Fall 2018 UB Seminar Courses (3-credit)

How do images affect culture, society, and identity in America? As Americans, how do we sort out whom we are, while constantly bombarded with images and symbols telling us who we should be? These are a few of the questions we will explore in this cross-cultural course on American diversity. Investigating the roles of race, class, religion, gender, and sexuality in the world of images. Throughout the semester, we will pay particular attention to visual mediums such as art, television, movies, printed images, and a host of cultural symbols affecting us everyday. Readings and other course materials are interdisciplinary, including anthropological and historical perspectives, documentary films, literary material, and most of all, art.

Section: NEZ1
Registration Number: 21064
Instructor: Zarragoitia,Nestor E
Schedule: MWF 11:00am - 11:50am
Location: Alumni 88 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 1

From their earliest arrival in the American colonies until current times, African American artists have strived to establish their artistic traditions, while at the same time grappling with their historical social, economic, and political statuses in society. This course will explore that journey, including their struggles for self-identity in an art world whose traditions are rooted in disparity. This class will focus on different eras, art movements, and the lives and works of key artists that define this vision. We will examine the overall impacts of the African Diaspora on artistic expression, and the interwoven social issues confronting each generation.

Section: NEZ2
Registration Number: 21065
Instructor: Zarragoitia,Nestor E
Schedule: MWF 9:00am - 9:50am
Location: Capen 109 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 3

FOR APPROVED ARCHITECTURE B.S. STUDENTS *ONLY*

Section: BODY
Registration Number: 21193
Instructor: Tauke,Beth A
Schedule: M 1:00pm - 1:50pm
Location: Hayes 403 (South Campus)
Seats Available: 15

This UB Seminar explores Feminist, Queer, and Critical Race Theoretical approaches to writing about art since 1945. What forms of meaning previously unexplored in Art History and Art Criticism emerge in these approaches? Where and how do these approaches intersect?

Section: TT
Registration Number: 20643
Instructor: Triandos,Theodoros I
Schedule: M 6:30pm - 9:10pm
Location: Cfa 144 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 1

Since the time of first contact, North American Indigenous societies have been a source of fascination for the Western world. At times exoticized, romanticized, feared, and detested, perceptions of Native American people were more a reflection of non-Indigenous interests and values than accurate accounts of indigenous histories, cultures and beliefs. Consequently, facts were replaced with the more important "image" of Indigenous peoples which in turn gave way to stereotypes and an assumed, colonized authority over them. For more than two hundred years Native people have then become cast as icons - heroic and otherwise - of American mythology, which has resulted in an often uneasy relationship between historical narrative, racial constructs, and national consciousness.Questions to be explored in this seminar include: How have (in) famous? Indigenous personalities been perceived by mainstream society in the past and present? And, what is the place of Indigenous people within modern contexts of popular and celebrity culture? This course will examine those Native American individuals who have been elevated as celebrities during their lifetimes (and beyond), the circumstances around their fame, and the subsequent impact of such celebrity status upon them and all Indigenous people. Factors to consider will include the social and political climate of historical contexts, responses to Indigenous celebrity then and now, and how media and technology has affected these issues in the present.

Section: DEM
Registration Number: 21730
Instructor: Demchak,Stephen John
Schedule: MW 12:00pm - 1:20pm
Location: Norton 216 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 5

Since the time of first contact, North American Indigenous societies have been a source of fascination for the Western world. At times exoticized, romanticized, feared, and detested, perceptions of Native American people were more a reflection of non-Indigenous interests and values than accurate accounts of indigenous histories, cultures and beliefs. Consequently, facts were replaced with the more important "image" of Indigenous peoples which in turn gave way to stereotypes and an assumed, colonized authority over them. For more than two hundred years Native people have then become cast as icons - heroic and otherwise - of American mythology, which has resulted in an often uneasy relationship between historical narrative, racial constructs, and national consciousness.Questions to be explored in this seminar include: How have (in) famous? Indigenous personalities been perceived by mainstream society in the past and present? And, what is the place of Indigenous people within modern contexts of popular and celebrity culture? This course will examine those Native American individuals who have been elevated as celebrities during their lifetimes (and beyond), the circumstances around their fame, and the subsequent impact of such celebrity status upon them and all Indigenous people. Factors to consider will include the social and political climate of historical contexts, responses to Indigenous celebrity then and now, and how media and technology has affected these issues in the present.

Section: DEM2
Registration Number: 24430
Instructor: Demchak,Stephen John
Schedule: MW 8:00am - 9:20am
Location: Clemen 102 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 20

This course is a discussion-based seminar designed around big ideas, grand challenges and important debates relating to humanity through objects made of stone. One goal of the course is introducing students to tools and objects of stone that have profound cultural meanings in particular social, anthropological/archaeological and political contexts- from around the globe. Another goal is to teach students about the skills they will need for academic success at UB- a major public research university with high academic standards. Students are asked to ponder issues such as the evolution of stone tool technology and how objects are made from anthropological and design perspectives. Students will be introduced to the making of chipped-stone tools by a process called flint-knapping. The study of stone tools in paleo-anthropology- as a critical aspect of what it means to be human- is considered and students will see stone tool types associated with different stages of hominid evolution. Stone tool forms like the Clovis point- used to understand ancient human activity in North America- are also considered. The origin, meaning and purpose of well-known but often mysterious examples of human stonework such as Pyramids, Olmec Heads, Inca Stones and Stonehenge are explored and debated in class. Students will be asked to take positions, formulate arguments through research and data collection, and make interpretive statements about such controversies and debates, while maintaining friendly, collegial attitudes towards one another.

Section: PER
Registration Number: 20918
Instructor: Perrelli,Douglas J
Schedule: MWF 10:00am - 10:50am
Location: Filmor 354 (Ellicott Complex)
Seats Available: 2

Injurying Me, Injurying You: The Body In Pain. This seminar explores the body as a site of interchange between visuality and trauma. We will be concerned with the signifying conventions of representing trauma in visual culture and art. As a class, we will discuss trauma in both western and non-western contexts, and ask the following questions: How can we represent traumatic events? How does the body feature in this presentation? How can we understand the body as it enunciates traumatic events? What are the theoretical discussions around the body and its relationship to traumatic events? What are different modes of witnessing? What are the differences between massive cultural traumas (like genocide), and personal experiences of trauma? What strategies have artists developed to address these questions? The subject of this class is intrinsically interdisciplinary and requires a synthetic methodology that draws widely upon different theoretical strategies in psychology, art history, anthropology, critical theory, feminism, history, philosophy, political science, and sociology. Students are encouraged to explore any and all disciplinary models in thinking about trauma and the body, and are required to regularly reflect on artworks and readings in blog posts, develop a research paper, and present their insights on art and trauma in class using one artwork.

Section: JT
Registration Number: 24379
Instructor: Tumbas,Jasmina
Schedule: W 9:00am - 11:40am
Location: Filmor 352 (Ellicott Complex)
Seats Available: 1

This course will explore current topics in the news media which are related to the field of Biology. Students will learn how to interpret a news article, research it, question it, critically evaluate the conclusions of it and discuss the impacts of it on related social and ethical concerns. From this, you can begin to develop an independent understanding of the topic.

Section: BLA
Registration Number: 23700
Instructor: Blanke,Kristina
Schedule: TR 11:00am - 12:20pm
Location: Cooke 127A (North Campus)
Seats Available: 1

New Frontiers in Biomedical Sciences: Students will engage with topics on medicine and health that relate to their everyday lives. The topics discussed will be pulled from the news and current events. These topics will encompass subjects we encounter either in our daily lives or as a larger community. Students will learn how to review articles from a scientific point of view and look at topics of health in the news from the prospective of a health professional. Small group recitations will be taught by a department within the school of medicine and topics will be examined through the lens of those individual departments. Subject areas will range from the cold flu, and Zika viruses to more controversial topics like medical marijuana, environmental hazards, and rising cost of health care. Students will have the opportunity to engage with the material under the guidance of medical school departments such as pharmacology & toxicology, biomedical informatics, microbiology, physiology and clinical lab sciences. Enrollment in this course includes a lecture twice per week and a once per week recitation.

