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2012-2013 Academic Catalog 
    
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2012-2013 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Course Search

 
 

Religious Studies
  

  • REL 222 - Religious Traditions of China

    4 credits
    An examination of fundamental Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist ideas and their historical development in China. Emphasis given to views of human nature, morality, ritual, and spiritual discipline as expressed in classical literature.

    Prerequisite: REL 111  or second-year standing.
    Note: Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Gilday
  

  • REL 225 - The Buddhist Tradition

    4 credits
    An examination of the classical doctrines and practices of Nikaya and Mahayana Buddhism and their historical developments in various social and cultural contexts in Asia and the West.

    Prerequisite: REL 111 , or REL 117 , or second-year standing.
    Note: Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Gilday
  

  • REL 226 - Religious Traditions of India

    4 credits
    Indian religion is marked by ongoing dialogues among the South Asian traditions we call Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Islam. The interaction between these traditions shows the ways each has defined itself independently and in response to challenges presented by the others. This course will introduce the historical and philosophical foundations for these traditions, as well as familiarize students with these intersecting traditions as living religions. The course will include special attention to the role of women and the links between religion and politics.

    Prerequisite: REL 111 , or REL 117 , or second-year standing.
    Note: Plus-2 option available.
    Instructor: Dobe
  

  • REL 228 - Gods of Bollywood

    4 credits (Fall)
    From the mystical Upanishads to the rain-drenched saris of Bollywood heroines, the sacred, the erotic and the spectacular have long been intertwined in South Asia. This course will explore themes of love, performance and identity in India both historically and by using Bollywood films as visual texts. We will examine religion’s intimate connections to culture, gender and meaning in the modern world as we ask, “What is Indian about Indian Cinema?”

    Prerequisite: REL 111 , REL 117 , REL 220 , GWS 111 , or HUM 185 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: T Dobe
  

  • REL 241 - Religion in U.S. Public Life

    4 credits (Spring)
    This course explores debates in the United States over the place of religious discourse in public and political life. Topics include the nature of public discourse, the role of the citizen as a religious and moral actor, ideas of fairness and justice, and interpretations of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

    Prerequisite: REL 111  or second-year standing.
    Note: Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Roberts
  

  • REL 266 - Apocalyptic “Sectuality”

    4 credits
    What is the meaning of this age? Are we standing at the dawn of a golden age in history? Or are we at the brink of global destruction and the end of history? In this class, we will take an interdisciplinary approach to examine selected apocalyptic movements and texts in an attempt to understand how meaning is constructed. We will discuss several early Jewish and Christian apocalyptic texts and communities as well as modern apocalyptic communities.

    Prerequisite: REL 111  or second-year standing.
    Note: Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Rietz
  

  • REL 268 - Islam and Gender

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    Cross-listed as: HIS 268  This course explores Islamic discourses about wo/men and gender in Islam, focusing attention on the processes by which the Muslim community has articulated and policed gender-specific ideals over time, particularly as they relate to:  community identity, conceptions of cultural authenticity, the interpretation of the foundational sources of Islam and legal traditions. We will give significant attention to these issues as they pertain to 19th and 20th century debates about “re-forming” Muslim women.

    Prerequisite: HIS 100 , one 100-level Religious Studies course, or second-year standing.
    Note: Plus-2 option available.
    Instructor: Elfenbein
  

  • REL 311 - Theory and Method in the Study of Religion

    4 credits (Fall)
    This seminar focuses on the history and assumptions of the comparative method in the study of religion and culture. This genealogical narrative involves a critical examination of a variety of sources and perspectives on religion leading up to and emerging from the European Enlightenment, including the development of various methodological and critical positions in the modern study of religion during the 19th and 20th centuries. Readings from a wide range of contemporary scholarship will illustrate the state of the field today.

    Prerequisite: Third-year or fourth-year standing and declared major.
    Note: Plus-2 option available.
    Instructor: Gilday, Roberts
  

  • REL 326 - Anthropology of Religion

    4 credits
    See ANT 326 .

    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
  

  • REL 352 - Philosophy of Religion

    4 credits
    Cross-listed as: PHI 352 . How do we understand “religion” in the 21st century? Is the world becoming more secular? More religious? Does this distinction even work anymore? How might ideas like “saint” and “sacrifice” and “spiritual discipline” help us think and act ethically and politically in the contemporary world? This course explores the ways recent philosophers and theologians have answered such questions by turning to the resources of the Continental philosophical tradition (Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Derrida, Irigaray, etc.) in order to reconceptualize religion, philosophy, and ethics after the “death of God.”

    Prerequisite: REL 216  and REL 311 , or two 200-level philosophy courses.
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Roberts
  

  • REL 394 - Advanced Topics in Religious Studies

    4 credits (Spring)
    An advanced intensive seminar devoted to selected topics in religious studies. Topics have included mysticism, South Asian saints, and religion and democracy. This seminar may be repeated for credit if content is different.

    Prerequisite: REL 311 ; additional prerequisites may vary depending on topic.
    Instructor: Staff

Russian
  

  • RUS 101 - Beginning Russian I

    5 credits (Fall)
    Intensive treatment of elementary Russian grammar, with special emphasis on pronunciation, basic conversational ability, and thorough coverage of contrastive English-Russian grammar. Conducted primarily in Russian. Meets five times a week.

    Prerequisite: None.
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • RUS 102 - Beginning Russian II

    5 credits (Spring)
    A follow-up course to RUS 101 , stressing the further study of grammatical usage and the development of reading and speaking ability. Conducted in Russian. Meets five times a week.

    Prerequisite: RUS 101 .
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • RUS 200 - Conversational Russian

    1 credits (Fall and Spring)
    Conversation on free and structured themes, with topics drawn from different aspects of Russian and American life. May be repeated once for credit when content changes.

