Core courses

15396

HR 120 Human Rights Law & Practice

Peter Rosenblum

. T . Th .

10:10am- 11:30am

OLIN 205

SSCI

(Human Rights core course) An intensive introduction to human rights law and practice. The course combines an inquiry into the historical and theoretical underpinnings of human rights with case studies that introduce the issues, actors, institutions and laws that constitute the contemporary practice of human rights. In the last decades, human rights has come to occupy a powerful space in international law, political rhetoric, activism and the news cycle. Where did that come from? When and why did it come about? What other options did it displace? In trying to find the answers, we will explore the writing of historians, theorists and practitioners, with special attention to the disagreements and tensions among them that help to elucidate the range of possibilities. The case studies will give us the opportunity to see how the issues play out, and where we situate ourselves in the process. Finally, we will learn a little bit of law, but we will do it in the context of people struggling – typically, against, states – to assert and extend their rights. Class size: 22

15394

HR 234 Defining the Human

Robert Weston

. T . Th .

1:30pm-2:50pm

OLIN 101

HUM

Cross-listed: Anthropology, Philosophy (Human Rights core course) At least since Aristotle, philosophers have sought to delineate the contours of the human, to define what it means to be a specifically human being. To define what it means to be human is at once to exclude those modes of being deemed not human—a process of exclusion that produces various categories of otherness as non-human, or even inhuman. In this course, students engage with a range of theoretical discussions that attempt to situate the human being vis-à-vis its “other,” traditionally as a kind of intermediary being, poised uncomfortably between animality, on the one hand, and divinity, on the other. Readings may include: Greco Roman & Judeo-Christian conceptions of the human (Aristotle, Paul, Augustine Luther); 17^th-and 18^th-century theories of “human nature” (e.g., Hobbes, Larochefoucauld, Mandeville, LaMettrie, Condillac, Rousseau, Herder, Kant, Schiller); 19^th century Social Darwinism (Spencer) and Philosophy (Marx, Nietzsche); contemporary socio-biology (Wilson, et. Al.); Philosophical Anthropology (Teilhard, Bergson, Bataille, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Scheler, Uexküll, Plessner, Gehlen) and Post-structuralism (Deleuze, Derrida, Foucault). Class size: 22

15056

SPAN / HR 240 Testimonies of Latin america

Nicole Caso

M . W . .

11:50am-1:10pm

OLIN 202

FLLC/DIFF

Cross-listed: Gender & Sexuality Studies; Human Rights (core course); LAIS This course provides the opportunity for students to engage critically with texts that serve as a public forum for voices often silenced in the past. Students will also learn about the broader context of the hemisphere's history through the particular experiences of women from Bolivia, Guatemala, Argentina, Mexico, and the U.S.-Latino community, including Rigoberta Menchú, Domitila Barrios de Chungara, and Cherríe Moraga. We will read testimonial accounts documenting the priorities and concerns of women who have been marginalized for reasons of poverty, ethnic difference, political ideologies, or sexual preference. The semester will be devoted to analyzing the form in which their memories are represented textually, and to the discussion of the historical circumstances that have led to their marginalization. Some of the central questions that will organize our discussions are: how to represent memories of violence and pain? What are the ultimate effects of mediations of the written word, translations to hegemonic languages, and the interventions of well-intentioned intellectuals? How best to use writing as a mechanism to trace a space for dignity and "difference"? We will integrate films that portray the issues and time-periods documented in the diaries and testimonial narratives to be read - including "Men With Guns", "El Norte," "Historia oficial," and "Rojo amanecer." Conducted in English. Class size: 20

15479

ARTH 289 RIGHTS AND THE IMAGE

Susan Merriam

M . W . .

1:30pm-2:50pm

OLIN 102

AART

Cross-listed: Human Rights (core course); Experimental Humanities An examination of the relationship between visual culture and human rights, using case studies that range in time from the early modern period (marking the body to register criminality, for example) to the present day (images from Abu Ghraib). Subjects addressed include evidence, disaster photography, advocacy images, censorship, and visibility and invisibility. Class size: 22

15385

HR 223 Epidemiology: A Human Rghts Perspective

Helen Epstein

. . W . F

1:30pm-2:50pm

RKC 115

SSCI

Of related interest: Biology Epidemiologists study how diseases and other health-related events spread through populations.  They track down the sources of outbreaks, they explore trends in the incidence of cancer, heart disease and mental illness, and they try to understand the social forces that influence sexual behavior, weight gain and other complex human phenomena.  Because the spread of diseases is frequently influenced by economic conditions and/or government policies, epidemiology can also serve as a powerful forensic tool in the hands of human rights activists. By the end of the course, students will understand how epidemiological studies are designed and carried out; be able to generate hypotheses about the underlying causes of diseases based on prevalence and incidence data; and understand how the presentation of data and the design of studies can restrict or expand our understanding of the human condition.  Examples will be drawn from many sources, including research on international public health emergencies such as Ebola and AIDS and mysterious increases in mental illnesses including schizophrenia and autism. Class size: 17

15386

HR 244 Reproductive Health and Human Rights

Helen Epstein

. . W . F

3:10pm-4:30pm

RKC 115

SSCI

Cross-listed: Gender & Sexuality Studies, Global & Int’l Studies This course will cover the human rights aspects of population growth and contraception, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, prostitution and sex trafficking, maternal mortality, gender violence, female genital mutilation, abortion and gender identity. Emphasis will be placed on how public policies concerning these issues have evolved over time in relation to historical events such as the Cold War, decolonization, immigration and changing attitudes to the family. Class size: 17

15395

HR 303 Research in Human Rights

Peter Rosenblum

. . . Th .

3:10pm-5:30pm

RKC 102

HUM

What is it to do research, academic or otherwise, in the field of human rights? What are the relevant methods, and tools? How do the political and ethical considerations central to the discourse of human rights enter into the actual conduct of research? The seminar, required for junior Human Rights majors, will explore a range of theoretical and methodological approaches to the field, reading a variety of examples across an interdisciplinary landscape. Readings include texts in continental philosophy, political and social theory, literary and cultural studies, international law, media and visual culture, gender and identity research, documentary and testimony, quantitative analysis including GIS and statistical data, oral and archival history, among others, and many case studies in actual human rights reporting. The seminar is required for Juniors in Human Rights, and is also open to others if there is space. Class size: 15

15169

HR 317 Bad is Stronger than Good

Stuart Levine

M . . . .

3:00pm-6:00pm

DUBOIS SEMI

SSCI

Cross-listed: Psychology A year or so ago a photography/psychology student discovered, or at least conjectured although not yet proven, that photographically conveying a sad or negative scene to a viewer was somehow easier then doing so for a cheerful landscape. Why do we more easily recognize and register the bad and why is it more salient in our lives than the good?  The so-called negative bias that “bad is stronger than good" has been found across a wide array of psychological literature in both human and animal life. This demonstrated from Asch (1946) within his work on impression formation and in more recent literature surveys [Baumeister (2001); Rozin and Royzman (2001)] This bias moreover is consistent over a myriad of topics such as: social relations; emotions; mood; learning and even information processing; physiological arousal; and memory. In this seminar we examine studies across the domain of psychology and other disciplines to show that the phenomena is sufficiently ubiquitous so as to reflect and perhaps even explain the events sensed and perceived in our life space. Observe how the bad dominates the daily report in the media. What does this phenomenon mean with respect to the presence or absence of optimism and associated behavior, or for the conduct of child rearing or the power of the variable of happiness and other positive life circumstances? Moreover, an effort to find non-confirming data produces a negative result. No matter the variable studied bad exists at the center of our focus while good is relegated to the periphery. This is an upper college seminar for students of many disciplines. Class size: 10

15392

HR 331 SPACES OF RESILIENCE: Social Justice in Urban Territories

Jeanne van Heeswijk

M . . . .

2:00pm-4:20pm

OLINLC 115

AART

Cross-listed: Art History, Studio Art, Environmental & Urban Studies, Theater Global urbanization and the resulting current economic crisis, shifting geopolitical boundaries and socio-cultural demographics have generated numerous local zones of conflict. This course will look for strategies of resilience, focusing on spatial resistance and the interplay of art and activism in the public sphere. It will explore how artists and political activists use arts-based methodologies such as performative acts of civil disobedience and creative forms of protest to work for social justice in urban territories, to challenge and transform these systems’ underlying rules. It will address the complex relationship of art and activism and the forms in which artists and activists engage with human rights struggles to seek what concepts the human rights context may provide in learning from these actions, interventions and strategies. (Jeanne van Heeswijk is the Keith Haring Fellow in Art and Activism for 2014-15). Class size: 18

15398

HR 343 Empathy, Photography, and Human Rights

Gilles Peress

. T . . .

