What is the future of the United States? Globalization has changed the international system in which trade, politics, military effectiveness, social stability and moral legitimacy are determined. Thomas Friedman, in his book Hot, Flat, and Crowded (2008) helps us understand globalization and the forces that threaten the U.S. In his new book The Post-American World (2008) Fareed Zakaria argues that other countries are growing faster than the U.S. but he is very optimistic about America's future IF the correct choices are made. This seminar will use the two books, and other sources, to analyze the choices facing the U.S. Class discussion will also include policy choices related to education, development, food security, leadership, family, religion, cross-cultural communication and future studies. Class members will participate in a research project to determine what is meant, at the individual level, to be a more globalized person.

This course will begin with an overview of anti-Semitic phenomena from ancient Eygyptian, Roman and Byzantine times, through the medieval period in Europe, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Europe (including the Holocaust) and contemporary problems. Economic, religious and political types of antisemitism will be surveyed, including myths about the Jewish role in the death of Jesus, blood libels and world-conspiracy accusations. In the second half of the course philosophical and political- theory approaches to the problem of antisemitism will be studied, e.g. Jean-Paul Sartre, Antisemite and Jew; Jean-Francois Lyotard, Heidegger and "the jews". Assignments will consist mainly of take-home essays and participation in class discussion.

This course will consider the history of the African American experience as it relates to popular culture, beginning with the minstrel tradition of the late 1800s and ending with 21st century hip hop. Students will consider what American popular culture is, and how it produced and reinforced racial stereotypes of Blacks. Students will also consider what Black popular culture is. They will interrogate how African Americans historically engaged with popular culture in the United States both as consumers and producers. How have African Americans used popular culture to contest and shape the meanings of race, gender, class, and sexuality in America? To investigate these questions we will examine cultural products such as music, film, advertisements, sports, and television.

Humanists and social scientists have regularly assessed the state of American life by examining the condition of several distinctive American man-made landscapes and built environments: the small town, the family farm, the frontier town, the industrial city, the metropolis, the highway, and the suburb. Today most small towns and family farms are in peril, frontier towns and industrial cities are relics of the past, the highway has lost much if its allure, the downtown in most cities is struggling, and the suburb - the place most Americans live - is routinely criticized for its banality and sameness. We will visit a number of these places throughout American history from the 18th century to the recent past to try to understand how and why this happened and consider what might be done to create a more coherent, vital, and meaningful American built environment. Two short essays and a research paper are required.

Oftentimes Northern Europe (sometimes called Scandinavia by those who forget that Finns do not speak a Germanic-based language) is ignored by both European and World historians. It has a fascinating past, and this seminar seeks to uncover the history of this land. We will discuss a text and consider books on Vikings, Gustavus Adolphus, Samis - the Indigenous peoples of the region, and the Winter War. While we aren't able to travel to Scandinavia, we might take excursions to Northern European settlements in Nebraska and Iowa (such as the Swedish settlements of Oakland or Stromburg or the Danish settlements of Dannabrog or Elk Horn, IA). And then there are the Runeberg cakes! Students will write a research paper on a Northern Europe history topic of their choice.

This course examines certain historical people and works of literature and discuss their significance within a particular historical/cultural context. We will then re-examine the presentation of the person or story written in a different time period to analyze different cultural meanings. The changes in tellings often allow us to focus on specific cultural anxieties. This semester we will concentrate on fairy tales, queens, and some plays by William Shakespeare. There will be a variety of written assignments and oral presentations.

We will be having Sunday afternoons at the movies about once a month to view films related to the class units. I will provide refreshments. If a student cannot come for a Sunday film he or she is responsible for making arrangements to see the film separately. Some of the films we may view include Stardust, Hamlet (with Ethan Hawke), Shakespeare in Love, and Pan's Labyrinth.

Conflicts between scientific and religious explanations of Earth and its life go back for many centuries. No single event, however, has aggravated these tensions more than the 1859 publication of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, where the theory of evolution by natural selection was first set forth. Despite the addition of much new information supporting evolution, the divide between scientific and certain religious understandings of life's history and diversity remains deep to this day. These tensions are apparent in such contemporary issues as local and national voting patterns, science education standards, abortion, stem-cell research, and health-care policy. We will examine the scientific foundations for evolution and explore the notions and motivations that underlie the two main anti-evolutionary movements: creationism and intelligent design. Readings will be from books, articles, and internet sources intended for non-specialized audiences. Students will write three short essays, a research paper, and lead some of the discussions.

