This courses studies financial aspects of growth, income and price level determination in open economies. Topics include the balance of payments, exchange rate determination, international payment adjustment mechanisms, capital flows, and international macroeconomic policy.
This course explores the contemporary Anglophone novel since 1989, a period that coincides with the increased pace of globalization. Written largely from transnational perspectives that defy traditional national boundaries, the novels in this course share a common concern with capturing global experience and analyzing the cultural and economic impact of globalization. Potential readings include works by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Teju Cole, Amitav Ghosh, Michael Ondaatje, and Ruth Ozeki.
Integrating local, regional, and global perspectives, this course outlines the history of agriculture, introduces the development of food systems and policy, and reviews the environmental impact of food production. Among topics addressed are the history of agricultural expansion in the US, the development of agriculture and food policies, interaction among agricultural markets at home as well as abroad, and sustainable agriculture. Classroom activities emphasize the involvement of multiple constituencies in identifying and articulating agricultural issues. Field opportunities include garden activities and local trips aimed at relating broader issues to how livelihoods are pursued on the Cumberland Plateau.
Readings in representative authors, themes and periods from France and from other Francophone countries.
A survey of French films from the invention of cinema to the contemporary period, with an emphasis on points of connection with American cinema. From the Lumieres brothers to Melies, from Pathe and Gaumont to Surrealism (Clair, Bunuel, Cocteau), from Abel Gance to realism (Renoir, Carne) and from "New Wave" (Resnais, Godard, Truffaut) to "Modern Cinema" (Lelouch, Malle).
This intermediate-level course continues to develop a deeper understanding of cultural production in German-speaking societies. Students interpret films, stories, and graphic novels that present life before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. As a bridge to 300-level courses taught in German, students broaden their understanding of literary forms, build their range of expression in spoken German, and expand their writing skills.
Topics and themes related to the development and impact of Western civilization upon the human community. This subject will be analyzed through an intensive examination of a specific historical theme, issue or period.
A general survey of the political, constitutional, economic, and social history of Britain, Ireland, and the British Empire from the Revolution of 1688 to the present.
This class focuses on the modern transformations of China, Japan, and Korea from roughly 1800 to the present, considering the relationships between these three countries and the wider world. With many describing the 21st century as the “Asian century,” students will gain a greater understanding of key topics that have shaped modern Asian experiences, such as war and memory, reform and revolution, and empire and decolonization.
This course encompasses both the established history of the southern African region c. 1500-2004 and recent historiographical developments. As a result of this dual focus, the course highlights the production of southern African history, considering how, for whom, and why that history has been written. Topics include: the environment in history; the creation and interactions of racial groups; the mineral revolution and capitalist development; white domination, segregation, and apartheid; and political and popular resistance to these oppressive racial regimes. The course ends with the transition to majority rule, the role of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the democratic future of South Africa.
A study of the mixture of Indian and Spanish civilizations. Concentration on sixteenth-century culture of Aztecs and Incas, the evolution of Spanish colonial empire, the historical background to strongman government, the art and architecture of the colonies, and the Independence Period 1810-25.
This course offers a comparative perspective on the processes that led to the emergence of the Incas and the Aztecs. The course focuses on primary sources and texts from a variety of experts and scholars concerned with issues of state-building, self-sustained economy, warfare, aesthetics, rituals, religion, and culture.
This course examines why and how Protestantisms of differing type replaced Roman Catholicism as the official church in England, Scotland, and Ireland; how people throughout each society sought to encourage or oppose these changes; and how religious developments in these three nations from 1500 to 1750 diverged so sharply, yet remained so closely intertwined.
An introduction to the history of German-speaking Europe, c. 1450 to 1850. The course examines the complex history of the Holy Roman Empire, a vast, economically and culturally rich, multi-ethnic state. It also focuses on imperial politics in theory and practice, territorial expansion and diplomacy, the relative autonomy of many German cities, the Protestant Reformation and its aftermath, peasant revolts, the Thirty Years War, the German Enlightenment, and the Vormärz period that culminated in the 1848 Revolutions.
Although modern France is a product of the same tumultuous nineteenth- and twentieth-century developments experienced by the rest of Europe, the French reacted to the processes of industrialization, urbanization, and the democratization of politics, and the two world wars in their own fashion. This course considers in detail how France became "modern" and what the effects of this process were on different groups of individuals in French society. Readings center on primary documents.
In 1791, enslaved Africans in the French Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue rose up in a coordinated attack against their colonial masters. In so doing, they directly challenged the plantation regime and the system of racial hierarchy that prevailed throughout the Atlantic world. By 1804, the Haitians declared their independence from France and constructed the first “Black Republic” in world history. Exploring primary sources ranging from the Code Noir to slave narratives, accounts by revolutionary black leaders, and worldwide reactions to the insurrection, the course examines some of the major themes and debates surrounding the Haitian Revolution and its immediate aftermath.
An introduction to the field of environmental history, which asks how the natural world has shaped the course of human civilization, and how humans, in turn, have shaped the natural world, over time.
This second offering in a two-course sequence addresses the modern Middle East, and emphasizes the region's place in global politics and the world economy. Among the topics considered are European imperialism and local responses, nineteenth-century reform movements, the rise of the nation-state, the impact of Arab nationalism, the Arab-Israeli conflict, Islamic political movements, gender relations in the region, the importance of oil, the Iraq conflict, terrorism and the peace process.
This seminar investigates how and why sexuality became the key to selfhood in modern Europe. Drawing on the tools of gender analysis and cultural history, students explore the ways in which political, socioeconomic and cultural tensions of particular historical moments were manifested in the sexuality of individuals. Students also examine a variety of primary sources from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries to consider how individuals defined themselves through sexuality and how definitions were imposed on them by a variety of institutions and authority figures.
Offering a broad view of Islam in contemporary politics, this course investigates the politicization of Islam and the "Islamization" of politics by Islamist groups (such as al-Queda and Hamas), governments (such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan), and non-state actors in the Muslim world. The class aims to demystify the so-called "Islamic turn" by considering how Islamic politics are shaped by wider debates about modern Islam, by Western actions in the regions, and by the emergence of powerful new technologies of propaganda and recruitment.