An Interdepartmental Program in International and Global Studies

Last updated: October 4, 2021 at 1:42 PM

International and Global Studies (IGS) is an interdisciplinary program that provides students with an opportunity to understand the complex processes of globalization that have so profoundly affected politics, economics, culture, society, the environment, and many other facets of our lives. After a set of four foundational courses (a gateway introductory survey and three core courses), students select elective courses that broaden their knowledge of the physical, institutional, and expressive dimensions of our global world. To gain a deeper understanding of other cultures, IGS majors take one additional language course (beyond the university requirement) and complete either study abroad or an internship abroad (or some combination of the two). The IGS program thus combines a set of rigorous foundational courses, an opportunity to understand the multiple dimensions of globalization, and a combination of superior language skills and international residency (study or work) for meaningful, firsthand experiential learning.

Learning Goals

Students in the International and Global Studies program at Brandeis University develop a broad and comparative perspective on contemporary world affairs. In service of that understanding students learn to use a variety of tools, from cultural skills such as foreign languages to methods drawn from a variety of academic disciplines. They also learn to use these tools together to shape their own rich and integrated perspectives on complex global issues.

I. Cultural and Transcultural Experience

From first-hand experience of other cultures, IGS students come to understand other ways of life and perspectives. IGS graduates grasp that issues in world affairs are often understood differently in different societies, and that understanding other perspectives requires a deep immersion in other cultures. Students learn to distinguish between challenges that affect a wide range of societies (e.g. poverty) and those that are particular to the societies they study.

To help achieve these goals, IGS students:

Learn to speak, read, and write a language other than their own with sufficient ability to understand the debate and discussion within societies that use that language;
Study abroad, preferably in a country in which their second language is used;
Reflect, both before leaving and upon returning, on connections between the what students learned abroad and on their home campus.

II. Using Multidisciplinary Methods

IGS graduates appreciate the means by which different academic disciplines describe and explain issues in international affairs. They are able to use methods from several disciplines (such as economics, anthropology, and political science), both as discrete tools and in combination, to understand complex global questions.

After a series of required foundational classes, students should:

Understand the international political and economic order, appreciating both its historical roots and the contemporary challenges posed by the emergence of new great powers;
Appreciate differences among the values at the core of different societies, such as sources of social and political legitimacy and status and aesthetic and moral judgments.
Understand the practical means, such as commerce, education, and public health, by which different societies sustain and nurture life and society.

III. Independent Learning

IGS prepares its students for a lifetime of independent learning in international and global affairs. Globalization is changing the world’s economic, political, and cultural systems so quickly that IGS students must be prepared to lead their own inquiries into questions that could not have been imagined while they were undergraduates.

To help students achieve the goal of intellectual confidence and autonomy, IGS asks its students:

To develop their own portfolios of issues and questions they would like to explore over the course of their major, and a provisional list of courses that can address these areas of interest;
Next, to choose a study abroad program that will expose them to the nuances and intricacies of these questions in the real world;
In their final year, students will write an essay reflecting on connections that were made among the courses and experiences of their undergraduate career. They will also consider how the themes have explored inform their plans for life after graduation.

How to Become a Major or a Minor

Students who wish to major or minor in International and Global Studies should meet with the undergraduate advising head to select an adviser from the list of faculty members teaching or otherwise affiliated with the IGS program. Although IGS fulfills the university requirements as a major, students will often find it highly advantageous to combine it with another major or minor in a specific discipline or area studies curriculum.

Students should take IGS 10a (Introduction to International and Global Studies) during their first or second year; this course provides a systematic introduction to the key issues of contemporary global change, provides an overview of three distributional categories (from which the student will select their elective courses), and gives an orientation to the options for international internships and study abroad. In addition, students must take three core courses in the disciplines of anthropology (ANTH 1a, Introduction to the Comparative Study of Human Societies), economics (ECON 28b, The Global Economy, or IGS 8a, Economic Principles and Globalization), and politics (POL 15a, Introduction to International Relations). Ideally students should complete these four foundational courses by the end of the sophomore year.

Faculty

Chandler Rosenberger, Chair and Undergraduate Advising Head
Assistant Professor of International and Global Studies and Sociology

Kerry Chase
Associate Professor of Politics

Clementine C. Faure-Bellaiche
Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies

Gregory Freeze
Victor and Gwendolyn Beinfield Professor of History

Richard Gaskins
Proskauer chair in Law and Social Welfare and Professor of African and Afro-American Studies, American Studies and Legal Studies

Laura Goldin
Associate Professor of the Practice, Environmental Studies

Lucy Goodhart, Study Abroad Liaison
Lecturer in International & Global Studies and Politics

Paul Jankowski
Raymond Ginger Professor of History

Gary Jefferson
Carl Marks Professor of International Trade and Finance

Kristen Lucken, Director of Global Studies
Lecturer in International and Global Studies and Sociology

Pascal Menoret
Renee and Lester Crown Chair in Modern Middle East Studies and Assistant Professor of Anthropology

Hannah Weiss Muller
Assistant Professor of History

Michael Randall
Professor of French and Comparative Literature

Fernando J. Rosenberg
Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies and Comparative Literature

Ellen Schattschneider
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Women's and Gender Studies

Avinash Singh
Lecturer in History

Harleen Singh
Helaine and Alvin Allen Assistant Professor of Literature

Elanah Uretsky
Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology

Pu Wang
Helaine and Alvin Allen Chair in Literature

Requirements for the Minor

Successful completion of six courses are required for the minor:

Gateway course: IGS 10a (Introduction to International and Global Studies)
Core courses: ANTH 1a (Introduction to the Comparative Study of Human Societies), ECON 28b (The Global Economy) or IGS 8a (Economic Principles and Globalization), and POL 15a (Introduction to International Relations).
Electives: Two courses from any of the three distributional categories:
- Media, Culture, and the Arts
- Governance, Conflict, and Responsibility
- Economy, Health, and Environment
No more than three of these courses may count toward another minor.
Minimum grade: All Brandeis courses used to fulfill the requirements of the IGS minor must be taken for a letter grade (not pass/fail) and must be C or above.

Requirements for the Major

Successful completion of ten courses are required for the major:

Gateway course: IGS 10a (Introduction to International and Global Studies).
Core courses: ANTH 1a (Introduction to the Comparative Study of Human Societies); ECON 28b (The Global Economy) or IGS 8a (Economic Principles and Globalization); and POL 15a (Introduction to International Relations).
Electives: Six additional courses, two from each of the following three distributional categories:
- Media, Culture, and the Arts
- Governance, Conflict, and Responsibility
- Economy, Health, and Environment
  
  For specific courses in each category refer to the course lists below.
Global Issues: at least two of the six elective courses need to deal specifically with global issues.
Auxiliary language: Completion of a fourth-semester course in a modern foreign language. The requirement may be fulfilled by enrolling in language courses at Brandeis or elsewhere, or by providing other evidence of proficiency, such as course work offered in that language.
International experience: Normally, students satisfy this requirement for a semester-long study abroad program (during the academic year) approved by Brandeis’s Study Abroad Office. Students may substitute an international internship for study abroad; the internship must include at least one hundred hours over at least six weeks (presumably during the summer) and must be at an organization concerned with the central issues of the IGS major. If extended international residence would be a hardship, IGS students may petition the IGS internship coordinator to undertake a U.S.-based internship directly involved in international and global issues. Students meeting this requirement with an international or domestic internship must receive permission of the IGS internship coordinator prior to starting the internship.
Foundational Literacies: As part of completing the International and Global Studies major, students must:
- Fulfill the writing intensive requirement by successfully completing one of the following: Any IGS elective course approved for WI.
- Fulfill the oral communication requirement by successfully completing one of the following: IGS 30a or any IGS elective course approved for OC.
- Fulfill the digital literacy requirement by successfully completing: IGS 10a.
Senior Thesis (optional): Exceptional students interested in completing an honors thesis as seniors should apply to the honors coordinator, preferably in the spring of their junior year. Thesis students must have a minimum GPA of 3.3 in the courses counted toward the IGS major, and be engaged on a thesis project closely tied to IGS themes (as determined by the IGS honors coordinator). The student's primary thesis adviser should be an IGS faculty member -- any faculty member who teaches an IGS or IGS cross-listed course. The examining committee for the thesis must include at least two other faculty members, at least one of whom teaches an IGS or IGS cross-listed course. Thesis students will register for IGS 99d (a full-year course) with the thesis adviser. The first semester of IGS 99d may be used toward the requirement of two IGS electives (see requirement D, above). IGS departmental honors are based on the examining committee's evaluation of the completed thesis and the record in courses for the IGS major.
No more than five courses from any one department will be counted toward the major.
Minimum Grade: All Brandeis courses used to fulfill the requirements of the IGS major must be taken for a letter grade (not pass/fail) and must be C or above.

