New Courses, HP Courses, Honors Courses and IDS Courses Descriptions

Please check class schedule for days and times.

New Courses

ART 350 Advanced Drawing and Watercolor   

Adele Wayman

The intention of Advanced Drawing and Watercolor is to provide a challenging upper level course for upper level art majors and concentrators.  We will work on paper with wet and dry media.  Content will include nature, landscape, abstraction and personal choices.  This course can count towards either a Drawing or Painting focus for art majors, art electives for all art majors or for any Visual Arts Concentrators. 

Prerequisites:   Drawing I and one other studio in drawing, painting or printmaking.  Or permission of the instructor.

ART 250 African American Art

Heea Crownfield

Within this course we will explore the history of African-American art through a diverse range of influences which uniquely inform African-American identities and art. These influences include the colonization of Africa, the African Diaspora and retention of African cultural traditions in African-American art, the history of slavery and racism in America and the effect of this racism on African-American artists’ ability to gain acceptance into the mainstream “art world”. We will explore in depth the construction and representation of “race” and black identities in images, primarily derogatory, and African-American artists’ response to these images in their own work. We will ask ourselves: how has this unique, complex, and inherently painful history shaped contemporary African-American artists’ art and identities. Just what does the construction and representation of “race” and black identities in images tell us about white identity and social power? How can art serve as a locus of resistance, wherein identity is not only shaped but reclaimed, challenged and transformed? And what about the particular struggles of African-American women artists, who have had to confront not only a history of racism, but simultaneously gender construction, sexism, and women’s marginalization within the arts? We will seek to develop an understanding of content and form within African-American art in relation to the complex historical, social, and cultural context it evolves from. Ultimately we will reflect upon our own identities, histories and experiences, attitudes and assumptions, and consider the relationship between the personal and the political, to gain a greater understanding of how racism and oppression function in subtle and not so subtle ways, so that we as individuals, through art or other means, can challenge institutional racism, sexism, and classism within America, as well as gain an appreciation for diversity within our own community, so we can begin to strengthen our ability to create meaningful, practical, positive change within our own lives and the world around us.

BIOL 350: Neuroscience

Tom Tucker

Contemporary theories in neuroscience propose that our perception, thoughts and behavior arise directly from neural activity.  To explore the basis for these theories, we will investigate nervous systems at multiple levels, focusing on the structure and function brain cells, the nature of neuronal circuits, and principles of brain organization.  This course will provide an in-depth examination of how neurons generate electrical impulses; how they process signals underlying perception, cognition and movement; and how they enable complex functions such as memory, sleep, spatial awareness, and selective attention.  Major themes will include development, the impact of experience on neural circuits, neurological disorders and disease, and emerging technologies in genetics, neural recording and brain imaging.

ENG 211: Poetry Workshop

Doug Smith

The private pursuit of language, Carl Phillips tells us in Coin of the Realm, “is a form of prayer, however secular the subject of the writing at hand.”  This course encourages communion with the masters of such prayer, including Ben Jonson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Robert Hayden, Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath, and Jorie Graham.  Here we will address the various forms and techniques of poetry.  We will also write our own poems, and those poems will be revised, for good work can only happen in time.  Writers awake to the difficult glory of language are encouraged to attend.

GST 130 -   Introduction to Leadership for Social Change Seminar

Judy Harvey

The purpose of this one-credit seminar is to assist students interested in working for social change to assess their skills and interests, explore the possibilities of gifts and vocation, and create an electronic portfolio to serve as a planning and reflection tool for their Guilford experience.  Through activities, discussion, and guest speakers, students will define and explore their interest in working for social change.  This course is designed for first and second year students who are interdisciplinary majors.  Students of other majors may enroll with the instructor’s permission. This seminar is the first of 3 seminars required to complete the Interdisciplinary Leadership for Social Change Program.  Students may complete one seminar without the intention to complete the program.

GST 250 Introductory Chinese Language (II)

Qikeng Li

This course is a 102-level Chinese language course and is a continuation of “Introductory Chinese Language I”. In addition to helping students consolidate their elementary knowledge of Chinese obtained in the Fall 2006 semester, this course will introduce them to more vocabulary, grammar and patterns. As in the previous semester, we will focus on improving aural-oral fluency and comprehension, and will also develop reading and writing skills. At the end of the yearlong course students will have learned about 800 Chinese characters and basic grammatical rules, which will enable them to converse and write on simple daily topics with relative ease and effectiveness. They will also be more exposed to Chinese culture.  

GST 250 Contemporary Chinese Culture

Qikeng Li

This course is offered for students who are interested in Chinese society and culture. The Chinese political and social landscape has witnessed rapid and profound changes since the early 20th century, especially since the inception of the reform and opening-up, and along with these changes, people’s ideas, ways of life, and behaviors, etc. have changed too. This course provides a broad and interdisciplinary introduction to contemporary China, covering topics of broad importance, such as political movements and policy, pop culture trends, internet use, religion, etc., as well as those that I, the instructor, identify as cutting-edge, such as moral crisis, changes in values and lifestyles, changes in the rural areas, and problems with urbanization etc. I will share with the students not only knowledge and information that can be acquired from books, newspapers or other channels, but also the insights gained through my first-hand experiences, wide reading, frequent discussions, and earnest reflections. No prior knowledge of the Chinese language is required. It satisfies the multicultural requirements. A comparative approach will be adopted in teaching this course.

GST 200 - Leadership Issues in Working for Change

Judy Harvey

The purpose of this one-credit seminar is to help students mine their internship experience for learning about effective leadership in working for change.  Using their internship experiences as a focus, students will explore models of effective leadership and issues of change in organizations.  Participants will benefit from the opportunity to share insights about issues of working for change with students in a range of internship placements. Students enrolled in this seminar must also be registered for a 2 – 4 credit internship.  Internship supervision and grades will continue to be the responsibility of the faculty sponsor for the internship.  This seminar is the second of 3 seminars required to complete the Interdisciplinary Leadership for Social Change Program, a program designed for interdisciplinary majors.  Students of other majors may enroll with the instructor’s permission.  Students may enroll in one seminar without the intention to complete the program.

GST 300 – Leadership for Social Change Seminar

Judy Harvey

The purpose of this seminar is to help students prepare for the transition to the professional world as they continue to define how they hope to work for social change.  Students will explore their next steps after Guilford and practice articulating their skills and experience.  Each student will create a showcase electronic portfolio for use in their job search or application process for graduate school, fellowships, etc. 

HIST 250: Europe Since 1945

Philip Slaby

Europe since 1945 will trace the political, diplomatic, economic, and socio-cultural development of both Eastern and Western Europe from the close of World War II in 1945 to wider European unification and the transition from Communism at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.  This period was one marked by sweeping change and transition, the results of which indirectly and directly continue to shape European life today.  The course will take up such major developments as Europe’s recovery from World War II, the course of the Cold War battle of ideologies, the development of the European Union in Western Europe, and the rise and fall of the Soviet Communist Bloc in Eastern Europe.  It too will shed light on issues such as the emergence of mass consumerism, immigration and the tensions of multiculturalism, and the nature of everyday life in Western and in Eastern Europe.

JPS 350: Victimology

Laurin Flynn

This course will explore the historical antecedents of victimology.  Students will examine issues confronting victims by the agencies designed to assist and society. Students should develop an understanding of the impact of various crimes on their victims as well as the impact of programs, laws, policies, and the current societal atmosphere. Theories associated with victims will be explored. Critical analysis of current remedies such as victim compensation, impact statements and public policy is discussed. Some topics covered will include elder abuse, spousal abuse, school and work violence, sexual assault, terrorism and child maltreatment. Students will critically assess the response of our current criminal justice system with restorative justice.

JPS 350: Collective Power in an age of Individualism

Barton Parks

This seminar examines responses to the increasingly centralized power with which we live.  We view this power as undermining democracy and rolling back our society’s organization to autocratic rule by a few.   We study movements here and elsewhere that have organized to develop collective power to respond to this domination.  Historically among the disenfranchised, these movements have often been supported by allies in institutions. We view individualism as an institutional strategy that undermines collective power among those who need it most, and examine how groups respond to individualism.

JPS 400:  Violence in America

Sanjay Marwah

This course examines the causes, consequences, and prevention of violence in American society from an interdisciplinary perspective. Different forms of violence including interpersonal, group, governmental, and political are examined historically, empirically, and theoretically. The focus is on explaining patterns of violence (and their temporal, spatial, and societal distribution) and understanding the different policies and interventions to prevent and reduce violence in America.

JPS 450:  Truth and Reconciliation: From South Africa to Greensboro

Jill Williams

Exploring a community’s obligation to seek justice for past wrongs, this seminar focuses on which wrongs should be considered, how far in the past to reach, what justice looks like, and how a community reaches it.  The concepts of truth and reconciliation are central as we examine international truth and reconciliation commissions (TRCs) and truth recovery efforts in the United States, with a particular focus on the South African and Greensboro TRCs.  The seminar is taught by Jill Williams, former executive Director of the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

MUS 273: Performance Studies in Guitar

Michael Chamis

Performance Studies in Guitar provides an avenue for music majors or concentrators to develop technique and repertoire for classical guitar through personalized, one-on-one instruction.  Classical guitar technique, such as left-hand string crossing and barres, and right-hand arpeggios are approached through classical guitar literature.  Beginning and intermediate solo literature is studied to develop reading skills for guitar and to introduce beginning and intermediate concepts of fingering and musical expression.  Students have opportunities to perform their pieces in weekly Rep Classes and at on-campus musical events.

PSCI 350: Violence and Politics

Maria Rosales

This writing-intensive upper-level course is an exploration into the theoretical and actual connections between violence and politics.  After a brief foray into political psychology, we will examine and critique the views of theorists such as Freud, Fanon, Foucault, Girard, and Arendt.  We will end the class by analyzing specific violent events in light of these theories.

PSCI 316: China and the World

George Guo

This course examines China's contemporary international relations and the major elements of Chinese foreign policy today, in the context of their development since 1949. It explores the origins and conduct of Chinese policy and analyzes the full range of Chinese foreign policies including military, political, and economic aspects. While we examine how the rise of China is affecting global power relations, as well as Chinese policy toward key functional issues in international affairs, we seek to understand the sources (decision-making processes, power distribution, the role of leadership etc.) and the factors – organizational, geographical, cultural, historical, ideological, and so on– that influence Chinese foreign policy. The course also pays particular attention to analyzing Chinese foreign policy behavior to the theories of international relations and policy issues facing decision-makers in China as well as those facing decision-makers in other countries who deal with China.

PSY 350: Leadership

Julia Jacks

This special topics course focuses on leadership and the leadership process.  Students will examine primary literature representative of the breadth and complexity of the issues associated with understanding leaders and how they lead.  Specific issues addressed include leader traits, the role of gender in leadership and leadership-emergence, leader behavior, contingency theories, transformational/charismatic leadership, leadership as power and influence, leader-follower relationships, and the “dark side” of leadership.  The course will also provide students with an opportunity for self-assessment of their own leadership traits, behavior, and potential.  

PSY 350: Applied Developmental Psychology

Karen  Hayes

This semester our chief objective will be to address the basic question of how can knowledge gained from research be applied to policy making and to educational, clinical and social settings.   We will study and experience applications of developmental science to issues, policies, and problems concerning children and child development at the local, state, and national level. Students will be challenged to consider a child’s developmental status when assessing, relating to researching and intervening with children. Students will explore such topics as ethical issues in applied developmental psychology, media and children's programming, nutrition and hunger, children in the judicial system, the design and role of children's museums, violence exposure, child abuse/neglect, bullying and victimization, family conflict and the development of children's toys, games, and recreational activities. Professionals in this field need to develop an in-depth understanding of how public policy affects children's lives, how to make pure research comprehensible and practical without losing its complexity, and how to work in interdisciplinary teams. Guest professionals (local and state) and observations of children will be regular aspects of the course.  Students will be required to complete 30 hours of fieldwork/service learning at designated agencies around Greensboro.   Students enrolled in this are required to have completed both Psychology 100 (General Psychology) and Psychology 224 (Developmental Psychology).