    Prerequisite: RUS 102 .
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • RUS 221 - Intermediate Russian I

    4 credits (Fall)
    A reading and discussion course whose materials focus on contemporary culture with emphasis on the continuing study of grammatical concepts introduced in RUS 101  and RUS 102 .

    Prerequisite: RUS 102 .
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • RUS 222 - Intermediate Russian II

    4 credits (Spring)
    A continuation of RUS 221 . Materials focus on major aspects of Russian culture, with added emphasis on the study of more complex grammatical concepts.

    Prerequisite: RUS 221 .
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • RUS 247 - The Russian Short Story

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    Cross-listed as: GLS 247 . The development of the genre from its beginning in 18th-century Sentimentalism to the present. Authors could include Karamzin, Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Bulgakov, Babel, Olesha, Makanin, Tolstaya, and Sorokin. Conducted in English.

    Prerequisite: None.
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Vishevsky
  

  • RUS 248 - The Russian Novel

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    Cross-listed as: GLS 248 . A critical development of the Russian novel from its beginnings in Pushkin to its modernist and postmodernist incarnations. Conducted in English.

    Prerequisite: None.
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Armstrong, Herold
  

  • RUS 251 - The Theme of the African in Russian Literature and Culture

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    A survey of the varying cultural and racial perceptions of Africa and people of African descent as reflected in 19th- and 20th-century literature. Examines tsarist and Soviet history of Russian intellectual contact with the African diaspora and the impact of this contact on the development of the “African” as a literary theme in Russian and Soviet literature. Conducted in English.

    Prerequisite: None.
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Greene
  

  • RUS 261 - History of Russian Film

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    Cross-listed as: GLS 261 . From Eisenstein to Tarkovsky and beyond. Through lecture, discussion, and film analysis, this course will examine the fascinating and controversial history of Russian film in 1960s and 1970s; from Andrei Tarkovsky’s sophisticated Solaris to the daring films of the glasnost era; from chernukha (noir) films of the 1990s to contemporary cinema about the Russian mafia, New Russians and the dramatic search for a new Russian identity. Conducted in English.

    Prerequisite:  HUM 185 , HIS 241  or HIS 242 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Vishevsky
  

  • RUS 331 - Readings in Russian Literature of the 19th Century

    4 credits (Fall)
    Advanced grammar combined with intensive reading of selected literary texts by major writers of the 19th century, including Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Chekhov. Conducted in Russian.

    Prerequisite: RUS 222 .
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • RUS 332 - Readings in Russian Literature of the 20th Century

    4 credits (Spring)
    Further study of advanced grammar combined with intensive reading of selected literary texts by major writers of the 20th century, including modernist poets, and such prose writers as Bulgakov, Zamiatin, Olesha, Ilf and Petrov, Solzhenitsyn, Trifonov, Aksyonov, and other selected recent authors. Conducted in Russian.

    Prerequisite: RUS 331 .
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • RUS 353 - Major Russian Writers

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    Cross-listed as: GLS 353 . This course examines the artistic oeuvre of a single major Russian writer within the context of his cultural and literary milieu. The following writers could be offered in alternating years: Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Gogol, Chekhov, and Nabokov. Conducted in English. May be repeated once for credit when content changes.

    Prerequisite: None.
    Note: Plus-2 option available.
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • RUS 495 - Seminar in Russian Culture and Linguistics

    4 credits (Fall)
    A cultural and linguistic study of a selected Russian cultural phenomenon from the 19th or 20th century. Discussion may be centered around intellectual history, popular culture, a cultural period (e.g., The Silver Age), or analysis of an aspect of culture (theatre, rock, etc.). Conducted in Russian.

    Prerequisite: RUS 332 .
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • RUS 498 - Seminar in Russian Literature and Linguistics

    4 credits (Spring)
    A literary and linguistic study of a major novel of the 19th or 20th century (e.g., Lermontov’s Hero of Our Time, Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, Ilf and Petrov’s The Twelve Chairs, Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago, a single author, a genre, a literary period, or clear expression of student choice). Conducted in Russian.

    Prerequisite: RUS 332 .
    Instructor: Staff

Russian, Central, and Eastern European Studies
  

  • RES 291 - Perspectives in 20th-Century Central and Eastern European Literature

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    Cross-listed as: GLS 291 . This course examines and analyzes a number of 20th-century works in translation from several countries of Central and Eastern Europe (primarily, but not limited to, the former-Yugoslavia, Poland, and the former-Czechoslovakia). Attention is devoted to how writers, artists, poets, and others attempt to understand and respond to major events and issues in specific countries, and in the region in general: war, genocide, revolution, totalitarianism, political repression, clashes of religion and culture, and quests for (self-)identity.

    Prerequisite: None.
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Armstrong
  

  • RES 495 - Senior Research or Seminar

    2 or 4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    An interdisciplinary senior seminar or senior research project for students completing the concentration in Russian, Central and Eastern European Studies. May be repeated in consecutive semesters by a student pursuing a single research project. Credits earned each semester must fulfill program requirements as specified in program description.

    Instructor: Staff

Science
  

  • SCI 125 - Introduction to Earth System Science w/lab

    4 credits (Fall)
    Cross-listed as: ENV 125 . An introductory geology course that demonstrates that Earth systems (the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and geosphere) are dynamically linked by internal and external physical, chemical, and biological processes. Using process-response models, we examine the structure and evolution of the Earth, how the rock record is used to decipher Earth’s past and predict its future, and societal issues centered on the environment, land use, resources (water, mineral, and energy), and natural hazards. Three lectures and one laboratory each week.

    Prerequisite: None.
    Instructor: Graham
  

  • SCI 350 - Freedom and Authority: The Control of Reproduction

    4 credits (Fall)
    Cross-listed as: HUM 350  and SST 350  How do social, biological, and cultural constraints affect decisions about reproduction? How do social institutions set and enforce the boundaries of what is possible and permissible? How do practices of reproduction generate meaning for human existence? This seminar examines conflicts between the freedom of the individual to make decisions about reproduction and the internal and external authorities of biology, evolution, the family, the state, health care systems, criminal justice systems, and religious hierarchies.

    Prerequisite: Third-year or senior standing and completion of a four-credit course at the 200-level or above creditable to a major in the division of registration.
    Instructor: Staff

Science Laboratory
  

  • SCI 100 - Science Laboratory

    1 credits (Fall and Spring)
    Individual or small-group instruction emphasizing problem-solving skills. This class must be taken in conjunction with first-year sequences in physics, chemistry, or biology. May be repeated once for credit with permission of the director.

    Prerequisite: Consultation with the related course instructor and permission of the director of the science lab are required.
    Note: Instruction is available without credit to students who cannot take the course or who need only occasional assistance. S/D/F only
    Instructor: Mahlab
  

  • SCI 240 - Science Education Methods

    1 credits
    This discussion seminar is open to all students who have taken at least one year of science, and is encouraged for those students who are biology and chemistry student mentors, science laboratory teaching assistants, or students interested in pursuing a career in science teaching. This class will review some of the current literature in science education and focuses on examining the stages of the teaching and learning process and tools for improving teaching and learning.

    Prerequisite: One year (two semesters) of biology, chemistry, mathematics/computer science, physics, or psychology; and permission of the instructor.
    Note: Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Mahlab

Social Studies
  

  • SST 115 - Introduction to Statistics

    4 credits (Fall and Spring)
    Cross-listed as: MAT 115 . Introduces the notions of variability and uncertainty and such common statistical concepts as point and interval estimation and hypothesis testing. Data-oriented, with real-world examples chosen from the social and biological sciences. The computer is used for data analysis and to illustrate probabilistic and statistical concepts.

    Prerequisite: Two years of high school algebra and second semester of first-year standing.
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • SST 131 - China’s Ancient World

    4 credits
    See HUM 131 

    Note: Not offered every year.
  

  • SST 140 - Medieval and Renaissance Culture: 1100–1650

    4 credits (Spring)
    See HUM 140 

  

  • SST 221 - Geographical Analysis and Cartography

    4 credits (Fall)
    This course offers an introduction to geographic information systems (GIS) for spatial analysis and mapmaking. Covers topics such as the nature of geographic information, georeferencing, GIS data models, cartographic design, geovisualization, the Global Positioning System, and basic and intermediate spatial analysis skills. Focus on understanding the major underlying theories and concepts of GIS, which students put into practice using GIS software applications in lab exercises and an independent research project.

    Prerequisite: MAT 115 /SST 115  or equivalent.
    Instructor: Carter
  

  • SST 230 - Health Geography

    4 credits (Spring)
    This course examines the geographical dimensions of health and disease, emphasizing global and domestic public health issues. Key approaches and themes include the human ecology approach to health; epidemiological mapping and spatial analysis; environmental health; the relationship among demographic change, economic development, and population health; the spatial diffusion of infectious diseases; the disease ecology approach to infectious and vector-borne diseases; and challenges of “global health” in the 21st century, with special emphasis on “emerging infectious diseases.”

    Prerequisite: One 100-level course in social studies.
    Note: Plus-2 option available.
    Instructor: Carter
  

  • SST 350 - Freedom and Authority: The Control of Reproduction

    4 credits (Fall)
    See HUM 350 


Sociology
  

  • SOC 111 - Introduction to Sociology

    4 credits (Fall and Spring)
    Introduction to basic concepts, theory, and methods concerning human behavior and social structure. Special attention is paid to the scope and limitations of sociological analysis and the major empirical areas of investigation in sociology.

    Prerequisite: None.
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • SOC 220 - Sociology of Global Development

    4 credits (Fall)
    Provides an overview of global development with a focus on the social consequences of development practices for people living in developing countries. Also examines the ways in which consumption patterns in industrialized countries affect global development. Case study approach used to consider the effects of general practices on specific locales, such as the role of powerful forces (economic, political, ideological, religious) in shaping living conditions at the local level.

    Prerequisite: SOC 111 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • SOC 230 - Conflict and Conflict Management

    4 credits (Spring)
    This course examines sociological theories and perspectives on issues of conflict, violence, and conflict management in contemporary societies, with attention to the role of third parties in conflict resolution and peacemaking. Topics include person-to-person negotiation, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) techniques, restorative justice, peace processes in wars and ethnic conflicts, and principles of conflict management at the micro and macro levels.

    Prerequisite: SOC 111 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • SOC 240 - Social Movements

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    This survey of contemporary social movements focuses on the processes of social and cultural change, collective group behavior, and the process and critiques of reform revolution and social movement change. We will examine definitions and theories of reform, revolution, and social movements and make comparative analyses of goals and ideologies and their development, inside and beyond the boundaries of the United States. Our central paradigms will focus on race, class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and nationality.

    Prerequisite: SOC 111 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Scott
  

  • SOC 242 - Deviance and Social Control

    4 credits (Fall)
    Analysis of the causes and control of deviant behavior, e.g., alcohol and drug abuse, suicide, assault, and sexual deviance. Topics include how definitions of deviance change, how people become deviant, how deviant groups are organized, and how transactions among deviants occur.

    Prerequisite: SOC 111 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Hunter
  

  • SOC 248 - Self and Society

    4 credits (Spring)
    The study of human social interaction. Focuses on how people interact in small groups, change their beliefs, interpret behavior, develop a sense of identity, and construct their social worlds. Attention to the social psychology of collective behavior and of everyday life.

