Chaucer 
56:606:501:01 (#14795) 
(Cross-listed with 56:350:532:60) 
Professor Bowden 
Saturday 9:00-11:20 a.m.

Critics have paid little attention to Chaucer’s works as direct and indirect sources for playwrights (up until 1800, in this course).  Accordingly, your paper for this course will focus on close analysis of primary texts.  Besides the paper, coursework will include an oral report, informal “first- impressions” papers, a final exam, and participation in the longest-running unknown tradition at Rutgers/Camden: your self-generated staging of scenes for an audience consisting of my other class this semester, who likewise will stage their scenes to your wild applause.  No, you do not have to memorize lines.  N.B. The same as undergrads here, you will read Chaucer in glossed Middle English– not in translation.

Italian Renaissance Art 
56:606:511 (#05235) 
Cross-listed with 50:082:331:01 
Professor Roberta Tarbell 
Tuesday and Thursday 3:00-4:20 p.m.

Traces the history of Italian painting, sculpture, and architecture from 1300 to 1600. Emphasizes the major art centers of Florence, Siena, Rome, and Venice; contemporary art theory; and artists’ writing. Students will develop a writing portfolio.

20 th Century British Novel 
56:606:531 (#08477) 
Cross-listed with 56:350:583:01 
Professor Timothy Martin 
Tuesday 6:00-8:40 p.m

This course will survey the rich diversity of provocative, challenging English fiction written since 1880. The writers are diverse in nationality—they are English, Irish, Polish, and American by birth—and they are strikingly different in style and technique. But they all depict more or less heroic men and women confronting and attempting to reconcile themselves to the modern world—a world of diminished expectations, shrinking possibilities, and uncertain significance. Considerable attention to questions of literary form, to the modernist ethos of experimentation in narrative, and to the status of the novel as a work of art.

Modern Art 
56:606:532 (#14843) 
Cross-listed with 50:082:353:01 
Professor Roberta Tarbell 
Tuesday and Thursday 9:00-10:50 a.m.

Art in America and Europe 1940 to 1980. Includes discussion of surrealist, abstract expressionist, minimalist, pop, op, and conceptual art, happenings, and site specific and direct metal sculpture. Students will develop a writing portfolio.

Gender and Sexuality 
56:606:541 (#08563) 
Cross-listed with 56:512:529 
Professor Laurie Bernstein 
Tuesdays from 5:00-7:40 p.m.

In this course, students will read recent scholarship on gender and sexuality in modern European, Russian, and U.S. history for the purpose of comparing interpretations and discovering how concepts of gender have both affected our understanding of the past and influenced the lives of women and men. Conducted as a seminar, the course will take the form of discussing one book each week after an introduction to general theories of gender and history. Participants will be responsible for writing formal reviews of six books of their choice, writing informal reaction papers on the remaining six books, leading one class discussion, and writing a final term paper addressing comparative historical issues.

Women and Art 
56:606:542 (#12423) 
Cross-listed with 50:082:305 
Professor Martin Rosenberg 
Tuesday and Thursday 1:30 – 2:50 p.m.

“Women and Art” is a feminist art history course which deals with all aspects of women’s contributions to art and visual culture within specific cultural and historical contexts.  We consider both how issues of gender affect our views of art, and how art shapes our views of gender.  In Fall, 2006, we will focus on the period of the 18th and 19th century.

Rational & Irrational Minds
56:606:601 (#12597) 
Professor Bill Whitlow 
Tuesday 6:00 – 8:40 p.m.

This course examines ideas about human rationality and irrationality, especially as they have been expressed in the literature and science of Western thinkers from the time of Descartes. Western culture has often exalted rationality as the essential mark of superior mental, moral and social development. But what does it mean to be rational? And, conversely, what does it mean to be irrational? To explore answers to these questions, the course will use modern cognitive psychology as an organizing framework for discussion. However, it will draw on a wide variety of perspectives, incorporating literary, philosophical, historical, and clinical sources to amplify the breadth of the discussion. 

“Man is a rational animal.” Aristotle 

“Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.” Oscar Wilde 

“It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.” Bertrand Russell

Evil
56:606:602 (#14796) 
Professor John Wall 
Wednesday 6:00 – 8:40 p.m.

This course examines the phenomenon and meaning of evil, especially “moral” evil or evil visited upon human beings by one another. Evil has long been a concern of humanity, and it has received significant attention from writers and thinkers through the ages. Today, it once again has a striking relevance for understanding our world, in everything from terrorism to genocide and racism to poverty. Key questions discussed include the following: How can evil be explained? Why is humanity capable of it in the first place? Does evil belong only to some or to all? What is the difference between its perpetrators and its victims? What kind or genre of language can make evil available to understanding? Is evil compatible with the existence of a good God? How can one judge the difference between evil and good? These and other fundamental philosophical and religious questions are pursued through a range of Western perspectives such as “Genesis” and “The Book of Job” in the Bible, Sophocles’ Antigone, Augustine’s Confessions, and Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem.

Intro to Museum Studies
56:606:611 (#11032)
(Cross-listed with 50:698:205:01)
Professor Roberta Tarbell
Wednesday 1:20 – 4:00 p.m.

Introduces the student to museum operations and curatorial and education programs with comparative analysis of regional museums. Topics include museum mission statements, organization and administration; collection theory and ethics; registration, research, preservation, conservation, and storage of collections; exhibition development; design and installation.

Childhood Health & Illness
56:606:631 (#12600)
Professor Bluebond-Langner
Thursday 6:00 – 8:40 p.m.

The purpose of this course is to introduce you to some of the major issues facing health care professionals, clinicians, policy makers and researchers involved in the medical care and treatment of children. Among the issues to be addressed are: What do well and ill children know about health, illness, death and bodily functions? What should they be told? What is/should be the relationship among physical, psychological, social, economic, and cultural factors in childhood, health and illness? Which models of care and treatment best serve the physical, emotional and cognitive needs of children? What is/should be the place of the child in decisions about his/her medical care and treatment? What is/should be the place of the child in decisions about participating in medical research (e.g. clinical trials of new drugs, gene therapy, new medical devices)?

[1] For purposes of this course “child” refers to newborn through 18 years. I will explain in class why I have chosen this terminology and how and under what conditions it will vary in the course. I will discuss the use of terms, newborn, neonate, infant, child, adolescent, minor and emancipated minor.

Sociology of Aging
56:606:632 (#14798) 
(Cross-listed with 50:920:483:40)
Professor Monika Wood 
Tuesdays and Thursdays 6:00-7:20 p.m.

Demographic, economic, and social trends associated with aging populations are continuously converging with profound consequences. This course will examine these processes of aging as they affect individuals, families, and societies. As we explore the dynamic interactions between people and their environments from an interdisciplinary perspective, we will agree with Harry Moody, that aging is “socially and historically constructed, subject to interpretation, and therefore open to controversy, debate, and change.” 

As we reflect on contemporary themes and controversies surrounding aging and social policy, we gain a better understanding of the range of human experiences over the life course and the social context that contributes to enhancing or diminishing the quality of life in old age. Hopefully this class will help us achieve a vision of the old age we’d like to have for ourselves and assist us in assessing more realistically what we can do to prepare for it.

Research in Liberal Studies 
56:606:689:01 (#05158) 
Dr. S. Charme
By Arrangement

Research in Liberal Studies
56:606:690:01 (#05607) 
Dr. S. Charme
By Arrangement 

Matriculation Continued
56:606:800:01(#05512) 
Dr. S. Charme 
By Arrangement

If for some reason, you cannot register for courses in Spring 2006, you should register for Matriculation Continued. You pay only a $57 fee, which allows you to remain a member in good standing of the Liberal Studies Program and saves you from the trouble of being re-admitted in the following semester.