COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
SPRING, 2004
HONR 300A HITCHCOCK’S CINEMA
4 SEM HRS
INBODEN
Don’t get in the shower! Actually, you probably won’t be afraid of taking a shower after dissecting the editing of the famous scene in Psycho and you’ll also have a much better sense of the real cinema of Alfred Hitchcock. Many viewers, familiar only with Psycho and The Birds, don’t realize that they are late and somewhat anomalous entries in the great director’s oeuvre. The real Hitchcock is about suspense, yes, but even more about questions of romance, trust, morality, insecurity, and self-definition. And all these issues are explored in visual images, words, music, and symbolism that make Hitchcock truly worthy of his label as auteau (we’ll learn about that, too).
The class will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays, but there will also be showings of each week’s movies on Monday evenings, so figure that into your schedule. We will spend some time on basic film terminology and theory at first, then work through some of Hitchcock’s greatest films chronologically. Along the way, class members will also give presentations on films we are not able to see and discuss as a class. The written work will include several short papers and a longer paper on a topic of the student’s devising. We will end by discussing some contemporary films that bear the stamp of Hitchcock’s influence.
This course may be counted in place of ENGL 180A by English majors and minors. WRITING INTENSIVE.
HONR 300Q PROBABILITY–LAS VEGAS STYLE
4 SEM HRS
KRAUS
The primary goals of the course are to develop an understanding of the mathematics involved in casino games and state lotteries and to identify and examine societal issues related to gambling.
Mathematics topics to be covered include simple probabilities, odds, compound probabilities, dependent/independent events, expected value, house advantage, the law of large numbers, standard deviation, confidence intervals, volatility, and combinations.
Students will conduct independent research on societal issues related to gambling, including psychological, sociological, political, historical, and religious issues and will share the results of that research with the class.
Students will need a calculator for every class, preferably a graphing calculator like the TI-83 or TI-86. A calculator that does not have math functions available or that does not allow complex arithmetic expressions to be entered would not be appropriate. The prerequisite for this course is Math Placement Level 23 or higher. WRITING INTENSIVE.
HONR 300R COMPARATIVE RELIGIOUS ETHICS: HUMAN RIGHTS AND WAR
4 SEM HRS
NELSON
The seminar will begin by analyzing and comparing ethical systems of several East Asian, South Asian, and Western religious traditions. We will examine their assumptions, norms, characteristic patterns of moral reasoning, and conceptions of virtue and vice. Attention will be given to the relations among religion, morality, and law in each tradition and the question of whether there are any common features of religious moral reasoning that are universal.
More than half of the course will be devoted to controversies concerning the status of appeals to universal human rights and the ethical justification of war. For example, is the modern notion of universal human rights exclusively Western and antithetical to Confucian culture? Is women’s equality compatible with Islam? What do Judasim, Christianity, and Islam say about the ethics of war? Is the present international situation accurately described as “the clash of civilizations”? If so, is this inevitable?
The seminar is highly participatory (student presentations and discussion) and WRITING INTENSIVE. Students will write one or more papers on relevant topics of their choosing which will be presented to the seminar.