Courses of Instruction

Expand All

(1-99) Primarily for Undergraduate Students

IGS 8a Economic Principles and Globalization
[ qr ss ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took ECON 28b or ECON 8b in prior years or taken concurrently with ECON 28b.
An introduction to basic economic principles needed to understand the causes and economic effects of increased international flows of goods, people, firms, and money. Attention paid to international economic institutions (World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund, World Bank), strategies for economic development, and globalization controversies (global warming, sweatshops). Usually offered every year.
Lucy Goodhart

IGS 10a Introduction to International and Global Studies
[ djw dl ss ]
"Globalization" touches us more every day. Introduces the challenges of globalization to national and international governance, economic success, individual and group identities, cultural diversity, the environment, and inequalities within and between nations, regions of the globe, gender, and race. Usually offered every year.
Kerry Chase or Chandler Rosenberger

IGS 30a Senior Leadership Forum
[ oc ]
Prerequisite: open only to seniors in the International and Global Studies major. Yields half-course credit.
Seniors in the IGS program will reflect on all they have learned in coursework and off-campus experiences as they prepare to tell the story of their interests and discoveries. All students will build portfolios and prepare professional oral presentations to present to potential employers, graduate schools, and students in the IGS major. Usually offered every year.
Chandler Rosenberger

IGS 92a Global Studies Internship
This course is offered only for non-IGS majors, or for IGS majors engaged in approved credit-bearing internships who have been exempted from IGS 89b. Signature of the IGS internship coordinator is required. Usually offered every year.
Staff

IGS 97a Senior Essay
Usually offered every year.
Staff

IGS 97b Senior Essay
Prerequisite: IGS 97a.
Usually offered every year.
Staff

IGS 98a Independent Study
Usually offered every year.
Staff

IGS 98b Independent Study
Usually offered every year.
Staff

IGS 99d Senior Research
Seniors who are candidates for degrees with honors in IGS must register for this course and, under the direction of a faculty member, prepare an honors thesis on a suitable topic. Usually offered every year.
Staff

(100-199) For Both Undergraduate and Graduate Students

IGS 110a Religion and Secularism in French & Francophone Culture
[ hum ss ]
Tackles the persistent power of religion in France and its former colonies despite common ideals of secular nationalism. Through literature and film we will study the historical and contemporary cultural wars waged around the French notion of “laïcité” -- its confrontation with Islam, but also the experiences of Jews, Catholics, and Protestants.
Clementine Fauré-Bellaïche

IGS 120a Inventing Oneself
[ hum ]
Do our backgrounds determine our lives, or can we transcend such limits to pursue dreams of our own? This class explores themes of liberation in works by French and Francophone writers and filmmakers and the global artistic and social movements they have inspired. All works in English. Usually offered every second year.
Clementine Fauré-Bellaïche

IGS 130a Global Migration
[ ss ]
Investigates the social, cultural, religious, political, and economic forces that shape global migration. More than 200 million people now live outside their countries of birth. Case studies include Europe, the U.S. and Mexico, Brazil, Australia, Africa, and China's internal migration. Usually offered every second year.
Kristen Lucken

IGS 136b Contemporary Chinese Society and Culture
[ nw ss wi ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took ANTH 136b in prior years.
Introduces students to contemporary Chinese society, with a focus on the rapid transformations that have taken place during the post-Mao era with a focus on family, gender, sexuality, migration, ethnicity, and family planning. Usually offered every third year.
Elanah Uretsky

IGS 138a China in the World
[ djw ss wi ]
This course examines China’s role on the world stage. Looking at the history of China’s interaction with the world, both at home and abroad, we will examine how China has affected, and been affected by, other societies and cultures. Usually offered every second year.
Elanah Uretsky

IGS 140a Styles of Globalization
[ ss ]
Prerequisite: IGS 8a or ECON 28b.
Why do some countries benefit from globalization while others lag behind? How do different nations balance issues such as free trade, foreign investment, and workers' rights? This course considers the real-world choices behind success and failure in the global economy. Usually offered every second year.
Lucy Goodhart

IGS 160a Asian Gangsters: Contemporary Crime Cinema
[ djw ss ]
Studies contemporary crime films to examine modern Asian society and politics. Drawing upon film theory, cultural studies, historical and sociological research, this class considers the world’s largest media market to understand the continent’s rapidly changing socio-political milieu. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh

IGS 165a Revolution, Religion, and Terror: Postcolonial Histories
[ djw nw ss ]
Examines religious conflict, revolutionary violence, and civil war in modern South Asia. It looks at Jihad, Maoist militancy, rising fundamentalism, and the recent refugee crisis. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh

IGS 171a The Asian Wave: Global Pop Culture and its Histories
[ djw ss ]
Asia is not only remaking itself but also exporting images and ideas across the world. This course analyzes the impact of Asian pop culture on global modernity as Asian countries project their aspirations and belief-systems, via an increased connectivity, to a worldwide audience. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh

IGS 175a Digital Asia: Democracy in the Internet Age
[ djw nw ss ]
Analyzes the transformative potential of the internet as an agent of development and as a mechanism for disrupting social and political orders in Asia, home to the world's largest democracy and also the world's largest authoritarian regime. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh

IGS/LGLS 128b Networks of Global Justice
[ ss ]
Examines how global justice is actively shaped by dynamic institutions, contested ideas, and evolving cultures. Using liberal arts methods, the course explores prospects for advancing peace and justice in a complex world. It is organized around case studies of humanitarian crises, involving health, poverty, migration, and peace-building across nations. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

IGS/SAS 160a The Rise of India
[ nw ss ]
Examines how India rose to become a world power. With one-seventh of the world's population and a booming economy, India now shapes all global debates on trade, counter-terrorism and the environment. How will it use its new influence? Usually offered every second year.
Staff

International and Global Studies: Core Courses

ANTH 1a Introduction to the Comparative Study of Human Societies
[ djw nw ss ]
Examines the ways human beings construct their lives in a variety of societies. Includes the study of the concept of culture, kinship, and social organization, political economy, gender and sexuality, religion and ritual, symbols and language, social inequalities and social change, and globalization. Consideration of anthropological research methods and approaches to cross-cultural analysis. Usually offered every semester.
Jonathan Anjaria, Elizabeth Ferry, Sarah Lamb, or Janet McIntosh

ECON 28b The Global Economy
[ ss ]
Prerequisites: ECON 2a or ECON 10a and ECON 20a. ECON 20a may be taken concurrently with ECON 28b.
Applies the basic tools and models of economic analysis to a wide range of topics in international economics. Usually offered every semester.
Scott Redenius

POL 15a Introduction to International Relations
[ ss ]
Open to first-year students.
General introduction to international politics, emphasizing the essential characteristics of the international system as a basis for understanding the foreign policy of individual countries. Analysis of causes of war, conditions of peace, patterns of influence, the nature of the world's political economy, global environmental issues, human rights, and prospects for international organizations. Open to first-year students. Usually offered every semester.
Kerry Chase

IGS: Governance, Conflict and Responsibility

AAAS 120a African History in Real Time
[ djw nw oc ss ]
This information literacy-driven course equips students with the skills to place current events in Africa in their historical context. Collectively the class builds 5-6 distinct course modules which entail sourcing and evaluating current news stories from a range of media outlets, selecting those that merit in-depth historical analysis, and developing a syllabus for each one. Usually offered every second year.
Carina Ray

AAAS 125b Caribbean Women and Globalization: Sexuality, Citizenship, Work
[ djw ss wi ]
Utilizing perspectives from sociology, anthropology, fiction, and music to examine the relationship between women's sexuality and conceptions of labor, citizenship, and sovereignty. The course considers these alongside conceptions of masculinity, contending feminisms, and the global perspective. Usually offered every second year.
Faith Smith

AAAS 162a Assassination: A History of 20th Century Africa
[ djw nw oc ss ]
Examines the assassinations of a range of different political, cultural, and activist figures, such as Patric Lumumba, Steve Biko, and Ken Saro-Wiwa, and assesses the social, political, economic, and cultural implications and legacies this particular form of murder has had on twentieth-century Africa. Usually offered every second year.
Carina Ray

ANTH 115b Borderlands: Space, Place, and Landscape
[ ss ]
Studies human behavior framed by and creating the spaces and landscapes in which we live. This seminar examines archaeological and ethnographic understandings of the relationships between culture, space, and landscapes with a particular focus on the political and social dynamics of borderlands. Usually offered every second year.
Charles Golden

ANTH 140a Human Rights in Global Perspective
[ djw ss ]
Explores a range of debates about human rights as a concept as well as the practice of human rights work. The human rights movement seeks the recognition of universal norms that transcend political and cultural difference while anthropology seeks to explore and analyze the great diversity of human life. To what extent can these two goals--advocating for universal norms and respecting cultural difference--be reconciled? The course examines cases from various parts of the world concerning: indigenous peoples, environment, health, gender, genocide/violence/nation-states and globalization. Usually offered every third year.
Elizabeth Ferry

ANTH 141a Islamic Movements
[ ss ]
Examines the social and cultural dimensions of contemporary Islamic movements from an anthropological perspective. It starts by critically engaging with such fundamental concepts as Orientalism, colonialism, and nationalism. Topics to be discussed include the difference between the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafism, Islamist feminism, Islamic public arguments, Al-Qaeda and ISIS, victimization and martyrdom, and the relationship between humanitarianism and terrorism. Usually offered every second year.
Pascal Menoret

ANTH 178b Culture, Gender and Power in East Asia
[ nw ss wi ]
Examines the role of culture in changing gender power relations in East Asia by exploring how the historical legacy of Confucianism in the region influences the impact of changes such as the constitutional proclamation of gender equality and rapid industrialization. Usually offered every third year.
Elanah Uretsky

FREN 111a The Republic
[ fl hum oc ]
Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
The "Republic" analyzes how the republican ideal of the citizen devoid of religious, ethnic, or gender identity has fared in different Francophone political milieux. Course involves understanding how political institutions such as constitutions, parliaments, and court systems interact with reality of modern societies in which religious, ethnic, and gender identities play important roles. Usually offered every year.
Michael Randall

HIST 8a Globalization in History
[ dl ss ]
Seeks to historicize "globalization"—to explore its extension and transformation since its emergence in the sixteenth century. The principal task is to analyze the key dynamics that drove—and periodically interrupted—this process, and to give particular attention to its perception and impact. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Freeze

HIST 52b Europe in the Modern World
[ oc ss ]
Explores European history from the Enlightenment to the present emphasizing how developments in Europe have shaped and been shaped by broader global contexts. Topics include: revolution, industrialization, political and social reforms, nationalism, imperialism, legacies of global wars, totalitarianism, and decolonization. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller

HIST 56b Rethinking World History (to 1960)
[ djw nw ss ]
An introductory survey of world history, from the dawn of "civilization" to c.1960. Topics include the establishment and rivalry of political communities, the development of material life, and the historical formation of cultural identities. Usually offered every year.
Govind Sreenivasan

HIST 61a Cultures in Conflict since 1300
[ ss wi ]
Explores the ways in which cultures and civilizations have collided since 1300, and the ways in which cultural differences account for major wars and conflicts in world history since then. Usually offered every year.
Staff

