Fall 2011 Courses
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Spring 2010 Courses
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Spring 2012 Courses
FS 111, 121, 131, 141 are 3 unit courses designed for first year students for Liberal Studies distribution block credit.
FS 111 = Science (non-lab)
FS 121 = Aesthetic & Humanistic Inquiry
FS 131 = Cultural Understanding
FS 141 = Social & Political Worlds
CRAFTS / Community Engagement Initiative course
These Seminars may require students to work together on projects identified in consultation with community partners.
Science (non-lab) Liberal Studies distribution block
FS 111 Global Sustainability (Stefan Sommer, Biological Sciences)
Class# 3863 TTh 12:45-2:00
This Seminar will present our cutting edge understanding of environmental sustainability. Students will learn how sustainability is understood by ecological, social, economic, and engineering experts. We will explore the ways in which people are working to create a more sustainable society.
Contact: Stefan.Sommer@nau.edu
Aesthetic & Humanistic Inquiry Liberal Studies distribution block
FS 121 The Broadway Musical (James Leve, Music)
Class# 6986 TTh 12:45-2:00
Class# 3873 TTh 9:35-10:20
Broadway musicals belong with those cultural texts that reflect, express, and shape America’s attitudes about itself and the world. Therefore, the study of the musical adds a valuable dimension to students’ exposure to many of the most vexing issues facing American society during the last century, in particular, race, gender, and national identity. In this course, students will examine musical theater from an artistic, historical, and cultural standpoint. Materials for this study include original cast recordings, film versions, and live taped versions of the musicals.
Contact: James.Leve@nau.edu
FS 121 Civil Discourse in Action (Rosalinda Haddon, Nursing)
Class# 7203 TTh 12:45-2:00
This is a highly interactive Seminar in which students will develop the skills of reason and the use evidence to cogently construct oral arguments.
Contact: Rosalinda.Haddon@nau.edu
FS 121 Comics: Pow! Bam! Biff! (Kevin Ketchner, First Year Seminar Program and Honors)
Class# 5080 TTh 5:30-6:45
The modern comic book will inform the contextual analysis for this Seminar. We will explore comics from their humble origins in the 1930’s as the reprinted pages of the Sunday newspaper comic strips, to the best selling graphic novels of today. It will be seen that comics and their heroes soak up and reflect their culture and their times. This encompasses the battles waged against the Axis powers of World War II, the diversity of themes and social consciousness of the 1960’s and 1970’s, the adaption of popular culture titles such as Star Wars, the reformation of the industry with the advent of the graphic novel and comic-based film, to the current industry as the country redefined it’s place in the world post-9/11.
Contact: Kevin.Ketchner@nau.edu
FS 121 Communication & NAU Community (Emilly Borthwick-Wong, First Year Seminar Program)
Class# 4831 TTh 5:30-6:45
Communication is integral to every facet of our society. Students in this Seminar will attend activities such as guest lectures, athletic events, films and theater performances on the Northern Arizona University’s campus. You will have the opportunity to explore and analyze how communication helps to create, maintain and challenge share beliefs. Students will attend 15 NAU events and then as a class will work to make sense of NAU’s community and analyze how communication helps shape campus culture.
NOTE: Students enrolled in this course should be prepared to attend an event once a week. The events may take place on weeknights or during the weekend. Attendance at events outside of class is a mandatory portion of the course.
Contact: Emilly.Borthwick@nau.edu
FS 121 Conflict & the Human Condition (Everett Akam, First Year Seminar Program and Honors)
Class# 3855 / 3871(H) MWF 10:20-11:10
Class# 3860 / 6037(H) MWF 12:40-1:30
“Only the dead have seen the end of war.” So wrote Plato in the third century BC. Through films, novels, and other provocative readings, this course explores the reasons why conflict remains a ubiquitous part of the human condition. Along this journey we will also analyze and fashion our own moral philosophy capable of enhancing peace within our community and throughout the world.
Contact: Everett.Akam@nau.edu
FS 121 Ecology of Mind (Jeffrey Warren Bloom, Education)
Class# 3859 TTh 2:20-3:35
From aboriginal cultures to the “big” thinkers of today, “ecology of mind” has been an important perspective on people’s relationships to the Earth, to themselves, and to others. This Seminar focuses on using systems thinking and pattern thinking to explore how we can connect to a deeper sense of being, to others, and to our environments.
