Hampshire College

Performance and Ethnography
(SS-0103)

Music, dance, and theater may be viewed as performance arts, but they are also situated in social, economic, and cultural contexts. This course both explores social science frameworks for analyzing performance, and introduces students to qualitative research methods that address performance as embodied experience, as ritual, as a product of economic relations, as a site of symbolic meaning, and as a site of contested power relations. Students will conduct limited fieldwork and develop a research paper on a related topic of their choice. Through this process students will consider questions of power in the ethnographic setting, develop interviewing and transcribing skills, and explore interpretive anthropological methods. MCP, PRJ, REA, WRI
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Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity
(SS-0108)

War crimes, torture, indiscriminate detention and attempts to wipe out large numbers of people based solely on their social identities all too frequently demonstrate man's inhumanity to man. We will examine the debates over the definition, adjudication and punishment of such acts, and study several cases in depth in order to shed light on how effective domestic and international legal institutions can be in preventing such crimes in the future, redressing those that do occur and shaping collective memory and social reconciliation. The Nuremberg legacy, the Israeli kidnapping and trial of fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann, the South African and Guatemalan truth commissions, the Pinochet case, the UN trials of Milosevic at The Hague and those of the Rwandan genocidaires in Arusha, the abuses of Abu Ghraib, the fate of Saddam Hussein, and the ongoing detention and alleged mistreatment of supposed enemy combatants in the U.S.-held enclave of Guantanamo, Cuba, will provide primary material for analysis and discussion. A field research and observation visit to the international juridical entities at The Hague, Netherlands, will be offered in mid-March for interested students, who will pay a program fee and their own air transportation expenses. PRJ, REA, WRI
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Oil and the Middle Eastern Economies
(SS-0110)

This course is an introduction to economic development in the Middle Eastern focusing on the various influences of the discovery and export of oil. In what ways has the discovery of oil changed the oil (and non-oil) producing societies? How can we reconcile the existence of massive natural resources with the levels of poverty and underdevelopment throughout the region? Is this contradiction a result of inward orientation of the regimes or other cultural pre-dispositions, as is widely repeated in popular discourse? How have the processes of de-colonization, the clash of the various nationalist projects, and reoccurring wars, sanctions, and occupations hindered human development? By exploring novels, films, and scholarly articles we will examine the interaction between the various social actors, state structure and policy, and structural transformation within the region. REA, WRI, MCP, PRJ, PRS
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Religion and State in South Asia
(SS-0116)

South Asia has been imagined in the western imagination, at least since the colonial period, if not earlier, as the land of religion and spirituality. In this course we will engage with the conditions that gave rise to and sustained this thinking about South Asia. Apart from critically engaging the role of orientalist school of thought and the colonial state, we will investigate how the religion and political practices are inextricably intertwined, and how it is difficult to think one without the other. While we will invoke the earlier colonial moment, our focus will be on the 20th century colonial and post colonial period. EXP, MCP, PRJ, PRS. REA, WRI
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Introducing the Frankfurt School
(SS-0118)

The critical theoretical work of 147The Frankfurt School148 has exercised considerable influence over the humanities and social sciences. The Frankfurt School146s systematic critique of mass culture - which provocatively links so many forms of modern life to totalitarianism 150 produces important and often radical social and political visions. This course will examine the key writings of Benjamin, Adorno, Horkheimer, and Marcuse in order to register the varied ways in which critical theory transforms the meaning and significance of modernity. In particular, we will examine how rethinking both historical experience and certain conceptions of rationality generates provocative and new conceptions of history, reason, nature, desire, and collectivity. As well, we will consider how the legacy of the early Frankfurt School has been carried by contemporary theorists, such as Habermas, Benhabib, Jay, and others. PRS, REA, WRI
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Biography and History: Radicalism, Anti-Communism& Internationalism in the 1950s
(SS-0121)

