| Course Title | Description |
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EARLY MODERN ERA |
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Shakespeare
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Historians are coming to recognize that the 1590s, with its disastrous wars, catastrophic harvests, spiraling inflation, and economic dislocation, was one of the harshest decades in English history; and the first decade under the new Scots king was but slightly improved. In these conditions, Shakespeare rejected the possibility of life as a poet under aristocratic patronage to write for the popular theater, which paradoxically was thriving in the margins of a nervously authoritarian society. Defining his dramatic meanings in terms of stage, not page, this course will seek to discover how Shakespeare outwitted the censor through the potentialities of a distinctively late Elizabethan stagecraft. Each student will be asked to choose one play and think it through in historicized terms. Grades will be determined on the basis of an in-class presentation, and one fifteen-to-twenty page term paper. |
AGE OF REVOLUTIONS |
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American Political Thought
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CANCELED AUGUST 2008. |
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Women and Arts in the 18th and 19th Centuries
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This feminist art history course examines how gender shapes our views of art and art history, and how art and visual culture shape our notions of gender. We will examine women’s roles as makers, viewers, patrons, and critics of art within appropriate social, political, cultural and philosophical contexts in the period beginning with the Enlightenment in the mid 18th century and concluding with the beginning of the Modern age at the end of the nineteenth century. The format of the class will be lecture with discussion. |
STUDIES OF THE 20TH CENTURY |
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20th Century American Poetry |
CANCELED AS OF 5/27/2008. |
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Post-1945 America |
This course provides a multifaceted view of postwar America. Six themes are explored: culture–with a focus on the “packaging” of the Presidency for television and on rock ‘n roll–politics–with a focus on the rise of the conservative movement in the South and West–the economy–from the role of consumers to the advent of the new global capitalism–war & peace–from the Cold War to our modern militarism–social movements–for racial and gender equality–and medicine, health and society–from the polio epidemic to the politics of breast cancer. Students will read and discuss twelve books and prepare six comparative essays based on the assigned pairs of readings. |
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Nabokov
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An exploration of the works of Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977), unique in having made a brilliant career as both a Russian and an American writer. The first half of the course focuses on the Russian-language stories and novels written in emigration in Berlin during the 1920’s and 1930’s (including The Defense and Invitation to a Beheading); the course then follows Nabokov’s turn to writing in English, examining such novels as Lolita and Pale Fire .Nabokov’s position as an emigre writer, his relation to the Russian literary heritage, the treatment of emigration and exile in his fiction, the nature of his artistry, and the debates his works aroused concerning politics and pornography are among the issues to be considered. All readings in English. |
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The Modernist Novel in Britain and America |
This course will look at the manifestation of modernism in British and American novels of the early twentieth century. We will examine the experimental nature of the fiction of writers such as Joyce, Woolf, Faulkner and Hurston who experienced what Peter Gay calls “the lure of heresy.” For these writers, the hopes and anxieties fostered by rapidly changing cultural norms played out in narrative questions about the nature and usefulness of fiction. Not only was fiction seen as a significant means of exploring issues of war, race, gender and identity, it also defined and shaped those issues. |
CULTURAL DIVERSITY |
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Justice, Forgiveness, and Reparations
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Description forthcoming. |
ARTS & LITERATURE |
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Gothic Literature
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This course will begin by examining three important novels, which helped to establish the gothic as a highly popular mode in the late eighteenth century: Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764), Ann Radcliffe’s The Romance of the Forest (1791), and Matthew Lewis’sThe Monk (1796). We will then look at how these novels influenced the theater during the Romantic period. Works like Lewis’s The Castle Spectre, Joanna Baillie’s De Monfort, and Charles Maturin’s Bertram used the architecture and landscapes of the novel to foreground and examine a character type later termed as the Byronic hero. During the semester we will also encounter Romantic ballads that draw from gothic tropes: S.T. Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Keats’s Eve of St. Agnes. As we move throughout these genres, we will investigate what aspects of gothic writing are critical to describing it as a cohesive category and how these aspects evolve across time. |
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Major Filmmakers: Hitchcock
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Alfred Hitchcock is one of the most influential directors of the 20th century. This course provides an historical overview of Hitchcock’s work, from the early silent movie days to “Psycho” and beyond. We’ll study the films’ themes and methods, as well as examine the cinematic techniques which Hitchcock pioneered. We’ll also look at some film criticism. Three short response papers, midterm, and final exam. |
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History of Photography |
Surveys the history of European and American photography (techniques, styles, and content) from inception through the twentieth century.
