LSA dean announces theme semesters for next 3 years

Updated 11:45 PM January 7, 2005

LSA dean announces theme semesters for next 3 years

By John Kinch
LSA Communications

LSA has decided upon theme semesters through the academic year 2007, Dean Terrence J. McDonald has announced.

Based upon faculty proposals submitted last spring, theme semesters in the next three years will explore topics as diverse as the cultural treasures of the Middle East, Einstein's Theory of Relativity, and the nature of local and global citizenship.

"Theme semesters mass the intellectual forces of the college and help map connections across our very diverse curriculum at the same time as they often connect the great intellectual and cultural strengths of the University of Michigan to the issues defining our world today," McDonald says. "From now on we will request theme semester proposals from faculty each spring and maintain a list of upcoming semesters several years in advance so that faculty and students will have more time to plan and participate in these great opportunities."

McDonald adds that theme semesters have been an integral part of the teaching and learning experience on campus for 20 years and have provided a unique, interdisciplinary approach to subjects as varied as civil rights, women's rights, the environment, death, food, comedy and many others. Theme semesters encourage faculty and students to explore challenging issues through special courses, guest speakers, performances and other public events.

The new theme semesters will be: Winter 2005, "Cultural Treasures of the Middle East," sponsored by the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies; Fall 2005, "100 Years Beyond Einstein," sponsored by the Departments of Physics and Chemistry; Winter 2006, "Explore Evolution," sponsored by the Exhibit Museum of Natural History, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Museum of Zoology, Museum of Paleontology, Evolution and Human Adaptation Program, and Center for Human Growth and Development; and academic year 2006-07, "The Theory and Practice of Citizenship: from the Local to the Global," sponsored by the LSA Dean's Office and other faculty members.

As part of publicizing the new theme semesters, the college is creating a Web site that will serve as a kind of "one-stop-shopping" for information about theme semesters, says Evans Young, LSA assistant dean for undergraduate education. The site, which went live this month, contains information on upcoming theme semesters, including courses, updated events and news, and links to participating partners both on and off campus.

The Winter 2005 theme semester will include a major loan exhibition of early art from Iran and Iraq at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology; a series of films from Egypt, Turkey and other countries; and public lectures from top visiting scholars.

Additionally, Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti Reads, a popular initiative to promote reading and civic dialogue by having many people read a common book will offer Amin Maalouf's "Leo Africanus," a historical novel that chronicles the exile and travels in the Mediterranean and North Africa of Hassan al-Wazzan, a Muslim whose family along with other Moors and Jews were expelled from Spain after 1492.

Fall 2005 will mark the beginning of a "science theme year," Young says, with faculty in the physics and chemistry departments and Exhibit Museum of Natural History coordinating their efforts to present the key scientific advances of the last 150 years, including the new insights that quantum and relativity theory have added to our understanding of both the origins of the solar system and of life.

New courses will be offered on these subjects and they also will be the focus of the popular Saturday Morning Physics series. First-year students will have the opportunity to conduct hands-on experiments in Randall Physics Laboratory—to which access usually is limited only to advanced students in physics. Among the experiments planned is one in which the students will measure the speed of light.

The Winter 2006 theme semester on evolution will explore the basic concepts of biological evolution—a core concept that frames entire fields of inquiry and informs countless insights and discoveries in a wide range of disciplines, from biology and paleontology to psychology and philosophy.

Theme semester programs will include a public lecture series exploring the interface of evolution and other disciplines, ranging from engineering to law to the arts, a film series, new undergraduate courses, a student research competition, and more to be announced later.

The theme semester is timed to coincide with a National Science Foundation-funded exhibit at the Exhibit Museum, "Explore Evolution," which displays cutting-edge research showing common patterns and principles in the evolution of organisms ranging from the virus to the whale.

For more information, go to the LSA theme semesters Web site at http://www.lsa.umich.edu/lsa/theme.

LSA dean announces theme semesters for next 3 years

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