Academics

Note:  Enrollment in this course requires participation in our living-learning program.

Representing Chicago (FIYS 158)
Robert Archambeau, Associate Professor of English

City of the big shoulders, the second city, the windy city, the big onion (okay, maybe not the big onion):  Chicago has been known by many names over the years, each of which emphasized some aspect of our city:  its industrial past, its tendency to look over its big shoulders at New York, its climate and its boastfulness.  But how does the image of Chicago created by writers, filmmakers, and artists stack up against the life of the city today?   This is the central question of our course.

Chicago has traditionally been represented in art, literature, film and drama as a gritty, industrial city built on the labor of European immigrants.  The nature of the traditional Chicago story is well summed up by the title of the most popular anthology of Chicago writing:  Smokestacks and Skyscrapers.  In this course we study the monumental works of this tradition—the poetry of Carl Sandburg, the fiction of Saul Bellow and James Ferrell, the oral history of Studs Terkel, and the more recent short fiction of Stuart Dybek—but we will also look at works that represent African-American Chicago, Latin-American Chicago, and women’s experience of the city, and we’ll look at suburban and post-industrial Chicago.  We’ll also incorporate a unit in which we contrast Hollywood’s representation of Chicago with the stories Chicago’s writers have to tell.  Field trips to Chicago’s cultural institutions will take us beyond the classroom.
 
General Chemistry Laboratory and Medicine (FIYS 116)
Jason Cody, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Section 1
Elizabeth Fischer, Senior Lecturer in chemistry, Section 2

This First-Year Studies course is one choice out of several laboratory sections that are integral to Chemistry I (Chemistry 115).  However, this particular First-Year Studies laboratory section is intended for students with a special interest in medicine.  It is an option for pre-medical students but is not a requirement.  In addition to the common laboratory experiences described below, the First-Year Studies laboratory group will take three or more trips within the Chicagoland area to visit sites where medical professionals practice, e.g., hospitals, medical schools, medical laboratories. 

The Chemistry I course focuses on the fundamentals of chemistry and the ways scientists think and make decisions.  Knowledge and problem-solving skills developed in this course are essential to the further study of chemistry, biology, and medicine.  The laboratory experience correlates closely with lecture topics. 

Laboratory experiments emphasize observation and measurement. Chemical reactions, including several small-scale syntheses, are the focus of many of the experiments.  Spectroscopy and gas chromatography are introduced. Computers are used for data manipulation, molecular modeling, and computational chemistry.  Laboratory experiments are done both independently and collaboratively.

There are weekly assignments to develop reading and writing skills and thus demonstrate understanding of the upcoming experiment of the week. In addition, reports of the laboratory experiments are recorded in a notebook, which is submitted for evaluation at the end of each four-hour laboratory session.  This serves to enhance comprehension of the experiment and implements acquisition and refinement of observational and reporting skills.  Since the notebook is completed in the laboratory during and immediately following the experimental work, extemporaneous writing skills are developed. An additional paper that builds on experiences at health-related sites will be required.
 
Who should take this course? Chemistry I coupled with this special laboratory section is most suitable for students who are seriously interested in medicine.  However, pre-medical and others students may satisfy the chemistry requirement with any of the other laboratory sections. A year of high school chemistry is helpful but not required. Chemistry majors, biology majors, and pre-medical students need to take Chemistry I (Chemistry 115) with a lecture and a laboratory.

If you are enrolled in this First-Year Studies laboratory, you must also be enrolled in a Chemistry 115 lecture section. The lecture, together with the special laboratory section, is counted as one course credit.

If you have questions regarding this choice for your First-Year Studies class, please contact one of the following:  Professor Cody at 847-735-5093 or cody@lakeforest.edu; Professor Fischer at 847-735-5098 or efischer@lakeforest.edu .
Note:  Enrollment in this course requires participation in our living-learning program.

