In this Department  Fall Semester Courses  Spring Semester Courses Catalog  Main Page General Information  College of Arts and Sciences  Conservatory of Music Double-Degree Program  Other Links  Registrar's Office Office/Departmental Directory  Arts and Sciences Main Page London Program The program was instituted as a memorial to the late Emil Danenberg, eleventh president of Oberlin and a great friend to international education. Through the Danenberg Oberlin-in-London Program, up to 26 students each semester study in London for Oberlin credit. Two Oberlin faculty members, each from a different discipline, direct the program in the fall and spring. Faculty for the fall semester program will be: Phyllis Gorfain, Professor of English Bruce Richards, Professor of Physics Faculty for the spring semester program will be: Michael Henle, Professor of Mathematics Andrew Shanken, Assistant Professor of Art Admission to the program is by application only. Applications are due in March for the fall semester and in October for the spring semester. Students are notified by mail each semester when the applications are available. Applications are reviewed by the faculty directors of the program and by the chair of the London Program Committee. The program is open to any Oberlin student who will be at least a second-semester sophomore at the time of the program. Special conditions of academic preparedness may apply for the individual semesters and courses. The faculty and committee will be especially interested in students who show a serious interest in taking advantage of the resources of the program. The faculty and committee hope for applications from a wide range of Oberlin students and are prepared to recognize a number of different cases for admission. Limited funds are available to sponsor two credits' worth of music study for a small number of Conservatory performance or composition majors each semester. Applications for those funds can be picked up in King 105 and should be turned in with the standard application for admission to the program. The program maintains classrooms, an office, a lounge, and study space in London. Administrative Director Gwyneth Love lives in London and has general responsibility for the on-site coordination of the program. Students live in small groups away from the study center, usually in small semi-independent apartments ("flats") with limited kitchen facilities and study space. The program cost is equivalent to that of a semester at Oberlin, plus transatlantic airfare (approximately $250 of which will be credited on the term bill). Financial aid is available to the same degree as for a semester in residence. Students are given a weekly allowance in cash to cover costs of buying food, minimal household necessities, and passes for tube and bus travel within London. As at Oberlin, students will need some extra pocket money for textbooks, personal costs, entertainment, and traveling. Each student's academic program will normally include 14 credit hours: an interdisciplinary, team-taught course; one departmental course; and a two-credit course on British history and culture. In all cases, course work will have a strong experiential component, involving the student in the cultural, natural, and institutional life of London and Great Britain. Further information about the program may be found on the web at www.oberlin.edu/~london. back to top Fall Semester Courses 900. The Danenberg Lectures on British Culture and Society 2 hours 2EX First Semester. An introduction to the history and culture of Britain, examining the roots of contemporary London and Britain by exploring selected topics in social, political, and cultural history from antiquity to the modern era. The course will be coordinated by both instructors, but taught by a series of visiting experts (who will speak and lead discussions in their fields) and supplemented by field trips to museums and pertinent historical sites. This course is for all students. Note: CR/NE grading. Consent of instructor required. Ms. Gorfain, Mr. Richards 926. It's About Time: Time in Literature and Physics 6 hours 3HU, 3NS, WR First Semester. We will study, in literature, how works use concepts, technologies, and experiences of time; and, in physics, methods of measuring time, the direction of time, and Einstein's theory of relativity. Views of linear or cyclic time and the role of time concepts in social history and folklore will be considered. Papers and individual projects will be required; guest speakers, and field trips to time-related sites in and near London. No mathematics beyond simple algebra. Ms. Gorfain, Mr. Richards 927. Acting Up: Theatre in London 6 hours 6HU, WR First Semester. By reading scripts and regularly attending performances in a variety of London venues, students will explore and critique how production values, actors' interpretations, and other performance conditions realize the potential meanings and effects of scripts. Selection