Spring 2024 Courses

Broad patterns of biodiversity (biomes), from rainforests to deserts to tundra, are products of geography, climate, and evolutionary history. These properties affect each biome’s history of human exploitation and their threats in the 21st century. We will explore Earth’s biomes and their threats, focusing on North America and the New World tropics.

This seminar will introduce how individual and societal values, attitudes, and beliefs affect perception, understanding, and engagement with the wildlife and fish. The world around us is shaped by human actions and inactions. The goal of this seminar is for students to understand how decisions are made regarding engagement and appreciation of wildlife and fish by individuals and groups and how all people can strive to reinforce positive decisions and reduce negative decisions regarding the environment.

This course is reading-intensive and involves communication-intensive learning. It guides participants from an understanding of the evolutionary and cultural history of the human species and its effects on the ecology of this Earth to a deeper understanding of the ethical and social dimensions of human actions. Required readings from books and articles from the primary and secondary literature describe, critically analyze, and examine the interactive effects among the current environmental conditions, humans, animals, and plants from the perspective of scientists (e.g., ecologists, biologists, sociologists, and psychologists) and ethicists. News items are provided for illustration of current issues that emerge during class discussions. Students are expected to have read and digested the assigned readings before class, be ready to contribute to the class discussions, and take notes.

This course introduces you to a broad spectrum of basic scientific concepts (geological, zoological, ecological, evolutionary, and climatological) and how scientists use those to decipher events in “deeptime”. Note, this course is not just a “dinosaur” course. This course will also offer an introduction on how geoscientists use the fossil record and scientific techniques to trace the history of life on earth and answer questions about the causes and consequences of major extinctions as well as radiations of different organism groups (not only dinosaur groups but also other vertebrate animals and plants) through time. The course will evaluate hypotheses about catastrophic events such as impacts from space, volcanic eruptions, and climate change and their impact on global biodiversity and the trajectory of life on Earth. This course will draw from many different scientific disciplines, including vertebrate paleontology, biology, geology, and paleontology.

This course is directed at freshman, sophomores, and others who have not been exposed to college level science courses. An understanding of the topics covered will enhance your ability to understand and make informed decisions about scientific controversies. More and more frequently, science is in the news, and some of the more controversial scientific questions have become political issues. As citizens, it is to your benefit to understand the science underlying these controversies. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you’ll be given an opportunity to examine how and why you think about science (and other issues)- to ask yourself where you got your beliefs and opinions and enhance your awareness of unseen biases that may influence your worldview.

C.S. Lewis is one of the most widely read authors of the 20th century. Millions have read his children’s novels The Chronicles of Narnia, and his popular theological books, yet much of Lewis’ thought remains unappreciated. Why did C.S. Lewis say a theocracy was the worst form of government? Why did he support democracy when so many of his time argued for government unaccountable to the people? And why did he think the imagination of Medieval romanticism was more potent than any tract against totalitarianism?  These are the themes we will examine as we work our way through some of Lewis’ less familiar works including – Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength, The Abolition of Man, and The Discarded Image among others. 

This course will examine many themes. Sometimes this course will bring up very dark topics. That Hideous Strength is a dark and disturbing book by intention. The power of that book, however, is in how Lewis uses his imagination to show us his arguments. Along with exploring his arguments we are going to explore how he makes them. We are going to examine his use of imagination with the goal of improving our own in the aid of our reason.

This course offers students to read and ruminate about some of the greatest European novels of all time, and to understand these works of fiction against the backdrop of the rapidly-changing (but very different) societies of nineteenth-century France and Russia. Students will also have the opportunity to write their own historical novellas on a subject of their choosing, but set in nineteenth-century France or Russia. Success in this course depends upon keeping pace with the readings and upon attendance and participation in lectures and seminars.

