Spring 2008 DHC Freshman Seminars

Freshman Seminar (FRS)
Understanding Ethnic Violence in Modern European History
William Hagen
FRS 02-28 (2 units) M 4:10-6:00 pm, 235 Wellman
The course, entitled “Understanding Ethnic Violence in Modern European History,” will focus both on specific cases and broad interpretations. Among the cases, we will consider ethnic cleansing campaigns in Balkan and eastern/central Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including the mass murders of Armenians; east European anti-Jewish pogroms; the Nazi genocide directed at the Jews and other peoples; Stalinist state violence against ethnic minorities in the Soviet Union; and ethnic violence accompanying the break-up of Yugoslavia. Among modes of interpretation, we will discuss problems of moral judgment; theories emphasizing the “instrumental rationality,” i.e., the rationally calculated advantages, of ethnic violence to its perpetrators; and social-cultural theories focused on the meaningfulness to perpetrators of ethnic violence (its “value-rationality”). The seminar will aim to advance the students’ ability to read for and critique arguments, including in their moral implications; to compare varying interpretations; to formulate questions of their own, and to answer them in smoothly written papers, by means of empirically supported argument.

Freshman Seminar (FRS)
Climate Chaos in the Age of Oil
David Osleger
FRS 02-31 (2 units) W 2:10-4:00, 175A Physics/Geology
Current arguments about how humanity needs to respond to ongoing and future climate change invariably focus on our dependence on fossil fuels. How much oil remains to be exploited? Is there a way to make coal less of a greenhouse-gas producer? Are corn, switchgrass, and uranium the inevitable replacements for fossil fuels? What might be the effects on society as non-renewable fossil fuels become increasingly more scarce? The goal of this seminar will be to critically evaluate the intimate relationship between our energy needs and the impact on global climate. Our collective response to climate change will be the defining issue of the next century; assessing our profligate energy usage and recognizing ways to transition ourselves away from fossil fuels is a fundamental part of the solution.

Freshman Seminar (FRS)
Poetry by Heart
John Boe
FRS 01-22 (1 unit) T 3:10-4:00pm, 565 Kerr
This seminar is a repeat of a popular topic from last quarter. If you were enrolled in that seminar, you cannot repeat it this quarter.
This course will return to the way poetry has been taught for most of history, memorization (as opposed to analysis). For each class each student will be required to have memorized a poem, a poetic passage, or short poems of twelve or more lines. Class will consist of reciting the poetry (twice, since, as Robert Bly taught me, a recited poem is always understood better the second time around) and (time permitting) talking about the poem (specifically about what the reciter and the rest of the class liked about it). The goal of the course is to increase appreciation of poetry by memorizing it, by learning it by heart (as opposed to analyzing it by head).

Freshman Seminar (FRS)
Physical Culture Methods for Stress Management
Lynette Hunter
FRS 02-30 (2 units) W 12:10-2:00, U-Club Studio
This seminar is a repeat of a popular topic from last quarter. If you were enrolled in that seminar, you cannot repeat it this quarter.
For the past thirteen years I have been extending my performance work by training in a traditional Chinese Physical Culture (CPC) program accredited by the Chinese Wushu Association. This CPC program offers a syllabus unique to most other Anglo-American systems of traditional Chinese training in performance skills, in that the syllabus is exceptionally broad and includes work on movement, dance, breath, voice, energy, interaction, choreography, and is combined with training in a western coaching curriculum that addresses the key fields in sports education to do with musculature, body alignment, nutrition and psychology. This course is offered as an opportunity to explore the impact of Chinese physical culture and to develop ways of talking about its contribution to knowledge. The traditional knowledge system that it employs poses specific questions for western academic understanding of ‘knowledge,’ the first and foremost being that traditional knowledge is acquired by practice rather than memorization and conceptual analysis. Other aspects include its emphasis on doing rather than speaking, and its focus on interaction and collaborative rather than individual work.

Freshman Seminar (FRS)
How Does it Work?
Ann Orel
FRS 01-21 (1 unit) M 10:00-10:50am, 127 Wellman
Arthur C. Clark’s third ‘law’ is “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” What modern technology is magic to you? Do you have an interest in pulling aside the curtain and seeing how the wizard is making the illusions work?? In this class we will attempt to demystify and explain some of the common technologies that may look like ‘magic’. Many of the problems/issues facing modern society are technical in nature. This course will educate students about the technical world around them, and will make them more technically 'literate'. In addition, it will help build their critical thinking and analysis skills. The written work, especially the opportunity to see their work critique and allow rewrites will improve their communication skills. The final project will help them develop skills in working in groups and also develop their oral communication skills.

