98-99 University Bulletin Entry for:


Clusters

(file last updated: [8/10/1998 - 15:28:21])


Objectives

Clusters are the heart of thenew curriculum. They exemplify the concept of connected learning:that students share an intellectual excitement when courses connectand are related to each other. Each cluster focuses on the multidisciplinarystudy of a particular topic, theme, problem, region, or period.A cluster is constituted by a convener and affiliated facultymembers.

The aim of clusters is to allowstudents to examine a general problem or issue from a varietyof different disciplinary perspectives. In an increasingly complexworld, no single discipline is adequate for examining the breadthand depth of most topics. Thus clusters offer students the uniqueopportunity of guided multidisciplinary inquiry and provide acenterpiece for a liberal arts education.

The clusters draw on the richnessand diversity of our nationally acclaimed research faculty. Clusterfaculty will meet and exchange syllabi regularly and may offerspecial multidisciplinary events, including speakers, colloquia,and other group activities to facilitate student-faculty interaction.

Every student entering afterthe fall of 1994 must complete one cluster prior to graduation.To accomplish this, students need to complete three courses, fromat least two schools, from those listed in the cluster. Transferstudents who enter Brandeis with 14 or more course credits areexempted from one cluster course--they must complete two coursesfrom at least two schools. Occasionally courses may be added toa cluster or new clusters added to the curriculum after a studenthas taken such courses. In such cases, students may petition acluster convener to count courses previously completed towardtheir cluster requirement. These petitions must be approved bythe cluster convener and the chair of the Clusters Program Committee.Under exceptional circumstances, (e.g., studying abroad, changein course offerings) when the cluster requirement cannot otherwisebe completed, students may petition to substitute a course inplace of one they were planning to take to complete the cluster.The course proposed for substitution must be related to the clustertheme and must be approved by the convener and the cluster committee.

Cluster courses may be takenany time during a student's undergraduate career, but studentsare advised to begin their cluster course work in their firstyear. While most courses in a cluster do not require prerequisites,some do. Cluster courses can fulfill other University requirements,as well. Students select courses within a cluster based on theirinterests and backgrounds.


Courses of Instruction


Cluster 1: The Aging Process

Convener: Margie Lachman

The cluster addresses the biomedical,psychosocial, and ethical issues associated with growing olderin our society and in other cultures. The goal is to understandthe basic human developmental processes of aging (physical andpsychological) and to examine how they play out in the contextof society and culture.


Courses of Instruction

BCSC 6b

How Muscles Contract and CellsMove

BISC 7a

Biology of People

NPSY 154a

Human Memory

NPSY 159a

Advanced Topics in EpisodicMemory

NPSY 199a

Neuropsychology

PHIL 23b

Biomedical Ethics

PSYC 101b

The Psychology of Adult Developmentand Aging

PSYC 130b

Life Span Development: Adulthoodand Old Age

PSYC 131b

Seminar in Health Psychology

PSYC 145b

Aging in a Changing World

SOC 165a

Sociology of Birth and Death

SOC 177b

Aging in Society

SOC 192b

Sociology of Disability


Cluster 2: The Baroque

Convener: Lynette Bosch

Courses in this cluster shedlight on 17th-century developments in history, art, music, literature,and philosophy.


Courses of Instruction

ENG 164b

Restoration and Eighteenth-CenturyDrama and Performance

FA 45a

St. Peter's and the Vatican

FA 60a

Baroque in Italy and Spain

HIST 132a

European Thought and Culture:Marlowe to Mill

MUS 42a

The Music of Johann SebastianBach

SECS 150a

Golden Age Drama and Society


Cluster 3: Colonialismand Neo-Colonialism in the Third World

Convener: Silvia Arrom

Africa, Asia, Latin America,and the Middle East have experienced centuries of control by imperialpowers. This cluster explores the impact of colonialism--and inindependent countries, of neo-colonialism--on the politics, society,economics, and cultures of Third World countries, as well as thereactions of the subject peoples. Courses provide perspectivesfrom anthropology, history, literature, politics, and sociology,and contrast the views of both colonized and colonizers.


Courses of Instruction

AAAS 18b

Africa and the West

AAAS 123a

Third World Ideologies

AAAS 133b

The Literature of the Caribbean

AAAS 158a

Theories of Development andUnderdevelopment

AAAS 167a

African and Caribbean ComparativePolitical Systems

ANTH 55a

Development and the Third World

COML 193a

Topics in New World Studies:The Empire Writes Back

ENG 145a

British Colonialism

FREN 165b

Topics in Francophone Literatures

HIST 71a

Latin American History, Pre-Conquestto 1870

HIST 71b

Latin American History, 1870to the Present

HIST 174a

The Legacy of 1898: U.S.-CaribbeanRelations since the Spanish-American War

HIST 80b

East Asia in the Nineteenthand Twentieth Centuries

NEJS 147a

The Rise and Decline of theOttoman Empire, 1300-1800

POL 144a

Latin American Politics I

POL 150a

Politics of Southeast Asia

SECS 169a

Columbus: Encounters and Inventions

SOC 125b

U.S.-Caribbean Relations


Cluster 4: Conceptionsof Personhood and Self

Convener: Eli Hirsch

Philosophy, anthropology, sociology,and literature have focused on conceptions of the person and ofthe self. This topic provides a pivot for discussion of the wayhuman beings conceive of themselves in relation to the naturaland social world, and the way these conceptions influence humanvalues.


Courses of Instruction

AMST 10a

Foundations of American Civilization

COML 105b

Sex and Sensibility in Pre-RevolutionaryEuropean Novels

ENG 144b

The Body as Text: Castiglioneto Locke

HOID 108b

Greek and Roman Ethics: FromPlato to the Stoics

HOID 130b

Varieties of Liberty and Freedom

LGLS 137a

Libel and Defamation, Privacyand Publicity

PHIL 136a

Personal Identity

PSYC 31a

Personality

SOC 164a

Existential Sociology


Cluster 5: Creativityin Art and Science

Convener: To Be Announced

This cluster focuses on thecreative impulse and process, the workings of the imagination,the makings of a creative environment, and the possibilities forcreativity in any field or arena. Opportunities are provided forthe exploration of creativity from varied points of view: theoretical,historical, scientific, and "hands on," or experiential.


