Last Updated March 13, 2008
(we will continue to add course descriptions as we receive them)
SUMMER 2008
FLAN 3923H
Professor Tatsuya Fukushima
Course ID 014156
Colloquium Type: Humanities
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ANTH 3923H
Professor Ted Swedenburg
Course ID 010658
Colloquium Type: Social Science
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FALL 2008
AIST 4003H, Music at Court: A cross-cultural study of ruler as musician, musician as poet and scholar, and musical repertory at fives courts from 8th to 16th century Asia and Europe
Professors Elizabeth Markham and Rembrandt Wolpert
TTH 11:00 - 12:20 PM
Colloquium Type: Social Science and Humanities
The middle ages in both Asia and Europe were exciting times in the development of the arts – and quite different from our common concept of “dark ages”. The first court under scrutiny both in time and in size will be that of the Chinese Táng emporer Xuánzōng (reigned 712-756), not only a patron of the arts, of artisans and everything beautiful, but also known as composer and performer of the flute.
Táng Xuánzōng’s court was the model for the Japanese court at Heian-kyō(present-day Kyôtô). Here we shall focus on emperor Go-Shirakawa (1127-1192) and the sometime prime-minister Fujiwara no Moronaga (1138-1192), both renowned for their cultural interests: Go-Shirakawa preserved for us song repertory in writing, a repertory that was about to die out at his time. His prime minister Fujiwara no Moronaga is the undisputed musicological giant of his day.
The German courts of the Middle Ages saw the rise of the German language in poetry and song. We shall investigate the “Singers’ War” on the Wartburg (1202), look in detail at three prominent Minnesingers, Emperor Henry (1165-1197), Walther von der Vogelweide (1170-1230), and Konrad von Würzburg (died 1287). A forward look at the guild of master-singers (Meistersinger) in powerful independent towns like Nürnberg will round off this section.
Albert V, Duke of Bavaria (ruled 1550-1579) was one of the greatest patrons of arts not so unlike his more popularly known, much later successor, King Ludwig II (1845-1886). Both rulers were fanatic in their architectural and musical endeavours - Albert had built in his residence in Munich the Antiquarium, the largest renaissance hall north of the Alps, and he appointed the grand musician Orlandus Lassus as leader of his court chapel, which would reach its zenith in international reputation under his direction.
A result of the Mongol invasion of India, the Mughal empire ruled most of the subcontinent of India from the 16th to the mid-19th century. Mostly renowned for their contribution to the unique architecture they supported – the Taj Mahal is probably the best know example - the Mughal courts also supported a vast courtly entertainment “industry”, and their tastes, combination of Persian, Arabic, North Indian and Central Asiatic flavours, combined into what became the “classical tradition” of India in architecture, painting and music.
This course does not require specialized knowledge of music, nor of early European or East Asian languages, and it is open to majors in any field. Students address their particular interests via individual projects, culminating in an extended research essay from each student.
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BIOL 3923H, Watershed Ecology
Professor Art Brown
Course Number: 011536, Class number: 9644
Colloquium Type: Natural Science
This course will provide students an opportunity to learn the major models/theories of watershed ecosystem structure and functioning while improving their skills at oral and written scientific communication, and participating in the peer review process. The first meeting will consist of an overview followed by selection of topics by individual students (small group projects will not be allowed). The science librarian will be asked to conduct a class to facilitate efficient research of the subjects selected. After a couple of weeks to prepare, students will begin presentations of their papers to the class. Each class member will prepare a brief critique of each oral presentation, which will be graded and then given to the presenter along with my grade/critique of his or her presentation. Written manuscripts (4 copies) will be submitted for review at least three weeks before the end of the semester to facilitate peer reviews during that week. Students will have two weeks for revisions before manuscripts will be re-submitted for grading and posting/distribution to each class member. Course grades will be based on grades received for 1) reviews of oral presentations, 2) reviews of manuscripts, 3) oral presentations, and 4) manuscripts. Reviews cannot be submitted by students not in attendance, resulting in zeroes, therefore grades will be directly affected by attendance.
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CHEM 3923H, Quantum Reality, Consciousness, the Emergence of Complex order in Evolution, and the Spiritual Quest. (Conceptual Lessons from Quantum Chemistry and Physics.)
Professor Lothar Schafer
Course Number: 3550; Time: MWF 1:30 to 2:20
Colloquium Type: Math, Natural Science or Humanities
Chemistry room 219; e-mail: schafer@uark.edu
One of the great achievements of 20th Century Physics is the discovery that physical reality is different than we always thought. Physical reality is not what it looks like. It is now possible to propose that the basis of the material world is non-material; that reality is an indivisible wholeness; that quantum objects possess properties of consciousness in a rudimentary way; and that the basis of reality is not some big mass but a cosmic consciousness.
It is important to realize that the true nature of reality does not rest in the visible order of the world. Reality appears to us in two domains. One is open and visible; the other is hidden and invisible. The former consists of the material things of our conscious experience. The latter consists of non-material, non-empirical forms – quantum forms. These forms are also real, because they can manifest themselves in the empirical world and act in it.
The concept of a non-empirical part to physical reality seems at first self-contradictory. How can it be possible that something is real if it is not material and cannot even be experienced? However, entities do exist of which we can have no experience and yet they are real because they can express themselves in the empirical world and have an effect on us. The course will explain in a non-mathematical way that is understandable to all students, including non-science students, those concepts of quantum theory that are needed to understand the revolutionary change in our world view that the quantum phenomena demand. Among the non-empirical entities we find, for example, superposition states in which microphysical objects can evolve and leave, as it were, the actual world. Another class of non-empirical entities is found in the empty states of material objects which quantum chemists call virtual. Virtual states have no empirical properties, because they are empty. Nevertheless, virtual states are real, because they have the potentialto express their logical order in the empirical world. Other quantum topics discussed in this class include single particle interference, the wave-particle duality; Heisenberg's uncertainty, and the non-locality of the universe.
The quantum phenomena show that the visible world can be understood as an emanation out of the realm of non-material quantum forms which appear spontaneously in the world of material objects. In this context it is significant that our psyche, too, can be understood to depend on a realm of forms, called archetypes by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung. The archetypes are non-empirical forms which appear spontaneously in our consciousness, determining our imagination, perception, and thinking. Jung believed that they emerge out of a collective unconscious that is a non-personal part of our psyche to which all of us are connected and in which we are all one. When non-empirical forms seem to actualize in both, the realm of physical material objects and in the realm of our consciousness, new theories of consciousness are inspired, using the quantum phenomena as a basis. The course will discuss the merits and problems of some of these theories.
Along the same lines, the discovery of quantum physics has significant consequences for our understanding of the basic concepts of molecular biology and genetics. The conflict between the orthodox Darwinian view of evolution and the more comprehensive quantum perspective will be analyzed in the light of the quantum nature of the universe. To large segments of our society, the single most offensive statement of Darwinians is the claim that “life evolved out of nothing and was created by chance.” That statement will be seen to be incompatible with the quantum nature of matter, where the emergence of complex order is never out of nothing but out of the domain of non-empirical forms in physical reality which represent an immanent and invisible order that already exists before it is visible.
In addition to describing the scientific concepts of quantum theory, their close connection with some of the grand philosophical systems of Western Philosophy will be presented, pointing out parallels between quantum concepts and the philosophies of the Presocratics, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, the medieval Nominalists, Berkeley, the British empiricists, Kant, the German Idealists, and the positivists. Striking parallels between Modern Art and Modern Science will be described, demonstrating that, contrary to common belief, an intimate connection exists between the arts and the physical sciences.
Finally, the class will branch out into problems of ethics, discussing the possibility of a system of ethics based on cosmic order which, in a globalized world, can serve as a basis for diverse cultures to coexist and to cooperate. If the nature of the universe is mind-like, it must be expected to have a spiritual order as well as a physical order, and in human beings this order rises to the level of morality. If the universe has the nature of a wholeness, it is more likely that it will include us, than that it does not. If the universe is mind-like, it is more likely that it will communicate with our mind, than that it does not.
The consequences of the quantum phenomena for our views of human nature are enormous. Many students who heard for the first time in this course of the quantum phenomena have testified that the experience led to a radical change in their view of life. If the nature of reality is that of a wholeness, we can think that our consciousness has emerged from this wholeness, is part of it and the wholeness is aware of its processes. In this way we are led to consider that a cosmic consciousness is active in the universe. Vice versa, the cosmic spirit is thinking in us. The universe has opened again, the visible part of reality is only the cortex of something deeper and wider that has room for the spiritual and the mysterious.
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GEOL 3923H, Extinctions and Life History
Professor Walter Manger
Course ID 014422
Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30am-10:50am, 421 Old Main
Colloquium Type: Natural Science
COURSE CONCEPT: This is an Honors-level, reading-discussion-thinking class that will examine extinctions and their consequences in the history of life on earth, concentrating on the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary. Broader considerations will involve scientific thinking in general and geological thinking in particular, scientific approaches to problem articulation and solutions, particularly theory development. Once again, the Cretaceous/Tertiary extinctions will focus those discussions, but they will include other parts of the geological record.
COURSE FORMAT: Readings will be taken from the literature and distributed during class periods. Content is open-ended and will be determined by discussions and questions raised during the semester.
READING-DISCUSSION TOPICS: Topics to be considered during the semester include, but are not limited to: What are extinctions? What are mass extinctions? What is the time framework for mass extinctions? What drives extinctions? Are extinctions compatible with uniformitarian and rare event thinking? When were the mass extinctions in the geologic record, and what may have caused them? Were all mass extinctions caused by the same event or events? What are dinosaurs? How have concepts of dinosaurs changed through time? What is the history of the dinosaurs on earth? What is the legacy of the dinosaurs in the history of life? What happened at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary? What was the time framework for the K-T boundary extinction? Why was the K-T boundary event so selective? What effect would a bolide impact have had on the earth and his life? What effects have bolide impacts exerted in the history of life? Are there alternatives to the impact theory that might explain these same events? Why has the impact theory of K-T boundary extinctions been so widely accepted by the general public, but rejected by most of the scientific community?
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German 4123: The German Novella
Professor Kathleen Condray
Colloquium Type: Humanities
Immaculate conception...demonic possession...plagues of poisonous spiders...revenge curses...serial killers...the German novella is in many ways the equivalent of the X-Files for the 19th century. In fact, German authors became such masters of the genre that many critics feel that both dramas and novels are nonexistent during the Romantic period because everyone was as obsessed with writing the Great German Novella as folks today are with writing the Great American Novel. This course will discuss the beginnings of the genre in Boccaccio's Decameron, its development and characteristics, and how each novella discussed does or does not adhere to the typical form. Coursework includes readings of up to 120 pages per week in German with daily quizzes as well as a mid-term and final. Students will read twelve primary works that are classics of the German literary canon. All readings and the three hour weekly lecture/discussions take place in German; prerequisites include Advanced German I and II, German Introduction to Literature, and preferably German Civilization. Instructor permission to enroll will also be given with demonstrated appropriate language skills.
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HIST 3923H, The Little Rock Crisis and School Integregation in Arkansas
Professor Michael Pierce
Course ID 014994
Colloquium Type: Social Science or Humanities
The course will focus on the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision in Arkansas. Students will examine the literature of the decision and the course of school integration in Little Rock and across the state. Students will also be required to write a research paper focusing on the integration of a school district in Arkansas (other than Little Rock, Fayetteville, or Hoxie).
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HIST 3923H
Professor Elliott West
Course ID 014994
Colloquium Type: Humanities or Social Science
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HIST 3923H, African American Biographies
Professor Calvin White
Course ID 014994
Colloquium Type: Humanities or Social Science
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HUMN 3923H, TIBETAN BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY AND CULTURE
Venerable Geshe Thupten Dorjee
Course ID 015470
Colloquium Type: Humanities or Social Science
Course Description: Until the time of the Chinese invasion in the 1950’s, Tibet had maintained one of the richest cultural and religious traditions in the world. Now, with many of its citizens living in exile, Tibetans have been striving to maintain abroad the same traditions that were native to their homeland. This course will examine many of those traditions and offer the student a unique opportunity to participate in them under the guidance of an extraordinary teacher: a Tibetan Buddhist monk who has received the highest degree awarded by an Indian institution in Buddhist studies and who has passed examinations administered by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Students will not only learn about the major traditions of Tibetan Buddhism from an acknowledged authority, but they will also have an opportunity to participate in many of the activities that are central to the culture. Students, for example will construct a simple sand mandala as well as work side-by-side with Geshe Dorjee in preparing authentic Tibetan cuisine. Students will also study Tibetan chanting and construct simple religious objects, such as the prayer flag, while gaining an understanding of the place each of these objects occupies in the Tibetan cosmology. General Class Information: Aside from the lecture / discussion format, class-time will be spent viewing movies and gaining a first-hand knowledge of the production of Tibetan culture. Cooking, chanting, making sand mandalas and prayer flags, as well as learning the fundamental progressions of Buddhist logic—all of these will contribute to a general understanding of Tibetan culture. It is a culture, of course, that has been heavily influenced by the Buddhist philosophy of non-violence and compassion for all sentient beings, and accordingly we will investigate the ways in which a community operates in an environment of cooperation and genuine concern for its fellow citizens. All Tibetan culture—according to Tibetan cosmology—is concerned with the five major sciences: 1) arts and crafts; 2) medicine; 3) grammar; 4) logic; 5) philosophy. We will explore various aspects of these sciences in our class. Note: Before class begins, it is recommended that you view two films. First of all, Kundun, and second, Seven Years in Tibet. These are widely available at the rental stores in town, or Professor Burris will be happy to loan you his personal copies of these films.
