New Worlds, Old Worlds

All representations of foreign cultures involve perceptions and prejudices, and the idea of the "exotic/foreign other" in the so-called Western world has a long and troubled history, one with which we continue to grapple today. This course examines the crucial period in the development of idea of the "exotic," during the age of Renaissance and Early Modern European expansion, from about 1400 to 1700. Reading and discussions will focus on the travel accounts of European scholars, adventurers, missionaries, and diplomats who played a major role in the tradition of cultural and scientific exchange between the "West" and Africa or the Middle and Far "East", and between the Old World of Europe and the New World Americas. This seminar will engage multiple disciplines: art history, literature, history, classics, economics, philosophy, religion, and science, among others. It will use primary sources in the Rare Book collections of Tulane and Loyola, and will also include movies showing the persistence of the theme of exotic encounter. This colloquium will be team-taught: Professor Brancaforte will lead, and will be assisted by a series of guest instructors from Tulane and other universities.

Memoirs

This hands-on colloquium will focus on the coming-of-age memoir, dealing with the often turbulent passage from childhood to young adulthood. Using several published works as models, the course will teach students to write their own memoir using the techniques of literary non-fiction.

Anthropology of Sex and Reproduction

Current issues in human sexual behavior and reproduction (both biological and cultural) will be examined from an anthropological perspective. Most broadly defined, Anthropology is the study of human kind and through anthropological investigations we strive to learn who we are, how we came to be, and where we are headed. This approach will enable us to study the interrelatedness of biological, behavioral, cultural, social, and political aspects of human sex and reproduction. Through readings, lectures, films and class discussions we will examine issues such as new reproductive technologies, the biology and culture of pregnancy and childbirth, homosexuality, menopause, etc.

Anthropology of Gender

A theoretical and ethnographical examination of how gender is constructed across cultures. Topics include sex and gender, gender identity, bodily experiences, masculinity and femininity, gender roles, kinship and gender, gender stratification, and gender equality, as well as gender, ethnicity and class.

Foundations of Art: Photography

This course focuses on the history and theory of photography, and also introduces basic techniques, with attention given to issues of composition, perception, communication, and expression. Emphasis also is placed on the relationships between photography, other art mediums, and the history of art.

Ancient Greek Tyranny and Democracy

This course examines the origins and characteristics of basic Greek forms of government in their historical context, concentrating on tyranny and democracy in the archaic and classical periods. The course stresses the development of Greek political institutions and political thought.

Roman Religion

This course focuses on art and life in the Roman Republic from about 500 BCE to the death of Julius Caeser in 44 BCE. We will examine the art and architecture of both the city Rome and it's emerging empire in this period.

Peloponnesian and Punic Wars

This course examines Roman imperialism and transmarine expansion (264-50 B.C.E.). We will look at the Roman Principate, Roman provinces and the Roman Imperial army. This course fulfills the writing intensive requirement.

Consumer Citizens or Citizen Consumers?

This course imports citizenship theory into the realm of consumption to interrogate the meanings of historical and current trends in radio, television and new media. Topics include: digital television, product placement, public access television and radio, reality programming and infotainment. This course will include a mandatory research or creative project.

Honors Intro Macroeconomics

This course is a reading intensive introduction to macroeconomics. This course satisfies the 102 requirement. Students can not take both 102 and 104.

Introduction to Creative Writing

This course is a craft class in the writing of short fiction and poetry using exercises to develop each student's personal voice. There is group criticism of student work.

Magical Realism

Students work with local artists on a multi-disciplinary art & community development project in New Orleans neighborhoods. There is a mandatory additional 1-credit service learning component: ENLS 489-01

The Harlem Renaissance: African American "Cultural Capital"

The Harlem Renaissance was in fact more of a watershed moment in the harnessing of African American "cultural capital" than a literary "awakening". This course will include music, film, and readings by Renaissance figures, as well as by other writers, black and white, whose meditations on early 20th century Harlem as the "Cultural Capital" of Black America have added to the mystique of the Harlem Renaissance: Locke, Johnson, Hughes, Van Vechten, McKay, Hurston, Thurman, Morrison, DuBois, Larsen, and O'Neill. The class is restricted to students with English majors and/0r minors.

