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Group Proposal

Submitted by pfischer on Tue, 10/05/2010 - 4:07pm

Week One: Clash of Civilizations

9/11 Commission Report - A Graphic Adaptation (we could also read the original text but this plays with form)

Path to Paradise: The Inner World of Suicide Bombers and Their Dispatchers -

Week Two: Environmentalism and Capitalism

How Identity Is Defined

Submitted by platano on Tue, 10/05/2010 - 3:41pm

Non-Fictional Prose Course

Identity is sometimes defined by race, religion, and/or the place where you grew up. Yet, two people can have all of these things in common, and define themselves as very different from one another. How much of your identity is yours? How do people then go about writing an autobiography and giving their readers the 'important' pieces of information.

Suggestions for Readings:

Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington

The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James

An American Dilemma by Gunnar Myrdal

Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen

Autobiographies by W.B. Yeats

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Group Proposal

Submitted by platano on Tue, 10/05/2010 - 3:26pm

Non-Fictional Prose Course

Group Members: Aya, Kate, Sandra

Theme: The Construction of Reality

Spatial Reality:
"You Are Here" by Colin Ellard

Language:

OED, Webster, Urban Dictionary

"The Professor & the Mad Man"

Distortion:

"F is for Fake" by Orson Welles (mock-documentary)

Affiliation:

"Spook" by Mary Roach

"The Varieties of Religious Experience" by William James

Mental Health:

-"Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health" by Ron Hubbard

Memoir:

"The Year of Magical Thinking" by Joan Didion

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The (Further) Disadvantages of an Elite Education

Submitted by Evren on Tue, 10/05/2010 - 2:10pm

After American football and its military, the United States’ higher education system is perhaps the pride of the country. More indicative of the importance of this education system is that it is the envy of the rest of the world. There are boarding schools in foreign countries solely dedicated to get their students accepted into the top tier American colleges and universities. The Ivy League colleges and their peers are factories that take in “successful” students and churn out “successful” students that are wired to have “successful” careers and lead “successful” lives.

Course Proposal

Submitted by pfischer on Tue, 10/05/2010 - 2:02pm

Evolving Systems Course: PGnotes11

Submitted by Paul Grobstein on Tue, 10/05/2010 - 10:03am

Course Notes 9/30/10

Submitted by veritatemdilexi on Mon, 10/04/2010 - 9:45pm

Non-Fictional Prose Course

-Grading: Relationship to getting lost.

Numeric value might give students a sense of place in curriculum

Link: "The Anosagnosic's Dilemma"

"not very good at not knowing what we don't know"

-Discussion on 2nd Half of Course:

Post in course forum a proposal for the rest of the semester, an "Independent Study Program". Think about what you do not already know.

-Discussion on Arne Naess

We all meet a different Arne Naess.

Doctoring our autobiographies

Submitted by Anne Dalke on Mon, 10/04/2010 - 8:21pm

From a NYTimes article today about Why Indiscretions Appear Youthful: "memory amplifies righteous self-messaging. In piecing together a life story, the mind nudges moral lapses back in time and shunts good deeds forward ... creating a doctored autobiography .... “We can’t make up the past, but the brain has difficulty placing events in time, and we’re able to shift elements around .... The result is that we can create a personal history that ... makes us feel we’re getting better and better.”