GALA: Global Adventures in the Liberal Arts
GALA 2009
The newly created Global Adventures in the Liberal Arts program
offers study abroad experiences in more than one locale during the
same semester. Fifteen to twenty students will study course
material related to each locale and will be taught by a variety of
Butler professors, one of whom stays with the group for the entire
semester and two or three of whom travel to specific locations for
one to three weeks to teach courses related to the locale. All of
the courses will take advantage of the locations and include visits
to relevant sites. The program could potentially include
GALA-Europe, GALA-Asia, GALA-Latin America, or any other location
in the world. In the spring of 2008 the first of the GALA programs
will be mounted with a European slant. Students will study in
Paris, London, Scotland and England's Lake District with a resident
faculty member from biology who studies genetics. Courses will also
be given by a professor who specializes in anthropology, one who
specializes in French history, and one who is a poet.
Paris: The City as Text, CC211 - Texts
& Idea
Seeing the World, Seeing the Self in Art &
Nature, CC212 - Perspectives in the Creative Arts
Sport, Empire and Identity, CC213 - Social
World
Genetics and Evolution, BI103 - Natural
World
CC 211 - Paris: The City as
Text
Paris ranks high among the literary, artistic and cultural
capitals of the world. Some would call it the most beautiful
city in the world; nearly everyone considers it the culinary
capital of the world. In this course, which will fulfill the
Texts and Ideas requirement in the new core curriculum, we
will read about Paris in historical and literary
texts (drawn from the 18 th to 20 th centuries), and we will
read Paris itself as a text by walking the
streets, exploring how the city has changed shape over the course
of the past 200 years. We will ascend to the heights of the
city, on Montmartre and the Eiffel Tower (and more modestly to the
top of the Samaritaine department store, the best free view of
Paris), and descend to its depths as well, in the Catacombs and the
sewers (made famous by Jean Valjean). We will explore its
churches, its markets, its shops and patisseries; we will
visit some of its many museums and wander through the cemetery of
Père Lachaise; we will tour the Pantheon, the national shrine to
France's most honored citizens; the Invalides, where Napoleon's
remains lie in state; and the Conciergerie, where Marie Antoinette
was imprisoned. At the end of two weeks you will feel that
you have begun to know Paris, although only just begun; and as soon
as you leave you will know that you have to go back.
CC 212 - Seeing the World,
Seeing the Self in Art and Nature
This course, which satisfies the Perspectives in the Creative
Arts requirement, will encourage you to see the world through the
eyes of an artist by focusing on the natural world. England's
renowned Lake District, a dense cluster of mountains, lakes, and
picturesque towns that has inspired numerous artists and poets,
will serve as our base of operation. Part of our days will be spent
discussing aesthetic concepts such as the sublime, the beautiful,
and the picturesque alongside poetry, personal essays, paintings,
and photographs that represent nature. Most of our time,
though, will be spent outdoors exploring the regions many natural
wonders. We might hike along the exposed spine of the Cat
Bells or up the more gentle slopes of Silver Howe, visit Rydal
Falls, stroll through Grasmere, take a cruise of Lake Windermere,
spend afternoons at Brantwood, the home of John Ruskin, or Dove
Cottage, where William Wordsworth spent much of his life.
These excursions will provide the raw material which we will then
use to create our own works of art. No prior artistic
experience is necessary, simply a willingness to explore and a
sturdy pair of boots!
CC 213 - Sport, Empire and
Identity
Have you ever wondered why soccer is the most popular sport in
the world? Or, about the origins of "American pastimes" such as
baseball and footall and why these sports have become multibillion
dollar industries in our country? At a minimum, many of you have
probably wondered why you have been required to take PE all the way
from your earliest grade school years to your time as a college
student at Butler! These questions can be answered in large part by
looking at the history of sport and physical culture in Great
Britain. IN this course, we will delve into these questions and
explore more contemporary topics related to the cultural and social
importance of sport through an examination of both the history and
present-day status of sport in England and Scotland. In the
process, you will come to better understand that role of sport in
shaping British citizens (past and present) and colonial and
post-colonial subjects of the British Empire. Class activities,
including visits to some of sport's most hallowed grounds in
London, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and ethnographic observation and
interview activities with fans, will help students to better
understand the linkages between sport and political importance of
sport for people in England, Scotland--and even back home in
Indianapolis! Whether you love or hate sports, this course will
increase your understanding of its cultural effects and its
manipulations by political, capitalistic and governmental
actors.
BI103 - Genetics and
Evolution
This course focuses on three milestones in Biology: Mendel's
laws of genetics, Watson and Crick's structure of DNA, and Darwin's
theory of evolution by natural selection. Imagine visiting the
places where these discoveries were made. Mendel did his
experiments with peas in a monastery in Brno, now part of the Czech
Republic. Watson and Crick built their model of DNA in the
Cavendish Lab at Cambridge University in England. Darwin wrote the
Origin of Species at his house in the village of Downe, just
outside London. We will visit these sites and others associated
with these men and their discoveries, and we will read their words
and others about their work and times. The goal is to create a
fuller understanding of scientific discovery by experiencing the
culture and location where important discoveries were made.