SAGES Courses
USNA 240: Technology in the City
Based on the premise that cities are never “finished,” and constantly being remade, the University Seminar, Technologies of the City, will look at the technological and cultural history of cities from the ancient world to the present day. Students will explore the history of building materials–wood, brick, steel, concrete, and glass–used in the construction of cities. We will also trace the development of city infrastructure such as electricity, water and sewage systems, streets bridges, and subways. Technological innovations, such as the automobile, will receive special consideration. We will move moth geographically and temporally to visit the world’s great cities, studying examples of significant building projects, such as the Brooklyn Bridge, the Chicago World’s Fair, and Cleveland’s first skyscraper, the Rockefeller Building. The course will cover the history of the professions–engineering, architecture, and urban planning–that have contributed to the construction of cities, and will review the works of these practitioners, as well as that of artists, reformers, and utopians that have imagined new directions for the city. Requirements to enroll: 1) Passing letter grade in a First Seminar OR concurrent enrollment in FSTS 100 (if transfer student); AND 2) No previous/concurrent enrollment in FSNA/USNA; OR Requisites not met permission.
Dates: June 5 - August 1, 2023
Session: 8 Week Session
Dates:
Session: On campus
Time: TBA
Instructor: Bernard Jim
Credits: 3 credits
Department: SAGES
USNA 285: The Science of Madness: An Historical Investigation of Mental Illness
Since antiquity the western world’s understanding of mental illness has continued to evolve. This course will examine the trajectory of that evolution, looking at the medical theories that have influenced assumptions about the causes and treatments of mental illness from the early modern era through the twenty-first century. Examples of questions we will investigate include: How we have defined the normal and the pathological in human mental behavior over time? How do we explain the centuries-old correlation that medicine has made between creativity and mental illness? Which past and present psychiatric treatments have been beneficial and which harmful? How did Darwin’s theory of evolution affect theories of mental illness (and how does it continue to do so with the advent of evolutionary psychology)? How have changing philosophies of science affected the research and practice of psychology? How and why do the sciences of the mind–psychiatry, psychoanalysis, clinical psychology, psychopharmacology, the cognitive neurosciences–claim so much scientific authority and exert influence over our lives today? As a frame work for this inquiry, the class will use the concept of paradigm shifts as Thomas Kuhn defines in his classic work, the Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Prereq: Passing letter grade in a 100 level first year seminar in USFS, FSNA, FSCC, FSSO, FSSY or FSCS. Prereq or Coreq: FSTS 100.
Dates: June 5 - August 1, 2023
Session: 8 Week Session
Dates:
Session: On campus
Time: TBA
Instructor: Barbara Burgess-Van Aken
Credits: 3 credits
Department: SAGES
USSO 286D: James Bond and Popular Culture
The twenty-one films of James Bond have become part of popular culture, and the figure of the superspy has become mythic in proportion. This series, from its first installment in 1963 to the latest reinvention of James Bond in 2006, not only depicts one dashing man’s efforts to save the world from disaster again and again, but also traces the development of our popular culture. Issues of violence, sex, the presentation and treatment of women, racial stereotypes, and spectacle among other topics can be discussed after viewing each film, providing an opportunity to explore the changing expectations of American audiences and the developing form of contemporary cinema.
Dates: June 5 - August 1, 2023
Session: 8 Week Session
Time: TBA
Instructor: Jeffrey Ullom
Credits: 3 credits
Department: SAGES
USSO 291J: Narratives of Immigration
As one of the most pressing issues of the twenty-first century, immigration has captured the imagination of politicians and authors alike. In this class, we will explore the stories of those who have migrated to the United States. We will analyze how various writers create autobiographical and fictional narratives of migration, addressing issues such as adjusting to different cultures, learning new languages, and adapting to new environments. Through these stories and histories, we will ask broader questions about immigration, including: Is migration a basic human right? Is it ethical to define someone as being “illegal” for peacefully working and living in a different country from where they were born? What are the gender, ethnic, cultural, and racial barriers that exist when migrating between countries? What are the cost(s) of citizenship and embracing a new country as one’s home?