HIST 71a Latin American and Caribbean History I: Colonialism, Slavery, Freedom
[ djw hum nw ss ]
Studies colonialism in Latin America and Caribbean, focusing on coerced labor and struggles for freedom as defining features of the period: conquest; Indigenous, African, and Asian labor; colonial institutions and economics; Independence and revolutionary movements. Usually offered every year.
Gregory Childs

HIST 71b Latin American and Caribbean History II: Modernity, Medicine, Sexuality
[ djw hum nw ss ]
Studies the idea of "modernity" in Latin America and Caribbean, centered on roles of health and human reproduction in definitions of the "modern" citizen: post-slavery labor, race and national identity; modern politics and economics; transnational relations. Usually offered every year.
Gregory Childs

HIST 80b East Asia in the Modern World
[ hum nw ss ]
Surveys East Asian history from the 1600 to the present. Compares Chinese, Korean, and Japanese encounters with forces of industrial capitalism, including colonialism, urbanization, and globalization, resulting in East Asia’s distinctive cultural and social modernity. Usually offered every year.
Staff

HIST 106b The Modern British Empire
[ djw ss ]
Surveys British imperial history from the Seven Years’ War through the period after decolonization. Explores economic, political, and social forces propelling expansion; ideologies and contradictions of empire; relationships between colonizer and colonized; and the role of collaboration and resistance. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller

HIST 111a History of the Modern Middle East
[ djw nw ss ]
An examination of the history of the Middle East from the nineteenth century to contemporary times. Focuses on political events and intellectual trends, such as imperialism, modernity, nationalism, and revolution, that have shaped the region in the modern era. Usually offered every second year.
Naghmeh Sohrabi

HIST 111b The Iranian Revolution in Global Context
[ djw dl nw ss ]
An examination of the roots of the Iranian revolution of 1979, the formation of the Islamic Republic, and its evolution over the past 30 years. Usually offered every second year.
Naghmeh Sohrabi

HIST 112a Nationalism in the Middle East
[ djw nw ss ]
Seminar examining the history of nationalism in the modern Middle East. Covers divergent theories and practices of nationalism in the region, and explores the roles of gender, memory, historiography, and art in the formation and articulation of Middle East nationalisms. Usually offered every second year.
Naghmeh Sohrabi

HIST 134b The Ottoman Empire: From Principality to Republic by way of Empire
[ ss ]
The Ottomans in history: how did a tiny principality grow from 1300 to be a global empire by 1550 and become a modern nation state by 1923? Who were the Ottomans? What are their legacies in today's world? Usually offered every second year.
Amy Singer

HIST 135b The Middle East and Its Revolutions
[ djw nw ss ]
An examination of the various revolutions that have shaped the modern Middle East since the late 19th century. The course focuses on four different revolutionary moments: The constitutional revolutions of the turn of the century, the anti-colonial revolutions of mid-century, the radical revolutions of the 1970's, and most recently, the Arab Spring revolutions that have affected the region since 2011. Usually offered every second year.
Naghmeh Sohrabi

HIST 136b Global War and Revolutions in the Eighteenth Century
[ djw oc ss wi ]
Surveys global conflicts and revolutions and examines exchanges of idea, peoples, and goods in the eighteenth-century Atlantic World. Explores the legacies of inter-imperial rivalry and the intellectual borrowings and innovations of the American, French, and Haitian revolutions in comparative perspective. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller

HIST 138a The World Between the Wars, 1919-1939
[ ss ]
Explores links between the First and Second World Wars, including the rise of fascism, Soviet communism, the world economic depression, the collapse of collective security, and the crisis of world empires. Usually offered every other year.
Staff

HIST 147a Imperial Russia: From Westernization to Globalization
[ ss ]
Examines the processes and problems of modernization--state development, economic growth, social change, cultural achievements, and emergence of revolutionary and terrorist movements. Usually offered every year.
Gregory Freeze

HIST 147b Twentieth-Century Russia
[ dl ss ]
Russian history from the 1905 revolution to the present day, with particular emphasis on the Revolution of 1917, Stalinism, culture, and the decline and fall of the USSR. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Freeze

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.
Staff

HIST 174a U.S. Relations with Latin America and the Caribbean
[ nw ss wi ]
Explores United States economic, political, and cultural relations with the major Caribbean nations in the context of U.S. relations with Latin American nations. Topics include interventions, cultural understandings and misunderstandings, migration, and transnationalism. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

HIST 176b Japan and Korea in Modern World History
[ nw ss ]
Investigates the long and problematic history of interactions and exchanges between Japan and Korea from early times to the present. Topics include language, migration, art, architecture, material culture, popular culture, propaganda, and warfare. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

HIST 178b Britain and India: Connected Histories
[ djw oc ss wi ]
Surveys the history of Britain and India from the rise of the East India Company to the present. Explores cultural and economic exchanges; shifts in power and phases of imperial rule; resistance and collaboration; nationalism; decolonization and partition; and postcolonial legacies. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller

HIST 179b India and the Superpowers (USA, USSR, and China): 1947 and Beyond
[ nw ss ]
Examines the history of modern India through its relationships with the "superpowers," USA, USSR, and China. Covering the period between 1947-2018, the course analyses ideological, economic, foreign policy shifts and subcontinental conflict in a constantly changing geo-political scene. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh

HIST 180b Modern India: From Partition to the Present
[ djw nw ss ]
Examines the history, culture, and economy of modern India (1947-2019) with a focus on key concerns, such as the environment, urbanization, gender/sexual relations, and the transformations of democratic politics. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh

HIST 182b Modern China
[ djw nw ss ]
Surveys Chinese history from the Ming to Mao, with an emphasis on political, social, cultural, and literary trends; and attention toward ethnic minorities and overseas communities and diaspora. Usually offered every year.
Xing Hang

HIST 185b Turkey: From Ataturk to Erdogan
[ djw ss ]
Examines the history of the Turkish Republic, from its founding in the wake of World War I until the beginning of the 21st century. Through discussions of politics, economics, society and culture, the course studies the forces that shaped and reshaped Turkey. Like the Ottoman Empire from which it emerged, Turkey has attracted the attention of admirers and detractors alike. Meanwhile, it has played key roles and continues to be an important economic, political and cultural hub in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and the world. Usually offered every second year.
Amy Singer

HIST 186a Europe in World War II
[ dl ss wi ]
Examines the military and diplomatic, social and economic history of the war. Topics include war origins; allied diplomacy; the neutrals; war propaganda; occupation, resistance, and collaboration; the mass murder of the Jews; "peace feelers"; the war economies; scientific warfare and the development of nuclear weapons; and the origins of the Cold War. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

IMES 104a Islam: Civilization and Institutions
[ hum nw ]
Provides a disciplined study of Islamic civilization from its origins to the modern period. Approaches the study from a humanities perspective. Topics covered will include the Qur'an, tradition, law, theology, politics, Islam and other religions, modern developments, and women in Islam. Usually offered every year.
Carl El-Tobgui

LGLS 123b Immigration and Human Rights
[ ss ]
Examines American immigration policy in the context of international human rights treaties and global practices. Practical exercises highlight social and cultural controversies surrounding refugee status and asylum seeking. Explores tensions between domestic politics and international law in guiding immigration reform. Usually offered every second year.
Douglas Smith

LGLS 123bj Immigration and Human Rights
[ ss ]
Examines American immigration policy, institutions and roles in the context of international human rights treaties and global practices as well as the advocacy practices in various political, social, domestic legal and international forums that construct those policies, institutions and roles. Practical exercises explore advocacy skills peculiar to immigration advocacy and highlight some of the social and cultural controversies surrounding regular and irregular migrations, refugee status and asylum seeking. Explores tensions between domestic politics and international law in guiding immigration reform. Offered as part of the JBS program.
Douglas Smith

LGLS 124b Comparative Law and Development
[ nw ss ]
Surveys legal systems across the world with special application to countries in the process of political, social, or economic transition. Examines constitutional and rule-of-law principles in the context of developing global networks. Usually offered every second year.
Daniel Breen

LGLS 125b International Law and Organizations
[ ss ]
Introduction to international law, its nature, sources, and application, for example, its role in the management of international conflicts. Topics may include international agreements, international organizations including the United Nations and the International Court of Justice, states and recognition, nationality and alien rights, territorial and maritime jurisdiction, international claims, and the laws of war and human rights. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

LGLS 127b International Economic Law
[ ss ]
Prerequisite: ECON 2a or ECON 10a or permission of the instructor.
Studies the transnational legal institution and practices that constitute the global economic networks of the 21st century. Surveys the fields of corporate regulation, including business practices and human rights, and legal regimes supporting trade and finance. Practice in arbitrating investment disputes between states and corporations. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

LGLS 129a Global Justice and Societies in Transition
[ djw ss ]
Introduces transitional justice, a set of practices that arise following a period of conflict that aim directly at confronting past violations of human rights. This course will focus on criminal prosecutions, truth commissions, and the contributions of art and culture. Usually offered every second year.
Melissa Stimell

LGLS 130a Conflict Analysis and Intervention
[ oc ss ]
Examines alternatives to litigation, including negotiation and mediation. Through simulations and court observations, students assess their own attitudes about and skills in conflict resolution. Analyzes underlying theories in criminal justice system, divorce, adoption, and international arena. Usually offered every second year.
Melissa Stimell

LGLS 130aj Conflict Analysis and Intervention
[ oc ss ]
This hands-on course invites students to address social problems in immigration policy and practice through public policy reform, community organizing and legal representation. It provides background in the theories, advocacy skills, networks, movements and measures of institutional change that comprise social change practice. Students explore conflict resolution in the context of social justice advocacy, including litigation, community organizing, political advocacy, international institutions, negotiation, peace-making and mediation. Through simulations, court and community group observations, guided representation of immigrants and work with immigration advocacy groups, students assess their own attitudes and skills in conflict resolution, as well as the processes by which conflict resolution institutions and roles help construct the communities of which they are a part. We will analyze underlying theories of conflict and advocacy in domestic immigration and international arenas, as well as the relative efficacy of various modes for social change, such as big case litigation, coordinated ground-level litigation, cultural change approaches, peacemaking, grassroots organizing, direct action, political advocacy (lobbying) and business and other institution-building strategies. Offered as part of the JBS program.
Douglas Smith

NEJS 138a Genocide and Mass Killing in the Twentieth Century
[ hum ]
An interdisciplinary seminar examining history and sociology of the internationally punishable crime of genocide, with the focus on theory, prevention, and punishment of genocide. Case studies include Armenians in Ottoman Turkey, Stalin's Russia, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda. Usually offered every second year.
Laura Jockusch

NEJS 189a The Arab-Israeli Conflict
[ hum ss ]
Consideration of Arab-Jewish relations, attitudes, and interactions from 1880 to the present. Emphasis on social factors and intellectual currents and their impact on politics. Examines the conflict within its international setting. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

PHIL 119a Human Rights
[ hum wi ]
Examines international human rights policies and the moral and political issues to which they give rise. Includes civilians' wartime rights, the role of human rights in foreign policy, and the responsibility of individuals and states to alleviate world hunger and famine. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

PHIL 126a What Does it Mean to be a Global Citizen?
[ hum wi ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took PHIL 20a in prior years.
Focuses on the relation of the individual to the state and, in particular, on the theory and practice of nonviolent resistance, its aims, methods, achievements, and legitimacy. Examines the nature of obligation and the role of civil disobedience in a democratic society. Explores the conflict between authority and autonomy and the grounds for giving one's allegiance to any state at all. Examples include opposition to the nuclear arms race, and disobedience in China and Northern Ireland and at abortion clinics. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

POL 119a Seminar: Red States, Blue States: Understanding Contemporary American Voters and Parties
[ dl ss ]
What are the root causes of contemporary partisan polarization and how do we explain the observed differentiation in partisan leanings across red and blue states? In this seminar, students will pursue guided, independent research on voter and party behavior. Because of the focus on primary research, students are encouraged, although not required, to have taken POL 52A (or an equivalent) prior to enrolling in POL 119. Usually offered every year.
Lucy Goodhart

POL 128a The Politics of Revolution: State Violence and Popular Insurgency in the Third World
[ nw ss ]
Introduction to twentieth-century revolutionary movements in the Third World, focusing on the emergence of peasant-based resistance and revolution in the world beyond the West, and on the role of state violence in provoking popular involvement in protest, rebellion, and insurgency. Usually offered every year.
Ralph Thaxton

POL 134b The Global Migration Crisis
[ djw ss wi ]
Looks at immigration from the perspectives of policy-makers, migrants, and the groups affected by immigration in sender nations as well as destination countries. Introduces students to the history of migration policy, core concepts and facts about migration in the West, and to the theories and disagreements among immigrant scholars. Usually offered every second year.
Jytte Klausen

POL 137b Seminar: Psychology of Political Violence
[ dl ss ]
Why do people become terrorists? Social scientists argue that organizations use terrorism because it is a rational means for obtaining their objectives. But why do individuals sacrifice themselves for a cause? Drawing on behavioral economics and criminal psychology in addition to political sociology, the course will review new approaches to the study of extreme political violence. Usually offered every year.
Jytte Klausen

POL 140b Contentious Politics in Agrarian Societies: Power, Culture, Development and Resistance
[ ss ]
Provides an interdisciplinary perspective on the modern transformation of agrarian societies and states. It explores the impact of capitalism, the formation and building of nation states, and secular and standardized education on rural people and their cultures across the globe, including Asia, Africa, and the Americas (and to a lesser extent the Middle East). Usually offered every second year.
Ralph Thaxton

POL 144a Latin American Politics
[ djw nw ss wi ]
Examines the development and deepening of democracy in Latin America, focusing on the role of political institutions, economic development, the military, and U.S.-Latin American relations. Usually offered every year.
Alejandro Trelles

POL 145b Seminar: Muslims in the West: Politics, Religion, and Law
[ ss ]
Few issues have caused more public furor than the accommodation of Islam in Europe and the United States. It is often overlooked that Muslims are developing the institutions of their faith in societies that offer everyone the freedom of choice and expression. This seminar looks at religious discrimination as a barrier to the civic and political inclusion of Muslim immigrants, the responses of governments, courts, and the general public, and what we know about the balance among "fundamentalist, " "moderate," and "progressive" Muslim viewpoints. Usually offered every year.
Jytte Klausen

POL 147a The Government and Politics of China
[ nw ss ]
Introduction to major themes of Chinese politics, emphasizing the rise of the Chinese Communists and the post-1949 trends in domestic politics, while also surveying historical, sociological, and cultural influences in Chinese politics. Attention to the nature of the traditional state, impact of colonialism, national revolution, and the course of contemporary state development. Usually offered every second year.
Ralph Thaxton

POL 148a Seminar: Contemporary Chinese Politics
[ nw ss ]
A broad and in-depth critical analysis of key issues in contemporary Chinese politics. Emphasis on the role of the state in promoting economic development, social change, and political stability. Focus on struggles for social justice under authoritarian rule. Special attention to the state response to popular efforts to use social media to hold the government accountable for past injustice and to promote open, pluralist discourse. Usually offered every second year.
Ralph Thaxton

POL 160a The War on Global Terrorism
[ dl ss ]
Intended for juniors and seniors, but open to all students.
Explores how 9/11 changed our lives. The course surveys the build-up of Al Queda leading up to the 9/11 attacks and ten years of counter terrorism. Students are given an introduction to Jihadist doctrines and Al Queda's structure, as well as theories about the cause of terrorism. Usually offered every year.
Jytte Klausen

POL 163a Seminar: The United Nations and the United States
[ djw dl ss wi ]
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing.
Investigates the United Nations organization and charter, with an emphasis on the integral role of the United States in its founding and operation. Using archival documents and other digitized materials, explores topics such as UN enforcement actions, the Security Council veto, human rights, and the domestic politics of US commitments to the UN. Usually offered every second year.
Kerry Chase

POL 164a Seminar: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East
[ ss ]
Provides students with historical and analytic mastery of the Arab- Israeli conflict in a novel way. Through immersion in three competing narratives - Israeli, Palestinian, and pan-Arab - students will gain proficiency in the history of the conflict as well as analytic leverage on the possibility of its resolution. The course is organized as a seminar and is premised on active student participation. Usually offered every year.
Shai Feldman

POL 167b Russian Foreign Policy
[ ss wi ]
Prerequisite: POL 10a, POL 11b, POL 14b, or POL 15a.
Surveys Russian foreign policy in the contemporary world, with particular attention paid to the deep historical context for its attitudes and goals in international relations. Topics include relations with the larger post-communist region, the Muslim world, its ongoing antagonistic relations with America and the West, the rise of disinformation warfare on the internet, in addition to the distinct Russian perspective on geopolitics. Usually offered every year.
Steven Wilson

POL 170a Nuclear Weapons and International Security
[ ss ]
Examines the role of nuclear weapons in international relations from World War II to the present. We will cover the technology of nuclear weapons, the development of nuclear strategy and doctrine, arms control and nonproliferation efforts, and the spread of nuclear weapons beyond the Western powers (the U.S., Russia, United Kingdom and France) to the Middle East and Asia, including China, India, Israel, Pakistan, and North Korea. Usually offered every year.
Gary Samore

POL 172b Seminar: International Political Economy
[ ss ]
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or higher.
The politics and modern evolution of international economic relations, comprising trade, money, multinational productions, and development. Also the role of states and transnational actors in international markets and the global differentiation of power, and distribution of wealth. Usually offered every year.
Kerry Chase

POL 174b Seminar: Problems of National Security
[ ss ]
Analysis of the role and utility of military power in international politics. Selected case studies from the last fifty years. Selected topics on post-Cold War military issues, including the spread of weapons of mass destruction, collective approaches to coercion, and the role of U.S. military power in world stability. Usually offered every year.
Staff

POL 179a Seminar: China's Global Rise: The Challenge to Democratic Order
[ nw ss wi ]
Explores the implications of China's global rise for the global democratic order constructed by the United States in the aftermath of World War II. Among other issues, we will ask whether China's international strategy in Asia, Africa, and Latin America poses a serious challenge to democratic nations and their support for democratization. Usually offered every second year.
Ralph Thaxton

POL 184a Seminar: Global Justice
[ djw ss wi ]
Prerequisites: One course in Political Theory or Moral, Social and Political Philosophy.
Explores the development of the topic of global justice and its contents. Issues to be covered include international distributive justice, duties owed to the global poor, humanitarian intervention, the ethics of climate change, and immigration. Usually offered every second year.
Jeffrey Lenowitz

SAS 110b New Nations, New Stories: Postcolonial Literature
[ hum nw ]
Examines the postcolonial novel written in English within the shared history of colonialism, specifically British imperialism, for South Asia. Writers include R.K. Narayan, Salman Rushdie, Anita Desai, Arundhati Roy, Mohsin Hamid, Romesh Gunesekera and Daniyal Mueenudin. Usually offered every second year.
Harleen Singh

SAS 140a We Who Are at Home Everywhere: Narratives from the South Asian Diaspora
[ hum ]
Looks at narratives from various locations of the South Asian Diaspora, while paying close attention to the emergence of an immigrant South Asian public culture. Examines novels, poetry, short stories, film, and music in order to further an understanding of South Asian immigrant culture. Usually offered every third year.
Harleen Singh

SOC 119a Deconstructing War, Building Peace
[ ss ]
Ponders the possibility of a major "paradigm shift" under way from adversarialism and war to mutuality and peace. Examines war culture and peace culture and points in between, with emphases on the role of imagination in social change, growing global interdependence, and political, economic, gender, social class, and social psychological aspects of war and peace. Usually offered every year.
Gordon Fellman

SOC 122a The Sociology of American Immigration
[ ss ]
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.
Kristen Lucken

SOC 127a Religion, Ethnicity, and Nationalism
[ djw nw oc ss ]
Examines three sources of identity that are influential in global affairs: religion, ethnicity and nationalism. Considers theories of the relationship among these identities, especially "secularization theory," then reviews historical examples such as Poland, Iran, India, and Pakistan. Usually offered every second year.
Chandler Rosenberger

SOC 146b Nationalism and Globalization
[ ss ]
Prerequisite: IGS 10a or SOC 1a.
In an age of globalization, why does nationalism thrive? Are globalization and nationalism rivals, strangers or possibly partners? Students will trace the emergence of nationalism while also examining globalization's impact on societies such as the United States, Russia, China, and India. Usually offered every second year.
Chandler Rosenberger

SOC 162a Intellectuals and Revolutionary Politics
[ djw ss ]
Can you change a society by changing its culture? How do writers, painters, and bloggers give their countries new visions of justice -- or even revenge? This class studies the ideas behind revolutions, who creates them, and why. Usually offered every second year.
Chandler Rosenberger

SOC 168a Democracy and Inequality in Global Perspective
[ ss ]
Can democracy survive great inequalities of wealth and status? In authoritarian countries, does inequality inspire revolution or obedience? What role does culture play in determining which inequalities are tolerable and which are not? Cases usually include the United States, India, and China. Usually offered every second year.
Chandler Rosenberger

WGS 105b Feminisms: History, Theory, and Practice
[ deis-us oc ss ]
Prerequisite: Students are encouraged, though not required, to take WGS 5a prior to enrolling in this course.
Examines diverse theories of sex and gender within a multicultural framework, considering historical changes in feminist thought, the theoretical underpinnings of various feminist practices, and the implications of diverse and often conflicting theories for both academic inquiry and social change. Usually offered every year.
ChaeRan Freeze, Keridwen Luis, or Faith Smith

IGS: Media, Culture, and The Arts

AAAS 123a Third World Ideologies
[ nw ss wi ]
Analyzes ideological concepts developed by seminal Third World political thinkers and their application to modern political analysis. Usually offered every second year.
Wellington Nyangoni

AAAS 134b Novel and Film of the African Diaspora
[ hum nw ]
Writers and filmmakers, who are usually examined separately under national or regional canonical categories such as "(North) American," "Latin American," "African," "British," or "Caribbean," are brought together here to examine transnational identities and investments in "authentic," "African," or "black" identities. Usually offered every third year.
Faith Smith

AAAS 135a Race, Sex, and Colonialism
[ djw oc ss ]
Explores the histories of interracial sexual relations as they have unfolded in a range of colonial contexts and examines the relationships between race and sex, on one hand, and the exercise of colonial power, on the other. Usually offered every year.
Carina Ray

AAAS 146b African Icons
[ djw nw oc ss wi ]
From Walatta Petros, a seventeenth century Ethiopian nun turned anticolonial agitator to Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, this course introduces a broad range of iconic figures in Africa's history to students who also acquire the investigative and analytical skills associated with sound historical research and writing. Usually offered every year.
Carina Ray

AMST 134b Digital Media and American Culture
[ ss ]
Analyzes how the Internet, the Blogosphere, Facebook, Twitterdom, iPhones and iPads (all in all the entire array of constantly expanding techniques for instant (and incessant) information transmission and reception) have affected American Culture--thought, expressive styles, politics, liberties, prose, education, journalism, social and personal relations, values, identities, senses of self, nation, and the globe. In brief: what has been replaced, and with what, and is all this for better or worse? Usually offered every year.
Staff

AMST 136a Planet Hollywood: American Cinema in Global Perspective
[ hum ss ]
Examines the global reach of Hollywood cinema as an art, business, and purveyor of American values, tracking how Hollywood has absorbed foreign influences and how other nations have adapted and resisted the Hollywood juggernaut. Usually offered every second year.
Thomas Doherty

AMST 140b The Asian American Experience
[ oc ss ]
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.
Staff

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.
Staff

ANTH 26a Communication and Media
[ dl ss ]
An exploration of human communication and mass media from a cross-cultural perspective. Examines communication codes based on language and visual signs. The global impact of revolutions in media technology, including theories of cultural imperialism and indigenous uses of media is discussed. Usually offered every second year.
Janet McIntosh

ANTH 80a Anthropology of Religion
[ nw ss ]
Introduces the anthropological study of religious experience and practices across diverse contexts. Studies rituals, from initiation to conversion to pilgrimage, and examines the relationship between religion, society, and politics in a variety of societies. Usually offered every second year.
Sarah Lamb, Pascal Menoret or Ellen Schattschneider

ANTH 129b Global, Transnational and Diasporic Communities
[ ss ]
Examines the social and cultural dimensions of diasporas and homelands from an anthropological perspective. It starts by critically engaging with more fundamental concepts such as state, identity, and movement. It then proceeds to debate the various contributions that anthropologists have presented to the understanding of human life in transnational and diasporic contexts. Topics to be discussed include homeland, place, migration, religion, global sexual cultures, kinship, and technology—all within a global perspective. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Anjaria or Sarah Lamb

ANTH 130b Visuality and Culture
[ dl ss ]
Introduces students to the study of visual, aural, and artistic media through an ethnographic lens. Course combines written and creative assignments to understand how culture shapes how we make meaning out of images and develop media literacy. Topics include ethnographic/documentary film, advertising, popular culture, viral videos and special effects, photography, art worlds, and the technological development of scientific images. Usually offered every second year.
Patricia Alvarez Astacio or Ellen Schattschneider

ANTH 144a The Anthropology of Gender
[ djw nw ss wi ]
Anthropology majors have priority for enrollment.
Examines gender constructs, sexuality, and cultural systems from a comparative perspective. Topics include the division of labor, rituals of masculinity and femininity, the vexing question of the universality of women's subordination, cross-cultural perspectives on same-sex sexualities and transsexuality, the impact of globalization on systems, and the history of feminist anthropology. Usually offered every year.
Anita Hannig, Sarah Lamb, Keridwen Luis, or Ellen Schattschneider

ANTH 153a Writing Systems and Scribal Traditions
[ nw ss ]
Explores the ways in which writing has been conceptualized in social anthropology, linguistics and archaeology. A comparative study of various forms of visual communication, both non-glottic and glottic systems, is undertaken to better understand the nature of pristine and contemporary phonetic scripts around the world and to consider alternative models to explain their origin, prestige, and obsolescence. The course pays particular attention to the social functions of early writing systems, the linkage of literacy and political power, and the production of historical memory. Usually offered every second year.
Javier Urcid

ANTH 184b Cross-Cultural Art and Aesthetics
[ nw ss ]
A cross-cultural and diachronic exploration of art, focusing on the communicative aspects of visual aesthetics. The survey takes a broad view of how human societies deploy images and objects to foster identities, lure into consumption, generate political propaganda, engage in ritual, render sacred propositions tangible, and chart the character of the cosmos. Usually offered every second year.
Javier Urcid

CHIN 130b China on Film: The Changes of Chinese Culture
[ hum nw ]
Taught in English. All films viewed have English subtitles.
Focuses on the enormous changes under way in Chinese society, politics, and culture. Helps students to identify and understand these fundamental transformations through a representative, exciting selection of readings and films. Usually offered every second spring.
Staff

CHIN 136b Chinese Modernism in International Context
[ hum nw ]
Taught in English.
Examines the origins, recurrences, and metamorphosis of modernistic styles and movements in twentieth-century Chinese literature, film, fine art, and intellectual discourses. Usually offered every second year.
Pu Wang

COML 100a Introduction to Global Literature
[ dl hum oc ]
Core course for COML major and minor.
What is common and what is different in literatures of different cultures and times? How do literary ideas move from one culture to another? In this course students read theoretical texts, as well as literary works from around the world. Usually offered every year.
Staff

COML 122b Writing Home and Abroad: Literature by Women of Color
[ hum nw ]
Examines literature (prose, poetry, and memoirs) written by women of color across a wide spectrum of geographical and cultural sites. Literature written within the confines of the "home country" in the vernacular, as well as in English in immigrant locales, is read. The intersections of race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, and class as contained by the larger institutions of government, religion, nationalism, and sectarian politics are examined. Usually offered every third year.
Harleen Singh

COML/ENG 140b Children's Literature and Constructions of Childhood
[ hum ]
Explores whether children's literature has sought to civilize or to subvert, to moralize or to enchant, forming a bedrock for adult sensibility. Childhood reading reflects the unresolved complexity of the experience of childhood itself as well as larger cultural shifts around the globe in values and beliefs. Usually offered every third year.
Robin Feuer Miller

COML/ENG 148a Fiction of the Second World War
[ hum wi ]
Studies novels of the Second World War from Great Britain, France, Germany, the United States, the Soviet Union, and Japan (all readings in English). Usually offered every fourth year.
John Burt

COML/REC 136a All in the Family: Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and the English Novel
[ hum ]
Selected novels and writings of Austen, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Woolf will be read to trace both the evolution of the novel and the meanings, contexts and depictions of the family. The family novel encompasses such larger questions as how we regard the pain of others and how we define community. Usually offered every second year.
Robin Feuer Miller

ENG 32a 21st-Century Global Fiction: A Basic Course
[ djw hum nw oc ]
Offers an introduction to 21st-century global fiction in English. What is fiction and how does it illuminate contemporary issues such as migration, terrorism, and climate change? Authors include Zadie Smith, Amitav Ghosh, Chimamanda Adichie, Mohsin Hamid, J.M. Coetzee and others. Usually offered every third year.
Ulka Anjaria

ENG 52a Refugee Stories, Refugee Lives
[ hum nw ]
Examines the functions of storytelling in the refugee crisis. Its main objective is to further students' understanding of the political dimensions of storytelling. The course explores how reworking of reality enable people to question State and social structures. Usually offered every third year.
Emilie Diouf

ENG 62b Contemporary African Literature, Global Perspectives
[ djw dl hum nw oc ]
What is "African" in African literature when the majority of writers are somehow removed from the African societies they portray? How do expatriate writers represent African subjectivities and cultures at the intersection of Diaspora and globalization? Who reads the works produced by these writers? Usually offered every third year.
Emilie Diouf

ENG 72a The Caribbean's Asias: Asian Migration & Heritage in the Caribbean
[ dl hum nw ]
Studies fiction and theory by and about Caribbean people of South Asian origin, and Caribbean people of Chinese origin from the late nineteenth century to the present. Examines how they have been implicated in discussions of nationalism, hybridity, diaspora, and neoliberalism. Usually offered every third year.
Faith Smith

ENG 111b Postcolonial Theory
[ djw hum wi ]
Introduces students to key concepts in postcolonial theory. Traces the consequences of European colonialism for politics, culture and literature around the world, situates these within ongoing contemporary debates, and considers the usefulness of postcolonial theory for understanding the world today. Usually offered every third year.
Joshua Williams

ENG 127a The Novel in India
[ djw hum nw ]
Survey of the novel and short story of the Indian subcontinent, their formal experiments in context of nationalism and postcolonial history. Authors may include Tagore, Anand, Manto, Desani, Narayan, Desai, Devi, Rushdie, Roy, Mistry, and Chaudhuri. Usually offered every second year.
Ulka Anjaria

ENG 127b Migrating Bodies, Migrating Texts
[ djw hum nw ]
Beginning with the region's representation as a tabula rasa, examines the textual and visual constructions of the Caribbean as colony, homeland, backyard, paradise, and Babylon, and how the region's migrations have prompted ideas about evolution, hedonism, imperialism, nationalism, and diaspora. Usually offered every second year.
Faith Smith

ENG 137b Women and War
[ djw dl hum nw ]
Examines how African women writers and filmmakers use testimony to bear witness to mass violence. How do these writers resist political and sociocultural silencing systems that reduce traumatic experience to silence, denial, and terror? Usually offered every third year.
Emilie Diouf

ENG 152a Indian Love Stories
[ djw hum nw ]
Introduces students to writings on love, desire and sexuality from ancient India to the present. Topics include ancient eroticism, love in Urdu poetry, Gandhi's sexual asceticism, colonial regulation of sexuality, Bollywood, queer fiction and more. Usually offered every third year.
Ulka Anjaria

ENG 170a The Globalization of Nollywood
[ hum nw ]
Introduces students to Nigeria's film industry, one of the world's largest. It focuses on both the form and the content of Nollywood films. Examines how Nollywood films project local, national, and regional issues onto global screens. Usually offered every third year.
Emilie Diouf

ENG 172b African Literature and Human Rights
[ hum nw ]
Human rights have been central to thinking about Africa. What do we mean when we speak of human rights? Are we asserting a natural and universal equality among all people, regardless of race, class, gender, or geography? Usually offered every third year.
Emilie Diouf

FA 165a Contemporary Art
[ ca ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took FA 152a in prior years.
After theories of power and representation and art movements of pop, minimalism, and conceptual art were established by the 1970s, artists began to create what we see in galleries today. This course addresses art at the turn of the millennium with attention to intersections of art and identity, politics, economy, and history. Usually offered every second year.
Peter Kalb

FA 166b Representing Globalism
[ ca djw nw ]
For several decades, artists have been investigating the character and consequences of life under global capitalism. Through examination of writings by artists, theorists, and historians in the context of art since the turn of the millennium, this course seeks to uncover stories of the global present and possible futures. Usually offered every year.
Peter Kalb

FA 173b Art in Shanghai
[ ca nw ]
Examines the art and visual culture of Shanghai–China's symbol of modernity–from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries, encompassing painting, architecture, calligraphy, fashion, advertising, among other topics. Usually offered every third year.
Aida Wong

FA 192a Studies in Modern and Contemporary Art
[ ca oc ]
Topics may vary from year to year; the course may be repeated for credit.
Usually offered every second year.
Gannit Ankori, Peter Kalb, and Nancy Scott

FILM 114a Genre Films in Cinema and Television
[ hum ]
Explores the analytical framework for understanding genre film. From Steven Spielberg's Jaws to Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Tim Story's Barbershop, genre films break box office records and have lasting cultural significance in cinema. Usually offered every third year.
Alice Kelikian

FREN 110a Cultural Representations
[ fl hum oc ]
Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
A foundation course in French and Francophone culture, analyzing texts and other cultural phenomena such as film, painting, music, and politics. Usually offered every year.
Clémentine Fauré-Bellaïche, Hollie Harder, or Michael Randall

FREN 125b Mediterranean Crossings
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Navigating French and Francophone literature and film, we will explore the Mediterranean as a transnational space of multiple circulations, migrations, and cultural crossings in works by Lebanese, Algerian, Moroccan, Tunisian, Greek, Romanian, and French writers and filmmakers. Usually offered every third year.
Clémentine Fauré-Bellaïche

FREN 139a Bad Girls and Boys: Du mauvais genre
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Through a selection of literary texts, articles, images and films, students will explore how works from the Middle Ages to present day depict male and female figures in the French and Francophone world who have failed to conform to expectations of their gender. Usually offered every second year.
Hollie Harder

FREN 150b French Detective Novels: Major Questions for a Minor Genre?
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Examines how French and Francophone detective novels take on big questions such as the origin of evil and how do you know what you know. Authors include Fred Vargas, Simenon, Driss Chraibi, Moussa Konate. Usually offered every second year.
Michael Randall

FREN 154b Regards vers la Chine
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Examines how China has often been represented by French writers and artists as the Other in order to question their own society, artistic practices, and political order. We will also wonder if the new generation of francophone writers born in China offer a different vision of their country of origin. The course includes novels, poetry, movies, and paintings. Usually offered every second year.
Martine Voiret

FREN 161a The Enigma of Being Oneself: From Du Bellay to Laferrière
[ djw fl hum wi ]
Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Explores the relationship of identity formation and modern individualism in texts by writers working in France, Francophone Africa and Canada. Authors range from modern and contemporary writers Sarah Kofman, Dany Laferrière, Achille Mbembe, Alain Mabanckou, and Edouard Glissant to early-modern writers like Joachim Du Bellay and Michel de Montaigne. Usually offered every year.
Michael Randall

FREN 162b From Les Confessions to Instagram: Self-Writing in Contemporary French and Francophone Literature
[ fl hum wi ]
Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Through the works of major writers, the main goal of the course will be to study the many variations of autobiographical writing that characterize contemporary French and Francophone literature, and to relate them to the renewed exploration of the post-modern subject. We will examine along the way how the self relates to the others, how it engages with filiation, memory and history - (especially World War II and the Franco-Algerian War) - and we will put an emphasis on the notions of self-fashioning and performance. Usually offered every second year.
Clémentine Fauré-Bellaïche

HISP 111b Introduction to Latin American Literature and Culture
[ djw fl hum nw ]
Prerequisite: HISP 106b, or HISP 108a, or permission of the instructor.
Examines key Latin American texts of different genres (poems, short stories and excerpts from novels, chronicles, comics, screenplays, cyberfiction) and from different time periods from the conquest to modernity. This class places emphasis on problems of cultural definition and identity construction as they are elaborated in literary discourse. Identifying major themes (coloniality and emancipation, modernismo and modernity, indigenismo, hybridity and mestizaje, nationalisms, Pan-Americanism, etc.) we will trace continuities and ruptures throughout Latin American intellectual history. Usually offered every semester.
Jerónimo Arellano, Lucía Reyes de Deu, or Fernando Rosenberg

HISP 175b Millennial Latin American Literature and Cinema
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor. Taught in Spanish.
Explores new trends in Latin American literary fiction and cinema from the last two decades. Usually offered every second year.
Jerónimo Arellano

HISP 192b Latin American Global Film
[ hum nw ]
May be taught in English or Spanish.
Studies films that re-imagine Latin America’s place in the world, focusing on how images are produced and consumed transnationally. ‘Traditional’ topics like cultural identity are refashioned for international consumption, and local issues are dramatized as already crisscrossed by global flows of which the films themselves partake. Close analysis of visual representation and film techniques will be complemented in each case by a study of historical and cultural background. Usually offered every second year.
Fernando Rosenberg

HIST 109b A Global History of Sport: Politics, Economy, Race and Culture
[ deis-us djw ss ]
Examines soccer, boxing, baseball, cricket and other sports to reflect on culture, politics, race, and globalization. With a focus on empire, gender, ethnicity, this course considers sport as the battleground for ideological and group contests. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh

LALS 1a Introduction to Latin American/LatinX: Cultures, Histories, and Societies
[ nw oc ss ]
Provides a broad overview of the histories, cultures, and politics that continue to shape the Americas; specifically of the vast regions and populations of what came to be labeled as "Latin America," "the Caribbean" and what we now call "Latinx " populations in the USA. The class provides an introduction to Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies. It draws from different disciplines and fields of study that compose this field, such as history, anthropology, literature, visual arts, film, political science, among other perspectives and methodologies. Usually offered every year.
Staff

LALS 170a Sports, Games, and Politics in Latin America and the Caribbean
[ ss wi ]
Sports are one of Latin America's biggest exports and imports. This course, engaging with cultural studies theory and interdisciplinary readings, examines the politics and social forces behind sports such as soccer, cricket, baseball, wrestling, and bullfighting. Usually offered every third year.
Laura Brown

MUS 3b Global Soundscapes: Performing Musical Tradition Across Time and Place
[ ca nw ]
Open to all students. Required of all Cultural Studies track majors.
What are we listening to? Applies engaged listening skills and critical analysis for a deeper appreciation of (non-Western) music as a cultural expression. Focuses on particular traditions as well as social context, impact of globalization, cultural production, cultural rights, etc. Usually offered every year.
Staff

NEJS 144a Jews in the World of Islam
[ hum nw ]
Examines social and cultural history of Jewish communities in the Islamic world. Special emphasis is placed on the pre-modern Jewish communities. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Decter

NEJS 149b Jewish Spaces, Global Cities
[ hum ]
Explores Jewish experiences in the city--from the early modern ghetto to the mellah in Muslim countries and the cosmopolitan metropolis. It will examine Jewish contributions to urban planning, architecture, culture, sports, and inter-ethnic relations in global perspective. Usually offered every second year.
ChaeRan Freeze

NEJS 183b Global Jewish Literature
[ hum wi ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took NEJS 171a in prior years.
Introduces important works of modern Jewish literature, graphic fiction, and film. Taking a comparative approach, it addresses major themes in contemporary Jewish culture, interrogates the "Jewishness" of the works and considers issues of language, poetics, and culture significant to Jewish identity. Usually offered every second year.
Ellen Kellman

REL 107a Introduction to World Religions
[ hum nw ]
An introduction to the study of religion; this core course surveys and broadly explores some of the major religions across the globe.
Kristen Lucken

REL 161a Chinese Religion and Thought: Understanding Confucianism and Daoism (Taoism)
[ hum nw ]
This course aims at widening and deepening students' knowledge of world religions by introducing to them distinctive Chinese religions and schools of thought with emphasis on two most significant ones, namely, Confucianism and Taoism. Usually offered every second year.
Yu Feng

REL/SAS 152a Introduction to Hinduism
[ hum nw ]
Introduces Hindu practice and thought. Explores broadly the variety of forms, practices, and philosophies that have been developing from the time of the Vedas (ca. 1500 BCE) up to present day popular Hinduism practiced in both urban and rural India. Examines the relations between Hindu religion and its wider cultural, social, and political contexts, relations between the Hindu majority of India and minority traditions, and questions of Hindu identity both in India and abroad. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

SAS 100a India and Pakistan: Understanding South Asia
[ djw hum nw ss ]
An exploration of the history, societies, cultures, religions, and literature of South Asia--India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Uses perspectives from history, anthropology, literature, and film to examine past and contemporary life in South Asia. Usually offered every year.
Jonathan Anjaria, Ulka Anjaria, or Harleen Singh

SAS 130a Film and Fiction of Crisis
[ hum nw ]
Examines novels and films as a response to some pivotal crisis in South Asia: Independence and Partition, Communal Riots, Insurgency and Terrorism. We will read and analyze texts from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka in an effort to examine how these moments of crisis have affected literary and cinematic form while also paying close attention to how they contest or support the narrative of the unified nation. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Singh

SAS 150b Love, Sex, and Country: Films from India
[ djw hum nw ]
A study of Hindi films made in India since 1947 with a few notable exceptions from regional film, as well as some recent films made in English. Students will read Hindi films as texts/narratives of the nation to probe the occurrence of cultural, religious, historical, political, and social themes. Usually offered every third year.
Harleen Singh

SOC 120b Globalization and the Media
[ ss ]
Investigates the phenomenon of globalization as it relates to mass media. Topics addressed include the growth of transnational media organizations, the creation of audiences that transcend territorial groupings, the hybridization of cultural styles, and the consequences for local identities. Usually offered every third year.
Laura Miller

SOC 146a Mass Communication Theory
[ ss ]
An examination of key theories in mass communication, including mass culture, hegemony, the production of culture, and public sphere. Themes discussed include the nature of media effects, the role of the audience, and the extent of diversity in the mass media. Usually offered every year.
Laura Miller

THA 115b The Avant-Gardes in Performance
[ ca hum ]
Explores the avant-garde movements including symbolism, decadence, futurism, constructivism, Dada, surrealism, expressionism, existentialism, pop art and happenings, performance art, minimalism, and postmodernism as alternative forms of expression that challenge mainstream art. Attention is paid to the interactions among theater, painting, dance, music, and film. Usually offered every second year.
Dmitry Troyanovsky

WGS 5a Women, Genders, and Sexualities
[ deis-us dl oc ss ]
This interdisciplinary course introduces central concepts and topics in the field of women's, gender, and sexuality studies. Explores the position of women and other genders in diverse settings and the impact of gender as a social, cultural, and intellectual category in the United States and around the globe. Asks how gendered institutions, behaviors, and representations have been configured in the past and function in the present, and also examines the ways in which gender and sexuality intersect with many other vectors of identity and circumstance in forming human affairs. Usually offered every fall.
ChaeRan Freeze, Sarah Lamb, or Harleen Singh

IGS: Economy, Health, and Environment

AAAS 60a Economics of Third World Hunger
[ nw ss ]
Employs the tools of social science, particularly economics, to study causes and potential solutions to problems in production, trade, and consumption of food in the underdeveloped world. Usually offered every second year.
Wellington Nyangoni

AAAS 80a Economy and Society in Africa
[ nw ss wi ]
Perspectives on the interaction of economic and other variables in African societies. Topics include the ethical and economic bases of distributive justice; models of social theory, efficiency, and equality in law; the role of economic variables in the theory of history; and world systems analysis. Usually offered every third year.
Wellington Nyangoni

AAAS 122a Politics of Southern Africa
[ nw ss ]
Study of clashing nationalisms, alternative patterns of development, and internationalization of conflict in southern Africa. The political economy of South Africa in regional context and its effect on the politics of its neighbors, particularly Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. Usually offered every third year.
Wellington Nyangoni

AAAS 126b Political Economy of the Third World
[ nw ss wi ]
Development of capitalism and different roles and functions assigned to all "Third Worlds," in the periphery as well as the center. Special attention will be paid to African and African American peripheries. Usually offered every year.
Wellington Nyangoni

AAAS 158a Theories of Development and Underdevelopment
[ nw ss wi ]
Humankind has for some time now possessed the scientific and technological means to combat the scourge of poverty. The purpose of this seminar is to acquaint students with contending theories of development and underdevelopment, emphasizing the open and contested nature of the process involved and of the field of study itself. Among the topics to be studied are modernization theory, the challenge to modernization posed by dependency and world systems theories, and more recent approaches centered on the concepts of basic needs and of sustainable development. Usually offered every second year.
Wellington Nyangoni

AMST 30b American Environmental History
[ ss wi ]
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 year.
Brian Donahue

AMST 106b Food and Farming in America
[ ss wi ]
Yields four semester-hour credits towards rate of work and graduation.
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.
Brian Donahue

ANTH 55a Anthropology of Development
[ nw ss ]
Examines efforts to address global poverty that are typically labeled as "development." Privileging the perspectives of ordinary people, and looking carefully at the institutions involved in development, the course relies on ethnographic case studies that will draw students into the complexity of global inequality. Broad development themes such as public health, agriculture, the environment, democracy, poverty, and entrepreneurship will be explored. Usually offered every second year.
Richard Schroeder

ANTH 70a Business, Culture and Society
[ ss ]
In a diverse and rapidly changing global marketplace, it is crucial to understand local traditions, customs and cultural preferences. In this course, we adopt anthropological approaches to understand their impact on business practices, products, services, clients and ideas. Usually offered every second year.
Patricia Alvarez Astacio or Elizabeth Ferry

ANTH 127a Medicine, Body, and Culture
[ djw nw ss ]
Examines main areas of inquiry in medical anthropology, including medicine as a sociocultural construct, political and economic dimensions of suffering and health, patients and healers in comparative medical systems. Usually offered every year.
Sarah Lamb or Anita Hannig

ANTH 140b Critical Perspectives in Global Health
[ deis-us djw nw ss ]
What value systems and other sociocultural factors underlie global public health policy? How can anthropology shed light on debates about the best ways to improve health outcomes? This course examines issues from malaria to HIV/AIDS, from tobacco cessation to immunization. Usually offered every third year.
Elanah Uretsky

ANTH 142b Global Pandemics: History, Society, and Policy
[ nw oc ss ]
Takes a biosocial approach to pandemics like HIV/AIDS, SARS, and Ebola as shaped not simply by biology, but also by culture, economics, politics, and history. Discussion focuses on how gender, sexuality, religion, and folk practices shape pandemic situations. Usually offered every fourth year.
Elanah Uretsky

ANTH 163b Economies and Culture
[ djw nw ss ]
Prerequisite: ANTH 1a, ECON 2a, ECON 10a, or permission of the instructor.
We read in newspapers and books and hear in everyday discussion about "the economy," an identifiably separate sphere of human life with its own rules and principles and its own scholarly discipline (economics). The class starts with the premise that this "common sense" idea of the economy is only one among a number of possible perspectives on the ways people use resources to meet their basic and not-so-basic human needs. In the course, we draw on cross-cultural examples, and take a look at the cultural aspects of finance, corporations, and markets. Usually offered every second year.
Elizabeth Ferry

ANTH 164a Medicine and Religion
[ djw nw ss ]
Considers the convergence of two cultural spheres that are normally treated as separate: medicine and religion. The course will examine their overlap, such as in healing and dying, as well as points of contention through historical and contemporary global ethnographies. Usually offered every second year.
Anita Hannig

BIOL 17b Conservation Biology
[ sn ]
Considers the current worldwide loss of biological diversity, causes of this loss, and methods for protecting and conserving biodiversity. Explores biological and social aspects of the problems and their solutions. Usually offered every year.
Colleen Hitchcock

BIOL 23a Ecology
[ sn ]
Prerequisites: BIOL 16a, or a score of 5 on the AP Biology Exam, or permission of the instructor.
Illustrates the science of ecology, from individual, population, and community-level perspectives. Includes citizen science ecological research to contextualize theory. Usually offered every year.
Colleen Hitchcock

BIOL 134b Topics in Ecology
[ oc sn ]
Prerequisites: BIOL 23a, or permission of the instructor. Topics may vary from year to year. Please consult the Course Schedule for topic and description. Course may be repeated once for credit with permission of the instructor.
Annually, a different aspect of the global biosphere is selected for analysis. In any year the focus may be on specific ecosystems (e.g., terrestrial, aquatic, tropical, arctic), populations, system modeling, restoration ecology, or other aspects of ecology. Usually offered every year.
Dan Perlman

BUS 118a Corporate Finance: European Case Studies
[ ss ]
Prerequisites: BUS 6a and ECON 10a. Course to be taught at Brandeis program in Copenhagen.
Addresses how companies raise and manage their financial responsibilities, apply corporate finance theory and compare U.S. and European corporate finance practices. Topics include capital structure, debt financing, equity financing, valuation methods, mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buy-outs, corporate governance, and risk management. Usually offered every year.
Staff

CHEM 33a Environmental Chemistry
[ sn ]
Prerequisite: A satisfactory grade (C- or higher) in CHEM 11b or 15b or the equivalent.
The course surveys the important chemical principles and reactions that determine the balance of the molecular species in the environment and how human activity affects this balance. The class evaluates current issues of environmental concern such as ozone depletion, global warming, sustainable energy, toxic chemicals, water pollution, and green chemistry. Usually offered every year.
Bryan Ingoglia

CHSC 3b Solving Environmental Challenges: The Role of Chemistry
[ sn ]
Does not meet the requirements for the major in chemistry.
Provides a basic understanding of the chemistry of natural environmental cycles, and how these cycles are adversely affected by society. Student teams develop case studies on "hot topics" such as mercury, brominated flame retardants, MBTE, perchlorate, dioxin, and others. Usually offered every second year.
Dwight Peavey

CHSC 4b Understanding the Chemistry of Sustainability
[ sn ]
Prerequisites: High school-level chemistry or environmental science/studies is required. Students missing this background may petition the instructor for permission to enroll. Does NOT meet requirements for the major in chemistry.
An exploration of the role of green chemistry, nanotechnology, bioengineering, innovative design, and greater reliance on renewable resources in achieving environmental sustainability. Topics include sustainable energy, recognized green sector industries, green chemicals, environmentally preferable products, and sustainable manufacturing. Usually offered every second year.
Dwight Peavey

ECON 23a Latin American Economic Development
[ djw ss ]
Prerequisite: ECON 2a or ECON 10a.
Introductory survey of the economic, financial, and institutional forces that drive Latin American economic development. The course combines economic theory, empirical evidence, and a historical approach to develop students’ ability to analyze these forces. Topics include poverty and inequality, human capital, geographical determinants, institutions, debt crises and the macroeconomy. Usually offered every second year.
Oriana Montti

ECON 30a The Economy of China
[ nw ss ]
Prerequisite: ECON 2a or 10a.
Analysis of China's economic transformation with particular emphasis on China's economic reforms since 1978, including the restructuring of its enterprise, fiscal, financial, and political systems and the roles of trade, foreign investment, and technology in driving China's economic advance. Usually offered every year.
Gary Jefferson

ECON 65b Governance, Bureaucracy and Economic Development
[ ss ]
Prerequisite: ECON 2a or ECON 10a.
Analyzes the role of institutions, governance, and bureaucracy in economic development. Topics include transaction costs, role of institutions, governance performance indicators, causes and consequences of corruption, anti-corruption policies, principal-agent theory and bureaucratic behavior. The course also includes a detailed case study on the role of governance and bureaucratic reforms in China’s economic success since 1980. Usually offered every second year.
Nader Habibi

ECON 122b The Economics of the Middle East
[ nw ss ]
Prerequisite: ECON 2a or 10a or the equivalent. Does not count toward the upper-level elective requirement for the major in economics.
Examines the Middle East economies – past experiences, present situation, and future challenges – drawing on theories, policy formulations and empirical studies of economic growth, trade, poverty, income distribution, labor markets, finance and banking, government reforms, globalization, and Arab-Israeli political economy. Usually offered every year.
Nader Habibi

ECON 141b Economics of Innovation
[ ss ]
Prerequisites: ECON 80a and ECON 83a or permission of the instructor.
Studies the innovation and technological change as the central focus of modern economies. Topics include the sources of growth, economics of research and development, innovation, diffusion and technology transfer, appropriability, patents, information markets, productivity, institutional innovation, and global competitiveness. Usually offered every year.
Gary Jefferson

ECON 160a International Trade Theory
[ ss ]
Prerequisites: ECON 80a and ECON 83a or permission of the instructor.
Causes and consequences of international trade and factor movements. Topics include determinants of trade, effects on welfare and income distribution, trade and growth, protection, foreign investment, immigration, and preferential trading. Usually offered every year.
Staff

ECON 172b Money and Banking
[ ss ]
Prerequisites: ECON 82b and ECON 83a or permission of the instructor.
Examines the relationship of the financial system to real economic activity, focusing especially on banks and central banks. Topics include the monetary and payments systems; financial instruments and their pricing; the structure, management, and regulation of bank and nonbank financial intermediaries and the design and operations of central banks in a modern economy. Usually offered every year.
Scott Redenius

ECON 175a Introduction to the Economics of Development
[ ss ]
Prerequisite: ECON 2a or 10a or permission of the instructor. Does not count toward the upper-level elective requirement for the major in economics.
An introduction to various models of economic growth and development and evaluation of these perspectives from the experience of developing and industrial countries. Usually offered every second year.
Nidhiya Menon

ECON 176a Health, Hunger, and the Household in Developing Countries
[ djw nw ss ]
Prerequisites: ECON 80a and ECON 184b or permission of the instructor.
Examines aspects of poverty and nutrition that are confronted by households in low-income countries. Examines these issues primarily from a microeconomic perspective, although some macroeconomic angles are explored as well. Usually offered every second year.
Nidhiya Menon

ENVS 2a Fundamentals of Environmental Challenges
[ sn ]
Provides a broad interdisciplinary introduction to environmental studies. Examines several key environmental challenges including climate change, biodiversity loss, water issues, and pollutants through an array of lenses from the natural and social sciences. Usually offered every year.
Dan Perlman

ENVS 18b Global Sustainability and Biodiversity Conservation
[ ss ]
Studies the development of international environmental law and policy through a historical lens. Examines how early diplomatic initiatives have--and importantly, have not--shaped the contemporary structure of international environmental relations. Usually offered every second year.
Charles Chester

ENVS 49a Conservation Politics
[ djw nw ss ]
Examines theories and practices of nature conservation from interdisciplinary social science and humanistic perspectives. Surveys a range of moral, political, cultural and economic dilemmas facing conservationists. Explores ways to balance competing ethical imperatives to protect biodiversity and respect human rights. Usually offered every year.
Richard Schroeder

ENVS 107b Atmospheric Civics and Diplomacy
[ ss ]
Examines three principal threats to the atmosphere—air pollution, ozone depletion, and climate change—through the lens of international relations. The course primarily aims to answer the overarching question: What can international actors do to protect the atmosphere? Usually offered every year.
Charles Chester

FA 181a Housing and Social Justice
[ ca deis-us dl ss ]
Employs housing as a lens to interrogate space and society, state and market, power and change, in relation with urban inequality and social justice. It trains students to become participants in the global debates about housing. In doing so, it teaches students about dominant paradigms of urban development and welfare and situates such paradigms in the 20th century history of capitalism. It will explicitly adopt a comparative and transnational urban approach to housing and social justice, showing how a globalized perspective provides important insights into local shelter struggles and debates. Usually offered every second year.
Muna Guvenc

GECS 188b Human/Nature: European Perspectives on Climate Change
[ djw hum oc wi ]
Open to all students.
Introduces European attitudes towards climate change as reflected in policy, literature, film, and art, with a focus on workable future-oriented alternatives to fossil-fueled capitalism. Usually offered every second year.
Sabine von Mering

GS 202b Critical Global Issues
This foundational seminar examines key issues from the primary area of concentration in the global studies program. The specific focus of the seminar will vary from year to year, reflecting the changing relevance of particular issues as well as the specific interests of the instructor. Usually offered every year.
Kristen Lucken

HIST 156a U.S. Responses to Global Inequality: Recent Histories
[ ss wi ]
Examines official American responses to global economic inequality from WWII/decolonization through the Millennium Development Goals. This course explores domestic and international debates over development and explores the range of instruments and approaches taken in the name of development. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

HIST 180a The Global Opium Trade: 1755-Present
[ nw ss ]
Investigates the history of the opium trade from early times to present. Coverage will include the Anglo-Indian opium trade, the Opium Wars; the political economy of the legal trade; and the complex ramifications of its prohibition. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

HIST 184b Swashbuckling Adventurers or Sea Bandits? The Chinese Pirate in Global Perspective
[ nw ss wi ]
Explores the commercial role, political economy, social structure, and national imaginations of the Chinese pirate situated in both world history and in comparison to "piracies" elsewhere. Usually offered every third year.
Xing Hang

HIST 187a Frenemy States: Identity and Integration in East Asia
[ ss wi ]
Examines the emergence and development of distinct national identities in East Asia. We focus upon key transformative moments and events in the histories of China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam from the dawn of time to the early twentieth century. Usually offered every third year.
Xing Hang

HIST 187b Unequal Histories: Caste, Religion, and Dissent in India
[ djw nw oc ss ]
Examines the religious, political, and social dimensions of discrimination in India. In order to study caste, power, and representation, we will look at religious texts, historical debates, film, and literature from the Vedic Age to contemporary India. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh

HIST/SOC 170b Gender and Sexuality in South Asia
[ djw nw ss ]
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or permission of the instructor.
Explores historical and contemporary debates about gender and sexuality in South Asia; revisits concepts of "woman," "sex," "femininity," "home," "family," "community," "nation," "reform," "protection," and "civilization" across the colonial and postcolonial periods. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller and Gowri Vijayakumar

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.
Tom Shapiro

HSSP 102a Introduction to Global Health
[ ss ]
A primer on major issues in health care in developing nations. Topics include the natural history of disease and levels of prevention; epidemiological transitions; health disparities; and determinants of health including culture, social context, and behavior. Also covers: infectious and chronic disease incidence and prevalence; the role of nutrition, education, reproductive trends, and poverty; demographic transition including aging and urbanization; the structure and financing of health systems; and the globalization of health. Usually offered every year.
Alice Noble

SOC 36b Historical and Comparative Sociology
[ dl ss ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took SOC 136b in prior years.
Explores the relationship between sociology and history through examples of scholarship from both disciplines. Using historical studies, the course pays close attention to each author's research strategy. Examines basic research questions, theoretical underpinnings and assumptions, and uses of evidence. Usually offered every third year.
Chandler Rosenberger

WGS 135b Postcolonial Feminisms
[ hum oc ]
Examines feminist theories, literature, and film from formerly colonized, Anglophone countries in South Asia, the Caribbean, and Africa. It takes the shared path of decolonization and postcoloniality to discuss the development of feminist discourse and the diverse trajectories of gendered lives. Usually offered every third year.
Harleen Singh

University Bulletin (2021-2022)