H&S - History and Society

AMS4672 Working in America: Labor in the US Since 1892                                                              
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

How has blue, white, and pink collar work changed in the U.S. across the past centuries, and how sustainable are our models of work? This course focuses on the historical experiences of American workers, beginning with the mills of early industrialization and ending with the global corporations and big box chain stores of the contemporary U.S. We will study workers' unions, and also look at how workplaces have changed with the liberation movements of women, people of color, and LBGTQ+ workers. We will use written texts, films, and other rich sources to study how workers have shaped and adapted to the new, global economies of labor.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

ANT4600 Accessing Health? Design, Inequality and the Politics of Place

4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

Health outcomes vary widely across the globe: there is a gap of more than 30 years in the life expectancies of the longest-lived and shortest-lived countries. Yet decades’ and in some cases centuries’ worth of projects to improve health outcomes have faltered. Why, amidst a plethora of potential solutions, do poor health and health inequality persist?

This course investigates the relationship between human health, the places where we live, and the management of health through design and planning. Illness is both a justification for the exercise of power and a consequence of the inequalities that power leaves in its wake. This creates an apparent paradox where expert technologies of biomedicine and planning seem to offer the promise of better lives but also re-inscribe illness in already unhealthy populations. We will examine the fragmented conceptions of the body, community, health, and place that both make these efforts possible and make them unlikely to succeed in achieving health equality. 

The course explores the interaction between public health and planning norms and the everyday lives of people on the margin of these projects. We will pay particular attention to questions regarding how race, gender, and disability shape both health and experiences of place in the global South and North. After an overview of the humanistic social sciences’ approaches to the relationship between health and place in weeks 1-2, the readings in the first half of the course are organized around top-down projects to create healthier populations and the everyday strategies of resistance that people who find themselves caught up in these projects employ. The readings in the second half of the course explore people’s bottom-up efforts to forge a different relationship between place and health, with particular attention to the politics of design.

In this course, students will complete a two-part research project that explores how differently situated social groups seek to change places and their people in pursuit of health. In part one, you will draw on theories explored in this course to examine a “top-down” approach to the production of health. For instance, you might look at a particular city’s urban planning policies, the work of a transnational NGO, the management of a forest, or an anti-Zika campaign. In part two, you will explore a “bottom-up” approach to health by documenting people’s every day and grassroots practices for keeping or making themselves healthy. This could include but is not limited to guerrilla urbanism, disability activism, techniques of visibility/invisibility as everyday resistance, Black place-making, or food justice. You are not required to locate both parts of the project in the same place, nor are you required to organize both parts of the project around the same health problem. This project is an opportunity for you to explore a topic in which you are genuinely interested—so please let me know if you are feeling like you need some encouragement to choose the “riskier” option.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 intermediate liberal arts (HSS, CSP, LTA)

ANT4601 Anthropology of Migration

4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

Borders closed. Families torn apart. Refugees crowded into camps. Migrants hiding from authorities. These scenes have become all too common in today's world of increasing displacement, security crackdowns, and closed-door policies. This course introduces students beyond the headlines into the human stories and struggles of migration. We will examine the forces that compel people to leave their homes, the obstacles they face in crossing borders, the challenges of forging new lives in unfamiliar lands. Through ethnographic accounts, migrant narratives, and interactive discussion, we will gain insight into the courage, creativity, and resilience shown by migrants in the face of injustice. Students will gain a holistic perspective on migration by analyzing the historical, social, cultural, political, and economic dynamics that set migration in motion. We will critically investigate issues of identity, race, gender, human rights, and humanitarianism as they relate to migrants and refugees. Students will have opportunities to engage with local migrant communities. Ultimately, this course aims to develop informed global citizens, skilled in building empathy and articulating inclusive policies in contentious debates over migration. Students will gain analytical tools to humanize the headlines and contribute their voices to these defining issues of our time.

Prerequisites: Any Combination of 2 intermediate liberal arts (HSS, LTA, CSP)

ANT4602 ~ Hinduism and Buddhism
4 credit advanced liberal arts
 

Hinduism and Buddhism has both a macro and a micro focus. The macro focus includes a deep dive into the origins of these two traditions in South Asia. It also includes a wide exploration of the multitudes of sub traditions that fall under the umbrellas of what we call Hinduism and Buddhism. The micro focus is on the current thriving versions of Hinduism and Buddhism in the greater Boston area. There are more than one hundred Hindu and Buddhist temples, societies, and centers in the greater Boston area. This part of the course will involve group and individual visits to some of these sites and original research using the techniques of participant observation.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 Intermediate Liberal Arts (LTA, CSP, HSS)

ANT4605 Anthropology of Law
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits 

Anthropology of law is a four-credit advanced History and Society course that explores cross-cultural variation within and among legal institutions. Through the medium of ethnography, as well as original primary-source research into court proceedings and legal disputes, we consider how law becomes a mechanism for the maintenance of social order at the same time that it can contribute to social inequity. We will address central questions in the anthropology of law: How does our cultural background influence how we conceptualize justice? What are the consequences of finding oneself between competing legal systems? Our focus will be to examine critically the social and cultural dynamics behind dispute resolution, corporate law, crime, torts, religious law, and international courts, as well as dilemmas around policing and other ways people encounter “the law” in everyday life. Case studies from diverse legal environments in both industrialized and small-scale societies will help place Western law traditions in a comparative, global perspective.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

ANT4606 Modern Israel: Conflicts in Context
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

The goal of this seminar is to provide a broad, anthropological context for Israeli culture, politics, and history on a global scale. Through a combination of scholarly texts, films, artwork, and other works of fiction and non-fiction from both Jewish Israelis and Palestinians, we will consider the conception, founding, and current conflicts surrounding the state of Israel, its occupied territories, and the Palestinian people. Our topics will cover the diasporic history of the Jewish people, the international optics of Israeli self-determination, the internal ethnic and cultural conflicts of modern Israeli society, as well as the history of Palestinian resistance and the current state of suspension in Gaza and the West Bank. Students will be expected to emerge with a nuanced understanding of the past and current political realities of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and an appreciation for the complexities, ambiguities, and possible futures of Israeli/Palestinian society.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

CSP2002 African American History and Foodways (HIS)

(Formerly CVA2002)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

The course covers the major periods, movements, and events that have shaped African American history and foodways. These include: the African slave trade; antebellum period; the civil war and reconstruction; World War I and the great migration; Harlem Renaissance and Garveyism; Great Depression; Spanish Civil War and World War II; Civil Rights and Black Power movements; industrialization, the growth of the prison industrial complex, and the _war on drugs_. The course will also include content on African American foodways from the African slave trade to the Black Power movement. Classes discuss the assigned reading with lively student participation. Out-of-class work includes readings, online exams, attending lectures, artistic presentations, and films, as well as independent research.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

CSP2005 Anthropology of Religion

(Formerly CVA2005)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

Anthropology of religion is a four-credit intermediate History and Society course. From an ethnographic and qualitative perspective, we will explore religious expression around the globe, including the major Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam but also Buddhism, Hinduism, African religions, and lesser-known faiths from small-scale, non-industrialized societies. Emphasis is placed on the analytic categories for understanding religious experiences and the prospects and challenges of cross-cultural comparison. We will adopt the techniques of anthropological inquiry to consider the social forces at work within religious life, including the political, colonial, gendered, and transnational dimensions of worship. Topics of ritual, mythology, witchcraft, magic, and science will guide our exploration of belief and spirituality beyond the formal boundaries of institutional religions. Experiential assignments, including participant observation and interviews with practitioners from unfamiliar spiritual traditions, are combined with in-depth written exercises to strengthen your intercultural and rhetorical competencies.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

