Sections offered SPRING 2022:

CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd S&H credit; COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit

Class meets In Person. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html

Almost 50 years after a US president declared “a war on cancer”, it remains one of the top causes of death in the world, second only to coronary diseases. In this course we will acquaint ourselves with carcinogenesis. Focusing on the full spectrum of the disease (prevention, diagnosis, therapy), we will inquire about the scientific challenge it presents mankind. In doing so, we will learn about patterns of scientific reasoning related to the problem of cancer in a form useful to both non-scientists and prospective scientists for understanding and evaluating scientific information of all sorts. Illustrations for these patterns as they are applied to the problem of cancer will be drawn from a wide variety of historical and contemporary sources, including popular magazines and newspapers. There will be a final 2- or 3-body project, a mid term multiple choice exam, and 5 short papers, but no final exam. All materials will be made available on Canvas.

Sections offered SPRING 2022:

CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd S&H credit; COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit

Class meets In Person. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html

Sections offered Spring 2022:

CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd S&H credit; COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit

Class meets In Person. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html

Between 1967 and 1979 a number of extraordinary factors converged to produce an uncommonly adventurous era in the history of American film. The end of movie censorship, the decline of the Hollywood studio system, economic changes in the film industry, and demographic shifts among audiences, filmmakers, and critics created an unprecedented opportunity for a new type of Hollywood movie. An unusually large number of films from this period have become recognized as classics of the American cinema – including The Godfather, Chinatown, Taxi Driver, Five Easy Pieces, The Graduate, Nashville, and Apocalypse Now – while many others are considered to represent the pinnacle of their particular genres – including Bonnie and Clyde, Klute, and McCabe and Mrs. Miller. These were major works of art in continuous dialogue with the political, social, personal, and philosophical issues of their tumultuous times.

The films of this period reflected the era’s social and political upheavals: the civil rights movement, the domestic consequences of the Vietnam war, the sexual revolution, women’s liberation, the end of the long postwar economic boom, the saga of the Nixon Administration and Watergate. Hollywood films, in this brief, exceptional moment, embraced a new aesthetic and a new approach to storytelling, creating self-consciously gritty, character-driven explorations of moral and narrative ambiguity. Although the emergence of blockbuster hits like Jaws and Star Wars in the second half of the 1970s largely ended the Hollywood studios’ embrace of more challenging films, filmmakers in this decade showed that it was possible to combine commercial entertainment with serious explorations of politics, society, and personal relationships.

Students in this course are not expected to have any prior experience in film criticism or history – just an interest in learning to think critically about movies and American culture. The goal of this course is to introduce students to the relationship between movies, culture and society by focusing on American films of the 1970s, and through these films, to trace a path through the history of American culture during the late 20^th century. The readings, screenings, assignments, and classroom activities in this course are intended to help students develop competence in critical thinking about movies, culture and society — as demonstrated through exams and short essays – and advanced skill in the writing of critical analysis and reasoned arguments – as demonstrated in formal papers. In addition to our regular classroom meetings, students will be required to view the movies to be discussed in the course. This will be take place individually, on your own schedule, by renting the movies through an available streaming service (such as Amazon or iTunes).

Sections offered SPRING 2022:

CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd S&H credit; COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit

Class meets In Person. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html

This course will teach you about the different tools used to develop theories in Media Psychology. We will explore a variety of different measurement techniques, using published research designed to investigate the psychological impact of music. Some of the research methods you will be introduced to include: self-report questionnaires, the Implicit Association Test (IAT), Continuous Response Measurement, Experience Sampling Measurement, measures of the peripheral nervous system (Heart Rate, Skin Conductance), and measures of the central nervous system (fMRI, EEG). When possible, students will be given demonstrations of the measurement tools in the Media School’s Institute for Communication Research. No prior knowledge of music or media psychology is required. The course is ideal for those interested in learning about ways music affects people, students wanting to learn more about psychological experiments, and/or those considering graduate school in psychology, media, or music cognition.

Please contact Dr. Potter for more information.

Sections offered SPRING 2022:

CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd S&H credit; COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit

Class meets In Person. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html

This course explores the phenomenon of failure and how it has influenced modern thought and discovery  We will explore both historical and contemporary cases of failure, from a variety of disciplinary perspectives: psychology, education, science, business, athletics, and engineering and design. In addition, we will draw from our own experiences as well as narratives offered by authors and guest speakers in examining the personal dimensions of experiencing failure, the ways it can teach or deceive us. We’ll consider how different cultural and ethical traditions interpret failure, what might constitute “meaningful” failure, and how failure can play a crucial role in learning, growth, and progress.

Sections offered SPRING 2022:

CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd S&H credit; COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit

Above class meets In Person. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html

Coffee is widely referred to as the world’s second most valuable legal commodity (behind oil) and is probably the world’s most consumed legal drug. Beyond its status as such a massively traded product, coffee is central to the lives of most Americans. We drink coffee with both breakfast and dessert. We consume coffee both to facilitate our work and enhance our leisure. We can buy coffee everywhere—from the grimiest gas station to the most high-end restaurant—and what we are willing to pay for it runs the gamut. Within American communities, coffee has come to epitomize both what is quintessentially “local” (the neighborhood coffee shop) and “corporate” (Starbucks, Dunkin’). For many Americans, coffee shops are now default settings for relaxing with friends, conducting business, studying, creating art, and for even being alone. Yet, where does our coffee come from? Behind this everyday commodity is an intricate, expansive, and frequently exploitative network that connects billions of people across continents, nationalities, ethnicities, languages, currencies, religions, geographies, and economic backgrounds. In this discussion-driven course, we will approach coffee from a variety of economic, social, political, food studies, and human rights angles in order to consider the extraordinarily complex role that the beverage plays in connecting lives within global culture.