Division of Continual Learning
MALS Program - 2006 Spring Courses
Each seminar carries three academic credit hours.
Cinemerica: Movies, Culture, and Society in 20th -century America
MLS 610A
CRN 13795
Mondays, 6:00-8:50 pm
January 9-May 1
Triad Center
Dr. Stephen Ruzicka, Ph.D
Click here for TENTATIVE syllabus.
The Arts as Human Experience
MLS 610B
CRN 13798
Thursdays, 6:00-8:50 pm
January 12-April 27
Triad Center
Dr. Marsha Paludan
Click here for TENTATIVE syllabus.
Passion of the Western Mind
DVD course
MLS 610C
CRN 13800
January 9-May 2
Dr. Stephen Ruzicka, Ph.D.
Click here for syllabus.
Religion and Politics in the Modern Imagination
MLS610D
CRN 13801
Wednesdays, 6:00-8:50 pm
January 11-April 26
Triad Center
William Hamilton, Ph.D.
Click here for TENTATIVE syllabus.
Ethics in the Workplace
MLS 610E
CRN 13803
Tuesdays, 6:00 – 8:50 pm
January 10-April 25
Triad Center
Dr. John Young
Click here for TENTATIVE syllabus.
The Age of Revolutions
MLS 610F
CRN 13807
Online course
January 9-May 2
William Hamilton, Ph.D.
Click here for book list.
The Dragon Awakes: Charting the Path of Modern China
MLS610G
CRN 13813
Online Course
January 9-May 2
James A. Anderson, Ph.D.
Click here for syllabus.
Religion and Ecology
MLS610Z
CRN 13827
Online course
January 9-March 12
Dr. Charlie Headington
Click here for TENTATIVE syllabus.
Dress, Identity, and Culture
MLS620A
CRN 13828
Mondays, 6:00-8:50 pm
January 9-May 1
Triad Center
Dr. Nancy Nelson Hodges
Click here for TENTATIVE syllabus.
Emerging Organizational Systems
MLS 620B
CRN 13829
Tuesdays, 6:00-8:50 pm
January 10-April 25
Triad Center
Ken McLeod
Click here for syllabus.
Humankind Evolving : Science, Scenario, Story, Myth
MLS 630A
CRN13830
Thursdays, 6:00-8:50 pm
January 12-April 27
Triad Center
Dr. Mary K. Sandford
Click here for TENTATIVE syllabus.
Emerging & Re-Emerging Issues in the Biological Sciences
MLS 630B
CRN 13831
Wednesdays, 6:00-8:50 pm
January 11-April 26
Triad Center
Dr. Rob Cannon
Click here for TENTATIVE book list.
Cinemerica: Movies, Culture, and Society in 20th -century America
MLS 610A
CRN 13795
Mondays, 6:00-8:50 pm
January 9-May 1
Triad Center
Dr. Stephen Ruzicka
Film has been called “the great democratic art”—a collaborative art produced for mass consumption—and as such a characteristically American art. It is also certainly the great 20 th -century art. This course looks at film from the perspective of democracy, America , and the 20 th century and conversely at democracy, America , and the 20 th century from a cinematic perspective. We will consider two basic questions: How have film techniques, narrative methods, archetypal characters, and genres been shaped by the American experience? How have the movies and movie going helped to shape the American experience? In addition to viewing and analyzing pertinent films and film selections, we will be reading social, economic, and cultural history and criticism spanning the 20 th century.
Dr. Stephen Ruzicka (Ph.D University of Chicago) is Associate Professor of History. His interests as a classical historian focus on periods of cultural change. He is the recipient of the 2000 Alumni Teaching Excellence Award.
The Arts as Human Experience
MLS 610B
CRN 13798
Thursdays, 6:00-8:50 pm
January 12-April 27
Triad Center
Dr. Marsha Paludan
Down through the ages the arts have soothed and entertained us, memorialized, aroused and inspired us. In today's fast paced, media flooded world, do the arts matter? Can they still inform our humanity? Is opera only for the haves and not the have-nots? Does a painting have only investment value? Is Nashville the barometer of national musical taste? Will live theatre survive as it competes with rock concerts and home entertainment centers?
In this course, we will begin by exploring the art impulse as a personal phenomenon – as a sensory experience, a stimulus to the imagination and the impulse to play, and as a search for communion with others. Within this context, we will compare our personal discoveries with the earliest evidence of art in first cultures, moving forward through time to discover how the arts have been valued and described historically by artists and critics. With this background, we will then look at the arts in our own community. Through personal exploration, readings, discussions, guest artists and field trips to local arts events, it is my hope that we will discover a deeper understanding and appreciation of the arts as personal and communal experience.
Dr. Marsha Paludan is an Associate Professor in the UNCG Theatre Department, a member of the Performance Faculty, and the recipient of the 2001 teaching Excellence Award. In her career as a performance artist and director she has been drawn to projects that build and inspire community, compassion and healing.
Passion of the Western Mind
DVD course
MLS 610C
CRN 13800
January 9-May 2
Dr. Stephen Ruzicka
We are offering this course on DVD. Students can take the course at home during the spring semester through their television/DVD or computer. Registrants for this course meet with Dr. Ruzicka individually prior to January 9 to discuss the syllabus, reading and writing assignments and additional meeting dates throughout the semester. DVDs will be available through the MALS office at a cost of $90 per set. Limited to 5 students, no auditors.
This course looks at the "big" questions - what is the mind? What is the purpose of life-what does it mean to be human? - and at the characteristic, often conflicting answers, which successive ages from the ancient to the modern world have given. At the same time the course considers how models of liberal education have been shaped by the different answers to these "big" questions. Guided by a modern narrative account (The Passion of the Western Mind by Richard Tarnas), we will examine the question-and-answer saga of the Western mind through works of representative "big thinkers:" Plato, Augustine, Dante, Descartes, Wordsworth, Dewey and Sartre.
Dr. Stephen Ruzicka (Ph.D., University of Chicago) is Associate Professor of History. His interests as a classical historian focus on periods of cultural change. He is the recipient of the 2000 Alumni Teaching Excellence Award.
Religion and Politics in the Modern Imagination
MLS610D
CRN 13801
Wednesdays, 6:00-8:50 pm
January 11-April 26
Triad Center
Dr. William Hamilton
This course is essentially a systematic investigation into the interplay between politics and religion in contemporary cultures. As a backdrop for the course, we will examine the roots of American democracy in the context of the European Enlightenment, particularly following political philosophies shaped by the Reformation in Geneva and Edinburgh . This background provides a helpful framework for understanding church-state separation in the American experience as well as efforts by Christian fundamentalists to blur those distinctions and recover their influence in the political and moral arena. We will also examine efforts by secular groups who hope to maintain the separation and keep religion out of politics and vice versa.
In addition to studying the U.S. experience, we will explore radical orthodoxies and politics in Islamic, Jewish, and Hindu societies. Broadening our study allows us to develop an appreciation for similar tensions between politics and religion in cultural settings very different than our own. In so doing, we stand a better chance of deepening our understanding of these tensions in our own society.
The major text will be Karen Armstrong's Battle for God, with supplemental readings in political philosophy, history of religion, and current periodicals, as well as in contemporary fiction.
Dr. William Hamilton (Ph.D. Tulane University) spent a decade in Latin America , working with ecumenical human rights and education agencies as a researcher, editor, and grass-roots organizer. Previously he taught at universities in Louisiana and Indiana before coming to UNCG in 2004. He is an ordained Presbyterian minister and works with Campus Ministries.
Ethics in the Workplace
MLS 610E
CRN 13803
Tuesdays, 6:00 – 8:50 pm
January 10-April 25
Triad Center
Dr. John Young
In the world of work we all have a job to do, and most people want to “ do the thing right.” We also want to “ do the right thing .” To do otherwise can result in the kind of corporate catastrophes that American business has witnessed over the past few years, of which Enron, Arthur Andersen, WorldCom and Global Crossing have become emblematic. The corporate, economic, political and social cost of not doing the right thing at work can be enormous. Furthermore, not doing the right thing at work can create unbelievable tension in our private life, since we want to think of ourselves as (and raise our children to be) persons of character and integrity. The picture is further complicated by the fact that doing the right thing in the world of work can sometimes cause significant losses of other sorts.
This course will explore issues of ethics in our everyday life, focusing on the challenges of the workplace. Topics covered will include personal integrity and character; their relationship to business and professional ethics; the practical implications of ethical decisions; conflicts that arise between personal interest and moral, legal or spiritual imperatives; and some of the resources available to us when wrestling with such issues.
Questions like the following will be addressed: Are there special problems or expectations for the roles we assume, such as that of supervisor, attorney, health care professional, teacher, stockbroker, police officer? What are the foundations of my own ethical decisions, and why do I embrace them? How clear can answers be to ethical questions? How can we foster agreement on, and reduce conflict over, ethical issues?
Dr. John Young is Adjunct Associate Professor of Philosophy. He has studied at the University of Virginia , the University of London and Yale. He is retired as Dean of UNCG's Division of Continual Learning and has served on the MALS Advisory Board since the program's inception in 1987.
The Age of Revolutions
MLS 610F
CRN 13807
Online course
January 9-May 2
Dr. William Hamilton
Over the last 600 years economic, political, social, religious, and cultural changes in the world of western civilization have been so extensive and profound as to constitute a series of revolutions. In this course we will treat the period between 1500 and the present as an “Age of Revolutions,” and revolution by revolution-=-from the Commercial Revolution to the Sexual Revolution—we will watch the modern age take shape. For each revolutionary episode we will identify the conventional institutions, practices, or ideas which were overthrown or radically altered by new developments. Where appropriate, we will look closely at the texts and individuals that played critical roles in driving revolutionary developments. Then we will trace the impact of the new institutions, practices, or ideas connected with each revolution.
Dr. William Hamilton (Ph.D. Tulane University) spent a decade in Latin America , working with ecumenical human rights and education agencies as a researcher, editor, and grass-roots organizer. Previously, he taught at universities in Louisiana and Indiana before coming to UNCG in 2004. He is an ordained Presbyterian minister and works with Campus Ministries.
The Dragon Awakes: Charting the Path of Modern China
MLS610G
CRN 13813
Online Course
January 9-May 2
Dr. James A. Anderson
Napoleon once famously admonished Europe to "let China sleep, for when she awakes she will shake the world." In recent years the People's Republic of China has certainly stirred, and the whole world has taken notice. However, the China 's economic stirrings have been accompanied by mounting social and cultural tensions at the heart of Chinese society. In this course we will examine the political, social and cultural roots of modern China and discuss the varied nature of the nation's future challenges. Topics will include state, society, and mass culture in the throes of reform, the global implications of China's economic and diplomatic “Grand Strategy,” the widening urban-rural divide, and the role of the individual and individual dissent in modern Chinese society
Dr. James A. Anderson (Ph.D. University of Washington) is an Assistant Professor in the History Department at UNCG. His fields of study include Late Imperial China, Modern China, and Pre-modern Southeast Asia. He is the recipient of several awards, including a Luce Fellowship and the UNCG Summer Excellence Research Award. His new book, The Rebel Den of Nung Tri Cao: Eleventh-Century Rebellion and Response along the Sino-Vietnamese Frontier, will be available Fall, 2006. Dr. Anderson has spent a total of over five years in China and Taiwan since his first visit in 1985.
Religion and Ecology
MLS610Z
CRN 13827
Online course
January 9-March 12
Dr. Charlie Headington
Religions are commonly viewed as ways to transcend nature, not abide in it. Religious people often describe themselves as pilgrims “just a-passin' through” rather than at home on the earth.
Yet, the current environmental crisis has motivated many people to re-examine their traditions and to align themselves with the earth. Whether Buddhist or Christian, Jew or Hindu, they discover a religiously based eco-theology, an ethic or earth-care, a means of re-inhabitation, and rituals of sustainability—in short, and eco-spirituality.
A dialogue about the fate of the earth has begun. Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, native Americans, scientists, eco-feminists, and designers are reinterpreting their traditions and fashioning earth-friendly worldviews, rituals, and practices. We will read five books and examine three themes: Ecological Identity (the depth of human connection to the earth), the Body of God (the cosmos and biosphere as sacred), and the Great Work (a new partnership of humans and nature). Students will post their responses to the readings and then respond to one another. The course concludes with a 10 page essay, based on our readings, of the student’s eco-theology.
Dr. Charlie Headington teaches a variety of courses at UNCG and in the community. Most of them encourage people to examine themselves and society, and make constructive changes in how they think and live. He likes to garden, walk, cook, be with his family, and learn Italian.
Dress, Identity, and Culture
MLS620A
CRN 13828
Mondays, 6:00-8:50 pm
January 9-May 1
Triad Center
Dr. Nancy Nelson Hodges
Dress is an intensely personal phenomenon, in that it helps us to express our innermost thoughts, feelings, and desires. At the same time, dress is completely socially situated as it functions to make such thoughts, feelings, and desires public. In this course, dress, in the form of modifications made to the body and supplements placed on the body, is the starting point for an exploration of the self in society. We will examine the ways by which the dressed body communicates our personal and social identities through its intersections with such factors as gender, age, social roles, ethnicity, and culture. Our study of dress will be contextualized through an interdisciplinary examination of how time and space are critical to understanding the meanings that are both embedded within and expressed through the dressed body.
Dr. Nancy Nelson Hodges (Ph.D. University of Minnesota) is an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Consumer, Apparel, and Retail Studies department at UNCG. Dr. Nelson Hodge's current research emphasis involves the exploration of dress in history, culture and society. Specifically, her research focuses on issues of gender as related to dress. Current research topics include: women, education, and the textile and apparel industry in North Carolina; cross-dressing and the Internet; the social psychology of apparel consumption; and women and the creation of knowledge within the clothing and textiles field.