CSP2008 Cultural Anthropology

(Formerly CVA2008)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

Introduction to Cultural Anthropology is a four credit intermediate History and Society course. The central focus of this course is the phenomenon of culture, that remarkable accomplishment that makes humans unique among all other species. We will use the concept of culture to investigate the question of what it means to be human. A major area of focus will be upon the ways cultural meanings are generated, shared, symbolized, ritualized, contested and altered in the face of different types of challenges. We will also study the relationship of cultural meaning to different economic, kinship and political systems. Throughout the course, as we study a variety of unfamiliar societies, we will continually refer back to our own societies with the goal of looking at our own ways of doing things with a new frame of mind. This frame of mind, or anthropological perspective, searches for the internal logics and constellations of values and beliefs that underpin all societies and subcultures. Central to this course is a succession of small fieldwork projects. This course will particularly strengthen your multicultural and rhetorical competencies

This course is typically offered in the following semesters: Fall

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

CSP2009 East Asian Cultures

(Formerly CVA2009)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

Welcome to Cultures and Values 2009, an intermediate level Liberal Arts course which will introduce you to the cultures of East Asia. This course builds on the themes and techniques in the H&S and A&H Foundation courses to analyze our subject using the materials and methodology of history pursued in an interdisciplinary manner. We will focus on the cultures of East Asia, China, Japan, and Korea; with thematic examples from ancient, medieval and modern periods. East Asia is integrated due to location and the influence that China had on the cultures of Japan and Korea. We will begin our study with the major ways of thinking in ancient China-Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, with some consideration of Legalism, and Militarism. The ethical structures, ideas, concepts and vocabulary in part one will inform and be assumed in our study of Japan and Korea. We will next study the uses of Chinese Ethics in Japan and Korea, Shinto in Japan, and Shamanism in Korea. Although these three cultures have elements in common, Japan and Korea developed in unique ways and in no way should be seen as pale imitations of Chinese culture. We begin our study analyzing written (Chinese) classical texts, which became classics throughout East Asia. These are elite cultural documents, but we will also consider their impact on popular culture. The fourth section of the course will consider East Asia as a cultural unit. We will interrogate the cultural constructions of identity and meaning in these cultures and the political and social contexts in which these were found. We will consider the impact of modernization and globalization, and the change and continuity within East Asian cultures. Some attention will be given to the cultural impact from and on the West. We approach this course through readings in philosophy, religion, anthropology, art, literature, film, and music.

This course is typically offered in the following semesters: Spring or Summer

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

CSP2010 Gender Studies

(Formerly CVA2010)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

This course provides an interdisciplinary introduction to gender studies. Designed as an intermediate course, Introduction to Gender Studies aims to identify and critically examine the interactive relationships among gender, cultural/social institutions, and individuals in contemporary American society. This implies two foci of attention. First, through readings and discussion, we will explore gender roles and resulting power inequities in contexts such as families, the music industry, conceptions of both race and sexuality, and novels. Equally important, we will analyze how the behaviors of individuals reflect, sustain and sometimes alter social conceptions of gender. In concert, these two emphases serve to underline the relationships among gender, culture, and individuals.

This course is typically offered in the following semesters: Spring, Summer or Fall

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

CSP2013 Introduction to Sustainability
4 Credits

This case-based course introduces students to the basic concepts and tools that the liberal arts (science, social science, and the humanities) bring to a consideration of sustainability. Students develop the cross-disciplinary awareness and collaboration skills needed to approach environmental issues holistically.

Prerequisites: (RHT and AHS) or (FCI and WRT 1001)

CPS2015 Political Thought

(Formerly CVA2015)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

This course addresses the meaning and practice of politics through close readings of a range of political theory approaches, such as anarchist political theory, classic liberalism, civic republicanism, Black Nationalism, queer theory, settler colonial/Indigenous studies, conservatism, and feminist theory. The course will pursue such topics as the politics of confrontation, transformation and change, the role and meaning of citizenship, political community, government, inequality, political resistance, violence, and any other pertinent issues we discern from the work assigned. This is a reading intensive course, and it will also explore political themes that can be drawn out of popular culture, such as films and television shows.

This course is typically offered in the following semesters: Spring

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

CSP2020 Media Studies 
(Formerly CVA2020)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

If you took and passed CVA2020, you cannot take CSP2020, as these two courses are equivalent

This course explores the structure and functions of the mass media in contemporary society, looking at social, cultural, economic and political issues relevant to television, film, radio, recorded music, books, newspapers, magazines, internet and new communication technologies.  Exploration of relationships between media and individual, media structure, media policy, law and ethics, and globalization of communications media is emphasized.

This course is typically offered in the following semesters: Spring or Fall

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

CSP2026 Immigrants, Race and the American Promise

(Formerly CVA2026)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

This intermediate course will consider the nature of American culture and identity through the experiences of the nation's immigrants and its ethnic citizens. What sacrifices have immigrants and ethnic Americans made in order to become members of the national community? How have they contributed to the development of modern America? How have they re-shaped the culture, politics, and economy of the U.S.? How have immigrants and citizens of color adapted the mythology of the American Dream to achieve success? What does the larger narrative of immigration, race, and ethnicity tell us about our nation's values and our own identity as citizens? Throughout the semester, students will use historical texts, novels, and selected works of film and music to consider these questions. Selected themes for the course include the _Melting Pot_ and multiculturalism, race and ethnicity, anti-immigrant agitation and legislation, the nature of the American Dream, and the development of ethnic communities and businesses. The class will cover the time period from the late nineteenth century to the present.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

CSP2033 Radical Politics: Thought, Action, and Culture

(Formerly CVA2033)

4 Credits

This Intermediate Liberal Arts course examines the theory, actions, claims, and artistic and cultural representations of radical political movements historically and in our time. Radical political movements seek major transformations in the way we live together. Radical movements tend to work outside and even at odds with the mainstream political process that involves political parties and elections. Through an interdisciplinary approach, this course will look at the history and contemporary forms of radical politics, read theoretical and historical works that help us understand different ways to conceptualize a “radical” approach, and assess the radical potential of artistic work. In past courses, we have examined the Alt-Right and Antifa, the Movement for Black Lives, and such Indigenous political struggles as the Standing Rock/#NoDAPL movement in the US context and the #IdleNoMore movement in the Canadian context. Movements such as these – and others such as the 2022 uprising in Iran - will likely be part of the course in Fall 2022, and I adapt course materials to allow us to analyze forms of radical politics that may well be emerging just prior to and during our semester. Other possible movements we might examine include those concerning the environment/climate change, queer struggles, radical feminism, those for and against human migration, and neo-nazi formations. Students will be encouraged to work on projects that examine historical or contemporary radical movements that are in their interest, and in the forms through which they best communicate (written, visual, audio etc). The course will focus on the North American context, but student projects and our discussions do not need to be limited to that context. The materials for this class will include historical and political scholarly analyses, journalism, documentaries, film, literature, music, podcasts, public commentary, and the narratives of activists themselves.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

CSP2035 Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East

(Formerly CVA2035)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

While the Middle East continues to dominate Western foreign policy concerns and is a focus of Western media, understanding of this region is often based on stereotypes that do not consider the everyday lives of Middle Eastern people, and that do not attempt to differentiate between peoples of this region. This course will introduce several groups and cultures of the Middle East in detail, while focusing on thematic topics that are of particular interest to current world events. A brief survey of the history and geography of the region will be followed by more in-depth study of topics such as political Islam, the Israeli-Palestine conflict, the war in Afghanistan, gender and sexuality, and human rights issues. The course will be highly interactive, and will make frequent use of documentaries, movies, literature, and current news events as well as anthropological and ethnographic material.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

CSP2036 Environmental Justice  

(Formerly CVA2036)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits 

The objective of this course is to understand, explore, and analyze the inequities and power dynamics associated with many types of environmental (in)justice. Depending on the instructor, the focus may be on waste and consumption; global health; city design etc. in relation to issues of justice. How can we reimagine solutions for environmental justice? By thinking critically about these issues, we will challenge our thinking about environmental justice and why it matters today and in the future. 

