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The following Special Topics courses are available for students
in Spring 2007. Please see each individual course description
for prerequisites.
ART 205. Special Topics in Studio: Introduction to Figure
Drawing
Working from the clothed and nude life model, students will learn
how to draw the human figure in a wide range of approaches and
mediums. Gesture, value, proportion, foreshortening, diagrammatic
line, contour line, expressive line, the fundamentals of composition
and an introduction to abstraction will be covered. Mediums will
include charcoal, conte, pencil, pen and ink, brush and ink, and
paint stick. $75 Lab fee
ART 205. Special Topics in Studio: Introduction to Printmaking
Introduction to Printmaking is an introductory level studio course
that will use the medium of printmaking as a vehicle for exploring
visual language. Different approaches covered will include
lithography, relief, monoprinting and drypoint. There are no
prerequisites for this course. $75 Lab fee
ART 205. Special Topics in Studio: Introduction to Digital
Photography
The class will show students how to translate their basic
photography skills to the digital darkroom using Photoshop 6.0. The
class will make gallery visits and discuss current ideas in
photography. Students may use either a digital or regular 35 mm
camera. $75 Lab fee
ART 250. Special Topics in Art History: Modern and
Contemporary Architecture
This course examines the contextual role of architecture from 1900
through the beginning of the 21st century. Taught in an
interdisciplinary format, the course will explore the social,
political, economic, and symbolic meanings of built environments,
and the concepts, theories, and visions of architects from the early
modernists up to and including the most recent global architectural
movements. No prior coursework in architectural history is required.
Prerequisite: COR 104
ART 305. Advanced Special Topics in Studio: Intermediate
Printmaking
Intermediate Printmaking is an intermediate level studio course
which will build upon printmaking approaches studied in Introduction
to Printmaking while also exploring new vocabularies, including
monotype, reverse relief, chin colle’, photocopy lithograph and
collograph. Students will develop their ideas in series format. $75
Lab fee
Prerequisite: ART 205 Introduction to Printmaking
BIO 310. Special Topics Biology: Cancer Biology and
Pharmacology
This course will consider the molecular, organellar and cellular
changes that occur when cancer develops in various human organ
systems. The genetic basis for tumor development will be correlated
with events in oncogenesis, including biomarkers for clinical
disease expression. The structure and mode of action of anti-cancer
drugs as molecular therapeutics will be considered along with anti-mitotics
and microtubule targeting agents.
Prerequisite: BIO 202, CHM 201, and CHM 201L with minimum grades of
C-.
BUS 495. Special Topics in Business Administration:
Introduction to Business
This course is designed to provide a basic understanding of how
business operates in American society and the global economy. The
course explores the functioning of business by analyzing and
providing an understanding of the economic, technological, social
and legal environments in which business is conducted. The student
will gain a basic knowledge of the various disciplines involved in
operating a business enterprise. Disciplines such as accounting,
business law, economics, finance, management and marketing will be
introduced. An opportunity will be provided to explore and develop
career paths in the arts, business, government and not-for-profit
sectors.
Prerequisite: Not open to students with a combined 9 or more credit
hours in accounting, economics and business.
CRS 390/WGS 305. Advanced Topics in Communication and Rhetoric
Studies: Gendered Communication and Rhetoric
This course studies the relationships among communications, gender,
and culture. Students will explore theoretical approaches to gender;
the cultural rhetorics of women’s, men’s, and gender movements;
cultural views of gendered interaction, including masculine and
feminine discourse styles; gendered nonverbal communication; and the
practices of gendered communication in a variety of cultural
contexts. Prerequisites: CRS 101 or permission of the instructor
CRS 390/POL 350/SOC 404. Advanced Topics in Communication and
Rhetoric Studies: Survey of Research Methods
This course introduces students to qualitative and quantitative
methods such as surveys, experiments, archival research,
hermeneutical research, case studies and causal analysis. The class
will examine these research methods from several different angles
including research techniques specific to each method, skills to
critically evaluate such research, the epistemological
considerations and practical consequences of undertaking such
research. Students considering graduate school or careers that
require them to use and assess research may find this course
particularly valuable.