    Prerequisite: SOC 111  or PSY 113 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Hunter
  

  • SOC 250 - Social Inequality

    4 credits (Fall)
    Analysis of social inequality in groups and society. Topics include why inequality occurs, its consequences for individuals and societies, how social stratification systems operate, and how social status is attained by individuals. Theories of stratification are evaluated.

    Prerequisite: SOC 111 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • SOC 260 - Human Sexuality in the United States

    4 credits (Spring)
    How do individuals develop attractions, make sexual choices, and define and enact their own sexuality? How do institutions and organizations influence, shape, and constrain sexual attitudes and behaviors? This course will examine the social construction of human sexuality in the United States with particular attention to gender, sexual orientation, commercial sex, and sexual education.

    Prerequisite: SOC 111 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Erickson
  

  • SOC 265 - Sociology of Health and Illness

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    An examination of the social contexts of health, illness, and medical care, focusing on the debates and contrasting perspectives of medical sociology. Topics include the social, environmental, and occupational factors in health and disease; the politics surrounding breast cancer and the AIDS epidemic; the patient’s perspective on illness; the development of the health professions and the health work force; ethical issues in medicine as they relate to medical technology; and alternatives to current health care organizations. Emphasis is given to how the social categories of gender, race, social class, and sexual orientation affect both illness and health care.

    Prerequisite: SOC 111 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Ferguson
  

  • SOC 270 - Gender and Society

    4 credits (Fall)
    A sociological analysis of how gender is constructed and transformed in American society. This course will explore how both men and women come to know themselves as gendered beings, how gender is produced through interactions, in the media, in the workplace, and in families.

    Prerequisite: SOC 111 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Erickson
  

  • SOC 275 - Race and Ethnicity in America

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    Introduces students to sociological perspectives on race, ethnicity, and racial inequality in American society. Examines the historical development of race-based barriers to achievement, the emergence and persistence of racial inequality, the character of racial beliefs, resistance to racial oppression, and current problems in American race relations. Emphasis on understanding individual attitudes and behaviors in relation to the structure of social institutions.

    Prerequisite: SOC 111 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Scott
  

  • SOC 280 - Bound By Borders: A Sociology of Law and Migration

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    Laws bind people to each other and to their territory, and this has far-reaching consequences for people’s life chances and identities. Migrants test these ties and have been the motivation for the emergence and reconfiguration of important laws governing who can come and go. How and why this happens interests not only policymakers, government officials, and judges, but also individuals included or excluded by borders and scholars trying to understand laws. This course takes a sociological view of global migration to explain the origins of law and its effects.

    Prerequisite: SOC 111 .
    Note: Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Cook-Martín
  

  • SOC 285 - Contemporary Sociological Theory

    4 credits (Fall)
    Contemporary sociological theory considered in light of some historical precursors. Emphasis on the conceptual adequacy and the logical consistency of major contemporary theoretical perspectives.

    Prerequisite: SOC 111  and at least one 200-level sociology course.
    Note: Plus-2 option available.
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • SOC 291 - Methods of Empirical Investigation

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    Cross-listed as: ANT 291 . An overview of the research process in social science, focusing on problems of epistemology, research design, techniques of sampling, methods of data collection, principles of measurement, problems of inference and proof, basic methods of data analysis, and ethical considerations.

    Prerequisite: SOC 111  or ANT 104 ; and at least one 200-level sociology course; and MAT 115 , SST 115 , or MAT 209  (preferred), or MAT 336 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available.
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • SOC 292 - Ethnographic Research in Complex Societies

    4 credits (Fall)
    See ANT 292 .

    Note: Plus-2 option available.
  

  • SOC 300 - Practicum in Applied Sociology

    4 credits (Spring)
    Students work 14 hours each week at internship sites in Des Moines, Grinnell, and surrounding areas. Class discussions and assignments focus on internship experiences in sociological perspective. Applications for internships are made to the internship coordinator of the Career Development Office prior to spring or fall break for the following semester. Learning contracts must be approved by the instructor, the work site supervisor, the student’s academic adviser, and the dean of the College.

    Prerequisite: Any two 200-level or above sociology courses and third-year or fourth-year student status with good academic standing.
    Instructor: Ferguson
  

  • SOC 320 - The Family

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    A survey of the family from a sociological perspective, focusing on recent transformations of the family. Topics include historical origins of the family, traditional marriage and alternative processes of mate selection and family formation, parenting, divorce, family violence, racial-ethnic variations in family experience, and gay and lesbian families.

    Prerequisite: Any 200-level or above sociology course.
    Note: Plus-2 option available.
    Instructor: Ferguson
  

  • SOC 350 - NGOs: Organizing To Do Good

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    People often join together in nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations to accomplish good for themselves or others. This seminar focuses on how such organizations are structured and how they operate. We will explore how NPOs and NGOs resemble, and differ from, other organizational forms in mission, leadership, organizational change, environmental constraints, and effects on members. Attention to practical managerial challenges. Cases may include human service organizations, community action agencies, foundations and funding organizations, fraternal organizations, nonprofit colleges, and international humanitarian NGOs.

    Prerequisite: At least two 200-level sociology courses and third-year or fourth-year standing.
    Note: Plus-2 option available.
    Instructor: Hunter
  

  • SOC 360 - Work in the “New” Economy

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    What is the “new” global economy and how has it transformed the landscape of the American economy in the last three decades? How do individuals experience the consequences of globalization in their lives, both as workers and consumers? This course will examine recent transformations in the U.S. economy — including deskilling, downsizing, and the rise of the service sector — and will consider how each of these “transformations” relate to issues of identity, community, family formation, structural inequality, and national culture.

