6:00-9:30 p.m., Tuesdays, Hum 480 (grading: S/N)
Introduction
to Liberal Studies
(max crs. 8; 8 repeats allowed; S-N only, unless otherwise noted; prereq MLS
candidate or department consent)
14069 – 821 LEC, 6:00-9:30 pm, Tu (9/4/07-12/14/07), H 480, 1-4 credits
This introductory course is comprised of different modules taught by different instructors from various fields. Each module consists of three nights of instruction. The modules serve as an introduction to liberal studies in that they acquaint the student with differing quests for truth(s) and knowledge and demonstrate how research is conducted in various fields of study. Below is the outline for this year's collection of modules. In this 4 cr.- course, students are required to write short papers for each module as well as a longer research paper (approximately 10 pp.) as a final project, which will be read by two readers. A syllabus for each module is handed out on the first day of the module.
Module 1 (Gesa Zinn)
Liberal Studies and its Quest for Knowledge (weeks 1-3)
This module serves as an introduction to our Masters of Liberal Studies. Besides providing those new to the campus with an overview of the research facilities (UMD library, e-journals, databases, etc.), it outlines the expectations for graduate research within the program (including the Plan B-paper). Furthermore, it introduces students to working with texts commonly used in the humanities and social sciences and the critical analyses of these texts.
How do we work with a cultural text (an essay, a poem? a film text? In which way do we inform and are informed by a text (music, advertisement, a brochure commonly called “literature”) What does the term “the power of the text” mean? What role does a text play in our search for knowledge and truth(s)? Students will read/listen to short essays, poems, excerpts of fictional writing, journalistic writing, musical text; they will view film and film clips and will be introduced to and perform a sequence analysis as a final project.
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TUESDAY, SEPT. 4
Introduction to the program
Tools for textual analysis
Introduction to research: research tools and research facilities at UMD
HOMEWORK: Read/understand: Essay I; prepare to present a favorite text (poem, advertisement, letter, novel, song, film, etc. to the class: 5-7 min. presentation)
TUESDAY, SEPT.11
Review: tools for textual analysis
Discussion of essay I
Presentations
Intro to film analysis
HOMEWORK: Read/understand: Essay II; reaction paper (3 pages)
TUESDAY, SEPT. 18
Review: point of view, criticism, critical analyses, argumentation
Discussion of Essay II
Film: Sequence Analysis
due: reaction paper
HOMEWORK: Sequence Analysis & short paper
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Module 2 (Rory Litwin/Mags David)
Information in Society (weeks 4-6)
This module would explore information as a concept and the role and nature of information and it's dissemination in contemporary United States society, including issues surrounding civil liberties, information as a public good and equality of access, publishing and authority, and cultural effects of the changing information landscape. Sessions will include lecture, presentations by students, discussion, and short films.
Module 3 (Scott Laderman)
The United States and the Challenges of Vietnamese Nationalism (weeks 7-9)
This module will examine the role played by Vietnamese nationalism in confronting the French and, especially, the Americans. Too often, questions about why or how the United States “lost” the Vietnam war revolve around U.S.-centered explanations that do not account for the strength and persistence of Vietnamese revolutionary nationalism. The Americans, in other words, are said to have “lost” the war rather than the Vietnamese are said to have “won” it. This module will explore how Vietnamese viewed their struggle, why they persisted in their resistance to American power, and what this might suggest about the history of U.S. foreign relations more broadly. Each session will combine lecture and discussion, including the use of primary sources to facilitate active learning. I will occasionally use audio and video clips to illustrate important points.
Module 4 (Eleanor Hannah)
African Americans and Violence in American History (repeat from 06)
(weeks 10-12)
The module would examine the ways historians have studied and written about the impact of race – and in particular the development of the formal and informal policies and practices aimed at segregating blacks and whites - on the development of the United States, paying particular attention to the ways historians have treated the evidence of overt racial violence, white on black, black on white, male on female, male on male, and female on female. Each class period will involve a combination of historiography, primary documents and images, and documentary film.
Module 5 (John Schwetman)
The Literature of Cultural Contact and Conflict (repeat from 06)
(weeks 13-15)
The present American involvement in Iraq will have many complex consequences that will take many years to become clear to us, but the historical precedents in the literature of colonialism offers us some means of anticipating some of them. A careful study of these texts suggest that we probably do not have a very good understanding of what is happening now in Iraq, much less what will result in the future. We will begin with the earliest of days of modern colonialism in Stephen Greenblatt's discussion of the conquest of America in Marvelous Possessions. Mary Rowlandson's narrative provides an unrelenting attack on Native American cultures resulting from her captivity in the early days of the American colonies. And, finally, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness provides a canonical central text in the literature of colonialism that influences the debate over colonialism up to the present day. Placing these three texts in dialogue with each other will provide an important literary context for events in our present-day newspapers and in the American debate over involvement in the Middle East
End of the semester: 10-page paper or equivalent due to your instructor(s)