SOCIAL STUDIES

CRN

92593

Distribution

C

Course No.

SST 125

Title

Introduction to Modern Britain I, 1485 - 1763

Professor

Peter Linebaugh

Schedule

Tu Th 3:00 pm - 4:20 pm OLIN 107


This is the first of two courses designed to introduce students to the classes, cultures, and constitution of modern Britain (England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales). While retaining the framework of the survey, the course explores topics that are coeval with contemporary ones - the clearing of the forests, market society and the 'moral economy,' the struggle for the commons, ethnic cleansing (gypsies, blackamoors), new media (moveable type), the terror of religious bigotry (witch burning), globalization via sea-power, the fabrication of legitimacy of the monarchy, the recalcitrance of indigenous cultivators (Kett's Rebellion), systemic urban crime, invisibility of widespread slavery, social revolution with critiques of capitalism and empire, new philosophy of science, and 'the civilizing process' of class refinement. Readings will often be primary to this first period of the anglophone world, and include More's Utopia, Winstanley on Diggers, Tyndale's Bible, Bacon on science, Milton on free speech, Bunyan on salvation, the Levellers on the "people," Spenser on Ireland, Harmon on crime, Locke on government, and Mandeville on vices.

CRN

92417

Distribution

C

Course No.

SST 220

Title

Marxism & Radical Social Theory

Professor

Joel Kovel

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

Title

Barbed Quill: Race & the Essay

Professor

Aureliano DeSoto

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

Title

Slavery & the American Experience

Professor

Aureliano DeSoto

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

Title

Sexual Ecologies of Race

Professor

Aureliano DeSoto

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

Title

Ireland, 1691 to the present

Professor

Peter Linebaugh

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

Title

Constitutional Law: Civil Rights and Liberties

Professor

Alan Sussman

Schedule

Th 1:30 pm - 3:50 pm LC 115


This course will focus on the legal boundaries between individual autonomy and state control. These boundaries, however, are never static, as the Constitution is an organic document, subject to continual interpretation by the Supreme Court. Topics of study will include the nature and limits of freedom of speech and religion, equal protection (including affirmative action), intimacy and privacy (including abortion), due process in criminal law, and emerging concepts of constitutional adjudication such as critical legal studies and feminist jurisprudence. Landmark Supreme Court cases and opinions will be examined, enabling the student to consider the process of legal reasoning and the Court's reliance upon or deviation from prior legal authority. Relevant commentaries and historical documents will be read and discussed as well. Constitutional Law is an upper college course, meeting for a concentrated period of time once each week.

CRN

92416

Distribution

C

Course No.

SST 332

Title

The Ecological Crisis

Professor

Joel Kovel

Schedule

Mon 1:30 pm - 3:50 pm ASP 302


The course surveys the ecological crisis in all its dimensions: biological, political, economic, technological, scientific, cultural, psychological, ethical, philosophical, and spiritual. Does it have an "efficient cause," a main dynamism that can be isolated and overcome? The dominant system of production, capitalism, is investigated in this light. Finally, the course considers the overriding questions, What is to be done? What social, technological, psychological, and spiritual changes are necessary to overcome the crisis; how do existing ecological movements measure up against these goals?