SOCIAL STUDIES
CRN |
92593 |
Distribution |
C |
Course No. |
SST 125 |
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Title |
Introduction to Modern Britain I, 1485 - 1763 |
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Professor |
Peter Linebaugh |
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Schedule |
Tu Th 3:00 pm - 4:20 pm OLIN 107 |
CRN |
92417 |
Distribution |
C |
Course No. |
SST 220 |
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Title |
Marxism & Radical Social Theory |
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Professor |
Joel Kovel |
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Schedule |
Mon Wed 10:00 am - 11:20 am OLIN 203 |
Cross-listed: Political Studies
Though one of the most consequential doctrines of modern history, Marxism is now in grave crisis and has been written off by many. This course will explore the essentials of Marxism, evaluate its various interpretations, and assess its future in light of recent capitalist victories. Roughly half the sessions will be devoted to the basic writings of Marx and the remainder to key texts of other Marxist thinkers, for example, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Gramsci and Marcuse, among others. Limited to 25 students. Open to first-year students.
CRN |
92057 |
Distribution |
B/C |
Course No. |
SST 233 |
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Title |
Barbed Quill: Race & the Essay |
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Professor |
Aureliano DeSoto |
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Schedule |
Tu Fr 10:00 am - 11:20 am OLIN 309 |
Cross-Listed: American Studies, MES
Related interest: AADS
The essay form has been one of the most important tools in articulating the dimensions of debate around race in the United States. This course studies a diverse number of contemporary writers who specialize in the essay form to contemplate the concept of race, its historical antecedents, and its contemporary ramifications. The course will focus specifically on the work of Richard Rodriguez, Derrick Bell, bell hooks, Patricia Williams, and Ishmael Reed, with other selected works by Justin Chin, Frank Chin, Eric Liu, Shelby Steele, and Janice Mirikitani. In addition to looking at these authors, we will ask how the literary form of the essay compares to alternative genres like the short story of novel as an effective venue for social critique.
CRN |
92059 |
Distribution |
C |
Course No. |
SST 239 |
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Title |
Slavery & the American Experience |
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Professor |
Aureliano DeSoto |
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Schedule |
Mon Wed 3:00 pm - 4:20 pm OLIN 202 |
Cross-Listed: AADS, American Studies, MES
Slavery remains one of the most controversial and explosive legacies of the American people. Starting from the assumption that slavery is a pivotal American cultural drama, the course examines the ramifications of American slavery, in discursive social and cultural frames. The course poses several questions: How has slavery influenced the relationship of immigrants to such categories as "whiteness" and "blackness"? What are the rhetorical dimensions of Black demands for reparations? How have slavery and the contradictions with the American project of liberty influenced our common history, as well as our collective understanding of ourselves as Americans?
CRN |
92058 |
Distribution |
A/C |
Course No. |
SST 245 |
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Title |
Sexual Ecologies of Race |
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Professor |
Aureliano DeSoto |
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Schedule |
Tu screening 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm WEIS THTR. Th 2:00 pm - 4:20 pm WEIS THTR. |
Cross-listed: American Studies, Gender Studies, MES
Related interest: AADS
Race and sexuality are inexorably linked in the American consciousness. Inflammatory stereotypes of sexual prowess, nymphomania, and moral and corporeal ruin have fueled distorted images of the sexuality of people of color in the USA, with a simultaneous attraction and repulsion on the part of all audiences. This course examines extreme examples of this phenomenon, specifically to take apart the performative nature of spectacle in mainstream, alternative, and resistant forms of representation in a historical and contemporary sense. Topics studied include the Mammy, the "tragic mulatto," camp and race, Blaxploitation, positive versus negative images, and insurgent critiques of mainstream ideas and representations of non-white sexualities. Different media will be examined, including film, video, literature, and the essay.
CRN |
92592 |
Distribution |
C |
Course No. |
SST 311 |
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Title |
Ireland, 1691 to the present |
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Professor |
Peter Linebaugh |
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Schedule |
Mon Wed 11:30 am - 12:50 pm LC 120 |
Cross-listed: Irish and Celtic Studies
This course will explore major topics in Irish history since the Battle of Aughrim in 1691 which destroyed the old Gaelic order. Loss, hunger, language, and insurgency became abiding themes of history and literature. The emphasis will be on particular episodes in Irish history, including the huge peasant insurgencies of the 18th century particularly the Whiteboys, the Rebellion of 1798 led by Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen, the rebellion of Robert Emmet in 1803 whose bicentennial is of particular importance to New Yorkers, the famines which culminated in the starvations of the 1840s and the resulting massive migration, the Easter Rebellion of 1916 and the civil war which resulted in independence and partition, the diaspora of Irish labor power which built so much of the urban industrial infrastructure of America and England. The cultural superstructure of the Anglo-American world is also partly Irish, from Swift and Burke, to Joyce and Yeats. Whenever possible we shall read primary texts, fiction and non-fiction alike, such as James Connolly's Labor in Irish History, Mitchell's Jail Journal, Swift's "Modest Proposal," The Poor Man's Catechism, Wolfe Tone's Argument on Behalf of the Catholics of Ireland, Maria Edgworth, Castle Rackrent, Bernadette McAliskey, and the current debates under "revisionism." This course is especially suitable to third and fourth year students, though students who already have some background in history are welcome.
CRN |
92450 |
Distribution |
C |
Course No. |
SST 318 |
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Title |
Constitutional Law: Civil Rights and Liberties |
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Professor |
Alan Sussman |
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Schedule |
Th 1:30 pm - 3:50 pm LC 115 |
CRN |
92416 |
Distribution |
C |
Course No. |
SST 332 |
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Title |
The Ecological Crisis |
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Professor |
Joel Kovel |
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Schedule |
Mon 1:30 pm - 3:50 pm ASP 302 |