Forthcoming seminars
Spring 2013
HONO 1395.01, MW 3:10-4:25
Nature, Society and Conservation
offered by Dr. Andrew Kasner
click here for more information.
This course will cover the biology of selected species with unique importance to Texas, its economy, and its citizens. In addition, it will cover issues related to nature appreciation and ecotourism, conservation of nature, and modern day problems of sustainable use of natural resources. It is intended for any student, not just those in the sciences, in order to help them gain an understanding of their relationship to nature regardless of their career path.
TEXTBOOKS: Leopold, Aldo. 1949. A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There
(Special Commemorative Edition, 1989). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505305-2.
Dunn, J.L. and J. Alderfer. 2011. National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North
America, Sixth Edition (paperback). National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C.
ISBN 978-1426208287.
You will be required to spend time “birding” on your own and one or more Field Trips will be taken as part of the class. These are meant to enhance your academic experience and perspective. At least one local field trip will be taken to view local wildlife and learn about conservation issues in the Southern High Plains. A “capstone” field trip may also be taken over a weekend later in the semester during which we may go birding and capture and band birds in the field. Please come prepared and dress appropriately for field trips (close-toed shoes and pants, sunscreen, bug spray, etc.). Also, many of the places we may visit will have others there seeking to enjoy nature – please respect this with quiet, professional behavior at all times.
Tentative List of Topics*
What is conservation?
“Biophilia” (or a history of man’s love of nature)
Ecological services and the “Tragedy of the Commons”
What is sustainability?
Ecotourism, nature appreciation and economics
North American Model of Wildlife Conservation
Endangered Species Conservation and Management
Bird Biology and Migration for the amateur naturalist
*Readings will be assigned prior to covering the topics above. Some readings will be from the scientific or popular literature and some will be from the course text.
Fall 2013
HONO 1395/3394, MW 1:45-3:00
Utopia and Dystopia: Political Visions of the Human Condition
Offered by Dr. Geoff Wells
Sir Thomas More’s Libellius…de optimo reipublicae statu, deque nova insula Utopia is the first literary reference to “utopia,” but it was not the first, nor will it be the last, to describe the ideal commonwealth. Whether as prescription or ironic satire, efforts since Plato’s Republic to imagine and describe the best or happiest state have intrigued and mesmerized us, and will continue to fascinate us so long as we struggle with and against our own imperfections, and as we hope for a better existence in the midst of so much human agony and suffering. But salutary visions can as easily frighten us: prescription is so much easier than subscription. How do we know when beauty is ugliness, and ugliness beauty, or the despair of mankind our best hope? Are we prisoners of the reality we know? When is the ideal our greatest enemy? When is the ease from labor only the new drudgery or the freedom of leisure only the travail of slavery? Is there an end to history? We will explore these questions in literature, film, art, and popular culture, on a journey that takes us from our first visions of Eden and the fall of humanity to the rapturous visions of emancipation through our own efforts to create the ideal state and the millennium of peace on earth.
Spring 2014
HONO 1396
The Culture and History of Food