Class Schedules

How should you live your life? This course is dedicated to exploring that BIG question. One dimension of that question is: what is good for you? Or in other words, what makes a life go well? Is it all dependent on the amount of pleasure and pain that you experience? All about how many desires of yours are satisfied? Or something else? However we answer such questions, we might also wonder - is morality just about self-interest? If not, what else is it about? And so another dimension of the question of how to live is: what makes an action morally right or wrong? Is it all about the consequences - for you or other people? Is it about treating people as more than just a means to get what you want? Is it about virtue? About caring for others? Is morality a messy combination of all of these things, and more? No matter what we think morality is, we can all admit: sometimes we morally mess up. And so we must wonder: what do we do in the wake of wrongdoing? Should we express blame? If so, when, and how? If I myself am the wrongdoer, can I ever forgive myself? This course is about questions like these. Along the way, we’ll consider myriad real-world ethical issues - how to treat animals; how to live a life with meaning; whether we have obligations to donate to charity; what it means to give consent to sex; how to feel about and respond to our complicity in various structural injustices; and more. Readings will include not just philosophical papers, but also films, short stories, and popular essays. If you want a chance to reflect deeply on how to live - a chance to work together to explore the big questions in life - this course is for you.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

How should you live your life? This course is dedicated to exploring that BIG question. One dimension of that question is: what is good for you? Or in other words, what makes a life go well? Is it all dependent on the amount of pleasure and pain that you experience? All about how many desires of yours are satisfied? Or something else? However we answer such questions, we might also wonder - is morality just about self-interest? If not, what else is it about? And so another dimension of the question of how to live is: what makes an action morally right or wrong? Is it all about the consequences - for you or other people? Is it about treating people as more than just a means to get what you want? Is it about virtue? About caring for others? Is morality a messy combination of all of these things, and more? No matter what we think morality is, we can all admit: sometimes we morally mess up. And so we must wonder: what do we do in the wake of wrongdoing? Should we express blame? If so, when, and how? If I myself am the wrongdoer, can I ever forgive myself? This course is about questions like these. Along the way, we’ll consider myriad real-world ethical issues - how to treat animals; how to live a life with meaning; whether we have obligations to donate to charity; what it means to give consent to sex; how to feel about and respond to our complicity in various structural injustices; and more. Readings will include not just philosophical papers, but also films, short stories, and popular essays. If you want a chance to reflect deeply on how to live - a chance to work together to explore the big questions in life - this course is for you.

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

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 class examines the Atlantic commerce in enslaved Africans that took place between 1500 and 1800. We will explore, among other topics, transatlantic commerce, the process of turning captives into commodities, the gendered dimensions of the slave trade, onboard experiences, resistance to the trade, Africans in the Americas, and the abolitionist movement on both sides of the Atlantic. Students will read a range of primary and secondary sources in order to gain a more complex understanding of the trade and how it changed over time. Meets the global and/or comparative history requirement. Meets the pre-1800 requirement, and can count towards "Colonization and Empire," or "Race and Indigeneity," or "Law and Social Justice," or "Africa & Atlantic World" fields within the History major.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

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

Historically, scholars have generally agreed that authoritarianism and the rule of law cannot coexist. In recent years, new research has argued that differences in legal environments between democracies and authoritarian states are not as clear as once thought. Prosperity, public discourse, media messaging, and careful use of legal procedures have created opportunities for a new "rule by law" to take hold in places once thought to be immune to authoritarian tendencies. As societies face a global trend of democratic decline, institutions and processes foundational to the rule of law and liberal democracy have become tools to constrain dissent while augmenting discretionary political power. This course will examine global trends and current case studies of authoritarian legal regimes around the world, which includes turning a lens on the United States to explore recent changes in the American regulatory environment and what they tell us about the durability of democracy now and into the future.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Zoning? More like boring, right? Arguably no practice has impacted how we shape our urban environment in the US, in both positive and negative ways. In the last 100 years it has become the default process by which we shape our living space—both for planners and homeowners. While it has organized our cities and suburbs into recognizable and repeatable forms, it has also enacted blunt-force trauma to others. This class will look at the impacts and origins of zoning, inequitable outcomes, lack of sustainability, exclusionary applications (redlining, urban renewal, among others) and all the lovely acronyms and jargon it has inspired: NIMBY, YIMBY, Blurb, BANANA, DUDE, McPlace, Taupeville, among others. Here’s the fun part— the course will look at ways of adapting, replacing, or abandoning Zoning code and the implications of each approach. Counts towards the Sustainable Design and Urban Sustainability emphases.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Arguments in law possess a specialized format, both orally and written. Even as the stability of constitutional understandings have been undermined, advocacy in this genre remains vital for persuading courts. This course will provide a space for developing argumentative skills in appellate advocacy. The course will include some empirical study of court and judges. Students in the course will prepare moot court arguments and participate in scrimmages, and the final paper will be a written brief submitted to a national competition. This course stands independent of the college’s Moot Court oral advocacy team: Some students in the course will compete, but it is not required; nor is enrollment in this course required in order to audition for the team.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

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

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

This course serves as an introduction to law and literature. How does literature shape law and vice versa? How does literature help us to better understand the human desire for revenge, retribution, confession, witnessing, judgment, remorse, and forgiveness? Readings will come from a variety of literary traditions and periods: fairy tales, early modern drama, essays, short stories, film, and literary and legal theory. This course counts as a foundation course for the English major. This course also counts for the Legal Studies Concentration.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

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.

