| The three courses were:
“Imagining Extinctions: Science and Fictional
Accounts of the Future of Humans.” Tyler Curtain.
English
“Democracy and the Civic Ideal.” Stephen
Leonard. Political Science.
“Messianic Movements in America.” Yaakov
Ariel. Religious Studies.
Prior to the seminar, students were asked to read a
common text, a piece by journalist Bill Moyers originally
published in The Star Tribune, called There is No Tomorrow
(The Star Tribune Sunday 30 January 2005), and consider
the implications messianic sensibilities and the processes
of extinction have for democratic politics today. Each
class spent a class period discussing the text independently
and then nominated a spokesperson to craft a summary
of the class’s response to Moyer’s arguments.
The interdisciplinary seminar began with reports from
the spokespeople of the three courses detailing their
class’s response to the text. Students, who were
seated at tables that mixed the classes, then discussed
and debated their responses to the test while they ate
lunch. After lunch, a rigorous and enthusiastic discussion
led by faculty engaged students in the critical issues
created by a consideration of Moyer’s arguments
from the perspectives offered by the different disciplines.
Read
There is No Tomorrow
Read Student Comments from the Seminar
|
Participating Courses and Faculty
Honors 28 (English) "Imagining Extinctions:
Science and Fictional Accounts of the Future of Humans,"
Professor Tyler Curtain.
This honors seminar will introduce students to the study
of both science and fiction by examining how mid- to
late-twentieth century novels and films depict the problem
of extinction, human or otherwise. How have fictional
texts imagined time and evolution? Ecological disaster?
Language death? Species death? Why do computers figure
centrally to a re-imagining of society and its devolution
or end? How are contemporary social and political problems-from
race to gender, sexuality to class-figured in these
texts and to what end? We will read books such as Darwin's
Radio, Cryptonomicon, Do Androids Dream of Electric
Sheep?, Wild Seed and Parable of the Sower. Among the
films we will screen are "2001: A Space Odyssey,"
Katsuhiro Otomo's "Akira," Kubrick and Speilberg's
"AI," "28 Days Later," and "Solaris"
(Cameron and Soderbergh). To give our discussions both
breadth and depth, we will read alongside our main texts
contemporary biological, anthropological and cultural
theorists. These thinkers attempt to give accounts of
the impact of human culture on Earth's biosphere. Readings
will be drawn from Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin's
The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future
of Humankind, Nettle and Romaine's Vanishing Voices:
The Extinction of the World's Languages, Edward O. Wilson's
The Future of Life, David Crystal's Language Death,
among others.
This seminar was developed with the aid of a Morehead
Alumni Course Development Grant.
POLI 006F Democracy and the Civic Ideal
Professor Stephen Leonard
"Democracy and the Civic Ideal" explores the
development of modern democratic sentiments and values
in the history of the civic ideal in the West. We begin
by examining the theory and practice of classical Greek
democracy, then moving through Roman republicanism,
early modern republicanism, the liberal revolutions
of the 17th and 18th centuries (England, US, and France),
and finishing with contemporary American democratic
politics. We will use a variety of approaches and resources:
simulations, films, re-enactments, panel discussions,
and, of course, texts. Our goal will be to meet the
challenge of marshalling good arguments and compelling
evidence in political analysis. Students will put these
skills to work by developing research projects on democratic
politics.
This seminar was developed with the aid of a William
C. Friday Award for Instruction in the Civic Arts.
RELI 006I Apocalypse Now?: Messianic Movements
in America
Professor Yaakov Ariel
The arrival of the year 2000 made many people aware
of the prevalence of messianic ideas and their influence
on the American mind. Messianic hopes have been present
in America since Colonial times, and new messianic groups
have come about periodically. This course will explore
messianic movements in American history and their influence
on the nation. It will consider such questions as America
as a messianic concept, and why America had been susceptible
to messianic movements. The messianic groups we will
examine will include the Puritans in seventeenth century
New England, the Millerites and the Mormons in the nineteenth
century, and premillenialist evangelicals in the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries. We will also look at the messianic
components of the late twentieth century groups such
as the Nation of Islam, Hasidic Judaism, UFO groups,
and the Children of God. We will also pay attention
to secular versions of the messianic faith. Special
attention will be given to groups that have caused national
crises in the 1990s, such as the Branch Davidians and
the bombers of the Oklahoma City Federal building. In
addition to reading book chapters and articles, we will
also read an apocalyptic novel, watch movies on apocalyptic
themes, and search the Internet for messianic group
sites.
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