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

CSP 2037: Anthropology and Science Fiction: Close Encounters of the Cultural Kind

4 intermediate liberal arts

This course brings together anthropology and science fiction to explore how humans think about, narrate, and contest encounters across difference. Through a combination of scholarly texts, fiction, film, and other works, we will investigate how people in different times and places have made sense of what it means to be human in moments when multiple forms of personhood are present. We will investigate why societies tell stories about encounters with the Other, consider how cross-cultural encounters transform societies and their ways of imagining and managing change, and analyze how the idea of difference has shaped anthropology and science fiction. Students will create original works that reflect on and tell new stories about cross-cultural encounters.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

CSP2050

4 Credits

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

CSP2051

4 Credits

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

CSP2055 Peoples and Cultures of the Americas

(Formerly CVA2055)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits
 

This course looks at the Peoples and Cultures and Cultures of Latin America from within. The course covers topics such as resistance movements against dictatorships, feminist movements, Indigenous and environmental movements, racial and social justice movements. These issues are presented from the perspective of those on the ground, actively engaged with pushing for social movements that shape these countries. 

What do we need to pay attention to when we are trying to understand Latin America? What are the forces that shape the region? These very complex questions should not be reduced to simple answers. However, the dynamics in Latin American countries (as well as elsewhere) are in large part a result of contentious processes between those that are trying to control the state and those trying to change it. The mainstream narrative about the history and politics of Latin America explains the region from the perspective of those who have access to the means of power, and have more leverage on how national states are governed. This is, though, only part of what we need to keep in mind. It is crucial to inquire into the movements that push against these dominant forces and narratives. This course invites students to investigate the social processes carried out by those who are often forgotten. Although frequently ignored, the consequences of these dynamics are constitutive of Latin America. This is an intermediate course designed to provide business students with the necessary tools to understand and engage with peoples and cultures of the region. 

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Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

CSP2059 Introduction to Consumer Society
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

This course addresses both long-standing and emerging debates about consumer society: Who is in control, consumers or advertisers and producers? How has the role of consumers changed in the digital era and with social media? How does consumption help us structure and communicate our identit(y/ies)? In what ways does consumption affect the environment and how does this then changed consumption patterns? How does the consumption of social media shape our lives? Special attention will be paid to the ways in which consumer culture structures division by class, status, gender, and race. Readings will include pieces by Adorno and Horkheimer, Bourdieu, Veblen, Sherman, Khan, Pittman, Duffy, and others.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

CSP2090 Food and the African American Canon

(Formerly CVA2090)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

This 4 credit history and foodways course discusses food and space in restaurants, dining cars, street venders and wherever food is made and sold (by whom), and eaten (by whom) at the center. The course will include readings in James Weldon Johnson’s The Autobiography of a Colored Man, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, Zora Hurston's Their Eyes Where Watching God, John Washington's The Chaneysville Incident, Paule Marshall's classic essay From The Poets in the Kitchen, and Richard Wright's Man of All Work. Readings on segregated restaurants come from James Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son, and in No Name in the Street. A chapter on Ntzoake Shange's novel, Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo and her novel Liliane.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

CVA2008 Cultural Anthropology
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

Introduction to Cultural Anthropology is a four credit intermediate History and Society course. The central focus of this course is the phenomenon of culture, that remarkable accomplishment that makes humans unique among all other species. We will use the concept of culture to investigate the question of what it means to be human. A major area of focus will be upon the ways cultural meanings are generated, shared, symbolized, ritualized, contested and altered in the face of different types of challenges. We will also study the relationship of cultural meaning to different economic, kinship and political systems. Throughout the course, as we study a variety of unfamiliar societies, we will continually refer back to our own societies with the goal of looking at our own ways of doing things with a new frame of mind. This frame of mind, or anthropological perspective, searches for the internal logics and constellations of values and beliefs that underpin all societies and subcultures. Central to this course is a succession of small fieldwork projects. This course will particularly strengthen your multicultural and rhetorical competencies

This course is typically offered in the following semesters: Fall

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

CVA2059 Introduction to Consumer Society
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

This course addresses both long-standing and emerging debates about consumer society: Who is in control, consumers or advertisers and producers? How has the role of consumers changed in the digital era and with social media? How does consumption help us structure and communicate our identit(y/ies)? In what ways does consumption affect the environment and how does this then changed consumption patterns? How does the consumption of social media shape our lives? Special attention will be paid to the ways in which consumer culture structures division by class, status, gender, and race. Readings will include pieces by Adorno and Horkheimer, Bourdieu, Veblen, Sherman, Khan, Pittman, Duffy, and others.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

ENV4602 Gender and Environment
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

The objective of this course is to understand, explore, and analyze the linkages between gender and the environment. Using multiple case studies (fashion, food, waste, illegal wildlife trade, climate change etc.), the course will focus on three core themes: 1) foundational concepts and theories of gender as they relate to the environment 2) the inequities and power dynamics associated with environmental challenges 3) knowledge and tools to mainstream gender and create effective change. By thinking critically about these concepts, we will challenge our current understanding about complex, global environmental challenges, the meaning of gender, and why it matters today and in the future.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

ENV4605 Global Environmental Activism
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

“It has never been more important to protect the environment, and it has never been more deadly. The battle for the environment is emerging as a new battleground for human rights.” (Global Witness).

This course examines environmental activism around the world. The impact of anthropogenic activity on the environment has raised serious global concern and triggered several efforts to tackle the problem from the global to local level. Individuals and groups are using various tools to create awareness and help curb the growing environmental menace from different sources. Activists – especially local and indigenous ones – often face danger, including persecution by powerful actors like states and multilateral corporations, and the murder rate of environmental activists continues to rise globally. Environmental activism has thus become increasingly perilous. Nonetheless, advocacy for environmental responsibility remains vibrant around the world. This course uses various cases in different regions of the world to help understand the global environmental movement These cases include Shell in Nigeria’s Niger Delta; Tahoe Resources in the Guatemalan town of Mataquescuintla; and Coca-Cola in India. The course will use these cases to examine: 1) the theoretical basis of environmental activism; 2) motivations of and challenges for activism; 3) the nature and composition of actors – activists, perpetrators and collaborators, policy communities, and governments; 4) nature and scope of issues and activism in the various regions of the world; and 5) relationships between environmental degradation, advocacy for its protection, and climate change.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

FCI1000 Foundations of Critical Inquiry
4 Credits
 

The Foundations of Critical Inquiry course, a theme-based course of study at the 1000 level, engages an interdisciplinary style of reasoning, interpreting, and understanding. As an introduction to the liberal arts, the course examines the processes by which individuals and societies create meaning. While there is a selection of themes through which this is explored, each course pays special attention to issues of identity and systems of power. This space for critical inquiry also allows students to reflect on their own agency. Currently, students may choose one of the following themes: 

• Justice and Inequality

• Memory and Forgetting 

• Nature and Environment 

• Self in Context

Click Here for a more detailed description.

Prerequisites: None

GDR4605 Global Gender Politics
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

This course aims to help students develop a comprehensive understanding of gender in contemporary domestic and international politics. It covers a variety of themes, such as feminist theory, intersectionality, gender performance, comparative legal regimes, and the political economy of gender. Students will have an opportunity to explore various case studies on gender from around the globe, to deepen their understanding of core concepts.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

GDR4610: Topics in Women's Studies
4 Advanced Liberal Arts

This course provides a forum to examine and discuss contemporary women's and girls' roles and positions. The course will address the following topics: first and second waves of feminism, sexuality, psycho-social influences on gender construction, paid work and structures of inequality, women and social protest and family configurations. At the beginning of the course, we will read some historic documents as background to the women's movement in the United States. Although the main focus will be on women and girls in the United States, we will also discuss women's positions in other countries as well. Because femininity and images of women are balanced, and often countered, by masculinity and images of men, we will spend time discussing men in relation to women. Integral to this course is recognition of how race, class, ethnicity and sexuality converge to influence how women negotiate their political, social and cultural roles. Finally, we will attempt to become _enlightened witnesses_ to the social construction of femininity and masculinity, and use our understanding to notice stereotypical portrayals as well as new, liberating images of women and men.