Section: A
Registration Number: 21088
Instructor: Shubert,David E
Schedule: T 10:00am - 11:20am
Location: Kapoor 125 (South Campus)
Seats Available: 1

This recitation will discuss the Tuesday lecture from a Neuroscience perspective.

Section: A1
Registration Number: 21089
Instructor: Unknown
Schedule: R 10:00am - 11:20am
Location: Dfn 05 (South Campus)
Seats Available: 1

Educational Inequalities and Achievement Gaps: How unequal are educational opportunities and achievement outcomes among racial and socioeconomic groups of students in the nation?s public schools? Why do American students? math and science achievement lag behind their peers in other developed nations? What cause educational underachievement among disadvantaged minority students? What policy interventions work for eliminating the inequality of educational opportunities and closing the achievement gaps? In this seminar, students will read about and discuss major educational inequity issues facing educators and policy makers today. By taking the course, students will be able to understand the state, causes and consequences of educational inequity problems and to explore evidence-based policy interventions.

Section: JL
Registration Number: 23972
Instructor: Lee,Jaekyung
Schedule: TR 8:30am - 9:50am
Location: Norton 216 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 1

Although it plays different roles in different cultures and different historical moments, storytelling seems to be a universal human activity. Children want the same stories to be told over and over again in exactly the same manner. As adults, we enjoy stories in literature, film, videos, or computer games. We listen to the stories of friends and family members. Historians, anthropologists and sociologists both research and construct their own stories in order to make sense of human cultures, traditions, laws and religions. Different kind of stories, such as testimonies and eyewitness accounts, are at work in legal trials. Patient stories are important for social workers, psychologists and doctors. Storytelling has invaded even neuroscience and medicine, for example in Kleinman, The Illness Narratives. Some philosophers argue that foundational stories of a given culture teach us about love, moral values, and good life. In this interdisciplinary seminar we will examine stories in literature, folklore, film, anthropology and history, as well as significant stories in your own lives, in order to ask fundamental questions: why do people tell stories? What kind of knowledge and wisdom is conveyed through stories? How are stories related to power and politics? What can story teach you that science cannot? And what counts as a story? How is it constructed? What is the difference between fictional stories and real stories, such as documentaries or history? Our readings will include stories from the Bible-- for example, the story of Isaac and Abraham-- and their subsequently pictorial and philosophical retellings; selected fairytales such as Beauty and the Beast and their film versions, short stories by diverse literary writers, such as Melville, Larsen, Kafka and Dinesen; films, for example the BBC film production of Shakespeare?s Hamlet; legal accounts, selected stories told by anthropologists, for example Carol Stack, All Our Kin, as well as some of the most interesting reflections by historians and literary critics on the role of storytelling in human culture. Students will also be asked to share the most important stories they learned during their first year colloquium and to reflect on the role of sharing stories through social media.

Section: EZ
Registration Number: 21832
Instructor: Ziarek,Ewa Plonowska
Schedule: MWF 5:00pm - 5:50pm
Location: Park 250 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 2

Quarrel Between Philosophy and Literature: Why do philosophers read poets, and why do poets read philosophy? The course will trace the history of this question, beginning with the ?quarrel? between philosophy and poetry in antiquity and leading up to the contemporary conversations and polemics between the two disciplines. This quarrel between philosophy and poetry is mentioned in Plato, and already at that time it was perceived as ?ancient.? The course will begin by exploring the provenance and the stakes of this quarrel as seen by Plato and proceed on this basis to inquire into its formulations in later texts, from ancient Greece to 20th literature, philosophy, and film. This seminar is open to all students interested in exploring the fascinating and challenging intersections between the two main areas of the humanities: literature and philosophy. Reading literary and philosophical texts, we will discuss such questions as the nature of human existence, the problem of time, death, and finitude, the role of gender, as well as the differences and similarities between imagination and reason, passion and logic, literary language and philosophical argumentation. What is the difference between how poetry and philosophy address and express those issues? How is poetic/literary saying different from philosophical ways of telling? How do we think between poetic images and philosophical reasoning/argumentation? In the first part of the course, we will examine convergences and differences between literary and philosophical texts in antiquity (Plato, Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Sophocles' tragedies), the Middle Ages (Boethius), and the Enlightenment (Voltaire). Rethinking the heritage of Greek culture and tragedy for the moderns, Nietzsche's influential study The Birth of Tragedy will serve as the transition to the questions that characterize contemporary debates between philosophy and literature. After The Birth of Tragedy, we will read essays by Heidegger and Irigaray, and a number of literary texts: short stories by Dinesen, Borges, and Faulkner, poetry by Wislawa Szymborska, Reggio?s film, Koyaanisqatsi.

Section: KZ
Registration Number: 21833
Instructor: Ziarek,Krzysztof
Schedule: MWF 5:00pm - 5:50pm
Location: Park 440 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 6

This course will explore the intersections between literature and human rights through a number of contemporary post-modern, diasporic and post-colonial works.Summary: a). Narratives of witness; b). poetics of sentiment, creating an audience; c) politics of representation / aestheticization d.) suffering of others, e.) articulation of rights. How does literature bear witness to human suffering and crimes against humanity? A prominent dimension of the novel since its inception has been the drama of human suffering and championship of the persecuted. In the 18th century, an iconic instance of this was Richardsons heroine, Clarissa; in the 19th century, the social protest novels of Charles Dickens, Mrs. Gaskell and others charted the horrors of industrialization in Victorian Britain while Zola?s Rougon-Macquart cycle did the same for the French underclasses. Across the Atlantic, a large corpus of slave narratives and novels like Uncle Toms Cabin gave momentum to the abolitionist movement which became to precursor to the contemporary discourse around human rights.

Section: SI
Registration Number: 20662
Instructor: Irlam,Shaun A.
Schedule: TR 11:00am - 12:20pm
Location: Clemen 640 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 7

The Internet is changing every aspect of our lives, including how we communicate, learn, navigate, organize, work, play, and love. The Internet also represents a crowning achievement of computing: a single system uniting hardware and software, theory and implementation, standards and innovation, engineering and science, protests that topple governments and stupid cat videos. This course provides an overview of how the Internet works by describing everything required to answer a single search query. Along with its technologies, we will delve into the Internet?s past and future, policy challenges, and societal implications. The course is targeted at a general audience, but because the Internet reflects contributions from many areas of computer science and computer engineering, it also provides a good overview for potential majors. Familiarity with the web and access to a personal computer are assumed, but no technical background is required. Enrollment in this course includes a lecture twice per week and your selection of a once per week recitation topic.

Section: B
Registration Number: 20732
Instructor: Hartloff,Jesse Lee
Schedule: MW 4:00pm - 4:50pm
Location: Hoch 114 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 1

The Internet is changing every aspect of our lives, including how we communicate, learn, navigate, organize, work, play, and love. The Internet also represents a crowning achievement of computing: a single system uniting hardware and software, theory and implementation, standards and innovation, engineering and science, protests that topple governments and stupid cat videos. This course provides an overview of how the Internet works by describing everything required to answer a single search query. Along with its technologies, we will delve into the Internet?s past and future, policy challenges, and societal implications. The course is targeted at a general audience, but because the Internet reflects contributions from many areas of computer science and computer engineering, it also provides a good overview for potential majors. Familiarity with the web and access to a personal computer are assumed, but no technical background is required. Enrollment in this course includes a lecture twice per week and your selection of a once per week recitation topic.

Section: C
Registration Number: 20737
Instructor: Hartloff,Jesse Lee
Schedule: MW 4:00pm - 4:50pm
Location: Cooke 121 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 6

This is the recitation for companion twice weekly lecture.

Section: E2
Registration Number: 22082
Instructor: Hartloff,Jesse Lee
Schedule: 5:00pm - 5:50pm
Location: Cooke 127A (North Campus)
Seats Available: 1

This is the recitation for companion twice weekly lecture.