Courses of Instruction

BCSC 1a

The Brain: From Molecules toControl of Movement

CLAS 133b

The Art and Archaeology ofAncient Greece

CLAS 134b

The Art and Archaeology ofAncient Rome

FA 19b

Lives of the Artists

HIP 10b

Lyric Poetry and Drawing

HIST 20b

Images of the Cosmos

HIST 131a

The Scientific Revolution

LING 130a

Semantics: The Structure ofConcepts

MUS 107a

Introduction to Electro-AcousticMusic

PHSC 3b

Twentieth-Century Physics andIts Philosophical Implications

PHYS 20a

Modern Physics

SOC 148a

Social Psychology of ConsciousnessI

SOC 148b

Social Psychology of ConsciousnessII

THA 109a

Improvisation


Cluster 6: Crime and Punishment

Convener: Jacob Cohen

What human behaviors, in whatsituations, come to be called "crimes," and what mannerof human beings come to be called "criminals"? Whatare the causes of criminality and how can they be reduced (ifthey can be)? How are crimes detected and how should adjudgedcriminals be thought of and treated? Answers require the perspectivesof sociology, law, anthropology, history, philosophy, literature,biology, and forensic science.


Courses of Instruction

AMST 175a

Violence in American Life

CHSC 6a

Forensic Science: Col. Mustard,Candlestick, Billiard Room

COML 185a

Dickens and Dostoevsky

ENG 145b

The Image of Crime: Realismand Victorian Detective Fiction

PHIL 20a

Social and Political Philosophy:Democracy and Disobedience

PHIL 22b

Philosophy of Law

PHIL 116a

Seminar in Political Philosophy:Justice

POL 123b

The Politics of Urban CriminalJustice

SOC 106a

Issues in Law and Society


Cluster 7: Cultural Representationsof Gender

Convener: Sylvia Fishman

The relationship between womenand men has always been the subject of the media, usually froma male perspective. Painting, sculpture, music, film, literature,popular culture, journalism, and every other form of communicationhave portrayed, and thus created, gender. This cluster examineshow gender is portrayed in cultural objects.


Courses of Instruction

AMST 139b

Reporting on Gender, Race,and Culture

COML 198a

Feminist Theory in Literaryand Cultural Studies

ENG 134a

The Woman of Letters, 1600-1800

FA 61b

Inventing Tradition: Womenas Artists, Women as Art

NEJS 172a

Women in American Jewish Literature

NEJS 176a

Seminar in American JewishFiction: Literary Readings: Roth and Ozick

RECS 137a

The Heroine in Nineteenth-CenturyRussian Literature

SPAN 192a

Contemporary Hispanic Women'sFiction in Translation


Cluster 8: DiscoveringOur Origins

Convener: John Wardle

This cluster provides a broadstudy of the physical and human universe. We explore the originsand workings of the universe, planet earth, humankind, the brain,and human perception. These themes and our perception of themare explored further in the history of cosmological thought, andthrough classical myth and literature.


Courses of Instruction

ANTH 5a

Human Origins

BCSC 1a

The Brain: From Molecules toControl of Movement

BCSC 3b

Dinosaur Paleobiology

BIOL 17b

Ecology

CHSC 3a

The Planet as an Organism:Gaia Theory and the Human Prospect

CLAS 170a

Classical Mythology

HIP 20a

Imagining How We Are: Eastand West I

HIST 20b

Images of the Cosmos

HOID 108b

Greek and Roman Ethics: FromPlato to the Stoics

PHSC 2b

Introductory Astronomy


Cluster 9: The Enlightenment

Convener: Robert Greenberg

The European era that includesthe 18th century, known as the Enlightenment, consists of someof the greatest achievements of Western civilization. From philosophy,literature, and drama to music and art, the mind of Europe wasat its full flower. All this occurred during a period of greatsocial upheaval that culminated in the French Revolution. Thisis a cluster of study to engage the most inquiring minds.


Courses of Instruction

COML 105b

Sex and Sensibility in Pre-RevolutionaryEuropean Novels

ENG 44a

Rights: Theory and Rhetoric

ENG 124a

Reason and Ridicule: The Literatureof Britain in the Enlightenment

FREN 132b

The French Enlightenment

HIST 130a

The French Revolution

HIST 132a

European Thought and Culture:Marlowe to Mill

MUS 43a

Mozart and Eros

MUS 45a

Beethoven

PHIL 166b

Berkeley

PHIL 168a

Kant

POL 185b

Politics of the Enlightenment


Cluster: 10: Ethnicity,Race, and Culture

Convener: Steven Burg

The contemporary analysis ofethnicity, race, and culture in comparative perspective providesthe basis for this cluster.


Courses of Instruction

AAAS 116b

Comparative Race and EthnicRelations

AMST 169a

Ethnicity and Race in the UnitedStates

ANTH 139b

Language, Ethnicity, and Nationalism

NEJS 160a

The Making of the AmericanJew

NEJS 161a

American Jewish Life

NEJS 164b

The Sociology of the AmericanJewish Community

NEJS 165a

American Jewish Culture

NEJS 168a

History and Culture of theJews in East-Central Europe to 1914

NEJS 168b

History and Culture of theJews in East-Central Europe, 1914 to the Present

POL 127b

Seminar: Managing Ethnic Conflict


Cluster 11: Families,Households, and the Life Cycle

Convener: David Jacobson

This cluster focuses on thestructure of and processes in families and households at differenttimes and in different cultures. It provides an understandingof this most basic of social institutions as well as of the similaritiesand differences among the various disciplines that study it.


Courses of Instruction

AMST 124b

American Love and Marriage

AMST 150b

The Family in the United States

ANTH 157a

Families and Households

BISC 2a

Human Reproduction, PopulationExplosion, Global Consequences

BIOL 160b

Human Reproductive Biology

COML 102a

Love in the Middle Ages

HIST 55b

The History of the Family

HIST 127a

Women, Sexuality, and FamilyLife in Early Modern Europe

HIST 153a

Americans at Home: Familiesand Domestic Environment, 1600 to the Present

JCS 202b

Jewish Life Cycle

JCS 203b

Jewish Family Dynamics

NEJS 164b

The Sociology of the AmericanJewish Community

NEJS 174b

Changing Roles of Women inAmerican Jewish Life

RECS 147b

Tolstoy

SOC 130a

Families


Cluster 12: Feminist Perspectiveson Society

Convener: Karen Hansen

This cluster analyzes culturesaround the world and the ways in which they generate and sustainhierarchies based on gender, race, and class. It combines analysesof cultural practices, political systems, economies, and legalstructures to understand the maintenance of inequalities. Drawingon a variety of feminist perspectives, the cluster courses alsoexplore avenues for social transformation.


