Course Descriptions

Freshman Foundations Courses

For course section numbers, meeting days, times, and locations, see WebAdvisor. For more information on a particular professor, view the Faculty page.

Description

For more information on a particular professor, view the Faculty page.

FFC 100
Indian Oratory and Philosophy
Paul Apodaca

This course will explore the oratory history of American Indian cultures by examining important speeches, historical comments, and social criticism by American Indians throughout history. Will Rogers, one of the best known American Indian social commentators, used humor to make powerful points. English colonialists in New England learned new philosophies and profound ideas from Iroquois orators whose speeches were attended and recorded by folks like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine. The influence of American Indian thought on the Founding Fathers as seen in commonalities between the Iroquois form of government and that created by their colonial students in the U.S. Constitution is an active area of research. The power of oral culture is an important legacy among all people, and students will learn of the thinking of American Indians from across the Americas as seen in their own words. 3 credits.

FFC 100
American Theatre in Contemporary Culture
Julie Artman
In this course, students will explore how theatre reflects challenges and triumphs in contemporary American culture. We will examine, discuss, and analyze pivotal events during the twentieth century through reading selected plays that reveal America's rich theatrical history. Reviewing performances will provide students with direct observational opportunities to expose the issues facing today's theatrical artists, and students will engage in both analytic and creative projects, individually and collaboratively. 3 credits.

FFC 100
Globalization, Citizenship, and Consumption
Gordon Babst
The course introduces students to the contemporary phenomenon of globalization, analyzes the concept of globalization, and reviews processes of globalization. The course will examine globalization across a range of cultures, settings, and issue areas, with a special focus on globalization's effects on ourselves and other people as world citizens and consumers. 3 credits.

FFC 100
Raiders of the Faux Ark: Archaeology, Ideology, and the Bible
Julye Bidmead
The Garden of Eden, Noah’s Ark, Sodom and Gomorrah, Solomon’s Temple, The Ark of the Covenant, Babylon, the Manger of Jesus. Images ripped from the pages of the Bible combined with sensational accounts of “scholars” finding these famous artifacts and locations have dominated the media in the last few years. But what scholarly validation do these claims have? This class explores the fragile intersections between archaeology, biblical studies, and ideology by investigating recent archaeological discoveries in the ancient Near East to understand the use and misuse of archaeological and historical data. 3 credits.

FFC 100
Lies You Learned in School: Difficult Histories and Critical Theory
Jim Brown
What have your teachers told you about history? Should history only be the story of modern dominant culture or should it be a search for the truth, including histories that contradict an “American Celebrationist” perspective? This course provides a critical analysis of important social themes (e.g., identity, conformity, and responsibility) linked to key histories (e.g., Holocaust, America in Vietnam, and Apartheid), with an emphasis on learning inquiry and participatory approaches to history. The course is based on the assumption that if citizens in a democracy are to value their rights and take responsibility for their actions, they must know not only the triumphs of history but also the failures and tragedies. As students study the historical development and the lessons of “difficult” histories, and consider post-modern and critical theory, they learn to make the essential connections between history and the moral choices they confront in their own lives. This course is especially designed and recommended for those considering teaching as a career. 3 credits.

FFC 100
The New Biology
Anna Brownell
This course introduces students to the philosophical and ethical underpinnings of issues raised by recent advances in genetics, including genetic engineering; genetically modified organisms; genetically modified foods; cloning of plants and animals; the potential for human cloning; stem cell research and its promises; and assisted reproductive therapies. Open to students of all majors. 3 credits.

FFC 100
What Does Literature Do and Why Does It Matter?
Cristina Bruns
We have all encountered literature in various forms and contexts, whether it’s The Odyssey and Romeo and Juliet in school or reading “for fun” like the Harry Potter series. Reading fiction and poetry can entertain us or can at least help us know what most educated people in Western society know, but is that all that it does? In this course we will explore two related questions: What does literature do and why does it matter? Our approach will consist of gathering and analyzing various forms of "data," from scholarly writings to our own experiences with fiction or poetry, the reports or testimonials of other readers, and our observations about how literature is treated in various social settings. The course will function as a collaborative inquiry, all of us working together to arrive at some answers, informed by students’ contributions through individual research projects (examining a particular text or type of text, or a particular kind of reader, for instance).

FFC 100
Intertextuality
Robert Buranello
This course focuses on contemporary literature and the notion of intertextuality, or, books that refer to other books. Basically, it is the shaping of a text’s meanings by its direct or indirect relationship with other texts. It can include an author’s borrowing and transformation of a prior text and/or to a reader’s referencing of one text in reading another. In sum, the class will discuss whether the meaning of the text resides in the text itself, by the reader, or by the complex network of texts involved in the reading process.

FFC 100
Digital Technologies, Social Media and Social Movements
Victoria Carty
In this class students explore the ways in which developing information communication technologies (ICTs) have enabled the emergence of virtual communities via the Internet and other social media to effect social change. We will examine four contemporary social movements and analyze how ICTs affect recruitment patterns, organizing efforts, tactics, strategies, collective identity, and outcomes. We’ll consider both the democratizing/liberating aspects of new media as well as the ability of states and other elites to control new media. The four areas of focus include:  the explosive protests across the Arab world in 2011; the World Social Forum meetings that began in 2001; the Tea Party movement in the United States that emerged in 2009; and the May Day protests in Southern California which began in 2006. In an experiential learning component, students will be doing active research outside of the classroom, interviewing other Chapman students and engaging in community activities regarding one of the four listed topics that most interests them, to gain a critical sense of community and change. 3 credits.

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FFC100
The Classical Legacy in America
William Cumiford
This course focuses on the many ways ancient Greece and Rome contributed to the government, culture, and values of the United States. Beginning with the influence of classical political institutions and continuing with drama, art, architecture and literature, we'll explore the multi-faceted legacy of the ancients in modern American society.

FFC 100
Citizenship and Community
Elizabeth Eastman
Membership in a community is one of the key aspects of human relationships. Through the study of works from various time periods and cultures, we examine what it means to be a citizen, the citizen’s obligations to the larger community, and the many types of communities that people can form. We also explore the numerous challenges that members of a political community—citizens—can experience such as denial of fundamental human rights and external influences that cause the breakdown of traditions and political order and imperil the community or cause it to take on a different form. 3 credits.

FFC 100
The Historian as a Sleuth: Crime in 19th -Century Britain
Leland Estes
In this course students will engage in critical inquiry of a very special and direct kind. History majors and non-majors alike will learn how to examine a topic using actual primary historical sources. Students will work in collaborative research teams, sharing their findings, but will then write individual research papers on the history of some kind or form of criminal activity in nineteenth-century Britain. The research and writing process will include research in various online databases, a written analysis of the relevant historiography, a bibliography, an outline, a first draft, editing and a final version of the paper. Students will also explore what history as a discipline is all about and what historians as members of this discipline do and how they do it. 3 credits.

FFC 100
From Bach to Rock: Music and Society
Robert Frelly
Does music affect society, or are various evolving musical styles simply a continual expression of the subcultures that created them? Changes in social structure and hence in social needs have brought about changes in the function of music; these are the moving forces underlying the growth and development of music as an art throughout history. This course explores the place of music in society and its relation to the life of its time. 3 credits.

FFC 100
Understanding New German Cinema
Karen Gallagher and Mary Litch
What does the art cinema of Germany in the 1970s and early 1980s tell us about the society that created it? How were Germans of the time understanding their place in history as individuals and as a nation? Through extensive study of films within New German Cinema, we will discover the themes that run through this cinematic movement. Co-taught by a Germanist and a philosopher, this course combines examination of New German Cinema as a window on Germany during the politically-turbulent 1970s with a consideration of the enduring philosophical questions addressed by film in this movement. Coursework will include several multimedia assignments, including a short film group project. In addition to class meetings, students are required to attend two evening screenings per week. 3 credits


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FFC 100
Expeditions: Leadership Lessons from Shackleton and the Polar Explorers
Cristina Giannantonio
The era of polar exploration offers students an exciting lens through which to explore the factors necessary for being both a successful leader and an effective follower. The expeditions of polar explorers such as Ernest Shackleton, Robert Falcon Scott, and Roald Amundsen offer students historical case studies from which they can construct the principles of being both a leader who is successful and a follower who is effective in contributing to a team effort. This class will encourage students to both envision and ultimately embark on their own expeditions and to develop their own definitions and operationalizations of success. 3 credits.

FFC 100
Trade and Growth in Early Medieval Europe
Steve Gjerstad
From the seventh through the ninth centuries European civilization collapsed. Trade and cities all but disappeared. During the tenth century, Vikings established a river route from the Baltic Sea to Constantinople where they traded Flemish woolen and linen for eastern goods. From those tenuous beginnings, trade grew rapidly. Cities grew around trade centers, production and specialization increased, and Europe gradually asserted naval control over the Mediterranean. Over the course of the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries, Italian merchants led these developments. They invented new navigation techniques, increased the capacity of ships by a factor of ten, and invented new business techniques – including double entry bookkeeping, portable financial instruments, marine insurance, and deposit banking – to manage their expanding trade. The purpose of this course is to examine the impact of early medieval trade on subsequent economic and social developments in Europe: how did trade change social life, civic organization, philosophical views? What new views emerged that laid the foundations for the later age of Renaissance humanism? We’ll consider the connection of economics and cultural change, with room for discussion of contemporary connections. 3 credits.

FFC 100
Imagining a Sustainable Future
Brian Glaser and Geraldine McNenny
Imagining a sustainable future is, incredibly, a rather recent phenomenon. To live sustainably means to live conscious of the impact that our actions will have on our environment, both locally and globally. And yet, as Alex Steffen of worldchanging.com points out, we don’t really know how to. In effect, thinking about sustainability as a global system is a relative newcomer to the university curricula. And yet, to do so is vitally necessary to our survival as a species. This course will explore what it means to live sustainably from multiple perspectives, in terms of economics and business practices, ecocritical intervention in cultural values and practices, product design and manufacture, food consumption and production, and living arrangements, from architectural design to the cities and towns we inhabit. 3 credits.

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FFC 100
Literary Bad Boys
Jeanne Gunner
Western literature abounds in fictional anti-heroes and real-life radicals. In this course we’ll consider bad-boy characters and authors as figures of cultural resistance. Do these famous figures inspire liberation from social conventions? Are they exceptions our culture memorializes to create an illusion of freedom? Do we use them as alter egos, as “secret sharers,” thereby safely finding outlets for aggression? Or can “bad boys” actually be the source of social and political change? And what of “bad girls”? What role does gender play in this tradition? We’ll read a range of texts from authors such as Jack Kerouac, Lord Byron, Anthony Burgess, Petronius, Chaucer, Marquis de Sade, Toni Morrison, Shakespeare, Emily Bronte, and Cormac McCarthy. Student projects include a study of the bad-boy (or girl) figure in children’s books, contemporary film, or other medium and a creative/critical treatment of the topic in multimedia form. 3 credits.

FFC 100
Banned Books (and Other Issues of Censorship)
Lynda Hall
This course will explore the large topic of censorship, with a particular emphasis on the written text. We will read a variety of books that have been banned throughout history for political, religious, sexual, or social reasons. We will also investigate how films and music are currently rated and regulated. We will explore some important questions about censorship: Who decides what is offensive or dangerous within a particular society? Why are books banned?  Should films and recorded music be rated? How might rating be considered a form of censorship? How consistent or random is the censorship, suppression, or banning of various texts? Is any suppression or censorship necessary or valuable in a free society? 3 credits.

FFC 100
The Christ of History and the Jesus of Faith
Charles Hughes
Jesus Christ has been the dominant religious and cultural figure in Western civilization for two-thousand years. But who was Jesus Christ? Did the leaders of the early apostolic Christian Church work to suppress the truth about Jesus by creating myths about him in order to consolidate and enforce their own authority, or did the apostolic Church fathers instead protect the truth about Jesus by rejecting alternative false views about him? In this class, we will identify and evaluate the historical, philosophical and theological assumptions that inform the positions of important contemporary Jesus scholars so that we can gain a better understanding of what the facts and evidence really are concerning Jesus and the development of early Christianity. 3 credits.

FFC 100
Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: The Transformative Power of Greek Myth
Eileen Jankowski
Thomas Cahill, in his book Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter, argues for the seminal role Greek ideas, literature, and art played in shaping western culture. This course will explore one of the ways the Greeks “matter”—namely, through their development of a grand array of myths that continue to inform Westerners’ views of themselves and others. Through a study of these stories as well as literature and film based on mythic figures or themes, students will analyze Greek myth’s social, historical, and psychological role in shaping cultural formations as well as individual identity. Students will develop a deeper understanding of the conscious and unconscious roots of culture, both to celebrate and to critique the transformative power of myth. In addition to our main text, course readings include The Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer’s The Odyssey, Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, and selections from Joseph Campbell. 3 credits.

