Core Courses Spring 2022

Pop Music, Personal Identity, and Politics
Ubiquitous in popular culture, music in the 21^st century United States has a huge part in the construction of personal identity. We use songs to define and communicate our stories of ourselves, to build relationships, and to manage our emotions. But music also has a more public role within our collective stories, as a tool for social and political change.  In this class we will explore music’s role in both these contexts:  we will frame narratives of our own lives and development through music-related memories and stories, and we will also explore the role of music and musicians in some social and political movements.  In a culminating project that can be creative or scholarly, students will weave these contexts together, describing or imagining a personal engagement with music that also engages them in social change.

Energy & Human Induced Climate Change

Students enrolled in this methods of inquiry honors course will address the local, real-world challenges of spurring Marquette University to greatly reduce its effects on global climate change.  Students’ ability to engage this challenge will be built upon the insights of physics and sociology.  Students will begin by learning the fundamental scientific principles governing climate change and energy use, next explore the institutional opportunities and constraints that shape potential responses from Marquette, and finally research and propose a specific action to reduce Marquette’s contribution to climate change.  

This interdisciplinary course explores issues of bilingualism and educational and linguistic justice within Latinx communities. Students will examine histories of bilingual education in the Midwest and engage with scholarship on language diversity and bilingualism. They will also create a culminating oral history project that investigates the history of bilingual education and Latinx civil rights movements for sociolinguistic justice in Wisconsin. This course is required for students residing in Nuestro Hogar, but it is open to other students with a strong interest in these topics. It also offers Honors credit for Core Honors students and meets Foundations of Methods of Inquiry Core requirements.

**Enrollment for this class will be done by permission number, and Core Honors spots are limited - please contact Erin if you are interested in taking the class.**

History and Trauma
This class explores the concepts of trauma, history, and memory as experienced by individuals and communities. We read works in the fields of psychoanalysis, sci-fi, philosophy, and history, to see how memory of historical events is affected by trauma, and what we can learn from them for understanding the Covid pandemic.

Modernity: Confidence, Creativity, Crisis 
The purpose of this course is to discuss the years between 1880 and 1914 in Europe, an age when technological advances, scientific discoveries, and wealth led European elites to see themselves at the pinnacle of civilization. They were modern, and they had created “modernity.” They expressed their confidence in art and architecture, and we will read key works from some of their leading lights, including Mann, Joyce, Conrad, Nietzsche, and Freud, among others. These same artists and philosophers also raised questions about the societies in which they lived, suggesting that the confident face presented by Europe’s great and good masked uncertainties, including the potential impact of social diversity, disease, and militarism. 

Claiming Our Attention: Long Form Art and Argument in the Digital Age

With the proliferation of new digital media and devices over the last several decades, complexity and subtlety of thought and even of pleasure have come under immense pressure. This has become especially acute in light of Big Tech’s intense, for-profit competition for our attention. And yet, to be savvy consumers of media, appreciators of art, critical thinkers in all disciplines, and informed and responsible citizens of the world we need to possess the ability to see clearly the complex variety of aspects, levels, and perspectives involved in the problems we face as individuals and as social groups. In this class we will train ourselves for sustained immersion in and analysis of complexity. We will begin with humanity’s first long-form genre, epic poetry, and proceed into other art forms and other disciplinary arguments with a self-critical gaze. To be clear, this is not a class premised on how “young people today don’t have a good attention span,” but rather on exposing and exploring the ways our minds and bodies are conditioned (voluntarily and involuntarily) and on thinking anew what more integral forms of living might look like. Ultimately, our goal will be to assess how the ways of thinking, knowing, and enjoying we develop relate to the health of our own body-mind and of the public sphere in the twenty-first century. 

Claiming Our Attention: Long Form Art and Argument in the Digital Age

With the proliferation of new digital media and devices over the last several decades, complexity and subtlety of thought and even of pleasure have come under immense pressure. This has become especially acute in light of Big Tech’s intense, for-profit competition for our attention. And yet, to be savvy consumers of media, appreciators of art, critical thinkers in all disciplines, and informed and responsible citizens of the world we need to possess the ability to see clearly the complex variety of aspects, levels, and perspectives involved in the problems we face as individuals and as social groups. In this class we will train ourselves for sustained immersion in and analysis of complexity. We will begin with humanity’s first long-form genre, epic poetry, and proceed into other art forms and other disciplinary arguments with a self-critical gaze. To be clear, this is not a class premised on how “young people today don’t have a good attention span,” but rather on exposing and exploring the ways our minds and bodies are conditioned (voluntarily and involuntarily) and on thinking anew what more integral forms of living might look like. Ultimately, our goal will be to assess how the ways of thinking, knowing, and enjoying we develop relate to the health of our own body-mind and of the public sphere in the twenty-first century. 

