J-Term 2010

What will you learn? Where will you go?

What is J-Term?

J-Term is a month-long period of study in January in which students take a single course on campus or around the world. The term allows students to explore subjects outside their majors or minors, discover new interests, and test their creativity.

The list of J-Term 2010 courses and study tours is now available. Registration begins Nov. 2.

This J-Term, students staying on campus can learn the art of papermaking or lithography, explore the politics of the American food industry, tackle the complex causes and possible solutions of the current economic crisis, explore psychology through modern films, study aviation, and much more. 

Students can also participate in one of 18 study tours offered by Carthage professors, to destinations including Namibia, Belize, Arizona, Nicaragua, Argentina, London, Milan, Rome, Aruba, China, Spain, Patagonia, Berlin and India.

See the list of on-campus courses
See the list of off-campus study tours

Explore new worlds without leaving campus

Around 90 courses will be offered on campus in J-Term 2010. For full-time Carthage students, on-campus J-Term courses are included in the cost of tuition; most are 4 credits. This year's on-campus courses include:

Dinosaurs
Prof. Thomas Carr offers the biology course Dinosaurs, Walking Fish and Cave People. In this course, students will study fossils that capture how animals have evolved from an ancestral form to a much later form, such as the transition of non-flying dinosaurs to modern birds.

Mega-Churches
Religion professor Sandra Bisciglia teams up with business professor Anthony Fredericks to teach The Marketing of Religion: Outreach or Outrage? In this Carthage Symposium, students will study the historical development of the mega-church, and will visit several mega-churches to analyze their marketing plans.

Economics
In the Economics department, Prof. Ron Cronovich offers Understanding the Global Economic Crisis: Why did the 2007-2009 economic crisis happen? Why didn’t experts see it coming? The course is intended for non-business and non-economics majors.
Prof. Robert Schlack offers Food Fights: The Political Economy of What, How and Why We Eat, in which students will explore the economics, public policies and politics of the American food industry.

Literature and Television
Fans of "Lost," "The Wire," and "Battlestar Gallactica" will want to take Literature and the Small Screen – Asking the Big Questions, offered by English professor Pamela Smiley. In this course, students will discuss the aesthetic achievement, value reflection and meaning in these shows and in literature.

Aviation
Profs. Patrick Pfaffle and Matt Zorn offer Introduction to Aviation and Meteorology. This course is intended for students who may be considering a private pilot license. Students will study the aerodynamics of flight, function of flight instruments, physiology of flight, solar and terrestrial energy transfer, atmosphere composition, air pressure, turbulence and storms. Students will be prepared to take the FAA written pilot exam upon completion of the course.

Children's Health and Literature
Profs. Marilyn Ward and Elaine Radwanski offer Food, Fitness and Kid’s Fiction for education majors and minors. This Carthage Symposium will explore how to use children’s literature to teach children about health life choices.

Mysteries and Psychology
Psychology professor Leslie Cameron tackles murder mysteries in Whodunit? Students will read several murder mysteries and watch movies in this course, which focuses on female writers and protagonists, considering the psychological appeal of the genre.

Movies and Psychology
Prof. Penny Seymoure offers Hollywood Does Psychology: An Introduction to Psychology Through Film, watching films such as "Gran Torino," "Ma Vie En Rose," "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "Twelve Angry Men."

Telescope Making
In the Physics Department, Prof. Douglas Arion offers Telescope Making, in which students will learn how to craft with a 6-inch aperture telescope for viewing stars and planets, the moon, nebulae and galaxies.

Many more on-campus J-Term courses are offered.

Oh, the Places You Could Go

Carthage students are also offered many off-campus travel opportunities during J-Term. Trips are an exciting way to cover new material and learn about the world. Below is a sample of the courses offered this upcoming J-Term.

See Europe
Professor Jonathan Bruning will be bringing a group of students to Europe, with the class Journalism: Football and Fashion in Europe. Students on the trip will be able to choose either sports journalism, covering European football, or fashion journalism, as they travel to four important European centers of culture, commerce and sport: London, Paris, Barcelona and Milan. In either fashion or sports journalism, students will write for print media, produce and edit video for broadcast, as well as maintain a blog.

Visit Argentina
Professors Mimi Yang and David Schlichting will team-teach an interdisciplinary class in Modern Languages and Business/Administration titled Argentina: Cross-Cultural and Global Business Studies. The course examines how the cultural aspect plays a role in business and how business enhances cultural identity.

Study Religion in India
Professor James Lochtefeld will host a trip to India this January in a course titled Religion and Society in Modern India. Major themes will include Hindu devotional movements, the rise and development of the Sikhs, Hindu reform movements, Islamic self-definition, the rise of nationalistic (or independence) movements in each of these three groups, and responses to the pressures of globalization.

See a full list of off-campus J-Term courses.

Academic Resources

• Academic Calendar
• College Catalog
• Course Schedules
• Academic Advising

Prospective Students

• Admissions
• Viewbook
• Virtual Campus Tour
• Request Information

Study Abroad

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J-Term

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ScienceWorks

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Target Language Experts

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