Courses of Instruction

ANTH 144a

The Anthropology of Gender

ENG 181a

Making Sex, Performing Gender

ENG 197b

The Political Novel in theTwentieth Century

HS 326a

Race, Class, and Gender

HS 333b

Feminism, Law, and Social Policy

NEJS 148b

Lesbian, Gay, and BisexualJews and Christians: Sources and Interpretations

NEJS 153b

History of Jewish and ChristianWomen in the Roman Empire

SOC 105a

Feminist Critiques of AmericanSociety

SOC 107a

Global Apartheid and GlobalSocial Movements

SOC 171a

Women Leaders and Transformationin Developing Countries

WMNS 5a

Women in Culture and Society:A Multidisciplinary Perspective


Cluster 13: Film and Society

Convener: Thomas Doherty

The motion picture medium isa vivid reflection of and powerful influence on society. The clusteron film and society offers an interdisciplinary and cross-culturalperspective on film as an art to be appreciated and as a culturalforce to be reckoned with.


Courses of Instruction

AMST 111a

Images of the American Westin Film and Culture

AMST 114a

American Film and Culture ofthe 1920s

AMST 120b

Film Theory and Criticism

COML 195a

Feminism and Film

FECS 157a

Topics in French Film

FILM 100a

Introduction to the MovingImage

GECS 165a

German Film in Cultural Context

GECS 166b

Dreams and Nightmares: TheThird Reich on Film

NEJS 190b

Images of Jews on Film

NEJS 191b

Revisioning Jewish Life inFilm and Fiction

PHIL 113b

Aesthetics: Painting, Photography,and Film

RECS 149b

Twentieth-Century Russian Literature,Art, Film, and Theater

SECS 183a

Spanish Fictions and Filmsof Modern Life

THA 126b

American Musical Theater andFilm


Cluster 14: Food

Convener: Kenneth Hayes

Food is among the essentialsof life. What is food, how do our bodies use it, and what is theimpact of diet on the chronic diseases of humans? How has theworld's population obtained adequate food in the past? What policiesand programs have been developed to help promote adequate productionand equitable consumption of food in the world? How can thesepolicies be strengthened to end hunger and provide adequate foodfor the world's growing population? Students pursuing in thiscluster will have the opportunity to explore many of these questionsand to learn about food from a variety of perspectives.


Courses of Instruction

AAAS 60a

Economics of Third World Hunger

AMST 20a

Environmental Issues

ANTH 20b

The Development of Human FoodProduction

BISC 10b

Nutrition: Principles, Issues,and Applications

BIOL 42a

Human Physiology

BIOL 55b

Diet and Health

POL 179a

Seminar: Politics and Hunger

SOC 175b

Environmental Sociology


Cluster 15: Gender andWork

Convener: Joyce Antler

This cluster examines social,psychological, legal, political, and economic factors that shapethe work of women and men. Work is understood broadly to includethe professions, scholarly work, science, and art as well as industrialand service occupations and housework. The gendered meanings anddivisions of work are addressed critically. The primary focusis on contemporary United States, although some analyses of 18th-and 19th-century America as well as Europe will be included.


Courses of Instruction

AMST 118a

Gender and the Professions

ECON 58b

Gender and Economics

ENG 134a

The Woman of Letters, 1600-1800

ENG 157b

American Women Poets

FA 61b

Inventing Tradition: Womenas Artists, Women as Art

HS 319a

Work, Individual and SocialDevelopment, and Social Welfare

HS 540b

Families, Work, and the ChangingEconomy

LGLS 120a

Sex Discrimination and theLaw

PHSC 4a

Science and Development

POL 159a

Seminar: The Politics of theModern Welfare State: Women, Workers, and Social Citizenship

SOC 117a

Sociology of Work

SOC 134a

Women and Intellectual Work


Cluster 16: The GlobalCommons: Environmental Issues in International Relations

Convener: Robert Art

Environmental issues have takena prominent place in international politics ever since the 1972United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Thiscluster examines the full dimensions of environmental degradationon a global scale and the efforts to retard and reverse it.


Courses of Instruction

AMST 20a

Environmental Issues

ANTH 20b

The Development of Human FoodProduction

BISC 2a

Human Reproduction, PopulationExplosion, Global Consequences

BIOL 17b

Ecology

BIOL 134b

Topics in Ecology

CHSC 3a

The Planet as an Organism:Gaia Theory and the Human Prospect

ENG 60b

Writing About the Environment

LGLS 132b

Environmental Law and Policy

PHSC 4a

Science and Development

PHSC 7b

Technology and the Managementof Public Risk

POL 165a

Seminar: International Relationsand the Global Environment

POL 177a

Environmental Cooperation:the Domestic and International Nexus

POL 179a

Seminar: Politics and Hunger


Cluster 17: Greece andRome, Seen and Seen Again

Convener: Leonard Muellner

This cluster contains basiccourses on aspects of the civilization of Ancient Greece and Rome,specifically, their art, archaeology, history, mythology, and,in the case of Greece, its philosophy. There are also basic coursesin comparable fields during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.The goal is to provide the student with a broad view of the cultureof classical antiquity and the creative and critical reinterpretationof it that took place in Europe before the modern era.


Courses of Instruction

CLAS 100a

Survey of Greek History: BronzeAge to 323 B.C.E.

CLAS 133b

The Art and Archaeology ofAncient Greece

CLAS 134b

The Art and Archaeology ofAncient Rome

CLAS 145b

Topics in Greek and Roman Artand Archaeology

CLAS 165a

Survey of Latin Literaturein Translation

CLAS 170a

Classical Mythology

FA 41a

Art and the Origins of Europe

FA 51a

Art of the Early Renaissancein Italy

FA 58b

High and Late Renaissance inItaly

HIST 103a

Roman History to 455 C.E.

HOID 108b

Greek and Roman Ethics: FromPlato to the Stoics

PHIL 71a

Medieval Philosophy

PHIL 161a

Plato

PHIL 162b

Aristotle


Cluster 18: Human PopulationDynamics

Convener: Judith Herzfeld

This century has seen unprecedentedglobal changes in human numbers, numbers that will be dwarfedby the changes that will occur in the coming decades. To put thesechanges into perspective, this cluster explores various aspectsof human demographics, including growth, migration, and declinein various times and places. The cluster draws on the vantagepoints of disciplines in the social sciences, natural sciences,and humanities.


