Courses

INST B101 Introduction to International Studies

Spring 2025

This course introduces students to International Studies, an interdisciplinary social scientific field. What is the contemporary "international" world order and how does one study it? How is the "International" similar or different to "Global," the "Planetary" or other ways of conceptualizing the "World"? The class seeks answers to these questions in a few parts. After a brief introduction, we will first conceptualize the planetary by theorizing the global environment, climate change, and biodiversity loss, the theory of the "Anthropocene," and social scientific critiques of this geologic theory. These critiques trace the roots of contemporary ecological crises to the history of colonialism, modernity and capitalism. Thus, in the second part of the course, we will investigate the historical origins of the present. We will situate the contemporary "international" world order within the longue durée: from early forms of "globalization," to colonialism, and imperialism; to revolutionary struggles for freedom, independence, and self-determination; and finally, the legacies of 20th-century histories of decolonization, modernization, development, and international relations theory. Through social scientific, ethnographic, and documentary case studies we'll explore the complex impacts of decolonization, development, postcolonialism and global inequality on local economies, ecologies, and cultures. Finally, we will conclude by examining globalization in the 21- century with case studies of global social movements for social, racial, and environmental justice that will challenge us to apply the insights we have gained across the course.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Power, Inequity, and Justice (PIJ)

Back to top

INST B201 Themes in International Studies

Not offered 2024-25

This is a topics course. Course content varies.

Back to top

INST B210 Popular Uprisings in Global Perspective

Not offered 2024-25

In recent years, popular uprisings and protest movements have mobilized hundreds and thousands of people in different parts of the world to demand a radical overhauling of existing systems and changes in political leadership. These uprisings have raised a series of questions that will be the focus of this class. What are the catalysts, underlying causes and demands of these protest movements? What can we learn from the grassroots organizing that allowed these movements to gain momentum? All too often popular uprisings in the Global South in particular, are seen as representing the failures and limits of revolutionary action and politics rather than their potential and promise. What then, do recent popular uprisings reveal about the limitations and relevance of various theoretical approaches to explaining revolutionary phenomena and action? How might local scholars and activists analyzing the popular uprisings taking place in their countries, allow us to develop new vocabularies and frameworks for understanding popular protests and revolutionary action elsewhere? Students will explore these questions through a series of case studies including Sudan, Hong Kong, Chile, Lebanon, France, Ethiopia and India.

Back to top

INST B217 Social Movements, Power, and Resistance

Not offered 2024-25

This course will introduce students to the study of transnational social movements. Globalization has created unprecedented problems of inequality, exploitation, and environmental crisis however, its networks and logics by globalization have also created exciting opportunities for activists to organize across borders, tackle issues of global concern, and develop creative solutions. We will make use of ethnographic case studies, documentary film, and an interdisciplinary social science literature to examine transnational movements on a variety of themes such as: human rights, the rights of indigenous peoples, the environment, biodiversity conservation, climate justice, the alter-globalization movement, and the rights of nature. Students will learn about the historical context of transnationalism, theories of social movement and collective action, the study of networks of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the strategies mobilized by transnational actors to advocate on issues of social and environmental justice.

Back to top

INST B220 Political Ecology and Environmental Justice

Spring 2025

This course is an introduction to the fields of Political Ecology and Environmental Justice. Through ethnographic accounts, documentary film, graphic novels, photography and other multimedia, students will be introduced to ethnographic case studies of environmental justice struggles, conflicts over resources, and the impacts of extractive industries on indigenous and other frontline communities across the Global South and North. How, we will ask, do environmental problems, such as climate change, pollution and toxicity, biodiversity loss and extinctions, and struggles over resource extraction intersect with questions of identity and inequality, such as race, ethnicity, nation, indigeneity, and gender? Students will make use of the theoretical and methodological tools offered by environmental justice and political ecology to critically examine: processes of globalization, development, and the racialized postcolonial geographies of resource extraction; the problem of environmental racism, and social movements for indigenous sovereignty and climate justice; and science and technology studies inquiries into the relations between humans and non-humans. Together, we will trace the historical roots, colonial logics, and contemporary effects of extractive capitalism and learn from the legacies of movements social and environmental justice in order to interrogate our own positionality within the global political ecology of resource extraction and consumption. Prerequisite: Intro to International Studies recommended as preparation

Writing Attentive

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Counts Toward: Anthropology; Environmental Studies; Latin American Iberian Latinx.

Back to top

INST B301 Politics of Aid and Humanitarianism

Not offered 2024-25

This course explores the relationship between humanitarian aid, politics and the legacy of colonialism. Our goal will be to historicize and contextualize humanitarian policies and practices through specific case studies which can include, but will not be limited to: Haiti, Sudan, USA, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Palestine, Somalia, Brazil, Nicaragua and the Philippines. We will use these case studies to explore topics such as the militarization of aid and the politicization of emergency assistance. We will also be looking to non-traditional sources such as novels, films, NGO documents and congressional hearings to gain insight from the perspectives of those impacted by and/or shaping humanitarian policies and practices. Finally, we will examine the ways 'non-Western' actors and humanitarian organizations are reshaping the field of humanitarianism and relationships across the Global South more broadly.

Back to top

INST B308 Human Rights in a Global Perspective

Not offered 2024-25

In the 20th century, the global world order transformed from one organized around empires and imperial domination to one of nation-states, self-determination, and human rights. This course will examine contemporary struggles for human rights within the context of the history of colonization and decolonization, the legacy of anti-colonial struggles and the significance of these legacies to contemporary struggles over nationalism, migration, racial justice and citizenship.

Back to top

INST B315 Humans & Non-Humans

Not offered 2024-25

Anthropology is the study of humans, but the idea of the "human" always implies the category of the "non-human." Humanity is defined in its relation to "non-humans": ranging from tools and technology, to domesticated (and undomesticated) animals, to agricultural crops, our local ecologies, and the global environment. What does it mean to be human? What is the agency of non-humans in human worlds? Do forests think? Do dogs dream? What is the agency of a mountain? What are the rights of a river? What is the cultural significance of DNA? This course will trace Anthropological debates over the "human" and "non-human" in contexts ranging from Amerindian cosmology, to political ecology, and science and technology studies.

