Seminars

Seminar Descriptions

• HON 116HA — Blues, Lit., & African-American Culture
  • Dr. Tracie Church Guzzio
  • MWF 10 – 11 a.m.
  • 3 credits

  The unnamed protagonist in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man notes that the “true history of the times” can only be found in listening to the blues. This course will investigate and interpret the ways that oral tradition – particularly the blues – resonates in African-American written literature. While some of these explorations will be stylistic in nature, “the blues” here is also a conceptual framework in African-American literature. Some scholars suggest that it echoes the experience of slavery, a post-traumatic artifact of melancholy, fear, and survival, as well as satire, in post-Reconstruction and twentieth-century America. We will also analyze the ways that “the blues imagination” continues to frame African-American art and promote a “blues ethic” that celebrates the traditions of the folk past, argues for social justice, and demands a witness to historical trauma. 

  Required work and texts: We will listen to music, of course, but students will also read several novels and novellas as well as blues lyrics. poems, short stories, and critical essays. Included in the list of secondary readings will be a few historical and theoretical pieces about the influence of the blues on literature and the impact of the “blues imagination” on American culture.

  Students will be asked to write short critical response papers that will address the literary works in the context of our secondary readings. There will be 2 of these responses required during the semester. The responses will also be used to generate class discussion, and they will be based on some directed questions about our readings and ideas and comments that have arisen our time in class. At the end of the semester, students will be asked to write a longer, analytical research paper. 

  Cardinal Core/General Education Requirement: The course addresses the requirements and objectives of the Individual Expression/Humanities category in the Cardinal Core/General Education program. Students will address the requirements of the category for this course, but they will also “develop theoretical and critical perspectives” on African-American literature, culture, and history. This is primarily a literature course, so we will use methodologies of literary analysis, but we will also employ numerous interdisciplinary tools in our study of this literature.

  This seminar will satisfy the Individual Expression/Humanities component of the SUNY Plattsburgh Cardinal Core/General Education program.

• HON 126HA — American Animals
  • Dr. Gary Kroll
  • MWF 11 a.m. – noon
  • 3 credits

  Thomas Jefferson was obsessed with securing the skeleton of the largest elk in America.  What did that have to do with American exceptionalism during the early federal era?

  Why did white southerners prohibit dog ownership among newly freed African American slaves during Reconstruction? 

  Why did PT Barnum’s famous elephant, Jumbo, take a stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge in 1886, and what does that tell us about the Second Industrial Revolution?

  Why did classical geneticists turn to fruit flies to do their research, and what does that have to do with the history of eugenics and the conservation movement?

  American history is full of encounters between human and non-human animals. These stories are far from trivial. Rather, they brilliantly highlight important themes in American history. By examining and researching sources from the time period, this class will be sweeping through the standard run of U.S. history, but through the eyes of the animal. 

  This course will be taught as a guided research seminar with occasional common readings and more frequent individual reading/writing assignments that align with your personal interests. There will not be a major research paper; rather, students will be producing two-page assignments throughout the semester that draw from academic and historical sources. I do not assume previous research experience; nor do I assume historical knowledge, or even the knowledge of animals. That’s the purpose of the guided research seminar.

  This seminar will satisfy the U.S. Civilizations/U.S. Identities component of the SUNY Plattsburgh Cardinal Core/General Education program.

• HON 132HA — Sexuality & the Law
  • Dr. Raymond Carman
  • MW 2 – 3:15 p.m.
  • 3 credits

  The United States has more laws governing sexuality than anywhere else in the world. It would be almost impossible to teach a course that systematically investigates local, state and federal regulations of sexuality. Furthermore, many of the regulations, especially at the local and state level are just plain weird. Therefore, this seminar will focus primarily on the investigation of government regulation sexual orientation, identity and expression. Topics to be covered include:

  • Theories of sexuality
  • State control and definitions of “family,” including issues surrounding marriage and parenting
  • Sexual criminalization and sexual privacy
  • Military policies that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, or gender identity and expression
  • Discrimination by private entities on the basis of sexual orientation, or gender identity and expression

  In addition, we will explore the extent to which beliefs regarding sexual identity, religion, race, morality, and gender have shaped the law’s approach to sexuality, and the ways in which the movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights is different from and similar to other rights movements.

  Students will write weekly reaction papers and be graded on their participation in discussions. Everyone will make a book review presentation.

  This seminar will satisfy the Human Communities/Social Science component of the SUNY Plattsburgh Cardinal Core/General Education program.

