Metapatterns in Nature, Mind, and Culture(V50.0202; call # 72300)
Instructor: Tyler Volk
Monday and Wednesday, 3:30-4:45 p.m.
Scholars in all fields skillfully dissect, interpret, and synthesize a vast number of forms and patterns, such as cell structure in biology and nuances of metaphor in comparative literature. In this course we look for universals in forms and patterns across the disciplines. To understand why such universals appear we must examine function. The key concept is indeed the relation between form and function. Topics explored with the viewpoint of form and function include biology (from cells to ecosystems), psychology, sociology, linguistics, literature, art, architecture, engineering, mythology, politics, and religion. Students learn a powerful methodology for thinking and problem solving. They are encouraged to pursue individual interests while participating in an environment of sharing.
TYLER VOLK, Associate Professor of Biology, specializes in understanding the role of life in Earth?s biogeochemical cycles and has conducted research for NASA. With a passion for the interdisciplinary, he also investigates the generation of pattern in the widest sense, at all levels of culture and nature. Spanning the technical to the popular, his numerous articles have appeared in such magazines as Nature, Bioscience, New Scientist, The Sciences, and Natural History. He has published three books: Metapatterns across Space, Time, and Mind; Gaia?s Body: Toward a Physiology of Earth; and What Is Death?: A Scientist Looks at the Cycle of Life.
Baseball and American Culture
(V50.0206; call # 72301)
Instructor: Carl E. Prince
Wednesday, 2:00?4:30 p.m.
Baseball is neither a metaphor for life nor a perfect explanation for the uniqueness of American culture or American character. But sport?and, for some cogent reasons, baseball in particular? does provide a way into an examination of major contemporary historical questions in the areas of race, gender, and class. The Brooklyn Dodgers? pioneering role in American racial integration in the years after World War II, for example, and the Yankees? early failure to follow suit provide useful laboratories for a study of race. The strongly macho character of baseball reveals basic gender aspirations and prejudices more subtly evoked in other areas of American life. To the extent that baseball is indeed a workingclass game, fan involvement reveals much about the nature of urban class values and tensions in the 20th century. A fulllength baseballrelated research paper is required.
CARL E. PRINCE is Professor of History Emeritus and past president of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic. He has published four books and numerous articles on early American political culture and edited the five-volume Papers of William Livingston. A former baseball player and lifelong fan, he is also the author of Brooklyn?s Dodgers: The Bums, the Borough, and the Best of Baseball (1996), which opened for him a new academic field.
Computer Simulation
(V50.0207; call # 72302)
Instructor: Charles S. Peskin
Tuesday and Thursday, 2:00?3:15 p.m.
Prerequisites: AP calculus and physics
Since the starting point for any computer simulation is a mathematical model (i.e., a collection of equations that describe the phenomenon to be simulated), the true prerequisite for this seminar is a love of mathematics, especially calculus. Computer simulation is one way that mathematics gets applied to the real world. In this handson course students learn how to program computers to simulate physical and biological processes. Examples include the orbits of planets, moons, comets, and spacecraft; the spread of epidemic and endemic diseases in a population, including the evolution of a population in response to an endemic disease; the production of sound by musical instruments; the flow of traffic on a highway or in a city; and the electrical activity of nerves. The seminar meets alternately in a classroom and in a computer laboratory setting. The techniques needed to perform computer simulations, and to present the results in terms of elementary graphics, animations, and sounds, are taught in class and then applied in the laboratory by students working individually or in teams. Topics for student projects may be drawn from those discussed in class as listed above, but students are also free to do other projects that reflect their own interests.
CHARLES S. PESKIN is Professor of Mathematics and Neural Science. His field of research is mathematical modeling and computer simulation applied to biology and medicine. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a former MacArthur Fellow, and a recipient of the Mayor?s Award for Excellence in Science and Technology, as well as the Great Teacher Award of the NYU Alumni Association.
Professional Responsibility: Markets, Ethics, and Law
(V50.0208; call # 72303)
Instructor: Daniel Diamond
Monday, 11:00 a.m.?1:30 p.m.
Every individual, regardless of his or her chosen field of study or occupation, will in time function as a professional or manager in a business, notforprofit, or government organization. This course is designed to enable individuals to think critically about the ethical context and consequences of the decisions they will make in their respective professional and organizational settings. In previous generations understanding and practicing one?s professional responsibilities was a desirable, if not required, behavior. In our society today it is a necessity. We explore the reasons for this change and, by examining the interactions between the marketplace, societal norms, and the law, develop the ethical analytical and reasoning tools necessary to identify and weigh often competing interests. Ideally this enables individuals to make decisions that simultaneously cause no harm to the affected parties?customers, coworkers, community, etc.?further the goals of the organization, and enhance the professional career of the decision maker. The requisite ethical reasoning tools are developed through a series of cases and related readings dealing with a variety of topics, including ethics of the individual business professional, product liability, the social responsibility of the corporation, moral standards across borders, ethical issues in financial markets, termination and downsizing, sexual harassment, and privacy. Since this is a case course, students play an active role in the learning process during class sessions.
DANIEL DIAMOND is Professor of Economics at the Stern School of Business. He served as Dean of the Stern Undergraduate College and as Vice Dean of the Stern School from 1985 to 1995. He also held the position of Dean of the College of Management Science at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and Director of the Northeast Region Small Business Development Center. He has published extensively in the areas of U.S. economic history, labor force trends, and labor policy. He currently teaches "The Global Business Environment: International Macroeconomics and Finance" and "Professional Responsibility" in the Stern School?s M.B.A. program.
Great Poems
(V50.0209; call # 72304)
Instructor: David Lehman
Tuesday, 2:00?4:30 p.m.
The aim of this course is to change your life. We will read a selection of the greatest poems in the English language and consider what makes them great. We will discuss what distinguishes American from British poetry, and we will give some attention to questions of poetic influence and methods of composition. But the primary focus will be on reading, interpreting, and evaluating the poems themselves. The poets under consideration will include Shakespeare, Donne, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Byron, Whitman, Dickinson, Yeats, Eliot, Frost, Stevens, Auden, and Bishop. The course will conclude with some examples of contemporary American poetry.
DAVID LEHMAN is a celebrated poet, distinguished critic, and influential editor. In 1988 he initiated "The Best American Poetry," and he continues as the general editor of this acclaimed anthology series. In 1991 he published a critique of deconstruction entitled Signs of the Times: Deconstruction and the Fall of Paul de Man. His other books include The Evening Sun, his most recent collection of poems, and The Perfect Murder, a study of murder mysteries. The Last AvantGarde: The Making of the New York School of Poets appeared in 1998. He is editor of the forthcoming new edition of The Oxford Book of American Poetry. He has also taught at Columbia University, New School University, Bennington College, and Hamilton College.
Language and Reality in 20th Century Science and Literature
(V50.0210; call # 72305)
Instructor: Friedrich Ulfers
Tuesday and Thursday, 2:00?3:15 p.m.
The course explores the possibility that there exists a common ground between the socalled two cultures of science and the humanities. It posits the hypothesis of a correlation between postclassical science (e.g., quantum theory) and "postmodern" literature and philosophy. Among the key notions examined are Heisenberg?s "uncertainty principle" and the "undecidability" of deconstructive theory. The discussion of these notions and of their implications in literary works revolves around their effect on classical logic, the referential function of language, and the traditional goal of a complete explanation/description of reality. Readings include selections from the works of Borges, Kundera, Pirsig, and Pynchon and from nontechnical texts on quantum and chaos theories.
FRIEDRICH ULFERS is Associate Professor of German and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the department. Winner of the College?s Golden Dozen Award for Excellence in Teaching, the University?s Distinguished Teaching Medal, and its Great Teacher Award, he has taught not only in the German Department but also in the Draper Interdisciplinary Master?s Program, offering courses on, among others, Nietzsche and Kafka that engage his interdisciplinary interests (literary theory, psychology, philosophy). He has written widely on 20thcentury German authors and is at present preparing a study of Nietzsche as a postmodernist.
Understanding the Vietnam War
(V57.0216; call # 74290)
Instructor: Marilyn B. Young
Wednesday, 11:00 a.m.?1:30 p.m.
The Vietnam War, which ended over twenty years ago, continues to resonate in American society. It is often described as more "divisive" than any other war in American history with the exception of the Civil War. This seminar explores the history of the war and its impact. In addition to reading competing historical analyses, we shall read novels, screen movies, and discuss the war with both participants and participant observers. When possible, the authors of some of the books we read will take part in the class. By the end of the term we may not be able to answer the old question "Why Vietnam?" but we shall certainly be closer to understanding how it happened and perhaps even what it meant.
MARILYN B. YOUNG is Professor of History. She teaches Asian history and the history of U.S. relations with Asia and is the author of The Vietnam Wars, 1945?1990 and of numerous essays on the war and the way it has been remembered.
Cinema and Affect: Why the Movies Move Us
(V50.0217; call # 74291)
Instructor: Charles Affron
Thursday, 9:30 a.m.?12:00 noon
Popular cinema most obviously appeals to its viewers by telling stories and representing a semblance of life. But if the movies ultimately move us they do so because they convey story and truetolifeness through style and through the specific properties of the cinematic medium. This seminar focuses on "conventional" narrative films of the 1930s and 1940s to examine how (1) the weight of style and (2) the intrinsically emotional elements of the medium elicit the viewer?s affective response. The model of life serves the model of art; viewers respond to the medium when its conditions echo those of life. Film beguiles viewers to enter into its processes, and then uses those processes to capture lifelike representations of emotional situations. How do framing, display, staging, camera movement, sound, theatricality, irony, and duration conspire with narrative to move us to tears? How are viewers impelled to move with moving pictures, to be moved by them?
CHARLES AFFRON is Professor of French and Director of Graduate Studies in that department. In addition to books on the French novel and on the French Romantic theater and poetry, he has published Star Acting: Gish, Garbo, Davis, Divine Garbo (in French) , Cinema and Sentiment, and Sets in Motion (with Mirella Jona Affron), a study of the relationship between set design and narrative in cinema. In 2001 he published the biography Lillian Gish: Her Legend, Her Life.