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HUMN 3923H
Professor David Fredrick
Course ID 015470
Colloquium Type: Humanities
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HUMN 425V, Early Christian History
Colloquium Type: Humanities
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HUMN 425V, Introduction to the New Testament
Colloquium Type: Humanities
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JOUR 3923H - Issues in Advertising & Public Relations
Professor Jan Wicks
Colloquium Type: Social Science
Catalog Description: Seminar course involving the critical examination of the major cultural, social, political, economic, ethical and persuasion theories and/or issues relevant to advertising and public relations affecting individuals, organizations and societies. The course also serves as an introduction to research methods for Journalism Honors students interested in ad/pr. Students in the course develop a research proposal. Therefore students who are not Journalism majors should understand they are expected to develop a research proposal in the class.
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JOUR 3923H, Media Politics and Government
Professor Hoyt Purvis
Coloquium Type: Social Science
This colloquium will focus on the relationship among the media, politics, and government, and on the role and impact of the media on politics, political campaigns, and in public and international affairs. There will be a special emphasis on the media role in the 2008 presidential campaign. The class will involve analysis of the power, responsibility, and performance of the media and the significance of evolving media technologies for politics and government. There will also be examination of government policies and regulations affecting the media and of significant developments and trends within the media.
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MATH/BIOL 4163, Dynamic Models in Biology
Professors Dennis Brewer and Kim Smith
Colloquium Type: Natural Science
Instructors:
Dr. Kim Smith (Biological Sciences)
Dr. Dennis Brewer (Mathematical Sciences)
Time: 9:30-10:50am Tues/Thurs
Place: SCIE 418
Prerequisite: familiarity with topics regarding differentiation and rates of change as learned in Calculus I
Selected Topics (tentative):
- Enzyme Kinetics
- Pharmacokinetic Models
- Optimization Models
- Structured Population Dynamics
- Membrane Models and Action Potentials
- Cellular Dynamics
- Dynamical Systems
- Models for Infectious Diseases
For further information:
Contact Dr. Brewer (dbrewer@uark.edu) or Dr. Smith (kgsmith@uark.edu).
Visit http://pup.princeton.edu/titles/8124.html or http://www.cam.cornell.edu/~dmb/DMBsupplements.html
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MUTH 4773H, Music and Language
Professor Elizabeth Margulis
TT 3:00 - 4:20 PM
Colloquium Type: Humanities or Social Science
People often speak about music as a “universal language.” Is this accurate? In what ways is it useful to think about music as a language? If people can be bilingual, can they also be bimusical? Do music and language rely on the same neural mechanisms? How does musical training affect language acquisition? Does music produce meaning in the same sense that language does? How do music and language intersect in special cases, such as Sprechstimme (speech-like music)? This class will explore a range of questions at the intersection of music, linguistics, and cognitive science. Absolutely no musical training is required, but a general interest in and curiosity about music will be helpful.
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PHIL 3923H, Deception and Delusion
Professor Eric Funkhouser
Course ID 017804
Colloquium Type: Humanities
Philosophers have long been interested in the nature of belief and rationality. But some psychological phenomena, because of the apparent irrationality they involve, have continued to frustrate our attempts to attribute beliefs to, or otherwise understand the cognitive states of, certain people. Self-deception and delusional belief are prominent among such cases, and they constitute the subject matter for this course. We will examine several specific examples of self-deception and delusional belief in order to understand the challenges they pose for attributing beliefs and desires, and other folk-psychological states, to such people. Studying these examples will also lead to a better understanding of belief itself.
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PSYC 3923H, The Psychology of Eyewitness Testimony
Professor James Lampinen
Course ID 018332
Colloquium Type: Social Science
In the past decade close to 200 people have been released from prison because they were exonerated by DNA evidence. Close examination of these cases indicates that in a majority of the cases, the defendant was mistakenly identified by a confident eyewitness. Because psychology is the field that focuses on the scientific study of memory and perception, psychologists are well suited to help explain why eyewitness testimony is sometimes mistaken and the steps that can be taken to improve it. There is now 25 years of research examining factors that influence the reliability of eyewitness testimony. Through lectures, discussions, presentations, guest speakers and demonstrations, we will review this research in hopes of coming to a better understanding of the role of eyewitness testimony in the legal system, and how eyewitness testimony can be made more accurate.
