Each semester the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies offers courses in areas of mutual student and faculty interest. These are courses not easily aligned with a single department or program, are often offered only once or occasionally and thus do not appear in the College catalog.

101W: New Intellectual Writing, "Susan Sontag as Intellectual"
Prof. Scott Denham
MWF, 3:30-4:20 pm
Cunningham 111
What is a public intellectual? How do public intellectuals arise; what are their positions; how do they argue or influence the public; how do they bring about change or reflect and represent status? What are their concerns, and why? These and other questions will motivate our study of the work of Susan Sontag (1933-2004), the preeminent American intellectual of the last generation. Sontag was above all an essayist, but also wrote novels, plays, directed films.  We will read Sontag alongside Orwell and his critics, and Carson and hers. While George Orwell's “Politics and the English Language” is about political discourse (and we will write about it and read it as such), and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring is concerned with incorrect relationships between humans and the natural world, and we will see the reactions to her concerns, Sontag's work is, at heart, about aesthetics: how we understand the arts, how the arts work, what the arts can and should do in our lives. But at the same time, art for Sontag is always about explaining human experience, and writing about art is always writing about the human experience, be that love, illness, war, beauty, or the realm of ideas.

Writing for Sontag is a process of engagement and change. Referring to essays in her first collection Against Interpretation (1966), she wrote in the preface to that volume: "Before I wrote the essays I did not believe many of the ideas espoused in them; when I wrote them, I believed what I wrote; subsequently, I have come to disbelieve some of these same ideas again-but from a new perspective, one that incorporates and is nourished by what is true in the argument of the essays. Writing criticism has proved to be an act of intellectual dismemberment as much as of intellectual self-expression" (viii).
We will look at Sontag's work of literary, film, and cultural criticism in Against Interpretation, Under the Sign of Saturn, Where the Stress Falls, and At the Same Time, and consider her novels Volcano Lover and In America. Then, we'll move to her work on illness in Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors. Finally, we'll look at her books On Photography and Regarding the Pain of Others. In all these works we will seek out the arguments Sontag makes at the level of the text, that is, in the sense of working through a clear philosophical and rhetorical position on the page; but we will also find the arguments she is making more broadly about life, politics, sex, war, and art; we will see how and why these arguments do change and grow over time; and we will seek to understand how public intellectuals like Orwell, Carson, and Sontag act in the world.

This course is one of eight W courses offered as part of the “New Intellectual Writing” project at Davidson.

CIS 171: Intro to Environmental Studies
Profs. Annie Ingram, Cindy Hauser & Staff
MWF, 10:30-11:20 am
Chambers 1006


CIS 220: Intro. to Film & Media Studies
Prof. David Pettersen
MWF, 12:30-1:20 pm;  M 7:00-10:00 pm
Chambers 3068; Chambers - Hance
An introduction to film history and analysis, with an equal emphasis on film language (cinematic means of expression) and thematics. Viewing and discussion of films from a wide variety of national traditions and genres, supplemented by discussion of analytical and theoretical texts.  Required course for fulfilling the Film and Media Studies concentration.

CIS 233: The Global Energy Challenge
Prerequisite - ECO 101 or CHE 115
Profs. Peter Hess & Durwin Striplin
TR, 10:00-11:15 am
Chambers 2130
Syllabus
This course addresses the energy options for achieving sustainable  development. The supplies and demands for energy, the role of markets and  governments in allocating energy resources, and the consequences of energy  production and consumption for the environment and global warming are explored. Policy options for energy efficiency and conservation are  considered.

CIS 236: Ethics and Warfare
Prof. David L. Perry - Director of the Vann Center for Ethics at Davidson College
TR, 8:30-9:45 am
Notes: 234, no permission, no prerequisites.
CHAM 2164 [CRN 15058]
Every human society has no doubt prescribed some moral rules against killing other human beings.  But it seems reasonable to suppose that most human societies have also permitted killing under certain conditions, e.g., in self-defense, in defense of family or community, or as punish­ment for particular offenses.  War is a peculiar human activity, in that it can bring out some of our best traits (e.g., courage and self-sacrifice) yet also elicit tremendous cruelty and suffering.  It’s therefore a prime candidate for ethical scrutiny.
This course examines theories about why human beings engage in mass killing, the history of moral deliberation about war in major philosophical and religious traditions, and modern analyses of the diverse and sometimes conflicting moral principles that those traditions have bequeathed to us.  Students will develop an appreciation for the richness of ethical thinking about war, and enhance their skills in applying moral philosophical reasoning to con­tem­porary wars.

CIS 273: The Environmental History of the U.S. South
Prof. Mart Stewart  - Thomson Distinguished Visiting Professor of Environmental Studies
TR, 10:00-11:15 am
Chambers 3234
"Environmental history," conceived broadly, is the history of the role and place of nature in society and culture.  The main purpose of the course is to introduce you to several important concepts and main problems in environmental history and to provide you with the analytical tools that will help you think about and respond to ongoing environmental issues in contemporary life.   The course will acquire focus and analytical structure by studying the environmental history of the U.S. South in a national and a global context. The course will proceed chronologically: it will begin by looking at the environmental changes caused by the colonization of the North American South by European powers in the 16th-18th centuries, and end with a consideration of the Sunbelt South.  It will also proceed thematically and will consider the ways in which the environmental history of the U.S. South has been unique to this region, but also how it has reflected or is contextualized by national and global developments.  The course will take a particular interest in the idea of landscape as a hybrid of nature and culture, the place in which human beings interact with nature to shape their physical surroundings, and how we can “read” landscapes as texts in environmental history.

CIS 298: Independent Study
Staff
TBA


CIS 321: Interactive Digital Narratives
Prof. Neil Lerner
TR, 1:00-2:15 pm
Sloan BO11
A close study of selected video games using an interdisciplinary blend of methodologies culled from cultural studies, film and media studies, literary criticism, and history, this seminar will require several essays and presentations.

CIS 352: Adv. Seminar: Gender Identity
Register for PSY 352
Prof. Ruth Ault
T, 1:00-3:45 pm
Watson 310
This course is a seminar, intended for juniors and seniors in a variety of majors.  It is designed to consider gender identity from an interdisciplinary perspective, combining psychology and literature.  Four psychological theories of gender-role development will be covered: biological, social learning, cognitive-schema, and Freudian.  After learning about each theory, students will look for concrete examples of that theory in some works of literature, with both male and female central characters.

CIS 361: Sociology of Unemployment
Register for SOC 361
Prof. Mattias Strandh -  STINT Visiting Professor of Sociology
T, 1:00-3:45 pm
Chambers 1027
This course is an introduction to the sociological study of unemployment.  We will discuss such overarching issues as individual and macro causes of unemployment and how contextual features and institutional settings shape both the unemployed and their unemployment experience.  This will provide the background for further exploration of several central topics relating to the unemployment experience: coping strategies and adaptation; health and psychological well-being; work involvement and motivation; job search behavior; family dynamics; job prospects and the scarring effects of long-term unemployment.

CIS 373: Climate & Culture in American History
Prof. Mart Stewart - Thomson Distinguished Visiting Professor of Environmental Studies
TR, 1:00-2:15 pm
Chambers 3187
Climate is very much in the news lately – and in the last five years the inconvenient truth about global warming has finally begun to acquire a larger public hearing in the United States.  How the findings of climate scientists are reported and how public narratives about global warming are constructed is shaped by current American culture – just as ideas about climate have always worked their way through the crucible of human understanding. This course will proceed in general from the observation that our understanding of climate and the weather is shaped profoundly by perceptions of both, and these in turn are mediated by ideas and conceptions that come from culture.  We will look at significant episodes in American history, from the eighteenth century to the present, of what the historian Raymond Williams calls the "human history" of nature.  We’ll see how these episodes have reflected differences in relations between humans and the physical environment, but also differences in social and political relations – some of which have done more to obscure than illuminate what is actually happening with the climate and the weather – with the hope that we’ll end the course better prepared to understand the deep history of one of the issues of our time, global warming.

CIS 390: Health Care Ethics
Prof. Lance Stell
M, 1:30-4:20 pm
Philanthropic Hall 101

CIS 391: Research Ethics
Prof. Kristie Foley
TR, 10:00-11:15 am
Chambers 2164
This course provides students with a comprehensive overview of the responsible conduct of research. Topics will include:  animal welfare; ethical guidelines for research involving human subjects; informed consent; data acquisition and ownership; individual and group rights; confidentiality; conflict of interest and commitment; intellectual property rights; and responsible dissemination of research findings. Topics will be framed within the historical foundations of research ethics.

CIS 397: Future of American Health Care
Dr. Joe Konen
M, 6:30-9:00 pm
Chambers 1096

CIS 398: Independent Study
Staff
TBA


CIS 421: Seminar: Film and Media Studies, "Film Art: A Seminar in Filmmaking"
Register for ENG 493
Prof. Zoran Kuzmanovich
R, 1:00-3:45 pm 
W, 7:00-9:30 pm
Chambers - Hance
Film Art is a hands-on study of style and narration in the fiction film. After a reminder of the pre- and post- production processes, we’ll focus on individual directorial styles. We’ll also make a communal film to explore the capabilities and shortcomings of the available equipment. Then, each student  will be given a chance to write/adapt, direct, film, and edit a short film using digital video cameras and non-linear editing equipment.  We’ll look at those films in light of the latest theories of narrative and the knowledge about cinema acquired from the film-maker’s end.  The final versions of all films will be burnt to DVDs. If there are musicians among us, they will be given a chance to score a film and/or do sound design.

No special knowledge of technology is presumed. A course on film (X through film,  X and film, the X of film, film as X, X on film, film X, Filmmaker X and Filmmaker Y , etc.)  should be decent preparation for this class; an upper level course in art, creative writing, literature, semiotics, or literary criticism would also be of help.  Limited to Juniors and Seniors.

CIS 421: Seminar: Film and Media Studies, "Berlin Films" (in translation)
Register for GER 440
Prof. Maggie McCarthy
M, 1:30-4:20 pm
Chambers 3198
This course examines both imaginary and historical images of Berlin in films dating from the Weimar Republic to the present.  Via documentaries, canonical, art house and feature films, we will gain a sense of Berlin in its various 20^th century guises.  Special attention will be paid to the new phenomenon of the “Berlin School” of filmmaking, which has drawn attention in recent years from critics and academics.

This course does not count as the 400-level capstone course for Film and Media Studies concentrators.

CIS 470: Global Health Ethics
Prof. Kristie Foley
T, 1:00-3:45 pm
CHAM 1015
Global health ethics seeks to understand values and principles which guide medical and public health practice throughout the world.  Particular attention will be given to health inequalities and how medicine and public health may work to resolve these problems. Students will apply ethical frameworks to identify and clarify the dilemmas posed intra- and internationally related to the study, prevention, and treatment of disease.  Ultimately, students will be able to analyze various courses of actions and their consequences and propose pragmatic and value-driven solutions to current global health concerns.

CIS 495: Thesis
Prof. Scott Denham
TBA