Honors Seminars Spring 2013
HON 400-1001: Victorian Legacies: Victorians and Technology
T/R 10:00-11:15
Dr. Maria Jerinic
In Hamlet’s Blackberry (2010) William Powers asks his readers to consider thinkers of the past in order to confront the challenges posed by recent innovations in technology In this class we will accept his invitation and explore texts of the “English Victorians, the first people,” according to Herbert L. Sussman, “to live in a culture dominated by technology.” Ideally, the work of this seminar will allow us 1) to develop an appreciation for Victorian writing and its impact on contemporary U.S. culture; 2) to reflect on our struggles to accommodate technological innovation in our twenty-first century lives. We will focus on 19th century British Victorian and 20th - 21st century Neo-Victorian/Steampunk texts. Readings probably will include Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Alan Moore’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen as well as work by Thomas Carlyle, Rudyard Kipling, H.G. Wells, Jasper Forde and Christopher Nolan’s 2005 film The Prestige. There will be a short midterm paper, a presentation, and a final research project.
Dr. Maria Jerinic is a visiting Assistant Professor in the Honors College. She is also an Editor for Topics for Victorian Literature and Culture published by Cambridge University Press.
Hon 400-1002: National Identity: Migration and Multiculturalism
M/W 11:130-12:45
Dr. Joanna MM. Kepka
“Allons! Enfants de la patrie!” (“Let’s go! Children of the nation!”) was the cry of the French people to overthrow their absolutist monarch. The French Revolution gave the western world Nationalism, an ideology that defined 19th and 20th century Europe and beyond. This seminar explores the changing notions of national identity and examines what the term meant prior to the rise of the European nation-state and what it means in the present era of globalization, migration, and multiculturalism. Using a variety of media (film, narratives, testimonials), the course also examines the rise of the far-right movements, and cultural racism and xenophobia associated with immigration in the post 9/11 context. While this seminar focuses on western Europe and the United States as recipient societies for the world’s migrants, it also goes to other geographical regions to seek their perspective on the phenomena studied in this class. This course satisfies the International requirement
Dr. Joanna Kepka (B.A. Macalester College; M.A. and Ph.D. University of Oregon) was born and grew up in Poland and studied in France and the United States. She is a cultural-political geographer with regional specialties in Europe and the Middle East and has professional experience working for Le Rassemblement Pour La Republique in Paris and the Polish Embassy in Washington, D.C. Dr. Kepka’s research interests focus on the dynamics of political organization of space and their implications on ethnic and national identities.
HON 400-1003: Medicine and Literature
M 5:30-8:15pm
Dr. Russell Gollard
We will be reading both works of non-fiction and fiction in this seminar. We will concern ourselves with illness from both the perspective of the patient and clinician. To that end we will read works both of fiction and non-fiction, both classic and newly minted. We will look at the perspective of physicians, particularly their long “training”. We will also look at how biases are built into such training. We will also focus on the different attitudes toward illness manifest in the experience of a patient. Discussion will be required. This class will be of a complete non-lecture format.
Russell P. Gollard, M.D., is a physician in private practice here in Las Vegas. His practice focuses on hematology and medical oncology. Dr. Gollard holds a Master’s Degree in English from the University of Southern California and has taught for many years.
HON 400-1004: Gandhian Welfare Philosophy and Non-Violent Culture
M 2:30-5:15pm
Dr. Satish Sharma
This course is designed to be an introduction to Gandhian welfare philosophy and nonviolent culture. Gandhian welfare and nonviolent culture conceptions are explored with reference to present human needs, values, orientations, life styles, and cultural practices. The social, moral, and political bases of societies are examined with a view to remove inequality, injustice, and oppression and for coming up with peaceful alternatives to the solution of problems. Self-empowerment, self-development, and just social order are the other emphases. The course utilizes other visionaries from the East and the West as well.
A Barrick Scholar Award winner and author of seven books and numerous articles/ professional papers, Dr. Sharma has taught at UNLV since 1982 and in the Honors College since its inception. He is an internationally known scholar. His main research interest is: Gandhian thought, welfare foundations in the societies, and third world nations.
HON 400-1005: The Supreme Court in American Life
T 2:30-5:15pm
Dr. Michael Green
The U.S. Supreme Court decided the 2000 presidential election, and Americans accepted the result--some not happily, but they accepted it. Yet the court, as one of its justices says, has no armies, and no one can watch its proceedings on television. How does the court work? What role does it play in our society? How do justices get appointed--and why are there only two women justices but six Catholics, with liberal and moderate justices who once were attacked as conservatives and conservatives who vote with liberals? This course will explore that through reading, lecture, discussion, video, and other sources.
HON 400-1006: The Super Hero in Literature
T/R 5:30-6:45pm
Dr. Heather Lusty
Arc of the Superhero: Warrior, Knight, Adventurer, Watchman
Drawing on Joseph Campbell's classic cross-cultural study of the hero's journey, this course will explore the hero from antiquity to the modern age, analyzing changes in the patterns and characteristics of heroes through time. Major sections will include ancient epics, medieval chivalry, the gentleman adventurer, and twentieth-century heroes, specifically focusing on the evolution of their moral obligations to society. Course material will draw from multiple genres including literary epics, film, graphic novels, and video games. Students will produce several essays over the term examining connections between genres and eras/archetypes (critical thinking) and hypothesizing/articulating reasons for changes in the portrayal of heroes throughout the genres and over time (socio-historical context).
Dr. Lusty has been teaching for the Honors College since 2004. She has 2 MA's (English and History, respectively) and completed her PhD in 2009. She teaches literature surveys (110, 115) and 400-level seminars including: Monsters and Morality, 20th Century War Literature, Post-Colonial Identity, and others.
Hon 400-1007: History of Casinos
M/W 4:00-5:15pm
Dr. David Schwartz
This course will familiarize students with the historical development of casino gaming and present an accurate picture of the current state of the casino industry throughout the world. We will begin with a brief overview of the roots of casinos in European gambling, discuss several relevant trends in 19th century legal and illegal gambling and spend the bulk of the course considering the development of the American legal casino gaming industry, with a concentration on Las Vegas. We will consider the creation of the Strip, changes in the structure of casinos, the professionalization of the gaming industry, and the spread of casino gaming throughout the world, with an emphasis on recent developments in Asia.
David G. Schwartz, the Director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is a writer, speaker, and consultant whose areas of specialty include the history of gambling, gaming statistics, casino surveillance and security, gaming and technology, casinos and social media, and related issues. An Atlantic City native with a Ph.D. in U.S. History from UCLA and hands-on experience in the gaming industry, Schwartz has been at UNLV since 2001.
HON 400-1008: Bellagio Art
T/R 6:00pm-7:15pm
Dr. Bob Tracy
(This course has an off campus component)
For the past twelve years I have been fortunate to develop/transform the traditional classroom space into a much more dynamic instructional arena for the examination and assessment of original works of art by utilizing the Guggenheim Hermitage (Venetian, 2001-2007) and more recently the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Arts (Bellagio, 2007 to the present). For the Spring 2013 semester, I will once again be offering my Special Topics class in Art History in the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Arts and focus on the Pop Culture of the 1950s to the 1970s. Instead of relying on projected images in the classroom, we will be able to cast our gaze onto original works of at produced by American pop artist Andy Warhol and other artists constituting the Bellagio’s exhibition. This course satisfies the Fine Arts requirement.
Dr. Bob Tracy, Associate Professor/Curator/Consultant/Archivist in Art and Architecture History and Theory and Criticism in the Department of Art, UNLV. He has served in numerous administrative positions including Department of Art chair, Associate Dean of the College of Fine Arts, Director of the School of Architecture UNLV, Associate Director of the Honors College, and Founding Director of the CFA Advising Center
HON 400-1009: Philosophy and Science Fiction
T/R 11:30-12:45
Dr. Gregory Janssen
Is it possible for you to be your own mother? Could you travel back in time and kill your grandfather, years before your own father was born? Could a very sophisticated android fulfill the criteria for personhood? Should we allow one to be punished now for crimes that one has not yet, but is predetermined to commit in the future? Is it possible that you are living your entire life in an elaborate simulation? If you are in such a simulation, what, if anything, would be wrong with that? These questions are but a few raised in works of the genre of science fiction. Authors of science fiction use these questions, and answers to them, to develop compelling, and frequently illuminating, storylines. At their core, these stories exploit classic philosophical issues, and whereas the authors of science-fiction raise these issues in a popular context, philosophers have long attempted more systematic investigation of the questions and their possible answers in order to shed light on some of the fundamental concepts we use to make sense of the world. In this course, we will examine some of the philosophical problems and paradoxes raised in works of contemporary science fiction by reading from well-known novels, short stories and watching popular films. Our exploration of the science-fiction literature will be accompanied by readings from classic and contemporary philosophers carefully discussing the central philosophical issues raised therein. The result will be a survey of some classic problems in metaphysics and epistemology. We shall examine the nature of personhood, the possibility of free will, the paradoxes of time travel, and philosophical skepticism and its implications for how we should live our lives. Material will be drawn from readings by Philip K. Dick and Robert Heinlein, and others, as well as from films, including The Matrix, Bladerunner, and 12 Monkeys.
HON 400-1010: Poetry, World and Spiritual Thought
M/W/ 10:100-11:15
Jaclyn Costello, MFA
Like science, logic, and literature—poetry is another way we come to understand the world. In this course, we’ll study poetry that expresses an awareness of the human being’s placement within a much grander structure than ourselves. You will be immersed in five unique units of poetry: Persian, Hindu, Buddhist, Western European, and poetry of the Americas. Integrated into our learning experience will be music, film clips (i.e. the Whirling Dervishes), and art (i.e. Blake). You will also be required to compose a term paper or substantial creative work, as well as to participate in discussions relating to philosophy, spirit, and poems. This course offers you the opportunity to see the world from different perspectives—becoming more globally aware, while participating in an in-depth analysis of poetry. This course satisfies the International requirement.
A Chicago native, Jaclyn graduated with an MFA in Fiction & Poetry Writing from UNLV. She began her undergraduate degree at NYU studying Film and Philosophy. Woven around and between the years of her more formal education, she could be found traveling through Morocco, Peru, Bolivia, Iceland, France, Spain, and others. She has also worked various odd jobs ranging from a third grade teacher in the Midwest, to a host for a television talk-show in the UK. Apart from her love of adventure and learning, Jaclyn enjoys food, forests, world religions, and art in all forms.
Jaclyn recently completed two novellas, The Convalescents, & Manu’s Illusion of Control as well as a collection of poetry, How to Be a Human. This year, she is seeking publication. She has two websites: JaclynCostello.com & EnlightenLifeCoach.com.
HON 400-1011: Propaganda
Dr. Yvonne Houy-Kilker
W 2:30-5:15pm
Goebbels, the Minister responsible for Propaganda in Nazi Germany, admired Hollywood in particular and Americans in general for their mastery in persuasion.
In this course we examine propaganda and resistance to it from the 1920s American and European development of that concept, to Nazi political exploitation, to 1960s refinement of advertising persuading to consume, to current developments in public opinion manipulation.
As special project you will create your own propaganda campaign on an issue of your choice, using the concepts learned in the course.
HON 400-1012: Pop Culture
Dr. Jay Coughtry
R 2:30-5:15pm
Rise Against, a contemporary rock band, comments on its transition from cult status to mainstream successes on its latest release, Appeal to Reason. One song titled “Entertainment” includes the acerbic line “All we are is entertainment/ Caught up in our own derangement.” Mark Cuban, the fanatic owner of the Dallas Mavericks, likewise describes his professional basketball franchise. “We sell fun. We sell the answer to “What do you want to do tonight?” Both examples sum up the essence of American popular culture: entertainment that migrated from the realm of the folk (family, community and region) to the marketplace and mass audience. In this seminar students will confront many varieties of American popular culture from a historical perspective. After tracing its origins in the market revolution or 19th century, the class will examine the evolution and proliferation of popular culture forms over the last century. Analyzing films, television, music, sports and the like, the class can begin to grapple with popular culture’s impact on the larger society. How does it reflect, refract and ultimately shape the wider world? And what have been the consequences for Americans who spend so many billions of dollars and hours “just having fun?”
