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Anne Fausto-Sterling claims that “labeling someone a man or a woman is a social decision,” and that “our beliefs about gender affect what kinds of knowledge scientists produce about sex in the first place.” In this FYI seminar we will investigate these assertions using scientific, social science, and humanities perspectives; specifically, we will raise questions about the complex relationships among physiology, sex, and gender; sex/gender definitions and categories; why and how humans“perform” gender; and the roles humans play in families. We will also explore the ways in which both biologists and gender studies scholars understand hormonal influence on sex/gender behavior as well brain functions in males and females. The course will focus on the contemporary United States. In addition to reading scholarly scientific and social science sources, we will study some literature, films such as Transamerica, and episodes of television shows such as Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Projects will include a biology lab, poster and oral presentation, and formal essays.

What is it that is taught in art classes? Are students taught how to make art, or is it just a set of academic skills? Are these skills necessary to make art in today’s highly pluralistic art world? Does talent matter? What talents are most likely to lead to success as an artist? What is the role of art schools and MFAprograms, and what do they offer their students? What is the benefit of art education, or for that matter, what is the point of studying art at a small liberal arts college? In this seminar, we will look at contemporary and historical approaches to art instruction, and examine how these practices have been shaped by trends of the art world, where they have shaped those trends, and where they have completely missed the boat. Through these discussions, students will gain insight into art, culture, history, and their own role as participants in the educational process.

Over 100 years ago, Giovanni Schiaparelli reported “channels” on Mars. The Italian canali was soon mistranslated as “canals,” inspiring American astronomer Percival Lowell to speculate on their origin. Could there be intelligent life on the Red Planet? NASA’s earlier landers (Viking 1, Viking 2, Pathfinder) determined that Mars is a cold, dry, and probably lifeless planet. But perhaps Mars, in its youthful stages, supported a thicker atmosphere and was warmer and wetter— and was teeming with at least bacteria, if not sentient creatures. Data collected by an armada of orbiters (Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) show that Mars probably contains abundant ice just below the surface, and may have hosted liquid water relatively recently (i.e., within the last million years, or maybe even today!). The rovers Spirit and Opportunity continue to explore the surface, and have found geologic deposits that confirm that parts of Mars were once covered in water. Finally, the Phoenix Mars Lander will explore the arctic region of Mars beginning on May 25, 2008; what will it find? Could the planet yet harbor life in extreme environments? Or could the current Martian environment be transformed—or terraformed—into one hospitable to Earth-based life? In this seminar, we well concentrate on the scientific evidence for the possibility of life on Mars—in the past, the present, and the future. Establishing the prerequisites for life is not, however, the same as establishing a human presence. Perhaps early microbes colonized Mars, but can we?

We will use Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars as a starting point for our imaginings and investigations, and compare and contrast it with the science and engineering perspective provided by Robert Zubrin in The Case for Mars. This background will allow us to develop scenarios for accommodating Earth-based life through terraforming, and establishing human social and political orders on Mars. But even if we can colonize Mars, should we?

Important and remote figures are not the only subjects worthy of examination in history. So are families like yours. In histories of national leaders, although individual circumstances may be highlighted and celebrated, we know to place these characters into appropriate historical political or social contexts. When thinking of ourselves and our families, however, we more often think personal traits are at work in consideration of significant accomplishments and even tragedies. Thus, our cousin became a scientist because he was unusually intelligent, and our parents married based solely on individual choice and romantic love. Rarely do we consider the historical contexts of decisions made by our relatives or ourselves. Even more rarely do we consider our own families or ourselves worthy of historical scrutiny. This seminar involves the examination of our own social and political histories. By learning how to find sources about housing, school, work, U.S. Census Bureau, and military service, and by conducting an extensive oral history interview of at least one family member, we will construct our own social histories. We will also look at structural changes in American political, social and economic norms and structures within which individual choices were made.

