»Freshman Foundation Courses

The Freshman Foundations Course (FFC) is the foundational portion of the Chapman General Education program. All entering freshmen enroll in an FFC section connected to a larger learning community and participate in an orientation program that includes a shared summer reading.

The FFC course engages students in interdisciplinary, university-level critical inquiry and reflection. FFC courses focus more on critical engagement, exploration and communication related to complex issues than on mastering a body of material. The section topics vary, and students select a topic according to their academic and personal interests. All of the sections offer students an intellectually enriching exploration of ideas, values, and disciplinary knowledge and methods. Working independently and collaboratively to frame issues and questions that have engaged the intellectual interests of historians, philosophers, literary, fine arts, and media critics, scientists, economists, and political theorists over the centuries, students develop their analytic, creative and expressive abilities.

FFC is taught by a select group of faculty who are committed to supporting students in their transition to university-level inquiry. Field trips, guest speakers, collaborative research, multimedia projects and other forms of active learning are an important part of the course.

+-FFC Course Descriptions-Fall 2013

More than 35 different FFC course topics are offered so you can begin your studies with a class that lets you explore a possible area of major interest or learn about a new academic area. All FFC sections, regardless of specific topic, engage you in the intellectual life of the academy and give you experience with critical inquiry in discussion and written form.

For course section numbers, meeting days, times, and locations, see WebAdvisor. For more information on a particular professor, view the Faculty Directory.

+-Artman-Bruns

	Julie Artman-M.F.A., MLIS Leatherby Libraries Phone: (714) 532-7752 Office: Leatherby Libraries Email: Julie Artman American Theatre in Contemporary Culture In this course, students will explore how theatre reflects challenges and triumphs in contemporary American culture. We will examine, discuss, and analyze pivotal events during the twentieth century through reading selected plays that reveal America's rich theatrical history. Reviewing performances will provide students with direct observational opportunities to expose the issues facing today's theatrical artists, and students will engage in both analytic and creative projects, individually and collaboratively. 3 credits.
	Gordon Babst, Ph.D.-Associate Professor of Political Science Phone: (714) 744-7696 Office: DeMille Hall 150C Email: Gordon Babst Globalization, Citizenship, and Consumption The course introduces students to the contemporary phenomenon of globalization, analyzes the concept of globalization, and reviews processes of globalization. The course will examine globalization across a range of issues, with a special focus on globalization's effects on us and other people as world citizens and consumers, and our capacities to affect the course of globalization. 3 credits.
	Julye Bidmead, Ph.D.-Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Phone: (714) 532-7709 Office: Wilkinson Hall 234 Email: Julye Bidmead Heroines and Harlots: The Bible You Didn't Lear in Sunday School. Women play a variety of roles in the Bible. They are wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, heroines, virgins, harlots, victims, villians, warriors, queens, and prophets, but their narratives are buried under years of religious misinterpretations that diminish or erase their worth. This course examines selected biblical texts and other ancient literature using multiple methodologies (feminist and gender critique, ideological criticism, comparative studies, literary criticism, and historical analysis) to uncover the stories and status of women in ancient Isreal. 3 credits.
	Jim Brown, Ph.D.-Professor of Education Phone: (714) 997-6884 Office: Reeves Hall 104 Email: Jim Brown Lies You Learned in School: Difficult Histories and Critical Theory What histories did you learn in School? Should history only be the story of dominant culture or should it include narratives that contradict the "American Celebrationist" perspective? This course provides a critical analysis of important social themes (e.g., identity, conformity, and bystander vs. upstander) linked to key histories (e.g., Holocaust and other genocides, America in Vietnam). The course is based on the assumption that if citizens in a democracy are to value their rights and take responsibility for their actions, they must know not only the triumphs of history but also the failures and tragedies. As students study the historical development and the lessons of "difficult" histories, they learn to make the essential connections between history and the moral choices they confront in their own lives. 3 credits.
	Cristina Bruns, Ph.D. Adjunct Professor of English Phone: (714) TBD Office: TBD Email: Cristina Bruns What Does Literature Do and Why Does it Matter? We have all encountered literature in various forms and contexts, whether it's The Odyssey and Romeo and Juliet in school or reading "for fun" like the Harry Potter series. Reading fiction and poetry can entertain us or can at least help us know what most educated people in Western society know, but is that all that it does? In this course we will explore two related questions: What does literature do and why does it matter? Our approach will consist of gathering and analyzing various forms of "data," from scholarly writings to our own experiences with fiction or poetry, the reports or testimonials of other readers, and our observations about how literature is treated in various social settings. The course will function as a collaborative inquiry, all of us working together to arrive at some answers, informed by students' contributions through individual research projects (examining a particular text or type of text, or a particular kind of reader, for instance). 3 credits.

+-Cumiford-Farrington

	William Cumiford, Ph.D. Associate Professor of History Phone: (714) 532-6013 Office: Roosevelt Hall 219 Email: William Cumiford The Classical Legacy in America This course focuses on the many ways ancient Greece and Rome contributed to the government, culture, and values of the United States. Beginning with the influence of classical political institutions and continuing with drama, art, architecture and literature, we'll explore the multi-faceted legacy of the ancients in modern American society. 3 credits.
	Elizabeth Eastman, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Political Science Phone: (714) 532-7770 Office: Roosevelt Hall 207 Email: Elizabeth Eastman Citizenship and Community Membership in a community is one of the key aspects of human relationships. Through the study of works from various time periods and cultures, we examine what it means to be a citizen, the citizen's obligations to the larger community, and the many types of communities that people can form. We also explore the numerous challenges that members of a political community—citizens—can experience such as denial of fundamental human rights and external influences that cause the breakdown of traditions and political order and imperil the community or cause it to take on a different form. 3 credits.
	Pam Ezell, M.F.A.-Director, Panther Productions Phone: (714) 289-3129 Office: 633 W. Palm Avenue Email: Pam Ezell The Family Drama on Stage Sibling rivalry, marital strife, parental ambition, alcoholism, and the pressures of running a household—the challenges of family life present playwrights with rich soil for domestic drama. This course will investigate the topic of the family in a selection of plays. We will analyze how various playwrights explore the concept of family in both realistic and comedic ways, and will consider why the domestic theme continues to intrigue writers and audiences. We will read plays, see plays, discuss plays and write about plays in this course. 3 credits
	Brenda Farrington, M.A.-Adjunct Professor of History Phone: (714) 997-6641 Office: Roosevelt Hall 200 Email: Brenda Farrington Reading Women's Lives This course will examine the lives of American women in the 20th and 21st Centuries through autobiography and memoir. Through close readings of several texts, students will critically analyze themes such as body image, disability, ethnicity, the meaning of home, relationships, and what being a woman in the world means within the context of each woman's story. Each student will act as a biographer to research a notable woman for a collaborative "Book of Women" course project. Different formats, including zines, self portraits, music, diaries, and oral histories will be discussed in addition to our emphasis on published autobiographies and memoirs. 3 credits.

+-Frelly-Hanson

	Robert Frelly, D.M.A.-Professor of Music Phone: (714) 997-6917 Office: Oliphant Hall 110 Email: Robert Frelly From Bach to Rock: Music and Society Does music affect society, or are various evolving musical styles simply a continual expression of the subcultures that created them? Changes in social structure and hence in social needs have brought about changes in the function of music; these are the moving forces underlying the growth and development of music as an art throughout history. This course explores the place of music in society and its relation to the life of its time. 3 credits.
	Kelli Fuery, Ph.D.-Instructor of Communications Phone: (714) 744-2183 Office: Smith Hall 116C Email: Kelli Fuery Introduction to Media and Cultural Studies Media are an integral part of the culture that surrounds us and therefore of our sense of the self. This course provides an interdisciplinary framework for the analysis of our complex relationship with media and cultural forms. It will introduce a range of theoretical approaches to the study of media and culture, and you will be actively engaged in exploring the function and effects of media in your own experience. We will consider popular and subcultures; transgression and culture; gender, race, and the media; and new and emerging media forms and their cultural impacts. 3 credits.
	Amy Hanson, Ph.D.-Associate Professor of Human Resources Phone: (714) 628-7312 Office: Beckman Hall 307J Email: Amy Hanson The History and Impact of the Surfing Industry The sport of surfing is currently practiced by about twenty million people worldwide; the U.S. surf industry boasts sales of over $5 billion a year, the global industry $15 billion; and surfing has again become a touchstone of popular culture. This course will explore how surfing developed, over the course of the 20th century, from a benign pastime pursued on a handful of Polynesian islands to a global commercial and cultural force, and will examine the history of surfing informed by current historical scholarship. It will include perspectives from history, economics, physics, marketing, and leadership. Additional topics will cover geography, surf tourism, gender, surf films, surf music, surf art, and social responsibility. 3 credits.

+-Hughes-Lewis

	Charles Hughes, D.Phil. Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy Phone: (714) 997-6952 Office: Wilkinson Hall 227 Email: Charles Hughes The Christ of History and the Jesus of Faith Jesus Christ has been the dominant religious and cultural figure in Western civilization for two-thousand years. But who was Jesus Christ? Did the leaders of the early apostolic Christian Church work to suppress the truth about Jesus by creating myths about him in order to consolidate and enforce their own authority, or did the apostolic Church fathers instead protect the truth about Jesus by rejecting alternative false views about him? In this class, we will identify and evaluate the historical, philosophical and theological assumptions that inform the positions of important contemporary Jesus scholars so that we can gain a better understanding of what the facts and evidence really are concerning Jesus and the development of early Christianity. 3 credits.
	Jeff Koerber, M.A.-Research Associate, Chapman University Fellow in Holocaust History Phone: (714) 997-6623 Office: Roosevelt Hall 201 Email: Jeff Koerber Exiles in Paradise: Refugees from Hitler in 1940s Hollywood Among the hundreds of thousands of refugees that fled the Nazis and war-torn Europe were a unique set of cultural icons who settled in Southern California: actresses Marlene Dietrich and Hedy Lamarr, film director Fritz Land, novelist Thomas Mann, dramatist Bertolt Brecht, composers Arnold Schoenberg and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and perpetual muse to genius Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel. The course is a cultural history that examines the unique artistic creations fashioned by these exiles. We will place their works in the dual context of the persecutions that led these Europeans to flee their homelands and the image-consciousness of Hollywood. 3 credits.
	Alicia Kozameh, M.A. Instructor, Department of English Phone: (714) 997-6732 Office: Wilkinson Hall 20 Email: Alicia Kozameh Literature Mirrors Society: Manifestations of Social Struggle and Political Repression in Latin American Fiction and Testimony The struggle for social equality, justice and survival has been present, in various forms, throughout the existence of humanity. During the second half of the twentieth century, Latin America experienced several processes of social struggle that were met with harsh political repressions--kidnapping, torture, disappearances, concentration camps, prison, and exile among them. Latin American literature has expressed, in fiction and non-fiction, poetry and essay, this complex and violent experience. This course will focus on the reading and discussion of fictional and testimonial texts that reflect the Latin American political and social experience. Students will analyze the way in which society can use creative literary elements to collectively deal with and work through the remnants of turbulent historical moments. 3 credits.
	Kent Lehnhof, Ph.D.-Associate Professor of English Phone: (714) 628-2746 Office: Wilkinson Hall 211 Email: Kent Lehnhof Close Reading My father is fond of saying that "the devil is in the details," which is his way of saying that little things often turn out to be terribly important. My dad's saying could well be the unofficial motto of this course, for it will focus, from start to finish, on the little things. Content-wise, we will consider a wide range of "texts"--from Renaissance stageplays to modern short stories to contemporary films. But our objective in each instance will be the same: to attend to and analyze the particulars of each presentation. By asking questions like "What difference does it make to use this word instead of that word?" and "What difference does it make to show this shot instead of that shot?" we will practice a kind of close reading that promises to make meaning of all those devilish details. 3 credits.
	Mildred Lewis, M.F.A.-Assistant Professor of English Phone: (714) 744-7891 Office: DeMille Hall 167 Email: Mildred Lewis Faith in Popular Culture How can pop culture help us to understand an increasingly pluralistic world? This course critically examines the representation of faith in pop culture, including narrative and documentary films, music videos, fashion, sports, graphic novels and the blogosphere. The course will integrate the work of critical and contemporary scholars, including Aristotle, Frederic Jameson, Theodor Adorno, Teresa de Lauretis and Frantz Fanon. The class emphasizes critical thinking, digital literacy, and the integration of scholarly and creative work. 3 credits.

