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

This course will introduce you to concepts and issues in moral philosophy, with a focus on ethical judgment and action – what it means to “do the right thing”, be a good person, or live a good life. We will explore ethical theories from western and global traditions and apply them to a range of contemporary moral issues and problems.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course will introduce you to concepts and issues in moral philosophy, with a focus on ethical judgment and action – what it means to “do the right thing”, be a good person, or live a good life. We will explore ethical theories from western and global traditions and apply them to a range of contemporary moral issues and problems.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

An examination of civil liberties and rights in the U.S., focusing on the cases decided by the Supreme Court. Central topics include the First Amendment freedoms of speech, press, and religion; privacy and reproductive freedom; and the Fourteenth Amendment protection of equality as it affects discrimination, affirmative action, and voting rights.

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 continualy 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.

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 discussion heavy course will examine the ways in which race, gender, and sexuality intertwine to shape the public discourse, law, and, ultimately, society. We will also explore issues related to the experiences of LGBT people of color and their relationship to the dominant LGBT community and movement, as well as racial justice movements. The latter issues are related to broader questions of intragroup and intramural discrimination and the capacity of any one social movement to represent all people who share a trait, as exemplified by Black feminist critiques of male dominance in the Black civil rights movement and white female control over feminist spaces. We will approach these provocative issues from a comparative perspective; for instance, we may compare the stereotyping of Black male sexuality and queer Latinx sexuality. Pedagogical methods will include not just reading cases and legal scholarship but analyzing other literary texts, viewing and critiquing film and television. Questions we will study include the following: How do the media represent the sexualities and identities of people of color, BlaQueer people and of LGBT people of color? How do these representations influence law? To what extent do interracial couplings reduce or reflect racial stereotypes? Do legal analysis and public discourse regarding “gay rights” issues tend to assume and center white male subject and thus exclude other LGBT experiences? Are BlaQueer and LGBT people of color best served by working within the dominant LGBT rights movement or Black and people of color movements, or should they develop their own identities, rubrics and movements? How can heterosexuals and racial-sexual minorities find common ground and build coalitions?

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course is an introduction to Indigenous feminisms, politics and law in the United States. We will explore key concepts and theoretical frameworks of gender and sexuality within Indigenous Studies as a core analytical frame and method for understanding political movements, law & governance. No prior coursework required.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Is Russia a lawless state? Does China care about anyone’s rights? Is the United States careening towards a future of authoritarianism? In recent years, policymakers, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals have referenced the emergence of political phenomena such as Brexit, and the popularity of personalities such as Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin (Russia), Viktor Orban (Hungary), and Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil) as evidence of a global wave of democratic decline. Simultaneously, conversations among the American political left about the strength of the courts as institutions that protect democracy in the U.S. seem to have heightened. But, to what extent can one really expect judicial behavior to influence the reach of state power? This course will explore examples of authoritarian legality from around the world to help students develop new understandings about how to contextualize the sources and limits of judicial power in the current global political climate.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course explores the history and politics of, and theoretical approaches to, gender and sexuality in relation to the racial politics of mass incarceration, or what Ruth Wilson Gilmore calls the “carceral geography” of the United States. By engaging recent work in queer and trans studies, feminist studies, and critical prison studies, we will consider how prisons and policing have shaped the making and remaking of race, gender, and sexuality from slavery and conquest to the contemporary period. We will examine how police and prisons have regulated the body, identity, and populations, and the larger social, political, and cultural changes connected to these processes. While we will focus on the carceral system itself, we will also think of policing in a more expansive way by analyzing the racialized regulation of gender and sexuality on the plantation, in the colony, at the border, in the welfare office, and in the hospital, among other spaces, historical periods, and places.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course explores the history and politics of, and theoretical approaches to, gender and sexuality in relation to the racial politics of mass incarceration, or what Ruth Wilson Gilmore calls the “carceral geography” of the United States. By engaging recent work in queer and trans studies, feminist studies, and critical prison studies, we will consider how prisons and policing have shaped the making and remaking of race, gender, and sexuality from slavery and conquest to the contemporary period. We will examine how police and prisons have regulated the body, identity, and populations, and the larger social, political, and cultural changes connected to these processes. While we will focus on the carceral system itself, we will also think of policing in a more expansive way by analyzing the racialized regulation of gender and sexuality on the plantation, in the colony, at the border, in the welfare office, and in the hospital, among other spaces, historical periods, and places.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

Before the New Deal era gradually transformed approaches to poverty in the US, the welfare of poor and vulnerable people in the US was often bound up in county-run poor farms. Across more than 60 counties in Minnesota Territory / Minnesota State, poor farms were birthplace, workplace and resting place for several thousand “inmates.” When they were profitable, poor farms also represented careers for supervisors and overseers. Rethinking the origins of Ramsey County through its Poor Farm – the first and largest poor farm in Minnesota – could reveal much about the aims and contradictions of local government along the frontier of settler colonial society. In this course, we will unearth the poor farm through original research in local archives, while drawing on insights from legal geography, Indigenous studies, labor history and other fields. We will practice skills for mixed methods research, analysis, writing, design and presentation. Together, we will treat a variety of questions: How did diverse sorts of people deemed unfit for conventional work come to reside on poor farms? What were the experiences and ambitions of “inmates” and supervisors? What did this model of land use do for local government and local economies? What sorts of knowledge did government collect about these unique farms and farmers? How comparable were poor farms to other land-based government institutions of the day, or other sorts of institutions that would follow later? The course will require substantial independent work in public archives off campus, as well as a lot of reading and a few field trips. Our ultimate goal is to enrich public conversations about life in Ramsey County, past and present. Prerequisites: previous Geography coursework, or permission of Instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Globalization has helped the international community to come together with an unprecedented immediacy. It has also enabled individuals and on-state actors to assume powers and duties formerly exclusive to state. The dispersion of state prerogatives can be liberating, as when oppressed people use new communication technologies to overthrow their masters. It can also provide opportunities for criminal enterprises and other agents of disorder to act with impunity. Our senior seminar will explore the tensions between the centripedal forces that bring us together, and the centrifugal forces that tear the global community apart. The state will most often be the law. The Westphalian sovereign state has often been declared vanquished by globalization, yet it is still very much alive, and has proven creative in deriving new means to control its subjects. It must do so because those subjects have proven equally creative in resisting state control; and globalization, in both its modern and older forms, has provided those subjects with many tools of resistance. Prerequisite(s): Senior standing or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

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

This course provides an introduction to intellectual property law (IP) with an emphasis on patent law.  The course is for students who are planning careers in science or technology, such as industrial R&D, technology management, university research, or entrepreneurship.  Students will be introduced to the basics of patents and trade secrets with trademarks and copyrights also being introduced.  Students will get a hands-on introduction to patent claim drafting, patent searching as well as the drafting of an invention disclosure.  Common legal agreements of interest to technical professionals will also be discussed, for example, employment agreements, nondisclosure agreements, and licensing agreements.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

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

This course explores a variety of issues in legal philosophy, including methods of legal reasoning, theories of constitutional and statutory interpretation, the relationship between law and morality, the ethical implications of lawyers’ roles in adversarial legal systems, and topics in feminist and critical legal theory. We will also consider ways legal analysis and arguments influence public policy, political controversies, and approaches to conflict resolution.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

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

Is Russia a lawless state? Does China care about anyone’s rights? Is the United States careening towards a future of authoritarianism? In recent years, policymakers, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals have referenced the emergence of political phenomena such as Brexit, and the popularity of personalities such as Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin (Russia), Viktor Orban (Hungary), and Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil) as evidence of a global wave of democratic decline. Simultaneously, conversations among the American political left about the strength of the courts as institutions that protect democracy in the U.S. seem to have heightened. But, to what extent can one really expect judicial behavior to influence the reach of state power? This course will explore examples of authoritarian legality from around the world to help students develop new understandings about how to contextualize the sources and limits of judicial power in the current global political climate.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials