Week 1 (Jan. 9)	Week 2 (Jan. 14-16)	Week 3 (Jan. 21-23)	Week 4 (Jan. 28-30)
Week 5 (Feb. 4-6)	Week 6 (Feb. 11-13)	Week 7 (Feb. 18-20)	Week 8 (Feb. 25-27)
(Spring Break)	Week 9 (Mar. 11-13)	Week 10 (Mar. 18-20)	Week 11 (Mar. 25-27)
Week 12 (Apr. 1-3)	Week 13 (Apr. 8-10)	Week 14 (Apr. 15-17)	Week 15 (Apr. 22)
Procedures, Requirements, and Grading Policy Student Projects (samples from this year and previous classes)

 

 

Thursday - Introduction

 

 

Tuesday - The Basics of Genetics

View online: "Cracking the Code of Life" (2 hour PBS special, Nova [2002])

Thursday -

Gattaca (1997), Andrew Niccol, dir.

 

 

Tuesday -

Read Andrea Barrett, Ship Fever (1996), pp. 11-33, 103-22.

Map of Wallace's voyages from London's Natural History Museum

 

Thursday - Old Visions of the Future

Read Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, Ch. 10 (Ch. 15 recommended but not required) (online text). Use any edition that reprints Darwin's final revisions (1860 or later), if you can find one. Otherwise use the 2nd edition (1845), which is the one I have put on reserve in Central Library.

Read Andrea Barrett, Ship Fever (1996), pp. 80-102

Tuesday -

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818). Complete the first half of the novel.

 

Thursday -

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818). Finish the novel.

 

 

 

Tuesday -

Ridley Scott (dir.), Blade Runner (1982; Director's Cut, 1992)

Philip R. Reilly, "Xenotransplantation: Animal Organs to Save Humans" (pp. 199-210) - Reserve Room, Central Library

 

Thursday - Eugenics

Read Aldous Huxley, Brave New World. Complete the first half of the novel.

Huxley, "Note on Eugenics" (Reserve Room, Central Library)

Francis Galton, "Hereditary Talent and Character" (1865)

 

 

 

 

Tuesday -

Read Aldous Huxley, Brave New World. Finish the novel.

J. B. S. Haldane, "Daedalus, or, Science and the Future" (1923)

Topics for Paper 1.

 

Thursday -

Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, "Genes and History" (pp. 3-33) in Genes, Peoples, and Languages (2000) - Reserve Room, Central Library

Ellen Wright Clayton (guest lecturer). Read her essay, "Through the Lens of the Sequence" (Prometheus, Files module, Collaborative files)

 

 

 

Tuesday - Autobiography of a Geneticist

Read the first half of James D. Watson, The Double Helix

Thursday -

Finish James D. Watson, The Double Helix

 

 

Jurassic Park (1993), Steven Spielberg, dir.

Stephen Jay Gould, "Dolly's Fashion and Louis's Passion," from Nussbaum and Sunstein, Clones and Clones (Reserve Room, Central Library)

Thursday -

Eva Hoffman, The Secret (2002). Complete the first half of the novel.

 

 

 

Tuesday -

Eva Hoffman, The Secret (2002). Finish the novel.

Thursday -

Multiplicity (1996), Harold Ramis, dir.

Martha Nussbaum, "Little C," from Nussbaum and Sunstein, Clones and Clones (Reserve Room, Central Library)

 

Tuesday -

The 6th Day (2000), Directed by Roger Spottiswoode

Philip R. Reilly, "Xenotransplantation: Animal Organs to Save Humans" (pp. 199-210) in Abraham Lincoln's DNA (2000) - Reserve Room, Central Library

Thursday -

Zadie Smith, White Teeth (2000). Complete the first third of the novel.

 

Tuesday -

Zadie Smith, White Teeth (2000). Complete two-thirds of the novel.

 

Thursday -

Zadie Smith, White Teeth (2000). Finish the novel.

 

 

Tuesday -

Fight Club (1999), David Fincher, dir.

Dean Hamer and Peter Copeland, "The Search for a 'Gay Gene'" (pp. 17-38) and "Appendix A" (pp. 223-33) in Hamer and Copeland, The Science of Desire (Reserve Room, Central Library)

 

Thursday - Eugenics

Read Simon Mawer, Mendel's Dwarf (1998). Complete the first half of the novel.

 

Tuesday - Forensic Genetics

Read Simon Mawer, Mendel's Dwarf (1998). Finish the novel.

Thursday -

Recommended: Richard Lewontin, "Gene and Organism" (pp. 1-38) in The Triple Helix (2000) - Reserve Room, Central Library

Recommended: Richard Dawkins, Ch. 3, The Blind Watchmaker (1986) - Reserve Room, Central Library

 

 

Tuesday -

Philip Kerr, A Philosophical Investigation (1992)

Recommended: Philip R. Reilly, "Cold Hits: The Rise of DNA Felon Databanks" (pp. 65-77) and "Genes and Violence: Do Mutations Cause Crime" (pp. 79-91) in Abraham Lincoln's DNA (2000) - Reserve Room, Central Library

Topics for Paper 2

Thursday -

Philip Kerr, A Philosophical Investigation (1992)

Recommended: Lori Andrews, "Predicting Future Acts" (pp. 128-38) in Ronald A. Carson and Mark A. Rothstein, Behavioral Genetics: The Clash of Culture and Biology (1999) - Reserve Room, Central Library

Quiz to cover White Teeth, Mendel's Dwarf, and Philosophical Investigation

 

 

 

 

Tuesday -

Second paper, research paper, or project due, 4:00 p.m. - Post all papers in Word to Prometheus (File module, Jay Clayton's Inbox). For digital projects or PowerPoint presentations, put materials on a CD or disk in my mailbox in Benson Hall (third floor).

Topics for Paper 2

Class canceled in lieu of special session on Wednesday.

Wednesday - 5:00-7:00

Special session for presentation of digital media projects. Steveson 1308.

• Option 1:
  • Two 5-page papers (due Feb. 14 and Apr. 18). Each paper will count for 30% of the semester's grade.
    
    
    
• Option 2:
  • Digital media project (due Apr. 22). The project will count for 60% of the semester's grade.
    
    
• Option 3:
  • Research paper (15-20 pages) due Apr. 22 - 60% of the semester's grade.
    
    
• Regular reading quizzes will constitute 30% of the grade.
  
  
• Class discussion will count for 10% of the grade.
  
  
• Student Projects (samples from Spring, 2003 and previous classes)

Jay Clayton

Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt English