Preceptorial is a year-long seminar style course designed to foster the intellectual development of students, while also establishing a foundation for college-level academic work. During your first semester the class will focus on the development of college-level reading and writing skills, utilizing literature related to the theme of each section of the course. In the second semester the primary focus of Preceptorial will shift to the composition of a freshman essay, which utilizes the readings from the fall semester as the foundation for the essay.
In addition to the academic focus of the course, your Preceptorial instructor will also serve as your academic advisor, guiding you through your first year of academic life here at Manhattanville.
Please complete the form below in order to register your preferences, ranking your top seven Preceptorial choices.
Every effort will be made to assign students to their first choice, as space allows.
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Seeing is Believing? Reality, Viewpoints and Perspectives, Interpretations
Professor Ken Rothchild
From the beginning of consciousness, human beings have attempted to understand the world around them. This understanding is confounded, however, by the disconnect between what our “common sense” tells us about what we observe; and by what disciplined thinking and experimentation show us to be true. And even then it seems much of what we “know” about the universe could be merely a creation of human intellect: our brain telling us stories. In this Preceptorial we will examine various texts - literary, philosophical, and scientific; i.e. both fact and fiction - whose range should rid us of simplistic notions of “reality.”
Women and Society: Gender Roles and Power
Professor Nada Halloway
This class will focus on how women have been constructed in culture, literature, and religion; with an examination of the historical representation of women and the development of a theoretical framework utilizing writings from such works as Antigone, the Koran, the Bible, Analects, and Bless Me Ultima.
How Sport Explains the World
Professor Shawn Lincoln
A common element throughout the culture of almost all civilizations, sport has had a dramatic and undeniable influence on the landscape of numerous societies. Utilizing sport as our research “vehicle” the class will examine the interplay of sport on the development of various cultures around the world. Beginning with ancient societies and progressing through modern times, this class will explore the impact of sport on such cultural issues as race, religion, gender roles, economics, science and government.
Human Rights Through the Ages: The Ideal of Individual Freedom in History
Professor Irene Whelan
Beginning with a historical review of the concepts of human rights and individual freedoms throughout history, this course will trace the development of these ideals from their earliest derivations through modern times. Drawing upon both religious and legal perspectives, the course will examine such historical figures as Thomas Aquinas, Bartolome de las Casas, and John Locke, moving through the Enlightenment period, and concluding with such influential figures of the 20th century as Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela.
Sport, Play and the Good Life
Professor Lawson Bowling
Homo Ludens, or “Man the Player,” written in 1938 by Dutch historian Johan Huizinga, marked the start of serious study about the significance of “play” and sports in human experience as a means of expression, conflict, and emotion. Beginning with an examination of the historical significance of sport and play in Greek and Roman times, the course will explore the global importance of sport and play over ensuing human history and into contemporary times. Please see http://faculty.mville.edu/bowlingl/SPORTSPRECEPTFA08.htm for additional information.
The Trojan War in Popular Culture: The First 3000 Years
Professor Megan Cifarelli
This class will examine the legendary Trojan War through literature, historical texts, archaeology, the visual arts, drama, and film. We will begin with an archaeological exploration of Bronze Age Greece and the Aegean coast of Turkey (the likely setting of the Trojan War), and the earliest written account of the Trojan War, Homer's Iliad. The course will then investigate the influence of the Trojan War on the visual, literary and performing arts of classical Greece, the Roman Empire, and early modern Europe. The course will culminate with an examination of the contemporary representations of the Trojan War, including the 2004 film Troy.
Art at the Barricades—Literature Fights for a Better Society
Professor Gabriele Wickert
In this course we will read novels and plays from around the world in which writers use their literature to engage in the struggle against injustice, to criticize prevailing power structures or to suggest radical political alternatives to these structures. Their creative works will be read along with excerpts from socio-critical theory, in which seminal socio-political ideas are presented. We will start with the classic Greek text that analyzes the make-up of a just government: Plato’s Republic. Then we will go on to one of the earliest Western examples of literature exposing tyranny: Sophocles' Antigone. Subsequently we will read a French author of the 19th century who exemplifies literature’s growing role in exposing the social problems of an increasingly industrial society: Emil Zola. After reading Marx’s Capital, we will go on to an early 20th century German writer who espoused Marxist ideas in his plays: Bertolt Brecht. Then we will turn to Ray Bradbury’s cautionary tale of the “danger” of literature, Fahrenheit 451. Finally, after reading some excerpts from feminist theory, we will finish with the feminist rewriting of the Greek Cassandra story by German author Christa Wolf.
The Power of Prejudice
Professor James Jones
This Using Gordan Allport’s classic book, The Nature of Prejudice, as a focal point, this Preceptorial explores religious texts and other readings as a way to understand how prejudice influences intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, and intergroup dynamics. In particular, the course will provide opportunities for students to analyze racism and sexism in this regard. Throughout the course, consideration will be given to Manhattanville College’s mission to “educate students to become ethically and socially responsible leaders for the global community”
Russia and the Socialist Experiment
Professor Jeff Rosedale
This class will examine the pursuit of a good life and a good world through the lens of the Russian experience. Beginning with the early foundations of Russian culture, the course will trace the development of Russian thought and statehood, with a special focus on the period leading up to the 1917 revolution and the early years of the Soviet Union. Utilizing an examination of Russian literature, political science, history, and sociology, the course will culminate with an examination of the role of Russia in today’s world.
