Spring 2009 Special Topics Course Descriptions

  ANTHROPOLOGY  

ANTH-309-090

Human Osteology and Forensics

Prerequisite: ANTH 101, ANTH 202, or permission of the instructor.

ANTH-319-001

Anthropology and Education

Prerequisite: ANTH 101, or permission of the instructor.

ANTH-319-003

Methods in Expressive Culture

ANTH-319-L90

Methods in Expressive Culture Lab

Research Methods in Expressive Culture examines the range of strategies used by anthropologists to study the anthropology of art, broadly defined, as well as the anthropology of verbal art and oral tradition. In addition to being introduced to a number of general research methods like participant observation, interviewing, and the writing of field notes, students will examine the role of new technologies in the study of expressive culture. The laboratory component of the class will provide a “hands-on” opportunity for students to incorporate new tools and technologies into their projects. This course will fulfill the ANTH491 requirement this semester. Students must register for both lecture and lab.

Prerequisites: ANTH101 or permission of the instructor.

CRIME LAW AND SOCIETY

CRLS-300-090

ST: Community Policing Issues

What exactly is Community Policing? Is it a method of policing, a philosophy of policing or just empty hype? Can the police and the community successfully "partner" in suppressing crime? What is a “community?” What works and what does not? Through this course, students will study these and other questions in order to understand the concept of Community Policing, how it effects police operations and police-community relations.

Prerequisites: None

COMPUTER SCIENCE

CSCI 199-001

ST: I-WARE

Express yourself visually.  In this course, you will learn how to create, edit and publish various audio, video, 3D animations and panoramic photographs by implementing network and internet communication technologies.  Techniques learned in both Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator will be used to create such visually stimulating material.  Your music, art and photographs may be shared on networks such as iPhoto, Facebook and Myspace.  You will also learn how to create, edit and transmit PDF documents, how to acquire and use free open-source software, how to run internet meetings with video, and how to initiate remote control and assistance.

CSCI 199-002 and CSCI 199-003

ST: Web Development II: JavaScript

 This course provides in-depth hands-on experience writing client-side JavaScript. You learn how to integrate JavaScript into your Web pages and create an interactive and dynamic Web site. You also learn how to take advantage of best practices and development techniques.

ENGLISH

ENGL 190-001

Harry Potter

J.K. Rowling's bestselling Harry Potter books will be the focus of this class. We will read and discuss all seven of the books. We will discuss the works that influenced Rowling and touch on topics like film adaptations, fan fiction, wizard rock, and banned books. The course fulfills three hours of the General Education humanities requirement. The course does not fulfill any requirement in the English major.

ENGL 360-001

Literature of Socialized Healthcare

Our present-day discourse concerning healthcare—who “deserves” it, who pays for it, and what the level of care should be—is anything but new. This course examines literature about health care for the poor from early nineteenth-century England (still governed by the 1601 Old Poor Laws) to the present day. Readings will include George Crabbe's The Parish Register (1807) and The Borough (1810) , John Clare's “The Village Funeral”(1815) Jane Austen's Sanditon (1817) , Louisa May Alcott's Hospital Sketches (1863), Legh Richmond's The Annals of the Poor (1864) , and David Kerns's Standard of Care (2007). We will write two ten-page papers, one using archival resources from MUSC's Waring History of Medicine Library, and one analyzing modern-day discourses of health care.

ENGL 370-001

19 th Century American Poetry

This course surveys a century of American poetry, ranging thematically from the optimistic nationalism the early republic through the jaded realism and naturalism that marked the turn of the twentieth century. We will also examine a wide variety of poetic styles, represented by approximately twenty writers, including William Cullen Bryant, Edgar Allan Poe, Frederick Goddard Tuckerman, Frances Sargent Locke Osgood, George Moses Horton, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt, and Stephen Crane.

ENGL 370-090

Creative Nonfiction

Though the term “creative nonfiction” has become a popular one over the last fifteen years, the notion of writing about one's life in order to better understand oneself has been around for thousands of years. It is in creative nonfiction we try to divine from what we have done, who we have known, what we have dreamt and how we have fared, an order to this universe: ourselves. This is a combined survey and workshop course, which means the texts for the semester will be classic works – from Seneca to Montaigne to Joan Didion – and essays generated by the students. You will be assigned four full-length occasional essays (no less than five pages) modeled after those we encounter in the readings, and two full-length essays to be presented to class for workshop.

ENGL 395.001

Late 19 th Century American Literature

Students will read a wide range of literary texts produced between the end of the Civil War and 1900 and investigate the literary genres of regionalism & local color, realism, and naturalism. The course will emphasize the complex relationships between literary genres/texts and the culture of the late 19th century in the United States . Issues of special concern will include the literary markets of the late 19th century, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, class, urbanization, immigration and assimilation, capitalism, technology, and nationalism.