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POLITICS AND SOCIETY |
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Language, Power, and Politics
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This course will discuss a range of political issues concerning language. We will focus, in particular, on how dominant language ideologies in the United States have been used to define and oppress less privileged groups in society. Topics to be covered include: language attitudes (discrimination, the notions of authority and correctness in language), dialects/standard language ideology and subordination, the language of politicians, language in the media/advertising, language policy in the U.S., politically correct language, language and gender, ecolinguistics (the relations between linguistic/biocultural diversity, knowledge and the environment). The main goal of the course is for students to gain an appreciation for the powerful effect of language on the structure of society and in social change. Course requirements: 2 short papers, and a (longer) final paper. NOTE: **Please have the course syllabus, reading list, and other introductory handouts with you at the first class session. They will ONLY be available through Electronic Reserves (along with all outside readings). THEY WILL NOT BE DISTRIBUTED IN CLASS, so please come prepared!!** |
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Who Gets In? The Competition for College Admission
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The process of seeking admission to a highly ranked college or university has become a nerve-wracking experience, in equal parts competitive and mysterious. It has also spawned a whole series of consultants and services that promise to improve SAT scores, counsel students on the best choice of schools, and then market them effectively. In addition to exerting such a significant effect on the lives of applicants, the process is also a subject of controversy for its attention to social goals as well as individual merit. In social science literature, public discourse, and the courts, the society debates such aspects of the decision process as affirmative action, the fairness of aptitude tests, and the meaning of equal opportunity. Through in depth individual accounts and broader social and legal analyses, this course will examine the admissions process and some of the attendant controversies. |
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Government and Politics in the Middle East |
An introduction to the government and politics of Israel, the Arab countries, Turkey, Iran, and certain other marginal lands. Consideration of contemporary crises and tensions and the role of nationalism, world history, World War II, ideological competition, and power politics in the area. |
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Criminal Justice Issues and Trends
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Overview of current issues and trends in criminal justice with an emphasis on empirical basis of knowledge in the field. This course surveys research and issues associated with criminology and criminal justice, emphasizing the criminal justice and juvenile justice systems, the police, courts, and corrections. |
CULTURE AND CRITICISM |
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Childhood Health and Illness
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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)? |
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Sports and Popular Culture |
This course will focus on how sports and leisure have been part of American popular culture. We will begin with a series of common readings to examine how historians have treated specific topics within this broad category. Each student will then be responsible for presenting the work of another historian to the class. The second half of the course will be devoted to developing, producing, and presenting individual research papers.
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Psychology of Leadership
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CANCELED AS OF 7/24/08. |
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION |
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Psychology & Religion
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Religion remains one of the most puzzling aspects of human behavior for psychologists to explain, since it involves some of the strongest and strangest beliefs, values, emotions, and experiences that people have. This course will explore a variety of theories intended to show possible psychological interpretations for belief in God, prayer and rituals, religious myths and symbols, and altered states of consciousness involved in phenomena such as mysticism, near-death experience, possession, and apparitions. We will analyze the work of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Erich Fromm, and others.
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RESEARCH IN LIBERAL STUDIES |
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56:606:689:01 |
Independent study of a special interest to the student, under supervision of an advisor chosen in consultation with the program director. |
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56:606:690:01
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MATRICULATION CONTINUED |
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56:606:800:01
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If for some reason, you cannot register for courses in Fall 2008, 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, use the Rutgers library and other facilities, and saves you from the trouble of being re-admitted in the following semester. |
Go to Graduate School–Camden site
Master of Arts in Liberal Studies
Rutgers University | Online & Campus