University Bulletin (2010-2011)

AMST 25b Individualism in America
[ ss ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took AMST 155a in prior years.
Examines the central dilemmas of the American experience through various major works. Topics include the ambition to transcend social and personal limitations and the tension between demands of self and the hunger for community. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Whitfield

AMST 30b American Environmental History
[ ss ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took AMST 101a in prior years.
Provides an overview of the relationship between nature and culture in North America. Covers Native Americans, the European invasion, the development of a market system of resource extraction and consumption, the impact of industrialization, and environmentalist responses. Current environmental issues are placed in historical context. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Donahue

AMST 35a Hollywood and American Culture
[ ss ]
This is an interdisciplinary course in Hollywood cinema and American culture that aims to do justice to both arenas. Students will learn the terms of filmic grammar, the meanings of visual style, and the contexts of Hollywood cinema from The Birth of a Nation (1915) to last weekend's top box office grosser. They will also master the major economic, social, and political realities that make up the American experience of the dominant medium of our time, the moving image, as purveyed by Hollywood. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Doherty

AMST 40a Women in American History
[ ss ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took AMST 123b in prior years.
A historical and cultural survey of the female experience in the United States, with emphasis on issues of education, work, domestic ideology, sexuality, male-female relations, race, class, politics, war, the media, feminism, and antifeminism. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Antler

AMST 45b Violence (and Nonviolence) in American Culture
[ ss ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took AMST 175a in prior years.
Studies the use of terror and violence by citizens and governments in the domestic history of the United States. What are the occasions and causes of violence? How is it imagined, portrayed, and explained in literature? Is there anything peculiarly American about violence in America--nonviolence and pacifism? Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Cohen

AMST 50b Religion and American Culture
[ ss ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took AMST 167b in prior years.
Examines the roles of religion in the adaptation of ethnic and racial cultures to one another in the United States and to the mainstream American culture. Topics include the ways in which Americans used their religious institutions to assimilate newcomers and to contain those they defined as the "other," the religions of immigrants, and the responses of immigrants and Americans to religious pluralism. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

AMST 55a Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration in American Culture
[ ss ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took AMST 169a in prior years.
Provides an introductory overview of the study of race, ethnicity, and culture in the United States. Focuses on the historical, sociological, and political movements that affected the arrival and settlement of African, Asian, European, American Indian, and Latino populations in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Utilizing theoretical and discursive perspectives, compares and explores the experiences of these groups in the United States in relation to issues of immigration, population relocations, government and civil legislation, ethnic identity, gender and family relations, class, and community. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Davé

AMST 60a The Legal Boundaries of Public and Private Life
[ ss ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took AMST 187a in prior years.
Examine civil liberties through landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases. Explores confrontations between public interest and personal rights across four episodes in American cultural history; post-Civil War race relations; progressive-era economic regulation; war-time free-speech debates; and current issues of sexual and reproductive privacy. Close legal analysis supplemented by politics, philosophy, and social history. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Gaskins

AMST 92a Internship in American Studies
Off-campus work experience in conjunction with a reading course with a member of the department. Requires reading and writing assignments drawing upon and amplifying the internship experience. Only one internship course may be submitted in satisfaction of the department's elective requirements. Usually offered every year.
Staff

AMST 97a Readings in American Studies
Enrollment limited to juniors and seniors.
Independent readings, research, and writing on a subject of the student's interest, under the direction of a faculty adviser. Usually offered every year.
Staff

AMST 97b Readings in American Studies
Enrollment limited to juniors and seniors.
Independent readings, research, and writing on a subject of the student's interest, under the direction of a faculty adviser. Usually offered every year.
Staff

AMST 98a Independent Study
Usually offered every year.
Staff

AMST 98b Independent Study
Usually offered every year.
Staff

AMST 99d Senior Research
Seniors who are candidates for degrees with departmental honors should register for this course and, under the direction of a faculty adviser, prepare a thesis. In addition to regular meetings with a faculty adviser, seniors will participate in an honors colloquium, a seminar group bringing together the honors candidates and members of the American studies faculty. Usually offered every year.
Staff

AMST 100a American Culture: Foundations
[ ss wi ]
Priority given to American studies majors.
This is the core seminar for American studies majors; a text-based course tracing the American experience from the earliest colonizations through the nineteenth century. Usually offered every semester.
Staff

AMST 100b Twentieth-Century American Culture
[ ss ]
Prerequisite: AMST 100a.
The democratization of taste and the extension of mass media are among the distinguishing features of American culture in the twentieth century. Through a variety of genres and forms of expression, in high culture and the popular arts, this course traces the historical development of a national style that came to exercise formidable influence abroad as well. Usually offered every year.
Staff

AMST 102a Environment, Social Justice, and the Role of Women
[ oc ss wi ]
This is an experiential learning course. Yields six semester-hour credits towards rate of work and graduation.
This community-engaged course involves students first-hand in the legal, policy, science, history and social impacts of current environmental health issues challenging individuals and families and communities today, with a particular focus on low-income, immigrant communities and the profound and unique roles played by women. Students will engage directly in the topics through field trips, visiting speakers and discussions with stakeholders themselves. They also will address the issues by collaborating in projects with local organizations, and assisting low income residents in Waltham at the Tenant Advocacy Clinic.Usually offered every semester.
Ms. Goldin

AMST 102aj Environment, Social Justice, and Empowerment
[ oc ss wi ]
Yields six semester-hour credits towards rate of work and graduation.
This community-engaged course involves students first-hand in the legal, policy, science, history and social impacts of current environmental health issues challenging individuals and families and communities today, with a particular focus on low-income, immigrant communities and the profound and unique roles played by women. Students will engage directly in the topics through field trips, visiting speakers and discussions with stakeholders themselves. They also will address the issues by assisting low income residents in Waltham at the Tenant Advocacy Clinic, and collaborating in projects with EPA, DEP and local organizations such as Healthy Waltham, the Waltham Family School, Waltham Family YMCA, Jewish Family and Children's Service, Joseph Smith Community Health Center and others. Offered ast part of JBS program.
Ms. Goldin

AMST 103a Environmental Issues
[ ss ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took AMST 20a in prior years.
An interdisciplinary overview of major environmental challenges facing humanity, including population growth; food production; limited supplies of energy, water, and other resources; climate change; loss of biodiversity; and waste disposal and pollution. Students examine these problems critically and evaluate different ways of thinking about their causes and solutions. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Donahue

AMST 103b Advertising and the Media
[ ss ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took JOUR 103b in previous years.
Combines a historical and contemporary analysis of advertising's role in developing and sustaining consumer culture in America with a practical analysis of the relationship between advertising and the news media in the United States. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Farrelly

AMST 104b Boston and Its Suburbs: Environment and History
[ ss ]
Advanced seminar follows the development of the cultural landscape of Boston, Waltham and the western suburbs from glacial retreat to urban sprawl. Employs ecology and history to better understand and address contemporary environmental issues. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Donahue

AMST 105a The Eastern Forest: Paleoecology to Policy
[ ss wi ]
This is an experiential learning course. Yields six semester-hour credits towards rate of work and graduation.
Can we make sustainable use of the Eastern Forest of North America while protecting biological diversity and ecological integrity? Explores the forest's ecological development, the impact of human cultures, attitudes toward the forest, and our mixed record of abuse and stewardship. Includes extensive fieldwork. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Donahue