Courses of Instruction

AMST 160a

U.S. Immigration History, Policy,and Law

ANTH 5a

Human Origins

ANTH 20b

The Development of Human FoodProduction

ANTH 147b

The Rise of Mesoamerican Civilization

BISC 2a

Human Reproduction, PopulationExplosion, Global Consequences

BIOL 17b

Ecology

BIOL 160b

Human Reproductive Biology

CHSC 3a

The Planet as an Organism:Gaia Theory and the Human Prospect


Cluster 19: IntelligentBehavior: Natural and Artificial

Convener: Richard Alterman

This cluster deals with someimmensely complicated cognitive capacities that underlie intelligentbehavior--capacities that we acquire naturally and easily andtake for granted. Different approaches to this topic are presented.These include psychological experimentation, efforts to programlanguage processing and problem-solving skills into computers,studies of how cognitive capacities are neurologically organizedand of how they relate to cultural systems, and a considerationof how theorizing in these various domains of inquiry reflectsand is illuminated by philosophical ideas.


Courses of Instruction

COSI 35a

Fundamentals of ArtificialIntelligence

COSI 111a

Topics in Computational CognitiveScience

COSI 125a

Human Computer Interaction

LING 150b

Introduction to Cognitive Science

LING 153a

Consciousness

LING 173a

Psycholinguistics

NPSY 22b

Cognitive Processes

NPSY 137b

Cognitive Modeling

NBIO 140b

Introductory Neuroscience

NPSY 154a

Human Memory

NPSY 199a

Neuropsychology

PHIL 39b

Philosophy of Mind

PHIL 141b

Topics in the Philosophy ofPsychology


Cluster 20: Justice

Convener: James Kloppenberg

The question of justice hasalways been central to political theory and moral philosophy.Students in this cluster will confront various perspectives onjustice emerging from different traditions of thought in differenthistorical periods; they will also examine conceptions of individualresponsibility as well as political ideals and institutions.


Courses of Instruction

AMST 188b

Justice Brandeis and ProgressiveJurisprudence

ENG 44a

Rights: Theory and Rhetoric

ENG 197b

The Political Novel in theTwentieth Century

HIST 162a

From Liberal Democracy to SocialDemocracy

HIST 181b

Red Flags/Black Flags: Marxismvs. Anarchism, 1845-1968

HIST 192b

Romantic and ExistentialistPolitical Thought

HOID 108b

Greek and Roman Ethics: FromPlato to the Stoics

HOID 130b

Varieties of Liberty and Freedom

PHIL 20a

Social and Political Philosophy:Democracy and Disobedience

PHIL 114b

Topics in Ethical Theory

PHIL 116a

Seminar in Political Philosophy:Justice

POL 108b

Seminar: Liberty and Equalityin American Politics

RECS 146a

Dostoevsky

SOC 111a

Political Sociology and DemocraticEmpowerment


Cluster 21: Knowledge,Subjectivism, and Relativism

Convener: David Wong

Is truth independent of ourmodes of justification and basic assumptions about the world?Is moral truth independent of culture and convention? Or is truthperspectival and "constructed" by social forms and individualsubjectivity? These central questions are approached through abroad range of courses in the humanities and the sciences.


Courses of Instruction

AMST 170a

The Idea of Conspiracy in AmericanCulture

ANTH 171a

Crosscultural Inquiry in SocialScience

COML 198a

Feminist Theory in Literaryand Cultural Studies

ENG 121b

Contemporary Literary Theory

HIST 132a

European Thought and Culture:Marlowe to Mill

HIST 132b

European Thought and CultureSince Darwin

HOID 108b

Greek and Roman Ethics: FromPlato to the Stoics

PHIL 114b

Topics in Ethical Theory

PHIL 138a

Metaphysics

PHIL 142b

The Subjective Point of View

PHSC 3b

Twentieth-Century Physics andIts Philosophical Implications

POL 185b

Politics of the Enlightenment

SOC 164a

Existential Sociology


Cluster 22: Medicine,Health, and Social Policy

Convener: Joan Tucker

Health and health care areamong the dominant concerns of any society. In modern society,health care has become so technologically sophisticated and organizationallycomplex that a single discipline is no longer adequate for understandingits dimensions. This cluster examines the scientific basis, socialand legal organization, and psychological and ethical issues surroundinghealth and medical care.


Courses of Instruction

BCSC 7b

Drug Discovery and Development

BISC 2a

Human Reproduction, PopulationExplosion, Global Consequences

BISC 4a

Heredity

BISC 6a

Recombinant DNA

BISC 10b

Nutrition: Principles, Issues,and Applications

BIBC 22a

Genetics and Molecular Biology

BIOL 42a

Human Physiology

BIOL 55b

Diet and Health

BIOL 125a

Immunology

HS 104b

American Health Care: A Systemin Crisis

LGLS 114a

American Health Care: Law andPolicy

LGLS 139b

Medical Malpractice on Trial

PHIL 23b

Biomedical Ethics

PSYC 131b

Seminar in Health Psychology

SOC 189a

Sociology of Body and Health

SOC 190b

On the Caring of the MedicalCare System


Cluster 23: Modern FrenchCulture

Convener: Stephen Gendzier

This set of courses will introducestudents to a variety of cross-disciplinary orientations towardthe study of French art, music, history, literature, politics,and social thought.


Courses of Instruction

FA 170b

Nineteenth-Century EuropeanPainting and Sculpture

FA 171a

Impressionism: Avant-GardeRebellion in Context

FA 175b

Duchamp to Deconstruction

FECS 157a

Topics in French Film

FECS 170b

History of French Culture

FECS 174b

Contemporary French Civilization

FECS 182b

French Literature and Painting

FREN 165b

Topics in Francophone Literature

HIST 130a

The French Revolution

HIST 132a

European Thought and Culture:Marlowe to Mill

HIST 132b

European Thought and Culturesince Darwin

HIST 145b

Introduction to Modern France

HIST 183b

Community and Alienation: SocialTheory from Hegel to Freud

HIST 192b

Romantic and ExistentialistPolitical Thought

MUS 56b

Romanticism and Music

MUS 57a

Music and Culture: From Romanticismto the Modern Era

SOC 164a

Existential Sociology


Cluster 24: Modern LatinAmerica

Convener: Silvia Arrom

This cluster brings the insightsof five disciplines to bear on understanding South America, Mexico,Central America, and the Caribbean during the 19th and 20th centuries.It shows how social, economic, political, and intellectual developmentsare interrelated and encourages students to consider Latin America'sstrengths and problems from a Latin American perspective.


