91964

HR 101

Introduction to Human Rights

Thomas Keenan

M W 1:30 pm-2:50 pm

OLIN 204

MBV

D+J

HUM

DIFF

(HR core course.) Cross-listed: Global & International Studies An intensive introduction to contemporary discussions of human rights in a broad context. The course mixes a basic historical and theoretical investigation of these contested categories, 'human' and 'rights,' with some difficult examples of the political, social, cultural, and aesthetic dimensions of claims made in these terms. What are humans and what count as rights, if any? We will ask about the foundations of rights claims; about legal, political, non-violent and violent ways of advancing, defending and enforcing them; about the documents and institutions of the human rights movement; and about the questionable 'reality' of human rights in our world. Is there such a thing as 'our' world? The answers are not obvious. We will try to find them by exploring, among other things, the French and American revolutions, the 'decline of the nation-state' (Arendt), humanitarian intervention (medical and military), public space and democracy, testimony and information (from Shoah to the CNN effect), war crimes and the concept of the civilian, and the challenges to human rights orthodoxy posed by terrorism and the wars against it. Using The Face of Human Rights (Walter Kalin) as our primary text, along with work in philosophy, history, literature, politics, and with the contemporary news flow, we will examine some tricky cases and troubled places, among them our own. Class size: 22

92141

HR 203

SEEING THE TWILIGHT WAR: Human Rights and The 9/11 State of Emergency

Mark Danner

M W 10:10 am-11:30 am

OLIN 309

D&J

SSCI

For fifteen years – longer than some of us can remember – Americans have been living in a state of exception: a constitutional dictatorship where the human rights on which Americans so pride themselves have been routinely circumscribed. In Abu Ghraib and in secret “black site” prisons around the world American interrogators have tortured prisoners on the orders of American leaders. In Guantanamo, American troops stand guard over nearly a hundred men who are imprisoned indefinitely without trial. In Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, have struck and killed without warrant or due process perhaps 5000 people. Far from causing outrage or revolt, all of this has taken on the character of the barely noticed day to day. The United States, which prides itself on its leadership of the human rights movement, has become a nation that violates central precepts of the human rights regime every day as a matter of accepted state policy. In this class we will study the post-9/11 “new normal” and seek to understand how the state of exception came to be imposed, why it was accepted and how long it might endure. Among the authors we will read are George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Barton Gellman, Osama bin Laden, Jane Mayer, Mohamedou Ould Slahi, Sayyid Qutb, Clinton Rossiter, Ron Suskind, Bob Woodward, Lawrence Wright, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Ayman al-Zawahiri.

92363

HR 221

Queer Subjects of Desire

Robert Weston

M W 3:10 pm-4:30 pm

HEG 102

MBV

D+J

HUM

DIFF

Cross-listed: Gender and Sexuality Studies Over the past two decades, preliminary discourse-shaping debates between proponents of Gay & Lesbian Studies and proponents of Queer Theory have proliferated into a rich array of subfields in the research on gender and sexuality. In this course students will engage in core debates that shape the widening field of sexuality studies. The course will be organized into a series of units devoted to different approaches to the study of sexuality in a global context: units vary, but may include: Queer Theory; Psychoanalysis; Gender Theory; Feminism; Desiring Capital

92018

HR 223

Epidemiology: A Human Rights Perspecitve

Helen Epstein

T Th 1:30 pm-2:50 pm

HEG 308

D&J

SSCI

Cross-listed: Anthropology; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Global & International Studies; Of related interest: Biology

Epidemiologists track down outbreaks of infectious diseases like malaria, Ebola and HIV and explore trends in cancer, heart attacks, mental illness and other chronic afflictions. By the end of this course, students will understand how epidemiological studies are designed and carried out; be able to generate hypotheses about the causes and risk factors of diseases and appreciate how epidemiological statistics can be used as a forensic tool for human rights investigations or be distorted for the purposes of advertising and propaganda. Emphasis will be placed not only on the quantitative aspects of epidemiology, but also on the ways in which epidemics are shaped by cultural, social, political and economic conditions and government policies. Examples will be drawn from recent international public health emergencies such as Ebola, Zika and AIDS as well as lead poisoning and mysterious increases in mental illnesses including schizophrenia and autism in the US. Class size: 18

