The inaugural offering of the Hanover Capstone, mandated by the Academic Vision Plan, will take place during the 2007-2008 academic year. This initial offering will put into place the essential components of a program that will eventually involve all seniors in the consideration of an issue that is of national and international concern.

Topic: The topic for the first Capstone will be Global Climate Change. This is a topic that embraces many urgent questions about our world--questions about religious conflict and violence, about the social foundations of political institutions, about the social impact of economic systems, about the interplay between nature and society. Thus, it will be open to faculty in all academic divisions–Humanities, Arts and Letters, Sciences, and Social Sciences–to offer courses for the Capstone.

Components of the Capstone: This inaugural offering will include three essential components on which an expanded Capstone can be built.

            (1) Seminars: Participating faculty members will offer 4-5 seminars, each enrolling 8-12 students. Each seminar will be a major elective in the faculty member's discipline, accessible to majors and minors in the discipline and, where possible, to other students with a suitable background. The Capstone will provide the topic for the course, but the specific content and pedagogy will be determined by the faculty member doing the teaching. The only common requirement is that each student produce a substantial essay that addresses the Capstone topic in a way commensurate with the specific content and aims of the course. (However, participating faculty members may choose to coordinate their seminars much more closely, even to the point of team-teaching multiple sections.) Faculty members other than the seminar professors will incorporate the topic into their courses as they see fit and will be provided with Readers and other materials from the Capstone programs.

Seminars:

ANTH 465J
Karen Porter - Indigenous Peoples and Global Climate Change
Using anthropological perspectives, this course explores how indigenous peoples perceive, explain, resist, contribute, and respond to global climate change in the modern world. Case studies will be drawn from a variety of cross-cultural contexts such as the Niger Delta, the Arctic, and Amazon rain forest (Prior completion of introductory anthropology strongly recommended).  Each student will also produce a short essay suitable for inclusion in an anthology published by the College. Course meets Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 12:00 to 12:50 p.m.

ECO 465J
Dennis Wichelns - Economic Considerations in a Climate Changing World
Each student will also produce a short essay suitable for inclusion in an anthology published by the College. Course meets Tuesday and Thursday from 2:00 to 3:50 p.m.

GEO 465J
Ken Bevis - Climate Change: Causes, Consequences, and Solutions
This course will examine global climate change since the last major glaciation (approximately the last 15,000 years). We will explore probable causes of both natural and anthropogenic climate change, study its potential consequences, and offer solutions for that portion of recent climate change which can clearly be attributed to humans.   Each student will also produce a short essay suitable for inclusion in an anthology published by the College.  Course meets Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10:00 to 10:50 a.m.

HIS 465J
Jeff Brautigam - History of Climate Science
This is a Capstone Course; it is linked with the various Capstone speakers and events happening throughout the year.  Members of the class will study the history of climate science as a gateway to intelligent, engaged discussion of the current debates of global warming and global climate change. Our goal is to figure out how an engaged citizen might gain access to and be able to evaluate responsible, accurate information pertaining to this highly politicized subject.  Each student will also produce a short essay suitable for inclusion in an anthology published by the College.  Course meets Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 2:00 to 2:50 p.m.

PHI 465J
John Ahrens-Global Climate Change and Contemporary Political Thought
This course is designed to help students enter the global warming debate informed by the science and the political theories that shape this discussion.  The focus in this course will not be on extensive reading and writing assignments.  Rather, students will participate in the ongoing discussion that is taking place on campus in symposia, lectures, roundtable discussions, and hands-on projects.  Reading assignments will be concise and will be chosen to help students bring a philosophical perspective to the other discussions and activities in which they are engaged.  Each student will also produce a short essay suitable for inclusion in an anthology published by the College.  Course meets Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10:00 to 10:50 a.m.

PLS 465J
Ron Smith - The Politics of Climate Change
What are the costs of climate change? Who stands to win, who will lose, and how do we decide between them? Special emphasis in this course is placed on understanding the nature of collective action problems and the policies and institutions designed to address them.   Each student will also produce a short essay suitable for inclusion in an anthology published by the College.  Course meets Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 1:00 to 1:50 p.m.

THR 465J
Jim Stark - Documentary and Disaster: What is the Story on Climate Change?
Students in this course will respond to films that address moral, philosophical and scientific issues related to global climate change, in documentary and narrative genres.  Each student will also produce a short essay suitable for inclusion in an anthology published by the College.  Course meets Tuesday and Thursday from 10:00 to 11:50 a.m.

            (2) Lecture Series: Throughout the Fall and Winter semesters, there will be a lectures by people who are internationally recognized as an authority on some aspect of the Capstone topic. Throughout the semester, lectures and symposia by lesser (or, at least, less expensive) lights will supplement the work that students are doing to the seminars. These lectures and symposia will also be open to the campus community and the public.

Lectures and other Events

Lecture Series

Faculty Colloquium

Fall Symposium

Winter Symposium

            (3) Publication: During the Winter semester, essays produced in the seminars and acquired from the lecturers will be edited into an anthology. The director of the Capstone will work with student authors to ensure that their essays are suitable for publication. Hanover College will then publish this anthology and distribute it to appropriate constituencies.

Publications

Inquiries® will continue in its present format.

Proceedings - Papers from speakers at the symposia and the keynote speaker and students from the Capstone courses will be published in book form at the end of the academic year.