Society Culture and Thought

Talking to Children: Who, Why and How Much? — PSY4132.01

Instructor: David Anderegg

Credits: 4

This class will examine current research and practice in encouraging early literacy by talking to, and reading to, children. The field is now dominated by research findings suggesting that social class differences in the amount of language children hear accounts for differences in early literacy, school readiness and school performance. We will examine that evidence in detail,

Society Culture and Thought

Technology Entrepreneurship — CS4313.01

Instructor: Meltem Ballan

Credits: 4

Entrepreneurship is not just about start-ups. It is a problem-solving frame of mind that requires technical expertise, a business sense, an ability to anticipate the future, and an appreciation of social context. In this course students are required to group in the first course. The teams will have business acumen, technology acumen and marketing acumen/product acumen. First

Science and Mathematics Society Culture and Thought

Terrible Choices: Philosophy Tragedy — PHI4226.01

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski

Credits: 4

The tragic protagonist is a person pushed to the breaking point- dealing with disaster, fate, suffering, unspeakable loss, and often the consequences of their own bad decisions. Greek tragedy shows human beings struggling in a world that often seems brutal, senseless, and beyond their control, where contingency is a hard fact of life. As such, tragedy raises significant

Society Culture and Thought

Terrible Choices: Philosophy & Tragedy — PHI4226.01

Instructor: Catherine McKeen

Days & Time: TH 1:40pm-5:20pm

Credits: 4

The tragic protagonist is a person pushed to the breaking point- dealing with disaster, fate, suffering, unspeakable loss, and often the consequences of their own bad decisions. Greek tragedy shows human beings struggling in a world that often seems brutal, senseless, and beyond their control, where contingency is a hard fact of life. As such, tragedy raises significant

Literature Philosophy

Text Seminar: Plato’s Republic — PHI4244.01

Instructor: Karen Gover

Credits: 4

Plato's Republic is not only a foundational work in the history of Western political philosophy, but also a fascinating and beautiful work of literature. It has provocative and even radical things to say about human nature, ethics, education, family, government, and art. We will work our way methodically through the primary text while engaging with some of the best Plato

Society Culture and Thought

The Afghan-Pakistani Frontier — ANT2208.01

Instructor: Noah Coburn

Credits: 2

The mountains separating Pakistan and Afghanistan are home to nomads and pastoralists, who rely on centuries old pathways with little concern for modern state boundaries. They are also the site of America’s largest and most intense drone campaign and the only place in the world to experience a significant comeback by polio. The border, created by the British Empire

CAPA Society Culture and Thought

The Animal that therefore I am — POL4243.01

Instructor: John Hultgren

Credits: 4

Near the beginning of a ten-hour long (!) address, philosopher Jacques Derrida famously described standing naked in front of his cat and suddenly feeling embarrassed. Wondering why he felt such strong emotions when faced with the gaze of his feline companion, Derrida was provoked to examine the relationship between humans and animals. This course proposes to follow his lead,

Environment Society Culture and Thought

The Anthropology of Religion — ANT2108.01

Instructor: Noah Coburn

Credits: 4

This course takes an anthropological approach to the study of religion. It will look comparatively at how religion is understood in different cultures as well as studying different historical and theoretical approaches to religion. The course takes a holistic approach to religion and asks how religion is tied to such concepts as politics, kinship, gender and nationalism. It

Society Culture and Thought

The Anti-Imperialist Century in Latin America: From Sandino to Chávez and Beyond — SCT2129.01

Instructor: Kate Paarlberg-Kvam

Credits: 4

With the shift away from expansionism at the end of the 19th century, U.S. foreign policy assumed new forms. Marine occupations, dollar diplomacy, covert action, and economic interventions took the place of territorial annexations. How were these policies experienced on the ground? In what ways did they shape debates about Latin American identity, sovereignty, and the role

Society Culture and Thought

The Antiquity of Others — PHI4247.01) (cancelled 10/6/2023

Instructor: Catherine McKeen

Credits: 4

For us moderns, the statue of the elite male is emblematic of Greek and Roman antiquity. You may know this figure- able-bodied, athletic, impassive, and marble white. The figure represents societies shaped by unequal power relations which privileged men and masculinity, as well as the centering of elite male whiteness in historical narratives about Greek and Roman antiquity. In

Society Culture and Thought

The Art of Archiving the Artifact — DES4107.02

Instructor: Tilly Grimes

Days & Time: TH 8:30am-12:10pm

Credits: 2

Historical Dress: The Park-McCullough Project Spring '26

Working in collaboration with the local Park-McCullough Historic Governor’s Mansion, students will create a new archive of the historic dress collection.

Society Culture and Thought History Curatorial Studies Design

The Arts of Spain and the Politics of Cultural Heritage — AH4116.01

Instructor: Razan Francis

Credits: 4

Not long after Muslims had conquered most of the Iberian Peninsula in 711, the Spanish Christians declared their intent to reconquer the land for Christianity. With the fall of Granada in 1492 and the subsequent repression of Jews and Muslims, the reconquest was finally complete. However, the many centuries of coexistence and mutual influence meant that the art and architecture

Visual Arts Society Culture and Thought

The Beautiful City: Plato's Republic — PHI4402.01

Instructor: Catherine McKeen

Credits: 4

Plato’s Republic stretches its insistent intellectual tendrils into just about every corner of the Western intellectual tradition. The Republic is ostensibly about constructing a maximally just political community. This is the kallipolis, the “beautiful city.” Along the way, however, Socrates and his interlocutors wrestle with inter-tangled philosophical questions about truth,

Society Culture and Thought

The Beautiful City: Plato’s Republic — PHI4402.01

Instructor: Catherine McKeen

Credits: 4

In Plato’s masterwork, Republic, Socrates sets out to construct a political community that is maximally just. This is the kallipolis, the “beautiful city.” Central elements of this city are problematic. The kallipolis is decidedly undemocratic, artistic expression is strictly limited, and jobs are assigned, not freely chosen. On the other hand, the Republic radically reimagines

Society Culture and Thought

The Blazing World — PHI4246.01

Instructor: Catherine McKeen

Credits: 2

Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World, published in 1666, is many things- an early experiment in science fiction; a biting satire of gender norms; a visionary feminist utopia (or unsettling authoritarian dystopia); a sample of imagination-driven travel writing; the work of a 17th c. woman making a daring claim to literary, political, and intellectual authority; and a text very

Society Culture and Thought

The Body Politic — POL2105.02; section 2

Instructor: Crina Archer

Days & Time: TBA

Credits: 4

From Plato to the present, the human body has served as a compelling metaphor for political community and the nation state. This course interrogates the mechanisms of this metaphor in its various articulations across ancient, modern, and contemporary Western political thought. In the first half of the course, we read works of political philosophy to ask whether and how the

Society Culture and Thought

The Body Politic — POL2105.01; section 1

Instructor: Crina Archer

Days & Time: TBA

Credits: 4

From Plato to the present, the human body has served as a compelling metaphor for political community and the nation state. This course interrogates the mechanisms of this metaphor in its various articulations across ancient, modern, and contemporary Western political thought. In the first half of the course, we read works of political philosophy to ask whether and how the

Society Culture and Thought

The Body Politic — POL2105.01

Instructor: Crina Archer

Credits: 4

From ancient Athens to the present, the human body has served as a compelling metaphor for political community and the nation state. This course interrogates the mechanisms of this metaphor in its various articulations across classical, modern, and contemporary Western political thought. We will read works of canonical and contemporary political theory to ask how the

Society Culture and Thought

The Camp Aesthetic — DRA2167.01

Instructor: Maya Cantu

Credits: 4

An elusive sensibility that defies definition, camp is everywhere in 2023, as fueled by the worldwide juggernaut success of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Sometimes seen as gaudy, perverse or excessive, camp is a sophisticated and consummately theatrical style, doubly viewing life as theater and gender as performance. Camp’s essence “is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and

Drama Literature Society Culture and Thought

The Coming Community: Migration, Inclusion, and Obligation in the 21st Century — POL2204.01

Instructor: John Hultgren

Credits: 4

What is the basis for granting someone membership within a political community? What obligations do we have toward those who are not formally members of our political community? Is “the nation” - today's dominant form of political community - capable of meeting the ethical challenges of a globalizing world? Is an alternative form of political community possible and/or desirable

CAPA Society Culture and Thought

The Devil Finds Work — MS2108.01

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski

Credits: 4

In 1976 James Baldwin wrote his short work of film criticism The Devil Finds Work while in self-imposed exile in France. The work presents a personal film historical narrative as well as an intervention into the politics of aesthetics and the politics of visual cultural life from the perspective of a writer grappling with the realities of living as Queer and

Society Culture and Thought

The Dustbin of History — HIS4407.01

Instructor: Eileen Scully

Credits: 4

Let us consider Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky's October 1917 curse upon moderate socialists resisting the ongoing Bolshevik coup d'etat: "You are pitiful, isolated individuals. You are bankrupts. Your role is played out. Go where you belong from now on—into the dustbin of history!” In this course, we find our own way into the "dustbin of history" in search of things--ideas

Society Culture and Thought

The Economic Mind — PEC2207.01

Instructor: Lopamudra Banerjee

Credits: 4

A set of questions keeps on bugging the economic mind. They run from the smallest immediate ones, such as, do I buy this salad or that sandwich for my lunch today, to the more solemn ones, such as, do I accept this job or the other one? Other profound questions arise as well. Why does the economy not grow continually over time, but rather, economic upsurges are marred by

CAPA Environment Society Culture and Thought

The Economics of Our Time — PEC2283.01

Instructor: Lopamudra Banerjee

Days & Time: TU 2:10pm-4:00pm

Credits: 2

In this seminar, we will dive into the complexities of today’s global economy, engaging with the most pressing economic challenges of our time. We will explore how economic policies, geopolitical dynamics, and global trends intersect, shaping the economic landscape. Through real-time data, contemporary research, and

Political Economy

The F-Word: Confronting Fascism in a World on Fire — POL4259.01

Instructor: John Hultgren

Credits: 4

In the United States, recent years have witnessed an upsurge in right-wing organizing and violence, culminating in the 2021 insurrection at the United States Capitol that sought to overturn the legitimate results of a democratic election. This is not a uniquely American problem. Across much of the globe, political parties organized around hyper-nationalism have gained steam, in

Society Culture and Thought