Brave New Worlds 

As Oscar Wilde famously wrote: “A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and, seeing a better country, sets sail.” Wilde’s quotation hits on a profound truth of the human condition: our belief that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. The search for brave new worlds has produced global exploration, population migration, colonization, military revolution, and scientific discovery. It has also pushed philosophers, writers, and poets to ask deeper questions about the breadth and reach of government, about collective political action, about citizen’s rights, about revolution and reform. What kinds of rhetorical strategies do these texts use to imagine brave new worlds? How do they understand the relationship of the individual to his or her community? How do their visions of the future mesh with our own? Surely, there is no time like the present to ask ourselves: what is government and what, or whom, is it good for?  Texts include: Plato’s Republic, Thomas More’s Utopia, Voltaire’s Candide, and Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sowers.

Brave New Worlds 

As Oscar Wilde famously wrote: “A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and, seeing a better country, sets sail.” Wilde’s quotation hits on a profound truth of the human condition: our belief that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. The search for brave new worlds has produced global exploration, population migration, colonization, military revolution, and scientific discovery. It has also pushed philosophers, writers, and poets to ask deeper questions about the breadth and reach of government, about collective political action, about citizen’s rights, about revolution and reform. What kinds of rhetorical strategies do these texts use to imagine brave new worlds? How do they understand the relationship of the individual to his or her community? How do their visions of the future mesh with our own? Surely, there is no time like the present to ask ourselves: what is government and what, or whom, is it good for?  Texts include: Plato’s Republic, Thomas More’s Utopia, Voltaire’s Candide, and Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sowers.

Claiming Our Attention: Long Form Art and Argument in the Digital Age

With the proliferation of new digital media and devices over the last several decades, complexity and subtlety of thought and even of pleasure have come under immense pressure. This has become especially acute in light of Big Tech’s intense, for-profit competition for our attention. And yet, to be savvy consumers of media, appreciators of art, critical thinkers in all disciplines, and informed and responsible citizens of the world we need to possess the ability to see clearly the complex variety of aspects, levels, and perspectives involved in the problems we face as individuals and as social groups. In this class we will train ourselves for sustained immersion in and analysis of complexity. We will begin with humanity’s first long-form genre, epic poetry, and proceed into other art forms and other disciplinary arguments with a self-critical gaze. To be clear, this is not a class premised on how “young people today don’t have a good attention span,” but rather on exposing and exploring the ways our minds and bodies are conditioned (voluntarily and involuntarily) and on thinking anew what more integral forms of living might look like. Ultimately, our goal will be to assess how the ways of thinking, knowing, and enjoying we develop relate to the health of our own body-mind and of the public sphere in the twenty-first century. 

Engaging Mass Incarceration: Justice, Freedom and the Arts
This collaborative, team-taught course explores social identity, oppression and freedom, and agency and responsibility through the lens of mass incarceration as a social system. We will also explore how the arts and artistic expression (broadly understood) can serve as tools for identity-formation, community-building, healing, and fostering productive social change. The course offers an in-depth analysis of the effects of mass incarceration (particularly in Milwaukee) through a variety of methodologies and pedagogical strategies that focus on community immersion and collaboration. Students will critically engage with scholarly and creative material, participate in class discussions with community co-facilitators, read personal narratives about the direct impacts of incarceration, and develop methods for using their own agency in addressing these urgent social issues—through individual reflections and group projects that bring them in conversation with currently incarcerated populations.    

Reckoning with Milwaukee's Past

This class is about Milwaukeeans reckoning with their past. We explore what it means to reckon with the past, especially in urban contexts, and when it is desirable. You will learn about developments in Milwaukee history that may or may not require further grappling and see how Milwaukeeans are currently engaging with the past, especially violent and unjust aspects of the past. The class will culminate in a community-engaged history project.

