Mar 28, 2024  
2008 Summer Sessions Bulletin 
    
2008 Summer Sessions Bulletin [ARCHIVED BULLETIN]

Courses of Special Interest


Summer Writing Workshops

The Summer Writing Workshops operate on the principle that true writing talent can be developed, nurtured and encouraged by writer-in-residence mentors. Through instruction, discussion, criticism and free exchange among the workshop members, new writers begin to find their voice and their style. For further information, call go to www.hofstra.edu/ucce/SummerWriting.

Intensive Language Courses

Each of these intensive language courses is given over a period of two and one-half weeks. Earn three credits for each of the courses listed below. Languages levels I and II may be taken sequentially over a five-week period for six credits. Refer to the course descriptions for additional information including meeting dates and times as well as prerequisites required for enrollment.

Elementary Russian RUS 1 and 2
Summer Session I

Elementary Swahili SWAH 1 and 2
Summer Session II

Regional Geology for Teachers: Field Geology Workshop in California

Trip will run out of San Francisco from July 23-August 1, 2008. An integrated series of daily field trips to different geologic terrains following Geologic Society of America field guides, National Park field guides, and the field areas selected specifically for this class. A day of formal lectures will precede this course at Hofstra University (162 Gittleson Hall at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, July 16, 2008). Field lecturing will be kept to a minimum and will only be planned to provide introductory material. Rather the students will be encouraged to discuss observations and draw conclusions independently. Professor Merguerian will answer questions and lead discussions.

Archeological Field Methods: Community and Captivity in Early New York

The 2008 Hofstra University Archaeological Field School will examine the diverse lives of captive Africans on Long Island through the excavation of the remains of a slave quarter associated with the Joseph Lloyd Manor site in Lloyd Neck, New York. Lloyd Manor was home to Jupiter Hammon, one of the earliest published African Americans, whose work addressed enslaved Africans and challenged the injustices of slavery. Archaeology provides an opportunity to compare the words of Jupiter Hammon with the evidence left behind by others laboring at the site during the time of slavery. This interdisciplinary study will offer unique insight on the diversity of experiences and perspectives within the enslaved community on Long Island.

Acting Workshop

Exploration of the basic techniques of stage performance, introduction to major contemporary approaches.

Studies in Literature:

Vampires and Gothic
The gothic imagination, marked by anxious encounters with the “other,” is manifested in late nineteenth-century literature in several ways: through gender, definitions of mental illness, and through literal creation of monsters and vampires.

Advanced Workshop: Hip Hop and the Secondary School Curriculum

This week-long workshop takes a critical look at Hip Hop culture and its impact on today’s adolescents. Hip Hop culture will be examined by looking at its evolution as a historical movement in not only music, dance, fashion, and graffiti but also as a socio-political phenomena.

Modern Dance IA

One of the technique classes in contemporary dance forms designed for the nonmajor to continue over a two-year range of study. Emphasis on technical development, theories and discussion related to expressive potentialities, and the mastery of stylistic variation in contemporary forms of movement.

Special Topics: Software Project Management
Information can be presented in various forms–text, graphics, animation, audio, and video. This course deals with the design of software and protocols for presenting data through multiple media.

Readings in Literature: Baseball and American Literature
Historian Jacques Barzun observed, “Whoever would understand the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball.” Baseball and American literature explores the weave of baseball’s ubiquitous presence in American life from its influence on language and expression to its connection with the American persona and identity through literature from Ring Lardner to August Wilson.

Modern Irish Theater

This graduate course will study Modern Irish Theater. Twentieth century Irish theater generated a new, revolutionary theater which attempted to keep native playwrights in Ireland instead of England addressing the needs of the native Irish people. The 20th century also saw revolutionary changes in Ireland when most of the country achieved its independence from Great Britain, though Ulster remained part of the British Empire. This course will show how modern Irish playwrights addressed the historical and political concerns of the Irish people during this period. We will be reading the following playwrights: Shaw, Yeats, Lady Gregory, O’Casey, Beckett, Behan and McDonough. By the end of the course the students will have knowledge of the major playwrights of Irish theater during this revolutionary period.

Hatha Yoga
Specially designed postures and exercises which not only improve the student’s overall physical fitness level, but also increases bodily awareness and creativity.

Stars and Galaxies
Elementary treatment of stellar and galactic astronomy, tracing the development of ideas to the present time. Accompanying laboratory illustrates measurements appropriate to stellar and galactic astronomy.

The Shape of the City: Walking Tours
New York City is a great laboratory of architecture and a fascinating example of the ways in which urban space has been, is, and will be used. Although a giant hodge-podge to those unfamiliar with it, the City is really a collection of smaller places. Through these walking tours, students will begin to understand these places. They will see how urban spaces are shaped and what elements define some of the principle neighborhoods of New York City.

Mysticism and the Spiritual Quest
Mysticism is traditionally defined as the yearning for direct connection to a transcendent reality and is referred to as the esoteric dimension of religious search. A cross-cultural exploration of the meanings, definitions, practices and common themes of mysticism via a study of original texts (in translation) from different parts of the world.

Topics in Philosophy: Ethics

Critical examination of major theories in ethics with readings drawn from classical and contemporary sources. The aim is to clarify and illuminate the processes of evaluation, decision and ethical action through the study of important works in the history of ethics.

First Aid and Safety
An American Red Cross certification course designed to develop first aid and CPR skills, knowledge, safety awareness and injury and illness prevention. Safety and prevention topics include: fire safety and arson prevention, heart disease prevention, preventing choking, child safety, injury prevention, poisoning prevention (including substance abuse/awareness), preventing heat and cold-related illness.

Art History: Asia in New York
This course introduces students to direct embodiments of Asian culture in museums and various other institutions in New York and at the same time provides a systematic survey of Asian art (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Indian and South-East Asian) from the Bronze age to the 20th century. While four class meetings and exams take place in a campus auditorium, other lectures are held in such institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Chinese Scholars Garden and Jaques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art on Staten Island, the China Institute, the Museum of Chinese in the Americas and the Eastern States Buddhist Temple in Manhattan, the Bonsai Museum and Japanese Garden in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden as well as the Asian floor of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the galleries of the Japan Society and the Urasenke Tea Ceremony Society, the Morgan Library, the galleries of the Asia Society, the Nicholas Roerich Museum and the American Numismatic Society.