| Course Title | Description |
|---|---|
ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL ERA |
|
|
French Literature and Civilization in Provence and Paris TRIP: MAY 22-30 |
This mini-course and study-tour will be an introduction to French Literature and Civilization in Provence (the name for the southeastern area of France), with an emphasis on writers and In Camden, there will be six classes devoted to the study and discussion of the history and civilization of southeastern France, especially the cities of Avignon and Marseille. We will explore the cultural background of the area and read selections from Daudet, Pagnol and other important writers. We will study the art of Cézanne, Van Gogh and other influential artists. In France, we will study these writers and artists sur place, (in the place where they lived.) We will visit Avignon, Marseille, Nimes, Arles and Aix-en-Provence. Then we will travel to Paris, There will be 6 (six) Monday classes during the spring semester – each class will be two and a half (2½)hours long – from 3:20-5:50. (Another day or different times may be chosen, if these times are inconvenient). The tour will take place following exams and Camden graduation, from May 22nd to May 30th, 2011. Open to graduate and undergraduate students. Students may choose to participate solely in the foreign-study portion of the course, for which they will receive 1½ credits. The course is taught in English and a knowledge of French is not required. |
EARLY MODERN ERA |
|
| Shakespeare 56:606:511:01 Cross-listed: 56:350:545:01 W 6:00 – 8:40PM Professor Christopher Fitter fitter@camden.rutgers.edu |
Historians have long recognized that the 1590s, with their disastrous wars, catastrophic harvests, spiraling inflation, economic dislocation, and intermittent impositions of martial law, were one of the harshest periods for commoners in English history. The first decade under the new king was but slightly better. In these conditions, Shakespeare rejected the possibility of life as a poet of aristocratic patronage to write instead for the popular theater, which was paradoxically thriving in the margins of an 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 contemporary 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 |
|
|
The Romantic Period |
This course will cover writing of the British Romantic period, roughly defined as beginning with the French Revolution (1789) and ending with the crowning of Queen Victoria (1837). The French Revolution, in many ways, sets the tone for this period characterized by political upheaval and a radical questioning of societal structures. We will begin our study by looking at how authors like Edmund Burke, Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin, and Hannah More responded to this revolutionary spirit by exploring, adapting, or rejecting its influence on a variety of issues such as slavery, gender and sexuality, class inequality, and religion. Our investigation will also focus on the aesthetic and spiritual dimensions of the period, looking in-depth at the impetus behind William Blake’s visionary poetry and art, Wordsworth’s and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads, and the development of the “Cockney School” of second-generation poets. Throughout our work, special attention will be paid to critical writing about the texts we encounter and the social conditions that contributed to the development of Romanticism. Students will be required to complete two in-class presentations and a substantial final paper and participate in a mock conference at the semester’s end. |
| American Art: 1650-1900 Advanced Undergraduate Course 56:606:522:01 Cross-listed: 50:082:367:01 TTh 9:30 – 10:50AM Professor Greene |
COURSE DESCRIPTION FORTHCOMING
|
STUDIES OF THE 20TH CENTURY |
|
|
Advanced Topics in American History: Radicalism in the 1960s |
Four decades ago masses of college students and other in the United States took to the streets by the hundreds of thousands in a movement for social justice and an end to what they called an “imperialist” war, thereby provoking the most dramatic conflict between large portions of the population and its own government since the Blue and the Gray shed each other’s blood. In this course we will look at the radical movement of the sixties in detail, focusing on the reasons for its sudden growth naturally with particular attention to the Vietnam War, the underlying theory that informed its politics, and the many different groups composing the movement along with their similarities and differences. We will also consider to what extent current politics continue to reflect the conflicts of the sixties. Students will be asked to make an oral presentation and to write two papers. |
CULTURAL DIVERSITY |
|
|
Immigrants and Community Development |
The purpose of this course is to introduce graduate and upper division undergraduate students to the theory on community development and the role of immigrant communities in revitalizing urban areas in the United States. |
|
Survey of Japanese Art |
COURSE DESCRIPTION FORTHCOMING |
STUDIES OF IDEAS |
|
| Cognition, Neuroscience and Film Theory Advanced Undergraduate Course 56:606:601:01 Cross-listed: 50:830:457:40 Th 6:00 – 8:40 PM Professor Sean Duffy seduffy@camden.rutgers.edu |
COURSE DESCRIPTION FORTHCOMING |
| Youth Identities 56:606:602:01 Cross-listed: 56:163:522:01 Tu 6:00 – 8:40 PM Professor Lauren Silver ljsilver@camden.rutgers.edu |
This graduate seminar provides a forum for critically examining the identity constructions of youth coming of age in cities, within the United States and across the world. A central aim is to consider comparatively how social, cultural, and physical urban ecologies shape youth development. We will investigate the constitution of youth as student, friend, worker, daughter, and parent, paying particular attention to how identity roles are informed by structures of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality. We pay close attention to the roles of institutional contexts such as neighborhood, school, work, family, and peer groups. This course considers the ways in which connections (or lack thereof) across these contexts inform youth identities and development. The course takes a multi-disciplinary approach, applying theoretical frameworks from anthropology and human development to a range of ethnographic and social science accounts. We also draw upon youth reflections, creative expressions, and poetry, as well as documentary films to enrich our understanding of urban youth perspectives on their own identities. |
