Gallery of TOPICS Course Professors

Peter Bondanella is Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and Italian and served as Chair of the Department of West European Studies for a decade, during which time he developed the Topics course entitled E 103 Cloak and Dagger: Detectives and Spies from Sherlock Holmes to James Bond. He did his undergraduate work at Davidson College (French & Political Science) and graduate work at Stanford (M. A., Political Science) and the University of Oregon (Ph.D. in Comparative Literature). After offering the Cloak and Dagger course four times, he has created two other Topics courses: E103 Fellini and Fantasy and E104 Machiavelli To Mussolini: Italian Social And Political Thought. Fellini and Fantasy will be offered for the first time in Spring 2004, while Machiavelli to Mussolini will be offered for the first time in a subsequent year.

Professor Bondanella’s teaching and research interests are varied and include the Italian Renaissance classics, Italian cinema (especially Fellini), and the detective and spy novel from its origins (Poe, Conan Doyle) to the present (Umberto Eco, Ian Fleming). He founded the IU Summer Program in Florence, which is at present the largest summer program our university has abroad. His hobbies include spoiling two Italian greyhounds named Dante and Gianluca, traveling to Italy as often as possible, and riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle and his Thunderbird convertible. He has written numerous books, most of which have emerged from his undergraduate teaching, and has edited or translated a number of Italian literary classics (Dante, Boccaccio, Cellini, Machiavelli, Vasari). His latest book—Hollywood Italians: Dagos, Palookas, Romeos, Wise Guys and Sopranos—is a study of Italian Americans in the American cinema and will appear in April of 2004.

Jamsheed K. Choksy
E103 Gender, Religion, & History

Jamsheed is an Associate Professor of Near Eastern and Central Eurasian Studies. He was born on January 8, 1962, in Bombay (Mumbai), India, and attended elementary, middle, and high school in Colombo, Sri Lanka. His A.B. college degree was in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures from Columbia University, New York City, in 1985. His Ph.D. was in the History and Religions of the Near East and Inner Asia from Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1991. Before coming to Indiana University, Professor Choksy served as a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at Harvard University in 1988, was a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows at Harvard University from 1988-1991, taught in the Department of History and the International Relations Program at Stanford University as a Visiting Assistant Professor from 1991-1993, and conducted research at the School of Historical Studies in the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, from 1993-1994. His research interests include the history, religions, archaeology, and languages of the Near East and Inner Asia, Iranian studies, Islamic studies, history of religions, and numismatics. Professor Choksy has received awards and fellowships from the American Academy of Religion, American Council of Learned Societies, American Numismatic Society, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Social Science Research Council. He has written two books, several articles, and numerous encyclopedia entries. Professor Choksy can be contacted in person at the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Goodbody Hall room 205, or via e-mail jchoksy@indiana.edu, office telephone (812) 855-8643 or (812) 855-4323, and office facsimile (812) 855-7841.

Stuart Davis
E103 The Controversy over Black Vernacular English

I was born and raised in California. I went to UCLA and did graduate work at the University of Arizona. Currently, I am an associate professor of linguistics at IU. My research interests include word structure, the similarity and differences among languages, and issues of language as they impact upon society.


Paul Eisenberg
E103 Two Ways to Wisdom

This course is taught by Paul Eisenberg and Richard Eno.  Professor Eisenberg was born and grew up in Massachusetts. He became a member of the IUB faculty a bit more than thirty years ago. He teaches a wide range of courses, mainly in the history of Western philosophy. In his published research he has written on such major figures as Plato, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche. He is a runner, an avid reader of literature, and a lover of music and films.



Robert Eno
E103Two Ways to Wisdom

This course is taught by Paul Eisenberg and Robert Eno.

Paul Gutjahr
E103 American Bestsellers and Their Movies

I was born and raised in Colorado, and I still miss it--and my family who lives there--in a rather desperate way. I have two degrees from Stanford University and two more from the University of Iowa. I received my Ph.D. in American Studies from the latter. My academic specialty is the history of literacy and publishing. I have the great good fortune to have a wife and two children (both boys), and most of my free time is spent with them doing everything from preparing meals to playing baseball.

George Hudock
E105 Evolution: The Simple Elegance of an Idea Understood

Given who and what my parents were and what I am or came to be, it was fairly certain that I would wind up in biology or medicine. I chose biology. My main interest has been in genetics. A memory that goes back almost 50 years is consistent with my present focus. I spent much time early in life just wandering (walkabout) in the western United States. I have an almost spiritual bond with the Teton Range in Northwestern Wyoming. On my first visit there (1951) I was struck to learn that the most common tree species (lodgepole pine) in that ecosystem forms cones that do not release seeds unless there is a fire. Thus, the tree reseeds the forest immediately after a forest fire. This is at present very clear in the whole Yellowstone ecosystem subsequent to the massive fires of 1988. I wanted to understand the origin of such adaptation. At this later time in my life, I am much more interested in ultimate causes than in proximate causes. I want to see how pieces fit together.

C. Thomas Mitchell
E103 Design: From the Teacup to the City (and Beyond)

I have an interdisciplinary background, having studied architecture (B. Arch. University of Tennessee), engineering (M.Sc. University of Reading, England), and fine art and psychology (Ph.D. University of Reading, England). I am interested not just in what designed artifacts and environments look like, but in how they affect people and how they interact with them. This interaction is addressed in all the courses I teach, and in my three books: Redefining Designing: from Form to Experience (New York: Wiley, 1997); New Thinking in Design: Conversations on Theory and Practice (New York: Wiley, 1997); and Living Design: The Daoist Way of Building (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1998). Living Design was co-written by a former graduate student of mine and is based on her masters thesis in interior design. I like to use my own research interests as the basis for my teaching, and involve students in this process of thinking and writing about their interactions with the world around them.  In addition to my teaching duties, I am currently Director of IU Center for Design Process.

Anya Peterson Royce
E103 Performing Culture: Music, Dance, and Theatre in Global Context

Anya Peterson Royce is a professor of Anthropology. Her BA is from Stanford University and her MA and PhD are from the University of California, Berkeley. She is also a native of Berkeley. Before going into Anthropology, Royce was a professional ballet dancer in companies in San Francisco and New York. The anthropology of dance and performing arts is one of her teaching and research interests. The others include the people and cultures of Mexico where she has done research for thirty years, American Indian and Latino cultures, and ethnicity. She writes poetry, practices tai chi, and collects books on herbal medicine.