RCC Classes 2013
Detailed Descriptions
The Science Behind Looking Good
We all have our own regimen for looking our best - showering, shaving, putting on makeup or using some product. But have you ever wondered why these practices work? Why would applying heat to your hair be necessary for it to curl? Why is jewelry eye-catching? Why do we get wrinkles, and how can a cream erase them? In this highly interdisciplinary course, we will explore the science behind the things we do to feel attractive. Topics will be student driven, pulling from your own personal beauty practices.
Anne Murdaugh
Professor Murdaugh is a biophysicist and particularly enjoys the overlap of physics, biology, and chemistry. She earned her BA in physics from Georgia Tech, and went on to the University of Arizona for her PhD work in crystal growth. During her postdoctoral position at Mount Holyoke College, she worked with bacterial biofilms, and now combines these experiences to look at the physicochemical reactions of a bacteria at an interface. Her research utilizes an atomic force microscope to determine the physical properties of bacteria in a variety of chemical and biological conditions.
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German on the Fast Track
The subject of our Conference will be “German on the Fast Track” and it is just that -- elementary German and fast! German is an extremely useful language for anyone interested in high tech, continental philosophy, tourism, the automotive industry, beer brewing, protecting the environment, world class soccer, classical music, techno, or dog obedience training (just to name a few). If you are wanting to take part in the new dual degree program with the University of Reutlingen and have not studied German before, this is also the right course for you. (Seehttp://www.rollins.edu/inb/dual-degree.html for more info on that program.)
In this course, which meets five days a week, you will earn the equivalent of two semesters of course credit in elementary German. Students should have had no more than one year of high school German. The course is also not appropriate for students who have spent more than six weeks in a German-speaking area. The idea is to learn the basics of German so that you can advance quickly in the language and then spend some time overseas -- whether in Reutlingen in the dual degree program or with our partner universities in Bremen and in Munich.
Nancy Decker
Nancy Decker has been teaching German at Rollins since before the Wall came down (that was 1989, by the way). She has been working to tear down walls to studying German ever since! When not working on classes or encouraging students to go overseas, she may be daydreaming about going back to Namibia, the only place in Africa where German is widely spoken, planning a new activity for the Language Living and Learning Community, or perhaps scheming how she can incorporate more uses of technology into German instruction.
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ABC's of LGBT and Social Innovation
This interdisciplinary course examines the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights movement in modern U.S. history. Historical documents, legal cases, newspaper articles, music, television shows, film, a memoir, and media serve as primary sources to illustrate the struggle that LGBT people have faced in their attempts to secure equality. Students write oral histories documenting modern LGBT stories, and work in teams to apply social innovation to a concrete problem facing the LGBT community.
Michelle Stecker
Michelle Stecker is a faculty member at Rollins College, teaching history, law, and women’s and gender studies courses. She holds a Ph.D. and J.D. from the University of Toledo, and is a member of the Ohio bar. Michelle earned a master of divinity degree and has served as an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church USA for over 20 years. She currently serves as the Director of the Lucy Cross Center for Women and Their Allies at Rollins and is a member of the National Action Council for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
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Great Political Minds
This course will introduce students to some of the most prominent political thinkers in the history of Western political thought. The class will explore classical questions oftentimes raised by the most influential political and social theories, including: What is authority? Can we disobey the law? What is justice? What are the limits of democracy? How should we understand the ideal of individual rights? The readings will encompass approaches ranging from the classics of Greek antiquity to the modern luminaries of 19th Century Europe and America, with frequent reference to contemporary authors.
Julia Maskivker
Julia Maskivker is Assistant Professor of Political Science. She specializes in political theory and political philosophy. She obtained her Ph.D. from Columbia University in the city of New York. Maskivker teaches courses on social and political theory, including democratic theory, theories of equality, introduction to the classics, and theories of social justice, among others.
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Backstage Pass: A look into the Arts and Craft of Theatrical Desgin and Production
This course will begin by looking at the communal experience of live theatre and how it serves as an expression of identity, creates community, and improves our general psychological well-being. We will explore how a production goes from a collaborative tean exploring a written script or open-ended idea to creating a visual and aural world for the action of the event to live within. Productions at the Annie Russell Theatre will serve as exploratory grounds for students to discover what really goes on "behind the curtain." We will apply the knowledge gained from class discussion about design and production development into critiques of productions at the Annie Russell based on the success and/or failures of the design to communicate intentions to the audience. We will take one Saturday to go to Cirque Du Soleil's La Nouba! at Downtown Disney to meet with members fo the production team and discuss what it takes to support a multi-million dollar production running two shows a day, five days a week.