This course explores biographies as a critical source for historical inquiry. Biographies provide a compelling way to ask important questions about the broader historical transformations and political debates that form the context of a person146s life. Indeed, some biographies, such as Taylor Branche146s 147Parting the Waters,148 attempt to define a particular epoch by a single person146s life history. This course will explore several biographies and memoirs written about individuals who experienced events several biographies and memoirs written about individuals who experienced events of the 1950s, a period when McCarthyism and anti-communism dominated U.S. politics and political radicals and dissenters came under extraordinary pressure. Our aim is to learn about the lives of interesting individuals, but also to question the ways that biographical narratives inform our understanding of the past. We will also try to understand how biographies are written, what kinds of sources are necessary, and how the historian creates an interpretative narrative. MCP, PRS, REA, WRI
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Contemporary Issues in Education Reform-NCLB
(SS-0124)

No Child Left Behind (2001), the reauthorization and significant revision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) enacted in 1965, has been positioned as the Bush administration146s effort to close the achievement gap between racially and economically privileged and disadvantaged children. This course will explore the history, goals, implementation, and consequences of this legislation. While appreciating the significance of this particular reform on the lives of teachers, students, administrators, and parents, a broader goal of this course is to function as a window into the complexities of competing philosophical and pedagogical positions, and politics of education reform more generally. In this course we will examine current debates in education reform. We will explore and interrogate the assumptions of various pedagogies and educational structures. While there will be individual assignments, much of the work this semester will be organized around a single action research project designed to highlight the marginalized perspectives of educators in the discussions around NCLB. Accordingly, students should be prepared to do substantial work outside of the class with their group members. REA, WRI, PRJ, PRS, MCP
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This Land is your Land: Land and Property in America
(SS-0125)

Conflicts over land use are among the most contentious in America. Much is at stake: private property rights, the public good, the character of communities, environmental quality ? even the very definition of nature itself. In this class we will analyze recent land use controversies, including suburban and rural sprawl, urban redevelopment, and conflicts over the management of public lands. Readings will include essays on the contested meanings of land and property as well as political economic analyses of the American land use system. Students will be asked to write interpretive essays on the various meanings attached to land as well as more analytical papers on the politics of property and land use. Each student will also undertake independent research on a specific land use controversy of his or her choice. PRJ, REA, WRI
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Occupation: Colonial Present and Past
(SS-0126)

Many critics of independent, decolonized nation-states have abandoned the term 147post-colonialism,148 insisting that 147third world148 polities are none of the above: not independent, decolonized, national, or statist. 147Globalization148 and the 147war on terror148 have advanced the view of these and earlier anti-imperial activists and writers that the de-colonization breeds re-colonization. Once portrayed as universalizing and particularizing poles, 147globalization148 and the 147war on terror148 now appear as stages in solidifying the new imperial global order. In the putative neo-imperial 147dispensation,148 the word country feels quaint, archaic, or nostalgic 150 but occupation is everywhere. For this course occupation will organize our critical inquiry into familiar distinctions among state, empire, and invasion. We will examine institutional, ideological, geographical, and economic commonalities and differences among state-building, imperialism, and our own era 150 what I now call the Global Exception. The course is dedicated to Eqbal Ahmad, whose writings we will consider. Discussions of extensive reading assignments will be supplemented with lectures. MCP, PRJ, PRS, REA, WRI
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Political Philosophy: Politics, Gender, and Race
(SS-0137)

Foucault argues that the role of the sovereign in the contemporary polity is to manage, and decide who will be forced to lives and who will be allowed to die. Is this role of the sovereign any different from polities of centuries past? How is citizenship construed and managed throughout the history of political theory? How do gender, race, and ethnicity manifest themselves in "universalist" political theories? Can liberalism tolerate differences or does it attempt to annihilate them in subtle ways? Are some populations valorized in order to legitimate the vilification and dehumanization of others? In this course, we will explore the dominant ideas of political philosophers from the 16th to the 19th centuries. This course will be a prerequisite for the 20th century Political Philosophy and the Critical Race Theory courses that I will teach in ensuing semesters. This course will be reading-, writing-, and theory- intensive. MCP, PRS, REA, WRI
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Hybrid Identities, Authentic Selves
(SS-0140)

