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LIBS 588 - CO-OP LIBERAL STUDIES |
0.000 TO 6.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 6.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Lecture Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 600 - INDEPENDENT STUDY: LIBERAL STUDIES |
Limited opportunities to enroll for course work on an Independent Study basis are available. A student interested in this option should obtain an Independent Study Registration Form from the Registrar, have it completed by the instructor and school dean involved, and return it to the Registrar's Office. Consult the website for policies concerning Independent Study.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Independent Study Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 601 - AMERICA AS A MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY |
This course explores the way in which the United States, throughout its history, has dealt with the internal challenges of reconciling its mostly British origins with an increasingly multicultural population. It emphasizes the tensions and accommodations between aspects of the dominant culture and new ethnic groups and ideas, with a particular emphasis on the "voices" of those outside the mainstream. The course integrates history, literature and law to examine the following themes: (a) the way the nation has been affected by the immigration of groups believed at the time to be inassimilable, from Africans to Catholics to Asians; (b) the political and social forces which have acted to hold the nation together despite the diverse nature of its peoples; and (c) how these forces are affecting contemporary American society.
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 602 - THE CONQUEST OF CALIBAN |
This course examines the remarkable encounters between European and non-European civilizations, with a focus on the "discovery" and conquest of the Americas. We will study documents written by key participants such as Columbus and Cortes, and western classics from that period, such as More's UTOPIA and Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST. These texts provide insight into the romanticized construction of an identity for "other" peoples, but provide little access into their actual cultures and visions; Shakespeare's "savage", Caliban, when given language, uses it only to curse. To add cross-cultural perspectives, we will read writings from "conquered" peoples in America and elsewhere. In summary, the course explores the momentous cultural, historical, and ecological consequences of these civilizational encounters.
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 603 - THE SEARCH FOR MEANING |
Every group throughout history has confronted basic issues about the human condition in a quest to define what is ultimately important. Within the context of change and impermanence, peoples have dealt with such issues as the meaning of self, freedom, and love; the definition of insider and outsider; the relationship of the individual to the collective; and the search for meaning. This final Core course integrates material from the other courses into the developmental issue of self-knowledge, in which the process of self-reflection will be used to enhance intellectual enlightenment. Autobiographical journals, cultural comparison, films, music, theater, and traditional readings will be the means to this end. Students will appraise their own personal histories by listening to the voices of women, African Americans, children, gays, the privileged, and the deprived.
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 604 - U.S. IN A CHANGING WORLD |
After World War II, American society, influenced by philosophical and psychological theories of liberty and self, wrestled with its new preeminence within the community of nations. Relatively soon, it had to consider first, increasing competition from Europe and Japan, then the collapse of the Soviet Union, and finally, the ascendancy of global economic agreements on investment and trade. Within the United States, internal conflict over racial equality (the Civil Rights Movement), foreign intervention (anti-war protests over Vietnam and Central America), gender equality (the Feminist movement), religious and family values, and a sustainable environment served to broaden conceptions of national and cultural loyalties. Students will be invited to link the internal conflicts with the larger, global structural changes, some consequences of which are escalating social class and ethnic strife. We will explore how modern America is affected by the increasing interdependence of nations and the consequent interactions of their cultures. A last objective will be to attempt to shape a vision about the appropriate future role of the United States in a world of changing economic, political, and socio-cultural forces.
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 627 - SHAKESPEARE'S STRANGERS |
The course title derives from Leslie Fielder's influential work The Stranger in Shakespeare (1972), on an outsider/alien in Shakespeare. Increasing attention is being given to the proposition that when we regard Shakespeare's career within the cultural and economic context of London, of an England eager for expansion, we can observe his interest in the nature and identity of the Other. These strangers manifest themselves to Shakespeare and his contemporaries either through direct contact, translated story, or the narratives of voyagers. The strangers appear as people of color, new world savages, non-believers, or exotics of antiquity or the faraway. This seminar will concentrate on a select body of plays in which Shakespeare depicts encounters with others, such as The Tempest, Titus Andronicus, Othello, The Merchant of Venice, and Anthony and Cleopatra. In addition to careful reading of the texts, we will review, through discussion and presentation, the critical literature on the cultural context of the stranger in Shakespeare.
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 629 - DEATH AND DYING: A CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE |
Throughout human experience, death has been a vital concern. This is true in both the ancient and modern worlds, in small scale societies and contemporary industrial giants. This course investigates the meaning of human morality to both social systems and individual experience. Changing historical patterns and contemporary development in diverse cultures will be studied. Students will be encouraged to look deeply into values and ethical considerations and to develop a respect and appreciation for the diversity of human experience. This leads to a deeper joy and appreciation of life, an examination of life, an examination of the Socratic dictum, "know thyself," and consideration of the question, "how then shall I live?"
