Sep 27, 2024  
2020-2021 University Bulletin 
    
2020-2021 University Bulletin [ARCHIVED BULLETIN]

Course Descriptions


 
  
  • ITAL 360 - Italian Short Story

    Credit Hours 3
    A study of the novella from the Middle Ages to the present.

    Prerequisite(s): ITAL 255 ,  ITAL 256 ITAL 300 , or  ITAL 301 

    This course will satisfy the core area requirement in literature.

  
  • ITAL 365 - Literature of the Italian Middle Ages

    Credit Hours 3
    The course covers the literary production of the Italian Middle Ages. Works include the poetry of the Duecento and an introduction to masterpieces by Dante Alighieri and Giovanni Boccaccio.

    Prerequisite(s): ITAL 255 , ITAL 256 , ITAL 300 , or ITAL 301 .

    This course will satisfy the core area requirement in literature.

  
  • ITAL 366 - Literature of the Italian Renaissance

    Credit Hours 3
    The course covers the literary production of the Renaissance. Works include those of Francesco Petrarca, Niccolo Machiavelli, and Ludovico Ariosto, among others.

    Prerequisite(s): ITAL 255 , ITAL 256 , ITAL 300 , or ITAL 301 .

    This course will satisfy the core area requirement in literature.

  
  • ITAL 367 - Literature of the Italian Romantic Period

    Credit Hours 3
    The course begins with the pre-Romantic works of Ugo Foscolo and focuses on the literary production of Alessandro Manzoni and Giacomo Leopardi. Includes a discussion of the Italian Romantic movement within the context of European Romanticism.

    Prerequisite(s): ITAL 255 , ITAL 256 , ITAL 300 , or ITAL 301 .

    This course will satisfy the core area requirement in literature.

  
  • ITAL 368 - Literature of Modern Italy

    Credit Hours 3
    An introduction to Italian literature from the 20th century to the present through a study of representative selections of prose and poetry.

    Prerequisite(s): ITAL 255 , ITAL 256 , ITAL 300 , or ITAL 301 .

    This course will satisfy the core area requirement in literature.

  
  • ITAL 399 - Directed Study

    Credit Hours 1-4
    Directed study open only to students who have already taken all Italian courses offered in a given semester. Students will work closely with the instructor.

    Prerequisite(s): Junior standing and consent of instructor.

  
  • ITAL 450 - Independent Study

    Credit Hours 1-4
    Independent study is for students who have already taken all Italian courses offered in a given semester.

    Prerequisite(s): Senior standing and consent of instructor.

  
  • ITAL 455 - Internship

    Credit Hours 1-8
    This course gives students academic credit for a work experience that is directly related to the major. In addition to the hours of work completed (either paid or unpaid), students will be required to submit written reports and/or give oral presentations.

    Prerequisite(s): Recommendation by discipline director.

  
  • LAS 100T - Freshman Seminar-Transitions

    Credit Hours 1
    Freshman seminar in the summer Transitions session begins the process of examining one’s life as a college student and take as a focal point the questions: Who am I? How did I become who I am? Who will I be in the world? Summer

    Prerequisite(s): Participation in the Transitions Program.

  
  • LAS 102 - Oh the places you’ve been; oh the places you’ll go

    Credit Hours 3
    In this seminar, we will explore the tension between where we come from (in terms of heritage and home) and where we’re going, between who we are in a community (a family, a friendship, a classroom) and who we are as individuals, and between our pasts and our futures. To paraphrase Greek philosopher Heraclitus, we will never step in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and I am not the same person.  So, using Thich Nhat Hanh’s Living Buddha, Living Christ as well as a variety of other sources (prose, poetry, music, video), we will look at the process of becoming ourselves and of belonging in a constantly changing world.

  
  • LAS 107 - Living our Best Lives

    Credit Hours 3
    At the heart of the examined life is a question posed by a great philosopher: How must we live if we are not to end up with a life we ultimately regret? Or put positively, What is the best way of life and how should we live if we are going to achieve it? While these questions have long been the focus of philosophers, theologians, writers, and artists, they challenge each of us to reflect deeply upon who we are, how we’ve become the person we are today, how we will live in the world in which we find ourselves, and what stands in the way of living our best lives. In this seminar, students will explore how others have grappled with these questions and what they can learn from these experiences. Through discussions, reflections, and creative activities, students will explore these same questions in relationship to their own lives.

  
  • LAS 108 - The Moment is Now

    Credit Hours 3
    The moment is now. We are here. We have been waiting for this! We are at college and ready to start the “work of life”. We will use the seminar guiding text and questions to explore the opportunity that we have now, during our freshman year, to reflect on who we are and how to plan our future. This will require acknowledgement of our (and others’) expectations, reflection upon the journey and it’s influences, and action oriented planning as we consider our life’s work and how we make a life for ourselves.

  
  • LAS 109 - Media, Popular Culture, and the Examined Life

    Credit Hours 3
    Media and popular culture scholar, Stuart Hall, contends that “popular culture is one of the sites where this struggle for and against a culture of the powerful is engaged” and that popular culture “is also the stake to be won or lost in that struggle.” This may be one reason why we increasingly engage with other people via media and popular culture, including (but not limited to) watching our favorite stars in movies and on TV, seeing bands in live concerts, viewing beauty vlogs on YouTube, shopping with friends, or even reading posts from our friends and family on social media. In this class, we will consider what our interactions with media and popular culture say about us as individuals and what roles media and popular culture play in the development and expression of our selves.

  
  • LAS 113 - Life Transition: Emergence New Self

    Credit Hours 3
    This seminar is an examination of the person you are and the one you are becoming. It will involve you questioning your identity, your values, your ideas, your place in society and the world, and the mark you want to make on life and why. To begin to gain answers to these questions will begin with self-reflection and examination and continue with coming together as a community to share, discuss, and learn. It will also examine the hindrances to reaching the answers you are seeking and how to get past them. All First-Year Seminars include a First-Year Experience component, which provides support for students as they transition to Dominican University.All First-Year Seminars include a First-Year Experience component, which provides support for students as they transition to Dominican University.

  
  • LAS 114 - Your Social Self: Online and In Person

    Credit Hours 3
    This course examines the fluid nature of identities in the postmodern, online world. The course examines how people consturct their self(ves) and perform them in different contexts, including face-to-face and online situations. Through reflections, discussions, and activities, students explore how they have constructed, co-constructed, and performed multiple identities thoughout their lives, and how to be aware of how they do so and the effect of doing so. Along with the Living Buddha, Living Christ text, the course draws on various theories and research discussing the notion of the fluid self, from symbolic interactionism to the networked self, to consider how our selves manifest in spiritual, academic, familial, workplace, and more contexts.

  
  • LAS 117 - Everything That Kills Me Makes Me Feel Alive: How Do We Become Who We Are?