The Supreme Court and the Religion Clauses: Religion and State in America
(V50.0218; call # 72306)
Instructor: John E. Sexton
Monday, 6:45?8:45 p.m.
Should members of the Native American Church be allowed to smoke peyote at religious ceremonies? Can a public high school invite a rabbi to give a benediction and convocation at graduation? Should a state legislator rely on his or her religious convictions in forming a view about the legality of capital punishment or abortion? The course divides these questions into three subject areas: religious liberty; separation of Church and State; and the role of religion in public and political life. It focuses on how the Supreme Court has dealt with these areas and, more important, invites students to construct anew a vision of the proper relationship between religion, state, and society in a 21st century liberal constitutional democracy.
JOHN E. SEXTON, President of New York University, was the Dean of the NYU Law School from 1988 to 2002. He has taught courses on the Constitution and the courts and has led seminars on the intersection of religion and the law. Before he came to NYU, he served as law clerk for Chief Justice Warren Burger of the U.S. Supreme Court, and he has testified frequently before the U.S. Congress. In addition to his law degree, he holds a doctorate in the history of American religion.
Literature, Film, and the Artistic Environment of Arab Society in the 20th Century
(V50.0223; call # 72307)
Instructor: Mona N. Mikhail
Wednesday, 2:00?4:30 p.m.
This seminar investigates themes in the Arabic artistic and literary milieu over the course of the 20th century. Through the primary lens of poetry and prose (including essays, novels, and short stories), it examines the crossmedia influences on cultural production and artists? engagement with political events of the 20th century. Students view films and documentaries, especially those produced from the works of the Nobel Prize?winning novelist Naguib Mahfouz ( Midaq Alley, Miramar, etc.), and discuss the influence of major crossover themes from literature (EastWest dialogue, nationalism, antiimperialism, and existentialism) on filmmakers. Attention is also paid to similar themes in plastic arts and architecture, as represented by the artists Moukhtar, Mahmoud Said, and Wissa Wassef and the architect Hassan Fathy.
MONA N. MIKHAIL, Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, is the author of numerous books, notably Studies in the Short Fiction of Naguib Mahfouz and Yusuf Idris, and has written extensively on the cultural, social, and political context of modern Arabic literature, while also translating several important Arabic works into English. She is currently working on the growing body of women?s literature in the Arab world and exploring women?s role in popular culture/literature in oral genres such as proverbs, drama, song, and humor. Seen and Heard will be published in summer 2003. She also recently directed and produced a documentary about the theater in Egypt.
Freedom, Classical Liberal Principles, and 21stCentury Problems
(V50.0227; call # 72308)
Instructor: Mario J. Rizzo
Monday, 4:55?7:25 p.m.
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the principles of classical liberalism through the discussion of theoretical and empirical issues in economics, law, and ethics. "Classical liberalism" is the political, economic, social, and moral philosophy that is severely skeptical of the power of the state and seeks to reduce its power over the citizen. It advances the view that society, under the rule of law, is largely selfregulating, and so government intervention, whether in economic or social affairs, is either unnecessary or simply makes problems worse. Sometimes classical liberalism is called "19thcentury liberalism," but its development has roots in ancient Roman thought, in the 18thcentury Scottish Enlightenment, as well as in many strains of 20thcentury philosophy and economics. Its leading thinkers have included Adam Smith, F. A. Hayek, and Milton Friedman. The course considers philosophical principles and empirical issues in the context of contemporary problems, such as free trade, property rights, income distribution, and socialreligious toleration.
MARIO J. RIZZO is Associate Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics, as well as codirector of the Austrian Economics Program. His fields of research lie at the interface of a number of academic subjects, including the economic analysis of law; ethics and economics; and the methodology and philosophy of economics. He also has a longstanding interest in political philosophy. He is the author (with Gerald O?Driscoll) of The Economics of Time and Ignorance, many articles in law journals, and philosophically oriented articles on economic theory.
Punk to Postmodernism: The Downtown New York Avant-Garde Scene since 1975
(V50.0232; call # 74606)
Instructor: Marvin J. Taylor
Tuesday, 9:30 a.m.?12:00 noon
Punk, performance art, postmodernism, graffiti art, minimalism, conceptual art?these are just some of the topics examined in this course. Following the Vietnam War, artists, writers, and musicians moved into the abandoned industrial lofts of Soho and the Lower East Side, and an explosion of creative activity produced one of the most important outsider art movements of this century. The first half of the course focuses on the Soho scene, where, outside of the mainstream of the art and literary world of uptown venues, artists began to forge a new way of looking at the creation of works of art that has forever changed American culture. After the gentrification of Soho, the scene shifted to the East Village, where the work became more hardedged and influenced by the ethnic mix of the Lower East Side. The second half of the course focuses on this distinct scene. It centers on some of the major questions that arise from the works of downtown artists and the scene in which they worked: what is inside/outside, high/low, modern/postmodern, art/activism, sex/sexuality, and identity/performance. Works studied include literature, photography, film, and performance art by such artists as Kathy Acker, Dennis Cooper, David Wojnarowicz, Keith Haring, Nan Goldin, Barbara Kruger, Lynne Tillman, Laurie Anderson, Michel Foucault, and JeanFran?ois Lyotard.
MARVIN J. TAYLOR, Director of the Fales Library and Special Collections at NYU, is also the curator of the Downtown New York Collection, the only archive of books, manuscripts, photos, film, and other materials related to the downtown scene. He has published in scholarly and popular magazines, assemblings, and avantgarde anthologies, including The Crimes of the Beats and the Japanese publication American Book Jam. Among his other research interests are Victorian fiction, queer theory, and the epistemology of libraries.
First Amendment Freedom of Expression
(V50.0235; call # 72309)
Instructor: Stephen D. Solomon
Tuesday and Thursday, 2:00?3:15 p.m.
Conflicts over freedom of speech erupt into public debate almost every week. Congress passes a law to purge indecency from online communications. A tobacco company sues a major television network for libel. Press disclosures threaten the fairtrial rights of defendants in major criminal trials. Although the First Amendment appears on its face to prohibit any governmental restrictions on speech, the Supreme Court in fact balances free and open expression against other vital interests of society. This course begins by examining the struggle against seditious libel (the crime of criticizing government or its officials) that was not won in this country until the landmark decision in New York Times v. Sullivan in 1964. Students examine freedom of speech through the prism of a rich variety of contemporary conflicts, including libel of public and private persons; political dissent that advocates overthrow of the government; prior restraints against publication; obscenity and pornography; flag burning; free press versus fair trial; and inflictions of emotional distress. Students read and analyze important decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court.
STEPHEN D. SOLOMON is Associate Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication and Director of the Program in Business and Economic Reporting. He teaches courses on First Amendment law in which he focuses on the legal rights of the press. His research interests include both law and business, and he writes frequently on both topics for national publications. He is coauthor of Building 6: The Tragedy at Bridesburg, an investigation of cancer deaths at a chemical company, and is currently working on a book about the First Amendment religion case Abington School District v. Schemp.
Performance and Society
(V50.0238; call # 73992)
Instructor: Richard Schechner
Wednesday, 3:30?6:00 p.m.
What are the many ways that performance inflects personal and social life? How can a grasp of performance theories inform us about society? What can we learn about the performances of everyday life, the life roles that we each play? How do these relate to sacred and secular rituals, sports and other popular entertainments, trials and the legislative process, the performance of medicine and business, the internet, and the performing arts? In this seminar we explore performance as a broad spectrum of activities by focusing on particular examples drawn from specific genres of performance. These include Trinidad Carnival, the Ramlila Cycle Play of northern India, the trial of those accused of witchcraft in 17thcentury Salem, Massachusetts, and the trial of O. J. Simpson, the modern Olympic Games, the performance of race and gender, and the performance of medicine. In most of these instances we compare how materials are treated socially to how they are treated aesthetically (e.g., the rendering of the Salem witch trials in court records of the time and in Arthur Miller?s play The Crucible). In addition to readings and discussions, seminar members attend selected performances in New York ranging from theater to sports to trials to surgery.
RICHARD SCHECHNER is a University Professor of Performance Studies who teaches at the Tisch School of the Arts and the NYU Law School. He is also a professional theater director whose most recent work is Yokastas, coauthored with Saviana Stanescu and produced at La Mama in March?April 2003. Schechner is a widely published author and editor of the renowned journal TDR: The Drama Review. His 2002 book, Performance Studies, An Introduction, is the basic text used in the seminar.
In Search of Lost Time
(V50.0240; call # 72311)
Instructor: Marcelle Clements
Wednesday, 11:00 a.m.?1:30 p.m.
We will read Proust (in translation) as he should be read: hedonistically? with respect and admiration but also with delectation. A prodigious novel in seven volumes and 4,500 pages, In Search of Lost Time addresses literature?s richest theme: desire?its remembrance, loss, perversion, defeat, triumph, and final resurgence in the form of art. Almost 100 years old, it remains a dazzling portrait of turnofthecentury French beau monde and, even more, of the power and elegance of its narrator?s sensibility. It is still unparalleled in how it combines breadth, virtuosity, and irony, the author?s extraordinary psychological acuity and the glamour of his world, as well as how it merges social history, ennui, and lust. It is also one of the world?s greatest, most pleasurable, and elating reads. Although Marcel Proust (1871?1922) is usually assumed to be France?s greatest novelist, his prose is so layered and brilliant that, unfortunately, many readers begin at the beginning and never move on, reading the same gorgeous sentences again and again. But while the texture of In Search of Lost Time (association, evocation, magnification, play of words and memory) may have been its most radical contribution to the art of the novel, this work cannot be understood until it has been read in its entirety. In this seminar, we will keep moving at a brisk pace through the work, merely glancing at its riches on our way, until we arrive at the uniquely euphoric experience of reading the final volume, Time Regained.
MARCELLE CLEMENTS is a Fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU. Her articles and essays on the arts, culture, and politics have appeared in many national publications. She is the author of a collection of essays, The Dog Is Us and Other Observations; a novel, Rock Me; and a book of nonfiction, The Improvised Woman: Single Women Reinventing Single Life. Her most recent book is a novel, Midsummer.
Rethinking Who We Are: Interpersonal Approaches to the Person
(V50.0247; call # 73677)
Instructor: Michael Westerman
Monday, 3:30?6:00 p.m.