Preserving the City as Art and History
This course will introduce students to the history of architecture, parks, public art, and historic monuments in America as well as the theory and practice of historic preservation. Through object analysis, historic research, and extensive fieldwork, students will learn how to “read” a building, monument, or cultural landscape as form of art and as a source of historic evidence, think critically about their built environment, and discover the role which citizens can play in preserving art, history, and community. Using Milwaukee as a case-study for these themes, students will come to understand “the power of place” in their lives. 

Religious Places, Divided Spaces, and Hope for the Future

 Dr. Martin Luther King famously observed that America is most segregated on Sunday at 11AM. Was that true of Milwaukee while Dr. King called for the nation to redeem its troubled racial leagcy? Is it still true today? If so, how is it that churches mirrored society's basest elements rather than demonstrating its highest ideals? This course introduces students to the history of Milwaukee by examining the the city's religious heritage. Neither the city nor its religious landscape can be fully grasped without broadly understanding the contours of urban history, the role of race in America's founding and growth, the place of city churches and synagogues in welcoming immigrants, and the promise of God to "make all things new." Learn about Marquette's hometown and meet servant leaders throughout Milwaukee who are actively putting their faith into practice to bridge the divides that still keep people apart on Sunday mornings.

CORE 4929H 901 LEC    MW      11-11:50am      Melissa Shew & Jennifer Henery*
CORE 4929H 902 LEC    MWF    12-12:50am     Jennifer Henery
CORE 4929H 903 LEC    MW       2-3:15pm        Yoon Choi

*Section 901 is taught in a retreat model. In addition to class time on Mondays and Wednesdays, the course will meet some Saturdays for retreats. Retreat dates are expected to be Jan. 29, Feb. 19 or 26, April 2, May 8.

CORE 4929H should be taken by honors seniors. The only exception is a junior who is graduating early.

ARBC 3220 101  T  2-4:30pm   Enaya Othman

Uses the disciplines of history, gender, and cultural studies to examine the experiences of Arab and Muslim women in the United States. Special focus on the intersection of globalization and locality, education and tradition, spatial and temporal contexts, individual and collective identities. Taught in English. Knowledge of Arabic language not required.

*This is not officially an Honors section, but those who enroll will earn Honors elective credit for the course.

BIOL 1930 901 LEC   TTh    1-1:50pm.   Anita Manogaran

*This is not officially an Honors section, but those who enroll will earn 1 Honors elective credit (not the 3 credits required for one Honors elective course). Students may pair 1930 with any of the regular BIOL 1002 lectures.

CHEM 1002H 901 LEC   MWF   8-8:50am   Scott Reid

            941 LAB   W        2-4:50pm                   Vijay Vyas

            961 DIS    F         2-2:50pm                   Vijay Vyas

CHEM 1002H 902 LEC   MWF   10-10:50 am   Llanie Nobile

            942 LAB   W        2-4:50pm                   Vijay Vyas

            962 DIS    F         2-2:50pm                   Vijay Vyas

CHEM 1002H 903 LEC   MWF   1-1:50 am   Llanie Nobile

            943 LAB   W        2-4:50pm                   Vijay Vyas

            963 DIS    F         2-2:50pm                   Vijay Vyas

CHEM 1014H 901 LEC    MF       11-12:15 am    Adam Fiedler

            941 LAB   W        11-1:50 am                  Vijay Vyas

CHNS 3215 101 Lec        MWF     2-2:50pm    Jen-Li Ko

*This is not officially an honors seciton, but those who enroll will receive Honors elective credit for the course.

HIST 4255 101 LEC   MWF   1-1:50pm   Timothy McMahon

The British Empire

HIST 4255 provides an overview of the history of the British Empire and Commonwealth since the 1750s, including several significant selected themes: the complex interactions of peoples in inherently unequal power relationships; the difficulties of administering a vast multi-national empire in an age of nationalist ferment; and the often stark clash between pre-independence nationalist expectations and post-colonial realities.  To achieve these rather ambitious aims, we will examine Empire through three lenses: an imperial lens; a lens that probes the interactions between colonizer and colonized as expressed through official state actions and through popular culture; and a subaltern lens that focuses on indigenous peoples whose “pre (British)-imperial” histories and experiences of empire varied enormously and continue to shape their relationships in the present. HIST 4255 satisfies upper-division credit for the History major, and it is approved in the Discovery Tier the University Core (under the theme of Crossing Boundaries). 