    Prerequisite: Two 200-level sociology courses.
    Note: Plus-2 option available.
    Instructor: Erickson
  

  • SOC 370 - Members Only: A Political Sociology of Citizenship

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    Citizenship is a legal tie between an individual and a particular state, but it is also a category to which rights are attached, a basis for identification, and a set of participatory practices. It is shaped and expressed in the political sphere (through schools, military service, museums, censuses, and surveillance), the economic sphere (in labor markets), and in the civil sphere (through conventional participatory practices such as voting and the emergence of new domains of political engagement such as grassroots movements). This course takes a comparative-historical approach and uses the lens of political sociology to examine cases across the globe.

    Prerequisite: Two 200-level sociology courses.
    Note: Plus-2 option available.
    Instructor: Cook-Martin
  

  • SOC 390 - Advanced Studies in Sociology

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    Seminar in current issues of sociological theory and research. Content of the course announced each year. May be repeated for credit with permission of instructor.

    Prerequisite: Varies; at least one 200-level sociology course and third-year standing.
    Note: Plus-2 option available.
    Instructor: Staff
  

Spanish
  

  • SPN 105 - Introduction to the Spanish Language I

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    Treatment of basic language elements with special emphasis on oral communication. Short readings of a historical, cultural, and literary nature.

    Prerequisite: None.
    Note: Not offered every year. Not regularly offered in the spring.
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • SPN 106 - Introduction to the Spanish Language II

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    Completion of the presentation of basic language elements with a special emphasis on oral communication. Short readings of a historical, cultural, and literary nature.

    Prerequisite: SPN 105 .
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • SPN 204 - Communication in Spanish I

    1 credits (Fall and Spring)
    Work on improvement of speaking skills. Discussion and conversation based on various cultural materials, including current periodicals and satellite television. Conducted in Spanish.

    Co-requisite: Concurrent enrollment in SPN 217 .
    Note: Not offered every year. S/D/F only.
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • SPN 205 - Communication in Spanish II

    1 credits (Fall and Spring)
    Work on improvement of speaking skills. Discussion and conversation based on various cultural materials, including current periodicals and satellite television. Conducted in Spanish.

    Co-requisite: Concurrent enrollment in SPN 285 .
    Note: Not offered every year. S/D/F only.
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • SPN 217 - Intermediate Spanish

    4 credits (Fall and Spring)
    Development of language skills through reading, oral practice, vocabulary building, grammar review, and short compositions. Materials include short literary, nonliterary, and visual texts. SPN 204  may be taken concurrently.

    Prerequisite: SPN 106  or placement by department.
    Note: Plus-2 option available.
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • SPN 285 - Introduction to Textual Analysis

    4 credits (Fall and Spring)
    Development of students’ critical and interpretive commentary on literary and cultural texts from Spain and Latin America. Continued emphasis on language skills. Materials include fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and film. Conducted in Spanish. SPN 205  may be taken concurrently.

    Prerequisite: SPN 217  or placement by department.
    Note: Plus-2 option available.
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • SPN 311 - Constructing Identities in Independent Latin America

    4 credits (Spring)
    A study of 19th- and start-of-20th-century literature in Latin America. Focus on the creation of national, racial, and gender identities in the newly independent republics through the analysis of narrative, poetry, drama, essays, and films. Conducted in Spanish.

    Prerequisite: SPN 285 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Benoist
  

  • SPN 312 - Women and Gender in Spanish Literature

    4 credits (Fall)
    This course introduces students to the works of prominent Spanish women writers from the 17th to the 21st century. While we will focus primarily on short stories, drama, and poetry, we will also consider films by women directors. Our readings will provide a representative sample of how women have developed as writers and individuals in Spain and how they have crafted gender issues into their writing. Conducted in Spanish.

    Prerequisite: SPN 285 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Pérez
  

  • SPN 314 - Studies in Modern Spanish Literature

    4 credits (Fall)
    A study of poetic, dramatic, and/or narrative texts from 18th- to 20th-century Spain. Topics of examination may include Romanticism; Realism; the poetic generations of 1898, 1927, and 1950; the novísimos; or contemporary narrative. Close readings and discussion focus on aesthetic, ideological, and historical aspects of the texts. Conducted in Spanish.

    Prerequisite: SPN 285 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Patrick
  

  • SPN 315 - Creativity and Dissidence in Modern Latin America

    4 credits (Spring)
    A study of selected, representative works from the 1920s through the 1960s. Emphasis on texts manifesting social conscience and artistic experimentation; treatment of the culture of protest and imaginative cultural expression. Consideration of poetry, narrative, and visual arts. Conducted in Spanish.

    Prerequisite: SPN 285 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Aparicio
  

  • SPN 316 - Advanced Spanish Language

    4 credits (Spring)
    A Spanish communication course designed to strengthen Spanish oral proficiency and to improve listening and comprehension skills. Emphasis on natural language use of the target language in social encounters and grammar concepts related to communication strategies. A variety of authentic materials will be used.

    Prerequisite: SPN 285 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Valentin
  

  • SPN 317 - Readings in U.S. Latin@ Literature and Culture

    4 credits (Fall)
    This discussion-based course provides a broad approach to U.S. Latin@ literature. We will explore filmic and literary texts that voice the multiple and varied experiences of different generations of U.S. Latin@s from different national origins and cultures. We will pay particular attention to the construction of identity in terms of race, gender, sexuality, and class; bilingualism and code-switching; the experiences of the exile, the immigrant, and the refugee; the marketing of the U.S. Latin@ identity; and the construction of community. Texts and films may be in English (with some Spanish) while discussions and written work will be in Spanish.

    Prerequisite: SPN 285 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Nasser
  

  • SPN 320 - Cultures of the Spanish-Speaking World

    4 credits (Fall and Spring)
    Examines diverse cultures of the Spanish-speaking world, including Latin America, Spain and the United States. May focus on one or multiple regions. Possible topics include: food, cultures, immigration, visual cultures. May use academic articles, film, literary texts, music. Taught in Spanish. Variable content. May be repeated for credit when content changes.

