First-Year Courses

Interpretive Practices Courses

INTP 150 THE ARCTIC: LANDSCAPE, IMAGINATION AND POWER (4 credits)
The Arctic, for human beings, is one of the most extreme environments on earth, but also a place of wonder and fascination. This course explores ways humans have represented and imagined the landscape and the relationship between these imaginations of the Arctic and various forms of social, cultural and political power. Students compare the perspectives of modern European and American explorers, trappers, policy makers, ecologists and writers with those of various Inuit cultures, by reading a series of books about the Arctic such as Barry Lopez's Arctic Dreams, the writings of Jack London, Inuit myths and stories, Jean Brigg's anthropological study Never in Anger, and Kenn Harper's account of an Eskimo boy brought back by explorers to New York City, Give Me My Father's Body.

INTP 150 ASIAN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES (4 credits)
From "yellow peril" to "model minority," Asian Americans have been racialized and stereotyped by the dominant culture throughout U.S. history. Through a selection of literary texts, critical essays, historical material and films, this interdisciplinary course explores the ways in which Asian Americans have represented themselves over the course of the 20th century. Examines such issues as: the formation of Asian America as a political and literary field, the heterogeneity within this imagined pan-ethnic community, disparate trajectories of migration and settlement within Asian America, the history of yellowface in Hollywood and images of Asian Americans in the media, continuing racism and violence against the communities, transnational adoption, formation of Asian American youth subcultures, and the changing face and space of Asian America since 1965.

INTP 150 BEHIND THE VEIL (5 credits)
This seminar looks at issues that have concerned and defined the field of African American Studies in recent years. Of particular note are the topics of: globalism and the new constructions of race; the origins and persistence of urban poverty; the shifting dynamics of gender and class in the black community; the dilemma of urban education and the commercialization and appropriation of black culture. Includes a one-credit weekly lab designed to assist with the course's reading and writing assignments.

INTP 150 CINEMA AND ADAPTATION (4 credits)
A study of how cinema adapts other textual forms: epic fantasy (J. R. R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring), dystopia (Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale) and history (Herbert Asbury's The Gangs of New York). Students analyze each written text before devoting time to the techniques that translate words into film. En route, they engage the concept of authorship in print and cinema via short but seminal essays by influential scholars. These essays nuance our understanding of the adaptation process, while providing models for how to "read" films and books.

INTP 150 COMPARATIVE VIEWS ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF RACE IN MODERN TIMES (4 credits)
This course looks at the ways in which societies construct and reconstruct race from the 16th century through the 20th century. By way of contrast students examine the constructions of race in some ancient societies as reflected in Heliodorus' Ethiopian Romance, the Kebra Negas and Snowden's Before Color Prejudice.

INTP 150 COMPASSION AND SERVICE: THE RISE OF CARING POWER IN 19TH-CENTURY ENGLAND (4 credits)
In 19th-century Britain, social reformers began to see the well-being of "others" — especially those disadvantaged by race, gender and class — as their concern. Because the violence by which these "others" were governed was no longer regarded as an acceptable instrument of power, "care for the other" was advocated, based on the idea that these "others" were human beings with a natural or God-given right to be treated accordingly. This course focuses on the development of "compassion" and investigates reform efforts regarding prisons, prostitutes, wage slavery and race slavery. Texts are drawn from diaries, letters, histories and novels.

INTP 150 CORPORATIONS FOR ACTIVISTS (4 credits)
In this class learners improve their abilities to conduct research on corporations, analyze firms, consider avenues for change and write for different audiences about organizational issues. This IP course includes film, short stories, press accounts, publicly available official documents and corporate annual reports, and literature from social sciences on the development of corporations and the role of activists in pressing for change externally and internally. The course includes an oral presentation on a firm in which Earlham is invested.

INTP 150 THE CREATIVE PROCESS (4 credits)
What is creativity? Where does it come from? How does it work? This class, considers many perspectives while exploring and attempting to understand creativity and the creative process. Students consider the explanations offered by scientists, novelists, religious/spiritual thinkers, writers of how-to books, and artists themselves. Although the class consists mainly of analytical work, writing about and discussing these theories, students also apply these concepts to their own creative work produced during the course.

INTP 150 CRITICAL CHOICES (4 credits)
Human beings make choices. You and I chose to come to Earlham College. We choose our friends and lovers. We choose to be faithful to them — or not. We choose to obey rules and laws — or not. We choose to go to war — or not. According to Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics 3,5) in each of our choices we choose, ultimately, even our character. Includes an optional writing lab for an additional one credit.

INTP 150 CROSSROADS: MAKING CHOICES, FINDING A WAY (5 credits)
This course presents works from a wide array of genres — fiction, poetry, history, personal essays — to examine and reflect on important decisions and consequences of those decisions. Students write both formal essays and more personal meditations, responding to each of the assigned texts and in some instances drawing on their own experiences. Includes a one-credit weekly lab designed to assist with the course's reading and writing assignments.

INTP 150 EARLY MIDDLE AGES IN POPULAR CULTURE (4 credits)
Knights in shining armor, fair maidens, castles, starving peasants, fanatical priests. When we think of the middle ages, a lot of images come to us — most of them shaped by the way that the middle ages have been shown in popular culture. This class looks at how movies and novels have used and portrayed the middle ages, thinking about how the present uses and interprets the past, and the relationship between history and historical fiction. Movies viewed may include The Adventures of Robin Hood, Braveheart and Monty Python and the Holy Grail along with novels such as The Name of the Rose.

INTP 150 THE EXAMINED LIFE (4 credits)
This course explores a variety of texts from a range of historical periods, some literary, some from other disciplines, on how one shapes a meaningful life. A reading and writing intensive course; includes some personal writing as well as academic essays. Discussion accounts for a substantial portion of the course grade, and students should be prepared to make substantial contributions to the success of the course. Includes an optional writing lab for an additional one credit.

INTP 150 EXAMINING THE DOCUMENTARY (4 credits)
The adjective documentary indicates that a photograph, film or literary text is factual and informative. But documentary works generally aim to persuade and often to please or entertain which suggests that their relationship to facts is rarely simple and straightforward. This course looks at documentary photography, photo-essays, films and graphic novels and explores such questions as: How has the documentary functioned in the past, and why do people continue to create documentary images and texts? What is the relationship between the documentary work and the facts it intends to convey? How do a documentary artist's basic assumptions about politics, social issues, race or gender, shape the work's representation of the facts? How do aesthetic (artistic) and factual elements work together in the documentary image or text? What ethical obligations does the documentary artist have?

INTP 150 FAITH AND COMMITMENT (4 credits)
This course focuses on a series of texts in which authors have recorded their thoughts about faith and commitment. Some are widely regarded as classics; others are not as well known. They all have in common a human consciousness — attempting to grapple with the nature of faith, to understand the challenges of commitment and to reflect on their significance for humanity.

INTP 150 FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND ENEMIES (4 credits)
This course investigates themes of family, friends and enemies. Students examine critical readings in various forms of literature. The course seeks to articulate the grounds on which we identify family, friends and enemies.

INTP 150 GUANTANAMO AND BEYOND (4 credits)
This course explores theories of emergency powers from the Renaissance to the present. Interlaced is an examination of historical accounts of these powers in the United States and other countries.

INTP 150 HOW DO WE BEHAVE ETHICALLY TOWARD THE EARTH? (4 credits)
This course on Environmental Ethics explores ethical behavior and encourages students to develop a rational and compassionate earth ethic. Beginning with an overview of classical philosophical ethics, students examine environmental texts of authors and activists who represent different cultural perspectives and a variety of disciplines, including biology, economics, religion and feminist theory. Topics may include: How do we preserve biodiversity? What is the impact of the genetic engineering of food? What responsibilities do corporations have for the environment? What forms of activism are ethical?

INTP 150 AN INTRODUCTION TO POPULAR CULTURE (4 credits)
What happens if we take popular culture seriously? bell hooks has stated that popular culture is a form of pedagogy and so the question for this class is, "What does popular culture teach us about race, class, gender and sexuality?" While developing critical thinking and writing skills, students engage in spirited discussions about novels, films, short stories and essays. Authors studied include Roland Barthes, Jamaica Kincaid and Karl Marx.


INTP 150 LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL (4 credits)
Liberty and justice are two ideals almost universally affirmed today. Their meanings, however, are the subject of intense debate, and understandings of them have changed over time. This course grapples with these issues, using as starting points texts from literature, philosophy, history and religion, including the U.S. Declaration of Independence to Hamlet, John Stuart Mill's On Liberty and Mary Antin's The Promised Land.

INTP 150 THE LIVES OF ANIMALS (4 credits)
The significance of animals in literature and human life has long been subject to reinterpretation and debate. This course focuses on representations of animals (and our relationships with animals) in literature, as well as on sociological, psychological and ethical perspectives on the roles of animals in our lives. The course includes texts by Margaret Cavendish, J.M. Coetzee, Michael Pollan and Peter Singer.

INTP 150 LONDON: A CITY OF CLASHING CULTURES (4 credits)
This class explores different types of texts, the present and past of London, and the meanings and uses of the word culture. Readings include fiction, poetry, history and sociology. The course is intended to teach ways of interpreting texts of all sorts, focusing on reading, discussion and writing.

INTP 150 LOST IN THE WOODS (4 credits)
Why do people go into the wilderness, particularly those who do it alone? What are they looking for, and what do they find? When they write about their experiences afterward, what are they hoping to accomplish? This course explores a series of meditations on wilderness and solitary encounters with it by Henry Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, Annie Dillard, Edward Abbey, Jon Krakauer and Roderick Nash, looking for patterns and insights.

INTP 150 LOVE, FAITH AND FRIENDSHIP (4 credits)
Through reading a variety of works students examine the nature and meaning of friendship, love and religious faith. By drawing on readings, discussions and personal experiences, students explore how these relationships provide us with our greatest joys and sorrows, as well as shape and define identity and, ultimately, give meaning to life.

INTP 150 LOVE: PHILOSOPHY, FILM AND LITERATURE (4 credits)
What is love? Is it even possible to understand the concept of love? This course explores these and related questions to understand how love is represented in philosophy, literature and film. It investigates various conceptions of love to examine the Judeo-Christian understanding of love as a unifying force. Since the very conception of love involves philosophy — philosophy is defined as love (philia) of wisdom (sophia) — the initial approach to this concept is philosophical. However, the course also explores whether philosophy as a specific Western discourse can uniformly define love in the multicultural world we live in.

INTP 150 NATURE AND AMERICAN CULTURE (4 credits)
Our ideas of nature, many writers have argued, are inseparable from our culture and the way we understand our identities and social relationships. This course explores the heritage of "nature" in American culture, including the ways it has been defined by various social groups for different cultural and political purposes at different times. Interpreting a range of texts and images from literature, history, photography, painting, philosophy, anthropology/ sociology, and film, discussions cover such issues as American environmental history, the American nature writing tradition, constructions of space and place, and the environmental movement in politics and culture.

INTP 150 RADICAL WOMEN (4 credits)
This course examines American women who, individually and in groups offered radical alternatives to accepted patterns of social behavior and government from early America to the 20th century. Key questions include: How have women imagined and enacted social change in various eras? How have traditional ideas of femininity been both used and transformed (or not) by activist women? How have radical women been portrayed in works of art from painting to fiction to drama? Why has American culture valorized some radical women and vilified others? Readings include works of fiction and non-fiction (essays, letters, memoirs, biography) both by and about radical women.

INTP 150 READING WAR EXPERIENCES (4 credits)
This course examines Europeans' writings about their war experiences in the 20th century. Particular attention is given to civilians and World War II.

INTP 150 ST. PETERSBURG: FROM PUSHKIN TO PUTIN (4 credits)
Tsar Peter the Great founded the city of St. Petersburg in 1703, envisioning his new capital as Russia's "Window to the West." Built on the bones of peasant serf labor, renowned for its Imperial grandeur, Peter's city encapsulates many of the fundamental contradictions of modern Russian history. This course uses the city as a prism through which to explore the history of modern Russia and the Soviet Union. Drawing on literary works by Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Anna Akhmatova, as well as memoirs, political tracts, historical works, art and film, the course explores politics, culture and the built environment in one of Europe's most majestic and complex cities.

INTP 150 SCIENCE FICTION PERSPECTIVE (4 credits)
In addition to imagining new worlds and new technologies, science fiction can provide new perspectives on human life. This course uses works of science fiction as a source of insight into such topics as psychology, sociology, science, human rights, religion, history and politics. In discussion and papers, students share their own responses to these perspectives. Note: This course intentionally avoids sci-fi fantasy games and fantastical weapons.

INTP 150 TAKING RISKS AND STAYING SAFE (5 credits)
This class focuses on the tension between risk-taking and safety-making by reading novels, essays, plays and histories; exploring appropriate risks and identifying how to recognize safe alternatives. A variety of authors writing in a range of time periods are included. Especially designed for those who wish to step out of their comfort zone while also discovering strategies for developing confidence in reading, writing and discussing. Includes a one-credit weekly lab designed to assist with the course's reading and writing assignments.

INTP 150 THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE (4 credits)
On the theory that we seldom get a chance to study the recent past, this course focuses on events that happened during your lifetime. We will read books, listen to music, watch films and then talk about what happened and what it means. An individual research project is included. Among the topics under consideration: ethics and the Internet, school violence, immigration, gender power and identity, friendship, international youth movements and war. Includes an optional writing lab for an additional one credit.

INTP 150 WAR AND GENDER (5 credits)
This course explores the relationship between societal constructs of gender and war in literature and, to a lesser extent, in art. Our study of this theme traverses a wide range of cultures and time periods, from antiquity to the present. While considerable time is spent examining the relationship of gender as it pertains to military campaigns, war in this course is very broadly defined as the complex association of power, aggression and success. Includes a one-credit weekly lab designed to assist with the course's reading and writing assignments.

INTP 150 WAR AND HUMANITY (4 credits)
This course examines a series of texts in which authors have recorded their thoughts about war. Students try to determine what the authors have said about such questions as: What is the nature of war? Is there such a thing as human nature? If so, what is it, and what are its essential and enduring features? What are the effects of war on humanity, on human character, behavior and communities? Is the impulse to war inherent in human nature? Is there such a thing as a just war? If so, what are its criteria or conditions? Or is it the case that in wartime all questions of justice, legality and morality are suspended?

INTP 150 WOMEN, FOOD AND GLOBALIZATION (4 credits)
Food is basic to survival. It also can be symbolic of much more. What do we eat and why? Where does it come from? Who grows it and how? Who prepares it? Who makes money from it?  This class examines the intersectionality of women, food and globalization with a goal of better understanding these interconnections and raising important questions. The class looks at activists who are working to insure sufficient food at both local and global levels, who are challenging the increasing trend toward privatization and patenting of resources, and who are affirming their insight that what is best for our bodies is also best for our communities and for the earth itself.