• HON 133HA — Humanitarian Aid & Logistics Management
  • Dr. Kevin O'Neill
  • T, TH 3 – 3:15 p.m.
  • 3 credits

  89.3 million forcibly displaced persons, including 27 million refugees, 53 million internally displaced persons, and 4.6 million asylum seekers. 46% are women and 20% are children.**

  Flooding in Florida, wildfires in Australia and California, tornados in Mississippi and Tennessee. Earthquakes in Turkey/Syria (February 2023) and Indonesia (April 14, 2023).

  Are you interested in how international aid organizations respond to, and provide relief in these situations? Logistics plays a central role in all phases of disaster management and supporting humanitarian operations. The fundamental task of a logistics system is to deliver the appropriate supplies, in quality condition, in the right amounts, to the locations at the time that they are needed. However, due to the inherent nature of disasters, humanitarian logistics is faced with unique challenges: the critical infrastructure, including the transportation and communication systems, may have been severely negatively impacted and their functionality compromised; there is a short time window in which to respond with the critical needs products, which must be
  delivered in order to prevent loss of life and human suffering, and there may be great uncertainty due to the disruptions, among other complications.

  Take this course to learn about, and become part of the relief solutions for your fellow humans.

  ** https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/figures-at-a-glance.html (downloaded April 14, 2023)

  This seminar will satisfy the Human Communities/Social Science component of the SUNY Plattsburgh Cardinal Core/General Education program.

• HON 153HA — Deep Form, Art & Nature 
  • Dr. Mark Beatham
  • MW 3:30 – 4:45 p.m.
  • 3 credits

  “It is through geometry that one purifies the eye of the soul” – Plato

  This course attends to fundamental forms (patterns and relationships) in nature and art (painting, sculpture, music, architecture, design, and other human and non-human structures). From ancient earthen structures, Greek forms in politics, art, and rhetoric, da Vinci’s deep studies, Bach’s Baroque architecture, Impressionism, Romanticism, Art Nouveau, and modern and postmodern reconsiderations in Cubism, Absurdism, Mark Tansey, Andy Goldsworthy, the Blues and Tango, we’ll reach across time to consider space and how humans and others have organized themselves around nature’s fundamental patterns, real or imagined. While this is a seminar, our classroom will extend to the campus, community, and Rugar Woods, as Aristotle would have done, and we will go wherever the music leads us. This is a hands-on, ears-on, eyes-on class, as you too will work with forms and patterns of your own. While mostly Western in its orientation, the course will also loop in Eastern, Middle Eastern, and Latin American attentions to deep forms.

  This seminar will satisfy the Individual Expression/Arts component of the SUNY Plattsburgh Cardinal Core/General Education program.

• HON 184HA — Canadian Theatre
  • Dr. Shawna Mefferd Kelty
  • TR 11 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
  • 3 Credits

  In this course, students will examine Canadian and First Nations theatre, exploring historical and current theatrical developments. Using representative plays, essays, and productions, this theme-based course encourages students to explore and interrogate the perspectives, lived experiences, identities, and intersectionalities that shape Canadian practices and disrupt a monolithic “Canadian” theatre identity. A field trip to attend a Canadian theatrical production in Montreal may be possible.

  Questions we will interrogate: How can the stage and its practices disrupt/decenter settler colonialism? What does it mean to “perform” being Canadian? How does the stage help to evolve a definition of Canada and being Canadian? Should it? How can identity be created, sustained, dismantled through theatre and theatre practices?

  The course grades will be based on class discussions, essays, presentations, and creative projects.

  This seminar will satisfy the World Cultures/Western Civilization component of the SUNY Plattsburgh Cardinal Core/General Education program.

• HON 317HA — Contemporary Latinx Literature
  • Dr. Jose Torres-Padilla
  • TR 2 – 3:15 p.m.
  • 3 Credits

  Historically, Latinx fiction authors have primarily worked from the realist tradition. Realism has allowed them to depict the lived experience of their communities with veracity. For a literary corpus that has often functioned as an oppositional narrative to the Anglocentric mainstream one, realism has been a necessary rhetorical tool for these writers. Through storytelling grounded in cultural authenticity and history, their novels and short stories shed light on the lived presence of millions of Americans. They also revealed the oppression and marginalization experienced by the Latinx groups represented in their work. Consequently, this body of realist writing raised awareness of group members, which led to their cultural awakening and identity affirmation. These narratives also increased the awareness of Americans outside of the groups. Not surprisingly, realist Latinx fiction aligned with the rise of political activism and social reform.

