| source Rice (X) |
level |
department Liberal Studies Core/Capstone (X) |
MLSC 501 - THE SHAPING OF WESTERN THOUGHT Credits: 3 Study of the foundational, intellectual and artistic texts of the western tradition from Ancient Greece to Medieval Islam. Consideration of texts and images over time and in their historical development as we reflect on who we are and how we got here. Readings would include: The Gilgamesh Epic, Homer's Illad, Thucydides' War, Plato's Republic, Book of Genesis, Virgil's Aeneid, Gospels of Luke and of Thomas, Augustine's Confessions and The Qur'an. Department permission required College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 502 - OUR ENVIRONMENT: SCIENCE AND CULTURE Credits: 3 In this course, students will learn environmental concepts, the science and culture behind them and possible reactions to related problems from a political, economic and cultural perspective. The instructor will introduce the necessary background material in biology, ecology and chemistry as needed but the emphasis will be on obtaining scientific literacy in environmental studies. College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 503 - VIOLENCE AND HUMAN NATURE Credits: 3 The topic of violence has engaged social scientists from many fields and can provide an illuminating and interesting focus for understanding the research and rationale of psychologists, political scientists, anthropologists and sociologists. Topics covered in this course include the early concepts of human behavior, evolutionary, biological, cross cultural, and historic approaches, cultural factors and the mass media, the sociology of violence, Freud and other emotion theorists, group violence, and legal, political and psychological solutions to controlling violence. College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 504 - ISLAM: STATE AND SOCIETY Credits: 3 This course offers an analytical and theoretical examination of government and social systems in the Arab and Muslim world. Because no one discipline is sufficient for an adequate understanding, this course reaches across the disciplines to include various subjects. History, economics, political science, gender studies, as well as literary and cinematic are the venues for learning about the region. The course will maximize student participation and students will be expected to be fully engaged through class discussion, oral presentations and writing assignments. College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 505 - SHAKESPEARE AND FILM Credits: 3 This course will examine several Shakespeare plays and their theatrical productions. The instructor will teach each play as a text (and a script) first, and then study the films of these plays in an effort to understand the choices the film-makers have made in adapting Shakespeare's plays to the screen. In this course, then, we will be concerned with studying both Shakespeare's plays and what happens to those plays in the hands of a creative film-maker. Department permission required College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 506 - THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND THE MIND OF MAN Credits: 3 This course will explore the beauty of the solar system, both as majestic work of nature and from the standpoint of a challenge to the observational and analytical capabilities of human beings. We will review our knowledge of the solar system from Ptolemy to the present day using contributions of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Einstein, and finally, robotic spacecraft. We will examine each planet and its satellite(s) using data and photographs from space probes and the Apollo missions. We will study the earth's atmosphere including present-day changes such as global warming. Finally, we will review briefly how the solar system came into being, the contemporary search for planets around other stars and the probability of extraterrestrial life and intelligence. The course will be non-mathematical. College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 507 - THE WHOLE IS GREATER THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS Credits: 3 Course URL: http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~stoll/mlsc507/ There are a series of interrelated themes in this course. We want to study and discuss ideas that can be relevant to a number of disciplines in the social sciences. We want to use these ideas to explore some interesting questions that are asked in the social sciences. But just because an idea is interesting does not mean it is valid. So we also want to think about how we might determine if these ideas actually account for behavior in the real world (i.e., how would we test these ideas and insights?). College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 508 - EARTH SYSTEMS DYNAMICS Credits: 3 This course involves exposing the advanced student to the interactions among the several mechanisms that combine to produce a working Earth. It would include concepts of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geology, Meteorology and Ecology. College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 509 - STEREOTYPES, PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION Credits: 3 In the past century social scientists have learned an enormous amount about stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination, yet they remain poorly understood by the public at large and especially by public policy makers. We all hold stereotypes, show prejudices and discriminate although not necessarily in traditional racist or sexist ways. This course will explore what social scientists, especially social psychologists, have learned about these issues especially in the last quarter century. While we will cover traditional racial and gender issues, we will also consider material related to obesity, homosexuality, mental and physical disability and age among other topics. College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 510 - MUSIC AND OTHER ARTS: COLLABORATION AND FUSION Credits: 3 This course will