92021

HR 226

Women's Rights, Human Rights

Robert Weston

T Th 1:30 pm-2:50 pm

HEG 201

D+J

SSCI

DIFF

Cross-listed: Gender and Sexuality (core course) This course provides students with a broad overview of women’s struggles for liberation from the global patterns of masculine domination. Following a brief overview of first wave feminism, the bulk of the course engages students with second wave feminism—including, the critical appropriations and contestations of marxism, structuralism & psychoanalysis characteristic of post '68 feminist theory—post-structuralist theories of sexual difference, écriture féminine, 70s debates surrounding the NOW & ERA movements, and turning at the end of the course to the issues of race & class at the center of third wave feminism. While serving as a survey of the major developments in feminist theoretical discourse, the course is framed from a global human rights perspective, always mindful of issues ranging from suffrage, property rights & Equal Pay, to forced marriage, reproductive rights & maternal mortality, female genital mutilation, sex-trafficking, & prostitution, to coeducation, Lesbian, & Transgender rights. Readings may include texts ranging from Wollstonecraft, Stopes & Fuller, to Beauvoir, Friedan, Solanas, Koedt, Dworkin, Duggan, MacKinnon, & Allison (the "Feminist Sex Wars"), to Rubin, Wittig, De Lauretis, Traub, Irigaray, Kristeva, Cixous, Butler, Walker, Baumgardner, Richards, Moraga, Andalzùa, et al. This course is part of the “Difficult Questions” cluster of courses; students will be expected to attend parts of the Hannah Arendt Center Conference “Difficult Questions: How We Talk About Race, Sex, and Religion” on October 20-21. Class size: 25

92019

HR 244

Reproductive Health and Human Rights

Helen Epstein

T Th 3:10 pm-4:30 pm

HEG 102

D&J

SSCI

Cross-listed: Anthropology; Gender and Sexuality Studie; Global & International Studies; Sociology Of related interest: Biology

Beginning in the thirteenth century, a radical shift in attitudes and norms concerning family life began spreading from one society to another. It changed relationships between women and men and between parents and children and also how people saw themselves. It is still underway. Scholars call it the Demographic Transition, narrowly defined as a progressive reduction in the size of families and an increase in the survival of children, but its consequences have included political turmoil, personal and romantic upheavals, intellectual and artistic movements and the spread of diseases like syphilis and AIDS. In this course, you will be introduced to the statistical evidence concerning the Demographic Transition as well as its consequences for women, children, men, societies and nations. Class size: 18

92133

HR 246

Human Rights in Africa

Peter Rosenblum

T Th 1:30 pm-2:50 pm

RKC 103

D+J

SSCI

(HR Core course) Cross-listed: Africana Studies; Global & International Studies Africa has been central to the story of human rights from the Colonial era to the present. It has been the site of atrocities and great struggles, as well as a testing ground for new forms of advocacy, and new international mechanisms to relieve and redress past harm. It has spawned international criminal tribunals, truth commissions, and creative peace “making” operations. What underlies them are some of the most inspiring and depressing events in the world today. It is impossible to understand the form that human rights has taken without exploring the impact of the end of Apartheid and the democratic transitions that swept the continent, on the one hand, but also the Rwandan Genocide, the prolonged Congo War, the dissolution of Sudan, and HIV surge on the other. This course will explore Sub-Saharan Africa through the lens of human rights. It will focus on three countries, South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya while touching on many others and will explore the evolution of human rights from the Colonial era to the present, focusing particularly on the 'second wave' of democratic states and the socio-economic challenges of the past decade. Readings will include Adam Hochschild, Alice Conklin, and Caroline Elkins for Colonial histories, Alistair Sparks, Gerard Prunier, Michaela Wrong and Jason Stearn for contemporary stories of South Africa, DRC and Kenya. Other readings will be drawn from journals, blogs and the reports of investigative organizations, including some of my own work. There will be a midterm and a final paper that covers a particular theme or country. Class size: 28

92488

HR 250

BLACK LIVES MATTER: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY INVESTIGATION OF THE MOVEMENT, ITS FOUNDATIONS AND ITS IMPACT

Ariana Gonzalez Stokas

W 11:50 am 1:10 pm

OLINLC 206

MBV

D+J

2-credits In February 2012, Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African-American teenager was murdered by George Zimmerman. When Zimmerman was acquitted in July 2013, Alicia Garza coined the phrase Black Lives Matter in a Facebook post, and the #blacklivesmatter hashtag spread quickly, thus inaugurating a new black liberation movement. We will seek to understand the BLM movement, its roots, influences and impacts. We will investigate questions related to representation, appropriation, the role of white people, solidarity with other racialized groups, privilege, and technology. Students will engage in a multidisciplinary investigation of BLM in an effort to understand race in relation to a variety of social systems such as policing, health, and education. Students will create a final project that links the issues of the seminar with their own major (e.g. art, human rights, theatre, philosophy, biology, etc.). In collaboration with local social justice organizations, the seminar will seek to create a public education happening based upon the multidisciplinary engagements of seminar participants. This seminar is part of the Engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences initiative. Course meets once a week for 80 minutes. Class size: 15

92132

HR 338

Human Rights in THE Global Economy

Peter Rosenblum

F 10:10 am-12:30 pm

OLINLC 210

D&J

SSCI

Cross-listed: Economics, Global & International Studies The modern human rights movement emerged at the end of the Cold War with a focus on states and an arsenal appropriate to civil and political repression. Economic and social rights were acknowledged in law, but overlooked or disdained in practice. The transformation of the global economy since the end of the Cold War – including the increased importance of transnational trade, investment and global corporations – forced advocates to rethink their focus on the state and to develop new tactics for confronting major economic actors. This class will explore the complicated history of the global corporation in relation to the rights of workers and citizens in the societies where they operate. The course traces the evolution of these relationships, with case studies on the British East India Company, the economic legacy of slave labor in American Universities, the Indian Swaraj campaign, United Fruit Company, the Chilean copper nationalization and the South African divestment campaign. The second half of the class is devoted to the rise of economic activism using contemporary human rights tactics. We will look at current work that addresses particular sectors (e.g., consumer goods, natural resource extraction, and agriculture), regions (e.g., Africa) and issues (e.g., child labor, women's empowerment). Class size: 15

91965

HR 349

Critical Human Rights Theory

Thomas Keenan

T 1:30 pm-3:50 pm

ASP 302

D&J

SSCI

The notion of universal human rights has become an unavoidable source for ethical and political thinking and practice, a resource for claims made against the powerful and a means through which power is exercised. And yet, a clear consensus over the meaning, interpretation, and application of human rights continues to elude us. Once taken-for-granted notions bequeathed to us by the liberal and humanist traditions — man, the autonomous individual, the rational subject, citizenship, sovereignty, universality, privacy and publicity, the rule of law — have been radically contested, on conceptual as well as practical grounds. And the political and moral effects of human rights discourse — its legalism, interventionism, potential for absolutist dogmatism, and both its frequent powerlessness *and* the ease with which it can be appropriated in the interests of domination — have given rise to a wave of critical accounts. This seminar explores recent writings that have questioned the theoretical foundations, and political performativity, of the human rights idea. The goal of the seminar is to engage with a new critical literature on human rights, and to assess the implications of the "critical turn" for theory and the practice of human rights. Readings from Asad, Balibar, Brown, Butler, Chamayou, Derrida, Fassin, Foucault, Golder, Gündoğlu, Ignatieff, Lefort, Moyn, Perugini and Gordon, Posner, Ranciere, Rieff, Scott, Spivak, and Ticktin, among others. Class size: 18

92020

HR 350

Antisemitism:Anatomy of A Hatred

Kenneth Stern

Th 10:10 am-12:30 pm

OLIN 309

D+J

SSCI

DIFF

Cross-listed: Jewish Studies For as long as there have been human beings, there has been hatred, and antisemitism is one of its oldest and most persistent forms. What is antisemitism? How has it manifested itself in different eras, regions, political and economic systems and cultures – even in places that do not have Jews? How can it be combated? What insights can we gain about other forms of hatred (homophobia, racism, sexism, Islamophobia, etc.) from the in depth study of antisemitism? Readings will be wide-ranging, including selections from experts (Poliakov, Dinnerstein, Laqueur, Wistrich), historical figures such as Peter Stuyvesant, George Washington and Adolf Hitler, newspaper articles and social media postings, YouTube clips from antisemitic religious figures, literature from Nazis and neo-Nazis, Jewish communal internal memoranda, materials about and from court cases, and a class session with longtime Bard professor Justus Rosenberg, the last surviving member of the group that rescued hundreds of artists and intellectuals from the Nazis during World War II. At the end of the course, students should be able to identify and differentiate different types of antisemitism, understand how it works (and changes) as an ideology, how historical and socio-economic factors do and do not impact it, and how it fits within (but is also different from other members of) the family of bigotries. While this is a course designed for upper-college students, motivated first or second year students are welcome to apply. Class size: 18

91969

ANTH 261

Anthropology of Violence and Suffering

Laura Kunreuther

W F 11:50 am-1:10 pm

OLIN 203

MBV

D+J

HUM

DIFF

Cross-listed: Asian Studies, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Global & Int’l Studies, Human Rights (core course), Science, Technology & Society Why do acts of violence continue to grow in the ‘modern’ world? In what ways has violence become naturalized in the contemporary world? In this course, we will consider how acts of violence challenge and support modern ideas of humanity, raising important questions about what it means to be human today. These questions lie at the heart of anthropological thinking and also structure contemporary discussions of human rights. Anthropology’s commitment to “local culture” and cultural diversity has meant that anthropologists often position themselves in critical opposition to “universal values,” which have been used to address various forms of violence in the contemporary world. The course will approach different forms of violence, including ethnic and communal conflicts, colonial education, torture and its individualizing effects, acts of terror and institutionalized fear, and rituals of bodily pain that mark individuals’ inclusion or exclusion from a social group. The course is organized around three central concerns. First, we will discuss violence as a means of producing and consolidating social and political power, and exerting political control. Second, we will look at forms of violence that have generated questions about “universal rights” of humanity versus culturally specific practices, such as widow burning in India and female genital mutilation in postcolonial Africa. In these examples, we explore gendered dimensions in the experience of violence among perpetrators, victims, and survivors. Finally, we will look at the ways human rights institutions have sought to address the profundity of human suffering and pain, and ask in what ways have they succeeded and/or failed. Readings will range from theoretical texts, anthropological ethnographies, as well as popular representations of violence in the media and film. Class size: 22

91807

LIT 2509

Telling Stories about Rights

Nuruddin Farah

M W 10:10 am-11:30 am

OLIN 308

D+J

ELIT

DIFF

(core course) Cross-listed: Human Rights What difference can fiction make in struggles for rights and justice? And what can this effort to represent injustice, suffering, or resistance tell us about about fiction and literature? This course will focus on a wide range of fictions, from a variety of writers with different backgrounds that tell unusual stories about the rights of individuals and communities to justice. We will read novels addressing human migration, injustices committed in the name of the state against a minority, and the harsh conditions under which some communities operate as part of their survival strategy, among other topics. We will look at the ways in which literary forms can allow universalizing claims to be made, exploring how racism, disenfranchisement, poverty, and lack of access to education and health care, for instance, can affect the dignity of all humans. Readings may include: Chronicles of a Death Foretold by Garcia Marquez; Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson; Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg; Our Nig by Harriet Wilson; Balzac & the Chinese Seamstress by Sijai Dai; Winter is in the Blood by James Welch; The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday; Wolves of the Crescent Moon by Yousef Al-Mohaimeed, and Bound to Violence by Yambo Ouleguem. We will also watch a number of films based on the novels (including Chronicles, Smilla's Sense, Balzac, Snow Falling), and The First Grader (2001, on the right to education in Kenya).

Class size: 18

92034

PS 145

Human Rights in Global PoliticS

Omar Encarnacion

M W 3:10 pm-4:30 pm

OLIN 205

SSCI

Cross-listed: Global & International Studies; Human Rights (core course) This course aims to familiarize students with the main actors, debates, and explanations behind the rise of human rights in global politics. The course is divided into three core sections. The first explores the philosophical foundations of the notion of human rights and its contested universality, and the historical developments that propelled human rights to the forefront of international politics, especially the atrocities of World War II committed by Germany's Nazi regime. The second part of the course focuses on the evolution of the so-called “international human rights regime,” or the main actors and institutions in the human rights arena responsible for promoting and policing human rights--from the basic legal framework of human rights (the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights), to major multilateral human rights institutions, such as the UN Human Rights Council, the International Criminal Court, and the European Court of Human Rights, to prominent non-state actors such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, and the International Center for Transitional Justice. The third part examines the evolution of human rights, especially the shifts from “first generation” human rights (political freedoms) to “second generation” human rights (social and economic rights, such as housing, employment, and education), to “third generation human rights” and beyond (cultural self-determination, economic sustainability, and sexual freedoms, among others); and the means by which these shifts have come about and have spread around the globe, such as international socialization, globalization, and policy diffusion. Class size: 22