10:10am- 12:30pm

BITO 210

HUM

Starting with influential historical accounts by Lynn Hunt and others, we will explore the ways in which empathy has played a defining role in the establishment of human rights, both as consciousness and as constitutional and international law. We will explore how, in the late 19th- and early 20th-century, this notion of empathy becomes expressed and formalized increasingly through the usage of photography. We will then examine how, today, within the post-modernist framework of writers like Susan Sontag (Regarding the Pain of Others) and Ingrid Sischy (Good Intentions), this process of empathy through photography is being challenged at the very core of its various stylistic interpretations. This creates a conundrum of representation at the heart of both the human rights and humanitarian movements. For without photography -- which is to say, the vector by which NGOs generate knowledge, evidence, and funding, based on a sense of empathy and urgency -- there would probably be fewer human rights and no humanitarian movement. Class size: 15

15393

HR 344 Urban Curating: MODES OF ACUPUNCTURE

Jeanne van Heeswijk

. T . . .

10:10am- 12:30pm

CCS

AART

Cross-listed: Art History, Studio Art, Environmental & Urban Studies, Theater In a time of accelerated globalization, over-regulation, and rapid changes in our daily environments, populist images prevail and people can feel increasingly de-invested and excluded. How might people transform their own 'territory' to an environment where they can create, produce, disseminate, distribute and have access to their own cultural expressions? This course will look at how artistic and curatorial practices can re-engage and bear witness to the veiled vectors of power that shape civic space, reorganize systems of interaction, and challenge existing political, social and economic frameworks, addressing how areas of tension in contemporary society are made visible through these interventions. Through reading, workshops, and discussion, students will explore how alliances between politics and art can be imagined and tested. (Jeanne van Heeswijk is the Keith Haring Fellow in Art and Activism for 2014-15). Class size: 9

15397

HR 412 Re-reading "The Family of Man"

Thomas Keenan

. T . . .

1:30pm-3:50pm

HEG 200

AART

Cross-listed: Experimental Humanities Ever since its inaugural exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1955, the 503 photographs in "The Family of Man" have been a topic of fascination and debate, critique and enthusiasm. The seminar will explore the images and the debates in order to re-examine the exhibit as a sort of archive of the human rights imagination, and to investigate the powerful relation between contemporary human rights discourse and the photographic image. The exhibition can be seen as an effort to stage a visual parallel to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) adopted in 1948. The photos collected and shown in it attempt to establish a common visual standard for measuring right and wrong on a global scale. Most of the photos chosen serve this goal successfully, but what is seen in them, or what can be learned through them, is not only this. After the famous critiques of the exhibition's de-historicizing universalism by Roland Barthes and Susan Sontag, among others, and after numerous attempts to re-exhibit and re-frame the photographs in exhibitions and counter-exhibitions, what remains striking is how little attention has been paid to reading and interpreting the images themselves. We will focus on producing detailed research and analysis of some images from the show, as part of a larger international project at a number of universities inspired by an idea from Ariella Azoulay. Class size: 15

15296

ARTH 237 Travel & Exploration in the age of empire

Laurie Dahlberg

. T . Th .

1:30pm-2:50pm

FISHER ANNEX

AART

15494

FILM 360 ASIA IN WESTERN EYES

Ian Buruma Screenings:

M . . . . Su . . .

1:30 PM-4:30pm 6:00pm – 9:00pm

AVERY 117 PRE 110

PART

15323

THTR 321 SocialLY Engaged Theater-Making

Aaron Landsman

. . W . .

1:30pm-4:30pm

FISHER RESNICK

PART

15029

CLAS 228 THE PRACTICE OF COURAGE: Military & Civilian Courage

William Mullen

M . W . .

