Courses included in the Hate Studies Initiative intersect this definition of Hate Studies: “Inquiries into the human capacity to define, and then dehumanize or demonize, an ‘other,’ and the processes which inform and give expression to, or can curtail, control, or combat, that capacity.” Courses noted with ** are new hate-centric courses supported with funding from the Bard Center for the Study of Hate (underwritten with a generous grant from GS Humane Corp).

For more information about Hate Studies, and faculty and student resources, please visit https://bcsh.bard.edu/

 

 

Course:

ANTH 219  Divided Cities

Professor:

Jeffrey Jurgens  

CRN:

90190

Schedule:

 Tue  Thurs    10:20 AM - 11:40 AM Reem Kayden Center 102

Distributional Area:

SA Social Analysis

D+J Difference and Justice

Class cap:

20

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Environmental & Urban Studies

This class offers an introduction to modern cities and everyday urban life, with a central focus on cities that are both socially and spatially divided. On the one hand, we will examine how political-economic inequalities and collective differences (organized in relation to race, color, gender, sexuality, class, [dis]ability, and other social categories) are expressed in geographic boundaries and other aspects of the built environment. On the other, we will explore how state agencies, real estate developers, activists, residents, and other social actors make and remake city spaces in ways that reinforce, rework, challenge, and refuse the existing terms of inequality and difference. The class will revolve around case studies of cities around the world (e.g., Berlin, Johannesburg, Kunming, and Rio de Janeiro) as well as cities in the US (e.g., Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City). More broadly, we will trace the history of urban segregation from a perspective that is both transnational and committed to the pursuit of racial justice (as well as other forms of societal transformation). This class builds on assigned reading in anthropology and other disciplines, critical writing and discussion, and focused film viewing. At the same time, it provides students with an opportunity to reflect on urban theorizing through collaborations with community partners in Kingston and other cities. This course is part of the Racial Justice Initiative, an interdisciplinary collaboration among students and faculty to further the understanding of racial inequality and injustice in the United States and beyond.

 

Course:

ANTH 363  Asia and America: Imperial Formations

Professor:

Naoko Kumada  

CRN:

90556

Schedule:

    Thur   2:00 PM - 4:20 PM Olin 301

Distributional Area:

SA Social Analysis

Class cap:

12

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  American Studies; Asian Studies; Global & International Studies

The Atlanta shooting and the sharp increase in anti-Asian violence have taken racial politics in the US to a new level. These attacks echo the anti-China rhetoric spread by mainstream and social media, corporations, and policymakers. Taking an anthropological approach, this course attempts to offer historical, cultural, and geopolitical contexts for understanding the racial tension surrounding Asian communities in the US and abroad today. It takes into account the long-standing historical and systemic factors in US society as well as new global challenges brought by the pandemic and the rise of China. Seeing the US as an empire, the course explores how its imperial formations and practices shaped, and were shaped by, Asia and its interactions with Asia. It examines how America continued its westward capitalist and militarist expansion, shifting its frontier as it added territories, colonies, and military bases across the globe, in the islands in the Pacific and Asia (Hawaii, Samoa, Marshall Islands, Okinawa, and Diego Garcia). Moving beyond the clear-cut boundaries of sovereign nation-states, we explore layered forms of sovereignty, nationhood, and (extra)territoriality between Asia and America. Topics include racial and gendered forms of Asian labor and migration (‘coolies’ and ‘prostitutes’), the practices of building and maintaining US military bases, America’s wars on Asia (the Philippines, Vietnam), and local responses. This course is part of the Racial Justice Initiative, an interdisciplinary collaboration among students and faculty to further the understanding of racial inequality and injustice in the United States and beyond. This course is part of the Racial Justice Initiative, an interdisciplinary collaboration among students and faculty to further the understanding of racial inequality and injustice in the United States and beyond.

 

Course:

ARTH 255  Outsider Art

Professor:

Susan Aberth  

CRN:

90094

Schedule:

 Tue  Thurs    5:40 PM - 7:00 PM Reem Kayden Center 103

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art

Class cap:

22

Credits:

4

The term "Outsider Art" is a problematic umbrella under which are grouped a variety of difficult to categorize artistic practices. This class will first examine the use of terminology such as outsider, naà¯ve, and visionary, as well as groupings such as art brut, folk art, art of the insane, and even popular culture. We will pursue relevant questions such as: what exactly are the criteria for inclusion in such categories, do art markets drive this labeling, how does this work function within the art world, are categorical borders crossed in order to fit the needs of exhibiting institutions, and finally how has Outsider Art impacted mainstream modern and contemporary art and are the dividing lines between the two still relevant? We will look at artwork produced within certain institutional settings such as mental asylums and prisons, as well as that produced by mediums, spiritualists and other "visionaries" working within what can be best described as a "folk art" category.   Art History distribution: Modern

 

Course:

ARTH 398  Converging Cultures: Diasporic Artists in the United States

Professor:

Tom Wolf  

CRN:

90246

Schedule:

  Wed     2:00 PM - 4:20 PM Olin 301

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art

Class cap:

15

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  American Studies; Asian Studies

The point of departure for this seminar will be an exhibition I am curating for the Samuel Dorsky Museum at the State University of New York at New Paltz.  The exhibition will feature works by three artists:  Winold Reiss, Aaron Douglas, and Isami Doi—a European American, an African American, and an Asian Pacific Islander.  Reiss and Douglas were instrumental in creating the visual culture of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and Doi, who studied with Reiss at that time, eventually returned to Hawai’i to become one of the most important artists in the place of his birth.

                The seminar will consider how these artists reflected their inherited cultures in their art while being active in the United States in the first half of the Twentieth century.  In a broader context we will also examine questions of identity in the works of American artists such as Joseph Stella, from Italy, the Soyer brothers, from Russia, Isamu Noguchi, from Japan, and several others.  Complex issues about artists who repeatedly portrayed people of ethnicities other than their own will be raised, and the mechanics of putting together the Reiss, Douglas, Doi exhibition will be discussed.  Students will present two short talks to the seminar, and submit a midterm and final paper.

 

Course:

CC 102 B Citizenship in the Contemporary United States

Professor:

Simon Gilhooley  

CRN:

90511

Schedule:

Mon  Wed     2:00 PM - 3:20 PM Olin 202

Distributional Area:

MBV Meaing, Being, Value

SA Social Analysis

Class cap:

18

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Human Rights; Political Studies

Many of us hear “citizen” and think of a fairly concrete form of political membership – that you are a citizen or you are not. But the history of citizenship in the United States has been one in which citizenship has been subject to much more contestation than that binary allows for. Examining topics including voting, incarceration, militarization, immigration, and education under the broader trajectories of race, gender, and class, the class will explore the entanglements of citizenship with the struggles over power. We will consider how “citizenship” in the United State has been and is uneven, unsettled, and often more of a political project than any individual’s status. In this way, our goal is to acquire a situated and critical understanding of the dilemmas of citizenship in the US and the inequalities, injustices as well as opportunities citizenship has come to be associated with.

 

Course:

CHI 403  Beyond China: Chinese Literature in the Diaspora

Professor:

Li-Hua Ying  

CRN:

90202

Schedule:

 Tue      10:20 AM - 12:40 PM Olin 309

Distributional Area:

FL Foreign Languages and Lit

Class cap:

15

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Asian Studies

This course is an introduction to modern and contemporary Chinese literature focusing on Chinese cultural spheres beyond the People's Republic and Taiwan. We will read Chinese diasporic literatures along a transnational itinerary, analyzing poetry and fiction hailing from Southeast Asia, Europe, and the U.S. At each location, Chinese immigrants must confront a multiethnic and multicultural society of layered histories and politics and find their own voice in their new home. The authors we will study, Yu Dafu, Zhang Ailing, Bai Xianyong, Nie Hualing, Li Yongping, Huang Jinshu, Gao Xingjian, Yang Lian, Ma Jian, Yan Geling, etc., each in their unique ways, have to confront issues such as exile and alienation, conceptions about being Chinese, understanding of the self and other, and the ways to narrate belonging and cultural identity. While examining their writings through close reading, we will learn to think critically about topics such as globalization with its impact on literary production and dissemination, the processes of cultural contact, and the representations of transnational experiences. This course fulfills Difference and Justice requirements as it deals with Chinese literature in a global context, focusing on unpacking the thorny problems of race and ethnicity, prejudices and discrimination, nationalism, and translational experiences. Prerequisite: three and more years of college Chinese language instruction or with the approval of the instructor. Taught in Chinese.