    Prerequisite: SPN 285 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available.
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • SPN 343 - The Art of Language

    4 credits (Fall and Spring)
    Study of Spanish grammar to improve ability to express oneself with ease. Students will review and strengthen their understanding and use of morphological and syntactic aspects of Spanish while developing their competence to explain how the structure of Spanish functions.

    Prerequisite: SPN 285 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available.
    Instructor: Valentin
  

  • SPN 377 - Modernization and Innovation in Contemporary Latin America

    4 credits (Fall)
    A study of selected, representative works since 1960, including internationally respected literature of the “Boom,” subsequent fiction, and recent poetic revolutions. Conducted in Spanish.

    Prerequisite: SPN 311 , SPN 312 , SPN 314 , SPN 315 , or SPN 317 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Aparicio
  

  • SPN 379 - U.S. Latin@ Identities and Sexualities

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    This interdisciplinary course focuses on Latin@ sexuality and identities. Students will explore contributions by Latin@ scholars and artists that disrupt the simplistic ways in which Latin@ sexuality has been taken up as exotic and radical. We will engage Chicana feminist theory as well as queer and performance theory as we consider the ways in which sexuality speaks to the production and representation of Latin@ identities. Our study will cut across literary genres to include fiction, poetry, testimonios, and performance among other expressions. Students are expected to engage sexuality in its plurality as they examine these texts and contemporary popular cultural production. Texts will be in Spanish, English or Spanglish. Class discussion and all written work will be in Spanish.

    Prerequisite: SPN 311 , SPN 312 , SPN 314 , SPN 315 , or SPN 317 
    Note: Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Nasser
  

  • SPN 383 - The Latin American Colonial World

    4 credits (Fall)
    A study of the texts and debates surrounding initial encounters between Spaniards, indigenous and African peoples in the “New World,” and the establishment of Colonial culture and society. Spanish, indigenous, mestizo, and African perspectives are considered through the study of myth, narratives, poetry, autobiography, and film. Conducted in Spanish.

    Prerequisite: SPN 311 , SPN 312 , SPN 314 , SPN 315 , or SPN 317 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Benoist
  

  • SPN 384 - Spanish Dialectology

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    This course will examine the history and diversity of the Spanish-speaking world, from both historical and synchronic perspectives. The diachronic perspective will focus on the historical, cultural, social, and linguistic factors that were involved in the origin of different Spanish dialects. The synchronic perspective will provide a linguistic description (phonological, morpho-syntactic, and lexical) of various Spanish dialects as spoken today. Students will work with oral and written texts produced in different varieties of Spanish in order to recognize those varieties and identify the linguistic features that characterize each of them.

    Prerequisite: SPN 343  or LIN 114 ; and SPN 311 , SPN 312 , SPN 314 , SPN 315 , or SPN 317 
    Note: Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Valentin
  

  • SPN 385 - Studies in the Spanish Vanguard

    4 credits (Spring)
    Advanced study of aesthetic, cultural, and historical facets of the avant-garde period in Europe, with intensive focus on the various manifestations of the vanguardia in Spain. Literary and artistic movements of interest include dadaism, ultraism, creationism, cubism, and surrealism. Emphasis given to poetic and dramatic texts. Conducted in Spanish.

    Prerequisite: SPN 311 , SPN 312 , SPN 314 , SPN 315 , or SPN 317 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Patrick
  

  • SPN 386 - Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Spanish Literature

    4 credits (Spring)
    This course examines medieval and early modern literature in its cultural and historical context. The specific topic of the course may vary to focus on a specific genre, author, or theme. Conducted in Spanish.

    Prerequisite: SPN 311 , SPN 312 , SPN 314 , SPN 315 , or SPN 317 .
    Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Pérez
  

  • SPN 395 - Advanced Special Topics in Literature and Culture

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    Intensive study of related authors, a particular group or generation, a movement, a genre, and/or a particular work. Topic is announced each time the course is offered. Conducted in Spanish.

    Prerequisite: SPN 311 , SPN 312 , SPN 314 , SPN 315 , or SPN 317 .
    Note: Not offered every year.
    Instructor: Staff

Special Topics-Fall
  

  • ANT 295-01 - Special Topic: Practicing Anthropology

    4 credits (Fall)
    This course examines how cultural anthropology is put into practice to address a range of human problems. The course surveys the domains of applied anthropology, such as: international development, agriculture, environmental issues, healthcare and medicine, business and industry, education, law, and elder care. The central focus is on the methodologies that applied and practicing anthropologists use to assess needs and social impacts, and to evaluate policies and programs. The course explores such methods in detail, contrasting these to traditional ethnographic techniques, and considering issues of ethics as well as how such techniques are informed by anthropological theory. Students will apply these techniques to carry out a semester-long needs assessment or program evaluation.

    Prerequisite: ANT 104  and one 200 level course from Cultural anthropology/linguistics offering.
    Instructor: Roper
  

  • ANT 295-02 - Special Topic: Language Contact

    4 credits (Fall)
    The course examines the linguistic varieties and practices that emerge when linguisticailly diverse groups come in contact with one another. We begin by discussing the types of situations that give rise to language contact and then turn to look at the linguistic effects that result from such contact at both the micro (e.g. borrowing, code-switchging) and the macro (e.g. language shift, language death) level.

    Prerequisite: ANT 104  or LIN 114 .
    Instructor: Hansen
  

  • ANT 295-03 - Special Topic: Social Enterprise and Innovation

    2 credits (Fall)
    Cross-listed as: SST 295-03 . This course, sponsored by the Donald L. Wilson Program in Enterprise and Leadership, takes a case-study approach to developing social enterprise, using case studies by alumni visitors. Innovations include changes in products, processes, and organizational structures, in such fields as environmental management, education, biotechnology, community action organizations, web-based business, medical, and high technology firms. Alumni will participate throughout in the course, giving their experience of managing innovation in a variety of organizations.