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 634 - DOES RACE MATTER? |
A new "multiracial" category will allow Americans to identify themselves on government forms as members of more than one race. While this rule reflects sensitivity to a growing demographic transformation, it took four years of debate among Federal authorities to produce, indicating how politically volatile the issue of racial classification is. Inter-group tensions and hostilities appear to be on the rise. This course will look at the roots of racial and ethnic strife in this country by critically reviewing some old and new questions such as: What does "race" mean? Is color the major factor determining people's attitudes towards each other? What are the connections between race, class, gender, and ethnicity in the various groups? How are racism and prejudice related to global economic and political processes? We will examine these questions within theoretical frameworks that highlight the following: (1) the historical construction of the concept of "the other" in Western thought, and (2) recent conceptual developments such as the notion of "whiteness" as a new cultural and political element to be considered in the study of race and ethnic relations.
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 641 - MARRIAGE AND RELATIONSHIPS IN MODERN LITERATURE |
The themes of marriage and relationships have been a central concern of literature since the very first storytellers. This course will examine how 20th century writers have contributed to the ongoing discussion of these themes. As a class, we will look at how cultural norms and historical conditions have influenced the portrayal of relationships over time. As we read through the texts, we will analyze the major 20th century movements that have shaped each author's vision.
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 643 - PARADIGMS OF GENOCIDE |
The Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923 and the Holocaust stand as the quintessential instances of genocide in our time. This course will offer students access to the latest scholarship on Nazi Germany's war on the Jews and Ottoman Turk genocide against the Armenians. Whenever possible, original sources and eyewitness accounts will be consulted. At every juncture, problems of interpretation will be brought to the attention of participants. In keeping with the comparative nature of the course, linkages to the genocidal situations of the post-War period will be brought into the discussion, especially the events in Rwanda, Cambodia and former Yugoslavia. The extent to which these events have altered the paradigm will be investigated. It is anticipated that in studying how the paradigm of genocide was established and has evolved students will achieve a greater understanding about the fabric underlying any problem in historical research. Even more, by placing the emphasis on the examination and analysis of primary sources, it is hoped that they will be guided in their investigation of controversial or emotionally laden subjects by scholarship as opposed to polemics and platitudes.
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 644 - ASSESSING THE MATRIX: ART AND CULTURE |
The elective is designed to introduce students to the ways that art and culture are used and portrayed by artists, dealers, collectors, and art historians/theorists on the world wide web. After an intensive, introduction to the internet, students will join a course called "Art and Technology" which meets only on the web and deals with similar themes. The MALS students will meet for the final week to discuss seminar outcomes and present final projects. Final projects consist of a written plan for an online course that the student might be able to teach in his/her field using internet technology. For more information and to begin the seminar see: http://orion.ramapo.edu/~sgorewit. This is an internet seminar which will meet a few times on campus; the first on campus session is January 21, 2010.
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 645 - AMERICAN GOTHIC: LITERARY TRADITION |
Although the tradition of the Gothic in American literature has been likened to a "poetics of fear," this is not a course in the horror story. Still, the Gothic is a literature of darkness, as the vocabulary of its study implies. The Other, the doppelganger, the unspeakable, the proscribed, the irrevocable, violence, duplicity, and madness: this is the language of the Gothic. At once subversive and popular, Gothic literature is psychologically complex, morally unsettling, and deeply rewarding. In this class we will explore this literary tradition, begun in the years following the Enlightenment in opposition to the "age of reason." This class will consider manifestations of the Gothic in American literature from Poe to the present. We will consider fiction by Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Faulkner, Truman Capote, Flannery O'Connor and others. Recent criticism has considered the work of contemporary writers like Amiri Baraka, Kathy Acker and Paul Auster in a gothic context, so we will not be confined to genre writers.
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 646 - SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT OF HEALING |
The society and culture in which a people live shape their illness and healing experience. Illness and disease are determined and defined by the social, cultural, political and economic environment of the individual in his/her society. The type of healthcare sought by and accessible to a sick person is also largely determined by cultural background and socioeconomic class. Different cultures across time have had a variety of explanations for the causes of illness based on their understanding of nature which is reflected in the way they speak about and treat disease. Finally, we will examine the way biomedicine, the established healing art in the West, is practiced today. We will also study the role of non-western therapies practiced by many cultural groups in this country as well as the growing popularity of "alternative and complementary" medicine in the United States.
