Objectives
The Tutorial Program was introduced for the academic year 2001-02 and is intended primarily for sophomore and junior students. This experimental program is designed to foster close work with a faculty instructor in a small group environment, and also to facilitate critical thinking, writing, and oral communication skills. Tutorials meet at least once a week for an hour or more, at a time to be arranged by the instructor. All tutorial courses are offered for a letter grade and generate four semester-hours of course credit. The workload is considered equivalent to that of other Brandeis courses and usually includes writing assignments, readings, small group discussions, reports, research, and presentations.
Admission to each course is by the signature of the instructor. Enrollment is limited to eight, with preference given to sophomores and juniors. Like 90-level courses, tutorial courses do not meet school distribution or university studies requirements. Major and program requirements may be met only with the permission of the undergraduate advising head or program director.
Courses of Instruction
(1-99) Primarily for Undergraduate Students
TUTR 1a Women in Ancient Greece and Rome
Signature of the instructor required. Enrollment is limited to eight with preference given to sophomores and juniors.
Focuses on ancient Greece, but the lives of Roman women are explored from evidence in Roman poetry and art as well. Students read primary texts by ancient authors (in translation), which are discussed each week in a seminar setting. Archeological objects from Greece and Rome (sculpture, vase painting, funerary inscriptions) are also studied to elucidate, clarify, or expand on the texts, and the texts are used to do the same for the objects.
Ms. Koloski-Ostrow
TUTR 2a Karl Marx as Economist and Social Theorist
Signature of the instructor required. Enrollment is limited to eight with preference given to sophomores and juniors.
"Workers of the world, unite!" "Religion is the opiate of the people." "The state is the executive committee of the bourgeosie." Among many other things, Karl Marx was a brilliant sloganeer. But these phrases are far more than cheerleading; they reveal Marx as a social theorist, as an economist, and as a historian. The class examines Marx's own writing to uncover the central meaning of his ideas: about the past, present, and future of capitalism, about the functioning of the bourgeosie, and about the nature of human society.
Mr. Engerman
TUTR 3b Dangerous Writers and Writers in Danger
Signature of the instructor required. Enrollment is limited to eight with preference given to sophomores and juniors.
In authoritarian or totalitarian regimes, novelists, and poets pay dearly for their critique of the establishment. Their irreverence for the powers that be can mean imprisonment, exile, or even execution. Why exactly are some writers so feared by those in power? What specific social and political conditions inspire poets and novelists to critique authority? As onlookers from the West, how can we accurately evaluate their political or social critique? The works of contemporary novelists and poets from various parts of the world who have suffered exile or even death for their ideas are examined. Students will be required to sustain research throughout the semester on an interdisciplinary topic, to conduct a class, and to compose a final term paper. Writers include Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Salman Rushdie, Norman Manea, Nasrin Tashima, Ken Saro-Iwa, and Yang Lian.
Ms. Ratner
TUTR 4b Exploration in Programmed Cell Death
Signature of the instructor required. Enrollment is limited to eight with preference given to sophomores and juniors.
Programmed cell death, also called apoptosis, is the "happy death" that allows us to develop properly, keeps us healthy, and can stop the growth of cancers. This tutorial will include an overview, but will emphasize aspects related to the major ongoing research of our laboratory. Students, especially sophomores and juniors, will meet weekly for a 1.5 hour group discussion and laboratory training, and also will participate in laboratory research that will require at least one full afternoon a week plus observations daily at 12-hour intervals. At each tutorial, we will discuss an assigned classic paper, and one student will present a current research paper. Near midterm each student will present a summary of his or her laboratory research to the group, and subsequently will write a final paper. Grading will be based on oral participation, research, commitment, and the final report.
Mr. Fulton and Ms. Lai
TUTR 5b Bones of Contention: Exploring "Modernity"
Signature of the instructor required. Enrollment is limited to eight with preference given to sophomores and juniors.
This group tutorial will examine ideologies of dinosaur discovery, collection, and exhibition, including popular and professional deployment of scientific theory, as engagements with the phenomena of modernity and postmodernity. Historicizing dinosaur discourse, that is, connecting it with the "non-scientific" events and issues of the times in which it was produced reveals the ways in which science and its institutions are connected to what may seem like "unscientific" cultural logics being used to comprehend modernity. Students should note that this is not a course just about dinosaurs but also about defining modernity. Readings for this course will include studies of dinosaur discovery and scholarship, theories of modernity and postmodernity, fiction, narratives of the early dinosaur expedition leaders, newspaper accounts of dinosaur finds from the 19th century to the present, histories of science and the museum, theories of cultural studies, and perhaps some visual culture theory.
Ms. Chu
TUTR 6b Writing about Books
Signature of the instructor required. Enrollment is limited to eight with preference given to sophomores and juniors.
In this tutorial each student will be asked to select at least one short nonfiction book to write about. In preparation for each tutorial meeting we will write an expository essay about the book selected for that section. On the day your book is up for discussion, you will present your essay to the group and we will rewrite it as a group. Each student will always rewrite each essay at least once.
Mr. Dowden
TUTR 7b "Surfing the New Wave": Survival Techniques in Contemporary Chamber Music Performance
Signature of the instructor required. Enrollment is limited to eight with preference given to sophomores and juniors.
Haven't you always wanted to sing simultaneously through all four parts of Webern's first Bagatelle for string quartet? With special effects? This tutorial offers the opportunity to learn and apply the many tricks of the trade necessary to the successful performance of contemporary music. Practical solutions essential for today's player living on the cutting edge will be explored. Selections from the literature (Webern, Ives, Hyla, Jolas, Berg, Copland, Bartok) will serve as case studies. Students will draw from the techniques acquired in class to creatively solve real problems. Under the guidance of two members of the Lydian String Quartet (advancing their patented "whatever it takes" method) the class will study and perform throughout the semester.
Ms. Eissenberg and Ms. Rider
TUTR 8b The Great Ideas of Physics
Does NOT meet the major requirements in physics. Signature of the instructor required. Enrollment is limited to eight with preference given to sophomores and juniors.
The main ideas of modern physics will be explored at a conceptual level with very little mathematics. The goal is to give science and non-science students a view of how physicists today view the universe. Topics will include electromagnetism, special relativity, quantum mechanics, particle physics, and string theory. This is a chance to learn about quarks, black holes, higher dimensions, warped space, and much more.
Mr. Blocker
TUTR 9b Cuba: A Critical Study in History, Culture, and Literature
Signature of the instructor required. Enrollment is limited to eight with preference given to sophomores and juniors.
This group tutorial course will take a multidisciplinary approach to the study of Cuba. The texts will range from anthropological studies to primary source documents, and from history to fiction. The culture will also be experienced through food, music, and films. This kaleidoscopic study of Cuba will give students the tools to continue to explore and to better understand issues on the island today. The class will meet in group and one-on-one sessions, to discuss the texts critically and to work on writing assignments. In group meetings students will present reaction papers and will take turns leading class discussions. The group discussions will deal with critical analysis of the assigned texts and occasional research. Students will write a final paper about Cuba using the discipline of their choice. The writing assignments will require a process of drafts and individual conferences for consultation leading to revisions throughout the semester.
Ms. Older
TUTR 10b The Social Autopsy: In Death Investigation
Signature of the instructor required. Enrollment is limited to eight with preference given to sophomores and juniors.
Whenever a suspicious death occurs, the medical examiner's office is called to conduct a death investigation. A forensic pathologist will autopsy the body to determine the cause and manner of death. Social scientists have argued that in some suspicious deaths a social autopsy might be warranted to explain the sudden passing. A social autopsy reconstructs the events preceding the death and examines the social policies or lack thereof to provide a broader explanation for death. In this tutorial, students will conduct their own social autopsy based on actual forensic cases. The class will also visit a medical examiner's office and talk to forensic pathologists. The tutorial has no prerequisites but an interest in medicine, criminology, and social research, and an enthusiastic attitude will be helpful.
