Young Scholars Program

The Roman Empire was one of the few great world states--one that unified a large area around the Mediterranean Sea, an area never subsequently united as part of a single state. Whereas the great achievements of the Greeks were in the realm of ideas and concepts (democracy, philosophy, art, literature, drama), those of the Romans tended to be in the pragmatic spheres of ruling and controlling subject peoples and integrating them under the aegis of an imperial state. Conquest, warfare, administration, and law making were the great successes of the Roman state. We will look at this process from its inception and trace the formation of Rome's Mediterranean empire over the last three centuries BC; we shall then consider the social, economic, and political consequences of this great achievement, especially the great political transition from the Republic (rule by the Senate) to the Principate (rule by emperors). We shall also consider limitations to Roman power and various types of challenges, military, cultural, and religious, to the hegemony of the Roman state. Finally, we shall try to understand the process of the development of a distinctive Roman culture from the emergence new forms of literature, like satire, to the gladiatorial arena as typical elements that contributed to a Roman social order.

How did humans evolve? When did humans start to walk on two legs? How are humans related to non-human primates? This course focuses on the scientific study of human evolution describing the emergence, development, and diversification of our species, Homo sapiens. First we cover the fundamental principles of evolutionary theory and some of the basics of genetics and heredity as they relate to human morphological, physiological, and genetic variation. We then examine what studies of nonhuman primates (monkeys and apes) can reveal about our own evolutionary past, reviewing the behavioral and ecological diversity seen among living primates. We conclude the course examining the "hard" evidence of human evolution--the fossil and material culture record of human history from our earliest primate ancestors to the emergence of modern Homo sapiens. You will also have the opportunity, during recitations, to conduct hands-on exercises collecting and analyzing behavioral, morphological, and genetic data on both humans and nonhuman primates and working with the Department of Anthropology's extensive collection of fossil casts.

 This course will introduce the major artistic traditions of Japan, from the Neolithic period to the present, and teach the fundamental methods of the discipline of art history. Our approaches will be chronological, considering how the arts developed in and through history, and thematic, discussing how art and architecture were used for philosophical, religious, and material ends.  Special attention will be given to the places of Shinto, the impact of Buddhism, and their related architectures and sculptures; the principles of narrative illustration; the changing roles of aristocratic, monastic, shogunal and merchant patronage; the formation of the concept of the "artist" overtime; and the transformation of tradition in the modern age.

Representations of war are created for as many reasons as wars are fought: to legitimate armed conflict, to critique brutality, to vilify an enemy, to mobilize popular support, to generate national pride, etc. In this course we will examine a series of representations of war drawn from the literature, film, state propaganda, memoirs, visual art, etc. of Russia, Europe, and the United States. We will pursue an investigation of these images of conflict and bloodshed in the larger context of the history of military technology, social life, and communications media over the last two centuries. Students will be expected to write two papers, take part in a group presentation on an assigned topic, and take a final exam. The goal of the course will be to gain knowledge of literary history in social and historical context, and to acquire critical skills for analysis of rhetoric and visual representations.

This course is an introduction to the fundamentals of communication behavior. It focuses on social science studies relating to the processes and effects of mass communication. Research reviewed includes media use behavior and media influences on knowledge, perceptions of social reality, aggressive behavior, and political behavior.

This course provides a rigorous introduction to the academic study of Japanese popular culture. Through careful attention to forms of popular culture such as anime (animated films or television shows), manga (comic books), TV dramas, short stories, popular music, fashion and contemporary art, each one of us will be able to develop a better understanding of contemporary Japan. In order to deepen our knowledge, we will learn various methods for studying and writing about the relation between our everyday lives, the processes of globalization, and the pleasures or displeasures that we derive from the objects of popular culture. Through the application of theoretical models to our practical experience of different forms of Japanese popular culture, we will learn to analyze critically some of the functions that these objects serve as sources of meaning, escape, and identity formation in our everyday lives.

Introduction to economic analysis and its application. Theory of supply and demand, costs and revenues of the firm under perfect competition, monopoly, and oligopoly, pricing of factors of production, income distribution, and theory of international trade.

A course designed to allow the students to discover their own talents in several forms of fiction and poetry. Though emphasis is on practice, classroom work includes discussion of theory as well as readings in British and American works. Frequent writing assignments. Reading lists vary with each section.

See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings.

This course integrates formal issues, technical skill and content in basic drawing. Investigative work is from observation. Drawing from ideas and the imagination will also be explored using a wide variety of materials (such as graphite, charcoal, conte, ink) and methods (continuous tone, subtraction, etc.) It is appropriate for beginners and those with modest experience.

This course is an introduction to painting with emphasis on formal principles, content and expression. The course will explore the technical application of paint as well as the impact of a range of compositional and color strategies. Working from direct observation, members of the course will develop perceptual skills to create convincing relationships of form in space. The studio course assignments will be supported by lectures that introduce both contemporary and historical precedents in painting.