REL 284:  The Spread of Buddhism Across Asia.  CRN: 10804

Eric Mortensen

This course will begin with a study of the life of the Buddha, the early formation of Buddhism, and the Mahayana reformation.  We will then enter into the main body of the class which will consist of the study of the diffusion of Mahayana Buddhism across Central Asia, China, and into Japan & Korea.  We will spend some time investigating the later spread of Tantric Buddhism into Tibetan and Mongolian areas, but the majority of the course will address the religions of East Asia.  The course will examine the religious traditions “on the ground” prior to the arrival of Buddhism in various areas, including Shamanism, Daoism, Confucianism, Bön, Shinto, so-called “Animism,” and various local traditions.  Thereby, using the spread of Buddhism as a subject of inquiry, we will be introduced to many other religious traditions in Asia.  In the process of learning about these local traditions we will inquire as to the extent to which such traditions can best be understood as religions, philosophies, or socio-political systems.  We will question the extent to which these local traditions influenced the forms of Buddhism that arrived, and vice verca.  We will also examine the specific ways in which Buddhism spread, including:  textual transmission; lineages; Buddhist kings; missionaries and translator-monks; the roll of fear in conversion; war; and the struggle of local traditions against the establishment of Buddhism.  We will also look closely at theories of comparative religion and their utility as methodologies of academic inquiry, and the relationship between religion and culture more generally.  This course fulfills the Intercultural requirement, and counts for East Asian Studies.  There are no prerequisites for this course. 

REL 318: Tibetan & Himalayan Religions CRN: 10805

Eric Mortensen

In this course we will study the various major religious traditions of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau.  The majority of our attention will be paid to Vajrayana (or “Tantric”) Buddhism in its various forms in Tibet.  We will examine the complex schools of Tibetan Buddhism, their histories and lineages, meditative traditions, and doctrines.  We will also learn about Bön, Shamanism, and the religions of various minority groups (Chinese “shaoshu minzu”) in the area of Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces of China, as well as the traditions of groups throughout the Indian, Nepalese, Bhutanese, and Burmese Himalaya.  This is a region with hundreds of languages, and a rich mixture of cultural and religious traditions.  We will also look closely at the state of religion in Tibet today, and discuss the effects of the Chinese occupation of Tibet, the effects of the dynamics of modernization and tourism on local religion, and the recent internationalization of Tibetan Buddhism.  This is an advanced course, and although there are no prerequisites for the course, it is recommended that you have taken at least one course in philosophy, anthropology, or religious studies.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the instructor: Eric D. Mortensen (tel: 336.316.2357, or email: emortens@guilford.edu).  This course fulfills the Intercultural and the Humanities requirements.

REL 350: 19th and 20th Century Quaker Women Reformers

John and Carol  Stoneburner

This will be a research seminar. There will be common reading giving an overview of Quakerism and several areas of reform work: abolitionism, temperance, education, medicine, women’s rights, Native American rights, Equal rights, labor issues and rights, consumer rights, prison reform, internationalism and peace.

Each student will do research either on an individual reformer or a group of reformers in one area of reform. Students will present their findings to the seminar three times during the semester. Our common research will focus on the following questions (as well as question that emerge): Spiritual and ethical disciplines; methods of reform used and those resisted; development of social consciousness; learning the skills of organization, analysis, communications, etc; collaborations entered and those resisted; and their effects on other reformers, male and female. We will also focus on the way these women used existing methods of research and analysis but also invented new ways to study issues and then develop complementary methods to work for change.

Some of the women to be studied are Lucretia Mott, Abby Kelly Foster, Sarah and Angelina Grimke, Sarah Pugh, Florence Kelly, Edith Abbott, Emily Greene Balch, Alice Paul and Elise Boudling. Permission to enroll from John Stoneburner.

SOAN 350: Social Stratification

Ben Judkins

All societies wrestle with the question of how to distribute wealth, power, and privilege.  Some are relatively egalitarian and others are significantly unequal.  How this process becomes institutionalized into a system of structured inequality and opportunity is the sociological study of social stratification. Although some attention will be given to global stratification, the main focus of this course will be on the United States. It will be organized around five broad questions:

SPAN 350: Spanish Advanced Grammar
Alfonso Abad Mancheño
This class expands grammar points of particular difficulty to English speakers: advanced conversation, vocabulary & grammar, and reading & writing in Spanish. It includes substantial reading, movie watching, community service, and guided composition. As a prerequisite, you should have taken SPAN 202, or have had very significant exposure to Spanish in other ways (i.e. study abroad, traveling, missionary or peace corps work, etc.). If you are not sure, please see me so I can evaluate your fluency before you register for the class.

SPST 250:  Women’s Health Issues in a Multicultural America

Kathy Tritschler

This course will examine a broad range of health issues that are either unique to women – or -- of particular importance to women (e.g., pregnancy, body image, eating disorders, osteoporosis). The interface of gender, socioeconomic disadvantage, and minority status will be emphasized, with particular attention to gender bias in medicine and healthcare disparities between women of the dominant culture and minority group women (e.g., African American, Latina, Native American, lesbians, disabled, female athletes). Feminist theory provides the framework for exploring these issues.

Course fulfills the Social Justice / Environmental Responsibility curriculum requirement. It is also an approved course for the major and concentration in Women’s Studies.

SPST 250: Higher Education And Intercollegiate Athletics: A Sometimes Uneasy Alliance

Bob Malekoff

Amid great debate about its appropriate place within the academy, intercollegiate athletics has played an integral and undeniably significant role in the American system of higher education since the mid-nineteenth century. This course will include an historical overview of college sport (1850 - present), and will focus on a variety of events and issues that speak to the impact of intercollegiate athletics at colleges and universities. Topics include--among others--the debate surrounding required academic standards for college athletes, athletic department relationships with corporate entities, the impact of sports programs on campus culture, the role of college and university presidents in intercollegiate athletics, and how college sports interacts with Title IX. Through readings and discussions we will consider various prescriptive alternatives for the challenges facing the contemporary college sports model.

THEA 250:  Narrative Production

Chad Phillips

This course introduces students to the production of a short form screenplay.  Students will complete the entire production process, including screenwriting, production, and postproduction, as well as analyze existing short fiction films.  The course emphasizes the dynamics of narrative structure (through the production of two short scripts), the aesthetics of shooting video on location, and the techniques of digital editing.  