of plays will include works by major acting companies as well as fringe productions. Students will write their own reviews, critique published reviews, and stage scenes themselves to gain fluency in the many production elements that contribute to meaning. Ms. Gorfain 928. Making Waves: Light and Sound in Performance Spaces 6 hours 6NS, QPh First Semester. Following a survey of the physical characteristics of waves, we will study the acoustics of theatres and concert halls and the theory of color and color mixing with applications to theatre lighting. We will relate physically-measurable properties of sound and light to our perceptions of these waves. In addition to attending performances, the course will include field trips for back-stage tours and measuring acoustical characteristics of halls. No mathematics beyond simple algebra will be used. Mr. Richards   back to top Spring Semester Courses 900. The Danenberg Lectures on British Culture and Society 2 hours 2EX Second Semester. An introduction to the history and culture of Britain, examining the roots of contemporary London and Britain by exploring selected topics in social, political, and cultural history from antiquity to the modern era. The course will be coordinated by both instructors, but taught by a series of visiting experts (who will speak and lead discussions in their field) and supplemented by field trips to museums and pertinent historical sites. This course is for all students. Note: CR/NE grading. Consent of instructor required. Mr. Henle, Mr. Shanken 970. Art and Mathematics 6 hours 3HU, 3NS, QPh Second Semester. This course is organized around a series of encounters with artistic objects--paintings, buildings, and spaces--in and around London. In these encounters a dialogue will emerge between an historic and aesthetic view of art, on one hand, and a mathematical and engineering view on the other. A secondary theme is the conjunction (or disjunction) of formal theories, both mathematical and artistic, with their practical application in the real world. Topics for course segments and corresponding objects of study will be chosen to illustrate the differences and synergies created by these different points of view. These will include, in particular, (a) bridge design, (b) planned communities, (c) projective geometry, and the projection of three-dimensions onto two, (d) work of the 17th century mathematician and architect Christopher Wren, and (e) group theory, symmetry and the decorative arts. Other topics will be arranged around current exhibitions and building projects in London in 2003. Mr. Henle, Mr. Shanken 971. British Architecture and Urbanism 6 hours 6HU Second Semester. This course will use London and its environs to study the history of British architecture, focusing on buildings and urban planning after the Great Fire of 1666. Course material is divided into three sections, broadly corresponding to the architectural periods: Baroque­Neo-Classicism, Victorian, and Modern. Readings will directly relate to site visits to buildings, monuments, and parks, as well as various urban interventions that fall under the category of "built environment," for example, Nash's Regent Street. Site visits will include the great Commissioner's Churches of the early 18th century, the railroad stations and sheds such as San Pancras, the great civic buildings of the 19th century, including the Law Courts and Houses of Parliament; and a close study of London's museums -- the British Museum, the Tate, and the Victoria and Albert Museum -- which nearly constitute a history of British architecture unto themselves. The class will culminate with the extraordinary collection of contemporary buildings that have gone up in London over the past decade. Mr. Shanken 972. From Logic to Persuasion to Propaganda 6 hours 6NS, QPh Second Semester. Argumentation and persuasion, more formally, the fields of logic and rhetoric, will be used as a lens through which to view British culture. Students will learn how to construct arguments using tools from deductive and inductive logic, including the propositional calculus, the predicate calculus, and elementary statistics. These tools plus others from classical rhetoric and the 'new rhetoric', a modern theory of argumentation developed by the contemporary British philosopher Stephen Toulmin, will be applied to analyze and synthesize arguments in areas of current political and social controversy in Britain. Examples of arguments for discussion and analysis will be drawn from newspaper articles, advertisements, opinion pieces, and public deliberation in all media. The class will visit British courts of law, Parliament, the Hyde Park Speaker's Corner, the Oxford Union, and other public debating forums, as well as attend films and theatrical events. The final theme of the course is the evolution of persuasion into a science and an industry, i.e., advertising and propaganda, in post industrial revolution England. Mr. Henle back to top