Freshman Seminar (FRS)
“Global Citizenship, Cultural Literacy and International Education”
Eric Schroeder
FRS 01-24 (1 unit) R 10:00-10:50am, Education Abroad Center, 207 Third Street, Suite 120
This seminar will focus on issues of cultural literacy and global citizenship and is designed specifically for freshmen and sophomores who are planning to study abroad during their undergraduate years at UC Davis.
Issues of global citizenship and cultural literacy have become increasingly important to scholars and to other professionals working in a wide range of settings. Many recent books and articles have been published on the subject, and, additionally, there is a wealth of material on global citizenship on the internet, on academic sites like that of the Plato Project at Loyola Marymount University and on commercial sites like GoAbroad.com and StudyAbroad.com.Classes will not only include lecture and discussion, but will also rely on guest speakers who will examine differences between citizenship, literacy expectations and higher education in the USA and in other foreign systems and also talk about practical matters of study abroad. Each of the three UC Davis Education Abroad Center’s programs—Summer Abroad, Quarter Abroad, and EAP—will be the subject of a class that will feature instructors who have taught on those programs. Other class sessions will examine study abroad options available through third-party providers; internship programs are a good example of this. Students will also complete a final project in which they examine their own study abroad interests as these relate to seminar readings and discussions about global citizenship and cultural literacy. As one part of that final project, students will fill out a planning grid for a four-year course of study that includes an international study experience of their own design; as another part, they will write a statement of purpose.

Freshman Seminar (FRS)
The Crusades: Muslim and Christian Views
Kevin Roddy
FRS 02-33 (2 units) M 10:00-11:50am, 308 Voorhies
This seminar is a repeat of a popular topic from last quarter. If you were enrolled in that seminar, you cannot repeat it this quarter.
One of the most difficult barriers to closer Middle-Eastern and Western relations has been a completely divergent view of the Crusader period (1095-1297). While the concept of the Crusades in the West has undergone considerable revision, the word “crusader” still engenders positive connotations. Not so in the Middle East, where it is associated with Western expansionism, economic exploitation, and persecution. So a basically benign term as used in the West becomes a contemptible, repugnant name to millions of people on the other side of the globe. This freshman seminar seeks to explore the various source texts, Muslim, Christian, and Jewish, that explain this disparity. However, it has as a deeper objective an understanding of the Crusader period as it actually was, taking into account not only the intermittent warfare, but also the prolonged periods of peace and—surprisingly enough—peaceful coexistence.

Freshman Seminar (FRS)
Creativity and Consciousness: Contemplation, Reflection, Action
Barbara Sellers-Young
FRS 01-23 (1 unit) R 5:10-6:00 pm, 115 Wright, Lab B
This seminar is a repeat of a popular topic from last quarter. If you were enrolled in that seminar, you cannot repeat it this quarter.
This seminar uses heightened states of conscious awareness to renew one’s engagement and dynamism in life through contact with a core of internal awareness. A fundamental tenet of the course is that knowledge is the result of the experience of the body/mind and thus an individual’s physical, emotional, intellectual, and aesthetic being. The seminar is focused on a systematic experience of different methods of deep focus including sitting, walking, sounding, and internal imaging. The goal of the seminar is to heighten an experience of intrinsic self and bring increased focus, clarity, creativity and critical insight into the educational process. Each class will consist of a contemplative practice in combination with a discussion of weekly reading assignments.

Freshman Seminar (FRS)
Ten Songs
Peter Lichtenfels
FRS 02-32 (2 units) R 4:10-6:00pm, 220 Wright
Every time place and culture has songs that mean a lot to them. Whether it is to do with love, politics, the environment. Sometimes these songs have great staying power, and sometimes they date very quickly. This First Years Davis Honors Seminar will look at five songs that have been important in my life, and five songs important in your life that you will choose in the first week of class. The course will explore why and how these songs become so vital to us in our cultures. I will choose five songs from among artists such as Laurie Anderson, Jimi Hendrix, Lou Reed, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Lauryn Hill, TuPac, Joni Mitchell.

 

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