Prerequisites: 2 Intermediate Liberal Arts Courses (CSP, LTA, HSS)

HIS4610 Virtuous Capitalism in Malaysia and Thailand

(Formerly Social Responsibility in Malaysia & Thailand)
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Elective Abroad Credits

Program fee and group international airfare is paid to Glavin Office - program fee includes accommodations, breakfast, group flights (2), airport transports, ground transportation, site visits, program planned meals, and cultural excursions. Not included: tuition, visa costs, additional meals and personal expenses.

The purpose of our course is to explore the question: “How do Malaysians and Thais think about ‘Social Responsibility’ and how do they act in order to achieve it?” By extension, we will be asking about how approaches to business ethics in our own countries differ from Malaysians’ and Thais’? Often in Western discussions of business ethics, it is assumed that the West is far ahead of Asia in business ethics. We will make no such assumption, but rather, we will ask if Malaysia and Thailand have anything to teach our countries.

More particularly, we will focus on three Asian faiths and cultural traditions – Islam, Buddhism, and Confucianism. We will visit 3 socially responsible companies, each representing, respectively, an approach to social responsibility consistent with one of those 3 traditions. We will aim not only to learn about the implications of Islam, Buddhism, and Confucianism for business ethics. We will also aim to understand what qualities those 3 Asian traditions share which may distinguish them generally from Western traditions in business ethics.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

HIS4612 Drugs And Intoxicants In World History 
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits 

This course will examine the role of drugs and intoxicants in World History; their use as spiritual and medicinal tools, as key devices in economic capitalist expansion, and eventually their role as a divisive political and economic issue in contemporary politics. The course begins by examining the importance of stimulants such as tea, sugar, coffee and opium to the expansion of free trade and global capitalism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The course analyzes the shifts to prohibition, particularly the suppression of the global drug trade as justification for the expansion of American empire, and the US-led “War on Drugs” and its relationship with the expansion of the global drug trade. We will also address contemporary issues regarding the war on drugs in Mexico and narco-terrorism in Afghanistan. We will use a variety of books, articles, documents, and films to understand this rich, complex, and often misunderstood history. 

Prerequisites: Any combination of 3 intermediate liberal Arts (HSS LVA CVA)

HIS4616 Cambodia: Rebuilding Culture and Economy After Genocide

4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

In this action-oriented seminar students will explore the historical, political, and cultural events that shape Cambodian politics, culture and economy in Cambodia and the Cambodian diaspora today. After a brief historical introduction including the 600 years of Angkor civilization, Buddhism, and French colonialism, we will study the Khmer Rouge genocide (1975-1979) and its aftermath, and the current revival of society, economy, music, film, and dance. Our texts will include histories, memoirs, films, fieldtrips (as possible during Covid-19) and interviews in Lowell, MA – the second largest Cambodian-American community in the U.S. Students may be able to include a service learning component by teaching English online to 7-9th graders in a rural Cambodian school.     

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

HIS4617 The History of Boston
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

In this Advanced Level course, students will explore Boston’s history, from the seventeenth century to the present, and consider how the city’s religious values, economic leadership, and intellectual traditions shaped American identity. Selected topics for the class include Boston's Puritan heritage, its place in the American Revolution, the city's intellectual and social movements, the creation of its museums and civic institutions, and struggles with immigration and race. As part of their responsibilities for the course, students will participate in field trips to the historic sites of Beacon Hill, Boston Common and the Public Garden, the North End, Back Bay and Copley Square, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
 

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

HIS4619 Crossroads Manhattan 
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits 

Program Fee is paid to Glavin Office – program fee includes: accommodations, breakfast, program planned meals, and cultural excursions. Not included: tuition, transportation to/from NYC/Manhattan, additional meals, and personal expenses. If you want to learn about the language of the native Lenape peoples, study artifacts from the Harlem Renaissance, take a Gay Rights history tour of Greenwich Village, and map out immigration patterns in Chinatown, this course fits the bill. Students in this course will learn about Manhattan’s development by tracing the histories of the native and immigrant people who lived there. We will focus on the experiences of indigenous and enslaved populations as well as waves of migration from Holland, Ireland, Eastern Europe, the West Indies, China and East Asia. Above all, we will talk about Manhattan as a crossroads, a place where the experiences of diverse groups of people intersected and overlapped, leading to both conflict and liberation. What did Manhattan offer members of these diverse groups, and what will it offer us as students of its history? 

Prerequisites: 3 intermediate liberal arts courses (CVA, LVA, HSS, CSP, LTA in any combination) and admission in the course

HIS4620 Race and Ethnicity in Latin America
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

What did it mean to be _Black_ or _Indian_ or _White_ in Latin America? What is mestizaje and indigenismo? What did it mean to be of mixed descent? What does these mean today? Is _race_ a means to political empowerment, or the source of discrimination? This seminar explores these issues and ideas in the context of colonial and postcolonial Latin American history. In answering these questions, we will look at a variety of theoretical and disciplinary approaches to _race._ Armed with the history of these changing ideas, we will then consider a variety of case studies from throughout Latin America.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

HIS4626 Global Cities
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

This course explores global cities to understand the varied and discrepant historical experiences of urban modernity. Drawing on a wide variety of literature from different disciplines and regions, we will critically examine the shaping of cities across the world: Boston, London, Paris, Shanghai, Mumbai, Singapore, Dubai, Bangalore, and Brasilia among others. We will examine city-space at two levels: first, at the more formal level of the state and town planners; and, second, at an everyday level, where city dwellers contest and redraw town plans in their daily lives.

The course begins with an analysis of race, class, and gender that segregated the industrial metropolis. We will then discuss colonial cities using space as a lens to review empire and imperialism. Next, our focus will be on neoliberal governance; megacities; the conceptualization of ‘community’ in a neoliberal city; gentrification; privatization of urban space; urban informality; and the new language of urban inclusion/exclusion.

A specific focus of this course will be on the impact of globalization on South Asian city space: has globalization sharpened class, caste, and religious divides in these cities?

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

HIS4640 Food and Civil Rights 
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits 

Napoleon said that an army marches on its stomach. His comment causes one to ask the question: What is the relationship between food and political stability—or instability—during important periods in history? That is to say, what role does food play in starting and sustaining a movement? And what important takeaways do we gain from looking at the role of food in social movements? Food and Civil Rights delves into movements for progressive change focusing on the 17th through the 21th century. This course shows that there have always existed movements for social justice around the world among marginalized groups of people. And food has been at the center of civil rights movements in one way or the other. The course looks at the organizations and individuals, home cooks and professional chefs, who—with the food they donated, cooked, grew and distributed—helped various activists continue to march and advance their goals for progressive change and self-determination. The course also looks at movements to end discrimination in the restaurant industry for customers and would-be employees. Through this exploration, this course addresses questions such as: How did progressive organizations raise the funds necessary to pay for their programs, staff, and campaigns? How have striking workers fed their families? What individuals and groups made important food-related contributions to movements? Where did organizers meet and strategize? The course focuses on the North American context, but student projects and our discussions do not need to be limited to that context. The materials for this class will include primary and secondary sources. 