THEA 250: Theatre Appreciation

Tim Hanna

This course introduces the student to the fundamentals of theatre, in both theory and practice. Study provides the student with a wider understanding of dramatic literature (mostly Western, but with some Eastern/international authors); exposes the students to dramatic literature in performance; develops the student's critical and interpretive skills of both literature and performance; and offers the student a comprehensive understanding of how the collaborative process informs a theatre production. (meets 1 evening per week on Thursdays 7-10:20pm)

THEA 250: Acting 2 - "Creating the World"

David Hammond

The work of the actor in reorganizing the self into another human being in the circumstances and world of the play: bringing to mental and physical life immediate and historic circumstances through techniques of particularization, research, and personalization; applying sensory techniques to bring moment-to-moment physical life to a personalized environment; and finding personal connections to the life experience of a character through journal work, affective memory, transference, substitution, and other techniques. The emphasis of the work will be on making both immediate and historic circumstances part of the actor's actual experience in the moment rather than intellectual concepts or guidelines for consciously selected behavior. Scene work will include material from three contrasting plays, each offering different challenges in
exploration and problem-solving.

WMST 450: Women’s Studies Senior Forum                      

Kathryn Schmidt

This one-credit course helps Women’s Studies majors and concentrators integrate the various pieces of their Women’s Studies majors and other majors, discern their next steps in life, and practice articulating the skills they can offer the world. Students reflect on their personal journeys in feminist theory, research, and action.  Overall, the seminar prepares seniors for a personal and professional transition to their lives’ next phases.

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HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE COURSES

ENG 151: HP  The Dream and the Nightmare: America in the 1960s

Eleanor Branch

Nearly a half century after the Civil Rights Movement, Watergate, and the emergence of a youth-oriented counterculture, historians continue to debate the deeper significance of the 1960s. As one of the most controversial decades of the 20th century, this period is often viewed as the impetus for discrete social movements initiated by the Black struggle for Civil Rights in the 1950s, as the fulfillment of democracy and the end of traditional American values. But no historical period is that simple to define and there is never just one way to understand or interpret past events. In this class, it will be up to you to develop a meaningful relationship to and analysis of this period in history. To do so, we will be looking at a variety of primary and secondary sources in print, in film and on the web with an eye towards understanding history – in this case the period between 1945 and 1974 -- as a matter of perspective, interpretation, and debate. We will also be developing techniques to evaluate the significance of various sources and the soundness of the ways in which they have traditionally been understood.

ENG 151: E Pluribus Unum: Democracy and the Creation of an American Self

Jenn Brown

For the Greeks, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey served, in part, to argue a complex and recognizable Greek identity out of centuries of storytelling.  In the nascent United States, newly formed in the words of a few documents and already a player on the world’s stage, to say what was American was to create it.  This required acts of imagination and rhetorical acuity as striking as those which built the Constitution, and as necessary for the continued success of the great experiment.  In this course, we will examine the period in American history between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars in order to gain a sense of the ways in which ideals associated with democratic government inflected the developing meaning of American identity.  Essential questions will include the following: Who was included in the term “American”?  What gaps existed between the ideal American and real Americans?  From what sources did thinkers and writers draw to create an idealized identity and why? How did the term “American” function as a rhetorical tool?  Naturally, we will be tempted to consider current notions of what “American” means in light of our discoveries.

ENG 151 HP  Excess and Despair: Literature and History of the 1920’s

Rod Spellman

“Excess and Despair: Literature and History of the 1920’s” asks students to confront multiple, and often conflicting, perspectives of the 1920’s in the United States of America. We will start by looking at the way their currently held beliefs about the ‘20s have been shaped by current media depictions of the era, and we will put those beliefs and depictions in opposition to those of the authors, poets, musicians, and filmmakers who lived and worked during the age in order to analyze the way art creates and sustains particular visions of history. Because the 1920’s were a critical turning point in American history, our class will pay particular attention to the shifts in culture, politics, and social roles of the decade—especially those that still resonate in our society: equality between races and genders; the divide between wealth and poverty; tradition versus youth culture; and the politics of morality. Students will analyze these shifts by reading competing historical interpretations and primary sources from the time.

This course is designed to train students in the conventions of academic research and writing, using historical methods. Students should expect to read between 50 and 100 pages per week, including scholarly overviews of the era and primary documents that offer multiple perspectives on the specific issues and changes that define the 1920’s. Students can also expect to write 15 to 20 pages during the semester on assignments that will help build their analytical and research skills.

ENGL 151  HP  Women in Ancient Greece

Carol Hoppe

That women have lived under a patriarchal system in almost every known period is a fact that few dispute—even those who hope someday to find evidence of matriarchies in pre-history.  In Eva Keul’s words, “such dominance of men over women in the public sphere has been almost universal.”  Modern women have a particular reason to study the distant past: by understanding the earliest patriarchies, which restricted and codified women’s lives in ways that are still visible today, they hope to gain insight into traditional attitudes that inhibit their own freedom.

In this course we will investigate one of those early societies—Greece—from the Bronze Age to the Classical period.  As the best known source of many other Western practices, such as democracy, legal codes, competitive athletics and medicine, it has special interest for American women.  Few documents about women have survived from ancient times, but those that remain offer fascinating glimpses of women’s lives, from slaves and prostitutes to noblewomen sequestered in their husbands’ villas.  By examining these records, as well as myths, the tales of Homer, poetry by Sappho, plays by Sophocles and Euripides, vase painting, and the earliest western histories, we will try to discover the way Greek women lived.  Were real women as powerful as the personalities of drama?  Was bisexuality tolerated, as it was among men?  How did the restrictions on female nudity in sculpture, testimony in court, and ownership of property affect women’s lives?  Though we may not be able to answer all of these questions, we will discover a good deal about Greek attitudes toward women and better understand some of the historical restrictions women are still trying to combat today.

Participants should be prepared to read a great deal, write 3 papers, and prepare a few group projects outside of class: a presentation on a topic of personal interest, peer editing of papers, and a panel discussion of issues. Counts toward Women’s Studies major

ENG 151: HP  World Responses to AIDS (1981-2003)

Nicole McFarlane

Course Description:  The AIDS phenomenon has been understood through shifting frameworks over time.  This semester we will look at AIDS through the interdisciplinary lenses of literary responses (short stories, poetry, plays), the popular media (news and magazine articles, television, movies), as well as public policy (laws, health regulations, institutional decisions and ethics).  We will conduct historical investigations into the stereotypes and assumptions made explicit by the discourses that have contributed to the complex interactions among local and global populations relating to the syndrome.  As we look critically at the contesting narratives surrounding AIDS, we will focus on questions of class, race, gender, sexuality, and ability that affect our capacity to recognize the contributions and limitations of various disciplinary approaches.  By focusing on the period between 1981, the year of the first documented AIDS case, and 2003, the year of the second Bush Administration President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), students will learn how to integrate these approaches to produce a more historicized analysis of AIDS.

ENGL 151: HP King Arthur--Then & Now
Heather Hayton
This writing-intensive HP course will focus on the legends, folktales, romances, and epics of King Arthur--the mythical King of the Britons who will return to help his people in their moment of need. Beginning with the earliest mentions of Arthur in 6th century Welsh texts, we will examine various points in the story's development through time to modern filmic versions. Throughout, we will trace how the mythic stories of Camelot and the knights of the round table respond to, and help to construct, cultural and national identity and the development of law, systems of justice, and personal responsibility. Using King Arthur as our lens, we can also view how the island of Britannia developed from a conquered and invaded people to the British Empire of the late 19th century?and gauge global responses to this British hero.

ENG 151-007, 009. HP: Fairies, Rebels, Carobs, & Witches
Caroline McAlister
Shakespeare has often been taught as a great writer whose works are universal and timeless. However, in this course we will try to return Shakespeare to his time and place, reading him as a product and producer of a specific moment in history. We will cover four plays written between 1595 and 1611, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, and The Tempest, along with contemporary historical documents. We will read A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the context of representations of Queen Elizabeth 1. We will study The Merchant of Venice along with documents pertaining to the execution of Queen Elizabeth’s Jewish physician, Roderigo Lopez. We will analyze Macbeth in conjunction with the gunpowder plot and the North Berwick Witch Trials. Finally, we will study The Tempest’s relationship to the discovery and colonization of America. My goal is for students to begin to question artificial distinctions between literature and history, text and context.

GEOL 250 : HP Climate and History

Dave Dobson

This course will examine the roles that global climate and climate change have played in the evolution and progress of human beings and their cultures.  We will discuss the origin of humans and our primate ancestors, the climate-driven migration and expansion of early humanity, the origin and geographic distribution of ancient and classical cultures in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.  We will explore early humans' growing awareness of the sun and the stars, and we will also study the response of cultures and societies to climate change during the last two millennia from a number of angles, including subsistence, war, commerce, cultural development, invention, and exploration.

We will not attempt a broad survey of the history of the world; instead, we will examine transitional points in human history that coincided with transitions in climate, and we will explore how much of the historical change (if any) may have been climate-driven.  Finally, we will explore modern climate change, caused not by external natural forces but by our own societies, technologies, and lifestyles.  We will attempt to predict its impact on our culture, and we will explore climate regulation.

HIST 102:  HP The Web of Europe Since 1400

Tim Kircher

This course will cover movements in European life beginning with the Renaissance and ending with the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet empire. The history of this period will be viewed as a web of causes and effects linking events across these centuries. Two of the most important changes we shall consider are the transformation of religion in Europe and the consequent rise of political and social theories that dominate the modern world-view. How these changes affected people's lives will be analyzed through the medium of culture: literature, philosophy, and art. The course aims to provide students with a historical perspective towards issues that govern contemporary debate, for example nature vs. nurture (genetics vs. environment) and individual autonomy vs. communal obligations.

HIST 104: HP The US since 1877
Matthew Andrews.
This course examines the major issues in American history since 1877, an era of remarkable technological, artistic, social, cultural, economic, and political transformations. Among the course's chief topics of inquiry are: America’s growing presence in global affairs; how war abroad changes life at home; the lives of workers in a rapidly changing industrial society; the role of religion in American life; the black civil rights movement and the fight against the color line; and the changing ideals of manhood and womanhood.
This course also interrogates the meaning of "liberty" in America. Americans, have never been of one mind about the meaning of liberty, nor have they always agreed about the best way to secure liberty for themselves and their nation. In this course we will study how these different perspectives sometimes peacefully coexisted while at other times became the subject of immense public conflict and debate—disagreements that still reverberate today. In short, over the span of the semester this course will introduce you to multiple perspectives, encourage you to construct your own well-reasoned interpretation of American history, and challenge you to support the claims you make.
As a Historical Perspectives course, a key way that you will construct and support your claims is through writing and research. This class is part history course and part writing workshop, and through your work with historical sources and historians' interpretations, you will gain critical reading, thinking, and writing skills that you can use in all of your courses and beyond. You will write and revise 15-20 pages over the course of the semester. This is a writing- and participation-intensive course, in which you will not simply be learning historical facts, but actively interpreting them yourselves.

HIST 221: HP The Changing Face of the American South: A Demographic History of North Carolina.
Alvis Dunn.
In this course we shall explore the demographic history of North Carolina from before the European invasion to the present. In the process we shall grapple with the idea and definition of immigrant, foreigner and outsider. Some historians contend that over time in the United States a ruling class has attempted to set the parameters of what is considered American, what is Southern, and even what is North Carolinian. These scholars suggest that as this ruling class has evolved, so have the definitions applied to those included as well as those excluded. In History 221 we will read articles, books, websites and primary sources in order to evaluate that claim. Early on in North Carolina Native Americans vied with one another for control and power. Later on groups of Europeans joined that battle. More recently African Americans, Hispanics and other groups have struggled with these issues as regionalism, race, class, gender, religious difference, and ethnicity have served to foster alliances and divisions within the state. We will explore these themes through varied written assignments culminating in a final research project on a topic which fits within the broad definition of demographic change over time.

