Course Listings

CHE-421: Organic Chemistry of Plant Natural Products. ½ credit, secondhalf semester. Prerequisite: CHE321. This course will use organic chemistry to further the understanding of plant natural products. Of the known 400,000 plant species in the world only a small percentage of natural products have been studied, yet 25% of our pharmaceuticals come from these specialized compounds. Students will engage the primary literature to study the use of organic chemistry in specializedbiosynthetic pathways and a variety of analytical techniques that can identify new natural products.

CLA-111-02 = PSC-230-03 Leading Effectively: Ancient and American Lessons. Pericles, Alexander the Great, Cicero, Julius Caesar - these names have lived on as powerful reminders of the debt western civilization owes to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Despite shifts in historical approach, we continue to be fascinated by the "great man" and his impact on the events that have been crucial to the development of our own culture. Even popular media appreciate the attraction, with movies like Spartacus, Alexander, and multiple episodes of the History Channel. One of our chief sources of knowledge about important men of antiquity is Plutarch, a Greek writer living in the Roman Empire (A.D. 46-120). He composed a series of biographies known as the Parallel Lives, in which he pairs a Greek and Roman leader who he thinks are in some way connected. As Plutarch himself says at the beginning of his life of Alexander, his main concern is not so much historical as ethical. He wants to present to readers models of great-hearted men for imitation in their own lives, and for this reason Plutarch's biographies have had a great influence on the personal formation of the educated classes in European and American history. Ralph Waldo Emerson called Plutarch's Lives "a bible for heroes", and before him they were read by the American Founding Fathers, who discovered in these texts many ethical concepts that were to inform their ideas about the creation of a free republic. With a work of secondary scholarship, The Founders and the Classics: Greece, Rome, and the American Enlightenment by C.J. Richard, we will examine this topic in detail. 0.5 credits (half-semester; choose to take it first half or second half of semester)

CLA-113-02 = GHL-277-02 = HIS-210-02 From Zeus to Zika: A History of Epidemic Disease. Health is a universal concern: everyone gets sick at one time or another and we all seek healers in order to regain or maintain our health. In this way, we are much the same as the ancient Greeks and Romans. Take a journey through time to see what tools and methods the Greeks and Romans used to treat diseases that fell upon large populations (epidemic diseases), what these diseases were, and how the epidemics themselves and medical approaches to them have changed with new discoveries. Along the way, we'll study plagues in Athens and Rome, the Black Death of the Middle Ages, cholera outbreaks in nineteenth-century London, and contemporary epidemics like AIDS and Zika. Students will engage the material through discussion, presentations, short written assignments, and quizzes. This course is required for the Global Health minor.

EDU-330 = MAS-330: In this course students study issues related to urban education; in some years it may culminate with an immersion trip in May during the week between finals and graduation. For Spring 2019 the course will NOT include an immersion trip but will incorporate digital pedagogies, speakers, and/or field trips in our study of contemporary approaches to urban education in the U.S. In addition to considering the needs and challenges of urban communities and their schools, we will examine the growing use of alternative licensure programs such as Teach For America (TFA) to provide teachers for high-needs urban school districts across the country. Credits: 0.5

REL 273-02 -Thomas Aquinas: Philosophy and Theology. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) is the most important medieval theologian and philosopher. His work integrated classical Christian beliefs with the newest philosophy and science available at the time: Aristotle's recently re-discovered thought. This seminar will read excerpts from Thomas' Summa Theologicarelated to the nature and existence of God, evil, human action, sacraments and grace. Course offered second half of the semester. ½ course credit. No prerequisites.

SPA-277: Ecuador. In his evaluation of the first Ecuadorian novel,Cumandáby Juan León Mera, Angel Porras wrote: "The importance of this first narrative model [in Ecuador] resides not only in its status as the country's inaugural novel, but also for having synthesized almost all the themes that constitute the core philosophy of Hispanic American Romanticism." These themes include history and politics. But they also include topics like biology, geography, religion, ethics, and gender. The 2019 Ecuador Program will take as its main focus the country's late colonial and independence periods. We'll use the novel as a virtual starting point to explore all the issues that constitute Hispanic American Romanticism. And then, after our .5 credit course this coming spring, we'll travel together to the country of Ecuador and its capital, Quito, which will become the actual starting point of a journey to retrace the steps of the novel, from the volcanoes above Ambato to the upper reaches of the Amazon rainforest and basin. During the last weeks of May and the first part of June, students will study Spanish at a University in Ecuador, live with host families, and then travel to the Amazon with Wabash faculty and indigenous guides. Prior approval and a completed application are required for this Immersion trip. The course is open to any student not yet in his senior year who has completed at least Spanish 202 prior to the Spring semester. However, preference will be given to applicants who have completed coursework at the 300 level. Immersion trip; Regitsration through instructor only.

SPA-313-02 = GEN-300: The Performance of Self in Contemporary Spanish Culture. In this course we will study notions of self-fashioning and performance in contemporary Spain, and the ways in which social groups in the margins have historically constructed and negotiated their identities in response to official narratives of both, exclusion and appropriation. We will explore some of the theoretical and cultural debates surrounding race, ethnicity, gender and linguistic diversity in Spanish discourses of culture and nationhood; and will examine art, literary texts, films and performances that directly engage with these issues. All discussions and assignments will be in Spanish, with some readings in English. This course counts toward the Spanish major and minor, the Hispanic Studies major, the Gender Studies minor and the Language Studies requirement. Prerequisite: SPAN 301 or 302, or permission from the instructor