General Education Electives

Faculty of the Committee on Non-Departmental Instruction

Susan Pedersen, Professor of History and Dean for Undergraduate Education (Chair)
Gerard Francis Denault, Associate Director of the Freshman Seminar Program (ex officio)
William E. Gienapp, Harvard College Professor and Professor of History
Karl S. Guthke, Kuno Francke Professor of German Art and Culture
Alastair Iain Johnston, Governor James Albert Noe, Sr. and Linda and Christel Noe Laine Kelley Professor of China in World Affairs
Christopher P. Jones, George Martin Lane Professor of the Classics and of History (on leave spring term)
Susan W. Lewis, Director of the Core Program and Director of the Freshman Seminars, General Education, and House Seminars (ex officio)
Karel F. Liem, Henry Bryant Bigelow Professor of Ichthyology
Christie McDonald, Smith Professor of French Language and Literature
Elisa New, Professor of English and American Literature and Language
Anthony G. Oettinger, Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Mathematics and Professor of Information Resources Policy

General Education Courses

General Education 105. The Literature of Social Reflection
Catalog Number: 0769
Robert Coles (Graduate School of Education and Medical School )
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., at 10, with one ninety-minute section weekly. EXAM GROUP: 12
An examination of selected novels, essays, poems, and autobiographical statements which aim at social scrutiny or at a moral critique of a particular society. Lectures emphasize the distinctive approach of the literary mind to a variety of social problems: poverty, racial injustice, historical change, the various tensions of rural and urban life. Authors studied include George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Georges Bernanos, William Carlos Williams, James Agee, George Orwell, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, Tillie Olson, Flannery O’Connor, and Walker Percy.

General Education 156. The Information Age, Its Main Currents and Their Intermingling: Conference Course
Catalog Number: 3172 Enrollment: Limited to 25. Limited to 25.
Anthony G. Oettinger
Half course (fall term). M., W., 2:30–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
Dynamics of the worldwide shift toward information-intensive economies. The hype and the ripe in information infrastructures, networks, and multimedia. Transformations of information businesses: telecommunications; computers; TV; consumer electronics; books; newspapers; mail; toys. Antecedents in shifts from memorized to written records in 12th-century England and to steam printing presses in the 19th century. Each term paper traces the linkages between evolving information suppliers and a student-picked sphere of information use—e.g., literacy and numeracy, personal communication, entertainment, political processes, international trade, capital and labor markets, military intelligence and command practices, or organizational structure and behavior.
Note: Term paper in lieu of final examination; extensive research expected of graduate students; counts as an elective for Applied Mathematics concentrators if the term paper includes appropriate mathematical content. Offered jointly with the Kennedy School of Government as BGP-586.
Prerequisite: Social Analysis 10 or elementary calculus or equivalent.

General Education 175 (formerly Anthropology 199a). Native Americans in the 21st Century: Nation-Building I
Catalog Number: 5587
Joseph P. Kalt (Kennedy School), Joseph Singer (Law School),and guest lecturers
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 1–2:30. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
Uses a hands-on, interdisciplinary approach to examine some of the major issues faced by today’s Native American bands, tribes, and nations. These include: sovereignty, economic development, constitutional reform, cultural and language continuity, land and water rights, religious freedom, health and social welfare, and education. Concepts of “nation-building,” identity, and leadership, taken from tribal points of view, form the central themes of the course. All aspects of the course are placed in a cross-cultural context. Guest presentations are made by Native American students, visiting scholars, and Native American leaders.
Note: Offered jointly with the Kennedy School of Government as PED-501, and with the Graduate School of Education as A-101.

General Education 186. Introduction to Health Care Policy
Catalog Number: 4045
Richard G. Frank (Medical School)
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 10–11:30, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 12, 13
Provides students with an overview of U.S. health care delivery system, its components, and policy challenges. Health care system considered from organizational perspective: analyzes roles of patients, providers (doctors and hospitals), health plans, and payers. Considers objectives, constraints, incentives, knowledge, and conduct of each component. Evaluates problems faced by each component using both “insider” and “outsider” perspectives. What are objectives and how can they be realized? What consensus exists, if any? Reading will include selections from medical sociology, economics, politics, anthropology, and ethics.

