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Course Criteria
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4.00 Credits
This course examines the relationship between cultural and political change during three very different revolutions: France 1789, Russia 1917, Iran 1979. How do people change when governments are overturned How do revolutions shape popular consciousness Do people understand events as revolutionaries intend To answer these questions, we will examine symbols and political ideologies, mass media, education, social identities, the culture of violence, popular participation and resistance, and other issues. Readings will include revolution-inspiring works of Voltaire and Rousseau, Marx and Lenin, Khomeini and the Koran. We will read sympathetic and antagonistic contemporary accounts, and look at popular culture to see how events were understood. Fashion and etiquette, comics and caricatures, movies and plays will be used. Alternate years; next offered Fall 2008. (4 credits)
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4.00 Credits
Traces the development of theoretical accounts of culture, politics and identity in Africa, South Asia, the Caribbean and related lands since the 1947-1991 decolonizations. Readings include Fanon, Said, Walcott, Ngugi and many others, and extend to gender, literature, the U.S., the post-Soviet sphere, and Europe. The course bridges cultural, representational, and political theory. Prior internationalist and/or theoretical coursework strongly recommended. Alternate years; not offered 2008-2009. (4 credits)
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4.00 Credits
This course thoroughly examines the concept of sustainable development. We will define the term, examine its history, and evaluate its political, philosophical, scientific, and economic significance. Implementation of sustainable development in both the world's North and South are considered. Close attention is given to nongovernmental organizations and nation-states, the loss of global biodiversity, and existing and proposed remedial actions. Prior coursework in international, development, political, scientific, and/or environmental issues is strongly recommended. Offered Spring 2009. (4 credits)
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4.00 Credits
The European Union aims to overcome nationality for the common good. Its successes have challenged traditional customs and identities, and it has stumbled over cultural questions, foreign policy, and constitutional foundations. Topics will include genesis of the EU; erosion of national sovereignty and consequent anxieties; European institutions vs. local control; cultural norms confronted with EU economic, political, and human rights; incorporating new member-states, and the very notion of "Europe." Throughout we will ask whether onecan get "beyond nationalism." Alternate years; not offered 2008-2009. (4 credits
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4.00 Credits
The great African American writer Langston Hughes (1902-1967) is best know as the poet laureate of the Harlem Renaissance. But his career was vaster still. He was a Soviet screenwriter, Spanish Civil War journalist, African literary anthologist, humorist, playwright, translator, social critic, writer of over 10,000 letters, and much more. This course engages Hughes's full career, bridging race and global issues, politics and art, and makes use of little-known archival materials. Alternate years; not offered 2008-2009. (4 credits.) Advanced Courses Students should have at least two courses in international studies including an Introduction to International Studies, or the permission of the instructor.
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3.00 Credits
A concern for the relationship between nature and society has been one of the pillars of geographic inquiry, and has also been an important bridge between other disciplines. By the 1960s, this area of inquiry was referred to variously as "human ecology" or "cultural ecology." Over the last decade certain forms of inquiry within thtradition have increasingly referred to themselves as "political ecology." The purpose of this seminar is to reviewmajor works within the traditions of cultural and political ecology; examine several areas of interest within these fields (e.g., agricultural modernization, environmental narratives, conservation, ecotourism); and explore nature-society dynamics across a range of geographical contexts. Towards the end of the course students will explore how one might begin to think in practical terms about facilitating development in marginal environments. Prerequisite: Geography 232 or permission of instructor. Fall semester. (4 credits)
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4.00 Credits
Leadership is among the deepest features of associational life, pervading every profession and institution, especially in the age of complex global change. Thus this seminar explores leadership. We begin with the relationship between structure and agency, and then focus on vision and invention, integrity and legitimacy, flexibility and decisiveness. Readings draw from Western, Islamic, and Chinese sources. The main paper will focus on a major individual from any century or locale, chosen by the student. Open to juniors and seniors in any department. Spring semester. (4 credits) Senior Seminars
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4.00 Credits
Drawing on several disciplines, this course confronts global hatred from three angles. The first is the hater's internal world and looks at how human nature, genetic structure/instincts, and individual psychology may foster hatred. The second is external, exploring the role history, culture, ideology, social structure, religion, and mass psychology play. The third seeks to apply the insights gained from the first two, asking: how might we break the devastating cycles of hatred so present in our world Next offered Fall 2008. (4 credits.)
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4.00 Credits
Rapid globalization in all areas of modern life raises afresh the question of universalism: do we live in one world or many This course reviews attempts at thinking the world as one. Varying from year to year, the course ranges across world-historical studies, geographic and regional studies, theories of Weltliteratur, debates in the Americas and the Caribbean, contemporary cultural theory, and other topics. Throughout, we will ask: in whose interest is the universal is there any local left does global mean homogeneous is it possible to be cosmopolitan A course less about research or fact than about thought. Next offered 2009-2010. (4 credits)
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3.00 Credits
The end of the Cold War eliminated a large bifurcation of international society. However, the initial shock of this event have given way to fresh arguments about transnational life. For some, the situation is seen as the disappearance of an aberration, and the return of the "natural" Western modernization, progress, free marketsand liberal democracy. Others see a moment of truth: the unveiling of deeper, more complicated divides, requiring fundamental rethinking and a new world order. Through various readings, this senior seminar interrogates these and other interpretations of the interregnum and their correlative visions. Prerequisite: senior standing. Not offered 2008-2009. (4 credits)
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