Summer Session 2007

College of Arts and Sciences

Classics

Benjamin Stevens
Assistant Professor, Bard College
Masterpieces of Roman Literature in Translation
♦ CLAS 1120, 3 semester hours, Section 100, Call No. 45368
Term A: June 2–July 3, 2008
What was ‘literature’ in the ancient Roman world, and what might it reveal about literature and culture in general? In this course we seek to answer these questions by surveying Latin literature and Roman literary culture of roughly the first centuries BCE and CE. Our readings, all in English translation, focus on authors and texts representative of a wide range of genres and styles, including epic and lyric poetry as well as history, oratory, and epistolary prose. Although we attempt to master part of the canon, we seek also to explore the very concept of ‘canon’ and what counts as a ‘classic’; the tension between tradition and innovation; and, ultimately, what it is – or who it is – that separates ‘ordinary’ language from the ‘literary’. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: literature and the arts.

Professor Stevens is a young scholar with a developing reputation, specializing in thought about language. An assistant professor of classical studies at Bard College, he maintains research and teaching interests in fields including ancient languages and comparative literature, especially Latin, Greek, and Biblical Hebrew; the history and theory of linguistics and semiotics; speculative fiction and graphic literature; Roman history; and contemporary a cappella music. Professor Stevens is a respected lecturer and seminar leader.

Film Studies

Elliot Caplan
Professor of Media Study, University of Buffalo, State University of New York; President and founder, Picture Start Films
Topics in Film Studies: Cinema and the Performing Arts
FILM 4010, 3 semester hours, Section 810, Call No. 45605
ARTF 5010, 3 semester hours, Section 810, Call No. 45606
Term A: June 2–July 3, 2008
Explore the relationship between cinema and the performing arts. Students will explore the moving image in relation to the moving figure. This course explores art forms, cinema, and dance.

Professor Caplan is returning for the second time as a FIRST scholar. He is an Emmy award-winning producer and filmmaker. For the past 30 years Professor Caplan has worked with world-renowned choreographer Merce Cunningham and composer John Cage. Their collaborative work has been aired nationally on PBS, Bravo, A&E, and internationally to 35 countries. Professor Caplan is an acclaimed teacher.

Thomas Gunning
Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Art History, University of Chicago
Topics in Film Studies: Cinema and Magic
FILM 4010, 3 semester hours, Section 820, Call No. 42519
ARTF 5010, 3 semester hours, Section 820, Call No. 45208
Term B: July 8–August 8, 2008
Cinema and magic are often paired historically and thematically. This course will explore these connections. Cinema in its origins was closely related to the work of stage magicians, whose complex technological magic spectacles easily transferred to film. This tradition continues in contemporary cinema with the use of special effects in fantasy films. Magic as a system of belief and ritual practice in traditional cultures has been the topic of investigation by a number of important filmmakers. Finally, magic as an alternative to Western enlightenment, as an occult system of analogies, has inspired a number of avant-garde filmmakers. This course will explore these relationships between magic and film, which enabled magic to provide filmmakers with alternative models of cinematic form and structure.

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. In addition to being an outstanding scholar, Professor Gunning is an excellent teacher.

International Affairs

Benny Miller
Schusterman Visiting Professor in Israel Studies, School of Political Sciences, University of Haifa
Special Topics in International Affairs: Regional War and Peace
IAFS 3000, 3 semester hours, Section 001, Call No. 45380
Term M: May 12–30, 2008
Discuss the origins of regional conflicts and the sources of regional wars with special emphasis on the role of the state and of nationalism. The class will focus on two key factors: state strength and national congruence and their effects on war and peace. The class will examine strategies for advancing peace including great power and international engagement; partition vs. preservation of the state; state-building and nation-building; democratization; and other factors. The theory will provide a background for examination of regional war and peace in the Middle East, South America, the Third World, the Balkans, and Eastern and Western Europe. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours. Restricted to IAFS juniors and seniors.

Professor Miller’s area of emphasis is regional conflict and peace with special emphasis on the Middle East. As director of Advanced Studies, School of Political Sciences at the University of Haifa, Professor Miller explores the issues of states, nations, power, and conflict. His work explores why some regions seem more prone to war and some to peace. Professor Miller is a master teacher.

Leeds School of Business

Dhrubes Biswas
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India
Social Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies
BADM 4820, 3 semester hours, Section 100, Call No. 45617
Term A: June 2–July 3, 2008
The emerging economies of the world provide incredible opportunities for new avenues of profitable growth and innovation for firms and entrepreneurs of all types, whether multinationals or micro-enterprises. There are also significant challenges, among them the fostering of a climate of productive investment that creates economic opportunity, new jobs, and sustainable, positive social change. Many governments, working with agencies like the World Bank, NGO’s, multinationals, domestic corporations, and entrepreneurial organizations, have made impressive recent strides in creating economic growth, reducing poverty, and improving consumption capability and well-being for their citizens. This course will increase awareness and understanding of these environments and help evolve the skills needed to participate as entrepreneurs in these emerging opportunities.

Dr. Biswas is Professor of Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT-KGP). He also serves as a Professor of Management at IIT-KGP’s Vinod Gupta School of Management. He serves as an advisor to the Government of India on the set up of entrepreneurial ventures in technology inspired products and services (TIPS), information technology and electronics, as well as rural development. He also started the first-ever statewide entrepreneur development program for STPI (Software Technology Parks of India) Government of India. Dr. Biswas has authored numerous technical papers and holds multiple patents.

School of Education

James Gee
Tashia Morgridge Professor of Reading in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Language, Learning, Literacy, and Digital Literacies
EDUC 6804, 3 semester hours, Section 604, Call No. 42134
Term F: July 21–August 1, 2008
This class will integrate work on literacy in the New Literacy Studies tradition with current work on “situated learning” in the Learning Sciences and work on digital literacies. We face today two important gaps—the old reading gap between poorer and more privileged children and a new emerging digital literacy gap. The class will discuss how both these gaps can be closed by taking advantage of new digital media to create “situated learning” and “situated meanings” for the sorts of complex language found in the content areas in school (e.g., science). The course will deal with learning in a K–12 perspective (really K–life). One focus of the course will be on video games and learning as one important type of digital literacy and learning.

Professor Gee’s work over the last decade has centered on the development of an integrated theory of language, literacy, and schooling, a theory that draws on work in socially situated cognition, sociocultural approaches to language and literacy, language development, discourse studies, critical theory, and applied linguistics. More recently, he has engaged in research on learning and literacy in video and computer games. He has published widely in journals in linguistics, psychology, the social sciences, and education and is a member of the editorial board of 12 journals. In 1989, the Journal of Education, one of the longest running journals in education in the United States, published a special issue devoted to reprinting his early essays on literacy. He is an outstanding teacher.

College of Music

Elizabeth Mansfield
Professional Singer and Actor
Opera Theatre Practicum
PMUS 4157, 1–3 semester hours, Section 600, Call No. 45598
PMUS 5157, 1–3 semester hours, Section 600, Call No. 45599
Term F: July 8–30, 2008
Students will not only develop their own performing skills, but will also become more critically aware observers of fellow performers. The class will help students learn how to “take the space” on a stage, how to present a song as part of a role or simply as a solo, how to understand a role, and how to prepare for the professional world as a singing actor. The class will culminate in a public performance. Meeting times will be scheduled with the individual student groups.

Elizabeth Mansfield, a professional singer and actor centered in London, has over 40 years of experience in musical theater. Her stage credits include standard theatrical roles as well as new works of musical theater created specifically for her. She was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her one-woman show, Marie, about the musical hall artist Marie Lloyd, a performance that also earned her a Best Actress citation from the London Theatre Critics. She has performed several times at CU-Boulder, and the response from CU students and music faculty to Ms. Mansfield’s previous master classes has been extremely enthusiastic. This is the first time students will have the opportunity to work with Ms. Mansfield intensively for several weeks.

♦ = Fulfills Arts and Sciences Core Curriculum