Back to top

INST B398 Senior Seminar

This non-thesis capstone course is a seminar in which students do research, presentations and a final essay. These delve into topics from relevant courses in previously-taken tracks and may incorporate experiences from Praxis, Summer, or Study Abroad.

Counts Toward: International Studies.

Back to top

INST B399 Senior Project in International Studies

This involves the writing of a thesis or the production of an extended document on platforms such as a DVD or a website with the guidance of a designated adviser in International Studies.

Counts Toward: International Studies.

Back to top

INST B403 Supervised Work

Back to top

INST B425 Praxis III - Independent Study

Note: Students are eligible to take up to two Praxis Fieldwork Seminars or Praxis Independent Studies during their time at Bryn Mawr.

Counts Toward: Praxis Program.

Back to top

ANTH B213 Anthropology of Food

Spring 2025

Food is part of the universal human experience. But everyday experiences of food also reveal much about human difference. What we eat is intimately connected with who we are, where we belong, and how we see the world. In this course, we will use a socio-cultural perspective to explore how food helps us form families, national and religious communities, and other groups. We will also consider how food may become a source of inequality, a political symbol, and a subject of social discord. Examining both practical and ideological meanings of food and taste, this course will address issues of identity, social difference, and cultural experience.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Counts Toward: Child and Family Studies; Gender Sexuality Studies; International Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

ANTH B251 Identity, Borders, and Globalization in Southeast Asia

Not offered 2024-25

This course will explore the complexity and diversity of Southeast Asia and the ways political, economic, and environmental concerns bridge borders of countries in the region. We will examine belief systems, family systems, urbanization, economic change, politics and governance, health, and ecological change, among other topics. We will critically examine colonial, anti-colonial, nationalist, and internationalist meanings by looking at lived experiences that question what does it mean to be bound by regional designation and simultaneously participate in processes of one's own making that challenge and transcend locality. Through reading ethnographies of cultures in the region, we also will examine anthropologies and knowledge being produced outside of the Western academy in Southeast Asia, problematize area studies and the Western construction of a geopolitical region of nation-states called Southeast Asia, and examine the limits of such a designation, as well as benefits as countries in the region that engage in ASEAN contend with globalization. Prerequisite: Sophomore Standing and Above.

Back to top

ANTH B294 Culture, Power, and Politics

Not offered 2024-25

What do a country's national politics have to do with culture? Likewise, how are politics hidden below the surface of our everyday social lives? This course explores questions like these through anthropological approaches. Drawing on both classic and contemporary ethnographic studies from the U.S. and around the world, we will examine how social and cultural frameworks help us understand politics in new ways. We will investigate how people perceive the meanings and effects of the state; how nationalism and citizenship shape belonging on the one hand, and exclusion on the other; how understandings of gender, race, and difference converge with political action, ideology, and power; and how politics infuse everyday spaces including schools, businesses, homes, and even the dinner table. Prerequisite: ANTH B102, H103 or permission of the instructor.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Power, Inequity, and Justice (PIJ)

Counts Toward: Gender Sexuality Studies; International Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

ANTH B327 Caste and Race: Analogies and Intersections

Not offered 2024-25

With the global spread of the Black Lives Matter movement, and since the publication of American journalist Isabel Wilkerson's Caste: The Origins of our Discontents, there has been a renewed interest in thinking comparatively about caste and race. This course will examine the intertwined histories and legacies of caste and race as imaginaries deployed both to create and enforce social inequality and hierarchy, and to describe and analyze it. In the first half of the course we will examine how analogies and comparisons between caste and race have been made at various moments over the long 20th century. In the second half of the course, we will explore how caste and race have intersected in lived experience, using historical sources, ethnography, and memoir. In tracking intersections of experience and the production of knowledge, our course will bring together history, anthropology, sociology, and related fields, as well as different world areas- India/South Asia and the U.S./Western hemisphere- that have traditionally been held apart in the modern academy. Prerequisite: One course in Anthropology or History or related Social Science or Humanities departments, or permission of the instructors.

Back to top

ANTH B354 Political Economy, Gender, Ethnicity and Transformation in Vietnam

Spring 2025

Today, Vietnam is in the midst of dramatic social, economic and political changes brought about through a shift from a central economy to a market/capitalist economy since the late 1980s. These changes have resulted in urbanization, a rise in consumption, changes in land use, movement of people, environmental consequences of economic development, and shifts in social and economic relationships and cultural practices as the country has moved from low income to middle income status. This course examines culture and society in Vietnam focusing largely on contemporary Vietnam, but with a view to continuities and historical precedent in past centuries. In this course, we will draw on anthropological studies of Vietnam, as well as literature and historical studies. Relationships between the individual, family, gender, ethnicity, community, land, and state will pervade the topics addressed in the course, as will the importance of political economy, nation, and globalization. In addition to class seminar discussions, students will view documentary and fictional films about Vietnamese culture. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or higher or first years with ANTH 102.

Writing Attentive

Counts Toward: Environmental Studies; Gender Sexuality Studies; Growth and Structure of Cities; International Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

ARCH B242 Colonies and Colonization in the Ancient Mediterranean

Not offered 2024-25

This course focuses on the character and consequences of colonization, colonialism, and imperialism in the ancient Mediterranean. Using archaeological and textual evidence, we will examine the history, practice, and physical manifestations of colonization from the earliest Phoenician and Greek colonies through the imperial world of the Roman Empire. We will discuss a variety of approaches and frameworks used to explore the intersection of migration and mobility, colonization and colonialism, and imperial states and identities in the Classical world, and will explore the impact of these processes on the development of wider Mediterranean networks, identities, and histories.

Back to top

ARCH B244 Great Empires of the Ancient Near East

Fall 2024

A survey of the history, material culture, political and religious ideologies of, and interactions among, the five great empires of the ancient Near East of the second and first millennia B.C.E.: New Kingdom Egypt, the Hittite Empire in Anatolia, the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires in Mesopotamia, and the Persian Empire in Iran.

Writing Attentive

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward: Growth and Structure of Cities; History; International Studies; Political Science.

Back to top

CITY B240 Cities of the Global South

Not offered 2024-25

This course surveys the dynamic social and spatial processes that make (and constantly re-make) cities in the Global South. We examine what it means to be a city in the 'Global South' and study the commonalities that unite these spaces in a post-colonial, post-Bretton Woods world. That said, this is a course that centers diversity among cases in Latin America, the Middle East/North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia: the unique demands and interventions of people and community groups working for a better urban life, the experimental efforts of local political leaders and planners, and the ways in which particular local histories layer upon themselves to produce a world of singular urban experiences. Local film, memoir, activist non-fiction, and interviews with local planners and practitioners will supplement academic readings to provide a 'street-level' view of everyday life in global cities.

Back to top

EALC B264 Human Rights in China

Not offered 2024-25

This course will examine China's human rights issues from a historical perspective. The topics include diverse perspectives on human rights, historical background, civil rights, religious practice, justice system, education, as well as the problems concerning some social groups such as migrant laborers, women, ethnic minorities and peasants.

Back to top

EALC B325 Topics in Chinese History and Culture

Section 001 (Fall 2023): Law and Society/Imperial China
Section 001 (Fall 2024): Rituals in Imperial China

Fall 2024

This is a topics course. Course content varies.

Current topic description: This seminar offers students a distinctive perspective from which to understand Chinese society. It investigates rituals performed in various societal domains in imperial China. Through the study of texts, the screening of videos, and the examination of artifacts, the course delves into four principal themes: the significance of rituals in Confucianism; the ideology and role of rituals in imperial governance; the impact of rituals in community construction and family relations; and rites of passage in imperial China. Additionally, using rituals in imperial China as a special lens, this course engages in dialogues with the existing scholarship on general issues such as the relations between beliefs and performance, rituals and emotions, and rituals and social change.

Counts Toward: East Asian Languages & Culture; History; International Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

EALC B353 The Environment on China's Frontiers

Not offered 2024-25

This seminar explores environmental issues on China's frontiers from a historical perspective. It focuses on the particular relationship between the environment and the frontier, examining how these two variables have interacted. The course will deal with the issues such as the relationship between the environment and human ethnic and cultural traditions, social movements, economic growth, political and legal institutions and practices, and changing perceptions. The frontier regions under discussion include Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and the southwestern ethnic areas, which are all important in defining what China is and who the Chinese are.

Counts Toward: East Asian Languages & Culture; Environmental Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

ECON B225 Economic Development

Fall 2024

Examination of the issues related to and the policies designed to promote economic development in the developing economies of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Focus is on why some developing economies grow faster than others and why some growth paths are more equitable, poverty reducing, and environmentally sustainable than others. Includes consideration of the impact of international trade and investment policy, macroeconomic policies (exchange rate, monetary and fiscal policy) and sector policies (industry, agriculture, education, population, and environment) on development outcomes in a wide range of political and institutional contexts. Prerequisite: ECON B105.

Course does not meet an Approach

Counts Toward: Environmental Studies; Growth and Structure of Cities; International Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

ECON B236 Introduction to International Economics

Fall 2024, Spring 2025

An introduction to international economics through theory, policy issues, and problems. The course surveys international trade and finance, as well as topics in international economics. It investigates why and what a nation trades, the consequences of such trade, globalized production, the role of trade policy, the economics of immigration, the behavior and effects of exchange rates, and the macroeconomic implications of trade and capital flows.Prerequisites: ECON B105. The course is not open to students who have taken ECON B316 or B348.

Counts Toward: Growth and Structure of Cities; International Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

ECON B316 International Macroeconomics

Fall 2024

Examines the theory of, and current issues in, international macroeconomics and international finance. Considers the role of international factors in macroeconomic performance; policy-making in an open economy; exchange rate systems and exchange rate behavior; international financial integration; and international financial crises. Writing Intensive.Prerequisite: ECON B202 and ECON 253 or 304.

Writing Intensive

Counts Toward: International Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

ECON B317 The Economics of Agricultural and Rural Development

Not offered 2024-25

Close to 900 million people living in extreme poverty live in rural regions and derive their income from agriculture. Many of them practice subsistence farming, consuming only what they grow. This class examines the economics of agricultural systems in poor countries, the challenges facing them, and why they account for such a large share of the world's poor. The class will do this from the perspectives of microeconomic theory, econometric research, development economics, environmental economics, and political economy. Writing Intensive. Prerequisite: ECON B200: Intermediate Microeconomics and either ECON B253: Introduction to Econometrics or ECON B304: Econometrics

Writing Intensive

Quantitative Readiness Required (QR)

Counts Toward: International Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

ECON B325 Advanced Economic Development

Spring 2025

Advanced theories and models with respect to economic development and their empirical relevance in development policy. Analysis of problems relating to growth and development of emerging economies. Topics include rural development, digital transformation, inclusive growth, trade and climate resilience. Prerequisite: ECON B200 and ECON B253.

Writing Intensive

Counts Toward: International Studies.

Back to top

ENGL B237 Cultural Memory and State-Sanctioned Violence in Latinx Literature

Not offered 2024-25

This course examines how Latinx literature grapples with state-sanctioned violence, cultural memory, and struggles for justice in the Americas. Attending to the histories of dictatorship and civil war in Central and South America, we will focus on a range of genres-including novels, memoir, poetry, film, and murals-to explore how memory and the imagination can contest state-sanctioned violence, how torture and disappearances haunt the present, how hetereopatriarchal and white supremacist discourses are embedded in authoritarian regimes, and how U.S. imperialism has impacted undocumented migration. Throughout the course we will analyze the various creative techniques Latinx cultural producers use to resist violence and imagine justice.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Counts Toward: Comparative Literature; Gender Sexuality Studies; International Studies; Latin American Iberian Latinx; Spanish.

Back to top

GNST B245 Introduction to Latin American, Iberian and Latina/o Studies

Not offered 2024-25

A broad, interdisciplinary survey of themes uniting and dividing societies from the Iberian Peninsula to the Americas. The class introduces the methods and interests of all departments in the concentration, posing problems of cultural continuity and change, globalization and struggles within dynamic histories, political economies, and creative expressions. Course is taught in English.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Power, Inequity, and Justice (PIJ)

Counts Toward: Growth and Structure of Cities; International Studies; International Studies; Latin American Iberian Latinx; Spanish.