HIST 238: HP War and Peace 20th Century Europe

Philip Slaby

Rapid and intense change has characterized European history from 1914 to the present.  In these decades, Europe has experienced the unparalleled destruction of First and Second World Wars and periods of often-uneasy peace; it has endured economic disaster in the Great Depression and has enjoyed decades of prosperity.  Further, throughout such upheaval and developments, Europe served as the primary battleground in clash between the ideologies of liberal democracy, socialism, fascism, and communism.  This course examines the diplomatic, political, socio-economic, and cultural developments that defined and shaped Europe in the twentieth century.  It will deepen the students' understanding of this period through lecture, discussion, secondary readings, and through the analysis of primary documents. Hist 238 may also fulfils the Historical Perspectives requirement.  In this writing-intensive section, students will hone the thinking, reading, and writing skills necessary for substantive and successful college-level writing.  They will learn approaches to understanding, analyzing, and evaluating a variety of often challenging texts.  Moreover, they will translate their insights, research, and findings into well-reasoned, well-supported, and well-written essays.  Throughout the semester, participants will draft and revise papers both in class and outside of it.

REL 250-HP: The Religions of the Minorities of Southwest China.  CRN: 10643

Eric Mortensen

In this Historical Perspectives class we will study the religious traditions of the Naxi, Tibetans, Yi, Lisu, Moso, & Bai peoples of Southwest China.  Each of these minority ethnicities live in the northwestern mountains of Yunnan Province (and adjacent Sichuan, Tibet, and Burma) at the eastern end of the Himalayas.  These groups have distinct languages, material cultures, myths, ritual traditions, festivals, and differing religious connections to the land in which they live.  Nevertheless, they all share important modes of religious practice, forms of divination, views of cosmology, and folklore.  In the first part of the course we will investigate the ways in which we can best understand these peoples in a comparative context.  Utilizing ethnographic, historical, philological, and folkloric materials, we will learn about the similarities and differences of the religions of the region as they were traditionally practiced prior to the founding of the P. R. China in 1949.  Following the founding of the P. R. China, fundamental changes in the religious lives of these peoples greatly accelerated.  The second part of the course will examine the imposed classification of China’s “minzu” (a term which can simultaneously mean “nation,” “nationality,” “ethnicity,” and “minority”), discuss the resultant issues of identity, identity loss, the relationship between culture and religion, and the influx of huge numbers of Han Chinese “outsiders” into the region.  The Chinese “Cultural Revolution” (1966-1976) systematically devastated the religious lives of these peoples, with the Tibetans, and Yi suffering the worst, and the Naxi, Moso, Lisu, and Bai faring only somewhat better.  We will look into the historical and religious reasons behind these dynamics.  Religious (and cultural) authenticity faces new threats today with the advent of mass tourism to the now exoticized and re-mystified region, and we will study the effects of the commercialization of religion in the area.  Throughout the course we will ask ourselves questions pertaining to the importance of religious identity, the dynamic relationships between religious and ethnic identity, the importance of the natural world in the religious traditions and the impact of environmental destruction on religious life.  We will take as the centerpiece of the course the radical shift in the religious landscape of Southwest China that accompanied and followed the 1949 creation of the P. R. China.  We will endeavor, in this class, to write about the questions and issues saturating the lives of the peoples whose dynamic histories we study.  Rather than selecting only convenient evidence and data which supports preconceived conclusions, we will learn to allow the honest range of evidence and data gathered from our studies to inform our academic conclusions, and thereby nuance, complicate, and enrich our writing and critical thinking.  On day one we will leave the realm of black & white conclusions far behind, and concern ourselves with the methodologies of coming to conclusions consisting of inquiry, questions, and subtle texture.

SOAN 105: HP Anthropology of Colonialism.
Tom Guthrie.
This introduction to historical anthropology explores European colonialism, one of the defining forces of the modern world, in cross-cultural and historical perspective, from the late fifteenth century to the present day. The structure of the course will highlight changes and continuities in colonial practices through time, including the enduring legacy of colonialism in a “postcolonial” world. Rather than aiming for comprehensive coverage (a project that could easily become a survey of world history), we will focus on the social and cultural dimensions of colonialism as it was experienced in particular times and places, beginning with the Americas and moving to Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. This case study approach will allow us to explore the disciplinary intersection of anthropology and history (sometimes referred to as ethnohistory), investigating colonialism not as one uniform phenomenon but as a set of encounters that varied greatly from one time and place to another. Ethnographic and ethnohistorical analyses of specific colonial encounters will help us understand the ideological context of European conquest, settlement, and exploitation and how colonialism worked on the ground, not just through military domination but also through more subtle assertions of power. Special attention will be paid to the point of view of the colonized, whose perspective is often excluded from written records. The course concludes with an investigation of decolonization in the twentieth century and the struggles of people living in former colonies to assert postcolonial identities.
One of our principal concerns will be to understand how ethnocentrism (and specifically Eurocentrism) made European colonialism possible. Yet even as Europeans felt themselves to be superior to all other peoples, their understanding of themselves was significantly shaped by interactions with “the Other.” The study of colonialism thus reveals an important feature of identity formation in the dialectic of Self and Other. The course explores emergent beliefs about cultural difference that structured colonial encounters throughout the world and treats otherness not simply as a given fact but as a socially constructed ideology. Anthropology (the study of cultural—and colonial—Others) provides an alternative way of thinking about cultural difference that is relativistic and holistic. (The important fact that anthropology is itself a discipline with deep colonial roots will be acknowledged, but the class will not entail a sustained history or critique of anthropology, which is beyond its scope.)

SOAN 250 HP: Epidemics in Historical Perspective
Martha Lang
In this course we will examine the social, cultural and demographic impact of three major U.S. epidemics of the 20th century: Spanish Flu, Polio and HIV/AIDS. Our work will begin with a look at the Black Death. We will learn how an epidemic that occurred on another continent over 600 years still impacts US society socially and culturally. Our examination of the Black Death will also serve as a starting point for mastering the fundamentals of social epidemiology and related areas of social demography. From there we will turn our attention to Spanish Flu, a relatively brief epidemic that killed over half a million in the United States alone. We will then focus on polio, a disease that came in several epidemic waves throughout the first half of the twentieth century. Our exploration of each disease will center on six areas: 1) biological factors, 2) social epidemiology, 3) societal responses and social meanings, 4) patterns of blaming marginalized groups for creating and/or spreading epidemic disease, 6) public health/public policy responses and 5) shifts in perception of disease and epidemic over time. The final section of the course will be devoted to building a sociological framework for explaining patterns of societal response to epidemic and the way in which these responses change over time.

