Course Descriptions

Fall Semester 2012

Haiti:  Literature, Landscape, Environment
HONR 300A:  Humanities Seminar
Professor Marnie McInnes
This humanities seminar focuses on the fascinating and troubled country of Haiti as seen through the eyes of writers (both Haitian writers and outsiders), historians, and environmentalists.  The topic, which combines a study of literature and the environment, is an ambitious one.  But fiction set in Haiti and nonfiction studies of the country tend to be beautifully written and full of passion, making the study of Haiti's political and environmental disasters a strange kind of pleasure.  We will read novels, short stories, science writing, and eco-criticism in an attempt to decipher Haitians' relationship to the environment (urban and rural / land and sea) and to assess the condition of the environment after centuries of plantation slavery and postcolonial misrule.

Evolution and Human Nature
HONR 300B: Science Seminar
Professor Kevin Moore
This seminar will examine scientific approaches (particularly an evolutionary psychological approach) to important aspects of human nature, including aggression, cooperation, sexual behavior, aesthetics, and emotion.  We will look at historical attempts to develop scientific accounts of human nature, and examine their strengths, weaknesses, and motivations.  We will examine and critique current scientific explanations of and theories about controversies such as violence, rape, mate choice, and beauty.  Throughout the semester we will consider whether 'social science' is or should be any different from  'natural science,' what it means to apply a scientific approach to human beings (and what assumptions we make when we do), and what scientific account of human nature and behavior implies about issues like determinism, responsibility, and choice.

Reason, Power, Values, and Propaganda: How Social Sciences Seek Explanation and Understanding
HONR 300C: Social Science Seminar
Professor Keith Nightenhelser
In this course we'll look at concepts of personhood, rationality, causation, explanation, and understanding in different social sciences, such as history, political science, psychology, economics, and anthropology.  We will read theoretical explorations about how social and natural sciences should and should not differ, about selecting the right unit of explanation (individual persons or groups, and groups of what size?), and about how social science can support causal and explanatory claims. We'll look at two major sets of case studies. Our theoretical readings will deal with rational choice, social norms, analysing power in social groups, and the basic principles that account for the effectiveness of propaganda. The first set of case studies will compare approaches to understanding mass killings and genocides. The second set will compare some different approaches to studying peasant societies that anthropologists, sociologists, economists, and historians have used in North Africa and inEurope.

Students will write very short and informal reaction papers, three short papers, and one term paper. There will be a narrow selection of available topics for the short papers, but the lengthier term paper will be on a topic devised by the student. Before the first class meeting, students will be asked to read Pratkanis and Aronson's book "Age of Propaganda" and part of Samantha Power's book "A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide."  Both books are written for a general audience, and students should find them easy to read on their own. Other readings in the course will include Plato's Republic, Jon Elster's book "Explaining Social Behavior," and Steven Lukes "Power: A Radical View."  Students will write two book reviews and another short paper on assigned topics, plus a longer paper on a topic of their choice.