HNRS 240: Reading the Past (Topic Varies)

HNRS 240-009: The History of Normal: Monsters, Freaks, and Crips
(Fall 2017)

03:00 PM to 04:15 PM MW

Innovation Hall 131

Section Information for Fall 2017

Before 1840 or so, the word "normal" commonly meant "perpendicular." This meaning derived from the carpenter's square, called a "norm."  Today we rely heavily on a very different idea of "normal.”  How did people make sense of themselves and each other without this sense of "normal," and how did this idea come to have the power it holds today? This course will focus on the rise of statistics, medicine, education, and the state in nineteenth-century Britain, arguing that these developments created new ways of seeing ourselves and others that now feel natural. In addition to medical and statistical models, we will consider wonder, the monstrous, cruelty, pain, laughter, sentiment, and the freak as categories that eighteenth and nineteenth-century writers use to frame the very different behaviors, minds, and bodies they try to describe. Finally, we will take a look at the field of disability studies as a place where social history and political activism intersect. Course work will include a class presentation, short papers, quizzes, and a 7-page research project (in discussion with me, you are free to research any topic of your choice, as long as it is relevant to the intellectual framework of the class). This class demands a good deal of discussion and interaction. In order to help us focus on this task, I do not allow the use of cell phones or laptops during class time.

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Course Information from the University Catalog

Credits: 3

Course topic varies by semester and section. Students will pursue focused questions about a historical problem or situate a contemporary social issue in historical context. Students assess what is at stake in specific historiographic debates, consider how historical narratives are constructed and contested, and/or apply historical perspectives to analyze pressing social issues.Limited to three attempts.
Specialized Designation: Topic Varies
Registration Restrictions:

Required Prerequisites: HNRS 110C, 110XS, 302C, 302XS, 109C or 109XS.
C Requires minimum grade of C.
XS Requires minimum grade of XS.

Enrollment limited to students with the Honors College (Business)., Honors College (STEM). or Honors College. attributes.

Schedule Type: Seminar
Grading:
This course is graded on the Undergraduate Regular scale.

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