Section: E3
Registration Number: 22083
Instructor: Hartloff,Jesse Lee
Schedule: R 3:00pm - 3:50pm
Location: Alumni 88 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 1

The Internet is changing every aspect of our lives, including how we communicate, learn, navigate, organize, work, play, and love. The Internet also represents a crowning achievement of computing: a single system uniting hardware and software, theory and implementation, standards and innovation, engineering and science, protests that topple governments and stupid cat videos. This course provides an overview of how the Internet works by describing everything required to answer a single search query. Along with its technologies, we will delve into the Internet?s past and future, policy challenges, and societal implications. The course is targeted at a general audience, but because the Internet reflects contributions from many areas of computer science and computer engineering, it also provides a good overview for potential majors. Familiarity with the web and access to a personal computer are assumed, but no technical background is required. Enrollment in this course includes a lecture twice per week and your selection of a once per week recitation topic.

Section: F
Registration Number: 22072
Instructor: Hartloff,Jesse Lee
Schedule: MW 4:00pm - 4:50pm
Location: Knox 110 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 1

Section: LISO
Registration Number: 23722
Instructor: Lison,Andrew
Schedule: MW 1:00pm - 2:20pm
Location: Cfa 244 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 1

Engineers are problem solvers. Problem solving in engineering practice (i.e., industry) differs from the problems typically encountered in the classroom. Notably, "real world" problems are ill-structured, have multiple conflicting objectives, non-engineering standards and constraints, require knowledge from multiple disciplines (even beyond engineering!) and necessitate working on a team. The objective of this course is to allow students with an interest in engineering to explore an engineering identity. Through this exploration, students will gain an appreciation for the characteristics of good engineers: (1) Technical competence (technical knowledge, problem-solving skills, creativity; (2) Interpersonal skills (strong technical communication, effective teamwork); (3) Work ethic (attention to detail, diligence, persistence); and (4) Moral standards: honesty, integrity. This exploration will be facilitated through team projects, individual assignments and a professional development and career planning portfolio. The theme for this course will be consideration of the "Grand Challenges for Engineering" as defined by the National Academy of Engineers (www.engineeringchallenges.org).This is the recitation for companion twice weekly lecture.

Section: L4
Registration Number: 21465
Instructor: Hammond,Emily M
Schedule: M 4:00pm - 4:50pm
Location: Park 440 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 1

Engineers are problem solvers. Problem solving in engineering practice (i.e., industry) differs from the problems typically encountered in the classroom. Notably, "real world" problems are ill-structured, have multiple conflicting objectives, non-engineering standards and constraints, require knowledge from multiple disciplines (even beyond engineering!) and necessitate working on a team. The objective of this course is to allow students with an interest in engineering to explore an engineering identity. Through this exploration, students will gain an appreciation for the characteristics of good engineers: (1) Technical competence (technical knowledge, problem-solving skills, creativity; (2) Interpersonal skills (strong technical communication, effective teamwork); (3) Work ethic (attention to detail, diligence, persistence); and (4) Moral standards: honesty, integrity. This exploration will be facilitated through team projects, individual assignments and a professional development and career planning portfolio. The theme for this course will be consideration of the "Grand Challenges for Engineering" as defined by the National Academy of Engineers (www.engineeringchallenges.org).Enrollment in this course includes a lecture twice per week and a once per week recitation.

Section: T
Registration Number: 21028
Instructor: Purohit,Viswas Sharad
Schedule: TR 8:30am - 9:20am
Location: Davis 101 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 10

Engineers are problem solvers. Problem solving in engineering practice (i.e., industry) differs from the problems typically encountered in the classroom. Notably, "real world" problems are ill-structured, have multiple conflicting objectives, non-engineering standards and constraints, require knowledge from multiple disciplines (even beyond engineering!) and necessitate working on a team. The objective of this course is to allow students with an interest in engineering to explore an engineering identity. Through this exploration, students will gain an appreciation for the characteristics of good engineers: (1) Technical competence (technical knowledge, problem-solving skills, creativity; (2) Interpersonal skills (strong technical communication, effective teamwork); (3) Work ethic (attention to detail, diligence, persistence); and (4) Moral standards: honesty, integrity. This exploration will be facilitated through team projects, individual assignments and a professional development and career planning portfolio. The theme for this course will be consideration of the "Grand Challenges for Engineering" as defined by the National Academy of Engineers (www.engineeringchallenges.org).This is the recitation for companion twice weekly lecture.

Section: T2
Registration Number: 21030
Instructor: Purohit,Viswas Sharad
Schedule: W 1:00pm - 1:50pm
Location: Park 440 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 1

Engineers are problem solvers. Problem solving in engineering practice (i.e., industry) differs from the problems typically encountered in the classroom. Notably, "real world" problems are ill-structured, have multiple conflicting objectives, non-engineering standards and constraints, require knowledge from multiple disciplines (even beyond engineering!) and necessitate working on a team. The objective of this course is to allow students with an interest in engineering to explore an engineering identity. Through this exploration, students will gain an appreciation for the characteristics of good engineers: (1) Technical competence (technical knowledge, problem-solving skills, creativity; (2) Interpersonal skills (strong technical communication, effective teamwork); (3) Work ethic (attention to detail, diligence, persistence); and (4) Moral standards: honesty, integrity. This exploration will be facilitated through team projects, individual assignments and a professional development and career planning portfolio. The theme for this course will be consideration of the "Grand Challenges for Engineering" as defined by the National Academy of Engineers (www.engineeringchallenges.org).This is the recitation for companion twice weekly lecture.

Section: T3
Registration Number: 21031
Instructor: Purohit,Viswas Sharad
Schedule: F 1:00pm - 1:50pm
Location: Norton 216 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 9

How does the minimum wage impact workers and firms? What are the trends in earnings inequality over time? How does immigration affect the welfare of natives? This course will examine these and other important questions concerning labor markets. It will introduce the basic economic principles and critical thinking necessary to assess public policies. Students will gain an understanding of the rationale and objectives of policy interventions and ways to conduct policy evaluation. Students will also develop the basic skills and institutional knowledge required to assess existing labor regulations. A wide range of topics will be covered including minimum wages, social security, disability and unemployment benefits, antidiscrimination laws, labor unions, immigration restrictions, financial aid for education, welfare programs, tax policy, and earnings inequality. Prior knowledge of economics is not required.

Section: JSM
Registration Number: 21071
Instructor: McLaughlin,Joanne Song
Schedule: MW 4:00pm - 5:20pm
Location: Capen 260 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 2

Section: B
Registration Number: 22997
Instructor: Durand,Henry J
Schedule: R 7:00pm - 9:40pm
Location: Park 143 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 3

William Shakespeare really did exist, and really did write all or most of the plays traditionally attributed to him, as well as some others which have been lost. But how did Shakespeare become Shakespeare, the quintessential author in the western literary tradition, the bane and delight of every school child today, and the continued subject of critical, philosophical, and aesthetic appreciation and reinterpretation? We can address this question through any number of Shakespeare's plays. Our proof text for this semester will be Hamlet, in the 2010 Norton Critical Edition of the play, edited by Robert Miola, which combines comparative texts from the early editions of the plays with records of performances from Edwin Booth to Jude Law, contexts from the Bible to Thomas Kyd, criticism from John Dryden to Margreta DeGrazia, and afterlives from 18th-century experimentation with the plays ending to Tom Stoppard and John Updike.

Section: BON
Registration Number: 20647
Instructor: Bono,Barbara J
Schedule: TR 11:00am - 12:20pm
Location: Alumni 90 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 2

Several years before its close, the twentieth century was famously dubbed the ?age of extremes.? This moniker reflected not only a sense of the century?s intense ideological turbulence, but also a recognition of increasingly ?normalized? experiences of one extreme or another ? or of several extremes at once. In this course, we will examine how twentieth-century cultural works responded to, and even participated in, this process of agitation and normalization. The seminar takes its own name from the iconic Jamaican showdowns between rival sound systems, because we will be primarily concerned with the sonic artifacts of the century: radio broadcasts, literary recordings, musical forms, and more. During the semester, our attention will be directed toward cultural works that aimed to produce specific arguments about social events and what they meant. At times such works were called ?art,? at others ?propaganda,? and at still others ?news? or ?information.? What can this particular set of rival modes of experiencing events tell us about the rise of mass politics, mass culture, and mass media? In probing these relationships, the course will serve as an introductory survey of some of the kinds of questions that have been asked by critics about representing social interactions. By following the interactions of these three components (historical events, cultural representations, critical responses), students will have the opportunity to work on their own critical skills, through practical assignments geared toward first-year university students.

Section: KEA
Registration Number: 22418
Instructor: Keane,Damien D
Schedule: TR 2:00pm - 3:20pm
Location: Alumni 90 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 1

ME?! LANGUAGE AND THE SELF explores ways that language particularly figurative language such as metaphors help construct our sense of who we are in relation to other groups and categories of people. Are you described or perceived as nerdy, cool, fat, thin, large, small, handsome, pretty, homely, black, brown, white, quick, slow? What do these categories mean? Who influences definitions? How does language of popularity, weight, race, appearance, or other descriptive categories (whether essentializing or superficial) impact your life? Language can push us to think more inclusively about ourselves, others, and all things in the world, but it can also carry embedded assumptions that influence our perception and thought.

Section: MIC
Registration Number: 20656
Instructor: Miller,Cristanne Cay
Schedule: MWF 9:00am - 9:50am
Location: Alumni 88 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 2

Modern Revolutions: Industrial, Political, Social: Hardly any other events in human history have contributed more greatly to the transformation of humanity and its self-understanding after the rise of modern science, than the industrial revolution (steam engine, railroad, factory line), the spread of democracy (American and French revolutions) and the spectre of socialism (Russian revolution). They opened prospects such as the universal spread of democracy, the liberal transformation of religion, the growth of a worldwide metropolitan culture, and the prospect of general prosperity. Seeking to better understand these ends by examining their beginnings, we will explore the old and the new in the prose and poetry of such thinkers and artists as Kant, Hegel, Feuerbach, Marx, Dostoyevsky, Darwin, Bergson and Nietzsche, among others.

Section: COH
Registration Number: 21983
Instructor: Cohen,Richard A
Schedule: TR 11:00am - 12:20pm
Location: Bell 138 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 5

"A law that is not just is not law" said recently a protester against racial discrimination. This argument exemplifies a problem we will address in this course through reading, discussing, theatrically staging, and critically applying the work of the best writers and thinkers, both ancient and contemporary, who addressed the problem of justice in relationship to equality, law, and freedom. In that way, we will conduct a comparative study of the relationship between justice, law, and society in pagan, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Thought.

Section: DOL
Registration Number: 22731
Instructor: Dolgopolski,Sergey B
Schedule: TR 2:00pm - 3:20pm
Location: Clemen 708 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 2

The course will examine various depictions of human-animal relationship in Western literature and culture, from classical times to modern times. By looking at these texts, we will chart the emergence of a figure that occupies a borderline state between human and animal, and explore its implications for our understanding of Jewish and Christian relationships as well as human and animal nature. Readings include: Ovid, Marie de France, Hobbes, Shakespeare, Heine, Baudelaire, Tolstoy, Nietzsche, Kafka, and more.

Section: PIN
Registration Number: 20839
Instructor: Pines,Noam
Schedule: TR 11:00am - 12:20pm
Location: Clemen 708 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 1

Section: C5
Registration Number: 23881
Instructor: Hu,Rose M
Schedule: M 11:00am - 11:50am
Location: Jacobs 214 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 1

Happy and Productive: Getting Ready to Enter the 21st Century Work-Force. Why are some employees happier than others? Why are some leaders able to get their subordinates to work harder whereas other subordinates sabotage their leaders? How can companies remain innovative and at the same time be efficient? How should one learn and network so that they can be successful? Why is Google so innovative where as Microsoft is not? When is working in teams a drag and what can one do to make it a better experience? The purpose of this seminar is to identify and answer such important questions as one seeks to become a part of the work force. This is the recitation for companion twice weekly lecture.

Section: D2
Registration Number: 20712
Instructor: Treadway,Darren
Schedule: W 11:00am - 11:50am
Location: Capen 110 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 3

As individuals, we are often concerned with our own health- we want to be as healthy as possible, worry about getting sick, and try to manage our physical, mental, and social well being in a variety of ways. As a society, we are often concerned with our health and others "health" current events like global epidemics, the spread of obesity and its health consequences, controversy over health care reform, just to name a few, highlight the importance of health in many social contexts.In this course, we will use big ideas from public health to explore individual and societal concerns about health. In particular, we will use the lens of public health to understand explain and address three big issues: mandatory vaccination (should parents be required to vaccinate their children?), health disparities (why does health depend on things like education, income, and race/ethnicity), and health care reform (should people be required to have health insurance and how do we pay for it?).

Section: KIV
Registration Number: 20853
Instructor: Zorich,Shauna C
Schedule: MWF 12:00pm - 12:50pm
Location: Dfn 207 (South Campus)
Seats Available: 1

This course is affiliated with The Academies. It features experiential learning and may include field trips, guest speakers and mentored exploration. The globalized world presents a unique set of challenges to people who aspire to make well informed choices and act ethically. The dynamic space of globalization is one in which the reliability of information is constantly called into question, and our choices can have consequences for people in far away places whom we will never meet. In the broadest possible terms, the objective of this course is to help students think through how to be the people that they want to be in the context of globalization. In order to achieve that objective, students will pursue a series of readings that contextualize the workings of globalization. Armed with that information, we will take on a series of topics that we'll call "the forces of globalization"--the things that make the world go round. For each topic, in the manner of a case study, we'll consider a challenge presented to the global community and a person or entity that is responding to that challenge. For each individual or organization that we consider, we'll look at opportunities for volunteer work, internships, or employment that an interested person could pursue in the mid to long term.

Section: CUL
Registration Number: 21110
Instructor: Culleton,Colleen
Schedule: TR 11:00am - 12:20pm
Location: Park 143 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 1

How do we process everyday 'visuals' from phone apps to deciding what to wear or where to eat? Who decides (designs) the impact of what we see? How do they do that? We don't usually think of seeing as something we need to learn to do. Like the acquisition of spoken language, we tend to take seeing for granted, and yet, just as in spoken and written language, there is a visual language with its own hierarchies and grammar. That language is used by theatre designers, directors, actors, and choreographers, as well as by film-makers and artists. This course will investigate looking and seeing as foundations of design. How do we process looking? WE will practice seeing by collecting images, looking to find the right questions. We will apply seeing to our own design experiments. Along the way we will investigate text as a threshold to design, think about visual storytelling, and work to embrace ambiguity. We might even make a snow globe. In the process of discovering and articulating ways to look and see, the course will introduce essential skills for success in college: Critical thinking, text analysis, time management, problem solving, written and verbal proficiency, synthesizing ideas, and ethical issues in design.

Section: CN
Registration Number: 23933
Instructor: Norgren,Catherine F.
Schedule: TR 11:00am - 12:20pm
Location: Capen 110 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 1

Professional wrestling is a highly theatrical performance form with a history reaching back to the 1800s, spanning multiple countries and languages. Taking up professional wrestling as a live form of popular, commercial entertainment and art, this course examines a range of topics important to theatre and performance studies, especially as they have been considered in the rapid expansion of professional wrestling scholarship in recent decades. Students will utilize print and digital resources to watch professional wrestling, read about professional wrestling, and write and present on professional wrestling, considering it carefully through its social, cultural, and financial contexts. Through their engagement with the topic and course assignments and activities, students will gain an introduction to the work of being a university student. Students will work collaboratively, while acquiring essential academic skills and asking critical and essential questions about the learning process. Quite practically, students will learn how to engage with research sources available through the library and online, speak publicly and organize group activities, gain time management skills, better understand academic integrity, and learn about the many opportunities available to them at UB, among other activities and skills necessary for success as a university student.

Section: EL
Registration Number: 23932
Instructor: Laine,Eero Philbrook
Schedule: TR 9:30am - 10:50am
Location: Frnczk 408 (North Campus)
Seats Available: 1