7. First-Year Seminars. Vary by term.
Note: First-Year Seminars may not count toward any major or
minor.
Guns! The Politics and Law of the 2nd Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution.
There is probably no other issue in America that has generated quite so much
political passion and journalistic ink, yet so little accompanying academic
analysis as that of guns and the 2nd Amendment. What does the 2nd Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution establish? A well-regulated Militia, being necessary
to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and
bear Arms, shall not be infringed. On the one hand, there is a collective
view, well-articulated by political groups such as the Brady Campaign and
Handgun Control, Inc., that the Amendment does not establish an individual
right to keep and bear arms. There is the rival claim, let's label it the
individual view, most vigorously represented by the National Rifle Association
and Gun Owners of America, that the Amendment establishes just such an
individual right to gun ownership. The collective view has long been, in fact,
the conventional view? of sociologists, political scientists, and most law
faculty. A revisionist view? has grown in recent years that is fueled by a
number of scholars in the above disciplines, as well as economists and
historians more supportive of the views of those in the NRA and GOA.
In the seminar, we will examine the origin and history of the Amendment, the
legal consequences of its adoption as played out in U.S. Federal Courts,
current legal challenges to law and policy, the arguments for and against the
individual vs. collective view of the Amendment, and the debate between
conventional and revisionist scholars. We will examine some of the analyses of
the consequences of the widespread distribution of arms in America. We can rely
on many local sources of information Vermont has the most individualistic gun
public policies of any state in the Union, followed closely by New Hampshire
and Maine. Dist: SOC; WCult: NA.
Love, Friendship, and Marriage
In this course, we will attempt to understand the complex meanings of love,
friendship, and marriage by reading an discussing the classic texts. The
course will be structured around three main Greek words for love: eros
(romantic love), philia (love of family and friends), and agape
(self-sacrificing love). Do these three kinds of love capture the full
range of human love? Can they be combined in a single relationship?
What kinds of love do we find in friendship and in marriage? Is the human
experience of live universal or does it differ by culture? Is ancient
love different from modern? Is Western love different from Eastern?
Is homosexual love essentially different from heterosexual? Dist: TMV;
WCult: W.
Immigration, Asylum and Politics
This course examines the topic of immigration and asylum from a political,
social, legal and public policy perspective. As a nation of immigrants,
much of our self-identity is bound up in the idea that we are forever the
"unfinished" nation. What does this mean? How are our views and
policies on immigration different from those of other nations with different
identities and histories? How do we address the problems of security and
the need (both in law and philosophy) to provide a safe haven to those who seek
asylum from persecution elsewhere? Dist: INT/SOC; WCult: NA, CI.
Invitation to Struggle: Presidents, Congress and U.S. Foreign
Policy
The U.S. Constitution set up "an invitation to struggle" in the realm of
foreign affairs in which the legislative and executive branches share power.
The course examines the prerogatives of each institution, the historical
evolution of contemporary executive dominance and the political and security
consequences of the current state of imbalance. Readings draw widely from
political theory, constitutional law, history, and contemporary political
science scholarship on political institutions.
Political Leadership
Why did men follow Joan of Arc into battle? Why did the British reject
Winston Churchill in 1945, voting instead to replace him with a man he had
famously derided as "a sheep in sheep’s clothing"? Why was Gandhi so
effective? What if Nelson Mandela had died on Robben Island? What
is leadership? What is political leadership? Can it be
taught? Can it be learned? Are some settings more likely to produce
remarkable leaders than others, and if so, why? In what ways does
leadership matter? What, if anything, can political science add to the
understanding of leadership we might derive from other disciplines—from, for
example, literature, history, or psychology? Dist: INT; WCult: NA/EU,
CI
Terrorism
Terrorism has recently become a major preoccupation of U.S. foreign policy.
However, terrorism is as old as organized government. The question is whether
there is something new afoot that portends a change in the balance of power
between states and their opponents. Answering that question requires going
beyond current events to tackle the issues that are at the core of this
seminar: 1) what terrorism is; 2) why individuals and groups use terrorism; 3)
how the phenomenon has changed over tine; and 4) how states best deal with
terrorism. In this seminar, you shall read extensively on each of these topics,
and you shall be required to write papers on each. Only then will you address
the final issue: a critical analysis of the U.S. government's current campaign
against terrorism. Dist: INT or SOC.
The Virtues of Teaching and Learning
This course will present classic and contemporary readings about the aims of
education: Is it more important to acquire information or skills? What
role ought the school to play in one's overall education? What is the
relation of academic to moral education? Ought schools attempt to make us good
students, good citizens or good persons? What kind of education is
appropriate in a democracy? Dist: TMV.
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