Spring 2009 Colloquia

Colloquia can be found under the course number UH 3004H in the course timetable, and each colloquia has a different CRN number. Colloquia offerings usually change every semester.

The Beatles: Myth, Memory, and History
CRN #15423

It has been more than half a century since four young, working-class boys from Liverpool swept onto the international scene and captured the imagination of a generation. The Beatles’ rise to the top of the charts is significant not only because of the lasting cultural and commercial legacy of the group and its members, but also because the rise and fall of the Beatles’ allows us to examine the profound social and cultural transformations wrought by the cultural revolution of the sixties. This course will introduce students to the history and cultural legacy of the Beatles, including their music, films, and subsequent post-Beatles work. It will be interdisciplinary: a mixture of history, literature, biography, musicology and film studies. In addition to weekly readings, short papers, and discussions, students will take part in individual and group research and presentations.

• Instructor: Robert Stephens
• Credit: 3 hours
• Day/Time: T, 3:30 – 5:20 p.m.
• Location: 132 HILL

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Food, Festival & Philosophy
CRN #15424

To know what, where, how, when and with whom people eat is to know a lot about the character of their society. It has been argued that human beings alone among animals do not “feed”, but “eat”, whether or not that be strictly true, it is certainly the case that by eating together on ritual occasion, people celebrate such varied events and births, birthdays, marriages, death, seduction, business transactions. In some cultures, food dominates people’s consciousness-not just procuring food, but the preparing and eating of it. Among other issues, this course examines Levi-Strauss’ notion that food choices are motivated not so much by what is “good to eat”, but by what is “good to think”.

• Instructor: Joe Pitt
• Credit: 3 hours
• Day/Time: R, 3:00-5:00 p.m.
• Location: 225 MAJWM

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Interviewing Techniques
CRN #15425

This class will examine the techniques used by professional theatre, film and television performers that can be used in other disciplines during interviews for jobs, scholarships and life. The competition among actors for jobs in the “business” is highly fierce and competitive. Over the years, performers have developed very sophisticated interview techniques to help them land a job or win the role. Many of the techniques used by actors can be adapted for interviews in other disciplines. This course will allow students to learn and practice some of these skills and techniques.

• Instructor: Greg Justice
• Credit: 3 hours
• Day/Time: T, 3:30 – 5:20 p.m.
• Location: 104 PAB

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Biomedical Ethics
CRN #15426

The American health care system is the best that money can buy. Yet, many ethical questions have arisen because of this superior technology: Who is in charge of the switches in intensive care? Should health care be rationed by a priority system? Will the human genome project help cure genetic diseases or will it become a eugenic screen? Who are the legal guardians of the children produced by in vivo fertilization procedures? Should research with fetal cells be sanctioned? Is there a need for an ethicist in a hospital? Should the U.S. have a national health care system which includes ethical standards? The course will include readings from the works of Lewis Thomas, Norman Cousins, etc…, plus participation by departmental faculty and local physicians.

• Instructor: Thomas Sitz
• Credit: 3 hours
• Day/Time: R, 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
• Location: 002 FRALIN

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The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living CRN#15427

This colloquium is limited to students who will graduate in December, 2009 or May, 2010. To add, you must see either Ms Wooddell or Ms Craft. They will add you if your graduation date qualifies. The limit of 15 students requires a selection process.

The purpose of the colloquium is to prepare you for your senior year. If you plan to apply for a national scholarship, graduate school, law or medical school, or you seek a great job, this colloquium will help prepare you for an extraordinary opportunity. PLEASE NOTE: there will be considerable writing and reflection. Plan to spend several hours a week on the assignments. Also, we will seek to create a perfect personal statement and curriculum vita—so be prepared for many drafts. An additional goal is to work on your personal writing style. Practice interviews will also be conducted.

• Instructor: Jack Dudley
• Credit: 3 hours
• Day/Time: T, 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
• Location: 104 M CAMPBELL

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Exploring Career Paths through The Artist’s Way
CRN#15428

Exploring Career Paths through The Artist’s Way. This colloquium is designed to help student’s gain access to their untapped creativity and explore career and life paths beyond those defined by their current academic tracks. Using Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way as a guidebook, students will work through a 12 - week program that includes reflective writing and weekly “artist dates” to uncover and overcome obstacles to creativity. This course is especially recommended for, but not restricted to, students who are uncertain about their current majors or career plans.

• Instructor: Jill Sible
• Credit: 3 hours
• Day/Time: R, 10:00 – 12:00p.m.
• Location: 132 HILL

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Chinese Medicine
CRN #15429

Chinese medicine is among the oldest health care systems, having been practiced for over 5000 years. Arising out of Daoism, the goal of Chinese medicine is to restore balance, thus creating an environment in which illness can not take root. Classically, a Chinese doctor was only paid as long as the patient remained healthy. This course will examine the principles guiding Chinese medicine. Other topics of discussion will include how tuina, also known as Chinese massage, qi gong, Thai massage, and internal martial arts work to improve health.