We will ultimately address how historical thinking and political decision-making informed each other in the 19th and 20th centuries, enabling Britons to justify their Empire and its excesses, by asking the question “How did ‘good’ people, acutely concerned with their consciences, preside over systematic exploitation and repeated atrocities?” 

*This course is a new Honors for All course in the Discovery Tier, a course that is open to all students at Marquette and gives Honors elective credit to students completing the Core Honors curriculum.  It meets the Crossing Boundaries humanities or elective course requirement in the Discovery Tier. 

**Enrollment for Honors students will be done by permission number - please contact Erin if you are interested in taking this class.** 

HIST 4271 101 LEC   MWF    9-9:50am    Alan Ball

The Russian Revolution and the Soviet Union
HIST 4271 is a survey of modern Russian and Soviet history that begins with an introduction to tsarist Russia in order reach an understanding of the revolutions in 1917 that swept away much of the old regime and left the Bolshevik (Communist) Party in power.  The bulk of the course will concentrate on the Soviet period, featuring the tumultuous development of “the world’s first socialist state,” the emergence of the Soviet Union as one of the world’s two superpowers, and the country’s recent fragmentation.  In particular, we will examine the Bolsheviks’ aspirations in 1917 and then see to what extent these hopes for a new society were realized as the Communist Party confronted both domestic and foreign challenges. 

Revised as an “Honors for all” course, open to any undergraduate with sophomore standing but offering Honors elective credit, the course features more (and smaller) discussion groups than in the past.  Specifically, during eight weeks of the semester students will meet with Professor Ball in small groups to discuss sources pertaining to major topics in the course.  These readings include a variety of primary documents, memoirs, and several selections from the wealth of Russian literature that provoked tsarist and Soviet authorities alike.  Also new this semester, a guest presentation by a professor from outside the history department will help integrate the course more fully into its interdisciplinary Basic Needs and Justice Discovery Tier theme. 

*This course is a new Honors for All course in the Discovery Tier, a course that is open to all students at Marquette and gives Honors elective credit to students completing the Core Honors curriculum.  It meets the Basic Needs and Justice humanities or elective course requirement in the Discovery Tier.

**Enrollment for Honors students will be done by permission number - please contact Erin if you are interested in taking this class.**

LLAC 4930 101    MW    3:30-4:45pm    Abel Arango

*This is not officially an Honors section, but those who enroll will earn Honors elective credit for the course.

MATH 1700H/PSYC 2001H 901 LEC    TTh      12:30-1:45pm    Teodora Cox

         941 Lab    W        12-12:50pm    Teodora Cox

PHIL 1001H 901 LEC   MWF      9-9:50am          Melissa Shew

PHIL 1001H 902 LEC   MWF      11-11:50pm       Michael Olson

PHIL 1001H 903 LEC   MWF      12-12:50pm      Michael Olson

PHIL 1001H 904 LEC   MWF      1-1:50pm          Michael Olson

PHIL 1001H 905 LEC   MW        2-3:15pm          Michael Olson

PHIL 1001H 906 LEC   TTh        2-3:15pm          Javiera Perez Gomez

PHIL 1001H 907 LEC   TTh        5-6:15pm.         Daniel Collette

PHYS 1004H 901 LEC   MWF   9-9:50am & M 6-8pm        Jax Sanders

PHYS 1004H 902 LEC   MWF   10-10:50am & M 6-8pm    David Haas

PHYS 1004H 903 LEC   MWF   12-12:50pm & M 6-8pm    David Haas

PHYS 1004H 904 LEC   MWF   1-1:50pm & M 6-8pm        Michael Politano

PHYS 1004H 941 LAB    W        6-7:50pm                          Melissa Vigil

PHYS 1004H 942 LAB    Th       4-5:50pm                          Melissa Vigil

PHYS 1004H 961 DIS     W       5-5:50pm                           Melissa Vigil               

PHYS 1014H 901 LEC              MWF   1-2:50pm                    Karen Andeen

POSC 2201H 901 LEC              TTh    3:30-4:45pm               Brandon Savage

PSYC 2001H/MATH 1700H 901 LEC    TTh      12:30-1:45pm    Daniel Rowe

         941 Lab    W        12-12:50pm    

THEO 2240H 901 LEC              MW      2-3:15pm             Danielle Nussberger

THEO 3530H 901 LEC              TTh     2-3:15pm                      Mickey Mattox