Dates: June 5 - August 1, 2023
Session: 8 Week Session
Time: TBA
Instructor: Cara Byrne
Credits: 3 credits
Department: SAGES
USSO 291Y: Immigration, Identity, and Writing
For many in Europe and North America, globalization and immigration increasingly present a challenge to cultural identity. British Prime Minister Theresa May articulated this view when she stated in 2016, “If you believe you’re a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere.” More than expressing misgivings about the consequence of globalization and immigration, May was asserting the importance of belonging to a place and a culture. In contrast to May, the genre of writing known as global literature presents a framework for understanding our globalized world not as a cause for anxiety, but rather as an opportunity to understand how new cultural, social, and national identities take shape. As the writer Adam Kirsch has observed, “individual lives are now lived and conceived under the sign of the whole globe.” One example of this more global view is Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who, in We Should All Be Feminists, uses her experience of immigration to reconcile western feminism with the expectations of her native society. As the popularity and influence of writers like Adichie attest, new voices and forms of writing possess global significance in our cosmopolitan and connected world. Studying this literature reveals both connections and tensions between the local and the global. These connections and tensions provide us with a fuller understanding of how people experience this globalized age and make sense of their place in the world.
Dates: June 5 - August 1, 2023
Session: 8 Week Session
Dates:
Session: Online
Time: TBA
Instructor: Arthur Russell
Credits: 3 credits
Department: SAGES
USSO 293K: History of Islam in South Asia
There are more Muslims in South Asia than in any other region in the world – yes, even the Middle East. We will start our exploration of Islam in South Asia (which includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan) in the 8th century. The history of Islam in the region will provide us an opportunity to study the religion and its practitioners in a wide range of social and political contexts: in cosmopolitan, commercial networks of maritime trade routes; as rulers consolidating empires governing large multi-ethnic and multi-religious populations; as “modernizers” and “traditionalists”; as religious minorities and majorities in different countries of the region. We will also explore Islam in an array of modern settings: from a nation-state created as a Muslim homeland — the first country in the world to be formed on the basis of religious identity — to a rejection of Islam as an adequate basis of national identity that led to the formation of another Muslim-majority country; from democracy to military rule; and, from Cold War politics to the “Global War on Terror.” Requirements to enroll: 1) Passing letter grade in a First Seminar OR concurrent enrollment in FSTS 100 (if transfer student); AND 2) No previous/concurrent enrollment in FSSO/USSO; OR Requisites not met permission.
Dates: June 5 - August 1, 2023
Session: 8 Week Session
Time: TBA
Instructor: Ananya Dasgupta
Credits: 3 credits
Department: SAGES
USNA 240: Technology in the City
Based on the premise that cities are never “finished,” and constantly being remade, the University Seminar, Technologies of the City, will look at the technological and cultural history of cities from the ancient world to the present day. Students will explore the history of building materials–wood, brick, steel, concrete, and glass–used in the construction of cities. We will also trace the development of city infrastructure such as electricity, water and sewage systems, streets bridges, and subways. Technological innovations, such as the automobile, will receive special consideration. We will move moth geographically and temporally to visit the world’s great cities, studying examples of significant building projects, such as the Brooklyn Bridge, the Chicago World’s Fair, and Cleveland’s first skyscraper, the Rockefeller Building. The course will cover the history of the professions–engineering, architecture, and urban planning–that have contributed to the construction of cities, and will review the works of these practitioners, as well as that of artists, reformers, and utopians that have imagined new directions for the city. Requirements to enroll: 1) Passing letter grade in a First Seminar OR concurrent enrollment in FSTS 100 (if transfer student); AND 2) No previous/concurrent enrollment in FSNA/USNA; OR Requisites not met permission.
Dates: June 5 - August 1, 2023
Session: 8 Week Session
Dates:
Session: On campus
Time: TBA
Instructor: Bernard Jim
Credits: 3 credits
Department: SAGES
USNA 285: The Science of Madness: An Historical Investigation of Mental Illness
Since antiquity the western world’s understanding of mental illness has continued to evolve. This course will examine the trajectory of that evolution, looking at the medical theories that have influenced assumptions about the causes and treatments of mental illness from the early modern era through the twenty-first century. Examples of questions we will investigate include: How we have defined the normal and the pathological in human mental behavior over time? How do we explain the centuries-old correlation that medicine has made between creativity and mental illness? Which past and present psychiatric treatments have been beneficial and which harmful? How did Darwin’s theory of evolution affect theories of mental illness (and how does it continue to do so with the advent of evolutionary psychology)? How have changing philosophies of science affected the research and practice of psychology? How and why do the sciences of the mind–psychiatry, psychoanalysis, clinical psychology, psychopharmacology, the cognitive neurosciences–claim so much scientific authority and exert influence over our lives today? As a frame work for this inquiry, the class will use the concept of paradigm shifts as Thomas Kuhn defines in his classic work, the Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Prereq: Passing letter grade in a 100 level first year seminar in USFS, FSNA, FSCC, FSSO, FSSY or FSCS. Prereq or Coreq: FSTS 100.
Dates: June 5 - August 1, 2023
Session: 8 Week Session
Dates:
Session: On campus
Time: TBA
Instructor: Barbara Burgess-Van Aken
Credits: 3 credits
Department: SAGES
USSO 286D: James Bond and Popular Culture
The twenty-one films of James Bond have become part of popular culture, and the figure of the superspy has become mythic in proportion. This series, from its first installment in 1963 to the latest reinvention of James Bond in 2006, not only depicts one dashing man’s efforts to save the world from disaster again and again, but also traces the development of our popular culture. Issues of violence, sex, the presentation and treatment of women, racial stereotypes, and spectacle among other topics can be discussed after viewing each film, providing an opportunity to explore the changing expectations of American audiences and the developing form of contemporary cinema.
Dates: June 5 - August 1, 2023
Session: 8 Week Session
Time: TBA
Instructor: Jeffrey Ullom
Credits: 3 credits
Department: SAGES
USSO 291J: Narratives of Immigration
As one of the most pressing issues of the twenty-first century, immigration has captured the imagination of politicians and authors alike. In this class, we will explore the stories of those who have migrated to the United States. We will analyze how various writers create autobiographical and fictional narratives of migration, addressing issues such as adjusting to different cultures, learning new languages, and adapting to new environments. Through these stories and histories, we will ask broader questions about immigration, including: Is migration a basic human right? Is it ethical to define someone as being “illegal” for peacefully working and living in a different country from where they were born? What are the gender, ethnic, cultural, and racial barriers that exist when migrating between countries? What are the cost(s) of citizenship and embracing a new country as one’s home?
Dates: June 5 - August 1, 2023
Session: 8 Week Session
Time: TBA
Instructor: Cara Byrne
Credits: 3 credits
Department: SAGES
USSO 291Y: Immigration, Identity, and Writing
For many in Europe and North America, globalization and immigration increasingly present a challenge to cultural identity. British Prime Minister Theresa May articulated this view when she stated in 2016, “If you believe you’re a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere.” More than expressing misgivings about the consequence of globalization and immigration, May was asserting the importance of belonging to a place and a culture. In contrast to May, the genre of writing known as global literature presents a framework for understanding our globalized world not as a cause for anxiety, but rather as an opportunity to understand how new cultural, social, and national identities take shape. As the writer Adam Kirsch has observed, “individual lives are now lived and conceived under the sign of the whole globe.” One example of this more global view is Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who, in We Should All Be Feminists, uses her experience of immigration to reconcile western feminism with the expectations of her native society. As the popularity and influence of writers like Adichie attest, new voices and forms of writing possess global significance in our cosmopolitan and connected world. Studying this literature reveals both connections and tensions between the local and the global. These connections and tensions provide us with a fuller understanding of how people experience this globalized age and make sense of their place in the world.
Dates: June 5 - August 1, 2023
Session: 8 Week Session
Dates:
Session: Online
Time: TBA
Instructor: Arthur Russell
Credits: 3 credits
Department: SAGES
USSO 293K: History of Islam in South Asia
There are more Muslims in South Asia than in any other region in the world – yes, even the Middle East. We will start our exploration of Islam in South Asia (which includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan) in the 8th century. The history of Islam in the region will provide us an opportunity to study the religion and its practitioners in a wide range of social and political contexts: in cosmopolitan, commercial networks of maritime trade routes; as rulers consolidating empires governing large multi-ethnic and multi-religious populations; as “modernizers” and “traditionalists”; as religious minorities and majorities in different countries of the region. We will also explore Islam in an array of modern settings: from a nation-state created as a Muslim homeland — the first country in the world to be formed on the basis of religious identity — to a rejection of Islam as an adequate basis of national identity that led to the formation of another Muslim-majority country; from democracy to military rule; and, from Cold War politics to the “Global War on Terror.” Requirements to enroll: 1) Passing letter grade in a First Seminar OR concurrent enrollment in FSTS 100 (if transfer student); AND 2) No previous/concurrent enrollment in FSSO/USSO; OR Requisites not met permission.
Dates: June 5 - August 1, 2023
Session: 8 Week Session
Time: TBA
Instructor: Ananya Dasgupta
Credits: 3 credits
Department: SAGES