91967

ANTH 223

Conservation Anthropology

Michele Dominy

T Th 3:10 pm-4:30 pm

OLIN 205

SSCI

92126

ANTH 225

Political Anthropology

Jonah Rubin

M W 10:10 am-11:30 am

OLIN 305

D+J

SSCI

DIFF

92127

ANTH 236

ANTHROPOLOGY OF DEATH

Jonah Rubin

M W 3:10 pm-4:30 pm

OLIN 310

SSCI

DIFF

91973

ANTH 265

Race & Nature in Africa

Yuka Suzuki

T Th 11:50 am-1:10 pm

OLIN 201

D+J

SSCI

DIFF

91974

ANTH 350

Contemporary Cultural Theory

Yuka Suzuki

W 10:10 am-12:30 pm

OLIN 306

MBV

D+J

HUM

DIFF

91743

ARTH 205

Contested Spaces

Olga Touloumi

T Th 10:10 am-11:30 am

FISHER ANNEX

AART

91737

ARTH 209

Art & Nation Building

Julia Rosenbaum

T Th 3:10 pm-4:30 pm

OLIN 301

AART

91979

ECON 321

Seminar in EconomicDevelopment

Sanjaya DeSilva

M 3:10 pm-5:30 pm

OLIN 309

SSCI

92471

HIST 185

Making of Modern Middle East

Ugur Pece

M W 3:10 pm-4:30 pm

RKC 103

HIST

DIFF

92398

HIST 216

North America & Empire I

Holger Droessler

M W 3:10 pm-4:30 pm

OLINLC 115

D+J

HIST

92399

HIST 223

U. S. Labor History/Global Per

Holger Droessler

T Th 3:10 pm-4:30 pm

RKC 103

D+J

HIST

92001

HIST 2302

Shanghai and Hong Kong

Robert Culp

M W 10:10 am-11:30 am

ALBEE 106

HIST

92538

HIST 235

OUT OF PLACE: MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES OF THE MIDDLE EAST

Ugur Pece

M W 10:10 am-11:30 am

HDR 106

HIST

92007

HIST 297

History of European Women

Tabetha Ewing

T Th 3:10 pm-4:30 pm

OLIN 101

HIST

92017

HIST 3133

Resistance & Collaboration

Cecile Kuznitz

W 10:10 am-12:30 pm

OLIN 107

D+J

HIST

92002

HIST 340

The Politics of History

Robert Culp

Th 10:10 am-12:30 pm

OLIN 306

D+J

HIST

DIFF

91804

LIT 225

Strange Books/Human Condition

Francine Prose

F 1:30 pm-3:50 pm

OLIN 202

ELIT

91774

LIT 236

Russian Documentary Prose

Olga Voronina

T Th 1:30 pm-2:50 pm

OLIN 201

FLLC

91785

LIT 3100

Writing Darkness:Narr/Captivty

Mark Danner

W 1:30 pm-3:50 pm

OLIN 303

ELIT

DIFF

91786

LIT 3105

Readings of the Global South

Dina Ramadan

T 1:30 pm-3:50 pm

OLIN 303

ELIT

91811

LIT 319

Literature & the Refugee

Nuruddin Farah

T 10:10 am-12:30 pm

OLINLC 210

FLLC

91810

LIT 329

Literature of Dissent

Marisa Libbon

T 1:30 pm-3:50 pm

OLIN 304

ELIT

92022

PHIL 234

Phil/Art/Culture of Democracy

Norton Batkin

M W 11:50 am-1:10 pm

OLIN 204

MBV

HUM

92030

PS 109

Political Economy

Sanjib Baruah

M W 1:30 pm-2:50 pm

OLIN 202

SSCI

92045

PS 207

Global Citizenship

Michelle Murray

M W 8:30 am-9:50 am

OLIN 204

SSCI

92035

PS 222

Latin America:Politics/Society

Omar Encarnacion

M W 11:50 am-1:10 pm

OLIN 308

SSCI

92046

PS 273

Diplomacy in Int'l. Politics

James Ketterer

M W 1:30 pm-2:50 pm

OLIN 205

SSCI

92031

PS 280

Nations/States/Nationalism

Sanjib Baruah

M W 10:10 am-11:30 am

OLIN 303

SSCI

92032

PS 290

Totalitarianism

Kevin Duong

T Th 8:30 am-9:50 am

OLIN 202

SSCI

92042

PS 352

Terrorism

Christopher McIntosh

T 10:10 am-12:30 pm

HDR 106

SSCI

92052

SOC 120

Inequality in America

Yuval Elmelech

T Th 11:50 am-1:10 pm

OLIN 205

D+J

SSCI

DIFF

92053

SOC 205 A

Intro to Research Methods

Yuval Elmelech

T Th 3:10 pm-4:30 pm

HDR 101A

MATC

92359

SOC 205 B

Intro to Research Methods

Yuval Elmelech

M W 3:10 pm-4:30 pm

RKC 100

MATC

92055

SOC 233

Legal Systems:Compar Perspect

Lauraleen Ford

T Th 4:40 pm-6:00 pm

OLIN 202

SSCI

92114

THTR 342

Performing Difficult Questions

Roger Berkowitz

Jonathan Rosenberg

T Th 11:50 am-1:10 pm

FISH RESNICK

MBV

D+J

HUM