Writing-Based Inquiry Seminars:
Descriptions for Fall 2008
(please note: section topics and descriptions are subject to change)
Title: Conversations about Family
Course: WBIS 188
Section: 002
Instructor: Baker, Laura J.
This WBIS will offer glimpses of family life through stories, essays, academic research-based articles, editorials, photography, and film. We will examine "family" as a theme, both instinctual and intellectual. We will begin the semester by studying a historical perspective of childhood and family to understand how these concepts have changed over time. We will then study and discuss the contemporary family, both the public (political and social) sphere of family and the private (personal) sphere of family. We will explore our own emotional attachments to our families as we also take on its academic side. What are so-called "family values"? Did a golden era family life ever really exist? How do we define our own families? Is it possible to form identities for ourselves wholly separate from the influence of our parents and siblings? How do biology and psychology determine who we become?