There are unresolved tensions in the field of psychology between individualcentered and interpersonal models of the person. The seminar is based on the belief that in order to make progress on these unresolved issues we need to recognize that they refer to a longstanding fundamental question philosophers began wondering about centuries before the discipline of psychology came into existence?What place do our relationships with other people have in our lives? Moreover, we need to engage in an inquiry that involves a dynamic interplay between psychological and philosophical considerations. Participants in the seminar learn about work in several specific areas where these tensions appear, including models of child development, approaches to psychopathology, and basic questions about psychotherapy. We also consider more "interpersonal" versus more individualcentered ways in which psychologists think about interpersonal interaction itself. The final topic concerns the philosophy of the social sciences. We look at recent contributions by psychologists and philosophers suggesting that we replace traditional concepts of the process of psychological research with a social view of that process. Throughout the seminar, we refer to classic philosophical texts and contributions by historians of ideas to explore critically the ways in which contemporary efforts by psychologists reflect concepts of the person from our philosophical tradition.
MICHAEL A. WESTERMAN is Associate Professor of Psychology and a member of the faculty in the clinical psychology doctoral training program. He has conducted research on several topics concerning interpersonal relationships, including studies of motherchild interaction, family systems, and the patienttherapist relationship in psychotherapy. His publications also include articles on issues in philosophical psychology. He is currently involved in a program of research based on an interpersonal reconceptualization of psychological defenses he has developed, which is called the theory of interpersonal defense.
New Media Law and Content Creation
(V50.0253; call # 72314)
Instructor: Karl P. Kilb
Monday, 6:20?8:50 p.m.
This course explores the legal and journalistic issues surrounding the creation and distribution of content in the "Electronic Information Age." Content is a commodity that is packaged in many forms, known as "media." We are all consumers of content, which is tailored by each media organization to target specific audiences. Consumers base their content choices on the type of information, as well as on the method of delivery. The traditional print and broadcast media have found a powerful, relatively inexpensive new means of distribution: the Internet. The rapid packaging of content by means of new technology has forced content creators and distributors to develop new interpretations to fundamental intellectual property issues, including copyright law. The seminar will promote active research and discussions with leaders in the media and legal professions, and explore how legislation and industry practices are responding to new technology.
KARL P. KILB, ESQ., is the General Counsel of Bloomberg LP, managing a global Legal/Contracts Department. Before becoming an attorney in 1995, he was a broadcast journalist at FNN, CNBC, 1010 WINS Radio, Bloomberg, and various other networks and stations in New York for twelve years, having graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in broadcast journalism from NYU. He frequently lectures at universities and industry organizations about media and intellectual property law.
School and Society: NYU in the Sixties and Seventies
(V50.0255; call # 74604)
Instructor: Arthur Tannenbaum
Tuesday, 2:00?4:30 p.m.
The decades of the 1960s and 1970s brought profound changes in American society, changes mirrored in the history of the nation and of New York University. This course aims to develop an appreciation of information seeking and recording in a research environment. In essence, students will research NYU?s recent history by means of library research methods learned in the course. Through the examination of primary and secondary materials, accompanied by the personal narratives of faculty who were on campus during those times, students will prepare reports on different aspects of the era. In addition to doing shared background readings, class members will develop a research paper or a finding aid about their chosen topic.
ARTHUR TANNENBAUM is an Associate Curator in the Bobst Library and an Adjunct Professor in the English Department of the Faculty of Arts and Science. He is currently the librarian for education in the Social Sciences Department. First as a student and then as faculty, he has been at NYU for more than thirty years. In 1992 he received the University Distinguished Teaching Medal in recognition for his work with students.
Modern Concepts of Matter and the Cosmos
(V50.0256; call # 72315)
Instructor: Daniel Zwanziger
Tuesday and Thursday, 11:00 a.m.?12:15 p.m.
Prerequisite: high school physics
Since the 1970s our understanding of matter has been dominated by a paradigm known as "the Standard Model" of elementary particle physics. According to this model, the basic forces of nature are the strong and electroweak forces that are transmitted by "gauge" fields, and the gravitational force that is described by general relativity. Elementary particles are either the quanta of the gauge fields themselves, including gluons and photons, or quarks and leptons that interact and are bound by the exchange of these quanta. This seminar reviews the Standard Model and the evidence for it. The geometric character of gauge and gravitational fields is described. Modern theories of the cosmos are presented, in the light of recent observations. Since the nature of modern physical theories is quite mathematical and geometrical, students taking this course should be intrigued by mathematical concepts.
DANIEL ZWANZIGER is Professor of Physics. His special research interest is quantum field theory applied to elementary particles. His most recent publications deal with the theory of quarks and gluons known as quantum chromodynamics.
The Serotonin System: The Master Regulator of the Brain
(V50.0258; call # 74603)
Instructor: Efrain Azmitia
Wednesday, 9:30 a.m.?12:00 noon
The human brain, one of the most fascinating and challenging frontiers in modern science, contains hundreds of individual chemical systems that form interacting networks adapted for the survival of the organism and the species. This course focuses on the cells that release a small aminoacid derivative called serotonin. Serotonin has been implicated in a vast array of functions, ranging from aggression, sexual behavior, sleeping, and learning to regulation of hormone release, eating, and neurotrophic factor secretion. Many mindaltering drugs (LSD, psilocybin, ecstasy, cocaine, alcohol, etc.) act on serotonin neurons. In humans, serotonin dysfunction is associated with such mental disorders as bulimia, depression, autism, Down?s syndrome, and Alzheimer?s disease. The course assumes no prior knowledge of neurosceince. Its interdisciplinary approach crosses traditional fields like biology, chemistry, psychology, anthropology, pharmacology, anatomy, neurology, and psychiatry. Readings and discussions are complemented by laboratory visits, demonstrations, and films.
EFRAIN AZMITIA is head of NYU's Laboratory of Molecular Neuroplasticity in the Department of Biology, member of the Center for Neural Science, Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the NYU Medical Center, and a National Institute of Mental Health Career Scientist awardee. He has held appointments in Great Britain, France, Japan, and Israel, as well as in the United States. He has written over 200 articles, edited four books, organized over 20 international meetings, and lectured thoughout the world. He is on the editorial board of Brain Research, Synapse, NeuroscienceNet (www.neuroscience.com), and other professional journals.
The Etruscans
(V50.0261; call # 74601)
Instructor: Larissa Bonfante
Monday and Wednesday, 2:00?3:15 p.m.
This course deals with the arts, history, and language of the wealthy Etruscan cities that flourished in central Italy from 1000 to 100 B.C. Because their language is unrelated to any other in the world and their own literature has disappeared, we must study them through their art?of which a considerable amount has survived. The class reads what the Greeks and Romans, their rivals and neighbors, said about them, compares this to the reality of their religion, society, and customs, and learns about their remarkable technical achievements in divination, jewelry making, metalwork, road building, and other crafts. New excavations and discoveries are constantly bringing forth fresh proof of their importance in the ancient Mediterranean world, in which they traded with the Near East, Carthage, Greece, and Rome, and their influence in Rome and in Europe, to which they brought the culture of cities. Work with the Classics Department?s collection of Etruscan antiquities allows students to see original Etruscan art and inscriptions and to have handson experience with Etruscan archaeological material.
LARISSA BONFANTE is Professor of Classics and the author of books and articles on Etruscan language, society, culture, and influence. Etruscan Life and Afterlife, which she edited, is used as a textbook in universities in the United States and in Europe. She is also a winner of the College?s Golden Dozen Award for Excellence in Teaching.
From Milton to Mingus
(V50.0264; call # 72317)
Instructor: Perry Meisel
Monday and Wednesday, 3:30?4:45 p.m.
This course examines the relation between influence and originality in canonical artists from Milton to Charles Mingus, and how it impacts culture at large. A growing preoccupation with mediocrity defines the history of literature from the Renaissance to modernism, and makes imaginative autonomy the site of ideal artistic success; in jazz, the tension between group and soloist is present from the start. What are the ironies that assail these histories? What are the paradoxes that both install their ideals and deconstruct their possibility? Recognizing the unconscious influences that guide the reader?s or the listener?s responses is the course?s second, and parallel, focus. Readings include Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Keats, Whitman, Pater, Freud, Virgina Woolf, and Ralph Ellison. Musicians include Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis; Lester Young, Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane; and Charles Mingus.
PERRY MEISEL, Professor of English, is the author of numerous books and articles, including The Myth of the Modern and The Cowboy and the Dandy. In addition to writing about literature, psychoanalysis, and critical theory, he has also written extensively about jazz and rock, principally for the Village Voice. He has taught at NYU since 1975.
Terrorism, Nihilism, and Modernity
(V50.0267; call # 72320)
Instructor: James Gilligan
Thursday, 3:30?6:00 p.m.
The past century has witnessed violence the character and scale of which are so unique and unprecedented that we have had to create a new vocabulary to describe it (genocide, terrorism) and the ideologies that underlie it (totalitarianism, fundamentalism). To understand modern violence, we will examine the origin of the modern mind in the 17th century, when science, based on universal doubt, ended the Age of Faith, and the traditional sources of moral, legal, and political authority lost credibility. Nietzsche called this the "death of God" (and the Devil); it could also be called the death of Good and Evil, leading to another set of new words (nihilism, agnosticism, anomie, anarchy). We will study the origins and implications of these developments by reading Shakespeare and John Donne, Nietzsche and Dostoevsky, Beckett and Wittgenstein, Simone Weil and Hannah Arendt, as well as modern mass murderers from Hitler to bin Laden. Finally, we will ask whether the modern human sciences can help us understand how to reverse or at least limit this escalation of violence.
JAMES GILLIGAN headed the Institute of Law and Psychiatry and directed mental health programs for the Massachusetts prison system while on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry. He is now an Adjunct Professor at NYU, Director of the Center for the Study of Violence, a member of President Clinton?s National Commission on Youth Violence, and author of Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic and Preventing Violence: An Agenda for the Coming Century. He has been a consultant to the Department of Injuries and Violence Prevention at the World Health Organization, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and numerous other organizations.
The Art of the Enemy
(V50.0270; call # 72323)
Instructor: Hector Feliciano
Wednesday, 3:30?6:00 p.m.
