SPRING SEMESTER 2017 VALENTE SEMINAR:

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING: GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE AND SOCIETY

Faculty: Rob DeLeo, Department of Global StudiesDonna Fletcher, Department of FinanceMonica Garfield, Department of Computer Information SystemsGreg Farber, Department of English and Media Studies Christian Rubio, Department of Modern Languages

Tuesdays 11:00-1:50 Morrison Board Room Seminar Description

The Valente Center Undergraduate Seminar is a three-credit course in which a small group of dedicated students meets every week with five members of the faculty, representing different disciplines, to read and discuss challenging books of recognized importance and value. The books are ones that the faculty members do not already know and that do not come from their field of expertise. This way the seminar has no “teacher” in the usual sense. Students and faculty members read and learn together, and it is the student participants who lead the discussion.

The topic of the spring 2016 seminar is will be “Big Brother Is Watching: Government Surveillance and Society,” and the two major texts will be 1984(Nineteen Eighty Four) by George Orwell and V for Vendetta by Alan Moore. Major topics out of the readings from these books and they will likely revolve around living in a dystopian world.

Grades for the seminar are based on participation, a short reflection paper, and a final research paper. The seminar meets Tuesday from 11:00am to 1:50pm. The Valente Center provides lunch and covers the cost of all books as well as the cost of trips to local cultural events and/or dinners as selected by students and faculty.