THEA 151/ENG 151 HP: Birth of the Avant-Garde
Tim Hanna
This course focuses on the theatrical avant-garde that grew out of Romanticism and Europe's failed Revolutions of 1848. Our study progresses from the birth of Realism/Naturalism in the late 19th century to the resulting anti-Realism/Naturalism counter reactions of the early 20th century. Finally, we finish by examining contemporary works that utilize avant-garde stylistic elements. Readings and class discussions link the style of each period to social and historic currents, individual people and watershed events. Primary and secondary source documents, music, art and
videos/films aid in developing a deeper understanding of the unique performance nature of each style in this dynamic period that marks the beginning of the modern age.

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HONORS COURSES

BIOL 114: General Zoology
Tom Tucker

In General Zoology, we survey the diversity of organisms from the level of biological macromolecules to animal behavior. In the beginning of the semester, Weconsider the challenge of defining life, contemplate the origins of life on earth, and examine the structure and function of animal cells, cell division, and the molecular basis of inheritance.Evaluating the multitude of ways that animals meet their biological needs, weanalyze varieties of reproduction and development, perform comparative studies of major organ systems, andprobe the amazing diversity of sensory and movement systems. We investigate profound questions about the similarities and differences between animals, the evidence that species change over time, and the reasoning behind Darwin's theory of evolution. We complete the semester by exploring unique aspects of animal behavior and communication, cooperative and competitive interactions between species, the sustainability of ecosystems, and the impact of human activity on the environment.

ECON 250 / HIST250: Honors: US Economic History

Bob Williams

The US experience can be viewed as an unfolding of great tensions between countervailing pressures, including freedom and enslavement, prosperity and poverty, opportunity and control, diversity and assimilation, and exploitation and stewardship.In this class, we will examine these dynamic tensions as we explore the changing economic and social institutions and their impact on the material conditions of past Americans.The class will focus on the changing nature of work as a way of making sense of the larger social, economic, and technological forces that have swept through our history.And we will examine these historical experiences to shed insight on our contemporary institutions and policies.

We will read a variety of readings from historians, economists, and contemporary observers.Students will engage in several, small research projects to deepen their understanding of the issues and develop their research and analytical skills using a variety of historical sources.Students will present their work both in oral presentations and in writing.

ENGL 342 Honors: American Romanticism

Jeff Jeske

This course will approach the mid-19th-century American Renaissance with an interdisciplinary lens, studying the literary works of Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman both in their own right and in relation to previous American literary and intellectual traditions as well as American painting of the period, chiefly the works of such Hudson River School artists as Thomas Cole, Asher Durand, Frederick Church, and Alfred Bierstadt.

Our goal is to discover what “romanticism” means in the context of mid-nineteenth century America, especially when we complicate the definition by delving deep into subsequent critical conversation about these works. We will focus on representations of nature, both literal and figurative, as keys to the sometimes radically diverse ways that our course writers theorized about the essence, value, and interrelationships of man, the physical world, and God.

The course will include a field trip to Washington, DC, to view paintings at the National Gallery and the Museum of American Art. Course prerequisite: honors program membership or permission of instructor.

REL 318: Tibetan & Himalayan Religions.

Eric Mortensen

In this course we will study the various major religious traditions of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau. The majority of our attention will be paid to Vajrayana (or “Tantric”) Buddhism in its various forms in Tibet. We will examine the complex schools of Tibetan Buddhism, their histories and lineages, meditative traditions, and doctrines. We will also learn about Bön, Shamanism, and the religions of various minority groups (Chinese “shaoshu minzu”) in the area of Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces of China, as well as the traditions of groups throughout the Indian, Nepalese, Bhutanese, and Burmese Himalaya. This is a region with hundreds of languages, and a rich mixture of cultural and religious traditions. We will also look closely at the state of religion in Tibet today, and discuss the effects of the Chinese occupation of Tibet, the effects of the dynamics of modernization and tourism on local religion, and the recent internationalization of Tibetan Buddhism. There are no prerequisites for this course, but at least one prior course in religious studies, history, or philosophy is highly recommended.

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IDS 400 COURSES

IDS 402: Business Ethics

Garland Granger, Eileen Gillis, Betty Kane

This course is designed as a seminar course, which entails class discussion and requires your active participation.  The main objective is for each of you to discover for yourselves the core of our moral and ethical basis for decision-making in the workplace.  The course will utilize the case study approach to assist you in applying the principles discussed in class so that you will have a firm foundation for handling ethical problems when they arise (and they always do).

IDS 419: Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Life

Chris Johnson

For at least the past 50 years, philosophers, biologists, computer scientists, and psychologists have addressed the subject of this course by exploring how the human brain works, by building machines and computer programs that aim to mimic intelligent or living systems, and by arguing over whether a machine that implemented such a program successfully is in fact “intelligent” or “alive.” The simplistic summary of this course is “Life is pretty easy. Intelligence is really hard.” We will examine the history, current state and future prospects of artificial intelligence and artificial life through exploration of the technology, algorithms and the philosophical and social issues of this field. We will work with and develop a number of programs that claim some level of intelligence or life. Prerequisite: CMIT 100: Introduction to Computer Programming or equivalent programming experience.

IDS 426: Legal Decisions

Kelly Thompson

This course provides an upper-division introduction to the interdisciplinary study of legal decision-making.  As American citizens, we understand that we have greater individual rights than citizens of most other nations.  This course will explore the nature and scope of our rights as citizens and some of the legal principles and procedures that limit and guide interactions in the American legal system.  The emphasis will be on legal decision-making but the course is not intended to be a comprehensive survey of the discipline of law.  The hierarchy and relationship between levels of law will be addressed.   We will study the attributes, structure and broad cultural, social and historical foundations of the laws, which are a part of the landscape of justice and injustice in contemporary American society.  We will delve on the historical roots of common law and the different origins of the diverse rules of law.  We will also analyze the political and corporate alliance in manufacturing and enforcing the laws of our country.  We will use, throughout the semester, historical and contemporary sociological analysis, videos and newspaper articles in order to gain a broad perspective on the subject by putting our daily lives into context.