The destruction of the art of the enemy, or cultural looting, has almost always been one of the staple byproducts of international, civil, or religious strife. From ancient or biblical times to the recent wars in the former Yugoslavia and Afghanistan, art plunder and the willful destruction of cultural patrimony?from palaces, museums, libraries, churches, mosques, and synagogues to paintings, statues, icons, and books?have been used by the victors as a supplementary means to conquer, annihilate, and humiliate the enemy. By studying some examples of destruction and looting, we will explore the enemies? fascinating political, aesthetic, or religious justifications for these acts. We will also consider why some enemies destroy, while others simply take along, sell, or abandon; we will describe the positive and negative role of museums in some of these events, and learn how the "values of collecting" and the creation of museums may have helped to preserve art destined to be destroyed or looted by others. Above all, we will constantly be redefining what art is and what it means? to us and to our enemies. There will be guest speakers and field trips to museums.
HECTOR FELICIANO is a Fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU. Formerly cultural writer for the Paris bureaus of the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, he is the author of The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy to Steal the World?s Greatest Works (1997); first published in French, this work has since been translated into several other languages. He served on the Panel of Experts of the Presidential Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States. He is the organizer of the First International Symposium on Cultural Property and Patrimony (Columbia University, 1999) and of a panel discussion entitled "The Art of the Enemy" (School of Visual Arts in New York City, 2002).
What Makes a Great Leader?: Perspectives from Government, Law, and Business
(V50.0275; call # 72328)
Instructor: Diane C. Yu
Monday, 6:30?9:00 p.m.
Machiavelli wrote in 1532, "There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things." This seminar explores some of the ways in which leaders, particularly over the past two centuries, have risen in a number of settings. How do we define greatness in leadership? Have the standards remained static, or have they changed over time? How have leaders overcome the obstacles in their paths? What, if any, traits do they have in common? Do leaders make the times in which they serve, or do the times dictate the leaders who emerge? Are leadership skills innate, or can they be learned and developed? The seminar will stimulate thinking through readings and discussion about notable figures from politics and government, such as the Founding Fathers, Lincoln, Mandela, Gandhi, and Churchill, while looking at contemporary examples drawn from the business and legal world as well. Readings include selections from biography, Confucius, Shakespeare, analysis and commentary, history, and autobiography. The seminar also features sessions with prominent figures from the business, media, and political worlds who will discuss their views and firsthand observations about leadership.
DIANE C. YU is Chief of Staff and Deputy to the President of NYU. She has been a highranking executive at a Fortune 250 company, California judicial officer, general counsel for a California public corporation, and appointed by the President as a White House Fellow. Her B.A. is from Oberlin and her J.D. from the University of California (Berkeley). A national bar leader, she serves on numerous boards, has won awards for her service to the legal profession, and was the first woman of color to chair the American Bar Association?s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, which accredits American law schools. She currently chairs the ABA?s Commission on Women in the Profession.
The Biology of Infectious Diseases
(V50.0276; call # 74292)
Instructors: Martin Blaser and Joel Ernst
Wednesday, 4:55?7:25
Infectious diseases have shaped human biology, genes, culture, and imagination. After the advent of antibiotics, we thought that we could win the "war" on infectious diseases. Antibiotic resistance and AIDS, among other events, have taught us that the war is not winnable. Rather, we must understand our place in the microbial world and learn to adapt strategies that minimize infectious disease impact, and maximize our symbiosis with indigenous organisms. After introductory discussions, the course is conducted as a series of seminars by students on topics that provide greater understanding of the underlying biological issues. Topics that may be discussed include genetic susceptibility to diseases such as malaria, problems involved in antibiotic resistance, the evolution of HIV, good microbes vs. bad, and infectious diseases in the postmodern world.
MARTIN BLASER is the Frederick H. King Professor of Internal Medicine and Chairman of the Department of Medicine, and Professor of Microbiology at the NYU School of Medicine. A practicing physician, and specialist in Infectious Diseases, he has progressively become a biologist. His research interests have spanned clinical medicine, epidemiology, molecular biology and genetics, evolutionary biology, mathematics, and history. The recipient of numerous honors and awards, he is founder and publisher of the Bellevue Literary Review.
JOEL ERNST is the Jeffrey Bergstein Professor of Medicine, Director of Infectious Diseases, and Professor of Microbiology at the NYU School of Medicine. A clinician and specialist in infectious diseases, he directs his immunology research at discovery of mechanisms used by microbial pathogens to evade the immune system. He is a frequently sought speaker at international meetings on infectious diseases and immunology.
The Politics of Knowledge in the United States
(V50.0277; call # 74607)
Instructor: Thomas Bender
Monday, 2:00?4:30 p.m.
There are a variety of forms of knowledge (numerical, visual, narrative, analytical) associated with different disciplines, groups, and institutions. How does each obtain cultural significance and authority? What are the assumptions that support their claims as valid knowledge? To what extent are they "mirrors of nature"? To what extent do they reflect or reveal the "position" or human interests of those who articulate them, whether one thinks of personal qualities, class position, institutional location, or ideological commitment? How does one respond to such uncertainty about the sources and validity of knowledge claims? How do knowledge claims enter politics? How does one politically engage such claims?
THOMAS BENDER is University Professor of the Humanities and Professor of History. On the faculty of NYU since 1974, he has served as chair of the History Department and as Dean for the Humanities. His teaching and research interests cover the history of cities, intellectuals, and intellectual and cultural history more generally. His 14 published books include two directly related to this course, New York Intellect and Intellect and Public Life. His most recent books, both published in 2002, are Rethinking American History in a Global Age and The Unfinished City: New York and the Metropolitan Idea. He also frequently contributes to newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.
Ethics, Pointillism, Epidemiology, and Epistemology: EPEE Dueling with Scientific Health Information
(V50.0278; call # 74293)
Instructor: Ralph V. Katz
Monday, 3:30-6:00 p.m.
The common citizen is well challenged?if not overly challenged? trying to deal with the flood of scientific health information as presented in the media. "Scientific" health find ings of this week seem to routinely conflict with the "scientific" health findings of last week. As the movie theme song asked so poignantly 35 years ago, "What?s it all about, Alfie?" This course explores that question as related to scientific health information as used both by individuals to make personal life decisions related to health behaviors and by society to protect its citizens via court decisions and governmental regulations. Concepts from the fields of ethics, art, and science are central to readings and discussions focused on how to make sense of it all. Beginning with the history and foundation concepts of bioethics and epidemiology, the course provides a frame for understanding how to make reasonable sense of this flood of scientific health information, i.e., what are the strengths and limitations (and misuses) of this free flow of scientific health findings in our democratic "instant, electronic news" world. Textbooks and videos cover background on the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, polar bears, and rubbish. As the major course assignment, each student writes a newspaperstyle "oped" article, backed by an annotated bibliography.
RALPH V. KATZ is Professor of Epidemiology and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology & Health Promotion in the NYU College of Dentistry. He is Director of the NYU Oral Cancer RAAHP (Research on Adolescent and Adult Health Promotion) Center and leads a current study investigating whether minorities are less willing to participate in biomedical studies as research subjects and, if so, why. Having served on the National Tuskegee Legacy Committee, he was a Presidential Invitee to the White House for President Clinton?s 1997 apology to the AfricanAmerican community. His epidemiologic research has ranged from oral disease studies to the development of epidemiologic research methods. In addition to his dental degree, he holds a master?s degree in public health and a Ph.D. in epidemiology.
W. E. B. Du Bois: The Making of a Radical Scholar Activist
(V50.0279; call # 74351)
Instructor: Jeff Goodwin
Tuesday, 11:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
W. E. B. Du Bois (1868?1963) was one of the most remarkable scholars and political activists of the 20th century. The first AfricanAmerican to earn a doctorate at Harvard, Du Bois wrote perhaps the most trenchant analysis of the AfricanAmerican condition, The Souls of Black Folk (1903), the first sociological study of a Black community, The Philadelphia Negro (1899), and one of the most influential works of American history, Black Reconstruction in America (1935). Du Bois also founded the Niagara Movement in 1905, breaking decisively with the "accommodationist" politics of Booker T. Washington, and was a major figure in the PanAfricanist movement. This course examines the life, times, and writings of Du Bois, focusing on the years between his birth in 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and 1910, when he left Atlanta University to become editor of The Crisis, the official publication of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The course tries to understand, among other issues, how such a remarkable and cosmopolitan individual could have emerged from such a humble and seemingly parochial background, a small town in western Massachusetts with a tiny AfricanAmerican community.
JEFF GOODWIN, Professor of Sociology, is author of No Other Way Out: States and Revolutionary Movements, 1945?1991 and coeditor of Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements and The Social Movements Reader. He has taught courses on social movements and revolutions at NYU since 1991. His interests also include social theory and the AfricanAmerican tradition in sociology, including the works of Du Bois, Charles S. Johnson, E. Franklin Frazier, St. Claire Drake, and Oliver Cromwell Cox.
Rise of the Skyscraper
(V50.0281; call # 74294)
Instructor: Sarah Bradford Landau
Monday, 3:30-6:00 p.m.
New York City, as well as Chicago, contributed significantly to the creation of the skyscraper building type. Although the World Trade Center and plans for its rebuilding are likely to be discussed, the focus of the seminar is New York?s historic skyscrapers. We consider the urban factors that precipitated the desire to build tall; technological innovations?notably the elevator and iron and steel skeleton construction?that made it possible to build tall; the relation of form and style features to site conditions, building code provisions, and architectural aesthetics; and the contributions of individual architects. Introductory lectures on the early development of the skyscraper in New York and Chicago, tours of lower Manhattan?s skyscraper districts, midtown?s Chrysler and Empire State buildings, and class discussions based on assigned readings precede student oral presentations focused on specific case studies accompanied by slides. In preparation for their presentations and final papers, students experience using primary sources such as those in the city?s Municipal Archives in addition to reading the relevant published studies.
SARAH BRADFORD LANDAU, Professor of Fine Arts, has taught at NYU for 27 years and has received a Golden Dozen award for Excellence in Teaching. She is an authority on the New York sky scraper. Her publications related to the subject include Rise of the New York Skyscraper, 1865?1913 (with coauthor Carl W. Condit) and a monograph study of George B. Post, who contributed substantially to the creation of the skyscraper: George B. Post, Architect: Picturesque Designer and Determined Realist. She has also served as commissioner on the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission and as commission vice chair.