*General Education 187 (formerly Pforzheimer 123). The Quality of Health Care in America
Catalog Number: 4832 Enrollment: Limited to 35.
Donald M. Berwick (Medical School), Howard H. Hiatt (Medical School), and guest lecturers
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 4:30–6. EXAM GROUP: 18
Offers information and experiences regarding an array of the most important issues and challenges in health care quality. Includes overview of the dimensions of quality of care, including outcomes, overuse, underuse, variation in practice patterns, errors and threats to patient safety, service flaws, and various forms of waste. Each session focuses in depth on one specific quality-of-care issue, exploring patterns of performance, data sources, costs, causes, and remedies. Explores international comparisons and systemic remedies: the desirable properties of health care systems that can perform at extremely high levels in many dimensions of quality.

House Seminars

Primarily for Undergraduates

All House Seminars are offered for degree credit. House Seminars are normally graded with letter grades; as with other letter-graded courses students may, with the instructor’s permission, take House Seminars Pass/Fail. All House Seminars require the permission of the instructor (*). Information concerning enrollment in House Seminars should be sought from the appropriate House Office. House Seminars are frequently not repeated from year to year.

Adams

[*Adams 122. Printed Books as a Field of Study]
Catalog Number: 6137 Enrollment: Limited to 6.
Roger E. Stoddard
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Introduces students to the appreciation of books as technical, commercial, and artistic products as well as intellectual ones. With due regard for text and picture, concentrates attention on the printed book in Europe and the Americas from the technical inventions of Gutenberg and other pioneers to the postmodern renovations of today. Books from Houghton Library collections are viewed and discussed in relation to their manufacture, distribution, and use. Much of the work is comparative. Vocations of book culture to be studied and illustrated are printer, book artisan, publisher, bookseller, collector, librarian, antiquarian bookseller, and bibliographer.
Note: Expected to be given in 2001–02.

Eliot

*Eliot 129. Nutrition and Public Health
Catalog Number: 1497 Enrollment: Limited to 20.
Clifford Lo (Medical School)
Half course (spring term). Tu., 6–8 p.m.
Introduction to the critical reading of technical nutrition and medical literature; surveys current issues in public health and public policy relating to nutrition. Critical analysis of different types of medical literature: historical monographs, metabolic laboratory observations, clinical case reports, epidemiological surveys, prospective randomized controlled trials, metaanalyses, and literature reviews. Prepares science and non-science concentrators to examine critically current controversies for themselves; requires active participation and presentation by students.
Note: Clinical rounds with the Nutrition Support Services at Children’s Hospital will be optional.

[*Eliot 133. The Táin: The Medieval Irish Saga]
Catalog Number: 2966 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Patrick K. Ford
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Investigates the great medieval Irish saga, Táin Bó Cúailnge. The Táin is the centerpiece of the so-called Ulster Cycle of tales, a group centered on the court of King Conchobor at Emain Macha in 1st-century (CE) Ulster. Cycle focuses on heroic exploits of Cú Chulainn, the Hound of Cooley, and on ethos of a warrior aristocracy in heroic golden age. Of especial interest are roles played by women in the tales. Tensions between literacy and orality in the transmission of the tales and issues related to the translation of the tales into English in the modern period will be studied.
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2001–02. Expected to be given in 2002–03.

Leverett

*Leverett 104. Sigmund Freud and C. S. Lewis: Two Contrasting World Views
Catalog Number: 0773 Enrollment: Limited to 20.
Armand M. Nicholi, II (Medical School)
Half course (spring term). Tu., 7–9 p.m.
Focuses on the “scientific” Weltanschauung (world view) of Sigmund Freud as a key to understanding his life and work. Students examine the world view Freud attacks by reading selected writings of C. S. Lewis and the letters between Freud and Oskar Pfister, the Swiss psychoanalyst and theologian. Considers the following themes: source of morality and ethics, definition and understanding of human sexuality, problem of pain and suffering, definition of happiness and reason that unhappiness prevails, role of different categories of love in human relationships, nature of human nature and the problem of “the painful riddle of death.” Selected expository works by Freud serve as a brief introduction to basic psychoanalytic concepts and to philosophical works that form the core of study.