This seminar will tackle the very complex topic of stress physiology in humans and other vertebrates. The human stress response evolved as a beneficial survival response, yet stress is a contributing factor to many diseases and impairs recovery. We will explore the physiological basis of the stress response in non-human animals which arguably, still benefit from it. Our discussions will be based on the 2004 text by Robert M. Sapolsky "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers", supplemented by current literature. We will take turns guiding discussion and expanding on the topics introduced by the text.

Prerequisite: Bio 213, Human Physiology.

The genre of mystery is an extremely popular one, generating hundreds of books annually, and grossing millions of dollars for publishers, if not for the writers themselves. Why are they so compelling? Why do we read them, make them into films, share them? We'll investigate this genre in depth from an historical perspective. However, our primary purpose will be to examine the methods with which women and men authors approach the genre, exploring the ways in which they both treat the crimes, the characters, the investigators, and insert various sub-texts and agendas they may wish to relate to their readers. We will read such "classics" as Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White, generally considered to be the first mystery novel, authors Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie and P.D. James, along with Conan Doyle, perhaps Dashiell Hammett, Peter Tremayne, and others. Students will be expected to read a mystery novel a week, to review a mystery not on the syllabus, and to complete a research or creative project concerning the genre.

This course is designed to prepare students to meet the ethical challenges facing employees in the modern workplace. Students will study the role of ethics in the relation of business to employees, consumers, and society. We will consider these issues using a multi-pronged approach, focusing first on the perspective of individual employees faced with personal ethical dilemmas and then turning our attention to the challenges facing managers as they try to identify effective strategies for promoting organization-wide ethical behavior and corporate social responsibility. Students will have the opportunity to engage in stimulating class discussions, justify ethical positions in case study analyses, apply research material on ethics to their own lives, and learn more through an applied research project about the practical issues and challenges of trying to create and maintain ethical workplaces.

Interest in King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, the Knights of the Round Table and the Quest for the Holy Grail has ebbed and flowed through the centuries. High interest levels seem to appear following major cultural phenomena-the fall of the Roman Empire, the appearance of histories in Spain and Italy in the 12th century, the emergence of the vernacular and the moveable printing press as viable media for the educated and culturally elite in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, the Industrial, American and French Revolutions in the late 18th century, and WW's I and II, the feminist movement, and computerization in the 20th century. With each retelling of the legend, authors also reflect their time-periods in interesting ways. We will explore these trends and investigate these connections, beginning by reading the earliest versions of the legend, then moving through the centuries to 20th and 21st century versions. Our reading and research will embrace historical, cultural, and aesthetic as well as literary concerns. We will look at such issues as the importance of religion, the treatment of women, morality, ethics, the relationship of authorial biases to the tale, and the influence of major cultural events on literature. (Familiarity with the legend is not a pre-requisite.)

The purpose of this course is to allow undergraduates to learn about some of the most exciting 20th century developments and discoveries in all of science, such as black holes, quantum gravity, quantum mechanics, general relativity, cosmology, and modern technology. Science majors, not to mention majors in other fields, rarely have any chance to study and discuss, as undergraduates, such topics at the forefront of physics (since science departments usually only offer courses in these areas at the graduate level). The goal of the class is to discuss the implications of quantum mechanics and understand how quantum mechanics applies to the microscopic as well as cosmology. We want to understand and answer questions like "is vacuum really "empty?".

Through readings of non-technical books for general audiences by noted physicists and science writers, the class focuses on the concepts and ideas underlying the most modern areas of physics: principally quantum mechanics and relativity (including quantum gravity and vacuum fluctuations). Classes discuss the ideas being read about and, after reading and discussion of each book is completed, students write reports about particular concepts of their choosing. At the end of the semester, each student prepares and presents an oral report to the class on a topic of the student's choosing, selected from a long list provided to the class.