Emerging Organizational Systems
MLS 620B
CRN 13829
Tuesdays, 6:00-8:50 pm
January 10-April 25
Triad Center
Ken McLeod
There is a growing awareness that the old rules of traditional, hierarchical, top-down management have negative effects on both organizational productivity and human happiness. They are gradually being replaced by new organizational forms that are fluid, organic, and often without boundaries. These new systems of organization have been influenced by revolutionary discoveries in quantum physics, chaos theory, and biology. This seminar will explore these powerful new insights through reading and discussing current literature about self-organizing systems, critically analyzing the role of growth, development, and competition, and perhaps, by revisioning our cherished beliefs of performance, cooperation, and leadership, and success. You will come away with a fresh new way of thinking about organizational development as it applies to business education, non-profits, churches, and individuals.
Ken McLeod teaches in UNCG's Bryan School of Business and Economics. He has over 20 years experience as a corporate executive in the field of human resource management.
Humankind Evolving: Science, Scenario, Story, Myth
MLS 630A
CRN13830
Thursdays, 6:00-8:50 pm
January 12-April 27
Triad Center
Dr. Mary K. Sandford
What does it really mean to be human and how – and when – did our species arrive at that place in time? These are questions that many disciplines and fields of study have addressed across the sciences and the humanities. In this course, we lead with scientific approaches to these questions, grounding ourselves, first, in evolutionary theory and satisfying ourselves in the fact of biological change over time. We will study the fossil record, focusing on the evolution of such taxonomic groups as the vertebrates, mammals, primates and, finally, the hominids, or members of our own taxonomic family. We will pay special attention to the beginnings of those characteristics that many consider the most fundamental in our evolution as “human,” including bipedal locomotion, encephalization (brain size and development), tool use, and language. Taking a humanistic approach, we will also consider the potential ways in which the scientific study of human evolution – and our evolution as a species – have been informed or deterred by other ways of knowing, including scenarios (or reconstructions), narrative (or personal story), and myth (religious/philosophical traditions). When we contemplate the future evolution of our species, are there ways in which we can integrate or balance alternative ways of knowing? We will use some basic texts pertaining to human biological evolution with a variety of other readings from both fiction and nonfiction. Class discussions are supplemented with documentaries, participatory exercises and online resources and discussions. This course also is highly visual and will involve the study of actual fossil casts or models. .
Dr. Mary K. Sandford (Ph.D. University of Colorado) is Associate Professor of Anthropology at UNCG. As a physical anthropologist who specializes in the study of the human skeleton, she has conducted bioarchaeological field work in past island and coastal populations from the Caribbean, West Mexico, and the Mediterranean . She is the recipient of the Alumni Excellence Teaching Award.
Emerging & Re-Emerging Issues in the Biological Sciences
MLS 630B
CRN 13829
Wednesdays, 6:00-8:50 pm
January 11-April 26
Triad Center
Dr. Rob Cannon
Biology has been happening on Earth for over 3.5 billion years. It touches our lives every day and understanding biological principles and concepts is vital for the citizens of the 21 st century. Whether it is “new” biology, such as genetic engineering or stem cell research or bioterrorism or the Human Genome Project, or “old” biology, such as the process of evolution and infectious disease, we should know something about biology if we want to be knowledgeable parents, consumers, voters, patients, travelers, or just regular people. This seminar will touch on some of the biology that we should all know about as we continue through this new millennium.
Dr. Rob Cannon is a Professor in the Department of Biology where has been a faculty member since 1972. He regularly teaches general microbiology, virology, immunology, and principles of biology. For fun, he is an avid tennis and racquetball player, and an instrument-rated commercial pilot.
*To participate in any online course, students MUST have access to one of the following system set-ups:
MAC
Mac OS 9 or better128 MB RAM
G3 processor or better
At least 56Kbps modem connection (although Broadband / fastaccess is preferred)
Internet Explorer 5 or better or Safari
PC
Windows 98 or better128 MB RAM
Pentium III or better (or at least a processor running 333 Mhz or better)
At least 56Kbps modem connection (although Broadband / fast access is preferred)
Internet Explorer 5.5 or better
Questions?
Call Julee Johnson, Liberal Studies Coordinator, (336) 334-4597; or Kathleen Forbes, Director of Liberal Studies, at (336) 334-4599.
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro is committed to equality of educational opportunity and does not descriminate against applicants, students, or employees, based on race, color, national origin, religion, gender, age, or disability.