Time is one of the basic conditions of human existence, and yet—or consequently—it remains a kind of unsolved mystery. The medieval philosopher Augustine of Hippo began his inquiry into time with the confession: “If no one asks me, I know what it is, but if I want to explain it to someone who asks, I don’t know.” More recently, the physicist John Wheeler quipped, “Time is nature’s way of keeping everything from happening all at once.” Whatever time is, the subject has been approached in a rich variety of ways, including investigations into the beginning of the universe, the history of clocks and calendars, the difference between linear and cyclical time, the acceleration of time by modern technology, and the diversity of social norms regulating the pace of life in different parts of the world. In this seminar, we’ll go on a tour of time guided by psychologists, physicists, philosophers, historians, economists, fiction writers, and adventurers. We’ll also watch films about the nature of time and keep a journal of reflections on our personal experiences of waiting, rushing, being early or late, watching the time, and having good or bad timing. In these ways we’ll explore the phenomenon of time from a number of different perspectives, seeking a deeper understanding of temporality in human history and contemporary society.

Late in the 18th century James Watt modernized the steam engine, originally a tool for removing water from coal mines, heralding in the industrial revolution. As the steam engine was improved, so was the science of thermodynamics. The need for coal drove the desire for engines, the need for better engines drove the desire for steel, and the need for steel drove the desire for more coal. Spin-offs occurred, railways were used to move more than coal, engines were used for factories and mills, and suddenly much of the world blossomed in new mechanization. This mechanization produced more fabric, more food, more transportation, and more war. In this FYI we are interested in several engines, from early steam engines to internal combustion engines, as well as other machines developed during the 19th century. We want to study the engines as engineering problems, as physics problems, and as chemistry problems, but never forgetting the fact that the machines developed in the context of the needs of society. Science, engineering, and societal needs evolved symbiotically; advances in one area pushed for advances in another. We will learn about the limits of engineering and thermodynamics, why there isn’t a perpetual motion machine, and what entropy really is. Along the way we will ponder a world without machines, and consider the significance of liberal learning on the challenges of engineering. Expect to write papers, read books, do presentations, use a calculator, and dabble in a lab.

How can geography help us to better understand patterns of health and disease? How can tools like mapping help us grapple with health related issues? All of us occupy locations, and during the course of our lives move from place to place. What we often don’t think about is how our geographies are tied to our health. Where you live influences your risk of disease or ill health. For example, if you live near a hazardous waste disposal site you may be at higher risk of getting certain disease, or your access to screening for certain diseases may vary depending on they city, county, state, or country you live in. This seminar is designed to help you begin thinking about the complexities geography or location brings to health-related issues and to provide you with some tools for studying geographic differences in the patterns of health and health services.

All of us have suffered humiliations and embarrassments. The present author recalls the adolescent years as especially humiliating, and today no one can say, for instance, whether I embarrassed my parents more than they seemed to embarrass me. Humiliation is a spectator sport in the culture of the United States (tabloid headline: “Britney Too Drugged To Make Next Video”), and we seem to revel in watching people being “voted off the island.” In this seminar we will study humiliation in literary, political, theological and philosophical terms. We will examine the process as portrayed by such great literary artists as Faulkner, Euripides, Shakespeare, Bellow and others. For Machiavelli humiliation was one of the great motivators of political life, yet for Thomas More humility (linguistic cousin to humiliation) was the basis of a utopian community. Proponents of animal rights describe in graphic detail the humiliations of animals in the name of agriculture and research, while Freud in his later, pessimistic life argues that civilization itself is inherently humiliating and deathful. I’m not embarrassed to say that we will study them all!

Speculative fiction (SF) has always served as a prism for the hopes and fears of a society. In particular, SF often reflects the aspirations and anxieties triggered by new, promising and dangerous ideas. We will read, watch and listen to examples of the SF of the 20th and 21st centuries that explore the ramifications of specific scientific discoveries and technological innovations. For each work we will ask how the historical context and the limits of the scientific knowledge of the time affected how the author treated the challenging new idea in the narrative. Is this idea one we still grapple with today? If so, how? Do we have the same hopes and fears as the author and original readers, or, if not, what changes in our society and our scientific understanding have led us to react to the idea in different ways?