ENGL 395-002

Introduction to Literary Studies

Introduction to Literary Studies is a pilot version of a new course the English department anticipates requiring of all English majors to help them make the transition to upper-level coursework. This writing-intensive course is intended to guide students through the field of college-level English study. Its smaller class size encourages workshops, discussion, and exchange among majors and is designed to be taken early in the English major—when approaching the end of the 201/202/207 requirements or beginning the 300-level courses. The course foregrounds two crucial issues for English majors: textual interpretation and disciplinary identity. The class is designed especially to help you develop practical and innovative research and writing skills for participating in the discussions at the heart of Literary Studies.

ENGL 395-003

Hamlet

We will study Hamlet in many forms: as printed text (both early modern and modern versions), as stage production, as movie and television production, and as cultural icon. We will read one other revenge tragedy, one other Shakespeare play (very likely Othello ), and a body of scholarship about the transformations that occurred in the early modern period, changes that shaped both an entirely new early modern subject and continued to shape us as modern subjects. We will investigate the reasons that this play continues to fascinate us, and perhaps we might even understand why Hamlet has been called "the best play ever written."

ENGL 400-090

Seminar: James Joyce's Ulysses

According to a recent survey, James Joyce's modern epic, Ulysses, was the most important novel of the twentieth century.  Most first-time readers journey through its odyssey in small reading groups, and we'll reproduce that workshop atmosphere in a seminar class.  Along the way we'll learn about modernism--the movement that gave us Einstein and radios, Picasso and cars. Open to juniors and seniors. The course fulfills 3 hours of the 12-hour departmental honors option.

ENGL 401-001

Poetry and Process

This course aims to work with poetry students at the intermediate level and above to explore the possibilities inherent in the revision process. First the class will uncover and discuss assumptions underlying poets' current revision processes; then it will seek to challenge those assumptions by inventing prompts and additional revision exercises that will push the boundaries of what students may think a poem should do or be. Among the questions to be considered: When is it possible for the poet to follow a poem rather than lead it? What kinds of pressures (revision, invention) can be placed on a subject once it is discovered? Must a poem keep its subject once it appears? What lies inside the poem but after or outside the subject of it? For process models, we may look outside of literature, to visual art, as well, and draw comparisons from that work. Class will operate as a combination of craft lecture, workshop and peer review, and prompts/experiments with process.

FRENCH

FREN 490-002

Surrealism, in Literature and the Arts

A new multi-media class dedicated to an examination of the Surrealistic experience in France - in Literature (Aragon, Artaud, Breton, Eluard), Film (Buñuel, Man Ray), Painting (Dali, Magritte) and Sculpture (Marcel Duchamp, Giacometti).

Historic Preservation & Community Planning Program

HPCP 290-001

ST: Preservation Conservation

Introduction to Conservation will focus on the properties and performance of traditional and historic building materials. Through lectures, coordinating site visits and hands on opportunities in the lab and in the field a basic knowledge will be provided that will allow the student to better understand the mechanics of deterioration and the choices for treatments.

HPCP 340-001

ST: Landscape Studies

This course is a studio effort to understand and work with the defining elements of important, specific historic and cultural landscapes. It uses a generalist's approach and weaves a consideration of natural systems with human impacts to tell the story of the place and our culture.

HPCP 340-002

ST: Classic Tradition in Architecture

This seminar is about Classical architecture and its influence. The course deals with buildings constructed from 600 BC through AD 400 and from AD1400 – 1940. The emphasis is on the influence of Greek and roman architecture on the Renaissance through the Beaux Arts.

HPCP 340-003

ST: Building Pathology

This course addresses the deterioration and demise of buildings and their component systems. In order to understand and analyze system and component failures, it is important that one be familiar with the materials and methods used in the construction of aging buildings. In this course, we will examine a variety of buildings, in terms of design concept, structural rationale, construction procedure and materials (stone and brick masonry, wood framing, roofing, millwork, plaster, hardware, mechanical systems, etc.).

HISTORY

HIST-210-001

ST: Civil Rights Movement

The course focuses on the modern civil rights movement and the way it shaped recent American history. Beginning with the opening decades of the 20th-century attention is devoted to the earliest civil rights organizations; the impact of the New Deal, the Second World War and Cold War will all be considered as they created context for the civil rights struggle. The movement's key leaders, their organizational successes and failures, the transformation of the movement and the rise of Black Power and modern African American politics will also be examined.

HIST-241-001

ST: Women, 1500-1800

This course examines women and gender in Europe from approximately 1500 to 1800. Through an analysis of social, economic, political, religious, and cultural developments, we will assess how women shaped the European past and how ideas about gender have been central to daily life throughout history. Topics covered include politics, work, feminism, women's writing, crime and disorder, religion, marriage, motherhood, and sexuality. Our focus will be primarily on Western Europe and on social history.