    Credit Hours 3
    Students will consider three influences on their personality: biology (how much of it is destiny?), school of hard knocks or lack thereof, and spiritual guidance/religion.

  
  • LAS 120 - Finding Your Place in the World: Pathways for First Generation College Students

    Credit Hours 3
    College can be a transformative experience, one where students are challenged by new experiences in learning and living. This experience can be exciting, exhilarating, difficult and filled with uncertainty. This seminar will examine how first-generation students bring with them powerful tools rooted in their own experiences of social class, family and community that provide them with a strong foundation for success in college. Readings, discussions and activities will help students understand and engage the intense changes in learning and living that come with a college experience and navigate a pathway that allows them to be true to themselves as they embark on this new journey.

  
  • LAS 121 - The Collegiate Self and the Science of Learning

    Credit Hours 3
    This seminar focuses on how the experience of going to college shapes our understanding of the self and our identities as learners. Reading will include autobiographies, short fiction, and research articles and books on higher education and the learning sciences.

  
  • LAS 122 - The Humanity of Mathematics

    Credit Hours 3
    An action as simple as turning a faucet from one position to another can illustrate a mathematical idea. What is mathematics? Using the simplest examples we can find, we will explore the modern answer to this question. Our goal is both to discover the meaning of critical thinking and to discover the humanity of mathematics, its beauty, its elegance, and its dignity, which is also in part the dignity of the human mind.

  
  • LAS 125 - Journeys of the Self

    Credit Hours 3
    From the ancient through the modern, narrative forms have employed the physical journey as a metaphoric foundation for psychological journeys to self-awareness. Utilizing the common text and selections from alternative texts ranging from Gilgamesh, to Hamlet and Don Quixote, Virginia Wolff’s Orlando, Hesse’s Siddhartha, and others we will read closely, think critically, discuss passionately, and write concisely about the singular inward journeys that lead to self-awareness and to the subsequent focus of the self on service to the directed life.

  
  • LAS 126 - Writing the Self and Its Other

    Credit Hours 3
    Modern individuals regard themselves as singular, authentic beings, capable of self-knowledge. In this seminar we will study the origins of the modern self as a self-conscious “subject,” contained within gender, racial, national, economic and religious limits. However, we will also consider more fluid forms of identification, deemed antagonistic, even mutually exclusive, by dominant discourses. By examining these two modes of self-representation, we will question the role of self-awareness, individuality, and individualism across different cultural and religious traditions. We will also consider how the development of “personal identity” is intrinsically tied to the act of reflection, invention, and writing of one’s self and its other. Readings will include essays, short stories, memoirs, philosophical and religious discourse, poetry, film and novels. This seminar may require off-campus service-learning hours.

  
  • LAS 127 - The Artist and the Examined Life: Meditation on Craft

    Credit Hours 3
    Using a variety of artistic methods including drawing, painting, collage and the practice of creating block prints, we will explore the process of making art as a spiritual endeavor and examine how making art is a mindful and reflective expression of ourselves and our perspective of the world round us. We will examine the self as artist and the interdependence of the artist and society.

  
  • LAS 133 - The Civil Disobedient Self

    Credit Hours 3
    Are you willing to take a stand? Are you willing to act upon your beliefs? Individual and communal nonviolent resistance-civil disobedience-has a long history. Its writings constitute a significant body of work, which includes Greek texts, Hebrew scripture, oral declarations, abolitionist tracts, and other works pertaining to social justice, civil rights and peace movements. Students will read, think, and write critically about the extent to which social activism has impacted individuals and society. This seminar includes a required service activity.

    Prerequisite(s): Freshmen only.

  
  • LAS 134 - The Courage of Leadership

    Credit Hours 3
    In this seminar, we will consider the role of courage in shaping one’s identity as a leader. We will use various texts and discussions to investigate the following questions: Do you have the courage to be yourself? Do you have the courage to make decisions that are consistent with your values? Do you have the courage to change and challenge the “norm”? This course will help you explore who you are now and help you discover the leader you want to become in the future.

    Prerequisite(s): Freshmen only.

  
  • LAS 137 - Heritage and Identity

    Credit Hours 3
    In this seminar, we will explore the ways that our individual identities are connected to and shaped by our heritage. To what extent is a person’s identity influenced by the culture(s) to which s/he belongs? What is the role of ethnicity? Of family? Of tradition? Of customs? As we consider these questions, we will read various texts (fiction, non-fiction, autobiography, and poetry) that also examine the idea of heritage, revealing both the gifts and the burdens that individuals can inherit. This course will ask you to think about who you are now, where you’ve come from, and what you might become in the future. This seminar will require off-campus service hours.

  
  • LAS 138 - Personal Awakenings, Social Struggles, and Dreams of Transformation

    Credit Hours 3
    Some of our most intense learning experiences can feel like awakenings from mistaken understandings of our world.  We experience some of these awakenings - like learning that we have the power to reason our way through misunderstandings with loved ones or morally complicated social situations - as empowering turning points in our lives.  Not all of these awakenings are pleasant.  Learning that others are suffering and denied opportunities due to systematic injustice can leave us feeling ill at ease and less at home in the world.  But awakenings, whether gratifying or upsetting, call us to ask ourselves many questions.  How do we hold onto new insights, feelings of purpose, and desires to relate differently to others once we have these moments of awakening?  What personal, social, and political forces encourage us to live less mindfully and justly?  Must we change our lives?  In this seminar, we will explore these questions and examine how writers, philosophers, religious thinkers, leaders of social movements, and other people of conscience have answered these questions.  But we will not assume that mindfulness is something we leave to the experts.  Through in-class exercises (including five-minute memoirs, group discussion, and civil debate) and reflective essays, participants in this seminar will pursue the work of mindfulness independently and with one another.

  
  • LAS 139 - Self and Leadership

    Credit Hours 3
    This seminar will examine the development of the self as a leader. Looking at leaders throughout history, both famous and unknown, students will discover what they value in others and themselves. Leadership will be discussed from the perspective of historical development and context in which individuals find themselves living.

  
  • LAS 141 - Social Selves - Got Privilege?

    Credit Hours 3
    We will examine the role social forces play in shaping one’s sense of self, and how communities can play both positive and negative roles in our development.

  
  • LAS 143 - Freeform Being

    Credit Hours 3
     This seminar uses Parkour as a metaphor for examining the self. It informs the course as a concept and as a strategic practice of fluidity, but instead of physical movement in space, we will think of it in terms of the construction and performance of the self ‘across varied terrain.’ Overcoming obstacles in Parkour will also inform our exploration of the role of freedom in ‘being ourselves.’ As we consider the seminar questions from within this framework, students will be required to actively shape and frequently assess their learning in multiple formats.

  
  • LAS 151 - Garden or Briarpatch: Cultivating Self Through Mindful Living

    Credit Hours 3
    Do we actively shape our selves or do we passively sit by and allow our environment to shape us?  How can we gain control and not be overwhelmed by challenge and stress?  In this course we will discuss how challenge can be used to build resilience, how we can learn to control our natural response to crisis and demand, and how that resilience can be used to improve performance in all facets of life. This course is designed for pre-nursing students and will address professional skills development using mindfulness techniques.

  
  • LAS 154 - Communicating about Health and the Examined Life

    Credit Hours 3
    Our health and that of those around us is central to our identities, often significantly influencing an individual’s life path. The ability to mindfully consider and ethically act on health information is profoundly formative throughout life. Although the science of health grew exponentially in recent decades, research contends comprehension alone is not effectively translated into efficacy or improved health outcomes. Factors including disparities among racial and socioeconomic groups, contradictory ideas about health, our core beliefs, and even politics, impact health behavior. In this class we will consider how our interpretation of health information shapes our understanding of who we are and who we want to be. We will explore how interactions with healthcare providers, forms of media, popular culture, and our relationships impact how we receive, interpret and respond to health information. All First-Year Seminars include a First-Year Experience component, which provides support for students as they transition to Dominican University.

  
  • LAS 158 - Winners and Losers: The Complexity of Competition

    Credit Hours 3
    According to Martin Luther King Jr., we all have a common instinct to want “recognition…importance…attention, that same desire to be first.” Throughout human history, people have competed as a mode of survival, for territory, resources, and mates.  Today, we still compete for a variety of reasons in nearly all areas of our lives–we do so for recreation, employment, friendship, recognition, and prestige. Competition can be found in business, athletics, education, politics, and the arts. This seminar will explore how competition can shape our identity, our self-worth, and our relationship to others and the world. Through a wide range of readings and multimedia content, students will explore how competition, competitiveness, and the desire to lead can shape one’s life.

  
  • LAS 166 - Intersections of Calling and Discernment: Vocational Exploration

    Credit Hours 3
    In his discussion of vocation, Frederick Buechner describes the many voices that call to us and the many directions we might explore.  The trick, he says, is to find the kind of work that we need to do and that which the world needs to have done.  He describes that intersection as “the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”  In this course, we will read about vocation and what that might mean, discuss how we discern within and among multiple calls, and consider how ideas about calling and vocation might connect to the choices you make in college and beyond.

  
  • LAS 170 - Doing That Thing You Do

    Credit Hours 3
    This seminar will introduce students to an explanation of human behavior that is frequently used by economists and other social scientists. The rational-self-interest model of who we are and why we do what we do will be examined in the context of other views of human behavior, as illustrated by parables, short stories, novels, plays, and movies.

  
  • LAS 171 - Thinking for Oneself

    Credit Hours 3
    Some say that enlightenment means having the courage to think for oneself, rather than being lazy or cowardly while following the herd and letting others tell us what to believe or do. Others say that life is inevitably lived within a tension between freedom’s open possibilities and destiny’s imposing limitations. We’ll pursue this problematic through writings religious and philosophical, literary and psychological, Eastern and Western.

  
  • LAS 172 - Imagination, Representation, and Leadership: Composing a Life Story in the Company of Other Selves

    Credit Hours 3
    In this seminar, we explore the self as informed by the possibilities we imagine, the goals we set, the roles we inhabit, and the language and experiences that both enable and constrain our self-representation and our understanding of who we are. We will consider the question, How do we relate to others and world around us-and, in understanding the self as a mutable, psychical force, how might we become leaders and enact positive social change?

  
  • LAS 186 - Know Thyself

    Credit Hours 3
    This seminar takes as its starting point the famous Greek maxim, Gnothi seauton (Know thyself), and it assumes that self-knowledge comes only by reaching beyond oneself to engage an ever-wider world. Through challenging readings, discussion, written exercises, and even some “brain teasers,” this seminar will aid a process of self-discovery and self-appropriation that in various ways keeps coming back to an overriding question: “What does it mean for me to live an authentic human life - intellectually, morally, religiously?”

  
  • LAS 188 - The Self in Transition

    Credit Hours 3
    This seminar focuses on ways that the self is shaped and revised through major transitions such as going to college, crossing borders, and falling in (and out) of love.

  
  • LAS 199 - Mindful Crossroads to Compassion and Awareness

    Credit Hours 3
    Buddhist monk and social activist Thich Nhat Hanh teaches that there is nothing we experience that can’t be approached with mindfulness and compassion. Our seminar will focus on understanding Hanh’s identification of Christianity with Buddhism to better understand how we experience ourselves in the world. Through literature and film, we will focus on the discovery and the formation of personal identity by asking, What are the key influences on a person’s development? How does the “self” interact with a community? How can mindfulness lead to a better understanding of who we are as individuals?

  
  • LAS 201 - Our Common Home

    Credit Hours 3
    This seminar will consider the effects of climate change on the stability of various areas of the world, engaging in discussions about sustainability, social justice, and responsibility for our common home.

  
  • LAS 202 - Our Only Hope: Building and Living

    Credit Hours 3
    This seminar will draw from multiple disciplines, including natural science, theology, social sciences, political strategy and philosophy, and ethics, to engage the issue of climate change and humanity’s relationship with the natural world and with one another - both in local settings and among a global community. The topics of innate human dignity and rights, such as property, work, access to resources and healthcare, are discussed in relation to how these rights can coordinate within a world of limited resources and societies that encourage conflict.

  
  • LAS 203 - What Will Become of Us? Exploring Our Ecological Future Through Speculative Fiction

    Credit Hours 3
     As the catastrophic effects of climate change become increasingly apparent, fiction writers continue to explore humankind’s tenuous relationship with nature. In addition to the common text, we will also read a diverse collection of ecologically-minded fiction, otherwise known as “cli-fi,” as we discuss prescient issues concerning the natural world and our place in it. Readings will range from 20th-century novels (The Drowned World, Parable of the Sower) to current bestsellers (The End We Start From, American War). We will also read short stories and supplemental nonfiction pieces while considering how we can both participate in the modern world and retain a deep respect for the environment and its conservation.
     

  
  • LAS 204 - Intersectional Environmentalism

    Credit Hours 3
    As climate change continues to capture the world’s attention and questions are raised about how to approach this problem, it’s worth considering how people talk about the environment. How do we imagine and discuss our relationship to the outside world, and how does this engagement reflect societal issues. This course will examine how the environment can be used as a metaphor for social engagement. We will examine a variety of texts–articles, novels, TV shows, films, photography–to see how the use of nature sheds light on issues of class, race and gender.

  
  • LAS 205 - Food, Diversity, and Environmental Justice

    Credit Hours 3
    Race, poverty, food access, health disparity and environmental injustice are intricately linked in the U.S. Communities who are poor bear an unequal burden from hazardous environmental exposures and agricultural waste. People of color are more likely to live in food deserts and face issues of food insecurity. The recent water crisis of lead contamination and shut offs in Michigan are evidence of these disparities. In alignment with the U.N. position that food and water is a human right, all people should have access to a safe food and water supply. A recent report from the U.N. highlighted ways that the U.S. falls short among developed countries, particularly for minority communities, and how this contributes to race/ethnic health disparities. Students in this course will gain an understanding of these issues and discuss how they might participate in advocating for positive change. 

  
  • LAS 206 - Vacation: Summer Family Road Trip

    Credit Hours 3
     This seminar will explore the idea of “man in his environment.”  Each week we will pile in the metaphorical mini-van and travel somewhere in the United States, learning about various locations and moments in environmental history.  Potential stops may include Mesa Verde, where we will study the Ancient Indians and how they interacted with the environment; the Grand Canyon where we will hike to Supai to live with the Havasu Indians and learn about their connection to the sacred land and the history of oppression of native people for their Land; the Everglades to study how man’s manipulation of the ecosystem (making canals) impacts that ecosystem; the Pacific Northwest to study alternative energy and how that is being integrated into the human world; and other locales and lessons.

  
  • LAS 207 - The Ladder and the Web

    Credit Hours 3
    In this seminar, we will study selected classic and contemporary texts that explore connections-physical, ethical, and spiritual-between human beings and the natural world, and we will apply what we learn from studying those texts to current environmental issues. The question that governs the course can be expressed [deceptively] simply: What is the proper relationship between humankind and nature? The simplicity of the question is deceptive because within it reside a number of other questions, the most urgent of which is whether, given the consequences of humankind’s activities over the past few hundred years, it’s simply too late to ponder such questions.  What have we done to the earth? What can we do now?  In confronting such questions, we will draw both comfort and guidance from such great American nature writers as Thoreau, Muir, and Carson and from a great modern treatise, Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’.
     

    Listed also as In this seminar, we will study selected classic and contemporary texts that explore connections-physical, ethical, and spiritual-between human beings and the natural world, and we will apply what we learn from studying those texts to current environmental issues. The question that governs the course can be expressed [deceptively] simply: What is the proper relationship between humankind and nature? The simplicity of the question is deceptive because within it reside a number of other questions, the most urgent of which is whether, given the consequences of humankind’s activities over the past few hundred years, it’s simply too late to ponder such questions.  What have we done to the earth? What can we do now?  In confronting such questions, we will draw both comfort and guidance from such great American nature writers as Thoreau, Muir, and Carson and from a great modern treatise, Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’.

  
  • LAS 208 - The Consumer, The Producer, and the Environment

    Credit Hours 3
    If we are what we eat, what exactly are we eating today?  How is food produced in the United States? Food politics and policies in the United States have heated up in recent years, as legislators, regulators, educators, farmers and many others battle over subsidies, restrictions and questions of public health. What shapes our choices as consumers? How do these choices impact our lives and our communities? How do our choices impact the environment?  Is this sustainable? We will explore these critical issues as we learn about food production in the US.  
     

  
  • LAS 209 - The Natural World, Conflict, and Mediation: Taking Care of Our Common Home

    Credit Hours 3
    It has been reported that we only have a small window in which to save our Sister, Mother Earth. She allows us to experience her beauty, she provides us with food and water and most importantly - air to breathe. So then, why do we exploit her, maybe even to the point of destruction?  Our views on climate change differ tremendously. In this class, we will examine debates between supporters and naysayers and the conflicts among various entities (diverse societies and cultures, governments and organizations).  You will learn how mediation can be used as a tool to find a path forward, sharing responsibilities to save her before it might be too late. “This sister cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her” (Laudato Si).This seminar includes a circle practice (drawn from restorative justice models) in which students will explore questions related to the course texts and vocational exploration.

    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing.

  
  • LAS 209 - The Natural World, Conflict, and Meditation


    If we are what we eat, what exactly are we eating today?  How is food produced in the United States? Food politics and policies in the United States have heated up in recent years, as legislators, regulators, educators, farmers and many others battle over subsidies, restrictions and questions of public health. What shapes our choices as consumers? How do these choices impact our lives and our communities? How do our choices impact the environment?  Is this sustainable? We will explore these critical issues as we learn about food production in the US.  
     

  
  • LAS 212 - Making Our Best Effort: Caring Together for Our Common Home

    Credit Hours 3
    If we are to attempt sensible approaches and communal efforts to care for the earth and its people, how will we envision the best steps and the desirable outcomes of this essential project? How can we learn from the writings of Pope Francis in Laudato Si, and many important contributions of other leaders and thinkers, to care for this earth, our common home, in just, responsible, and beneficial ways? These questions will guide us as we seek to understand how ecological and spiritual responses to the need to care for our earthly home are both valuable and indispensable.

  
  • LAS 213 - Latin America: The Assault of Its Natural World

    Credit Hours 3
     This sophomore seminar seeks to explore the myth and reality of Latin America through a discussion of the impact of the collision of the European and American worlds at the end of the 15th century.  During this period, Native Americans, Europeans and Africans would be brought into direct contact and often violent confrontations.  This resulted in the oftentimes careless exploitation of the natural resources of Latin America and in doing so would alter the course of history of this region.  This course will identify and trace key features and trends of this part of world.  The lessons learned from this story will assist us in taking responsibility for shaping the future of our natural world.

  
  • LAS 215 - Stewardship, Food, Energy, and How Humans React With the Environment

    Credit Hours 3
    The population of the world is increasing and our burdens as a society on the environment are increasing.  This course will investigate the cost of humans on the environment.  We will also discuss ways we can mitigate these costs and be better stewards of the environment. Topics will include the environment, ecology, biology, farming, energy production and energy flow. The course will use books, films, lectures, discussions, and projects to expand our understanding. 

  
  • LAS 240 - Ecological Intelligence

    Credit Hours 3
    In our everyday lives we interact regularly with consumer goods that we have acquired through the market system. In many cases we are disconnected from the origin of the raw materials as well as the production of these goods. This course will develop knowledge and strategies to be aware of the raw materials used, and the production methods employed, to produce consumer goods. We will explore our power as consumers to support outcomes, such as environment and sustainability issues, that are important to us.

  
  • LAS 248 - Facing the Future in a Changed World

    Credit Hours 3
    How can humans flourish in a world remade by climate change and ecological breakdown?  In 2018, sustainability expert Jem Bendell argued that we must focus on resilience (“how do we keep what we really want to keep?”), relinquishment (“what do we need to let go of in order to not make matters worse?”), and restoration (“what can we bring back to help us with the coming difficulties and tragedies?”).  More recently, Pope Francis has said that current efforts to change human behavior in response to the climate crisis fall far short of what is needed.  In this seminar, you will draw on knowledge and skills from many different sources to propose plans for resilience, relinquishment, and restoration on the Dominican campus, in surrounding communities, and in the world at large, and you will explore how local and global actions are linked.