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FFC 100
War and Peace from Ancient to Contemporary
Angeliki Kanavou
This course looks at classical Greek readings and applies their concepts and theories on war, peace, conflict resolution, cooperation, and human nature to contemporary issues. The course addresses what stands out in our way of thinking across time and what we have learned from the past by looking at classical works, such as Thucydides, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Euripides, Plato, and Aristotle. Through lectures, films, discussions, and other class activities, the students will explore patterns of human interaction in war and peace during the classical times and how they play out in today’s world. 3 credits.

FFC 100
Visual and Dramatic Narrative Literacy
David Kost
An inquiry into how visual mass media appeals to and affects its audiences, the class explores the deep-seated emotional and psychological appeal and influence of movies, television, and visual internet content. Elements of dramatic narrative and visual storytelling are defined, explored, and understood in terms of how content providers use them to appeal to viewers. Students learn to differentiate the appeal of story from aesthetics, theme, and artistic expression. The approach encourages students to separate their personal reactions from those of others and appreciate the tastes of others. Most importantly, the class builds critical thinking skills around media consumption and encourages students to be savvy media consumers, aware of the way in which media providers are attempting to appeal to and influence them. 3 credits.

FFC 100
Literature Mirrors Society: Manifestations of Social Struggle and Political Repression in Latin American Fiction and Testimony
Alicia Kozameh
The struggle for social equality, justice and survival has been present, in various forms, throughout the existence of humanity. During the second half of the twentieth century, Latin America experienced several processes of social struggle that were met with harsh political repressions--kidnapping, torture, disappearances, concentration camps, prison, and exile among them. Latin American literature has expressed, in fiction and non-fiction, poetry and essay, this complex and violent experience. This course will focus on the reading and discussion of fictional and testimonial texts that reflect the Latin American political and social experience. Students will analyze the way in which society can use creative literary elements to collectively deal with and work through the remnants of turbulent historical moments. 3 credits.

FFC 100
Promiscuous Reading
Kent Lehnhof
In his 1644 tract, Areopagitica, the English author John Milton spoke passionately about "the benefit which may be had of books promiscuously read." Notwithstanding Milton's enthusiasm, a number of other thinkers have expressed concern about the moral effect literature might have on its readers. This course will tackle the question head-on. Reading a wide range of authors, philosophers, and policy-makers, we will consider what kind of impact books have on our character, our behavior, and our morals. Our readings will range both in time (from classical Greece to contemporary American) and genre (from stage plays to legal decisions). 3 credits.

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FFC 100
Faith in Popular Culture
Mildred Lewis
How can pop culture help us to understand an increasingly pluralistic world? This course critically examines the representation of faith in pop culture, including narrative and documentary films, music videos, fashion, sports, graphic novels and the blogosphere. The course will integrate the work of critical and contemporary scholars, including Aristotle, Frederic Jameson, Theodor Adorno, Teresa de Lauretis and Frantz Fanon. The class emphasizes critical thinking, digital literacy, and the integration of scholarly and creative work. 3 credits.

FFC 100
History of Political Philosophy
Tibor Machan
This course will examine the main ideas in political philosophy. We will combine a historical and problems approach studying the views of particular philosophers, starting with some of the key ideas in contemporary politics. Our exploration will center on the views of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Hume, Marx, Mill, Spencer, Strauss, contemporary Marxists such as Marcuse, Habermas, Mao, et al., Welfare Statists and Libertarians. We will also study the concepts of liberty, order, equality, justice, welfare, rights, order, authority, and community. 3 credits.

FFC 100
Introduction to Philosophy
Tibor Machan
The objective of this course is to familiarize students with the discipline of philosophy. We will examine the several branches of this field - metaphysics, epistemology, logic, ethics, politics, and aesthetics--as well as briefly touch on various sub-branches, such as ontology, the philosophy of science, the philosophy of mind, value theory, political philosophy, applied ethics, etc. We will discuss some of the outstanding philosophical problems-- what is the nature of being, what is knowledge, what is truth, is there free will, is there a God, could moral judgments ever be shown to be true, are any values absolute, is justice relative to cultures, how politically important are liberty, order, prosperity, progress, equality and why, and are there stable standards of artistic excellence. 3 credits.