    Prerequisite: Two courses in social studies division (Anthropology, Education, History, Economics, Sociology, Social Studies or Political Science).
    Note: Dates: September 28 to November 30. 1/2 semester course deadlines apply.
    Instructor: Caulkins
  

  • ANT 295-04 - Special Topic: Peoples and Cultures of the U.S./Mexico Borderlands

    4 credits (Fall)
    This class will explore the idea of the Borderlands using geographic, historical and anthropological perspectives. Emphasis will be on the shifting use of the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo del Norte and the Southwestern Deserts as both crossroads and barrier. Units on the prehistory, colonial history and modern history of the area will be presented, with topical foci on the immigration debate, the northern Mexican drug war and Latino/a influence on border politics.

    Prerequisite: ANT 104 .
    Instructor: Seebach
  

  • ARB 295-01 - Special Topic: Egyptian Arabic Speaking

    1 credits (Fall)
    Conversational unit designed for both free and structured oral exchange in Egyptian colloquial Arabic.

    Prerequisite: Prior exposure to dialectical Arabic.
    Instructor: Muhammed
  

  • ART 195-01 - Introductory Special Topic: Art of Asia

    4 credits (Fall)
    This course is an introduction to artistic traditions in China, Japan, Korea and India from the Neolithic period to the 19th century. We will cover sculptures, paintings, prints, bronze and ceramic vessels, and textiles. Students will examine art through both cross-cultural frameworks and culturally specific lenses. Through a balance of broader art historical readings, primary texts, scholarly essays, and focused exercises in viewing, students will explore how an object’s visual material properties contribute to its function.

    Prerequisite: None.
    Instructor: Li
  

  • ART 295-01 - Special Topic: Gender, Race and Fashion in Western Portraiture

    4 credits (Fall)
    This course explores race, gender, and fashionable dress as co-constitutive forces in portraiture from 1500 to 1950. We will investigate self-portraiture, group portraiture, historiated portraiture, and allegorical personification. If idealized white, female beauty is one of portraiture’s tropes, how do notions of sexual difference, physiognomy, and skin-color, among other variables, inflect representation? Subjects range from Tudor England, Rubens, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, and Velazquez to Qing, China, Viceregal Mexico, nineteenth-century Paris, and post-war New York.

    Prerequisite: ART 103 .
    Instructor: Lyon
  

  • BIO 395-01 - Advanced Special Topic: Namib Desert Ecology

    2 credits (Fall)
    This short course will use the primary literature to explore the ecology of the Namib Desert, examining abiotic and biotic controls on community structure, evolutionary adaptations to desert life, and the potential influence of climate change on this arid ecosystem. Evaluation will include two exams on desert ecology, as well as a paper examining the state of current knowledge on an ecological topic of interest to each student.

    Prerequisite: BIO 252 .
    Note: Dates: October 29 to December 14. 1/2 semester deadlines apply.
    Instructor: Jacobson, K
  

  • CLS 295-01 - Special Topic: The Roman Empire 44 BCE - 467 CE

    4 credits (Fall)
    Cross-listed as: HIS 295-01 . In this course we will analyze the Roman Empire from the assassination of Julius Caesar in March of 44 BCE to the reign of the last western emperor, Romulus Augustus, in 476 CE. We will focus on political, military, constitutional, social and religious developments, with special attention given to specific subject populations such as the Jews and Christians. Students will analyze the ancient sources-literary texts, inscriptions, coinage-to assess their limitations and strengths.

    Prerequisite: HIS 100  or second year standing.
    Instructor: Cummins
  

  • CSC 295-01 - Special Topic: Algorithmic Art

    1 credits (Fall)
    Artists, composers, and designers have transformed their work with computing. Some transformations come from new tools, like Photoshop or Finale. Others stem from artists embracing algorithms, from the British computer arts of the 1950’s to modern “live coding” performances. Arts have also affected the design of algorithms, leading to a discipline of “aesthetic computing”. This weekly reading group will consider perspectives on the relationships between arts, computing, and algorithms.

    Prerequisite: Second-year standing
    S/D/F only.
    Instructor: Rebelsky
  

  • CSC 295-02 - Special Topic: Computer Vision

    4 credits (Fall)
    How can we make computers understand images? This course covers principles in computational vision and their relationship to human visual perception. Topics include geometry of image formation, image filtering, motion, texture analysis, shape fitting, 3-D reconstruction, image segmentation, image descriptors, and object and scene recognition. Students implement and test algorithms on real images in programming exercises and a student-proposed final project.

    Prerequisite: CSC 161 , or CSC 151  and MAT 215 .
    Instructor: Weinman
  

  • ECN 295-01 - Special Topic: Korea’s Economic Development

    2 credits (Fall)
    A primary goal of this course is to determine which basic models of economic development best explain Korea’s remarkable record of economic growth and to assess whether Korea’s experience provides useful insights for other countries at earlier stages of economic development. Class members have the opportunity to travel to Korea in January, 2013 to meet with Korean government officials, academics, business leaders and non-profit organizations, which will allow us to hear how many Koreans interpret those same two questions and will provide a chance to interact directly with those individuals.

