Common Place

Note: Commons Seminars are for First-Year Students only.

EDUC 1690: Mapping the Self: Daily Mobility and Learning in the University Commons

Instructors: Rogers Hall, Professor, Mathematics (Peabody) with Katie Taylor and Nate Phillips, Graduate Students
Meeting times: Th 1:10–2pm (weekly meetings)

Course Description

What is common (or distinctive) about living and learning in The Commons at Vanderbilt University? Given the intended design of the undergraduate Commons, what do students make of it? This seminar will engage a small group of Vanderbilt freshmen in a systematic investigation of their daily mobility on and around campus as it relates to their learning. Students will learn about new methods for capturing and analyzing records of daily mobility, and they will be encouraged to find and explore patterns in their own, daily pathways of activities and participation in university life. These methods include use of wearable, location-aware devices (e.g., wearable GPS receivers collecting track points) to gather data on student location over time, time-event diary writing that can be coordinated with location data, audio and photographic surveys of important places within the daily round, and free-recall maps drawn during interviews with students and instructional staff who circulate through places students find personally-significant places for their learning.

Over 15 one-hour meetings during the spring semester, students will interleave data collection with assigned readings that focus explicitly on self-mapping and learning. Required readings include selections from: You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination (Harmon, 2004, Princeton Architectural Press), Knowledge in Motion: Space, Time and Curriculum in Undergraduate Physics and Management (Nespor, 1994, Falmer Press), and other short essays available on OAK.

Requirements

Students are required to attend seminar meetings, show evidence in discussion that they have done the assigned readings, participate fully in aspects of data collection (capturing GPS data, photo surveys, interviews, and time-diary writing), and collaborate in design and production of a multi-authored report on mobility and elective learning in the Vanderbilt Commons. Students may choose to voluntarily include their work in a descriptive research study of mobility and learning conducted by the instructors.

ENGL 099: Learning Shakespeare through Performance (The Merchant of Venice)

Instructor: Donald Jellerson, Lecturer, English and Women’s & Gender Studies (A&S)
Co-instructors: Bethany Packard and Jane Wanninger, Graduate Students
Meeting times: Sun 2:30–5:30pm (Meets January 17–February 14)

Course Description

This seminar will use techniques drawn from theatrical practice to deepen our understanding of Shakespeare’s work. We will take on the roles of actors, directors, and dramaturges, borrowing the methods of those practitioners as we stage scenes from The Merchant of Venice. The object of the seminar is not to turn us into performers or to create ‘realistic’ stagings of the works in front of an audience; instead, we will explore what we can learn about the text through the kind of attention to character, motivation, emotion, and gesture required in staging Shakespeare’s plays, even small sections of them.

The seminar will require students to read The Merchant of Venice carefully outside of class and bring an ability and willingness to both analyze and embody the text in class. Students will memorize lines and work towards a final session during which they will perform scenes for each other. Throughout the seminar, we will work to develop a playful and supportive atmosphere in which we can boldly explore the possibilities for interpreting and performing scenes from the play.

Evaluation

Instructors will evaluate students on the basis of commitment and participation (accomplishing the assigned tasks of reading and memorization as well as engagement in class). Evaluations will also take into account a short final paper (2–3 pp) in which students will have the opportunity to reflect on the experience of the class, asking what insights the techniques of performance brought (or might bring) to the study of The Merchant of Venice or Shakespeare’s plays more broadly.

Required Text

William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

ES 101: Manned and Robotic Space Missions

Instructor: Robert Reed, Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering (Engineering)
Meeting times: Tue 1:10–2:00pm (Meets weekly for 11 sessions, 1 meeting is 4 hours)

Course Description

This seminar will present a study of the impact that space missions have had on the way we view our universe. We will study topics such as scientific achievements, engineering feats, management scenarios and societal impacts of manned and robotic space missions. We will survey space missions developed in the US, Europe, and Asia. We will concentrate on NASA related missions, which are often partnerships between NASA and other space agencies. We will begin the seminar with an overview of manned and robotic missions, we will then focus on several missions that will enable us to understand the specific impacts these missions have had on our understanding of our world and outer space. The seminar will be supplemented, when possible, by conversations with employees from US and European space agencies. These will either be in person or via the internet.

Grading System

60% Attendance
20% Oral Presentation
20% Paper

Tentative Schedule

Week 1 (1 hr): Overview of NASA
Week 2 (1 hr): Overview of other space agencies
Week 3 (1 hr): Apollo Mission
Week 4 (1 hr): Space Shuttle
Week 5 (1 hr): Hubble and James Webb Space Telescope
Week 6 (1 hr): International Space Station
Week 7 (1 hr): Surly You’re Joking Mr. Fenyman
Week 8 (1 hr): Advance Camera for Surveys
Week 9 (1 hr): Columbia’s first and last mission
Week 10 (4 hrs): Trip to MSFC, visit with Michael Griffin (ex-NASA Administrator)
Week 11 (1 hr): Other ESA and JAXA missions

FREN 099: Francophone Culture and History through Song/Connaitre la Francophonie par la chanson

Instructor: Susan Kevra, Sr. Lecturer in French (A&S)
Meeting times: Tue 4:00–5:15pm (Meets for 12 sessions from Jan 19–April 13)

Course Description

In this course, students will learn about francophone cultures through songs and actual singing! Each class will feature a song from a particular French speaking part of the world: Quebec, Africa, Louisiana and specific regions in France, such as Brittany, Corsica and Provence.