AMST 106b Food and Farming in America
[ ss wi ]
This is an experiential learning course. American food is abundant and cheap. Yet many eat poorly, and some argue that our agriculture may be unhealthy and unsustainable. Explores the history of American farming and diet and the prospects for a healthy food system. Includes extensive fieldwork. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Donahue

AMST 111a Images of the American West in Film and Culture
[ ss ]
Explores how motion picture images of the West have reflected and shaped American identities, ideologies, and mythologies. Through a variety of films--silent, "classic," and "revisionist"--and supplementary readings, examines the intertwined themes of progress, civilization, region, nation, democracy, race, gender, and violence. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff

AMST 112b American Film and Culture of the 1950s
[ ss ]
Traces the decline of classical Hollywood cinema and the impact of motion pictures on American culture in the 1950s, especially Hollywood's representations of the Cold War. Students learn methods of cinematic analysis to conduct cultural historical inquiry. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff

AMST 113a American Film and Culture of the 1940s
[ ss ]
Examines the nature of classical Hollywood cinema and the impact of motion pictures on American culture in the 1940s, especially Hollywood's representations of World War II. Students learn methods of cinematic analysis to conduct cultural historical inquiry. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff

AMST 113b American Film and Culture of the 1930s
[ ss ]
Traces the rise of Hollywood sound cinema and the impact of motion pictures on American culture in the 1930s, especially Hollywood's representations of the Great Depression. Students learn methods of cinematic analysis to conduct cultural historical inquiry. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff

AMST 114a American Film and Culture of the 1920s
[ ss ]
Traces the rise and fall of silent Hollywood cinema and the impact of motion pictures on American culture in the 1920s, especially Hollywood's role in the revolution in morals and manners. Students learn methods of cinematic analysis to conduct cultural historical inquiry. All films are screened with a music score or live piano accompaniment. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff

AMST 116b Race and American Cinema
[ hum ]
From its earliest beginnings, the history of American cinema has been inextricably--and controversially--tied to the racial politics of the United States. This course explores how images of racial and ethnic minorities such as African Americans, Jews, Asians, Native Americans, and Latino/as are reflected on the screen, as well as the ways that minorities in the entertainment industry have responded to often limiting representations. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Dave

AMST 118a Gender and the Professions
[ ss ]
This is an experiential learning course. Explores gender distinctions as a key element in the organization of professions, analyzing the connections among sex roles, occupational structure, and American social life. Topics include work culture, pay equity, the "mommy" and "daddy" tracks, sexual discrimination and harassment, and dual-career families. Among the professions examined are law, medicine, teaching, social work, nursing, journalism, business, and politics. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Antler

AMST 121a The American Jewish Woman: 1890-1990s
[ ss ]
Surveys the experiences of American Jewish women in work, politics, religion, family life, the arts, and American culture generally over the last 100 years, examining how the dual heritage of female and Jewish "otherness" shaped often-conflicted identities. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Antler

AMST 124b American Love and Marriage
[ ss ]
Ideas and behavior relating to love and marriage are used as lenses to view broader social patterns such as family organization, generational conflict, and the creation of professional and national identity. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Antler

AMST 125a History of United States Feminisms
[ ss ]
This is an experiential learning course. An investigation of the development and politics of women's rights in the United States. Explores the internal and external coalitions and conflicts at the nexus of race, ethnicity, sexuality, and religion. Examines the transnational shift to organizing for human rights. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Antler and Ms. Hansen

AMST 127b Women and American Popular Culture
[ ss ]
Examines women's diverse representations and participation in the popular culture of the United States. Using historical studies, advertising, film, television, music, and literature, discusses how constructions of race, gender, class, sexuality, ethnicity, and religion have shaped women's encounters with popular and mass culture. Topics include women and modernity, leisure and work, women's roles in the rise of consumer culture and relation to technology, representations of sexuality, and the impact of feminism. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Davé

AMST 130b Television and American Culture
[ ss ]
An interdisciplinary course with three main lines of discussion and investigation: an aesthetic inquiry into the meaning of television style and genre; a historical consideration of the medium and its role in American life; and a technological study of televisual communication. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Doherty

AMST 131b News on Screen
[ ss ]
An interdisciplinary course exploring how journalistic practice is mediated by the moving image--cinematic, televisual, and digital. The historical survey will span material from the late-nineteenth-century "actualities" of Thomas Edison and the Lumiere Brothers to the viral environment of the World Wide Web, a rich tradition that includes newsreels, expeditionary films, screen magazines, combat reports, government information films, news broadcasts, live telecasts, television documentaries, amateur video, and the myriad blogs, vlogs, and webcasts of the digital age. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Doherty

AMST 132b International Affairs and the American Media
[ ss ]
This is an experiential learning course. Examines and assesses American media coverage of major international events and perspectives, with special emphasis on the Middle East. In addition to analyzing the political, economic, cultural, and tactical factors that influence coverage, students will be challenged to consider the extent to which the American media have influenced their own understanding of the crisis in the Middle East and the relationship the United States has with that part of the world. Students will engage in online chats with students in the Middle East, and they will write and edit their own television news pieces about developments in the region. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Farrelly

AMST 133a The History of Media in America
[ ss ]
An introductory survey that considers the development and influence of the mass media in America from the colonial period to the present. The goal is to bring the skills of historical analysis to the study of mass media, so that students will come to know the fluid and constructed nature of the media environment that shapes their understanding of the contemporary world. Usually offered every year, starting fall 2010.
Ms. Farrelly

AMST 134b The New Media in America
[ ss ]
Analyzes the adaptation of new media in American society and culture. Examines the ways Americans have thought about and utilized new methods of mass communication in the twentieth century. Usually offered every year.
Staff

AMST 135b Radio in American Culture
[ ss ]
Explores the cultural history of radio: the broadcast industry, legislation and regulation, and programming from 1920 to the present. Topics include news, advertising, serial drama, comedy, wartime radio, religion, race, Top 40, and sports/talk radio, using both texts and program recordings. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

AMST 137b Journalism in Twentieth-Century America
[ ss ]
Examines what journalists have done, how their enterprise has in fact conformed with their ideals, and what some of the consequences have been for the republic historically. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Whitfield

AMST 139b Reporting on Gender, Race, and Culture
[ ss ]
Examines the news media's relationship to demographic and cultural change, and the influence of journalistic ideologies on the coverage of women and various ethnic and cultural groups. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

AMST 140b The Asian American Experience
[ oc ss ]
This is an experiential learning course. Examines the political, economic, social, and contemporary issues related to Asians in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Topics include patterns of immigration and settlement, and individual, family, and community formation explored through history, literature, personal essays, films, and other popular media sources. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Davé

AMST 141b The Native American Experience
[ ss ]
Survey of Native American history and culture with focus on the social, political, and economic changes experienced by Native Americans as a result of their interactions with European explorers, traders, and colonists. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

AMST 142b Love, Law, and Labor: Asian American Women and Literature
[ hum ] [ ss ]
Explores the intersection of ethnicity, race, class, gender, and sexualities in the lives and literatures of diverse Asian American women. Discusses the historical, social, political, and economic forces shaping those lives and how they are reflected in literature. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Davé

AMST 144b Signs of Imagination: Gender and Race in Mass Media
[ ss ]
Examines how men and women are represented and represent themselves in American popular culture. Discusses the cultural contexts of the terms "femininity" and "masculinity" and various examples of the visibility and marketability of these terms today. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Davé

AMST 149a The Future as History
[ ss ]
Examines how visionaries, novelists, historians, social scientists, and futurologists in America from 1888 to the present have imagined and predicted America's future and what those adumbrations--correct and incorrect--tell us about our life today, tomorrow, and yesterday, when the predictions were made. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Cohen

AMST 150a The History of Childhood and Youth in America
[ ss ]
Examines cultural ideas and policies about childhood and youth, as well as child-rearing and parenting strategies, child-saving, socialization, delinquency, children's literature, television, and other media for children and youth. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Antler

AMST 156b Transatlantic Crossings: America and Europe
[ ss ]
Examines how the United States has interacted with the rest of the world, especially Europe, as a promise, as a dream, as a cultural projection. Focuses less on the flow of people than on the flow of ideas, less on the instruments of foreign policy than on the institutions that have promoted visions of democracy, individual autonomy, power, and abundance. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Whitfield

AMST 160a U.S. Immigration History and Policy
[ ss ]
Examines the economic, political, and ideological factors underlying immigration policy in U.S. history, especially since 1965. Analysis of contemporary immigration, refugee and asylum issues, and problems of immigrant acculturation today. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

AMST 163b The Sixties: Continuity and Change in American Culture
[ ss ]
Analyzes alleged changes in the character structure, social usages, governing myths and ideas, artistic sensibility, and major institutions of America during the 1960s. What were the principal causes and occasions for the change? Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Cohen

AMST 166b Public Intellectuals in American Life
[ ss ]
This course examines the role and influence of public intellectuals in American society. The primary focus is on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, although students explore the work of some of America's first "homegrown" public intellectuals in the nineteenth century as well. Students are asked to consider what constitutes an "intellectual" body of work, and how and why that work might be rendered relevant to a mass audience. They explore the ideas put forth by some of the most influential public intellectuals in American life, and they are challenged to consider the impact the modern university has had on public intellectualism. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Farrelly

AMST 168b American Religious History
[ ss wi ]
Charts the origins and development of the various--and primarily Judeo-Christian--religious movements that have shaped and been shaped by the American experience. Topics include the origins of the "Bible Belt," the religious debate over slavery, the black church in America, the social gospel, and the difference between fundamentalism and evangelicalism. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Farrelly

AMST 170a Conspiracy Theory
[ ss ]
Considers the "paranoid style" in America's political and popular culture and in recent American literature. Topics include allegations of "conspiracy" in connection with the Sacco and Vanzetti, Hiss, and Rosenberg cases; antisemitism and anti-Catholicism; and Watergate and Irangate. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Cohen

AMST 177b True Crime and American Culture
May not be taken for credit by students who took USEM 64a in previous years.
Explores a series of enduringly fascinating cases from the true crime files of American culture. Our crime scene investigations range from 1692 Salem to 1994 Brentwood; our line-up includes witches, outlaws, kidnappers, gangsters, murderers, and serial killers; and our evidence is drawn from literature, film, and television. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Doherty

AMST 180b Topics in the History of American Education
[ ss ]
This is an experiential learning course. Examines major themes in the history of American education, including changing ideas about children, childrearing, and adolescence; development of schools; the politics of education; education and individual life history. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Antler

AMST 183b Sports and American Culture
[ ss ]
Studies how organized sports have reflected changes in the American cultural, social, and economic scene, and how they have reflected and shaped the moral codes, personal values, character, style, myths, attachments, sense of work and play, fantasy, and reality of fans and athletes. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Cohen

AMST 185b The Culture of the Cold War
[ ss ]
Addresses American political culture from the end of World War II until the revival of liberal movements and radical criticism. Focuses on the specter of totalitarianism, the "end of ideology," McCarthyism, the crisis of civil liberties, and the strains on the pluralistic consensus in an era of anti-Communism. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Whitfield

AMST 186a Topics in Ethics, Justice, and Public Life
[ ss ]
Introduces a significant international ethics or social justice theme and prepares students to integrate academic and community work during an internship. Special attention is given to comparative issues between the United States and other nations and regions. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

AMST 188b Louis Brandeis: Law, Business and Politics
[ ss ]
Brandeis's legal career serves as model and guide for exploring the ideals and anxieties of American legal culture throughout the twentieth century. Focuses on how legal values evolve in response to new technologies, corporate capitalism, and threats to personal liberty. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Gaskins

AMST 189a Legal Foundations of American Capitalism
[ ss ]
Surveys core legal institutions of property, contracts, and corporations. Examines how law promotes and restrains the development of capitalism and market society in America, from the era of mass production through the age of global trade and digital commerce. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Gaskins

AMST 191b Greening the Ivory Tower: Improving Environmental Sustainability of Brandeis and Community
[ oc ss ]
This is an experiential learning course. Yields six semester-hour credits towards rate of work and graduation.
In this hands-on course, students design and implement environmental sustainability initiatives to benefit the campus and the local community. Students analyze the environmental impact of human activities within the existing legal, political, and social structure; learn basic research strategies for auditing and assessing the effect of these activities; and contribute to the overall understanding of the environmental impact of the Brandeis community on its surroundings. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Goldin

AAAS 70a Introduction to Afro-American History
[ ss ]
A survey of the Afro-American experience from the era of slavery to the present. Topics include the rise of a distinct community and its institutions, reconstruction and segregation, the contributions of blacks to American society, and the struggles for freedom and equality. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

AAAS 79b Afro-American Literature of the Twentieth Century
[ hum ss wi ]
An introduction to the essential themes, aesthetic concerns, and textual strategies that characterize Afro-American writing of this century. Examines those influences that have shaped the poetry, fiction, and prose nonfiction of representative writers. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Smith

AAAS 82a Urban Politics
[ ss ]
This is an experiential learning course. Examines urban politics in the United States from the early twentieth century to the present. Topics include urban political machines; minority political participation; the evolution of American suburbs; and racial, economic, and political inequities that challenge public policymaking. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Mapps

AAAS 114b Race, Ethnicity, and Electoral Politics in the United States
[ ss ]
Explores the role that racial and ethnic politics play in American political campaigns and elections. Readings provide historical, theoretical, and empirical overviews of racial and ethnic politics in four contexts: political parties, presidential elections, congressional campaigns, and state legislative contests. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Mapps

AAAS 120b Race in African-American History
[ ss ]
Is race un-American? Explores the meanings and functions of race through the critical lens of African American racial thought. Analyzes primary sources from the antebellum period to the present to answer such questions as: Is race racist? What is black culture? Does justice require "colorblindness"? Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Joseph

AAAS 155a Slavery in America
[ ss ]
Examines the rise of slavery in America, the formation of slave and free-black communities, the emergence of the planter class, the role of slavery in the economy and politics, the relationship between slavery and racism, and the legacy of slavery. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Joseph

AAAS 156a The Civil Rights Movement
[ ss ]
Explores the civil rights movement through primary readings and films. Includes an assessment of the consequences of the movement and the ongoing controversies over the best ways to achieve equality for black Americans. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

