First-Year Research Seminar: Sense and Consensus

Semester and Year	SP 2011
Course Number	FIRST-UG727
Section	001
Instructor	Chinnie Ding
Days	Mon,Wed
Time	11:00 AM - 12:15 PM
Units	4.0
Level	U
Foundation Requirement

Description

Blink. Sniff. Tickle. Eavesdrop. Slurp. We experience the world through our senses. To make sense of what we sense is to navigate between feeling and knowing, immediacy and otherness, idiosyncrasy and consensus. Whether deprivation or overload, sensory experience at once invites description and eludes understanding, challenging writers and scientists alike. This class explores the mechanics as well as the poetics of perception. Students develop individual research topics from a wide range of disciplines, such as literature, music, philosophy, neuroscience, art, and mysticism. Color, pain, noise, metaphor, synesthesia, umami, the sublime, phantom limbs, and "non-lethal" weaponry will be some phenomena we look into. Readings may include works by Marcel Proust, John Cage, Isadora Duncan, Vladimir Nabokov, Oliver Sacks, Emily Dickinson, Michael Pollan, Diane Ackerman, and others. Films and field trips will supplement the readings.

Course Type

First-Year Program: Research Seminars (FIRST-UG)