Course Title: “Would I Lie to You: Fakes, Forgeries, Fantasies” (IDST 104, 0.25 Beloit Unit, 1 Semester Hour)

How do we know what is true and what is not? What is real and authentic, and what is fake or fraudulent? How can you use the skills you refine in college - from history to chemistry to neuroscience - to discern the authenticity of something, from a news article to forensic evidence?

This course will introduce you to a broad variety of academic disciplines by exploring the ways that scholars approach this question. Your lead instructors, Daniel Barolsky and Michael Dango, will guide you through a series of guest lectures, workshops and activities with a range of Beloit College professors, designed to give you a toolbox you can use to think critically and better authenticate just about anything.

You will work in small teams on a group project, using your choice of medium.

Draft Schedule

Week One

Sunday: Arrival. Campus tour with parents, welcome dinner, icebreaker activities

Monday: Team building exercise, scavenger hunt, introductory workshop, watch “Would I Lie to You?”

Tuesday: Workshops on Art Fraud and Authentication of Artwork and Artifacts with museum studies faculty and staff. Debrief as a group. Evening game night.

Wednesday: Workshop on Misinformation and Media Literacy with media studies faculty. Visit office of Beloit Daily News (local newspaper). Evening: yoga. 

Thursday: Field trip to Welty Environmental Center and discussion on “Is Nature Natural?” Evening: movie on the lawn. 

Friday: Workshop on Genetically-Modified Crops and Trans-genetics. Debrief and start project work. Evening: concert in Riverside Park. 

Saturday: Morning Beloit Farmer’s Market. Visit Rockford Japanese Gardens and Rockford’s urban revitalization project. Discussion on authenticity and architecture. Evening: bonfire.

Week Two

Sunday: Morning brunch and group activity. Afternoon project work and paddling on the Rock River. 

Monday: Workshop on Impersonation and the Illusion of Theater with faculty in theater and dance. Afternoon excursion to living history museum. Evening: movie: “Catch Me if you Can.” 

Tuesday: Workshop on fiction, creative writing, and worldbuilding with faculty in English. Afternoon project work. Evening: attend minor league baseball game downtown. 

Wednesday: Excursion to Monroe, Wisconsin. Afternoon: project work. Evening: Kickball game. 

Thursday: Workshop on Japanese Popular Culture and the legacy of samurai in Japanese storytelling with faculty in Japanese. Afternoon: project work. Evening: movie.

Friday: Finalizing projects. Evening: concert at Riverside Park.

Saturday: Presentations of final projects with parents. Lunch with parents, faculty and staff. Farewell and departure. 

Possible workshop topics, including:

• Fake news, deep fakes, and internet literacy - Media Studies
• Art frauds and authentication of artwork - Museum Studies
• National identity and national myth - Political Science
• Faith and reality - Religious Studies
• Theater, illusion, and the public persona - Theater and Dance
• Cyborgs, robotics, and what makes us human - Cognitive Science
• Our authentic selves - Philosophy, Religious Studies
• Is nature natural? - Biology and Environmental Science
• Chemical forensics - Chemistry
• The scientific method and bias - Biology, Chemistry, Psychology
• Manga, heros and imagined futures - Japanese
• Lying, bluffing, double-bluffing, and perspective taking - Psychology
• Fiction, non-fiction, and creative license - Creative Writing