Social Entrepreneurship and Community Development in Ethnic Neighborhoods of Chicago (FIYS 146)
Les Dlabay, Professor of Economics and Business

Social entrepreneurship refers to innovators who use traditional business practices to address social concerns.  Their efforts combine originality and imagination to tackle problems such as poverty, hunger, disease, pollution, illiteracy, and inadequate housing.  Social entrepreneurs use an integrated approach which requires their visions to surface from varied disciplines, such as medicine, engineering, law, education, transportation, agronomy, environmental studies, and sociology.  As efforts expand to provide unmet needs, the social entrepreneurship movement can assist underserved immigrant communities in urban areas.  This course considers the use of social entrepreneurial activities in various ethnic areas of Chicago as the basis for community development. 

Combining a lecture-discussion approach with student field research, Chicago resources will include visits to community development organizations in Chicago neighborhoods; interviews with community representatives; field observations of community-based businesses and agencies; and speakers from Chicago area organizations involved in social entrepreneurial activities.  Course assignments will involve papers related to cultural variations of business practices and community development activities, along with a team project proposal for a social entrepreneurial program in a Chicago community.

Environment, Health, Behavior (FIYS 127)
Kathryn Dohrmann, Senior Lecturer of Psychology and Environmental Studies

In this course we explore behavioral toxicology, a subject situated at the intersection of psychology, public health, and environmental issues.  Although there is increasing public awareness of the effects of environmental toxins on physical health and illness, many of these substances also act on the nervous and endocrine systems and have consequences for personality and behavior.

We will consider the role that psychology and epidemiology can play in assessing and understanding the impacts of toxins found in air, water, soil, and food.  We will investigate and evaluate the evidence for the health and behavioral correlates of lead, mercury, PCBs, air pollution, pesticides, secondhand smoke, and other toxins.  Part of our study will take the form of field trips to relevant sites in the Chicago area.

In this class a student will become an “expert” on a particular environmental toxin:  in so doing, the student will learn to critically evaluate various kinds of source material and to synthesize research findings from a critical perspective.  In preparation for a cumulative final project, students will write small papers in which they practice evaluating information from a variety of sources, including government documents, scientific journal articles, and the popular press. 

Understanding Language (FIYS 154)
Jean-Luc Garneau, Professor of French

Language is often taken for granted.  We use it as the only means of communication available to us.  We never ask ourselves:  "What is language?"  Language which was looked at by the Ancient Greeks as "Myth" started to be studied scientifically in the nineteenth century. Linguistics made great progress as a science during the twentieth century.  All the theories put forth by linguists De Saussure, Hjelmslev, Chomsky, Lamb and Pike showed that language is one of the most important and characteristic forms of human behavior.

Readings chosen from a body of selected articles and books, the fruit of modern linguistic research, will bring you to a better understanding of language.  A good understanding of language as a system to express your own experience and knowledge will prove useful to you in your other courses.  Every discipline requires the use of language.  The better your competence in understanding the workings of language, the better your performance will be in the language.  This understanding will also make you a more creative writer.

Don Quixote’s Big Adventure (FIYS 164)
David George, Professor of Spanish

We will address this question in the context of reading Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote, a renowned classic, written 400 years ago, and yet still alive and well today. After the Bible, it is said, Don Quixote is the best-selling book in history. The main character, Don Quixote de la Mancha, lives in a fantasy world.  What is so compelling about Don Quixote's fantasy is that he imagines himself in a world very much like Middle Earth in The Lord of the Rings. He believes he is someone like Aragorn, who battles evil and aids the Hobbits in their quest to destroy the Ring of Power. But Don Quixote is nothing like Aragorn.  Quixote is not youthful, strong, handsome, noble, wise, heroic. He is the polar opposite of all these things.  And yet he relentlessly pursues his quest to be a great knight in spite of old age, beatings, deprivation, humiliation, and scorn. The world around him is commonplace and unheroic. There are no great wizards, no elves, no fair maidens, just as there are no monsters or evil lords. But Don Quixote believes in all these things; he acts according to his beliefs in the face of all obstacles, including concrete evidence to the contrary.

