Photo by Hannah Plishtin
Just in case you’re interested in learning something during your time at Conn, or if you want to take an interesting course that may be off the beaten path, here is a sampling of what’s being offered next semester that won’t put you to sleep. The number of intriguing courses being offered next semester is both exciting and somewhat overwhelming. However, you can always take the Cory Matthews route, sign up for Quantum Mechanics (PHY 492), have a nervous breakdown and follow Mr. Feeny out to Wyoming for an early retirement.
ENG 332/GWS 332: Exquisite Corpses
Professor Baker
Through examination of several books and movies, the class will address the effect of dead bodies on narrative. Specific topics will include race, gender, systemic death and “expendability.” Professor Baker, in commenting on the course, cited the work of theorists who ask about “what lessons the living should take from the dead and how to be responsible in an ethical and political sense to the dead.” The course will address this responsibility through the study of narrative as a way to understand death. Professor Baker described the class as “a cutting-edge collective project” that seeks to comprehend our culture’s obsession with death. This course is open to juniors, seniors and other students who have taken ENG 220, and there are only twenty spots. And because courses about death are apparently popular, why not stay six feet under with the Sociology of Death and Dying (SOC 230) while you’re at it?
REL 346: Cults and Conversion in Modern America
Professor Gallagher
This class will take a “historical and comparative” approach to examining why the followers of Jim Jones did, in fact, drink the Kool-Aid. Professor Gallagher described the goals of the course as being “to improve our understanding of certain aspects of contemporary religious activity and the general social response to them and, hence, of the general phenomenon of ‘religion.’” Groups to be examined include the Shakers, Mormons, Peoples Temple and the Church of Scientology. Downside: 9:00 AM. Upside: Tom Cruise as a potential guest lecturer? Claire Wambach ’12, a religious studies minor, said, “Even ‘mainstream’ religion is often regarded as controversial, so I’m interested in learning about groups that are so over-the-top.” The class is open to sophomores, juniors and seniors, and enrollment is capped at thirty.
HIS 334/AMS 334: Historicizing 9/11 Internationally and Locally
Professor Downs
The historical examination of the events of September 11, 2001 offered by this class aims to provide students with a greater understanding of that day. The class will examine the history of American foreign affairs from the late eighteenth century through the twentieth, and will address the impact of global changes in New London. The course is supported by the Holleran Center and will include a community-based oral component that will require students to interview local residents on a variety of historical issues. The oral component to the class is unique to the History Department and may be particularly appealing to hopeful historians, as field research in history often involves such oral narratives. Professor Downs noted, “Currently, the history department does not offer any courses that either train or use oral history as an important vehicle to further the study of the past.” He cited the past success of including a brief community-based oral component in his Narratives of Illness course, and is eager to utilize the component in a more in-depth manner. Enrollment is capped at thirty students, and either HIS 105 or AMS 201 may serve as prerequisites.
ANT 240/FRH 240: Black Paris/Black New York
Professor Benoit
This interdisciplinary course will examine the “historical and contemporary presence of the African diaspora” in Paris and New York, two cities with relatively high numbers of African immigrants that have experienced major cultural movements as a result of this diversity. The course will include an optional one-credit section that will be taught in French, so interested students will be able to improve their language skills. The prerequisite for the class is ANT 104, but you may also appeal to Professor Benoit if you’re super interested in the negritude movement or the Harlem Renaissance.
SOC 216: Society in an Age of Climate Change
Professor Godfrey
Are you curious about the recent temperature weirdness we’ve been weathering? Are you confused about why you’re still seeing white pants long after Labor Day has passed? As promised by Conn’s course catalog, this class will examine global climate change and its social, economic and political implications, “and how these affect and exacerbate social inequalities based on race, sex/gender and social class.” The course will also address sustainability efforts and will take a national and international approach to the topics presented. Unfortunately, the Mystery of the White Pants will remain unsolved, but maybe that’s what the Lifetime Channel is for. Several reviewers on Rate My Professors describe this visiting professor’s classes as “life-changing;” there are no prerequisites for the class and seats are limited to thirty, so grab them while you can.
EAS 320 / HIS 320: From Tea to Connecticut Rolls: Defining Japanese Culture through Food
Professor Watanabe
If you’ve never really given a great deal of thought to your sushi rolls, maybe now is the time to do so. This class will examine Japanese culture through study of the whaling industry, tea ceremonies, sushi and fusion cuisine. These topics will be addressed through aesthetic, political, intercultural and historical approaches, and the course will also offer an optional one-credit section taught in Japanese. Professor Watanabe is teaching this course for the first time, and is excited for his students to “experience food directly, intellectually and physically.” The course includes a field trip to a Japanese Zen monastery in the Catskills and potentially a trip to New York to meet with a top Japanese chef. Enrollment is limited to thirty students because of these trip opportunities, and interested students are encouraged to contact Professor Watanabe directly:“I hope students with diverse interests will come to this class, since it will cover economic, environmental and sociological issues that have not otherwise been featured in East Asian Studies courses.”
GOV 205: Insurgency and Counterinsurgency
Professor Rose
This class is perfect for those unlucky students without the necessary prerequisites for How to be President 101 (also known as GOV 494Y): learn about how you can attempt to take down the government and exactly what the government will do to make sure you don’t! The class will address causes and consequences of insurgency, as well as various governmental responses to it; the objectives of the course are to inspire students to think critically about a variety of viewpoints on definitions of and approaches to understanding insurgency and counterinsurgency. Professor Rose was inspired to create the class after reading the work of Bruce Hoffman, a successful Conn alum whose work examines U.S. approaches to insurgency in Iraq after 2003. Professor Rose described the class as “explicitly interdisciplinary,” as it devotes focus to political and historical examinations of insurgency and counterinsurgency, and said, “I love teaching the class because going back and forth between historical and political science readings is an adventure for both students and for me.” The class is open to thirty sophomores, juniors and seniors, and its prerequisites are GOV 112 or GOV 113.
