MCST 110-01 10560 |
Texts and Power: Foundations of Media and Cultural Studies |
Days: M W F
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Time: 02:20 pm-03:20 pm
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Room: HUM 400
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Instructor: Michael Griffin
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*First day attendance required*
Details
This course introduces students to the intellectual roots and contemporary applications of cultural studies, including critical media studies, focusing on the theoretical bases for analyses of power and meaning in production, texts, and reception. It includes primary readings in anti-racist, feminist, modern, postmodern, and queer cultural and social theory, and compares them to traditional approaches to the humanities. Designed as preparation for intermediate and advanced work grounded in cultural studies, the course is writing intensive, with special emphasis on developing skills in critical thinking and scholarly argumentation and documentation. Completion of or enrollment in MCST 110 is the prerequisite for majoring in media and cultural studies.
General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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SOCI 150-01 10732 |
Prius or Pickup? Political Divides and Social Class |
Days: W
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Time: 07:00 pm-10:00 pm
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Room: CARN 204
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Instructor: Khaldoun Samman
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*First day attendance required*
Details
The Far Right in the United States has appropriated working class identities to produce an identity among the white working class. Donald Trump, for instance, intentionally portrays a large gap in highbrow and lowbrow to take jabs at privileged liberals (such as when he tweeted the "Hamberder" photo). This course observes what can be called the Far Right "theater of politics" in order to understand how liberals have left working class culture behind in ways that allowed the far right to fill the void by finding persuasive techniques in culture (country music, religion, church...) to articulate a political voice that some working class folks, especially whites, may find appealing. Some of the major questions of the course include: (1) How do political and economic elites produce class, gender, and racial divides and segmentations by aligning themselves with the cultural practices often associated with working class folks? (2) Can the left create a political culture that cultivates respect for organic cultural expressions that include religious expressions and pop-cultural themes like country music and sports (yes, even football!) into their fold Reducing everything to class and asking all others to submit to its political logic is a limited vision. Instead, the course investigates whether it is possible to envision a political project that rather than privileging the concerns of upper-middle class whites produces a culture of resistance that can articulate working class subjects - straight, queer, white, black, binary, non-binary - into a populist left movement? One of the truly powerful features of the Left is that it is much more diverse than the Far Right. Is it possible to extend that diversity even further so that it can show a "little respect" for organic cultural producers to feel comfortable producing and living in multiple class, racial, gender, and sexual habitus?
General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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SOCI 150-F1 10731 |
Prius or Pickup? Political Divides and Social Class |
Days: T R
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Time: 01:20 pm-02:50 pm
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Room: CARN 204
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Instructor: Khaldoun Samman
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|
*First-Year course only*
Details
The Far Right in the United States has appropriated working class identities to produce an identity among the white working class. Donald Trump, for instance, intentionally portrays a large gap in highbrow and lowbrow to take jabs at privileged liberals (such as when he tweeted the "Hamberder" photo). This course observes what can be called the Far Right "theater of politics" in order to understand how liberals have left working class culture behind in ways that allowed the far right to fill the void by finding persuasive techniques in culture (country music, religion, church...) to articulate a political voice that some working class folks, especially whites, may find appealing. Some of the major questions of the course include: (1) How do political and economic elites produce class, gender, and racial divides and segmentations by aligning themselves with the cultural practices often associated with working class folks? (2) Can the left create a political culture that cultivates respect for organic cultural expressions that include religious expressions and pop-cultural themes like country music and sports (yes, even football!) into their fold Reducing everything to class and asking all others to submit to its political logic is a limited vision. Instead, the course investigates whether it is possible to envision a political project that rather than privileging the concerns of upper-middle class whites produces a culture of resistance that can articulate working class subjects - straight, queer, white, black, binary, non-binary - into a populist left movement? One of the truly powerful features of the Left is that it is much more diverse than the Far Right. Is it possible to extend that diversity even further so that it can show a "little respect" for organic cultural producers to feel comfortable producing and living in multiple class, racial, gender, and sexual habitus?