Prerequisite: Junior standing required to take this class
CRS 390/ART 305. Advanced Topics in Communication and Rhetoric
Studies: Documentary Film
This course covers the theory and practice of planning and executing
public affairs, informational, and cultural documentary programs.
Students will be introduced to short-form and long-form
documentaries, emphasizing the technical and aesthetic aspects of
documentary filmmaking using video production techniques. Production
projects will be geared toward the development of proficiency in
documentary planning, writing, production and post-production.
Students will produce short but serious documentaries using a
combination of personal cameras and broadcast quality cameras, and
digital editing equipment. Students will be expected to own or have
access to a video camera, either VHS or digital. $200 Lab fee
Prerequisites: CRS 390 Video Production or permission of the
instructor
ECO 428. Special Topics in Economics: Econometrics
This course will introduce econometric theory and techniques with an
emphasis on the use of the basic linear regression model. Students
will perform empirical test of economic theories and employ computer
software to run ordinary least square regressions (OLS). Emphasis
will be placed on interpreting regression results.
Prerequisite: permission of the instructor
ENG 306. Special Topics in Drama: Shakespeare in Performance
Team-taught by two Renaissance English professors, this course will
include various approaches to Shakespeare’s drama, integrating
performance and scene work with close-reading, as well as some
consideration of theater history and literary criticism. The course
will also aim to engage with Georgia Shakespeare and Atlanta
Shakespeare Tavern artists. No prior performance experience
required. May be taken to satisfy either the Shakespeare requirement
or upper-division elective credit toward the English major.
Prerequisites: COR 101, COR 102, and one 100-level English course
ENG 310. Special Topics in Fiction: Contemporary Fiction
When reading contemporary fiction, it’s hard to determine the value
of a particular novel or short story: that makes such reading
especially challenging, and sometimes lots of fun. When studying
Dickens or Tolstoy, one soon sees that the major critical battles
are almost over; when reading what’s just been published, the
battles haven’t even begun, so teacher and student aren’t so widely
separated. We will examine what are in my view two of the best
novels in the last few years: Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections and
Edward Jones’s The Known World. But most of the course will focus on
a number of women writers such as Alice Munro, Sue Miller, Joan
Silber, Gail Godwin, and Lynne Sharon Schwartz.
Prerequisites: COR 101, COR 102, and one 100-level English course
ENG 312. Special Topics in Literature and Culture: Nature,
God, and Community in 19th-Century American Literature
This course explores the relation between nature, the divine, and
community in a series of literary works from mid 19th-Century
America. Our study of texts by major writers such as Emerson,
Thoreau, Whitman, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Dickinson, and Clemens,
will emphasize the complexity of their attitudes toward nature, its
relation to God, and moral categories of good and evil. We will also
look at their implications about the possibility of community with
God, nature, and other people both in the 19th Century, and now.
Prerequisites: COR 101, COR 102, and one 100-level English course
HIS 350. Special Topics in History: The Witch-Craze
The witch-craze of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries remains
one the darkest periods in modern history. This course will examine
the causes, both social and intellectual, of the witch hunts, and
their relation to the Renaissance, Reformation, and the formation of
modern society. We will examine work by leading scholars on the
witch hunts in Germany, England, and France, as well as unpublished
original documents relating to the trials.
Prerequisites: HIS 211 or Junior Standing
HON 201. Honors Seminar: Photography and Narrative Fiction
This course will examine the relationship between photographs and
short narrative fictions. Through close readings of various short
stories and numerous photographs – as well as of theoretical
writings on photography – we’ll explore the sometimes radically
different ways in which the two media draw our attention not to
what’s being presented but to how it’s being presented, looking in
particular at how they’ve informed each other – they emerge almost
contemporaneously, after all – and what each might have to say about
the nature of art.
Prerequisite: Membership in Honors Program
MUS 430. Special Topics in Music: Basic Techniques of
Conducting
An applied study of the primary grammar of conducting’s gestural
language along with its applications in musical performance. The
course is designed for group instruction followed by individual
performances with the class acting as the “laboratory” ensemble.