HIST-250-001

ST: France in North America

This course will survey the history of the French presence in North America to 1763. Among other things, it will examine: the roots of French colonialism in the New World ; the composition of the migrant population and the reasons for their relocation; the socio-political structure of colonial communities; and the nature of French foreign relations with Native Americans as well as neighboring European powers.

HIST-270-001

ST: European Witch Hunts

This intermediate-level course will examine the great witch-hunts that swept Europe during the early modern period, analyzing the intersection of power, religiosity, and magical beliefs that fueled the trials. By discussing recent historical interpretations concerning witchcraft alongside primary sources pertaining to folk magic, learned conceptions of malevolent sorcery and demonology, and criminal proceedings, we will attempt to understand the witch-hunts within the context of early modern culture and society.

HIST-320-090

ST: Victorian Charleston

Victorian Charleston ? A contradiction in terms? Weren't we too poverty-stricken to have any history between 1865 and 1914? “Too poor to paint and too proud to whitewash?” Think again. The phosphate industry was only one reason that Charleston and the Lowcountry experienced vitality in the post-Civil War period. A revisionist view of our history indicates that political and social realignments, new cultural and religious movements, and natural disasters left their mark on Charleston and the Lowcountry during the Victorian era. At the same time, much remained the same, the genealogical power elite remained in control, and Charleston was preserved as an architectural gem. How? Why?

HIST-361-001

ST: Cold War in Asia

At the same time the Cold War unfolded in Europe, it began to take shape in Asia . The Korean and Vietnam conflicts were two "hot" battles of the Cold War fought on East Asian soil. East Asia served as a substitute battlefield for the superpowers, a buffer zone between the Soviet Union and the United States , and an area of conflict between Communist China, Soviet Russia, and America . This course will emphasize the Asian political, social, and diplomatic context in which the Cold War was waged.

HIST-410-001

Research Seminar: U.S. History

This course is designed to enhance the investigative, analytical, and compositional skills of the student. Requirements include a research paper of 25-30 pages, a report to the class based upon it, critiques of two classmates' work, and participation in class discussions. Students may choose a topic from a list circulated on the first day or he/she may develop another in consultation with the instructor. The paper is to be based upon primary sources as well as secondary works and must include an annotated bibliography and essential footnotes.

HIST-410-002

Res. Sem.: Old South, New South:

The South in the Long Nineteenth Century, 1783-1917

This seminar will examine the development of the American South between the end of the War of Independence and World War I. It will focus on how a distinct regional consciousness developed in the South and how it culminated in secession and the foundation of the Confederacy. It will also assess what impact the Civil War had on this identity. Ultimately, we will assess how much the War created a break in southern identity. In other words how "new" was the "New South" proclaimed by so many southern boosters after the War and Reconstruction.

HIST-441-001

Research Seminar: Cold War

This course allows students majoring in history to complete a research paper within the field of 20th-century European history. The topic of the Cold War is broad enough to embrace various countries and areas of investigation: diplomatic, political, economic, social and cultural. During the first weeks of the term the class will explore together aspects of the Cold War in Europe and its historiography. In the remainder of the semester students will conduct their own research under my supervision, re-convening on several occasions to discuss proposals, drafts and individual presentations.

HIST-470-001

Research Seminar: Ancient Near East

This course is a capstone seminar in the History program. In a traditional seminar setting, junior and senior History majors discuss advanced readings and issues in ancient Near Eastern history and historiography. These readings include both primary and secondary sources of historical significance. The seminar covers the time frame from the origins of civilization in Egypt and Mesopotamia (fifth millennium B.C.) through the Persian Empire (ca. 331 B.C.). Its geographical scope includes: ancient Mesopotamia (i.e., Sumer , Akkad, Babylon , Assyria, Mittani), Syria , Hatti (Hittite-land), Phoenicia , Cyprus , Canaan , Egypt , Nubia (Kush), and Persia , and research topics may be chosen from any of these areas or time periods.

HONORS

HONS 390-002

Honors Appreciation in Mathematics:

A Conceptual Tour of Contemporary Mathematics

This course will highlight mathematics as a network of intriguing ideas, not a dry formula list of techniques. Each lecture will begin by placing mathematical concepts in historical context and providing the motivations driving the quest for understanding. Topics to be covered include key ideas in algebra, number theory, mathematical foundations, complexity, topology and geometry, dynamical systems, chaos, and stochastic processes.

The goal of this course is to help each student discover the beauty and fascination of mathematics, admire its strength and profound ideas, and appreciate its value in our everyday lives.

Satisfies the second half of the Honors College Math requirement and applies toward the College's general education requirement in Mathematics. Prerequisite: Introductory Calculus (Math 120)

James Young, Assistant Professor of Mathematics

HONS 390-003

Mathematics in Music

This course is about the applications of mathematics to the understanding of musical sound, musical instruments, tuning systems, and musical composition. The main theme of the course is that music and mathematics intersect in many places. While no one writes a symphony using a mathematical formula, mathematics is of fundamental importance to music, for example in the construction of tuning systems which most musicians use today, and in the recording and reproduction of digital music. A subsidiary theme of the course is that the interaction between music theory and mathematics dates from antiquity and has been continuous throughout history. No formal musical background is assumed, although some interest and experience in music will help students get the most out of the course. However, there will be more mathematics than music in this course.

HONS 391-003

Grrls Gone Wild: Third Wave Feminism

This course will address the cultural, historical, and political aspects of the third wave of feminism. Third wave feminists are those who have come to consciousness in a world in which many feminist ideals are accepted as common sense, however, the third wave is a conflicted movement, in which many of the common sense ideals of feminism have still not been realized and in which feminism itself is often seen to be a negative term. Students in this course will become familiar with the variety of personal and scholarly perspectives on the third wave. They will begin with the historical, contextualizing the third wave by constructing a solid understanding of second wave feminism. A number of different theoretical approaches will be considered. The various personal narratives that have emerged — those published in book form as well as those published in self-created pamphlets called zines will be examined along with the particular political issues that are foregrounded in third wave feminism.

Applies to the general education requirement in the Humanities.

HONS 391-002

The British Empire : Colonial and Post Colonial Voices

This interdisciplinary course explores the historical, literary, and cultural representations of the British Empire during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Its interdisciplinary format will help to elucidate the articulation, manifestation, and influence of the British Empire from the perspectives of imperial and colonial subjects. In this regard, students will explore important themes and concepts, including colonial discourses such as the “civilizing mission,” historical topics such as the opium trade, and indigenous/nationalist responses to colonial authority in Asia and Africa . The course will allow students to analyze a broad spectrum of colonial and indigenous voices through historical and literary lenses.

Applies to the general education requirement in the Humanities.

HONS 391-001

Latin American Film and Literature

This course will introduce students to major works of literature written during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It will also present the films that were produced as a result of these narratives and autobiographical texts. This course will analyze the cultural, historical and political movements in history that inspired these works. The goal of this course is to provide students with a panoramic lens with which to view Latin American society and culture. The course will be taught in English with English translations of all the works.

Applies to the general education requirement in the Humanities.

PHILOSOPHY

PHIL 298-001

ST: Philosophy and Economics

The practice of economics raises myriad philosophical issues. Is economics a science? What is a science? Is economics value-neutral? What is it to be value-neutral? Is economics proceeding with a misleadingly narrow take on human nature? Does economics assume a straitened account of human good? What is rationality? Does rational choice theory capture what it is to be rational? In this course we will read articles that explore these issues. Our authors include philosophers Martha Nussbaum, Geoffrey Brennan, and Elizabeth Anderson and economists Irene van Stravern and Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen.

PSYCHOLOGY

PSYC 410-001

Advanced Behavior Principles

This course will cover in-depth issues in the experimental analysis of human and animal behavior. Issues could include choice, conditioned reinforcement, behavioral persistence, self-control, laboratory models, and social behavior.

RELIGIOUS STUDIES

RELS 298-001

Spiritual Utopias: American Communitarianism

Even before Independence , the U.S. has been home to religious movements seeking to create the perfect human society. Religious communitarians separated themselves from mainstream American society, seeking the freedom to live in a purer and more authentic manner, a life based on particular interpretations of sacred texts and spiritual experiences. Communities examined include the Shakers, Catholic monasteries, Jewish communes, New Age ashrams, with special focus on the Amish and the Mormons.

SOCIOLOGY

SOCY-339-001

Special Topics in Social Psychology: Aging and the Family

With increasing life expectancy and the enormous growth in the 65+ population, family as a social institution has experienced unprecedented change. We will examine how the graying of the population has brought about fundamental changes in family relationships and structure. Topics will include: the family/systemic context of growing older, legal and economic issues, emotional challenges of later adulthood, issues surrounding caregiving, and the manner in which roles, rules and symbols affect multi-generational families.

SOCY-379-001

Special Topics in Social Research: Historical and Comparative Methods

SOCY-379-002

Special Topics in Social Research: Historical and Comparative Methods

An opportunity for students to develop skills in planning and implementing sociological research with a historical focus. Students also examine how sociologists have used and developed this method.

Prerequisites: SOCY101, 202, 260, 271, 272 and two 300 level courses

SOCY-109-N85
ST : Sociology of Peace: A History of the Movement & Peace building Initiatives

A comprehensive look at the history of peace, examining the impact of social movements and the evolution of peace building knowledge and practice. An exploration of the essential principles and practical means of preventing war, developing inter cultural cooperation and resolving conflict without violence. The student will learn about a culture of peace with practical applications for both the local and global scale.