Pitzer College First-Year Seminars, Fall 2011
The First-Year Seminar program is designed to help students become more literate people who think, read, write, and speak both critically and competently. All first-year students are required to take a First-Year Seminar in the Fall semester. Successful completion of the course fulfills the College’s Written Expression educational objective. Enrollment is limited to 17-18 students per seminar.
First-Year Seminars meet for 75-minute sessions twice a week—Tuesday and Thursday 2:45 pm – 4:00 pm. Although each seminar has a different instructor, topic, and set of readings, all seminars focus on close textual analysis and effective writing strategies.
1. American Anarchists
This seminar will examine the history of anarchism in the United States from the 1830s through the present. D. Ward.
2. Soccer and Social Change
This seminar will introduce students to: (a) the academic study of the hstory and politics of soccer; (b) the relationship between soccer and social change; and (c) participate in a community engagement project with soccer-related organizations. N. Boyle
3. Colonialization, Racilization, and Renewal: Indian Nations of Southern California
This seminar will utilize field research, community interaction, and classroom meetings to address the following questions: Who are the indigenous communities near Pitzer? How do they view the world? What experiences have they survived to simply exist today? What are their current goals and challenges? E. Steinman
4. Video and Diversity
This seminar studies video as a medium, particularly as it is utilized by women, people of color, lesbians and gays, grassroots activists, as well as other peoples who are under and/or misrepresented by dominant media. The class explores independent video production from historical as well as issue-oriented approaches. The history of video technology, from analog to digital, is studied with a focus on developments that made video an accessible and powerful tool for self-expression and political intervention. Issues around gender, race, class, and sexual politics are examined in relation to works from the above-mentioned communities. Bodies of work by individual makers and collectives are presented as case studies in how multiple issues can be addressed through singular oeuvres. M-Y. Ma
5. California’s Landscapes: Diverse Peoples and Ecosystems
This seminar explores the diverse ecological and cultural landscapes of California, examining how different groups (Native American, Hispanic, African-American, Asian, and European) have transformed California’s rich natural resources. Topics include: Native Americans in the Los Angeles Basin and the Redwood Forests; Spanish-Mexican missions of southern California; African-American miners in the Sierra; Chinese and Japanese farmers in the Central Valley; and the wildland-urban interface of L.A. M. Herrold-Menzies
6. It Takes a Village
The focus of the course is to examine the proverb, “It takes an entire village to raise a child.” Through the use of literature, we will examine the ways in which families and childhood have been constructed in different time periods, across different cultural contexts, and under varying political and social influences. A recurring theme will be to study to what extent the “nuclear family” actually typifies current families and family structure worldwide. M. Banerjee
7. Intercultural Romance: Sexual Border-Crossings and Geopolitical Transformations
What can we learn about the most large-scale politico-economic processes—colonialism and globalization—through the most intimate of encounters—sex and love? Sex and love are usually described as being beyond culture, politics, and difference. But are they? We will look at the ways in which the most intimate encounters change or reinforce imbalances of power, the ways they are celebrated and punished. R. Talmor
8. The Rise of Science in the West
In this seminar, we will explore the questions of how did science become the dominant discipline in Western Culture? Why did it emerge when and where it did? Why did science, as we now know it, not emerge in non-Western cultures? Is science multicultural, is it gendered? S. Naftilan
9. Reading China
A child born in Shanghai is expected to live for 82 years, while one born in the United States has a life expectancy of 79 years. Understanding this surprising statistic requires us to examine the rapid change China has undergone in the last three decades. Drawing on articles from the New York Times. The Economist, The China Daily, and the China Heritage Newsletter, this class will interpret and contextualize current events about China. The class aims to provide students with an understanding of the challenges that China faces in the 21st century and its growing influence in a global arena.
E. Chao
10. Character in American Politics
As the presidential election year of 2012 approaches, American citizens must again sift through political rhetoric and media reports to decide who should hold perhaps the most powerful political position in the world. Some analysts argue that a candidate’s voting record and policy proposals are more important than the public’s perception of his or her character. But many Americans still consider personal character the single most important qualification for president. Far too often the media boils character down to a candidate’s sex life or past experience with illegal drugs. This course explores the classic work of Aristotle along with the history of the American presidency to discover a much richer perspective on the politics of character. P. Miller
11. La Familia
In this seminar, we will focus on the role of la familia for Latinos living in the U.S. We will explore the construction of la familia from both a historical and contemporary perspective, with particular attention to the psychological and sociocultural factors that contribute to the diversity of la familia. M. Torres
12. U.S. Educational Experiences
This seminar will examine various cultural histories of educational experiences in the U.S. from the late 19th century to the current moment. We will read autobiographies, fiction, and primary historical texts that document the contradictory conditions of what it means to “get an education” in the U.S. M. Hidalgo
13. Heroic Deviance
The seminar will examine the ways in which deviance can be positive, altruistic, even heroic. We will look at people from various cultures who went against the grain, violated social norms, and resisted their society’s rules for the good of humanity. P. Zuckerman
14. What is Science and Who Owns It?
This seminar traces the development of science from the Ancient Greek traditions (ca. 2400 to 2000 years ago) to the birth of modern science (16th and 17th centuries) to the present, with particular attention to the effect modern science has exerted and continues to exert on our view of the world and our place in it. Some portions of the course requires knowledge of basic mathematics, including basic algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. This will be accessible to all student who have taken pre-calculus in high school. A. Fucaloro
15. Environmental Toxicology
This seminar will explore the impact of a variety of socio-environmental teratogens (e.g., lead, pesticides, malnutrition, and drugs) on the development and functioning of physiological and behavioral systems. The impact of these agents will be addressed at the cellular, organismic, and sociocultural levels. This seminar will include a “toxicology tour” of the Los Angeles area. A. Jones
16. Romanticism and the Culture of Childhood
This course explores the connection between the poet and the child through examining the child as aesthetic object and subject and author of aesthetic experiences. Specifically, it will analyze both treatises on the nature of childhood as seen in philosophical and literary texts and specific depictions of children in poetry. S. Stallard
17. Rock in las Americas: From “Refried” Elvis to Punk
In this course we will explore the history, political economy, and cultural production of Latino(a) rock and roll in las Americas. We will investigate the attitudes, dress, hairstyle, dance, and music of Latino(a) rockers in Latin America and the United States. Rock and roll is a transnational phenomenon whose different manifestation point to race, class, sexuality and gender divisions in different nations and contexts. We will look closely at the changes of rock and how these changes were interpreted in Latin America and Latinos(as) in the U.S., as well as the reaction of governments and social groups.
M. Soldatenko