Fall 2009 Schedule

Four-Unit Courses:

Note: Seminar IST-9 is required of all students.

WAR IN AMERICAN MEMORY
(IST 8B-001: 4 Units)
Professor Jay Mechling, American Studies

This course examines how Americans “remember” and memorialize war. The primary testimony is from the soldiers themselves—in letters, oral histories, written memoirs, and documentary photography and video. But we are also interested in the experiences of families on the home front, in the experiences of conscientious objectors and war resistors, and in the experiences of civilians as they engage more public memorials of war, from visits to the Vietnam Memorial to consuming films like Clint Eastwood’s pair of films, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. Students will also have the opportunity to do oral histories with people-- vets and others--who have memories of wartime.

GE: Arts and Humanities, Topical Breadth, and Writing

CHIVALRY
(IST 8B-002: 4 Units)
Professor Winder McConnell, German & Russian

We will examine the origins of chivalry, the controversial matter of whether or not there was a "code" of chivalrous behavior subscribed to by medieval knights, chivalry and women, chivalry and the Church, chivalry and war, and chivalry in the imagination of our own time -- Hollywood and chivalry. We will consider the extent to which chivalry means anything in our age and, if so, in what ways does it manifest itself, whether consciously or unconsciously.

GE: Arts and Humanities, Topical Breadth, and Writing

A SENSE OF PLACE IN AMERICAN ART
(IST 8B-003: 4 Units)
Professor Hearne Pardee, Art & Art History

This course will examine a variety of approaches to landscape in art, centered on the concept of place. It involves both the interpretation of works of art, and of actual landscapes. By readings, slide lectures, field trips and research on sites in and around campus, students will be made aware of ways in which American artists have dealt with their immediate surroundings, from the wilderness to the big city. Much of our work will involve practice in observation and description, which will lead to consideration of the ways in which art has shaped our perspective on the world around us. While there is no studio component to the class, students will be encouraged to use photography, drawing or video to complement their verbal documentation of sites, and the course will require visual analysis of works of art. These works will serve as a springboard for fresh observations of our everyday environment.

There will be a course reader, including artists’ journals, art historical texts, poetry, and writings by contemporary cultural critics. We’ll consider the important place of natural landscape and exploration in American art, the influence of Impressionism and photography, and contemporary efforts to integrate nature and design. As an independent project, students will interpret a local site of their own choosing.

GE: Arts and Humanities, Topical Breadth, and Writing

LATIN AMERICAN MUSIC
(IST 8B-004: 4 Units)
Professor Pablo Ortiz, Music

In this course we will examine popular repertoire from five major regions in Latin America, namely Mexico, The Caribbean, The Andes, Brazil and the Southern Cone (Rio de la Plata). We will follow the changes that took place when music from each geographical area traveled from remote locations to large urban areas. We will try to find common patterns of behavior. How do more "global" styles such as cumbia or hip hop become "universal" means of expression? how the local characteristics of the music come across even within these more "universalized" formats? Why is it that a Mexican hip hop group still sounds Mexican, and its Uruguayan counterparts do not? We will read essays and listen to musical examples, including corridos, rumbas, tangos, south American rock, bossa nova, tecnocumbias, etc. The course does not require any knowledge of musical theory or music-reading skills.

GE: Arts and Humanities, Topical Breadth, and Writing
THE BIRTH OF THE METHOD ACTOR
(IST 8C-001: 4 Units)
Professor Bella Merlin, Theatre & Dance

Psychological realism is the genre of most contemporary film and television, and indeed American acting traditions have impacted across the globe. However, their origins lie in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Russia. In this seminar course, we will examine the actor-training methods of Konstantin Stanislavsky, Evgeny Vakhtangov, Vsevelod Meyerhold, and the transportation of their ideas to New York in the 1920s. We will then investigate the cross-fertilisation of Eastern Europe and East Coast America, with the birth of the Method acting. Actors, directors and teachers including Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, Elia Kazan, Michael Chekhov, and the Group Theatre, will form the heart of our studies, looking at their impact on other aspects of contemporary acting practice in both film and television. We will examine acting tools such as imagination, given circumstances, affective memory and dual consciousness to understand their relevance to twenty-first-century acting aesthetics.

GE: Social Sciences, Topical Breadth, and Writing

Lower Division Seminars:

NICKEL AND DIMED – THE ECONOMICS OF HARD TIMES
(IST-9: 1 Unit)
Faculty Presenters led by James F. Shackelford, Director

Required of all students. This course consists of a number of faculty presentations on this current topic. Students will respond to these presentations through weekly e-mail journals. This required course is supplemented by small-group discussions offered through IST 8 "Colloquium". The course is graded Pass/No Pass.

No GE Credit

COLLOQUIUM
(IST-8: 1 Unit)
Led by Student Tutors

These colloquium sections – held on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday in the late afternoon or evening hours – offer opportunities for tutor-led small-group discussion of the IST 9 seminar presentations and assistance with developing journal topics. The course is graded Pass/No Pass.

No GE Credit

Mid-Level Seminars:

Powers of Ten
(IST-90-001: 1 Unit) (for students in science and engineering)
James Shackelford, Director

One of the most famous and effective films ever produced to present the nature of scientific inquiry to the popular audience is Powers of Ten. The film was produced by the famous husband and wife design team of Charles and Ray Eames in 1977, and was narrated by MIT physicist Philip Morrison. The film popularized the concept that human experience occurs several orders of magnitude below the scale of the universe and several orders of magnitude above the scale of the atom. In this course, we will explore the nature of scientific investigation from the cosmic-scale down to the sub-atomic-scale.

No GE Credit

Documenting Rumors and Contemporary Legends
(IST-90-002: 1-unit) (for students in humanities and social sciences)
Patricia Turner, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies

Our Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies, Patricia Turner, will personally lead the discussion of this timely topic. Dr. Turner is a Professor in the Departments of American Studies and African American and African Studies. An expert on folklore, she will focus on those rumors and legends that are especially current during the fall quarter. The current swine flu outbreak may well generate some rumors and legend cycles. Students are encouraged to keep their ears open and pay attention to whatever e-mail traffic they get relative to such issues as fall quarter approaches.

No GE Credit

Upper Division Research:

Special Study for Integrated Studies Honors Students
(IST-194HA: 4 Units)
James Shackelford, Director

This is a research course to be taken by students who have chosen to participate in the Integrated Studies Honors Program in their Junior and Senior years. It may be repeated once for credit, and is intended to be taken in both the Junior and Senior years. Its counterpart, IST-194HB (also a requirement for upper division ISHP students), is offered in the winter.

No GE Credit