2009 Earth-normal Distance Course Offerings

Dear Students,

Without further delay, here are the courses offered for you and your contemporaries for this semester. Remember, enrollment in our distance education offerings is by invitation only. I receive too many messages asking where prospective students can find an application. If you are to be offered admission, no application is necessary. You will know.

Always,

Dr. John Skylar
Department of Anachronism
University of Constantinople

CHRN/AUG 100 Introduction to Anachronistic Studies. Central to University operations and research is the collection of data from across various eras and timelines. While the Department of Augury has made great strides with data quality, it still remains that Anachronists are needed to interpret any information collected. The course will cover the basics of data collection, as well as the pitfalls of different types of source material. Special focus will be placed on the differentiation of contemporary fact from fiction. Instructors: Skylar, Bacon Prerequisites: None.

CHRN/AUG 129 Before the Fall. Typically, our augury data becomes more difficult to collect and interpret during times of major social upheaval. This problem has led to analysis techniques wherein Anachronists must look at information from even centuries prior to a noisy period in order to determine the causes of upheaval. This course focuses on the techniques necessary to identify key markers of social change and to correlate them to “noisy” data. The final three weeks of the course applies the techniques learned in a case study of one of the collapse scenarios of Earth’s Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. Instructor: Sphrantzes Prerequisites: CHRN/AUG 100 and permission from Provost Notaras. Students must not be late Byzantine contemporaries. Enrollment limited to 10 students.

CHRN 136 Exploration. Human exploration is a common motif across many of the different eras we study in the Department of Anachronism. This course focuses on general patterns of exploration and different cultural and economic patterns that lay the groundwork for eras of exploration. Most of the course deals with Earth-based exploration, though some attention will be given to other planetary systems. Instructor: Earhart. Prerequisites: CHRN/AUG 100 or instructor’s permission. Enrollment is limited to 50 students.

CHRN/AUG 205 Truth from Time Streams. Augury provides us with data that is spaced out across different times and timelines, often with little contextual information to allow us to identify the time, timeline, or location that events take place. This course focuses on teaching students the context clues necessary to glean these facts from snippets of augury data. Special attention is also devoted to determining the difference between necessary and contingent truths in different eras and timelines. Instructor: Bacon Prerequisites: CHRN/AUG 100. Familiarity with materialist, positivist, pragmatist, and postmodern philosophy is recommended.

CHRN 226 Dark Ages. Augury allows us to know the difference between the two types of Dark Ages; ones where records were lost or decayed, and those where records were never kept. This course explores, through specific context examples, cultural markers of certain types of Dark Ages, and how we can correlate later data from a given time stream to determine if our period of interest will be viewed as a Dark Age by the progeny of its contemporaries. The course involves an independent study component, led by Dr. Skylar, with focus on the neo-Aegean Dark Age. Instructor: Petrarch. Prerequisites: CHRN/AUG 100, CHRN/AUG 205