This course explores Polish cinema from the 1970s to the present day, with a special focus on films that break away from traditional cinematic conventions and subvert dominant stylistic and thematic norms. We will approach these films as philosophical exercises, analyzing the nature of their subversiveness and ways they challenge our assumptions and engender new ways of thinking. In order to fully understand their import, we will also contextualize these cinematic provocations within the settings in which they were created. We will take into consideration the sociopolitical and cultural developments to which they respond and the main cinematic movements with which they are in dialog.  Knowledge of Polish language and culture is not required to succeed in this course.

PREREQUISITE:  COMPLETION OF THE ENGLISH COMPOSITION REQUIREMENT

When people are angry today, they are often advised to control their anger or learn to manage it. As an emotion, we see anger unruly, potentially dangerous, and in need of mastering. In many societies, showing anger is permitted only to the very young, or those in positions of power and authority. Although usually viewed in Christianity as a sin, sometimes anger is a motivating force and can effect real change, such as the collective anger behind social-justice movements. Can there be, for example, a just or righteous anger? Compared to other emotions, such as happiness or love, we’re clearly uncomfortable with anger as an emotion.

But has this discomfort about anger always been the case? What can we learn from works of the past? Texts from classical Antiquity and the European Middle Ages suggest that anger was seen as both destructive and generative, a potentially productive emotion. From its famous opening line (“Sing, goddess, of the anger of Achilles”), the Iliad frames its story as a result of anger. Similarly, the Aeneid frames itself as a story of the consequences of Juno’s anger. What can these and other texts tell us about anger and how it relates to being human?

We will read The Iliad, sections of The Aeneid, passages from the Bible, selections from Dante’s Inferno, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and Shakespeare’s The Tempest as well as other ancient and medieval works as we explore how this emotion has been understood, portrayed, feared, used, and policed. Come to class prepared to read, discuss and engage with one another’s ideas. Final grade will be based on class preparation and participation, weekly discussion board posts, three short essays, and a final creative project/presentation.

Ideas and arguments about money—what it is, how it works, who controls it—have been fundamental to modern history and to many theories of modernity itself. In this seminar, we will work through some foundational texts of Western social and political theory, focusing on how authors’ claims about money relate to how they see the world, imagine people, and understand ethics.

Some of our key texts for the semester were written by economists (David Ricardo, John Maynard Keynes) or by writers now claimed as important for economics (Adam Smith), but the seminar will proceed more like a class in political theory, sociology, or philosophy than like one in Economics or Finance. No previous study of economics or intellectual history is required but students must be prepared to deal with dense and difficult texts. If you do not want to have your assumptions about money challenged, you should not take this course.

Readings will include speeches, policies, and opinion pieces, as well as selections from

John Locke, Second Treatise of Government (1690)
Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776)
William Cobbett, Paper against Gold (1815)
David Ricardo, On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817)
John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy (1864)
Karl Marx, Capital (1867, 1885)
Georg Simmel, The Philosophy of Money (1889)
John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (1936)
John Galbraith, The Affluent Society (1958)

Grading and Requirements:

Attendance and participation (15%); short daily discussion posts (10%); four “reading reports” (5% each); paper with an assigned prompt (20%), must be revised and resubmitted for credit; final paper proposal (10%); final paper (25%). This course satisfies the Intensive Writing requirement and I will pay special attention to the felicity and effectiveness of your prose. Please recognize the revision process as an opportunity for sustained reworking of your first submission; if you simply correct typographical errors and spelling mistakes, your grade will go down instead of up.

Policy on Attendance and Participation: You are expected to attend all course meetings. If you miss more than three sessions, for whatever reason, I have the right to give you a failing grade for the course (regardless of your grades on written work).

**THIS CLASS REQUIRES ADVANCE PERMISSION FROM PROFESSOR; PLEASE EMAIL SPECHLER@INDIANA.EDU FOR MORE INFORMATION**

Are you thinking about becoming a diplomat or an expert on international law?   Are you hoping to study or work abroad?  Do you have a strong interest in international affairs?  This course will give you an opportunity to participate in a simulation of the United Nations General Assembly. Readings will focus on the origins and evolution of the UN; principal UN bodies, how they operate and what they do; who finances the UN; controversies and voting patterns in the UN; and UN activities and programs, such as peace keeping and peace enforcement, preventing weapons proliferation, facilitating economic development, and promoting human rights.  The centerpiece of the course will be the simulation.  Participants will research and write several short papers, ranging in length from 3-8 pages each. Some of the papers will deal with the development, activities, authority, and impact of the UN. The other papers will focus on the country the student will represent in the model UN. They will analyze that country’s major foreign policy concerns, its principal economic and social problems and the chief regional or international issues that affect it. Students will also write two resolutions their country might wish to submit for consideration by the UN General Assembly and will prepare written comments on the resolutions submitted by other participants in the simulation. There will be one or two short quizzes, but no examinations.

Search terms: United Nations, UN, international relations, international organizations, international law, simulation, diplomacy, conflict, peace, human rights, foreign policy.

Above class meets with POLS-Y 399 and INTL-I 310.

Eastern Europe from the Cold War until now: communist regime and contemporary capitalist society with Poland as a primary case study. Survey of the communist propaganda, anti-communist resistance, dissident/civil rights movement (“Solidarity”), youth contestations, rock scene, Catholic church, pop culture, and everyday life. Discussion of the capitalist transformations, including postcommunist emergence of the ethnic and religious minorities, queer and feminist activism, and new geopolitical challenges (bordering with Ukraine). Study materials include cult writers (three Nobel Prize winners), films, music, and performance art.

NO PREREQUISITES. All materials in English.

Above class meets with SLAV-P 364, SLAV-P 564, REEI-R 300, and REEI-R 500.

Czech literature and history are intimately bound and the history of the Czechs has often been a painful one. For centuries, literature has served as a means to respond to historical events from the repression of the Hapsburg Empire through the totalitarian regimes of the Nazis and Soviets. This survey of modern Czech literature begins immediately after World War II and takes us through the Alcoholic Realism of Bohumil Hrabal, the different Modernisms of Milan Kundera and Vladimír Páral, the Absurdism of ex-dissident/President Václav Havel, and up to today. The purpose of the course is to introduce students to some of the finest culturally engaged novels of Central and Eastern Europe, novels that open up worlds that are recognizable, yet curiously different from our own.

Above class meets with SLAV-C 364 and SLAV-C 564

The fluid space of the Indian Ocean and the adjoining regions of Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Australia define the Indian Ocean World. Since ancient times, a rich linguistic, literary, cultural, and imaginative interconnectedness has existed in this World.  The subsequent phase of European colonialism oceanized the region taking full advantage of the nexus of knowledge, power, and imagination. Renewed interest in the Indian Ocean World in the era of new geopolitical struggles has shown that the Indian Ocean and its surrounding countries comprised one of the most active mobility networks shaping the socio-economic structures not just of the region but also of the West. In this course, we will explore the ramifications of interconnections in the Indian Ocean region through the lens of littoral novel. We will attempt to discover the true meaning of what has been conventionally termed as “encounters” among the various countries and continents. As we write about these novels, we will interpret and evaluate the stories by applying yardsticks that are not limited to the Western tradition of literary criticism.

Besides critical and interpretive materials that I will provide you on Canvas, we will read the following novels:

• Lindsey Collen, Mutiny ISBN 978-0747557722
• Amitav Ghosh, River of Smoke ISBN 978-1250013750
• Romesh Gunesekera, The Prison of Paradise ISBN 978-1408825662

This course looks to explore the myriad of ways in which “science,” in a variety of forms, is discussed and presented to scientific communities, governmental organizations, and the public. Specifically, we will focus on five main components related to the above topic:

The shifting conceptions of what constitutes a scientific argument throughout the past three centuries, and, more broadly, how societies have developed their understanding of science and its relationship to public life.

The increasing skepticism of the role of science in society, and how science has become increasingly politicized in contemporary American political discourse.

The role of governmental funding in science in the United States after World War II to today, and debates over what “kinds” of science ought to be funded with taxpayer dollars.

How can multiple modes of address (podcasts, video, speech, writing) be effectively marshalled to explain the impact and utility of scientific research to an audience of non-experts.

How to foster public input and deliberation over the shape and trajectory of controversial scientific and technological advancements in the areas of biomedicine and the environment.

Uniting these threads of inquiry is one overarching question: How can we trace the development of our contemporary understanding of the role of science in a democracy, and what are the challenges we face in fostering public engagement with the scientific progress in the United States?

Goals of the course include:

• Understanding the relationship between the study of rhetoric, communication and science
• Tracing our shifting conceptions of what constitutes “science” over the past three centuries
• Presenting scientific research (in multiple modes) in ways that are easily communicable to non-expert audiences in the academy and public
• Analyzing scientific argument
• Understanding the relationship between democracy and science

Loneliness is a condition that takes a toll on human biology, health, and psychology, with philosophical and even spiritual dimensions.  Among the groups suffering most from loneliness are young adults, and the US Surgeon General has described loneliness as a public health crisis, recently exacerbated by the COVID pandemic.  In this course, we will explore loneliness from multiple different disciplinary perspectives, attempting to grasp more deeply its causes, features, and effects, as well as steps we can take to prevent and reduce loneliness and build better relationships for ourselves and others.

If at first you don’t succeed…” Failure has many cliches.  But how do different fields (psychology, law, education, science, entrepreneurship, medicine, engineering and design, art, athletics) understand and navigate failure?  What does it mean to have a healthy relationship with failure?  How can we combat perfectionism, risk aversion, and the anxiety that we just don’t measure up? Drawing from scholarly literature, guest speakers, and personal experiences, we will explore the myriad dimensions of failure and how we might learn from it.