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

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

Religion and Law in Africa is an intermediate cross-listed history and religion course designed to teach students how to think like historians and assess how the legal systems of indigenous African societies have been shaped by their respective religions and cosmologies. This course also explores how Arab migration and European colonization in different parts of Africa imposed new legal systems that were influenced by either Islam or Christianity. The major themes of this class include African agency, indigenous African forms of knowledge and periodization, the interconnectedness of religious, legislative, and judicial facets of African societies, and diversity among African regions, societies, ethnic groups, religions, and languages. It counts toward the Legal Studies and African Studies concentrations. For history, it meets either the pre-1800 or post-1800 requirement and can count towards the "Law & Social Justice," or "Race and Indigeneity," or "Africa & Atlantic World" fields.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Religion and Law in Africa is an intermediate cross-listed history and religion course designed to teach students how to think like historians and assess how the legal systems of indigenous African societies have been shaped by their respective religions and cosmologies. This course also explores how Arab migration and European colonization in different parts of Africa imposed new legal systems that were influenced by either Islam or Christianity. The major themes of this class include African agency, indigenous African forms of knowledge and periodization, the interconnectedness of religious, legislative, and judicial facets of African societies, and diversity among African regions, societies, ethnic groups, religions, and languages. It counts toward the Legal Studies and African Studies concentrations. For history, it meets either the pre-1800 or post-1800 requirement and can count towards the "Law & Social Justice," or "Race and Indigeneity," or "Africa & Atlantic World" fields.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course examines Native history since 1871, the year Congress unilaterally chose to stop making treaties with Native nations. By focusing on Native sovereignty, resistance, and the exercise of treaty rights, this course highlights histories and contemporary experiences of Native people in what is now the United States. Meets the post-1800 requirement, and can count towards "Colonization and Empire," or "Race and Indigeneity," or "Law and Social Justice," and or "North America" fields.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course examines Native history since 1871, the year Congress unilaterally chose to stop making treaties with Native nations. By focusing on Native sovereignty, resistance, and the exercise of treaty rights, this course highlights histories and contemporary experiences of Native people in what is now the United States. Meets the post-1800 requirement, and can count towards "Colonization and Empire," or "Race and Indigeneity," or "Law and Social Justice," and or "North America" fields.

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

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

How should we organize and live our lives together? This is the central question that social and political philosophers ask. In this course, we'll tackle this high-stakes question, with a focus on contemporary texts. To do this, we'll investigate a number of real-world social and political phenomena, tentatively including: the state; the modern workplace; the institution of marriage; the prison system; political partisanship; voting; and protest movements. And we'll explore the philosophical questions that underlie our investigation of these phenomena - questions about authority, freedom, equality, oppression, sociality, knowledge, trust, identity, respect, and much more. By the end, you'll walk away with a deeper appreciation of the complexities of living life with and alongside each other.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The Russian word for crime literally means “overstepping,” in the sense of crossing a boundary. What happens, however, when that boundary shifts? Or what if the society that defines the criminal is itself “wrong”? Throughout its history, Russian literature has returned almost obsessively to the theme of transgression. We will take a cross-cultural approach as we juxtapose Russian texts with those from other literary traditions, bringing out similar and contrasting views of wrongdoing in Russian culture and that of “the West” against which Russia has traditionally defined itself. Readings will introduce course participants to an intellectual axe murderer, a female serial killer, demonic hooligans, men pushed over the edge by classical music, and others on the wrong side of the law. Central to the course will be the question of how fiction writers present crime and how their artistic choices influence the way readers think of such seemingly self-evident oppositions as good and evil, right and wrong. Our course will address such themes as: the motives for and the moment of crossing over into crime; the criminal act as a work of art; the relationship between gender and crime; the (in)justice of punishment and the spectacle of state power. We will apply ideas arising from our readings to current events, studying the means by which contemporary instances of wrongdoing are represented in the mass media, and analyzing how true-life stories are turned into allegory and myth. No knowledge of Russian required; all readings, lectures, and discussions will be in English. This course counts toward the Legal Studies Concentration.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

We consent to all kinds of things: medical procedures, sexual interactions, business contracts, governmental authority, and more. And in today's day and age, people talk about consent all the time. But as soon as you get past the surface-level, numerous controversies immediately arise. Must consent always be explicit, or can it ever be tacit? Exactly how much information do you need to consent to something? Can kids not consent to anything, or are there things that they can consent to? To what extent does intoxication make you unable to consent? What kinds of coercive pressures undermine your consent, and what kinds of coercive pressures can you be expected to resist against? What role should consent have in the law? And conceptually speaking, what even is consent? The list goes on. In this course, we will investigate such controversies about consent, across the domains of medicine, sex, business, and governance. Not only will we talk about the fundamental philosophical questions underlying these controversies, but we will also talk about the real-world problems that make these controversies so high-stakes.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

How should we organize and live our lives together? This is the central question that social and political philosophers ask. In this course, we'll tackle this high-stakes question, with a focus on contemporary texts. To do this, we'll investigate a number of real-world social and political phenomena, tentatively including: the state; the modern workplace; the institution of marriage; the prison system; political partisanship; voting; and protest movements. And we'll explore the philosophical questions that underlie our investigation of these phenomena - questions about authority, freedom, equality, oppression, sociality, knowledge, trust, identity, respect, and much more. By the end, you'll walk away with a deeper appreciation of the complexities of living life with and alongside each other.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials