Themester 2011 Home

• About Themester
• Calendar
• Curriculum Bundle
• Get Involved
• Policies & Planning
• Resources
• Support Themester

War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it.
— General William Tecumseh Sherman

Fall 2011   Making War, Making Peace

The College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University seeks to foster the vigorous exchange of ideas across the full spectrum of thought and expression consistent with its mission of providing a liberal education and the principle of academic freedom.  Thus, in organizing each year’s Themester, the College invites speakers who possess significant scholarly or creative credentials, as manifested through performances, publications, or productions and independent of their political ideology.  The majority of invited speakers holds or has held academic appointments.   The bulk of time planning Themester and the allocation of resources are dedicated to undergraduate education, and in its totality of some 100 events Themester provides a wide range of points of view offered in a variety of forms: classes, workshops, lectures, exhibits, performances, and much more.

The College Themester is an initiative to engage the collective knowledge and creativity of the faculty and to involve undergraduate students in the exploration of ideas across the disciplines. Our Themester topic for the Fall 2011 semester is Making War, Making Peace.

Themester 2011 Making War, Making Peace advisory committee:

Professor John Louis Lucaites, Communication and Culture, chair
Professor Maria Bucur-Deckard, History
Professor Robert Ivie, American Studies & Communication and Culture
Professor Richard Miller, Poynter Center & Religious Studies
Professor Ron Osgood, Telecommunications

Grounded in our undergraduate curriculum, Themesters are imagined as extended opportunities to engage with students, colleagues, and the wider community in conversation on challenging issues. We hope that Themesters will be a catalyst for students and faculty alike to move our curriculum and research forward in exciting directions. Themesters should also push boundaries by encouraging us to reconsider old truths and investigate new perspectives. We want to use Themester to promote cross-departmental collaboration and thus to experiment with bridging disciplines and approaches.

Themester Planning Document and Goals - August 2011