University of Mississippi

Course Offerings

LIBA 102 SECTIONS FOR FALL 2013

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Section 1 Seminar for LIBA 102
MWF 11:00 AM – 11:50 AM   S. Residential College
Ms. Jane Meek, jmeek@olemiss.edu

Beyond the Binaries: Writing about Gender and Sexuality

Some have argued that one’s gender is the most fundamental aspect of identity in determining one’s experience of life: why then do most people never get a chance to discuss, study, critique, and engage with it in a safe, academic setting? This course offers a space for such exploration. We will examine issues related to gender and sexuality in order to investigate social constructions of identity, as well as the social justice movements that respond to inequalities based on gender and sexuality. Students will examine how genders and sexualities are further raced and classed and dehumanized in our culture as part of an intersectional perspective that accounts for multiple identities. Looking through the lens of gender and queer theories, we will analyze and respond to various academic texts and forms of pop culture (documentaries, films, music videos, ads, etc.) through class discussions and writing assignments.

Section 2 Seminar for LIBA 102
T TH 01:00 PM – 02:15 PM  Lamar Room 107
Dr. Angela Green, akgreen2@olemiss.edu

The Ends of Eloquence: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Rhetoric

The purpose of this seminar is to introduce students to the study of rhetoric from the classical period to the present, guided by the question “To what ends should eloquence or rhetoric be used?” The course will focus on helping students understand how written and spoken arguments have been used, across a range of disciplines for a variety of purposes, over the past 2,500 years. Students will also learn to develop research questions in an area of interest to them, to follow through by developing a plan for research, and finally to write a research report that they share with the class in an oral presentation and a polished written essay at the end of the semester.

Section 4 Seminar for LIBA 102
M W F 10:00 AM – 10:50 AM  Lamar Room 107
Dr. Jeffrey Bourdon, jbourdon@olemiss.edu
Writing History through American Presidential Elections

This course will cover all of the American presidential elections from 1788 to 2008. Students will have an opportunity to choose three elections that they are interested in doing further research on and will write two three to four page papers and a longer eight to ten page paper. They will also be expected to give an in-class presentation on the longer paper.

Section 6 Seminar for LIBA 102

T TH 02:30 PM – 03:45 PM  Lamar Room 315
Professor James Thomas, jgthomas@olemiss.edu
The Southern Experience: Southern Identity and Culture through the Years

This course examines how Southern identity and culture are represented in literature, music, film, religion, language, and even food. We will attempt to answer such questions as: How has Southern culture changed over the past 150 years, and how has it remained the same? Who gets to claim the designation “Southerner”? Why would they even want to? Through the lenses of race, class, and gender we will gain a deeper understanding of the South as a concept, which will ultimately serve to enhance our understanding of it as a place. We will explore various southern literary and academic texts, including those by writers such as John Shelton Reed, William Faulkner, and Richard Wright, as well as watch a handful of short films on the South.

Writing assignments consist of informal, in-class writing; reader-response critiques; and formal research papers. Through these writing assignments, students learn to evaluate texts and communicate their interpretations to a variety of audiences-primarily to an academic audience. Students also learn the research process, which includes uncovering a topic of particular interest, evaluating research material to determine its scholarly appropriateness, and properly investigating that topic to create an original position on the subject. In the process, students also master the skills of brainstorming, writing with clarity, paraphrasing, drafting, outlining, proofreading, and revision.

Section 14 Seminar for LIBA 102

T TH 05:30 PM – 06:45 PM  Lamar Room 406
Professor James Thomas, jgthomas@olemiss.edu
The Southern Experience: Southern Identity and Culture through the Years

This course examines how Southern identity and culture are represented in literature, music, film, religion, language, and even food. We will attempt to answer such questions as: How has Southern culture changed over the past 150 years, and how has it remained the same? Who gets to claim the designation “Southerner”? Why would they even want to? Through the lenses of race, class, and gender we will gain a deeper understanding of the South as a concept, which will ultimately serve to enhance our understanding of it as a place. We will explore various southern literary and academic texts, including those by writers such as John Shelton Reed, William Faulkner, and Richard Wright, as well as watch a handful of short films on the South.

Writing assignments consist of informal, in-class writing; reader-response critiques; and formal research papers. Through these writing assignments, students learn to evaluate texts and communicate their interpretations to a variety of audiences-primarily to an academic audience. Students also learn the research process, which includes uncovering a topic of particular interest, evaluating research material to determine its scholarly appropriateness, and properly investigating that topic to create an original position on the subject. In the process, students also master the skills of brainstorming, writing with clarity, paraphrasing, drafting, outlining, proofreading, and revision.

Section 15 Seminar for LIBA 102
M W F 03:00 AM – 03:50 AM  Lamar Room 315
Dr. Jeffrey Bourdon, jbourdon@olemiss.edu
Writing History through American Presidential Elections

This course will cover all of the American presidential elections from 1788 to 2008. Students will have an opportunity to choose three elections that they are interested in doing further research on and will write two three to four page papers and a longer eight to ten page paper. They will also be expected to give an in-class presentation on the longer paper.

Section 21 Seminar for LIBA 102
M W F 11:00 AM – 11:50 AM  Lamar Room 107
Mr. Chad Russell, crussell@olemiss.edu
Critical Thinking About Media

The principle goal of this section will be to give students practical experience in applying the tools and techniques of critical thinking to the analysis of text-based claims and arguments in various media. Given the central role all forms of media play in modern life, the ability to distinguish sound reasoning from unsound reasoning is becoming — more than ever — an essential skill. We will explore the basic vocabulary of critical thinking and apply it to sample texts in class, with an eye towards extending this process to longer, student-selected texts. Students will keep and share journals, documenting example situations and texts from outside of class where critical thinking techniques are called for, as well as their own ideas about how we should intellectually grasp these encounters. Students will write and revise two short papers (the first 2 to 3 pages, the second 4 to 5 pages) critiquing student-chosen texts that make explicit claims. The final output of the course will be a multiple-draft research paper, 10 to 12 pages in length and peer-reviewed, that analyzes and critiques a student-selected claim-making text in depth.

Section 24 Seminar for LIBA 102
T TH 02:30 PM – 03:45 PM  Lamar Room 310
Dr. Angela Green, akgreen2@olemiss.edu

The Ends of Eloquence: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Rhetoric

The purpose of this seminar is to introduce students to the study of rhetoric from the classical period to the present, guided by the question “To what ends should eloquence or rhetoric be used?” The course will focus on helping students understand how written and spoken arguments have been used, across a range of disciplines for a variety of purposes, over the past 2,500 years. Students will also learn to develop research questions in an area of interest to them, to follow through by developing a plan for research, and finally to write a research report that they share with the class in an oral presentation and a polished written essay at the end of the semester.