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Course Descriptions

Course Description Fall 2009

LEAP Program

Architecture

LEAP 1610: Seminar in Humanities for Students in the College of Architecture
Erin Silva

This class will give students the critical and analytical tools necessary to better understand, appreciate and respond to the architectural world they encounter every day. With these tools, students will be encouraged to react critically to the basic architectural elements of space, material, mass, color, texture, line, form and content, and to appreciate a building's context within the larger fabric of physical site, social life and the existing culture within which it was created. Beyond this new critical ability to respond to the built environment, the class will teach not just what a building is when perception is limited to basic architectural elements, but what and how it means when the connections between culture and social life and technology are understood. The class will help students open their eyes to the rich and varied architectural world around them and give them tools necessary to understand and write about that world through creative, critical interpretation. The class will view movies, examine graphic novels, discuss TV shows and even venture into the world of college and professional sports to understand the important role architecture plays in our everyday lives.

School of Business

LEAP 1101-011: Seminar in Social Science for ASAP Students

Community as Idea and Experience: Definitions of Other
Professor Edward Barbanell

We will focus on how we define and experience "the Other," or "Otherness," in national, international, and global contexts. We will begin by examining how, generally, the social sciences approach the study of human institutions, cultures, and behaviors; we will get an introduction to the nature and methodology of the social sciences by reading and discussing the first part of Earl Babbie's The Practice of Social Research, and will try to come to terms with cultural anthropological research concepts by addressing the following questions:

What are some of the major questions and problems about communities that are studied by social scientists?
What is the nature of the reality social scientists investigate?
How do social scientists go about studying human behavior and social institutions?
Are the social sciences a "science"? Can the methods of the natural sciences be used in the social sciences?
Are the social sciences value-free and morally neutral? What is the relationship between the social science researcher and what he or she is researching?
Do social science theories represent social facts in a literal way or are they merely metaphors?
How do societies change? What role does social science play in our society in influencing public debate and public policy?

Working from this conceptual base, we will begin by exploring how the poorest of working Americans, a group often thought of as "the Other", are perceived by "us" and how "they" experience the "American Dream" differently than do most middle-class Americans. We will read chapters from two sociological works - Mark Rank's One Nation, Underprivileged, and David Shipler's Working Poor - before tackling Barbara Ehrenreich's bestselling and much publicized Nickel and Dimed. Our main questions about Ehrenreich's book will concern her methodology and her objectivity. We will next move on to explore another type "othering"; we will consider how hereditarianism, or "biological determinism," both shaped and was shaped by social and political thinking about certain racial and ethnic groups; this is the main topic of Stephen J. Gould's The Mismeasure of Man. Additionally, we will examine two infamous and deplorable episodes of 20 th century America - the Lynchburg Colony for the "feebleminded" and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study - and try to understand how they could have happened. In the final section of the course, we will turn to a discussion of "otherness" on an international level. We will be interested in understanding the process of "globalization" and how it both constructs and affects "others" in the developing world; in particular, we will examine the question of how globalization affects "justice", both economic and environmental, in the developing world. The final assignment for the semester will require students to produce a research paper investigating and analyzing the actions of a transnational corporation operating in a developing

LEAP 1101-012/013: Seminar in Social Science for Business Students

Professor Meg Harper

“Work hard and you will succeed.” From developed countries to the Third World, from the laundry room to the boardroom, from Main Street to Wall Street, from potato chips to microchips, our exportation of the American Dream affects people everywhere. How is it possible to work hard in America and not succeed according to our materialistic standards of socio-economic success? The first half of LEAP 1101 examines the problems that afflict our nation’s working poor, with emphasis on issues of gender, class, and ethnicity, as well as the ethical concerns and decisions surrounding minimum wage, welfare, healthcare, and childcare. In the latter half of this course we will consider how the capitalist forces of globalization become the driving forces behind our treatment of workers’ human rights, the environment, and of global sustainable development.

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College of Health

LEAP 1100-003/004: Seminar in Humanities

Professor Jeff Webb

In the first semester of College of Health LEAP, we take a literary approach to understanding the diverse society which makes up American health care, in both the provider and patient populations. We begin with the premise that learning to be a close reader of literature can train future health care professionals for some of their hardest tasks: being simultaneously attentive listeners and analytical thinkers, adopting points of view very different from their own, following the thread of another's story, and navigating in areas of uncertainty and ambiguity. We read literature from America's diverse cultural traditions to better understand the history of health disparities for people of color in the U.S. This literature shows us the profound ways in which culture shapes people's lives, including their experience of their bodies, their socially constructed notions of health and illness, and their relationship to power and institutional authority. Students will gain a deeper understanding of a particular cultural group and the health care issues relevant to it through an in-depth team research project and presentation.

