Moodle at Eckerd College 2024-25 Academic Year

Planet on a Plate: Soul Food, Spring Rolls and Sofrito: Did you know that watermelon is native to Africa, its seeds brought to America woven into the hair of West African women? Or that the fortune cookie was invented in San Francisco by a Japanese immigrant to attract tourists to his tea house? And that tacos were transportable sustenance for Mexican silver miners? Join us as we bite into the origins and influences of Southern/Soul; Latin American and Asian food, and contemplate the question, “Is there a true American cuisine?” This course will broaden your understanding about how migration, immigration and slavery have and continue to influence what we eat. Our study will be fed by contemporary essays, podcasts, film and TV travel/food programs plus texts Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America and The Cuban Sandwich: A History in Layers. You will write daily reflective pieces throughout the course and the culminating research presentation is on the origins and influence of a single recipe. Yes, there will be food, plus the writing of messages to stuff into homemade fortune cookies.

Take Up Space: Reclaim Sound & Space : What does it mean to “take up space”? This course will explore women across multiple creative sectors of the music industry including performing artists, musicians, songwriters, and composers. Students will critically analyze music movements ranging from the mainstream and countercultures and the artists, amplifying the voices of women who have and continue to change music. This course includes a trip to explore a local music venue where women “take up space”.

Understanding Oppenheimer: You may be familiar with the movie Oppenheimer and, thus, J. Robert Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer is known as the "father of the atomic bomb," and so he found himself at the intersection of scientific discovery and responsible decision-making. If you liked the movie and want to learn more, this course is for you. The course includes an in-depth exploration of Oppenheimer's life, including his political beliefs, struggles with loyalty, the ethical implications of scientific advancements, and a bit of the science (no previous knowledge of nuclear science is necessary, though). The primary focus will be the Manhattan Project and the moral dilemmas faced by the scientists involved. This course will ask you to examine how scientific discoveries can be used for the betterment of humankind. . While we engage with course material through discussions, readings and writing, we will also use case studies, take a virtual tour and use simulation exercises in our work together in class. The cautionary tale of Oppenheimer's life and work underscores the responsibility that comes with scientific discovery. Would you like to join us in this exploration?

In God We Trust?: American Religious Nationalisms: Is the United States a Christian nation, or do we have a totally secular government? What is “white Christian nationalism”? What about Black nationalists and their religious ideas? And how have people, including religious people, protested and resisted religious nationalisms?

Since the beginning of the United States, many Christians have believed that there is something special about this nation and its relationship to God. At the same time, religious freedom is foundational to American politics. What is the relationship between these two facts? If the US was a predominantly Christian nation, why did it never formally establish a state-sponsored religion? How did Christian ideas influence a supposedly non-religious (secular) government? And in what ways are these thorny questions still very relevant?

We will approach these questions (and more!) by studying various forms of religious nationalism. Throughout American history, numerous groups have made claims about the essential religious character of the nation. Through these arguments, they claim moral authority, situate themselves in world-historical religious narratives, make ethnonationalist arguments, and more. By studying these nationalist ideas and movements, we will address fundamental issues in political theory and history.

The Power of Nonviolence 2.0: In her 1970 essay “On Violence,” Hannah Arendt stated, “Violence can destroy power, but it is utterly incapable of creating it.” What could she possibly have meant? How could this statement be relevant to those experiencing ghastly violence in war or struggling against oppressive systems of structural violence in the US and abroad? This course introduces students to the philosophy and strategies of civil (nonviolent) resistance during conflicts and methods of transitional justice after violent conflicts end. Topics include case studies on the effectiveness of civil resistance strategies; resistance art and literature; racial/ethnic civil rights, empowerment, and justice struggles; gender, peace, and security concerns in war; climate change, conflict, and environmental justice; inclusive post-conflict peacebuilding and reconciliation efforts; and transformative justice after conflict. Evaluation based on one exam, two synthetic essays on readings and films, a formal oral presentation on a group-linked case study, participation in-class discussions and debates, and attendance.

First Encounters: Spanish Exploration of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico: Ever imagined a world of dog-faced cannibals and headless beings with mouths in their chests? Probably not, but sixteenth-century Spaniards who explored Florida and other lands fronting the Gulf of Mexico did. Few events in world history have been as momentous as when Europeans first encountered native peoples in the Americas some five centuries ago. In this course, we’ll examine the impressions that Spaniards and indigenous Americans formed of one another in the wake of these contacts. We’ll probe materials from the Age of Exploration—letters, chronicles, and artwork—to understand the cultural and political dimensions of the drive for empire. We’ll examine the spirited tales of explorers, often more fantasy than fact, that engaged the popular imagination in Europe. And we’ll consider how Aztec artists and scribes perceived the invaders. The extraordinary descriptions of hitherto unknown people and places remind us that we often see what we want to see in those who are different from us.

Fist Bumps, Hugs, or Shrugs: To friend or not to friend? To swipe right or swipe left? To stay fierce, to slay, to dab? This course will look at initial interactions and subsequent perceptions based on the nonverbal behaviors observed. Students will not only examine their own familial nonverbal patterns, but also their culture and societal impacts such as COVID 19 and social media, and how those have played a role in their communication patterns, assumptions, and behaviors. Students will become aware of the subconscious and conscious choices they use when encountering new potential friends, lovers, and even, haters and learn to translate nonverbal communication as they navigate their lives as Eckerd College students.

Constructions of Nature: considers the varied ways that nature is socially constructed in the history of ideas and in contemporary film. By subverting the notion that the natural world is only represented in books and movies that seek to spread environmental awareness or activism, we consider how four prevalent models of nature are represented in various genres of literature and film. These four models include seeing nature as Frontier (wild and needs cultivating), Sublime (spiritual), Mechanistic (a machine to be manipulated), and Feminist (akin to aspects of the feminine and consequently oppressed). We explore how it is that these models deeply influence what we believe to be our role in nature and our responsibilities to it.

Pop Culture and Philosophy: Philosophy is everywhere, whether we see it or not. It percolates through culture, appearing in the most unexpected places, whether in superhero films, video games or the lyrics to your favorite songs. Pop culture often talks back to philosophy, invigorating it with fresh examples, puzzles and challenges to centuries-old traditions. In this course, we will examples of philosophy taking center stage in pop culture, inviting us all to participate, think and wonder. Examples include WandaVision and the Ship of Theseus, The Matrix and Plato’s Cave, Blade Runner and the Other Minds Problem, the Social Contract in the world of the Walking Dead, as well as other philosophical questions culled from Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, South Park, Doctor Who, Batman, The Good Place, Tolkien, Dungeons & Dragons, and Harry Potter, among many others.