The songs will serve as objects for understanding a particular francophone culture and its history. At the same time, the actual singing of the songs will allow students to work on their comprehension and pronunciation of French.

Most importantly, the course will conclude with a class concert. Students will decide on the songs to be performed, in addition to the instrumentation and voicing (with assistance from Professor Kevra, a musician and singer herself, and Julian Ledford, a graduate student in the French Dept, who is a trained singer with a degree in music performance.) Students will also introduce each song to give the audience a kind of map for understanding the musical trip the concert will take them on.

While all songs will be in French, the teaching will be in English to allow for all levels to participate.

Course Requirements

a 5 minute oral presentation on a French or francophone singer or singing tradition
weekly response pieces to a given song and related readings
participation in a collective final product, a public concert put on by the class

Grading

10% Oral Report
30% Response Pieces
30% Contribution to Concert
30% Participation and Attendance

Classes will meet weekly for 1¼ hours over two months, with several longer rehearsals leading up to the final concert.

HOD 1690.01: What Got You Here May Not Get You There: Strategies for Continuous Self-Improvement

Instructors: Corbette Doyle, Lecturer, Leadership, Policy & Organizations (Peabody), Neta Moye, Faculty Director, Leadership Development Programs, Clinical Professor of Management (Owen GSM), and Dayle Savage, Lecturer, Leadership, Policy & Organizations (Peabody)
Meeting times: Tue 4:10–6:00 (Course meets for 7 sessions from Feb 2–April 6)

Course Description

A new chapter of your life has begun and you’ve turned a few pages. Without a massive effort, you managed to graduate at—or near—the top of your class, but now you are surrounded by people who may be more intelligent, accomplished, well-travelled, or ambitious than you are. You have no intention of being average, even though you get the statistics. All 1600 freshmen can’t be “above average” freshmen at Vanderbilt. What can you do, or stop doing, to ensure you get ahead of the game and prepare for the most revealing chapter of the your life?

This seminar will enable you to:

Explore the behaviors or skills that can propel, maintain, or stall your goals
Identify relevant competencies for personal success
Implement a feedback instrument
Develop a development plan that includes goals and actions for self-improvement

Requirements & Evaluation

Readings (articles and chapters) will be assigned for discussion in each session. The deliverables that each student will be responsible for creating over the course include:

Determine a list of competencies around which you wish to get feedback
Create a feedback instrument
Collect data and summarize findings from the feedback instrument
Create a personal development plan
Final presentation of “what we have learned”

These deliverables will account for 80% of each student’s evaluation for the course. The remaining 20% will be determined by peer evaluations regarding contribution to discussion and learning.

Outline of Topics:

The value of feedback
Why people resist giving and getting feedback
Identifying relevant competencies
Strategies to get the feedback you need to improve with a focus on an anonymous survey tool
Identifying the people who can give you objective, forward-looking feedback
Implementing the survey
Analyzing the feedback
Developing a meaningful strategy to improve your performance

HOD 1690.02: Increasing Global Awareness: How Soccer Explains the World

Instructor: Victoria Davis, Assistant Clinical Professor, Human and Organizational Development (Peabody)
Meeting times: Mon 5:10–6:30pm (Meets for 9 sessions)

Course Description:

We live in a time when informational technologies and international media can expose us to and shape our perceptions of global human issues within seconds and with the click of iPhone app. From the unrest following the elections in Iran, to the destruction and suffering left in the wake of Typhoons, to M.E.N.D. attacks on the oil infrastructure in Nigeria, we are exposed to images of the challenges of living in our increasingly interconnected world. Over the semester, we will critically explore key global issues as they are represented in the world of professional soccer. “How Soccer Explains the World” has imbedded a discussion of significant global challenges in an analysis of various soccer franchises around the world. Issues of corruption, conflict, cross-cultural acceptance, crime, nationalism, religious extremism, are all included in this interesting expose of international soccer. Soccer becomes the vehicle through which major global challenges and their impact on human wellbeing are examined and understood. This course will provide an opportunity to understand the context and complexities of solving human problems in an international environment.

Objectives:

Develop an increased awareness of significant global issues
Develop a lens of questions for evaluating and understanding contemporary foreign affairs and common interests of a global community.