Kevin Griffin
Kevin has been a member of the Rollins faculty for 12 years, teaching courses in theatrical design and technical production with the Theatre Department. He serves as the Resident Lighting Design & Production Manager for the Annie Russell Theatre. Kevin came to Rollins after working professionally with various companies including Cirque Du Soleil where he was the Head of Lighting for La Nouba! at Downtown Disney. Kevin serves as a free-lance lighting designer for several local companies including Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, Orlando Reparatory Theater, UCF & Mad Cow Theatre and holds professional memberships with IATSE Local 631 and USITT. Kevin completed his B.F.A. degree at Rutgers University and his M.F.A. degree at Penn State University. He is a 7th generation Floridian and resides in Maitland, FL.
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Cultures of the Caribbean
This course surveys the history, anthropology, and literature of the Caribbean. This course will address the prehistory of the Caribbean, the history and the colonial heritage of the Caribbean; slavery and its consequences in the development of Caribbean culture; characteristics of Caribbean, culture, music, dance, and production; race and identity; tourism and its consequences in the Caribbean; transnational encounters in the Caribbean; globalization and changes to Caribbean life; and the experience of Caribbean immigrants living abroad. This course will focus specifically on the following areas: the Rastafarians, foreign tourism in the Caribbean islands; sex tourism in the Dominican Republic, Cuban immigration to the United States, and Caribbean immigrant literature in the US.
Ashley Kistler
Ashley Kistler is Assistant Professor of Anthropology. Dr. Kistler earned her BA in Spanish and Latin American Anthropology at Muhlenberg College and her MA and PhD in Anthropology at Florida State University. At Rollins, Dr. Kistler teaches classes a variety of classes on Latin America and the Caribbean, her area of research expertise. For nine years, Dr. Kistler has conducted community-based research in Guatemala, focused on community cultural revitalization efforts.
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Your Choice, Your Health
A discussion of the decisions we make every day that affect our health, both the obvious ones and the decisions you might not realize make a difference. Guidelines to healthy behaviors, but most of all an introduction to mindfulness and self-efficacy.
Rich Morris
Rich has been teaching health and wellness at the College level for 30 years, and has been at Rollins for over 20 years. He currently serves as the Director of Health Education for the College and is the varsity swimming coach. Rich received his doctorate in Exercise Physiology from UCF in 1997.
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Health, Medince, and Economics
The purpose of this course it to provide students with an understanding of the microeconomic approach to resource allocation specifically in relation to the health sector. It introduces students to the use of economic tools in the analysis of the 'market' for health care, in terms of efficiency and equity. It also provides an analytical framework for assessment of the U.S. health care system, and health policy generally, from an economic perspective.
Martina Vidovic
Professor Vidovic's areas of interest are applied microeconomics, econometrics, enviornmental economics, and health economics.
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Communications, Disability, and Social Justice
This course focuses on communication issues related to disability. Topics covered will include: • The relationship between disability and communication studies; • The impact of stigma in how people communicate about disability; • Media representation of disability (through film and television); and • News about disability rights in U.S. society, what is and isn’t covered.
Anne Stone
Anne M. Stone (Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication. Her recent research focuses on the role of communication in improving experiences for persons with Alzheimer's disease and their families.
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Cultures in Conflict: America at War in Asia
This course will focus on the nature of conflict, including violent conflict or war, as this has occurred between the U.S. and different countries in Asia. In particular, we will consider the conflicts Americans have experienced with imperial China since the nineteenth century, with Japan during World War II, with North Korea, the People’s Republic of China and Vietnam during the Cold War, and with Iraq, Iran and the Taliban. In each of the above-named cases the causes of the conflicts were interpreted differently by the people on each side. We will take a close look at the forces underlying these struggles, the reasons for the different understandings to which each side adhered, and the role of cultural differences as a source of both misunderstanding and conflict in each case.
Robert Moore
Robert Moore is a Professor of Anthropology and Asian Studies at Rollins College. His research focuses on contemporary China, Mandarin slang, and youth culture. His work has been published in Ethnology, Education About Asia, American Speech and The Journal of Sociolinguistics. During the 1993-94 academic year, he was a foreign expert on the faculty of Qingdao University in the People’s Republic of China where he taught courses on American language and culture.
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Ethics and Controversy
We will tackle all the current hot button controversial issues in our society from abortion to zoos and everything in between. Through student presentations, reflections on articles and discussions on contemporary novels, we will learn together how to think critically, write persuasively, speak articulately and listen attentively
Patrick Powers
I have been here at Rollins for almost 20 years as Dean of the Chapel and a member of the RCC faculty. I also teach courses in philosophy and theology for the Hamilton Holt evening school. I studied theology in Rome and Washington, D.C. My Ph.D. is from Duquesne in Pittsburgh.
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Writing: Social Justice and Community
American author, feminist, and social activist bell hooks once said, “the function of art is to do more than tell it like it is—it’s to imagine what is possible.” In this Rollins College Conference course, Critical Media and Cultural Studies professor, Denise K. Cummings, and Associate Director of Rollins’ Office of Community Engagement, Meredith Hein, will guide students through a combination of traditional classroom learning and immersion experiences—with the Global Peace Film Festival and other front-line social justice organizations in Central Florida. We will embrace the power of writing by reading inspiring texts, crafting our own personal narratives and formal arguments, and mobilizing tools that make social justice activism a reality.
This is a writing intensive course that will expose students to the necessary skills to build an effective foundation in Critical Media and Cultural Studies through community engagement initiatives and social justice exploration.
Denise Cummings
Denise K. Cummings is associate professor and Chair of Critical Media and Cultural Studies. Her teaching and research focus on film history, theory, and criticism; American, American Indian, and global Indigenous film, literature, and culture; and media and cultural studies. Her volumes Visualities: Perspectives on Contemporary American Indian Film and Art (Michigan State UP 2011) and Seeing Red: Hollywood’s Pixeled Skins: American Indians in Film (MSUP 2013) undertake Indigenous self-representation in film other visual media and Hollywood’s (mis)representations, respectively. Dr. Cummings curates numerous film programs and serves on selection committees and juries for several film festivals including the Florida Film Festival (Maitland, FL). She also works with several non-profit and advocacy organizations in Central Florida.
Meredith Hein
Meredith Hein serves as the Associate Director for the Office of Community Engagement at Rollins College. Her teaching and interests focus on community engagement, leadership development and social justice efforts. Meredith works extensively with students in helping them to identify their passion in creating positive change in our local and global communities. For Meredith, it is more than watching the students grow after 4 years of college, it is as Lao Tzu once said, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
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Hot for Gods: Happiness and Desire in Augustine's Confessions
At 19 years old, Augustine read a book of Cicero that first got him "hot for God." His Confessions tell how he spent the next 15 trying to find God happiness in sex, politics, philosophy and finally religion. In this course, we will use Augustine's Confessions to think about what happiness is, how we can get it, and what God has to do with any of this. This will take us into questions about evil, pleasure, time, human nature and role of reason in religion.
Erik Kenyon
I have a PhD in Classics from Cornell University (2012) and work mostly on Ancient Philosophy and the last few centuries of the Roman Empire. Since coming to Rollins, I've taught courses in Greek and Latin language and mythology, Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Ancient Atomism, Religious Intolerance, Ethical Theory and Evil. Outside of class, I'm faculty adviser for Rollins' British Pop Culture Club (we eat cookies and watch Doctor Who). I'm also a keyboard player, and what free time I have gets split between music, netflix and the gym. My dissertation is on Augustine and the Dialogue. I'm currently trying to get it published as a book.
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The Comic Book City
The city and comic books are forever connected. The comic book superhero was inspired by expectations and doubts connected to the urban industrial experience. The imaginary cityscapes in superhero comic books accentuate traditional debates about urban life. Whether the gleaming towers in Superman’s Metropolis or the dark alleys in Daredevil’s Hell’s Kitchen, comic books draw on our collective understanding of city life to tell their imaginary stories. This course will use those fantastic landscapes to explore classic questions about urban development and culture in the United States.
Julian Chambliss
Julian C. Chambliss is Associate Professor of History and Coordinator of the Africa and African-American Studies Program at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. His research and teaching focus on urban development and urban popular culture in the United States. His academic writing has appeared in the Florida Historical Quarterly, Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, Specs: A Journal of Arts & Culture, Studies in American Culture, Georgia Historical Quarterly, Journal of Urban History, and Ohio Valley History. In addition, he has published opinion and commentary in popular forum such as the Los Angeles Times, The Orlando Sentinel, The Christian Science Monitor, and PopMatters.com. He is a co-recipient of an Associated Colleges of the South (ACS) Mellon Foundation Faculty Renewal Grant for Project Mosaic: Zora Neale Hurston: A Multidisciplinary Exploration of African-American Culture, a project exploring African-American experience through the work and life of Zora Neale Hurston and an Associated Colleges of the South (ACS) Faculty Advancement Grant for Urban Dreams and Urban Disruptions: Transforming Travel Study and Undergraduate Archival Research with Collaborative Interdisciplinary Digital Tools and a Florida Humanities Council grant for Placing Memory, Exploring Context: Winter Park’s Colony Theatre a multidisciplinary exploration of urban development in Central Florida.