  Contemporary Latinx writers are increasingly incorporating genres outside of literary realism. In a more postmodern vein, they write narratives that blend several of the more popular and commercial genres: science fiction, fantasy, horror, Gothic, historical fiction and mystery. In so doing, they have set up an intriguing array of conflicts and issues that counters the work of their predecessors. This course will focus on those conflicts and issues. In our inquiry into those conflicts and issues, we will address the following questions as we read their work:

  • Does the demand for cultural and ethnic authenticity in their work come into conflict with the mainstream (i.e., Anglocentric and ‘white’) demands and expectations of the genres? How do contemporary Latinx writers manage to navigate these two demands? In trying to reach a wider audience through these more ‘universal’ genres, how do they transcend the representations of their particular groups to be “universal”?
  • How do they remain faithful to the sense of authenticity and still maintain a wide range of readers, some of whom want to read about issues and topics related to the ethnic group? What does ethnic authenticity mean in this context?
  • In writing these genres, do Latinx authors risk becoming assimilated into the mainstream, Anglocentric discourse? Does their work cease to be a potential force for social change? Or are they forming a different path, one delineating a fresh conception of ‘American’ that also continues to resist the political and social status quo?

  In confronting these questions, students will better understand the challenges facing Latinx writers, and generally all BIPOC writers. These are challenges that reflect, not only the writers’ personal struggles navigating and bridging two or more cultures, but that of others within their represented communities. On a larger scale, the course raises the question: What does it mean to live in a diverse, multi-national, democratic society when you are the “other?” That question leads to others: What does it mean to be a writer from a marginalized group? What is the responsibility of such writers and the literary corpus of their group? In turn, what is the responsibility of a non-Latinx reader reading this material?

  Through written work, students will consider what they have learned from reading and analyzing the material and discussing related issues. Additionally, students will be expected to occasionally lead class discussions. They will reflect on how understanding the questions addressed during the semester can make them better citizens of our multi-national, pluralistic society. In a final project, they will write on how they can apply that knowledge within their civil and professional worlds.

  This seminar will satisfy the Individual Expression/Humanities component of the SUNY Plattsburgh Cardinal Core/General Education program.

• HON 371HA — Archeoastronomy: The Study of Ancient Skies, Eclipses, Astronomy & Ritual
  • Dr. Justin Lowry
  • MW 2 – 3:15 p.m.
  • 3 Credits

  This course will take a look at the culture of astronomical observation, religious practices and worldviews surrounding humans’ impression of the skies. From the ancient Maya hieroglyphic texts to Babylonian tablets; from Aboriginal Australian paintings to Puebloan Indian drawings; from pyramids to henges, we will look at the myriad of ways humans have understood the skies and the impact it has had on our existence. We will be discussing the ancient people from the earliest humans all the way up until the historic periods. This class will be organized by regions and by astronomical anomaly: North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Oceania; the Moon, Venus, Mars, and the Sun. The fundamental goal of which is to understand scientific principles of astronomy and how they can be applied to the astronomically focused cultures, across 50 thousand years and 40,000 km of humanity. As an Honors Program seminar, students will be expected to work through primary research on calendars and astronomical observations, classes will be held in seminar format, where we will discuss the different systems and evidence in the archaeological record. 

  Students will be part of the presentations each week as presenters or key discussants. There will be a final paper where the student can discuss the details of a particular astronomical system.

  This seminar will satisfy the Natural World/Natural Sciences & Technology component of the SUNY Plattsburgh Cardinal Core/General Education program.

• HON 399HA — Peer Mentoring
  • Dr. Tracie Church Guzzio
  • Weekly meeting times variable and TBA
  • 3 Credits
  • By permission of the directory only, must be at least sophomore status and in good standing in the Honors Program

  Students will read and respond to several essential studies on peer mentoring for first-year students. They will discuss the readings and findings with the instructor (who is also the Honors Program director). Students MUST be available to attend training sessions in the first week of classes with other peer mentors. And students MUST be able to meet regularly with their assigned first-year students. Additionally, students will be meeting weekly with the director and other mentors. 

  The intent of the independent study is to guide the student through their work with first-year students in the Honors Program. Analyzing the best practices and scholarship, as well investigating other Honors Program peer mentoring programs, will enable the student to most effectively facilitate the transition of the first-year students into the community and contribute to their success. Mentors’ experiences with first year students and their examination of the scholarship in the area will help develop and improve peer mentoring in the Honors Program. Students will regularly write reflection pieces on their experiences and what they have learned to aid their own growth as a mentor and in the assessment of the peer mentoring program.

  Students will be graded on their reflective writing and a final project, as well as attendance at mentor meetings and individual meetings with their assigned first-year students.