Courses of Instruction

ECON 26a

Latin America's Economy

FA 24b

Twentieth-Century and ContemporaryLatin American Art

HIST 71b

Latin American History, 1870to the Present

HIST 175a

The Making and Unmaking ofthe Mexican Revolution

POL 144a

Latin American Politics I

POL 144b

Latin American Politics II

SOC 125b

U.S.-Caribbean Relations

SPAN 163a

Modern Latin American Fiction

SPAN 164b

Studies in Latin American Literature

SPAN 190b

Latin American Fiction in Translation

SPAN 192a

Contemporary Hispanic Women'sFiction in Translation


Cluster 25: Modern Russia

Convener: Gregory Freeze

The extraordinary experienceof modern Russia--encompassing czarist autocracy, communist totalitarianism,and the current turmoil of transition to a more liberal socialsystem--is examined from the perspectives of the social sciencesand of the literature of the period.


Courses of Instruction

ECON 25b

Transition and InstitutionalEconomics

ECON 32b

Comparative Economic Systems

HIST 147b

Russia Since 1861

HIST 149a

Soviet History: Major Issues,New Approaches

POL 129a

East European Politics

POL 130b

Politics in Russia and Ukraine

RECS 130a

Nineteenth-Century RussianLiterature

RECS 135a

The Short Story in Russia

RECS 143b

History of Russian and SovietFilm

RUS 148a

A Survey of Russian Theaterfrom 1719-1917

RUS 148b

A Survey of Twentieth-CenturyRussian Theater: Chekhov to the Present

RECS 149b

Twentieth-Century Russian Literature,Art, Film, and Theater

RECS 154a

Nabokov


Cluster 26: Modernism:The Twentieth Century

Convener: James Kloppenberg

The culture of modernism sprangfrom the unsettling but liberating experience of uncertainty inEurope and America during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Artists, writers, and philosophers deliberately discarded traditionand experimented with radically new ideas and forms of expression.Students will examine the sensibility of modernism through coursesdrawn from a variety of disciplines dealing with European andAmerican culture.


Courses of Instruction

ECS 100a

European Cultural Studies:The Proseminar

ENG 67b

Modern Poetry

FA 70a

Paris/New York: Revolutionsof Modernism

FA 71a

Modern Art and Modern Culture

FECS 157a

Topics in French Film

FECS 182b

French Literature and Painting

GECS 195b

German Modernism and the FascistBacklash

HIST 132b

European Thought and Culturesince Darwin

HIST 169a

Thought and Culture in ModernAmerica

PHIL 74b

Foundations of American Pragmatism


Cluster 27: Nationalismin World Politics

Convener: Robert Art

With the Cold War's end, thedestructive forces of nationalism have appeared with full forcein central Europe and the former Soviet Union. But nationalismis a force as old as the nation-state and is global in its manifestations.This cluster examines the origins and effects of nationalism inworld politics and the international attempts to cope with it.


Courses of Instruction

AAAS 116b

Comparative Race and EthnicRelations

COML 193a

Topics in New World Studies:The Empire Writes Back

ENG 145a

British Colonialism

ENG 197b

The Political Novel in theTwentieth Century

GECS 166b

Dreams and Nightmares: TheThird Reich on Film

HIST 80b

East Asia in the Nineteenthand Twentieth Centuries

HIST 134b

Nineteenth-Century Europe:Nationalism, Imperialism, Socialism (1850-1919)

NEJS 144b

Nationalism and Islam in theModern Middle East

NEJS 145b

The Making of the Modern MiddleEast

NEJS 147a

The Rise and Decline of theOttoman Empire, 1300-1800

NEJS 197b

Politics and the Culture ofthe Contemporary Middle East

POL 15a

Introduction to InternationalRelations

POL 127b

Seminar: Managing Ethnic Conflict

POL 150a

Politics of Southeast Asia

POL 151b

Seminar: Nationalism and Development

POL 176a

Seminar: International CrisisManagement, Intervention, and Peacekeeping


Cluster 28: Nature-Nurture

Convener: Peter Conrad

The question of the contributionsof biology and the social environment to human behavior and humannature has been debated for more than two centuries. This debatehas increased salience with the emergence of the new geneticsand neuroscience. This cluster examines the issues of nature andnurture from a variety of social and biological perspectives.


Courses of Instruction

ANTH 166a

The Nature of Human Nature

BISC 1a

Biology of Neurological andMental Illness

BISC 4a

Heredity

BIBC 22a

Genetics and Molecular Biology

BIOL 128a

Human Genetics

COML 105b

Sex and Sensibility in Pre-RevolutionaryEuropean Novels

LING 181b

Language and Human Nature

PHIL 137a

Innate Knowledge

PSYC 33a

Developmental Psychology

PSYC 160b

Seminar on Sex Differences

SOC 176a

Nature, Nurture, and PublicPolicy


Cluster 29: Power andPolitics: Theory, Literature, and Practice

Convener: Karen Klein

This cluster provides multipleperspectives on the uses and abuses of power by states, politicalsystems, and individuals and an investigation of the relationof class, gender, and race to the structures of power. The perspectivesrange across political theory and philosophy, studies of politicalstructures from diverse Western and non-Western societies, andexamples of political movements and fictional narratives thatilluminate and critique political realities.


Courses of Instruction

ENG 197b

The Political Novel in theTwentieth Century

HIST 132a

European Thought and Culture:Marlowe to Mill

HIST 132b

European Thought and CultureSince Darwin

HOID 130b

Varieties of Liberty and Freedom

PHIL 19a

Human Rights

PHIL 20a

Social and Political Philosophy:Democracy and Disobedience

POL 128a

The Politics of Revolution:State Violence and Popular Insurgency in the Third World

POL 184a

Utopia and Power in ModernPolitical Thought

SECS 182b

The Spanish Civil War

SOC 107a

Global Apartheid and GlobalSocial Movements

SOC 119a

War and Possibilities of Peace

SOC 161a

Society, State, and Power:The Problem of Democracy


Cluster 30: The Renaissance

Convener: Richard Lansing

The courses in this clusterwill provide a forum for the study of the art, literature, music,history, and culture of the Renaissance from its inception inItaly in the late 15th century to the closing of the theatersin England in 1642.


Courses of Instruction

COML 103b

Madness and Folly in RenaissanceLiterature

ENG 3a

The Renaissance

ENG 33a

Shakespeare

ENG 63a

Renaissance Poetry

ENG 173a

Spenser and Milton

FA 51a

Art of the Early Renaissancein Italy

FA 54b

Renaissance Art in NorthernEurope

FA 58b

High and Late Renaissance inItaly

FREN 122b

The Renaissance

MUS 10b

Early Music Ensembles

MUS 32a

Music and the Idea of Renaissance

MUS 110b

The Authenticity Question:Applying Historical Performance Practices

SECS 150a

Golden Age Drama and Society

SPAN 120b

Don Quijote


Cluster 31: The ScientificModel of the Universe

Convener: Hugh Pendleton

The emergence of scientificdeterminism during the Enlightenment guided the Western imageof the universe for over 200 years, but has recently come underattack on scientific, philosophical, and political grounds. Thiscluster examines the content and principles of scientific determinismand its impact on philosophy and culture in general, as well ascontemporary challenges to this world view.


Courses of Instruction

CHSC 7a

Chaos

HIST 20b

Images of the Cosmos

MATH 2a

Order and Chaos

MATH 8a

Introduction to Probabilityand Statistics

PHIL 35a

Philosophy of Science

PHSC 2b

Introductory Astronomy

PHSC 3b

Twentieth-Century Physics andIts Philosophical Implications


Cluster 32: SustainableDevelopment

Convener: Robert Lange

There are no easy answers toreducing human poverty and to managing, rather than damaging,the environment. Environmental degradation, human poverty, scarcityof resources, and ineffective institutions handicap developmentefforts. This cluster introduces students to a variety of differentapproaches to sustainable development. The designated coursesin the social sciences and the sciences give particular attentionto problems in the lower income countries of Africa, Asia, andLatin America.


Courses of Instruction

ANTH 55a

Development and the Third World

BIOL 17b

Ecology

CHSC 4a

Chemicals and Toxicity

ECON 175a

Introduction to the Economicsof Development

LGLS 132b

Environmental Law and Policy

PHSC 4a

Science and Development

POL 151b

Seminar: Nationalism and Development

POL 179a

Seminar: Politics and Hunger


Cluster 33: The City

Convener: Ann Koloski-Ostrow

This cluster explores the cityin time and space from several perspectives in order to addressa number of questions. What is a city? What functions does itperform? What are its origins and composition in the ancient world(Athens, Rome, Pompeii), and how do these relate to modern cities?Is there a city yet to be built that will enrich and further humandevelopment?


Courses of Instruction

ANTH 158a

Urban Anthropology

CLAS 133b

The Art and Archaeology ofAncient Greece

CLAS 134b

The Art and Archaeology ofAncient Rome

CLAS 145b

Topics in Greek and Roman Artand Archaeology

COML 185a

Dickens and Dostoevsky

ENG 23a

Domains of Seventeenth-CenturyPerformance

FA 14a

When Tokyo was called Edo:Japanese Art from Edo to Meiji

FA 22b

History of Boston Architecture

FA 45a

St. Peter's and the Vatican

GER 190b

Vienna at the Turn of the Century

GECS 195b

German Modernism and the FascistBacklash

HIST 169a

Thought and Culture in ModernAmerica

NEJS 151b

Merchants, Moneylenders, andGhetti of Venice

NEJS 161b

The Monument and the City

NEJS 167b

A History of the Jews in Warsaw,Lodz, Vilna, and Odessa


Cluster 34: Values, Technology,and Society

Convener: Olga Davidson

Throughout history, scientificdiscoveries and their technological applications have changedthe contours of our lives. This cluster explores the differentialimpact of scientific advances and cognition on politics, socialvalues, religious beliefs, and the arts. Courses from biochemistry,computer science, history, politics, sociology, Near Eastern studies,and comparative literature emphasize the interdisciplinary dimensionsof science in our world.


Courses of Instruction

BCSC 1b

Biotechnology: Its Origins,Scientific Basis, and Impact

COSI 2a

Introduction to Computers

HIST 131b

Science and Technology in theTwentieth Century

HIST 133b

Science and Religion in ModernEurope

LGLS 129b

Law, Technology, and Innovation

NEJS 195b

The Woman's Voice in the MuslimWorld

PHSC 7b

Technology and the Managementof Public Risk

POL 183b

Community and Alienation: SocialTheory from Hegel to Freud

SOC 108b

Modern Society in Transition

SOC 194b

Technology and Society


Cluster 35: Visual Literacy

Convener: Susan Moeller

Courses in the visual literacycluster allow students to explore the power of images. In spiteof Americans' growing sophistication at the end of the 20th century,we continue to be moved--consciously and unconsciously--by thepictures we see in print, on television, in movies, and even inmuseums. Visual literacy courses examine the role of images inour society by investigating images much as written texts havealways been analyzed. These courses trace an image-conscious sensibilityin literature, art, popular culture, politics, and even the sciences.


Courses of Instruction

AMST 120b

Film Theory and Criticism

AMST 135b

The History and Principlesof Photojournalism

CHSC 8b

Chemistry and Art

ENG 144b

The Body as Text: Castiglioneto Locke

FA 61b

Inventing Tradition: Womanas Artists, Women as Art

FA 75a

High Art/Low Art: Modern Artand Popular Culture

FA 175b

Duchamp to Deconstruction

FILM 100a

Introduction to the MovingImage

NPSY 12a

Sensory Processes

PHIL 113b

Aesthetics: Painting, Photography,and Film

PSYC 13b

Perception


Cluster 36: Women andSociety in the United States

Convener: Julie Nelson

This cluster explores the experienceof women in the United States from colonial times to the present.Looking at gender roles from a variety of perspectives, and listeningto women's voices as represented in sources ranging from socialpolicy to poetry, painting, biography, and history, the clusterwill investigate the gendered dimensions of female experiencein America as well as the divisions among American women.


Courses of Instruction

AMST 121a

The American Jewish Woman:1890-1990s

AMST 123b

Women in American History:1865 to the Present

BISC 2a

Human Reproduction, PopulationExplosion, Global Consequences

BIOL 160b

Human Reproductive Biology

ECON 58b

Gender and Economics

ENG 157b

American Women Poets

FA 173a

Georgia O'Keeffe and StieglitzCircle

HIST 153a

Americans at Home: Familiesand Domestic Environment, 1600 to the Present

HIST 154b

Women in American History:A Survey, 1600-1865

HIST 187a

Problems in American Women'sHistory

HS 549a

Family Policy

NEJS 161a

American Jewish Life

NEJS 174b

Changing Roles of Women inAmerican Jewish Life

SOC 131b

Women's Biography and Society


Cluster 37: Women: OtherTimes, Other Places

Convener: To Be Announced

The aim of this cluster isto provide an examination of women in pre-modern and non-Westerncultures. Sub-areas considered by courses in the cluster includeartistic and literary creation, family life, and religious ideasfrom historical and comparative perspectives.


Courses of Instruction

ANTH 144a

The Anthropology of Gender

HIST 55b

The History of the Family

HIST 154b

Women in American History:A Survey, 1600-1865

NEJS 115b

Women and the Bible

NEJS 153b

History of Jewish and ChristianWomen in the Roman Empire

NEJS 195b

The Woman's Voice in the MuslimWorld

PHSC 4a

Science and Development

RECS 137a

The Heroine in Nineteenth-CenturyRussian Literature

SOC 171a

Women Leaders and Transformationin Developing Countries

SPAN 164b

Studies in Latin American Literature

SPAN 192a

Contemporary Hispanic Women'sFiction in Translation


Cluster 38: World Cultures

Convener: Avigdor Levy

The purpose of this clusteris to introduce the student to some of the important culturesof the non-Western world. It accomplishes this by offering a choiceof introductory courses designed to provide a broad acquaintancewith a variety of traditions.


Courses of Instruction

AAAS 115a

Introduction to African History

ANTH 147b

The Rise of Mesoamerican Civilization

HIST 71a

Latin American History, Pre-Conquestto 1870

HIST 80a

Introduction to East AsianCivilization

IMES 104a

Islam: Civilization and Institutions

NEJS 109a

Ancient Near Eastern Historyand Culture I

NEJS 128b

Explorations in Islamic LiteratureII: The Persian World

POL 150a

Politics of Southeast Asia


Cluster 39: The Birthof Europe

Convener: Charles McClendon

Western Europe first emergedas a cultural force following the fall of the Roman Empire whena patchwork of barbarian tribes gave rise to a network of kingdomsthat foreshadowed today's national states. Basic features of Europeancivilization, from its language to its religious and educationalinstitutions, were formed during this period. Students explorethis creative process from an interdisciplinary perspective.


Courses of Instruction

COML 102a

Love in the Middle Ages

ENG 122a

The Medieval World

ENG 132b

Chaucer I

ENG 152b

Arthurian Literature

FA 41a

Art and the Origins of Europe

FA 42b

The Age of Cathedrals

FA 43a

The Art of Medieval England

FREN 120a

The French Middle Ages

HIST 110a

The Civilization of the EarlyMiddle Ages

HIST 110b

The Civilization of the Highand Late Middle Ages

HIST 113a

English Medieval History

IECS 140a

Dante's Divine Comedy

MUS 32a

Music and the Idea of Renaissance

PHIL 71a

Medieval Philosophy


Cluster 40: Conflict andCooperation

Convener: Seyom Brown and GordonFellman

A system of interdependentdecision-makers has the potential for symbiotic cooperation ormutual detriment: war or peace, ecological balance or catastrophe,strength in numbers or recrimination. What factors shape the outcome?Does cooperation require the suspension of self-interest or itsenlightenment? How do self-organizing dynamic systems evolve?


Courses of Instruction

BIOL 17b

Ecology

BIOL 60b

Evolution

LGLS 125b

International Law, Organizations,and Conflict Resolution

LGLS 130a

Conflict Analysis and Intervention

NEJS 147b

The Arab-Israeli Conflict

PHIL 17a

Introduction to Ethics

PHIL 114b

Topics in Ethical Theory

POL 15a

Introduction to InternationalRelations

POL 127b

Seminar: Managing Ethnic Conflict

POL 163a

Seminar: Human Rights and InternationalRelations

POL 165a

Seminar: International Relationsand the Global Environment

SOC 119a

War and Possibilities of Peace

SOC 135a

Group Process

SOC 195b

Group Solidarity


Cluster 41: Introductionto East Asia: China and Japan

Convener: John Schrecker

This cluster provides an introductionto East Asian civilization through comprehensive study of Chinaand Japan.


Courses of Instruction

ECON 27b

The Economy of Japan

FA 179b

Chinese Landscape Painting

FA 181b

The Art of Japan

FA 182a

The Art of China

HIP 30b

The Persistence of Tradition:An Introduction to Japanese Poetry, Drama, Fiction, and Film

HIST 80a

Introduction to East AsianCivilization

HIST 80b

East Asia in the Nineteenthand Twentieth Centuries

HIST 176a

The Emergence of Modern Japan

HIST 181a

Seminar on Traditional ChineseThought

PHIL 119b

Chinese Philosophy

POL 147a

The Government and Politicsof China

POL 148a

Seminar: Contemporary ChinesePolitics


Cluster 42: Theater andLife: What Shapes Performance?

Convener: John Bush Jones

To quote an old song, "It'snot what you do, it's the way you do it." What gives theaterits special quality? What makes a reader of a play or a spectatorin an audience see, feel, or understand things about life? Somecourses in this cluster explore not just what happens ina play but how it happens: in other words, how the playwright,the actors, the director, and the designers structure the contentsto make their work say what they want it to say. Other coursesexamine performance in life--the ways in which we and our relationshipsto others are perceived, not just by who we are but byhow the forms of our behavior reveal ourselves.


Courses of Instruction

AMST 128b

History as Theater

ANTH 105a

Symbol, Myth, and Ritual

ENG 23a

Domains of Seventeenth-CenturyPerformance

ENG 144b

The Body as Text: Castiglioneto Locke

ENG 181a

Making Sex, Performing Gender

FA 131b

Center Stage: Women in ContemporaryAmerican Art

THA 17b

Storytelling: Narrative Aspectsof Acting

THA 104a

Playwriting I

THA 115b

The Avant-Gardes

THA 120b

Movement and Dance TheaterComposition

THA 185b

Dramatic Structure: Analysisand Application


Cluster 43: Romanticism

Convener: John Burt

Romanticism in European andAmerican literature, philosophy, religion, art, and politics,along with its historical context, its relationship to earliercultural movement, and its consequences down to modern times.


Courses of Instruction

ENG 25a

Romanticism I: Blake, Wordsworth,and Coleridge

ENG 125b

Romanticism II: Byron, Shelley,and Keats

ENG 126b

American Romanticism

ENG 135b

Romanticism

FA 170b

Nineteenth-Century EuropeanPainting and Sculpture

HIST 130a

The French Revolution

HIST 192b

Romantic and ExistentialistPolitical Thought

MUS 56b

Romanticism and Music

PHIL 168a

Kant

POL 183b

Community and Alienation: SocialTheory from Hegel to Freud


Cluster 44: Law, Politics,and Public Values

Conveners: Richard Gaskinsand R. Shep Melnick

The rights and responsibilitiesof modern democratic life are defined through legal and politicalprocesses, supported by the framework of social values. Thesecourses explore changing concepts of individual welfare and socialcitizenship; examine the comparative strengths of courts, legislatures,and bureaucracies in shaping the public interest; and ask howmodern welfare states should evolve in the coming decades.


Courses of Instruction

AMST 187a

The Legal Boundaries of Publicand Private Life

ENG 44a

Rights: Theory and Rhetoric

ENG 126a

American Realism and Naturalism,1865-1900

HIST 191a

Seminar: Governance

HOID 130b

Varieties of Liberty and Freedom

HS 110a

American Jobs and Wages: TheParadox of Wealth and Poverty

LGLS 114a

American Health Care: Law andPolicy

LGLS 121b

Law and Social Welfare: CitizenRights and Government Responsibilities

PHIL 74b

Foundations of American Pragmatism

PHIL 112b

Philosophy and Public Policy

PHSC 7b

Technology and the Managementof Public Risk

POL 112a

National Government of theUnited States

POL 159a

Seminar: The Politics of theModern Welfare State: Women, Workers, and Social Citizenship


Cluster 45: Religion:People of the Book

Convener: Bernadette Brooten

Religion shapes the world valuesto a far greater extent than generally recognized. Within thiscluster, students can explore comparatively several world religionsand learn theoretical frameworks for understanding them. Theycan examine foundational texts, such as the Jewish and ChristianBibles; major religious art works, institutions, and practices;as well as religious conflict, such as that between religion andscience.


Courses of Instruction

ANTH 154b

Selected Topics in ComparativeReligion: Seminal Works in the Study of Religion

FA 42b

The Age of Cathedrals

FA 45a

St. Peter's and the Vatican

HIST 133b

Science and Religion in ModernEurope

NEJS 111a

The Hebrew Bible

NEJS 130a

The New Testament: A HistoricalIntroduction

NEJS 135a

Jesus of Nazareth and the ChristianFaith

NEJS 150b

Paul among Jews and Gentiles

NEJS 153a

Hasidism as a Religious andSocial Movement

NEJS 162a

American Judaism

NEJS 195b

The Woman's Voice in the MuslimWorld


Cluster 46: Sexualitiesand Society

Convener: Thomas King

Although we tend to believethat our sexualities express universal and unchanging truths aboutourselves, various societies and historical periods reveal markedlydifferent organizations of sex. This cluster explores sexualityas the set of beliefs, representations, and ethics surroundingindividuals' relations to their bodies. How has the sexed bodyand its pleasures been made socially meaningful?


Courses of Instruction

ANTH 144a

The Anthropology of Gender

BISC 2a

Human Reproduction, PopulationExplosion, Global Consequences

COML 102a

Love in the Middle Ages

COML 105b

Sex and Sensibility in Pre-RevolutionaryEuropean Novels

ENG 58b

AIDS, Activism, and Representation

ENG 151a

Lesbian and Gay Studies: Desire,Identity, and Representation

ENG 181a

Making Sex, Performing Gender

HIST 139a

Women, Gender, and Family

LGLS 120a

Sex Discrimination and theLaw

LGLS 133b

AIDS, Health Care, and theLaw

NEJS 148b

Lesbian, Gay, and BisexualJews and Christians: Sources and Interpretations

SOC 105a

Feminist Critiques of AmericanSociety

SOC 169b

Issues in Sexuality


Cluster 47: Disease andSociety

Convener: Joan Press

The presence of disease isa significant and constant element in human history. This clusteranalyzes the biological bases of diseases, of infectious and ofnon-infectious origin, and the new biomedical technologies developedto treat disease. It also examines society's past and presentreactions to disease, including medical, philosophical, legal,political, and cultural responses.


Courses of Instruction

ANTH 127a

Medicine, Body, and Culture

ANTH 142a

AIDS in the Third World

BISC 1a

Biology of Neurological andMental Illness

BISC 5a

Viruses and Human Disease

BISC 9a

Immunity and Disease

BIOL 125a

Immunology

BIOL 132a

General Microbiology

BIOL 172b

Cancer

ENG 58b

AIDS, Activism, and Representation

LGLS 133b

AIDS, Health Care, and theLaw

PSYC 131b

Seminar in Health Psychology

SOC 191a

Health, Community, and Society


Cluster 48: Myth, Ritual,and Religion

Convener: Luis Yglesias

This cluster enables studentsto understand how different cultures have made sense of humanexperience in relation to the spiritual: the realm of the divine,the realm of animal spirits, and the supernatural. In other words,"whatever is grave and constant in human experience."


Courses of Instruction

ANTH 80a

World Religions

ANTH 105a

Symbol, Myth, and Ritual

COML 127a

Night, Death, and the Devil:The Fantastic and the Grotesque

CLAS 170a

Classical Mythology

COML 194b

Topics in Myth, Literature,and Folklore

ENG 152b

Arthurian Literature

FA 13b

Buddhist Art

HIP 21a

Mysticism and the Moral Life:Abraham Heschel, Howard Thurman, Thomas Merton

NEJS 114b

Biblical Ritual and Cult

NEJS 124b

Introduction to Jewish Mysticism

NEJS 127b

The Jewish Liturgy

NEJS 142b

Dealing with Evil in AncientBabylon and Beyond: Magic and Witchcraft in Antiquity

NEJS 156b

Ancient Near Eastern Religionand Mythology

SOC 165a

Sociology of Birth and Death