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Food and Foodways: Explorations into the History and Culture of Human Nourishment
In Food and Foodways we hold human nourishment up to a cultural and historical lens for understanding its significance in our lives and worldwide.
Wendy Brandon
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Immigration in the United States
Students will gain knowledge of immigration into the United States from the colonial days forward. The class will focus on identifying how race, ethnicity, politics, economics, gender, and diplomacy affected the success of different immigrant groups. The class will use books, movies, interviews, and other interactions with current immigrants to understand the implications of historical trends and precedents and explore some of the major policy debates surrounding immigration today.
Claire Strom
Dr. Claire Strom was born in Boston, but raised in the United Kingdom, where she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from Oxford University. Moving to the United States, she worked for the Minnesota Historical Society for a while, before relocating to Iowa to take her PhD in Agricultural History and Rural Studies at Iowa State University. Her work has addressed various aspects of American social and political history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Her book, Making Catfish Bait Of Government Boys: Cattle Tick Eradication and the Transformation of the Yeoman South was published in the spring of 2009. She has been the editor of the international journal, Agricultural History, since 2003. Strom’s current research is on the sexual history of Florida.
Dan Chong
Dr. Dan Chong is an Arthur Vining Davis Fellow at Rollins, teaching courses in international human rights, global poverty, and peace and conflict resolution. He has led international field study courses focused on human rights and development to Guatemala, South Africa, and the Thai-Burma border. His first book, Freedom from Poverty: NGOs and Human Rights Praxis (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), analyzes the methods that NGOs use to advocate for rights to food, housing and health care. He has also contributed to journals such as Development and Change, Human Rights Review, and Global Environmental Politics. He is currently working on an undergraduate textbook on human rights for Lynne Rienner Publishers. He also serves as the faculty advisor for the Amnesty International student club, as a member of the strategic task force for the Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Initiative (SESI), and as co-chair of the High-Impact Practices advisory group at Rollins.
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Controversial issues in International Business
This course examines current issues in international business such as wealth, progress, poverty, income inequity, economic development, social responsibility, cultural sensitivity, corruption, ecological efficiency, sustainable development, and worker exploitation from a variety of perspectives. Students will learn to analyze various fact, value, and policy issues using various critical thinking tools.
Keith Buckley
Dr. Buckley is an adjunct Professor who has taught in the International Business department for the last four years and at Rollins College since 1998. He earned his Doctorate in Education from the University of Central Florida in 2003 specializing in Instructional technology. He holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Crummer School of Business at Rollins College (1995) and earned his undergraduate degree from Rollins College (major: International Relations). He is president of his own company that promotes International sports tours and management. He was very closely involved in the day to day operations of the Soccer Olympics in Orlando and Miami in 1996 and the World Cup Soccer Tournament in Orlando in 1994.
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Science Fictions
For centuries, the white lab coat served as the privileged identifying symbol of the bonafide scientist. Today even the makeup saleswomen at the mall are wearing them! This course uses contemporary literature, film, and creative lab experiments to explore what happens when science meets pop culture. Topics include the rise of pseudoscience industries and products (cosmecuticals, fad diets, zinc cold remedies, energy bracelets) and changing conceptions of the “scientist” (smart is sexy these days); the politics and ethics of medical tourism; the architecture of pharmaceutical labels and Web MD; and the role that popular media, medical talk shows (The Doctors, Dr. Oz), sci-fi novels and comic books play in driving scientific innovation and discovery. Along the way, we’ll scrutinize the “scientifically proven” claims made by acne cleansers, wrinkle creams, and paper towels; examine the chemistry of desire (perfumes) and science of addiction; and study the biology of freaks of nature (supermodels and elite athletes) and the physics of everyday life (Mythbusters) through various societal lenses.
Jana Matthews
Jana Mathews, Ph.D. grew up in Los Angeles, but gradually has made her way East with pit stops in Utah, Colorado, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. She earned her Ph.D. in medieval British literature from Duke University and taught at Duke and the University of Pennsylvania before coming to Rollins. An assistant professor in the English Department, Dr. Mathews’ academic research and teaching focus on the relationship between literature and law and the intersections between premodern literary history and contemporary culture. Huge fans of experiential learning, Drs. Mathews and Zimmerman aren't afraid to take risks and try new (and seemingly wacky) things in the pursuit of knowledge. This course is the product of all of their "wouldn't it be cool if..." ideas.
