Master of Arts in Liberal Studies

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Fall 2006 Courses

MLS 811   Wars, Just & Unjust: A History of Interpreting Conflict

In this course we’ll examine the history of modern warfare and the development of theories (both pre-modern and modern) about the origins and meaning of war to human culture.  Students will explore the history of warfare in the modern period in a global context including events in Africa, China, and India. The course will also spend time examining western ideas about the meaning and origins of war including the ethical debate incorporated by the “just war” school.  Thinkers such as Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas, Reinhold Niebuhr, and more recent manifestations of this thesis by intellects such as Michael Walzer will be covered.  Challenges to this perspective by the Realism school and non-violent traditions, including pacifist thought, will be touched upon.  We will also examine emerging viewpoints of religious nationalism that are so dominant on the contemporary scene today.  Among the wars under consideration will be the American Civil War, both World Wars, Vietnam, conflict in Sri Lanka, etc.

MLS 812   Utopia & Its Discontents in Literature and Film

How does the word utopia reflect its root meanings as the good place and no place?  We’ll explore the literature and, more recently, the films that have responded to these questions from ancient times to the present.  Our principal course book, The Utopia Reader  will provide us with an overview of utopian texts from antiquity to the twentieth century.  Our full-text readings will include Thomas More’s Utopia (1516), Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward (1888), Eugene Zamiatin’s We (the inspiration for Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s 1984).  Further, we’ll consider feminist utopias such as Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time (1977) and Margaret Atwood’s dystopic Handmaid’s Tale (1985). We’ll sample film treatments of utopia/dystopia such as Blade Runner (1982) and Equilibrium (2002). 

MLS 813   The Goddess in Myth and History

Beginning with the archaeological evidence for the dominance of Goddess worship in prehistoric Europe, this course will explore the myths and cults of goddesses from the history of world religions.  We will examine goddesses and feminine symbolism within the mythological literatures of the ancient Near East (Ishtar, Anat, and Isis), Greece (Athena, Artemis, and Aphrodite), and India (Durga, Kali, and the Mahadevi), as well as other historical traditions.  The course will conclude by engaging the contemporary theological debates surrounding feminist spirituality, Wicca, and the rediscovery and revitalization of Goddess worship in our own society.

MLS 814   Fall from Grace: The Decline of the Russian Aristocracy

This course examines the decline of the nobility in Russia from the mid-nineteenth century to the beginning of the First World War.  The late nineteenth century was a challenging period for the nobles who tried to cope, often in vain, with new social and economic forces.  An interdisciplinary approach is taken by using both history texts and the literature of the time to capture the changes and emotions of the period.  Topics will include the nobility and the growing middle class, the nobility and the new legal system, the effect of the free peasantry on nobility and agriculture, and the superfluous lives of the nobles.  Readings will include Nobility and Privilege by Seymour Becker as well as The Cherry Orchard by Chekhov, Resurrection by Tolstoy, The Summer People by Gorky, and Fathers and Sons by Turgenev.

MLS 815   What’s Up, Doc? The Ethics of Health Communication

The ethics of health communication is a growing specialty in the fields of communication, medicine, and other related disciplines. Health communication researchers are primarily concerned with better understanding health promotion, disease prevention, and treatment process within the ethical, social, and political context of human interaction.  The purpose of this course is to provide you with an overview of the many substantive areas of study within the health communication field. We will be covering areas related to interpersonal communication, intercultural communication, mediated communication, communication campaigns, and problem behavior prevention.