Summer Session

College of Arts and Sciences

Communication

David Depew
Professor of Communication Studies, University of Iowa

Senior Seminar: Rhetoric: Religion, Class, Race, and Gender in Evolutionary Perspective
♦COMM 4300, 3 semester hours, Section 200, Call No. 45693
Term B: July 7–August 7, 2009
This course is being offered in honor of the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of the Species and the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth. The course will analyze persistent entanglements between evolutionary theory, especially Darwinian evolutionary theory, and issues of religion, class, race, and gender. Because the class will cover a time span from 1859 until the present, the course will also serve as a history of the intersection between evolution and public policy. The treatment of these themes will be nontechnical; no scientific background is presumed. Restricted to junior and senior Communication majors. Prerequisite: COMM 3300. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: critical thinking.

Professor Depew is Executive Director of the Project on the Rhetoric of Inquiry at the University of Iowa. He has authored or coauthored nine books and numerous articles. Professor Depew is an outstanding scholar and teacher.

Sandra Braman
Professor, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Senior Seminar: Organizational Communication: Communication Policy for Organizations
♦COMM 4600, 3 semester hours, Section 100, Call No. 45709
Term A: June 1–July 2, 2009
In the 21st century, organizations have multiple relationships with the law. Organizations must translate state, national, and international laws and regulations into internal practices in order to ensure compliance with specific regulatory requirements. Corporations experiment with organizational innovations that are subsequently taken up by governments. And corporations provide normative leadership that can inspire changes in the law. This course is designed for those preparing themselves for careers in corporate management as well as for students primarily interested in research. Students will learn how to acquire information about pertinent laws and policies as they change over time, locate best practices in specific legal areas and/or as operationalized for specific types of organizations, and review approaches to maximizing what can be learned from the study of organizational communication about how to design communication policies for organizations that most successfully serve organizational goals as well as legal needs. Restricted to junior and senior communication majors. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: critical thinking.

Professor Braman has been studying the macro-level effects of the use of new information technologies and their policy implications since the mid-1980s. With Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation support, she has been working on problems associated with the effort to bring the research and communication policy communities more closely together. She has published over four dozen scholarly journal articles, book chapters, and books; served as book review editor of the Journal of Communication; is former Chair of the Communication Law and Policy Division of the International Communication Association; and sits on the editorial boards of nine scholarly journals.

English

Kenneth Johnston
Professor Emeritus, Indiana University

Critical Thinking in English Studies: The End of the World
♦ENGL 4038, 3 semester hours, Section 101, Call No. 45562
Term A: June 1–July 2, 2009
Students in this course will analyze poems, plays, novels, nonfiction, and films dealing with a literally dreadful topic: the end of the world. The course begins with the apocalyptic eras of early Christian persecution, the millennium of A.D. 1000, and the American and French revolutions, but deals primarily with 20th-century literature, cinema, and popular music, examining how and why writers have chosen to cast their fictions in apocalyptic frameworks. May not be repeated. Prerequisite: junior standing. Restricted to English and humanities majors only. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: critical thinking.

Professor Johnston is one of the leading scholars of Romanticism. He has a long and distinguished publishing record. He has won fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Council of Learned Societies. He has spoken around the world. Professor Johnston is an award-winning teacher.

Film Studies

Thomas Gunning
Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor Department of Art History, University of Chicago

Topics in Film Studies: Film and Poetry
FILM 4010, 3 semester hours, Section 820, Call No. 42575
ARTF 5010, 3 semester hours, Section 820, Call No. 45324
Term B: July 7–August 7, 2009
The relation between film and poetry has been explored almost from cinema’s origins. This course will attempt to interrelate three issues: the making of films that could be considered “poetic” (including works by Man Ray, Cocteau, Griffith, Deren, Epstein, Dulac, Child, Brakhage, Tarkovsky, and others); poems that reflect on cinema (including Lindsay, Creeley, Crane, Stein, and others); and theoretical and historical works that try to define the relation between the two forms. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours, provided the topics are different.