James Zimmerman
James Zimmerman, Ph.D. directs the Christian A. Johnson Institute for Effective Teaching at Rollins College. A nuclear chemist with a long interest in learning and teaching issues, Dr. Zimmerman has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in general, nuclear, and physical chemistry and has won several university awards for his teaching. His scholarly agenda currently includes program, project, and classroom assessment, integrative learning theory, and traditional faculty development. He joined Rollins College in 2010 from Montclair State University where he served as the Associate Director of the Research Academy for University Learning where he worked with the Academy’s founding director, Ken Bain, author of the best selling book What the Best College Teachers Do.
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Landscapes of Music
Landscapes of Music is a course designed to familiarize the student with the general progression of the history of music from Gregorian Chant to the present. Prominent innovators from each era will be covered, as well as the stylistic aspects of each specific genre. General musical characteristics including theory, composition, social relevance, performance preparation and personal expression, will also be covered. Extensive classroom listening and demonstrations/performances from local musicians will also help enhance the learning experience.
Charles Archard
Chuck Archard has been playing the electric bass guitar since the early 1970s. He holds BME and MM degrees from Morehead State University and is currently an Artist in Residence at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. Chuck teaches numerous classes at Rollins College including, History of Jazz, History of Rock, Music Business, Music of the Caribbean and Brazil and Improvisation. He also directs the Jazz Ensemble and teaches private lessons. Chuck is an accomplished bassist, composer and educator. He is a member of ASCAP and a primary composer for the Power House Music Library (mymusicsource.com) His original works have been played on all of the major television networks as well as HBO, STARZ, SHOWTIME, and thirty international markets. His music has been used in numerous motion pictures including, Career Girls, Substance Of Fire and Santa, Jr. He is the author of two of the best selling bass instruction books, Building Bass Lines and No Brainer Bass published by Alfred, Inc. and has had two articles published in Bass Player Magazine. January 2006 Interview with bassist Don Payne (Ornette Coleman, Tony Bennett), April 2007 Interview with bassist Linley Marthe (Joe Zawinul). Chuck is the composer of two major works written for Jazz Legends, Peter Erskine, Joe Morello and Danny Gottlieb, commissioned by the Percussive Arts Society. Chuck is the co-owner/composer of World Time Music, a company specializing in jazz/world music. World Time Music is distributed exclusively by Hal Leonard, Inc. He has performed and recorded with many artists including, Isaac Hayes, Larry Coryell Peter Erskine, Danny Gottlieb, Mike Wofford, Holly Hoffman, Al Vizzuti, Romero Lubambo, Helio Alves and Gene Bertoncini and has performed on network and international television shows and numerous Jazz Festivals. Chuck is an in demand studio musician playing on more than one hundred CDs, national television commercials and is the bassist for Shawnee Press/Hal Leonard educational publications. Currently, Chuck is working with legendary bassist/composer Stanley Clarke. He is transcribing all of Stanley’s compositions for future publication. He has also started a recording company titled Modified Cha Cha, with his business partner Jerome Cruitt. Modified Cha Cha released their first recording, Full Circle featuring legendary New Orleans drummer Allyn Robinson in October 2011. Chuck is also profiled in the recent book The Best Jobs in the Music Industry: Straight Talk from Successful Music Pros written by Michael Redman and published by Hal Leonard (2013) Chuck is a LaBella String endorsed artist and uses Lyrical Lumber and Godin basses exclusively.
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The Revolution will not be Televised
Why do almost all humans learn to speak and understand language as infants, but we don't all learn to read and write, and if we do it is difficult and we do it much later? The answer is that writing is a technology, invented by human beings, unlike language which is an innate part of being human. This course is an introduction to the history of recorded information (particularly written information, but also images and sound) focusing on the moments of technological change in the western tradition: from orality to literacy, from scroll to codex, from manuscript to print, and the one we are currently living through, from print to digital. We will see ancient examples of some of these technologies in the Library's Special Collections. We will participate in weekly field trips to Ferncreek Elementary School in Orlando to help students there learn to read. We will also visit the Orlando Sentinel office as the employees of that newspaper go through this digital revolution. This course will help you better understand what is happening around you as institutions like daily newspapers, libraries, and television networks try to cope with change, like books on your iPhone. It will also help you understand your role as agents of change, and what we can and cannot learn from history.
Johnathan Miller
As the library director at Rollins since 2006, Jonathan lives every day with our society's information revolution as we move from print to digital information. He received his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh and continues to do research and publish on copyright history. He traveled to Bali, Indonesia in 2010 with other Rollins faculty and investigated the Balinese use of Lontar palms in their writing system. In his spare time he is an adult literacy tutor.
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Sports Psychology
The purpose of this course is to understand the psychological processes that relate to sport performance. Students will come to learn the psychological and physiological processes that lead to optimal functioning, as well as poor performances. We will explore topics such as confidence, self-concept, anxiety, motivation, and beliefs.