In some works of literature Don Quixote's fruitless quest would lead to tragedy, but in Cervantes's novel the quest leads to a series of comic mishaps.  Imagine a Saturday Night Live skit about Lord of the Rings, or the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Don Quixote is a loser on a great quest, oblivious to what is actually going on around him. So Cervantes's novel is a send-up, a wacky parody. And yet it is also a poignant story about the search for greatness, honor, perfection, and high ideals. For these reasons, Don Quixote has been translated, adapted, and imitated in countless ways over the centuries.  Several countries have generated film adaptations, from Spain to England to Russia to the United States. There is an American musical version called Man of la Mancha, and even a TV cartoon, Don Coyote.

To add to all this, Cervantes's novel was written during Spain's Golden Age, when that nation's literature amazed the world; it had an empire, they said, "on which the sun never set."  But it was an empire doomed to collapse, clinging to past glories, living in a fantasy world, just like... Don Quixote himself.  And so the novel, beneath its comical, farcical big adventure, is a meditation on history and time, on what happens to those who fail to see that the world is changing.

In this course, we will study Cervantes's comic masterpiece in a bilingual English-Spanish edition. You don’t need to know Spanish, but if you have studied the language you’ll have an idea of what is going on in the original. The novel will be studied for its intrinsic merits as prose narrative and for its vision of Spanish society and history. Readings will consist of the novel Don Quixote, selections from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and some supplementary critical and historical material.  Students in this course will experience intensive immersion in one of the masterpieces of European prose, in Spain's Golden Age of literature and art, and in Spanish imperial history.

Science, Religion, and Searching for Humanity (FIYS 117)
Robert Glassman, Professor of Psychology

What is a person?  We often think of ourselves in concepts of science, including biological evolution, brain sciences, and psychological sciences.  Yet, throughout history, religion has also been a primary route for considering our minds and bodies – or “flesh and spirit.”  Are science and religion at war?  It sometimes certainly seems so from the news media:  “We evolved naturally over millions of years.”  “No!  God created us!”  Both scientists and religious people care about what life means.  Today, many scholars are treating scientific and religious ways of thinking as comprising a conversation.  We will do that too.  We will think in critical and mutually tolerant ways while surveying selected scientific issues in brain science, psychology, evolution, and computer technology - including some laboratory experiences - and while reading some of the best writings in which people who may disagree about religion and science find meaning in what the other is saying.

Government and Markets (FIYS 147)
Kent Grote, Instructor in Economics

Why is the government involved in some aspects of our lives more than others?  Depending on the approach taken, this question can be answered in many different ways and with a broad range of justifications to back up any point of view.  Different economists also would provide different responses to this question, especially as it relates to business and markets.  However, they would also base their arguments on fundamental economic theories.  The primary goal of this course is to develop an understanding of economic theories so that they can be applied to a variety of issues and economic markets, particularly where markets fail to provide for desired outcomes.

The focus of the course will be on those markets and issues where governments typically have become important participants, both in the United States and abroad.  Important examples are in education, the environment, health care, big business, social security, poverty, and unemployment.  Although the course will be approached from an economic perspective, the topics relate well to other fields of study as well, especially as we will be studying government policies and the politics behind them, as well as the effects of those policies on individuals and the larger society.  Since the course will develop and utilize economic models as primary tools for evaluating these issues, students taking this course will not be required to take Economics 110 (Principles of Economics) if they eventually decide to major in either Economics or Business.

Eve, Mary, Jezebel:   Women in Medieval Christianity (FIYS 134) 
Anna Jones, Assistant Professor of History

