Summer 2012 | Fall 2012 | Spring 2013
Summer 2012:
FYS 102A: Images of Madness
(SS) GEP, (SS) GFR
TuTh 9 a.m. – 12:10 a.m.
Academic Building IV 207
Carolyn Tice
This course reviews Academy Award winning films depicting mental illness to consider the influence of motion pictures on the public perception of social issues, policies, and services. We will analyze films using a historical framework and with assigned readings that address cultural stereotypes, societal attitudes, and the public’s response toward people with mental illness.
FYS 102N – Exploring Mixed Identities
(SS) GEP
TuTh 1 p.m. – 4:10 p.m.
Albin O Kuhn Library & G 216M
Jessica Guzman-Rea
The aim of this course is to move beyond prevalent monoracial discourses by examining identities and experiences from a mixed race/mixed ethnicity perspective. This course explores many topics such as the history of racialization, processes of othering, acceptance and the politics of claiming, the role of education in racial formation (and vice versa), interracial dating, white and non-white mixed identities, transnational and transracial adoptions, and hybridity. This course will be interactive and discussion based.
Fall 2012:
FYS 101D: Turning to One Another: Beliefs and Behaviors
(AH) GEP, (AH) GFR
MoWe 4 p.m. – 5:15 p.m.
Physics Rm. 107
C Randles, Diane Lee
This course is oriented toward exploration of questions that are both personal and global in their orientation. What do I believe about others? What is the relationship I want with the earth? When and where do I experience sacred? Conversations will occur around topics such as these to expand and inform our understanding of how our beliefs and behaviors have the power to transform.
FYS 101Q: Building a Culture of Peace: What Would It Take?
(AH) GEP
TuTh 1 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.
Math & Psychology Rm. 102
Joby Taylor
Building a Culture of Peace will engage students in investigating the diverse meanings and methods operating in the study and practice of peace. The course will include an interdisciplinary exploration of primary texts, key terms, major theories and methods, and a guest presentation. There will also be individualized research opportunities for students that will result in critical and creative essays across a range of interrelated topics and build toward an overall course learning portfolio.
FYS 101R: Sustainability in American Culture
(AH) GEP
TuTh 11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.
Math & Psychology Rm. 105
Rita Turner
This course explores the concept of sustainability, and how it is presented in popular American culture. We will examine cultural conversations and beliefs about the environment and about pressing environmental challenges, investigating how attitudes toward these issues get presented, debated, and constructed in American culture, through such media as books, movies, television, poetry, art, and news stories. Students will be expected to critically analyze readings and viewings, to discuss and reflect upon their own environmental attitudes and experiences, and to produce creative writing, digital stories, research presentations, and a final essay exploring an issue of their choice related to sustainability in American culture.
FYS 101S: Creating Stories About Times of Change
(AH) GEP
TuTh 1 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Engineering Rm. 021
Elizabeth Lunt, Dr. Judah Ronch
This course explores common themes in both adolescence and aging, stages in life that can transform a person’s sense of identity. In intergenerational teams, students will explore changes in their identities by producing video stories together that will focus on common threads, shared insights and lessons about growth. The narrative collaboration will offer opportunities for empathy and broadening of perspective, and participants will gain wisdom about creating identity in times of change.
FYS 101T: 01 Discussing Classics
(AH) GEP
MoWe 2:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.
Academic IV Rm. 006
David Irvine
The objectives of this class are twofold: To discuss excerpts of twenty classics (such as The Handbook of Epictetus) and to develop discussion skills. To that end, each reading is preceded by a short piece pointing out its relation to some aspect of discussion groups.
FYS 101U: But is it Art? Filmmakers, Art, and the Artist
(AH) GEP
WeFr 1 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.
Janet & Walter Sondheim Rm. 203
Alan Kreizenbeck
What is art? What is an artist? Filmmakers have frequently explored these questions in documentaries and fictional narratives. This course will view several films about artists in an inquiry into what is art and what it means to be an artist in our society. The purpose of the course is to formulate answers about art and the artist, and to expand awareness of the multiplicity and diversity of what those two terms can mean. The films presented will cover a wide range artists and artistic genres.
FYS 102A: Images of Madness
(SS) GEP, (SS) GFR
Th 4:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Math & Psychology Rm. 102
Carolyn Tice
This course reviews Academy Award winning films depicting mental illness to consider the influence of motion pictures on the public perception of social issues, policies, and services. We will analyze films using a historical framework and with assigned readings that address cultural stereotypes, societal attitudes, and the public’s response toward people with mental illness.