| Film Genre: The Legacy of the Western Advanced Undergraduate Course 56:606:602:02 Cross-listed: 50:354:397:01 MW 1:20 – 2:40 PM |
Few genres have captured the imagination of the 20th-century viewer as did the Western. By 1959, the end of the “golden age” of television, 14 of the top 28 programs were Westerns; on the three major networks, a total of 31 series ran in that year alone. In this course, we will look at how the genre has triumphed and evolved in the movies throughout American film history. We will begin with adaptations of 19th-century western art and popular fiction to the silent film, while studying early stars, such as William S. Hart and Tom Mix, and filmmakers. The course will then focus on the classical era of the genre (roughly 1939 through the 1950s), its archetypal characters and narratives, and how trademark films played on ideals of heroism, colonial expansion, and “manifest destiny.” We will also study the Western of the New American cinema, which reassessed the classical myths during the age of Vietnam and Watergate. The course will conclude with contemporary renditions of the genre, such as No Country for Old Men and The Assassination of Jesse James, and the Western’s “genre expansion”: how it inspired films as varied as Akira Kurosawa’sSeven Samurai and George Lucas’ Star Wars. |
ARTS AND LITERATURE |
|
|
Child Consciousness in the Novel |
In this class, we will read pioneers in developmental psychology between 1870 and 1910, roughly spanning Darwin through Freud, and investigate how novelists responded by theorizing their own visions of the evolution of human perception. Developmental psychology grew from Darwin’s insights about evolution, natural selection, and adaptation to environment, initiating an international movement called Child Study and culminating in an accepted equation between childhood and the unconscious. Modern novelists turned their attention to theorizing how consciousness evolved, paying particular attention to the interaction between morality and child perception, and the stream of consciousness form of children’s imaginations. We will read Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, R. L. Stevenson’s “Child’s Play,” Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Henry James’s What Maisie Knew, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and a few fairy tales, J. M. Barrie’s Peter and Wendy, L. M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, Willa Cather’s My Ántonia, Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness, William Faulkner’s Light in August, Richard Writer’s Native Son, Truman Capote’s Other Voices, Other Rooms, Carson McCullers’s The Member of the Wedding, J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, and Daniel Keyes’s Flowers for Algenon. Students will receive some background in narrative theory as we analyze the relationship between implied narrator, reader, and child focalizer. We will interpret “child” broadly as a site of development, looking—for example—innovatively at the parallels between Dorian Gray and Peter Pan as well as issues of race and “inversion” in the childhoods of Joe Christmas and Stephen Gordon. Peer groups will be responsible for reading and presenting to the class one child psychologist or social theory, and students will individually write one 12-15-page research paper and take a final exam. Each component (peer presentation, participation, paper, exam) is worth 25% of your final grade. |
|
Composition Theory |
What is college level writing? What is its relation to writing that comes before and after college? This course on writing for/in/beyond college explores practices of academic writing at the college level by considering their place in a trajectory that leads to and continues from the classroom of “first year composition”–just one of many sites where writing is practiced and taught. Our own diverse population of teachers, graduate students, and working professionals forms the context in which we examine notions of preparedness, genre knowledge, assessment, technology, and transfer on both sides of the teaching and learning equation. We will review the history of writing instruction as well as examine contemporary pressures on that instruction. Participates will undertake a modest research project appropriate to background and interest. Texts include What is College Level Writing? (Hartwell & Tinberg), College Writing and Beyond: A New Framework for Writing Instruction (Beaufort), Delivering College Composition: The Fifth Canon (ed. Yancey), and Relations, Locations, Positions: Composition Theory for Writing Teachers (eds. Vendenberg, Hum & Clary Lemon). |
|
Special Topics: American Modernism |
This course will address American fiction and poetry written from the turn of the 20th century through the 1930s. We will ask how American modernism, as this period has come to be known, negotiates between two impulses: first, to “make it new” through formal experimentation and literary innovation. And second, to radically open up American literature to a diverse range of “authentic” experiences and voices. Rather than placing these two drives in competition with each other, the authors we consider used a sophisticated range of strategies to combine them. We will examine these developments in the context of key historical events (wars, Jim Crow, the Jazz Age, the Great Depression) and cultural and technological shifts (psychoanalysis, anthropology, consumer culture, radio and cinema). Readings will include novels by Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Hurston, Larsen, Henry Roth, Toomer, Nathanael West, and Richard Wright, and poetry by T.S. Eliot, Frost, Hughes, McKay, Stein, and Stevens. Course requirements include an oral presentation, online discussion, short paper, and final research paper.
|
|
Special Topics: 20th Centure Irish Literature |
In this course I propose to take up Irish fiction from the end of the
nineteenth century to the turn of the twenty-first, a period stretching from the heady beginnings of the Irish literary “revival” to the disillusionments following the recent demise of the Celtic Tiger. The time frame enables us to consider a wide and impressive range of literary figures, including Anglo-Irish writers still working to some extent in the English literary tradition, nationalists working to creative a new and separate literature, writers who held themselves apart from national movements, and current figures who seem to have put both the national politics and the country’s religion behind them. Among the writers under consideration are Stoker, Wilde, and George Moore; Joyce, Liam O’Flaherty, Kate O’Brien, and Frank O’Connor; William Trevor, Colm Toibin, Anne Enright, Roddy Doyle, and Sebastian Barry. Requirements include a short paper, a longer paper, a final exam, and an annotated bibliography. |
|
European Painting: 1880-1940 |
The period 1880-1940 was a period of tremendous political, social, technological, economic and, of course, artistic change. Through lecture/ discussion, we will examine the major artistic developments of this period, in relation to these myriad changes and shifting contexts. We will consider art and architecture of France, England, Italy, Holland, Norway, Russia and Spain. |
| American Music in the 1960s ONLINE COURSE 56:606:612:90 By Arrangement Professor Laurie Lally llally@camden.rutgers.edu |
This course will examine the musical response to a society in political and cultural unrest. The music of artists such as Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin will be explored. We will also examine the split between rock and roll and rock itself and the subgenres of rock which include hard rock, soft rock, folk rock, progressive rock, heavy metal, jazz rock and acid rock. |
POLITICS AND SOCIETY |
|
|
Contemporary Propaganda |
In the 21st century ideas, religious and secular, are competing for global dominance. Military force to impose one value system over another is increasingly stymied by asymmetric warfare and low intensity conflict, as well as by the preference of the international community for peaceful dialog over force. Since propaganda has emerged as an increasingly potent weapon in the war of ideas and this course will define propaganda, examine and analyze how and why it is disseminated, and investigate whether democracies or dictatorships are better at conducting propaganda campaigns. |
| American Political Development Advanced Undergraduate Course 56:606:622:01 Cross-listed: 50:790:495:01 MW 1:30 – 2:50 PM Professor Richard Harris raharris@camden.rutgers.edu |
This course begins with an exploration into the music and libretto from Ragtime to examine the underlying social, political and economic forces that led to the growth of national government. Readings include monograph studies emergent welfare state programs, farmer labor alliance, Progressive, New Deal, Great Society, and Reagan Revolution |
| Utopias and Dystopias ONLINE COURSE 56:606:622:02 W 7:20 – 8:40 PM Th 6:00 – 8:40 PM Professor Ted Goertzel goertzel@camden.rutgers.edu |
Discussion and analysis of novels and other literary works that portray utopias or dystopias, and of real world efforts to build utopias as social experiments. Each student will choose one literary utopia or dystopia and one real world experiment to discuss with the seminar and to present to students in an undergraduate Social Movements class. The class will meet online from 7:20 to 8:40 p.m. on Wednesday evenings as a small group and on Thursday evenings together with the Social Movements class. We will use video conferencing software so students must have broadband internet access and a computer with a microphone, headphones and a video camera (available inexpensively). Enrollment is by permission of instructor. |
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION |
|
| Psychology of Religion MALS SEMINAR 56:606:641:01 Tu 6:00 – 8:40 PM Professor Stuart Charme charme@camden.rutgers.edu |
The course will explore psychological approaches to the study of religious beliefs, rituals, and experiences. What are the psychological factors involved in belief in God, joining a cult, praying for healing, or predicting the end of the world? Is religion good or bad for your psychological health? What is the impact of religion on children and how is their understanding of it different from grown-ups’. We will consider some of the classic psychologists who have analyzed religion, such as Freud, Jung, and Fromm, as well as other approaches from developmental, cognitive and social psychology. |
INTERNATIONAL STUDY ABROAD |
Please note: Study abroad courses may vary in terms of number of credits earned. Please contact instructor for more information regarding fees, credit options and trip times.