Contact: Jeff.Bloom@nau.edu
FS 121 Environment & Social Change (Lauren Berutich, First Year Seminar Program, and Rom Coles, Community, Culture, and Environment)
Class# 3858 MW 2:00-3:15
Class# 5081 TTh 11:10-12:25
CRAFTS / Community Engagement Initiative course
Want to learn about the environment through the exploration of social, cultural, political, and economic perspectives? Ready to have your voices heard and share in dialogue around issues that matter to YOU and the PLANET? This course will explore community through a very new lens, one that connects living and non-living worlds and addresses how having the right tools to organize can bring about real, on-the-ground positive community change.
How do you feel about renewable energy use on NAU campus, drug and alcohol use, student government sponsored activities, recycling and compost initiatives, LGBT equity issues, sustainable food systems, immigration and civil rights in Arizona, college tuition fees, campus transportation issues, student accountability and waste, accessibility to campus and community services?
Deepen your understanding of citizenship and democracy by practicing it, and by becoming participants and agents of civic change on campus, in Flagstaff, and in your communities at large. This course is hands-on and exploratory and will ask the students to think through an experiential, learning lens. The students will have the opportunity to discover the surrounding Flagstaff community and its diverse landscapes on and off campus to establish various areas of interest and identify issues they would like to address and CHANGE. You have a voice and it can be heard!
Sign up today for a fun, engaging, and truly meaningful exploration of community through ecological, environmental and social change.
Contact: Lauren.Berutich@nau.edu
FS 121 How to be a Superhero (Gerald Wood, Education)
Class# 7202 TTh 2:20-3:35 and T 7:00-9:00
CRAFTS / Community Engagement Initiative course
Do you stand for justice? All superheroes underwent a radical transformation and developed a critical sense of awareness. This Seminar will be an exploration into our value systems and how we view the world. In addition, we will examine various issues of injustice that the world currently faces. The aim of this Seminar is to support a personal development that focuses on awareness, empathy, and transformation. The world needs superheroes now more than ever!
Contact: Gerald.Wood@nau.edu
FS 121 Inquiry Into Sustainability (Kimberley F. Curtis, First Year Seminar Program and Sustainable Communities)
Class# 4684 TTh 12:45-2:00 and T 7:00-9:00
CRAFTS / Community Engagement Initiative course
Increasing numbers of thinkers in the US and across the globe believe that industrial civilization is threatening the earth, and that our way of life cannot be sustained. They are inspired by the truth that dark periods in human history have often been the most creative periods, requiring new cultural practices and relationships, new public narratives, and new self-understandings. We will engage some of the leading economic, political, religious-philosophical and educational critics of industrial civilization, examining and assessing together dimensions of the problems as well as the wealth of new thinking and creative practical-political experimentation taking place to address them.
Contact: Kimberley.Curtis @nau.edu
FS 121 Is Civil Discourse Dead? (Rosalinda Haddon, Nursing)
Class# 4666 TTh 9:35-10:50
This is a highly interactive Seminar that will trace the history or conversation in the United States from colonial times to present day. How we converse during expansion, wars, peace, colonialization and with technology will be explored. The end product will be a discourse on a controversial topic.
Contact: Rosalinda.Haddon@nau.edu
FS 121 New Mind Yourself (Barbara Sheeley, Art)
Class# 4830 TTh 9:35-10:50
There’s a mismatch between the high-tech world we’ve created and the ‘old mind’ we inherit as humans. Contemporary culture requires ways of thinking and responding in alignment with the high stakes of the new century. To ‘new mind yourself,’ students learn about how the mind creates, modifies and recreates experience using an innovative method of examining art as the starting point. Through guided analyses of different forms of creative expression, we develop active thinking skills that enable more clarity and flexibility. We use these skills to spotlight some important trends within society and around our planet and develop written, visual and verbal presentations focused on issues of local, national and global importance.
Contact: Barbara.Sheeley@nau.edu
FS 121 Noir in Film & Literature (Bruce Fox, Forestry)
Class# 4904 MWF 12:40-1:30
In this Seminar we will discuss the characteristics and import of noir as it reflects societal values and perspectives—or does not—using a variety of scholarly texts and articles, books, and films. We will use texts from the Brothers Grimm, Mark Twain, and hard-boiled detective novels from the 1940s and 1950s. Some classic film noir include, but will not be limited to, Chinatown, High Noon, Double Indemnity, Dirty Harry, and I am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang.
Contact: Bruce.Fox@nau.edu
FS 121 Power - Justice – Freedom (Kimberley F. Curtis, First Year Seminar Program and Sustainable Communities)
Class# 4835 MW 3:45-5:00 and T 7:00-9:00
CRAFTS / Community Engagement Initiative course
Power, justice and freedom are some of our most potent political words. In this Seminar, we will engage some of the most interesting and controversial answers to the questions: What is power? What is justice? What is freedom? Our readings and our discussions will deepen students’ ability to understand contemporary political struggles and aspirations, and help them develop their own sense of how these questions should best be answered, and what is at stake as they do so.
Contact: Kimberley.Curtis @nau.edu
FS 121 Reinventing King Arthur (John Doherty, First Year Seminar Program and Honors)
Class# 4818 TTh 11:10-12:25
Class# 4703 TTh 11:10-12:25
C.S. Lewis once compared the Arthurian legend to a great medieval cathedral that was built by many over generations. In this case, it has been 1,500 years in the making, and still going strong. Since 1900 literature, film and music have contributed more to the Arthurian story than at any other time since it first emerged as oral tales in the Wales of the 500s. We will briefly examine the first 1,400 years of the story, and then concentrate on the recent additions of film and fiction, including Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Excalibur, The Mists of Avalon, The Crystal Cave, and the recent BBC TV series Merlin. We will critically examine how the 20th Century has put its own unique spin on a very popular story.
Contact: John.Doherty@nau.edu
FS 121 Social Justice – Youth Empowerment (Jacob Dolence, First Year Seminar Program and Gerald Wood, Education)
Class# 4675 TTh 11:10-12:25
CRAFTS / Community Engagement Initiative course
Young people have the opportunity to shape the world around them. This Seminar will serve as a space for inquiry development, teaching methods, and a gained understanding of democracy through the Public Achievement model. NAU students will serve as coaches and teachers in one of two elementary schools in Flagstaff to highlight the voices of their students through a community based project. Core concepts such as power, community, engagement, and grassroots organizing will be practiced and discussed throughout the semester.
Contact: Jacob.Dolence@nau.edu
FS 121 Social Justice-Youth Empowerment (Lauren Berutich, First Year Seminar Program and Gerald Wood, Education)
Class# 4673 TTh 12:45-2:00
CRAFTS / Community Engagement Initiative course
Young people have the opportunity to shape the world around them. This Seminar will serve as a space for inquiry development, teaching methods, and a gained understanding of democracy, public work, and citizenship through the Public Achievement (PA) model. NAU students will serve as coaches and teachers at Kinsey Elementary School in Flagstaff to highlight the voices of their students through a community based project. Student concerns addressed during the after school program will lead to issue identification and grassroots democracy participation. Core concepts such as power, community, engagement, and grassroots organizing will be practiced and discussed throughout the semester. Students will engage in hands-on learning through field work and leadership development. They will not only develop crucial critical thinking and leadership skills while gaining a deeper understanding of who they are in the world, but will have the opportunity to pass this knowledge down to the next generation of thinkers, doers, and civic agents of change.
Students are required to be available one day a week (flexible) on a weekly Monday through Thursday basis from 3:00-5:00 p.m. to attend Kinsey as a PA coach.
Contact: Lauren.Berutich@nau.edu
FS 121 Understanding Risk (Peter Friederici, Communication)
Class# 4672 MW 2:00-3:15
Why do people seek out activities that can harm or kill? How do communities or entire societies balance risk and reward? Why are human beings so good at sensing and dealing with risk in the short term, but so bad at it in the long run? Based on new research from fields as diverse as psychology and climate science, this highly interdisciplinary Seminar will examine how individuals and societies understand risk and incorporate it into their lives. We will look at how gender roles influence the perception of risk, how cultures control risk through initiation rites and other activities, how societies deal with disasters before or after they strike, and how societal efforts to control risk through insurance and regulation may sometimes backfire. We will use films and readings to examine how to better understand a complex, multifaceted issue that touches everyone.
Contact: Peter.Friederici@nau.edu
FS 121 Will the Bees Survive? (Patrick Pynes, First Year Seminar Program)
Class# 7201 TTh 12:45-2:00
CRAFTS / Community Engagement Initiative course
Humans and honey bees have had a close, long-term relationship for a very long time.
During the past several thousand years, we have domesticated this remarkable species, and today our agricultural and food systems are very much dependent upon the honey bee. Without their pollination services, there would be no almonds, blueberries, strawberries, apples, and a host of other fruits and vegetables for us to eat. We can no longer take the bees or these foods for granted. Each year since 2006, one third of all managed beehives have died in the U.S. and beyond, victims of a mysterious ailment called “colony collapse disorder” (CCD). This situation is not sustainable.
Will honey bees become extinct? Why are we both fascinated and fearful of honey bees? What are the bees telling us? What can we learn from them? What can we do to help them to survive and thrive? Are honey bees a social insect or an animal, like us? These are some of the questions that we’ll be exploring in this hands-on Seminar.
Contact: Pat.Pynes@nau.edu
Cultural Understanding Liberal Studies distribution block
FS 131 Psychology & Culture (Daniela Penickova, Comparative Cultural Studies)
Class# 3857 TTh 11:10-12:45
This is an interdisciplinary Seminar that will introduce students to the study of culture and psychology and its relevance to modern day social issues. By placing a person at the center of inquiry, we will explore mental processes through which humans integrate themselves into a society in different cultures. Throughout this cross-cultural journey, we will address two broad themes. The first of them will be an examination of ways in which human mind development and enculturation shape processes of cognition, perception, motivation, and emotion in the modern, increasingly complex social environment. The second theme of the course will explore the relationship between conceptual categories and mental health across different cultures. This part will focus on the cultural construction of diagnostic and therapeutic practices related to psychological disorders in the ever-expanding Western medicine and in Native American healing systems in the Southwest. We will also discuss the practical implications of differential diagnosis and therapy for culturally sensitive health care delivery.
Contact: Daniela.Penickova@nau.edu
FS 131 Southwest Sustainable Foods (Patrick Pynes, First Year Seminar Program)
Class# 4676 TTh 2:20-3:35
Class# 4677 TTh 4:00-5:15
Our field of study will be the historic and contemporary foodways and agricultural traditions of the Southwest’s diverse cultures: Hopi, Navajo, Hispano, European American, Asian American, and many more. Let’s learn about the Southwest’s sustainable foods, from amaranth to zucchini.
NOTE: Students must spend 2-4 hours per week working with an Action Research Team. There are required field trips off campus. Please contact the professor for more information.
Contact: Pat.Pynes@nau.edu
Social & Political Worlds Liberal Studies distribution block
FS 141 Democracy, Social Justice & the Environment (Jacob Dolence, First Year Seminar Program, and Rom Coles, Community, Culture, and Environment)
Class# 3868 MW 2:00-3:15 and T 7:00-9:00
Class# 3869 TTh 9:35-10:50 and T 7:00-9:00
CRAFTS / Community Engagement Initiative course
In this Seminar, grassroots democratic participation is explored in relation to problems of environmental sustainability, social justice, and diversity from the local level to the global. We will examine systemic aspects of social and environmental problems as well as alternative pathways for change. Community-based research and engagement are a vital component of the course, facilitating a process in which students can participate in fostering the changes that they want to see in the world.
Contact: Jacob.Dolence@nau.edu
FS 141 Ethics for a Global Economy (Paul Baker, First Year Seminar Program)
Class# 4687 TTh 12:45-2:00
As a global economy continues to develop, ethical and cultural issues that affect the international business arena, have become of increasing importance. This Seminar specifically addresses the following ethical issues: employment practices, consumer protection, environmental issues, bribery, sexual harassment, office theft, basic human rights and fundamental freedoms. Case study analysis, videos, and guest speakers will provide the student with an increased understanding and sensitivity to these issues.
Contact: Paul.Baker@nau.edu
FS 141 The Great Immigration Debate (Leah Mundell, First Year Seminar Program)
Class# 3867 TTh 12:45-2:00 and T 7:00-9:00
CRAFTS / Community Engagement Initiative course
Why has the issue of immigration inflamed the passions of so many across the political spectrum in recent years? In this Seminar, we will explore the history of U.S. immigration policy, the politics of immigration reform, and the cultural implications of immigration in the United States. Students will also have the opportunity to act on the issues discussed in the course by participating in an Immigration Action Research Team in collaboration with local community organizations. Students will choose specific research and action topics and develop strategies for communicating their research to a wide variety of audiences.