Professor Gunning’s research focuses on problems of film style and interpretation, film history, and film culture. His groundbreaking book on silent cinema, D.W. Griffith and the Origins of American Narrative Film, traces the ways in which film style interacted with new economic structures in the early American film industry and with new tasks of storytelling. In addition to two other books, Professor Gunning has published over 100 articles. Professor Gunning is an excellent teacher. This is his second year as a FIRST scholar.

Humanities

Benjamin Stevens
Assistant Professor, Bard College

Topics in the Humanities: “Reading Comics”: An Introduction to Comics as Literature
HUMN 3093, 3 semester hours, Section 100, Call No. 45697
Term A: June 1–July 2, 2009
What are “comics,” and what does it mean to “read” them? In this course we study comics as a kind of literature and explore ways of doing literary studies. Topics include the interaction of medium and meaning (How do comics narrate?), the construction of canons and/or literary history (How do comics metanarrate, or tell stories about themselves and other comics?), and the question of comic’s criticism (How might we tell our own critical and creative stories about comics?). Readings aim at suggesting the medium’s rich history and its formal and thematic variety. May be repeated up to 12 total credit hours, provided the topics vary. Prerequisite: HUMN 2000 or junior/senior standing.

Professor Stevens is a young scholar with a developing reputation for exciting research into Latin and other languages and literatures. His research and teaching interests include Latin, Greek, and Biblical Hebrew; the history and theory of linguistics and semiotics; speculative fiction and graphic literature; visual culture; and contemporary a cappella music. Professor Stevens is assistant professor of Classical Studies at Bard College. This is his second year as a FIRST scholar.

Linguistics

Alexandra Aikenvald
Professor of Linguistics and Director of the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, La Trobe University, Australia

Special Topics in Linguistics: Language Structures— Explorations in Linguistic Diversity: Amazonian Languages and Beyond
LING 3800, 3 semester hours, Section 100, Call No. 45701
LING 6510, 3 semester hours, Section 100, Call No. 45702
Term A: June 1–July 2, 2009
Over 4,000 distinct languages are currently spoken across the globe, many of them by small tribal communities. More than two-thirds of the world’s languages are spoken in tropical areas. Of these, the Amazon basin is an area of great linguistic diversity, comprising around 300 languages grouped into over 15 language families, plus a fair number of isolates. Amazonian languages also show diversity in their structure: we find unusual sounds, tone patterns, ways of classifying nouns, and of putting clauses together in one sentence. A considerable degree of language contact in the Amazonian area has resulted in unusual patterns of multilingualism, vast linguistic areas, and some shared features. The course will address the reasons for such genetic and structural diversity, and the similarities between Amazonian languages. We will then look at the ways in which linguistic diversity in Amazonia compares to other linguistically rich areas—Australia and New Guinea. Prerequisites for graduate students: LING 5410 and LING 5420 or instructor consent. Prerequisite for undergraduate students: LING 2000 or instructor consent.

Professor Aikenvald is Professor of Linguistics and Associate Director of the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology at La Trobe University, Australia. She has authored 14 books, co-edited 18 books, and authored or co-authored 138 papers. Her work includes grammars of several Amazonian languages, grammars of Hebrew, and contributions to the study of Berber languages. Professor R.M.W. Dixon, one of the most productive contemporary linguists, will offer guest lectures in this course.

Philosophy

Mark Heller
Professor, Syracuse University

Open Topics in Philosophy: Paradoxes of Existence
PHIL 3800, 3 semester hours, Section 100, Call No. 45699
Term A: June 1–July 2, 2009
Tables, rocks, people, and even your beloved dog are paradoxical in many ways. We will explore these paradoxes and their consequences for ordinary things. We need to revise our beliefs about the nature of ourselves and our world, and the changes may be radical. Prerequisite: 6 hours of philosophy course work. Restricted to sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

Professor Heller’s work is primarily in Metaphysics and Epistemology. His recent book argues that the only material objects are four-dimensional hunks of matter. His interest in the relationship between the deep fundamental truths, whether ontological or epistemological, and ordinary discourse, underlies his work. He is an outstanding teacher and scholar.

