This course interrogates representations of blackness in American popular culture. Using an interdisciplinary lens that considers the social, political, cultural, and historical realities that inform popular culture, students investigate how blackness is constructed and its implications.
This class considers the myriad experiences of gender and sexuality around the globe. The survey engages students in considering power dynamics and status accorded by gender in foraging societies, chiefdoms, archaic and late industrial states and the roles that subsistence, technology and religion play in shaping gender identity. Students examine the traditional cultural exceptions to binary categories in Native American, Middle Eastern and Indian societies and consider current movements around gender fluidity.
A consideration of the role of women in literature. Topics include Gothic fiction, nineteenth and twentieth century women writers, and women in fiction. Drawing on authors of both genders, the course considers gender relations, the historic role of women, the special challenges that have faced women writers, and the role of women in fiction.
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.
A study of the major dramatic works of Tennessee Williams, as well as his poetry and fiction. The course also examines Williams' life and his impact on twentieth-century American literature and theatre.
A study of several plays after 1600.
A study of the major seventeenth-century poets, concentrating on such poets' redefinitions of genre, mode, and source. Readings emphasize works by Donne, Herbert, Jonson, Herrick, Milton, and Marvell.
A study of Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Ulysses.
This course examines women's participation in social and political movements throughout the world since the late eighteenth century in order to understand how gender (the set of beliefs each culture has regarding male and female difference) has affected women's involvement. The course explores a variety of gender-based arguments that women have used to bring social change, assessing whether these approaches are effective or ultimately limit women to a narrow range of issues. Some attention is paid to how gender affects men's involvement in social movements.
This course examines women's participation in social and political movements throughout the world since the late eighteenth century in order to understand how gender (the set of beliefs each culture has regarding male and female difference) has affected women's involvement. The course explores a variety of gender-based arguments that women have used to bring social change, assessing whether these approaches are effective or ultimately limit women to a narrow range of issues. Some attention is paid to how gender affects men's involvement in social movements.
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.
This course introduces key theories and concepts related to managing diversity in democratic states, such as social identities, multiculturalism, liberalism, crosscutting cleavages, and consociationalism. Students critique and analyze different models of states' attempts to recognize and represent various groups while protecting equality and human rights. Among other issues, states' attempts to reconcile contending appeals for cultural group rights and gender equality are analyzed.
This course introduces key theories and concepts related to managing diversity in democratic states, such as social identities, multiculturalism, liberalism, crosscutting cleavages, and consociationalism. Students critique and analyze different models of states' attempts to recognize and represent various groups while protecting equality and human rights. Among other issues, states' attempts to reconcile contending appeals for cultural group rights and gender equality are analyzed.
Recent U.N. studies document the continuing systematic inequality that exists between men and women around the world. Approaching the study of sex-based inequality from a cross-cultural perspective reflects the reality that it is a universal phenomenon, but with complex and varied roots. The course will include an analysis of the ways in which this inequality impacts political decision-making, political representation, and public policy relevant to women and families. The course will also include the study of how factors such as race, class, religion, sexual orientation, and ethnicity, and social forces such as global capitalism, militarism, and nationalism interact with gender and affect the economic and political status of women and men around the world.
This course examines Supreme Court cases related to equality: by situating cases within varying theories of constitutional interpretation, and by assessing the socio-political implications of those decisions. Civil rights are specific governmental provisions to secure individual entitlements, as exemplified by the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of "equal protection of the laws." Claims centering on race, gender, sexual orientation, and disability are examined, along with other claims of equality arising from the Fifteenth Amendment's prohibition of voting discrimination. The course emphasizes, above all, the political role of the judiciary. This course may not be taken by students who have taken POLS 332.
A survey and critical evaluation of research investigating the psychological and social factors in sexual behavior with some attention to the underlying biology. A comparison and contrast across species, across individuals, and across cultures. Topics include partner preference, sexual dysfunction and treatment, changes across the life span, and commercial sex. Readings include selections from works that have changed the American understanding of sexual behavior.
Introduces and explores new religious movements, sectarian spin-offs, and alternative communities in the U.S. that have tested the parameters of acceptable "religion" at different moments in history. Particular attention is given to intersectional dynamics. The class questions the politics and practices of labeling, especially the language of "cults," and centers on specific historical case studies in order to illustrate and analyze major theoretical and methodological challenges in and for the study of religion(s). It considers what draws people to create and join new religious movements, the distinctive worlds such groups endeavor to build, and the controversies that have historically attended them.
Introduces and explores new religious movements, sectarian spin-offs, and alternative communities in the U.S. that have tested the parameters of acceptable "religion" at different moments in history. Particular attention is given to intersectional dynamics. The class questions the politics and practices of labeling, especially the language of "cults," and centers on specific historical case studies in order to illustrate and analyze major theoretical and methodological challenges in and for the study of religion(s). It considers what draws people to create and join new religious movements, the distinctive worlds such groups endeavor to build, and the controversies that have historically attended them.
This course examines the evolution of LGBTQ+ characters in American plays and films of the last one hundred years. Students will examine the recurring stereotypes, coded language and images used to identify characters in the early decades of the twentieth century, and how their portrayal changes when Queer playwrights and film makers tell their own stories. Topics will include shifting perspectives on drag, camp, intersectionality and gender identity, and the impact of feminism, the civil rights movement, and the AIDS crisis.
This course is designed to enrich students' knowledge of Black women’s activism during the twentieth century. Relying upon the perspectives expressed by Black women in their writings as a primary lens, students will have the opportunity to investigate some of the primary struggles for social justice waged by African and African-American women activists. In conjunction with a sustained emphasis upon Black women’s perspectives as articulated in their writings, we will consider some of the different dimensions of Black women’s resistance along with relevant scholarship.