our society as it has been addressed, shaped, and interpreted by the courts, the Constitution, and the American people. Students themselves will address these issues as they actively engage in discussion and writing, conduct a mock trial, participate in debates, compose legal briefs and craft trial strategies.

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Eyes Wide Open: Encountering Environments Through the Visual Arts

Instructor(s): Janet Sorensen, Studio Art

Does art have the power to transform our experience of environments? In this seminar, we will explore the environments of wilderness, sacred places, cities, border zones, and home. We will examine works of art as varied as traditional landscapes, performance, and installation in order to discover how artists reveal the layers of diverse meaning embedded in our surroundings. Our search will also draw from among the disciplines of history, environmental studies, geography and psychology for broad perspectives. Students in this seminar will reflect upon their own connections to environments through visual expression (drawing, book-making, collage) and writing.

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Life in the North Woods

Instructor(s): Joshua Ness (F07) & Jennifer Bonner (F11), Biology

How do we balance the protection and use of rare forest areas, such as the one located right on Skidmore's campus ? The North Woods is more than 500 acres of "natural capital" owned by the College. It is a focus of study by historians and natural scientists, a playground for outdoor enthusiasts, a spiritual inspiration, home to an astonishing array of non-human life and, to say the least, a very attractive piece of real estate at the intersection of Skidmore and Saratoga. In this seminar, we will use a combination of discussions, hikes, experiments and "fact-finding missions" to explore how life in the North Woods bears the "signatures" of human history, and how diverse groups perceive the North Woods and their role in it. In short, we will pursue solutions to the challenges (and opportunities) posed by this "natural capital".

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The Non-Euclidean Revolution

Instructor(s): Mark Huibregtse, Mathematics

Can human beings know anything with absolute certainty? How about Euclidean geometry? The theorems of geometry are proven using clear, rigorous logical reasoning, starting from a small number of obvious axioms. If Euclidean geometry were in doubt, then the very possibility of certain knowledge of anything might well be in doubt as well. Indeed, the discovery (in the early 1800s) that Euclidean geometry might not be a perfect description of physical space led to deep reappraisal of the relationships among mathematics, natural science, and physical reality, and changed the way we view the world—no less profoundly than did the Darwinian revolution in biology or the Copernican revolution in astronomy. We will study the Non-Euclidian Revolution from mathematical, philosophical, and historical perspectives, and thereby explore the nature of, and the human search for, truth.

Scribner Seminar Program
Course Description

Sextants, Nutmeg, Maps and Muskets: Medieval Technology in the Age of Exploration

Instructor(s): Erica Bastress-Dukehart, History

European sailors in the fifteenth century believed that a sea creature's siren song caused shipwrecks; that cannibals ate unfortunate men who washed up on their beaches, and whales swallowed ships whole. So, why did these superstitious mariners leave their homes for unknown shores? How did they know where they were going, and what technology did they use to exploit and shape the new continents once they stumbled upon them? Students in this seminar will investigate the technology that late medieval Europeans had available to them when they set off to explore a world they did not fully understand. We will begin by examining the intellectual origins of these technologies, including war machines, maps and navigational innovations, and scientific and agricultural inventions, to understand how they transformed Europe. We will then investigate how they were adapted to the wider world. Our discussions will center on the intellectual and religious debates surrounding Europeans' expectations and experiences. Toward the end of the course will consider what medieval technology meant for the world's environment and people.