 

Course:

ECON 214  Labor Economics

Professor:

Michael Martell  

CRN:

90179

Schedule:

Mon  Wed     5:40 PM - 7:00 PM Olin 201

Distributional Area:

SA Social Analysis

D+J Difference and Justice

Class cap:

22

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  American Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Human Rights

This course focuses on the economic forces and public policies that affect employment and wages.  We examine theoretical models of labor markets and how well they hold up to real-world empirical data.  Topics emphasized include labor demand and supply, minimum wage laws, theories of unemployment, job search and matching models, family and life-cycle decision-making, human capital, efficiency wage theory, compensating wage differentials, worker mobility and migration, unions, and discrimination. Prerequisite: Economics 100.

 

Course:

FILM 106  Intro to Documentary

Professor:

Ed Halter  

CRN:

90346

Schedule:

        Class:  Wed     7:30 PM - 10:30 PM Preston 110

Screening: Thurs    2:00 PM - 5:00 PM Avery Film Center 110

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art

Class cap:

20

Credits:

4

An introductory historical survey of the documentary, from the silent era to the 21st century. Topics addressed will include the origins of the concept of documentary, direct cinema and cinema verite, propaganda, ethnographic media, the essay film, experimental documentary forms, media activism, fiction versus documentary, and the role of changing technologies. Filmmakers studied will include Flaherty, Vertov, Riefenstahl, Rouch, Maysles & Zwerin, Wiseman, Marker, Greaves, Farocki, Hara, Riggs, Trinh, Honigman, Poitras, and others. Grades will be based on weekly diaries, a short paper, and a final research project. Open to all students, with registration priority for First-Year students and film majors. This film history course fulfills a moderation/major requirement.

 

Course:

HIST 129  Urban American History

Professor:

Jeannette Estruth  

CRN:

90147

Schedule:

 Tue  Thurs    5:40 PM - 7:00 PM Olin 201

Distributional Area:

HA Historical Analysis

D+J Difference and Justice

Class cap:

22

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  American Studies; Environmental & Urban Studies

This class will explore the history of the urban American experience. We will ask: what makes a city? How have people built cities, inhabited them, and lived urban lives? What drives urban development and growth? What is the role of cities within capitalism and within government? Together we will begin to think of cities as sets of relationships, as well as a distinct spatial form. To that end, this course will use cities as a lens to research the following themes in United States history: labor and markets, wealth and inequality, ethnic identity and race, and gender and the environment since industrialization. With these frames of analysis, we will examine what ideas activists, architects, planners, social scientists, literary scholars, critical theorists, and sociologists have generated about urban America.  Our tools of exploration will include lectures, discussions, scholarly books, primary sources, articles, blogs, and films. This course is part of the Racial Justice Initiative, an interdisciplinary collaboration among students and faculty to further the understanding of racial inequality and injustice in the United States and beyond.

 

Course:

HIST 180  Technology, Labor, Capitalism

Professor:

Jeannette Estruth  

CRN:

90150

Schedule:

 Tue  Thurs    7:30 PM - 8:50 PM Olin 201

Distributional Area:

HA Historical Analysis

D+J Difference and Justice

Class cap:

22

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  American Studies; Environmental & Urban Studies; Experimental Humanities; Human Rights; Science, Technology, Society

Artificial intelligence and the knowledge economy. Computation and Credit. Satellites and social media. Philanthropy and factory flight. "Doing what you love" and digital activism. Climate change and corporate consolidation. This class will explore changes in capitalism, technology, and labor in the twentieth- and twenty-first century United States. We will learn how ideas about work and technology have evolved over time, and how these dynamic ideas and evolving tools have shaped the present day.

 

Course:

** HIST 2701  The Holocaust, 1933-1945

Professor:

Cecile Kuznitz  

CRN:

90159

Schedule:

 Mon  Wed     2:00 PM - 3:20 PM  Campus Center Weis Cinema

Distributional Area:

HA Historical Analysis

D+J Difference and Justice

Class cap:

22

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  German  Studies; Human Rights; Jewish Studies; Russian Studies

This course will provide an overview of the Nazi attempt to exterminate the Jewish people during the Second World War. We will begin by discussing some theoretical questions around the study of hate (specifically the hatred of Jews termed "antisemitism") and genocide. We will then proceed chronologically, examining the rise of the Nazis to power; the institution of ghettos and the cultural, social, and political activities of their populations; the turn to mass murder and its implementation in the extermination camps; Nazi persecution of other groups including the disabled and Roma and Sinti, and death marches and the liberation. In the latter part of the course we will focus on three of the most important historiographical debates in the study of the Holocaust, those surrounding the behavior and motives of "victims" (the nature of Jewish resistance), "perpetrators" (the Germans as "ordinary men" or "willing executioners") and "bystanders" (the reactions of Polish "neighbors," the Allies, etc.). As a course focusing on the persecution of a group defined as a racial minority, it fulfills the college's Difference and Justice requirement.

 

Course:

HR 189  Human Rights to Civil Rights

Professor:

Kwame Holmes  

CRN:

90134

Schedule:

Mon  Wed     10:20 AM - 11:40 AM Albee 100

Distributional Area:

HA Historical Analysis

D+J Difference and Justice

Class cap:

18

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Africana Studies; American Studies

(HRP core course) For much of the 20th century, Civil Rights activists and Human Rights advocates worked hand-in-hand. Their shared target: state actors and global systems that exploited human bodies and denied human dignity in the name of prejudice, nationalism and profit. Yet in the 1960s, a new wave of social movements representing Black, Feminist, LGBTQ, Chicano, Indigenous and Disabled perspectives shattered this consensus, demanding an identity-based approach to civil rights advocacy and pushing against notions of universal human rights. This seminar will introduce students to the history of this conflict, and allow them to explore for themselves the benefits and/or costs of advocating for social justice through the figure of "the human" or through the filter of identity. Students will be introduced to the foundational writings of identity-based movement leaders, with an eye for their applicability to contemporary struggles over immigration, anti-trans violence, mass incarceration and police violence. We will consider the relative efficacy of direct action, lawsuits, media campaigns and civil disobedience.

 

Course:

HR 223  Epidemics and Society

Professor:

Helen Epstein  

CRN:

90131

Schedule:

 Tue  Thurs    2:00 PM - 3:20 PM Olin 202

Distributional Area:

SA Social Analysis

D+J Difference and Justice

Class cap:

22

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Africana Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Global & International Studies

Epidemiologists investigate patterns in the spread of diseases, predict when and where outbreaks will occur and identify who is most at risk.   Modern epidemiology emerged in the 19th and 20th centuries when populations in the US and Europe encountered a spate of new diseases including cholera, typhus, lung cancer and lead poisoning.  These epidemics arose from new methods of industrial production, changing patterns of trade, urbanization and migration, and new personal habits and ways of life.  This course how the spread of many diseases are governed by social, political and economic forces.  We will also learn how epidemics have been addressed throughout history, in some cases through medical or technological intervention and in others through social, economic and political transformation. Today, some of our most serious public health threats are emerging not from the material realm of microbes and toxins, but from the political, social and psychological environment itself.  For example, we'll examine how epidemiologists have recently exposed the role of racism in mental illness and of "shock therapy" economic policies on soaring rates of alcoholism, drug abuse and suicide.

 

Course:

HR 253  Abolishing Prisons and the Police

Professor:

Kwame Holmes  

CRN:

90135

Schedule:

Mon  Wed     2:00 PM - 3:20 PM Olin 203

Distributional Area:

SA Social Analysis

D+J Difference and Justice

Class cap:

18

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Africana Studies; American Studies; Historical Studies

(HRP core course) This course explores what's to be gained, lost and what we can't imagine about a world without prisons. Through the figure of abolition (a phenomenon we will explore via movements to end slavery, the death penalty, abortion, gay conversion therapy and more) we will explore how and why groups of Americans have sought to bring an absolute end to sources of human suffering. In turn, we will explore a history of the punitive impulse in American social policy and seek to discern means of intervening against it. Finally, on the specific question of prison abolition, we will think through how to "sell" abolition to the masses and design a multi-media ad campaign to make prison abolition go viral.

 

Course:

HR 261  Epidemiology of Childhood

Professor:

Helen Epstein  

CRN:

90132

Schedule:

 Tue  Thurs    3:50 PM - 5:10 PM Olin 202

Distributional Area:

SA Social Analysis

D+J Difference and Justice

Class cap:

22

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Africana Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Global & International Studies

This course will describe efforts past and present by governments, health agencies and foundations to promote the health of children around the world, and explore new challenges facing children today. The importance of prevailing social attitudes towards children and women, as well as the political and economic imperatives that drive government action, will be emphasized.  We will begin with efforts led by UNICEF to save children in poor countries from the scourges of pneumonia, malaria and other diseases of poverty.  We will then learn how American public health officials reduced the toll from these same diseases during the early 20th century using very different methods.  We'll also learn how children today are being affected by AIDS and new forms of mental illness.  We'll discuss America's resistance to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the special challenges face by LGBTQ children.

 

Course:

LIT 2057  Youth in Precarious Japan

Professor:

Wakako Suzuki  

CRN:

90264

Schedule:

Mon    Wed   3:50 PM – 5:100 PM Olin Language Center 208

Distributional Area:

LA Literary Analysis in English

D+J Difference and Justice

Class cap

18

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Asian Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies

This course explores the theme of youth and adolescence in literary and cinematic works from late 19th-century to contemporary Japan. It examines how the development of industrial capitalism, Japanese colonialism, World War II, the US occupation, the regional Cold War order, the Japanese economic miracle, and the recent recession have been presented differently when we employ the perspective of youth. The course introduces the following key topics: sexuality, romance, friendship, same-sex love, education, family, ethnic identity, disability and anxiety. Particular issues that young people wrestle with have varied in each period. However, youth and adolescents have continuously grappled with the idea of "social identities" that navigate them into mature adulthood or socially expected gender norms, such as masculinity and femininity. Young people's hopes, dreams, disillusionment, frustrations, and struggles will be examined through selected literary and cinematic works. We also consider the intersection of race, class, gender, and sexual identity in Japanese society but also across countries from the perspective of Difference and Justice. The historical approach to literary and cinematic works provides comparative context to bridge our understanding of representation and the social context negotiated by creators and recipients. Readings include works by Natsume Soseki, Higuchi Ichiyo, Kunikida Doppo, Izumi Kyoka, Tanizaki Junichiro, Kawabata Yasunari, Mishima Yukio, Oe Kenzaburo, Yoshimoto Banana, and Murakami Haruki. Cinematic works include works by Ozu Yasujiro, Kurosawa Akira, Miyazaki Hayao, and Koreeda Hirokazu. We also expand our horizons to music, visual images, and magazines.  This course is part of the World Literature course offering.

 

Course:

LIT 2205  Stalin and Power

Professor:

Jonathan Brent  

CRN:

90226

Schedule:

    Fri   2:00 PM - 5:00 PM Olin 201

Distributional Area:

LA Literary Analysis in English

Class cap:

20

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Historical Studies; Russian Studies

Josef Stalin was indisputably one of the central political figures of the Twentieth Century.  Inheritor of leadership of the Soviet state after Lenin's death, he was both directly responsible for his regime's monstrous criminality and the architect of its survival in the face of internal threats and the Nazi invasion of 1941. Stalin remains an enigmatic presence in world history today.  At his death in 1953, Molotov said that he will live in the hearts of all progressive peoples forever; yet by 1956, his crimes were denounced publicly, his body was removed from the Lenin mausoleum, , and his image erased from Soviet society.  Only with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 did Stalin return to public awareness and now it can be said that he is, paradoxically, fully rehabilitated within contemporary Russian society.   This class will explore the enigma of Stalin and his enduring power through primary documents, biography, and the most recent scholarship.

 

Course:

REL 103 A Buddhism

Professor:

Dominique Townsend  

CRN:

90043

Schedule:

 Tue  Thurs    2:00 PM - 3:20 PM Bard Chapel

Distributional Area:

MBV Meaning, Being, Value

D+J Difference and Justice

Class cap:

22

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Asian Studies

For more than 2,500 years Buddhist thought and practice have evolved around the central problem of suffering and the possibility of liberation. The importance of cultivating compassion and wisdom and the reality of death are among Buddhism's guiding concerns. Across diverse cultural landscapes, Buddhism comprises a wide array of philosophical perspectives, ethical values, social hierarchies, and ritual technologies. It is linked to worldly politics, institutions, and charismatic personalities. At the same time, it is geared towards renunciation. Buddhism's various faces can seem inconsistent, and they are frequently out of keeping with popular conceptions. This course offers an introduction to Buddhism's foundational themes, practices, and worldviews within the framework of religious studies. Beginning with Buddhism's origination in India, we will trace its spread and development throughout Asia. We will also consider its more recent developments globally. There are no prerequisites for this course

 

Course:

PS 252  Democratic Theory

Professor:

William Dixon  

CRN:

90023

Schedule:

 Tue  Thurs    3:50 PM - 5:10 PM Olin 201

Distributional Area:

SA Social Analysis

D+J Difference and Justice

Class cap:

20

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Human Rights

“Democracy” today is virtually synonymous with legitimacy, justice, and freedom, but what does democracy really mean? What kinds of authority do democracies claim, and where does this authority come from? How do ordinary people, or “the people,” create democracies and the modes of civic life that democracies require? How should democrats relate to outsiders, enemies, and rival forms of social meaning and power? Finally, how might democracy be critically reimagined as a form of life for the twenty-first century, amidst widening social inequalities, entrenched forms of ideological division, and accelerating climate-change? This introductory course in democratic theory will consider these and other controversies over the contested meanings of democracy and citizenship. We will consider a wide range of thinkers and texts, including Sophocles, Thucydides, Rousseau, James Madison, Mary Wollstonecraft, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Isaiah Berlin, Marlon Riggs, Anne Norton, and Claudia Rankine. We will also give special attention to current political events in the contemporary United States.

 

Course:

PS 264  U.S. and the Modern Middle East

Professor:

Frederic Hof  

CRN:

90024

Schedule:

Mon  Wed     8:30 AM - 9:50 AM Olin 305

Distributional Area:

HA Historical Analysis

Class cap:

18

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  American Studies; Global & International Studies; Historical Studies; Middle Eastern Studies

This class will focus on the relationship of US foreign policy to the Arab states of the modern Middle East: the Arab countries of the Levant, Mesopotamia, the Arabian Peninsula, plus Egypt. The first part of the course will put this relationship in its historical perspective.  We will discuss the Ottoman Empire before, during, and immediately after World War I, the postwar treaties that stripped the Empire of its Arab holdings and established European rule in much of the Arab World through the League of Nations mandate system, the creation of independent Arab states, the pivotal year 1948, the rise of Arab nationalism (Nasserism and its rivals), the June 1967 war, and the rise of political Islam, among other topics.  The second part of the course will focus on the official American relationship with the Arab World from post-World War II until the present day.  Topics to be discussed include: securing petroleum resources; the Cold War; the security of Israel; dealing with political Islam and terrorism; the 2003 Iraq War; and the 2011 Arab Spring and its aftermath.

 

Course:

PS 352  Political Violence and Terrorism

Professor:

Christopher McIntosh  

CRN:

90027

Schedule:

Mon       10:20 AM - 12:40 PM Olin 301

Distributional Area:

SA Social Analysis

Class cap:

15

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Global & International Studies; Human Rights

The September 2001 terrorist attacks irrevocably changed US politics and foreign policy, giving rise to nearly two decades of war, expanded surveillance domestically and abroad, the use of torture and indefinite detention and a targeted killing policy conducted primarily via drone strikes around the globe. More recently, the January 6th attacks on the US Capitol evidenced what can happen when white nationalism, hate, and right wing ideologies are perpetuated by powerful political actors. While neither is a new phenomenon, it’s only relatively recently that terrorism and right wing violence have come to dominate the US national security agenda. Political violence, terrorism, and the propagation of hate-based ideologies have a long history in the United States This seminar will provide a theoretical and empirical examination of this type of violence as a political phenomenon. The first part of the course explores the conceptual and theoretical debates surrounding political violence within the United States and abroad typically characterized as terrorism. Topics discussed will include the distinctions between terrorism and other forms of political violence, individual and group motivations for using terrorism to achieve political goals, the role of religion and ideology in motivating terrorist groups, and the importance of state sponsorship in supporting terrorist activity and individual acts of violence like hate crimes. The second part of the course will address the challenges of government responses, including the strengths and weaknesses of counterterrorist tools such as military force, diplomacy, intelligence and law enforcement, the relationship between violence and democracy, and the role of the international community. In the final part of the course we will situate the contemporary US experience with terrorism, right wing violence and hate crimes in a comparative and historical perspective.

 

Course:

PSY 141 A Introduction to Psychological Science

Professor:

Thomas Hutcheon  

CRN:

90114

Schedule:

Mon  Wed     10:20 AM - 11:40 AM Hegeman 102

Distributional Area:

SA Social Analysis

Class cap:

22

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Mind, Brain, Behavior

Cross-listed: Mind, Brain, Behavior.  How does the mind create the reality we perceive? How do experiences shape the brain, and how do processes in the brain influence thought, emotion and behavior?  This course investigates these and similar questions by studying the science of the human mind and behavior. The course covers topics such as memory, perception, development, psychopathology, personality, and social behavior. A focus is on the biological, cognitive, and social/cultural roots that give rise to human experience. Additionally, the course will consider how behavior differs among people, and across situations.

 

Course:

PSY 210  Adult Abnormal Psychology

Professor:

Justin Dainer-Best  

CRN:

90120

Schedule:

Mon  Wed     3:50 PM - 5:10 PM Hegeman 308

Distributional Area:

SA Social Analysis

Class cap:

22

Credits:

4

This course is designed to examine various forms of adult psychopathology (i.e., psychological disorders) within the contexts of theoretical conceptualizations, research, and treatment.  Potential causes of psychopathology, diagnostic classifications, and treatment applications will be addressed.  Adult forms of psychopathology that will receive the primary emphasis of study include the anxiety, mood, eating, and substance-related disorders.  Prerequisites: Introduction to Psychology or permission of instructor. This course fulfills the Cluster A requirement for the Psychology Major.

 

Course:

REL 104  Introduction to Judaism

Professor:

Joshua Boettiger  

CRN:

90045

Schedule:

Tue  Thurs    3:50 PM – 5:10 PM Olin 308

Distributional Area:

MBV Meaning, Being, Value

D+J Difference and Justice

Class cap:

15

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Jewish Studies; Middle Eastern Studies

For millennia, the Jewish tradition has played a sizable role in religious and world history. This course introduces students to the array of diverse "Judaisms" that have arisen from ancient to contemporary times, with an emphasis on the historical encounters (from within and from without) that have shaped and continue to shape Judaism. There will be a particular focus on the transition from biblical to rabbinic civilization, as well as the modern development of new iterations of Judaism – including Hasidism, the Haskala (Jewish Enlightenment), modern European and American denominations (Reform, Orthodox, Conservative et al), Zionism, and so-called "cultural" Judaism. We will examine the foundational practices, ideas, and expressions of Judaism in light of its inner diversity as well as its sense of coherence.

 

Course:

SOC 138  Introduction to Urban Sociology

Professor:

Peter Klein  

CRN:

90003

Schedule:

 Tue  Thurs    2:00 PM - 3:20 PM Olin 201

Distributional Area:

SA Social Analysis

D+J Difference and Justice

Class cap:

18

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  American Studies; Architecture; Environmental & Urban Studies

More than half the world's population now lives in urban areas. Thus, the study of social and political dynamics in urban centers is crucial if we are to understand and address the pressing issues of the contemporary world. This course will allow students to explore these dynamics through an introduction to urban sociology: the study of social relations, processes, and changes in the urban context. We will begin by reading perspectives on the development of cities, followed by an examination of how the city and its socio-spatial configuration affect and are affected by social interactions, particularly across gender, race, and class lines. The course will consider the relationship between globalization and the modern city and include examples of how citizens address the challenges in their communities. Throughout, we will explore the diverse methods that social scientists use to understand these dynamics, and students will have the opportunity to utilize some of these methods in an investigation of a local "urban community."

 

Course:

SOC 262  Sexualities

Professor:

Allison McKim  

CRN:

90007

Schedule:

 Tue  Thurs    12:10 PM - 1:30 PM Olin 202

Distributional Area:

SA Social Analysis

D+J Difference and Justice

Class cap:

18

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  American Studies; Anthropology; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Human Rights

Although sexuality is often considered to be inherently private and individual, this course examines sexuality as a social phenomenon. It looks at the social organization of sexuality and at how these arrangements shape people's experiences and identities. We consider why/how patterns of sexuality have changed over time, how the social control of sex operates, and how new categories of sexuality emerge. We ask how people use sexuality to define themselves, reinforce social hierarchies, mark moral boundaries, and produce communities. The course begins with an introduction to theories of sexuality, including the essentialist-constructionist debate, the relationship of gender and sexuality, heteronormativity, and the role of power. We unpack these theoretical questions through the history of sexuality in the United States. The course pays special attention to the role of gender, race, and class inequality; to changing economic structures; and to the influence of medicine, the state, and popular culture. This provides a basis for looking at contemporary sexual culture, changing ideas of intimacy, and feminist debates about prostitution and pornography.

 

Course:

SOC 269  Global Inequality and Development

Professor:

Peter Klein  

CRN:

90008

Schedule:

 Tue  Thurs    10:20 AM - 11:40 AM Olin 101

Distributional Area:

SA Social Analysis

D+J Difference and Justice

Class cap:

18

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Environmental & Urban Studies; Global & International Studies; Human Rights

One of the most pressing challenges of the twenty-first century is understanding and advancing social, economic, and political development in marginalized places. Why does global inequality persist and why does a large share of the world's population continue to live in abject poverty, despite tremendous efforts made over the last half-century? Through the lens of specific topics, such as unequal impacts of environmental change, informal urban settlements and economies, and growing energy demands, this course examines such questions from two perspectives. First, we look at globalization and other structural forces that create and perpetuate global inequality. Second, we examine the goals and practices promoted by governments, development agencies, non-governmental organizations, and communities. This course will push students to think critically about the meanings and consequences of development, as well as about the challenges and possibilities we face in addressing some of the major social problems of our time.

 

Course:

THTR 336  Female Infernos: Parks, Churchill, Jelinek

Professor:

Jean Wagner  

CRN:

90361

Schedule:

Mon       2:00 PM - 4:20 PM Fisher Performing Arts Center STUDIO NO.

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art

Class cap:

15

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Gender and Sexuality Studies

In this course we will examine the dramatic works of three groundbreaking and politically-engaged, contemporary women playwrights – the African-American writer Suzan-Lori Parks, England's Caryl Churchill and Austrian playwright Elfriede Jelinek. Each possesses a distinctly singular voice. Yet as a group they have much in common, including their experimental and radical approaches to writing drama. Each is formally experimental, self-consciously theatrical and playfully inventive. In her own way, each challenges contemporary ideas of feminism and prods audiences to think about how they intersect with such concepts as race, class and capitalism. Still, the work of each is highly individual. As we investigate their similarities and differences we will ask ourselves, what common revelations do they have the potential to illuminate? Among the plays and essays that we will investigate are Parks' The America Play and Elements of Style, Churchill's trailblazing play Cloud Nine and the later absurdist plays Blue Kettle/Blue Heart, and The Princess Plays by Jelinek. Assignments will include in-class presentations, a research paper or performance project accompanied by an essay, and a final project.

 

Course:

WRIT 357  Problems of Perspective

Professor:

Dinaw Mengestu  

CRN:

90554

Schedule:

  Wed     2:00 PM - 4:20 PM Olin 304

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts

D+J Difference and Justice

Class cap:

12

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Human Rights

Over the course of this seminar, we will interrogate the function of perspective in establishing how a narrative, and the characters who inhabit it, not only see but also interpret the world, and how that perspective has been used to create distance, both real and imaginary, between an “us” and a foreign other. We will use our understanding of perspective to look critically at the world around us, and over the course of the semester will use a lab model to develop narratives that actively address and engage our surroundings. We will focus on the ethics as well as the aesthetics of narration, paying close attention to the function of individual words and the narrative traditions that we are operating within and at times breaking from. We will work on developing a critical and creative framework to understand the role language plays in shaping our public discourse and what roles we, as students, citizens, scholars, and writers, can play in creating narratives that offer a more complex and dynamic representation of our environment. We will examine how narratives reflect and in some instances actively construct cultural and political divisions, and how writers can address, and in some instances challenge those divisions. Selected readings will include, but are not limited to Susan Sontag, Saul Bellows, Sven Lindquist, Colson Whitehead, Katherine Boo, Claudia Rankine, Adania Shibli.