Inspired by its founder, Ben Franklin, President Judith Rodin has defined Penn's distinctive mission as helping students develop their capacity to integrate theory and practice in humanistic, action-oriented, real-world problem-solving. Since the present Arts and Sciences undergraduate education falls short in this regard, one of the seminar's aims is to help students develop their capacity to solve strategic, real-world problems actively, not simply "scholastically". Among the possible ways to do that are:

Christianity and Judaism are often called "Biblical religions" because they are believed to be founded upon the Bible.  But the truth of the matter is that it was less the Bible itself than the particular ways in which the Bible was read and interpreted by Christians and Jews that shaped the development of these two religions and that also marked the difference between them.  So, too, ancient Biblical interpretation --Jewish and Christian-- laid the groundwork for and developed virtually all the techniques and methods that have dominated literary criticism and hermeneutics (the science of interpretation) since then.

This introductory course explores the economics and politics of policy analysis and management in government. The first part of the semester is devoted to the analysis of the economics and politics of government policy formulation and implementation. This is followed by a detailed examination of why, how, and with what success/failure government intervenes in a variety of areas: health, education, welfare, law enforcement, housing and urban development, international trade, the environment are examples of the topics that may be covered. Finally, the course examines the growing importance of allowing competitive markets to provide publicly funded services, taking advantage of private management approaches to fostering innovation in public management. Three major areas in which this is occurring will be examined: privatization/contracting out of government activities; business improvement improvement districts; homeowners associations.

For over two centuries, the government of the United States has been distinguished by its stability even during episodes of extreme internal and external stress which might have toppled other governmental systems. If this stability can be traced at least in part to the foresight of the founders, their foresight can be traced in part as well to their educational formation, the core of which was their study of Greek and Latin political classics in which stability and instability were paramount issues. How might a reading of the classics have been absorbed into the mentality of the founding fathers? Are there elements in the classical tradition that can shed light on the reasons for American stability and, perhaps, on the prospects for American government in the future?

This course focuses first on the education of the Father of the Constitution, James Madison. It begins with a review of the classical works that Madison actually read, drawing on what we know of his early education at the Robertson School in Virginia and of his collegiate education at Princeton, so that students have an opportunity to relive Madison's classical educational experience. These works will be read in translation. It goes on to trace the influence of this education on his conception of the history of government and his understanding of the American situation before, during, and after the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. It then addresses recent scholarship on the influence of classical education on others of the American founders, especially Jefferson's conception of Solon's place in the history of the Athenians and of its parallel in the American situation.

Introduction to economic analysis and its application.  Theory of supply and demand, costs and revenues of the firm under perfect competition, monopoly and oligopoly, pricing of factors of production, income distribution, and theory of international trade.  Econ 1 deals primarily with microeconomics.
Students must register for lecture and recitation.

Exploring numerous cultural, political, and historical contexts, this course will examine the Mexican Revolution from the vantage point of the American imagination. While most commentators date the Revolution between 1910-20, the turmoil south of the border would play a part in how the U.S. viewed Mexico--and itself-- well into the middle of the century. Such a recent history of revolution enabled the U.S. to conceive of Mexico as a mythic space onto which it could project and possibly resolve various social and cultural questions. As we read an array of texts that imagine the Revolution, we will consider how notions of revolutionary Mexico were deployed in some of the most pressing debates of the day, including those regarding relationships between race and democracy, art and revolution, and the primitive and the modern. Our readings will also include Mexican representations of the revolution, with the aim that we will analyze the influence of such expressions on U.S. thinking about Mexico. Ultimately, we will examine how Mexico and its Revolution inform new debates about an old question: what does it mean to be an American? Possible writers include Mariano Azuela, John Reed, D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Anne Porter, Graham Greene, and Sandra Cisneros. Possible films include Viva Villa!, The Old Gringo, Viva Zapata!, and the recent HBO film And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself.

Much of the formal writing you've done in college was aimed at a small and specific audience: your professor. You followed the conventions of your discipline, and your paper was intelligible to its very small audience. Much of the informal writing you did was probably email. Much of the formal writing you do in the future will be for specific audiences in your workplace, neighborhood, political party, etc. We will read some classic and contemporary literature on rhetoric--the art of persuasion. You'll learn to analyze a rhetorical situation, and how to find appropriate language for various audiences, ranging from scholars to the readers of the Daily News. You'll read and write op-ed pieces, proposals, a brief ethnography, a political speech and a reflective piece on your time at Penn.

