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Summer Hours: 8AM-4:30PM M-F
Office of the Registrar
Willamette University
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Salem, Oregon 97301
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THE FOLLOWING ARE DESCRIPTIONS FOR SPRING 2010 COURSES THAT ARE NEW OR CHANGED SINCE THE LATEST VERSION OF THE PRINTED CATALOG, OR THAT ARE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:
One Time Only Courses with MOI Designation
Chinese 258: Gender and Mass Communication in China (1)
This course is an introduction to the study of gender and media cultures, with a focus on the Chinese cultural context. It provides an introduction to historical, theoretical, and methodological approaches involved in such study. It aims at encouraging comparative cultural studies through analysis and comparisons of gender in Chinese culture with gender in non-Chinese cultures. No prior experience required. Fall. Wen
Chinese 258 Gender and Mass Communication in China (1)
This course is an introduction to the study of gender and media cultures, with a focus on the Chinese cultural context. It provides an introduction to historical, theoretical, and methodological approaches involved in such study. It aims at encouraging comparative cultural studies through analysis and comparisons of gender in Chinese culture with gender in non-Chinese cultures. No prior experience required. Fall. Wen
History 360 Expressive Cultures in African History (1)
This course uses African expressive forms such as music, fashion, sport, theater, and art as a lens to understanding larger historical transformations-colonialism, urbanization, and independence-in twentieth century Africa. Organized thematically, the course will concentrate on three major themes: African expressive cultures as (1) sources of empowerment and resistance; (2) sites of consciousness producing new kinds of self and collectivity; and (3) expressions of older values and beliefs, as well as newer cultural forms. In addition, we will explore the lives of particular African artists, musicians, and actors and focus on how these individuals have reflected larger political, economic, and social changes over the past 100 years. Not only will this course enrich student's understanding of how Africans carve out for themselves time for pleasure and enjoyment, but also demonstrate how such creative practices reflect African understandings of their own history. Spring. MurilloMathematics 425 Mathematics Meetings (.25)
In this course students will be exposed to the professional culture of mathematics and a wide variety of mathematical topics. The class will travel to the national Joint Mathematics Meetings conference in the week before the start of the spring semester. During the semester, students will each design a presentation based on one of these talks for the mathematics department colloquium. Travel funds are available. Prerequisite: Mathematics major and consent of instructor. Spring. Laison"One Time Only" Topics Courses with MOI Designation
History 255 (TH)
Cities and the Making of Modern Europe: 1750 to Present (1) This course surveys the transformation of Europe
from a primarily rural to an overwhelmingly urban society. Why have cities come
to dominate the European landscape? How have the functions of cities changed
over time? How has the growth of cities impacted people's quality of life and
how have cities managed the environmental, social, economics, and cultural
challenges that expansion brought? What kinds of struggles played out in
cities? To what extent are cities engines of change in shaping modern European
society? The course will grapple with such questions by studying the histories
of a selection of cities across Europe from
the onset of the industrial revolution to the present. Thinking Historically.
Spring. Smaldone
"One Time Only" Topics Courses
History 131: Historical Inquiry: Democracy and America's Founding
Today Americans look back at the Constitution as the founding document of their democratic political system. In 1787, however, democracy was a highly controversial concept. Most of the men who wrote the Constitution thought they were founding a republic that would avert what they saw as the dangers of too much democracy. Meanwhile, the people on whose behalf they spoke when they wrote the words, "We the people" harbored a wide range of alternative political aspirations, some (but not all) of which we today would identify as more democratic than the ideals espoused by "the founding fathers." In this course we will read a wide range of secondary and primary sources (including the full text of The Federalist Papers) in order to work toward answers to a host of contested questions: What did democracy mean to the diverse constellation of people who lived through the founding era? How should we make sense of the fact that many of those who proudly called themselves "democrats" in the founding era were also salveholders, while a good number of their more elitist contemporaries favored the abolition of slavery? Why were the most avid democrats of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century also the strongest advocates of westward expansion (and hence the dispossession of Native Americans)? To what extent were advocates of democracy in the late eighteenth century also advocates of equality? In the broadest sense, what should contemporary Americans take to be the political legacy of the founding era?
History 452W: Imagining the East: A History of Representation
In this course, students read classic texts of postcolonial theory and apply these frameworks to historical representations of China from the 13th century tp the present. Attention is given to the historical context in which authors were writing as well as traditions of representation which continue to the present day. The latter section of the course is dedicated to research projects wherein students develop their own critical readings of a discrete body of primary texts.