    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing. 

  
  • LAS 248 - Facing the Future in a Changed World

    Credit Hours 3
    How can humans flourish in a world remade by climate change and ecological breakdown?  In 2018, sustainability expert Jem Bendell argued that we must focus on resilience (“how do we keep what we really want to keep?”), relinquishment (“what do we need to let go of in order to not make matters worse?”), and restoration (“what can we bring back to help us with the coming difficulties and tragedies?”).  More recently, Pope Francis has said that current efforts to change human behavior in response to the climate crisis fall far short of what is needed.  In this seminar, you will draw on knowledge and skills from many different sources to propose plans for resilience, relinquishment, and restoration on the Dominican campus, in surrounding communities, and in the world at large, and you will explore how local and global actions are linked

  
  • LAS 274 - Business and the Environment: Towards a Global Sustainable Economy

    Credit Hours 3
    This seminar explores the role of Business in creating an environmental friendly global economy. The seminar builds on the triple bottom line; People, Environment and Economy to explore the role business can play in creating a sustainable global economy. Students will examine the role that cultures, governments and regulations play in creating business opportunities that will create an environmentally friendly economy.

  
  • LAS 408 - A Good Family, A Good Life

    Credit Hours 3
    What each person considers to be a “good” family varies by that individual’s experience and upbringing as well as their culture, religion, and a myriad of other variables. Using a family systems theory approach, this course will examine the philosophical, psychological, sociological, and anthropological perspectives on the family as a social unit, as well as a social context in which one can experience a good life. This seminar includes a circle practice (drawn from restorative justice models) in which students will explore questions related to the course texts and vocational exploration.

    Prerequisite(s): Senior standing. 

  
  • LAS 408 - A Good Family, A Good Life

    Credit Hours 3
    What each person considers to be a “good” family varies by that individual’s experience and upbringing as well as their culture, religion, and a myriad of other variables. Using a family systems theory approach, this course will examine the philosophical, psychological, sociological, and anthropological perspectives on the family as a social unit, as well as a social context in which one can experience a good life.This seminar includes a circle practice (drawn from restorative justice models) in which students will explore questions related to the course texts and vocational exploration.
     

  
  • LAS 412 - If You Are What You Should Be

    Credit Hours 3


    St. Catherine of Siena wrote to a friend in the midst of a plague, “If you are what you should be, you will set the world on fire.”  How is it that we discover who we “should” be?  Is the meaning and purpose of our lives something we discern, or something we create?  What does it mean to be good and to lead a good life, for each of us in our own complex circumstances and identities?   Accompanied by the philosopher Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics and the stories of others who have wrestled with these questions before us, this course will consider the ideas of vocation and calling for the student approaching college graduation.

     

    Prerequisite(s): Senior standing.

  
  • LAS 420 - Searching for the Good Life through The Long Term

    Credit Hours 3
    In the fall of 2019, Dominican University’s O’Connor Gallery will host Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project (PNAP)’s The Long Term, an exhibition consisting of multimedia art that emerged from classes and collaborative work out of Statesville prison from 2016-18, led by artists, writers, and members of PNAP. The theme of the exhibition centers around people serving extraordinarily long prison terms (60, 70, and 80 years) and the effects these sentences produce: long-term struggles for freedom, long-term loss in communities, and long-term relationships behind the prison wall. Through the lens of the show’s content, its programmatic offerings (i.e. visiting artist performances, workshops, screenings, and discussions), long-form peace circles, and the main text Aristotle’s Ethics, students will engage and grapple with the idea of the “good life” by creating dialogue, writings, and their own visual responses through Risograph prints.

    Prerequisite(s): Senior standing.

  
  • LAS 421 - The Good Life, Creativity, and the Pursuit of Happiness

    Credit Hours 3
    This class explores the connection between creativity, ethics, happiness, and living a “good life”. Student will be engaged in discussions about creativity as a pursuit in personal, professional, and community spheres and how creative exploration functions as a tool to examine the past and plan the future. The class includes the study of the connections between creativity, community service, and social responsibility, as well as exploration (theoretical and practical) of the impact of individual and community creativity in the creation of a more just and humane world. This course will also include visits to and from individuals engaged in a variety of creative pursuits. This seminar includes a circle practice (drawn from restorative justice models) in which students will explore questions related to the course texts and vocational exploration.

    Prerequisite(s): Senior standing.

  
  • LAS 421 - The Good Life, Creativity, and the Pursuit of Happiness

    Credit Hours 3
    This class explores the connection between creativity, ethics, happiness, and living a “good life.” Students will be engaged in discussions about creativity as a pursuit in personal, professional, and community spheres and how creative exploration functions as a tool to examine the past and plan the future. The class includes the study of the connections between creativity, community service, and social responsibility, as well as exploration (theoretical and practical) of the impact of individual and community creativity in the creation of a more just and humane world. This course will also include visits to and from individuals engaged in a variety of creative pursuits.This seminar includes a circle practice (drawn from restorative justice models) in which students will explore questions related to the course texts and vocational exploration.

  
  • LAS 423 - Finding the Right Balance in Life

    Credit Hours 3


     

    We have many responsibilities in life that pull us in many directions - family, work, school, community, our spiritual life, and our mental and physical wellbeing. Besides responsibilities, we also need fun, enjoyment and relaxation. How do we accomplish this successfully? Great minds have identified “The Good Life” as a life of balance: What is the right balance to human life? What have philosophers, doctors and other successful people determined? What can we find? Aristotle thought the answer lied in living a life of virtue. We will explore Aristotle’s thoughts and whether virtuous conduct can provide us with balance. An additional foundational tool in the course may be The Rule of Saint Benedict, a writing by the Saint from over 1500 years ago, in which he attempts to prescribe certain essentials for the balanced life. The course will also explore the quest for balance in a multi-disciplinary manner, looking for answers through a lens that will consider nutrition, exercise, learning and spirituality. A course objective will be for each student to find his or her own unique life balance that will serve as a guidepost for the future.

    Prerequisite(s): Senior standing.

  
  • LAS 423 - Finding the Right Balance in Life

    Credit Hours 3
    We have many responsibilities in life that pull us in many directions - family, work, school, community, our spiritual life, and our mental and physical wellbeing. Besides responsibilities, we also need fun, enjoyment and relaxation. How do we accomplish this successfully? Great minds have identified “The Good Life” as a life of balance: What is the right balance to human life? What have philosophers, doctors and other successful people determined? What can we find? Aristotle thought the answer lied in living a life of virtue. We will explore Aristotle’s thoughts and whether virtuous conduct can provide us with balance. An additional foundational tool in the course may be The Rule of Saint Benedict, a writing by the Saint from over 1500 years ago, in which he attempts to prescribe certain essentials for the balanced life. The course will also explore the quest for balance in a multi-disciplinary manner, looking for answers through a lens that will consider nutrition, exercise, learning and spirituality. A course objective will be for each student to find his or her own unique life balance that will serve as a guidepost for the future.

  
  • LAS 432 - The Ethical Superhero

    Credit Hours 3
    This course explores the moral and ethical nature of superheroes. By employing Aristotle’s discussion for what leads to living a good life, the students explore whether or not the superheroes they know actually live such a life and should serve as role models for others-or whether or not there are some moral questions that need to be dealt with when considering the relationship of the superhero to society. The course will utilize various superhero texts, from Watchmen to Superman: Red Son, to explore the nature of the ethical and moral superhero, and students will conduct an in-depth analysis on one superhero in an effort to answer the question of the course: what does it mean to lead a good life?

  
  • LAS 435 - Who Should I Become?

    Credit Hours 3
    Our families, our schools, and society as a whole encourage us to think about what we will become in the world, but it may be more difficult to think about who we will become. Through reading, discussion, and writing about Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, Friedrich Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil, Stephen Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature, and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, students will explore where the systems of ethics we inherit come from; how ethical systems relate to our biological natures; and what we mean by happiness and how we find it.

  
  • LAS 436 - Selfies and Sharing: Balancing Individuality and Community

    Credit Hours 3
    We live in a highly individualized society, made more so by the digital applications and social media with which we engage on a daily basis. This course seeks to understand how best to balance a sense of individuality with a commitment to community by exploring what it means to express and embrace one’s own identity while also engaging with a larger group, be it our friends, family, colleagues, classmates, or any other group to which we belong. How do we determine how our self-expression impacts those around us? What do we identify as good or ethical and how do we identify and respond to what is bad or unethical in a digital world saturated with opinion and commentary? The aim is to acknowledge how we recognize our social responsibility through individual action.

    Prerequisite(s): Senior standing.

  
  • LAS 438 - Man’s Freedom: Torment or Grace

    Credit Hours 3
    This LAS senior seminar will focus on the concept of Freedom and ways in which individuals either cherish their freedom and flourish within it or are tormented by it and ruined by it.  As Dostoevsky suggests, perhaps nothing is more desirous to man than freedom, yet nothing is more terrible.  Literary works from Dostoevsky, C.S. Lewis, and Yukio Mishima will help us explore a variety of external and internal enslavements.  Greek and Existential philosophers will help us understand the impact values have on freedom and happiness.  Inspiring stories of special survivors will also be highlighted: stories of those who endured great trauma and oppression only to cherish and promote freedom all the more.

  
  • LAS 440 - Whose Life Is It, Anyway? The Ethical Mandate of Memoir

    Credit Hours 3
    This seminar focuses on how authors and their readers wrestle with issues of self-representation and fact in writing and reading memoir and other life narratives. Our inquiry begins with Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, a text that provides a dynamic frame to consider how the good life-or the lack of it-is being recorded by increasing numbers of authors today in the nonfiction genre of life writing. Excerpts from The Ethics of Life Writing, by Paul Eakin, and of writings from some of the earliest memoirists (Sei Shonagan, Rousseau, Montaigne, St. Augustine) will serve as a foundation for interpreting memoirs by Vivian Gornick, David Eggers, Mary Karr, Tobias Wolff, Art Spiegelman, and other contemporary authors. By crafting a memoir essay of your own, you will have the opportunity to examine the fictional techniques that authors employ to shape true stories.

    Prerequisite(s): Senior standing

  
  • LAS 441 - Beyond Good and Evil

    Credit Hours 3
    For Nietzsche, concepts of good and evil are not absolute: “What an age experiences as evil is usually an untimely reverberation echoing what was previously experienced as good-the atavism of an older ideal.” We will use Nietzsche’s dramatic revaluation of values in The Genealogy of Morality and (selections from) Beyond Good and Evil to enable an investigation of Aristotle’s ethical system in his Nichomachean Ethics. We will read texts (for example, Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Huysman’s Against the Grain, Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil) and view films (such as Fellini’s La Dolce Vita) that will enrich our exploration of matters related to good and evil.     

    Prerequisite(s): Senior standing

  
  • LAS 442 - Justice and the Common Good

    Credit Hours 3
    This seminar pursues the question of how we ought to live in light of the tension between the individual and society. With Aristotle as our central figure, we will also engage three modern thinkers who are broadly Aristotelian-Sandel, Maritain, and Nussbaum-in our quest to uncover the common good. Along the way, we will address issues of class, race, and gender, as well as the challenges and possibilities of our pluralistic society.

    Prerequisite(s): Senior standing

  
  • LAS 443 - Dark Side of Aristotle’s Ethics

    Credit Hours 3
    As a primer for leading a virtuous life, Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics outlines the framework to create the quintessential human being. This course will examine the literary reverse of Aristotle’s vision through the works of existential authors such as Kafka, Camus, and Sartre. Dante’s Inferno will also be examined to illustrate the ultimate plight of the lost souls who exist without hope for redemption. Together, all these works will serve to underscore the importance of the ethics as a pivotal work of “human architecture.”

  
  • LAS 444 - What is Happiness?

    Credit Hours 3
    Everyone wants to be happy. But what is happiness? How can we attain true happiness? Are some things essential for human flourishing? How should we live? Are virtues and values the key to happiness of self and others? What is the virtuous life? Is it possible to be happy in this life? Using Aristotle’s Ethics as the main text, this seminar will critically evaluate his idea that happiness consists in living the good life and compare it to other accounts of happiness such as egoistic hedonism, utilitarianism, and existentialism.

    Prerequisite(s): Senior standing. 

  
  • LAS 445 - Good Life: Fate and Responsibility

    Credit Hours 3
    What are the roles of fate and responsibility for “the good life?” How does deliberation allow us to grapple with the determinants of fate and accept responsibility for our actions? In this seminar, we will answer those questions through the lenses of both science and literature. After developing a framework for approaching “the good life” through a close reading of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, we will explore the issues of fate and responsibility in genetics and in works of poetry and short fiction.  In the final weeks of class, student will analyze the value of both science and literature for “the good life” and anticipate where issues of fate and responsibility will surface in their lives and intended careers.

    Prerequisite(s): Senior standing.

  
  • LAS 446 - Education’s End

    Credit Hours 3
    Dominican University hopes that its students will develop “an emerging sense of personal and professional vocation” and come to “possess character, knowledge, and skills to take informed, ethical action in the world and to influence others for the good” (Vision for Undergraduate Education). This seminar asks seniors approaching graduation to recall and take stock of their own learning over the last few years, to make connections across their coursework, to track changes in their assumptions, beliefs, and values, and to envision their future selves. Recollection and reflection on each student’s trajectory will be done in dialogue with diverse readings, films, and other media introduced in the seminar, all exploring the basic question of discerning one’s calling and leading a life that “pursues truth, gives compassionate service, and participates in the creation of a more just and humane world.” This seminar includes a circle practice (drawn from restorative justice models) in which students will explore questions related to the course texts and vocational exploration.

    Prerequisite(s): Senior standing.

  
  • LAS 459 - Mask, Individual, and Society

    Credit Hours 3
    Through a study of texts such as Machiavelli’s The Prince and Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier, we will explore the various roles an individual plays in society. We all wear masks, both real and imaginary, in our interactions with others. What do these writers tell us of the nature and function of such masks? What is the ethical status of masking? What are its social functions? How does masking help shape the individual and society?

  
  • LAS 460 - Right Relationship

    Credit Hours 3
    All relationships - filial, friendly, erotic - are tempered by such emotions as jealousy, obsession, self-doubt, fear, etc. Through literature and spirituality, we shall explore how relationships can be destroyed and healed. Readings include King Lear, The Color Purple, Like Water for Chocolate, As We Are Now, and Tuesdays with Morrie.

  
  • LAS 461 - The Art of Contemplation

    Credit Hours 3
    Aristotle argues that contemplation is the aim and fulfillment of a good and happy life. Modern scientific studies similarly indicate that meditative and contemplative practice promotes mental, physical, and spiritual health and development. By providing students access to practical skills in and reflective understanding of meditation and contemplation as found in classical Western Christian and Asian traditions as well as modern applications, this seminar aims to assess the cogency of Aristotle’s doctrine as well as the place and value of these arts in the light of contemporary research and the students’ own experience.

  
  • LAS 462 - Personal Conduct and Character and Professional Ethics

    Credit Hours 3
    The topic of professional ethics and personal morality will be the subject matter of this course. The approach will be interdisciplinary, with various insights into ethics and values from several professional perspectives (business, law, nutrition, genetics, medicine, etc.) Simultaneously, students will engage in ongoing discussion about personal ethical conduct and character.

  
  • LAS 465 - Aikido as Contemplation

    Credit Hours 3
    This seminar will literally put our virtue in action. Students will learn the fundamentals of Aikido, a Japanese martial art that emphasizes the harmonious exchange of energy, as a form of contemplation. This is not just a theoretical course. Students will actually do the physical work of learning Aikido, so students need to wear sweatpants (not shorts) and t-shirts.

    Prerequisite(s): Senior standing. 

  
  • LAS 466 - The Pursuit of Happiness

    Credit Hours 3
    Everyone wants to be happy. But what is happiness? How can we attain true happiness? Are some things essential for human flourishing? How should we live? Are virtues and values the key to happiness of self and others? What is the virtuous life? Is it possible to be happy in this life? Using Aristotle’s Ethics as the main text, this seminar will critically evaluate his idea that happiness consists in living the good life and compare it to other accounts of happiness such as egoistic hedonism, utilitarianism, and existentialism.

    Prerequisite(s): Senior standing. 

  
  • LAS 471 - Literary Underworlds

    Credit Hours 3
    As a primer for leading a virtuous life, Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics outlines the framework to create the quintessential human being. This course will examine the literary reverse of Aristotle’s vision through the works of existential authors such as Kafka, Camus, and Sartre. Dante’s Inferno will also be examined to illustrate the ultimate plight of the lost souls who exist without hope for redemption. Together, all these works will serve to underscore the importance of the ethics as a pivotal work of “human architecture.”

    Prerequisite(s): Senior standing. 

  
  • LAS 476 - The Pursuit of Truth in a Culture of Confusion

    Credit Hours 3
    An investigation of the effects of mass-mediated communication and information as a mass commodity on values, particularly the value of truth. In an age of information glut, where for all intents and purposes every possible point of view is represented, all points of view appear to have the same value. The idea of having and clinging to “values” implies evaluating ideas–seeing which ones are “better” than others. All ideas are not equal; otherwise “values” as such are irrelevant. At the same time, all our mass-mediated messages are biased toward the technological culture that brings them to us. We spend more and more time communicating with (or through) our technologies, and less and less time communicating with one another through real, human, interpersonal means–discourse. The Dominican idea of the disputatio–the pursuit of truth through mutually respectful disagreement, debate, and criticism–has been replaced with accommodatio–an unfortunate willingness to reject truth, except as an entirely subjective experience.

    Prerequisite(s): Senior standing. 

  
  • LAS 486 - Ethical Communication

    Credit Hours 3
    How we communicate with one another determines who we are as a community and as individuals. In a world that is seemingly coming together and growing smaller due to communication technologies, we must guard against assuming we know how to communicate with people. If we are to build stronger communities and grow as individuals, we have to deal with the problems of communicating in our modern society and culture. We need to confront the challenges of how to use these technologies to communicate ethically by starting with what is meant by ethical communication. In this seminar, we discuss what it means to use communication technologies to communicate ethically: whether it is individual to individual, across gaps in beliefs, or even the creation of mass media. In reading Aristotle’s Ethics,  we will consider how his values of character are being affected by the methods of communication we engage in on a daily basis, and then, conversely, how these values could be applied to improve these methods.   

    Prerequisite(s): Senior standing.

  
  • LAS 489 - You Are What You Eat: Good Food for the Good Life

    Credit Hours 3
    What should we eat for the good life? In this seminar, we will explore the ethical and aesthetic values that inform our daily decisions about food. We will explore the moral obligations that do (or might) guide those decisions, the role of pleasure in determining what counts as good food, the environmental and social consequences of food production and distribution, and the cultural and religious significance of what we eat.

    Prerequisite(s): Senior standing. 

  
  • LAS 490 - Being Good in a World of Gray

    Credit Hours 3
    How is it possible to be good in a world where there are very few absolute rights and wrongs? How do you ethically choose the lesser of two evils? This seminar will examine what it means to be good through readings from Aristotle and then attempt to apply those ideas to historical situations and fictional parables. Questions of justice, personal responsibility, and the greater good will be explored through readings of Victor Hugo, Ursula LeGuin, Simon Wiesenthal, and others, and discussion will be key to that exploration.

    Prerequisite(s): Senior standing. 

  
  • LAS 492 - The Good Woman; the Good Life

    Credit Hours 3
    What does it mean to be a “good” woman? Is there one ideal or many? Is the good woman also a happy woman, especially when and where it has been “a man’s world”? Building on the foundation of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, this seminar examines texts-both non-fiction and fiction-describing the virtues and behavior of the “ideal” woman, one who consequently lives a happy life.

    Prerequisite(s): Senior standing. 