In this class we will read, discuss, and analyze various pieces of literature from nineteenth century literature that cover different facets of life during wartime. Our texts will cover various conflicts, from the Seven Years’ War (1756-63) to World War I (1914-18). We will gain a deeper understanding of nineteenth century literature and culture by examining pieces written by both men and women with various levels of military experience. Over the course of the semester, we will engage these readings from both historical and modern perspectives, doing both close readings and taking the larger field into consideration. As this is an honors course, students will be expected to not only keep up with the readings but to come prepared to contribute to a lively intellectual discussion/debate.

The post-World War II period witnessed widespread anti-colonial agitations and calls for the end of European colonial rule in African societies. After a century of European imperial dominance, the decolonization of Africa became one of the turning points in the history of the post-war world. The struggle for political liberty by the peoples of Africa also inspired the civil rights movement in the United States. By the 1950s, young African leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah in West Africa and Nelson Mandela in South Africa, stood in solidarity with other advocates for civil and political rights, Martin Luther King in the US, and Jawaharhlal Nehru in India.
Students in this class will be exposed to developments in this momentous episode in world history, when the peoples of East, West, and South Africa embarked on the quest for freedom and, following that, in the establishment of modern nation-states. Students will critically assess the triumphs and challenges of emergent African nation-states in the post-colonial period. We shall pay close attention to the cultural, economic, social, and political developments in the respective regions of the African continent. The course will give students an opportunity to better obtain a more comprehensive knowledge of African societies.

As part of the LSU/Honors Spring Excursion in Berlin program, this course will introduce students to the surveillance states of Germany during the National Socialist period as well as during the years of former East Germany. Students will more closely examine the concept of these totalitarian (“Big Brother”) societies as they are portrayed in the films The Lives of Others (von Donnersmarck, 2007) and Triumph of the Will (Riefenstahl, 1935). Moreover, students will also analyze multiple scholarly writings on each topic as well as the text 1984 by George Orwell, which represents a fictional interpretation of these surveillance/“Big Brother” states. Students learn about Germany’s history during the Nazi and East German periods, through scholarly articles, texts, and films. After studying the role of totalitarian control and surveillance in Germany, the class will visit Berlin at the end of the semester to gain first hand experiences with the ways the German government implemented total control, as well as how citizens reacted and, in some cases, resisted. Site visits will include: Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, Hohenschönhausen Prison Memorial, the German Historical Museum and DDR Museum, the Topography of Terror, the Berlin Wall, and more. The excursion will provide experiences that deepen students’ understanding of the historical and cultural contexts studied in the course

This course is designed to foster a greater understanding of genocide in the modern times, with an emphasis on its causes, methods, and implications. The study of the Holocaust occupies a majority of the course, but other instances of genocide and state-sponsored mass killing will be studied to provide a greater scope of understanding. Topics include examples from the colonial and postcolonial world, Soviet purges, targets of opportunity, and will finish with a discussion of contemporary issues. Class meetings will alternate between lectures and group discussions of reading assignments. As
an honors course, this class will challenge and enrich high-achieving students on their journey as life-long learners and responsible global citizens.

This course will explore contestation and conflict in the construction of Arab and Jewish identities in the modern Middle East using creative work in Arabic and Hebrew (in English translation).

  A study of the life, career, and legacy of Richard Milhous Nixon is as Ronald Reagan described the man himself—complex and fascinating, a worthy pursuit for a university Honors student. You will learn not so much what to think, but how to think. A rigorous university History course will impress upon you that historical figures such as Nixon are much more than “hero” or “villain.” They are incredibly complex human beings and politicians.
Applying the lessons of the history you learn here will lead you to becoming a valuable informed and thinking citizen—no matter your political persuasion or philosophy. The critical thinking skills you learn here—objectively examining historical issues, conflicts, and personalities—will be valuable in your future career—be it law, medicine, the arts, or whatever field you choose.

For LASAL Scholars Only: Students will study the root causes of poverty in Louisiana, and the daily challenges that children who live in poverty face. Students will study the root causes of wetlands loss in coastal Louisiana and the impact of sea-level rise related to climate change. The State of Louisiana is a foundation course for LASAL Scholars.

While this course will emphasize the impactful presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson, this is primarily a cradle-to-grave study of the 36th President of the United States and the 20th century world in which he grew up and greatly shaped. One cannot properly understand American history without comprehending Lyndon Johnson’s Texas Hill Country and its history as an American frontier, Lyndon Johnson’s family legacy, and how this shaped him into the man and politician he became. An ongoing theme throughout the semester is the struggle described in the Amazon banner on your textbook, the constant tension in Lyndon Johnson’s life and career “between political expediency and getting things done for the American people.” He was the ultimate politician and the original (and best) practitioner in American political history of the “art of the deal.” Learning about Lyndon Johnson the political dealmaker not only increases our understanding of American History, but provides lessons—both do’s and don’t’s—for your own future careers in politics, law, medicine, or where ever your ambitions take you.
This course, like my course on Richard Nixon, will contain elements of a History graduate school-level seminar, in that you will be expected to read, write, discuss, and contribute original thought to the discussion and not
simply regurgitate factual material. However, this course contains more traditional lecture sessions than my Nixon course.

The main purpose of this course is to provide students with a broad-based overview of issues related to intercollegiate athletics. Utilizing a critical lens, the course will examine intercollegiate athletics vis à vis historical, legal, sociological, economic, and organizational contexts, among others.

Homelessness in the United States is a significant social problem, but there are ways we can understand the issue more deeply, and there are approaches that have worked and are working to get individuals and families into permanent housing. In this course, we will explore experiences and public perceptions of homelessness and how policymakers have responded.

Transgender has recently become a household word, but the genealogy of trans discourses extends across decades. These discourses, or sets of conventions for communicating about transness, implicate patterns of social organization with life and death consequences—not only for a minority group interpellated by trans terminology, but universally insofar as all individuals are disciplined by norms for the alignment of sexed embodiment, gender assignment, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual desire. This course will survey religious, medical, gay, feminist, queer, biological, legal, cinematic, televisual, and digital transgender discourses. The course will be delivered with a discussion-based seminar format.

This course examines a variety of religious and spiritual movements which are presently, or were in past decades or centuries, “new” to the American context. Examples include the Church of Latter-Day Saints (i.e., Mormon Christianity), the Church of Scientology, the Peoples Temple, Jediism, Wicca and Neo-Paganism, and the enormously broad and diffuse ‘New Age” movement, among others. On a somewhat deeper analytical level, our course locates all such movements in their proper historical and cultural contexts, so as to more clearly perceive the ways in which they, just like the broadly accepted religious communities, are shaped by that larger cultures in which they have their being.

The idea that the physical world in which we currently reside is not the only reality, that there exist other worlds above, below, alongside, and beyond our own, and that human beings may, under special circumstances, access these other worlds, may not represent a cultural universal, but it’s very close. In this course, by reading about, writing about, and discussing together, various historical, literary, anthropological, sociological, and even scientific approaches to the question of other worlds, you’ll develop a strong grasp of how this rich and compelling theme has emerged in so many diverse historical and cultural contexts. Ultimately, you’ll employ the theoretical tools we’ve practiced together to conduct your own, original study of the ways in which this theme plays out in contemporary culture and present the results of your study to your peers.

This course will take a close look at zombies as sexual beings. We will begin by looking at the origins of the zombie in West and Central Africa, coming to Haiti through the transatlantic slave trade, and eventually landing on the shores of the United States as one of the most enduring and undying horror monsters. As a representation of the dangerous “Other,” we will critically examine what it means to be a gendered, sexualized, and sexually active zombie. We will examine the zombie as metaphor for cultural anxieties related to the fear of miscegenation and racial tensions, the sexually liberated woman, gay male sexuality and the threat of AIDS, and the zombie as an unlikely focus of budding teen sexuality in shows such as Bob’s Burgers.

COVID-19 has reminded us of the questions we wrestle with in the care of our health. Does care belong to us, is it bequeathed to us or something we borrow for a bit, only to be taken away? This isn’t anything new or novel, African Americans and other marginalized communities have lived with this uncertainty. The health of black and brown bodies is often negotiated and devalued, taking shape in all sorts of ways: environmental injustices and exclusion of pain medication, artificial intelligence, and the assertion of human difference. This course lays a theoretical foundation for students to understand why we are seeing health inequities today. We will examine how social factors such as poverty, community context, work environments, etc. effect our health. A critical observation and sustained examination over the semester will lead us to understand that America’s collision with COVID-19, the disparity in health care, and the denial of health equity is the fulfillment of the omen, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

This course explores the cultural dimensions of crime and punishment in the United States by understanding public discourse on these matters through the critical analysis of popular culture. Our primary focus will be the ways cinema, literature, political campaigns, popular music, social media, television, and other sites of meaning making give form to how US Americans come to understand these issues. Approaching the topic primarily from a rhetorical perspective, we will come to understand how popular culture persuades audiences to adopt perspectives on crime and punishment, and with what consequences.

This undergraduate honors course explores the complex relationship between mental health and technology in the modern digital age. Through a multidisciplinary approach, students will examine the impact of technology on mental health, both positive and negative, and develop a deep understanding of the psychological, ethical, and social dimensions of this interaction.

This colloquium gives students an opportunity to explore in-depth the life and work of Pablo Picasso, arguably the most important visual artist of the twentieth century. We will study Picasso in the broader framework of the evolution of modern art and relate key events in his artistic career to currents in twentieth-century history, politics, and social developments. Attention will be given to the influences of non-Western cultures on Picasso, particularly African art and its colonial context. Guest lectures and museum visits will supplement and enrich class activities.

Designed as an exploratory survey on the visual arts of Vietnam, this course will cover all major historical periods. Emphasis will be placed on 1) the interactions between Vietnam and the various colonial presences in the region: Chinese, French, and the United States; 2) the historical interactions between the Vietnamese majority and the ethnic minorities such as the Chams and Nungs; 3) critical assessment in the formulation of a national identity 4) the diasporic Vietnamese identity and communities, especially those from Louisiana.

This course will provide an overview of modern Brazilian cinema the period of democratization of the 1980s to the new wave of contemporary Brazilian cinema (retomada) of the 1990s to the present. The course will analyze selected films as art and cultural production as well as their representational properties that speak to the sociopolitical context in which they were produced. Films selected for this course are all oriented around the central themes of poverty, race, violence, and gender, and where possible, the intersection thereof.

What is it about opera that has made it the most expressive art form for over four hundred years? Have you wanted to explore it but feared it might be too expensive, too elitist? This course introduces honors students with or without musical background to one of the most encompassing art
forms: opera embraces singing, orchestral playing, acting, stage and costume design, fashion, literature, the visual arts, architecture, sociology, technology, business, and plenty of politics. We will travel back in history, try to unlock the magic of some of the most fascinating operas, and explore what it took to get them off the ground.

In Songwriting, students will learn methods to craft their own songs (lyrics, melody, and chords). The course presents songs from the past and present for analysis. Students engage in weekly “roundtable” discussions workshopping their songs. There are no required pre-requisites for the course. A typical class will start with group singing and musical exercises such as solfeggio (aural skills) while talking about musical fundamentals. From there, we will present and discuss “hit” songs where we will analyze lyrics, chord progressions, and historical/social context. Class then becomes either group work on your own songs or the performances of your own songs.

In this course, students will learn, practice, and analyze the transferable skills learned from improvising theatre, including gaining a broader understanding of Improvisation in theater history, modern culture, and the business world. By studying and applying the principles of spontaneous problem-solving, listening, and teamwork, students will gain a strong foundation in how this artform can improve one's work and social life. The various improv tools and step-by-step techniques will help students overcome self-consciousness while discovering how to analyze outcomes in a proactive and impersonal way. Lessons will be experiential, and as the course continues, the complexity of the experiments will deepen. The student will read and compare renowned improv practitioners' and teachers' writings in conjunction with the classwork. Improv is a truly an art-form and a way into experiencing Theater and Performance without a dictator of the script. Students will be asked to research a specific theatrical genre (for example, Chekhovian Magical Realism, Southern Gothic, or Brechtian) then analyze it. Assigned class teams will be asked to present their findings to the class in presentation and incorporate this research into practical application thru Performance.

This course explores music in society and its cultural relevance, and is designed to increase the students’ appreciation of music as well as enhance their listening skills. We will use classical music as a starting point for developing listening skills by examining Western classical art music of the Medieval Period to the 21st century. Students are introduced to various periods, styles, and composers of music from various cultures and times. By placing individual pieces, techniques, and composers into context, we can observe how individuals innovate or disrupt the norm to create lasting
change. There are many different kinds of music, and all music has value. You’ll have several opportunities to apply your new knowledge and analysis skills to your favorite kinds of music. This course will also provide an introduction to the fundamentals of music and musical notation.

The works of composers and artists who employ systems of order in their creative practice offer insight into creative agency in interaction with (and within) the design of such systems. Such insights inform our understanding of interactive and networked systems more broadly defined and the affordances and limitations they impose on participants. The design and use of automated systems in creative application complicates notions of agency for composer, performer, participants, and audience members. Through a review of works and writings, this course will explore these topics. 

This course studies the origins of mystery and secrecy in ancient rituals of initiation known as “mysteries,” beginning with the Eleusinian rites in honor of the goddesses Demeter and Persephone and the god Dionysus. It moves on to survey the uses of magic and the occult in ancient Greece and Rome. We will examine ways of studying magic, practitioners (witches, sorcerers, and priests), magical objects (curse tablets, ritual figurines, and amulets), and magical words (spells and prayers). Special attention will be paid to how ancient individuals interacted with the unseen world in their daily lives, and when and how they employed the services of professional
magicians. The material covered in the course will include ancient literary texts, inscriptions, and artifacts. By analyzing these different classes of evidence, students will be able to gain a broader understanding of the ancient world and the influence it has exerted on later cultures, including our own.

The purpose of this course is to engage with literature that has had a decisive impact on World Literature from the past four hundred years. We will focus on modern masterpieces specifically, and we will read novels epics from widely differing cultures, languages, and times. Each text is taken from its own time, location, and language in order to show the evolution and progression of the modern masterpiece. The course will focus, therefore, on the theme of what is common or universal to the human condition, regardless of place and time. Specific skills which one will improve include: close-reading, analytical writing, basic research and database use, presentation skills, and argumentative logic. The texts confronted in this course require energetic focus and a healthy intellectual enthusiasm.

This course familiarizes students with the historical and intellectual bases of the United States and modern France, including their relationship to each other and the ways in which they wrestled with questions of individual rights, slavery, and what constituted a free and just society. This course utilizes key texts of both contexts – historical, political, and
philosophical – in order to allow students to better understand themselves and the basis of their own history and civilization.

This course will explore many of the social, cultural, political, and economic ideas that dominated early to mid-19th century England through an examination of novels by Jane Austen and the Brontës. While popular discourse often portrays these women as sheltered from the harsh realities of their societies, the novels reveal authors who were acutely aware of social ills and moral challenges and who used their fiction to enter the larger debate. They did so in radically different ways – Austen through the “genteel” novel of manners and the Brontës through works considered by mid-Victorian critics as coarse, ungoverned, and excessively violent. Charlotte Brontë was herself a critic of Austen’s novels, considering them “more real than true”, and condemning Austen as unwilling to shoulder the moral and social responsibilities an author has to society. We will explore the validity of both Victorian and present-day criticism of Austen’s and the Brontë’s novels.

This class investigates the relationship between the individual and the state. What gives the state the right to issue laws and commands? And when are individuals obligated to obey? Under what circumstances, if any, is civil disobedience justified? What about armed resistance? These questions all fall under a topic in political philosophy known as the question of “political obligation.” In this course we will consider how the question of political obligation has been approached through a variety of works across time and genre. Readings will include: Sophocles’ Antigone, Plato’s Apology, Hobbes’ Leviathan, Locke’s Second Treatise, and Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail.

Introduction to scholarly writing and research in the social sciences. This course is designed to develop and improve students’ scholarly reading, writing, presentational, and research skills. In this seminar students will conduct research in multiple ethnic heritage and racial identities depending on their interests. Students will explore the cultural practices and social experiences that have given shape to the identity of the other person in our country.

This course focuses on government-sponsored violations of human rights, such as civil liberties restrictions, torture, political killing, and genocide. The course begins with an attempt to define human rights violations. From there, we will explore issues related to the development of
international human rights standards. We will attend to why human rights violations continue in both newly emergent states and advanced democracies. The final section of the course will focus on different efforts to curb human rights abuses, examining domestic and international institutions as well as the efforts of human rights NGOs.

How can we understand recent and future technological developments that promise to change the very nature of what it means to be human? The entities created by Artificial Intelligence may be compared and contrasted with the ways that humans have conceptualized unseen but often influential entities such as gods and ghosts, androids and cyborgs. Course topics include shamanism, the technologies of consciousness, witchcraft, magical beings, and the afterlife

This course provides an overview and critical analysis of the Korean Wave (known as Hallyu), the spread of the global popularity of South Korean pop cultural products, such as K-pop, TV dramas, movies, literature, culinary customs, and more. Hallyu is not just Korean but global phenomena, so we need to study at this meteoric ascent of Korean popular culture from a global perspective. The phenomena of Hallyu are complex and multifaceted, and we take a multidisciplinary approach so that our discussions should be based on diverse dimensions – cultural, political, economic, aesthetic, and
philosophical. In studying Korean pop culture, we delve into global problems of representation, capitalism, and nationalism. We also closely look at various cultural instantiations in cinema, TV dramas, music, and literature. No previous knowledge of Korea is required. Anyone interested in cultural globalization or Korea is welcome to join our class!

What is the history of Latinos? Why is it the largest minority group in America? What is the evolution of Latin American identity from the 1500s to the present? What is the influence of the Latino population in Louisiana? Fostering an interdisciplinary and hemispheric approach to Latino/a Studies, this course will provide students with a critical overview of some of the central themes and issues that have shaped the experiences of Latino/a populations in the U.S.

This course is an introduction to the political system of the modern state of Israel. After a review of the history of the Zionist movement and the foundation of the state of Israel, the course will focus on the social, economic, and demographic evolution of the country since 1948. These developments help explain the diversity of political parties which compete in legislative elections, and comprise coalition governments of varying (in)stability. The course will cover quirks of the Israeli system, such as the (fleeting?) use of judicial review in the absence of a written constitution, the
use of primaries in a PR system, and the failed experiment with the direct election of the Prime Minister. We will conclude with discussions of some of the ongoing controversies in Israeli politics, including what exactly it means to be a Jewish State, external relationships, the proper role of the judiciary, and the future of the territories occupied in 1967. We close with a return to the Zionist writers of the late 19th century and ask whether they would recognize the state whose creation their writings inspired.

What does it take to be a good (or bad) friend? What does it mean to fall in love - and what does it take to make love last? Explore these questions and more through works by authors like Aristotle, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and Thomas Hardy.

Experience the epic battles, larger than life figures, and great speeches of the ancient world as we read works by Homer, Plato, Ovid, and more.

A study of Early Modern Inquiry into Human Nature and the Individual’s place in the World Featuring works from Philosophy, Literature and Art

This course analyzes the relationship between branding of products and the protection of “cultural resources”. Using the wine market as a vehicle, students will compare the development of a wine culture in Europe and the United States. Alcoholic beverages are the only consumer product mentioned in the Constitution, for reasons dating back to the Prohibition era. Similarly, wine is the only product singled out in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, an international agreement designed to facilitate free trade among nations. Specifically, students will examine the development of the European wine market including the establishment of Geographic Indicators as a marketing tool; the political, social and economic of impacts of Prohibition in the US; post-Prohibition regulation of alcohol and the growth of the US wine industry; and the policy and regulation of competition in the alcohol industry. Finally, students will examine the “Old World” and “New World” of wine production and explore the international conflicts, negotiations, and treaties involving wine.