Academic Bulletin Freshman Tutorials - Course Descriptions - 2009-10

Egypt, the first great African culture, enjoyed a remarkably stable society with little change for over 2,000 years. The 14th century BCE, however, saw a revolution in religion, society, politics, and art under the heretic Pharaoh Akhenaten, who moved the center of his administration to a new city, established the worship of a single god (Aten), and created new styles in art and architecture. After his death, however, he was so reviled that the Egyptians ‘erased’ all traces of him. Who was this shadowy and controversial figure? What changes did he make in society, religion, and politics, and why did he do so? What sorts of relations did he have with the other powerful kingdoms of the Mediterranean and Near East? Was he influenced by the Hebrews or were other more secular forces at work in his religious revolution? We will explore Egyptian culture in some detail before focusing on the reign of Akhenaten and his successor Tutankhamun. We will look at the remains of his capital city of Amarna and the records of his administration and foreign policy found within. As part of our analysis of the culture and art of the period, we will visit the exhibit of finds from the unrobbed tomb of Tutankhamun at the Indianapolis Children’s Museum, where students will adopt an object to serve as a focus for research and writing. Prior to their arrival on campus, students will read Akhenaten: Egypt’s False Prophet by Nicholas Reeves as background to our study.

Performing artists and sports stars share a common life that is often perceived as glamorous, but usually entails strenuous training, constant travel, and glaring media inspection. What preparations and conditions pave the way for a successful career in the performing arts or in sports? Why do some careers continue to thrive, even after decades, while others falter? In this tutorial, we will examine the changing circumstances and personal qualities that influence the curves of performers’ careers. Students will investigate the struggles, successes, and failures of outstanding musicians, actors, pop stars, crossover artists, and athletes, past and present, the famous and not so famous. Insights from coaches, playwrights, directors, and film composers will shed light on the lives and trials of well-known artists and athletes. Aspects such as stress management and dealing with performance anxiety will also be considered. This tutorial will include readings from personal accounts by renowned artists and athletes, viewing of pertinent films, and attendance at live performances. Each student will have the opportunity to interview a professional performer or athlete.

Despite Jefferson Davis’s claim that “all we ask is to be let alone,” some of the bloodiest and most important battles in the American Civil War occurred when the south went on the offensive, raiding and invading the north—the battles at Sharpsburg (Antietam) and Gettysburg come quickly to mind. In this tutorial we will examine the role played by raids and invasions carried out by the South. We will look in particular at Lee’s Maryland and Pennsylvania campaigns, Sibley’s invasion of New Mexico, Bragg’s Kentucky Campaign, Morgan’s Indiana and Ohio raid, and Early’s raid on Washington. We will examine their strategic and tactical aspects and consider their consequences. Readings will include memoirs and reports written by the participants. In addition to papers, discussions and oral reports, class work will include a film or two and a visit to a nearby battlefield.

How free are you to do what you want to do? Do you really choose what to do and when? Most Americans believe in free will, value freedom and personal choice, and assume that they know why they behave as they do. Indeed, the human ability to think deliberately, critically, and rationally about what we should and should not do seems to be foremost in setting us apart from other animals. On the other hand, scholars have long been fascinated by the possibility of a powerful unconscious, some part of our perception, understanding, and/or knowledge that exists outside of our awareness and that influences our behavior. If such an unconscious exists, does that mean that we are not as free as we thought? Is our behavior really under our control? In this course we will explore the unconscious and its implications. We will read books by contemporary scholars (e.g., Strangers to Ourselves by Tim Wilson; Are We Free? by Roy Baumeister) and popular writers (e.g., Blink by Malcolm Gladwell), consider how the unconscious is portrayed in popular media, (e.g., TV show Lie to Me), and explore our and others’ reactions to the possibility of unconscious influences. In so doing, we will see a new scientific perspective unfolding, discover that the mind is even more impressive than we consciously realize, and will find that it’s not Freud’s unconscious after all.

Aaron Burr shot and killed his arch-rival Alexander Hamilton in a duel—Burr loved conflict. Thomas Jefferson hated conflict—indeed, he settled a dispute over the national debt and the location of our national capitol during a dinner party. James Madison was so gentle and shy that he often achieved amazing feats without offending anyone. John Adams was so talkative and blunt that he offended almost everyone and sometimes defeated his own purposes. We often worship our Founders, forgetting that they were real people with gifts and faults like our own. By treating the Founders as real people and drawing on their dramatic experiences, we will seek help in answering questions that still challenge us today. How should we deal with people whose values or personalities differ from our own? Should we collaborate to get the benefit of differing views? Or should we fight because our principles demand no less? We will also ask whether this entire enterprise makes any sense. Can the Founders of the Eighteenth Century help us resolve our battles in the Twenty-First Century over religion, taxes, and wars in foreign lands? Should our past guide—or even control—our future? We will search for answers in the Founders’ own words, the words of their critics, portrayals of them in film and television, and with the help of their very best biographers. Their answers may surprise you.

A man gets angry and turns into an inarticulate green monster with unlimited strength. A woman is imbued with psychokinetic powers strong enough to rip apart the fabric of the universe. A young boy cannot speak, even whisper, without unleashing sonic energy equal to the detonation of a nuclear bomb. An Amazon woman with lightning reflexes blends into the North American “society of men,” and only when there’s injustice, does she reveal her true self: a Wonder Woman with a golden tiara and a lasso that she uses to force men to tell the truth. What do all of these fictional characters tell us about societal perceptions of gender? This course will investigate the contemporary fascination with superheroes to show how they express changing ideologies about men and women. What do superheroes tell us about our gendered society? How do superheroes shape how we see our bodies, influence how we communicate or what we perceive as normal? Topics we’ll investigate will include but are not limited to use of iconography, embodiment of Ideology, social construction of idealized male/female bodies, use of language, gazing, and superheroes as rhetorical tropes (metonyms or metaphors). To help in our investigation, we will read some theory such as Peter Middleton’s Boys Will Be Men: Boys’ Superhero Comics, Laura Mulvey’s Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, and analyze superheroes in a variety of media, including comic books, literature, film, and video games.

From Odysseus’ tumultuous voyage home in Homer’s Odyssey to Johnny Depp’s outlaw bravado as Captain Jack Sparrow in the recent Disney movie Pirates of the Caribbean, Western culture has been fascinated by tales of adventure on the high seas. Why are we drawn to these stories? What role does the sea—seemingly beyond law or logic—play in our self-definitions? We will explore these questions by examining three overlapping categories of sea-bound adventurers: pirates, navy captains, and nautical explorers. All three operate on the boundaries between law and lawlessness, the knowable and the unknown. Pirates exist outside of normative legal systems, while navy captains try to extend control over unruly and contested waters. Sea explorers, meanwhile, venture beyond the edges of the map.