Back to top

HIST B101 The Historical Imagination

Fall 2024

Explores some of the ways people have thought about, represented, and used the past across time and space. Introduces students to modern historical practices and debates through examination and discussion of texts and archives that range from scholarly monographs and documents to monuments, oral traditions, and other media.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward: International Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

HIST B200 The Atlantic World 1492-1800

Not offered 2024-25

The aim of this course is to provide an understanding of the way in which peoples, goods, and ideas from Africa, Europe. and the Americas came together to form an interconnected Atlantic World system. The course is designed to chart the manner in which an integrated system was created in the Americas in the early modern period, rather than to treat the history of the Atlantic World as nothing more than an expanded version of North American, Caribbean, or Latin American history.

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward: Africana Studies; Anthropology; International Studies; International Studies; Latin American Iberian Latinx; Peace Justice and Human Rights.

Back to top

HIST B212 Pirates, Travelers, and Natural Historians: 1492-1750

Not offered 2024-25

In the early modern period, conquistadors, missionaries, travelers, pirates, and natural historians wrote interesting texts in which they tried to integrate the New World into their existing frameworks of knowledge. This intellectual endeavor was an adjunct to the physical conquest of American space, and provides a framework though which we will explore the processes of imperial competition, state formation, and indigenous and African resistance to colonialism.

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward: Africana Studies; Environmental Studies; International Studies; International Studies; Latin American Iberian Latinx.

Back to top

HIST B234 An Introduction to Middle Eastern History

Fall 2024

This course serves as an introduction to the history of the modern Middle East. We will also explore the narratives and debates that have shaped the field of Middle East history. Topics include orientalism, colonialism, political reform, social, cultural, and intellectual movements, nationalism, and the Cold War. Readings will be drawn from the fields of history, anthropology, politics, and literature.

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward: International Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

HIST B236 African History since 1800

Section 001 (Fall 2023): Africa since 1800

Not offered 2024-25

The course analyzes the history of Africa in the last two hundred years in the context of global political economy. We will examine the major themes in modern African history, including the 19th-century state formation, expansion, or restructuration; partition and resistance; colonial rule; economic, social, political, religious, and cultural developments; nationalism; post-independence politics, economics, and society, as well as conflicts and the burden of disease. The course will also introduce students to the sources and methods of African history.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward: Africana Studies; International Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

HIST B237 Themes in Modern African History

Section 001 (Spring 2024): Public History in Africa

Spring 2025

This is a topics course. Course content varies

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward: Africana Studies; Gender Sexuality Studies; Growth and Structure of Cities; International Studies; International Studies; Museum Studies.

Back to top

HIST B238 From Bordellos to Cybersex History of Sexuality in Modern Europe

Not offered 2024-25

This course is a detailed examination of the changing nature and definition of sexuality in Europe from the late nineteenth century to the present. Throughout the semester we critically examine how understandings of sexuality changed-from how it was discussed and how authorities tried to control it to how the practice of sexuality evolved. Focusing on both discourses and lived experiences, the class will explore sexuality in the context of the following themes; prostitution and sex trafficking, the rise of medicine with a particular attention to sexology, psychiatry and psychoanalysis; the birth of the homo/hetero/bisexual divide; the rise of the "New Woman"; abortion and contraception; the "sexual revolution" of the 60s; pornography and consumerism; LGBTQ activism; concluding with considering sexuality in the age of cyber as well as genetic technology. In examining these issues we will question the role and influence of different political systems and war on sexuality. By paying special attention to the rise of modern nation-states, forces of nationalism, and the impacts of imperialism we will interrogate the nature of regulation and experiences of sexuality in different locations in Europe from the late nineteenth century to the present.

Back to top

HIST B242 American Politics and Society: 1945 to the Present

Fall 2024

This course examines transformations in American culture, politics, and society from World War II to the present, focusing on flashpoints of government policy, popular culture, and social activism. We will trace this history with a focus on four central themes: (1) U.S. domestic and foreign policy and the fear of annihilation, from the Cold War, the specter of nuclear warfare, and the War in Vietnam to the War on Terror and climate change; (2) the growth and convergence of movements for social justice, including African American, Latinx, Asian American, indigenous, feminist, and LGBTQ+ rights and liberation; (3) the rise of the New Right, neoliberalism, the reshaping of party politics, and their impact on social welfare, healthcare, and the environment; and (4) the politics of popular culture, especially television, music, and digital media. Across these themes, we will consider where government leaders and popular culture have worked to reinforce social norms and sharpen political divides and how social movements have reshaped American politics and society.

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward: International Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

HIST B258 British Empire: Imagining Indias

Not offered 2024-25

This course considers ideas about and experiences of "modern" India, i.e., India during the colonial and post-Independence periods (roughly 1757-present). While "India" and "Indian history" along with "British empire" and "British history" will be the ostensible objects of our consideration and discussions, the course proposes that their imagination and meanings are continually mediated by a wide variety of institutions, agents, and analytical categories (nation, religion, class, race, gender, to name a few examples). The course uses primary sources, scholarly analyses, and cultural productions to explore the political economies of knowledge, representation, and power in the production of modernity.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Power, Inequity, and Justice (PIJ)

Counts Toward: International Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

HIST B263 Impact of Empire: Britain 1858-1960

Not offered 2024-25

Is empire (on the British variant of which, in its heyday, the sun reportedly never set) securely superseded (as some have confidently asserted) or does it endure and, if so, in what forms and domains? Focusing on the expanding British colonial empire from the 17th century on, this course considers its impact through the dynamics of specific commodities' production, and consumption (sugar and tea, for example, but also labor and governance), their cultures (from plantations and factories to households to the state), and their disciplinary technologies (including domesticity, the nation, and discourses on history and modernity).

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Power, Inequity, and Justice (PIJ)

Counts Toward: International Studies.