IDS 441: Environmental Psychology

Eva Lawrence

Environmental Psychology examines the connection between human attitudes and behaviors and the natural environment in which we live. The course integrates the theories and concepts of Psychology and Biology (more specifically sociobiology, human physiology, and human evolution). We will examine environmental problems and their solutions from both a biological and psychological perspective, investigate biological drives that underlie psychological processes, and consider how biology and psychology interact in the development and maintenance of human attitudes and behaviors.

IDS 452: The Cultural History of Ancient Greece from Homer to the Death of Socrates

Timothy Kircher

This seminar is designed, by employing interdisciplinary methods, to introduce the student to the history of culture in archaic and classical Greece.  Students will trace the transformations in Greek culture by comparing how the Greeks, at successive times in their history, understood key cultural ideas, which they developed and elaborated in the course of their history.  Readings include Homer, Greek historians, and Plato.

Prerequisite:  HP or instructor

IDS 463: Explorations of Consciousness

Tom Tucker

There is nothing that we know more intimately than consciousness, but there is nothing that is harder to understand.  As one of the greatest unsolved mysteries, the nature of consciousness is being actively investigated through multiple approaches: the field of psychology is revealing that consciousness is inextricably tied to our perception, cognition and sense of a personal self; the field of biology is unveiling tantalizing connections between consciousness and brain activity; and the field of philosophy is developing theories that lead us to ponder the essence of our being.  Nonetheless, consciousness continues to elude our grasp.  In this course, we will grapple with leading philosophical theories about the nature of consciousness, probe relationships between consciousness, brain and behavior, and ultimately peer into our own individual experience of consciousness.  Prerequisites: Any three courses from Philosophy, Biology and Psychology; or consent of instructor.

IDS 464: Gender Violence

Kathryn Schmidt

This course explores the complex interrelationships among gender, sexuality, and violence.  It examines historical, cultural, and social structural bases of numerous forms of gender violence, including sexual harassment, rape, and domestic violence, as well as the use of gender violence in war and military contexts. The links between violence and socialization into gender roles and gender as an institution serve as overarching concepts.  Special attention is paid to methods for understanding and responding to gender violence individually and collectively.  Using materials and insights from the disciplines of sociology, anthropology, psychology, history, and literature, we will examine how different groups of people have studied and worked to end gender violence. 

IDS 466: Great Goddess, Dying God: Mythological Archetypes in Art and Literature

Carol Hoppe

Though most of the world’s major religions are headed by male deities, this was not the case in prehistoric times.  In much of southern Europe and the Near East, the supreme god was female.  Myth and art reveal the reign of a Great Goddess, often accompanied by a dying (or sacrificed) son/lover, from the Paleolithic caves of France and Spain to Greece, Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Egypt.  We will trace the images and stories of the ancient goddess in our study of art and literature, with input from history, religious studies, anthropology, women’s studies, and psychology; thus, the course should appeal to students with expertise in all of these subjects.  The period of study encompasses the high point of goddess worship in Neolithic agricultural societies to its incorporation in Classical pantheons and its disguises in the Christian era.

IDS 468:  Religion, Spirituality, and Social Change

Shelini Harris

This is an interdisciplinary course that analyzes the role of religion and spirituality in motivating and sustaining struggles for social change. The works of activists who discuss their reasons for engaging in these struggles, their analyses of what constitutes social injustice, and their rationale for their methods of struggle will be read and analyzed in terms of the influence of each individual’s religious beliefs and/or spirituality. In doing so the course addresses the significance of this ultimate depth and height of humanity’s existence as a source or vehicle for transforming the mundane and the material, thereby creating an understanding of the inextricable interconnection between body and mind, the mundane and the transcendent, the seen and the unseen, or the sacred and the profane.

IDS 469/PSCI 450  Leadership

Robert Duncan 

Leadership represents a set of skills that measure individual success regardless of discipline or field of study.  This course provides students with a leadership practicum in which they will assess their own leadership skills, and then work on developing and improving these skills.  The course begins with a survey of various leadership theories including an assessment of the student’s preferred situational leadership style.  Building from the inside out, personal leadership traits are then introduced to include ethics, personal/work habits, and problem solving skills.  Interpersonal skills are then added to include listening, dealing with conflict and anger, counseling and feedback, dealing with difficult people, and understanding personalities (Myers Briggs).  Lastly, students will focus on group leadership skills including team dynamics, how to make effective presentations, power and influence, how to conduct effective meetings, and creative problem solving.  In addition, students will research and prepare a 15-20 page paper on the leadership characteristics of a modern day leader—from a discipline of their choice—and present a 10 minute classroom presentation on their findings.

IDS 472: Environmental Planning

Angie Moore

The purpose of this course is to give students an introduction to the interdisciplinary methods and tools used to assess the current status of environmentally sensitive areas, to protect natural resources and ecosystems, and to the management and preservation of existing greenspaces.  Students will also be exposed to some of the innovative processes and advances for the design of more sustainable living spaces.  We will integrate discussion of local and federal policies relevant to planning issues.  Students will be expected and encouraged to apply their disciplinary knowledge to a semester long project, which will be a collaborative, in-depth study of an environmental problem.

IDS 4xx : Good Work  if You Can Get It: Creativity, Vocation, and Success

Maia Dery

The primary objective of this experiential course will be to help students begin to acquire tools that will help them explore possible answers to THE QUESTION. You know the one. What are you going to do with yourself after Guilford?

Our efforts will include lots of time spent discussing reading outside the classroom (in other words, sitting on the ground). We will engage in a multi-disciplinary analysis of the rapidly changing contemporary culture of work in an effort to examine this culture’s effects on evolving definitions of creativity and success for individuals and groups. This will be an intensely involving course that will include extensive reading and writing assignments as well as at least two weekend camping trips away from Guilford.