Theory and Practice of Literary Translation

This seminar will approach the study of literary translation as an art form in two contexts: historical study of the development of the practice of translation itself and workshops in the translation of texts from one language or idiom into others. We will not artificially segregate scholarly and creative practice, but will combine in each weekly meeting literary-historical, theoretical, and aesthetic activities.

Intermediate French

Emphasis on reading, conversation, and composition.

Lost in the Dark

This course considers literary and works that suggest how race, class, gender and religion that affect the relations between France and the Post-Colonial Francophone World intersect with local and global environmental issues.

Advanced French Grammar and Composition

This course is thorough and comprehensive review of French grammar, including principles and distinctions not usually covered in lower and intermediate courses. Mastery of principles will be reinforced through oral and written class drill, frequent testing, and directed composition.

Intermediate Greek

Reading of Greek texts combined with study of vocabulary, morphology, and syntax.

Disease and Death in Early Modern England

An in-depth seminar on the experience of and social reaction to illness, insanity, poverty, and death in Western Europe; and crime and punishment in Hanoverian England. Topics include; death, disease, destitution and despair in early modern England along with crime and the justice system in eighteenth-century England.

Religion and Politics in Iran

This seminar offers students the opportunity to explore the relationship between Shi'i Islam and political authority in Iran from the sixteenth century to the present. Through readings of primary and secondary literature, student presentations and class discussion, we will examine the establishment of Shi'i Islam as the state religion under the Safavid dynasty, the role played by religious scholars in popular protest movements of the nineteenth century, the constitutional movement of 1905-1906, and the foundation of the Islamic Republic in 1979.

Latin American Studies II

A wide-ranging interdisciplinary discussion of Latin America with an emphasis on the 20th century. The course probes the social and cultural institutions and production of modern Latin America through the concepts of creativity, exchange, land and peoples. Readings, lectures, discussions, and media presentations are integral components of the course.

American Culture and the Industrial Era

This seminar invites students to explore the question of how and why an unprecedented wave of interest in "culture" swept through America during the era of industrialization. Twenty-five years ago, most discussins of this issue centered on showing why "culture" became a new rallying cry of increasingly wealthy, native-born elites, and what these elites did in the name of "culture" to alter or control what disturbed them about industrializing America. But this view of the relationship between "culture" and "industrialization" has given way to a more pluralistic approach. It no longer seems to make sense to say simply that the industrialization of the American economy prompted a parallel single-minded effort to build a hierarchical national culture. Likewise to continue to think in terms of 'high' and 'low' levels of late nineteenth-century American culture is to imagine a much clearer pattern of stratification than was actually achieved. This seminar invites students to study some of the key texts on both sides of this argument.

Ethics

A critical study of alternative theories of the good life, virtue and vice, right and wrong, and their application to perennial and contemporary moral problems.

Social and Political Ethics

A study of the arguments and positions advanced by philosophers with regard to the need for justification of social and political institutions and with regard to the character of human rights, justice, and the good society.

American Government

An introductory survey of government at the national level with emphasis on constitutional principles and significant contemporary trends and problems.

Public International Law

This course is designed to provide students with an introduction to the creation, implementation, application and enforcement of public international law. The course begins with an examination of the fundamentals of international law and its broader position within international politics. It then turns to an examination of some of the substantive areas of international law (war and peace, human rights, and the environment), focusing on real world case studies and applications of international law in a variety of settings. Students will learn what forms of law make up international law; how international law is made and by whom; to whom international law applies; and the specific rules of international law regarding such subject areas as international organizations, state sovereignty and responsibility, war, human rights, and the environment. Students will apply these concepts during an in-class international moot court simulation exercise.

Introductory Spanish I

The overall goal of this course is developing proficiency in the 4 language skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing) essential to communicative language learning. The course uses a task-based approach which provides the learner with opportunities to use the language interactively.

Elements of Spanish II

Continuation of SPAN 101.

Takes the place of SPAN 101 and SPAN 102.

Spanish Conversation

This course is designed to develop oral proficiency in Spanish through the study and analysis of recorded, visual, and written texts, as well as a variety of pair and group activities. Special emphasis will be placed on pronunciation, vocabulary, acquisition, and a review of Spanish grammar and syntax.

Grammar and Writing in Spanish

Not open to native speakers. Analysis and practice in the written language. With the addition of the registration number SPAN 388 writing practicum, this course fulfills the college intensive-writing requirement for Spanish major.

