Description: This seminar focuses on the art and craft of nonfiction writing. It is also about students learning how to discover their very personal and natural voice as writers and then how to successfully project that voice. Assignments will include several short papers, which will be individually critiqued by the professor, as well as discussion of process and product with fellow students. Class discussions will also be based on readings drawn from the work of exemplary contemporary writers. By the end of the course, the participants should have developed the confidence to express themselves clearly and persuasively in a variety of genres on topics both within and outside the confines of their most personal experiences. Students will be free to select their own topics on which to write.

"I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little or make a poem which children will speak for you when you’re dead." -- Tom Stoppard, "The Real Thing"

Landon Jones – Learn from a pro... he has been there, done that. Most recently he is the author of the highly acclaimed William Clark and the Shaping of the West, published in May 2004 by Hill and Wang; previous books include The Essential Lewis and Clark (Harper Collins, 2000) and Great Expectations: America and the Baby Boom Generation (Coward McCann, 1980), in which he coined the phrase “baby boomer” and was nominated for the American Book Award in Nonfiction. He was senior editor of People magazine for nearly a decade, and also served as editor of Money magazine. His magazine articles have included cover stories for Time and The Atlantic Monthly. He has personally interviewed a wide range of prominent figures, including Malcolm X, Princess Diana, Elizabeth Taylor, President George H. W. Bush, and President Bill Clinton. Jones has taught advanced nonfiction writing at Princeton University and Northwestern University.

Description: This is an extraordinarily timely seminar. From the ancient to the contemporary, war has been a characteristic of the human condition. This seminar will afford the opportunity to discuss, in a general framework of events and ideas, classic texts ranging from the ancient Greeks and Chinese to contemporary America. Questions concerning meaning will inevitably be raised, asking whether any sense can be made out of war.

Dr. Brittan has received all of the University’s major teaching awards. A respected teacher and mentor to numerous students, he was designated the university’s first Regents Professor in recognition of his excellence.

Description: The United States is often referred to as the world’s oldest and most successful experiment in democracy. And yet, in contemporary US society, citizen participation in the workings of democracy can be difficult and passivity is commonplace. The seminar will address the challenges of individual participation by examining the historical and philosophical basis for social action as a component of a healthy society. Participants will be provided an opportunity to engage in collective dialogue with numerous seminar-guests who will share their experiences pursuing particular social goals through a variety of methods. Discussions and assigned readings will challenge students to examine their own potential for active contribution to civic society.

Kirchhoff and Alexander enjoy personal backgrounds that provide a valuable experiential dimension to the seminar. A community activist, former city commissioner and Mayor of Bozeman, Kirchhoff has taught in the English Department for the past decade. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Alexander’s professional career includes community organization and civil rights advocacy, as well as having been a member of the MSU College of Business faculty.

UH 400-01 (4 credits)  

Description: We are privileged to have the world’s first and most famous national park in our backyard.  Locally, the issues facing Yellowstone Park are up close and personal.  Nationally and internationally, they are considered an indicator of issue trends and ecological stewardship.  This seminar will examine the historical basis for conservation as a philosophy and political movement, including an exploration of the role that conservation has played in public policy.  A field trip to the park will provide an experiential component of the seminar.

UH 400-02 (4 credits)  

Description: Love, as a human emotion, a spiritual bond, and a motivating force, remains under examined in our society.  Beginning with the mythic origins of love in ancient Greece and Rome, this seminar will evolve into an examination of theories of desire as expressed by Sigmund Freud, Max Weber, and Jacques Lacan.  It will also include an articulation of modern love as expressed in contemporary novels and film.  Options for final projects will include a scholarly essay, an original film, or a creatively composed "modern" love story.

UH 402RH or 402RS (4 credits)  

Don Demetriades

Description: Since this seminar will focus on just how broadly and profoundly contemporary medicine touches all of our lives, it is designed for students from all academic disciplines.  It will examine the underlying principles of medicine through the lens of literature, science, art and related fields.  The why of suffering and disease, the how of healing, and the role both patient and physician play in individual health, will be explored.  Numerous medical professionals will visit the seminar.

UH 204 (3 credits)  

Description: The classroom portion of the course meets once a week for lecture/discussion, supplemented by guest speakers and films. There are two primary objectives.

• Explore assumptions regarding global poverty: its impact on America, its causes, and the feasibility of competing solutions.  Economic development in the Dominican Republic will be compared and contrasted to that of its island neighbor, Haiti, with a special emphasis on the impact of micro-finance in the two vastly different cultures.
  
  
•  An examination of the history and culture of the Dominican Republic and its famous capital – the oldest city in the western hemisphere - Santo Domingo.  Finally, there will be an analysis of the impact environmental protection has had on the developing economy.

Participants will travel in May, 2009, to the Dominican Republic and spend two weeks exploring the island.  Students will witness a successful component of the Dominican Republic’s poverty alleviation program by working with a micro-lending organization, and will experience an example of the island’s failure to eliminate extreme poverty.  The expedition will conclude with several days at an adventure oriented eco-tourism lodge, where there will be opportunities to raft whitewater rivers, experience the thrill of canyoning, ride horses to remote waterfalls and swim in tropical ocean waters.