"What's Your Story?  Educating Selves

and Transforming Community in a Changing World”

 

The Johnston Center First-Year Seminar

Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:30-3:50 pm

Fall 2008

 

Professors

Kathy Ogren, Professor of History and Women’s Studies

Ben Aronson, Associate Professor of Biology

Greg Salyer, Associate Professor of Literature and Religion

 

Peer Advisors

Lauren Hohle, Second Year

Michelle Deyden, Third Year

Emily Pepin, Fourth Year

 

Course Description

As you begin your college education, you are on the threshold of a period in your life in which you will likely see more change than ever. You will be exposed to new people and ideas, and you will change because of it. In fact education is about change. Both the Greek and Latin words for education suggest movement from one place to another. Dealing with change is one of the challenges of being human. It is always difficult to interpret new experiences and encounter or even adopt new perspectives. Throughout human history and all over the world, we have used stories to help us adapt to change. Stories are ways to weave the new experiences we have into meaningful wholes, to map our way in the world, and to make connections where we have not seen them before.

In this course we will focus on change and how we understand it in relation to ourselves and community, specifically in regard to education and learning. Some of the topics we will discuss include history, literature, and science. History is the study of change, and how we tell our stories goes a long way in determining who we are. Accordingly, we will read biographies that describe the role of education and change in the development of the self and community. The course will also examine science as story telling and story revising. Progress in science leads to new technologies that can change the world in which we live. We will examine recent advances in biotechnology and consider how these advances may cause changes in small communities as well as large ones.   Finally, in terms of literature and philosophy, we will examine the nature of change itself. How can we make sense of a world that is constantly in flux? If our stories are always changing, then are we always changing too? If so, what is the nature of a self in a changing world, and what role does education play?

In addition to these discussions, we will also discuss the Johnston Center, its nature, and the changes that it has undergone in its forty-year history. We will teach you how to contract for your classes and live and learn as a Johnston student. We will also be your Johnston advisors, so we will help you with many aspects of your life as a Johnston student.

 

Assignments

To be determined by each section and through individual contracting but all sections will require a portfolio of regular writing, including a summary reflection piece, and a final project to be presented during Chili Fest in December.

 

Texts

Julian Barnes, A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters

Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior

James D. Watson, The Double Helix

 

Orientation Week Events

 

August 26 (Tuesday)

• 4:00 pm: Welcome Circle. Your first Johnston group meeting where you tell us something about yourself. Grove Room, Orton Center
• 6:30 pm:  Welcome Dinner. You and your parents join Johnston faculty and students for dinner on the lawn behind Bekins and Holt Halls.

 

August 27 (Wednesday)

• 3:00-4:00 pm:  First Year Seminar meeting in the classroom (Appleton Hall of Numbers 116)
• 4:00-5:00 pm:   FYS Faculty and Johnston staff meet parents in the classroom
• 6:30-7:30 pm:  Dinner on Quad with seminar and families

 

August 28 (Thursday)

            10:00-11:00 am:  Class meets in sections, individual classrooms

 

August 29 (Friday)

            8:00 am-6:00 pm Academic Advising

 

August 30 (Saturday)

            Advising and Registration

 

August 31 (Sunday)

            1:00-3:30 pm  FYS class meeting

            5:00-8:00 pm  Dinner at Kathy’s house for all of class

 

 

The Launching

 

Tuesday September 2: 

Opening Plenary:  Kathy, Ben, and Greg

First Rotation (with your advisor) begins after this class

 

Thursday September 4: 

Julian Barnes, History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters, “The Stowaway”

 

 

Tuesday September 9

Julian Barnes, Chapter 2, “The Visitors”

 

Thursday September 11:

Some readings from Johnston histories

 

 

Tuesday September 16:

Barnes, Chapter 3, “The Wars of Religion”

 

Thursday September 18:

**Paul Grobstein, ”Interdisciplinarity, Transdisciplinarity and Beyond:  The Brain, Story Sharing, and Social Organization.” (?)

 

 

Tuesday September 23:

Barnes, Chapter 4, “The Survivor”

(Final Day to Submit Johnston Course Contracts)

 

Thursday September 25:

Plenary Class:  Ben on The Double Helix

Rotation to next section

Writing completed

 

 

 

Encounters

 

Tuesday September 29

Barnes, Chapter 5, “Shipwreck”

 

Thursday October 2

Watson, The Double Helix

 

 

Tuesday October 7:  Fall Break (no class)

 

Thursday October 9:

Watson, The Double Helix

 

 

Tuesday October 14

Barnes, Chapter 6, “The Mountain”

 

Thursday October 16

 

 

Tuesday October 21

Barnes, Chapter 7, “Three Simple Stories”

 

Thursday October 23

Plenary:  Kathy on The Woman Warrior

Rotation to next section

Writing Completed

 

 

Tuesday October 28

Barnes, Chapter 8, “Upstream”

 

Thursday October 30

Kingston, The Woman Warrior

 

 

Tuesday November 4

Barnes, “Parenthesis”

 

Thursday November 6

Kingston, The Woman Warrior

 

 

Tuesday November 11

Barnes, “Project Ararat”

 

Thursday November 13

The Woman Warrior

 

 

Tuesday November 18

Plenary: Greg on Barnes 

Adaptation: 6:30pm, Holt Living Room

Thursday November 20

Rolf Potts Reading in Class
Writing completed

Rolf Potts reading for the University: 6:00pm

 

The Voyage is The Story

 

November 25

Working on Final Projects in original groups

 

November 27 (Thanksgiving)

 

 

December 2: Working on final projects in original groups

 

December 4:  Closing Plenary Class

Barnes, Chapter 10, “The Dream”

 

Chilifest and showcasing first year student work:

 

December 9, Study Day: 5:00pm Holt Living Room

December 13: All work due, Self and Faculty evals due