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 647 - WORLD WOMEN'S LITERATURE |
The aim of this course is to examine and understand the culture, theory and narrative of difference in World Feminism. The seminars will be organized around themes found in works by women writers from around the globe. We will focus on a vast range of texts which will be set in dialogue with the theoretical works of philosophers and literary critics such as De Laurentis, Gubar, Irigary and Kristeva, and to movies by controversial directors. This course will offer a framework for a comparative analysis of global feminist issues as they emerge in the writings of contemporary women writers of different nationalities. This analysis will impart global awareness and will show how nationality, as well as gender, race and class cut across women's definition of themselves, their personal and public lives and affect their literary creation.
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 648 - ISLAM,THE MIDDLE EAST & WESTERN CIVILIZATION |
This seminar is designed to study the evolution of Islam and the Middle East and to critically examine the contemporary relations between the Muslims, the Middle East, and the West. Mutual contributions, shared philosophies, and roots of conflicts and misperception between Islam and the Middle East on the one hand, on the other will be an integral part of our critical examination.
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 653 - EUROPEAN CINEMA AND LITERARY ADAPTATION |
This course explores and analyzes the complex relationship between literary narrative and cinematic discourse, and the factors that determine the transformation. It considers not only about the film making approaches, but also about how adaptation enables film to reinvent and redefine itself as cultural institutional discursive practice with each literary encounter. The course will also explore the major cinematic movements in Europe from the 1900s onwards. The relationship of filmic narration and literary texts will be explored, including European films from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. The films chosen for screening can be identified with the two traditions and analyzed vis-a-vis their literary adaptation.
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 656 - AMERICAN "FOLK": CONSTRUCTING THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE IN AMERICAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE |
Various attempts have been made to capture (or at least define) the "authentic" voice of the American people. Visual artists, performing artists, and literary artists will even create fictional personae for themselves, so they will be identified with "real Americans." This course will examine works by several such American artists. Readings will ask students to question notions of "authenticity" and national identity, as well as ideas of class, race, and gender. Some of our readings will be canonical work by literary artists--Walt Whitman's LEAVES OF GRASS, Mark Twain's ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, and John Steinbeck's GRAPES OF WRATH and contemporary poetry, like Tyehimba Jess's LEADBELLY. Some readings will be by what we might term "outsider artists": Lead Belly's ballads, Woody Guthrie's DUST BOWL BALLADS, Harvey Pekar's AMERICAN SPLENDOR. We will also look at popular works by popular performers: Bob Dylan's THE TIMES ARE A'CHANGIN', Bruce Springsteen's THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD. Through free verse poetry; dialect fiction; folk, blues, and rock music; and even comic strips, writers from Whitman to Guthrie share is a desire to capture what they believe to be the voice of the people.
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 657 - JEALOUSY, ENVY, REVENGE AND FORGIVENESS |
This course is an examination of four passions through the prism of psychology, philosophy, literature, and film. We have all had experiences with these passions, but to explore them as objects of study is another matter. The task then will be to bring our collective emotional wisdom to bear on these topics. Some questions we will ask ourselves include: What purposes do jealousy and envy serve? Can jealousy or envy ever be beneficial, to their bearers or to society at large? Or should they ideally be eliminated? How do we deliberate between revenge and forgiveness? Is true forgiveness achievable?
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 658 - FILM AS HISTORY/FILM AS MYTH |
In this seminar, Film as History/Film as Myth, we are exploring the complex relationship between contemporary films and the culture in which they are produced, with special attention to films that base their narratives on historical events and people. What do these films tell us about the events and people they are about, and what do they tell us about the time period in which they were produced? How does the form of films--the choices regarding narrative material, editing, characterization, and visual style--influence the interpretation of important cultural and historical periods or events? What cultural myths do these films create, or reinterpret, about the particular society that produces them? How does evolution and transformation of film genres and genre conventions contribute to the ideological negotiation of meanings in contemporary films? In exploring the relationship of films to society, we will explore the principles of Marxist film criticism, which is premised on the view that the economic structure of a society plays a major role in shaping both the commodity production/consumption and ideological impact of cultural works.
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 659 - SOCIAL ETHICS: JUSTICE & CARE |
This course will introduce students to two ethical systems "Justice and Care" their interplay and their implications for education. The Justice ethic holds that morality is based on objective rationality, that individuals are freely autonomous, and that human rights must be defended. The Care ethic holds that morality is based on subjective and emotional relationships, that individuals are interconnected, and that human responsibilities must be upheld. After exploring each ethical system we will compare the two and ask: Are Justice and Care really rival ethical systems, or one system? Which one should be employed to live an ethical life? Which one should be employed in making public policy? Are these two ethical theories gendered masculine and feminine? The last unit of the course will assess Justice and Care in education: What place should either ethic have in classroom pedagogy? How do Justice and Care ethics impact important educational debates, such as affirmative action, school vouchers, and sexual harassment?
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 661 - REDEFINING GENDER RELATIONSHIPS: JOAN OF ARC |
The study of Joan of Arc's brief life, with its meteoric rise and fall, involves issues that inspire passionate response: religion and mysticism; individual rights and responsibilities; love of king and country; recognition of women's abilities and power; upward mobility. In order to understand the 15th-century view of these issues, we look back at earlier stages of the Middle Ages, and the authority that was present in the Church, government, and various social strata. We will accomplish this investigation early in the course through readings and discussions of literature of the Middle Ages, contemporary feminist and revisionist history of the roles and limitations placed on medieval women, and analytic and biographical materials about Joan of Arc herself. Joan's role as symbol for liberal and social movements, social constructions of "woman", and war efforts has continued since the time of the French Revolution. The latter half of the course examines selected readings and images of Joan and her iconographic importance.
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 663 - THE HUDSON RIVER AND MODERNIZATION OF AMERICA |
The Hudson River is an American landmark of great historical, cultural, and artistic significance, and has aptly been called "America's River." This course focuses on the Hudson in the 19th century, when the river was simultaneously a commercial thoroughfare, a tourist destination and the scene of dramatic technological, industrial, and environmental changes, all the while celebrated for its iconic natural beauty. A number of major literary and artistic figures who lived and worked near or on the Hudson River witnessed and often produced works in response to the great economic, social and industrial changes that marked the river during the 19th century. These include writers Washington Irving and John Burroughs, and artists Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, Sanford Gifford, and others who comprise what came to be called the "Hudson River School." In focusing on both the history of the Hudson region and the 19th century and the various representations of the river produced during this time, this course treats the Hudson as a site through which a central humanistic question can be examined: how does our material and imaginative relationship to the natural world change as we transform that world through development and use? The course is run as a workshop in the National Endowmentt for the Humanities (NEH) Landmarks of American History and Culture program and is available only to those who have been selected to particpate in the workshop. Permission of Instructor.
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Lecture Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 690 - TOPICS: |
The topics studied in this course change from semester-to-semester, as well as from instructor-to-instructor. Students should expect to engage in sophisticated discussion, to work independently, and to participate in--and lead--seminar discussions. The course will require students to call on the experience of their previous coursework in the program to produce polished writing informed by research. Students should expect to complete at least one prolonged research assignment and to produce at least 20 pages of polished writing this semester. For this semester's course sections, please see the MALS webpage (http://www.ramapo.edu/academics/mals/) or contact the MALS Director.
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 699 - MASTER OF ARTS IN LIBERAL STUDIES: ELECTIVE |
This course designation is used to describe a transfer course from another institution which has been evaluated by the convener. A course with this courseID has no equivalent Ramapo course. It may fulfill a requirement or may count as a free elective.
0.000 TO 1.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 1.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 700 - INDEPENDENT STUDY: LIBERAL STUDIES |
The independent study will consist of individual work with a faculty mentor to undertake and write a substantial research paper. For students who chose the independent study and one additional elective for their capstone experience instead of the reading and writing tutorials. Pass/Fail grading only.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Independent Study Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 710 - THESIS RESEARCH TUTORIAL |
The Thesis Research Tutorial will consist mainly of individual work with a faculty mentor to hone the thesis topic and do research for the thesis or project. By mid-semester, a student enrolled in the tutorial should be sufficiently advanced to write an outline and annotated bibliography of the thesis.
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 711 - THESIS WRITING TUTORIAL |
The Thesis Writing Tutorial is meant for students who have completed the Thesis Research Tutorial. It is a continuation of work with the faculty mentor to finish doing research and writing the master's thesis.
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
LIBS 712 - THESIS CONTINUATION |
Thesis continuation required for students who have not completed either LIBS 710 Thesis Research Tutorial or LIBS 711 Thesis Writing Tutorial in the allotted timeframe.
0.000 TO 0.100 Credit hours 0.000 TO 0.100 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Liberal Studies Department Course Attributes: MLS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |