Since the online release of the spring semester class offerings last week, University of Wisconsin students have passed endless hours “timetabling.” This ritual of sifting and winnowing through the endless selection of UW courses is often as much a search of curiosity as necessity.
In the quest to build a schedule “wish list,” fulfilling requirements becomes a priority. However, some extraordinary courses annually draw in hundreds of students on their own intriguing merit. These courses frequently feature the unusual titles, strange topics and renowned professors that have students rearranging their schedules to make them fit.
Literature in Translation 248
Vampire in Literature and Film
Instructor: Tomislav Longinovic
Meets: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:05-1:20 p.m.
Credits: 3
This course explores the evolution of the vampire figure, said professor Tomislav Longinovic, chair of the UW Slavic Languages department and a native of East Europe.
“It is sort of a way of drawing some of the popular culture … and joining it somehow with the very rigorous cultural study and historical analysis so that we can actually see how these levels of cultures are interacting,” Longinovic said.
In the process of doing so, students begin by reading Slavic folklore and move on to Gothic literary representations of the figure, eventually analyzing several film versions.
But the course is not framed by a simple dichotomy between Europe and the United States.
“We end up also discussing a lot of stuff that happens globally, how different types of cultures outside of the mainstream are appropriating (the vampire), like Japanese manga and anime,” Loginivic said.
The popular 100-seat course has filled up within an hour in the past, Loginivic said, adding the class would double its size this spring to 200 seats.
Women’s Studies 431
Childbirth in the U.S.
Instructor: Judith Leavitt
Meets: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1-2:15 p.m.
Credits: 3
Although she took the class two years ago, UW alumna Emma Hynes vividly remembers her experience in professor Judith Leavitt’s class on the history of childbirth experiences in the United States.
“The theme of the class is kind of how childbirth came from being a home-centered experience … and then it got brought into the hospital and became a Westernized, medical-ized illness or condition, rather than a natural experience,” Hynes said.
The course covers a range of childbirth experiences, beginning in the colonial period and extending to the mid-20th century, Leavitt said.
“Students read a lot of primary materials that are women’s writings about their birth experiences,” Leavitt said. “They are encouraged to speak to women in their family about their birth experiences to get a sense of generational changes.”
Hynes recalls watching black-and-white silent film clips and reading the harrowing accounts of 18th century midwives who frequently dealt with deaths during the birthing process.
Although the class has about 40 seats that normally end up filled by women, both Hynes and Leavitt encourage male students to enroll in the course.
“I’d love to have more,” Leavitt said. “I’ve just finished a manuscript that will be published in time for Father’s Day this next spring semester on fathers’ roles in childbirth.”
In case there is any doubt about the value of the course, Hynes’ experience speaks for itself.
“This was the best class I took at the university,” Hynes said matter-of-factly. “It was incredible.”
Integrated Liberal Studies 275
Sex and Spirituality from Dante to Aretha Franklin
Instructor: Craig Werner
Meets: Thursdays, 11-1:30 p.m.
Credits: 3
A new course this spring will surely lure students in on its title alone.
Sex and Spirituality from Dante to Aretha Franklin is taught by professor Craig Werner, who said while this class is for “anyone who is interested in sex,” he stipulates it is also for those who want to think seriously.
The class will focus on “the way this desire, this vision of sexual love is connected with spirituality and then is a part of communities and can become a really creative force for society and for individual people,” said Werner, chair of both the Afro-American Studies and Integrated Liberal Studies departments.
The course looks at how that very topic has been approached in different places and times, drawing from such diverse sources as the Bible, Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” Shakespeare and Jane Austen.
Students also analyze the theme of sex and spirituality in films like “Brokeback Mountain,” as well as in the soul music of Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles.
“I think that love and sexuality are issues which occupy a much, much bigger place in people’s lives than they occupy in the curriculum,” Werner said.
Integrated Liberal Studies 372
What is Happiness?
Instructor: Sr. Lecturer Kathleen Sell
Meets: Tuesdays, 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Credits: 3
In this Integrated Liberal Studies course, students try to conceptualize one of life’s main objectives by looking at it through many different lenses.
“It’s an interesting course because the topic is happiness, and we have to grapple with the fact that as humans we don’t even know quite what happiness is,” said Kathleen Sell, senior lecturer who teaches this course. “So the discussions are pretty lively.”
Happiness is examined philosophically, politically and economically, she added.
“We spend a lot of time on contemporary economic and psychological research that shows that we tend to go after the wrong things thinking they’ll make us happy,” Sell said. “There’s a lot of irrationality to the way we pursue our happiness, especially purchasing things.”
As a final project, students in this course write a paper postulating their own theories of happiness, making cases for or against arguments and studies explored in the class.
“I would encourage anyone to take this happiness class,” said UW alumna Abbie Steiner, who has taken the course. “It does a great job of integrating so many of the different humanistic disciplines and helping you think in an interconnected way about overlap … to construct the way in which we view the world.”
Next Fall
Botany 240
Plants and Man
Instructor: Timothy Allen
Credits: 3
For a biological science course, botany professor Timothy Allen’s class concentrates much on the social evolution of human beings in relation to the natural world. And although the course is not available in the spring, it will pop up again next fall.
His lectures are whirlwind adventures, as Allen uses three slideshows at once to illustrate his narratives about everything from the evolution of humans in a savannah environment to the War on Drugs.
During lecture, Allen said he never uses notes, always tells stories and occasionally breaks into song. Among the readings for the class is Jared Diamond’s “Why Is Sex Fun?” and students brew beer as a term project.
“Twenty percent of the people say, coming out of the course, ‘I’ve had this course change my life,’ or, ‘This course is the best course I’ve ever had taught by anyone my whole life,'” Allen said.
Integrated Liberal Studies 371
Classical Thinkers Grapple with Contemporary Issues
Instructor: Sr. Lecturer Kathleen Sell
Credits: 3
This course takes on the format of the popular television show “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” Students read selections from thinkers like Aristotle, Adam Smith and Thomas Jefferson for two- to three-week periods. In the fourth week, they take on the roles of the authors as special guests on a show with “Jon Stewart” and even a studio audience.
“I wanted to find a way to have democratic theory and economic theory applied to contemporary controversies,” Sell said. “But this stuff can be kind of heavy to read, so having students put it into a ‘Daily Show’ format makes it more fun and engaging and makes the theorists they’re reading about someone they are personally curious about because they have to actually play those characters.”
Other Quick Picks for Spring
Music 319
Yiddish Song and the Jewish Experience
Instructor: Pamela Potter
Meets: Mondays and Wednesdays, 12:05-12:55 p.m.
Credits: Not available
Medieval Studies 415
Topics in Medieval Art: Death and the After Life
Instructor: Thomas Dale
Meets: Wednesdays and Fridays, 2:30-3:45 p.m.
Credits: 3
Religious Studies 402
Thought of Gandhi
Instructor: Joseph Elder
Meets: Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:30-4:45 p.m.
Credits: 3
Political Science 513
Radical Political Theory
Instructor: James Klausen
Meets: Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:30-3:45 p.m.
Credits: 3
