MLA Course Descriptions
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70000 Level Courses (70700-70899)

*70703 AMERICAN MUSIC AND CULTURE: FROM JAZZ TO TIN PAN ALLEY

A study of the historical evolution of jazz styles in the United States from the 1890s through the contemporary scene, including American popular music (Tin Pan Alley), protest music, and motion picture/television music. Included is an examination of the correlation of musical styles on cultural changes in America.

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70713 PHYSICAL FITNESS AS A LIFESTYLE

The physiological changes that take place in the body as a result of acute and chronic exercise. Specifically, the concepts of physical fitness, conditioning programs, wellness, body composition, nutrition, risk factor reduction and the influence of exercise on disease and aging are investigated.

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*70733 SCIENCE, SCIENTISTS, AND SOCIETY

How is science different from or similar to other areas of human endeavor such as art, religion, philosophy, or politics? This course explores the workings of science and scientists by studying recurring themes and selected episodes of scientific change and the social and intellectual milieu in which they occurred. The focus is on the interaction between science and society from the Renaissance through the Enlightenment and the Victorian Era and into the Modern Age. Related topics range from man's (and God's) place in the universe to sociobiology, sexism, and evolutionary ethics.

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*70743 CREATIVE WRITING: ADVANCED POETRY WRITING

This is an advanced poetry writing workshop that focuses primarily on the students' own work. Special attention is paid to invention, point-of-view, voice, form, metaphor, and dramatic development. Students and instructor discuss student work in the context of principles that emerge through short lecture and the study of exemplary historical and contemporary models.

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*70753 POETRY AND CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN CULTURE

This course focuses on the major developments in American poetry from 1945 to the present to address these central questions: How well does poetry address the needs, concerns, and anxieties of contemporary American culture? Have international crises, domestic political and cultural shifts, and the proliferation of electronic media rendered poetry obsolete, or does poetry still hold particular promise in terms of its ability to shore crumbling values or, better, to envision a new ethics, one more responsive to the complexity of our times?

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*70763 GEOPOLITICS AND WORLD COMMUNICATIONS

The study of global communications in the context of world politics. Overview of world mass media characteristics, impact of British colonialism, role of the United Nations, the New World Information Order, ownership of communication technology, issues in monopoly of knowledge, analysis of information flow and world economy and role of image-makers.

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*70773 HISTORY OF MEDIA SEX AND VIOLENCE

This course examines the history of sex and violence in film and on television. Topics that may be covered include efforts to regulate or restrict film and television program content, how formerly taboo topics relating to sex and violence have been presented in film or on television, how media companies attempt to profit by presenting sex and violence in film and on television, what the manner in which sex and violence are presented in film and on television tell us about the society of the time, and how the First Amendment limits government regulation of film and television content.

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*70783 HISTORY OF TELEVISION AND TELEVISION PROGRAMMING

This course is an intensive overview of the history of television and related electronic media from the 1920s to the present. Topics include the rise of the network system, programming, rating and audience research, regulation, and the evolution of television technology. Viewing of significant programming in television history.

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*70803 PLANTS, PEOPLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT

The effects of dramatic population increases on the environment with special emphasis on the role of green plants in the biosphere. The course concentrates on the function of plants with regard to world food production, global warming trends, deterioration of the ozone layer, acid rain, nuclear war, and habitat destruction as it relates to natural ecosystems such as tropical rain forests.

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70813 THE COLD WAR AT HOME AND ABROAD

From the end of the Second World War in 1945 until the collapse of the Soviet Union forty-five years later, the Cold War dominated the domestic and foreign affairs of the United States. This course examines the origins of the Cold War and some of the consequences, including the development and application of the containment policy, McCarthyism, the wars in Korea and Vietnam, various other interventions, the de-bates over diplomatic issues, and the various strategies employed by different presidential administrations. Students will have a chance to do some reading on these subjects and to discuss them. Also they will view episodes from CNN’s production, "The Cold War". The requirements consist of short weekly papers based on the readings and also a kind of term project, a five-seven page critique of John Lewis Gaddis' book, We Now Know. The other readings are T.G. Paterson and J.G. Clifford, America Ascendant: U.S. Foreign Relations since 1939 and R.J. McMahon and T.G. Paterson, The Origins of the Cold War, 4th ed.

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*70843 THE ETHICS OF COMMUNICATION

An examination of contrasting models and standards of communication ethics. Students apply these perspectives to specific situations in politics, advertising, interpersonal communication and writing.

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70873 GARAGE SALE HISTORY

The course explores 20th century American culture through examining the ordinary objects of our lives, from A-1 Sauce to Zippo lighters, studying how, when, and why ordinary objects rise from the culture and in turn give shape and character to both culture and personal identity.

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