Plays and Playwrights

An introduction to the literature of theatre from the Greeks to the present with emphasis on the script in performance. Does not count toward the major.

General Physics II

A continuation of 131. Electricity and magnetism, optics, and topics in modern physics, including the quantum theory of the atom and special relativity. Weekly laboratory.

Introductory Psychology

Fundamentals of contemporary psychology, including topics such as heredity and behavior, principles of learning, physiological substrates of behavior, perception, social interaction, and mental health.

Abnormal Psychology

Introduction to the psychological aspects of the behavior disorders.

Ways to Know

This colloquium, for HONORS FRESHMEN ONLY, explores the concept of knowledge as understood in the liberal arts and the sciences. Five professors from mathematics, sociology, physics, French, and history approach the question – What does it mean to know? – from the perspective of their discipline. What questions are asked? What counts as evidence? Can ambiguities be resolved? Can certainties be established? Is it possible to "know"?

Inside Organizations

Formal organizations, such as schools, universities, hospitals, corporations, government agencies, some churches, and even terrorist organizations, will serve as the main focal point of this course. We will explore how organizations influence behavior, how they are structured, and the relationships between organizations and their many constituencies, including the larger society in which they function. Our study will privilege two seemingly distinct focal organizations – Tulane University and NASA – while also reading about and discussing a number of others.

*Open to sophomore Honors students only.

Science and Religion

Two great themes have shaped Western civilization during the last ten centuries: science and the Judeo-Christian tradition. The Enlightenment, by enthroning science, increasingly has rejected the Judeo-Christian tradition. But now science itself has come under attack. If those two principal cultural influences diminish, some alternative must be found to spawn a new ethos, or a new paradigmatic view relating science and religion is needed to give intelligibility to the relation of God, man, and nature. A dialogue has begun to emerge redefining and unifying the roles of theology and science. This seminar examines the current status of post-modern science and theology and probes alternative themes for the evolution of Western civilization under the influence of the present "revolution by consciousness".

*Open to junior and senior Honors students only. Sophomores by Instructor permission only.

The Art of the Memoir: Putting Your Life In Print

From Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Malcolm X, writers have poured their own lives into words in the form of memoirs. This hands-on course will focus on the coming-of-age memoir, dealing with the often turbulent passage from childhood to young adulthood. Though most such works have been written by older authors looking back, the volume of life experience they describe is roughly equal to that of a college undergraduate. Using several coming-of-age memoirs as models, this course will teach students to write their own under the guidance of an experience journalist, memoirist and novelist. The course is mainly geared to those with a passion for writing—and some great stories to tell.

*Open to junior & senior Honors students only.

Foundations of Art: Photography

This course focuses on the history and theory of photography, and also introduces basic techniques, with attention given to issues of composition, perception, communication, and expression. Emphasis also will be placed on the relationships between photography, other art mediums, and the history of art.

Mythology

This course privileges myths of the "Abandoned Woman" in Greek and Roman literature (e.g., Andromache, Medea, Ariadne, Dido). A focus will be placed on how authors shape this theme for their own purposes and how they use it to think about other questions as well (national identity; roles of art within the civic community; etc.).

Elementary Greek

Cross-listed as GREK 101-01. Enrollment in GREK 101-01 – 25, in CLAS 101-02 – 10.

Alexander the Great

Cross-listed as HISA 600. Fulfills writing intensive requirement.

Global Environmental Change

An introduction to the physical and biological processes that regulate the function of the Earth system. The composition, formation, and stabilization of the Earth's atmosphere and ecosystem will be examined, emphasizing biological processes and ecosystem ecology. With an understanding of the historical rates and mechanisms of natural global change, the means by which human activities alter Earth system function at local and global scales will be explored, along with the consequences of and solutions to human-induced global change. This course meets the college non-laboratory science requirement, but it cannot count toward any major or minor requirements in ecology and evolutionary biology. Students may receive credit for only one of EBIO 104, 105 or 205.

Caribbean Cultural Studies

Intermediate French

Prerequisite: FREN 102, or admission by departmental placement. Intermediate French language with emphasis on reading, conversation, and composition. Oral presentations and debates on current events, as well as writing workshops are part of classroom activities.

Advanced French Grammar and Composition

Prerequisite: French 203

Elementary Greek

Cross-listed as CLAS 101-02.

Alexander the Great

Cross-listed with CLAS 600-70.

This seminar examines how Alexander the Great (336-323 B.C.), King of Madeon, played the decisive role in the expansion of Greek civilization and its fusion with older Near Eastern cultures into a distinct Hellenistic civilization. Major issues include the interaction between Greeks and Persians, changing institutions and public culture of the polis (Greek city-state), the collapse of the traditional inter-state political order in Greece, the rise of the Macedonian power under Philip II (359-336 B.C.), the conquests of Alexander the Great, and the birth of the Hellenistic world.

Society and Culture in Medieval Italy

Urban Italy during the Middle Ages experienced an intense vibrancy in the arts, politics, religion, and commercial life. It produced as well a remarkable cast of historical characters, like St. Francis of Assisi, Emperor Frederick II, the painter Giotto, and the "three crowns" of Italian literature: Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch. This course will take an interdisciplinary approach to the study of medieval Italy, exploring the emergence of distinctive urban cultures and communal forms of government; forms of urban lay piety; developments in architecture and the graphic arts; and the first flowering of Italian literature. Readings will consist in primary sources of various kinds, as well as articles and books intended to introduce students to some of the main currents of recent Italian historiography. No prerequisite is required.

Southern Autobiography and Southern Identity

This reading seminar focuses on autobiographies written by southerners in the twentieth century. Ranging from prominent whites like Jimmy Carter, to famous blacks like Louis Armstrong, from plantation owners to sharecroppers, from country music singers to noted writers, the complexities of the South emerge as we discuss the lives of these remarkable individuals and their place in southern history.

Pop Culture and Consumerism

This course will examine the development and meaning of popular and consumer culture in American history beginning in the 1830's and extending through the 1990's. Consumer culture in this course is defined as the commercialization of leisure and the mass arts, the growth of advertising and the creation of a service economy. We will investigate the ways in which historians have employed various theories about the social and cultural meanings of consumption in order to understand different historical problems.

The Italian Cinema From Its Origins to the Present

The course offers a historical survey of the evolution of Italian cinema with a special focus on those moments in which Italian cinema earned significant international recognition. Our chronological itinerary will begin with the silent era, proceed through the Neorealist movement to "spaghetti westerns," and finally close with the "new Italian cinema." From Rossellini's Open City (1945) and De Sica's Bicycle Thief (1948) to Fellini's 8 ½(1963) and Moretti's Dear Diary (1993) and Garrone's The Embalmer (2003), students will discover Italian cinema's exemplary works and its efforts to respond to and change society. This class is taught in English.

Introduction to Latin American Studies

Latin American Studies 101 is an introduction focusing equally on the individuals, cultures, histories and geographies that distinguish the region, and on different approaches to understanding and exploring Latin America. In this class, the focus is on four interdisciplinary themes; encounter, nation, identity and welfare as a means to explore diversity and continuity within this vast region, and to examine the historic origins of contemporary Latin American society. The honors section is run as a once-a-week seminar. The extended class time, combined with the intimate class size is designed to inspire collegiality and open discussion. Readings and films have been selected to represent opposing sides of the often complex social, political and moral issues that mark contemporary Latin America, and, thus to promote lively debate. There is a mandatory service-learning component to this class; working with community partners in New Orleans' Latino community allows students to reflect on issues introduced in class through practical and lived experience.

Legal Studies

A writing intensive component is included in this course. Enrollment is limited to students with sophomore standing or above. This class examines ethical and legal issues that affect business decision making. The course covers ethical dicision making, including the concepts of professionalism, integrity-based management, compliance-based management and corporate social responsibility. The course then focuses on the ethical and legal issues associated with the legal system, and litigation process, alternative dispute resolution techniques, business torts based on negligence, intent and strict liability, include fraud, product liability, misrepresentations, and m,isleading advertising, the basic building blodk of most business, that is, contracts, consumer protection issues, business crimes, bankruptcy, labor and employment law, laws surrounding equal opportunity, and property law, including patents, copyrights, trade secrets, trade names, trademarks and so on.

Consolidated Calculus

A combined course in Calculus I and II for students with a background in Calculus I. Students receive credit for both this course and 121 if they receive a B- or higher. Students may not receive credit for both 131 and 122.

Calculus III

A basic course in differential and integral calculus of several variables. Prerequisite: MATH 122 or 131.

Linear Algebra

An introduction to linear algebra emphasizing matrices and their applications. Prerequisite: MATH 221.

Management Communication

Prerequisite: ENGL 101 or any 119.

Enrollment limited to students with 70 or more credit hours.

Emphasizing a problem-solution approach, MOCO 301 teaches students to produce professional written documents and oral presentations; to analyze various communication purposes, strategies, and audiences; and to work effectively in teams. Some sections of this course will satisfy the public service requirement and will have an additional public service credit.

Independent Studies

*Register for course in department.

Independent Studies

*Register for course in department.

Ethics

This course is an introduction to three different areas: normative ethics, metaethics, and applied ethics. Through normative ethics, we will ask whether we can give a general theory about how to characterize actions and people in terms of their ethical characteristics. Through metaethics, we will ask some questions about the status of ethical claims: Are they true or are they mere expressions of emotion? Are they universal or simply relative to cultures or individuals? Can they be objective, and how do they fit in with other parts of the objective world? Finally, we will look at selected topics in applied ethics, for instance, issues about abortion and about liberty, tolerance, and justice. The instructor does not take sides regarding issues, and students are graded on the strength of arguments and clarity of their positions.

General Physics I

This course deals with principles of Newtonian mechanics.

*Must also register for lab section.
*Open to Honors students only.

American Government

Harold Lasswell, a prominent American political scientist, defined politics as "who gets what, when, and how." The structure of the American political system, as well as the participants who operate in that system and the values those participants hold, have a large impact on how that definition takes shape. Particularly important in the case of the United States is the prominent role elections play in helping to decide "who gets what, when, and how." This course will introduce students to American government, the structures and participants that make it work, and the role of elections in binding citizens to their government and in controlling the behavior of elected (and un-elected) officials. Students will leave this course with not only an understanding of American government but also with the tools necessary for them to be responsible citizens, informed voters, and critical consumers of political information.

From Feudalism to Fascism: The Political and Economic Development of Western Europe

This course focuses on the historical antecedents of contemporary West European politics, with particular attention paid to the social and economic bases of 20th century régime outcomes. It explores the political development of four major European countries—Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy. It adopts the perspective that contemporary politics in each cannot be understood without careful attention to contrasting national responses to economic, social, and political challenges, including the commercialization of agriculture, the consolidation and dissolution of political régimes, democratization, and industrialization. Also at the heart of this course lies the notion that political and economic developments are inextricably linked and constitute co-equal and interdependent components of any persuasive explanation régime outcomes. Students should emerge from this course with both knowledge of the broad historical outlines of political and economic developments in each of the four countries under study and an enhanced capacity to adjudicate among rival explanations of such developments in other political, social, and economic contexts.

Introductory Psychology

Univariate 1

Students enrolled in the honors section will take class and exams with everyone else, but will have their lab with Dr. Ruscher. This lab will provide Honors students the opportunity to analyze real data on both computer and by hand, and learn to produce APA-style write-ups of the lab reports. Thus, the honors section will acquire essential skills that will prepare them for future labs, writing the honors theses, and participating in upper-level honors seminars. Entering first-year students in the honors program may take this course if they have credit for AP PSYC, and if they feel relatively comfortable with math.

*Prerequisites: PSYC 100 or PSYC 101 or PSYC 102
*Must also register for lab section 47. (The lab is non-graded)

Clinical Neuropsychology

Maximum enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: PSYC 100 or 101, PSYC 333, and PSYC 367

Elements of Spanish II

The primary benefit of enrolling in an Honors section of lower-level Spanish course is the small class size (limited to a maximum of 15 students) and the ability to interact with other equally motivated students in Spanish.

Spanish, Intermediate Review

See SPAN 102-04 description.

Elements of Spanish III

See SPAN 102-04 description.

Prerequisite: SPAN 102

Spanish Conversation

See SPAN 102-04 description.

Grammatical Written Spanish

*Writing practicum SPAN 388-05 available.
*Prerequisites: SPAN 204 or equivalent.

Plays and Playwrights

An introduction to the literature of the theatre, this class studies seminal texts from Shakespeare to Beckett placing the plays within their historical/cultural context. Films and live productions aid in visualizing the script in performance.