The Creative Brain

Instructor(s)

TBA

Course Description

Coming soon.

Instructor

Bryce Berkowitz

Course Description

In this course, the focus will be a lack of focus. Instead of one marathon topic, we’ll cover a smattering: from image-based poetry to indie movies; voice-driven fiction to edgy memoirs; redefining work culture to social justice movements; the perils of social media to inspirational Ted Talks; and…what else? A random journey toward collective growth and awareness by asking big questions about some of life’s many topics.

This course is offered as an Honors First-Year Seminar course.

Instructor

Melissa Etzler

Course Description

Inspired by the ambiguity of “breaking bad,” this course explores intersections of crime and madness. We will examine texts featuring issues of guilt, justice, abnormality, and deviance to uncover particular and universal social commentaries on moral values and community constructs. Focusing primarily on written and visual texts from the 18th century to the present, multidisciplinary fields will inform our interpretations.

This course is offered as an Honors First-Year Seminar course.

Instructor(s)

TBA

Course Description

Coming soon.

Instructor

Robert Norris

Course Description

This course will examine the power of communication. Down through human history, communication has been used by some to exercise power over others. The evolution of speech, the advent of writing, the invention of printing, the ability to broadcast, the ability to post information on the internet—all these represent more than the exchange of information and messages; they have all been used as tools of influence which some seek to appropriate, and others seek to outwit.

Instructor

Jeana Jorgensen

Course Description

Often trivialized as “just for kids,” fairy tales have a centuries-long global history as wonder tales told by and for adults striving to articulate the complexities of power relations within social life: identity, gender roles, sexuality, and more. In this class, we will engage with fairy tales from oral and literary traditions, as well as retold fairy tales in the forms of short stories, novels, and films. Our goals are to learn about the messages fairy tales convey about self and society, as well as understand how narrative structure and story appeal apply to both scholarly writing and real life. In other words, we’ll study why the fairy tale is a classic template for coming-of-age experiences as well as more sophisticated political commentaries. Disney will provide only the briefest starting point on this journey.

Instructor

Ashley Mack-Jackson

Course Description

Are you a dancer, musician, visual or multimedia artist, performer, writer, creative of any kind, or an enthusiastic lover of the arts? Explore Butler University and Indianapolis’s diverse arts scene, engage in enriching discussions with local creatives, and join with Indianapolis-based arts organizations and artists to create your own artistic projects in “From the HeARTland.” Throughout this course you will investigate your own artistic identity as it relates to your community of origin and the Butler University and Indianapolis communities, consider how art impacts and is impacted by artists’ identities and the community’s culture, reflect on the role that the arts play in creating more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and just communities, and share with and learn from your peers as you all enter together into the vibrant Butler University and Indianapolis arts communities.

This course fulfills an Indianapolis Community Requirement (ICR) credit.

Instructor

Janis Crawford

Course Description

“Speech is civilization itself.  The word, even the most contradictory word, preserves contact—it is silence which isolates.” -Thomas Mann

Speech can be a very powerful medium of persuasion and communication. Just like producing a written paper, a speech must be concise, present a compelling argument, and use the proper tone, and format to have a lasting effect on its audience. We will examine the orations of such great American speakers as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., President Ronald Reagan, Hilary Clinton, and Barbara Bush. This course will focus on the speech as a template for how to develop effective writing skills. In the course of reading and discussing the works of American orators, students will cultivate the skills necessary for critical thinking, oral communication, and effective writing. Class will involve discussion, student presentations, and writing assignments.

Instructor

Robert Stapleton

Course Description

This class drops the needle on popular music as a significant and vibrant body of literature. We will employ the tools of literary analysis and critical thinking to examine the complex ways that 20th century music reflects cultural and artistic movements. We will consider aesthetic and neurological principles of sound, theoretical framings of lyrics, and the role of storytelling in the lyrical canon. We will engage in intellectual inquiry, debate, and scholarly writing in our investigations of how songs can embody the central tenets of literature and have expanded our cultural canon and informed our collective identity.

Instructor

Tonya Bergeson

Course Description

Is music the universal language? Is music independent of language? This class will examine the relationship between music and language from the perspective of philosophy, psychology, communication science, and neuroscience. We will explore the relevant data and theories from various perspectives such as linguistics and music cognition, and we will investigate music and language across the lifespan and in different populations, such as aphasia and amusia.

Instructor

Jessica Reed

Course Description

TBA

Instructor(s)

TBA

Course Description

Coming soon.

Instructor

Jesse Van Gerven

Course Description

This FYS will explore the stories that people tell each other about food.  Stories and narratives are extraordinarily powerful tools that people develop, use, and share for making sense of the world and making their way through it. Stories give structure and meaning to our lives.  Stories shape our perceptions of food and what food means to us.  We swim through a sea of stories about which foods are good to eat, and which foods are bad to eat; what foods are healthy, and what foods are unhealthy; stories about where food comes from, how it is prepared, and by whom; as well as stories about the nature of human societies and our relationships with other species and the environment.

In this course we will begin an exploration of these stories, their deeper meanings, and the  connections between them across different places, different times, and different social locations.  We will explore a wide variety of “texts” including children’s stories and nursery rhymes, short stories, novels, films, recipes and cookbooks, investigative journalism, TikTok and other videos, as well as academic articles and books.  This will include exploring various elements of different “food cultures” from around the world and from different periods of time.  Later, we will focus more specifically on stories about good and bad food, including the scientific stories of nutrition and food science.  This will lead us to yet other stories about food politics and how decisions about food are made and by whom, which leads to yet more stories about food companies and their roles in the food system.  Throughout the course you will have many opportunities to critically engage with these materials, issues, and ideas.  We will do some hands-on, experiential learning at Butler’s campus farm, you will have an opportunity to do some creative work writing a children’s story, nursery rhyme, or poem, as well as other individual and group projects and assignments.

Instructor

Andrew Levy

Course Description

Fantasy literature is not just a ‘pop genre:’ it provides many opportunities for both readers and writers to look at the most tumultuous upheavals of world history with fresh lenses and a sense of possibility. This semester’s course provides a balanced chronological overview of the genre of fantasy, reaching back centuries, and with special emphasis on how recent authors (from the US but also worldwide) deploy the central tropes of the genre: from worldbuilding components like ‘portals,’ to the influence of myth and fairy tale and classic tropes like ‘dragons,’ to settings both historical and modern urban. The students in this course will both read and create in the genre, study examples from multiple media (novels, films, videogame) and explore how to better navigate their experience of fantasy in both public culture and as an instrument of personal empowerment and expression.

Instructor

Tom Paradis

Course Description

Along with its roles in contemporary pop culture, Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games can be interpreted through numerous disciplinary perspectives. This FYS invites you to “unpack” numerous layers of meaning embedded within Collins’ original dystopian series (fall semester) and her recent prequels (spring semester). Students with any level of (in)experience are welcome, though some level of passion for exploring this world is a must. We will first examine this allegorical saga as a cultural and literary phenomenon before moving into connections with our own world. We will take our own academic tour of sorts, sampling a variety of perspectives including psychology, history, philosophy, English, gender studies, political science, communication, music history (the Covey!), and health science, among others. You will have the opportunity to explore any of these disciplinary connections within your own creative projects. This will all wrap around your professor’s focus on the human and urban geography of Panem, and especially the central Appalachian home of an unlikely heroine, Katniss Everdeen.