• Instructor: D Denbow
• Credit: 3 hours
• Day/Time: T; 3:30 – 5:20 p.m.
• Location: 1890 LITRV

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Engineering & Business Issues in the Real World
CRN #15430

This class will introduce Honors students to topics they will not see in a regular curriculum or to look at topics with a bit of a different view. A two-hour session will be built around each topic with a planned fourteen or so sessions in all. The titles are intended to be “starters” and we will go where the discussions take us. For the discussions to be meaningful, each student will be expected to have researched the topics and to bring his/her own thoughts to the meetings. A paper further developing one of the topics will be required. Topics to be discussed include:

• Ethical Issues for Engineers;
• Engineering Licensure;
• Differences in Engineering Training – now versus 20 and 40 years ago;
• Occupational Safety and Health Issues; and
• Giving back to Society.

There are additional topics based on class input and availability of expertise.

• Instructor: Rick Knack
• Credit: 3 hours
• Day/Time: M; 3:30 – 5:20 p.m.
• Location: HILL 132

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Men’s Issues
CRN #15431

This course is not restricted to men. We will examine the various issues that contribute to our understanding of what it means to be a man. This course will cover the message we receive in our life from our mothers and fathers, men’s emotions and how they are expressed, differences in communication between women and men, male bonding, sports and violence, sexual identity, sexual attraction, and aging. Each week students will be given copies of papers to read and a homework assignment to raise awareness of male issues. Even in your brief lifetime, you will be asked to draw on your life experiences as we discuss the various issues.

• Instructor: Art Buikema
• Credit: 3 hours
• Day/Time: T, 3:30 – 5:20 p.m.
• Location: 114 HOLD

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University Honors at Virginia Tech: History and Purpose
CRN#15432

The colloquium seeks to bring resolution to the questions concerning the development of University Honors at Virginia Tech. Students will be expected to interview faculty, former students, and current students concerning the development of Honors and its evolving purpose. A search of University records will also be conducted. Honors finds itself at a critical moment: a change in directors after eighteen years, the development of Honors housing, the possibility of an Honors college, and major changes in its location in the organization of the University, all require a period of study and reflection. The project will result in a major report to the Director of University Honors at the end of the semester. Students will receive attribution for their contributions to the project.

• Instructor: Jack Dudley
• Credit: 3 hours
• Day/Time: T, 10:00 – 12:00 p.m.
• Location: 104 M CAMPBELL

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Biomusical Engineering
CRN #15433

Human survival depends on the maintenance within very narrow limits of physiologic variables critical to life, a condition known as homeostasis.  Homeostasis is achieved by cascading networks of sophisticated anatomic feedback/feedforward control systems that operate in accordance with prescribed reference set-points.  In diagnosed populations (such as Autistic), these set points often deviate from those that optimize physiologic performance.  Coupled with misinterpretation of sensory information, these deviant set-points maintain the body in a perpetual survival mode that derives from fear responses.  In these cases, clinicians prescribe therapy to re-set the reference control quantities.  Recent research and clinical applications suggest that Music Therapy is a particularly effective clinical intervention to accomplish this goal.  Its effectiveness derives from its ability to function through sub-cortical, non-cognitive pathways that are indigenous to fundamental physiological response mechanisms.  The instinct to track music is innate, paralleling and reflecting the human condition through six basic elements: rhythm, melody, harmony, dynamics, timbre, and form.

In this course, we shall develop and examine a control-model paradigm to explain how and why these music elements can be utilized, in combination or individually, as a medical intervention to specifically target sensory integration dysfunction and re-set system operating parameters, i.e., redirect fear responses.  We shall examine the physics of sound as manifest specifically in the elements of music ... talking about what they are and how (and why) they have evolved over centuries of development.  We shall examine how the body receives and responds to sensory inputs, in general, and those manifest in the elements of music, in particular.  Then we shall explore how, applied clinically as a continuous disturbance to malfunctioning feedback control pathways, music therapy succeeds in stimulating functional adaptation, driving the physiologic system towards more optimal responses to sensory inputs.

• Instructor: Daniel J. Schneck
• Credit: 3 hours
• Day/Time: W, 10:00 – 12:00 p.m.
• Location: 132 HILL

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The History of the City
CRN#15434

This colloquium is limited to honors freshmen only. To add, you must see either Ms Wooddell or Ms Craft.

This course will examine the evolution and changing roles of cities. Every golden age has been an urban age; throughout history, cities have provided a crucible for creativity. How do such belles époques come about? Why should the creative flame burn so uniquely in cities and not in the countryside, and why does the creative and innovative spirit of one city inevitably yield to another? This course explores these issues and others related to the central role of cities, past and present, in the fostering of artistic, philosophical, scientific, and technological genius. The course will explore themes of cultural creativity, technological and economic innovation, the urban fusion of art and technology, urban innovation, and the partnership of the private and public sector to promote urban development and regeneration, and will include individual case studies.

• Instructor: President Charles Steger and Paul Knox
• Credit: 3 hours
• Day/Time: M, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
• Location: 132 HILL

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Bringing Science to Life for Everyone
CRN #15435

This colloquium is limited to honors freshmen only. To add, you must see either Ms. Wooddell or Ms. Craft.

This course will examine several questions such as What is science? Why is it difficult to communicate what science is and does to the general public? How has science helped us understand how we interact and change over time? This course will involve working with the Science Museum of Western Virginia to integrate all age groups in learning about science.

• Instructor: Provost Mark McNamee and Art Buikema
• Credit: 3 hours
• Day/Time: TBD
• Location: 132 HILL

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