Quantitative Reasoning Fall 2008 | Spring 2009 *
Natural Science I Fall 2008 | Spring 2009 *
Natural Science II Fall 2008 | Spring 2009 *
Conversations of the West Fall 2008 | Spring 2009 *
World Cultures Fall 2008 | Spring 2009 *
Societies and the Social Sciences department courses
Expressive Culture Fall 2008 | Spring 2009 *

* Spring 2009 course descriptions are currently tentative and subject to change.


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QUANTITATIVE REASONING

Quantitative Reasoning courses are intended for first-year and sophomore students. Approved substitute courses are available for other students still needing to satisfy the Quantitative Reasoning component of the MAP.


FALL 2008 V55.0101 Quantitative Reasoning: Mathematical Patterns in Nature
Staff (Mathematics)
Staff (Mathematics)
Staff (Mathematics)
The role of mathematics as the language of science, through case studies selected from the natural sciences and economics. Topics include the scale of things in nature; the art of making estimates; cross-cultural views of knowledge about the natural world; growth laws, including the growth of money and the concept of "constant dollars"; radioactivity and its role in unraveling the history of Earth and the solar system; the notion of randomness and basic ideas from statistics; scaling laws-why are things the size they are?; the cosmic distance ladder; the meaning of "infinity." This calculator-based course aims to help students use mathematics with some confidence in applications.


FALL 2008 V55.0105 Quantitative Reasoning: Elementary Statistics
Staff (Mathematics)
An introduction to the use of statistical methods. Mathematical theory is minimized. Actual survey and experimental data are used. Computations are done with desk or pocket calculators. Topics: description of data, elementary probability, random sampling, mean, variance, standard deviation, statistical tests, and estimation.


FALL 2008 V55.0107 Quantitative Reasoning: Probability, Statistics and Decision Making
Prof. Hoppenstead (Mathematics)
Elementary probability theory from the point of view of games and gambling. Topics include probability, expectation, introduction to game theory, gambler's ruin, gambling systems, and optimal strategies. Examples are taken from games of chance, including backgammon, blackjack, craps, and poker.


SPRING 2009 V55.0101 Quantitative Reasoning: Mathematical Patterns in Nature
Staff (Mathematics)
The role of mathematics as the language of science, through case studies selected from the natural sciences and economics. Topics include the scale of things in nature; the art of making estimates; cross-cultural views of knowledge about the natural world; growth laws, including the growth of money and the concept of "constant dollars"; radioactivity and its role in unraveling the history of Earth and the solar system; the notion of randomness and basic ideas from statistics; scaling laws-why are things the size they are?; the cosmic distance ladder; the meaning of "infinity." This calculator-based course aims to help students use mathematics with some confidence in applications.


SPRING 2009 V55.0105 Quantitative Reasoning: Elementary Statistics
Staff (Mathematics)
An introduction to the use of statistical methods. Mathematical theory is minimized. Actual survey and experimental data are used. Computations are done with desk or pocket calculators. Topics: description of data, elementary probability, random sampling, mean, variance, standard deviation, statistical tests, and estimation.


SPRING 2009 V55.0107 Quantitative Reasoning: Probability, Statistics and Decision Making
Staff (Mathematics)
Elementary probability theory from the point of view of games and gambling. Topics include probability, expectation, introduction to game theory, gambler's ruin, gambling systems, and optimal strategies. Examples are taken from games of chance, including backgammon, blackjack, craps, and poker.


SPRING 2009 V55.0108 Quantitative Reasoning: Games of Chance
Staff (Mathematics)
This course is designed to present the elementary theory of probability through its historical origins – gambling. Illustrations will be taken from the following games of chance: Lotteries, poker, blackjack, backgammon, craps, roulette, coin tossing, and variations on these games. Students are presumed to be familiar with high school algebra.


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NATURAL SCIENCE I

The prerequisite for all Natural Science I courses is completion of or exemption from Quantitative Reasoning, or completion of an approved substitute course.


FALL 2008 V55.0203 Natural Science I: Energy and the Environment
Prof. Jordan (MAP) syllabus
This course explores the scientific foundations of current environmental issues and the impact of this knowledge on public policy. One goal of the course is to examine several topics of pressing importance and lively debate in our society – e.g., global warming, the quest for clean air and water, atmospheric ozone depletion, and the continuing search for viable sources of energy. A parallel goal is to develop the chemical, physical, and quantitative principles that are necessary for a deeper understanding of these environmental issues. The relevant topics include the structure of atoms and molecules, the interaction of light with matter, energy relationships in chemical reactions, and the properties of acids and bases. Throughout the course we also examine how scientific studies of the environment are connected to political, economic and policy concerns. The laboratory experiments are closely integrated with the lecture topics and provide hands-on explorations of central course themes. Overall, this course will provide you with the foundation to carefully evaluate environmental issues and make informed decisions about them.


FALL 2008 V55.0203 Natural Science I: Energy and the Environment
Prof. Brenner (Chemistry) syllabus
This course explores the scientific foundations of current environmental issues and the impact of this knowledge on public policy. One goal of the course is to examine several topics of pressing importance and lively debate in our society – e.g., global warming, the quest for clean air and water, atmospheric ozone depletion, and the continuing search for viable sources of energy. A parallel goal is to develop the chemical, physical, and quantitative principles that are necessary for a deeper understanding of these environmental issues. The relevant topics include the structure of atoms and molecules, the interaction of light with matter, energy relationships in chemical reactions, and the properties of acids and bases. Throughout the course we also examine how scientific studies of the environment are connected to political, economic and policy concerns. The laboratory experiments are closely integrated with the lecture topics and provide hands-on explorations of central course themes. Overall, this course will provide you with the foundation to carefully evaluate environmental issues and make informed decisions about them.


FALL 2008 V55.0204 Natural Science I: Einstein's Universe
Prof. Brujic (Physics) syllabus
Addresses the science and life of Einstein in the context of 20th-century physics, beginning with 19th-century ideas about light, space, and time in order to understand why Einstein's work was so innovative. Einstein's most influential ideas are contained in his theories of special relativity, which reformulated conceptions of space and time, and general relativity, which extended these ideas to gravitation. Both these theories are explored quantitatively, together with wide-ranging applications of these ideas, from the nuclear energy which powers the sun to black holes and the big bang theory of the birth of the universe.


FALL 2008 V55.0209 Natural Science I: Quarks to Cosmos
Prof. Zwanziger (Physics) syllabus
Modern science has provided us with some understanding of age-old fundamental questions, while at the same time opening up many new areas of investigation. How old is the Universe? How did galaxies, stars, and planets form? What are the fundamental constituents of matter and how do they combine to form the contents of the Universe? The course will cover measurements and chains of scientific reasoning that have allowed us to reconstruct the Big Bang by measuring little wisps of light reaching the Earth, to learn about sub-atomic particles by use of many-mile long machines, and to combine the two to understand the Universe as a whole from the sub-atomic particles of which it is composed.


FALL 2008 V55.0214 Natural Science I: How Things Work
Prof. Stein (Physics) syllabus
Do you know how electricity is generated? How instruments create music? What makes refrigerator magnets stick? For that matter, why is ice skating possible, how do wheels use friction and why can someone quickly remove a tablecloth without moving any dishes? All of the devices that define contemporary living are applications of basic scientific discoveries. The principles underlying these devices are fascinating as well as useful, and help to explain many of the features of the world around us. This course familiarizes you with some basic principles of physics by examining selected devices such as CD and DVD players, microwave ovens, the basic electronic components of computers, lasers and LEDs, magnetic resonance imaging as used in medicine, and even nuclear weapons. In learning the basic physics behind these modern inventions, you will develop a deeper understanding of how the physical world works and gain a new appreciation of everyday phenomena that are ordinarily taken for granted. The course is designed for non-science students with an interest in the natural world. The basic physical ideas needed to understand how things operate are presented using some mathematics, but none beyond elementary high school-level algebra.


FALL 2008 V55.0214 Natural Science I: How Things Work
Prof. Adler (Physics) syllabus
Do you know how electricity is generated? How instruments create music? What makes refrigerator magnets stick? For that matter, why is ice skating possible, how do wheels use friction and why can someone quickly remove a tablecloth without moving any dishes? All of the devices that define contemporary living are applications of basic scientific discoveries. The principles underlying these devices are fascinating as well as useful, and help to explain many of the features of the world around us. This course familiarizes you with some basic principles of physics by examining selected devices such as CD and DVD players, microwave ovens, the basic electronic components of computers, lasers and LEDs, magnetic resonance imaging as used in medicine, and even nuclear weapons. In learning the basic physics behind these modern inventions, you will develop a deeper understanding of how the physical world works and gain a new appreciation of everyday phenomena that are ordinarily taken for granted. The course is designed for non-science students with an interest in the natural world. The basic physical ideas needed to understand how things operate are presented using some mathematics, but none beyond elementary high school-level algebra.