General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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POLI 160-01 10643 |
Foundations of Political Theory: Decolonizing the Canon |
Days: T R
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Time: 01:20 pm-02:50 pm
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Room: CARN 05
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Instructor: Rothin Datta
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Details
What does it mean to theorize “the political”? How does one undertake such an inquiry? What is the relationship between the political, the economic, the social, and the cultural? This course is designed to help students answer these questions and introduce them to the field of Political Theory. We will explore the work of some the most influential thinkers in the history of political thought – namely, Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, and Arendt. We will also engage contemporary scholarship in the discipline and try to understand where Political Theory is headed today. Significantly, this course will move beyond the scope of a traditional introductory survey and consider the ways in which Political Theory has historically ignored questions of racism, sexism, and colonialism. In an attempt to decolonize the canon, we will consider the ways in which these issues have been ignored despite the fact that they have lurked in the background of some of the most important texts in the history of political thought.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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WGSS 220-01 10843 |
Feminist Reconstructions: Utopias, Masculinities, and Race |
Days: T R
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Time: 09:40 am-11:10 am
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Room: MAIN 009
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Instructor: Sonita Sarker
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*Cross-listed with ENGL 294-05*
Details
‘U-topia’ means ‘a place (topos) that doesn’t exist’ and ‘Eu-topia’ means ‘a good place.’ So, a good place that doesn’t exist? How do people of various gender identities envision a better state yet-to-be (utopia) as well as a fear of catastrophe or nightmare (dystopia)? This course investigates how women's literary writing from different parts of the world (Bangladeshi, British, African-American, Canadian, to name a few) produce visions of the present and the future, of the real and the imagined, beliefs about masculinity and femininity, socialist and capitalist philosophies, modernity, the environment (ecotopia), and various technologies including cybergenetics. Texts by Thomas More, Frantz Fanon, Silvia Federici, and Noam Chomsky, and music by The Eagles and A Tribe Called Red are included. We will explore how these texts provide some ways to think about our gendered, racialized, and classed roles, and how we can think about MeToo, Black Lives Matter, Charlottesville, and neoliberal nation-states, along with our own fantasies and realities of sociopolitical change.
General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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RELI 235-01 10713 |
Theorizing Religion |
Days: T R
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Time: 01:20 pm-02:50 pm
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Room: MAIN 003
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Instructor: Erik Davis
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*First day attendance required*
Details
The course is an introduction to some of the important theoretical and methodological work conducted by scholars in various disciplines who hope to better define and understand religious phenomena. This seminar begins with some of the early twentieth century texts that are often cited and discussed by contemporary scholars of religion (e.g., Durkheim, Weber, Freud) and then turns to a number of investigations stemming from engagement with earlier theorists or refracting new concerns. The course inquires into the problems of defining and analyzing religious cultures, and the researcher's position or positions in this analysis, as this has been approached from anthropological, sociological, and religious studies perspectives.
General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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POLI 261-01 10650 |
Feminist Political Theory |
Days: T R
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Time: 01:20 pm-02:50 pm
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Room: CARN 206
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Instructor: Della Zurick
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|
*Cross-listed with WGSS 261-01*
Details
Analysis of contemporary feminist theories regarding gender identity, biological and socio-cultural influences on subjectivity and knowledge, and relations between the personal and the political.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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WGSS 261-01 10651 |
Feminist Political Theory |
Days: T R
|
Time: 01:20 pm-02:50 pm
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Room: CARN 206
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Instructor: Della Zurick
|
|
*Cross-listed POLI 261-01*
Details
Analysis of contemporary feminist theories regarding gender identity, biological and socio-cultural influences on subjectivity and knowledge, and relations between the personal and the political.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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ART 264-01 10108 |
Contemporary Art and Theory |
Days: T R
|
Time: 03:00 pm-04:30 pm
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Room: ARTCOM 102
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Instructor: Joanna Inglot
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|
Details
This course focuses on Contemporary Art from 1945 to the present, with special attention to art in the United States but with inclusion of many other artistic developments that shaped contemporary art practices. We will begin with an overview of the post-World War II art and modernist theories, but move quickly to examine the crisis of modernism and the emergence of postmodern and decolonial artistic trends. Throughout the course we will consider various themes that are prevalent in contemporary art, such as Abstraction, Representation, Narrative, the Body, Time, Ecology, Technology, Spirituality, Identity, and Posthumanism. We will also explore the relation between contemporary art and critical theory by discussing key thinkers and ideas informing debates around contemporary art and aesthetics. We will visit various exhibitions of contemporary art at the Walker Art Center, the Mia, and local galleries.
General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts
Course Materials
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GERM 278-01 10458 |
Marx, Religion, and Biopolitical Race |
Days: T R
|
Time: 03:00 pm-04:30 pm
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Room: HUM 401
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Instructor: Kiarina Kordela
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|
*Cross-listed with MCST 278-01, POLI 278-01 and RELI 278-01*
Details
All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. In this course we shall examine the relation of religion to both capital and the modern forms of political power (what Michel Foucault termed biopolitics or biopower), as well as the biopolitical formations of race and racism as means for sustaining power-while discovering the enduring pertinence of Marx's work in theorizing the above issues. Biopower emerges gradually in secular capitalist modernity as a form of power that legitimizes itself not through its right to "take life" (as in traditional forms of sovereignty) but through its obligation to protect and enhance life. Yet, albeit "secular," biopower is a form of "pastoral power" (Foucault). We shall explore: the interconnectedness of modern biopower and religion; Marx's critique of the dominant (Enlightenment) critique of religion and his thesis that the secular state presupposes religion; the colonial and racial constructions of religion; racial capitalism; the biopolitical constructions of race in its relation to social class and other forms of domination; and anti-racist criticisms of both Foucault and Marx.
General Education Requirements:
Internationalism
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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MCST 278-01 10459 |
Marx, Religion, and Biopolitical Race |
Days: T R
|
Time: 03:00 pm-04:30 pm
|
Room: HUM 401
|
Instructor: Kiarina Kordela
|
|
*Cross-listed with GERM 278-01, POLI 278-01 and RELI 278-01*
Details
All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. In this course we shall examine the relation of religion to both capital and the modern forms of political power (what Michel Foucault termed biopolitics or biopower), as well as the biopolitical formations of race and racism as means for sustaining power-while discovering the enduring pertinence of Marx's work in theorizing the above issues. Biopower emerges gradually in secular capitalist modernity as a form of power that legitimizes itself not through its right to "take life" (as in traditional forms of sovereignty) but through its obligation to protect and enhance life. Yet, albeit "secular," biopower is a form of "pastoral power" (Foucault). We shall explore: the interconnectedness of modern biopower and religion; Marx's critique of the dominant (Enlightenment) critique of religion and his thesis that the secular state presupposes religion; the colonial and racial constructions of religion; racial capitalism; the biopolitical constructions of race in its relation to social class and other forms of domination; and anti-racist criticisms of both Foucault and Marx.
General Education Requirements:
Internationalism
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
|
POLI 278-01 10460 |
Marx, Religion, and Biopolitical Race |
Days: T R
|
Time: 03:00 pm-04:30 pm
|
Room: HUM 401
|
Instructor: Kiarina Kordela
|
|
*Cross-listed with GERM 278-01, MCST 278-01 and RELI 278-01*
Details
All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. In this course we shall examine the relation of religion to both capital and the modern forms of political power (what Michel Foucault termed biopolitics or biopower), as well as the biopolitical formations of race and racism as means for sustaining power-while discovering the enduring pertinence of Marx's work in theorizing the above issues. Biopower emerges gradually in secular capitalist modernity as a form of power that legitimizes itself not through its right to "take life" (as in traditional forms of sovereignty) but through its obligation to protect and enhance life. Yet, albeit "secular," biopower is a form of "pastoral power" (Foucault). We shall explore: the interconnectedness of modern biopower and religion; Marx's critique of the dominant (Enlightenment) critique of religion and his thesis that the secular state presupposes religion; the colonial and racial constructions of religion; racial capitalism; the biopolitical constructions of race in its relation to social class and other forms of domination; and anti-racist criticisms of both Foucault and Marx.
General Education Requirements:
Internationalism
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
|
RELI 278-01 10461 |
Marx, Religion, and Biopolitical Race |
Days: T R
|
Time: 03:00 pm-04:30 pm
|
Room: HUM 401
|
Instructor: Kiarina Kordela
|
|
*Cross-listed with GERM 278-01, MCST 278-01 and POLI 278-01*
Details
All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. In this course we shall examine the relation of religion to both capital and the modern forms of political power (what Michel Foucault termed biopolitics or biopower), as well as the biopolitical formations of race and racism as means for sustaining power-while discovering the enduring pertinence of Marx's work in theorizing the above issues. Biopower emerges gradually in secular capitalist modernity as a form of power that legitimizes itself not through its right to "take life" (as in traditional forms of sovereignty) but through its obligation to protect and enhance life. Yet, albeit "secular," biopower is a form of "pastoral power" (Foucault). We shall explore: the interconnectedness of modern biopower and religion; Marx's critique of the dominant (Enlightenment) critique of religion and his thesis that the secular state presupposes religion; the colonial and racial constructions of religion; racial capitalism; the biopolitical constructions of race in its relation to social class and other forms of domination; and anti-racist criticisms of both Foucault and Marx.