Grading System:

20% Attendance and seminar participation
20% Case Studies Analysis
20% Team Facilitated Discussion
40% Global Issue Position Paper

Required Text:

Franklin Foer, How Soccer Explains the World, 2005 Edition (Paperback), Harper Perennial Press, USA.

HOD 1690.03: Non Profit Organizations and Serving as a Board Member

Instructor: Barbara Clinton, M.S.W. Director, Center for Health Services (VUMC)
Meeting times: Wed 4:10–5:30pm (Meets weekly from Jan 13–March 17)

Course Description

This course will cover the role and types of non profit organizations in the US and locally in our own community. Specific topics include the role of a board of directors, board member responsibilities, student opportunities for board service and employment in the non profit sector. In addition, legal and financial issues related to non profit organizations will be addressed. Specific skill building sessions will address how to assure that meetings are effective, lobbying from the heart, and opportunities to learn from non profit executives.

The non profit organization

History in US and internationally
Role in US health and social policy
Legal and fiscal issues: 501(c)3 status: what it means and requires, how it benefits organizations and citizens
Experiential exercise: the ideal non profit

Types of non profit organizations

Clinics and health agencies; Community service organizations; Schools and universities; Advocacy and lobbying organizations
Experiential exercise: Lobbying from the heart

How the money works

Budgets; Salaries and expenses
Funding: grants, donations, and contracts
Experiential exercise: the budget crisis

Employment with non-profits

Comparison to the profit sector
Mission drives the work
Non profit culture
Education and experience as preparation for the non profit sector
Experiential exercise: interview a non profit manager, employee

Boards of directors

Roles and responsibilities
Board members govern, staff members manage…what is the difference?
Special contributions of student board members
Experiential exercise: Critical Incident Journal

How boards function

Committees: how they operate, what they can achieve
Meetings that are interesting, fun and effective
Experiential exercise: Running a good meeting

Board opportunities at VU and in the community

Center for Health Services as a typical non profit
Achieving equity in spite of power differentials between students and faculty
Experiential exercise: Panel of board members

Field trip

Sudanese Community Center
South Nashville Family Resource Center

Wrap up and Reflection

Requirements

20% Attendance and full participation in all classes unless excused
40% Required readings and preparation of discussion questions based on readings
40% Completion of all experiential exercises

HOD 1690.04: Creating a Vanderbilt Miscellany

Instructors: Tracy Primich, Director, Science and Engineering Library, and Richard Stringer-Hye, Technology Coordinator, Science and Engineering Library
Meeting times: Wednesday, 10:10 am–11:00 am (Meets weekly)

Course Description

Using a wide variety of print, electronic and human resources, Creating a Vanderbilt Miscellany will explore and document the history, trivia, uncommon knowledge and arcane information about Vanderbilt University. Students will practice and develop research skills while using electronic, print, and archival materials, and they will build a network of human resources available to them on the Vanderbilt campus. A Vanderbilt Miscellany will be published on the web, and will contain sections exploring Vanderbilt history, Vanderbilt as a campus, Vanderbilt students, Vanderbilt in the news, Vanderbilt sports, and Vanderbilt Firsts. The final publication will be created organically, with the class as a whole choosing the topics of highest interest. The creation of A Vanderbilt Miscellany will be a dynamic process and strong class participation will be essential.

Grading

Grades will be based upon attendance and participation, homework, and contributions to the final publication.

MHS 099: Modern Cities and Disease Epidemics

Instructors: Lisa Weiss, Lecturer, French (A&S) and Brian Yaspan, Research Fellow, Molecular Physiology & Biophysics Dept (VUMC)
Meeting times: Tue 7:10–8pm (Notes: 12 meetings Jan 19–April 13; 7–9pm on March 2 and April 6)

Course Description

This interdisciplinary course examines modern cities and disease epidemics (Cholera, AIDS, SARS, Legionnaires’ Disease, H1N1) during the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. Urban planning, architecture, epidemiology, and popular culture will inform our studies. We will draw on a variety of media to investigate how disease outbreaks—both real and fictional—shape the cultural landscape. Among the films screened in class will be Outbreak and I Am Legend.

Course materials

Course Reader; Films (screened in class)

Evaluation

50% Attendance
50% Weekly Critical Response Papers

MUSO 099: Performance Art: Mid-20th Century to the Present

Instructor: Mike Holland, Assistant Professor, Percussion (Blair)
Meeting times: Wed 1:10–2:00pm (Meets weekly)

Course Description

This class provides an introduction to and overview of performance art in the United States. Emphasis will be placed on understanding what constitutes “performance art” and comparing highlights of selected works from the early 1950s to the present. The course is guided by the professor but will rely on dynamic group discussions on the nature of performance art.

The ephemeral nature of performance art requires a reliance on popular media, particularly Youtube, dvd/cd recordings, and related media. When available, attendance at live performance art shows will be incorporated into the class. The class will begin by engaging the question, “What is art?” and move toward a discussion of conceptualism and formalism. Emphasis will be placed on developing a vocabulary for discussing and understanding the range of performance art, from early John Cage and Frank Zappa, to Laurie Anderson, Flash Mobs, fringe festivals, and current artists.

By its nature, some of this course material will be considered controversial, including discussions/depictions of nudity, profanity, censorship, and gender issues. However topics may just as easily be silly, playful, joyous, and even spiritual. The goal is to create a vocabulary and dialogue to assess and understand performance art and our relationship to it.

Seminar Topics

What is art? Why is art created and for whom?
What is performance art? How is it recognized?
Discussion of form in art and the characteristics of performance art
Dynamic qualities in performance art: whimsical, political, gender-based, musical, rhetorical, theatrical.
Use of language and symbols: provoking thought, laughter, social change, or none of the above.
Public reaction to performance art.
Responsibility of an artist to the community. Responsibility of the community to the artist in a free society.

Project

Create in class or document on video, an original work of performance art. This may be done individually or in groups.

Grading

70% Discussion and oral presentations
30% Semester project

PHIL 099: Ethics for College Students

Instructor: Joan Grassbaugh Forry, Assistant Professor, Philosophy (A&S)

Meeting times:

Course Description

How do we know the difference between right and wrong? What resources do people draw from when making ethical decisions? How do personal experiences and relationships shape ethical values and actions? In this course, students will address these questions by reading and responding to a book manuscript written by the professor. The manuscript is a “choose-your-own-adventure” ethics case studies book for college students. Each chapter is written from the perspective of a different fictional college student who faces a situation that requires ethical decision-making. The cases engage complex issues commonly faced by college students, while also engaging core problems in ethics and moral philosophy. Students will develop abilities in problem-solving, decision-making, peer interaction and effective communication by learning to craft and deliver effective criticism. Early in the semester, the students will be assigned a fictional name, from which they will create their own fictional character. Over the course of the semester, students will write their own case studies. The seminar seeks to position students in a collaborative role in faculty research. As college students critically engaging a book about college students, students will be presented with a unique opportunity to make their experiences explicitly relevant to the course.

Evaluation

Students will be graded on class participation (through class wiki and in-class discussion). Students will submit 5 short assignments—brief summaries (300 words or less) or concept maps for the Weston book. Students will write and workshop one ethical case study of 5–8 pages in length.

PSCI 099: Depictions in Film & Movies of Momentous Events & Controversies of the 1960s & 70s

Instructor: Carol M. Swain, Professor, Political Science (A&S)
Meeting times: Tue, 6:10–9:00pm (5 meetings, starting on Jan 19)

Course Description

This seminar is designed give students an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of historical events that have shaped the laws and attitudes of this nation on issues such as civil rights, abortion, treatment of gays and lesbians, our notions of just and unjust wars, and the impact of Watergate. To accomplish its objectives, the course will use a combination of Hollywood movies and documentaries to explore these topics. In addition, whenever possible, I will include short readings about the era and offer students a list of recommended readings for further study.

Race

Documentary: Mississippi: Is this America (Eyes on the Prize, 1962–1964)
Movie: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

Protest Politics

Documentary: Chicago 1968 Democratic National Convention

Women’s Rights

Movie: Cider House Rules (Roe v. Wade & Aftermath)

Gay Rights

Documentary: Before Stonewall

Vietnam

PBS Documentary: Vietnam Passage: Journeys from War to Peace

Watergate

Movie: All the President’s Men
Movie: Nixon/Frost Tapes

Method of Evaluation

The students will be evaluated on the basis of class participation and their performance on five short reflection papers (1–2 pages).

Meeting Times

The course will meet twice in January on Tuesday evenings and once a month for the remainder of the semester.

Required Text

Weston, Anthony. Creative Problem-Solving in Ethics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

PSY 099.01: Stumbling Into, and Out of, Happiness

Instructor: Timothy McNamara, Vice Provost for Faculty and Professor, Psychology (A&S)
Meeting times: W 6:10–8:00pm (Notes: class meets bi-weekly, starting Jan 13)

Course Description

In May of 2009, Governor Mark Sanford seemed to be happy and living an ideal life: Married to a brilliant and accomplished woman, Jenny Sullivan Sanford, and father of four healthy boys; Governor of South Carolina; emerging leader of the Republican Party and a likely 2012 candidate for the U.S. Presidency. But as we all know now, something was amiss.

What was Mark Sanford thinking? Is he really happier now? Mark Sanford’s sordid story raises deep questions about happiness and our ability to envision it. What does it mean to lead a happy life? Why do people seem to be so bad at predicting what will make them happy in the future? Should we even try? In this seminar, we will explore these and other questions related to humankind’s quest for happiness, looking in particular at recent research in cognitive neuroscience and psychology.

Required Text

Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness (2006, Knopf)

Course Requirements

50% regular attendance and active participation in discussions
50% 6–7 one-page “thought” papers, one paper per session

We will typically have a two-hour class session every other week.

PSY 099.02: Images of Appalachia

Instructors: Jo-Anne Bachorowski, Associate Professor, Psychology (A&S)
Dylan Reed, M.F.A. Associate Director, The Commons and Office of Residential Education
Meeting times: Wed 4:10–6pm (9 meetings, Jan 13–March 17, 3 meetings will be 50 min.)

Course Description

Primarily through the use of film and photography, students in this seminar will use the unique characteristics of American Appalachia to (a) develop a critical perspective when confronted with representations of a given culture; and (b) develop a basic understanding of how auteur theory shapes cultural representations. The seminar will also focus on key cultural, economic, historical, and political issues within the Appalachian context. Specific objectives include: (a) fostering a clear perception of the ways the region is portrayed in film, photography, and the internet; (b) developing a familiarity with select Appalachian filmmakers and photographers; and (c) completing a final project (e.g., term paper, documentary, edited interviews) that further explores representation of culture in Appalachia or elsewhere (e.g., images of Appalachia in writing or music; Commons culture; culture of region of birth or high school years). Out-of-classroom work will be dedicated to preparation of the final project. Grades will be based on class participation (20%), initial version of final project (20%), and final project (60%).

Schedule

The seminar will meet for six 2-hour sessions (film and in-depth discussions) and three 1-hour sessions (development of individual projects concerning representations of culture).

Primary Texts are Selections from

Selections from Sutherland, David. Country Boys (Film)
Barret, Elizabeth. Stranger with a Camera (Film)
Kennedy, Rory. American Hollow (Film)
Koppel, Barbara. Harlan County, USA (Film)
Adams, Shelby Lee. Appalachian Lives (Photography)
Baichwal, Jennifer. The True Meaning of Pictures (Film)
Maria Gunnoe, Mountain Top Removal (Film)

PSY 1690.01: American Research Universities in the 21st Century

Instructor: Richard McCarty, Provost, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, and Professor, Psychology (A&S)
Meeting times: Mon 7:10–8:00pm

Course Description

On June 22, 2009, four leading members of the U.S. Congress (Senators Barbara Mikulski and Lamar Alexander and Congressmen Bart Gordon and Ralph Hall) requested that the National Academy of Sciences establish a panel of experts to assess the competitive position of American research universities given increasing global competition. This study should be well underway during the spring semester 2010. In this discussion-based Commons Seminar, we will attempt on a more modest level to tackle some of the same key issues as the National Academy panel of experts relating to the strengths and weaknesses of American research universities. We will consider a number of key issues, with a focus on private research universities, including Vanderbilt. These key issues include:

Building a budget at a private research university
An inside view of university endowments
Organizational structure and leadership of research universities
Federal and private foundation sources of research funding
Graduate and professional education
Promotion and tenure policies
Managing a university medical center
Shared university governance (faculty, students, staff, administration)
Student affairs
Who worries about diversity?
Undergraduate admissions policies
Who owns the curriculum?
When things go terribly wrong!

Expectations

My expectation is that we will have 100% attendance. The success of each class will depend on lively discussions and you will be evaluated for your contributions to the discussions. Assigned readings will be posted on OAK. We will have guest lecturers from within the Vanderbilt community and we will have in-class debates on critical issues. Each student will prepare a 6–8 page paper on a relevant topic approved in advance by me.

PSY 1690.02: Harry Potter and Child Development

Instructor: Georgene Troseth, Associate Professor, Psychology (Peabody)
Meeting times: Wed 5:10–6:00pm (Notes: meets weekly)

Purpose

To examine themes related to child development in J. K. Rowling’s novels. This course will introduce students to psychological concepts and research methods. Students will be asked to relate what they learn from readings in psychology to the development of characters in the novels. Students will submit brief reactions to a writing prompt regarding the week’s reading, which will serve as the taking off point for class discussion.

Required reading: Psychology journal articles, magazine/newspaper articles, and book chapters that can be found in the E-Reserves on the course OAK webpage. You will need to refer to the Harry Potter novels for examples. A copy of the novels will be on print reserve at the Peabody library (in-library check out only, for 2 hours).

Requirements/ evaluation (80 points total)

We will be discovering connections between research about children and families, and the characters and events in the novels. I expect that all students will contribute original insights during the course of the semester, in writing and/or during class discussion. The class format will be guided discussion.

Daily assignments

Reaction papers (5 points each × 3): INFORMAL, 1–2 page papers in reaction to the readings. A writing prompt usually will be given in class and/or posted to Blackboard.
Response sheets (3 points each × 10): Even less formal than the reaction papers, calling for a list or something similar.
These assignments will be the basis for the class discussion.

Participation and attendance (1 point per class period × 14): You are expected to attend and participate except in cases of documented sickness/emergencies/athletic participation.
Independent research (1 point): Bring to class a point of interest from a book, magazine, newspaper, or website that relates to the course content.
Final paper: Growing Up with Harry Potter (20 points) 6–7 pages of text, reflecting on the role the novels have played in your development, and insights you have gained that will affect the way you live your life in college and beyond. Please include information from the course that has been especially useful or meaningful to you. This paper will partially be based on information from your response sheets and reaction papers, so save electronic and/or paper copies of these, including the comments I make on improving your writing clarity.

Topics

Harry and resilience in children
Real orphans, Harry, and Tom Riddle
Attachment styles and relationships
Personality, emotions and temperament
Dealing with grief and trauma
Parents and mentors at Hogwarts
Friends and romantic relationships
Adolescent identity formation for wizards and real youth
Morality and psychopathology: Harry and Voldemort
Self-fulfilling prophecies in the magical world and real life
JK Rowling: The value of fiction and imagination

PSY 1690.03:Innerspace: Explorations of Meditation Practice for Self and Society

Instructors: Bruce McCandliss, Professor, Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Psychology (Peabody) and Linda Manning, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry (VUMED)
Meeting times: Sat, January 23 and March 6, 12:00–4:00; Tue 6:10–7:00 (Two 4-hour sessions on Saturdays; 6 weekly 1-hour sessions on Tuesdays. Class meets from Jan 23–March 6)

Course Description

Increasingly, a range of disciplines including Psychology, Neuroscience, Medicine, Business, Law and Education are studying the potential benefits of integrating contemplative practices such as meditation. Research demonstrates that meditative practice can enhance capabilities including attention, cognition, self-awareness, emotional intelligence and clarity of thought. Accordingly, meditation can improve performance within many areas of society, including the professions and higher education. In these secular contexts, meditation is employed not as a religious practice but as a technique for refining attention.

This course will explore meditation as beneficial for individuals, at the level of self, and for professional practice, at the level of society. We will explore how such practices are being studied and incorporated in many disciplines during an intensive kickoff session that brings together an interdisciplinary group of professionals and faculty. We also will explore how such practices play out within ourselves by committing to at least five minutes of meditation or contemplation per day. At our meetings we will practice meditation together and share our experiences with our individual practice. In addition, we will discuss assigned chapter readings from the course text, Meditation as Contemplative Inquiry, by Arthur Zajonc, as well as issues of meditation in contemporary society.

At the conclusion of the course, students will complete an individual project that reflects the learning they have gained about meditation’s implications for self and society. They will address questions such as “How has contemplative practice affected you? What difference has it made in the way you engage the world and your own pursuits? What impact might it have on your future goals, personal or professional? How do these observations connect to current publications about contemplative practices in a field of your choice?”

Evaluation will be based on simple completion measures of the recurring activities (meditation logs, contributions during class, etc.) as well the graded student project. Projects may take many forms, but formal guidelines for each student project will be individually contracted between the student and the faculty in a formal project proposal.

Students will be expected to spend approximately 30 hours outside of class on the following activities: 9 hours meditation, 9 hours reading and writing and 12 hours on the final project.

SOC 099: Power to the People: Community Organizing in Nashville

Instructor: Terrie Spetalnick, Lecturer, Sociology (A&S)
Meeting times: Mon 3:10–5:30 (3:10–5:00pm on Jan 25, Feb 1; 3:10–6pm on Feb 15; 3:10–5:30pm on March 15 and April 12 and one additional meeting TBA)

Course Description

President Barack Obama got his start with community organizing, which, in his words, is “the art of mobilizing people at the grassroots level to bring about change.” This seminar will take a sociological approach to understanding community organizing, with a focus on Metro Nashville. We will connect with community organizing efforts currently underway in Nashville by hearing from community organizers, interviewing participants, and exploring actions undertaken by local organizations.

This seminar will convene six times as outlined below. Required reading will consist of various articles and chapters available through the class OAK site. Note that you have a reading assignment to complete before the first class session.

Session 1 (Mon 1/25, 3:10–5:00 p.m.): What is community organizing?

We’ll be joined by a panel of local community organizers from across the political spectrum to learn about their views of community organizing, why they’re made it their life’s work, their personal successes and frustrations, and whatever else you would like to know about their experiences with community organizing.

Session 2 (Mon 2/1, 3:10–5:00 p.m.): How do sociologists study community organizing?

We’ll explore the major objective and subjective approaches to the sociological study of social phenomena, as well as macro and micro approaches. We will then focus on ethnographic field research and interactionist analysis.

Session 3 (Mon 2/15, 3:10–6:00 p.m.): Homeless Power Project

We will participate in a poverty reality tour of downtown Nashville, conducted by leaders of The Homeless Power Project.

Session 4 (Mon 3/15, 3:10–5:30 p.m.): Middle Tennessee Jobs with Justice

We’ll be joined by leaders of Middle Tennessee Jobs with Justice to learn more about living wage campaigns, including a recent campaign led by Vanderbilt students, faculty and staff on behalf of our lowest paid workers.

Session 5 (Date TBA): New American Day on the Hill

We will participate in the fourth annual New American Day on the Hill (sponsored by the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition), during which we’ll join naturalized American citizens as they meet with elected legislators of the Tennessee General Assembly. You will take field notes that will form the data for your final paper. (An alternative participant observation exercise will be arranged for any students unable to attend New American Day on the Hill.)

Session 6 (Mon 4/12, 3:00–5:30 p.m.): Wrap-up and prepare for final papers

In the first part of this session we’ll reflect on the themes and divergences among the community organizing methods we observed. The latter part is designed to prepare you for your final paper.

Evaluation

30% Preparation, attendance, participation, thank-you notes
20% Essay 1, HPP tour (see session 3)
20% Essay 2, Living wage (see session 4)
30% Final paper (see sessions 5 and 6)

SPAN 099: The I/Eye of the Tiger: Boxing and Identity

Instructors: Chalene Helmuth, Sr. Lecturer, Spanish and Portuguese (A&S) and Christy Halbert, Ph.D.
Meeting times: Wed 4:10–6pm (Notes: meets bi-weekly from Jan 13–April 14)

Course Description

Students will use their own critical eye to examine boxer identity and the sport of boxing. Situated within the current popularity of MMA and the recent announcement marking the entry of women’s boxing events in the 2012 Olympic Games, boxing provides an apt locus for the study of intersections of race, class, and gender.

We will discuss selected readings, both scholarly and literary, and view several videos and films. Guest speakers will include practitioners and scholars.

The “Boxing and Identity” seminar participants will work on a final project to be presented at the end of the semester. Possible topics might include: the success of the Rocky franchise; persistent myths as barriers to participation; comparing commentators in UFC versus HBO boxing; is boxing a dying sport?

This course is co-taught by Dr. Chalene Helmuth, Faculty Head of Sutherland, and Dr. Christy Halbert, Sociologist and Director of Boxing Resource Center, and Head Coach, Team USA, World and PanAm Championships (2001, 2004, 2007–09).

Evaluation

40% Contribution to Discussion and Attendance
10% Preparation of Questions for guest speakers
20% Two 1-page Reviews of required readings and viewings
30% Final Project

SPED 1690: A (New?) Survival Skill: Becoming Culturally Competent in Our Increasingly Diverse Nation

Instructor: Donna Y. Ford, Professor, Dept. of Special Education (Peabody)
Meeting times: Tue 4:30–6:20 (meets for 7 sessions from Jan 26–March 30)

Course Description

According to various reports from U.S. Census Bureau, other organizations, and demographers, our nation and its schools are more racially/ethnically diverse than ever before. That is, African American, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans combined represent about one third of the U.S. population. Every region, state, and city/town is experiencing such demographic changes, and this trend is expected to not only continue, but to increase as well.

With so many people coming from different cultural backgrounds, culture shock, clashes, and miscommunication are inevitable. An important question for everyone is “how prepared am I to live and work with others who come from backgrounds different from mine?” No time is better than now for future professionals, scholars, and educated citizens to find ways to survive and thrive in our ever-changing nation.

Some scholars argue that becoming culturally competent is a critically important survival skill because every aspect of our nation is diverse, be it at work, school, and/or play. Unfortunately, too few college students have been formally prepared to work, live, communicate, and socialize with individuals and groups whose backgrounds differ from their own racially/ethnically, economically, and linguistically. Thus, too much separation or segregation among groups exists on university campuses; discrimination exists, along with many forms of cultural clashes. This situation can change when we get formal training to talk about and understand similarities and differences, and when take a proactive stance to become culturally competent.

Lecture, discussion, readings, journals, vignettes, videos, activities are used to guide curriculum and instruction. An interdisciplinary approach is adopted with scholarship from such disciplines as education, sociology, anthropology, counseling, and psychology.

Goals and Objectives

Several goals and objectives guide the course. You will:

Increase your understanding of and comfort with talking about race/ethnicity and culture;
Have a better understanding of culture and its dimensions;
Become more self-reflective relative to issues of race/ethnicity and culture;
Gain strategies to increase in cultural competence (knowledge, dispositions, and skills);
Learn how to access resources to continue the important journey of becoming more culturally competent.

Requirements and Evaluation

Students are evaluated based on class attendance, participation, a journal (or a self-reflection paper), and an individual or group project and presentation to classmates.

Course Readings

No text; handouts and readings provided via OAK.

THTR 099.01: The Art of Making Videos for Academic Projects: Matching Images to Words and Ideas

Instructor: Alex Sargent, M.F.A. Sr. Lecturer, Theatre (A&S)
Meeting times: W 11:10–1:00pm (Class ends on March 17)

Course Description

In this seminar each student will create one or more image-based video that might serve as an extension of a class project or as an academic and/or intellectual idea. Each student will generate a proposal for a project of an achievable scale that will fulfill the student’s stated purpose. Students will choose to work on their own or in teams. During two or three small group meetings with the faculty member, students will receive feedback on how well their work is reflecting original goals.

Some examples of potential types of projects:

Create a video which can possibly be used fully or in part to fulfill a class assignment. Your video might be a visual reaction to and personal expression of your interpretation of a piece of literature, such as a book, a poem, an essay, etc.
Create a video that can be part of a class assignment which will enhance a written or oral report.
Make a video based on some kind of academic idea just for fun and develop visual tools you can apply to a future class assignment.

This is NOT a course about learning to use video-making equipment. I envision the class project videos being made with existing images in a program such as iMovie or Photo Story 3. If the student wishes to shoot video footage to include in their video, be prepared that it will take you a lot longer and you will be on your own to figure out the technology. This is NOT a class about making real video films with complicated cameras and equipment!

Requirements and Evaluation

5% Initial Video Project Proposal
10% Re-worked, final proposal based on meeting with faculty instructor
15% Preparedness for 3 individual meetings with faculty instructor
25% Class participation and attendance
5% Self-assessment
40% Quality and thoroughness of completed project

THTR 099.02: “Our Musicals, Ourselves”: Exploring the American Musical in its Social Context

Instructor: David G. Muller, Assistant Professor, Theatre (A&S)
Meeting times: Mon 4:10–5pm (Meets weekly)

Course Description

The title of this seminar is taken from its text, Our Musicals, Ourselves: A Social History of the American Musical Theatre by John Bush Jones (Brandeis, 2003), one of several recent groundbreaking works that treat the American Musical as a subject worthy of serious social and historical study, and that reexamines the musical as a distinctive and vital document of the American experience. Each week we will listen to relevant selections from the American musical theatre before discussing their place within Jones’s study, taking the measure of our own reactions to the musical as drama and as a document of American history. In seminar fashion, students will be paired to design and prepare iTunes playlists for upcoming discussions. We will also take two “field trips” to the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC) to attend, then discuss, musicals that directly engage with the American experience, Big River and The Color Purple. The course will meet eleven weeks for 50-minute sessions in addition to the two performances at TPAC. Students must purchase the textbook, an iTunes card or allocation, and group-rate tickets to the two performances.

Evaluation

40% Students will be evaluated on their weekly preparation and class participation
30% their playlist presentation and leading discussion for one class meeting
30% a final response paper on one of the two performances at TPAC

Outline

Introduction to the Course
Patriotism, Xenophobia, and World War I
The Musicals of the Roaring Twenties
Coping with Depression
World War II and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Years
From Isolationism to Idealism in the Cold War Years
Black and Jewish Musicals since the 1960s
Issue-Driven Musicals of the Turbulent Years
Fragmented Society, Fragmented Musicals
“A Recycled Culture,” Nostalgia and Spectacle
New Voices, New Perspectives

Introduction

Think outside the box. Participate in a course with students and instructors from a different school or college. Indulge an intellectual passion. Enjoy the small learning community of fifteen first-year students. Have fun. Sign up for a Commons Seminar.

Commons Seminars, offered for the first time in 2008–9, are optional, one-credit, spring-semester seminars for first-year undergraduates only. The semester calendar can be flexible (weekly, bi-monthly, over several weekends) and courses meet for the equivalent of fifteen contact hours.

Commons Seminars based on topics generated from within the Houses by first-year students with the help, advice, and facilitation of their Faculty Head of House and Resident Advisers are encouraged.

Commons Seminars: 2009–10

Click here for the Commons Seminars for Spring 2010.

Past Commons Seminars: 2008–9

Energy, Sustainability, and the Environment in the Popular Media (Phillip Franck, Theatre)
The Future of Energy (Kenneth Galloway, Electrical Engineering, and Arthur Overholser, Biomedical Engineering)
Stealing in Music City, U.S.A.: Solving the Problem of Music Piracy (Holling Smith-Borne and Sara Manus, Blair Library)
Science and Engineering in Real Time (Robert Weller, Electrical Engineering)
Environmental Ethics (Chris Rowe, Engineering)
Educating the World’s Children: The OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) (Lawrence Dowdy, Computer Science)
The Environment and Genetically Engineered Organisms (Kevin Seale, Biomedical Engineering)
Music and Selfhood (Allison Pingree, Center for Teaching)
Computing, Sustainability and the Environment (Douglas Fisher, Associate Professor)
HIV and Culture in Sub-Saharan Africa (Carolyn Audet, Institute for Global Health)
Evil in Modern Thought (Jeffrey Tlumak, Philosophy)
Scientific Insights into Music (Tom Yankeelov, VU Institute of Imaging Science)
The Great Society and the Politics of Poverty in Appalachia 1964–1968 (Mark Dalhouse, History)
Music Down From The Mountain (Greg Barz, Blair)
Coal Mining in Appalachia (Jo-Anne Bachorowski, Psychology)