Christianity in medieval Europe was characterized by an ambivalent attitude toward women:  the image of Eve as the source of original sin was juxtaposed with the central role of the Virgin Mary in the salvation of mankind.  This ambivalence in theology extended to other realms:  in religion, female prophets and preachers attracted large followings but often met with suspicion from authorities; in politics, powerful women from Eleanor of Aquitaine to Joan of Arc were both venerated and reviled; in science, medical texts defined women’s bodies as deformed and yet explored their powers of reproduction.  This course will explore the lives of women in the European Middle Ages, with an emphasis (though not an exclusive focus) on the participation and images of women in Christian spirituality.  Through close reading of primary sources, we shall meet women who were nuns, martyrs, queens, scholars, mystics, and soldiers, as well as ordinary wives and mothers.  We will discuss the particular challenges presented to the historian by primary sources by or about women.  We will also critically analyze some of the major themes in recent scholarship on gender history, including the question of whether “women’s history” is a useful area of study.  Students will improve their reading and writing skills through analysis of medieval sources and modern scholarship.  A final project will develop students’ individual research and library skills, as they work with online collections of medieval women’s letters.  In addition to our class work and library work, we will make trips to the Art Institute of Chicago and the Newberry Library to explore their medieval holdings.
 

Visible Chicago:  Perspectives of Place (FIYS 186)
Alex Mawyer, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology

Centered in an anthropological inquiry into the city of Chicago, this course examines key features of the social and cultural structuring of the our lives as they are made visible in our embodied engagements with and in Chicago. By considering the significance of everyday features of place—for instance, such diverse phenomena as city design, architectural form, street naming practices, museum displays, and language use in neighborhood grocery stores—we work toward a robust understanding of core ideas in the social sciences. Over the course of the semester we will consider such questions as: What does it mean to live in a city such as Chicago? Or on its margins? How is a city’s past built into its present? How have technosocial innovations and currents in world history including industrialization, (sub)urbanization, globalization and terrorism changed the human experience of place in the city? What is the role of nature in urban society? How might we expect evolving cultural understandings of the place of the human in nature to change the face of the city?
 
At the heart of this writing-intensive course is a commitment to an anthropological method for social and cultural inquiry—often referred to as participant observation. A series of required field trips into distinct Chicago places will allow us to bring theoretically informed perspectives to bear on the often overlooked details of the cultural and social places in which we dwell. For instance, our first trip will engage students in an architectural walking tour and a sense of the historicity of the present, the way that the past is literally etched into the physical face or being of the city in complex ways that bear on our lives. This first trip will end with a short seminar in Millennium Park on perception, historical memory, and sociocultural practices of being in the city. Each of the following field trips will allow us to draw directly upon distinct features of Chicago’s places as resources for our inquiry.

This FIYS class is partnered with FIYS 116 (sec 2) and FIYS 190 as part of a project for building community in the liberal arts tradition. Students should expect occasional social and intellectual gatherings outside of scheduled class times which will enrich the course experience.

Classical Philosophical Questions (FIYS 138)
Chad McCracken, Lecturer in Philosophy

We are constantly told that knowledge is important.  Knowledge is power, we are told—it’s “half the battle.”  It’s always better, supposedly, to have knowledge than to lack it:  knowing things somehow makes us better off.  But how?  And why?  What is knowledge, anyway?  Does knowledge tell us something about the nature of reality itself, or does it tell us something about how our ideas fit together, or does it just tell us what some widespread social consensus will count as true or justified?  How can we be sure when we know something?  Is knowledge even possible?  Or is it possible in some areas of inquiry—in physics, say, or mathematics—but not in others—morality, say, or religion?  Knowledge supposedly helps us do things.  In particular, knowledge supposedly helps us make decisions, all sorts of decisions, including moral ones.  When faced with tough decisions, we often ask for advice from someone or something that appears to know more—to have more relevant information or more relevant experience—than we do.  Why do we do this?  In what ways does knowledge help us make decisions?  If we had perfect knowledge, would difficult decisions somehow become simple?  Or would perfect knowledge render some hard decisions easy while leaving others difficult?  Exactly what sort of aid does knowledge provide?  Assuming knowledge exists, what can it do for us, and what can’t it do?  
 
This course aims to introduce you to philosophy in a number of ways.  First, we will examine a number of important texts from different periods—including texts by Plato, Sophocles, Epictetus, Sextus Empiricus, Descartes, Fichte, Kierkegaard, Moore, Sartre, Nagel, and Nozick—written in different styles and with differing notions about the purpose and nature of philosophy.  This will give you a taste of philosophy’s history, and it will also show you a little something about how different philosophers envision—and go to work on—philosophical problems.  Second, these texts consider in their various ways a complex of perennially important philosophical topics: the intersection of epistemology—questions about the nature of knowledge—with issues surrounding decision making, particularly ethical decision making.  These issues in turn give rise to questions about the nature of reality and about the relationship between universal norms and particular attachments.  Third, as you engage with these philosophers and these philosophical questions, you will have to explore your own ideas about what philosophy is, why (or if) it is important, and how it should be done. 