From the Rise of Christianity to Bowling Alone: A Sociological Perspective on Two Millennia
(V50.0282; call # 74355)
Instructor: Edward W. Lehman
Wednesday, 2:00-4:30 p.m.
The new millennium has dawned with growing disenchantment with traditional leftright cleavages and with the claim that the United States is increasingly a nation of isolated individualists whose disregard for collective responsibilities is eroding civic virtues and our democratic institutions. Our aim is to assess the trajectory of our culture using the dimensions of autonomy versus order and freedom versus determinism. This seminar begins by probing these diagnoses in the broader context of moral and social transformations in the West over the last two thousand years. We examine socialscience analyses of pivotal changes that have occurred in that period. We consider the sociologist Rodney Stark?s highly acclaimed The Rise of Christianity, which focuses on developments during the first four centuries of the first millennium of the common era. Our final reading is the political scientist Robert Putnam?s controversial Bowling Alone, which is currently the most publicized critique of contemporary American civic life.
EDWARD W. LEHMAN is a Professor of Sociology. His research interests include political sociology, cultural sociology, and sociological theory. He is the author of Coordinating Health Care: Explorations in Interorganizational Relations, Political Society: A Macrosociology of Politics, and The Viable Polity. He is coeditor of A Sociological Reader in Complex Organizations. In 2000 he edited and published Autonomy and Order: A Communitarian Anthology, a collection of original essays by 15 authors that explores how the fraying of shared moral understandings and the erosion of communal bonds affect our capacity to balance individual rights and collective responsibilities. He is currently book review editor of The Responsive Community.
Jews and Germans in Postwar Germany
(V50.0283; call # 74417)
Instructor: Marion Kaplan
Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30-10:45 a.m.
This course explores the sometimes painful, often angry, and always fascinating interactions and interlocking histories of Germans and Jews even after the Holocaust. It investigates the immediate postwar situation: the Jewish displaced persons, the U.S., English, French, and Russian occupying forces, and the German refugees from eastern territories. Students analyze how Germans, both East and West, did or did not come to terms with their Nazi pasts. They read perspectives of Jews on their lives in the Germanys, why they stayed, how they experienced their citizenship and their interactions with Germans, and how unification and the influx of Russian Jews affected them. They also analyze German perspectives: How did exNazis or bystanders think about their pasts? Did they cover them up? What did their children and grandchildren know? German and Jewish historical memories are contrasted, including Jewish memories of persecution and annihilation and German memories of suffering during the war. Moreover, students examine the ways Jews and Germans saw the student rebellion of 1968, the American TV series "Holocaust" in 1979, the "Historians? Debate" of the mid1980s, and the Goldhagen controversy of the 1990s. Finally, the politics of public commemoration in Germany are discussed.
MARION KAPLAN is Skirball Professor of Modern Jewish History. She has also taught at Queens College, CUNY. She is the author of The Jewish Feminist Movement in Germany: The Campaigns of the J?discher Frauenbund, l904?l938 (1979), The Making of the Jewish Middle Class: Women, Family, and Identity in Imperial Germany (1991), and Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany (1998). The last two won the National Jewish Book Award in their respective years. She has edited books in European women?s history? When Biology Became Destiny: Women in Weimar and Nazi Germany and The Marriage Bargain: Dowries in European History?and is currently editing and writing a history of Jewish daily life from the 17th century until 1945.
Bases of Chinese Culture: Philosophy and Literature
(V50.0284; call # 73991)
Instructor: Moss Roberts
Monday and Wednesday, 3:30-4:45
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the essential themes and issues of traditional Chinese culture through eight representative works of philosophy and literature. The course concentrates on six philosophical texts in English translation? Confucius? Analects, Laozi?s Dao De Jing, the Mozi, the Mencius, the Chuang Tzu, and the Hsun Tzu?plus two classic novels of the late imperial period, Three Kingdoms and Dream of the Red Chamber, also in English translation.
MOSS ROBERTS is Professor of Chinese and former Director of the East Asian Studies Program. His area of specialization is Chinese language, literature, and philosophy; he has also given courses on Japanese literature and on traditional Vietnamese history and culture. He has translated one of China?s major epics, Three Kingdoms, as well as Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies, part of the Pantheon series on folklore. His translation of Laozi?s Dao De Jing was published in 2001.
Waiting for Beckett
(V50.0285; call # 74421)
Instructor: Tom Bishop
Thursday, 3:30?6:00 p.m.
From the tramps of Waiting for Godot to the terminal characters of Endgame, to the frenzied narrators of his fictions, Beckett?s major works will be studied as powerful contemporary expressions of the human condition and as a fundamental calling into question of language itself. Beckett?s forceful images will be viewed as metaphors of existence and the tenacity of the Beckettian narrator to continue to speak/write despite all odds points to a positive affirmation. This "obligation to express" will be seen as one of the major constants in Beckett?s work?a dialectic of speech and silence, memorably reflected in the final words of The Unnamable: ". . . you must go on, I can?t go on, I?ll go on." Beckett will also be studied as one of the 20th century?s key innovators through the narrative strategies of his fiction and the theatrical conventions underlying his dramatic works. The seminar will concentrate on the period of Beckett?s greatest creativity, between 1946 and 1955, and on the late works, from 1970 until his death in 1989. Videotapes of performances and television productions will be used to complement readings, as will as Beckett?s one cinematic venture, Film.
TOM BISHOP is Florence Gould Professor of French Literature, Professor of Comparative Literature, and Chair of the Center for French Civilization and Culture. He chaired the Department of French for 33 years. He has written extensively on contemporary French fiction and drama and especially on the works of Samuel Beckett. Bishop, a past president of the Samuel Beckett Society, organized five major Beckett festivals in New York and in Paris, one of which earned him an OBIE award. He was a friend of Beckett?s for the last quarter century of the writer?s life. Bishop?s most recent book is From the Left Bank: Reflections on the Modern French Theater and Novel.
The Representation of "the Other" in the IsraeliPalestinian Cinema
(V50.0286; call # 74297)
Instructor: Shimon Dotan
Friday, 9:30 a.m.-12:00 noon
Representation of the Other is a variation of the search for selfidentity. The IsraeliPalestinian conflict, and its political cinema, exhibit a clear pattern in which the parties attribute to the Other qualities and traits that reflect their own distress and aspirations. This pattern is examined in a series of contemporary films (1980 to the present). Each class consists of a screening followed by a discussion concentrating on representation in the context of the political conflict, variations in the use of film language to achieve a subjective portrayal, and modalities of representation and self critique. Two guest speakers, a Palestinian and an Israeli, participate in two (or more) of these discussions. Screenings include Divine Intervention, by Elia Suleiman; Beyond the Walls, by Uri Barabash; Close, Closed, Closure, by Ram Loevi; The Milky Way, by Ali Nasser; and The Smile of the Lamb, by Shimon Dotan.
SHIMON DOTAN, a Fellow of the New York Institute of the Humanities at NYU, is an awardwinning filmmaker with ten feature films to his credit. His films were the recipients of the Silver Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival (The Smile of the Lamb) numerous Israeli Academy Awards, including Best Film and Best Director (Repeat Dive; The Smile of the Lamb) and Best Film at the Newport Beach Film Festival (You Can Thank Me Later). Dotan has taught filmmaking at Tel Aviv University in Israel and Concordia University in Montreal.
Yeats and Joyce
(V50.0287; call # 74298)
Instructor: Denis Donoghue
Wednesday, 9:30 a.m.-12:00 noon
This course reads Yeats and Joyce in the context of modern Irish society and culture. Yeats and Joyce were very different writers, different in social and religious background, education, and literary affiliation. Each implies a different Ireland. Ideally, Yeats?s Ireland is heroic, pagan, rural, mythic; its modern version is occult, aristocratic, hierarchical. Ideally, Joyce?s Ireland is urban, lowermiddle or middle class, Catholic or (more often) lapsed Catholic. Even when Yeats and Joyce are "European," they are European with different commitments. Yeats?s modern master is Nietzsche, Joyce?s is Ibsen. In aesthetics, Joyce?s precursor is Aquinas; Yeats appeals to the traditions of neoPlatonism and philosophic Ideal ism. A reading of Yeats and Joyce should cast a double light on the strange country they so diversely articulated.
DENIS DONOGHUE is University Professor and Henry James Professor of English and American Letters at NYU. He has also taught at University College, Dublin, and the University of Cambridge (where he was a Fellow of King?s College). His visiting professorships have been at Princeton, UCLA, Harvard, Edinburgh, and other universities. He is the author of about twenty books in literary criticism, theory, and literary biography. The books of particular relevance to this course are Jonathan Swift, Yeats, We Irish, The Ordinary Universe, and The Practice of Reading. He has also published Warrenpoint, a memoir of growing up in a small town in Northern Ireland.
Order, Liberty, and Terrorism: September 11 in Perspective
(V50.0288; call # 74354)
Instructors: Anthony Amsterdam and Jerome Bruner
Thursday, 4:55-6:55 p.m.
The September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon taught the government and the people of the United States how vulnerable we are to massive violence. The president and Congress responded by declaring a "War on Terrorism." One controversial feature of the war on terrorism has been military detention of suspected terrorists without trial and without access to legal counsel. Detention of this sort raises basic questions about how a democratic society should strike the balance between maintaining security and public order on the one hand and preserving individual liberty on the other. This seminar explores the problems of reconciling order and liberty in various settings: in the military detention cases now being argued in the law courts; in earlier cases decided by the courts from the days of Aaron Burr to our own time; in theater and film classics from Sophocles? Antigone to Fred Zinnemann?s A Man for All Seasons and Peter Brooks?s Lord of the Flies. Students write brief papers for each week?s class, analyzing the implications of the court opinions or literary works assigned.
ANTHONY AMSTERDAM and JEROME BRUNER are both University Professors at New York University and are joint authors of Minding the Law, a book that examines the role of narrative thinking and rhetoric in the legal process. Bruner, trained in psychology, which he has taught at Oxford and Harvard, now works on how psychological and cultural influences affect law. Amsterdam has been both law teacher and active litigator for many years, combining academic teaching with court work in constitutional law, criminal law, and civil liberties.