1:30pm-2:50pm

RKC 200

HUM

15199

LIT 2016 THE Great american Indian Novel

Alexandre Benson

. T . Th .

1:30pm-2:50pm

OLIN 203

ELIT/DIFF

15216

LIT 2281 THE PRACTICE OF COURAGE: From Martyrs to Suicide BomberS

Karen Sullivan

. T . Th .

10:10am- 11:30am

OLIN 204

ELIT

15059

LIT 232 Middle Eastern Cinemas

Dina Ramadan Screenings:

. T . . . . . . Th .

4:40pm- 7:00pm 6:00pm-9:00pm

OLIN 205 PRE 110

FLLC

15077

LIT 2607 Intro to Literary Theory

Elizabeth Holt

M . W . .

10:10am- 11:30am

OLIN 301

ELIT/DIFF

15207

LIT 3048 EXTRAORDINARY BODIES: Disability in american Fiction AND CULTURE

Jaime Alves

. . . . F

12:30pm-2:50pm

OLIN 301

ELIT

15063

WRIT 224 Literary Reportage

Ian Buruma

M . W . .

10:10am- 11:30am

ASP 302

ELIT

15057

SPAN 345 ENGAGING The Other in LatIN amerICAN Theory

Nicole Caso

. T . . .

1:30pm-3:50pm

OLINLC 115

FLLC

15399

ANTH 201 Gender & Sexuality in Latin america

Diana Brown

M . W . .

1:30pm-2:50pm

OLIN 205

SSCI/DIFF

15346

ANTH 230 The Anthropology of Palestine

Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins

. T . Th .

3:10pm-4:30pm

OLIN 204

SSCI/DIFF

15351

ANTH 253 Anthropological Controversies

John Ryle

M . W . .

3:10pm-4:30pm

OLIN 203

SSCI

15390

ANTH 275 Post-Apartheid Imaginaries

Yuka Suzuki

. T . Th .

11:50am-1:10pm

OLIN 202

SSCI/DIFF

15503

ANTH 332 Cultural Technologies of Memory

Laura Kunreuther

. . W . .

10:10am- 12:30pm

RKC 200

SSCI/DIFF

15350

ANTH 335 LOCAL RealitIES AND GLOBAL Ideology in THE SudanS

John Ryle

. T . . .

4:40pm-7:00pm

HEG 308

SSCI/DIFF

15391

ANTH 337 Cultural Politics of Animals

Yuka Suzuki

M . . . .

10:10am- 12:30pm

OLIN 309

SSCI/DIFF

15353

ECON 321 Seminar in Economic Development

Sanjaya DeSilva

. T . . .

1:30pm-3:50pm

ALBEE 106

SSCI

15425

HIST 102 Europe since 1815

Gennady Shkliarevsky

M . W . .

11:50am-1:10pm

HEG 106

HIST

15357

HIST 120 War and Peace

Mark Lytle / Richard Aldous

M . W . .

11:50am-1:10pm

RKC 103

HIST

15422

HIST 141 A HAUNTED UNION: TWENTIETH-CENTURY GERMANY AND THE UNIFICATIONS OF EUROPE

Gregory Moynahan

. T . Th .

1:30pm- 2:50pm

OLINLC 206

HIST

15415

HIST 185 Making of Modern Middle East

Omar Cheta

M . W . .

11:50am-1:10pm

HEG 308

HIST/DIFF

15541

HIST 2015 WHEN RACE MORPHED: UNDERSTANDING THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED STATES, 1900 TO THE CIVIL RIGHTS ERA

Joel Perlmann

. T . Th .

4:40pm-6:00pm

OLIN 201

HIST/DIFF

15361

HIST 2238 Africa and the Indian Ocean

Drew Thompson

M . W . .

11:50am-1:10pm

HEG 204

HIST/DIFF

15362

HIST 2271 Black Modernism

Tabetha Ewing

M . W . .

6:20pm-7:40pm

OLIN 101

HIST/DIFF

15870

HIST 2315 HOW TO WAGE WAR IN COLONIAL AMERICA

Christian Crouch

M . W . .

11:50am-1:10pm

OLIN LC 206

HIST

15364

HIST 2356 Native american History

Christian Crouch

M . W . .

1:30pm-2:50pm

HEG 102

HIST/DIFF

15426

HIST 242 20th C Russia: from Communism to Nationalism

Gennady Shkliarevsky

. T . Th .

3:10pm-4:30pm

OLIN 305

HIST

15418

HIST 2701 The Holocaust, 1933-1945

Cecile Kuznitz

. T . Th .

11:50am-1:10pm

OLIN 301

HIST/DIFF

15013

HIST 3121 The Case for Liberties

Alice Stroup

M . . . .

1:30pm-3:50pm

OLIN 308

HIST

15416

HIST 3142 Violence in Colonial america

Christian Crouch

. T . . .

10:10am- 12:30pm

OLIN 305

HIST/DIFF

15356

HIST 3151 “WE MAKE OUR OWN HISTORY”: * A Practicum on Eleanor Roosevelt

Cynthia Koch

. . . . F

1:30pm-5:30pm

OLIN 309

HIST

15363

HIST 339 Cuba & THE Spanish Caribbean in global perspective: sugar, slavery & revolution

Miles Rodriguez

. . W . .

1:30pm-3:50pm

HEG 200

HIST/DIFF

15427

HIST 347 1917 Revolution in Russia

Gennady Shkliarevsky

M . . . .

4:40pm-7:00pm

OLIN 301

HIST

15434

PHIL 118 Human Nature

Kritika Yegnashankaran

. T . Th .

4:40pm-6:00pm

OLIN 202

HUM

15452

PS 104 International Relations

Christopher McIntosh

M . W . .

3:10pm-4:30pm

OLINLC 206

SSCI

15433

PS 109 Political Economy

Sanjib Baruah

M . W . .

3:10pm-4:30pm

OLIN 202

SSCI

15539

PS 222 LATIN AMERICAn POLITICS AND SOCIETY

Omar Encarnacion

M . W . .

11:50am- 1:10pm

OLIN 301

SSCI

15387

PS 239 United Nations and Model UN

James Ketterer

. . . . F

1:30pm-2:50pm

OLIN 202

SSCI

15370

PS 262 Race & Political Theory

Michiel Bot

M . W . .

3:10pm-4:30pm

OLIN 201

SSCI/DIFF

15373

PS 269 THE PRACTICE OF COURAGE: Self-Thinking AND Political CouragE FROM ANTIGONE TO EDWARD SNOWDEN

Roger Berkowitz

M . W . .

1:30pm-2:50pm

ARENDT CENTER

HUM

15620

PS 273 Diplomacy & Development

James Ketterer

M . W . .

11:50am-1:10pm

RKC 111

SSCI

15454

PS 314 Political Economy of Development

Sanjib Baruah

. T . . .

1:30pm-3:50pm

OLIN 304

SSCI

15574

PS 330 DEMOCRACY AFTER DICTATORSHIP

Omar Encarnacion

. T . . .

10:10am- 12:30pm

OLIN 308

SSCI

15371

PS 332 Anarchism - No Gods, no Masters!

Pinar Kemerli

. . W . .

1:30pm-3:50pm

HDR 106

SSCI

15455

PS 352 Terrorism

Christopher McIntosh

. T . . .

10:10am- 12:30pm

ASP 302

SSCI

15377

REL 240 Intolerance: Political Animals and their prey

Bruce Chilton

. . W . F

1:30pm-2:50pm

OLIN 101

HUM

15447

SOC 120 Inequality in america

Yuval Elmelech

. T . Th .

10:10am- 11:30am

OLIN 202

SSCI/DIFF

15381

SOC 121 Environment and Society

Peter Klein

. T . Th .

4:40pm-6:00pm

OLIN 203

SSCI/DIFF

15448

SOC 213 Sociological Theory

Sarah Egan

M . W . .

10:10am- 11:30am

RKC 103

SSCI

15437

SOC 262 Sexualities

Allison McKim

M . W . .

3:10pm-4:30pm

OLIN 204

SSCI/DIFF

15449

SOC 266 Sociology of Social Movements

Sarah Egan

M . W . .

1:30pm-2:50pm

HEG 106

SSCI

15431

SOC 332 Seminar on Social Problems

Yuval Elmelech

. . . . F

10:10am- 12:30pm

OLIN 202

SSCI/DIFF