Chicago:  A Rainbow of Religions (FIYS 120)
Ronald Miller, William R. Bross Professor of Religion

Chicago is arguably the most religiously diverse city on the planet.  Two of the most important events in American religious history took place in this city:  The World’s Parliament of Religions in 1893 and the First Parliament of the World’s Religions in 1993.  We will explore five of the sacred traditions central to Chicago’s religious life: Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.  We will not only study these religions but will experience them through field trips to:  a Hindu temple, a Buddhist temple, a synagogue, a church, and a mosque.  Students will reflect their immersion in these traditions through quizzes, as well as written and oral reports.

Civil Disobedience and Political Obligation (FIYS 131)
Siobhan Moroney, Associate Professor of Politics

Every society imposes rules upon its members; without such rules societies could not exist.  In liberal societies individuals agree to constrain their behavior through a social contract.  That is, individuals consent to their own rule by the majority.  Social contracts are considered the most just methods of social organization, because members consent and because rights are traditionally preserved.  Rule is maintained through a codified law, made known to all, with proscribed punishments for failure to obey.

But sometimes the obligation to obey society conflicts with other obligations:  to family, to God, to justice.  These conflicts cause crises in both the individual and in society.  Our course will explore these crises historically and theoretically.  Antigone, the heroine of Sophocles’ ancient Greek play, made the choice of obeying the religious commandments but in doing so violated the laws of the city.  Socrates, on being condemned to death by Athens, was offered the opportunity to escape the city and save his life, but refused for it would mean breaking the laws of the city.

When individuals commit civil disobedience, when they purposely and publicly break a law they feel to be immoral or unjust, how should society react?  Is there a minimum of obligation that can be demanded?  Can civil disobedience be justified?  If so, can violence against the state also be justified?  Our course explores these questions through traditional literature, such as the writings of Plato, Shakespeare, Locke, Thoreau, King, and Malcolm X.  We also look at modern protest movements and dissident organizations including American white supremacists, the Irish Republican Army, the African National Congress, and radical environmentalists.

The Mathematics of Games and Gambling (FIYS 104)
Edward Packel, Ernest H. Volwiler Professor of Mathematics

Involvement in gambling and strategic game analysis seems to be on the increase in our society.  This involvement is encouraged by state lotteries, sports betting, the current fascination with (Texas Hold’em) poker, and an understandable interest in making wise choices in the face of uncertainty.  But what outcomes and payoffs can a player involved in these activities “expect” and how can one optimize choices?  This course looks at some of the important and beautiful mathematics that is available to consider these and related questions.

Topics treated include permutations and combinations, probability, expectation, the binomial distribution, elementary game theory, power indices, and the gambler’s ruin.  Social and historical issues related to gambling will also be considered along with a variety of hands-on gaming activities, but the primary emphasis will be on the understanding, application, and appreciation of the mathematics behind these activities.  Facility with high school algebra and the motivation to learn and apply new mathematics will be assumed.

The main textbook for the course will be the Second Edition of The Mathematics of Games and Gambling by the instructor.  There will also be several other short mathematical readings.  Other course activities will include frequent homework, a class backgammon tournament, a paper and class presentation on a mathematics/gaming topic, and significant use of computers and the Internet.

Scenes, Zines, and Underground Culture:  Independent Media in Chicago  (FIYS 163)
Dave Park, Assistant Professor of Communication

This course will focus attention on the role played by independent media in the contemporary cultural landscape.  After an introduction to some of the basic ideas found in media studies, students will become familiar with the workings of many different independent media, as represented by the workings of film-makers, television stations, radio stations, newspapers, zines, comic books, websites, record labels, and performance spaces that survive without direct connections to the large corporations that control much of the mass mediated culture in the U.S.  At all times, the importance of the independent media will be supported with recourse to readings concerning the role of the media in society.  This class will feature several trips to the sites where these media outlets operate, giving students a first-hand look at what the production of culture looks like in the context of the independent media in Chicago.

Reading Performance in Chicago (FIYS 191)
Richard Pettengill, Assistant Professor of Theater/English

Chicago’s theater and performing arts scene is renowned worldwide.  One can choose from the Goodman Theater, the Steppenwolf, Second City improvisation, the Joffrey Ballet, the Chicago Symphony, the Lyric Opera, great blues and jazz clubs . . . the list goes on and on, and the quality and variety is staggering. This fall, you will have an opportunity to experience that scene in some depth with “Reading Performance in Chicago.”  We’ll see a number of kinds of performances after familiarizing ourselves in class with each one.

This course will focus primarily on developing your ability to read plays, not only on the page but also on Chicago's stages as well.  Just as we interpret plays when we read them in a book or online, we also “read” and interpret the visual and aural phenomena – sets, costumes, lighting, sound effects, music, etc. – created by theater artists.  In the classroom we’ll read and discuss plays with special attention to the ways in which they function for theater artists as blueprints for performance.  We will not only discuss language, characterization, images, and metaphors, but we will also visualize and discuss a range of possible physical realizations for each text.  In other words, what are some of the possible ways in which each play might be staged?  How might the ideas on the page be expressed in images, colors, and sounds?

We will also branch out to explore other forms of performance, such as music, dance, opera, and/or performance art.  When we go into the city to see live performances, we’ll compare our own visions with the creative visions of Chicago artists. When possible, we’ll meet with those artists to discuss their work.  The papers will consist of analyses of specific performances that we view as a class. 

We’ll take a number of field trips over the course of the semester.  The shows we attend will be chosen from those being offered in Chicago in the fall of 2009.  A lab fee of no more than $350 to cover the cost of tickets and transportation will be charged to each student’s tuition account.

Exploring Adolescence:  The Role of Chicago School Experiences (FIYS 190)
Rachel Ragland, Assistant Professor of Education

Adolescence is a time of choices, “firsts,” and transitions. In this course, we will study how adolescents develop and are influenced by the groups to which they belong with a focus on the challenges of the high school experience as a key component of this development. Several themes will be explored, including: how the adolescent experience has changed over the years; adolescence as a time of choices, “firsts,” and transitions; adolescence as influenced by group membership, including groups such as families, peers, and the media; and adolescence as shaped by outside context, including schools as a key component of this context. We will focus more specifically on the context of the Chicago public school experience and its impact on adolescent development through a partnership the class will develop with a Chicago public high school.

The students in the course will work individually, collaboratively in small task groups, and as a whole class to develop and carry out a research project and present the results to an audience at the end of the course. Students, traveling as a group accompanied by the instructor, will make a series of three visits to a north side Chicago public high school with which the class has arranged a partnership. These trips will take place during and after class time on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  (Students are encouraged not to sign up for other classes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.)

In class, students will engage in discussion, collaborative group activities, guided reading, and guided research formats. As a class, we will develop a research question to be investigated, analyzed, and reported. We will develop data collection instruments, collect data, and combine the data collected to form a case study. This will provide an exciting, authentic opportunity for students to work collaboratively as part of a research team and use background knowledge and critical thinking skills to discuss the conclusions and implications of the research question. The primary assignments will include reader- response papers on assigned readings, opinion/process papers, a background research paper, and a final research project report and presentation.

The course will appeal to those students with an interest in education, psychology, sociology, American studies, urban studies, cultural studies, and the social science research process. It may be of particular interest to students considering a future in social work, educational policy, or teaching in both traditional and non-traditional settings.

This FIYS class is partnered with FIYS 116 (sec 2) and FIYS 186 as part of a project for building community in the liberal arts tradition. Students should expect occasional social and intellectual gatherings outside of scheduled class times which will enrich the course experience.