FFC 100
The Future of Media
Robert Magnuson
In this course we’ll analyze the future of media in a world increasingly driven by digital technology.  We’ll explore the future of journalism (writing, balance, and fairness issues); media businesses (print media’s struggles, new revenue streams, and competing business models); and strategic communications (the decline of traditional PR, avoiding crises and protecting reputations, and corporate social responsibility).  The course will include guest lectures from leading media professionals.  Students will be challenged to creatively analyze and formulate solutions to real-world issues, and the class will produce a regular blog based on discussion and research.

FFC 100
From France to Hollywood: Film Remakes and Adaptations
Veronique Olivier-Wallis
This course is designed to help students approach films from a critical perspective by comparing original French versions with their American remakes and adaptations. In our evaluations, we will pay attention to cultural values (Three Men and a Baby), notions of national identity (The Return of Martin Guerre), and economic challenges in the production of film. We will also question the simplistic assumption that the French film is by definition of a higher value, Hollywood being strictly interested in the box office when it comes to adapting or remaking a movie (Besson’s Nikita/ Point of No Return). Films will include various genres and periods. 3 credits.

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FFC 100
Humanomics: Exchange and the Human Condition
Jan Osborn and Bart Wilson
What makes a rich nation rich? What makes a good person good? And what do these questions have to do with one another? While exploring these and other questions about markets and ethics, students will challenge the perception of economics as distinct from the humanities. Co-taught by professors from the Economic Science Institute and the English Department, this course combines the laboratory method of inquiry into the human propensity to exchange with the cultural interpretation of the human condition in novels, lyrics, poems, and film. 3 credits.

FFC 100
Socrates, Science, and the Self
Michael Pace
This course is an introduction to philosophy that focuses on the extent to which science can explain features of ourselves that we hold most dear: our freedom of choice, our sense of right and wrong, and our conscious mental lives. We will discuss important arguments on these topics found in the writings of Plato and contemporary philosophers as well as in literature and film. 3 credits.

FFC 100
Twilight of the Gods
Carmichael Peters
This course examines the history of thought on agnosticism, atheism, and skepticism by studying a comprehensive selection of writings from some of the most celebrated thinkers in the West, past and present. 3 credits.

FFC 100
Reading Women's Lives
Stacy Russo
This course will examine the lives of American women in the 20th and 21st Centuries through autobiography and memoir. Through close readings of several texts, students will critically analyze themes such as body image, disability, ethnicity, the meaning of home, relationships, and what being a woman in the world means within the context of each woman’s story. Each student will act as a biographer to research a notable woman for a collaborative “Book of Women” course project. Different formats, including zines, self portraits, music, diaries, and oral histories will be discussed in addition to our emphasis on published autobiographies and memoirs. 3 credits.

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FFC 100
Skepticism 101, or How to Think Like a Scientist Without Being a Geek
Michael Shermer
The founding publisher of Skeptic magazine and the “Skeptic” monthly columnist for Scientific American will introduce students to the world of skepticism and science through some of the most controversial ideas of our time: science and pseudoscience, superstition and the paranormal, evolution and intelligent design creationism, climate denial and “political” science, pseudohistory and Holocaust denial, UFOs and alien abductions, the afterlife and reincarnation, God and religion, science-based morality and evolutionary ethics, and the neuroscience of belief. You can learn how to think critically and skeptically without becoming a science geek, be open-minded enough to accept new ideas without being so open-minded that your brains fall out. The course includes numerous in-class demonstrations, videos, magic, illusions, and examples from pop culture along with rigorous scientific research. Be prepared to have your worldviews challenged. 3 credits.

FFC 100
Musicals and Cultural Messages
Jessica Sternfeld
Musicals, both on stage and on screen, have always been perceived as lighthearted fun. But they also tackle social and political issues – like war or prejudice – in ways that both reflect and shape their cultural context.  What sorts of lessons do musicals contain? Can a musical shape culture, make people change their minds about an issue?  How do musicals teach their lessons – through music, lyrics, plot, casting, advertising? In this course we’ll study recent musicals on stage and on film, focusing on works that have social or political issues as central themes, likely including Rent; Jesus Christ Superstar; South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut; Into the Woods; Chicago; and more we’ll choose together. We’ll watch the musicals, read criticism and scholarship about them, write about them, and engage in discussions in class and online. Students will also have the opportunity to study a musical of their own choosing, sharing their insights in class or in writing. 3 credits.

FFC 100 
Humanity Against Itself: From Ethnic Cleansing to Global Warming
Doug Sweet
Students examine acts of genocides throughout history to examine how these disparate events share historical roots and developmental patterns. Our overarching question is whether human social organization, as such, contains seeds of its own destruction in its structural/conceptual operations. Students will continue research for the “History of Genocide” project already created by previous FFC classes as we move from physical to electronic display of the mural. This will be a writing-intensive course for those who want to strengthen and broaden their experience with academic discourse, offering a rhetorical approach to university-level writing. 3 credits.

FFC 100
From Socrates to Freud
Walter Tschacher
From classical Athens to fin-de-siècle Vienna, cities have provided the context in which writers and artists have addressed questions fundamental to humanity. This course examines select texts and works of art central to the classical, Renaissance, and modern, exploring the interaction between text and context and between individual and society. 3 credits.

FFC 100
Issues of Gender and Identity in European Cinema
Angela Tumini
The aim of this course is to help students develop the critical ability to "read" films within their historical, political, and cultural contexts and to enable them to identify relevant and recurring themes. We will focus on European cinema, and we will address issues of identity-- how a single European identity cannot be established through films' reflections of the societies they represent; the complex relationship between the gender identity of female characters and, in some cases, the repressive patriarchal structure of the society they belong to; the role of motherhood; the defined ranking, behavior, and appropriate attitude of family members; and other social constructions of the self in relation to society. 3 credits.

FFC 100
Beauties, Beasts, and the Construction of Western Culture
Justine Van Meter
Through the study of the origins and transformations of Western myths and fairy tales, in particular, we will explore how storytelling shapes our sense of ourselves and others. We will investigate how social values and expectations are reflected in or constructed by these tales. We will also explore whom the authors of these tales were addressing and what political, historical, and social realities were influencing and guiding their writings. Inevitably, we will ask why and how the recurring motifs within the tales have endured and why and how contemporary authors have subverted or reinforced the themes and lessons of the traditional tales. Above all, we will address how these tales have influenced - and continue to influence - how we understand and define our individual and collective selves as well as those who are other to us. Be prepared: the land of Disney may be near, but our explorations will prove that there is more to these tales than magic castles, sleeping beauties, and singing teacups. 3 credits.

FFC
Imagining Africa
Carolyn Vieira-Martinez
In this class we survey how Europeans and Americans redefined “Africa” and “Africans” after 1500, and how those changes shaped experience.  The historical conversation was neither monolithic nor hegemonic, yet significant in consequences for the world today.  Furthermore, Africans used the dialogue to alter the shape of non-African traditions.  Students will learn the history of relations between Africa and the west, the ideas of “Africa” and “Africans” that developed, and their influence on contemporary relations.

FFC 100
Quality Education as a Constitutional Right
Kimberly White-Smith
This course explores the cultural and social realities of education in modern, urban, industrial, global society. There are three main course outcomes: increased understanding of the current crisis in public education for traditionally underserved students; a collection of local initiatives, programs and ideas to address the crisis; and a national campaign calling for quality education as an enforceable legal right.

FFC 100
All About Auctions
Abel Winn
How does Google AdWords match advertisers to web searchers? What will the “trade” look like in America’s carbon emission cap-and-trade system? How should you bid in Chapman’s reserve parking auction? In this course students will explore the history, nature, and implementation of auctions in all manner of commercial, regulatory and scientific applications. Special emphasis will be placed on the design of auction rules to efficiently allocate resources and generate revenue, two characteristics that are sometimes in tension. Students will exercise critical thinking as they analyze the ability of various auction designs to strike a balance between these goals. They will also develop an ability to look beyond the descriptive rules of an auction to analyze the behavior they will elicit from bidders. Participation in simulated auctions will motivate most of the classroom lectures. This course offers students the opportunity to learn from experts who have analyzed, designed and implemented auctions for real-world applications. 3 credits.

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