introduce students to the collaboration between music and other arts - poetry, drama, mythology, the visual arts (as applied to set and costume design) and dance - that often occurs during the creation of large musical works such as symphonies, operas and ballets. By investigating six musical materpieces, it will be possible to discuss aspects of the collaborative process and how they lead to artistic fusion. Department permission required College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 511 - AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ROMAN EMPIRE: SOCIETY & CULTURE DURING THE PAX ROMANA Credits: 3 When the emperor Augustus achieved supreme power in 31 BC, the Roman state began a period of stable rule and prosperity that lasted for more than two centuries. This course will examine the basic elements of Roman civilization during the Pax Romana. How was imperial power exercised and represented in art and architecture? What place did women, soldiers, slaves and foreigners have in Roman society? What were the basic modes of religious expression? What were the basic parameters of law and administration? How did the city of Rome develop as the hub of a multi-ethnic state? To answer these and other questions, we will discuss ancient texts in translation and modern interpretations. Time will be devoted each week to methods of scholarly research and writing. No previous knowledge of Roman history is required. Department permission required College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 512 - CONTEMPORARY CHINA AND THE CHINESE DIASPORA Credits: 3 This course explores the transnational forces changing the lives of nearly a quarter of humanity, the 1.4 billion people of Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and the diasporic Chinese communities of the Americas, Europe, and East and Southeast Asia. In order to explore the political, economic and social processes of liberalization that have created this new era of the increased circulation of people, ideas, commodities and technologies across national boundaries, seminar participants will use materials and methods from many scholarly disciplines and traditions: political science, history, economics, anthropology, gender and media/cultural studies. And in order to study these increasingly mobile populations that often fall outside the boundaries of conventional studies approaches in the social sciences, students will critically examine innovative comparative case studies and survey methodologies. Department permission required College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 513 - DNA: HUMAN IDENTITY AND ORIGINS Credits: 3 "Who am I?" "Where did I come from?" All branches of knowledge address these fundamental questions. This course examines how DNA informs the structure and function of humans, and how humans have in turn used DNA as a source of information to solve mysteries and improve lives. We will introduce the structure of DNA and show how it influences physical traits and is passed on from parent to child. We will review the original goals of the Human Genome Project and discuss how the surprising results that emerged from it have altered the way we view the role of genes in human development. We will examine how breakthroughs in DNA technology have allowed us to answer questions about human origins, worldwide migrations and personal genealogy and aided criminal investigations and medical treatment. This course will also use the specifics of DNA investigation as examples of science in action. Department permission required College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 514 - SOUTH BY SOUTHEAST ASIA: CRUCIBLE OF DIVERSITY IN RELIGION AND POLITICS Credits: 3 This course will cover an ethnological and pre-colonial review of the region and cover such topics as: the role of religion in framing culture and politics in the region; the impact of colonialism and its long-term impact on the culture and politics of the region; the past and present impact of nationalism on politics, economics and culture in the region, what forces frame them and how they operate; the prospects for democracy in the region; the challenge of economic growth equity and modernization in the region; the foreign policy issues facing the area including efforts at regional cooperation; and key contemporary problems facing the region such as the rise of radical Islam, the India-Pakistan Issue and demands and problems of minority groups in countries of the region. Department permission required College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 515 - SCIENCE IN THE FIRST PERSON Credits: 3 Have you wondered what it would be like to participate in a major scientific discovery, or to deal with highly competitive or cantankerous colleagues, or to convince a skeptical world that your idea is right and the rest of the world has got it wrong? By reading material written by scientists who have made major discoveries, we will look at how science is done from the first-person perspective. We will see how scientists confront troubling thoughts when they see the modern world in conflict with the nature they love, and why science has been called a "contact sport." Department permission required College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 516 - PICTURES AND WORDS: A VIEW OF MUSLIM POLITICS THROUGH THE ARTS Credits: 3 In this course comprised of three related segments, students will take a deeper look into the topics introduced in Islam: State and Society (MLSC 504). They will first consider Iranian film and its relationship to the only revolution in the region, and have an opportunity to hypothesize about the relationship between the visual arts and politics. Students will next look at the work of fiction authors and consider the themes that dominate the literature. Finally, students will apply the skills gained in the first two segments by focusing on one country whose selection is to be determined by the current political situation. Department permission required College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 517 - MODERN DRAMA ON FILM AND IN PERFORMANCE Credits: 3 This course will focus on drama not only as text but also as performance. We will read modern plays and discuss them as they are often discussed in English courses, concentrating on theme, character, world, imagery, language and dramatic action. In addition, we will also examine the "texts" as scripts, as working papers for actors and directors: in short, as source materials for performance. To this end we will also view movie versions of many of these plays. Department permission required College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 518 - JUDGING SCIENCE Credits: 3 In this course we will explore the simple, logical steps to acquire and extend scientific knowledge and will discuss several examples of sound, as well as flawed, scientific conclusions. We will review certain conflicts that arise between science and other major forces in our society: ideological and political beliefs, entrenched economic interests, decisions of our courts of law. All along, we will attempt to develop simple but sound criteria for dealing with the task that confronts all of us: judging science. Department permission required College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 519 - PSYCHOLOGY OF BELIEFS Credits: 3 Beliefs are among the most primitive, important and central of mental constructs. Many of our reactions to others are based on our beliefs and our perceptions of theirs, and it is impossible to understand racism, prejudice, religious and national conflicts without considering disagreement over basic belief systems. While there are several ways to approach the study of beliefs, we will focus on problematic beliefs, sometimes called anomalous or bizarre beliefs. Examples are beliefs in ESP and the paranormal, astrology, the reality of events that could not possibly have occurred, scientific theories and medical cures that are rejected by most experts, as well as extreme religious and political ideas. Department permission required College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 520 - ART MUSIC IN WESTERN EUROPEAN CULTURE Credits: 3 This course will trace music from the medieval courts and cathedrals to twentieth and twenty-first century concert halls. It will be taught using selected pieces of music representative of a specific time, place and situation in western Europe and western Russia. Music tells a great deal about how a society functions; it opens windows to social history, philosophy, concepts of math and of science, art, literature and architecture. Department permission required College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 521 - THE SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT Credits: 3 This course is intended to introduce students to some of the central concepts and issues of environmental studies, including environmental science, policy, history and literature - with an emphasis on scientific characteristics of the environment and human experiences and attitudes toward the environment in which our societies exist. Department permission required College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 522 - EVOLUTION IN SCIENCE AND SOCIETY Credits: 3 In this course, participants will learn about the physical and biological development of our planet and its life, as well as discuss how biological evolution is viewed in today's society. Emphasis will be on the study of evolution as it is recorded in the fossil record. Participants will have the chance to examine fossil specimens as well as environments of fossil formation. The specific objective of this class is for participants to develop an understanding of evolution with a focus on how the theory has been built over time. The broader objective is to practice critical thinking and presentation skills while focusing on how society faces scientific data. College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 523 - THEORY AND PRACTICE OF PUNISHMENT Credits: 3 This course will focus on the writings of some of the most influential scholars in sociology, legal philosophy and political theory who have contributed to the creation of ideal or normative views of legal punishment and exposing the harsh realities of how non-violent and violent criminals are actually punished. College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 524 - EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY Credits: 3 Darwin's theory of evolution has influenced psychologists and other social scientists for the past 150 years, often in crude and not always useful or acceptable ways. Major developments in evolutionary biology over the past half century, have opened opportunities for more sophisticated applications to psychology. One of the fastest growing and most controversial areas of modern psychology, evolutionary psychology seeks to explain fundamental issues such as sex differences, proclivities toward violence, cooperation, trust and competition in social groups, the ways and whys of human cognition, as well as the existence of art, music, literature, and religion. This course will explore these topics and more, and we will examine arguments both for and against this controversial perspective on human behavior. Department permission required College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page
MLSC 525 - PLAGUES AND POPULATIONS Credits: 3 This course will examine the interaction of pathogens and human societies. It will cover the biological nature of pathogens and disease, the human immune system and therapeutic and societal interventions to prevent and cure disease. Specific diseases will be studied to determine the biology of the disease agent, its exploitation of the human host, its transmission and epidemiology and how the disease impacts the economic, political, social structure and values of the affected populations, and how the response to disease may limit its impact. Department permission required College: School of Continuing Studies Department: Liberal Studies Core/Capstone
Score: 11.496247 Details | Listing | Web page