FYS 102C: Diversity, Ethics and Social Justice in the Context of Schooling
(SS) GEP, (SS) GFR
Mo 3 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Academic IV Rm. 208
Vickie Williams, Sue Small
We will explore and mediate the tensions that exist in current reform efforts as schools endeavor to meet the needs of diverse students. This course will use an inquiry-based approach to examine federal and local policies and how they impact students, schools and society.
FYS 102P: Creativity, Innovation, and Invention
(AH) GEP
We 4:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Meyerhoff Chemistry 351
Gilbert Mason, William LaCourse
This course is for undergraduate students of all majors to explore the invention process from the germination of an idea to the development of a prototype in order to solve problems that address everyday needs. The purpose of the course is to inspire creativity and motivate students to invent, and supply them with the minimum expertise necessary to design, market, and protect an invention. Students will work in “active-learning” I-teams that will assume responsibility for tasks that are important to the development and success of their invention. Students will essentially act as the divisions of a company that are all working toward a common purpose.
FYS 102Q: History under the Microscope
(SS) GEP
TuTh 10 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
Math & Psychology Rm. 102
Ivan Erill Sagales
What does the foundation of the modern state of Israel have in common with the miracle of bloody hosts? Why do farmers rotate crops? What was the main cause of American casualties in World War I? This course aims at providing a new perspective on different times and historical episodes, by revisiting them through the eyes of some of the most important players in human history and prehistory: microbes. Based on a discussion section format, the course will analyze several historical events and the role played by specific microbes or microbial communities in the political, societal, economic and environmental changes that took place. In each case study, the analysis will revolve on the specific nature of the microbe and its actions, but the focus will be on the historical background surrounding the event and the secondary factors and triggers that brought microbes into the limelight.
FYS 102R: Learning About, With, and From Students with Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities
(SS) GEP
TuTh 10 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
Performing Arts & Humanities Rm. 108
Clare Greene, Michele Wolff
This interdisciplinary seminar is designed to offer a comprehensive exploration of intellectual and developmental disabilities across a number of academic disciplines. While assisting UMBC students in gaining a multidisciplinary understanding of intellectual/development disabilities, this course will provide a unique and substantive college-based experience for a cohort of non-degree seeking college-aged students with disabilities who are enrolled as participants in a new program called UMBC SUCCESS. Full-time UMBC students will explore the theoretical underpinnings of a range of intellectual and development disabilities, along with the practical application of these theories, from multidisciplinary perspectives delivered by faculty from Sociology, Psychology, Visual Arts, Education, Theater, Information Systems, and Dance (among others). Activities, grounded in these theories, then will be used as a framework for interactive and experiential engagement with the UMBC SUCCESS students so that all course participants can learn about, with, and from each other.
FYS 102S: The Deaf Community and Its Culture
(SS) GEP
Tu 4:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Math & Psychology Rm. 102
Denise Perdue, Suzanne Braunschweig
Through lectures, directed readings, attendance at deaf community events, and student research presentations, this course will introduce students the American Deaf Community, their unique culture, history and language. This course will also highlight significant impacts that American education systems, laws, and technologies have had on the Deaf Community’s social status. The course will have several guest speakers, both Deaf and hearing, who will explore specific topics in depth such as CODA, Deaf Education, Interpreting, and Audism.
FYS 102T: International Migrations and the National Debate
(SS) GEP
We 4:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Math & Psychology Rm. 105
Sara Poggio
This course examines the continuous flux of immigrants arriving in the United States and contributing to American culture. Analysis will be done from a socio-historical perspective and a focus on the process of cultural assimilation of the new comers to American Society around issues of class, race and gender of the immigrants as well as the context of incorporation into the host society. This particular perspective of the analysis will allow students to reflect on past experiences, to compare, and evaluate present challenges of immigration issues today. The course analyzes the different populations that have contributed in the past and the ones that are contributing now to create the specific cultural diversity of the United States.
Spring 2013:
FYS 101 T Discussing Classics
(AH) GEP
TuTh 1 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.
Math & Psychology 102
Instructor: David Irvine
Epictetus, Second Century AD: Some things are up to us and some are not up to us. Our opinions are up to us, our impulses, desires, aversions; in short, whatever is our doing. Our bodies are not up to us, nor are our possessions, our reputations, or our public offices, or, that is, whatever is not our own doing. The things that are up to us are by nature free, unhindered, and unimpeded; the things that are not up to us are weak, enslaved, hindered, not our own. So remember, if you think that things naturally enslaved are free or that things not your own are your own, you will be thwarted, miserable, and upset, and will blame both gods and men. But if you think that only what is yours is yours, and that what is not your own is, just as it is, not your own, then no one will ever coerce you, no one will hinder you, you will blame no one, you will not accuse anyone, you will not do a single thing unwillingly, you will have no enemies, and no one will harm you, because you will not be harmed at all. First paragraph of the first reading of Discussing Classics.The objectives of this class are twofold: To discuss excerpts of twenty classics (such as The Handbook of Epictetus) and to develop discussion skills. To that end, each reading is preceded by a short piece pointing out its relation to some aspect of discussion groups.
FYS 102G Sexuality, Health, and Human Rights
(SS) GEP, (SS) GFR
TuTh 1 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.
Public Policy 203
Instructor: Ilsa Lottes
Who has the right to access scientific information about individuals’ sexuality and sexual health? What privacy rights do people have in their sexual relationships? Who controls when and if one has children? In the last decade, scholars and advocacy organizations have been asking such questions that link sexuality, health, and human rights. Increasingly, these linkages are made by human rights advocates, those marginalized by their gender and/or sexuality, feminists, and professionals in the health and family planning fields. Students will become sensitized to issues that have become increasingly important to the international community in the areas of sexuality, health, and human rights. They will also become familiar with steps in the social science research process, including background literature review, survey construction, data collection and analysis and reporting of findings.
FYS 102K: Passive-Aggressive Behavior
(SS) GEP
TuTh 8:30 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.
Academic IV 108
Instructor: Karen Freiberg
This semester long course will provide information about the developmental pathways to passive aggressive (P/A) behavior, or to a passive aggressive personality as well as identifying five distinct and increasingly pathological levels of passive aggressive behavior. The course will help students distinguish between situational and pathological passive aggression and identify specific reasons why people use passive aggressive behaviors. Passive aggression will be examined across the lifespan and in four distinct contexts; home, school, marriage and extended family. Students will learn the different ways that passive aggressive behavior is exhibited across these settings.
FYS 102M: Conflict Resolution Education: Handling Conflict Constructively
(SS) GEP
Th 4:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Academic IV 208
Instructor: Sue Small
A key component to successful and meaningful educational experiences is related to conflict resolution education. This course introduces students to the broad field of CRE (including social and emotional learning, anti-bullying programs, peer mediation, negotiation processes, expressive arts, restorative justice programs, and bias awareness programs). The course provides students with examples of programs and encourages them to consider how they can support and utilize these programs first in their personal lives, and then as future leaders. Throughout the course there are opportunities for reflection about how the principles of CRE apply on an individual level in one’s life. There are many applications for CRE across careers from the business world to public service.
FYS 102S: The Deaf Community and Its Culture
(SS) GEP
We 4:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Math & Psychology 102
Instructor: Denise Perdue, Suzanne Braunschweig
Through lectures, directed readings, attendance at deaf community events, and student research presentations, this course will introduce students the American Deaf Community, their unique culture, history and language. This course will also highlight significant impacts that American education systems, laws, and technologies have had on the Deaf Community¿s social status. The course will have several guest speakers, both Deaf and hearing, who will explore specific topics in depth such as CODA, Deaf Education, Interpreting, and Audism.
FYS 103B Paradigms and Paradoxes: An Attempt to Understand the Universe
TuTh 10 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
Math & Psychology 102
Instructor: Joel Liebman
There are at least two kinds of scientific activities: acquiring and generating data, and inquiring and generating general modes of understanding. The latter activities will dominate this course. The course contents include discussions of some remarkable features of the universe: the class discussions will require no more scientific background than gained from high school chemistry and mathematics.
FYS 103C Issues in Biotechnology
TuTh 2:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.
Biological Sciences 461
Instructor: Nessly Craig
Through directed readings, class discussions, and student presentations, this seminar will focus on understanding these various aspects of modern biotechnology with an emphasis on its scientific basis. Practical demonstrations and visits to UMBC labs using biotechnological techniques will be an important part of the course to illustrate how the methods theoretically discussed in class are actually done.
FYS 103O Microbes, Humans, and History: How microorganisms have shaped World History
S, non-lab
Mo 4:30 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Math & Psychology 102
Instructor: Susan Schreier
Microorganisms have been on Earth far longer than humans. Bacteria, viruses, and other microbes have caused many devastating diseases, often changing the nature of society and influencing politics as well as the outcome of wars. Yet, microorganisms have also provided untold benefits to human societies. This First Year Seminar will focus on the various ways our human history has been influenced by microorganisms. Through a variety of formats, students will focus on exploring the impact of microorganisms and their interrelationships with humans from an historical perspective.
For More Information, Please Contact:
Jill Randles
Assistant Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education
jrandles@umbc.edu | (410) 455-3715