2011 Themester to focus on war, peace

The 2011 IU Themester will be “Making War and Peace,” the College of Arts and Sciences announced Monday.

The Themester is designed to address questions such as why a country should go to war, what counts as war or peace in different cultures and how an understanding of violence changes how peace is imagined.

An assortment of events and activities are scheduled to help students find the answers to these questions including special classes and lectures, a series of war-themed films at the IU Cinema and a visit by Tim O’ Brien, author of the short story collection “The Things They Carried.”

Faculty members from the departments of Economics, Political Science and Religious Studies will team-teach a course called “The Economics, Politics and Ethics of Modern Warfare.” Five guest lecturers will visit the class throughout the semester, and the public is invited to attend those sessions as well.

More than 40 other courses from College of Arts and Sciences departments will also be a part of the 2011 Themester. Some of these courses include “Archaeology of Violence and Conflict,” taught by the Department of Anthropology, and “Biomedicine and Nuclear Challenges” taught in Collins Living-Learning Center.

The IU Cinema will screen Stanley Kubrick’s dark comedy “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” as well as various documentaries.

The Themester will also spread into the Bloomington community, helping to sponsor the Bloomington Playwrights Project’s AwareFest, a night of short plays by local and nationally-known writers, and the Jewish Theatre of Bloomington production of “Hiding in the Spotlight.”

“Hiding in the Spotlight” tells the story of how retired Jacobs School of Music instructor Zhanna Dawson survived the Holocaust.