Class Schedules

Can we all live by one set of rules? This course investigates the broad field of global studies by addressing fresh and age-old issues in international law from the personal to the global, including borders, sources and enforcement of international law, law of the sea, immigration and asylum, post-national federation, colonization, world order, and global citizenship. Readings include case studies, memoirs, fiction, and other texts focusing on individuals, cultures, and states. Open to first- and second-year students, or permission of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

What matters in life?  Is pleasure the only thing that matters?  If so, whose pleasure should I pursue-just my own, my family's, or everyone's? Does suffering matter, too? What about the suffering of non-human animals? Is it okay for me to make animals suffer in order for me to enjoy the pleasure of eating their flesh? Or how about the suffering of people who are really far away from me-say, on another continent? Is it okay for me to spend money on cool stuff for myself when instead I could donate it to help people who are suffering very badly far away?  If things in life other than pleasure matter too, what are they? People who oppose torture think that it's wrong to hurt one person really badly even in order to prevent a large number of people from being hurt.  Are they right?  Is it always wrong to treat someone as merely a means to an end? Is it in general wrong to do things to people without their consent?  Why?  When do people deserve to be praised or blamed for their actions? What kind of person should I be?  Should I try to be happy? Or should I try to be virtuous? Is virtue its own reward? Or are we all inevitably faced with a choice between being virtuous and being happy?  If we are faced with that choice, which one should we pick?  In Ethics, we will talk about these questions, and others.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

What matters in life?  Is pleasure the only thing that matters?  If so, whose pleasure should I pursue-just my own, my family's, or everyone's? Does suffering matter, too? What about the suffering of non-human animals? Is it okay for me to make animals suffer in order for me to enjoy the pleasure of eating their flesh? Or how about the suffering of people who are really far away from me-say, on another continent? Is it okay for me to spend money on cool stuff for myself when instead I could donate it to help people who are suffering very badly far away?  If things in life other than pleasure matter too, what are they? People who oppose torture think that it's wrong to hurt one person really badly even in order to prevent a large number of people from being hurt.  Are they right?  Is it always wrong to treat someone as merely a means to an end? Is it in general wrong to do things to people without their consent?  Why?  When do people deserve to be praised or blamed for their actions? What kind of person should I be?  Should I try to be happy? Or should I try to be virtuous? Is virtue its own reward? Or are we all inevitably faced with a choice between being virtuous and being happy?  If we are faced with that choice, which one should we pick?  In Ethics, we will talk about these questions, and others.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The use of imprisonment as a form of criminal punishment is only about as old at the United States. Currently, 1 in 100 adults in the United States are in prison or jail. How should we understand the growth of this form of criminal punishment? How is it similar to other methods to react to and to attempt to control unwanted behavior? What are the social consequences of these formal institutions of social control? In this course, we examine these developments in the processes and organization of social control, paying particular attention to criminal behavior and formal, legal responses to crime. We study and evaluate sociological theories of criminal behavior to understand how social forces influence levels of crimes. We examine recent criminal justice policies in the United States and their connections to inequality, examining the processes that account for expanding criminalization. Finally, we compare the development of formal, bureaucratic systems of social control and informal methods of social control, paying attention to the social and political implications of these developments.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q2
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course explores the significance, possibilities and limits of litigation as a way of shaping public policy and society. Focusing mainly in the American context, the course connects two areas of interest: the use of litigation as a strategy for rights movements (from the NAACP to contemporary movements such as gay rights) and the use of class action lawsuits and tort law to compensate people for injuries, especially in matters affecting public health (e.g. asbestos, tobacco). The course gives special emphasis to the work of lawyers and the role of the legal profession.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course examines Native American history since 1871. We begin with an introduction to indigenous history before 1871, characterized by centuries of Euro-American attempts to colonize and Christianize, to assimilate Native bodies and allot Native lands. We will then analyze the ways in which Native Americans have continually fought to sustain their cultures, languages, and religions, as well as their political and socio-economic structures, throughout the 20th and into the 21st centuries. Focusing on themes such as Native resistance to the development of U.S. federal policies and the proliferation of Native culture, we will also consider the shifting nature of Native American sovereignty and the importance of indigenous identity in regards to the experiences of Native Americans. Meets the post-1800 requirement, and can count towards "Colonization and Empire," or "Race and Indigeneity," or "Law and Social Justice," or "North America" fields of the History major.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course examines Native American history since 1871. We begin with an introduction to indigenous history before 1871, characterized by centuries of Euro-American attempts to colonize and Christianize, to assimilate Native bodies and allot Native lands. We will then analyze the ways in which Native Americans have continually fought to sustain their cultures, languages, and religions, as well as their political and socio-economic structures, throughout the 20th and into the 21st centuries. Focusing on themes such as Native resistance to the development of U.S. federal policies and the proliferation of Native culture, we will also consider the shifting nature of Native American sovereignty and the importance of indigenous identity in regards to the experiences of Native Americans. Meets the post-1800 requirement, and can count towards "Colonization and Empire," or "Race and Indigeneity," or "Law and Social Justice," or "North America" fields.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course is an introduction to the study of literature and human rights. We will seek to better understand the contemporary norms and practices of human rights by examining its deep historical contexts, and by considering the philosophical and religious debates that continue to shape human rights theory and practice. We will also examine theories of trauma and torture, personal accounts of human rights and humanitarian fieldwork, representational ethics, and studies of human rights in film and media. We will scrutinize relevant literary texts as works of art, as case studies in human rights, and as models for understanding how words can change the world, whether in the form of human rights reports and newspaper accounts or of poems and novels. We will seek to better understand how spectators of suffering develop (or fail to develop) empathy for distant persons or for persons considered alien by also examining how they can so palpably feel for the dreams, desires, and dignity of fictional persons. In The Defense of Poesy Sir Philip Sidney describes the tyrant, Alexander Pheraeus, "from whose eyes a tragedy well-made and represented drew abundance of tears; who without all pity had murdered infinite numbers, and some of his own blood, so as he that was not ashamed to make matters for tragedies, yet could not resist the sweet violence of a tragedy." What is the line that separates those who are merely moved from those who are moved to act? When does the story become real enough to change you? Our list of authors will span the range of intellectual and ethical endeavor, from ancient Greek plays and philosophy to contemporary US literature.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

After a brief but essential global history of drugs, this course will focus primarily on the 20th century to the present. We will examine histories of substance use and abuse, temperance and prohibition, the "War on Drugs," the shifting concept of addiction as a moral failing to addiction as a treatable disease, as well as study the history of the recovery movement and harm reduction. This course is not intended to be an exhaustive, comprehensive history of the subject-but it will provide you with a solid base from which to explore other aspects of this fascinating and contentious aspect of human history.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

After a brief but essential global history of drugs, this course will focus primarily on the 20th century to the present. We will examine histories of substance use and abuse, temperance and prohibition, the "War on Drugs," the shifting concept of addiction as a moral failing to addiction as a treatable disease, as well as study the history of the recovery movement and harm reduction. This course is not intended to be an exhaustive, comprehensive history of the subject-but it will provide you with a solid base from which to explore other aspects of this fascinating and contentious aspect of human history. Meets the post-1800 requirement, and can count towards "Gender," or "Race and Indigeneity," or "Law and Social Justice," or "North America" fields.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

In this class, reproductive justice will become a critical framework for both political theory and political action. As a theoretical framework, reproductive justice is a way of thinking about freedom and the rights to maintain bodily autonomy, to have children, to not have children and to parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities. Insofar as reproductive justice centers the politics of sex, we’ll begin this class thinking about sexual autonomy (including access to contraception, sex education, prevention and treatment for STIs, etc.). From there, we’ll move into U.S. histories of forced sterilization, the fight for access to safe and legal abortion and the risks of childbirth and infant mortality, especially for BIPOC people. These histories will bring us into an exploration of reproductive justice as a framework for political practice and as a social justice movement. It’s about the legal and political action that may limit or expand the scope of justice to include things that would make reproduction meaningfully free (e.g., access to health care and safe housing, a living wage, and decarceration). We’ll study these issues through legal cases, historical readings, political theory, ethics and personal narratives that put focus on reproductive justice in the U.S. This class requires your thoughtful participation both in writing and discussion.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

In this class, reproductive justice will become a critical framework for both political theory and political action. As a theoretical framework, reproductive justice is a way of thinking about freedom and the rights to maintain bodily autonomy, to have children, to not have children and to parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities. Insofar as reproductive justice centers the politics of sex, we’ll begin this class thinking about sexual autonomy (including access to contraception, sex education, prevention and treatment for STIs, etc.). From there, we’ll move into U.S. histories of forced sterilization, the fight for access to safe and legal abortion and the risks of childbirth and infant mortality, especially for BIPOC people. These histories will bring us into an exploration of reproductive justice as a framework for political practice and as a social justice movement. It’s about the legal and political action that may limit or expand the scope of justice to include things that would make reproduction meaningfully free (e.g., access to health care and safe housing, a living wage, and decarceration). We’ll study these issues through legal cases, historical readings, political theory, ethics and personal narratives that put focus on reproductive justice in the U.S. This class requires your thoughtful participation both in writing and discussion.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This seminar-style course explores vital questions in America's political development, focusing particularly on the moments with questions of law and the identity of people have been contested around economic issues. Topics vary but may include the evolution in property rights for women, the law of slavery, the legal status of Native Americans, and the evolution of welfare rights. The course employs tutorials, in which students tackle key questions through essays, which are then discussed in small groups in the instructor's office. Prerequisite(s): Sophomore-standing or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

What is the nature of power within society and how does it relate to the development of nation-states? This course explores the development and operation of nation-states, examining how civil society and state practices relate to each another. We examine how the system of nation-states came into existence and what contemporary developments mean for the future of nation-states. We consider the nature and consequences of both citizenship and nationalism, trying to understand how these relations between individuals and states have developed. We also examine contemporary developments that might change citizenship, such as how we should understand national citizenship given the development of international human rights.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

What are the different types of political systems? How did the state evolve? What is the relationship between the structure of political systems and the processes of political action? Are societies lacking political authority vested in an individual or an institution necessarily anarchic? How do different types of political systems maintain social order and resolve disputes? What issues of law and justice arise in plural (multicultural) societies, where cultural practices offensive to some may be normative to others? These are some of the questions that confront the twinned sub-disciplines of political and legal anthropology that we will explore in this course. While political anthropology is the study of how power is distributed and wielded in a society, the anthropology of law concerns itself with the way social order is maintained and how “law” — as distinct from custom — is formulated and applied. This course examines the meaning of law and politics in cross-cultural perspective. The first half of the course examines how anthropologists have approached the study of politics by focusing on how people seek to manage others through persuasion, force, control over resources and by whatever other means are culturally available to them. In the second half of the course, we examine how people in different places at different times have understood the concept of law, how their understanding has been concretely manifested in the formulation of rules governing social relations and how those rules have been enforced. We will use a mock court, where the class role plays the trial of a Comanche medicine woman in state court for practicing medicine without a license (under an Oklahoma statute), to understand the challenges of applying the law in a culturally complex society.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

What matters in life?  Is pleasure the only thing that matters?  If so, whose pleasure should I pursue-just my own, my family's, or everyone's? Does suffering matter, too? What about the suffering of non-human animals? Is it okay for me to make animals suffer in order for me to enjoy the pleasure of eating their flesh? Or how about the suffering of people who are really far away from me-say, on another continent? Is it okay for me to spend money on cool stuff for myself when instead I could donate it to help people who are suffering very badly far away?  If things in life other than pleasure matter too, what are they? People who oppose torture think that it's wrong to hurt one person really badly even in order to prevent a large number of people from being hurt.  Are they right?  Is it always wrong to treat someone as merely a means to an end? Is it in general wrong to do things to people without their consent?  Why?  When do people deserve to be praised or blamed for their actions? What kind of person should I be?  Should I try to be happy? Or should I try to be virtuous? Is virtue its own reward? Or are we all inevitably faced with a choice between being virtuous and being happy?  If we are faced with that choice, which one should we pick?  In Ethics, we will talk about these questions, and others.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

What matters in life?  Is pleasure the only thing that matters?  If so, whose pleasure should I pursue-just my own, my family's, or everyone's? Does suffering matter, too? What about the suffering of non-human animals? Is it okay for me to make animals suffer in order for me to enjoy the pleasure of eating their flesh? Or how about the suffering of people who are really far away from me-say, on another continent? Is it okay for me to spend money on cool stuff for myself when instead I could donate it to help people who are suffering very badly far away?  If things in life other than pleasure matter too, what are they? People who oppose torture think that it's wrong to hurt one person really badly even in order to prevent a large number of people from being hurt.  Are they right?  Is it always wrong to treat someone as merely a means to an end? Is it in general wrong to do things to people without their consent?  Why?  When do people deserve to be praised or blamed for their actions? What kind of person should I be?  Should I try to be happy? Or should I try to be virtuous? Is virtue its own reward? Or are we all inevitably faced with a choice between being virtuous and being happy?  If we are faced with that choice, which one should we pick?  In Ethics, we will talk about these questions, and others.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

In the Plan of Union prepared during the 1754 "Albany Convention," Anglo-American colonists met to consider uniting as a loose confederation for their common defense and to ally with the Iroquois confederacy. That plan failed, but a later experiment in unity succeeded when the united colonies declared independence. Nevertheless, social, cultural, and ideological differences persisted, and the union formed in 1776 was tried and tested before finally fracturing with the secession of South Carolina, precipitating the Civil War. In the intervening years, Americans grappled with how they should govern themselves, who should be included in the polity, and how society should be organized. Reformers considered the controversial issues of women's rights, the role of Native Americans within the US, and the place of slavery in a nation founded on the precept that "All men are created equal." This course covers the periods of the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, the early national and antebellum periods, before concluding with the Civil War. It also considers the global causes and consequences of the war and the rise of the new United States. We will also analyze the construction of the myth and historical memory of Alexander Hamilton, the founding father who has captured the imagination of people in the modern U.S.  Through a study of the recent biography of Hamilton along with the music and stage production of Hamilton, we will consider both the biographical and mythical Alexander Hamilton in order to understand his era and our own. Can count towards "Colonization and Empire," or "Race and Indigeneity," or "Law and Social Justice," or "North America" fields.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

An exploration of the structure of the American Political System as seen through the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. The central topics include the development of the federal-state relationship, the separation of powers in the national government, the limits of government power over the economy, and the role of the judiciary. This course takes in the sweep of American history from 1789 to the present. Prerequisite(s): POLI 100 recommended.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

The course examines the post-World War II Civil Rights Movement led by African Americans in the United States.  In the class, students will analyze key people, issues, events, and debates within movement history, including, but not limited to, gender and leadership; struggles for civil rights in the south, west, and urban north; the impact of the Cold War on race relations; student activism; movement strategies; and the emergence of Black Power.  Throughout the semester, students will read a wide variety of primary and secondary texts to illuminate the activities and life stories of individual participants as well as the broad historical forces that characterized this long era of insurgency.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The course examines the post-World War II Civil Rights Movement led by African Americans in the United States.  In the class, students will analyze key people, issues, events, and debates within movement history, including, but not limited to, gender and leadership; struggles for civil rights in the south, west, and urban north; the impact of the Cold War on race relations; student activism; movement strategies; and the emergence of Black Power.  Throughout the semester, students will read a wide variety of primary and secondary texts to illuminate the activities and life stories of individual participants as well as the broad historical forces that characterized this long era of insurgency.   Can count towards "Gender," or "Race and Indigeneity," or "Law and Social Justice," or "North America" fields.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Bioethics deals with a variety of ethical issues arising in the context of medical care and biomedical research. These issues include informed consent, euthanasia, reproductive rights, confidentiality, and the distribution of health care resources. The course uses ethical theory to shed light on issues in medicine, and issues in medicine to illuminate ethical theory.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course considers the question: what philosophical questions arise with respect to the law, and how should we answer them? In the first part of the course, we'll consider philosophical questions related to making laws. For instance, is it permissible to create laws that are primarily aimed at preventing people from harming themselves, or should laws only be aimed at preventing people from harming others? In the second part of the course, we'll consider philosophical questions related to breaking laws. For example, to what extent are civil disobedience - and uncivil disobedience - justified? Along the way, we'll discuss myriad issues of serious contemporary relevance: the abolition of criminal punishment; the complexities of legal responses to sexual misconduct; and the complex relationship between morality and the law.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

In Shakespeare’s England, whipping, branding, mutilation (of the hand,nose, ears, or face), pillorying, hanging, burning, and beheading were common forms of legalpunishment. The rigors of early modern law may seem strange or “barbaric” to us, yet we mayrecognize the intentions behind the law: to restore order, keep the peace, and stabilize socialrelations. What can Shakespearean drama teach us about the human desire for justice,retribution, and forgiveness? To grasp what justice meant to the early moderns and, in turn,what it means to us today, we will study the representation of law and justice in plays byShakespeare and his contemporaries. We will read early modern and contemporary legal andpolitical theory, and attend shows or lectures related to the topics of this class. This coursesatisfies the Renaissance period requirement for the English major and counts as a course for the Legal Studies Concentration. Prerequisite: a 100- or 200-level English course or permission of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course explores how and why we make moral judgments about people and their behavior. How are our moral judgments shaped by intuition, emotion, and reasoning? What are the moral implications of climate change? Do we ever put the interests of our broader group or community above our own self-interest? How do we balance punishment motives of retribution and deterrence, and how do these relate to policy decisions about capital punishment? Could a robot have moral rights and responsibilities? We will examine these questions by considering theories and findings from social, developmental, evolutionary, and political psychology, as well as from related fields like philosophy and artificial intelligence. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 201 and one intermediate psychology course, or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials