| The Liberal Arts Seminar
The first class you’ll take as an NWU student is the Liberal Arts Seminar. These seminars:
- Are designed to emphasize critical thinking
- Introduce you to college-level expectations for reading, writing, and speaking
The topics of the seminars vary widely, but no matter which LAS you choose, you will complete library research, work collaboratively and use appropriate information technology.
The LAS itself may help you discover the direction you want to go. Expect to read a lot, write a lot, and talk a lot in whichever seminar you choose. You’ll assume greater responsibility for your education as you become actively involved in discovering the liberal arts.
Liberal Arts Seminars
Fall 2007 Courses
The Ghost in the Weed Garden:
Narratives of Psychological Disorders |
| Instructor: Mary
Beth Ahlum |
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This class will focus on personal accounts of psychological disorders. Develop an awareness of what it is like to be afflicted with a disorder and how that disorder impacts an individual’s life. |
| The Necessity of Wilderness |
| Instructor: Dale Benham |
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Explore the values of wilderness and study the present conservation and preservation movements for wilderness protection by spending five days exploring the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota. You will canoe, portage and camp in this remote area, which will serve the case study for an exploration into the necessity of wilderness in North America. |
| Celebrating Life and Preparing for Loss |
| Instructor: Lisa Borchardt |
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Learn to appreciate life and death. Engage in conversations about how choices made affect daily lives. Critique video games, music and movies. Finally, you will analyze you own life and death. |
| Positive Psychology |
| Instructor: Ted Bulling |
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Investigate the movement that encourages people to focus on the positive aspects of life, not just do something about the negative things. You will ask questions such as: “What strengths do people use to deal effectively with life?”; “What is ‘Authentic Happiness’?”; “Can money make me happy?” |
| Joan of Arc in Literature and Film |
| Instructor: Sarah Jane Dietzman |
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Sometimes described as a naïve peasant girl, Joan of Arc elsewhere is depicted as a savvy military leader, a national hero, a Catholic Saint, and an international symbol of struggle and triumph. Examine representations of Joan of Arc in history, literature, and film from the 15th century to today. |
| Status and Murder: Class Systems and the Mystery Novel |
| Faculty Instructor: Ellen Dubas |
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This course will examine the class systems of England, France and the United States as they are presented in 19th and 20th century murder mysteries. Examine the relationships between the upper and lower classes and between class and ethnicity. |
| Power, Resistance
and Changing the World |
| Instructor: Patty
Hawk |
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Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., Susan B. Anthony, Cesar Estrada Chavez, Rosa Parks, and Nelson Mandela all devoted themselves to changing the world for the better. Examine literary, historical and political texts to better understand who is changing the world and why. |
| When Worlds Collide: 1492 and Beyond |
| Instructor: Patrick Hayden-Roy |
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In 1492 people, animals, plants and germs from Europe and the Americas confronted one another, with catastrophic consequences. Study the results of 1492, what was lost and what was changed, and how it still matters for those of us who live within the world that was created. |
| Alternative Societies:
Utopia and Dystopia |
| Instructor: Peter
Heckman |
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What would an ideal society look like? Are we already living in the best society possible or could things be improved in order to help everyone live the best life possible? Investigate philosophical, literary and historical texts, which describe alternative societies, both good and bad. |
| Innovative Technologies: The Magic, Myth and Morality |
| Faculty Instructor: Jay Kahler |
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Learn to utilize different technologies as you reflect on the nature of technological change itself. You will develop your computer skills, video and imaging technology, and also prepare a creative presentation concerning technological development in a field of your choice. |
| Becoming American |
| Faculty Instructor: Sara Kelen |
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As a nation of immigrants, the United States has repeatedly been home to disagreements about who should be allowed into the country and on what terms. Consider how immigration is changing our communities locally, regionally, and nationally, and evaluate some of the contemporary arguments about immigration in light of similar debates from earlier periods.
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| For the Love of Nature |
| Faculty Instructor: Sandra Mathews |
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Conservationists and environmentalists have fought for years to save wild places, as well as monuments to nature, history, and culture, throughout the United States. Explore the history of this movement in the U.S. and explore the current threats to these places. |
| Tell Me What You Eat: I Will Tell You What You Are: Food and Identity |
| Faculty Instructor: Sandy McBride |
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Examine the connections between what you eat (and don’t eat) and who you are. Look at your family for food traditions that reveal identity. Explore diets different from those of the typical Midwesterner, and think critically about what this examination tells you about the identities of others and yourself. |
| From Soaps to Smackdowns: Gender and Popular Culture |
| Instructor: Larry McClain |
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Whether it’s TV soap operas, Hollywood action films, televised sports, music and music videos, or video games, some version of popular culture appeals to you in a way that you may never have stopped to consider seriously. In this course, you will look at examples of popular culture and discover what each suggests about gender. |
| Leadership: How Can We Make an Impact? |
| Instructor: Michael McDonald |
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Explore the principles of leadership and learn about famous and not so famous leaders. Compare and contrast leaders in settings such as religion, government, academia, sports and business. Engage in research, oral interviews, and multimedia podcasts to determine a preferred leadership style and learn how we can positively impact others. |
| Emerging Identities |
| Instructor: William McNeil |
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Analyze the changing nature of your relationships with peers and parents, school and career decisions, drugs and alcohol, intimacy and sexuality, and what it means to form an identity in a world of increasing diversity. |
| Poverty in the Land of Plenty |
| Instructor: Jeffrey Mohr |
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Why does poverty persist in the richest country in the world? Examine literature, the popular media, the Internet and several expert guest speakers in an attempt to separate fact from fiction about the face of poverty in the U.S
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Tilting at Windmills:
Literary Madness, Literary Genius |
| Faculty Instructor: Cathy Nelson Weber |
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Don Quixote is one of literature’s most beloved heroes, making the list at No. 17 of The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived. Read Cervantes’ revolutionary and humorous novel in its cultural context, and explore the influence and images of Don Quixote in our own society. |
| Views of the Ancient World with Modern Technology |
| Faculty Instructor: David Peabody |
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Investigate modern views of the ancient world and evaluate information about the cultures at the root of Western Civilization. From the palaces of kings to public latrines, explore what remains of such ancient cultures as Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), Egypt, Greece and the Roman Empire. |
| 1491: The Americas before Columbus |
| Instructor: Jim Schaffer |
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In 1491, the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan was larger than Paris. It boasted running water, botanical gardens, ornately carved buildings, and man’s first feat of genetic engineering: hybrid corn. If you liked Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto, you will enjoy this examination of the Aztecs, Incas, Mayas, and others. |
Rogues, Scoundrels and Villains:
The Portrayal of Evil in Life, Literature, and Film |
| Instructor: Justin Skirry |
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Are you a fan of classic “bad-guys” like Blackbeard, Al Capone, Dracula, and Darth Vader? Examine philosophical works that attempts to explain both good and evil and what that says about our nature as human beings. Then review portrayals of good and evil in literature and film in order to understand your own fascination with the darker side of human reality. |
| Best Sellers and American Culture |
| Instructor: Scott Stanfield |
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Occasionally, a book becomes a kind of cultural phenomenon, so widely read and discussed that it serves as a barometer of the hopes, fears, desires, and fantasies that define the culture at that moment. Read five such texts and discover what the popularity of the book says about the national culture of the time and why people responded to it as powerfully as they did. |
| Not Just Kid’s Stuff: Comic Books and Popular Culture |
| Faculty Instructor: David Whitt |
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From the first issue of Superman in 1938 to the Pulitzer Prize winning Maus in the 1980’s, comic books have long been recognized as an entertaining and meaningful art form. Explore the history and cultural significance of comic books and learn to appreciate the complex narratives, visual styles, and social commentaries within this unique literary genre. |
| Love and War in Classical Greece |
| Faculty Instructor: Lisa Wilkinson |
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Discover whether “All is fair in love and war” really is true. Trace the mythological “marriage” of the goddess of love to the god of war through the politics, theatre, and philosophies of ancient Greece. Then collect and compare the images, stories, and ideas of the ancient Greek world to the representations of love and war in our own world. |
| Decoding Buffy the Vampire Slayer |
| Faculty Instructor: Meghan K. Winchell |
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Spend a semester visiting Joss Whedon’s Sunnydale where cheerleaders are witches in disguise, the swim team morphs into a school of hungry fish, and demons serve as a metaphor for teen angst. Decipher the meaning of Buffy by pairing several episodes with historical events, such as the Salem witchcraft trials of 1691and with great works of literature like Frankenstein. |
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