Elective Pathway Topics Courses | Residential College in the Arts and Humanities

The elective pathways enable students to pursue their own particular interests within the scope of the RCAH major, connect to and complement courses and programs available outside the RCAH, and prepare graduates of the RCAH for professional, academic, and other career opportunities.

While there is one major in the RCAH, there are a variety of paths through the major. Each pathway begins with a Topics course, and the four Topics courses described below are examples of how this journey can begin. Just as different Topics courses are possible; the content of the Topics courses will vary depending upon the interests of instructors and the resources available at the time in the RCAH. They are designed for maximum flexibility. For example, if a particular guest artist or writer is in residence at the time, a Topics course may place more emphasis on one set of questions or topics than others. Or, if students are engaged in a particular performance project or civic engagement project, the topic may also vary.

It is through their elective path of study that RCAH students achieve fluency, not just proficiency in their field. It is also how faculty inside and outside the RCAH collaborate through team teaching, faculty exchanges, and other innovative instructional models and pedagogical techniques.

310 Topics in Childhood and Society

What is childhood? How long does it last? What mix of dependency and autonomy should it involve? What privileges and immunities should it entail? What risks and dangers run through it? What does it mean to 'lose' it?

Dostoevsky famously said of prisons that "The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons." We no longer speak with confidence, of course, about 'civilization' and its progress by degree, as if it was a single entity capable of moving in a single direction. However, duly qualified, we might say the same thing about children and the space they inhabit. By entering the worlds which our children inhabit, whether it is contemporary India through the lens of a modern filmmaker or 19th century London through the eyes of a novelist, we learn as much about our own claims to humanity as we do about the lives of our children.

As we judge the development of societies through the lens of 'childhood', the ethical challenges we face as adults take on new meanings. 'Childhood' is not merely a patch of time or a stage of psycho-social development; it is a series of social practices that shapes the future of society as a whole. It can be a period of moral awakening in which young people learn the norms and values of their culture, a time of discovery as they explore their own linguistic and other physical powers as well as the limits the natural world places on them. They learn to love and cherish a world they will soon inherit. On the darker side, the experiences of children abducted to fight in civil wars or coerced into marriage do not end if and when they reach adulthood. They continue to affect their families and others throughout society. 'Childhood' in this sense is an indicator of what's been done and what lies ahead, not just for children, but for all of those who participate in this social practice. RCAH students who wish to view our transcultural heritage and the ethical dilemmas it poses for us through the lens of childhood and society will take Topics in Childhood and Society taught by an RCAH faculty member joined by guest participants from other departments and programs. The topics covered include reading and writing, schooling, health and nutrition, safety and security, and play. In addition to this Topics course, students who have chosen this path will take 5 upper-level courses in other departments and programs.

Consequently, students pursuing this path may also receive a degree in programs such as Sociology, Psychology, Family Child Ecology or Pre-law; or a specialization such as Bioethics, Humanities, and Society.

320 Topics in Art and Public Life

What is public life? How does it differ from political life or public service? Who is entitled to participate in it, and why? Is there a particular language or vernacular that ought to be used in public life?

In the RCAH we are concerned with public life in the broadest sense, that is, the life of the political communities whose cultural identities have emerged, coalesced, and come apart. Public life is a struggle for political recognition that includes what goes on within official political institutions like legislatures, courts, and political parties. But even more importantly for our purposes, it includes what goes on in civil society: the neighborhood associations, clubs, and support groups; the many associations that have formed through the Internet; and many more groups who are all, at one time or another concerned, with how the public good is defined and who can have a say in this process.

The roles of art in this process of public life are as different as the forms of art themselves, and even more ephemeral. Monuments to great political leaders and memorials to fallen soldiers are objects of veneration that can quickly become targets of revenge as political tides turn. In other words, the role of a particular work of art in public life is not always what it was intended to be. It may grow in importance beyond the cultural boundaries in which it was conceived, and it may acquire an entirely different political meaning than it originally had. But, art is more than simply the object of competing interpretations of public goods and purposes. It can just as easily be the active agent itself. Greek tragedy's role in the political education of democratic Athens has been a rich source of inspiration for subsequent societies. The films of William Kentridge (Ubu and the Truth Com-mission) and Claude Lanzmann (Shoah) provoke and prompt as much as they report and remind. Music can inspire protest, reinforce loyalty, or rally the troops. Art in this active sense can also create public space, not just public sentiments. It can make it possible for citizens to gather, but it can also exclude others from participation in public life. For example, the history of suburban architecture, as Dolores Hayden has shown in Redesigning the American Dream, is the story of a better life for some and the loss of opportunities for others. The creation of suburban shopping malls—single-minded public spaces—has narrowed public discourse and become a foil for critical cinematic representations.

An important part of the RCAH major is to learn how to see, hear, read, and feel our cultural environment. Students study the transcultural histories of our world through the objects that link societies together such as gold, cotton, silk, and even salt and ice. These are as much objects of art as they are economic commodities. Deciphering the peculiar impact of art on public life requires that we think of the familiar in unfamiliar terms, for example, suburban housing, handmade quilts, comics, and other crafts are laden with cultural significance for public life. Similarly, we must learn to re-think the cultural significance of the more traditional and iconic artistic productions, for example, sculptures, symphonies, and portraiture. We must learn to read these famous objects historically, not just as exquisite works of creative genius, whose significance sometimes changes dramatically.

Students choosing this pathway may decide to pursue dual majors in Art History or Urban and Regional Planning, and my be interested in a museum studies specialization or a minor in music or theater. They will have opportunities within the RCAH to explore art and public life through special studio and performance co-curricular activities.

330 Topics in Nature and Culture

What is natural, and what is not? Does labeling something natural necessarily mean it is a good thing, or are there cases where nature should be resisted, reshaped, or even re-made? Are all human cultures natural, no matter how different? Is human nature ever a matter of cultural influence?

This pathway considers the complex ways in which culture and the natural world shape each other, and the ways in which the understanding and treatment of environmental issues might be enhanced through a richer understanding of that relationship. Three main premises provide direction: 1) the natural world shapes cultures and the ways that cultures interact, 2) culture influences both the natural world itself and how we understand it, and 3) environmental issues are global issues at both a theoretical and practical level.

How has nature shaped cultures and cultural interactions? In Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond argues that environmental factors created both obstacles to and opportunities for cultures and that the dominance of one culture over another is often a product of their different interactions with their natural environments. For example, to what extent are food supplies determinative of a culture's development? To what extent do cultures interact through their manipulation of nature?

While it is certainly true that the natural world shapes cultures and cultural interactions, it is equally true that cultures shape both the natural world and understandings of it. William Cronon's Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England reminds us that places are made as much as they are discovered. Cultural understandings of nature are reflected in religions and creation stories, art (including visual art, fiction, music, and nature writings), and science. Students who select this pathway explore the interchanges between cultures over the meaning of nature, the reality of the supernatural as well as how people should relate to their immediate natural surroundings (for example, social practices as diverse as animal welfare movements, community-based agriculture, and alternative energy).

While it is obvious that many environmental issues are global issues—for instance, the impact of global warming knows no national boundaries—closer attention to the relationship between culture and nature reveals a much deeper sense in which this is true. Environmental problems are global problems not only because they affect people around the world, but also because they are understood and addressed by people with different cultural understandings of nature as well as different political and economic agendas. Thus, the ability to navigate cultural differences in regard to the environment is an important element in addressing global environmental problems, food security, and sacred sites.

As students begin to think about how to apply what they are learning to real-world situations, many will find that the already burgeoning field of environmental studies serves as an interesting arena for them to pursue the questions raised by their work along this RCAH pathway. Reading and understanding environmental material from a synoptic historical, cultural, and ethical perspective will open up new areas of inquiry and give outreach and engagement activities with government agencies, private foundations, and non-profit organizations more depth.

340 Topics in Technology and Creativity

What is technology—art or science, trial and error, creation or discovery? What are the responsibilities that come with technological innovation? What are the rights that are necessary, if technology is to lead to human flourishing? How are genuinely new technologies created?

As the ancient story of Prometheus teaches us, the human ability to use nature for our own ends is the knowledge of art, a creative knowledge of craft and technique, a knowledge that comes with much danger and much possibility.

Technology is itself a product of chance, trial and error, and human knowing. For Aristotle, techne was a productive knowledge, an art concerned with bringing into being, an art that places an ethical and moral responsibility upon the maker. While techne and technology are not synonymous, tracing their relationship through history and across cultures can help us understand how humans are related to the things they make (arts/artifacts) and the systems they use to make those things (technologies). It is that search for knowledge, art, and use that drives all techno-logical production—from the creation and use of wampumpeag among the Haudenosaunee Peoples of North America, to the creations of Thomas Edison, Frank Lloyd Wright, Buckminster Fuller, and Linus Pauling, to more recent innovations such as the development of the Internet.

Specific topics include the histories of technology in writing, literature, music, art, theatre; ethical issues of responsibility for the intended and unintended consequences of new technologies upon culture as well as the natural environment; and the relationship between technology as a way of producing knowledge and other artistic and craft forms of knowledge production.

In addition to this Topics course, students who have chosen this path will have the opportunity to test their ideas in a variety of practical ways, and generate new hypotheses through experimental practice. Some students may wish to pursue a dual major or specialization in Environmental Studies, Professional Writing, Museum Studies, Art and Art History, Music, Theatre, English, or Media Arts and Technology.

Through these four elective pathways and others like them students will deepen their work within the RCAH at the same time that they bring the skills, sensibilities, and knowledge they acquire in the RCAH to classes in other departments and programs. It is through these elective pathways that RCAH students and faculty benefit from and enrich the many other departments and programs at MSU that are committed to the arts and humanities.