SPRING 2009 V55.0203 Natural Science I: Energy and the Environment
Prof. Jordan (MAP)
This course explores the scientific foundations of current environmental issues and the impact of this knowledge on public policy. One goal of the course is to examine several topics of pressing importance and lively debate in our society – e.g., global warming, the quest for clean air and water, atmospheric ozone depletion, and the continuing search for viable sources of energy. A parallel goal is to develop the chemical, physical, and quantitative principles that are necessary for a deeper understanding of these environmental issues. The relevant topics include the structure of atoms and molecules, the interaction of light with matter, energy relationships in chemical reactions, and the properties of acids and bases. Throughout the course we also examine how scientific studies of the environment are connected to political, economic and policy concerns. The laboratory experiments are closely integrated with the lecture topics and provide hands-on explorations of central course themes. Overall, this course will provide you with the foundation to carefully evaluate environmental issues and make informed decisions about them.


SPRING 2009 V55.0203 Natural Science I: Energy and the Environment
Prof. Miller (Chemistry)
This course explores the scientific foundations of current environmental issues and the impact of this knowledge on public policy. One goal of the course is to examine several topics of pressing importance and lively debate in our society – e.g., global warming, the quest for clean air and water, atmospheric ozone depletion, and the continuing search for viable sources of energy. A parallel goal is to develop the chemical, physical, and quantitative principles that are necessary for a deeper understanding of these environmental issues. The relevant topics include the structure of atoms and molecules, the interaction of light with matter, energy relationships in chemical reactions, and the properties of acids and bases. Throughout the course we also examine how scientific studies of the environment are connected to political, economic and policy concerns. The laboratory experiments are closely integrated with the lecture topics and provide hands-on explorations of central course themes. Overall, this course will provide you with the foundation to carefully evaluate environmental issues and make informed decisions about them.


SPRING 2009 V55.0205 Natural Science I: Exploration of Light and Color
Prof. Stroke (Physics)
Color science is an interdisciplinary endeavor that incorporates both the physics and the perception of light and color. It provides an understanding of visual effects that dramatically enhances our appreciation of what we see. The study of color, light, and optics has applications to photography, art, natural phenomena, and technology. We also study the eye as both an optical and an image processing instrument. Topics include how color is classified and measured (colorimetry), how light is produced, how atoms and molecules affect light, how the human retina detects light, and how lenses are used in cameras.


SPRING 2009 V55.0206 Natural Science I: From Plato to Pluto
Prof. Schucking (Physics)
Begins with the basic phenomena of astronomy: the earth and sky, the motions of stars, sun, moon, and planets. After this introduction considers the historical development of astronomy from antiquity to the 17th century. Concludes with the space-age exploration of the solar system. Laboratory exercises help to familiarize students with basic astronomical concepts.


SPRING 2009 V55.0209 Natural Science I: Quarks to Cosmos
Prof. Weiner (Physics)
Modern science has provided us with some understanding of age-old fundamental questions, while at the same time opening up many new areas of investigation. How old is the Universe? How did galaxies, stars, and planets form? What are the fundamental constituents of matter and how do they combine to form the contents of the Universe? The course will cover measurements and chains of scientific reasoning that have allowed us to reconstruct the Big Bang by measuring little wisps of light reaching the Earth, to learn about sub-atomic particles by use of many-mile long machines, and to combine the two to understand the Universe as a whole from the sub-atomic particles of which it is composed.


SPRING 2009 V55.0214 Natural Science I: How Things Work
Prof. Sleator (Physics)
Do you know how electricity is generated? How instruments create music? What makes refrigerator magnets stick? For that matter, why is ice skating possible, how do wheels use friction and why can someone quickly remove a tablecloth without moving any dishes? All of the devices that define contemporary living are applications of basic scientific discoveries. The principles underlying these devices are fascinating as well as useful, and help to explain many of the features of the world around us. This course familiarizes you with some basic principles of physics by examining selected devices such as CD and DVD players, microwave ovens, the basic electronic components of computers, lasers and LEDs, magnetic resonance imaging as used in medicine, and even nuclear weapons. In learning the basic physics behind these modern inventions, you will develop a deeper understanding of how the physical world works and gain a new appreciation of everyday phenomena that are ordinarily taken for granted. The course is designed for non-science students with an interest in the natural world. The basic physical ideas needed to understand how things operate are presented using some mathematics, but none beyond elementary high school-level algebra.


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NATURAL SCIENCE II

The prerequisite for all Natural Science II courses is completion of or exemption from Quantitative Reasoning, or completion of an approved substitute course. The completion of Natural Science I is recommended prior to taking Natural Science II.


FALL 2008 V55.0303 Natural Science II: Human Genetics
Prof. Small (Biology) syllabus
We are currently witnessing a revolution in human genetics, where the ability to scrutinize and manipulate DNA has allowed scientists to gain unprecedented insights into the role of heredity. Beginning with an overview of the principles of inheritance, such as cell division and Mendelian genetics, we explore the foundations and frontiers of modern human genetics, with an emphasis on understanding and evaluating new discoveries. Descending to the molecular level, we investigate how genetic information is encoded in DNA and how mutations affect gene function. These molecular foundations are used to explore the science and social impact of genetic technology, including topics such as genetic testing, genetically modified foods, DNA fingerprinting, and the Human Genome Project. Laboratory projects emphasize the diverse methods that scientists employ to study heredity.


FALL 2008 V55.0306 Natural Science II: Brain and Behavior
Prof. Kiorpes (Neural Science) syllabus
The relationship of the brain to behavior, beginning with the basic elements that make up the nervous system and how electrical and chemical signals in the brain work to effect behavior. Using this foundation, we examine how the brain learns and how it creates new behaviors, together with the brain mechanisms that are involved in sensory experience, movement, hunger and thirst, sexual behaviors, the experience of emotions, perception and cognition, memory and the brain's plasticity. Other key topics include whether certain behavioral disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder can be accounted for by changes in the function of the brain, and how drugs can alter behavior and brain function.

Note: Handling of animals and animal brain tissue is required in some labs.


FALL 2008 V55.0309 Natural Science II: The Body - How It Works
Prof. Goldberg (Chemistry) syllabus
The human body is a complex system of mutually interdependent molecules, cells, tissues, organs and organ systems. We examine the human body with the goal of understanding how physiological systems operate at these varying levels. Examples include the circulation of blood, the function of our muscles, the utilization of oxygen in respiration, and how our immune system detects and fights foreign invaders. Disturbing the delicate balance of these systems can produce various human diseases, which will also be examined throughout the course. Laboratory work provides firsthand experience with studying molecular processes, cell structures, and physiological systems.


FALL 2008 V55.0310 Natural Science II: The Molecules of Life
Prof. Jordan (MAP) syllabus
Our lives are increasingly influenced by the availability of new pharmaceuticals, ranging from drugs that lower cholesterol to those that influence behavior. We examine the chemistry and biology of biomolecules that make up the molecular machinery of the cell. Critical to the function of such biomolecules is their three-dimensional structure that endows them with a specific function. This information provides the scientific basis for understanding drug action and how new drugs are designed. Beginning with the principles of chemical bonding, molecular structure, and acid-base properties that govern the structure and function of biomolecules, we apply these principles to study the varieties of protein architecture and how proteins serve as enzymes to facilitate biochemical reactions. We conclude with a study of molecular genetics and how recent information from the Human Genome Project is stimulating new approaches to diagnosing disease and designing drug treatments.


FALL 2008 V55.0313 Natural Science II: The Brain: A User's Guide
Prof. Azmitia (Biology) syllabus
The Human Brain is the most complex organ. Despite the central position it has in nearly every aspect of our daily lives, it remains to many a mystery. How does it work? How can we care for it? How long will it function? This MAP course is designed to provide answers to these questions, and many more at an academic level accessible to the non-scientist student, and of interest to the scientist with little exposure to neuroscience. The aims of the course are to provide the student with a firm foundation in what the brain looks like and what each of the parts do. To accomplish this, we will learn about the functions of the cortex in higher learning and memory, as well as discuss the basic work of the brainstem in regulating the internal environment of the body. The importance of nutrition on neurotransmitter synthesis, the function of sleep on memory and why we need so much of it, and the effects of alcohol and drugs on brain harmony and the meaning of addiction will be some of the points covered in this course. We will look at brain development and the special needs of children, as well as brain aging and illness and the difficulty of helping. The laboratories are designed to provide hands-on experience in exploring the structure of the brain as well as learning how to measure brain functioning. We will provide specially prepared slides so the student can recognize a neuron and differentiate a dendrite from an axon. The molecular shape of neurotransmitter will be covered, as well as learning how to measure alcohol and determining its levels in your body. It is expected that by the end of the course, the student will be familiar with the biological basis of brain structure and function, and not only be able to detect how a normal brain works, but also how to help keep it healthy.


SPRING 2009 V55.0305 Natural Science II: Human Origins
Prof. Disotell (Anthropology)
An introduction to the approaches and methods scientists use to investigate the origins and evolutionary history of our own species. This interdisciplinary study synthesizes research from a number of different areas of science. Topics include reconstructing evolutionary relationships using molecular and morphological data, the mitochondrial Eve hypothesis, ancient DNA, human variation and natural selection, the use of stable isotopes to reconstruct dietary behavior in prehistoric humans, the Neandertal enigma, the importance of studies of chimpanzees for understanding human behavior, and the 6-million-year-old fossil evidence for human evolution.


SPRING 2009 V55.0306 Natural Science II: Brain and Behavior
Prof. Hawken (Neural Science)
The relationship of the brain to behavior, beginning with the basic elements that make up the nervous system and how electrical and chemical signals in the brain work to effect behavior. Using this foundation, we examine how the brain learns and how it creates new behaviors, together with the brain mechanisms that are involved in sensory experience, movement, hunger and thirst, sexual behaviors, the experience of emotions, perception and cognition, memory and the brain's plasticity. Other key topics include whether certain behavioral disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder can be accounted for by changes in the function of the brain, and how drugs can alter behavior and brain function.

Note: Handling of animals and animal brain tissue is required in some labs.


SPRING 2009 V55.0309 Natural Science II: The Body - How it Works
Prof. Kallenbach (Chemistry)
The human body is a complex system of mutually interdependent molecules, cells, tissues, organs and organ systems. We examine the human body with the goal of understanding how physiological systems operate at these varying levels. Examples include the circulation of blood, the function of our muscles, the utilization of oxygen in respiration, and how our immune system detects and fights foreign invaders. Disturbing the delicate balance of these systems can produce various human diseases, which will also be examined throughout the course. Laboratory work provides firsthand experience with studying molecular processes, cell structures, and physiological systems.


SPRING 2009 V55.0310 Natural Science II: The Molecules of Life
Prof. Jordan (MAP)
Our lives are increasingly influenced by the availability of new pharmaceuticals, ranging from drugs that lower cholesterol to those that influence behavior. We examine the chemistry and biology of biomolecules that make up the molecular machinery of the cell. Critical to the function of such biomolecules is their three-dimensional structure that endows them with a specific function. This information provides the scientific basis for understanding drug action and how new drugs are designed. Beginning with the principles of chemical bonding, molecular structure, and acid-base properties that govern the structure and function of biomolecules, we apply these principles to study the varieties of protein architecture and how proteins serve as enzymes to facilitate biochemical reactions. We conclude with a study of molecular genetics and how recent information from the Human Genome Project is stimulating new approaches to diagnosing disease and designing drug treatments.


SPRING 2009 V55.0311 Natural Science II: Lessons from the Biosphere
Prof. Volk (Biology)
Provides a foundation of knowledge about how Earth's biosphere works. This includes the biggest ideas and findings about biology on the global scale-the scale in which we live. Such knowledge is especially crucial today because we humans are perturbing so many systems within the biosphere. We explore four main topics: (1) Evolution of Life: How did life come to be what it is today? (2) Life's Diversity: What is life today on the global scale? (3) Cycles of Matter: How do life and the non-living environment interact? (4) The Human Guild: How are humans changing the biosphere and how might we consider our future within the biosphere? Laboratory experiments are complemented by an exploration at the American Museum of Natural History.


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CONVERSATIONS OF THE WEST


FALL 2008 V55.0400 Conversations of the West: Topics - Democracy, Ancient and Modern
Prof. Pasquino (Politics) syllabus
History and political theory of institutions focusing on comparison of Athenian "demokratia" of the 4th century b.c.e. and contemporary constitutional democracy, and changes in paradigmatic doctrines of "good government" from ancient "mixed" constitutions to modern "constitutional" democracy. Reading include selections from Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Madison, Kelsen, Schumpeter.


FALL 2008 V55.0400 Conversations of the West: Topics - Education as a Way of Life
Prof. Arcilla (Education, Humanities & Social Sciences in the Professions) syllabus
Why do we learn? Many people would answer that we do so in order to achieve certain practical goals. In order to become a physician, I go to medical school; I practice reading maps in order to avoid getting lost on the road. In these and similar examples, if I did not care about the goals there would be little reason to invest in these educations. Could there be a kind of learning, however, that is necessary for us because it is rooted in our very nature? After all, regardless of whether or not one wants to be a doctor or confident traveler, one is a human being. Suppose it were the case that to be human is also to be a learning being. Would it not follow that to live a human life is to pursue a certain education, call it a liberal education, as a way of life? We examine this potential tie between our humanity and liberal education. Specifically, we explore how the latter two may emerge together from the experience of a particular predicament: that of having to search for something important enough to which to commit our lives. Liberal education would be a way we recover from skeptical doubt that there is any such thing; overcoming this doubt with the help of others would help us also recognize our common humanity. Readings: Genesis, Job, Matthew, Romans, Galatians; Sophocles' Oedipus and Antigone; Plato's Meno, Apology, Phaedo; Augustine's Confessions; Descartes' Meditations; Austen's Persuasion; Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground; Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto; selections from Montaigne, Wordsworth, Emerson. Films: Zwigoff's Ghost World, the Dardennes' Rosetta.


FALL 2008 V55.0400 Conversations of the West: Topics - Poetic and Ethical 'I'
Prof. Basterra (Comparative Literature) syllabus
'I' is the person who speaks here and now, addressing someone as 'you'. Beyond inhabiting the position of the 'I' in dialogue, how does a person become a subject? We explore how we become subjects by looking at three different 'sites': poetic texts, paintings, and ethical philosophy of the West. The subject of vision in painting, the one who sees, emerges in relation to the object being seen; the voice enunciating a poem attains lyrical subjectivity in the act of addressing a 'you'; the ethical subject described in the scriptures, philosophy, or psychoanalysis is created by being chosen and called by another. Given that all these 'languages'--philosophy, literature, art--represent the subject's emergence in relation to others, we will reflect on the distinctions between 'I' and 'you', 'self' and 'other', 'subject' and 'object' as imagined in selected Western texts: Hebrew and Christian scriptures, writings by Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Nietzsche, Marx, Freud, Heidegger, Althusser, Levinas, Kristeva; poetic works by Sophocles, Ovid, Garcilaso de la Vega, Shakespeare, Racine, Keats, Poe, Baudelaire, Melville, Lorca, Salinas, Kafka. Paintings by da Vinci, Holbein, Velázquez, and Cassat bring to the fore the enigma of our own perspective: how are we to define the viewpoint from which we read, look, and think if our object of study--the Western subject--is no other than ourselves?


FALL 2008 V55.0402 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Renaissance
Prof. Gilman (English) syllabus
The "Renaissance" understands itself as an age bearing witness to the "rebirth" of classical antiquity. In art, philosophy, and literature it also assumes the task of reconciling the cultural inheritance of Greece and Rome with the Christian tradition (itself entering into a moment of crisis as allegiances split between the Catholic church and the "reformed" church of Luther and Calvin). Our first task is to look at antiquity; our second, to explore the ways in which European culture between 1400 and 1700 invents the modern by making itself conversant with the past. Readings: Homer's Odyssey; Sophocles' Antigone; Plato's Phaedo and Symposium; Vergil's Aeneid; Genesis, Exodus, Job, Luke, Acts, John; Augustine's Confessions; Castiglione's Book of the Courtier; Machiavelli's Prince; Erasmus's Praise of Folly; Montaigne's Essays; More's Utopia; Shakespeare's Tempest.


FALL 2008 V55.0402 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Renaissance
Prof. Tylus (Italian) syllabus
Mapping the Renaissance: Strange, New Worlds. Renaissance men--and women--found themselves at the intersection of colliding ideas about the worlds they lived in. They both looked back to antiquity and the Bible, and ahead to new and unpredictable changes regarding religion, geography, and science. We read the Renaissance as this Janus-faced moment, rooted in the past and anticipatory in so many ways of our own time. At the same time, as we see from a reading of several ancient texts, such anxiety about the unknown was not entirely new. As we move from the city of Ur (in what is now Iraq) in 3000 b.c.e to early modern Mexico in 1700, from a story about a powerful king facing his own mortality to poems by a mestiza nun, we read a variety of texts about borders, journeys, literal and figurative exile, and how one might best leave one's mark on the world. Readings: Gilgamesh, Exodus, Sappho, Euripides' Trojan Women, Vergil's Aeneid, Lucrezia Tornabuoni's Sacred Narratives, Columbus's Letters from Four Voyages, Tasso's Jerusalem Liberated, Shakespeare's Tempest, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz' La respuesta.


FALL 2007 V55.0402 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Renaissance
Prof. Bolduc (French) syllabus
Explores how books give shape, meaning, and purpose to the world and human experience. As it reinterprets the Greek and Roman legacy, the Renaissance faces crucial epistemological shifts triggered by new discoveries that call to mind our own struggles: making sense of a world in constant flux where truths are not only put into question but also lead to bloodshed. Grouped under four main themes--epic and the human experience, tales of beginnings and ends, battles for truth, writings of the self--we consider the purpose of this conversation between writers of different epochs and its relevance for understanding our own culture. Reading: Vergil's Aeneid, Cervantes' Don Quixote, Hesiod's Theogony, selections from Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, Machiavelli's Prince, Navarre's Heptameron, Sophocles' Antigone, Shakespeare's Hamlet, Plato's Symposium, Augustine's Confessions, selections from Montaigne's Essays.


FALL 2008 V55.0403 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Enlightenment
Prof. Deneys-Tunney (French) syllabus
The Enlightenment was a Europe-wide movement, which concerned all aspects of culture of the time: philosophy and literature, the arts (painting, music, architecture), as well as politics and society as a whole. The Enlightenment defined itself as a new birth, a subversive movement that would free mankind of all its prejudices--philosophical, religious, political, sexual, racial. In doing so, the Enlightenment appears today to be indeed the beginning of our modernity, as it invented key concepts that define or frame our contemporary representations of ourselves and the world around us: the concept of the subject or subjectivity, of nature, of origins, of equality, of critical philosophy and democracy, of pleasure, of sexuality, of happiness. It is a unique moment in history, where philosophy aims not only at interpreting the world but also at changing it to make it a better place for mankind. It culminates at the end of the 18th century in France with the French Revolution, which declared for the first time in human history that all men are born free and equal. Readings: Genesis, Plato's Symposium and Phedrus, Epicurus' Maxims and letters, Descartes' Discourse on Method, Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality and Rêveries, Diderot's Indiscreet Jewels and Jacques the Fatalist, Voltaire's Candide and Zadig, Marivaux's Dispute and Double Unfaithfulness, Kant's "What is Enlightenment?"


FALL 2008 V55.0403 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Enlightenment
Prof. Mitsis (Classics) syllabus
We examine, not worship at the shrine of, a wide-ranging selection of writings from ancient Greek, Roman, and Hebrew thinkers together with some important Enlightenment texts. All of these works have framed in memorable, though contradictory, ways some basic questions about the nature of religion, the successes and failures of rational argument, the justification of social and political obligations, the benefits and dangers of technology and scientific knowledge, the value of emotions and our attachments to others, and the nature and value of artistic expression. Throughout the semester, students have the opportunity to become more practiced in the canons of moral and political argument, in the pleasures and pains of aesthetic experience, and in what used to be characterized as the proper use of one's solitude, that is, examining what it means to be a human being faced with death--or perhaps what is worse, faced with eternal life. Readings from Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, Thucydides, Plato, Epicureans, Stoics, Vergil, Hebrew and Christian scripture, Augustine, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Diderot, Rousseau, Locke, Goldoni, Beccaria, Lessing, Graffigny, Smith, Vico, Jefferson, Madison.


FALL 2008 V55.0403 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Enlightenment
Prof. Connolly (Classics) syllabus
Gnothi sauton, "know yourself," was the phrase inscribed over the entrance to the great temple of Apollo at Delphi in Greece. Roman thinkers called the search for the good life cura sui, the "cultivation of the self." Our concerns are how Greeks, Romans, Hebrews, and the Enlightenment thinkers inspired by antiquity contemplate the well-lived life in the context of the political community (polis, res publica, empire, civitas Dei, cosmopolis). Who belongs to the community, who does not, and why? Is it best organized on the basis of reason, common tradition, language, or faith? Is the community perfectible? Our texts explore the challenge of living well in various civic contexts (and in retreat from them), the extent of citizens' duties and responsibilities to one another, and the role of education in shaping community. Our concern is not for political theory, but rather how these texts work as as literary texts. We ask how different genres--drama, historical prose, philosophical dialogue, epic poetry, treatise, opera, and memoir--present ideas and arguments; and we consider the role of literature and art in society and politics.


FALL 2008 V55.0403 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Enlightenment
Prof. Chazan (Hebrew & Judaic Studies) syllabus
Focuses on the understanding of knowledge and truth in antiquity and the Enlightenment. Divergent perspectives on knowledge and truth have important implications for society and the individual. They lead to alternative notions of how society should be ordered, who should exercise power in society, the goals of individual endeavor, and the nature of individual fulfillment. Key texts from antiquity and the Enlightenment will be read and analyzed with these issues uppermost in mind. Readings: Genesis, Exodus, Luke, Acts, Galatians; Sophocles' Antigone; Euripides' Bacchae; Plato's Apology and Symposium; Augustine's Confessions; Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-Politicus; Locke's Letter Concerning Toleration; Lessing's Nathan the Wise; Montesquieu's Persian Letters; Voltaire's Letters Concerning the English Nation; Paine's Age of Reason.


FALL 2008 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Patell (English) syllabus
Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is widely thought to be one of the greatest masterpieces of American, and indeed Western, literature. This genre-defying book mixes comic, tragic, and epic modes as it wrestles with questions about the relationship between free will and fate that have tantalized humankind from antiquity to the present. By studying Melville's engagement with his classical and biblical inheritances, we seek to understand the sources of the cosmopolitan vision from which his novel springs. If Moby-Dick is "the Great American Novel," then what does that tell us about the nature of "America"? From what kind of "America" does Moby-Dick arise, and how different is that "America" from the one that the novel seeks to promote? In addition to Moby-Dick, readings include Kriwaczek's In Search of Zarathustra, selections from the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, Sophocles' Oedipus, Vergil's Aeneid, Shakespeare's Hamlet and King Lear, selections from Emerson and Nietzsche, George Lakoff's Moral Politics.


FALL 2008 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Ulfers (German) syllabus
A conversation between two paradigms informing Western culture: the dominant, optimistic one, revolving around notions of historical progress toward absolute knowledge and utopian visions of the world and society; and the subterranean, pessimistic one, which looks on the former as a human construct or fiction that must come to naught. Readings: works from the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, Plato, and Sophocles; Augustine's Confessions; selections from Darwin; Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto; Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy; Freud's Interpretation of Dreams; Kafka's Metamorphosis; Mann's Death in Venice.


FALL 2008 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Renzi (MAP) syllabus
Some problems about justice, suggested by an extended reading of Plato's Republic: What is justice? Where does it come from? What does it mean to lead a just life? In examining these questions Plato reminds us that if we knew the answers they would not be problems, and also that it seems impossible to search for what one does not know. It looks, therefore, as if we are necessarily bound to start with the wrong or with ill-formed questions. With this Platonic paradox in mind, our constant supplement is Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality--an approach which leads us to consider whether it isn't rather something other than justice that we were seeking all along. Readings: Genesis, Exodus, Matthew, Galatians; Rosenberg and Bloom's Book of J; Aristophanes' Clouds; Plato's Apology and Republic; Euripides' Medea; Sophocles' Oedipus; Augustine's Confessions; Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling; Marx' and Engels' Communist Manifesto and selections of Marx' 1844 manuscripts; Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality; Freud's case of Lucy R. and Civilization and Its Discontents.


FALL 2008 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Corradi (Sociology) syllabus
A guide to the intellectual heritage distinctive to the West, with special attention to the nature of the person, freedom, rationality, democracy, and the social order. The works we study continue to shape the way people understand themselves and the world. They are 'classic' in the sense that they have not finished saying what they have to say. We situate them in historical context, looking for ways in which later authors responded to themes introduced by earlier ones. From the particularity of the West, these themes show a vocation for universality. Readings include: Genesis, Exodus, Luke, Corinthians; Sophocles' Oedipus and Antigone; Plato's Apology and Republic; Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics; Pericles' Funeral Oration; Epictetus' Discourses; Augustine's Confessions; Tocqueville's Democracy in America; Mill's On Liberty; Darwin's Origins of the Species; Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto; Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling; Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality; Weber's Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism; Lincoln's Gettysburg Address; Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents.


FALL 2008 V55.0412 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Renaissance - Writing Intensive
Prof. Gerety (Collegiate Professor) syllabus
What is the soul? Is it the conscious self or something more? Does our identity persist beyond death? What is the relation between the soul and good and evil? Some say that Socrates 'discovered' the human soul, but the idea that we have souls that outlast our bodies is as old as humanity. Our understanding of the nature of our souls often dictates the way we feel we should live. We will explore ideas from Homer and Heraclitus through Socrates himself and then on to Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament (including the Gnostics), Augustine, and Vergil. We look for the elements that make up personal identity and value in the ancient world, both religious and secular, and see how much these change from Homer's world to that of Augustine and the Roman Empire. We then turn to Dante, who provides a bridge to some of the great thinkers and artists of the Renaissance--most notably Shakespeare and DaVinci but also Montaigne and Villon. In all of these, the permanence and even presence of our souls seem more uncertain, more threatened by death and obliteration, than in Plato or Paul, and this threat reaches our morality and values as well. In this way, the Renaissance marks the beginning of the world in which all of us must now find our way.

Note: Offered in conjunction with selected sections of V40.0100, Writing the Essay.


FALL 2008 V55.0414 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century - Writing Intensive
Prof. Renzi (MAP) syllabus
Some problems about justice, suggested by an extended reading of Plato's Republic: What is justice? Where does it come from? What does it mean to lead a just life? In examining these questions Plato reminds us that if we knew the answers they would not be problems, and also that it seems impossible to search for what one does not know. It looks, therefore, as if we are necessarily bound to start with the wrong or with ill-formed questions. With this Platonic paradox in mind, our constant supplement is Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality--an approach which leads us to consider whether it isn't rather something other than justice that we were seeking all along. Readings: Genesis, Exodus, Matthew, Galatians; Rosenberg and Bloom's Book of J; Aristophanes' Clouds; Plato's Apology and Republic; Euripides' Medea; Sophocles' Oedipus; Augustine's Confessions; Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling; Marx' and Engels' Communist Manifesto and selections of Marx' 1844 manuscripts; Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality; Freud's case of Lucy R. and Civilization and Its Discontents.

Note: Offered in conjunction with selected sections of V40.0100, Writing the Essay.


SPRING 2009 V55.0400 Conversations of the West: Topics in Antiquity and Modernity - Literature and Music
Prof. Hamilton (Comparative Literature)
The Orpheus myth in over two thousand years of varying interpretations, setting, and appropriations. The power of music and the fatality of passion, the expropriating effects of language and the regenerating promise of poetry, individual uniqueness and the conditions of knowledge, are but a few of the themes addressed and elaborated within the myth's threefold configuration of harmony, descent, and dismemberment. In addition to investigating the rich literary tradition, significant versions in opera, film, and the visual arts are also considered. The emphasis throughout is on close reading, with attention to philosophical, aesthetic, and theological ramifications. Readings, authors, and artists: Genesis, Song of Songs, John; Pindar; Plato; Vergil; Ovid; Boethius; Petrarch; Monteverdi; Spenser, Poussin; Gluck; Novalis; Wordsworth; Nietzsche; Rimbaud; Rilke; Cocteau; Blanchot.


SPRING 2009 V55.0401 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Prof. Rust (English)
Odysseys, Quests, and Other-Worldly Journeys: "The man of many twists and turns, O Muse, of him sing to me, time and again / driven off course, once he had plundered Troy's hallowed heights...." So begins Homer's account of Odysseus' ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan war. By turns exciting, poignant, funny, and tragic, the story of his journey offers clear reflections on the "journey" of life we all undertake. At the same time, the nearly three-thousand-year journey of Homer's poem, The Odyssey, comprises a case study in the migrations of culture--arts, learning, customs--across continents and centuries. We enter into a conversation about both these kinds of journeys--individual and cultural--one in which the "speakers" include not only ourselves but also works of the Middle Ages and antiquity, enacting an inter-textual dialogue with each other. Readings include Homer's Odyssey, Sophocles' Oedipus, Plato's Symposium, selections from Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian New Testament, Vergil's Aeneid, Augustine's Confessions, the Voyage of St. Brendan, the Voyage of Bran, Dante's Divine Comedy, an Arthurian romance, Chaucer's House of Fame.


SPRING 2009 V55.0403 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Enlightenment
Prof. Rubenstein (Hebrew & Judaic Studies)
Beginning with the collision of the "Judeo-Christian" and Hellenistic traditions and their encounter in the Christian Scriptures and Augustine, we see Enlightenment thinkers grapple with the fusion of these traditions they had inherited, subjecting both to serious criticism and revising them as a new tradition—science and technology—rises to prominence. Reading from the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, Sophocles, Plato, Augustine, Montesquieu, Pope, Voltaire, and Rousseau.


SPRING 2009 V55.0403 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Enlightenment
Prof. Shovlin (History)
Viewing the Enlightenment in a broad sense--as currents of intellectual, cultural, and political change traversing European societies between the end of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth--we examine the ways in which Enlightened Europeans reconsidered the nature and value of both Judeo-Christian and classical heritages. The Enlightenment is often viewed as a comprehensive assault on tradition, but the reality is more complex. The legacies of ancient Greece and Rome were challenged, and reworked, but not abandoned. Indeed, the power and appeal of classical ideals was reaffirmed in artistic and political movements that swept Europe in the final decades of the eighteenth century. Radical figures within Enlightenment culture launched a frontal attack on key elements of Judeo-Christian tradition, but other, more moderate, Enlightened thinkers sought to reform and renew religious thought and sensibility. These intellectual oppositions prepared the explosive confrontations between church and state that marked the end of the old regime and the politics of the nineteenth century. Readings: Homer's Iliad; Genesis, Exodus, Luke; Augustine's Confessions; Descartes' Discourse on Method; Mandeville's Fable of the Bees; Voltaire's Letters on England; Rousseau's Discourse on the Arts and Sciences and Discourse on Political Economy; Diderot's Voyage of Bougainville; Beaumarchais' Marriage of Figaro.


SPRING 2009 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Baker (English)
Examines Western conceptions of the relation between humans and the natural world. Considers how 19th-century thinkers embraced, revised, and overturned ancient ideas about creation, natural order, the distinction between humans and animals, and the risks and rewards of probing nature's mysteries. Readings: Homer's Odyssey, Hebrew and Christian scripture, Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, Shelley's Frankenstein, Darwin's Origin of Species, and works by Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Emerson, Goethe, and Nietzsche.


SPRING 2009 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Levene (Classics)
Every society places demands on individuals: it could not do otherwise and still remain a society. But what happens when those demands are inconsistent? Can--or should--an individual determine the right course of action by reason alone? Or should one simply obey--but then, whom should one obey? What happens when people's moral judgements differ from the expectations of those around them? How can one maintain a society in the face of such conflicts? From the first moments of Western literature those questions are explored; they became all the more insistent in the unprecedented political, social, intellectual, and economic upheavals of the 19th century. One effect was the increasingly central role given to art itself, seen as the dynamic force able to create a cohesive society. Our study will include Richard Wagner's remarkable music-drama The Ring of the Nibelung, perhaps the most significant and influential art-work of the era (studied primarily as a text, though there will be opportunities to hear the music as well). Other readings will include selections from the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures; Homer's Iliad; Sophocles' Antigone; Plato's Gorgias; Vergil's Aeneid; poetry by (among others) Shelley, Tennyson, and Matthew Arnold; Arnold's Culture and Anarchy; Wagner's Art and Revolution; and Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality.


SPRING 2009 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Calhoun (Sociology)
A guide to the intellectual heritage distinctive to the West, with special attention to the nature of the person, faith, ethics, and the social order. The works we study continue to shape the way people understand themselves and the world. We situate them in historical context, looking for ways in which later authors responded to themes introduced by earlier ones. Readings include: Genesis, Exodus, Luke, 1 Corinthians; Sophocles' Oedipus; Plato's Apology and Crito; Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics; Epictetus' Discourses; Augustine's Confessions; Shelley's Frankenstein; Tocqueville's Democracy in America; Mill's On Liberty; Marx and Engels' The Communist Manifesto; Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling; Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality; Weber's Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism; and Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment.


SPRING 2009 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Renzi (MAP)
Some problems about justice, suggested by an extended reading of Plato's Republic: What is justice? Where does it come from? What does it mean to lead a just life? In examining these questions Plato reminds us that if we knew the answers they would not be problems, and also that it seems impossible to search for what one does not know. It looks, therefore, as if we are necessarily bound to start with the wrong or with ill-formed questions. With this Platonic paradox in mind, our constant supplement is Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality--an approach which leads us to consider whether it isn't rather something other than justice that we were seeking all along. Readings: Genesis, Exodus, Matthew, Galatians; Rosenberg and Bloom's Book of J; Aristophanes' Clouds; Plato's Apology and Republic; Euripides' Medea; Sophocles' Oedipus; Augustine's Confessions; Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling; Marx' and Engels' Communist Manifesto and selections of Marx' 1844 manuscripts; Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality; Freud's case of Lucy R. and Civilization and Its Discontents.


SPRING 2009 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Renzi (MAP)
Some problems about justice, suggested by an extended reading of Plato's Republic: What is justice? Where does it come from? What does it mean to lead a just life? In examining these questions Plato reminds us that if we knew the answers they would not be problems, and also that it seems impossible to search for what one does not know. It looks, therefore, as if we are necessarily bound to start with the wrong or with ill-formed questions. With this Platonic paradox in mind, our constant supplement is Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality--an approach which leads us to consider whether it isn't rather something other than justice that we were seeking all along. Readings: Genesis, Exodus, Matthew, Galatians; Rosenberg and Bloom's Book of J; Aristophanes' Clouds; Plato's Apology and Republic; Euripides' Medea; Sophocles' Oedipus; Augustine's Confessions; Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling; Marx' and Engels' Communist Manifesto and selections of Marx' 1844 manuscripts; Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality; Freud's case of Lucy R. and Civilization and Its Discontents.


SPRING 2009 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. P. Fleming (German)
A dialogue between Antiquity and the nineteenth century created by juxtaposing crucial texts from each epoch around such topics as origins, divine abandonment, the definition of the human, morality, and politics. In other words, the material will not be read chronologically but according to shared themes, problems, and conflicts. Of central concern is the paradigm shift that occurs between the foundations of Western society and the nineteenth century, in particular the move from metaphysics to history, in which essences give way to contingencies. Readings include Genesis, Job, selections from Christian Scriptures; Darwin's Origin of Species; Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling; Dostoevsky's "The Grand Inquisitor"; Plato's Republic; Nietzsche's "On Truth and Lie"; Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics; Kant's "On the Supposed Right to Lie"; Goethe's Sufferings of Young Werther; Tocqueville's Democracy in America; Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto.


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WORLD CULTURES


FALL 2008 V55.0501 World Cultures: Ancient Near East and Egypt
Prof. Roth (Hebrew & Judaic Studies) syllabus
The two oldest world civilizations, Egypt and Mesopotamia, are both familiar and exotic to most Westerners. Because of their influence on the Classical and Biblical cultures, many elements of these civilizations are familiar: hieroglyphs and cuneiform tablets, the history of Cleopatra and the laws of Hammurabi, the myth of Osiris, and the stories of the Ark, the Pyramids, the Sphinx, and the Tower of Babel (Babylon). But looking at these ancient cultures through the prism of later peoples' impressions gives us a distorted view of their nature. We examine the textual, archaeological, and artistic evidence that these cultures have left us and the scholarly questions and approaches that can be asked of that evidence. Such approaches give us a more balanced picture of the way these ancient peoples lived, believed, and understood the world around them. The primary focus is on ancient Egypt, but Mesopotamia is considered extensively by way of comparison. We turn finally to later perceptions of these cultures in order to evaluate their accuracy and to study the ways in which they have been used and abused to create both new and original cultural forms and political propaganda, both in the West and in the modern countries built on their ruins.


FALL 2008 V55.0502 World Cultures: Islamic Societies
Prof. el-Leithy (Middle Eastern & Islamic Societies) syllabus


FALL 2008 V55.0505 World Cultures: Africa
Prof. Beidelman (Anthropology) syllabus
Key concepts for understanding sub-Saharan African cultures and societies, and ways of thinking critically and consulting sources sensibly when studying non-Western cultures. Topics include: problems in the interpretation of African literature and history, gender issues, the question of whether African thought and values constitute a unique system of thinking, the impact of the slave trade and colonialism on African societies and culture, and the difficulties of and means for translating and interpreting the system of thought and behavior in an African traditional society into terms meaningful to Westerners. Among the readings are novels, current philosophical theory, and feminist interpretations of black and white accounts of African societies.


FALL 2008 V55.0507 World Cultures: Japan
Prof. Solt (East Asian Studies) syllabus
Postwar Japan, 1945 to Present. An inquiry into Japan's social, political, and economic transformation since World War II. Examines the role of the Cold War, the U.S. Occupation, the "Peace" Constitution, the symbolic monarchy, the economic "miracle," corporate structure, the gendering of labor, and the legacy of war in shaping the history of postwar Japan. An underlying theme is the connection between political economy and culture. As such, we focus on the geopolitical and economic structures underpinning the visible transformations in everyday life and try to connect these transformations in Japanese history to broader themes in global history.


FALL 2008 V55.0509 World Cultures: Caribbean
Prof. Khan (Anthropology) syllabus
Examines the impact of the Caribbean's long colonial history from the perspective of its diverse populations, through race, class, culture, gender, and sexuality. Known for its beauty, cultural vitality, and mix of peoples, cultures, and languages, the Caribbean is where today's global economy began, some 500 years ago. Its sugar economy and history of slave labor and colonialism made it the site of massive transplantations of peoples and cultures from Africa for more than four centuries and from Asia since the mid-19th century, and of a sizable influx of peoples from Europe all along. Readings examine the history of the region's differing forms of colonialism; the present postcolonial economic and political structures; anthropological material on family and community life, religious beliefs and practices, gender roles and ideologies; and ways in which national, community, and group identities are expressed today.


FALL 2008 V55.0510 World Cultures: Russia Between East and West
Prof. Borenstein (Russian & Slavic Studies) syllabus
What is Russia? What does it mean to be "Russian"? These questions have troubled Russians for centuries. Certainly, most nations engage in such soul-searching at one time or another; but Russia, thanks to special historical circumstances, has been obsessed with the problem of its own identity. Central to this concern is an issue that would appear to be more geographical than cultural: Is Russia a part of Europe (the West), or of Asia (the East)? Or, is it some hybrid that must find its own unique destiny? As we trace the development of this problem throughout Russia's history, we also become acquainted with the major characteristics and achievements of Russian culture, from its very beginnings to the present day.


FALL 2008 V55.0514 World Cultures: Ancient Israel
Prof. M. Smith (Hebrew & Judaic Studies) syllabus
The culture of the ancient Israelite societies of biblical times, covering the period from about 1200 b.c.e. to the conquests of Alexander the Great, in the fourth century b.c.e. Topics include the achievements of these societies in the areas of law and social organization, prophetic movements, Israelite religion, and ancient Hebrew literature. The Hebrew Bible preserves much of the creativity of the ancient Israelites, but archaeological excavations in Israel and neighboring lands, as well as the discovery of ancient writings in Hebrew and related languages, have added greatly to our knowledge of life as it was lived in biblical times. The civilizations of Egypt and Syria-Mesopotamia also shed light on Israelite culture. Of particular interest is the early development of Israelite monotheism, which, in time, emerged as ancient Judaism, the mother religion of Christianity and Islam.


FALL 2008 V55.0515 World Cultures: Latin America
Prof. Grandin (History) syllabus
Explores the cultural, social, and political organization of indigenous people before the period of European colonization. Studies the dynamics of the colonial encounter, focusing on such themes as indigenous responses to European rule, the formation of "Indian" society, and the interaction of Europeans, Africans, and indigenous people. Considers postcolonial Latin America, focusing on themes such as political culture, competing ideologies of economics and social development, and the construction of collective identities based on region, race, ethnicity, gender, and class. Readings consist mostly of primary sources and allow us to hear diverse voices within Latin American society, including works by European conquerors, Inca and Aztec descendants in the colonial period, and African and creole slaves. Course materials also include novels, short stories, films, photographs, and music.


FALL 2008 V55.0516 World Cultures: India
Prof. Sartori (History) syllabus
One of the challenges of thinking about "India" or "South Asia" in a long historical perspective is recognizing that, rather than being a self-enclosed geographical region or continuously evolving civilizational entity, the subcontinent has in fact been a part of many "worlds" in the course of the past two millennia, each with its own different spatial dimensions and social organization. Some vague conception of "India" has existed since ancient times, yet the way in which "India" has been imagined as a geographical space and as a location within a wider world has varied profoundly. We explore five broadly defined periods in the long history of the subcontinent: India in the Sanskrit Cosmopolis, India in the Islamic World, India in the British Empire, The Nations of South Asia, and Global South Asia.


FALL 2008 V55.0532 World Cultures: The African Diaspora
Prof. Morgan (Social and Cultural Analysis) syllabus
The dispersal of Africans to various parts of the world and over time, examining their experiences and those of their descendants. Regions of special interest include the Americas and the Islamic world, centering on questions of slavery and freedom while emphasizing the emergence of cultural forms and their relationship to both African and to non-African influences.


FALL 2008 V55.0539 World Cultures: Asian/Pacific/American Cultures
Prof. Pham (Social and Cultural Analysis) and Prof. Tu (Social and Cultural Analysis) syllabus
Major issues in the historical and contemporary experiences of Asian Pacific Americans, including migration, modernization, racial formation, community-building, and political mobilization, among others. Asian Pacific America encompasses a complex, diverse, and rapidly changing population of people. As an expression/reflection of their cultural identities, historical conditions, and political efforts, we pay particular attention to Asian Americans' use of cultural productions-films, literature, art, media, and popular culture.


FALL 2008 V55.0541 World Cultures: New World Encounters
Prof. Lane (Spanish & Portuguese) syllabus
What was America before it was called America? How did indigenous cultures understand and document their first encounters with Europeans? We focus on peoples, events, and cultural expressions associated with the conquest and colonization of the Americas, concentrating on three key areas: central Mexico, home to a several pre-Columbian societies, most notably the Aztec Empire, and later the seat of Spanish power in northern Latin America (the Viceroyalty of New Spain); the central Andes, home of the Incas and later the site of Spanish power in southern Latin America (the Viceroyalty of Peru); and finally, early plantation societies of the Caribbean, where the violent history of enslaved Africans in the new world unfolded. On one hand, we explore how those subjugated by conquest and colonialism interpreted, resisted, and recorded their experience. On the other, we ask what new cultural forms emerged from these violent encounters, and consider their role in the foundation of "Latin American" cultures. Readings balance a range of primary documents and art created during the "age of encounter," including maps, letters, paintings, and testimonials, along with historical and theoretical texts.


SPRING 2009 V55.0500 World Cultures: Topics - Slavery in the Americas
Prof. Weinstein (History)
European conquest and colonization of the New World revived an institution--slavery--that had been declining throughout Europe prior to the age of expansionism. Moreover, by associating enslavement with racial difference and a rapidly growing world market, the European colonizers created an enduring basis for discrimination and control unparalleled by other slave systems. We focus on slavery in the Americas primarily as a "political" question, broadly defined, beginning with the question of enslavement itself: Why did colonization of the New World give rise to large-scale enslavement, first of the native population, and then of Africans, and what kinds of political and moral issues arose in the process? We also discuss aspects of slavery in the Americas--race mixture and the blurring of racial boundaries, manumission and the formation of a free "colored" population, slave rebellion and resistance--that destabilized and potentially challenged the foundations of chattel slavery. We then explore the century-long process of emancipation, with cases ranging from the great revolution in Saint-Domingue/Haiti to the relatively peaceful abolition in Brazil, and close with a consideration of slavery's implications for subsequent labor systems and race relations in the Atlantic world.


SPRING 2009 V55.0502 World Cultures: Islamic Societies
Prof. Chelkowski (Middle Eastern & Islamic Societies)
Examines the common base and regional variations of Islamic societies. An "Islamic society" is here understood as one that shares, either as operative present or as historical past, that common religious base called Islam. For Muslims, Islam is not simply a set of beliefs or observances but also includes a history; its study is thus by nature historical, topical, and regional. Here our particular focus is on the society of Shi'i Muslims. Shi'ism has been neglected in the last 200 years of the Western study of Islam, and only since the 1978–79 Islamic Revolution in Iran has it received attention in the West. Now, with American forces in Iraq, Shi'ism is suddenly one of the main topics of interest for the news media. The Shi'is of Iraq are the majority—some 60%—of the population, but historically they have been deprived of power in the government and of access to the political and economic life of the country.


SPRING 2009 V55.0511 World Cultures: Middle Eastern Societies
Prof. Fahmy (Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies)
The histories, societies, and cultures of "the Middle East"—a relatively recent name for a very diverse region of western Asia and northern Africa. Focusing on the period from the heyday of Ottoman power in Europe and the Middle East in the sixteenth century until the present, we use a range of materials, including translated texts, novels and short stories, films and videos, and photographs, to explore changing forms of individual and collective identity, patterns of social life, and modes of government. We pay special attention to how people in the region experienced and grappled with the profound transformations their societies underwent from the eighteenth century onward, especially the expansion of European economic, political, and cultural power; colonial rule; and the rise of new nation-states. We conclude by discussing the Middle East today and some of the issues its peoples face.


SPRING 2009 V55.0512 World Cultures: China
Prof. Karl (East Asian Studies)
A multi-disciplinary examination of the global and domestic forces shaping modern China, extensively using Chinese sources in translation. Introduces students to some of the major historical, economic, cultural-literary, and social trends in thought and practice contributing to China's modern transformation, with a concentrated focus on the 19th and 20th centuries. Analytical technique, close textual reading, and contextual synthesis are the methodological points emphasized.


SPRING 2009 V55.0514 World Cultures: Ancient Israel
Prof. Schiffman (Hebrew & Judaic Studies)
The culture of the ancient Israelite societies of biblical times and the second Temple period and the emergence of classical Judaism, covering the period from c. 1400 B.C.E. to the third century C.E. Topics include the achievements of these societies in law and social organization, prophetic movements, history of Israelite religion and early Judaism, and ancient Hebrew and Jewish literature. The Hebrew Bible and Rabbinic literature preserve much of the creativity of ancient Israel; and archaeological excavations in Israel and neighboring lands, as well as the discovery of ancient writings in Hebrew and related languages have added to our knowledge. In addition, new discoveries in the Dead Sea Scrolls contribute greatly to our understanding of the history of Judaism and the emergence of Christianity. Of particular interest is the early development of Israelite monotheism, which, in time, emerged as ancient Judaism, the mother religion of Christianity and Islam.


SPRING 2009 V55.0515 World Cultures: Latin America
Prof. Dávila (Anthropology)


SPRING 2009 V55.0516 World Cultures: India
Prof. Ganti (Anthropology)
Utilizing a variety of sources -- novels, films, and academic scholarship -- students are introduced to the history, culture, society, and politics of modern India. Home to one billion people, eight major religions, twenty official languages (with hundreds of dialects), histories spanning several millenia, and a tremendous variety of customs, traditions, and ways of life, India is almost iconic for its diversity. We examine the challenges posed by such diversity as well as how this diversity has been understood, represented, and managed, both historically and contemporarily.


SPRING 2009 V55.0528 World Cultures: Russia since 1917
Prof. S. Cohen (Russian & Slavic Studies)
Major periods, developments, and interpretative issues in Russian politics, history, and society, from the 1917 revolution to the present. The emphasis is on the Soviet experience, though the Tsarist past and post-Soviet developments are also considered. Special attention is given to the role of historical traditions, leadership, ideology, ramifying events, and socioeconomic factors.


SPRING 2009 V55.0529 World Cultures: Contemporary Latino Cultures
Prof. Saldaña (Social & Cultural Analysis)
We begin with an examination of key historical events leading to formation of "Latino" identity in the U.S.: the 1848 U.S. war against Mexico, the 1898 U.S. war against Spain, the 1910 Mexican Revolution, the 1959 Cuban revolution, the U.S. covert wars against Central Americans in the 1980s. While Latin Americans are inevitably fleeing either poverty or political unrest, these migratory factors are often set in motion by direct territorial expansion and annexation of Latin America by the U.S., or by its neo-colonial relations of economic "development" strategies and covert intelligence operations. Second, we examine the psychic life of race through poststructuralist and psychoanalytic theories of subject and psychic formation (Foucault, Freud, Butler). Finally, we explore the cultural production--theater, film, literature, and visual art--produced by Latinos in the U.S. in the 20th century. Authors include Americo Paredes, Julia Burgos, Tomas Rivera, Piri Thomas, Sandra Estevez, Reinaldo Arenas, Lourdes Casal, Rodolfo Gonzalez, Miguel Pinero, Marjorie Agosin, Cherrie Moraga, Achy Obejas. Filmmakers: Robert Young, Luis Valdez, Cristina Ibarr, Alex Rivera. Performance and visual artists: Culture Clash, John Leguezamo, Esther Hernandez, Carmen Lomas Garza, Isis Rodriguez, Guillermo Gomez Peña.


SPRING 2009 V55.0537 World Cultures: Modern Israel
Prof. Zweig (Hebrew & Judaic Studies)
Modern Israel—Society and Culture: Despite its small size and population, Israel is a diverse, dynamic, and complex society. To understand its ethnic, religious, and political divisions, the different ethnic origins of the Jewish population over the last 150 years will be examined, and the growing role of the Arab population (approaching 20%) in Israeli society will be discussed. The special role of religion in the secular state, the development of Hebrew speaking culture, the political system, the settlement movement and the peace movement, gender issues, and the role of the army in everyday life are all addressed, concluding with a survey of the debate on whether Israel is a Jewish state or a state of all its citizens. Although the controversial issues that keep Israel in the headlines are touched on, the focus is the character of Israeli society and the impact on everyday life of living in the international limelight.


SPRING 2009 V55.0542 World Cultures: Byzantine Culture
Prof. Smyrlis (History)


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SOCIETIES AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

The Societies and the Social Sciences component can be satisfied through completion of an approved major or minor program, by completing an approved department course or by completing a special MAP course offering.


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EXPRESSIVE CULTURE


FALL 2008 V55.0710 Expressive Culture: Words
Prof. Donoghue (English) syllabus
What is literature or the literary? Is there a literary language that works differently from ordinary language? What is literary style and form? What is the position of the writer or artist in relation to society, and what is the function of the reader? Is literature a mirror of the world that it describes, an attempt to influence a reader's ideas or opinions, an expression of the identity of the writer, or none of these?


FALL 2008 V55.0720 Expressive Culture: Images
Prof. Geronimus (Art History) syllabus
What is the place of art in an image-saturated world? We begin by considering the power and taboo of images and the ways in which individuals and institutions that constitute "the art world" classify some of these images as works of art, turn to explore the visual and conceptual challenges presented by major works of sculpture, architecture, and painting, and conclude with a selection of problems raised by art today. Students develop the vocabulary to both appreciate and question the artistic "gestures" of society in various places and times.


FALL 2008 V55.0722 Expressive Culture: Images - Architecture in New York Field Study
Prof. Broderick (Art History) syllabus
New York's rich architectural heritage offers a unique opportunity for firsthand consideration of the concepts and styles of modern urban architecture, as well as its social, financial, and cultural contexts. Meets once a week for an extended period combining on-campus lectures with group excursions to prominent buildings. Attention is given both to individual buildings as examples of 19th- and 20th-century architecture and to phenomena such as the development of the skyscraper and the adaptation of older buildings to new uses.


FALL 2008 V55.0730 Expressive Culture: Sounds
Prof. Mahon (Music) syllabus
Our lives pulsate with patterns of sounds that we call music. We encounter these sounds in our homes, cars, stores, and exercise salons; they accompany us to the grocery store, the dentist's office, and the movies; yet we rarely think consciously about what they mean. Through a series of specific case studies we investigate the function and significance of music and the musician in human life. We raise basic questions about how music has been created, produced, perceived, and evaluated at diverse historical moments, in a variety of geographical locations, and among different cultural groups. Through aural explorations and discussion of how these vivid worlds "sound" in time and space, we assess the value of music in human experience.


FALL 2008 V55.0730 Expressive Culture: Sounds
Prof. Cusick (Music) syllabus
Our lives pulsate with patterns of sounds that we call music. We encounter these sounds in our homes, cars, stores, and exercise salons; they accompany us to the grocery store, the dentist's office, and the movies; yet we rarely think consciously about what they mean. Through a series of specific case studies we investigate the function and significance of music and the musician in human life. We raise basic questions about how music has been created, produced, perceived, and evaluated at diverse historical moments, in a variety of geographical locations, and among different cultural groups. Through aural explorations and discussion of how these vivid worlds "sound" in time and space, we assess the value of music in human experience.


FALL 2008 V55.0750 Expressive Culture: Film
Prof. Guerrero (Cinema Studies) syllabus
Science fiction cinema is clearly one of America's most popular and lucrative genres, one that has evolved from the once campy, comic book inspired B movies of the 1950s, into the one hundred million dollar, computer imaged "space operas" and dystopian spectacles of the contemporary imaginary. While multivalent and far ranging in their themes and visionary horizons, science fiction movies' great appeal and power have always been at least twofold. One attraction of the genre is its ability to explore the political and cultural issues, and the psychic fears and hopes of the social present, masked and subtly woven into "future world" narratives. As importantly, science fiction cinema has the power to imagine our future in dystopian, or utopian, outcomes, in societies and worlds driven by an ever quickening pace of technological innovation, accelerating sense of time compression, and an encroaching sense ecological exhaustion. Following a roughly historical trajectory starting in the "Cold War" 1950s, we explore the representational and aesthetic styles and expressive trends of the genre as it rockets us into the social and off-planet worlds of our techno-future.


SPRING 2009 V55.0720 Expressive Culture: Images
Prof. Basilio (Art History)
What is the place of art in an image-saturated world? We begin by considering the power and taboo of images and the ways in which individuals and institutions that constitute "the art world" classify some of these images as works of art, turn to explore the visual and conceptual challenges presented by major works of sculpture, architecture, and painting, and conclude with a selection of problems raised by art today. Students develop the vocabulary to both appreciate and question the artistic "gestures" of society in various places and times.


SPRING 2009 V55.0721 Expressive Culture: Images - Painting and Sculpture in New York Field Study
Prof. Broderick (Art History)
New York's public art collections contain important examples of painting and sculpture from almost every phase of the past, as well as some of the world's foremost works of contemporary art. Meets once a week for an extended period combining on-campus lectures with group excursions to the museums or other locations where these works are exhibited.


SPRING 2009 V55.0730 Expressive Culture: Sounds
Staff (Music)
Our lives pulsate with patterns of sounds that we call music. We encounter these sounds in our homes, cars, stores, and exercise salons; they accompany us to the grocery store, the dentist's office, and the movies; yet we rarely think consciously about what they mean. Through a series of specific case studies we investigate the function and significance of music and the musician in human life. We raise basic questions about how music has been created, produced, perceived, and evaluated at diverse historical moments, in a variety of geographical locations, and among different cultural groups. Through aural explorations and discussion of how these vivid worlds "sound" in time and space, we assess the value of music in human experience.


SPRING 2009 V55.0730 Expressive Culture: Sounds
Staff (Music)
Our lives pulsate with patterns of sounds that we call music. We encounter these sounds in our homes, cars, stores, and exercise salons; they accompany us to the grocery store, the dentist's office, and the movies; yet we rarely think consciously about what they mean. Through a series of specific case studies we investigate the function and significance of music and the musician in human life. We raise basic questions about how music has been created, produced, perceived, and evaluated at diverse historical moments, in a variety of geographical locations, and among different cultural groups. Through aural explorations and discussion of how these vivid worlds "sound" in time and space, we assess the value of music in human experience.


SPRING 2009 V55.0750 Expressive Culture: Film
Prof. Simon (Cinema Studies)
American narrative films, produced primarily during the period 1965-75, considered as an innovative cycle of filmmaking in dialogue with significant historical, political, and cultural transformations in American society. Examines developments in film genre during this period especially in relation to political and cultural change. Narrative innovations are emphasized, with special attention to the specificity of film form and style (e.g., editing, mise-en-scène, sound). Provides an introduction to the methods and principles of film analysis as well as dealing with this period of filmmaking in depth. Includes films by Kubrick, Coppola, Altman, and Scorsese.


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