CRN	94135	Distribution	C / * (Analysis of Art)
Course No.	SST / LAIS 140 *Rethinking Difference
Title	Latinos in the USA: Film, Memoir, Fiction
Professor	Aureliano DeSoto
Schedule	Fri 10:00 am – 12:20 pm OLIN 201 Screening:Wed 10:00 am–12:30 WEIS CINEMA

Cross-listed: American Studies, SRE

This course introduces students broadly to the history and experience of Latinos in the USA through memoir, film, and history. As Latinos have become an important demographic category in the United States, they have begun to enunciate their condition through a variety of media, the most prominent of which have been film, memoir and autobiographical fiction. We will read a number of diverse Latina/o writers, representing Dominican, Mexican American, Cuban, Salvadoran, and Puerto Rican voices, as well as view contemporary filmic representations of Latino life and culture, to establish a sophisticated understanding of the issues facing US-based Latinos: assimilation and Americanization, language and bilingualism, immigration, racism, issues of gender and sexuality, and gaining and expanding cultural citizenship in the United States.

CRN	94014	Distribution	A/C / *(Humanities)
Course No.	SST 220 *Rethinking Difference
Title	Foundations of Marxism
Professor	Joel Kovel
Schedule	Mon Wed 10:00 am - 11:20 am OLIN 303

Cross-listed: Human Rights, 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	94089	Distribution	C
Course No.	SST 318
Title	Constitutional Law: Civil Rights and Liberties
Professor	Alan Sussman
Schedule	Tu 1:30 pm - 3:50 pm OLIN 107

Cross-listed: Human Rights

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, complex questions of equal protection (including affirmative action), intimacy and privacy (including abortion), and due process in criminal law. 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.

CRN	94015	Distribution	A/C / *(Humanities)
Course No.	SST 332
Title	The Ecological Crisis
Professor	Joel Kovel
Schedule	Mon 1:30 pm - 3:50 pm OLIN 301

Cross-listed: Environmental Studies, Human Rights

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?