Associated Course Pairings:

Course Descriptions

CC101: Pulling Back the Curtain: The Global Practice of Metafiction

Instructor: Corinne Scheiner
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Analysis & Interpretation of Meaning
Block: 1

CC120: Getting Tipsy with Socrates

Instructor: Richard Fernando Buxton
Block: 2

In this class we will think about—and practice—academic writing in the Humanities through studying Plato’s Symposium, one of the most fun and fascinating works to reach us from ancient Athens. The Symposium follows the philosopher Socrates to a drinking party where leading intellectual and artistic figures discuss the nature of love, particularly sexual desire between men. The work provides important evidence for everything from Athenian social customs, the history of sexuality, philosophy’s competitive relationship with the arts and science, and emotional life 2500 years ago. It therefore gives us a chance to discuss how scholars from various disciplines have written about a single work in a variety of ways, bringing different questions and methods to bear on the same text. This will let us reflect on what is the same and different between academic writing in related Humanistic fields, while also seeing how our own voices as writers change depending on the kind of investigation we undertake—and what audience(s) we wish to address. Students will become comfortable with the conventions of academic writing in the Humanities, all while tackling an accessible work that asks deep questions about love and companionship in a good-humored manner.

One evening film screening, and one field trip to the CU Museum of Art.

CC101: Introduction to Japanese Culture

Instructor: Hiromi Onishi
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Analysis & Interpretation of Meaning
Block: 1

In this course, we will explore Japanese culture, both traditional and contemporary, from social and linguistic aspects. The goal of the course is to promote understanding of the underlying aesthetics of Japanese culture and literature and analyze the impact of language on Japanese history, society, and culture. By the end of the block, students will be able to experience and understand the historical and social aspects of both traditional and contemporary Japanese culture, from Japanese zen garden to anime. Students will also learn about ethnic minorities and socially marginalized populations in Japan, and the impact of language on these people. Through discussing and analyzing these topics with Japanese language and culture as the target of analysis, students are encouraged to reflect on their own language and culture. The course will integrate various forms of learning materials including books on cultural studies, films, research articles, and field trips. The course will introduce students to the study of Japan at a collegiate level by familiarizing them with campus resources and standard writing and research practices in the field of linguistic and cultural studies. Students will gain skills in critical thinking and analysis, as well as in research and oral presentation.

Saturday field trip to Nan Desu Kan (anime convention) in Denver, and a field trip to the Denver Art Museum.

CC120: Writing About Music

Instructor: Ryan Bañagale
Block: 2

A well-known and variably ascribed witticism claims, “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture – it is a stupid thing to do.” Despite what this famous quotation may say, there are indeed many ways to interpret our sonic experience both in writing and other forms of expression. However, not all music demands the same style of prose. This course explores the various ways that we interpret and write about music, both from the past and the present. In the process, students will come to understand how a variety of textual genres contribute to our collective understandings about music both as a discipline and diversion.

Occasional afternoon/evening performance attendance, one day-long field trip to Denver.

CC104: Introduction to Asian Art

Instructor: Tamara Bentley
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Historical Perspectives
Block: 1

This course will focus on Indian art and Chinese art. It will emphasize relationships between art and religion as well as the social contexts for art. We will examine Hindu Temple architecture, sculptures, paintings, ceramics, and prints. The impacts of rapid commodification beginning in late Ming China, and the impacts of maritime contact with European powers, will also be considered.

CC120: Art of Japan

Instructor: Tamara Bentley
Block: 4

This course will emphasize writing, with one short research paper and a final longer paper. Art of Japan covers classical relationships between Heian-period court art, poetry, and aristocratic patronage; medieval Kamakura and Muromachi periods, dominated by Pure Land Buddhism and Zen Buddhism; consolidation of the tea ceremony and unique qualities of castle architecture and screen paintings in the Momoyama; and the Edo-period shift towards more inexpensive and widely-reproducible formats, such as the woodblock print.

CC105: Dyeing to Learn Chemistry

Instructor: Annelise Gorensek-Benitez
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Scientific Analysis
Block: 1

The part of Colorado that includes, and surrounds, the San Luis Valley (SLV) has an amazingly rich set of ‘histories’, including those that are earth science, anthropological, cultural, economic and political in nature. In other words it is a region that can be explored using a wide variety of disciplinary perspectives that together fit under the General Education umbrella. In this course students will be introduced to the concept of ‘disciplinary perspectives’ and what defines them in general. As an example of how such disciplines can operate, students will spend several weeks learning and applying the practices & methods inherent to the earth sciences via first-hand study of the SLV region. Then they will step back and consider the ‘why’ of the earth sciences; what questions or applications are considered important, and how the field of study has evolved over time. Throughout the course students will also have the opportunity to study other kinds of histories via readings and conversations with students in other CC100 classes.

Afternoon labs from 1 - 3:30 ~2 a week.

CC120: Reading Graphic Histories

Instructor: Danielle Sanchez
Block: 3

This course focuses on the writing of history in the genre of graphic non-fiction. While graphic histories differ significantly from traditional secondary sources, we must think of these texts as forms of history writing. Students will read and analyze primary sources, graphic non-fiction works, and scholarly pieces written by historians. Over the course of the block, we will analyze and reflect on how historians think about audience, present information, engage with sources, and get people to think about the past in a range of ways.