Political Science

Jean-Louis Balans
Professor, University of Bordeaux, France

Western European Politics
♦PSCI 4002, 3 semester hours, Section 200, Call No. 45678
Term B: July 7–August 7, 2009
Comparatively analyzes developments of the political systems and processes of European democracies. The course will focus on democratic consolidations and transitions in contemporary Europe. Topics include the postwar return to democracy in Germany and Italy, the emergence of new democracies in the ’70s (Greece, Portugal, and Spain), and the democratization in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe. The class will also consider European democratic models, such as the prevalence of parliamentarianism with special emphasis on the French and the diversity of political parties and party systems in Western Europe. Prerequisite: PSCI 2012 or IAFS 1000. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: contemporary societies.

Professor Balans is a Maitre de Conferences at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Bordeaux and a former foreign services officer posted to Turkey, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Professor Balans earned his PhD from the University of Bordeaux, has an extensive research record, and is a noted teacher. Professor Balans was a FIRST scholar in 2005.

Religious Studies

Jeffrey J. Kripal
J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought, Rice University

Religious Dimensions in Human Experience: the Paranormal and Popular Culture
♦RLST 1620, 3 semester hours, Section 100, Call No. 45698
Term A: June 1–July 2, 2009
The first half of the course traces the history of psychical phenomena through the last two centuries of Western thought. Topics include cultural histories of telepathy, teleportation, and UFOs, to the occult dimensions of science fiction, cold war psychic espionage, and the fantasy of galactic colonialism. The second half of the course takes the theoretical work and applies it to science fiction and the superhero comic book. These mythical themes and paranormal currents will work together to provide a striking new vision of science fiction and superhero comics as the wellspring of an evolving new mysticism of science. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: ideals and values.

Professor Kripal is a leading senior scholar in the field of Religious Studies. He has published four monographs and edited five other volumes, along with numerous articles and writings. His work spans studies of Hinduism to mysticism to religion and sexuality to religion and popular culture. He is an outstanding teacher.

Sociology

Terry L. Mills
Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, Morehouse College

Sociology of Aging and the Life
SOCY 4002, 3 semester hours, Section 001, Call No. 45536
Term M: May 11–29, 2009
This course examines the social aspects of aging. Topics include family intergenerational relationships, social support networks and care giving, health issues among the elderly, the economics of aging, population demographics, retirement, widowhood, and social theories of aging. We analyze the social structural influences on individual decisions, values, behaviors, and experiences as we age. We will look at how individual opportunities, choices, and experiences are a product of two forces: the unique characteristics of the individual and her/his position in a social structure. Prerequisites: SOCY 1001 and SOCY 3001 or 3011. Restricted to junior/senior Sociology majors.

Professor Mills completed his PhD from the University of Southern California where he conducted research on the USC Longitudinal Study of Generations at the Andrus Gerontology Center. He is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America. His research focuses on social, environmental, and physical health factors associated with late-life depression; and intergenerational relationships. He has published widely and is a member of the National Advisory Council on Aging, National Institutes of Health.

School of Education

Kris Gutierrez
Professor, University of California, Los Angeles

Language and Learning
EDUC 6804, 3 semester hours, Section 602, Call No. 45427
Term F: July 6–17, 2009.
This course will integrate work on understanding the critical relationships between language and learning.

Dr. Gutierrez is an award-winning professor at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. She is an internationally renowned researcher and educator, whose work has given us new ways to imagine the relationships among language, culture, development, and opportunity, particularly in the lives of linguistic minority students. Professor Gutierrez has also made important contributions to the research-methodology literature, arguing the efficacy of considering diverse students lives and learning with respectful attention to what she and her collaborator Barbara Roof have called repertoires of practice. In recognition of the wide influence of her work, she was honored in 2004 with the AERA Division C Sylvia Scribner Award, presented each year to work that has significantly shaped thinking and research in teaching and learning. In summer 2006 she was the Noted Scholar in Residence in the Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. She is invited frequently to give plenary and keynote addresses at national and international conferences.

College of Engineering and Applied Science

Civil Engineering

Guido Camata
Visiting Professor, G. d’Annunzio University, Pescara, Italy

Investigating/Strengthening Design
CVEN 4835, 3 semester hours, Section 200, Call No. 45660
CVEN 5835, 3 semester hours, Section 200, Call No. 45661
Term B: July 7–August 7, 2009
This course focuses on considerations that engineers have to take into account to upgrade existing structures including: investigation of existing structural characteristics, identification of significant deficiencies, and selection of appropriate upgrade criteria. This course includes the following topics: evaluation and assessment of existing structural systems, on site and laboratory testing of materials, advantages and disadvantages of retrofit schemes, general guidelines, seismic strengths, and case studies.

Dr. Camata completed his undergraduate degree from the University of Bologna, and received his PhD in Structures from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has worked at the Intelligent Sensing for Innovative Structures in Winnipeg, Canada. Presently, he is an Assistant Professor in the Structural Engineering Department of G. d’Annunzio University in Pescara, Italy, and the owner of a structural engineering firm. Dr. Camata’s research experience includes both experimental and numerical work. He has taught courses in seismic engineering, composite materials, reinforced concrete, and finite elements at various universities.

General Engineering

Manuel Silva Perez
Visiting Professor, University of Seville, Spain

Solar Thermal Power
GEEN 4830, 3 semester hours, Section 200, Call No. 45659
Term B: July 7–August 7, 2009
This course includes the fundamentals of thermal conversion of solar energy into power and the basics of the different technologies known as Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) including technical and economical aspects. Topics include: the solar resource, fundamentals of Concentrating Solar Power, 2D concentrating systems: compact linear fresnel reflectors and parabolic troughs, 3D concentrating systems: power towers and parabolic dishes, and economic markets.

Dr. Silva is responsible for the Solar Thermal Concentrating Systems and Solar Radiation Projects with the Thermodynamics and Renewable Energy, Department of Energy Engineering of the University of Seville, Spain. Dr. Silva has coordinated or participated in national and international projects in the following topics: solar resource measurement, evaluation, and assessment; feasibility analysis of solar thermal projects including site characterization, estimation of electricity generation, optimization of the solar field, and evaluation of solar thermal concentrating systems.

Law School

Maurice Foley
Judge, United States Tax Court

Federal Tax Politics
LAWS 6138, 2 semester hours, Section 001, Call No. 45691
Term Q: May 11–21, 2009
Study the tax system as the nexus of politics and economics with a sitting federal tax court judge. The course examines how various interests and entities use the many tools of political power to shape the tax system. This class is intended for those interested in politics and legislation, rather than for the tax specialists.

Judge Foley has taught at Colorado Law before and received rave reviews from students. Before being appointed to the bench in 1995, he was Deputy Tax Legislative Counsel in the U.S. Treasury Office; served as tax counsel for the United States Senate Committee on Finance; and worked for the IRS. He earned his JD from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California-Berkeley and a Masters of Law in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center. Judge Foley was a FIRST scholar in 2002 and 2007. He is an exceptional classroom teacher and brings a variety of perspectives to the issue of federal tax politics.

Naomi Gale
Schusterman Visiting Professor, Program in Jewish Studies, Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado at Boulder

Comparative Law: U.S.-Israeli Law
LAWS 6210, 3 semester hours, Section 002, Call No. 45696
Term M: May 11–29, 2009
This course will introduce students to the history of the Israeli legal system and to the interaction between societal and legal forces. The legal system of Israel belongs to the family of mixed jurisdictions combining tenets of the Common Law and the Civil Law, with Israel’s unique history and characteristics. The course highlights the revolutionary changes in the legal system since the independence of the state in 1948 to the present. This course will make a comparison between the United States and Israeli legal systems in the area of adjudication and will compare civil procedural systems. The following major subject areas will be discussed: the absence of a single-document written Constitution; the “Basic Laws” that are of a higher normative status; the Supreme Court and its functions as the High Court of Justice and as the centrality of the judiciary; and the structure of the court system, which combines the general court system and the specialized courts.

Professor Gale is an expert in Israeli Constitutional Law, Comparative Law, and gender law. The author of two books and numerous articles, Professor Gale has served as the Schusterman Visiting Professor at the American University, the Washington College of Law, and the University of Colorado. Articled as a Solicitor, The Israel Bar, she also holds a PhD in Anthropology. Professor Gale is an excellent teacher.

♦ Fulfills Arts and Sciences Core Curriculum