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

HIS4670 The History and Ethics of Capitalism
(Formerly History of Capitalism)
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

This course deals with the history of capitalism from early modern times to the present. It is concerned not just with the story of capitalist enterprise but with the cultural values and social institutions accompanying capitalism. It addresses the tension as well as the affinity between capitalism on the one hand and, on the other, contextual cultural values and social institutions. It especially focuses on the way that capitalist power subverts as well as supports the free market economy and democratic political processes with which it is often identified.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

HIS4674 The Personal is Political: Gender in Modern US History
(Advanced Liberal Arts)

Activists in the women’s movement made the personal political, bringing previously “private” issues such as sex, reproduction, birth control, and intimate relationships into the realm of public debates. This course focuses on the changing social and political roles of women and men in twentieth- and twenty-first century America. Using primary and secondary sources, films, and other texts, we will study “womanhood” and “manhood,” femininity and masculinity, and the intersection of these identities with the categories of class, race, ethnicity, religion, ability, and sexuality. We will discuss people in straight and GLBTQ family arrangements, in the diverse, globalized workplace, in the formation of public policy, and in social movements.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 3 Intermediate Liberal Arts Courses (CVA, LVA, HSS)

This course is typically offered in the following semesters: Spring or Fall

HIS4682 Women in China
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

Course considers Chinese history through an emphasis on the social and cultural roles of Chinese women and their changing role over time. Topics include women and the family, and women as shamans, prostitutes, nuns, rulers, writers, revolutionaries, and politicians. Close attention is given to the social-historical context, regional class, and ethnic differences in order to counter the common misconception that pre-modern China is an unchanging monolith. Through this approach and concentration on the roles of women, students gain a more realistic understanding of traditional Chinese society and of the complex legacy of the pre-Communist past in contemporary China.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

HSS2000 The Making of Modern America 1865-1929 
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits 

The decade of the 1920s witnessed the birth of much of what we consider _modern_ in the United States. Students in this intermediate Liberal Arts course will examine this decade, focusing on key developments: the decline of small town America and the mass appeal of the Ku Klux Klan; competing visions of Black Liberation and the art of the Harlem Renaissance; the emergence of modern gendered identities and their roles in the new economies of sex and work; the rise of LGBTQAI communities and the policing of those communities; the integration and later forced deportation of Mexican-Americans in the western U.S. We will use historical sources, among them film and fiction, to explore the currents of the twenties and draw connections to the social and political debates of the contemporary U.S. 

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

HSS2002: Introduction to Indigenous People's Politics and History

4 Intermediate Liberal Arts

This Intermediate level History and Society class is an Introduction to the study of the politics and history of Indigenous peoples. The class will focus mostly on the United States and Canada – two countries created through settler colonial conquest, genocide, and dispossession of Indigenous peoples from their territories. The course will offer opportunities for looking globally at Indigenous people’s experiences, histories and politics. To understand Indigenous people’s history and politics, one must learn about the intertwined history of colonialism, capitalism, white supremacy and heteropatriarchy, and their oppressive impacts upon Indigenous peoples. For example, what we call the “gender binary” is not natural but was imposed, in part, through colonial processes such as Indian Boarding/Residential Schools that brutally compelled children to conform to Euro-centric norms. Recently, in Canada on the grounds of old residential schools, unmarked graves have been discovered that contain the remains of children that went to these schools. This is just one of the difficult issues we will explore and grapple with in this class to understand Indigenous people’s history and the colonial oppression they have and continue to face. We will spend a great deal of time on Indigenous political movements that resist and refuse these oppressive systems. The course materials will include scholarly studies, historical narratives, fiction, poetry, first person narratives, films, documentaries, podcasts and other media that help students understand the historical and contemporary reality of Indigenous peoples, colonialism, political movements and so on. Students will be expected to develop a strong and precise understanding of the fundamental elements of Native American and Indigenous studies and will have the opportunity to explore their own topics of interest in project-oriented assignments. This will be a highly participatory class that will require close attention to materials and active and consistent engagement to succeed.  

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

HSS2003 Latin American History
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

This course will be an introduction to the main themes, processes, and ideas in Latin American history since 1810. The central focus will be on Mexico, the Caribbean, and the ABC countries (Argentina, Brazil, and Chile), without neglecting the main thinkers and major historical events from other countries. It will develop familiarity with critical developments in modern Latin American history such as slavery, modernization, neocolonialism, racism, and migratory flows. At times it will take a global perspective to situate Latin America in its proper international context, paying close attention to US-Latin American relations. In other words, the main goals of the course will be to cultivate an understanding of key concepts, developments, and issues in the region’s history, while offering a sense of Latin America’s human and cultural diversity.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

HSS2006 South Asian History
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

History has been the unfortunate ground on which many of South Asia’s fiercest political battles have played, and continue to play themselves out. This course considers a few of the key debates that have animated South Asian history. These include debates on the nature of colonialism, nationalism; the shape of a free India; the founding principles of the states of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan; and the legacy of colonialism on democracy, development, and globalization in these South Asian countries. We will also consider how recourse to certain interpretations of ‘history’ has influenced the crafting of policy and politics. Structured chronologically, the course begins with a study of colonialism in the early nineteenth century and ends by considering the challenges of deepening democratization, unequal development and the varied manifestations of globalization.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

HSS2010 The US in the World in the 20th Century
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

This course explores the role of the United States throughout the world from 1900 to the present. We will investigate the people, institutions, and processes that influenced American diplomatic and military engagements, and analyze the impact and effectiveness of America’s role. We will begin by exploring the emergence of America as an empire, and how American power and influence evolved and changed over the course of the century to the present day. We will explore America’s role in shaping the Cold War, in particular in Latin American and the wars in Vietnam, as well as more recent engagements in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Africa.
 

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

HSS2013 China Today: The Dragon Rises
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

This intermediate history course will introduce you to China’s dynamic present within the context of the complex legacy of the Chinese past. We will examine the historical, cultural, political, and economic development of post 1949 China, with brief introductions to relevant aspects of the imperial past. You will gain a nuanced appreciation for the incredible economic growth of China from 1990 to the present, and the concomitant problems of state-society relations, human rights, minority relations, the environment, and the gaps between the rich and the poor and the urban and rural citizens. We will take advantage of Boston’s resources through site visits to view Chinese art, undertake a scavenger hunt in Chinatown, and enjoy Chinese food. We will explore China through the use of scholarship, fiction, maps, memoir, art, film, and music.
 

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

HSS2418 Introduction to Sociology
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

Sociology explains human behavior in terms of group activities. The solidarity of a social group allows group members to work cooperatively towards common goals. But the dark side of group solidarity is that it often leads members to feel hostility towards individuals who are not a part of the group and for non-members to experience feelings of resentment towards the group and its members. How is solidarity achieved? How is the formation of social identity affected by group solidarity? How do groups competing for scarce resources construct a view of their group's needs, hopes, and desires? Where are group members and nonmembers situated in this view of social life? This course examines the relationship between group solidarity, resource scarcity, and the formation of social identity in everyday life.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

HSS2019 A History of Food and Election Campaigns 
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits 

Treating voters to food and drink in exchange for their vote on Election Day has a long history. This course focuses on campaigning for public office from 1876 to the present. We look at how political meetings and campaign stops provides the opportunity for a candidate to identify with voters and thereby gain their vote. As an HSS, this course cultivates ethical structures for interrogating the world, understanding choices, and making decisions. It focuses on frameworks for critically understanding the cultural constructions of meanings and identities and the simultaneous and reciprocal construction of cultural and political context by human beings as ethical agents.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

HSS2020 Media Studies 
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits 

This course explores the structure and functions of the mass media in contemporary society, looking at social, cultural, economic and political issues relevant to television, film, radio, recorded music, books, newspapers, magazines, internet and new communication technologies. Exploration of relationships between media and individual, media structure, media policy, law and ethics, and globalization of communications media is emphasized. 

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

HSS2025 Decolonization and Revolution in the 20th Century
4 Intermediate Credits

The 20th Century is viewed by most historians as the most violent and tempestuous century in human history. In particular, this narrative is largely dominated by the two great wars and the Cold War. However, what made those conflicts so important was not just their impact on Europe and the Western World, but how those conflicts catalyzed mass movements globally. This class examines the history of decolonization and revolution in the 20th Century, and how the world wars and the Cold War impacted processes of nationalism, independence, decolonization and revolution. Starting with the rise of Turkey and the Bolshevik revolution during the first world war, we will then analyze the independence movements that sprouted from the vestiges of the second world war, particularly those of China and India, as well as the emergence of Apartheid in South Africa. We will also explore the impact of the Cold War on revolution and decolonization, especially Vietnam and Algeria. Finally, the course will analyze how more recent revolutions, such as those in Iran and Israel /Palestine, are rooted in longer historical processes which highlight the continuing legacy of Imperialism and revolutionary resistance to imperialism in the contemporary world. The course will use a variety of books, articles, movies, and music to analyze this deep, violent, and often conflicted aspect of human history.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

HSS2028 Global Politics
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

This intermediate course will begin by examining different perspectives on the role of power, anarchy, institutions, and identity in the international system. These ideas will then be used to explore a wide range of current global issues, including war, trade, human rights, humanitarian intervention, and environmental problems. The goal of this course is to learn how various theories can bring both a richer understanding of the nature of international problems and of the motivations and perspectives of various international actors. This semester special attention will be given to the topics of international migration and conflicts in the Middle East.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

HSS2030 US Politics
(Formerly American Politics)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

The course begins with a focus on significant ideas, major political and economic institutions, and key social conflicts and events that have shaped the character of American politics. We will position American politics in its historical context, recognizing and contending with the legacies of enslavement, white supremacy, and imperial violence in its development. As such, the fundamental role of race, colonialism, gender, sexuality, and class will be addressed throughout so that we can understand key and persistent features of American politics. The latter half of the course will examine contemporary ideologies, struggles over civil liberties and rights, the forces generating economic inequality, and the origins of mass incarceration and systemic racism. We will also spend the beginning of classes discussing the news, so the class will be flexible enough to respond to and address political events as they occur. The course will involve a combination of lecturing, discussion, and small-group activities, so class participation is important.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

HSS2032 African American History and Foodways
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts

African History and Foodways will cover the major subjects, movements, and events that have shaped Africa since the 1400s. These include African crops and animals, African political institutions and wars, gender, the spread of Islam, slavery, European colonization, and African independence movements. One learns how to publish a blog and create podcast episodes with show notes. Deliverables, regular contributions to class discussions, public speaking, research, and group work are essential course components. Cooking is a part of live classes.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

HSS2033 Comparative Politics
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

Comparative politics is a field that seeks to understand political dynamics within states and to understand a variety of political phenomena common in many countries. This course will use such cases as Britain, France, Russia, China, Iran, India, and Brazil to look at issues of nationalism, economic policies, institutional design, development, and social change. Comparative Politics is also characterized by a methodology that seeks to illuminate the reasons for similarities and differences across countries and provide some tools to think more critically about various political claims and proposals.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

HSS2034 Modern European History: Wars, Nationalities, Identities and Human Rights
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

This course features The French Revolution, The Russian Revolution, World War I, World War II and contemporary ethnic conflicts to examine the processes and consequences of modernization and nationalism in Europe and Russia. At the end of the 18th Century, the individual and the nation state were constructed as sources of meaning and identity and were legitimated naturally and politically. At the beginning of the 21st Century, these legitimations are still uncertain and under construction. We will focus on the concepts of human, civic, political and natural rights to study this problematic history.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

HSS2038 Modern Middle East
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

This course studies Middle Eastern politics, culture, and society from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. To do this, we will focus on a wide variety of historical developments in different areas of the Middle East, starting with the late Ottoman period and moving into the Mandates of the interwar period, moments of decolonization, and eventually focusing on the post-independent states that emerge in the second half of the 20th century. Additionally, the course provides historical contexts to events, actors, and conflicts that have come to shape the present-day Middle East as well as the world, such as the Arab-Israeli conflict, the politics of oil, the rise of Islamism, and the US-Middle East relations. In order to understand these complex issues, we will engage with works of scholarly analysis, primary documents, memoirs, fiction, and film.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

HSS2039 Contemporary AfricaA
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to contemporary Africa. After a brief examination of the precolonial and colonial periods, it focuses on a variety of current topics. These topics include development challenges of education and health, regional security, gender, human rights, and environmental governance. Connecting present state of the continent and its past, the course ends by examining possible futures. Focused broadly on scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, the course will also draw on the arts, literature, and sports in order to provide a fuller picture of the continent.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

HSS2040 Environmental Politics
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

Environmental issues are inherently multidisciplinary. They intersect with a variety of other knowledge areas, such as economics, finance, politics, and sociology. To better understand these interactions, we require the ability to think holistically. This course provides some tools that helps us understand how environmental issues are connected to a wide range of topics. It is designed for business students, and it looks at the many roles played by the private sector in environmental governance. The central part of the course focuses on political challenges related to environmental issues: Who has influence over environmental decisions? How are decisions made? How are natural resources managed? The course is organized in four building blocks: Water-Food-Energy, Environmental Governance and International Relations, Sustainable Development, and Politics of Climate Change. All of them draw on contemporary debates about global environmental politics, and each building block uses case studies to contextualize the topics under discussion.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

HSS2041 Global Goods: Histories of Commodities, Exchanges, and Cultures
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

How have inanimate commodities served as active agents in human history?
How have global exchanges of commodities shaped socio-political boundaries?

This course will move chronologically from the late fifteenth century to the present, demystifying commodities that we have often taken for granted and studying them as drivers of transregional economies and cultures. We will survey a wide variety of commodities and market spaces: from exotic Indian tea to cotton produced in the American South to Qatar's oil reserves to Tokyo's fish markets, for example, to understand the transformation of _commodities_ into _global goods_. The course will offer factual knowledge and analytical tools for understanding the political circumstances and shifting cultural values implicated in the rise and transformation of commodities into global goods. We will explore how this transformation has left indelible marks on religion, science, democracy, race, gender, class, and ideas of human rights. We will also examine the social, cultural, and political boundaries that global exchanges of commodities demand, calling to question the idea of the _global_. Part economic, part cultural, and part environmental history, this course relies on the histories of commodities to illuminate the idea of what is global.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

HSS2042: Germans and Others: Germany in the 20th and 21st Centuries

4 intermediate liberal arts credits

**This course is for students in the Babson Leadership in a Global Context program in Berlin and is not open to students not enrolled in the program.**

What does it mean to be German in the 20th-21st centuries? Who decides who living within Germany is German and who is Other? Using this theme, you will be introduced to the political, social, economic, and cultural history of contemporary Germany within Europe and the world in the past 100 years. After a brief overview of German history, we will examine four moments: 1.The Holocaust
2. The Guest Worker (Gastarbeiter) Phenomenon
3. The Division and Reunification of East and West Germany
4. Refugees and Migrants in the 21st Century
 

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001 or RHT1001)

HSS2050

4 Credits

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

HSS2052

4 Credits

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

HSS2058 The Modern American City (HIS)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

In this intermediate course, students will analyze how urban centers such as Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles have served as catalysts for major developments in nineteenth and twentieth-century American history. The course will consider how these cities have spurred the nation's economy, politics, and culture, and have shaped American identity by welcoming millions of immigrants, artists, intellectuals, and bohemians. Selected subjects include Boston's institutions of culture, Chicago's factory system, the popular amusements of Coney Island, the architecture and music of _Jazz Age_ New York, the development of public housing, the counterculture in San Francisco, and the urban crisis in Los Angeles.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

HUM4611 Current Issues in Latin American Fiction and Film 
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits 

Latin American society, politics, and economics have undergone dramatic transformations over the last fifty years. In this seminar, we will study fiction and films that examine the changing political and cultural landscapes of these countries. Beginning with the Latin American “Boom” in the 1960s and ‘70s and continuing to the present, we will study a wide range of short stories, novels, plays and films that demonstrate the innovations and rich contributions of contemporary Latin American writers and filmmakers. How do these works explore critical questions of identity and meaning within Latin America and in a more global context? How do they portray and problematize vexing questions surrounding dictatorships and their aftermath, power and poverty, drug trafficking, violence, and migration? In what ways can they inform our understanding of the human condition more broadly? This advanced liberal arts elective fulfills the 4600-level graduation requirement. It also helps satisfy requirements for the following five concentrations: Global and Regional Studies; Identity and Diversity; Justice, Citizenship and Social Responsibility; Literary and Visual Arts; Social and Cultural Studies. Any works originally in Spanish will be taught in (English) translation. 

