One Course • Three Weeks • A mini semester packed with learning and fun!

A few facts:

• Maymester is May 14-June 1, including Memorial Day.
• Classes will meet two-and-a-half hours per day, five days a week for three weeks.
• Classes will be scheduled between 9 a.m. and noon unless otherwise noted, but afternoon or evening sessions may be scheduled to accommodate films, class trips, etc.
• Current Hendrix students are given priority in registration and courses will count toward graduation requirements.
• Select from many classes taught by Hendrix faculty or special visiting faculty.
• Maymester is not designed as an appropriate entry point for degree-seeking students, and students who will enter Hendrix College in the upcoming fall semester are not eligible for enrollment in Maymester 2012.

Registration:

• Pre-registration opens 8 a.m. Monday, February 20, and closes at 5 p.m. on Friday, March 2. Proposed courses with low pre-registered enrollment may be removed from the schedule.
• Registration will continue through the Spring Semester, depending on availability. Final add/drop date is 5:00 p.m. on Monday, May 14, the first day of Maymester classes.
• The regular registration process will be followed:
  • Make course selection through Web account from the offerings in Term 3S
  • Select one course and one optional alternate
  • Advisor must confirm
  • Bid points will not be accepted

Benefits:

• Earn a class credit in three intense weeks.
• Catch up and graduate on time, if you’re a class short.
• Explore topics that might not be offered during regular semesters.
• Focus on one class with fewer distractions.
• Enjoy a full range of student activities planned just for you.
• Have a chance to earn Odyssey credit.

Timeline of Events: 

• February 20, 2012 through March 2, 2012 — Pre-registration period open.
• March 5, 2012 — Final schedule of courses determined based on pre-registration results.
• March 5, 2012 through May 14, 2012 — Registration period open.
• May 9, 2012 — Final payment due.
• May 14, 2012 through June 1, 2012 — Maymester classes.
• May 14, 2012 (5:00 p.m.) — Deadline to add course.
• May 18, 2012 (5:00 p.m.) — Deadline to drop course with no grade.
• May 25, 2012 (5:00 p.m.) — Deadline to drop course with “W”.
• June 1, 2012 — Final exam.
• June 6, 2012 — Grades posted.

Costs: 

• Tuition: $2,500
• Room rate—residence halls, residence house—double, tier one apartments: $450
• Room rate—residence house—single: $470
• Room rate—tier two apartments: $485
• Meals—no meal plan, Burrow hours: 11:45-1:30 for lunch; 4:00-6:00 for dinner, Monday through Friday

For more details:

Contact Dr. Robert Entzminger, Provost, Entzminger@hendrix.edu.

Courses Offered:

Digital Art I

Instructor: Cowper-Smith, Melissa

Contact: Maxine Payne

Course #: ARTS 130

Description: This course will introduce students to the visual, conceptual, and technical fundamentals of using a computer to make art. Adobe Creative Suite software will be used as a tool for creative exploration and self-expression within the tradition of fine arts. 
Coding: (none)

Special Topics: Beginning Bookbinding: Fundamentals of Modern Hand Bookbinding

Instructor: Jensen, Craig

Contact: Melissa Gill and Tyrone Jaeger

Course #: ARTS 290

Description: A book has the potential to cross and combine many forms of expression within a single object. A book can be a sculpture, a journal, a collection of writings, drawings, photographs, paintings, prints, or stories; it is an interactive art form that inherently includes the element of time, but conveys the weight of its historical use as a medium of learning. The bookbinder makes binding into an art when choosing a specific binding method that reflects, or re-interprets, the content of the book. All of these conditions and more are considered when designing a unique hand-made book structure.

All coursework will be completed in a studio setting. The course will begin with a section on paste papermaking, which will generate materials to be used with the bindings that students will produce later in the course.

A series of cloth and paper bindings of various structural types will be produced, beginning with single signature pamphlets and non-adhesive structures, progressing to multiple signature hardcover bindings. A model of at least one historic binding structure will be made in the class. Student swill complete the course with an understanding of basic book binding structures which may be applied to the design and dissemination of small press magazines and journals, chapbooks, or creative writing thesis projects. All students will produce a series of blank books that can be used as journals, sketchbooks or as models for future projects.

Note: This course will meet for four hours per day.

Coding: AC, EA

Medical Etymology

Instructor: Resinski, Rebecca

Course #: CLAS 255

Description: A study of the Latin and Greek elements used in current medical terminology. This course aims to put medical vocabulary in a linguistic context. The course will be taught primarily during Maymester. Either CLAS 250 or CLAS 255 may count toward the Classics major or Classics minor, but not both. No prerequisite.

Coding: (none) 

Creative Writing Special Topics: Make It Old: What Non-Contemporary Poetry Has to Teach Us

Instructor: Range, Melissa

Contact: Tyrone Jaeger

Course #: ENGC 390

Description: When Ezra Pound famously charged poets to “Make it new,” he wasn’t suggesting throwing out everything that had come before—he was inviting poets to re-examine old forms and traditions, to dust them off, to re-work and refresh them. Pound, with his own interests in Old English elegy, medieval French and Italian troubadour poetry, Chinese ideograms, and Japanese haiku, was fascinated by the poetry that had come before him, and he re-worked those older forms into something vibrant and new. In this class, we’ll take Pound’s approach, trying on a variety of poetic forms and traditions from before 1950. Forms and genres we’ll explore will include (but are not limited to) some of the following: Sapphic love poems; Greek epitaphs and epigrams; Anglo-Saxon riddles and charms; late medieval carols and troubadour poetry; French rondeaux; Shakespearian blank verse; metaphysical sonnets; 17th century pastoral elegies; 19th-century American ballad stanzas, political poems, and dialect poems; Victorian portrait poems; American blues poems; and modernist collage. Our approach will be historical as well as formal; as we read and write, we’ll delve into the historical and literary contexts in which these forms flourished, and, in some cases, were revived.