This course explores two related concepts?hybridity and authenticity?that underlie many present-day struggles over cultural identity, representation, and appropriation. The former calls attention to the multiplicity of collective identities that vie for recognition within a person, while the latter emphasizes what is unique or essential to the self. While the hybrid is often charged with being inauthentic or fake, claims to authenticity are frequently criticized for being reactionary or exclusive. How do we choose among multiple and often competing identities? Why do we feel the need to claim an authentic self? What are the pressures on us to do so and what purpose do such claims serve? We will explore these questions through readings in psychology, anthropology, and literature about different experiences of hybridity?mixed race, immigrant, transnational adoption, transgendered, religious?as well as through students? independent research projects. MCP, PRJ, REA, WRI
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Gender, Technoscience and Law
(SS-0141)

This course examines the cultural contexts of science and technology, especially as they relate to issues of gender and the law. In what ways does the powerful framework of the law intersect with technoscience? How are these intersections gendered, and conversely, how are gendered subjects constituted by the institutional realms of technoscience and law? To explore these questions, we examine a variety of topics including legal and scientific understandings of intersex; gendered and racialized aspects of biomedical research; and the gendered dynamics of pharmaceutical marketing. MCP, PRS, PRJ, REA, WRI
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Islam and Democratization
(SS-0145)

Compatibility of democracy and Islam has remained a contestable issue. On the one hand, it has been argued that Islamic culture propels civic and egalitarian values, which makes Islamic cultures democratic. On the other hand, it has been argued that Islam is secularization-resistant, intolerable to individual liberties and thereby incompatible with democracy. Critically assessing the essentializing tendencies of both of these arguments, we will shift the question from compatibility to the dynamics of state-Islam interaction. By studying the diversity of Islamic forces and states, we will explore wide-ranging patterns of interaction that are pivotal to democratization in the Middle Eastern context. The class will discuss pro-democratic voices, actors and their movements as well as their various opponents. The major theoretical goal of the course is to introduce competing approaches to democracy and democratization as well as state transformation by using case studies from the Middle East. MCP, PRS, REA, WRI
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September 11th: An Introduction to Media Analysis
(SS-0146)

The primary goal of this class is to provide a thorough introduction to various theoretical approaches to media analysis. The course is divided into the following units: 1. Ideology and Hegemony; 2. Social Life and Cultural Studies; 3. The Political Economy of the Mass Media; 3. Representation and Identity; 4. Postmodernism; and 5. Convergence and Transmedia Storytelling. Each unit will include close readings of 147classic148 (and difficult) theoretical essays. However, in order to practice both using and critiquing these theoretical essays, we will be conducting a semester-long case study of representations of September 11th. The examples we explore will be drawn from contemporary film, cable news programs, talk radio, newspapers, contemporary music, political campaign ads, photography, video games, political blogs, political satirists, and YouTube. For their final papers, students will further explore a unit of their own choosing. A weekly film screening is MANDATORY. MCP, PRJ, PRS, REA, WRI
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Nuns, Saints, and Mystics
(SS-0157)

Early Christianity had a tremendous appeal to women and slaves. Early Christian spirituality and practices of devotion were part of a broader cultural revolution aimed at subverting both Jewish and pagan Roman patriarchal family structures, slavery, and the political structures in which they were embedded. The high numbers of female converts, martyrs, and donors testify to the extent to which the church in its formative phase relied on women -- slaves as well as high-ranking Roman ladies -- and their spiritual and material contributions. In medieval Catholicism, women mystics formulated a theology according to which Christ in his human nature could be thought of as entirely female. In the early modern period, female religious rallied to withstand the onslaught of the tridentine movement, which was aimed at purging the religious "public sphere" from its many female protagonists. Female imagery, and the orchestration of cults devoted to the Virgin Mary, for example, played a key role in converting Native Americans. In this course, we will be reading original sources written by our about women in their roles as followers of the apostles, founders of convents, mystics, nuns, "real" as well as "fake" saints, but also secondary literature in this rapidly expanding field of historial studies. MCP, PRJ, REA, WRI
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Power, Culture, Imagination: Asia and Asian America in US Popular Culture
(SS-0177)