General Education Requirements:
Internationalism
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
|
GERM 294-01 10453 |
Critical Ecologies: Theory in the Anthropocene |
Days: M W
|
Time: 07:00 pm-08:30 pm
|
Room: HUM 216
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Instructor: Ross Shields
|
|
*Cross-listed with ENVI 294-02*
Details
With the advent of anthropogenic climate change and widespread species extinction, ecology must become critical no less than theory must become ecological. Among other things, this implies a thorough reevaluation of the concepts of nature and the environment, which—as their fraught history suggests—are anything but natural. In this seminar, we will examine the complex development of ecological thinking, focusing on its intersection with the critical theoretical tradition and relevance for the contemporary situation. We will ask: How do present-day concerns challenge us to reevaluate traditional distinctions between history and nature, organism and environment, human and non-human? In what way do our received notions reflect and/or support relations of capital and dominion? What resources can critical theory offer for developing alternative paradigms of interconnection among living and non-living agents? Readings may include texts by Ursula Heise, Theodor W. Adorno, Jane Bennett, Amanda Jo Goldstein, Édouard Glissant, Christoph Menke, Georges Canguilhem, Jon Bellamy Foster, Alexander von Humboldt, Gregory Bateson, Donna Haraway, Arne Naess, Bruno Latour, and Andreas Malm. In addition to ecological and critical theory, we may engage with contemporary film and literature.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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MCST 294-01 10567 |
The Horror Film: History, Politics, and Theory |
Days: M W F
|
Time: 03:30 pm-04:30 pm
|
Room: HUM 400
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Instructor: Bradley Stiffler
|
|
*First day attendance required*
Details
In this course, we will consider films that provoke horror, fear, disgust, shock, terror, panic, and revulsion and ask about their political, philosophical, and cultural effects and potentials. As a genre organized around visceral experiences, both on-screen (gore, violence, monstrosity, terror) and in the audience (jump scares, trembling, squirming, fright), horror reminds us of the embodied dimension of existence, our living, material, and creaturely side and its entanglement with other people and the non-human world. In this manner, horror films can be privileged sites for working out ideas about gender, race, and sexuality, in ways that often reproduce existing power dynamics, but can sometimes subvert them. We will also consider the horror film as a potential mode of theory itself, one attuned to the unthinkable dimensions of our existence. Based around detailed engagements with individual films, our work will be both historical and international, moving between canonical examples that may include F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922), Ishirō Honda’s Godzilla (1954), and Alfred Hitckock’s Psycho (1960) and more contemporary films that may include Julia Ducournau’s Raw (2016), Kyle Edward Ball’s Skinamarink (2022), and Remi Weekes’ His House (2020).
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Course Materials
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ENVI 294-02 10454 |
Critical Ecologies: Theory in the Anthropocene |
Days: M W
|
Time: 07:00 pm-08:30 pm
|
Room: HUM 216
|
Instructor: Ross Shields
|
|
*Cross-listed with GERM 294-01*
Details
With the advent of anthropogenic climate change and widespread species extinction, ecology must become critical no less than theory must become ecological. Among other things, this implies a thorough reevaluation of the concepts of nature and the environment, which—as their fraught history suggests—are anything but natural. In this seminar, we will examine the complex development of ecological thinking, focusing on its intersection with the critical theoretical tradition and relevance for the contemporary situation. We will ask: How do present-day concerns challenge us to reevaluate traditional distinctions between history and nature, organism and environment, human and non-human? In what way do our received notions reflect and/or support relations of capital and dominion? What resources can critical theory offer for developing alternative paradigms of interconnection among living and non-living agents? Readings may include texts by Ursula Heise, Theodor W. Adorno, Jane Bennett, Amanda Jo Goldstein, Édouard Glissant, Christoph Menke, Georges Canguilhem, Jon Bellamy Foster, Alexander von Humboldt, Gregory Bateson, Donna Haraway, Arne Naess, Bruno Latour, and Andreas Malm. In addition to ecological and critical theory, we may engage with contemporary film and literature.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Course Materials
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WGSS 300-01 10847 |
Worlds Upside Down: Revolutions in Theories and Practices |
Days: T R
|
Time: 01:20 pm-02:50 pm
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Room: MAIN 009
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Instructor: Sonita Sarker
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|
Details
Are we living in revolutionary times? How do we know? Ok, we are living in revolutionary times. This course takes a journey through the last 50 years of some large upheavals across the world—in bio-regimes, language, politics, economics, culture, and media—to find some answers of how we are similar and different. It uncovers how and why the struggles, in theories and practices, for power and representation have created the conditions in which we exist today. We travel through all kinds of ‘post’ and ‘neo’—liberalism, humanism, feminism, nationalism, and colonialism—and how they intertwine in our own lived experiences. Some topics: protest against gender, sexual, race, economic, and linguistic bio-regimes, revolts of the colonized and marginalized, and resistant/ liberatory creations in the sciences, the arts, technology, and media. Authors include Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Michel Foucault, Theresa Cha, Silvia Federici, Noam Chomsky, Ta-Nehisi Coates, bell hooks, Chela Sandoval, and Gayatri Spivak, among others. At the end of the course, we will all know a little more about where we stand.
