"An introduction to the cross-cultural study of ethnic and national identity. We examine the concept of social identity, and consider the ways in which gendered, linguistic, religious, and ethno-racial identity components interact. We explore the history of nationalism, including the emergence of the idea of the nation-state, as well as ethnic conflict, globalization, identity politics, and human rights."

An introduction to the cross-cultural study of ethnic and national identity. Students explore the history of nationalism, focusing on ideologies about the nation-state, and look at the ways gender, religious and racial identities intersect with ethnic and national ones. Ethnic conflict is examined, along with the emergence of social movements based on identity, in particular indigenous rights movements and the ways culture can become highly politicized. Finally, students discuss the effects of globalization, migration, and transnational institutions.

Major narrative texts from diverse Western cultures, beginning with Homer and concluding with at least one film. Emphasis on literary and cultural issues: on the artistic significance of the chosen texts and on their identity as anthropological artifacts whose conventions and assumptions are rooted in particular times, places, and technologies. Syllabus varies, but always includes a sampling of popular culture (folk tales, ballads) as well as some landmark narratives such as the Iliad or the Odyssey, Don Quixote, Anna Karenina, Ulysses, and a classic film. This class will investigate the ways in which the formal aspects of Western storytelling in various media have shaped both fantasies and perceptions, making certain understandings of experience possible through the selection, arrangement, and processing of narrative material. Surveying the field chronologically across the major narrative genres and sub-genres from Homeric epic through the novel and across media to include live performance, film, and video games, we will be examining the ways in which new ideologies and psychological insights become available through the development of various narrative techniques and new technologies. Emphasis will be placed on the generic conventions of story-telling as well as on literary and cultural issues, the role of media and modes of transmission, the artistic significance of the chosen texts and their identity as anthropological artifacts whose conventions and assumptions are rooted in particular times, places, and technologies. Authors will include: Homer, Sophocles, Herodotus, Christian evangelists, Marie de France, Cervantes, La Clos, Poe, Lang, Cocteau, Disney-Pixar, and Maxis-Electronic Arts, with theoretical readings in Propp, Bakhtin, Girard, Freud, and Marx.

This course continues from the fall semester. The course introduces students to the fundamental theories and methods of modern political science through the study of a small number of major books and articles that have been influential in the field. This semester, the course focuses on American and comparative politics.

This course explores fundamental questions about the causes and nature of revolutions. How do people overthrow their rulers? How do they establish new governments? Do radical upheavals require bloodshed, violence, or even terror? How have revolutionaries attempted to establish their ideals and realize their goals? We will look at a set of major political transformations throughout the world and across centuries to understand the meaning of revolution and evaluate its impact. By the end of the course, students will be able to offer reasons why some revolutions succeed and others fail. Materials for the course include the writings of revolutionaries, declarations and constitutions, music, films, art, memoirs, and newspapers.

This course will introduce you to the field of literary theory by identifying and engaging with the key problems and questions that animate theoretical discussion among literary scholars and critics, including issues pertaining to ideology, cultural value, the patriarchal and colonial bases of Western culture, and more. The student will be acquainted with the basic principles and preeminent texts that have defined many of the major critical debates of the 20th and 21st centuries. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to define both literary criticism and literary theory, and explain the emergence of literature as a discipline of study; identify and discuss classical Greek explanations of the purpose of literature; explain and account for the rise of critical theory in the 20th century, and describe the place of theory in contemporary English and cultural studies; provide a brief overview of the major tenets, practitioners, and ideas of the following critical and theoretical movements and/or schools: Russian Formalism, structuralism, post-structuralism, semiotics, Deconstruction, psychoanalysis, feminism, gender theory, Marxism, Reader-Response paradigms, New Historicism, Post-Colonialism, Ethnic and Cultural Studies, Eco-criticism and Eco-theory and trauma theory; identify and discuss some of the viewpoints opposed to the practice of criticism and literary theory; identify and discuss some of the newly emerging trends in literary theory, such as eco-criticism, trauma theory, chaos theory, game theory, and trans-identity criticism; identify, discuss, and define some of the key literary theories of such major literary and cultural critics and theorists as Plato, Aristotle, Karl Marx, Michele Foucault, Judith Butler, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, T.S. Eliot, Henry Louis Gates, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Eve Sedgwick, and Frederic Jameson. (English Literature 301)

Examines the ways in which people in ancient and contemporary societies have selected, evaluated, and used materials of nature, transforming them to objects of material culture. Some examples: glass in ancient Egypt and Rome; powerful metals in the Inka empire; rubber processing in ancient Mexico. Explores ideological and aesthetic criteria often influential in materials development. Laboratory/workshop sessions provide hands-on experience with materials discussed in class. Subject complements 3.091. Enrollment may be limited.

Political Economy I explores the major social science paradigms for analyzing relations among state, economy, and society. Through readings, lectures and discussion of original texts in political liberalism and individualism, neo-classical economics, Marxism, sociological and cultural theories, and neo-institutionalism, the seminar examines the fundamental assumptions on which our understanding of the social world and our research are based.

Critical analysis of liberal, neoclassical, and Marxist perspectives on modern society. Alternative theories of economic growth, historical change, the state, classes, and ideology.

This graduate reading seminar explores the role of religious groups, institutions, and ideas in politics using social science theories. It is open to advanced undergraduate students with permission of the instructor.