+-Machan-O'Leary

	Tibor Machan, Ph.D.-R.C. Hoiles Chair in Business Ethics and Free Enterprise Phone: (714) 997-6704 Office: Beckman Hall 307D Email: Tibor Machan History of Political Philosophy This course will examine the main ideas in political philosophy. We will combine a historical and problems approach studying the views of particular philosophers, starting with some of the key ideas in contemporary politics. Our exploration will center on the views of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Hume, Marx, Mill, Spencer, Strauss, contemporary Marxists such as Marcuse, Habermas, Mao, et al., Welfare Statists and Libertarians. We will also study the concepts of liberty, order, equality, justice, welfare, rights, order, authority, and community. 3 credits.
	Clara Magliola, M.A.-Instructor of Sociology Phone: (714) 997-6621 Office: Roosevelt Hall 200 Email: Clara Magliola Feminist-Art-Theory-Power From Botticelli to Maxim magazine, perhaps nothing has been more favored as an artistic subject—more glorified, nor more reviled—than the female body. The “canon” of Western art as well as much contemporary visual culture systematically casts women as muses and objects, rather than as artists, creators, and agents themselves. This course focuses on and derives its spirit from the Women’s Art Movement of the 1970s in the US and utilizes feminist theory to rupture the “canon,” to interrogate contemporary visual culture, and to explore social activism and the revolutionary power of art and feminism. 3 credits.
	Geraldine McNenny, Ph.D.-Associate Professor of Education Phone: (714) 744-7936 Office: Reeves Hall 104 Email: Geraldine McNenny Imagining a Sustainable Future Imagining a sustainable future as a course invites you to consider what it means to live sustainably from multiple perspectives, from the food we eat and the water we drink, to the energy sources we rely on and the transportation systems we use to trade and work together, to the very structure of the cities and towns we construct and inhabit. For your final project, you will be asked to envision, research, and design your own sustainable solutions, in whatever area you choose. This FFC section will have a multimedia emphasis as well. 3 credits.
	Veronique Olivier, Ph.D.-Assistant Professor of Languages Phone:(714) 628-7212 Office: DeMille Hall 116 Email: Veronique Olivier From France to Hollywood: Film Remakes and Adaptations This courses is designed to help students approach films from a critical perspective by comparing original French versions with their American remakes and adaptations. In our evaluations, we will pay attention to cultural values (Three Men and a Baby), notions of national identity (The Return of Martin Guerre), and economic challenges in the production of film. We will also question the simplistic assumption that the French film is by definition of a higher value, Hollywood being strictly interested in the box office when it comes to adapting or remaking a movie (Besson's Nikita/Point of No Return). Films will include various genres and periods. 3 credits.
	Kevin O’Leary, Ph.D. Adjunct Professor of Political Science Phone: (714) TBA Office: Roosevelt Hall 101 Email: TBA Thomas Paine, Edmund Burke and Modern Political Argument This course explores how the French Revolution gave birth to modern political argument and the left-right divide. British statesman Edmund Burke penned the conservative response to the bloodshed in Paris in his Reflections on the Revolution in France. Thomas Paine, who earlier sparked the American Revolution with Common Sense, responded with The Rights of Man. Burke remains a touchstone for conservative thought while Paine championed universal human rights. Students will examine how political arguments are constructed, consider the importance of conviction and passion to great writing, trace the legacy of Burke and Paine to contemporary debates and ponder the roots of political ideologies. 3 credits.

+-Robblee-Tschacher

Sarah Robblee, M.A., Lecturer, English
Phone: (714) 997-6750
Office: Wilkinson Hall 217
Email: Sarah Robblee

Ethics in Technical Communication
Technical communicators, and sometimes users of technical communication, often find themselves in the midst of ethical dilemmas in which they are balancing roles, responsibilities, audiences, purposes, and cultural norms. These dilemmas might include miscommunication from a user manual that results in injury or fatality to the user, or the misuse of confidential client information. After first discussing what constitutes technical communication, we will dive into some ethical theory, and then spend the majority of our course deconstructing ethical cases. Most of these ethical cases are real, some of which you probably remember hearing about on the news. In addition to pulling apart the ethical dilemmas of situations revolving around technical communication, we will look at the technical documents relevant to these cases, and company codes of conduct to identify underlying values and how they play a part in these cases. 3 credits.

Eric Schniter, Ph.D.-Research Associate-Post Doctoral Researcher
Phone: (714) 628-7272
Office: Wilkinson Hall 1st floor
Email: Eric Schniter

Human Universals—Human Diversity
This course considers evidence for "human universals" (behavioral or cognitive traits common to all humans) in a world full of diversity. Students learn how to evaluate traits for qualification as universals, considering functional design explanations, prehistoric and phylogenetic evidence, developmental patterns, and cross-cultural comparison. 3 credit.

Walter Tschacher, Ph.D.-Chair, Department of Languages and Professor of Languages

Walter Tschacher, Ph.D.-Professor of Languages
Phone: (714) 628-7276
Office: DeMille Hall 125
Email: Walter Tschacher

From Socrates to Freud
From classical Athens to fin-de-siècle Vienna, cities have provided the context in which writers and artists have addressed questions fundamental to humanity. This course examines select texts and works of art central to the classical, Renaissance and modern, exploring the interaction between text and context and between individual and society. 3 credits.

+-Van Meter-Wilson

	Justine Van Meter, Ph.D.-Assistant Professor of English Phone: (714) 997-6750 Office: DeMille Hall 134 Email: Justine Van Meter Beauties, Beasts, and the Construction of Western Culture Through the study of the origins and transformations of Western myths and fairy tales, in particular, we will explore how storytelling shapes our sense of ourselves and others. We will investigate how social values and expectations are reflected in or constructed by these tales. We will also explore whom the authors of these tales were addressing and what political, historical, and social realities were influencing and guiding their writings. Inevitably, we will ask why and how the recurring motifs within the tales have endured and why and how contemporary authors have subverted or reinforced the themes and lessons of the traditional tales. Above all, we will address how these tales have influenced - and continue to influence - how we understand and define our individual and collective selves as well as those who are other to us. Be prepared: the land of Disney may be near, but our explorations will prove that there is more to these tales than magic castles, sleeping beauties and singing teacups. 3 credits.
	Carolyn Vieira-Martinez, Ph.D.-Assistant Professor of History Phone: (714) 997-6834 Office: Roosevelt Hall 205 Email: Carolyn Vieira-Martinez Imagining Africa In this class we survey how Europeans and Americans redefined "Africa" and "Africans" after 1500, and how those changes shaped experience. The historical conversation was neither monolithic nor hegemonic, yet significant in consequences for the world today. Furthermore, Africans used the dialogue to alter the shape of non-African traditions. Students will learn the history of relations between Africa and the west, the ideas of "Africa" and "Africans" that developed, and their influence on contemporary relations. 3 credits.
	Bart Wilson, Ph.D.-Professor of Economics and Law Phone: (714) 628-7306 Office: Wilkinson Hall 109 Email:Bart Wilson Humanomics: Exchange and the Human Condition What makes a rich nation rich? What makes a good person good? And what do these questions have to do with one another? While exploring these and other questions about markets and ethics, students will challenge the perception of economics as distinct from the humanities. Co-taught with Socratic discussions, this course combines the laboratory method of inquiry into the human propensity to exchange with the cultural interpretation of the human condition in novels, poems, and film. 3 credits.

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»Freshman Foundation Courses

+-FFC Course Descriptions-Fall 2013

+-Artman-Bruns

+-Cumiford-Farrington

+-Frelly-Hanson

+-Hughes-Lewis

+-Machan-O'Leary

+-Robblee-Tschacher

+-Van Meter-Wilson

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