“I would endeavour to trace the lines of this image before it be for ever lost,” John Ruskin wrote of Venice in the 1850’s. Well, put up the turnstiles: Venice—architectural wonder, ecological oddity, glittering backdrop for drama and desire—is in more peril than ever. It’s sinking, and tourists who want to see it should probably do so soon. But what does it mean to “see” Venice? Travel writer Mary McCarthy called it “a dream incarnate;” more recently, novelist Jeanette Winterson wrote “I hadn’t seen Venice when I wrote about it, which is perfect, because Venice doesn’t really exist.” With over half its population displaced in the last fifty years, and tourists both scourge and salvation, many Venice-watchers have argued that the city has already disappeared, only to be replaced by a museum: worth saving, certainly, but at what cost? And for whom? At risk are two cities: the urban center invisible to tourists, and the city of the imagination, a literary and artistic construct colored by preconceived images of romance and decay. As Byron told his publisher,“Venice pleases me as much as I expected—and I expected much. It is one of those places which I know before I see them, and has always haunted me.” Our seminar will explore the city as spectacle and the city as home—why Venice matters to Venetians, and what it means to the world. Our texts—written by natives and non-natives alike—will include histories, travel literature, essays on the city-at-risk, and, primarily, novels and films.

Do gender roles make a difference in the world? What if we lived in a different society, a different world, even a different planet? What if we lived in the same society, but with a different history? What if we were not limited by biology at all or could pick and choose among several genders? For 17 years, the James Tiptree, Jr. Award has been given annually to the work of speculative fiction which does the most to “expand or explore our notions of gender.” Speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, magical realism, etc.) provides an ideal avenue for investigating different approaches to gender identity and gender relationships. What is it about our social structures, our biology, and our history that makes our gender roles and identities what they are? What could happen if these were just a little different? Speculative fiction allows elements of our own social structures to be emphasized by exaggerating them in a similar society. Not surprisingly, various award-winning stories find many different aspects of our gender roles to challenge. We will read a selection, partly determined by student interest, of the short stories and novels that have won this award. Along the way, we will discuss what makes these works “speculative,” what aspects of gender they challenge, and what aspects of gender they accept.

According to the Beatles, “all you need is love.” Sounds simple enough, but what exactly is ‘love’: an unchanging emotion more or less fixed throughout human history or a set of culturally determined modes of behavior that wildly fluctuate over time and across different civilizations? And what roles do gender, sex, sexual orientation, friendship, family, social status, and age play with respect to ‘love’? To discover possible answers to these questions we’ll take a grand tour of some of the world’s most famous expressions of love. Our trip will start at the very beginning with the love poetry of ancient Iraq, Egypt and Israel. From there we’ll cross the Mediterranean Sea to Greece, where we’ll crash a philosophical drinking party (Plato’s Symposium) in which Socrates and his friends discuss the true nature of love by proposing and critiquing several possible definitions. Then it’s off to Italy on a Roman holiday with the poet Ovid as our guide (via his semi-auto- biographical, artful meditation on love and sex—and whether the two can ever be equated). Next we’ll spend some time with a few of Ovid’s literary progeny (e.g., the medieval troubadours of France and their songs of courtly love) before (finally!) catapulting to the present age. Here we’ll take a series of brief vacation getaways to a variety of love destinations populated by a diverse group of writers, composers, artists, and filmmakers from around the world.

What is your earliest memory? How accurate is it? Why do we remember? To whom do our memories belong? How does “collective memory” shape our lives? From personal memory to national remembrance, we examine the motives for remembering, how memory works, and the consequences of not forgetting. Conversely, we address how concepts such as memory loss, artificial memory, and repressed memory present important issues for understanding memory more generally. We explore memory in relation to subjects such as time and history, reflect on the metaphors we use for memory, and consider how from selfhood to nationhood, memory is linked to key concepts such as identity, authenticity, agency, and reality. This course explores memory in fields from psychology to literature, and contexts from museums and monuments to legal and therapeutic practices. In addition to engaging artistic, popular, and scholarly material related to memory, all seminar members produce creative renderings and critical analysis generated from their own memories.

As social beings, humans have always been accompanied by the art of music. In this seminar we will explore how music has contributed to human society in view of social life, rituals, and various forms of art. In our seminars we will discuss various topics: Was there a specific place for the birth of music? How has music around the world varied by cultural and religious context? What are the connections between music and other art forms (syncretism, mathematical quadrivium etc.)? Has music advanced social life and improved the life of the community? How does music shape our thoughts and feelings? How can we examine the “meaning” of music as a specific form of psychological activity (perceptual processes and engagement)? What is the role of music in public education? Even if you have limited musical experience or think of yourself as a foreigner in the realm of music, this class is an opportunity to explore, discuss, enjoy and celebrate THE MUSIC!

We talk about gender, race, class, ethnicity, and religion as categories people fit into. Usually, we think about them one at a time and treat them as “natural.” In the presidential primary, Hillary Clinton was the woman and Barack Obama the African-American. They are more of course, as is each of us. Also, Hillary acts “tougher” than most of the men and biologically Barack is half Caucasian. According to some, he’s not “Black enough” too. Social constructions and practices impinge upon biology, but biology itself may not be as tidy and natural as we think either. Further, these categories tend to obscure the fact that we live our lives as all of these categories simultaneously. We do not parse our selves into categories when we experience life. The self, and how we understand it, is much more complicated. This seminar concentrates on the processes that categorize and divide humans, as well as on those that unite and unify. We will probe the biology of sex and race, along with the ideological and constructed nature of biology. We will look at how categories form and why, consider individual perception, tendencies to form into groups, and historical changes. We also will use the cases of Muslim women in Britain and white men in the US to illuminate, as you analyze your own social location. Throughout, we will explore the tension between a person’s life lived indivisibly and the larger forces that create and sustain categories that segment and divide.

We are confronted every day with evidence that people all over the world identify themselves so passionately as members of national groups that they are willing to endure and inflict incredible suffering on behalf of their nation. Yet how individuals acquire a sense of national identity and why it is so powerful are questions that are not fully understood. This course investigates the origins of nations and national identity; the role of symbols, traditions, and myths in constructing the nation; the relationship between a unified conception of national identity and stable, peaceful political units; and possible solutions to conflict in deeply divided societies. Case studies may include Yugoslavia (Kosovo), Eritrea & Ethiopia, Israel & Palestine, and Iraq.

Have you ever heard the saying, “Boys will be boys”? or “Sugar and spice and everything nice, that’s what little girls are made of”? Is it possible to categorize people in to only two categories, male and female? The author Anne Fausto-Sterling claims that “labeling someone a man or a woman is a social decision.” In this FYI seminar we are going to explore the relationships among physiology, gender issues and sex. We will seek to understand the physiological basis of sex and discuss the relationship, if any, between biology and gender. We will study the roles of genes, hormones, neural development and anatomy of various groups, such as males, females, heterosexuals and homosexuals. We will investigate gender issues using scientific, social science, and humanities research methodologies. We will also explore the ways in which both biologists and gender studies scholars understand hormonal influence on sex/gender behavior as well brain functions in males and females. Projects will include a biology lab, poster and oral presentation, and formal essays.

Students in this seminar will explore how our senses contribute to the human experience by considering diverse areas such as nutrition, economics, art, and ritual. Humans, more than any other animal, actively search for situations in which we can experience phenomena such as“savoring” and “flow.” While sensory experiences can be purely utilitarian (e.g., eating food for survival purposes only), many of us go beyond the minimum and seek not only to enjoy the sensory input we receive moment by moment, but to find or create the most gratifying experiences possible (e.g., consider Tyler Florence’s “Ultimate” show on the Food Network). Because attention is an important component of enjoying our sensory experiences, we will encounter the topics of mindfulness and absorption. Readings will include selections from Csikszentmihalyi, Bryant and Veroff, Zuckerman, and others. We will pay attention to all our sensory inputs and will try to determine how large an effect senses traditionally labeled “lesser” (taste, smell, touch) have compared with those senses labeled “dominant” (sight, hearing) on our enjoyment. Students will help shape the seminar by investigating sensory experiences in areas of particular interest to them.

A great institution of higher learning doesn’t so much prepare students to ‘do something’ as to ‘be anything’. (Robert Hutchins, past president and chancellor of the University of Chicago) We live in an age of extreme specialization – from factory assembly lines to academic disciplines. The so-called “hard sciences” (e.g., physics, chemistry, astronomy, biology), in particular, are frequently viewed as fundamentally different from other fields of inquiry within the liberal arts curriculum, existing in specialized intellectual niches of their own. Is there something within these research programs that merits this perception? The purpose of this seminar is to demonstrate that the hard sciences are not isolated from the liberal arts, but are in fact embedded within that intellectual tradition. We shall approach this problem by examining such topics as the historical relationship between philosophy and science, the “scientific revolutions,” the philosophical underpinnings of scientific reasoning, and the so-called “science wars” along with the famous Sokal Hoax and its relation to theories of social construction. Using the insights obtained from these studies, we conclude the seminar by examining the contemporary debate concerning science and creationism.

How do we know ourselves? What is our relationship to the world? This seminar will explore the various ways that people define themselves and the various social processes that influence these definitions. We will explore how identities are shaped by interactions, how identities are shaped by larger political, economic, and social forces, as well as how people navigate various aspects of their identities in their everyday lives. Course materials will include novels, short stories, autobiographies, and essays. Course assignments will include a research project exploring how people convey information and manage impressions of themselves, as well as a weekly journal exploring the various influences on how you construct your identity.

Water Scarcity: A Looming Crisis?

Where does your water come from and how much do you use in a typical day? Do you think this rate is sustainable? The energy crisis has gained worldwide attention, but what about a water crisis? A lack of water to meet daily needs is already a reality for many people in the world. Globally, water scarcity affects four out of every ten people, and this number is likely to rise as population, urbanization, and irrigation increase. In this seminar, we will explore the physical and sometimes political constraints on sufficient water supplies. We will discuss environmental disasters like the Aral Sea and the Salton Sea, where our thirst for water in arid environments has resulted in catastrophic effects on regional ecosystems. Water scarcity also occurs in areas with plenty of rainfall, so we will examine the less obvious, but equally pressing water resources issues in places like Wisconsin. Finally we will explore the effectiveness of water conservation and recycling techniques and decide what we can do as individuals to ease local and global water scarcity.

What Matters Most – Striking a Balance

Living in today’s world demands a lot of the individual. It is becoming increasingly difficult to be a success (in a career, school, community) while maintaining a satisfying personal life. We feel like we have to do it all, but what is that doing to our bodies and minds? What effect does this have on society as a whole? Why do people often make choices that don’t correlate with what they say they value? As Goethe said, “Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.” What is success? What is excellence? What is happiness and how is it achieved? This course will seek to discover how one finds a healthy, fulfilling and lasting balance physically, emotionally, and intellectually so that s/he can pursue excellence and still have a satisfying life. We will study methods of maintaining a healthy balance. We will practice somatics such as Laban Movement Analysis, Bartenieff Fundamentals and Alexander technique. We will create time management strategies. We will examine the lives of people who are considered successful and societies that identify themselves as happy. Finally, we will consider how our choices affect the community. As Robert Reich says, “to view the struggle for a better balance between what we do for a living and what we do with our lives only as a personal one, waged in private, is to ignore the larger trends . . . It’s not just a personal choice, simply a matter of personal balance . . . It’s a question of how to create . . . a more balanced society.”