 

Readings will chiefly come from a course packet. Students will write and workshop 10-12 poems, write a short reflection on the poetic form of their choice, turn in a final portfolio of 6-8 revised poems, and participate in an end-of-term class poetry reading.  

Coding: AC, EA

Crime Literature and Film

Instructor: West, Carol

Course #: ENGL 272

Description: An examination of crime fiction and non-fiction from the 1840's to the present, including focuses on Poe's early detective stories, Doyle's Sherlock Holmes canon, the Golden Age of British detective fiction, the American "hard-boiled" detective genre, and police procedurals. Crime film offerings will include film noir, Hitchcock's canonical works, and neo-noir. 

Coding: LS, W1

Introduction to Asian Music and Dance

Instructor: Griebling, Karen and Rogers, Brigitte

Course #: MUSI/DANC 205

Description: This course adds a non-western element to the dance curriculum along with enhancing the study of the relationship between music and movement from a cultural perspective. Field study opportunities, research, written projects and oral/movement presentations are emphasized. Designed for all student regardless of background. No prerequisite. An introductory music, dance, theatre anthropology or sociology course may be helpful. 

Coding: AC, EA

Special Focus: Philosophy of Sport

Instructor: Dow, James

Course #: PHIL 200

Description: What might philosophers have to say about the action of Robinson Cano throwing a baseball to first base? Are athletes thinking about their bodily movements or would such thinking slow down or interrupt their action? What kind of knowledge is exhibited by his expertise? Do the expert actions of athletes help us understand the nature of the body? In this course we will explore these and other related questions by studying the nature of action generally and expert action in particular. The data for our philosophical reflection will be derived from sports examples, the reports of athletes and experts, and our own phenomenological reports of our own bodies in action.

Coding: VA

Special Focus: Ethics and Pornography

Instructor: Campolo, Chris

Course #: PHIL 200

Description: In this course we will examine a host of ethical issues and questions that arise in the contexts of the production and consumption of pornography in our culture (and to a small degree, in other cultures).  We will examine the history of attempts to define pornography and to distinguish it from other things.  We will ask about the conditions of the production of pornography, about the morality, exploitation, autonomy, and consent of those involved in various ways.  We will examine debates about the relationship of pornography to sexual morality in general and to sexual crime in particular.  We will discuss the role of pornography in political movements.  We will explore the ethical import of approaches to censorship.  We will examine feminist and post-colonial arguments for and against pornography as a form of free speech.  

Coding: VA

Introductory Topics in Physics: Physics of Superheroes

Instructor: Wright, Andrew

Course #: PHYS 100

Description: An introduction to fundamental physics principles, the scientific process, and the mathematical language of science, used to analyze topics drawn from superheroes and science fiction literature.  

Coding: NS

Robotics Explorations Studio

Instructor: Ferrer, Gabe

Course #: PHYS/CSCI 135

Description: Introduction to mechanical design and computer programming in the context of building and programming mobile robots. Mechanical design topics will include vectors and forces, Newton’s Laws, gears, motors, rotational motion, friction, and the design process. Computer science topics will include an introduction to programming, the programming of sensors and motors, and an introduction to artificial intelligence. Other topics include application of scientific method, teamwork skills, technical writing, and the relationship between the science fiction portrayal of robots and current technological reality.

Coding: NS-L

Astronomy

Instructor: Wright, Ann

Course #: PHYS 160

Description: A study of the structure and evolution of the universe. Topics include how astronomers observe and interpret phenomena, models of the solar system, life cycle of stars, and current models of the universe.

Coding: NS

Illusions and the Brain

Instructor: Puri, Mita

Course #: PSYC 180

Description: This course will provide an intensive introduction to neuroscience by examining what is known about the neural basis of a variety of perceptual and cognitive illusions. Students will gain an understanding of how "normal" and illusory percepts arise via shared mechanisms within different sensory modalities including vision, audition, and somatosensation, and within cognitive systems such as memory and attention. Empirical articles related to current topics in the perceptual, cognitive and neuroscientific basis of illusions will be assigned and discussed.

Coding: SB

Sleep and Dreaming

Instructor: Peszka, Jennifer

Course #: PSYC 185

Description: This course will cover basic psychological principles by applying them to the study of sleep and dreaming. Students will combine hands-on experiences (e.g., keeping a wake-sleep diary, observing a night in a sleep lab) with theoritcal readings and discussion on topics such as, what is sleep, measurement of sleep, circadian rhythms, sleep hygiene, sleep disorders, sleep deprivation, and dream theories.

Coding: SB 

 

Instructor: Zorwick, Leslie
Course #: PSYC 190
Description: This course will cover curernt theory and empirical research in Social Psychology and will use popular films to provoke thought and analysis over this theory and research. Students will learn about basic topic areas in Social Psychology (stereotypes, obedience, person perception, aggression, persuasion, etc.) by reading articles and will discuss these readings in the context of films associated with each major topic area.
Coding: SB 

Instructor: Maslin-Wicks, Kim
Course #: POLI 365
Description: This topics course will introduce the student to the law, legal reasoning and the role of the judicial branch in public policy.  We will examine a series of cases involving civil rights and criminal law.  We will delve into the context in which the case emerges, the arguments presented by the plaintiff, defendant, amicus curiae, the Court’s opinion, any concurring or dissenting opinions and the subsequent impact on public policy. 
Coding: CW, SB