Prerequisites: 3 Intermediate liberal arts courses (CVA, LVA, HSS, CSP, LTA in any combination)

HUM4615 The City as Text: Mapping Cultural Histories in Barcelona and Madrid 
4 Advanced Liberal Arts (Elective Abroad) Credits 

Program fee is paid to Glavin Office – program fee includes: accommodations, breakfast, metro passes in Madrid and Barcelona, airport and train transports in country, program planned meals, and cultural excursions. Not included: tuition, international flight, visa costs, additional meals and personal expenses. This course is framed as “City as Text” because the city becomes our laboratory and our classroom - an extended text not limited to what is housed in a library; rather we will learn first-hand through direct encounters with each city’s public places and often more hidden histories. Approaching these two cities from a design thinking perspective, each day includes explorative mapping of the city as a source and outgrowth of invention and creativity. In this course, we will consider the social and political history of both cities by actively examining the characteristics and innovations of their urban spaces. Why is each city designed as it is? How has it changed, and in response to what factors? We will delve critically into how Barcelona and Madrid have sought to market or “brand” their images, and – delving into the cityscape – what constitutes genuine tradition versus touristic or nationalistic myths. Students will conduct field research in various neighborhoods, using strategies like trendspotting and coolhunting to consider how the use of urban space and its potential are being redefined through restaurants and food markets, art and architecture, fashion and culture, and smart uses of technology. A key part of this course for students will be the opportunity participate in their own choice of what to “read” -- neighborhood mapping; observation decision making; which foods to try; interesting pathways. 
 

Prerequisites: 3 Intermediate liberal arts courses (CVA, LVA, HSS, CSP, LTA in any combination) and admission into the course

HUM4630 Extremism: The Fanatic, The Militant, The Sectarian 
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits 

This course is committed to exploring “extremism” through the formation of dangerous sects: i.e. underground movements, secret societies, forbidden associations, cult gatherings, urban gangs, martial arts orders, outlawed artistic circles, rebel cadres, and terrorist units. We will use contemporary literary works from around the world to examine the way in which these dangerous, hidden alliances experiment with ideas of concealment, seduction, power, strangeness, and sacrifice in order to create antagonistic counter-currents to everyday society. We will therefore also study the many forms that such outsider factions can take as they banish themselves and plan their hostile-ecstatic return to the surface: revolutionary, criminal, religious, mystical, magical, and avant-garde. Ultimately, this topic will allow us to penetrate one of the darker quarters of the human imagination in the modern age, following the extremist mind into its most subterranean possibilities, where a certain intense passion/hatred toward the world allows one to generate an alternative reality of the most excessive nature. 

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

MDS4620 Mediating the Wild
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

Wilderness is disappearing faster than ever due to humans’ radical transformation of the earth. Yet, consumer cultures have developed an ever so strong desire for the wild. In the industries that sell “Wildness”, media have played a large role in telling it, showing it, measuring it, and manufacturing it. This course focuses on the ideologies, discourses, and technologies that mediate between contemporary consumers and the disappearing Wildness. We will explore a variety of cultural phenomena including the usage of smart phones, selfie sticks, and Go Pros in ecotourism, backpacking cultures, and outdoor adventure sports industries, the appropriation of drones and GPS-tracking devices by environmentalists, wildlife poachers, and virtual/augmented reality game designers, the trending of the “wild food” diet and the NGO campaigns protesting it, as well as the adoption of sound recordings of wild landscapes as new age music therapies. This course incorporates a multicultural and “multinatural” view to look at technology’s role in representing, mediating, and recreating nature. We also address difficult ethical questions such as: How to maintain a proper distance with the Wild? Should we tame it, save it and thereby annihilating it? Or should we leave it on its own terms, and thereby letting it live or die?

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

HSS2012 Socio-Ecological Water Systems 
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits 

Water is not only vital for all life on our planet, it is also intrinsically linked to all systems on which we rely as humans. Securing access to clean water for the growing global population is a defining challenge of the 21st century that is intensified by the climate crisis, pollution, unbalanced extraction rates, outdated infrastructure, and environmental injustice. Co-taught by an environmental scientist and governance analyst, this course will use a transdisciplinary approach to outline the diverse functions and uses of water in Socio-Ecological Systems (SES). Through a series of case studies, students will investigate how disruptions to the natural water cycle can lead to disruption of ecological, social, political, industrial, and economic networks. The cases will also highlight the ways in which structural injustice such as racism and socio-economic inequality pervade matters of access to clean water.  In this course students will be taught system-thinking and will learn to identify and understand the interdependent/related components and feedbacks of dynamic water systems.  Students will explore the concept of integrated sustainability to understand how social and political institutions are depended upon ecological integrity. The overall goal of this course is for students to develop the tools and thinking necessary to understand regional and global water challenges and to identify management solutions that are efficient, equitable, and sustainable. 

Prerequisites: RHT1000 and RHT1001 and AHS1000 and NST10%%

NST2090/HSS2090 Socio-Ecological Systems: Feeding the Modern United States 
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits 

The sustainability of local, regional, national, and global food systems hinges on the full scope of the system’s environmental resilience and safety. Climate change, and ongoing human contribution to climate change via industrialized agricultural practices, has resulted in increasing food insecurity and shifting agricultural priorities in the US and around the world. Using interdisciplinary frameworks, we will explore food and agricultural practices, the pursuit of policy goals, and the impact of government interventions. Considering the food system’s many stakeholders, we will examine food production, trade, manufacturing, safety, nutrition, and waste. We will investigate hunger and food security, access to food, and the impact of demographics such as location, economic disadvantage, gender, age, and race/ethnicity. We will analyze social and environmental stressors across the food system, focusing on policies and practices that have the potential to alleviate poverty and inequality. 

Prerequisites: RHT1000 and RHT1001 and NST10%%

POL4601 Africa Rising?
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

This interdisciplinary course on contemporary Africa examines political, economic and social developments in the context of the now common mantra “Africa Rising.” It takes a historical look at Africa’s relations with global development actors and how these have impacted individual states and the entire continent. It includes a comparative analysis of Africa’s partnership(s) with the different regions of the world (broadly categorized into East and West, Global South and Global North) and time spans (broadly grouped into colonial and post-colonial). It also examines processes, actors, events and partnerships within independent Africa and how they have contributed to the present state of the continent, which observers have described as rising. The course interrogates this observation. How truly is “Africa rising”? What is the cost of the rise? What does it mean for individuals, states and the entire continent? Why/how does it matter? The course focuses on these (and other important) questions, considering examples from various sectors, events, countries, bilateral and multilateral arrangements with African states and in relation to the rest of the world. It uses a variety of materials including texts, news and journal articles, as well as electronic and internet-based resources.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

POL 4606: Ancient Athens and the Birth of Political Thought

4 advance liberal arts credits

Pericles famously called Athens the “school of Hellas,” emphasizing the city’s role as a leader in the Greek world and a hub of art, knowledge, and innovation. This study abroad class in Athens (and beyond) will explore the political thought of ancient Greece through an examination of key texts, archaeological sites, historical monuments, and theatrical performances. Students will engage with the ideas of Athenian philosophers and political leaders, including Plato, Aristotle, and Pericles, and will learn about the development of democracy and empire in Athens. The class will also take day trips to other sites within Greece, including Delphi, Epidaurus, Olympia, as well as the mines at Laurion, Mycenae, and Olympia. We will attend a theatrical performance in ancient Greek (with supertitles in English) at the ancient theater of Epidaurus and take a day trip to Aegina, an island known for its ancient sites — and beautiful beaches! Through a combination of guided tours, lectures, and discussions, students will gain an understanding of the ancient Greek political system and the philosophers who shaped it. Readings, discussions, and writing assignments will be assigned to provide context and background for the sites visited and to help students to develop critical thinking skills and an understanding of the historical, cultural, and political themes that are explored during the tour.​​​​​​​

POL 4607: The Politics of Punishment

4 advanced liberal arts credits

This advanced undergraduate course provides an overview of the history and current state of incarceration and detention globally, with a special focus on the United States. It covers prominent theories, methodologies, and ideologies behind punitive practices across cultures, as well as the numerous social and historical issues that intersect with contemporary imprisonment. The course will explore the social, economic, and political factors that have contributed to the rapid growth of prisons and detention facilities and hindered reform efforts. We will analyze current custodial practices, social scientific research on prison policies, as well as alternatives to incarceration. The course will also examine the impact of imprisonment on incarcerated individuals, their families, and communities. The course will challenge students to critically examine who qualifies as a criminal and what social functions the prison serves. Through interdisciplinary readings, documentary films, and first-hand encounters with prison facilities, students will explore how structures of power related to class, gender, sexuality, nationality, and ability shape our ideas of criminality.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 Intermediate Liberal Arts (CSP, LTA, HSS)

POL4630 Critical Race and Indigenous Studies
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

What is race? Who are Indigenous people? What is white supremacy? What is settler colonialism? These questions form the general basis for a class that will bring together Critical Race Studies and Critical Indigenous Studies. A uniting premise of both of these types of “studies” is that race and racial injustice and Indigenous people’s claims and experience of marginalization continue to shape political, social, economic, and cultural life. In other words, we do not live in a post-racial or a post-colonial society – white supremacy and settler colonialism persist. This, however, does not end the discussion. Instead, it raises many questions about the history of race as a social and political construct and of the role of Indigenous political struggle and settler colonial rule. This approach also requires us to understand what white supremacy and settler colonialism mean, theoretically and in practice, on their own and in relationship to each other. Along with these concepts, the course will introduce students to such concepts as whiteness as a political identity, the Black radical tradition, the model-minority myth, racial capitalism, intersectionality, queer theory, and many others. Much of the material for the course focuses on the history and present of the U.S. context, but this does not limit the direction the course can take in class discussion and, more importantly, in the papers and projects students produce to fulfill the class requirements.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

POL4635 International Politics of Asia
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

International Politics of Asia covers a variety of global issues in this key region of the world. The first section will provide a backdrop to understanding colonial legacies, nationalism, and the construction of East Asia’s modern states. Subsequently, the course will turn our attention to the current real-world problems facing Asian leaders. We will look at the international security problems of North Korea, insurgencies, and alliance politics, before turning our attention to the international political economic issues of trade and development. Relatedly, we will pay attention to the environmental costs and degradation of industrial development in Asia. The final area of concern will be human rights issues in China, Burma, and the Philippines.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

POL4640 Sports and Global Affairs 
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits 

Can we leave politics out of sport? Should women receive equal pay? Are video games real sport? Today, it seems sport is highly associated with social, economic, and political issues of the world. Has this always been the case? Sports have existed as a social activity and developed as a form of human and country relations throughout history. In 2020 alone, the COVID-19 pandemic halted sport activities around the world and when they returned, athletes used their platform to protest racial injustice in the USA and Europe. The Tokyo 2020 Olympics were postponed to the summer of 2021 and E-games became the safest form of sports during the pandemic engaging more viewers and gamers across the globe.

This course will explore the connection between sport and global affairs currently and throughout history to answer the questions above. It will trace instances where sport collides with social, political, and economic issues around the globe since the inception of modern sport. It will also identify how global issues have impacted the development of sports and how sports have shaped global and national issues from the margins.

We will read scholarly books and articles from the fields and disciplines of sport, political science, women, gender and sexuality studies, critical race studies, sociology, and international relations. Together we will also watch films in line with the readings. Guest speakers will join us and contribute to discussions too. All this will be done to enhance critical and analytical skills and will challenge students to think with increased confidence, independence, and creativity about the material.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

POL4645 Comparative Latin American Politics 
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

Comparative politics is a core subfield of Political Science and International Relations. The study of comparative politics has a lively and engaging body of scholars who are dedicated to understanding the potentials and limitations of democracy. The field has developed many interesting areas of research focusing on the comparison of political systems, national institutions, gender rights, environmental issues, and economic development. 

This is an advanced level course, focused on contemporary Latin American politics. The course begins with an introduction to theories and methods of comparative politics, and a brief overview of basic concepts in political science such as different forms of government, electoral systems, and democratic systems. The course then discusses six central themes in comparative politics in Latin America: Party Systems and Political Representation, Economic Development and Inequality, Environmental Policies, Gender Policies, Regional Migration, and Foreign Relations. In each of these six themes, we will use cases from various Latin American countries for an in-depth discussion.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

SOC4615 Childhood and Youth
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

This course exercises the sociological imagination in understanding how children are molded by social institutions and interactions, as well as the manner in which children utilize agency to react to, change, and reproduce their own social realities. By examining childhood, students will gain an understanding of how inequalities and opportunities are pervasive shapers of children's realities and adulthood outcomes, from both interpersonal and structural levels. Through in-class discussions and writing assignments, students will explore and critique theories of childhood. Reflecting on the perspectives of children as socialized beings and as social actors, we will analyze the intersecting roles of the family, culture, education, authority, gender, race, social class, and ideology in shaping childhood.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

SOC4620 Sociology of Health and Medicine
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

This course exercises the sociological imagination in understanding how health, illness, and healthcare, are socially constructed. This construction occurs at a local, national, and international level, at the interplay of culture, policy, service, and business. By examining both health and health systems, students will gain an understanding of how an individual’s health both shapes their navigation through society, and is affected by the society they navigate. We will examine this phenomenon at the interpersonal, structural, and international level. Our course will begin by understanding health and healthcare as a fundamentally social process – one that is affected by both the history of society at large and systems of inequality inherent to that society. We will then explore how these phenomena translate (or do not translate) in an international capacity. Finally, we will examine the process behind manufacturing health and healthcare, before exploring what can be done about health inequalities.

Through in-class discussions and writing assignments, students will gain a more critical understanding of health and health systems as a process, rather than as stagnant entities. We will analyze the intersecting roles of the family, culture, education, authority, gender, race, social class, ideology, economic commensuration, and nation of origin in the process of health – and how each of those in turn affect the business of healthcare and system of healthcare delivery.
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
v Explain sociological theories of illness in the context of real-world experiences
v Thoroughly understand the impact of the social world on the manufacturing of healthcare, the roles of health/illness to individuals, and the processes of (de)medicalization
v Describe the role of intersecting systems of disadvantage and cultural meanings on health treatments and outcomes
v Effectively critique competing mechanisms to address various ‘health crisis’
v Responsibly apply empirical findings to current policies and discourse

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)