Courses for Summer 2013

Each student will choose two three-hour courses. Add HP 1112 if you want HP credit.

PHI 1321: Intro to Philosophy Dr. Stuart Rosenbaum

Western philosophy started with Socrates's search for wisdom. Plato's dialogues are classic examples of how one begins study of philosophy as a route to gaining wisdom. Our course begins with some of those dialogues in order to see how they have become primary examples of the pursuit of wisdom. The course moves then to other historically prominent figures who followed Plato's example in their search for wisdom. Descarte in the 17th century and Bertrand Russell in the 20th century are some of these figures. Our course also incorporates rebels against Plato's route toward wisdom, including Nietzsche and William James. The goal of the course is to span a significant cross-section of thought about how to achieve wisdom and to engage that thought personally as a prelude to further study.

ENG 2301: British Literature Dr. Tom Hanks

Read some of the best literature composed in the last six hundred years in places its authors knew and wrote about. See Shakespeare performed at the Globe Theatre, a reconstruction of the London playhouse where his characters first walked the stage; explore sites in London and Oxford associated with Chaucer, Milton, Blake, Dickens and Evelyn Waugh; read Wordsworth’s poems while standing among the lakes, mountains, and valleys he loved in England’s stunning Lake District, later home to Beatrix Potter; and travel to Edinburgh to study Robert Louis Stevenson, one of Scotland’s most popular writers.

ENG 3372: Oxford Christians Dr. Tom Hanks

Live and study in Oxford, where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien wrote much of their fiction, and read their most engaging creations, as well as works by Dorothy Sayers, a good friend of Lewis. Focus on Lewis’s more provocative fiction about our spirituality, such as The Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce. We consider also the theological and spiritual view of the world of Tolkien’s famous Hobbit and his less well-known, but equally fascinating, short stories. Sayers is best known for her detective fiction, but her play The Man Born to Be King is probably the only truly successful modern attempt to turn the life of Christ into a gripping drama. We read Sayers’s play, originally aired on the BBC and meditate on her masterful essays, in which she claims that Christianity is itself “The Greatest Drama Ever Staged.”

PHI 3305: British Philosophy and Culture Dr. Stuart Rosenbaum

A readings course in which we engage influential British philosophers and literary figures; some are Bertrand Russell, A.J. Ayer, Wittgenstein, Iris Murdoch, Alexander McCall Smith, C.S. Forester and R.G. Collingwood.

LDS 1301: Introduction to Leadership Dr. Laine Scales

Consider questions that affect the development of leadership identity, leadership practices and processes. Study leadership theories, vocational aspirations and community responsibility; reflect on leadership with a special focus on British characters and contexts. Interview a British leader and take field trips to sites within Britain to enhance course readings and films. Through reading, written assignments, and discussion, learn to discern differences and similarities between British and American ideas of leadership.

LDS 3301: British Leaders Dr. Laine Scales

Explore British leaders in history for a deeper appreciation of British culture and how its leaders have shaped it. Biographies of leaders (written and film), including many graduates of Oxford, serve as texts. A few examples are Queen Elizabeth I, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Abolitionist William Wilberforce. Field trips within Britain enhance classroom work.

BIC 4389: Cultural Imperialism in Britain Dr. Stuart Rosenbaum

The British have contributed a language, a literature, a history still studied in secondary schools worldwide, and philosophies studied and embodied in cultures they have controlled or just visited. British contributions to the arts, sciences and industry have been foundational in human history. Cultures influenced by Great Britain range from Australia to the Zulus, including those of the U.S., India, Pakistan, China, and others; a study of British influences on those cultures illuminates all human culture. Selected readings in literature and philosophy, including works by Joseph Conrad, C.S. Forester, Bertrand Russell and Simon Blackburn.

HP 1112: Hiking in Britain Dr. Laine Scales

Students participate in one multi-day hike in England’s beautiful Lake District and additional half day hikes (or “ country walks” as the British call them) in England and Scotland. This course introduces the lifelong benefits of hiking, including its physical, mental, and spiritual aspects. Students have the opportunity to explore Britain and experience its natural beauty and blog about it for friends and family as part of the assigned work. Where possible, country walks will be tied to other courses. For example, we will hike to the Orchard, a few miles outside of Cambridge, to have tea and conversation at the site where Woolf, Wittgenstein, and other literary figures and thinkers of the early 20th century regularly met on Sundays.