General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism
Distribution Requirements:
Course Materials
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ANTH 335-01 10506 |
Global Generosity |
Days: M W F
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Time: 03:30 pm-04:30 pm
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Room: CARN 404
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Instructor: Jenna Rice Rahaim
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|
*Cross-listed with INTL 335-01*
Details
From Italian Mafia dons to famous American philanthropists; from the knitting of "trauma teddies" in Helsinki to gift shopping in London; and from ceremonial exchange rings in Melanesia to the present day global refugee crisis: this course will investigate how generosity is understood and practiced in global perspective. We'll begin the semester by examining key debates surrounding reciprocity, gifts, and exchange, theories of altruism and generosity, and patron-client relations. We'll then explore the birth of the "humanitarian spirit," and the complicated ethics and politics of humanitarian intervention. We will compare diverse religious traditions' approaches to giving, including Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, and Jainism. And we'll explore contemporary debates surrounding volunteerism within sectarian and neoliberal political regimes.
General Education Requirements:
Internationalism
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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INTL 335-01 10505 |
Global Generosity |
Days: M W F
|
Time: 03:30 pm-04:30 pm
|
Room: CARN 404
|
Instructor: Jenna Rice Rahaim
|
|
*Cross-listed with ANTH 335-01*
Details
From Italian Mafia dons to famous American philanthropists; from the knitting of "trauma teddies" in Helsinki to gift shopping in London; and from ceremonial exchange rings in Melanesia to the present day global refugee crisis: this course will investigate how generosity is understood and practiced in global perspective. We'll begin the semester by examining key debates surrounding reciprocity, gifts, and exchange, theories of altruism and generosity, and patron-client relations. We'll then explore the birth of the "humanitarian spirit," and the complicated ethics and politics of humanitarian intervention. We will compare diverse religious traditions' approaches to giving, including Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, and Jainism. And we'll explore contemporary debates surrounding volunteerism within sectarian and neoliberal political regimes.
General Education Requirements:
Internationalism
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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MCST 394-01 10568 |
The Transnational Character of Alternative Culture |
Days: M
|
Time: 07:00 pm-10:00 pm
|
Room: HUM 402
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Instructor: Bradley Stiffler
|
|
*First day attendance required*
Details
While the most visible signs of cultural globalization involve mainstream corporate products like Disney films, fast food chains, and blue jeans, underground and alternative cultural phenomena are also marked by their entanglement with a globalized economy, international communications technologies, diasporic communities, and other forms of transnationalism. By directly examining the products and practices of cultures labeled as dissident, subversive, or otherwise “alternative,” from the Pachuco subculture in the 1940s to punk music and identity in the 1980s to hip hop culture in Japan and beyond, this course will ask critical questions about their transnational character. How do alternative identities express forms of both national and international belonging? What happens when alternative or oppositional identities are taken up outside of their “original” national contexts? Is this merely a miniature version of “cultural imperialism” or homogenization? How have international subcultures constructed unique networks of communication and exchange, both outside and within mainstream institutions or mediums? And, importantly, what are the political stakes of these transnational phenomena that are sometimes characterized as mere fashion trends or youth culture fads? How might we rethink terms like “subculture,” “counterculture,” and “fringe”? To explore these questions, we will draw on key theoretical texts, music, film, and other media, and a series of historical and contemporary case studies.
General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism
Distribution Requirements:
Course Materials
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ANTH 487-01 10093 |
Theory in Anthropology |
Days: T R
|
Time: 09:40 am-11:10 am
|
Room: THEATR 101
|
Instructor: Olga González
|
|
*First day attendance required*
Details
This course introduces students to the broad range of explanations for social and cultural phenomena used by anthropologists since the emergence of the discipline in the 19th century. The course focuses on the development of three broad theoretical approaches: The American school of cultural anthropology, British social anthropology, and the French school that emerged from the work of Durkheim and his followers. The course also examines theoretical approaches such as cultural materialism, and symbolic and interpretive approaches to the study of culture. Prerequisite(s): Junior or senior standing. Students should have at least two courses in anthropology including ANTH 101 or ANTH 111, or the permission of the instructor.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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