TASP 2007 Descriptions Posted!!

SCORE! Gaaaaah, I want to go to these new TASPs!!

So here are the CI & CII descriptions for your reading pleasure and emotional torture:

CII:

The Renaissance marks a singular moment in the history of consciousness regarding the human body. In the realm of the visual arts, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian and others revived classical ideals of the body in their own works. In turn, their studies of the body’s mechanics helped to shape the ways in which scientists perceived and represented the body, inaugurating the rise of anatomy as an academic discipline. At the same time, doctors studied the function and dysfunctions of the body, scrutinizing the symptoms and origins of diseases, and establishing new protocols for the treatment of illnesses. Theological debates of the two great religious reformations of the sixteenth century also reflect a new preoccupation with the body as the site of salvation and corruption. The religious controversies of that era, including the horrific wars of religion, turned in part on conflicting explanations of the Christian Eucharistic ritual and the body of Christ within that ritual. Social and political theories of the age also analyzed the place of individual bodies within the larger “body politic.” In order to establish a coherent or uniform social body, these theorists often proposed the marginalization, containment, or control of bodies categorized by gender, race or ethnicity, health or sickness, or other markers of somatic difference. Popular art forms, such as theatre, staged these debates and controversies “in the flesh,” thereby arousing the good spirits of the viewers, or the ire of the crown or clergy. How did Renaissance men and women understand and “inhabit” their bodies? How did they understand the relation of mind and body, or body and soul? How did they differentiate their own bodies from those of others? In this course we will explore the rich literature, art, political theory, science, and religion of the Renaissance with an eye to these questions, analyzing the varied perspectives on the body presented within these conceptual registers. Certain of these perspectives still inform our own body images in many ways, while others seem remarkably foreign and puzzling. We will consider how body aesthetics were used to enforce and uphold social and political hierarchies. We will also consider how scientific analogies for the body (e.g., a fluid, chaotic, constantly metamorphosing entity, or a complex, machine-like structure) reflect or conflict with the regulatory impulses of early modern culture. Together we will analyze an intriguing array of printed and visual texts concerning the body, its marvels and its mysteries, among them works by Vespucci, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Colonna, Maier, Montaigne, de Bry, Paré, Shakespeare, Vesalius, and Descartes. We will also read selections from the growing secondary literature on Body Studies, including theoretical studies by Michel Foucault, Elizabeth Grosz, Judith Butler, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, and Antonio Damasio. As an added bonus, this seminar will make use of the print collection in Cornell’s Johnson Art Museum and the Rare and Manuscript Collections.

CI:

Why has The Battle of Algiers, a low-budget film from 1966, become the most closely watched film in the Pentagon since 9-11? When Ronald Reagan dubbed the Soviet Union the “evil empire,” did he know that George Lucas’ inspiration for the emperor was actually President Nixon? If not for the improbable rise to the Presidency of George W. Bush, would the classic Cold War film The Manchurian Candidate have re-entered the public consciousness (and American theaters, in a re-make starring Denzel Washington)? This course considers how ideas about major themes in the history of world politics have been expressed through film. The course includes a review of principal theories of International Relations as well as a consideration of visual analysis: how film makers express their ideas through the construction, juxtaposition, and manipulation of images. We consider a range of topics, including the World Wars; the Cold War; conflicts in Algeria, Bosnia, and Chechnya; nuclear strategy; war crimes; terrorism; nationalism and separatism. Students will become acquainted with and critically evaluate the main theoretical approaches to the study of international politics. They will learn how to “read” films and will share and debate their interpretations of what they see. Readings cover a wide spectrum of genres, from state-of-the-art international relations theory, seminal essays on gender and nationalist violence, influential discussions of military strategy, and the writings of critics on the politics and aesthetics of film noir and other genres. The types of films we will watch and discuss are equally diverse, from directors such as Oliver Stone (Platoon), Alfred Hitchcock (Lifeboat), and Stanley Kubrick (Paths of Glory), as well as lesser-known film makers from Quebec, Russia, and Yugoslavia.

Oh Lordy... The other ones sound excellent as well, so go ahead and take a peek. UT Austin's sounds KILLER! Absolutely fantastic. Check out the reading list! Gah! http://www.tellurideassociation.org/Austin.html

So yeah, there you go, guys. ^_^

OH. And for those of you who haven't seen it, Kelly has a new video: Txt Msg Brkup. :P