College of Education

LEAP 1101-004: Seminar in Social Science

Professor Jeff Webb

In the first semester of Education LEAP we will study education from the perspective of social science, considering first the cultures of students—specifically class differences among school children—then the cultures of schools. Our broadest question will concern the relationship between individuals and their social environments. To what extent can people rise above their circumstances? To what extent are they determined by their circumstances? These are crucial questions when thinking about education, for schools are, after the family and the neighborhood, one of the key formative environments for children. If schools today are failing—and this, at least, is the oft-repeated contention of many commentators—then is that failure due to families and neighborhoods (the cultures of students) or to underfunded school districts and demoralized teachers (the cultures of schools)? These are crucial questions for our time. We will start by reading a fascinating ethnography of elementary school students, Unequal Childhoods by Annette Lareau, and finish up by reading Jonathan Kozol’s impassioned critique of funding disparities in American school districts, Savage Inequalities. We will read other shorter works, as well as study two films depicting the long-standing crisis in urban high schools: Stand and Deliver and Lean on Me. The first semester of LEAP satisfies a social science graduation requirement.

In the second semester of Education LEAP we will read novels and autobiographies that depict young people confronting cultural differences, usually in school settings. Reading these books will allow us to study the formation of identity and community in an America composed, as it always has been, of differences. The second semester of LEAP satisfies a humanities requirement and the diversity requirement.

College of Engineering

LEAP 1501-001/002/003/004/005/006: Seminar in Social Science

Professors Becky Larsen and Seetha Veeraghanta

This course offers E-LEAP students an understanding of the role of ethics in their engineering profession that includes, "....engineering standards and realistic constraints - economic, environmental, sustainability, ethical, health and safely, social and economic" (Criterion 4, Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Programs 2001-2, ABET, Nov 2000). The course introduces the concept of sustainability within the broader discourse of engineering ethics to enable E-LEAP students to obtain a better "understanding of the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental and societal context" (Criterion 8, Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Programs 2006-7, ABET, July 2006).

In this course, the students examine how the social sciences study human institutions, cultures, and behaviors and in particular, apply the concepts of engineering ethics and decision-making processes. This course prepares students to recognize ethical issues in engineering with the help of case studies drawn from national and international contexts. Students will gain an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility by exploring the ethics statements from discipline specific professional (both national and international) organizations and societies. Case study analysis of engineering failures help integrate concepts of risk analysis into the discussion of ethics and professional responsibilities, especially as they relate to public health, safety and whistle blowing. Such integration allows students to realize that ethics form the core of the engineering profession.

In order to understand the role of the engineer in local, national, and global settings, students begin by asking:

What is a society or community? How do engineers define a professional society? What is the purpose of professional engineering societies?
How can engineers determine what is ethical in making decisions within different communities? Are traditional philosophical concepts about ethics applicable to engineering codes of ethics, or are there other ways to think about engineering ethics?
What are some of the major questions and problems about communities studied by social scientists? What can engineers learn from social scientists and implement in dealing with other engineers, with corporations or government agencies, and with the public?
How do social scientists study human behavior and institutions? What should engineers know about social and organizational theory?
What role do social scientists play in our society in influencing public debate and public policy? How does this relate to the role of engineers as citizens and as technical advisors in shaping progress or changes in technology?
How do social scientists and engineers analyze and respond to issues of globalization?

To understand the impact of engineering solutions in global and societal contexts, concepts of local and global sustainability are introduced. The notion of sustainable development is examined from the practicing engineer's perspective. This incorporates a discussion of ethical implications of issues such as globalization and rapid growth of information technology. The students explore your discipline specific discourse on sustainability and ultimately present their findings as a culmination of the semester-long learning. Detailed instruction and guidance is provided to the students on how to present professionally and the student presentations are a part of the professionalization training that the course offers.

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Exploration LEAP

LEAP 1101-005: Seminar in Social Science
Structural Violence and Social Justice
Professor Jennifer Bauman

Structural violence is currently used in the social sciences to identify any form of human suffering that is the result of a society's political, social, legal and/or cultural structures. Social justice models have been proposed as remedies for structural violence. Students will study and critique those models. The course will include films, field trips and guest speakers.

LEAP 1101-006: Seminar in Social Science
Community and the Family
Professor Margaret Harper

Family man, family first, family values, nuclear family, extended family, family crisis, family business. Family is at the center of our values, culture, rhetoric, social system, and politics. This course uses issues surrounding the family to explore the problems, opportunities, and resistance created by economic change, capitalism, globalization, and the information age. Through discussion of topics such as the American Dream, minimum wage, poverty, social policy, and globalization's effects on human rights and child labor, we will consider fundamental concerns for families and individuals in local, national, international, and global contexts.

LEAP 1101-007/008: Seminar in Social Science
The Environmental Consciousness
Professor Michael White

In his groundbreaking 1949 book, A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold introduced his "Land Ethic," in which he sought to "enlarge the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, animals, or collectively: the land." This course will explore notions of community and diversity through an environmental lens. We will examine the ecological, political, cultural, and ethical dimensions of the often vexed and always complex relationship between human beings and the natural (or non-human) world. Readings will include scholarly articles from a variety of fields, first-person narratives, traditional myths, and an assortment of other textual sources. The course aims to provide the student with both a sense of historical scope and multicultural breadth.

LEAP 1101-014: Seminar in Social Science

Professor Kris Koford

College of Fine Arts

LEAP 1100-001/002: Seminar in Humanities

Professor Jennifer Bauman

In this course we will explore both the idea and experience of community and communities in the United States of America with special attention to communities within the Fine Arts. We will consider how these communities have developed and, in particular, how they interrelate and define themselves by the inclusion and exclusion of certain individuals and/or groups of individuals. To gain an understanding of what community means to different people in America we will view films and read autobiographies written by American authors involved in the various disciplines of the Fine Arts. Each of the films and texts offer insight into how racial, ethnic, social class and gender issues can affect an individual's perception of community and participation in the fine arts in America.

Residence Halls

LEAP 1101-009/010: Seminar in Social Science for Students Living in the Residence Halls

Professor Kris Koford

Service

LEAP 1101-001/002/003: Seminar in Social Science
Community as Idea and Experience: Definition of the Other

Professor Carolan Ownby

These courses are service emphasis. Herman Melville is often quoted as saying "We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow man." Yet there are forces in communities which work to unravel those fibers as rapidly as they are woven. This class will focus on the process of exclusion, especially as it is motivated by perception of race and class, and propelled by the power of ideology and discourse. We will examine this process in three contexts: national, international (apartheid in South Africa), and global (the global reaction to the genocide in Rwanda). A significant portion of class assignments will be community outreach service-learning hours, reaffirming the belief that one person can make a difference, in essence by honoring the community tapestry.

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LEAP Plus

College of Engineering

Second Year LEAP 2600-001: Seminar in Social Science

Professor Seetha Veeraghanta

In order to understand the role of the engineer in local, national, and global settings, students begin by asking:

What is a society or community? How do engineers define a professional society? What is the purpose of professional engineering societies?
How can engineers determine what is ethical in making decisions within different communities? Are traditional philosophical concepts about ethics applicable to engineering codes of ethics, or are there other ways to think about engineering ethics?
What are some of the major questions and problems about communities studied by social scientists? What can engineers learn from social scientists and implement in dealing with other engineers, with corporations or government agencies, and with the public?
How do social scientists study human behavior and institutions? What should engineers know about social and organizational theory?
What role do social scientists play in our society in influencing public debate and public policy? How does this relate to the role of engineers as citizens and as technical advisors in shaping progress or changes in technology?
How do social scientists and engineers analyze and respond to issues of globalization ?

Health Sciences

First Year LEAP 1100-005: Seminar in the Humanities

Minority Engagement with the American Health Care System
Professor Carolyn Bliss, Ph.D.

This is the initial course taken in a four-year program for students pursuing careers in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, or health who come from populations historically under-represented in or under-served by the American health care system. Reading memoirs, biography, and autobiography, students examine how those from minority communities who have trained for, worked in, or encountered American medicine have acted as explorers and translators: building, interrogating, reframing, or rejecting relationships between the American mainstream and their communities of origin: African-American, Latino/a, Asian-American, American Indian, and others. In a semester-long team project, students also research and report on the health concerns of specific minority populations and the cultural/historical underpinnings of these concerns. LEAP 1100 fulfills one humanities requirement and the University's diversity requirement.

Second Semester: A course in biomedical ethics.

Second Year UUHSC 2500-001: Health Professional Seminar for Advanced LEAP

Professor Carolyn Bliss, Ph.D.

Students focuas on shadowing

Third Year UUHSC 3000-001: Health Research Seminar for Advanced LEAP Students

Professor Carolyn Bliss, Ph.D.

Includes paid research in University Laboratory

Fourth Year UUHSC 4000-001: Service Learning Through Community Partnerships

Professor Carolyn Bliss, Ph.D.

Pre-Law

First Year Pre-Law Students: LEAP 1100-006: Seminars in Humanities

Professor Ann Engar

Through reading memoirs, biographies, and autobiographies of people associated with the law, students will learn about the law, different American perspectives, and the idea of community. Students earn general education humanities and diversity credit.

Second Year Pre-Law Students: LEAP 2700-001: Legal Professions

Professor Ann Engar

Third Year Pre-Law Students: LEAP 3700-00: Pre-Law Service Learning

Professor Ann Engar