  
  • LAS 493 - Love’s Failings and Fruition

    Credit Hours 3
    This seminar will examine how what we love and the way we love plays a major role in attaining a good life. Readings from philosophy, religion, and literature will help us explore the link between love and morality. Some works, like the Inferno, Othello and The Bluest Eye will help us analyze the failings of corrupted or immature love. Other writers, like St Augustine, Thich Nhat Hahn, and Thomas Merton, will offer us wonderful insight into the traits and benefits of higher, holier love. We will examine how some loves are self-centered and exploitative whereas others seek nurture, worship, and communion.

    Prerequisite(s): Senior standing. 

  
  • LIB 000 - Information Literacy Workshop

    Credit Hours 0
    A noncredit workshop offered by the library to transfer degree completion students who have not completed English 102 at Dominican as the way to fulfill the foundation requirement. Students will learn the basics of library research including the ability to locate both print and electronic sources by searching library databases for articles and books; effectively using the internet for academic purposes; evaluating information critically; and using the information ethically and legally. This course is offered on a satisfactory/fail basis. Students will be expected to spend time in the library to complete hands-on exercises.

  
  • LIS 701 - Core Values, Ethics, and Issues in the Library and Information Professions

    Credit Hours 3
    Covers core values and ethics central to the library and information professions, including intellectual property, privacy, access, confidentiality of records, codes of ethics, intellectual freedom, and censorship. Includes an analysis and comparison of social, cultural, economic, and political factors that influence access to information and the development and provision of information services. Examines the role, function, and influence of information policies at the organization, local, national, and international levels and their impact on information flow and core professional values. Considers the library and information professions and practice within a diverse and global context. Offered in fall, spring, and summer.

  
  • LIS 702 - Facilitating User Learning and Information Needs

    Credit Hours 3
    Provides an introductory overview of information behaviors and information needs, seeking, retrieval, evaluation, use, and sharing in relation to professional practice. Investigates the application reference interview and research consultation skills to the design and delivery of information services and resources. Considers learning theories and principles in relation to information literacy and fluency. Examines instructional approaches and strategies for formal and informal learning contexts, different information settings, and virtual environments.

    Prerequisite(s): LIS 701  (or concurrent enrollment)

  
  • LIS 703 - Organization of Knowledge

    Credit Hours 3
    Provides an overview of principles, methods, and systems in the organization of materials and information in a variety of library and related settings. Introduces at a basic level the use and interpretation of Resource Description & Access (RDA), subject headings (Library of Congress Subject Headings), classification (Dewey Decimal Classification & Library of Congress Classification), authority control, and Machine-Readable Cataloging (MARC21). Introduces foundational concepts of knowledge representation and taxonomies. Offered in fall, spring, and summer.

    Prerequisite(s): LIS 701  (or concurrent enrollment)

  
  • LIS 707 - Leadership, Marketing, and Strategic Communication

    Credit Hours 3
    Introduces leadership theories and practice to promote effective interpersonal, small group, and organizational communication in library and information settings. Covers communicating a leadership stance, using effective leadership, marketing, and communication management techniques and practices, and applying design and systems thinking to create and implement information services, tools, and resources. Examines marketing principles and collaborative leadership approaches to promote services and collections and to advance organizational goals. Discusses advocacy for libraries, archives, and information agencies. Covers project management techniques.

    Prerequisite(s): LIS 701  (or concurrent enrollment)

  
  • LIS 708 - Evidence-Based Planning, Management, and Decision-Making

    Credit Hours 3
    Introduces research concepts, principles of research design, measurement, and qualitative and elementary quantitative data collection and analysis techniques commonly employed in library and information settings. Covers methods and approaches for assessing library and information services, programs, and resources with the goal of demonstrating value to the users and constituent groups served by the organization. Emphasizes designing, planning and managing research and assessment projects. Considers strategies to use research and assessment findings and to communicate results.

    Prerequisite(s): LIS 701  

  
  • LIS 709 - Foundations of Technology

    Credit Hours 3
    Provides an overview of information technology infrastructures and the underlying concepts embodied in databases, operating systems, hardware, and software applications. Covers website creation, network technologies, webhosting, and file transfer protocol (FTP). Develops competencies for advanced Internet-based searching, application of business intelligence software (e.g., MS-Excel), and creation of data visualizations.  

    Prerequisite(s): LIS 701  (or concurrent enrollment)

  
  • LIS 711 - History of the Text: Early Books and Manuscripts up to the Printing Press

    Credit Hours 3
    This course provides an overview of the early history of the written word, focusing on the use of texts from antiquity up to the age of the printing press. Site visits to local repositories provide hands-on experience with papyri, clay tablets, parchment, vellum, and rare books. Readings and discussions will explore what is meant by the term “text” in order to deeply investigate the methodologies of book history and textual criticism.

    Prerequisite(s): LIS 701  

  
  • LIS 713 - Introduction to the Preservation and Conservation of Library and Archival Materials

    Credit Hours 3
    Introduces students to the concepts and fundamentals of preservation and conservation of library and archival records and materials. Students learn about the environmental and structural causes and control of deterioration, conservation and repair, storage and reformatting, disaster preparedness and risk management, binding, and security. Students are also introduced to strategies and best practices for preservation planning and management of preservation programs and resources.

  
  • LIS 718 - Storytelling for Adults and Children

    Credit Hours 3
    The art of storytelling is perfected through presentation and self-evaluation. Students will develop their own styles and methods of presentation. Readings in folk literature as well as more contemporary and classical sources are required. Students will present stories regularly in class or elsewhere, plan storytelling programs and learn to evaluate and provide critiques of storytelling.

    Prerequisite(s): LIS 701  or permission of instructor

  
  • LIS 719 - History of Children’s Literature from Western Europe to the United States

    Credit Hours 3
    This course focuses on the history and development of children’s literature in Western Europe (primarily Great Britain) and the United States from the Middle Ages to the end of the twentieth century. Texts are selected to represent different historical periods as well as a range of authors and illustrators with an emphasis on works of historical significance. Cultural and social contexts in which these works were created, distributed, and read as well as the impact of technological changes on the development of children’s literature will be considered. Examination of literary genres across decades will include a discussion of the changing concepts of childhood and multiculturalism, and historical controversies and challenges. Coursework includes reading, discussion, written assignments, and presentations.

    Prerequisite(s): LIS 701  

  
  • LIS 720 - Picture Books and Early Literacy

    Credit Hours 3
    In depth consideration of theory, research, technology, and practice of supporting early literacy development in children birth to six. Topics covered include: research in pre-literacy language acquisition and brain development; picture book evaluation, selection and sharing specific to early literacy; design of programs for young children (storytime) and the adults who support them (workshops) to enrich early literacy skills; creation and use of interstitial, book-expanding activities and elements (fingerplays, songs, rhymes, flannel board stories, etc.); exploration of the philosophical underpinnings of literature sharing with young children and its purpose and value.

    Prerequisite(s): LIS 701  

 

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