Freshman Seminars

Faculty Offering Instruction in the Freshman Seminar Program

Paul G. Bamberg, Senior Lecturer on Mathematics
Sacvan Bercovitch, Powell M. Cabot Professor of American Literature (on leave fall term)
Katherine Elizabeth Boutry, Lecturer on English and American Literature and Language
Alide Cagidemetrio, Visiting Professor of History and Literature (University of Udine)
Alan Ralph Cooper, Lecturer on History and Literature
Richard N. Cooper, Maurits C. Boas Professor of International Economics
James Cuno, Professor of History of Art and Architecture and Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard University Art Museums
Alexia Elisabeth Duc, Assistant Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures
John Thomas Dunlop, Lamont University Professor, Emeritus
Carlos Ramiro Espinosa, Lecturer on History and Literature
Rena Fonseca, Lecturer on Sanskrit and Indian Studies
David R. Foster, Senior Lecturer on Biology
Jene A. Golovchenko, Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics and Professor of Physics
Andrew Gordon, Professor of History
Karl S. Guthke, Kuno Francke Professor of German Art and Culture
David H. Hubel, Research Professor of Neurobiology (Medical School)
Daniel Itzkovitz, Lecturer on History and Literature
Jonathan D. Kahn, Visiting Associate Professor of Social Studies (Bard College)
Jason A. Kaufman, Associate Professor of Sociology
Dirk Killen, Allston Burr Senior Tutor in Pforzheimer House, Lecturer on History and Literature
Myron Lecar, Lecturer on Astronomy
David A. Long, Lecturer on History and Literature
Anne Lynn Lounsbery, Lecturer on History and Literature
Sylvia Maxfield, Lecturer on Government
Barry C. Mazur, Gerhard Gade University Professor
Mark Mitrovich, Lecturer on Social Studies
Mark Christopher Molesky, Lecturer on History and Literature
Martha Jane Nadell, Lecturer on History and Literature
Pauline E. Peters, Lecturer on Anthropology
Mark P. Risinger, Lecturer on Music
Karen-Sue Taussig, Lecturer on Social Studies, Teaching Assistant in the History of Science
Ezra Fred Tawil, Lecturer on History and Literature
P. Barry Tomlinson, Edward C. Jeffrey Professor of Biology, Emeritus
Justin Weir, Assistant Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Abby Wolf, Lecturer on History and Literature

Only students in Freshman standing at Harvard College may apply for a Freshman Seminar. Enrollment in Freshman Seminars is limited to 12. For a complete description of the Freshman Seminar Program and 2000–01 offerings, please consult the current Freshman Seminar catalog. Catalogs and application forms may be obtained from the Freshman Seminar Office, 6 Prescott Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (telephone: (617) 495-1523; email: seminars@fas.harvard.edu).

Freshman Seminars 2000–01

*Freshman Seminar 2. Calculating Pi
Catalog Number: 4737
Paul G. Bamberg
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 2:30–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17

*Freshman Seminar 5. Reruns in American Literature
Catalog Number: 5868
Sacvan Bercovitch
Half course (fall term). Th., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 17, 18

*Freshman Seminar 7. Willa Cather and Music
Catalog Number: 1980
Katherine Elizabeth Boutry
Half course (spring term). W., 1–4. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7, 8

*Freshman Seminar 9. Europe in American Literature and Film
Catalog Number: 2891
Alide Cagidemetrio (University of Udine)
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8, 9

*Freshman Seminar 10. Late Medieval England
Catalog Number: 0011
Alan Ralph Cooper
Half course (fall term). Tu., 4–7 p.m. EXAM GROUP: 18

*Freshman Seminar 11. Public Policy Approaches to Global Climate Changes
Catalog Number: 1032
Richard N. Cooper
Half course (spring term). W., 2–4:30. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8, 9

*Freshman Seminar 12. Considering the Works of Art in the Harvard Art Museums, from Antiquity to the Present
Catalog Number: 0012
James Cuno
Half course (spring term). W., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7

*Freshman Seminar 14. Molière and Comedy
Catalog Number: 9131
Alexia Elisabeth Duc
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17, 18

*Freshman Seminar 16. The Workplace: The Roles of Business, Labor, and Government
Catalog Number: 0016
John Thomas Dunlop
Half course (spring term). M., 2–4:30. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8, 9

*Freshman Seminar 17. Colonizing the Americas
Catalog Number: 7243
Carlos Ramiro Espinosa
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17, 18

*Freshman Seminar 19. Contemporary India: Fact and Fiction
Catalog Number: 0019
Rena Fonseca
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16

*Freshman Seminar 20. Physicists and Scientific Problems
Catalog Number: 0020
Jene A. Golovchenko
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 8:30–10. EXAM GROUP: 10, 11

*Freshman Seminar 21. Sayuri’s World: The Problem of Orientalism and the Historical Context for Memoirs of a Geisha
Catalog Number: 5148
Andrew Gordon
Half course (fall term). Tu., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17

*Freshman Seminar 23. “Are We Alone”: Historical Impact of the Idea of Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life
Catalog Number: 7829
Karl S. Guthke
Half course (fall term). M., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8

*Freshman Seminar 27. The Neurophysiology of Visual Perception
Catalog Number: 7584
David H. Hubel (Medical School)
Half course (fall term). M., 2–5:30. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8, 9

*Freshman Seminar 28. Race, Modernism, and American Culture
Catalog Number: 0030
Daniel Itzkovitz
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7, 8

*Freshman Seminar 29. The Founders’ Constitution
Catalog Number: 1775
Jonathan D. Kahn (Bard College)
Half course (fall term). M., 1–4. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7, 8

*Freshman Seminar 30. Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Catalog Number: 0483
Jonathan D. Kahn (Bard College)
Half course (spring term). M., 1–4. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7, 8

*Freshman Seminar 31. Media, Culture, and Society: Roots of the Current Debate
Catalog Number: 5899
Jason A. Kaufman
Half course (fall term). F., 3–6. EXAM GROUP: 8, 9

*Freshman Seminar 32. Literature of Irish America: 20th-Century Voices
Catalog Number: 0032
Dirk Killen
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8

*Freshman Seminar 34. Cosmology
Catalog Number: 0034
Myron Lecar
Half course (fall term). Tu., 4:30–6. EXAM GROUP: 18

*Freshman Seminar 35. A Literary Tour of the American South
Catalog Number: 8135
David A. Long
Half course (fall term). Tu., 3–6. EXAM GROUP: 17, 18

*Freshman Seminar 36. Readings in the American Gothic
Catalog Number: 5315
David A. Long
Half course (spring term). Tu., 3–6. EXAM GROUP: 17, 18

*Freshman Seminar 37. The Irresistible Strangeness of the Russian Novel
Catalog Number: 4101
Anne Lynn Lounsbery
Half course (fall term). Tu., 2–5. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17, 18

*Freshman Seminar 38. The Contemporary Latin American Political and Economic Landscape
Catalog Number: 0038
Sylvia Maxfield
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.

*Freshman Seminar 39. The Mathematics of Knots, Links, and Braids
Catalog Number: 6310
Barry C. Mazur
Half course (spring term). M., W., at 2. EXAM GROUP: 7

*Freshman Seminar 40. Tyranny of the Majority
Catalog Number: 6969
Mark Mitrovich
Half course (spring term). W., 2–5. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8, 9

*Freshman Seminar 41. Memoirs and Biographies of the Holocaust
Catalog Number: 9873
Mark Christopher Molesky
Half course (spring term). Th., 2–5. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17, 18

*Freshman Seminar 42. Black Aesthetics
Catalog Number: 7836
Martha Jane Nadell
Half course (spring term). Tu., 2–5. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17, 18

*Freshman Seminar 46. Development Dilemmas
Catalog Number: 1606
Pauline E. Peters
Half course (fall term). W., 2–5. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8, 9

*Freshman Seminar 49. Biographical Fictions: Composers on Film
Catalog Number: 6460
Mark P. Risinger
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7, 8

*Freshman Seminar 57. Social and Historical Issues in the Age of the New Genetics
Catalog Number: 2314
Karen-Sue Taussig
Half course (fall term). Th., 2–5. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17, 18

*Freshman Seminar 58. Race in American Culture
Catalog Number: 3402
Ezra Fred Tawil
Half course (spring term). W., 4–6:30. EXAM GROUP: 9

*Freshman Seminar 60. Research at the Harvard Forest
Catalog Number: 0060
P. Barry Tomlinson and David R. Foster
Half course (spring term). Four Weekends at the Harvard Forest in Petersham, MA.

*Freshman Seminar 67. Russian Psychological Fiction
Catalog Number: 6929
Justin Weir
Half course (fall term). Tu., 1–4. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16, 17

*Freshman Seminar 69. The Writing of E.M. Forster
Catalog Number: 9285
Abby Wolf
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7, 8