Spring 2008 12 week

Professor Lynn Underwood

Office: Gerstecker 213 (across from the elevator)

underwoodlg@hiram.edu

lynnunderwood@researchintegration.org

The best way to reach me is email.  I check it at least once a day.

Course Description:

For effective decision-making in our professional and personal lives we need to use information gathered through analytical and scientific explorations as well as direct experience and emotional reactions. These direct experiences and responses can be enhanced using input from music, visual art, and contemplation of the natural world. The sciences and the arts can provide complementary methods for exploration as well as the resources for our reflections. Using these perspectives the course will have four major themes. 

              1) One will be an examination of altruism and compassionate love, giving of self for the good of another, in personal and professional settings.  

              2) We will also look at what inspires us – and how the spiritual in life is relevant to how we help ourselves and others to be well and flourish. And in that context we will be examining what makes up a good “quality of life:” both the sciences and the arts can effectively shape our understanding of what is of value.

              3) And finally, we will be exploring our identity, who we really are, as illuminated by the arts and the sciences, and the practical application of this to decision-making in professional and personal settings. 

              4) Some exploration of the nature of time using perspectives of art, science and spirituality will also be included.
 
         Resources from the arts will include poetry, music, film, fiction, and visual arts. A portion of a novel, a supernatural thriller will be one of these resources.  Ungraded journals will deepen responses. Contemplative, spiritual exercises will be used to increase capacity for direct experience.   Small arts assignments (graded by effort, intent and exploration rather than literary or artistic talent) will allow expression through the arts, with the goal of enhancing the capacity to see clearly and to express the core of ourselves. Resources from the sciences will include articles and summaries of data in the social sciences along with a small social science research project. These will illustrate how scientific exploration can complement direct experience and enhance our capacity to see. Grades will be based on the projects, the smaller assignments, class participation, and a final set of essays covering the integrative themes in the course.  

Books to purchase:

Book of LuminousThings, Czelaw Milosz

The Book of Qualities, J. Ruth Gendler

Descent into Hell, a supernatural, psychological thriller, by Charles Williams

On reserve:

Greatest Works of Western Art Thomas Hoving

Redress of Poetry, Seamus Heaney

Altruism and Altruistic Love, Science, Religion and Philosophy in Dialogue, Post,

              Underwood, Schloss, and Hurlbut

What is this thing called Science?  David Chalmers

Other materials:

              Handouts in class or on Sakai: Research articles in the sciences, and assorted articles from other journals. Note, the articles placed on Sakai are for your use only – you may print out one copy and store a copy on your computer.  No additional hard copies or electronic copies should be made of these articles.

              Handouts for journaling

              Books and papers on reserve in library

             Websites to explore : eg astropix, moral decisionmaking, implicit prejudice, and the prisoner’s dilemma.

              Films

Overarching Goals of Course:

1) Increase ability to use a scientific perspective appropriately in order to better understand ourselves and the world. This includes doing science and reading scientific results and interpreting those results.

2) Increase capacity to enjoy and practically benefit from the arts, through a contemplative approach. This includes practice in communicating and creating through the arts.

3) Enable use of both perspectives in conjunction, to enhance understanding of the world in a complementary way.

4) Come to a better understanding of and ability to make good decisions about a variety of specific areas using the above methods, such as:

              Compassionate love: giving of self for the good of the other

              Inspiration, Spirituality

              The self and decision-making

Class attendance is crucial

The following week's assignment materials will be handed out, and presentations and discussions cannot be made up easily otherwise. Techniques will be practiced that are necessary to do assignments well. This is especially true as there is no central course textbook.

Weighting of assignments:

(tentative – changes may be made)

30%  Weekly journal entries and class discussion participation, attendance, quizzes. Journal entries are not graded--points given for submission. (To keep up with the course these need to be handed in on time- full points are only given if handed in on time.)

25%  Additional assignments (e.g. class presentation on a poem, music, mini arts assignments or discussion of a science article for class, short essays).

20%  Science project written paper.

Art project (fiction, poetry, visual art, music, dance, video, photography). 

25%  Series of integrative essays - Expected to be able to address the themes and use the tools learned in the course in a complementary way. Ability to apply tools to your own life situations. Ability to refer to specific articles and resources (e.g. film, artwork, poetry) presented by the course, and articulate use.

Grades: 

4.00 A

3.67 A-

3.33 B+

3.00 B

2.67 B-

2.33 C+

2.00 C

1.67 C-

1.33 D+

1.00 D

Weekly Assignments:

Get in the habit of doing the journals early in the week. I will expect them to be handed in at the following class. Date each assignment. Late assignments will not get full credit.

a) Journal entries. One page personal response to a poem, essay, piece of art or other exercise such as observation of nature. Often the materials for this will be handed out the week before it is due, unless the materials are in your purchased texts or on reserve in the library. Three or four per week. These will not be graded.

b) Assigned reading. Keep notes on assigned reading. Keeping up with assigned reading is very important and it may also be evaluated by pop quiz or individualized class discussion assessment.

c) Keep a loose-leaf notebook dedicated to this class. Put in handouts, journal entries, and article responses and class notes. It will be necessary to have these for reference for the final.

If you have questions or would like to meet with me, contact me and we can set up a time.

Identifying your work and the work of others:

Part of being a scholar is can include taking the ideas of others and working with them.  When you use someone else’s ideas, you must acknowledge the source.  This is particularly important if you quote directly from them, but also if you take specific concepts and general ideas from others.  In scholarship it is considered a good thing to refer to others’ ideas and build on them, but it is essential that you give them credit, just as you would want them to do for you.

Contact information/ Other Practical Details:

I am most rapidly available via email:

lynnunderwood@researchintegration.org

or underwoodlg@hiram.edu

My office number is 330- 5696009 (extension 6009)

I need you to have an active email address for you as I use email to communicate between classes.  Check email from me regularly.

My office hours are all day on Tuesday and Thursday.  I can set up appointments at other times via email and am very happy to do so.  My telephone number at Hiram is 330-5696009.  Email is the most reliable way to reach me. I check email at least once a day during the week. 

My office is located in 213 Gerstecker.

Electronic Submission:

On occasion, class assignment will be submitted electronically via e-mail.  As with traditional assignments, electronic submissions are expected to be on time.  Microsoft Word format is required. Most assignments will be submitted via hard copy.

We will be using Sakai, so familiarize yourself with that software. I will be discussing it in class, and I can help if there are problems.

About the Professor:  Dr. Underwood received her Ph.D. in Epidemiology from Queens University School of Medicine in the United Kingdom following medical studies at the University of Iowa School of Medicine. She spent ten years in cancer epidemiology, doing work in pathogenesis, prevention, and early detection. In addition to journal publications and chapter contributions, she has co-edited two methodology textbooks, Measuring Stress and Social Support Measurement and Intervention, both published by Oxford University Press. She has led the development and co-sponsorship of various research agenda development workshops with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) including one on the bio-behavioral aspects of pain with 10 NIH Institutes, one on spirituality and aging with the National Institute on Aging, and two on End of Life issues. She developed a Joint Request for Applications for research funding with the National Institute on Alcoholism. She has developed and led research funding initiatives, which include a cross cultural study of quality of life with the World Health Organization, and a recent initiative on Scientific Research on Altruistic and Compassionate Love. She has recently co-edited and contributed chapters to the text: Altruism and Altruistic Love, Science Religion and Philosophy in Dialog, and has contributed to the Macmillan Encyclopedia of Bioethics.  She is Professor of Biomedical Humanities.