Back to top

HIST B264 Passages from India: 1800-Present

Not offered 2024-25

This course explores the histories and effects of migration from the Indian subcontinent to far-flung destinations across the globe. It starts with the circular migrations of traders, merchants, and pilgrims in the medieval period from the Indian subcontinent to points east (in southeast Asia) and west (eastern Africa). However, the focus of the course is on modern migrations from the subcontinent, from the indentured labor migrations of the British colonial period (to Africa, the Caribbean, and the South Pacific) to the post-Independence emigrations from the new nations of the subcontinent to Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Power, Inequity, and Justice (PIJ)

Counts Toward: International Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

HIST B265 Colonial Encounters in the Americas

Not offered 2024-25

The course explores the confrontations, conquests and accommodations that formed the "ground-level" experience of day-to-day colonialism throughout the Americas. The course is comparative in scope, examining events and structures in North, South and Central America, with particular attention paid to indigenous peoples and the nature of indigenous leadership in the colonial world of the 18th century.

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward: Africana Studies; International Studies; International Studies; Latin American Iberian Latinx.

Back to top

HIST B280 History of Witchcraft and Magic

Not offered 2024-25

This course examines the social, cultural, and legal history of witchcraft and magic throughout European history. We will examine the values and attitudes that have influenced beliefs about witchcraft and the supernatural, both historically and in the present day. This course will pay specific attention to the role of gender and sexuality in the history of witchcraft, as the vast majority of individuals charged in the witch hunts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were indeed women. We will also study accusations of witchcraft, breaking down the power dynamics and assumptions at play behind the witch trials, and the effects of these trials on gender relations in European society. This class will track the intersections of magic and science throughout the early modern period, and the reconciliation of belief systems during the Enlightenment. We will carry our analysis into the modern period, touching on Victorian spiritualism and mysticism, the emergence of Neo-Paganism, and the return to the figure of the goddess. Our final foray will be and examination of the political "witch-hunts" of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and the enduring trope of the "witch" in modern political culture.

Back to top

HIST B286 Topics in the British Empire

Section 001 (Spring 2025): Birth of Nations, Nationalism and Decolonization

Spring 2025

This is a topics course covering various "topics" in the study of the British Empire. Course content varies.

Current topic description: This course explores the politics and genealogies of nations in the Indian subcontinent from the late 19th century through the establishment of sovereign nations after 1947, considering the implications and legacies of empire, colonial governance and anti-colonial mobilizations for the peoples of the subcontinent through the present. While the course focuses on the period before WWII and the age of decolonization, we will "visit" the past half-century as we proceed.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward: International Studies; International Studies; Political Science.

Back to top

HIST B292 Women in Britain since 1750

Not offered 2024-25

Focusing on contemporary and historical narratives, this course explores the ongoing production, circulation and refraction of discourses on gender and nation as well as race, empire and modernity since the mid-18th century. Texts will incorporate visual material as well as literary evidence and culture and consider the crystallization of the discipline of history itself.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Power, Inequity, and Justice (PIJ)

Counts Toward: Gender Sexuality Studies; International Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

HIST B307 Topics in European and Britain Cultural History

Not offered 2024-25

This is a topics course. Course content varies.

Back to top

HIST B319 Topics in Modern European History

Section 001 (Fall 2024): History of Sexology

Fall 2024

This is a topics course. Course content varies.

Current topic description: The course examines the history of sexology in Europe from the late 19th century to the present. We will explore the emergence and development of sexology as a scientific discipline, tracing its cultural, social, and medical roots. Through the works of pioneering works of figures like Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Havelock Ellis or Sigmund Freud to less known but equally influential sexologists like Kurt Freund and Vilmos Szilágyi, the course traces the evolution of sexology in both Western and Eastern Europe. We will consider both the societal contexts that influenced the development of sexological theories and the impact of these theories on broader cultural attitudes toward gender and sexuality.

Counts Toward: Growth and Structure of Cities; Health Studies; International Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

HIST B337 Topics in African History

Section 001 (Fall 2023): Cities, Epidemics, Pandemics
Section 001 (Spring 2024): Hist of Global Health Africa
Section 001 (Spring 2025): Cities, Epidemics, Pandemics

Spring 2025

This is a topics course. Topics vary.

Current topic description: In recent decades, the world has experienced an increasing threat for public health from the emerging infectious diseases that have provoked epidemics and pandemics. The course will focus on the impact of epidemics and pandemics on cities in Africa. We will discuss the issues of public health history, social and cultural history of disease as well as the issues of the history of medicine. We will examine the histories of global initiatives to control disease in Africa from an interdisciplinary perspective (history, and social and biomedical sciences), using case studies from across the continent.  We will explore various themes, such as the anxiety and panic caused by the disease outbreaks; the state, medical, and popular responses; the politics of disease control; the conflicts of interests between the interests of commerce, public health and civil liberties; and the health disparities within cities. We will focus on the colonial and postcolonial cities in Africa. We will also explore the questions regarding the sources of African history and their quality.

Counts Toward: Africana Studies; Gender Sexuality Studies; Health Studies; International Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

HIST B357 Topics in British Empire

Section 001 (Spring 2025): Birth of the Nations

Spring 2025

This is a topics course. Topics vary.

Current topic description: This course explores the politics and genealogies of nations in the Indian subcontinent from the late 19th century through the establishment of sovereign nations after 1947, considering the implications and legacies of empire, colonial governance and anti-colonial mobilizations for the peoples of the subcontinent through the present. While the course focuses on the period before WWII and the age of decolonization, we will "visit" the past half-century as we proceed.

Counts Toward: International Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

HIST B371 Topics in Atlantic History: The Early Modern Pirate in Fact and Fiction

Fall 2024

This course will explore piracy in the Americas in the period 1550-1750. We will investigate the historical reality of pirates and what they did, and the manner in which pirates have entered the popular imagination through fiction and films. Pirates have been depicted as lovable rogues, anti-establishment rebels, and enlightened multiculturalists who were skilled in dealing with the indigenous and African peoples of the Americas. The course will examine the facts and the fictions surrounding these important historical actors.

Writing Intensive

Counts Toward: International Studies; International Studies; Latin American Iberian Latinx.

Back to top

MEST B208 Introduction to the History of the Medieval Middle East

Not offered 2024-25

This course will provide an overview of the political and social history of the Middle East and North Africa from the sixth century C.E., in the Late Antique Period, with the tensions between the Byzantine and Sasanian empires and the rise of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, to the fourteenth century C.E., with the Mongol invasions marking the end of the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad. While students will be introduced to the political figures and frameworks of this period, there will also be a focus on social and cultural developments among the diverse populations that lived in the medieval Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa, their relationships with one another, and how they interacted with their neighbors. Issues of political and religious authority and legitimacy, the development of social and cultural institutions, the production of artistic and literary works will also be explored.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward: History; International Studies.

Back to top

MEST B210 The Art and Architecture of Islamic Spirituality

Not offered 2024-25

This course examines how Muslim societies across time and space have used art and architecture in different ways to express and understand inner dimensions of spirituality and mysticism. Topics to be studied include: the calligraphical remnants of the early Islamic period; inscriptions found on buildings and gravestones; the majestic architecture of mosques, shrines, seminaries, and Sufi lodges; the brilliant arts of the book; the commemorative iconography and passion plays of Ashura devotion; the souvenir culture of modern shrine visitation; and the modern art of twenty-first century Sufism. Readings include works from history, religious studies, anthropology, sociology, and the history of art and architecture.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Counts Toward: Growth and Structure of Cities; History; History of Art; International Studies; Visual Studies.

Back to top

MEST B215 Iran: History, Culture, and Politics

Spring 2025

This course explores the history, cultures, and politics of Iran from the time of the Arab Conquest in the 7th Century CE to the Iranian Revolution in 1979 CE. It introduces students to Iranian civilization through its changing political systems, rich intellectual and religious movements, and vibrant cultural developments that spanned this long period of time. It will examine the various ethnic, religious, and cultural groups that have called Iran home and look at the ways that the diverse inhabitants of the region have interacted with one another. This course will also pay special attention to important religious and intellectual thinkers including the mystic Bayazid Bistami, the Illuminationist Shihab al-din al-Suhrawardi, the poet Sa'adi Shirazi, the philosopher Mulla Sadra, the founder of the Baha'i faith Baha'ullah, and modern social theorist Ali Shariati.

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward: History; International Studies.

Back to top

MEST B305 Merchants, Pilgrims & Rogues: Travels through the Mid East

Not offered 2024-25

This course will critically approach the various ways that people have traveled to and within the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa in the medieval and modern periods. It will explore the many reasons that induced people to travel by looking at travelogues produced by these various travelers, the material culture of travel (e.g. pilgrimage scrolls, architecture and infrastructure that facilitated travel and lodging, movement of commodities, postcards, etc.), and scholarly work on travel, tourism, and migration more broadly. This course will include travels by merchants, pilgrims, adventurers, scholars, conquering armies, imperial powers, oil tycoons, and refugees.

Writing Attentive

Counts Toward: History; International Studies.

Back to top

MEST B315 Empire in the Premodern Middle East

Spring 2025

This course focuses on empire in Late Antique, medieval, and early modern Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia, including that of the Sasanians, Umayyads, Abbasids, Fatimids, Ilkhanids, Safavids, and Ottomans. It will explore the rise, politics, economics, longevity, social relations, and cultural production of these empires. While examining the histories of these empires, students will also interrogate the very category of empire, its meanings, its institutions and actors, and its usefulness in studying the region. It will also consider how premodern empires differed from those of the modern period and how the legacies of these empires might continue into the present.

Writing Attentive

Counts Toward: History; International Studies.

Back to top

PHIL B221 Ethics

Fall 2024

An introduction to ethics by way of an examination of moral theories and a discussion of important ancient, modern, and contemporary texts which established theories such as virtue ethics, deontology, utilitarianism, relativism, emotivism, care ethics. This course considers questions concerning freedom, responsibility, and obligation. How should we live our lives and interact with others? How should we think about ethics in a global context? Is ethics independent of culture? A variety of practical issues such as reproductive rights, euthanasia, animal rights and the environment will be considered.

Writing Attentive

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Counts Toward: Gender Sexuality Studies; International Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

PHIL B225 Global Ethical Issues

Not offered 2024-25

The need for a critical analysis of what justice is and requires has become urgent in a context of increasing globalization, the emergence of new forms of conflict and war, high rates of poverty within and across borders and the prospect of environmental devastation. This course examines prevailing theories and issues of justice as well as approaches and challenges by non-western, post-colonial, feminist, race, class, and disability theorists.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Counts Toward: Gender Sexuality Studies; International Studies; International Studies; Political Science.

Back to top

PHIL B248 Markets and Morality

Not offered 2024-25

Markets are everywhere today: if you want to find a job, if you want to buy some good, or if you want to sell some service, you will inevitably have to submit yourself to their norms. Yet, this omnipresence of markets raises fundamental ethical questions. Is it really good that we organize exchange and production largely through markets? How are societies and individuals impacted by centrally relying on them? Should we, much rather, prefer a planned economy? Or would such a planned economy unduly constrain people's freedom? And, if we opt for markets, what are their moral limits? Should human organs or access to lawmakers be distributed via a market? Should access to health-care be governed by market principles? This seminar explores these ethical and political questions through an unusually diverse set of texts. The syllabus brings together a broad set of perspectives from both the history of philosophy as well as from the contemporary Anglo-American debate. That way, we draw on a broad set of ideas in order to tackle the philosophical, moral and existential challenge that markets pose: and, while going along, familiarize ourselves with classic authors from both the European and Anglo-American traditions in social/political philosophy.

Back to top

POLS B131 Introduction to Comparative Politics

Spring 2025

This course is designed to provide an introduction to the discipline of comparative politics. We will explore the primary approaches and concepts scholars employ in order to systematically analyze the political world. In doing so, we will also examine the political structures, institutions, and behaviors of a number of countries around the world. Questions we will engage with include: What is power and how is it exercised? What are the differences between democratic and authoritarian regimes? How do different countries develop their economies? What factors shape the relationships between states and their societies? By the end of this course, students will be equipped to answer these questions and prepared for further study in political science.

Writing Attentive

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Counts Toward: International Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

POLS B141 Introduction to International Politics

Fall 2024, Spring 2025

This course offers an introduction to international politics to acquaint students with major trends and themes in international relations and global affairs. The course is divided into two units. The first unit explores the foundational concepts and theories and the history of international relations. The second unit focuses on key issues in international relations, such as the rise of populism & authoritarianism, international organizations, global peace & security initiatives, human rights, and forced migration. Throughout the semester, students will be asked to connect these theories and topics to issues that are playing out in the world today. This course is a pre-requisite for other International Politics courses within the Pol Sci department.

Counts Toward: International Studies; International Studies; Peace Justice and Human Rights.

Back to top

POLS B228 Introduction to Political Philosophy: Ancient and Early Modern

Spring 2025

An introduction to the fundamental problems of political philosophy, especially the relationship between political life and the human good or goods.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Counts Toward: Classical Studies; International Studies; Philosophy.

Back to top

POLS B242 Gender and International Organizations

Fall 2024

Employing a multi-disciplinary feminist lens, this class examines women's and LGBTQIA+ rights within the United Nations system, with a primary focus on human rights and peace & security. This course seeks to expose students to the complex issues - social, political, economic, and legal - that characterize women's and LGBTQIA+ rights around the globe. The theoretical foundations are in the area of gender mainstreaming, which is the practice of integrating a gender equality perspective across all governing systems including but not limited to policy development, political representation, institutional regulations, program building, and budgeting. Students will be asked to conduct research on women's and/or LGBTQIA+ rights within a country of their choice. Students will present their findings to the class as well as write a final report. Prerequisite: Introductory Political Science Course or Instructor's permission.

Course does not meet an Approach

Counts Toward: Gender Sexuality Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

POLS B249 Politics of Economic Development

Fall 2024

How do we explain the variations of political and economic systems in the world? What is the relationship between the state and the market? To what extent does the timing of industrialization affect the viability of certain developmental strategies? This seminar introduces the intellectual history of comparative political economy and development studies with readings on both comparative political economy and international political economy. First, we will examine the debates on the dynamics of the state and the market in the development and globalization process. Second, we will explore specific case studies to discuss: 1) how the political and economic processes have changed in response to the interaction of the domestic and international arenas, 2) whether and how the late developers learned from the experiences of early developers, 3) how the international economy and international financial crisis shaped domestic development strategies. Lastly, we will analyze the developmental concerns at the sub-national level with financial liberalization. Prerequisite: Freshman can enroll after they have taken 100 level courses in social science and after getting instructor permission.

Course does not meet an Approach

Counts Toward: International Studies.

Back to top

POLS B283 Middle East Politics

Fall 2024

This course offers an overview on the contemporary politics of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and the relevant social (mostly political) science work on it. It brings together empirical knowledge on domestic and transnational politics in different countries of the region and how empirical political science around the big questions is conducted. Each module of the course revolves around a central question that has been keeping social and political scientists busy in the last decades: What triggers risky protest movements in authoritarian settings? Why has the MENA region remained authoritarian despite successive global waves of democratization? Under which conditions do transitions to democracies succeed? Do monarchies in the Middle East have an advantage in ensuring political stability, and if so, why? Is it impossible to ensure good governance and peace at the same time in divided societies? What motivates people to take up arms in the name of religion and sect? What are the reasons behind the economic underdevelopment of the MENA region? Students are also invited to think about these "big questions" and take MENA countries as their case studies, while at the same significantly enhancing their contextual knowledge about the region. No prerequisites, but either some prior familiarity with the Middle East or a prior political science course encouraged.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Counts Toward: Hebrew and Judaic Studies; International Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

POLS B367 China and the World: Implications of China's Rise

Not offered 2024-25

In the 20th Century, China's rise has been one of the most distinctive political affairs changing the landscape of regional and world politics. Especially, China's breathtaking growth has challenged the foundations and limits of the market economy and political liberalization theoretically and empirically. This course examines the Chinese economic and political development and its implications for other Asian countries and the world. This course has three aims: 1) to facilitate an in-depth understanding of the Chinese Economic development model in comparison to other development models, 2) to conduct a comprehensive analysis of political and socio-economic exchanges of China and its relations with other major countries in East Asia, and 3) to construct a thorough understanding of challenges and opportunities for China from its extraordinary economic growth. This is a senior seminar, and a previous course in comparative politics, international relations or East Asian studies is required. This course meet writing intensive requirement. Prerequisite: Junior standing or higher.

Counts Toward: International Studies.

Back to top

POLS B391 International Political Economy

Fall 2024

This seminar examines the growing importance of economic issues in world politics and traces the development of the modern world economy from its origins in colonialism and the industrial revolution, through to the globalization of recent decades. Major paradigms in political economy are critically examined. Aspects of and issues in international economic relations such as development, finance, trade, migration, and foreign investment are examined in the light of selected approaches. This course is open to all students who have the prerequisites. Prerequisite: One course in International Politics or Economics is required. Preference is given to seniors although juniors are accepted.

Writing Attentive

Counts Toward: International Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

RUSS B209 Russia and the East

Spring 2025

"We are Asians!," famously declared the Russian poet Aleksandr Blok in 1918. Russian culture has long celebrated the nation's close ties to the east as well as its ancient eastern heritage. From the time of Genghis Khan and the Mongolian yoke's invasion of Kievan Rus' in the 13th century to the present day and Vladimir Putin's ongoing geopolitical pivot to the east, Russia has grappled with its eastern roots, its vast eastern expanse, and Sino-Russian relations. This course will explore a wide variety of cultural manifestations of Russia's eastern orientation: Russian philosophy at the turn into the 20th century that emphasized Russia's eastern, mystical focus; Russian symbolist poetry and prose that amplified Russia's ties to the East; silent cinema of the 1920s that linked revolution to the East; non-fiction accounts of penal colonies and work camps scattered throughout Siberia (with particular emphasis on the work of Chekhov, Solzhenitsyn, Shalamov); late Soviet fiction probing life in rural Siberia; and contemporary Russian fiction that revisits Russia's eastern mysticism. Exploring Russia's ties to the East from a variety of historical, artistic, and social perspectives, this course aims to explore Russian culture's Eurasian essence.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Counts Toward: International Studies.

Back to top

RUSS B220 Chornobyl

Not offered 2024-25

This course introduces students to the Chornobyl nuclear disaster, its consequences, and its representations across a range of cultures and media through a comparative lens and as a global phenomenon. Culture meets ecology, science, history, and politics. Students will contribute to a digital exhibition and physical installation. Taught in translation. No knowledge of Russian required.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Counts Toward: Comparative Literature; Environmental Studies; Health Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

RUSS B232 Coal, Oil, Nuclear: Narrative Afterlives

Not offered 2024-25

Coal. Oil. Nuclear energy. These items give shape to our everyday lives in countless ways. They impact our health, our politics, and our very survival on earth.. Nevertheless, because these resources permeate nearly every aspect of our existence, the human mind can struggle to comprehend them in their totality. In this course, we'll explore texts that engage with our environment to help us bring humans' relationship to these materials into focus. Scientific, historical, and economic studies tend to focus on their scale and widespread impact. Reading stories, watching

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Power, Inequity, and Justice (PIJ)

Counts Toward: Comparative Literature; Environmental Studies; International Studies.

Back to top

RUSS B258 Soviet and Eastern European Cinema of the 1960s

Not offered 2024-25

This course examines 1960s Soviet and Eastern European "New Wave" cinema, which won worldwide acclaim through its treatment of war, gender, and aesthetics. Films from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Russia, and Yugoslavia will be viewed and analyzed, accompanied by readings on film history and theory. All films shown with subtitles; no knowledge of Russian or previous study of film required.

Back to top

SOCL B317 Comparative Social Policy: Cuba, China, US, Scandinavia

Not offered 2024-25

This course will examine different countries' policy choices to address different societal challenges. Four societal types - socialist (Cuba), post-socialist (China), capitalist (US), and social-democratic (Scandinavia) - will be studies to help us understand how these different kinds of societies conceive of social problems and propose and implement attempted solutions. We will examine particular problems/solutions in four domains: health/sports; education; environment; technological development. As we explore these domains, we will attend to methodological issues involved in making historical and institutional comparisons

Back to top

SPAN B232 Encuentros culturales en América Latina

Not offered 2024-25

This course introduces canonical Latin American texts through translation scenes represented in them. Arranged chronologically since the first encounters during the conquest until contemporary times, the readings trace different modulations of a constant linguistic and cultural preoccupation with translation in Latin America. Translation scenes are analyzed through close reading, and then considered as barometers for understanding the broader cultural climate. Special emphasis is placed on key notions for literary analysis and translation studies, as well as for linking the literary text with cultural, social, political, and historical processes. Prerequisite: SPAN B120 or another SPAN 200-level course.

Back to top

SPAN B307 Cervantes

Not offered 2024-25

A study of themes, structure, and style of Cervantes' masterpiece Don Quijote and its impact on world literature. In addition to a close reading of the text and a consideration of narrative theory, the course examines the impact of Don Quijote on the visual arts, music, film, and popular culture. Counts toward the Latin American, Latino and Iberian Peoples and Cultures Concentration. Prerequisite: at least one SPAN 200-level course. Course fulfills pre-1700 requirement and HC's pre-1898 requirement

Back to top

SPAN B312 Latin American and Latino Art and the Question of the Masses

Not offered 2024-25

The course examines the ways in which Latin American and Latino texts (paintings, murals, sculptures, and some narratives) construct "minor," "featureless" and "anonymous" characters, thus demarcating how and which members of society can and cannot advance a plot, act independently and/or be agents of change. By focusing the attention on what is de-emphasized, we will explore how artistic works, through their form, are themselves political actors in the social life of Latin America, the US, and beyond. We will also consider the place of Latin American and Latino Art in the US imaginary and in institutions such as museums and galleries. Prerequisites: Course is taught in English and is open to all juniors or seniors who have taken at least one 200-level course in a literature department. Students seeking Spanish credit must have taken BMC Spanish 120 and at least one other Spanish course at a 200-level, or received permission from instructor. Course does not meet an Approach. Counts toward Latin American, Iberian and Latina/o Studies. Counts toward Museum Studies.

Back to top

SPAN B326 Voces trasplantadas: teoría y práctica de la traducción

Not offered 2024-25

Taught in Spanish. Translation has been argued to be both impossible and inevitable. Theoretically impossible, because no two languages are perfectly equivalent; practically inevitable, because cultures, and human beings, are constantly interpreting one another--and understanding themselves in the process. This course is an introduction to translation as a practice with linguistic, literary, and cultural implications. It is organized in three steps. We will begin by exploring the linguistic aspect of translation: the theories (and myths) about language difference and equivalence, and how they can be put into practice. Then we will focus on translating literary texts of different genres (from canonical epics to film, from poems to short stories and proverbs), and we will simultaneously examine how the various types of texts have spurred very different opinions about what is a good or bad translation, what is desirable, and what is not. Finally, we will trace the role of translation in cultural exchanges, as well as its defining presence in contemporary debates on "world literature." Prerequisite: At least one 200 level Spanish course.

Back to top

SPAN B333 La invención de América: Escrituras europeas del Nuevo Mundo

Not offered 2024-25

Beginning in 1492, Spanish explorers, soldiers, and friars visited, noted, and imagined what they initially would call the New World. According to Alfonso Reyes, America was for Europe, rather than a sudden and new reality, a complete poetic invention. The astonished -pleased, marveled, horrified- writings of newly arrived Spaniards drew not only the real components of a vast and very different world from the European one, but also the fictional components: everything obscure, remote, or misunderstood that experience or the senses could not grasp, and the powers of imagination would. This course seeks to explore some of the key texts of the "invention of America" (Reyes) in the first centuries of the Conquest and Colonization. Our goal is to analyze how "the imperial eye" (Pratt) looked at and noted the American lands -its men and women, its cultures and wealth- projecting on them its oldest fears, fantasies, ambitions, and hopes: America was also "a new Europe", says Ángel Rosenblat, with all the political, literary and epistemic weight that such an idea implies. We will work with fragments of stories, chronicles, and poems on the following thematic axes: the first contacts, a rich and abundant nature (pearls, gold, silver, fish, fruits, spices, wood), the great Mesoamerican cultures, the Andean "empire", the extreme south and the eternal horizon, the interior lands and their immense rivers and mountains, the "bestiary of the Indies", the American myths (El Dorado, the Amazons) and some of the great and tragic historical native American figures as they were perceived and written by the Spaniards. Prerequisite: At least one SPAN 200 level course

Back to top