    Prerequisite or co-requisite: Completion of or concurrent registration in ECN 230  and ALSO Korean
    Instructor: Mutti
  

  • ENG 295-01 - Special Topic: Radio Days: New Media Writing and the Art of Sound

    2 credits (Fall)
    In its boom years, radio introduced a new orality to American culture, in which ancient ways of conveying stories mixed with modern broadcast technology to produce a remarkable stream of narratives, from The Shadow to CBS Mystery Theatre. Today, in the post-celluloid age of new media, the creative spirit of radio has been revived by programs like Joe Frank’s In The Dark, Prairie Home Companion, This American Life, and Radiolab. This series of workshops on sound art and writing focuses on radio essays, stories, and plays. We’ll discuss such sound artists (storytellers and dramatists) as David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell, David Rakoff, Orson Welles, Lucile Fletcher, Anthony Minghella, and Arthur Kopit, while working closely with electronic media and audio editing tools. Our aim is to learn how to record voiceovers, capture nonverbal sounds and music, and integrate these media with spoken texts. We’ll explore voice quite literally as an acoustic event by experimenting with three modes of radiophonic writing–narrative, essayistic, and dramatic.

    Prerequisite: ENG 205  or ENG 206 .
    Note: Dates: September 7 to October 12. Short course deadlines apply. S/D/F only.
    Instructor: Porter
  

  • ENG 295-02 - Special Topic: The Writer in the World

    1 credits (Fall)
    While focusing on the technique of effective nonfiction writing, the course will also address a range of pragmatic questions having to do with careers in writing and publishing.

    Prerequisite: ENG 205  or ENG 206 .
    Note: Dates September 25 to October 4. Short course deadlines apply. S/D/F only.
    Instructor: Tanenhaus
  

  • ENG 295-03 - Special Topic: From “Theory” to “Post-Theory”

    1 credits (Fall)
    While literature and culture have been theorized upon from time immemorial , what is generally considered as ‘Literary Theory’ is surely a specific phenomenon that was consolidated in the second half of the 20th century. While ‘Literary Theory’ has indeed proved very influential in our recent understandings of literature and culture, does it continue to be the final word regarding the same? Or, are some of the basic postulates of ‘Theory’ being progressively questioned in contemporary thought to lead to what can be called ‘Post-Theoretical’ possibilities? This short course aims to explore these very questions, and in doing so, it intends to probe into the conditions that led to the genesis of ‘Literary Theory’, examine its primary postulates through a study of its various ramifications, explore specifically some problems that would have arisen in the course of its articulations, and indicate new directions in which current thinkings about literature and culture try to address these issues. The course intends to perform this journey from ‘Theory’ to ‘Post-Theory’ through an intensive study of some major thinkers – ranging from the late 19th century to our present times – who dot this extremely stimulating intellectual horizon.

    Prerequisite: ENG 120  or a literature course taken in another language at Grinnell.
    Note: Dates: October 29 to November 14. Short course deadlines apply.
    Instructor: Bhaduri
  

  • ENV 195-01 - Introductory Special Topic: Landscape Awareness

    1 credits (Fall)
    If we were to map our routes from day to day, we would quickly see how limited our experience of a place often is. This course offers an opportunity to both explore and challenge these routines in an effort to deepen our understanding of the landscape in which we live. Each week will be spent investigating Grinnell and its environs, as well as strengthening our understanding of the history and state of our contemporary landscape.

    Prerequisite: Second-year standing.
    Note: Dates: September 3 to September 26. Short course deadlines apply.
    Instructor: Hansen
  

  • ENV 295-01 - Special Topic: Agriculture and Empires

    4 credits (Fall)
    Human agriculture has transformed the face of Earth more than all the armies of history. This course will examine hunting and gathering, the role of post-Pleistocene climate change (and particularly the Younger Dryas) in the development of sedentary agriculture and silviculture in both the Middle East and the pre-Columbian Americas (including Amaz“nia and MesoAmerica); the great trophic and epidemiological interchanges: the Colombian exchange and the Silk Road; the insidious relationship of sugar, slavery and colonialism; the indispensable role of Peruvian chinchona (quinine) in the establishment of British Empire; the pelagic whaling industry: GMOs; the use of food crops as fuel, and other topics.

    Prerequisite: Second-year standing.
    Instructor: Campbell
  

  • GDS 295-01 - Special Topic: Cultural Values and Sustainable Development in Africa: the Ghanian Example

    2 credits (Fall)
    Taught by 2011 Social Justice Prize winner, James Kofi Anan, founder of Challenging Heights. This course is a survey of conceptual approaches to the study of the role and relevance of African cultural values and characteristics that have consequences for sustainable development. Using contextualised case studies, the course is designed to orient students to the relationship between culture and sustainable development from the Ghanian perspectives.

    Prerequisite: Second year standing and one 100-level Social Studies Course.
    Note: Dates: October 3 to October 19. Short course deadlines apply.
    Instructor: Annan
  

  • GWS 295-01 - Special Topic: Contemporary British Feminism

    1 credits (Fall)
    This course will examine feminism in the UK, from the second wave in the 1970s to the twenty-first century third wave. We will look at the history, ideas and activism of British feminists and investigate feminism’s relationship to wider social and political trends and changes in the UK. We will also consider the significance of feminism as a social movement, asking how successful it has been at addressing gender issues and inequalities specific to the UK. Course taught by visiting professor from the UK.

    Prerequisite: GWS 111 , HIS 100 , or SOC 111 .
    Instructor: Aune
  

  • HIS 295-01 - Special Topic: The Roman Empire 44 BCE - 467 CE

    4 credits (Fall)
    Cross-listed as: CLS 295-01 . In this course we will analyze the Roman Empire from the assassination of Julius Caesar in March of 44 BCE to the reign of the last western emperor, Romulus Augustus, in 476 CE. We will focus on political, military, constitutional, social and religious developments, with special attention given to specific subject populations such as the Jews and Christians. Students will analyze the ancient sources-literary texts, inscriptions, coinage-to assess their limitations and strengths.

    Prerequisite: HIS 100  or second year standing.
    Instructor: Cummins
 

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