This course is an overview of medieval English literature through the lens of medieval and modern theories of authorship. We will be reading classic modern essays on authorship by Eliot, Barthes, Foucault, and Benjamin, alongside fascinating fourteenth and fifteenth-century literary works: poetry by Geoffrey Chaucer and William Langland, civic plays, trial records, saints' lives, heretical sermons, and chronicles of revolt. The goal of the course is to rethink modern critical assumptions about authorship and authority in light of medieval notions of the scribe, the patron, the actor, the commentator, the translator, the plaintiff and the mystic. Most of the readings will be in in Middle English, but no previous knowledge of medieval literature or Middle English is required. Assignments will include an oral report, weekly responses, and a 10-15 page final paper.

In this course, we will take up questions central to a liberal education, that is, the education worthy of a free person. Those questions are the makeup of the human soul, the nature of happiness, the connection between virtue and political action, the role of poetry in teaching virtue, and the connection between personal happiness and the polity to which the individual belongs. Addressing such questions will establish a foundation from which to consider these questions as they are taken up by other great writers of later periods.

Along the way, we will hit some of the great moments in Greek literature-the meeting between Priam and Achilles in the midst of the Trojan War, the victory of the Greeks over the Persians at the Battle of Salamis, the Funeral Oration of Pericles and the destruction of the Athenian army in Sicily, Socrates being lowered to earth in a basket, the story of Theuth, and the rich tentativeness of Socrates' remark, as he decides to leave behind a simple city in favor of a city with philosophical leisure afforded to some: "Perhaps it is for the best."

What is happening to literary culture as new systems and technologies of exchange alter the world order within which literature is produced and consumed? This course will consider a range of contemporary English-language novels (and films adapted from novels) in the context of recent debates among economists, sociologists, historians, and anthropologists over global patterns of cultural influence and exchange and the rise of "global English." We will read work by some of the major scholars who have contributed to these debates, including Arjun Appadurai, Anthony Giddens, David Harvey, Eric Hobsbawm, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Franco Moretti, Saskia Sassen, Arundhati Roy, and Immanuel Wallerstein. These writings will provide the framework for our consideration of recent English-language novels and films from various parts of the world. The exact syllabus is yet to be determined, but is likely to include some of the following: Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters, Salman Rushdie's Shame, Keri Hulme's The Bone People, J.M Coetzee's Disgrace, Michael Ondaatje's Anil's Ghost, Nuruddin Farah's Maps, Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting (and the Danny Boyle film adaptation), Kazuo Ishiguro's Remains of the Day (and the James Ivory film adaptation). Written assignments will include two short research reports and two essays; there will also be several exams. The course is intended as an introduction; no previous coursework in these areas is required or expected. It is open to all honors students in Wharton or in the College, and to others if space permits.

A study of selected aspects of urban environments, with an emphasis on exposure to environmental lead (Pb) as an urban pediatric crisis. Penn students will engage middle-school children in West Philadelphia schools in a program of empiric assessment of the Pb risk in their neighborhoods.

Asthma as a chronic pediatric disease is undergoing a dramatic and unexplained increase. It has become the #1 cause of public-school absenteeism and now accounts for a significant number of childhood deaths each year in the USA. In ENVS 408, Penn undergraduates learn about the epidemiology of urban asthma, the debate about the probable cause (or causes) of the current asthma crisis, and the nature and distribution of environmental factors that modern medicine describes as potential triggers of asthma episodes. Penn students then collaborate with community-service home visitors employed in a clinical research study at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The Penn students accompany CHOP staff to the homes of children undergoing outpatient treatment for chronic asthma at CHOP. They instruct the families of those children in strategies to establish and maintain a trigger-free space within each child's home in which he/she can sleep, play, and study. The Penn students also conduct on-site ACLOTEST procedures in each home to determine the concentration of dust-mite feces in the rooms children will be using as safe sapces. They will then summarize the results of their work in a format appropriate to the assessment phase of the CHOP clinical study.

This seminar will examine the competing and diverse currents of anti-statist and radically individualist thought that have been a part of the Western dialogue of the 19th and 20th centuries. It will require active discussion, informed by the readings, and a term paper focused on comparison of our authors.