Objectives
The non-Western and comparative studies requirement encourages students to explore through various disciplines cultures beyond the Western tradition. The common goal of courses in the program is to acquaint students with worldviews, indigenous intellectual traditions, and social institutions that have developed largely outside the traditions of European society and its North American transplants. By examining some particular culture, society, or region of the non-Western world (such as those of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Oceania) or by systematically comparing a range of values and institutions across cultural boundaries, students are expected to broaden their understanding of human achievements and potentialities beyond their own heritage. The program includes the comparative analysis of cultures and their interactions and draws attention to the intellectual problems inherent in the study of cultural systems other than one's own.
Courses of Instruction
African and Afro-American Studies
AAAS 60a
Economics of Third World Hunger
AAAS 80a
Economy and Society in Africa
AAAS 85a
Survey of Southern African History
AAAS 115a
Introduction to African History
AAAS 123a
Third World Ideologies
AAAS 126b
Political Economy of the Third World
AAAS 132b
Introduction to African Literature
AAAS 133b
The Literature of the Caribbean
AAAS 134b
Novel and Film of the African Diaspora
AAAS 147b
Women in African Societies
AAAS 158a
Theories of Development and Underdevelopment
AAAS 164a
Changing Institutions of Contemporary Africa
AAAS 167a
African and Caribbean Comparative Political Systems
AAAS 175a
Comparative Politics of North Africa
ANTH 1a
Introduction to the Comparative Study of Human Societies
ANTH 20b
The Development of Human Food Production
ANTH 55a
Models of Development: the Third World
ANTH 62a
Non-Western Musical Traditions
ANTH 84b
Cross-Cultural Art and Aesthetics
ANTH 105a
Symbol, Myth, and Ritual
ANTH 127a
Medicine, Body, and Culture
ANTH 133a
Tradition and the Contemporary Experience in Sub-Saharan Africa
ANTH 134a
South Asia: Tradition and the Contemporary Experience
ANTH 135b
Modern South Asia: Society and Politics
ANTH 144a
The Anthropology of Gender
ANTH 147b
The Rise of Mesoamerican Civilization
ANTH 153a
Writing Systems and Scribal Traditions
ANTH 156a
Power and Violence: The Anthropology of Political Systems
ANTH 163b
Economic Anthropology: Production and Distribution
EAS 125a
Japanese Literature from the Seventeenth-Century to the Present: From the Floating World to Murakami Haruki
ECON 26a
(formerly ECON 25a)
Latin America's Economy
ECON 122b
Economics of the Middle East
ECON 165a
The Economy of China
English and American Literature
ENG 177b
Literatures of Global English
FA 15b
Arts of the Ming Dynasty
French Language and Literature
FREN 165b
Topics in Francophone Literatures
HIST 71a
Latin American History, Pre-Conquest to 1870
HIST 71b
Latin American History, 1870 to the Present
HIST 80a
Introduction to East Asian Civilization
HIST 80b
East Asia in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
HIST 148b
Central Asia in Modern Times
HIST 173b
Latin American Women: Historical Perspectives
HIST 174a
U.S.-Caribbean Relations, 1898 to the Present
HIST 176a
The Emergence of Modern Japan
HIST 180a
Modernities and Postcolonialities
HIST 181a
Seminar on Traditional Chinese Thought
Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
IMES 104a
Islam: Civilization and Institutions
LGLS 124b
International Law and Development
Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
NEJS 105a
Music in the Bible and the Ancient Near East
NEJS 109a
Ancient Near Eastern History and Culture I
NEJS 110a
Introduction to the Qur'an
NEJS 113b
Near Eastern Law: Source, Sense, and Society
NEJS 142b
Dealing with Evil in Ancient Babylon and Beyond: Magic and Witchcraft in Antiquity
NEJS 143b
Shi'ism and Political Protest in the Middle East
NEJS 144a
Jews in the World of Islam
NEJS 145b
The Making of the Modern Middle East
NEJS 146b
The Destruction of the Ottoman Empire, 1800-1923
NEJS 147a
The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1800
NEJS 156b
Ancient Near Eastern Religion and Mythology
NEJS 197a
Issues in Contemporary Arab Social and Political Thought
NEJS 197b
Political Cultures of the Middle East
POL 128a
The Politics of Revolution: State Violence and Popular Insurgency in the Third World
POL 133a
Japanese Political Economy
POL 144a
Latin American Politics I
POL 144b
Latin American Politics II
POL 146b
Revolutions in the Third World
POL 147a
The Government and Politics of China
POL 147b
Seminar: The Modern Chinese Revolution
POL 148a
Seminar: Contemporary Chinese Politics
POL 150a
Politics of Southeast Asia
POL 151b
Seminar: Nationalism and Development
POL 179a
Seminar: Politics and Hunger
POL 180b
Sustaining Development
REL 107a
Approaches to Religious Studies
SOC 107a
Global Apartheid and Global Social Movements
SOC 125b
U.S.-Caribbean Relations
SOC 171a
Women Leaders and Transformation in Developing Countries
Spanish Language and Literature
SPAN 111b
Introduction to Latin American Literature
SPAN 163a
Modern Latin American Fiction: The "Boom" and Beyond
SPAN 164b
Studies in Latin American Literature
SPAN 190b
Latin American Fiction in Translation
SPAN 192a
Contemporary Hispanic Women's Fiction in Translation
WMNS 195b
The Woman's Voice in the Muslim World