Gio Valiante
Dr. Gio Valiante is an associate professor in the Department of Education. In 2010, Dr. Valiante was named "Top 40 Under 40" who's ideas have influenced the game of golf by Golf Magazine. He is the author of Fearless Golf (2005) and Golf Flow (2013). Golfers he consults with have won over 50 professional world wide events.
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Writing about Pop Culture
This class is designed to give you experience in writing papers within an academic setting with a focus on popular culture: advertisement, films, superheroes, and public spaces. The emphasis is on writing as a process, a series of revisions in both form and content. To this end, we will concentrate on two aspects of writing. 1. Invention - the process of coming up with ideas for your papers 2. Structure - focusing your stance on an issue and arranging your paper in a form that will communicate your idea to an academic audience and an audience of your peers.
Vidhu Aggarwal
Vidhu Aggarwal is an Associate Professor of English. She writes about the poetics of pop culture.
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Medical Ethics
Ethical dilemmas arise with special clarity and even drama in the context of medical science and medical practice. When matters of life and death are at stake -- as they often are in the medical context -- the ethical dimension of decision-making comes front and center. In this course we will consider the values and principles that should guide medical practice, and their application in the complicated context of our pluralistic society. We will read and discuss varying viewpoints on abortion, end-of-life care, paternalism and respect for patients' autonomy, informed consent, medical experimentation, allocation of scarce resources, and bio-medical enhancements (from doping by athletes to cosmetic surgery and happy pills). Several physicians will visit with us in the course of the semester.
Thomas Cook
Tom Cook has been a Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion for nearly thirty years. His research is focused on the history of philosophy (especially the 17th century), but he also teaches Philosophy of Mind, Ethics, Philosophy of Science, Logic, and Philosophical Themes in Literature. Professor Cook is an avid international traveler and has recently taught in Germany and in Istanbul, Turkey. He has enjoyed taking Rollins students to Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and Ghana in the context of service-learning courses. He sails, sings, plays tennis badly and plays the guitar even worse.
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Shufa: Introduction to Chinese Calligraphy
This introductory course teaches the fundamental techniques and aesthetic values of Chinese calligraphy. Prior knowledge of the language is not required. The primary objective of the course is to help students develop an interest and understanding of Chinese language and culture through both hands-on practice and literature exposure to etymology and development of Chinese calligraphy. The weekly practices will allow students to put their knowledge and skills into use in calligraphic writing.
Li Wei
Li Wei is an ethnomusicologist-turned-language teacher. He has been teaching Mandarin at Rollins since 2004. Besides language, he also teaches culture and ethnomusicology courses. Grown up in China and trained and living in the U.S., he considers himself a Chinese American whose bicultural identity dictates his often-mutable perspective in viewing US-Sino relations. Academically, his interests run the gamut from technologically assisted Chinese language teaching, language ideology, to hybridity, globalization and world music. Besides class instruction, he loves taking students to China through field study.
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Reading Sherlock Holmes
This course explores strategies for reading one of the world’s most remarkable literary characters. We will examine several elements—including detection, narration, and the social, political, economic, and cultural dynamics of late-Victorian society—in the Sherlock Holmes stories. We will also consider Holmes’s identity in its historical context and, of course, those qualities that make him unique and enduring. Another principal goal of the course is to develop your ability to write college-level essays by practicing strategies of argumentation and by refining skills of invention, completeness, clarity, and mechanical correctness. In order to satisfy the “W” general education requirement, you must earn a grade of “C” or better in the course.
Ed Cohen
Prof Ed Cohen's field of academic expertise is Victorian studies, and some of his colleagues believe he really is a Victorian. That's probably because he embraces the great Victorian values of hard work and hard play. He loves teaching first-year students, and the last time he taught this course he won the "professing excellence" award bestowed on faculty who engage their students both in and out of the classroom.
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Cowboys, Aliens, and Vampires:A study of Popular Novels and Films
This class will be a whirlwind tour of the great genres of popular fiction: Mystery, Science Fiction, Romance, and Adventure. The study of popular fiction can lead to the ultimate, fundamental questions: What makes me unique? To what extent are individuals responsible for what happens to them? What motivates us to fight and die for a cause? These questions can be beautifully answered by the study of genre fiction. This is not a creative writing course. Rather, it is an exploration of the components of popular novels and films through which you will develop skills for discussing themes, techniques, and learning to express yourself through written assignments and presentations.
Dorothy Mays
Assistant Professor Dorothy Mays is an academic librarian by day, fiction writer by night. Under the pseudonym Elizabeth Camden, she has written four historical novels that blend suspense, romance, and adventure.