Contact: Leah.Mundell@nau.edu
FS 141 Healthcare - Right or Privilege? (Lanny Morrison, First Year Seminar Program)
Class# 3865 MW 3:45-5:00
This Seminar will allow students to explore how policy is formulated and implemented to address healthcare issues. Students will learn how healthcare policy, like the Affordable Care Act (often referred to as Obamacare), is made at the state or national level and what it takes to implement it. Historical examples will be considered for what has and has not worked including unintended consequences of well-intentioned efforts. Students will learn how they, or any other citizen, can act to influence policy.
Contact: Lanny.Morrison@nau.edu
FS 141 Investigating Human Rights (Cyndi Banks, Criminology & Criminal Justice)
Class# 4832 M 4:00-6:30 and T 7:00-9:00
CRAFTS / Community Engagement Initiative course
This Seminar will examine issues such as poverty, intimate violence, punishment, education, and immigration from global and local perspectives. Building on an understanding of universal human rights theory and practice, the Seminar will take an active research approach. During the semester students will partner with the Martin Springer Institute to apply their knowledge of human rights to human rights issues reflected in the local context.
Contact: Cyndi.Banks@nau.edu
FS 141 The Logo (James I. Bowie, Sociology and Social Work)
Class# 4930 MW 2:00-3:15
As symbols of identity for organizations, products, people, and places, logos are ubiquitous in our world, and they have become a primary carrier of meaning in our increasingly visually-oriented culture. This Seminar will examine logos from a variety of perspectives, assessing their significance with regard to commerce, art, marketing, branding, design, and society in general.
Contact: James.Bowie@nau.edu
FS 141 Music, Nature & Society (Thomas Sheeley, Music)
Class# 4678 MWF 12:40-1:30
Beginning with a reading of C.S. Lewis' "Abolition of Man," and utilizing the examples of nature, this Seminar will explore the differences between natural and artificial orders as they exist in music, political philosophy and society.
Contact: Thomas.Sheeley@nau.edu
FS 141 Outdoor Ecology & Leadership (Jacob Dolence, First Year Seminar Program, and Lauren Berutich, First Year Seminar Program)
Class# 5111 W 4:30-7:00
CRAFTS / Community Engagement Initiative course
Did you know Flagstaff is located within the vast landscapes of the Colorado Plateau? That this iconic landscape stretches across four states reaching over 130,000 square miles and is a home to 29 national parks and monuments and 26 wilderness areas? Join this engaging, hands-on, experiential learning course to learn more about this vast region and more… and NOT just by sitting in a classroom! By joining this class, you are preparing to explore new, unique environments, connect with the natural living world, develop new or improve on your camping and hiking skills, and practice the essential characteristics of a positive and effective leader. You will learn about stewardship practices, engaged democratic leadership, and how to protect and conserve these treasured landscapes.
Classes are held on Wednesday evenings. We will engage in dialogue around citizenship and stewardship of the land, ecology and the interconnectedness of nature, and begin to understand how each action has a reaction on this planet. The readings will be rich and thought provoking and critical thinking skill set development is a must. We will take numerous field trips during the Wednesday sessions and also on some weekends. Regular attendance is expected and required. Please plan accordingly before signing up for the course. Contact Lauren Berutich for additional information on scheduled weekend field exploration course work.
Contact: Lauren.Berutich@nau.edu
FS 141 Trafficking of Women & Girls (Chineze Onyejekwe, First Year Seminar Program and Women’s & Gender Studies)
Class# 4819 TTh 11:10-12:25
The trafficking of women and girls happens all over the world and yet remains hidden from public view. This Seminar explores the various issues related to the complex phenomenon of human trafficking of women and girls (also referred to as a form of modern day slavery). Case studies will include discussion of the problems of trafficking in women and girls in various countries such as Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern to Western Europe and North America. Relevant topics include the commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking of women and girls for the purpose of prostitution, the role of the internet in the commercialization of sex, transnational marriages such as the mail-order bride industry, trafficking for other slave-like practices, forced labor, the exploitation of immigrant females for domestic services, the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), the U Visa for immigrants who are victims of crime, and the role of the international community in fighting this problem.
Contact: Chineze.Onyejekwe@nau.edu
FS 141 Women & Society (Chineze Onyejekwe, First Year Seminar Program and Women’s & Gender Studies)
Class# 3856 TTh 9:35-10:50
This Seminar analyzes the subordinate position of women in society as being socially constructed. It will also explore the interdependency between gender and power, and how the understanding of gendered social constructions can help in addressing gender inequalities and promote gender equity.
Contact: Chineze.Onyejekwe@nau.edu