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HOUSECS 79.01 — Asians in America Are you pre-med? Oh, maybe an engineer? Twinkie/Coconut. You act too black. Oh, you’re one of the cool Asians. Are your eyes open? Do your parents run a convenience store? I know [Asian-sounding name], do you know him/her? Where are you from? I mean where are your parents from? You Asians, you all look the same anyway. Asian/Pacific Islander is the fastest growing racial minority group in the United States. According to Duke University Undergraduate Admissions, 25.4% of the Class of 2010 is classified as Asian, Asian-American or Pacific Islander. By US standards, about one-third of the world population classifies as “Asian”. There have been several waves of Asian immigration in the United States, introducing generations of vastly different identities into, and thus constantly reshaping, the Asian Diaspora. It is a population with conflicts from the outside and within. Many have one foot in the United States and another half-way across the world. In this “multicultural” country of ever increasing diversity, where do Asians fit in? This class is open to students of all backgrounds who have an opinion on or would like to learn more about the Asian-American experience. In this class, we will use a variety of movies, television clips, music, skits, fictional and non-fictional readings, and discussions to explore the Asian identity and its role in the United States. What does it mean to be Asian/Asian American? Who is the Asian/Asian American voice and what should they say? Should there even be a voice? What relations do Asians/Asian Americans have with other races/ethnicities? We will investigate these questions, and more, using history, popular culture, the media, politics and our own experiences to bring light to these issues. Finally, we will wrap up the class by bringing it all back home and looking at the Asian presence at Duke. Instructors (and Contact for Permission Numbers in 2nd week of Drop/Add): Jack Zhang jack.zhang@duke.edu Emily Duh, Michelle Sohn
HOUSECS 79.02— A Culture of Make Believe This is a history class. It is an anthropology class. It is an ethics class. It is religion, economics, and biology. It is a civics class, an ecology class, and a gender studies class. Jared Diamond wrote, "Archaeologists studying the rise of farming have reconstructed a crucial stage at which we made the worst mistake in human history. Forced to choose between limiting population or trying to increase food production, we chose the latter and ended up with starvation, warfare, and tyranny." During this seminar, we hope that, as a group, we will think about the civilization and society of which we are a part in a way that we never before have. This course will center on three main questions: What is civilization (and what does it mean to be "civilized")? Is it a good thing? What alternatives exist? The goal is that by the end of the course, we will all be able to answer these questions more clearly for ourselves. To help accomplish this goal, we will rely on outside readings and other media, on discussions within the group, and on personal reflections in weekly journal entries. The readings will primarily promote the view that there is something wrong with civilization, and that there are alternatives. The one-sidedness of the readings should not be construed to mean that class will be devoid of discussion and debate, and our goal is for class to be a Socratic seminar where we all learn, teach, and grow together. As products of civilization, we do not need readings that laud it, defend it, or explain it--and judging by our enrollment at Duke, we are among its most highly rewarded members. Instructors (and Contact for Permission Numbers in 2nd week of Drop/Add): Lee Miller Meeting Time and Place: [back to list] or [view syllabus] HOUSECS 79.03— Dating and Mating The purpose of this course is to explore topics of sexuality, ethics, gender and race as they apply to Duke. College campuses have long been accused of being havens for casual hookups and sexual encounters. This is just another example of preconceived notions and stereotypes. There is much more to a college campus than books and hookups. At Duke, students are surrounded by issues involving sexuality, ethics, gender and race that go far beneath the surface of dating and mating. It is important that students not only understand what their beliefs are, but also what has shaped those beliefs. In recent years especially, perceptions of Duke’s social life have been both positive and negative. As a campus, where do we go from here? How can we strive to make this campus culture a healthy one, and what part does communication play? This course plans to understand and explore these pertinent questions. Instructors (and Contact for Permission Numbers in 2nd week of Drop/Add): [back to list] or [view syllabus] HOUSECS 79.04— Duke Engage Now In this House Course, we will delve into the concept of Civic Engagement and the ways in which it has been used to impact society. In conjunction with DukeEngage and the Duke University Center for Civic Engagement this course will cover a broad range of special themes of global issues and community service, explain to students the challenges and opportunities inherent and each, and provide them with real opportunities at Duke and in Durham to get involved with those particular problems. The course has three main objectives. Primarily, each class engages comprehensively and dynamically with a major global problem, all of which were studied in depth by DukeEngage student groups during the summer of 2008. The class will examine articles, books, pictures, audio clips, and also listen to guest speakers in order to gain a thorough understanding of each issue. Also, with the help of DukeEngage students each week, the course will offer the personal experiences of people who themselves have worked on the ground with each problem. After discussing the issue of the week, each session will close with a small reflection group in which students can process what they’ve encountered during the class period. Secondly, each week of the course will connect to our overriding theme of “civic engagement,” the definition and bounds of which will be explored at the very beginning and end of the house course. Within this context, the means and methods which have been proposed to solve or rectify the global problems we study will be judged for their past success and potential future efficacy. Such an analysis will launch the course into its third objective, which is to present students with examples of tangible and ongoing efforts to address these problems. Each weekly seminar will end with real ways that students can get involved in at our University and in our university and provide students with ideas and resources to make a long-term, progressive impact both at Duke and beyond.
Instructors (and Contact for Permission Numbers in 2nd week of Drop/Add): Maya Robinson [back to list] or [view syllabus] HOUSECS 79.05 — The Eyes of the Beholder This course aims to explore the concept of beauty and how it is perceived differently in various facets of society. We will examine how beauty is portrayed in the media, how it is defined by different cultural groups and how beauty ideals have evolved over time. We will also analyze the influence of beauty ideals on female body image and self esteem, paying close attention to the relationship between body image and eating disorders. The goal of this course is to guide students in broadening their definitions of beauty through discussion and exploration. We hope that by the end of the course each student will have a personalized definition of beauty that is wholesome and dynamic. This course will emphasize positive action that each of us can take in society to promote healthy beauty ideals. Instructors
(and Contact for Permission Numbers in 2nd week of Drop/Add): Yasmine Tameze-Rivas
HOUSECS 79.06 — Issues and Ethics This course explores different generation’s perspectives on socially ethical issues relevant in our country today. The issues will be discussed with a view toward current events and also with respect to historical context. By examining such issues through an intergenerational lens, the course seeks to apply this ethical discussion specifically to the university, a community in which undergraduates interact with faculty and administrators from different generations. Instructors
(and Contact for Permission Numbers in 2nd week of Drop/Add): Meeting Time and Place: [back to list] or [view syllabus]
When it comes to their health, most Americans only pay attention when something goes wrong. Health care providers typically recommend interventions that only address the symptoms; however, the underlying conditions themselves can not be reversed. Simply put, clinical medicine in the U.S. has been disease-oriented, reactive, and sporadic, i.e interventions are utilized when they are least effective and most expensive. Facing astronomical health care costs due to the increasing prevalence of chronic and often preventable conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, access inequality, and the impending retirement of the baby boomers, we must implement fundamental changes to our health care infrastructure. This course analyzes the current health care system and examines how evolving technologies are helping to enable a prospective health care approach, also known as 4P medicine (Personalization, Prediction, Prevention, and Patient responsibility). Under such a prospective health care system, a person who is completely healthy decides to visit his or her doctor for a strategic personalized health plan. The doctor uses risk predictive models that incorporate not only traditional predictive factors but also biomarker data which enables health care providers to quantitatively determine a patient’s risk for developing certain conditions. Armed with this knowledge, the doctor and patient develop a personalized health plan which encompasses interventions that prevent, delay, or alleviate both current and high risk conditions. What are the technological, ethical, economic, and philosophical challenges we must overcome in order to make a prospective health care model a reality? This course seeks to understand and contextualize these challenges. We will utilize case studies, selected readings, guest lecturers, in-class discussion and debate to explore topics such as the controversial use of race-based treatments, the growing use of the internet and wireless technology to monitor patient behavior, the effectiveness of pre-operative clinics at major hospitals, effective genetic counseling techniques, and the twin epidemics of childhood obesity and diabetes.
Instructors
(and Contact for Permission Numbers in 2nd week of Drop/Add):
HOUSECS 79.08 — Women and International Development This course will be an overview of the issues facing women in international development. We will focus on women in developing nations. Each class will cover a different important issue, from HIV/AIDS to access to tertiary education. We will examine these issues from multiple perspectives, including public policy, cultural anthropology and human rights. The main topics covered are women’s health, women’s education and women’s economic contributions. Throughout the discussion of these issues we will be exploring organizations, large and small, dedicated to ameliorating gender disparities. Instructors
(and Contact for Permission Numbers in 2nd week of Drop/Add): Elise Dellinger, Petrina Craine |
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