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Reading and Writing Short Stories
Have you quietly harbored an interest in creative writing? In this fascinating course, you will read and study contemporary master works in short fiction, many different voices and approaches to writing, and then you will write fiction of your own. We’ll learn how fiction workshops work to help you grow as a writer, to bring you into the Rollins College community of writers, and to learn how to market your work to the literary journals. The course will familiarize you with the language of fiction and critique, narrative arc, scenes, conflict, dialogue, story. If you’ve long had an interest in creative writing, one of the best ways to feed the interest is to read the best stuff in your genre; another of the best ways is write, write, write. This course shows you how to begin your practice in the art and craft of short story writing and also groups you with others who have a similar interest, a community that could possibly inspire you and spur you on all during your time at Rollins.
Philip Deaver
Philip Deaver, Professor of English and Permanent Writer in Residence, is an award-winning fiction writer (Flannery O'Connor Award, O. Henry, National Endowment for the Arts) who has been teaching contemporary American short fiction and fiction workshops at the undergraduate level for twenty-five years and at the graduate (MFA) level for five years.
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Health and Wellness
This course is an in-depth exploration of health and wellness issues that affects students during their college years and beyond. It is designed to assist students in decision-making regarding positive lifestyle choices. It is based on the dimensions of wellness, ones identified through surveys as important to the student. This course facilitates learning of health and wellness on two levels: personal evaluation/assessment and the application of information, knowledge/skills and problem solving based on current research/information.
Dena Pistor
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Latin America goes to the Movies
In this engaging RCC course, students will explore how the peoples and cultures of Latin America, one of the most diverse and fascinating regions of the globe, have been represented in film. We will examine how Hollywood movies, as well as films from around Latin America, have portrayed the history of the region as well as today’s most pressing issues. For example, we will look at the questions of race, religion, politics, the role of women in society, the arts, revolution, music, immigration, among other fascinating topics. The films we will study will be in both English and Spanish, but no previous knowledge of Spanish is necessary since the films are subtitled. Some of the movies we will examine include Traffic, Frida, The Motorcycle Diaries, Evita, Como Agua Para Chocolate, and Balseros. This course will fulfill the “C” general education requirement.
Gabriel Barreneche
Dr. Gabriel Barreneche, Associate Professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures’ Hispanic Studies Program, has been teaching courses in Spanish language, literature and culture at Rollins since 2003. He holds a BA in Spanish from Boston College, and an MA and PhD in Hispanic Languages and Literatures from the University of California, Los Angeles. His interests include classroom technology, service-learning opportunities, and study abroad. This year, Dr. Barreneche serves as the Faculty in Residence, living on campus in the faculty apartment in Ward Hall.
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Sharing Science: Psychology
This Rollins Conference Course (RCC) is called Sharing Our Science: Psychology. This course concerns the applied aspects of psychological research in human development that are well documented and helpful to the public, and how we share and use the information. Whether it’s in friendships, thinking skills, managing anger, or parenting, psychological researchers have useful knowledge to share....and the internet is crammed with places to read abut psychology. But how do we critically analyze the sources of knowledge, and decide what is “true” and what is “false?” How do valid findings get translated from a research study all the way to a training workshop or parenting class? Finally, how can we better inform people about life changing research? Students in this course will peel back the layers of misinformation, and try to determine what the research really says. This is a Community Engagement Course. Our class task will be to continue the work of building a Living Lab for Science at the Orlando Science Center, where we’ll be sharing science toys and studies with the families who visit as Science Play & Learning Pals.
Sharon Carnahan
Sharon Carnahan is a developmental psychologist who teaches about child and adolescent development, child assessment and developmental screening, and cross cultural child psychology, and social psychology. She is a prevention scientist who studies the application of developmental principles to the problems of children and families. She is Executive Director of the Rollins College Child Development and Student Research Center, a laboratory preschool on campus, and has been at Rollins since 1990. She loves to camp, canoe, sail, read novels, and hold little babies.
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The Maturation of Harry Potter
Oh, don't worry! We'll read lots of Harry Potter and review the films and compare his thinking and values and experiences with our own. We'll compare notes on when and how we encountered Harry Potter in our own lives, and consider how his belief in community service might influence our own approach to the community here at Rollins. Through lots of in-class jotting and three papers, drafted, defined, revised, shared, and finalized, we will define our own understandings of how this outstanding body of work has influenced us and those around us. (Note: Dr. Papay owns a witch hat, a timeturner, and a bloodwood wand. She can bring them to class, but they don't seem to enhance her powers.)