Classical Mythology
(V50.0289; call # 74300)
Instructor: Matthew S. Santirocco
Tuesday, 4:55-7:25 p.m.
Human beings are distinguished in part by their capacity for telling stories and their delight in hearing them. Some of these narratives become traditional not only for their entertainment value but also because they serve other purposes?to explain natural and human phenomena, for example, to explore crucial questions of human existence, or to support social organization. Often these stories also control behavior: as history shows, the myths we live by are also those for which we are prepared to die or to kill. This seminar takes as a case study the myths of ancient Greece and Rome. Texts are drawn from major classical authors, including Homer, Hesiod, the Greek dramatists, and Vergil. The stories chosen focus on such crucial concepts as cosmology, gender, sexuality, justice, political order, and rationality. Through them we shall also explore the relationship of myth to other types of traditional tale, the functions of myth in ancient societies, the connection of myth to religion and ritual, the comparison of Greek myths with those of other societies, and the persistence of these stories into the present time and our own personal and public lives.
MATTHEW S. SANTIROCCO is Dean of the College of Arts and Science, Professor of Classics, and Angelo J. Ranieri Director of Ancient Studies. His teaching interests include mythology, Greek and Roman literature, comparative literature, and comparative cultural studies. The author of a book on Latin lyric poetry (Unity and Design in Horace?s Odes), of several edited volumes, and of many scholarly articles, he is currently working on a book on the poetics of patronage in Augustan Rome. He was editor of the American Philological Association?s two monograph series and is at present editor of the journal Classical World.
Introduction to Literary Theory
(V50.0290; call # 74419)
Instructor: Ziad Elmarsafy
Tuesday, 4:55-7:25 p.m.
This course presents a structured approach to methods in reading and the theory of literature that prepares students for advanced work in literature. Readings cover a wide selection of texts dealing with the definition and function of Western literature, from Plato to the 21st century. Given the history of the association between "theory" writ large and the French intellectual history of the late 20th century, one important point of emphasis is the relationship between those French theorists who have proven most influential in the Englishspeaking world (Barthes, Lacan, Fou cault) and the reception of their ideas on this side of the Atlantic. The course is built around several modules, including the classical heritage; formalism; existentialism and phenomenology; structuralism and semiotics, psychoanalysis; historicism and politically based approaches to literature.
ZIAD ELMARSAFY is Associate Professor of French at NYU with interests in early modernity and the Enlightenment. He has published The Histrionic Sensibility: Theatricality and Identity from Corneille to Rousseau (2001) and Freedom, Slavery and Absolutism: Corneille, Pascal, Racine (forthcoming, 2004) as well as several articles on the literature of the 17th and 18th centuries. He is currently working on a study of the relationship between the understanding of Islam, the translation of the Qur?an, and the European Enlightenment.
Communications and Human Values
(V50.0291; call # 74405)
Instructor: Richard D. Heffner
Tuesday, 6:20?8:50 p.m.
This seminar critically analyzes how much our sense of what it means to be an American at the dawn of the 21st century has been molded by the media, with particular reference to their socializing and valuelegitimating content. To deal with such media power, students are asked first to identify their own respective approaches to the proper relationship between the individual and the state through discussion both of selections from such readings as Walter Lippmann?s Public Opinion, Robert Merton?s Mass Persuasion, J. S. Mill?s On Liberty, Herman Melville?s Billy Budd, Neil Postman?s Amusing Ourselves to Death, and B. F. Skinner?s Beyond Freedom and Dignity, and of screenings of such films as Birth of a Nation, 12 Angry Men, Harvest of Shame, Hearts and Minds, and JFK. Finally, class emphasis is on such contemporary media issues as a Fairness Doctrine (the real or imagined "chilling effect" of a requirement for media fairness and balance); cameras in the courts (do televised trials enhance justice, or instead create a "mobocracy" with trial by a new jury of public opinion?); media selfregulation (can there in fact be meaningful voluntary selfdiscipline in a free market, free speech, mass media? driven society?).
RICHARD D. HEFFNER is Producer/Moderator of the weekly public television series The Open Mind, which he began nearly a half century ago. Earlier a broadcaster and executive at ABC, NBC, and CBS, in 1962 he became the Founding General Manager of New York?s pioneering Channel 13. Trained as an American historian, he is the author of A Documentary History of the United States (1952) and the editor of Tocqueville?s Democracy in America (1956). His newest book is a collaboration entitled Conversations with Elie Wiesel (2001), and his Conversations about America will appear next year. From 1974 to 1994 he served as Chairman of the film industry's voluntary classification and rating system in Hollywood, commuting from Rutgers, where he has been University Professor of Communications and Public Policy since 1964.
Moral Perfectionism
(V50.0292; call # 74301)
Instructor: Ulrich Baer
Monday and Wednesday, 11:00-12:15p.m.
The tradition of moral perfectionism is part of Western thought and concerns a reflection on the self that places tremendous emphasis on the possibility and necessity of the transforming of oneself and one?s society. In this course we explore the contemporary significance of this emphasis on the possibility of transforming the self?after the much discussed death of the "subject"? by reading philosophical, literary, and political texts that combine this unrelenting belief in the possibility of a criticism of society from within with astounding rhetorical force. Readings include selections from Emerson, Melville, Thoreau, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Rilke, Hesse, Freud, Foucault, Cavell, Gilligan, and Arendt.
ULRICH BAER, Associate Professor of German and Comparative Literature, is interested in how historical and personal catastrophes can be adequately communicated to others through literature, photography, and art. He is the author of Remnants of Song: Trauma and Modernity in Charles Baudelaire and Paul Celan and Spectral Evidence: The Photography of Trauma, as well as the editor of the literary anthology 110 Stories: New York Writes after September 11. He has received the College?s Golden Dozen Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Modern Music in Paris, 1890?1940
(V50.0293; call # 74608)
Instructor: Victor Fell Yellin
Tuesday and Thursday, 2:00?3:15 p.m.
Beginning with Debussy, Satie, Faur?, Vincent d?Indy, and Ravel, the course traces the evolution of modernism in music as it unfolded in Paris. By choosing new standards of aesthetics from popular and exotic sources rather than by reinventing basic rules of common practice, French composers made music sound modern. Soon gifted musicians from around the world assembled in the city before and after World War I. Some enrolled in established institutions like the Conservatoire or the Schola Cantorum; some studied with charismatic independent teachers such as Nadia Boulanger. They all came to Paris because they were allowed to absorb French taste in art without having to convert to any sectarian aesthetic. In many cases Paris validated pride in their own nationalism. This seminar emphasizes Stravinsky, Milhaud, and Honegger, but it also examines the works of such American composers as Copland, Piston, Antheil, Thomson, and Blitzstein, all of whom studied with Boulanger and then spread the ideas of Modern Parisian musical style to America.
VICTOR FELL YELLIN, Professor of Music, is a composer and musicologist. He studied with Walter Piston at Harvard and with Darius Milhaud in Paris, and was much influenced by works for the musical stage by Marc Blitzstein and by Virgil Thomson, for whose book on American music he wrote the chapter on Thomson?s operas Four Saints in Three Acts and The Mother of Us All. Excerpts from Yellin?s opera Abaylar have been performed by the Metropolitan Opera Studio in New York, and his Variations on "Bye Bye Blues" for cello and piano was recently given at Merkin Hall. As a music historian, he has written on many aspects of American music, including the biography Chadwick, Yankee Composer and The Omnibus Idea, a history and analysis of one of the most ubiquitous but neglected harmonic progressions in music since the late 18th century.
Love, and How We Understand It
(V50.0294; call # 74416)
Instructor: Mitchell Stephens
Thursday, 4:55-7:25 p.m.
This course studies both what may be the most powerful and mysterious of human behaviors and mental states, romantic love, and how various disciplines and art forms have tried to grapple with it. It considers romantic love in a variety of forms and deals with works from a variety of cultures and historical periods. Read ings are selected from philosophy, psychology, anthropology, science, and journalism, as well as literature; students also examine films, songs, and paintings. They are asked to complete experiments of their own on this topic using some of these kinds of analysis or forms of expression. The course encourages students to think more deeply not only about love itself but about the strengths and weaknesses of different intellectual and artistic methods, and therefore the potential and the limitations of different academic disciplines.
MITCHELL STEPHENS is Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication. He is the author of, among other books, the rise of the image the fall of the word and A History of News. Articles by him on media issues, philosophy, anthropology, physics, and other subjects have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, FEED, and other publications. He has recorded radio commentaries for Marketplace and On the Media, and serves as history consultant to the Newseum in Washington, D.C. In 2001 he completed a trip around the world, during which he reported for public radio and a number of websites on cultural homogenization. He is also director of the Russian-American Journalism Institute in RostovonDon.
Galileo and Hobbes
(V50.0295; call # 74609)
Instructor: William Klein
Friday 9:3012:00 p.m.
In 1636, the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes visited the aged and blind Galileo at his house in Florence, but there is no record of what was said. That leaves us free to speculate as we enter into the works of these two great innovators and critics of the Aristotelian worldview. Using selections from both philosophers (and in those days there was often no difference between philosophers and scientists, except in terms of quality?Hobbes was a very good philosopher but not such a good scientist), we will try to decide whether Galileo would have approved of Hobbes?s radical development of his physics and cosmology into a comprehensive philosophy of nature, human nature, and the state.
WILLIAM KLEIN is Visiting Professor of General Studies at NYU. He has worked as a carpenter, an editor, and a writer, among other things, since completing the Ph.D. in history at Johns Hopkins. He has taught at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. His books include The Lure of the Italian Treasure, a youngadult detective novel set in Florence. He has written on English and Italian political thought and served on the editorial review board of the Journal of the History of Philosophy.
The Crusades and Their Legacy
(V50.0296; call # 74418)
Instructor: Jill N. Claster
Tuesday, 2:00?4:30 p.m.
In the history of the interactions among Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, the Crusades, which began at the end of the 11th century, form one of the most important chapters, if not the most important chapter. The Crusades began as religious wars to recover the holy places venerated by Christians in the city of Jerusalem. For two hundred years the Crusaders managed to hold on to their possessions, losing more of them with every passing decade, until at last the Muslims triumphed and the kingdom in the East was lost to western Christendom. This seminar covers the Crusades themselves, but focuses on the relations among the three great religions and how it came about that they all claim Jerusalem for their own. We study the differences among the religions as well as their many similarities. Most of all, we address some of the problems that are crucial to an understanding of the world we live in: the nature of a holy war; the issue of whether the Crusades were the first manifestation of European imperialism in the Middle East; and the legacy of the crusading era. Readings include Muslim, Jewish, and Christian writings of the era, in translation, as well as secondary works.
JILL N. CLASTER is Professor of History with a specialty in the Middle Ages; she has taught and studied the Crusader era extensively. She served as Dean of the College of Arts and Science and as Director of the Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies. She has been the recipient of a Fulbright grant and was honored with the Great Teacher Award by the Alumni Association of NYU.
Historic Preservation, Entrepreneurial Innovation, and the Rejuvenation of American Cities
(V50.0297; call # 74352)
Instructors: Tony and Mark Goldman
Tuesday, 4:55?7:25 p.m.
Over the years there has been no more effective tool of urban restoration and revitalization than historic preservation. In cities all over the world it has turned once empty and deteriorating buildings, fading blocks, and dying districts into vital and dynamic centers of urban, pedestrian activity. People everywhere have come to realize that cities can have no future unless and until their past is preserved, guarded, and maintained. This course will concentrate on historic preservation, economic development, and the role that individuals play in the rejuvenation of our cities. Taught by two brothers men whose life work integrates the practical and the academic, the handson experiences of the street warrior, the daytoday entrepreneur with the academic, this course is meant to provoke, inspire, enlighten, and empower. By combining readings and field trips to four different neighborhoods in the New York City area, this course will give students the insights and abilities to begin to understand, participate in, and envision the important work of preserving, restoring, and revitalizing the historic urban fabric of cities throughout the world.
Note: Interested students must submit a written statement (no longer than one page), to be reviewed by the instructors, explaining why they wish to take this seminar. The statement can be mailed to 100 Washington Square East, Room 908, New York, NY 10003; faxed to 212-995-4811; or emailed to ccp1@nyu..edu.
TONY GOLDMAN is Chairman and CEO of The Goldman Properties Company. His work as an entrepreneurial preservationist has been key to the revitalization of historic neighborhoods in South Beach (Miami) and in Soho and Wall Street (New York City). Since 1998 he has also led the historic redevelopment of the Center City district of downtown Philadelphia. He is a member of the National Board of Trustees of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
MARK GOLDMAN holds a Ph.D. in urban history, a subject he taught for many years at the State University of New York. He is the author or coauthor of three books, including, most recently, City on the Lake: An American City and the Challenge of Change. He has done academic as well as entrepreneurial work in the field of historic preservation and community revitalization in Buffalo.
Behind Government: How Politics, Media, and Money Shape Policies
(V50.0298; call # 74612)
Instructor: Mark Green
Thursday, 4:55?7:25 p.m.
To read Congressional Records and State of the Union addresses, one might think that all policy emanated from facts, logic, and merit. And when Karl Rove, President Bush?s top strategic adviser, said that the President doesn?t consider politics when determining policy, it was a pleasant fiction no one was expected to believe. This seminar looks at the hidden aspects that drive government by focusing on five recent public leaders?President Bush (43), President Clinton, Mayor Giuliani, Ralph Nader, and former Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson. How did their varying styles, values, intellects, and personalities affect their offices or campaigns? Are there particular approaches that can best accomplish great goals? How do media and money affect the success of these powerful people? How much does the public actually know about those who govern them?
MARK GREEN was the Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at NYU Law School in 2002. The author/editor of 18 books (including Who Runs Congress?), he was the Consumer Affairs Commissioner of New York City (1990?93), the elected Public Advocate of New York City (1994?2001), and the Democratic nominee for Mayor (2001). He appears weekly on NY1?s Wiseguys with Ed Koch and Al D?Amato.
Manufactured Worlds: Utopias, Fables, and Fantasies
(V50.0299; call # 74610)
Instructor: L. Jay Oliva
Wednesday, 2:00?4:30 p.m.
Historical eras can surely be viewed through a variety of lenses; one such lens is provided by creative individuals throughout history who have utilized fables and fantasies about alternate worlds to reflect their critiques, and aspirations, and fears for their own. Manufactured worlds have won public attention to the real world?s ills and potential through the power of imagination. We will examine this intriguing exercise of the human imagination, beginning with Thomas More?s Utopia and ending with Tolkien?s trilogy The Lord of the Rings.
L. JAY OLIVA is Michel Fribourg Professor of European Studies and President Emeritus of NYU. He is author and editor of works on Russian Imperial history, including Russia in the Era of Peter the Great, and has regularly taught a course in Russian history for juniors and seniors. His recent theater credits include Brigadoon, My Fair Lady, Guys and Dolls, Fiorello!, and Carousel; and he is lead singer in an Irish group, Doc and the Hods.
Afghanistan and the World
(V50.0300; call # 74611)
Instructor: Robert D. McChesney
Friday, 9:30 a.m.?12:00 noon
Since September 11, Afghanistan has emerged as a country whose interests and future are linked in a major way with those of the United States. The United States is not the first country and probably not the last to find itself enmeshed in the politics and society of this small nation in central Asia. The seminar begins with the subject of Afghanistan?s geophysical environment and the economic consequences that follow from that. Next it reviews the country?s social and cultural features, with an emphasis on tribalism, religion, and the literary and artistic heritage. The geopolitics of Afghanistan are then considered in light of the preceding with emphasis on the country?s relations with the nations that immediately surround it today?Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and China. Finally, the subject of Afghanistan in a global framework is discussed: Afghanistan?s jihad against the Soviet Union, the civil war and the Taliban, and Afghanistan?s relations with alQa?ida, the United States, and the United Nations.
ROBERT D. MCCHESNEY is Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, with a special interest in the early modern history of Iran and Central Asia. He is the author of Waqf in Central Asia (1991), Central Asia: Foundations of Change (1996), and Kabul under Siege (1999).
Great Doctors: The History of Scientific Medicine Revealed through Biography
(V50.0301; call # 74702)
Instructor: Sherwin B. Nuland
Friday, 3:306:00 p.m.
If we accept Thomas Carlyle?s proposition that "history is the essence of innumerable biographies" (1830), then we should be able to learn about the past by studying the lives of the men and women who made the greatest contributions to it. The aim of this course is to trace the development of medicine from the time of classical antiquity until the dawning of the modern biomedical era just after the middle of the 20th century. Beginning with Hippocrates and concluding with Helen Taussig and the introduction of cardiac surgery, readings and discussions center on 13 distinctive individuals as they functioned in the cultural environment of their times, the state of science and medical literature, the surrounding political circumstances, and the historical ambiance in which their discoveries were made. Emphasis is on the rise of medical education and literature; the relationship of science to contemporary theory about nature; the shifting influence of individual centers of thought and the countries in which new ideas flourished; the gradual loosening of religious influence; the triumph of inductive reasoning and the experimental method; and the ways in which a contributor?s personality, background, and training influenced his or her work.
SHERWIN B. NULAND, M.D., is Clinical Professor of Surgery at Yale University and a Fellow of its Institution for Social and Policy Studies. He is a member of the executive committee of the university?s Whitney Humanities Center and of the Interdisciplinary Bioethics Forum. He has been a member of the Council of the American Association for the History of Medicine and the Chairman of the Board of Managers of the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. His 1988 book, Doctors: The Biography of Medicine, has been published in eight languages, and he has written biographies of Leonardo da Vinci and Ign?c Semmelweis. Most of his essays and eight published books have been directed toward explaining medicine and medical history for the general reader.
Law and Globalization
(V50.0302; call # 74599)
Instructor: Richard Stewart
Monday, 3:30?6:00 p.m.
This seminar examines the role of law and legal institutions in fostering global market integration and economic growth and in addressing the discontents of globalization. The globalization of the economy has brought many benefits, but also many problems and criticisms. These discontents include disparities in power and wealth between rich and poor, which many claim have been exacerbated by globalization; lack of participation and transparency in decisionmaking by the World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund, and other international organizations; marginalization of developingcountry interests; cultural homogenization and displacement of local political and economic selfdetermination; loosening of social safety nets and regulatory protection; and subordination of environmental, labor, and human rights concerns. These discontents, and the law?s response to them, are critically examined. Topics include the role of contract, trade, and financial law in promoting international markets; the role of international treaties and organizations in managing the global economy, its benefits, and its adverse impacts; international environmental, labor, and human rights laws; how law affects the distribution of the burdens and benefits of globalization in areas such as intellectual property and trade/environment controversies; the role of multinational corporations and the global corporate social responsibility movement; the concerns of indigenous peoples; and the role of nongovernment organizations and the "democracy deficit" in global governance.
RICHARD B. STEWART is University Professor and John Edward Sexton Professor of Law. He also directs the Center on Environmental and Land Use Law. His teaching and research focus on domestic and international environmental law, the role of economic incentives in environmental protection, law and globalization, and administrative law and regulation. He serves as a trustee of Environmental Defense and is actively involved in advising international and U.S. government bodies on environmental policy. He previously served as Assistant Attorney General for Environment and Natural Resources of the U.S. Department of Justice and as a faculty member at Harvard Law School and Harvard?s Kennedy School of Government.
Europe in Africa and Africa in Europe: Interaction and Rupture in History
(V50.0303; call # 74684)
Instructor: David Levering Lewis
Tuesday, 11:00 a.m.?1:30 p.m.
This seminar explores pivotal moments of confrontation and exchange in which the course of economic, cultural, and political development in the European and African experiences are reciprocally and significantly altered. The proposition?that what others have made us applies at the most profound levels equally to conqueror and conquered, exploiter and exploited, superordinates and subordinates alike?is to be tested in this seminar through an exploration of five turningpoint interactions: (1) Islam?s first European century (viz., the 8thcentury Muslim conquest of Iberia; (2) capitalism and slavery, 1400s to 1850; (3) African resistance in the scramble for Africa; (4) bohemian Paris and Renaissance Harlem; (5) literatures and politics of rupture (WellsBarnett, Du Bois, and Maran to Fanon, Baldwin, et al.; Ghana and the Congo). Five essays keyed to the five topics and based on seminar discussions, required readings, and independent research are to be presented serially.
DAVID LEVERING LEWIS is joining NYU in fall 2003 as University Professor and Professor of History, having been, most recently, the Martin Luther King Jr. University Professor at Rutgers. President in 2002?03 of the Society of American Historians, he currently holds a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. His books include King: A Biography, When Harlem Was in Vogue, and The Race to Fashoda: European Colonialism and African Resistance in the Scramble for Africa. His W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868?1919 (1993) and W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919?1963 (2000) each won a Pulitzer Prize in biography, among many other awards.
The Genomics Evolution and Revolution: Scientists, Discoveries, and Societal Impact
(V50.0304; call # 74685)
Instructor: Tamar Schlick
Wednesday, 12:30?3:00 p.m.
With advances in science and technology, the biological sciences occupy center stage, linking not only basic to applied research, and applied research to commercial success and economic growth, but also the biological sciences to the chemical, physical, mathematical, and computer sciences. The many concerted initiatives in genomics, in particular, like sequencing various organisms, identifying genes in humans and analogues in other species, determining variations (polymorphisms) in human genes related to disease, and designing drugs for specific gene products, have immense ramifications on every aspect of our lives, from health to technology to law. Though progress appears to have been revolutionary in the past decade, such developments have evolved from foundations laid by many pioneers in the biochemical sciences and allied fields. This course, appropriate for scientists and nonscientists, explores through a series of books, plays, and other materials three aspects of these scientific developments: the science pioneers, from Watson and Crick to Feynman to Elion, their lives, struggles, and triumphs; the scientific discoveries, from reports of the DNA double helix to the polymerase chain reaction; and the societal impact of these discoveries, from human cloning to ageextension miracles. The readings and discussions are designed to expose students to the complex web of scientific discovery, including the personal dimensions that are not often appreciated, and the mixture of serendipitous and systematic progress.
TAMAR SCHLICK is Professor of Chemistry, Mathematics, and Computer Science. Her field of research is the application of computational approaches to the study of structure and function of biological macromolecules, especially regulatory DNA/protein complexes related to transcription initiation and DNA replication and repair. She has recently published a textbook entitled Molecular Modeling: An Interdisciplinary Guide. Among her honors are the Outstanding Woman in Science, Burroughs Wellcome Visiting Professorship, John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigatorship, Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, NYU Distinguished Recent Alumni, NSF Presidential Young Investigator, Searle and Whitaker Scholarships.
Home of the Brave: Legal Aspects of American Use of Force since World War II
(V50.0305; call # 74686)
Instructor: J. H. H. Weiler
Wednesday, 12:30?3:00 p.m.
The creation of the United Nations ushered in a new era in the international legal regulation of the use of force by states. Under the UN regime states may use force in wellcircumscribed circumstances, notably in selfdefense against an armed attack or pursuant to a decision of the Security Council of the UN, to bring about a termination of a breach of the peace or a threat to the peace of the international community. The United States both during and after the Cold War has not shied away from the use of its considerable force, often provoking national and international controversy. Some instances, such as the Cuban missile crisis or Vietnam, have had profound effects on the selfunderstanding of the polity. The "War against Terrorism" has ushered in yet a new challenge in this area. This seminar first examines the international legal framework and then surveys the principal instances of American use of force from Korea to Iraq. At issue are both the legality of past and present American practices and the adequacy of controlling international law and institutions.
J. H. H. WEILER is University Professor and European Union Jean Monnet Chair at NYU Law School. He serves as Chairman of the NYU Global Law School Program and is also Director of the Jean Monnet Center for International and Regional Economic Law & Justice. He was previously Professor of Law at the Michi gan Law School and then the Manley Hudson Professor of Law and Jean Monnet Chair at Harvard Law School. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as a WTO Panel Member. He is a founding editor of the European Journal of International Law, of the European Law Journal, and of the World Trade Review. His recent publications include The European Court of Justice (2001, with G. de Burca), The EU, the WTO and the NAFTA (2000), The Constitution of Europe (1998), and a novella, Der Fall Steinmann (2000).
Latin America at the Start of the 21st Century: Coming of Age or Continuing Chaos?
(V50.0306; call # 74717)
Instructor: Jorge G. Castaeda
Friday, 9:30a.m.-12:00p.m.
This seminar focuses on several aspects of Latin America?s problems in the past and their possible solutions today. It takes up such topics as the absence of orderly, peaceful, and steady democratic rule during the first 160 or 170 years of independence from colonial rule and the consolidation of representative democracy today; the absence of economic growth during the last 20 years and the possibility of a new economic takeoff today; the widespread persistence of violence in Latin America and the growing respect for human rights today; and the weakness of civil society in Latin America in the past and the growing strength and vigor of civil society today. For each topic, there are readings dealing with its political, economic, and cultural dimensions in both past and present.
JORGE G. CASTAEDA is returning to NYU in fall 2003 as Global Distinguished Professor of Politics and Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico since 1979, he has also been a visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley, Princeton, and Dartmouth. A principal strategist in the election campaign of President Vicente Fox in 2000, he served as Mexico?s Foreign Minister from late 2000 until early 2003. He is the author of eight books, including, in English, Utopia Unarmed: The Latin American Left after the Cold War, Compa?ero: The Life and Death of Che Guerva, and Perpetuating Power. He has also written articles for many newspapers and magazines in Mexico, the United States, and other countries.
How We See
(V50.0307; call # 74724)
Instructor: Peter Lennie
Tuesday, 4:55-7:25 p.m.
The ease with which we comprehend the visual world, and recognize objects and events, makes it easy to take our perceptual capabilities for granted. Only when we try to build machines that can see, or when we encounter people who have lost some specific visual capability?for example, persons who can no longer recognize faces, or for whom the world no longer appears in color?do we realize how extraordinary and intricate is the machinery of sight. This course looks at what we know about how we see. We know quite a lot about it from multiple scientific perspectives: perceptual psychology tells us about the process of seeing, and provides important pointers to the workings of visual mechanisms; neurology provides further insight by showing us what happens to perception when these mechanisms malfunction; computer science helps us understand design principles that are important making machines that can see; neuroscience tells us about the working details at the level of cells an neural systems. In this course we explore what these various disciplines together tell us about how we see.
PETER LENNIE is Professor of Neural Science, as well as Dean for Science in the Faculty of Arts and Science. Before joining NYU, in 1999, he was at the University of Rochester for 16 years. His scientific research has dealt with several fundamental questions about the operation of the human visual system; most recently, it has focused on the organization and specialization of the visual cortex, exploring the degree to which different regions of the cortex are specialized for different functions.
A Real Play of Identities
(V50.0308; call # 74839)
Instructor: Anna Deavere Smith
Monday, 9:30 a.m.-12:00 noon
In this course, students will study and play roles from dramatic literature, film, television, real life, and history that they specify as unlike themselves and outside their realm of understanding. This is not a performance course per se, and no previous acting experience is required. Performance is used here as a way of knowing, rather than as a product for the purposes of entertaining. Students will be engaged in an ongoing discussion of what it takes to move from one identity to another, one cultural way of being to another, from one moment in personal history to another, from one moment in global history to another. The relationship of language and gesture to identity will be explored. Note: Interested students must submit a written statement (no longer than one page), to be reviewed by the instructor, explaining what interests them about the subject. The statement can be mailed to 100 Washington Square East, Room 908, New York, NY 10003; faxed to 212-995-4811; or emailed to ccp1@nyu.edu.
ANNA DEAVERE SMITH is a University Professor and Professor of Performance Studies in the Tisch School of the Arts, as well as an Affiliate of the NYU Law School. She is the Founder and Director of the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue. Her publications include Twilight-Los Angeles, 1992, Talk to Me: Listening between the Lines, and Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and Other Identities. Her acting credits include the films The American President, Dave, and Philadelphia and the television series Presidio Med, The West Wing, and The Practice. A recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, she has also received two Tony Award nominations and been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
From the Birth of Tragedy to the Birth of Pleasure
(V50.0309; call # 74875)
Instructor: Carol Gilligan
Wednesday, 2:00-4:30 p.m.
The birth of tragedy symbolized by the story of Oedipus has long been linked with the birth of Western civilization. In this seminar, we will examine this linkage and also a tradition of resistance that extends from Greek tragedy through 19th-century fugitive slave narratives to the liberation movements of the late 20th century and postcolonial fiction. The Birth of Pleasure picks up this tradition of resistance and shows its psychological roots in studies of infancy, research with adolescent girls and young boys, and the findings of neuroscience. Knowing a tragic story, how do we keep from repeating it? Readings will be drawn from psychology and literature, and students will write short weekly reflection papers as well as a final paper.
CAROL GILLIGAN came to NYU as a University Professor in 2002. For the preceding 34 years she was on the faculty of Harvard University, where her award-winning research on gender and human development led to the creation of Harvard's first professorship in gender studies. Her 1982 book, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development, has been translated into 17 languages. Her most recent book, The Birth of Pleasure, was published last year.
Music and Power in China
(V50.0310; call # 74874)
Instructor: Mercedes M. Dujunco
Monday and Wednesday, 11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
In China, music has long been viewed as having the ability to affect cosmological forces and influence people's thinking and behavior. It is therefore not surprising that Chinese rulers throughout the ages have tried to control the kind of music that is publicly performed and listened to by their constituents. They recognized early on that music signifies and that a key to power is regulating and fixing the meanings produced through music. This seminar examines the extent to and the various ways in which power is implicated in music and music-related practices in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Through discussions based on a combination of selected ethnomusicological readings, films/videos, and music recordings related to specific case studies dealing with state politics, identity, gender, and ethnic relations, students gain insights on how music continues to be a highly charged symbol in the Chinese-speaking regions of East Asia today.
MERCEDES M. DUJUNCO is Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology in the Department of Music. She has written on Chinese and Vietnamese folk music, film music, and popular music and is currently working on a book about music and power in the context of Chaozhou Chinese voluntary associations in Hong Kong, mainland China, and Thailand.
