HUHC 020 A-Z - Liberal Arts SeminarSemester Hours: 1-4
Fall, Spring
Liberal Arts Seminars are specialized courses offered to students of Hofstra University Honors College . Each seminar is proposed, designed, and led by a member of the Hofstra faculty. Multiple seminars are offered each semester on a wide variety of topics. The purpose of the seminars is to provide HUHC students and faculty an opportunity to explore subject matters and topics that do not typically present themselves in regular departmental offerings.
Current Special Topics
HUHC 020A H1 CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES IN AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY
Professor Bernard Firestone, Political Science TR 2:40– 4:05 PM CRN: 21955
In the coming Spring semester, the American people will have either elected a new president or retained the current one. In either case, many of the international challenges we face now will continue to command presidential attention, as will new ones not yet on the nation’s foreign policy agenda. This course is designed to examine a number of these challenges. Among the topics, we will cover the threat to American primacy from a rising China and the problem of how to deal with a resurgent Russia. We will look critically at America’s fixation on the Middle East as a region with particular relevance to the United States and the continuing public preoccupation with terrorism as a core threat to the national interest. We will explore not only the problem of nuclear proliferation to countries such as North Korea and Iran but also how advances in technology threaten the unleashing of an accelerated arms race, including nuclear weapons and cyberwar. We will also look at the kinds of challenges, such as pandemics and climate change, that are often ignored by scholars of international politics and even government officials, who concentrate instead on the threat other states pose to the national interest. There will be a midterm and final in the course. In addition, students will participate in in-class debates over concrete foreign policy problems and compose an essay related to the debate topic they have been assigned.
(The chair of the Political Science Department has indicated this course may be counted as a departmental elective toward the completion of the requirements for Political Science majors or minors.)
HUHC 020B H1 ITALIAN COMIC BOOKS
Professor Simone Castaldi, Romance Languages and Literatures MW 4:20-5:45 PM CRN: 20238
SYNCHRONOUS ONLINE ONLY FORMAT
This course follows the development of the comic book medium in Italy from its inception at the beginning of the 20th century to the present. In addition to familiarizing themselves with the major trends and movements in Italian comics – including the early experimentations with modernism, the colonialist adventure epics of the fascist period, the literate narratives for mature readers of the ‘70s, and the postmodern sci-fi dystopian visions of the ‘80s – students will learn about Italian society, history, and politics while gaining an understanding of the present-day political situation. Furthermore, as we examine the richly intertextual works that are the subject of the course, the students will be presented with narratological tools in order to appreciate the structural complexity of the comic-book medium and to examine the deceptive divide between works of so-called high culture and those of the popular media.
“All lectures and materials are presented in English.”
HUHC 020C H1 MAKING BABIES: RELIGION & NEW REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES
Professor Ann Burlein, Religion MW 4:20-5:45 PM CRN: 20601
This course explores the reception of reproductive technologies such as IVF and surrogacy in different religious and cultural contexts. How do such technologies change when they are used by people whose cultural background includes belief in karma, multiple lives, and ancestors? Why do some religions define the use of donor sperm or eggs as adultery? And how does the cross-racial and cross-cultural use of these technologies impact human rights as well as notions of parenthood and kinship?
(The chair of the Religion Department has indicated this course may be counted as a departmental elective toward the completion of the requirements for Religion majors or minors.)
HUHC 020D H1 SEEING THINGS
Professor Sophie Hawkins, Religion TR 4:20 – 5:45 PM CRN: 22997
The title of this seminar purposefully conjures a creative tension between two ways of looking at things: on the one hand, we will be examining the overlooked histories and resonances of everyday objects (e.g., furniture, footwear, keepsakes tucked away in drawers), and on the other, we will think about “seeing things” in terms of divination (e.g., dreams, visions, and auguries). This class will blend material culture studies (the close study of the social biography of artifacts) with the study of animist worldviews (where both material and non-material things have agency). At the end of the semester, we will ask how our understanding of religion has been impacted by learning to see things differently.
(The chair of the Religion Department has indicated this course may be counted as a departmental elective toward the completion of the requirements for Religion majors or minors.)
HUHC 020E H1 COLOR TV
Professor Aashish Kumar, Radio, TV, Film TR 4:20 – 5:45 PM CRN: 22767
“Color TV” will look at the new wave of US television shows (especially those that are streaming but also on broadcast TV) featuring writers and characters of color who aren’t just token figures but central to the stories. In addition to offering a study of contested representations, the course would also look at strategies of accommodation and mainstreaming that these creators must contend within their quest for cross-over audiences within the economics of commercial television work.”
(The chair of the RTVF department has indicated this course may be counted as a departmental elective toward the completion of the requirements for RTVF majors or minors.)
HUHC 020H H1 COVID-19: CHEMISTRY AND BEYOND – OFFERED DURING JANUARY 2021 SESSION
Professor Ling Huang, Chemistry MW 9:40 – 11:05 AM CRN: 21961
SYNCHRONOUS ONLINE ONLY FORMAT
In this pandemic, Chemistry and Allied Health Sciences played a prominent role on multiple fronts. In this seminar, we will discuss the chemistry/biochemistry involved in the diagnostic tests, therapeutic drugs, vaccine development, PPE development, sanitizing agents, and viral transmission (chemical and biochemical investigation of it). In addition, we will touch upon the controversies that arose from the entanglement of science, politics, and media. Specifically, we will cover contentious issues such as increased opioid overdoses during the pandemic, misinformation, the controversial use of hydroxychloroquine, and missteps in public health measures. Students will be able to learn some COVID-related science and build up critical thinking skills.
HUHC 020K H1 KAFKA IN WORLD LITERATURE: TEXTS, CONTENTS, INFLUENCES
Professor Neil Donahue, Comparative Languages and Literature MW 2:40 – 4:05 PM (M online; W in person) CRN: 24442
In a cross-cultural manner, we will look at precursors to Kafka in 19th century American and Russian works and then turn to the central figure of Franz Kafka, who wrote in German in Prague in the early 20th century. His lucidly strange prose in his key works will lead us into a view of his influence on Magical Realism in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Japan, Africa, and elsewhere worldwide, in literature and the visual arts as well as theater, fashion, and other modes of expression to the present day. Explore a World of Weird, fun, and fantastical. This course can also be taken for German credit with readings in the original by arrangement.
Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes:
Liberal Arts Seminars are open to Honors College students in good standing and, with the permission of the instructor and the HUHC Deans’ Office, to other students who meet HUHC entrance criteria. May be repeated for credit when topics vary.
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