Twila Papay
Though few people have actually accused Dr. Papay of being a witch herself, she is quite fond of written novels and poems and short stories and films which encourage us to seek out the magical and the possible in our lives. Even without a broomstick, she is intensely fond of travel, and her courses in Travel Writing and Memoir offer new windows as she reads and critiques her students' work. In RCC she blends her love of the magical and the hopeful with student writings on Harry Potter and personal explorations of how his values and ours come to mirror each other. Dr. Papay is also fond of swimming, watching films, and playing with her three honorary granddaughters, all of whom routinely bring a sort of magic into her home. The great love of her life is Joe, who has been accused of looking remarkably like Dumbledore. When you meet her she will have just returned from a research journey in Europe to study and write about the great stone monuments shaped by the amazing megalithic peoples.
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Creative Thinking: Outside the Box
Whether working as a choreographer, director, lawyer, or professor, I strive to regularly activate my inventive instincts. In this course we will explore the creative process with an eye towards expanding our inherent creative predilections. Everyone has creative capabilities, but to flourish, one's creative potential must be freed. Creativity is a vitally important resource for all of us as we meet the challenges and risks, as well as opportunities, of managing our rapidly expanding, and already fast-paced, twenty first century lives. I sincerely hope the experiences we undertake together in this course will produce tangible benefits, useful to us as world citizens.
W. Robert Sherry
Recieved his B.S. Degree from Indiana University, his M.F.A. Southern Methodist University, where he was the recipient of the Prestigious Meadows Fellowship and Full Scholarship, and his J.D. Cum Laude, from Stetson University of Law in 2000, where he was a member of the Stetson Law Review. He is currently Professor of Theater and Dance and teaches course work in Theater, Musical Theater, Dance, and Law.
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Duese Ex Machina: Social Evolution in Virtual Worlds
Zoologists, Psychologists, Educators, and most everybody else knows that playing games is at the heart of learning. The IT revolution has sprouted a large gaming industry that has gained increasing attention lately, and has already overtaken other forms of entertainment in economic size and cultural infulence. This course will explore this new frontier from an interdisciplinary perspective focusing on its effect on society and the individual. We will consider social, political, cultural, and aconomic developments that are currently taking place and speculate about their effects on our immediate future. For this purpose we will look at theories and histories of technological changes, read relevant literature (fiction and non-fiction), critically analyse cinema, and most importantly delve into this brave new world. Going well beyond the ubiquitious blogs, podcasts, facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, we will explore the virtual societies of World of Warcraft and other futuristic spaces...We will pay particular attention to the possibilities and challeges facing education in general and Rollins in particular. Students have grown up with electronic games so it would only seem natural to tap this modern-tech culture and seek the empowered and informed participation of students in preparing for the future that is now.
Benjamin Balak
I hate writing my own bio! For one thing it’s embarrassing to toot my own horn about the life experiences I’ve had, my accomplishments, & what a splendid guy I generally am :). So I will keep my aura of mystery & refrain from listing the many bizarre things I’ve done since my birth in Madagascar 48 years ago. I’ll fill you in on some of my adventures informally when we get to know each other better quite soon. I guess this information is directed mostly towards your parents (hi parents!) so let me give a brief list of my qualifications so that you are reassured that the young’uns are in solid academic hands: I received my BA in International Economics from the American University of Paris (France) in 1991 and did graduate work at the University of Kent at Canterbury (UK) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA) where I earned an Economics Ph.D. in 2001. Since then I’ve held positions at Washington & Lee University & at Rollins where I’ve been promoted & tenured. My areas of specialization are in the history, methodology, and rhetoric of economics, and in comparative economic systems and cultures. I publish in academic journals, written a book on the rhetoric of economics, and teach a wide variety of interdisciplinary and economics courses. This gives me analytical insights into how academic economics relates to public discourse which ends-up determining actual economic policies much more than academic papers do. This background meshes particularly well with my love of teaching. In fact my research career and recent publications are increasingly focused on the teaching of economics which is regarded as highly problematic by most economists for well over a decade & is diversely effecting the current economic conversation at a critical time. Serious economic literacy is singularly important for having functioning democracies at a time of epochal economic change. As part of our departmental curricular reforms designed to deal with the complexity of real-world economics, I have spent over 9 years at the forefront of technologically-enhanced pedagogy to breathe life into economic history & to place the current crisis in historical perspective. I have also been a computer geek and gamer since the late 70s(!) Over the past 9+ years, I’ve been using computer games to teach economics and am researching the topic with the help of students; even presented with a student at a major conference! My most recent work involves the study of virtual worlds which, I’m convinced as an economic historian, are a major technological development that will shape the world in which students (and my children) will live and work.