This course explores the elements and principles of design and composition. It is an introduction to the intentional organization of traditional and digital image-making. Emphasis will be placed on understanding compositional relationships through experimentation, iteration and critique. Students will create imagery using hand skills and the software programs Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign.

The purpose of the course is to introduce you to the subjects of the discipline of folklore, their occurrence in social life, and the scholarly analysis of their use in culture. As a discipline, folklore explores the manifestations of expressive forms in both traditional and moderns societies, in small-scale groups where people interact with each other face-to-face, and in large-scale, often industrial societies, in which the themes, symbols, and forms that permeate traditional life occupy new positions, or occur in different occasions in everyday life. For some of you the distinction between low and high culture, or artistic and popular art, will be helpful in placing folklore forms in modern societies. For others, these distinction will not be helpful. In traditional societies, and within social groups that define themselves ethnically, professionally, or culturally, within modern heterogeneous societies, and traditional societies in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia, folklore plays a more prominent role in society, than it appears to play in literate cultures on the same continents. Consequently the study of folklore and the analysis of its forms are appropriate in traditional as well as modern societies and any society that is in a transitional phase.

A survey of the modern Middle East with special emphasis on the experiences of ordinary men and women as articulated in biographies, novels, and regional case studies. Issues covered include the collapse of empires and the rise of a new state system following WWI, and the roots and consequences of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Iranian revolution and the U.S.-Iraq War. Themes include: the colonial encounter with Europe and the emergence of nationalist movements, the relationship between state and society, economic development and international relations, and religion and cultural identity. 

Concerned about global warming, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, pandemics and the global economic crisis and want to know what governments, non-governmental organizations and intergovernmental organizations are doing to address these transnational issues. Global Think Tanks, Policy Networks and Governance will explore how transnational issues are identified and addressed around the world by policy, advocacy and knowledge based institutions. Special attention will be paid to policy research organizations (e.g., think tanks, government research and policy planning units) that generate and disseminate policy research, analyses and recommendations. A selection of enduring and emerging global policy issues will be examined to demonstrate how policy issues take shape and are addressed by governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations. Course will feature prominent policymakers from around the world who will comment on selected, global policy issues and debates.

A general introduction to the nature, history and use of human language, speech and writing. Topics include the biological basis of human language, and analogous systems in other creatures; relations to cognition, communication, and social organization; sounds, forms and meanings in the world s languages; the reconstruction of linguistic history and the family tree of languages; dialect variation and language standardization; language and gender; language learning by children and adults; the neurology of language and language disorders; the nature and history of writing systems. Intended for any undergraduate interested in language or its use, this course is also recommended as an introduction for students who plan to major in linguistics.

This online class is a review of the basic algebra and trigonometry required by students who plan to take calculus. Topics include basic algebraic operations, linear and quadratic equations and functions, polynomial functions, mathematical induction, the binomial theorem, exponential and logarithmic functions, complex numbers and includes a treatment of plane trigonometry. MATH 101 937 is a half-credit course.

Introduction to concepts and methods of calculus for students with little or no previous calculus experience. Polynomial and elementary transcendental functions and their applications, derivatives, extremum problems, curve-sketching, approximations; integrals and the fundamental theorem of calculus.

Brief review of High School calculus, applications of integrals, transcendental functions, methods of integration, infinite series, Taylor's theorem. Use of symbolic manipulation and graphics software in calculus.

This course examines how we as consumers in the "Western" world engage with musical difference largely through the products of the global entertainment industry.  We examine music cultures in contact in a variety of ways-- particularly as traditions in transformation.  Students gain an understanding of traditional music as live, meaningful person-to-person music making, by examining the music in its original site of production, and then considering its transformation once it is removed, and recontextualized in a variety of ways.  The purpose of the course is to enable students to become informed and critical consumers of "World Music" by telling a series of stories about particular recordings made with, or using the music of, peoples culturally and geographically distant from the US.  Students come to understand that not all music downloads containing music from unfamiliar places are the same, and that particular recordings may be embedded in intriguing and controversial narratives of production and consumption.  At the very least, students should emerge from the class with a clear understanding that the production, distribution, and consumption of world music is rarely a neutral process. ______________________________________________________________________________

This course will focus on the works of Plato and Aristotle.  We will pay special attention at the beginning of the course to the thinking of Socrates as he is presented in Plato's Socratic dialogues.  This will set us up to examine the philosophical system of Plato.  We will look at how Plato took up certain ethical themes and questions from Socrates and, in addressing them, developed a comprehensive view on the nature of reality, knowledge, governance, and art.  We will then look at alternative and often opposing positions on these issues in Aristotle's philosophy.  Throughout the course, we will pay special attention to the development of the discipline of philosophy, inquiring into how the two most influential thinkers in history came to see certain questions about human life as essential, as amenable to rational investigation, and as interconnected. 

In this introductory level class, we will address a number of basic questions in political philosophy through the works of major historical figures.  Among the central questions that we will focus on are:  How can legitimate political power be justified?  On what grounds can one defend a view of basic human rights?  What might justify a system of property?  Why would equality be important for society?  What are the arguments that favor capitalism over socialism or a welfare state?  What are the requirements for a functioning democracy?

We will primarily engage with these questions through the social contract tradition and its critics.  We begin by following the development of the social contract view beginning with Thomas Hobbes and continuing through John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant.  Then, we will look at three criticisms of this challenge--Utilitarianism, Marxism, and Libertarianism.  In examining these criticisms, we will examine the work of David Hume, Jeremy Bentham, Adam Smith, John Stewart Mill, Karl Marx, and Robert Nozick.  The course will end with the contemporary revival of the social contract tradition offered by John Rawls, and we will assess his response to these three alternative views.

This course will provide an introduction to models of human decision making. One of the primary purposes of the course is to provide a set of basic tools that will help the student translate uncertainty into numbers. Rational choice under uncertainty is by far the most used theory of decision making, and its applications are widespread in economics, finance, political science, law, managerial decision making, the economics of health care, and artificial intelligence. The course will use examples from each of these fields (and also fun "paradoxes" such as the Monty Hall Puzzle) in providing an introduction to the basic foundations of decision making. We will also look at the shortcomings of the rational choice theory: both from intuitive and empirical perspectives. No mathematical prerequisites are necessary beyond high school algebra and arithmetic.

This course is an introduction to the major theories and issues in international politics. The goals of the course are to give students a broad familiarity with the field of international relations, and to help them develop the analytical skills necessary to think critically about international politics. The course is divided into four parts: 1) Concepts and Theories of International Relations; 2) War and Security; 3) The Global Economy; and 4) Emerging Issues in International Relations.

This course seeks to introduce students to the diversity of doctrines held and practices performed by Buddhists in Asia. By focusing on how specific beliefs and practices are tied to particular locations and particular times, we will be able to explore in detail the religious institutions, artistic, architectural, and musical traditions, textual production and legal and doctrinal developments of Buddhism over time and within its socio-historical context. Religion is never divorced from its place and its time. Furthermore, by geographically and historically grounding the study of these religions we will be able to examine how their individual ethic, cosmological and soteriological systems effect local history, economics, politics, and material culture. We will concentrate first on the person of the Budda, his many biographies and how he has been followed and worshipped in a variety of ways from Lhasa, Tibet to Phrae, Thailand. From there we touch on the foundational techings of the Buddha with an eye to how they have evolved and transformed over time. Finally, we focus on the practice of Buddhist ritual, magic and ethics in monasteries and among aly communities in Asia and even in the West. This section will confront the way Buddhists have thought of issues such as "Just-War," Women's Rights and Abortion.

This course introduces students to the discipline of sociology in the United States, including its history, theorists, methodological approaches, ethical concerns, major intellectual debates, important figures, key concepts, and data sources. We will also 1) incorporate the work of individuals who have been marginalized in the field but have made important contributions to its development; 2) apply sociological concepts, methods, and theoretical frameworks to current social dynamics; and 3) learn about popular areas of sociological inquiry: race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, class and economic inequality, globalization, and crime and deviance.

The election of Barack Obama as the United States’ first Black president has raised questions about whether we have entered a post-racial society. This course examines the idea of racial progress that is at the heart of such a question, paying close attention to how social scientists have defined and measured racial inequality and progress in the last century. We will consider how dramatic demographic shifts, the growing number of interracial families and individuals who identify as mixed-race, trans-racial adoptions, and the increased visibility of people of color in media, positions of influence, and as celebrities inform scholarly and popular debates about racial progress. Along with some classic works, we will also read literature regarding the class-versus-race debate and color-blind racism. In the process, students will become familiar with sociological data often drawn from in debates about racial progress and will also develop analytical and critical thinking skills.

Relying on a variety of sociological perspectives, this course seeks to examine media and popular culture in everyday life and in a broader social context.  There will be a particular emphasis on the social organization of the mass media industry, the relationship between cultural consumption and status, and the social significance of leisure activities from sports to shopping.

This course explores the scientific and technological development of warfare in the United States from the Revolution to the successful creation of the world's first thermonuclear weapon 180 years later. The changing nature of warfare beginning in 1800 and continuing through 1950 involved the creation and deployment of increasingly complex and powerful weapons as well as a corresponding evolution in tactics, strategy, and social organization. Topics will include: the development of the gun, the battleship, and the airplane; "total war"; the atomic bomb; chemical and biological warfare; the psychology of war; historical memory; and concepts such as technological determinism and technological momentum.