ANTH 158a Urban Anthropology
[ ss ]
Comparative study of strategies used in coping with the complexity of urban life. Attention will be given to analyzing and evaluating the theories, methods, and data anthropologists and others use in their studies of urban social organization. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Jacobson

ANTH 159a Museums and Public Memory
[ ss ]
This is an experiential learning course. Explores the social and political organization of public memory, including museums, cultural villages, and memorial sites. Who has the right to determine the content and form of such institutions? Working with local community members, students will develop a collaborative exhibition project. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Auslander

ENG 6a American Literature in the Age of Lincoln
[ hum ]
The transformation of our literary culture: the literary marketplace, domestic fiction, transcendentalism, slavery and the problem of race. Authors will include Emerson, Fuller, Poe, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Stowe, Whitman, and Melville. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Burt or Mr. Gilmore

ENG 7a American Literature from 1900 to 2000
[ hum wi ]
Focuses on literature and cultural and historical politics of major authors. Prose and poetry. May include Eliot, Frost, Williams, Moore, Himes, Cather, and Faulkner as well as contemporary authors. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Burt or Ms. Irr

ENG 8a Twenty-First-Century American Literature
[ hum ]
An introductory survey of trends in recent American literature with a focus on prose. Readings vary yearly but always include winners of major literary prizes such as the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, PEN/Faulkner Award, Pushcart Prize, O. Henry Award, or the Nobel Prize. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Irr

ENG 16a Slavery and Self-Making in African American Literature
[ hum ]
Critical investigation of African American writing as it engages slavery, freedom, and literary self-fashioning. We will read autobiographies, uplift novels, protest fiction and neo-slave narratives. Particular attention will be paid to issues of identity, sexuality, and social status; textual modes of representation and liberatory politics; the literary culture of sentiment; and African American constructions and contestations of race, gender, nation, and expressive culture since the antebellum period. Authors may include Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Gayl Jones, Harriet Wilson, William Wells Brown, Frances E. W. Harper, Pauline Hopkins, and Toni Morrison. Contemporary films may include Sankofa, Amistad, and Daughters of the Dust. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman or Ms. Smith

ENG 17a The Alternative Press in the United States: 1910-2000
[ hum ]
A critical history of twentieth-century American journalism. Topics include the nature of journalistic objectivity, the style of underground and alternative periodicals, and the impact of new technologies on independent media. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Irr

ENG 27b Classic Hollywood Cinema
[ hum ]
A critical examination of the history of mainstream U.S. cinema from the 1930s to the present. Focuses on major developments in film content and form, the rise and fall of the studio and star system, the changing nature of spectatorship, and the social context of film production and reception. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Morrison

ENG 36a America's First Bestsellers
[ hum ]
The first century of American bestsellers, what made these books so attractive to readers at the time? Explores themes of social mobility, racial and gender conflict, romance and seduction, and warfare. Authors include Cooper, Stowe, Alcott, and Crane. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Gilmore

ENG 38b Race, Region, and Religion in the Twentieth-Century South
[ hum ]
Twentieth century fiction of the American South. Racial conflict, regional identity, religion, and modernization in fiction from both sides of the racial divide and from both sides of the gender line. Texts by Chestnutt, Faulkner, Warren, O'Connor, Gaines, McCarthy, and Ellison. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Burt

ENG 46a Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers
[ hum ]
How did American women writers engage with the social, political, and economic changes of the nineteenth century? Focuses on gendered rhetorics of industrialization, imperialism, immigration, and abolition, as well as concepts of national identity. Examines how these writers related themselves to literary movements of the period. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

ENG 47a Asian-American Literature
[ hum ]
Examines literature in English by North American writers of Asian descent from the nineteenth century to the present. Focuses on issues of literary collectivity based on national origin and race, and how gender, sexuality, and class have affected critical approaches to this literature. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

ENG 50b American Independent Film
[ hum ]
Explores non-studio filmmaking in the United States. Defines an indie aesthetic and alternative methods of financing, producing, and distributing films. Special attention given to adaptations of major film genres, such as noir thrillers, domestic comedy, and horror. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Irr

ENG 57b Writing the Nation: James Baldwin, Philip Roth, Toni Morrison
[ hum ]
An in-depth study of three major American authors of the twentieth century. Highlights the contributions of each author to the American literary canon and to its diversity. Explores how these novelists narrate cross-racial, cross-gendered, cross-regional, and cross-cultural contact and conflict in the United States. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman

ENG 106b American Utopias
[ hum ]
Introduction to utopian fiction of nineteenth-century America. Readings include classic sources and utopian novels by major authors (Melville, Hawthorne, Twain). Some consideration will also be given to actually existing successful utopian communities. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Irr

ENG 118a Stevens and Merrill
[ hum ]
Intensive study of two major American poets of the twentieth century. Readings include Stevens' Collected Poems and Merrill's Collected Poems as well as his epic The Changing Light at Sandover. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Quinney

ENG 126a American Realism and Naturalism, 1865-1900
[ hum ]
Focuses on how some of the central American Realists and Naturalists set about representing and analyzing American social and political life. Topics include the changing status of individuals, classes, and genders, among others. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Burt

ENG 136a Race and Realism
[ hum ]
Explores American realism's complex relationship to the issues of race in the period after the Civil War. Topics include interracial violence, passing, white supremacy, sexuality, and censorship. Authors are James, Twain, Crane, Chestnut, Howells, others. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Gilmore

ENG 147a Film Noir
[ hum ]
A study of classics of the genre (The Killers, The Maltese Falcon, Touch of Evil) as well as more recent variations (Chinatown, Bladerunner). Readings include source fiction (Hemingway, Hammett) and essays in criticism and theory. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

ENG 157b American Women Poets
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: ENG 1a, ENG 10a, HUM 10a or ENG 11a.
Students imagine meanings for terms like "American" and "women" in relation to poetry. After introductory study of Anne Bradstreet, Phillis Wheatley, and Emily Dickinson, readings of (and about) women whose work was circulated widely, especially among other women poets, will be selected from mainly twentieth-century writers. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Campbell

ENG 166b Whitman, Dickinson, and Melville
[ hum ]
Poetry of Whitman, Dickinson, Emerson, and Melville, with representative poems of Whittier, Bryant, Longfellow, Poe, Sigourney, and Tuckerman. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Burt

ENG 167b The Postmodern African-American Novel
[ hum ]
A study of experimental fiction of prominent twentieth-century African-American authors. Investigates features of the postmodern novel including disruptive chronologies, the representation of fragmented identities, intertextual play and parody, and the critique of Western modernity as long-standing practices in black writing. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman

ENG 176a American Gothic and American Romance
[ hum ]
Examines Gothic fiction as a method of exploring the capacities of the imagination, disclosing its power, and meeting its threat. Beginning with the nineteenth-century founders of the genre in America, the second half of the course deals with some twentieth-century masters. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Burt

ENG 177a Hitchcock's Movies
[ hum ]
A study of thirteen films covering the whole trajectory of Hitchcock's career, as well as interviews and critical responses. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Morrison

ENG 177b The Rock and Roll Novel
[ hum ]
Surveys contemporary US and world fiction with a musical focus. Asks how and why fiction explodes mythology of the rock star, fandom, and the culture industry. Involves close reading and close listening. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Irr

ENG 180a The Modern American Short Story
[ hum ]
Close study of American short-fiction masterworks. Students read as writers write, discussing solutions to narrative obstacles, examining the consequences of alternate points of view. Studies words and syntax to understand and articulate how technical decisions have moral and emotional weight. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

ENG 187a American Fiction since 1945
[ hum ]
Readings of contemporary postrealist and postmodernist fiction. Authors and themes vary but always include major figures such as Nabokov, Pynchon, DeLillo. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Irr

ENG 187b American Writers and World Affairs
[ hum wi ]
An exploration of early twentieth century American prose (mainly novels). Examines bold innovations in literary form made by authors such as Hemingway, Faulkner, and James. Considers how American works responded to and participated in world affairs. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Irr

ENVS 11b Water Resources Management and Policy
An advanced interdisciplinary seminar examining past and current water supply issues and exploring the uncertain future of our water supply. The Boston metropolitan area water supply system is used as a case study. Water is looked at from scientific, historical, and political viewpoints. Usually offered every third year; will not be offered 2008-2009.
Staff

ENVS 13b Coastal Zone Management
Introduction to the coastal environment, its resources, and its uses; impact of human activities; scope of the Federal Coastal Zone Management Act; collaborative planning efforts by federal, state, and local governments; and international applications of coastal management. Course includes case studies, guest speakers, and student presentations. Usually offered every year; not offered 2008-2009.
Staff

ENVS 14b The Maritime History of New England
The sea has shaped New England. Surveys the sea's legacy from the earliest Indian fishery to the shipbuilding and commerce of today. Examines historical, political, and economic developments. Particular attention is given to insights gleaned from the investigation of shipwrecks, time capsules of discrete moments from New England's past. Classes will include visits to museums, a field session at a maritime archaeology site, and guest lectures on current research projects. Usually offered every third year; not offered 2008-2009.
Staff

FA 22b History of Boston Architecture
[ ca ]
A survey of the history of Boston architecture and urban planning from the first settlement in 1630 to the contemporary city. The presentation will be chronological and divided into four sections: colonial, federal, Victorian, and modern. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Grigor

FA 123a American Painting
[ ca ]
A survey of American painting from the colonial period to the present. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Kalb

FA 130a Twentieth-Century American Art
[ ca ]
A chronological survey of American art from 1900 to 1990. Movements studied include social realism, abstract expressionism, and pop art. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

FA 173a Georgia O'Keeffe and Stieglitz Circle
[ ca ]
The focus of this lecture course will be the art of Georgia O'Keeffe, her stylistic evolution, sources, and collaboration with contemporaries, especially Stieglitz, Strand, Dove, Demuth, Marin, and Hartley. Their collective aesthetic aspirations will be set against early twentieth-century modernism and important recent trends from Europe. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Scott

FA 194b Studies in American Art
[ ca ]
Usually offered every third year.
Staff

HISP 195a Latinos in the United States: Perspectives from Literature, Film, and Performance
[ hum ]
Open to all students; conducted in English.
Comparative overview of Latino literature and film in the United States. Particular attention paid to how race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and concepts of "nation" become intertwined within texts. Topics include explorations of language, autobiography and memory, and intertexuality. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Reyes

HIST 51a History of the United States: 1607-1865
[ ss ]
An introductory survey of American history to the Civil War. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

HIST 51b History of the United States: 1865 to the Present
[ ss ]
An introductory survey of American history from the Civil War to the present. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

HIST 151b The American Revolution
[ ss ]
Explores the causes, character, and consequences of the American war for independence. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Fischer

HIST 152a The Literature of American History
[ ss ]
Readings and discussions on the classical literature of American history, the great books that have shaped our sense of the subject. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Fischer

HIST 152b Salem, 1692
[ ss wi ]
An in-depth investigation of the Salem witch trials of 1692 and their role in American culture during the last 300 years. Focusing on gender, religion, law, and psychology, the class explores primary sources as well as films, plays, and novels. Students will also conduct field research in Salem. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Kamensky

HIST 153a Americans at Home: Families and Domestic Environments, 1600 to the Present
[ ss ]
This survey of nonpublic life in the United States explores the changing nature of families and the material environments that have shaped and reflected American domestic ideals during the last four centuries. Major topics include gender roles and sexuality; production, reproduction, and material culture in the home; conceptions of the life course; racial, ethnic, and regional variations on the family; the evolution of "public" and "private" life; and the relationship between the family and the state. Usually offered every fourth year.
Ms. Kamensky

HIST 153b Slavery and the American Civil War
[ ss ]
A survey of the history of slavery, the American South, the antislavery movement, the coming of the Civil War, and Reconstruction. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Fischer

HIST 154b Women in American History, 1600-1865
[ ss ]
An introductory survey exploring the lives of women in Anglo America from European settlement through the Civil War. Topics include the "history of women's history"; the role of gender in Native American, African, and European cultures; women's religion, work, and sexuality; and the changing possibilities for female education and expression from the colonial period through the nineteenth century. Usually offered every fourth year.
Ms. Kamensky

HIST 157a Americans at Work: American Labor History
[ ss ]
Throughout American history, the vast majority of adults (and many children, too) have worked, although not always for pay. Beginning with the colonial period, we shall explore the idea that a job is never just a job; it is also a social signifier of great value. Topics include slavery and servitude, race and gender in the workplace, household labor and its meanings, technological innovation, working-class political movements, and the role of the state in shaping patterns of work. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff

HIST 158b Social History of the Confederate States of America
[ ss ]
An examination of the brief life of the southern Confederacy, emphasizing regional, racial, class, and gender conflicts within the would-be new nation. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

HIST 160a American Legal History I
[ ss ]
Surveys American legal development from colonial settlement to the Civil War. Major issues include law as an instrument of revolution, capitalism and contract, invention of the police, family law, slavery law, and the Civil War as a constitutional crisis. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Willrich

HIST 160b American Legal History II
[ ss ]
Survey of American legal development from 1865 to the present. Major topics include constitutionalism and racial inequality, the legal response to industrialization, progressivism and the transformation of liberalism, the rise of the administrative state, and rights-based movements for social justice. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Willrich

HIST 161b American Political History
[ ss ]
Development of American party politics, the legal system, and government. Special attention paid to the social and cultural determinants of party politics, and economic and social policymaking. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

HIST 164a Recent American History since 1945
[ ss ]
American politics, economics, and culture underwent profound transformations in the late twentieth century. Examines the period's turmoil, looking especially at origins and legacies. Readings include novels, memoirs, key political and social documents, and film and music excerpts. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Engerman

HIST 164b The American Century: The U.S. and the World, 1945 to the Present
[ ss wi ]
America's global role expanded dramatically in the aftermath of World War II. Explores key aspects of that new role, from the militarization of conflict with the Soviets to activities in the Third World. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Engerman

HIST 166b World War II
[ ss ]
Focuses on the American experience in World War II. From the 1920s to the early 1940s, totalitarian regimes were widely believed to be stronger than open societies. The outcome of World War II demonstrated the opposite. By combining the methods of the old military and political history with the new social, cultural, and economic history, examines history as a structured sequence of contingencies, in which people made choices and choices made a difference. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Fischer

HIST 168b America in the Progressive Era: 1890-1920
[ ss ]
Surveys social and political history during the pivotal decades when America became a "modern" society and nation-state. Topics include populism, racial segregation, social science and public policy, the Roosevelt and Wilson administrations, environmental conservation, and the domestic impact of World War I. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. Willrich

HIST 169a Thought and Culture in Modern America
[ ss wi ]
Developments in American philosophy, literature, art, and political theory examined in the context of socioeconomic change. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Engerman

HIST 174a The Legacy of 1898: U.S.-Caribbean Relations since the Spanish-American War
[ nw ss wi ]
This seminar explores relations between the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic) and the United States during the twentieth century. Topics include interventions, cultural misunderstandings, migration, transnationalism, and Puerto Rican status. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Arrom

HIST 182a Sino-American Relations from the Eighteenth Century to the Present
[ ss ]
A seminar providing a historical overview of two centuries of Sino-American relations. Diplomacy and war, mutual perceptions, Americans in China, Chinese emigration and communities in the United States, and relations between the United States and the People's Republic. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

HIST 186b A Global History of the Vietnam Wars
[ ss wi ]
A reading and research seminar on the American involvement in Vietnam. Focuses on teaching the history of America's longest war, as well as improving the student's ability to write a research paper using source materials. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Engerman

HIST 189a Topics in the History of Early America
[ ss ]
Reading and discussion seminar exploring problems in the history of British North America from the first white settlement through the mid-eighteenth century. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Kamensky

HIST 189b Open Leaders in American History
[ ss ]
Advanced coordinated research from primary materials. Students will engage in a common project in American social history. Topics vary from year to year and the course may be repeated for credit. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Fischer

HIST 195a American Political Thought: From the Revolution to the Civil War
[ ss ]
Antebellum America as seen in the writings of Paine, Jefferson, Adams, the Federalists and Antifederalists, the Federalists and Republicans, the Whigs and the Jacksonians, the advocates and opponents of slavery, and the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Hulliung

HIST 195b American Political Thought: From the Gilded Age through the New Deal
[ ss ]
Topics include the Mugwumps, Populists, Progressives; Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson; the New Nationalism and the New Freedom; the continuities and discontinuities of the New Deal and the Progressive Era. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Hulliung

HIST 196a American Political Thought: From the 1950s to the Present
[ ss ]
Covers the New Left of the 1960s, its rejection of the outlook of the 1950s, the efforts of liberals to save the New Left agenda in the New Politics of the 1970s, and the reaction against the New Left in the neoconservative movement. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Hulliung

HS 104b American Health Care
[ ss ]
Examines and critically analyzes the United States health care system, emphasizing the major trends and issues that have led to the current sense of "crisis." In addition to providing a historical perspective, this course will establish a context for analyzing the current, varied approaches to health care reform. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Altman

HS 110a Wealth and Poverty
[ ss ]
Examines why the gap between richer and poorer citizens appears to be widening in the United States and elsewhere, what could be done to reverse this trend, and how the widening disparity affects major issues of public policy. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Shapiro

JOUR 104a Political Packaging in America
[ ss ]
Examines the history of political marketing, image making in presidential campaigns, the relationship between news and ads, and the growth of public-policy advertising by special-interest groups to influence legislation. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. McNamara

JOUR 107b Media and Public Policy
[ ss wi ]
Examines the intersection of the media and politics, the ways in which each influences the other, and the consequences of that intersection for a democracy. Through analytic texts, handouts, and contemporaneous newspaper and magazine articles, explores the relationship between policy decisions and public discourse. Usually offered every year.
Ms. McNamara

JOUR 109b Digital and Multimedia Journalism
[ ss wi ]
This is an experiential learning course. The fast-changing landscape of new information technologies, from the Internet to wireless networking, is redefining the nature and practice of journalism today. This course explores the political, sociological, legal, and ethical issues raised by these new media technologies. The Internet, in particular, is a double-edged sword: It poses both a real threat and opportunity to newspapers and television news, and to the concept of the media's watchdog role in a democracy. It also provides journalists with powerful new tools for news gathering, but often at the expense of individual privacy rights. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Bass

JOUR 110b Ethics in Journalism
[ ss wi ]
Should reporters ever misrepresent themselves? Are there pictures that newspapers should not publish? Is it ever acceptable to break the law in pursuit of a story? Examines the media's ethics during an age dominated by scandal and sensationalism. May be combined with an experiential learning practicum (EL 94a). Usually offered every year.
Ms. McNamara

JOUR 112b Literary Journalism: The Art of Feature Writing
[ ss wi ]
Introduces students to signal works of literary journalism. Helps develop the students' own voices by honing and improving students' own work and by critiquing the work of professionals and colleagues. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Feeney

JOUR 114b Arts Journalism
[ ss wi ]
Introduces students to cultural reporting, profiling, and criticism. Students read and discuss the work of notable past and present practitioners with the aim of enhancing their skills as both consumers and producers of arts journalism. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Feeney

JOUR 120a The Culture of Journalism
[ ss ]
Examines the social, cultural, political, and economic influences on the practice and profession of journalism. Provides the background and concepts for a critical analysis of the American press. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Farrelly

JOUR 125b Journalism of Crisis
[ ss ]
Analyzes the practice of journalism during times of crisis. Topics include the process of news gathering in a breaking news environment, the framing of news as it occurs, and the often conflicting agendas of the journalist and the actor involved in a crisis. Usually offered every year.
Staff

LGLS 10a Introduction to Law
[ ss ]
Surveys the nature, process, and institutions of law: the reasoning of lawyers and judges, the interplay of cases and policies, the impact of history and culture, and the ideals of justice and responsibility in a global context. Usually offered every fall.
Mr. Gaskins

LGLS 114a American Health Care: Law and Policy
[ ss ]
Not recommended for freshmen.
Highlights how the law affects American health care from patients rights to reform. Traces the evolution of the doctor-patient relationship; explores access issues, including whether health care is or should be a right; assesses the quality of care and the impact of malpractice; and discusses the role of health insurance. Concludes with options and prospects for reform. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Curi

LGLS 120a Sex Discrimination and the Law
[ ss ]
Traces the evolution of women's rights in the family, in employment, and in the reproductive process, as well as constitutional doctrines. Examines gender inequalities and assesses if and how the law should address them. Legal cases studied emphasize how law reflects society. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

LGLS 121b Law and Social Welfare: Citizen Rights and Government Responsibilities
[ oc ss ]
Should U.S. welfare policy protect those in need and should the government have the responsibility to do so? Explores the legal implications of recent debates and changes in social welfare policy at federal and state levels, concentrating on welfare reform, child welfare, and disability welfare. Examines statutes, landmark cases, historical literature, and their practical effect on the individual in order to challenge the assumptions underlying our policy and to create better solutions. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Stimell

LGLS 132b Environmental Law and Policy
[ oc ss wi ]
This is an experiential learning course. Examines public health and environmental problems, including regulation of harmful substances in our environment, wilderness preservation, and protection of wetlands and endangered species. Explores use of risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis; also considers the impact of political ideologies on legislation and adjudication. Evaluates law's efforts and limitations in protecting public health and the environment. Students also engage with the local community to address current legal issues. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Goldin

LGLS 133b Criminal Law
[ ss ]
Topics may vary from year to year. Students may repeat the course for credit, with permission of the program administrator, if the focus is different each time.
For spring 2011, the focus will be American criminal law.
Staff

LGLS 137a Libel and Defamation, Privacy and Publicity
[ ss ]
Consideration of the historical, cultural, and constitutional roots--and judicial application--of laws defining libel and defamation. Part of the course will be devoted to "privacy rights" as they apply to issues of artistic freedom and integrity. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff

LGLS 138b Science on Trial
[ qr ss ]
Surveys the procedures and analytic methods by which scientific data enter into litigation and regulation/policy making. Introduces basic tools of risk analysis and legal rules of evidence. Case studies of tobacco litigation and regulation; use of DNA and other forensic evidence in the criminal justice system; the Woburn ground-water contamination case; and other topics to be selected, such as genetics in the courtroom, court-ordered Cesarean sections, polygraph testing, alternative medicine, and genetically modified foods. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

LGLS 140b Investigating Justice
[ ss ]
Examines methods used by journalists and other investigators in addressing injustices within criminal and civil legal systems. Problems include wrongful convictions, civil rights, privacy protection, and ethical conflicts. Research methods and reporting techniques enhance skills in interviewing, writing, and oral presentation. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Kabrhel

LGLS/POL 116b Civil Liberties in America
[ ss ]
The history and politics of civil liberties and civil rights in the United States, with emphasis on the period from World War I to the present. Emphasis on freedom of speech, religion, abortion, privacy, racial discrimination, and affirmative action. Readings from Supreme Court cases and influential works by historians and political philosophers. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Breen

MUS 32b Everybody Sings the Blues: A Jazz Survey
[ ca ]
Open to music majors and non-majors.
The history of jazz is examined by exploring the various incarnations of the blues idiom throughout jazz's history. Aural and written examinations in addition to a final paper will be required. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Hampton

MUS 38a American Music
[ ca ]
Open to music majors and non-majors.
Exploration of the tensions between folk, popular, and cultivated traditions. Course will focus on select repertories, beginning with New England psalm singing from the eighteenth century and closing with musical theater, jazz, and art composers from the 1920s and 1930s. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 153b Abraham Joshua Heschel: Spirituality and Action
[ hum wi ]
Abraham Heschel's Hasidic spirituality and militant social action provide a meeting ground for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Studies his writings on prayer, mysticism, religious education, the prophets, the Holocaust, Israel, interfaith relations, civil rights, and the Vietnam war. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Kaplan

NEJS 158a Divided Minds: Jewish Intellectuals in America
[ hum ]
Jewish intellectuals in the United States have exerted tremendous influence on the changing landscape of American culture and society over the last century. Explores the political, cultural, and religious contours of this diverse and controversial group. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Sheppard

NEJS 161a American Jewish Life
[ hum ss ]
Open to all students.
A focused sociological analysis of contemporary American Jewish life with special emphasis on the diverse forms of Jewish ethno-religious identity formation. Topics include the social construction of race and ethnicity; Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Judaism; the interplay of American and Jewish values; and the relationship of Jews to the general society and other ethnic groups. Usually offered every fourth year.
Ms. Fishman

NEJS 162a American Judaism
[ hum ss wi ]
American Judaism from the earliest settlement to the present, with particular emphasis on the various streams of American Judaism. Judaism's place in American religion and comparisons to Judaism in other countries. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Sarna

NEJS 162b It Couldn't Happen Here: Three American Anti-Semitic Episodes
[ hum ]
A close examination of three American anti-Semitic episodes: U.S. Grant's expulsion of the Jews during the Civil War, the Leo Frank case, and the publication of Henry Ford's The International Jew. What do these episodes teach us about anti-Semitic prejudice, about Jews, and about America as a whole? Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Sarna

NEJS 163a Jewish-Christian Relations in America
[ hum ss ]
A topical approach to the history of Jewish-Christian relations in America from the colonial period to the present. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. Sarna

NEJS 164a Judaism Confronts America
[ hum ]
Examines, through a close reading of selected primary sources, central issues and tensions in American Jewish life, paying attention to their historical background and to issues of Jewish law. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Sarna

NEJS 164b The Sociology of the American Jewish Community
[ hum ss ]
Open to all students.
A survey exploring transformations in modern American Jewish societies, including American Jewish families, organizations, and behavior patterns in the second half of the twentieth century. Draws primarily on social science texts, statistical studies, and qualitative research; also makes use of a broad spectrum of source materials, examining evidence from journalism, fiction, film, and other cultural artifacts. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Fishman

NEJS 165a Analyzing the American Jewish Community
[ hum qr ss ]
Prerequisites: NEJS 161a, 162a, 164a, or 164b.
Explores the use of quantitative and qualitative research techniques in recent analyses of American Jewish life. Students engage in hands-on statistical research projects, learning what kinds of information can be gathered through survey research and through a variety of qualitative research techniques. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Fishman

NEJS 165b Changing Roles of Women in American Jewish Societies
[ hum ]
Open to all students.
The lives of American Jews, and especially American Jewish women, have been radically transformed by demographic changes and by American Jewish feminism. These dramatic transformations affect secular and Jewish education for women, personal options and the formation of Jewish families, a growing participation of women in public Jewish life, and a new awareness of women's issues. Usually offered every fourth year.
Ms. Fishman

NEJS 167a East European Jewish Immigration to the United States
[ hum ss ]
Open to all students.
A historical survey of East European Jewish immigration to the United States (1881-1924). Regular readings will be supplemented by primary sources, immigrant fiction, and films. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. Sarna

NEJS 172a Women in American Jewish Literature
[ hum ]
Examines portrayals of women in American Jewish literature from a hybrid viewpoint. Using close textual analysis, explores changing American Jewish mores and values and the changing role of women as revealed by portrayals of women in American Jewish fiction. The development of critical reading skills enhances our understanding of the author's intent. The fiction and memoirs read are approached both as literature and as a form of social history. Usually offered every fourth year.
Ms. Fishman

NEJS 173b American Jewish Writers in the Twentieth Century
[ hum ]
American Jewish fiction in the twentieth century presents a panorama of Jewish life from immigration through contemporary times. Short stories, novels, and memoirs illuminate how changing educational and occupational opportunities, transformations in family life, shifting relationships between the genders, and conflict between Jewish and American value systems have played themselves out in lives of Jewish Americans. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Fishman

NEJS 176a Seminar in American Jewish Fiction: Philip Roth and Cynthia Ozick
[ hum wi ]
Best suited for students with strong reading skills and graduate students.
Focusing in depth on the works of two major American Jewish writers, Philip Roth and Cynthia Ozick, and paying close attention to their development as artists and to the evolution of their explorations of Jewish themes, this course will offer students the opportunity to delve into each author's oeuvre. Usually offered every fourth year.
Ms. Fishman

PHIL 74b Foundations of American Pragmatism
[ hum ]
Introduction to American instrumentalism as a philosophical movement and cultural force. Special attention to pragmatic imprints on law and science across the twentieth century. Recurring critical debates over ethical relativism, religious skepticism, legal activism, and the cult of scientific and professional expertise. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. Gaskins

POL 14b Introduction to American Government
[ ss ]
Open to first-year students.
Analysis of American political institutions: Congress, the presidency, Supreme Court, bureaucracy, political parties, pressure groups, and problems of governmental decision making in relation to specific areas of public policy. Usually offered every semester.
Ms. Greenlee or Mr. Woll

POL 101a Parties, Interest Groups, and Public Opinion
[ ss ]
Role and organization of political parties, interest groups, and public opinion in the American political system. Emphasis on historical development and current political behavior in the United States in relation to American democratic theory. Comparison with other countries to illuminate U.S. practice. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

POL 103b Seminar: Political Leadership
[ ss ]
Examines political leadership through biographies, autobiographies, and biographical fiction. These are used to help us understand and compare different modes of political leadership, including the "apolitical-rationalist" (McGeorge Bundy), "political" (Lincoln, Johnson, Truman), and the ostensibly "non-political expert" (Robert Moses). Usually offered every year.
Mr. Levin

POL 105a Elections in America
[ ss ]
Examines modern campaigns and elections to the United States presidency and Congress. Topics include the influence of partisanship, policy differences, and candidate images on the vote; the impact of money on campaigns; the role of the mass media; and the differences among presidential, Senate, and House elections. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

POL 108a Social Movements in American Politics
[ ss wi ]
Analysis of American mass political movements and their influences on American politics. Topics include the relationship between social movements and interest groups, the evolution of social movements into political parties, and case studies of specific political movements. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Kryder

POL 110a Media, Politics, and Society
[ ss ]
A broad-based inquiry into the role of the media in contemporary American society, with special emphasis on the political impact of the media, the ethics of good reporting, the rise of new technologies, and current legal issues regarding freedom of the press. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

POL 111a The American Congress
[ ss ]
The structure and behavior of the Congress. Emphasis on the way member incentives for reelection, power on Capitol Hill, and good public policy shape Congress. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

POL 112a National Government of the United States
[ ss ]
The roles played by Congress, the president, the bureaucracy, and the courts in policy making at the national level. Contrasting perspectives, incentives, and capabilities of each institution; formation of coalitions across institutional lines; and changes in institutions over time. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

POL 115a Constitutional Law
[ ss ]
Analysis of core principles of constitutional law as formulated by the Supreme Court. Primary focus on the First Amendment, the equal protection and due process clauses, federalism, the commerce clause, and the separation of powers. Emphasis also on the moral values and political theories that form our constitutional system. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Woll

POL 115b Seminar: Constitutional Law and Theory
[ ss ]
Advanced research seminar on selected issues of constitutional law. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Woll

POL 117a Administrative Law
[ ss ]
The role of administrative agencies in lawmaking and adjudication. Emphasis on the problem of defining and protecting the public interest, as well as the rights of individuals and groups directly involved in administrative proceedings. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Woll

POL 118b Courts, Politics, and Public Policy
[ ss ]
Prerequisite: POL 14b.
Analyzes the political role of American courts, examining the politics of judicial appointments, the role of legal mobilization and strategy, and the capacity of courts to produce social change. Focuses on political science case studies that place the actions of courts in the larger framework of American politics. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

POL 120b The Politics of Policymaking
[ ss ]
Examines the connection between politics and policymaking to identify the political determinants of public policy since the 1970’s. By paying close attention to what policy makers say about what they are doing, the course connects the world of ideas to the world of actions. The course examines concrete cases from specific time periods across a wide range of policy areas such as health care, tax policy, Social Security, education reform, immigration, tort reform,and deregulation. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Levin

POL 124a The Politics of the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S.
[ ss ]
Focuses on the political causes and consequences of the American Civil Rights Movement. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

POL 125a Women in American Politics
[ ss ]
Addresses three major dimensions of women's political participation: social reform and women-identified issues; women's organizations and institutions; and women politicians, electoral politics, and party identification. Covers historical context and contemporary developments in women's political activity. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Greenlee

POL 167a United States and China in World Politics
[ ss ]
Issues in U.S.-China relations, including Taiwan and Tibet, the formation of a Greater China, military security and use of nuclear weapons, human rights, Chinese and American versions of nationalism and internationalism, and others. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Thaxton

POL 168b American Foreign Policy
[ ss ]
Overview of America's foreign policy since 1945. Topics include the Cold War era, the economic competitiveness of the United States, the role of the United States in selected world regions, the role of human rights in U.S. foreign policy, the U.S. participation in the United Nations, post-Cold War foreign policy, and the making and implementing of foreign policy. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Art

POL 169b U.S. Policy in the Middle East
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Provides students with an understanding of the evolution of U.S. policy in the Middle East and the manner in which the local parties have perceived it. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Feldman

SOC 105a Feminist Critiques of Sexuality and Work in America
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An intermediate-level course which counts toward the completion of the joint MA degree in sociology and women's and gender studies.
Critically evaluates the predominant theoretical approaches to understanding the oppression of women and the dynamics of sexism, racism, and classism within the sex/gender system. Uses these perspectives to explore issues in women's lives--particularly sexuality and work. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Hansen

SOC 122a The Sociology of American Immigration
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Most of us descend from immigrants. Focusing on the United States but in a global perspective, we address the following questions: Why do people migrate? How does this affect immigrants' occupations, gendered households, rights, identities, youth, and race relations with other groups? Usually offered every second year.
Staff

SOC 156a Social Change in American Communities
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Offered on a special topic basis; last offered in 2005-06 as "Memory and Cultural Production in the Mississippi Delta."
Integrates ideas related to community organization, collective action, and social change with field study of particular settings in which individuals and groups seek to effect change within their communities. Students complete semester-long projects based on data gathered at fieldwork settings. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Cunningham

SOC 156aj Social Change in American Communities
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Provides a theoretical foundation for understanding social movement dynamics, with a particular emphasis on the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi. Topics will include modes of civil rights organizing, the mobilization of social, cultural, and material resources, the development of strategic and tactical repertoires, determinants of individual participation, and varieties of anti-civil rights enforcement. The central aim is to provide a historically-contextualized and theoretically-informed sense of the trajectory of the civil rights struggle in the U.S. South. We will pay particular attention to sources of local variation, to understand the interplay among community-level contexts, individual action, and socio-political legacies. Offered as part of JBS program.
Mr. Cunningham

THA 25a American Musical Theater
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Analyzes American musicals in their historical contexts: students learn how to analyze the structure and score of musicals, and develop a vocabulary for examining the visual dimensions of productions. Attention will be given to production histories. Usually offered every year.
Mr. McKittrick

THA 150a The American Drama since 1945
[ ca wi ]
Examines the major plays and playwrights representing styles from social realism to avant-garde performance groups and the theater of images. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Holmberg

THA 155a Icons of Masculinity
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Using icons from movies, fiction, theater, and television who represent manhood, this course explores how American men have defined and performed their masculinity. Various archetypes, including the cowboy, the gangster, the rogue cop, the athlete, the buddy, the lover, and Woody Allen are examined. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Holmberg

THA 165b Tough Guys and Femmes Fatales: Gender Trouble in Noir and Neo-Noir
[ ca ]
Looking at gender anxiety in noir and neo-noir, this course explores how the genre has evolved and what this evolution reveals about the ongoing negotiations of masculinity, femininity, and power. Attention paid to how actors embody and perform masculinity. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Holmberg

WMGS 106b Women in the Health Care System
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Explores the position and roles of women in the U.S. health care system and how it defines and meets women's health needs. The implications for health care providers, health care management, and health policy are discussed. Usually offered every spring.
Ms. Klerman or Ms. Bhalotra