Do Science and Technology Make the World a Better Place?
Professor John Murray
Developments in modern science and technology have had extraordinary social and personal consequences. What roles do science and technology play in furthering human aspirations and improving the human condition? Are the utopian technological worlds of the future found in science fiction realistic? Is social control over research and discovery in modern science desirable? This class will explore these and related questions, using materials from social science and contemporary literature.
The Salem Witchcraft Trials
Professor Colin Morris
This course examines the origins, course of events, aftermath and legacy of the famous and infamous Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692. It will pursue understanding of the meaning and significance of these tragic events in works of historical, religious and psychological interpretation, first-hand accounts, memoirs, drama, poetry, and documentary film. The course includes a planned spring semester field trip to Salem, Massachusetts.
Fate and Freedom
Professor Siobhan Nash-Marshall
The relation between fate and freedom is one of the great metaphysical problems. If there is such a thing as fate, then it would seem that no one can really be free. If we really are free, on the other hand, then there can be no such thing as fate, or providence. This course will examine the problem of fate and freedom in philosophy, literature, politics, and religion. It will examine such questions as: are we really free? What is freedom? Are we born with a purpose?
Wisdom, Rationality, and Self Creation
Professor Billy Joe Lucas
This course aims to set your college career in the context of a study of concepts of intellectual obligation, wisdom, and rationality. This venture includes study of the non-rational forces that shape who you are in ways that reduce your control over who you become. Readings include philosophical classics, and selections from Psychology, World Religions, and the Fine Arts.
Women in Latin America: Political, Social, and Cultural Leadership
Professor Greg Swedberg
This class will acquaint students with how the social, literary, and political contributions of women have helped transform Latin American society. Through novels, films and historical texts, the class will uncover how women confronted issues of gender inequality, racism, the power of the Catholic Church, and political repression. Some of the key questions to be explored include how did women understand their gendered roles over time? What methods did they use to subvert patriarchy? How did gender inequality inform artistic expression? How did feminism evolve and how did it differ from other regions of the world? And finally, how did women’s social activism differ from men’s?
Education: Place and Purpose
Professor Joan Weinreich
The course will focus on significant historical and philosophical influences on education in the USA. We will read selected philosophers and pioneers of education theory including: Pestalozzi, Rousseau, Jefferson, Mann, Montessori, Dewey, Piaget, Noddings, Freire, and Kozol. Our readings and discussions about education will lead us to consider many political, social, and economic issues in society in general. Students will spend time considering their own educations, as well. The overarching theme of this Preceptorial is education: its place and purposes in a changing society.
The History and Mystery of New York City
Professor N. John Proctor
Looking at some key eras in New York City’s history, students will gain an understanding of some of the underlying factors that still influence the city today and place them in a modern context. Students will also read a few major authors’ work set in the city, getting an idea of how the city has fueled creative imaginations for centuries. The class will seek an understanding of the many factors at work at maintaining balance in NYC’s social structure, which includes both the social balance between the many groups of people sharing the space within the city and the delicate ecological balance necessary to support wildlife in a burgeoning urban area. While getting a firm background in the areas above, students will read a few modern works from major New York periodicals that explore the modern city, taking periodic field trips into NYC to see these theoretical concepts at work in practice.
Acting Out: Individuals in Conflict with Society
Professor Richard Slade
The Doing what is expected of us -- can we bear it? Pre-modern societies had rigid expectations. The romantic era saw those rules break down. We will read and watch as characters as varied as Frankenstein, Candide, the Bride of Lammermoor, and the kids of Spring Awakening cope with their needs and the demands that they can or cannot meet. Course materials will include novels, plays, operas and poems, supplemented with religious and psychological background readings.
World Traditions in Calligraphy, Painting and Printmaking
Professor Alka Mukerji
In this interdisciplinary course, students will examine the traditions of calligraphy, painting, and printmaking, and how these traditions both developed and functioned within various cultural frameworks. Students will not only be expected to come to view the pieces at hand with a critical and sensitive eye, but also to consider the pieces in terms of the political, social, religious, philosophical, and even geographical situations of the cultures that produced them. The class will help students consider both individual pieces and entire genres as both creative endeavors and as artifacts offering glimpses into historical and cultural notions of the self and society, class and gender, the word and the image, and of the artistic process itself. Finally, students will consider how these various traditions influence one another, both within and across cultures, and down through the centuries.
Social and Ethical Responsibility in an Interdependent World
Professor To Be Determined
The mission of Manhattanville College is to “to educate students to become ethically and socially responsible leaders for the global community”. Utilizing this mission as the foundation of the class, this Preceptorial will explore the ideas and ideals that have influenced individuals, institutions, and whole societies for hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of years. Utilizing readings from some of the most influential authors of ancient through modern times, students will examine how several major themes of humanity (Justice, Wealth, Nature, Culture, and Faith) are interrelated and interdependent to the overall development of our society.