Using Asia as a case study, this course will examine the way in which "the West, " primarily Euro-America, has portrayed the peoples of the world outside of "the West," variously known as The Orient, the underdeveloped world, the developing countries, the Third World. Our premise is that Western "knowledge" and popular images about these areas has shaped the cultural context within which US policy toward these peoples has been made, leading to the currently popular notion that major conflicts in the international arena represent clashes between "us" and fundamentally different "civilizations." Attitudes toward and treatment of immigrants from these areas of the world have also been heavily influenced by these constructions of "other" civilizations. Drawing on literary texts, travel literature, popular films, and mass media, the class will focus primarily on images of Asia and Asian America, although students will be encouraged to look comparatively at other regions and immigrant groups as well. : MCP, PRJ, PRS, REA, WRI
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Injury
(SS-0201)

This course investigates competing conceptions and legal formulations of injury from a variety of social and cultural perspectives. What role does injury play in the formation of legal subjects, especially in the U.S.? How do legal cultures outside of the U.S. conceive of, interpret, and understand injury? We will also explore associated concepts of risk, responsibility and accountability.
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North-South or South-South? Rethinking International Economic Boundaries
(SS-0209)

The last fifteen years have witnessed a resurgence in political and economic cooperation among the developing nations of the South. This course examines the origins and trajectory of South-South relations. Does South-South cooperation hold the promise of an alternative economic model to neo-liberal globalization or is it best thought of as unity against Northern hegemony? How has colonialism previously and economic liberalization more recently changed the structure and pattern of trade among developing countries? What will be the impact of rising alliances within the South such as those between China and many Middle Eastern and South American countries or between Cuba and Venezuela? Does the Non-Aligned Movement that emerged during the Cold War still have a role to play in today?s world? In the course we will trace the historical patterns of trade among developing nations since the colonial era and then look closely at South-South cooperation in the post-WWII period.
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Autobiographies, Literacy, and Book Culture in Early Modern Europe (1500-1800)
(SS-0212)

This course examines several types of writing about the self (autobiographies, memoires, letters) in the context of rising literacy rates and the print revolution. We will read how courtesans, Rabbis, artisans, mystics, women scientists, artists, house-wives, heretics, sailors, slaves, and presumed criminals reflected about their lives, imagined the cosmos, narrated catastrophes, encountered God, told of their lovers, described their family management, or defended themselves in court. In addition, we will study writing and reading habits of the past, and get hands-on experience with Early Modern books by visiting various rare book collections in the valley. This course satisfies Division I distribution requirements. PRJ, PRS, REA, WRI
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Queer in Culture
(SS-0215)

This course will provide an environment for critical thinking about the production of queer identities beginning at the Stonewall Riots and ending in present day. We will examine the impact of queer identities on social institutions (government & law, family, education, media, history, religion, etc.) and the changes that have occurred as a result of visibility and acknowledgment of queer issues. In addition, we will examine issues pertinent to youth-adolescents and young adults-in the process of defining, processing, and creating queer identities. Through qualitative interviews and analysis, we will come to understand how folks construct queer selves in varying contexts and how first sexual experiences, and the meanings given them, assist in the construction/denial of a queer self. This course is designed for the active participatory learner!
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Organizing in the Whirlwind: African-American Social Movements in the Twentieth Century
(SS-0228)

This course will explore the organizing efforts of African-Americans during the twentieth century. We will examine activism in both rural and urban sites and in cross-class, middle-class and working-class organizations. The readings will provide critical perspectives on how class, educational status, and gender shape the formation, goals, leadership styles and strategies of various movements. Some of the movements include the lobbying and writing of Ida B. Wells, the cross-regional efforts of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and the post-WWII radical union movement in Detroit and the local 1199 hospital workers union movement in New York. By extending our exploration over the course of the twentieth century, we will trace the development of various organizing traditions and consider their long-term impact on African-American political activism and community life. A perspective that consistently engages the ways in which African Americans respond and locate themselves within larger global transformations will provide an important frame for our discussions.
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Controversies in U.S. Economic and Social History
(SS-0230)

This course addresses the development of the United States economy and society from the colonial period to the present. Focusing on the development of capitalism, it provides students with an introduction to economic and historical analysis. Students study the interrelationship among society, economy and the state, the transformation of agriculture, and the response of workers to capitalism. Issues of gender, race, class, and ethnicity figure prominently in this course. This is designed to be a core course for students concentrating in economics, politics, and history. Students work on developing research skills in economics and historical methodologies. Classes have a lecture/discussion format. Students are expected to attend class regularly, lead occasional discussions, and write several papers including responses to films, a mid-term take home exam and a final research paper.This course satisfies the Division I Distribution Requirement. MCP,PRJ,REA,WRI
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Ab/Normal Psychology
(SS-0232)

This course will introduce the students to ideas of abnormality/normality in psychology. In order to discuss and explore these concepts, we will present an overview of contemporary diagnostic categories as described in the DSM-IV, the diagnostic manual used in the field of mental health. The course will emphasize the social and historical context for our culture's ideals and assumptions about mental illness. In order to reflect on the experience(s) of mental illness, films, case studies, and memoirs will be included. This is an advanced course in Hampshire's new Culture, Brain and Development Program. This course satisfies Division I distribution requirements. MCP, PRJ, PRS, REA, WRI
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Listening and Hearing: Interpersonal Process and the Humanistic Tradition
(SS-0233)

With the onslaught of new communications technologies, virtual reality, and the rapid pace of contemporary life, the capacity for listening to and hearing an 147other148 has become more difficult. In this class, drawing on the work of humanistic psychology and psychoanalysis, we will focus on the experience of listening and hearing in a dyadic, relational context. Through the use of role plays, video analysis and selected readings from Rogers, Maslow, Bion, Mitchell and others, this course will explore the experiential aspects of observation, interviewing and presence in human understanding. Through the identification of implicit narrativity, metaphor and language games, students will learn about their preconceptions, biases, and overall strengths and weaknesses when listening to others. This course will be primarily experiential and focus on the development of critical-reflexive listening skills. Coursework will also include selected readings about the process of psychotherapy through the lenses of humanistic, psychoanalytic and narrative theories of psychotherapy, as well as written analyses of individual and group role plays through the use of video.
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Indigenous Politics of Latin America
(SS-0237)

On January 1, 1994 the Zapatistas captured the attention of the world with an uprising against the unchecked advances of globalization and its specific effects in Mexican society. This uprising, like other Latin American social movements of the late 20th century, has drawn on the organizational and symbolic power of indigenous identities. In the past, museum displays and ethnographic texts on Latin America have contributed to the idea of frozen indigenous cultures, comprised of primordial essences?cultures already lost or facing the threat of imminent disappearance in the modern world. As an alternative, this course presents a dynamic view of what it means to be indigenous in Latin American contexts. The course will be taught through the disciplinary lens of anthropology and readings will be drawn from case studies in Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Brazil, Peru and Bolivia. Depending on the Spanish language capabilities of the students who take this course, part of the course may be conducted in Spanish. Goals: reading, writing, project, multiple cultural perspectives.
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Reproductive Rights: Domestic and International Perspectives
(SS-0240)

This course will introduce students to a broad range of reproductive rights issues and the history of feminist activism surrounding them. Among the topics we will address are: the distinction between population control and birth control; abortion and maternal mortality; the pros and cons of contraceptive technologies; old and new eugenics; HIV/AIDS and reproductive and sexual health; new frameworks including reproductive justice; fundamentalist assaults on reproductive rights; and controversies in feminist organizing at the national and transnational levels.
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The Laboratory Atop the Graveyard: Research Seminar in 20th Century Europe
(SS-0247)

The democratic welfare states that we take for granted are in fact the far from inevitable recent outgrowths of chaos and upheaval. Twentieth-century Europeans across the political spectrum had to come to terms with an age of the masses: political mass movements, mass production of commodities, mass media. Europeans drew new mental and physical boundaries among themselves and came to dominate the globe, even as they nearly destroyed themselves in wars of unprecedented destruction. The real victors were two rival systems of modernity: American consumer capitalism and Soviet communism. In 1989, it seemed clear that the former had triumphed. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the future looks less clear. Although the age witnessed great violence and despair, it also brought forth great hopes and achievements in social thought, the arts, and technology, many of whose effects we are still pondering. Intended for Division II and III students.
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Happy Days?: U.S. Social History and Popular Culture in the 1950's
(SS-0249)

This cultural history course will survey U.S. popular culture and literature as a window into social life in the United States during the 1950s. The course will include numerous primary texts: comic books, Hollywood films, news, popular music, journalism, novels, poetry, and television. On the one hand, the course will explore the active construction of and widespread participation in what146s become known as 147the Happy Days myth148151a narrative of suburban economic prosperity, social conformity, and familial harmony. On the other, the course will also explore the decade as a site of both social unrest and pervasive anxiety151about a nascent youth culture, ongoing race and class divisions, family roles, the workplace, and the place of political dissent in the Cold War. Topics include: McCarthyism, the Quiz Show scandal, the Beat Poets, the Organization Man, Rock 145N146 Roll, the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement, and so on. The primary assignment for the course will be a research paper, and a weekly film screening is MANDATORY.
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Critical Ethnography
(SS-0250)

This course offers a critical introduction to ethnographic fieldwork, interviewing, and related methods. Special emphasis is given to the concept of reflexivity151the recognition that social scientists are participants in the worlds they study151and its epistemological and ethical implications for the practice of social research. We will balance learning about the methods of ethnographic inquiry with critical examination of the philosophical assumptions that inform them. We will pay particular attention to problems of interpretation and meaning, asking: how can we know and understand others lives in relation to our own? This integration of theory and practice will be achieved through reading, discussion, and most importantly students' own research projects. Prerequisite: Students should have viable research proposal and be ready to begin fieldwork by third week.
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Elections in Popular Culture
(SS-0252)

Americans hold contradictory attitudes toward elections. On the one hand, we are regularly urged to see elections as the sine qua non of democracy, a symbol of fairness, individual freedom, and popular control of government. On the other hand, cynicism about elections is widespread, focused on the corrupting power of corporate money, the distortions of mass media, and citizen apathy. In this course we will examine the roots of these contradictory attitudes. We will look at historical and contemporary interpretations of elections in journalism, film, fiction, and other popular media. We will pay special attention to the treatment of historically significant elections and to coverage of the 2008 elections. Students will be expected to produce a substantial portfolio of writing about elections and their changing narratives. This course can be used to satisfy Division I distribution requirements. REA, WRI
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Anthropology of Millennial Capitalism
(SS-0257)

Anthropologists Jean and John Comaroffs have recently characterized the contemporary capitalism as 145millennial146 capitalism and it is 147millennial148 in at least two senses: one, it speaks to the state of capitalism at the turn of the millennium, and two, it refers to the immense hopes and aspirations it has raised, which are almost millenarian and magical in their nature. In this course, we will investigate these two aspects of contemporary capitalism. We will look at how these millenarian movements and accompanying occult economies are sustained by contemporary capitalism in different national contexts, and what are its conditions of possibility. In the process, we will inevitably engage the role of media in producing different regimes of visibility and invisibility, of transparency and occlusion. Apart from using anthropological works we will take recourse to psychoanalytical and post- structuralist writings to understand the contemporary capitalist moment.
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Producing Violence
(SS-0259)

This course will be a 'critical and clinical' study of the conception of violence, in the broadest sense of the phrase. We will trace this conception across related registers: the event of physical violence; conditions (material and immaterial) of that event; and the conception of violence as an abstract notion. Here the conception of violence is seen as the object of theory, memory, or experience. Violence should not be quarantined within categorical and disciplinary conventions of academia or common sense. For this reasons we will indulge a transdisciplinary approach to the conception of violence, drawing from philosophy, social and political theory, anthropology, sociology, literature, cinema, and history.
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Imagining Transnational Latin America
(SS-0265)

What factors compel the rethinking of the place of Latin America in the US imaginary, and in the world? The place of Latino/as in the US? Is a post-neoliberal Latin America possible, and if so, what will it look like? Globalization, free trade pacts, democratization, popular resistance, local and regional migration and the explosive growth of transnational communities and identities are some of the critical issues we will examine. The course will serve as a vehicle for Division II and Division III writing projects, offering a broad framework that will facilitate exchanges between students working on various paradigms and in or across disciplines in the social sciences and cultural studies. We will read key texts in a range of disciplines to help us develop a common conceptual and analytic vocabulary. Students will be expected to conceive, carry out and present periodically their research projects to the class. Depending on students' interests and abilities, portions of the course may be conducted in Spanish.
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Post-September 11 World: An Exception or Business as Usual?
(SS-0268)

Following September 11, 2001, the course of American law and politics surprised as many people as did the events of the actual day. Various constitutional protections thought to be extended to all persons alike--citizens, legal residents, visitors, undocumented residents151were restricted. Most men of Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian descent were force to register their presence. Domestic surveillance was forcefully brought back into U.S. Government jurisdiction. As of August 2007, it is legal for the U.S. to spy on its citizens. Is this framework an unprecedented response to a dangerous new world? Or can we find it in other moments in history? In this course, we will read a range of historical, political, and theoretical materials in order to answer this question. Readings may include some of the following authors: David Cole,Alan Dershowitz, Carl Schmitt, Giorgio Agamben, Mahmood Mamdani, Roger Daniels, Charles Mills, Natsu Taylor Saito.
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Black Redicalism in the U.S. and Beyond, 1960s and 1970s
(SS-0269)

Students in this course will engage in the study of the transition from Civil Rights liberalism to Black Power radicalism in the 1960s and 1970s. We will explore the history, ideas, voices and strategies African Americans employed in the struggle to secure rights and demand respect in the United States. While this course is centered on the struggles waged by Black people in the U.S., students will also grapple with the international events that influenced the radical politics of the period. This course will shape students' understanding of the Black Power vision of social justice and gauge its impact on the present day from the emergence of Black Studies departments to Hip-Hop culture.This course satisfies the Division I distribution requirement. REA, MCP, PRJ, PRS, WRI
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Readings in Environmental History: Classics and Cases
(SS-0273)

Environmental concerns have come of age*and will undoubtedly continue to intensify in the future. But our rediscovered enthusiasm for the field sometimes obscures its long intellectual heritage; too often we ignore the depth, range, and wisdom of earlier writings in this field. Course readings will first explore some classic works of environmental history, focusing on (but not exclusive to) the US. We will then examine in depth the historical struggle over access to water in the US west. How do individual needs, commercial demands, and social values all intersect in determining access to water? And what do these decisions reveal of the basic values of a society? In addition to short papers on the readings, students will be asked to select a particular writer, theme, or episode to examine in depth in light of the course readings. Individual cases can be selected from fields outside the US (or addressed in a comparative framework).
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Socially Engaged Buddhism
(SS-0277)

How is Buddhism engaged in the world? This course explores how Buddhism is being used in Asia and the United States to address contemporary issues such as human rights, environmentalism, economic development and gender relations. The historical development and application of engaged Buddhism will be examined in light of traditional Buddhist concepts of morality, interdependence and liberation in comparison with Western ideas of freedom, human rights and democracy. We will explore how globalization and cultural traditions influence the process of religious and cultural change as people deal with social problems. Cases of Burma, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Tibet, India, Vietnam and the U. S. will be studied comparatively within their broader cultural, historical and political contexts as we look at progressive and conservative responses to social change. Prior knowledge of Buddhist studies or Asian studies is strongly recommended.
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Sex on the Brain: Gender, Sex, and Biology
(SS-0278)

This course is designed to examine sex, gender, and sexuality in multiple contexts. The primary aim of this course is to develop an understanding of the biology and neuropsychology of sex gender and sexuality. Additionally the course will examine how biological and environmental factors influence sex gender and sexuality across development and how these factors influence differences in brain and behavior. Course requirements will include reading primary research articles in the fields of psychology neuroscience sociology anthropology and women's studies. Students will also be asked to conduct library research write several short response and review papers and conduct a larger research project. Students are not required to have a scientific background but they are asked to be open to reading and evaluating scientific research. This is a core course in the Culture Brain and Development Program.
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Environment and Social Justice
(SS-0285)

This course critically examines the relationship between concepts and use of environment and social justice in numerous settings. Approaching landscapes as cultural artifacts grounded in people146s beliefs, histories and interactions with the land, conflicts and inequities arise as people lay claim to the environment for particular uses. Debates surround definitions and implementations of development and sustainability, whether 147community-based resource management148 is the most effective method for promoting both social justice and environmentalism, and relationships between scientific and traditional ecological knowledge. Students will write a series of analytical essays on the different topics explored, and a longer research paper on a particular question or case. Instructor permission required.
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State and Politics in Africa
(SS-0291)

Sub-Saharan Africa faces multi-faceted difficulties including a crisis of the state. The state loomed large in all post-colonial scenarios of African development as the major agency of economic growth and of popular participation. The 1960s and 1970s brought mixed returns on those expectations, but the 1980s dashed prior hopes with international debt, structural adjustment economic policies, and repressive regimes. The turn of the past decade found angry people in the streets demanding democracy, while the end of the Cold War meant that major Western countries were willing to 147let go148 of some very unpopular leaders the West used to support. But despite democratic openings, and the unleashing of political voices, several states are marked by their failure to function as well as they did two decades ago, and a few have all but collapsed. Meanwhile economies are growing slowly and poverty maybe spreading. The way out of the general crisis will require state reform and that will require an understanding of the forces that created the current situation. This is the central issue that the course will address. Some prior study of Africa, Asia, or Latin America is expected.
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Seminar in Music, Culture, and Ethnography
(SS-0326)

This integrative seminar is designed for Division III students who are working on any aspect of ethnography, music, and other types of cultural production. Readings in cultural theory and issues specific to ethnographic work (the emic/etic divide, notions of authenticity, etc) will offer students theoretical frameworks from which to locate their research from their Division III projects. Additional reading assignments will be student selected. Students will read and critique each other?s Division III work and will prepare class presentations of their research throughout the semester. Instructor permission required.
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Gender Race and Class
(SS-0355)

This course will examine the social structures and ideologies of gender, race, and class. For instance, when we consider the situation of battered women, we see that all women confront gendered social structures and prejudice. Yet, the experiences of those women and their options vary depending on their race and class. Through the use of examples as the one above, drawn from both history and public policy, we will work to hone our critical skills in analyzing gender, race, and class in American society. This course is designed for advanced Division II and Division III students. Students will have the opportunity to develop comprehensive research projects and to present their own work for class discussion.
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Ethnography practicum
(SS-4001)

This class is designed for students whose work in Cuba will include an ethnographic component. Its goal is to introduce students to a variety of methods in ethnographic fieldwork including oral and life histories, interviewing, participant observation, analysis of performance. We will also deal with the process of turning field notes into academic and popular forms of writing. Depending on students' interest we may concentrate on performance ethnography, ie, viewing performances as artistic forms that are located in particular economic, cultural, historical contexts. We will consider performance as embodied experience, as ritual, as site of symbolic meaning, as product of economic relations, as site specific, as involving political aims and power relations.
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