Mr. Timmermans
TUTR 11b Does Character Matter? Honesty in Social Relationships and Public Discourse
Signature of the instructor required. Enrollment is limited to eight with preference given to sophomores and juniors.
Honesty is a valued personal characteristic, but dishonesty seems pandemic. The tutorial considers the social psychology of honesty and how it is a characteristic of people and a response to one's environment. Examples of truth-telling and lies will be drawn from the "real world" of everyday social relationships, as well as from law, politics, medicine, academia, and science. Core readings from literature in psychology, philosophy, and sociology will be assigned and students will conduct a research project.
Mr. Saxe
TUTR 12a Classic and Contemporary Studies in Anthropology
Signature of the instructor required. Enrollment is limited to eight with preference given to sophomores and juniors.
Social and cultural anthropologists write ethnographies, accounts of particular peoples, societies, or cultures. Although these accounts may appear to be documentaries or journalistic stories, examples of straight reportage, in fact they are interpretations structured in terms of questions, claims, and evidence. How do anthropologists present these elements in order to persuade readers to accept their arguments? Through an analysis of the modes of reasoning and of rhetorical and reflexive strategies in representative classics and contemporary studies, this course aims to help students better understand the ethnographic accounts upon which much of social and cultural anthropology is based.
Mr. Jacobson
TUTR 13a Literacy and Development
Signature of the instructor required. Enrollment is limited to eight with preference given to sophomores and juniors.
After an overview of various connotations of literacy in international development programs, the class will consider the history of literacy in the United States, including the systematic repression of literacy among slaves. In discussing the contemporary situation of literacy in our country, issues involving immigration and bilingual education will surface, as will debates over cultural literacy and the increasing call for computer literacy among America’s youth, as well as the ways in which computers are changing our very definitions of education and literacy. A major part of the seminar will be a "service learning" experience: students will participate as aides in a literacy program in Waltham. They will also be asked to reflect upon and write about their own continuing acquisition of literacy.
Ms. Hale
TUTR 14a Survey of Literature in English through the Nineteenth Century
Signature of the instructor required. Enrollment is limited to eight with preference given to sophomores and juniors.
This tutorial is meant to supplement the English major through a survey of the history of canonical English and American literature. The class will be concentrating on one aspect of the context of any work of literature —-the literary background that the writer had, and that he or she might assume in the reader. The class will approach such a context through a developing sense of the forerunners that any writer might have had in mind: enough Chaucer will be read to know what Spenser made of him; enough Spenser to know what Keats was talking about; enough Keats to understand Dickinson's views of him. Coverage will extend from Chaucer to Wilde, and will include 19th-century American literature. This course will be especially useful for students planning to take the English literature subject test of the GRE.
Mr. Flesch
TUTR 15a All in the Family: Family Conflict in Law and Literature
Signature of the instructor required. Enrollment is limited to eight with preference given to sophomores and juniors.
This course will trace through actual cases in state and federal courts, as well as selected literature like Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Jane Smiley’s Good Will, four crucial areas of family interaction. These include: (1) concerns with punishment, abuse, and domestic violence; (2) parents as both positive and negative role models; (3) possibilities for family unity amidst adversity; and (4) the threat or hope of governmental intervention in family law. These topics will prompt short response papers, all arising from individual discussions with the instructor and some to be presented as panels to initiate weekly dialogue in the tutorial.
Ms. Davis
TUTR 16a Gender, Land, and the American West
Signature of the instructor required. Enrollment is limited to eight with preference given to sophomores and juniors.
Gender, Land, and the North American West explores the themes of colonialism, the settlement of land, and gender in the 18th- and 19th-century western "frontier." It will tie macro processes of economic change and immigration, as mediated by colonial and later U.S. federal policy, to micro accounts of everyday life. The challenge of the class will be to piece together the various accounts of land taking and its meaning in North America, from the perspectives of Native peoples, immigrants, and Yankees. As such it will raise issues of social justice and indigenous rights that have contemporary parallels.
Ms. Hansen
TUTR 17a Researching the American Jewish Community
Signature of the instructor required. Enrollment is limited to eight with preference given to sophomores and juniors.
This tutorial blends hands-on research experience with discussion of the challenges and opportunities inherent in conducting studies of the American Jewish community. Topics for discussion include key issues facing the American Jewish community, methodological challenges in modern Jewish studies, and the interpretation of findings from recent research. Based on these discussions, students will develop a research project on Jewish identity among college students or Jewish life on campus.
Ms. Sales and Mr. Saxe
TUTR 18b The State of Affairs: The Theatrical Landscape of American Cities, 2002
Signature of the instructor required. Enrollment is limited to eight with preference given to sophomores and juniors.
This tutorial course offers a critical survey on the current theatrical landscape of America's most prolific theatrical cities, the productions, the theater companies, and the theater people --in a seminar-style, discussion-based learning environment. Students will build a solid knowledge of current theatrical affairs through reading, writing, and discussion. Each student will examine the theatrical landscape of a specific American city, as well as conduct extensive research on an academic or practical aspect of theatre using interviews with professionals as a large portion of the research. There will be several required trips to see theater in the Boston area, as well as a theater tour-research trip to New York City. All theater trips are required of students enrolled in the course. The NYC trip is scheduled for April 1-4 and will require an additional fee from each student to help defray costs. Majors and non-majors alike are encouraged to enroll; there are no prerequisites other than a desire to learn and an enthusiastic interest in theater.
Ms. Cleary
TUTR 19b Beauty, Art, and the Mystical Quest for God
Signature of the instructor required. Enrollment is limited to eight with preference given to sophomores and juniors.
This course will examine the mystical idea of God being seen through beauty, natural and artistic. A paradigm for mysticism in readings of early Neoplatonism and the medieval period is first established. The course then examines the emergence of mystical strains seen in the Romantic period and the period around the turn of the 20th century.
Mr. Swenson
TUTR 20b Ancient Mystery Cults
Signature of the instructor required. Enrollment is limited to eight with preference given to sophomores and juniors.
In the Ancient World, there were numerous centers of ritual activity involving numerous cults. These were known as "mystery cults" because their initiates were sworn to secrecy, but significant parts of the ritual were performed in public. The class will focus on a wide range of cults, with particular emphasis on those that eventually became important in Greece and Rome, such as the cults of Isis and Osiris from Egypt, of Dionysus and Cybele/Artemis of Ephesus from Asia Minor, as well as Demeter (Eleusis), Orpheus, Pythagoras, Aesculapius, and the cults of Magnus Graecia (Fortune, Mithras, Sabazius), and consider the degree to which their influence persisted in religious ritual of the middle ages and the modern period. The tutorial will begin with a general coverage of selected cults, and then each participant will select one cult to research in detail. Field trips to the Museum of Fine Arts and/or other museums will also be scheduled.
Ms. Johnston
TUTR 21b Queer Readings: Before Stonewall
Signature of the instructor required. Enrollment is limited to eight with preference given to sophomores and juniors.
Through discussion of canonical and peripheral English language texts, and the preparation of writing assignments, the class will confront problems of the historical and social contingency of forms of erotic desire (primarily same- but also cross-sex).
Mr. King
TUTR 23a Programmed Cell Death in Cancer Therapy
Signature of the instructor required. Enrollment is limited to eight with preference given to sophomores and juniors.
Apoptosis is an exciting new area of programmed cell death (PCD), the active cell death that keeps us healthy and is an important aspect of cell discipline that fails in cancer. This topic is explored through reading, discussion, and presentation of published papers, classic and current. The class begins with an overview of apoptosis as well as the principles of current therapy for major cancers. Prospects for use of PCD in cancer therapy is then explored. Each student focuses on a promising new or future cancer therapy utilizing PCD. Students write a mini-review of relevant literature and a proposal for therapy using PCD. As a climax to the course, students give a formal presentation of the proposal to the group.
Mr. Fulton and Ms. Lai