Preparation requires basic proficiency in rhythm and music literacy,
but only minimum proficiency in music theory.
Prerequisite: COR 103 or permission of instructor
PHI 321. Special Topics in Philosophy: Ethical Theory
This course will study the most important Western philosophical
theories about value judgments and moral judgments, giving
particular attention to the Platonic vs. the Aristotelian approach
to ethical questions and to the moral theories of David Humae and
Immanuel Kant.
POL 350. Special Topics in Politics: Constitutional Law—Civil
Rights and Civil Liberties
In this course, we will examine the Bill of Rights and the 14th
Amendment, as well as the voluminous case law developed in the
federal court system to interpret and apply them.
Prerequisite: permission of instructor
POL 350. Special Topics in Politics: Comparative Federalism
Federalism is a fundamental and identifying component of the
American political system. Federalism remains an important, if often
unseen, political force in the daily lives of Americans. In addition
to seeking to understand what, as an organizing principle of
government, federalism is, this course explores the theoretical and
historical basis of American federalism, as well as theories of
federalism from Canada, Australia, and Western Europe. We will
address questions of federalism’s relationship to rights and
minorities, liberty, security, and justice.
Prerequisite: permission of instructor
POL 350. Special Topics in Politics: Moral and Political
Leadership
In this course we will explore a variety of issues connected with
moral and political leadership in a democratic society, largely by
focusing on the biographies of great leaders. In addition to
individual research on a leader of their choosing, students will
examine the life and works of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln,
Jimmy Carter, and Martin Luther King, Jr. This course satisfies the
“leadership biography” requirement for the Rich Foundation Urban
Leadership Program.
Prerequisite: permission of instructor
POL 350. Special Topics in Politics: The Civil War and the
Re-founding of America
This course is an inquiry into the nature of the U.S. Constitution
and the political philosophy that underpins the American system, as
well as an attempt to understand how the Civil War shaped Americans’
own understanding of their nation. The objectives of this course are
1) to understand the founding and the two competing theories of the
government it created that came into aggressive conflict as a result
of Southern secession; 2) to assess the meaning of the Lincolnian
re-founding; and 3) to analyze the re-founding’s affect on American
political thought.
Prerequisite: permission of instructor
POL 441. Seminar in Political Philosophy: Religion in
Constitutional Law and Contemporary American Legal Theory
In this course, we will examine the contemporary debate among
scholars and “public intellectuals” about the role of religion in
American public life. Above all, we will consider the “wall of
separation” metaphor and its various alternatives as a means of
coming to grips with the vexed place of religion in the public
square.
Prerequisite: permission of instructor
THE 320. Special Topics in Theatre: Company
A course in ensemble creation, open to artists-in-training in
acting, directing, and playwriting. In an experimental laboratory
setting, students will learn techniques for creating original
theatre through actor improvisation, experimental staging, literary
adaptation, and creative writing. Authors include Wilder, Puig,
Allende, Kundera, and Vallejo.
Prerequisite: THE-105 or permission of instructor
THE 320. Special Topics in Theatre: Modern Western Drama
This course introduces the seminal plays of modern Western drama by
master playwrights of Europe and North America, including Ibsen,
Strindberg, Chekhov, Lorca, Brecht, O’Neill, Williams, Miller, and
Beckett. These are the plays that revolutionized world theatre,
helped create our modern literary sensibility, and continue to
inspire contemporary theatre artists. (Satisfies requirement THE 220
Theatre History II: Renaissance to 20th Century)
Prerequisite: THE-105 or permission of instructor
ULP 304. Community Issues Forum: Efficiency, Justice, and
Community in Local Governance
In this course, we will take a look at a number of issues in local
governance, all exemplified by the growing number of efforts in the
Atlanta metropolitan to create new cities—Sandy Springs, Milton, and
Johns Creek in Fulton County, as well, perhaps, as Dunwoody and
Tucker in DeKalb, and Vinings in Cobb. These are the latest
instances of an old move, described by some as a means of
establishing local control over land use and other such matters, and
by others as a means of enabling suburbanites to keep out
“undesirables.”
Prerequisite: permission of instructor
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