|
|
Musical Prague TRIP: MAY 20-27 |
The course is designed for students to explore and experience the Czech Republic’s vast musical heritage, represented in the city of Prague, which has more theaters and concerts halls than any other major city in the world.
The travel portion of the course will focus on the Prague Spring Festival, which consists of classical music and dance performances. The city’s largest musical festival, it begins on the anniversary of Bedrich Smetana’s death with a performance of Smetana’s symphonic poem Má Vlast (My Country). Museum visits will include the Bedrich Smetana Museum, named for the most patriotic composer of the Czech Republic; the Dvorak Museum, devoted to the country’s most celebrated composer; and the Mozart Museum, a former villa where Mozart often stayed and which features some of his written works and his harpsichord. Historical sites will include the magisterial Prague Castle and the Josefov, one of Europe’s most ancient and important Jewish quarters. Requirements will include a research paper, concert reports, and a journal. |
|
Italy, The Eternal City: Rome in the Historical Novel REQUIRED TRIP: MAY 20-27 |
The course will be for 3 academic credits, and will be taught as a seminar, by Chris Fitter and John Farquhar, who will be co-leaders of the trip. The seminar will meet six times during the spring semester. The course will combine literary with cultural value by teaching much of the history of Rome and its talismanic significance for subsequent Western civilization through historical novels by distinguished writers in English. |
|
French Literature and Civilization in Provence and Paris TRIP: MAY 22-30 |
This mini-course and study-tour will be an introduction to French Literature and Civilization in Provence (the name for the southeastern area of France), with an emphasis on writers and In Camden, there will be six classes devoted to the study and discussion of the history and civilization of southeastern France, especially the cities of Avignon and Marseille. We will explore the cultural background of the area and read selections from Daudet, Pagnol and other important writers. We will study the art of Cézanne, Van Gogh and other influential artists. In France, we will study these writers and artists sur place, (in the place where they lived.) We will visit Avignon, Marseille, Nimes, Arles and Aix-en-Provence. Then we will travel to Paris, There will be 6 (six) Monday classes during the spring semester – each class will be two and a half (2½)hours long – from 3:20-5:50. (Another day or different times may be chosen, if these times are inconvenient). The tour will take place following exams and Camden graduation, from May 22nd to May 30th, 2011. Open to graduate and undergraduate students. Students may choose to participate solely in the foreign-study portion of the course, for which they will receive 1½ credits. The course is taught in English and a knowledge of French is not required. |
|
Cultural Heritage and Society in India TRIP: MARCH 11-20 |
This course is designed to provide students with an introduction to the field of Developmental Psychopathology. Developmental Psychopathology is an approach to studying psychopathology in different stages of development, with a special focus on factors that contribute to the emergence of psychopathology and factors that protect against the emergence of psychopathology. During this class, we will apply this approach to the understanding of childhood disorders such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder, Depression, and Anxiety disorders. We will also discuss cross-cultural issues relating to mental health in children and adolescents. We will connect our readings and discussions relating to culture and mental health to the “real world” during our trip to India over spring break (March 11-20, 2011). During the trip, we will visit both historical and religious cultural sites and modern parts of the cities of Rajasthan and the surrounding area (Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, and Udaipur).
|
RESEARCH IN LIBERAL STUDIES |
|
|
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. |
|
56:606:690:01 |
|
MATRICULATION CONTINUED |
|
|
56:606:800:01 |
|
Go to Graduate School–Camden site
Master of Arts in Liberal Studies
Rutgers University | Online & Campus