Electives: Spring 2005

H107 Introduction to Creative Writing / Swann / W 9-12
H110 Shakespeare in Performance / Alkan / T 6-9
H207 Music Cultures of the World / Kaminsky / M 6-9
H329 History of Cinema II / Hoberman / W 6-9, TH 6-8
H346 Western Theories of Art / Weinstein / TH 6-9
H352 The Personal Essay / Swann / T 11-12, TH 9-11
H361 Modern Philosophy: Epistemology / Richardson / M 9-11, W 11-12
H362 Twentieth Century Black Writing / Wylie / M 9-11, W 11-12
H373 Seminar in Humanities (Topic for Spring 2005 "American Adventure Narratives") / Becksvoort / T 11-12, TH 9-11
H390 Comparative Religions / TBA / TH 2-5
H430 Postmodernism and Technology / Sayres / W 6-9
H440 Feltman Seminar (Topic for Spring 2005:"Interpreting Light") / Morantz and Coletu / W 6-9
S332 Democracy and the Contemporary World / Kim / M 9-11, W 11-12
S345 R.G. Brown Seminar (Topic: "The Future of the American Economy: Technology Growth and Inequality") / Madrick / TH 6-9
S346 Urban Sociology / Satler / M 3-6
S347 Macroeconomics / Sarich / T 6-9
S351 History of 20th Century Europe / Grossman / M 9-11, W 11-12
S360 American Intellectual History / Buckley / F 2-5
S372 Global Issues / Cerro / M 9-11, W 11-12
S373 Modernity and Modernism: Culture and Society in the Weimar Republic / Grossman / T 9-12
S376 City and Urban Experience in Latin America: from the Colonial Fortress to the "Megacity" / Schultz / T 11-12, TH 9-11

H107 Introduction to Creative Writing

A course to introduce the writing of poetry, fiction, drama, and creative non-fiction. In addition to weekly exercises and assignments students will be expected to read widely and attend readings.

Every generation remakes Shakespeare in its own image. To his contemporary Robert Greene, he was an “upstart crow”; to Samuel Johnson, a man willing to lose the world for a quibble; to Tom Stoppard, a man in love; and to Billy Bob Thornton, an over-rated soap opera writer. In recent years, textual scholars have argued that there are really two King Lears and productions of Shakespeare plays have addressed issues ranging from identity politics and teenage angst, to political exile and asylum. Perhaps Gary Taylor said it best when he wrote that Shakespeare doesn=t so much hold the mirror up to “nature” itself, but up to the “nature” in which we see ourselves. This class will look for ways in which Shakespeare is a barometer of culture B both past and present.
This course will closely examine eight plays: two tragedies (Macbeth, King Lear), one history (Richard III), one “problem play” (Measure for Measure), two comedies (A Midsummer Night’s Dream and As You Like It), and two romances (Pericles, The Winter’s Tale). Our discussions will delve into the textual and performance history of the plays, literary-critical concepts B including authority and authenticity, genre, and performativity B and historical- cultural pressures such as nationalism, religion, and gender. The course will examine printed editions of the plays, descriptions and videos of stage productions, film adaptations, and current productions in New York City.

Music Cultures of the World is an ethnomusicology course that allows students to examine the role of culture in shaping musical conception and behavior. Topics include music from Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Conceptions of music are often rooted in social structures, symbolism, religion, or philosophy. Musical behaviors stem from the assertion of conceptions in ritualistic ways and become habitual in sustaining social aggregation. Such conceptions and behaviors influence musical structures regarding instrumentation, tonality, relation of parts, rhythm, aesthetics, form of the music, and where and when the music is played. Knowledge from this course may be applied to independent thinking in the analyses of other cultures not covered. A prior background in music is not required for enrollment.

The history of film (and the film of history) from World War II through the present day, with particular attention to the development of neo-realist, new wave, and third world movements. Topics include the impact of television, the importance of the western genre, the significance of cinema verite and the influence of Pop Art. Jean-Luc Godard, John Cassavetes and Wong Kar Wai are among the major figures treated.

This course examines the variety and development of Western theories of art from antiquity to the present, with special attention to theoretical constructs of the past century. Units include: 1) Connoisseurship and Formalism; 2) Modernist Criticism; 3) Iconology, Marxism, and the Social History of Art; 4) Feminism; 5) Psychoanalytic Theory; 6) Structuralism and Post-Structuralism; 7) Postmodern Challenges to Modernist Theory; 8) Museology and Institutional Critique. At least two classes will involve visits to museums in order to deconstruct curatorial and museological practices.

For more than 400 years, the personal essay has been one of the richest and most vibrant literary forms. As Edward Hoagland (one of its most distinguished practitioners) has written: “essays are how we speak to one another in print.” We write them, not just to convey packages of information, but with “a special edge or bounce of personal character.” In this course we will study and discuss essays in Phillip Lopate, ed., The Art of the Personal Essay, and we will also write our own, on any topics we choose, on all manner of subjects B the daily round, pleasures and pains, taking a walk, solitude, friendship, in short, our personal responses to any number of objects and situations, multiplying ourselves in the process.

An epistemology is a theory of knowledge, of which there are an important few in contemporary philosophy. Our course will be a study of these. Each has in common three elements. The first is an analysis of the concept “knowledge” into its conditions, which divides the field of epistemology between internalists and externalists. The second is an account of the structure of knowledge, that is, how an individual’s instances of knowledge support one another. This divides the field between foundationalists and coherentists. And the third is an account of the nature and scope of the sources of knowledge, which divides the field according to the source that is taken as prominent, whether perception, reason, memory, testimony, etc.
Some of the authors under consideration will include: Alston, Armstrong, Austin, Ayer, BonJour, Chisholm, Davidson, Gettier, Grice, Goldman, Kripke, Lehrer, Price, Quine, Sellers, and Strawson.

This course will examine the unique approach to the novel and poetry, developed by African and South American writers, over the last one hundred years.

An interdisciplinary examination of the importance of adventure in American cultural and social thought. Our inquiry begins with the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago and continues through the present where we conclude with a consideration of the emergence of the genre of reality TV. This class will consider how the ideas of adventure have changed over time, how different groups of people in American Society became known as adventurers, how race, gender, sexuality, and class function as constitutive aspects of the adventurer, and why adventure has long captivated the attention of both academic and creative writers. Students who analyze adventure in this way will tackle key concerns of American Studies as a field, including the rise of the United States as an imperial power, the changing role of the media in the 20th century, and the redefinition of gender and work in the 20th century.

This course will survey the varieties of religious experience. The origins of religion, the search for meaning in religious faith, beliefs, and rituals will be examined in both eastern and western traditions. Allied disciplines (philosophy, psychology, art, law) will be drawn on so that a more holistic understanding may be achieved. The course will assist the student in clarifying his/her own personal and religious values. Above all, however, it will ask the student to think critically and to dialogue with others in that way. Site visits will be included in the course.

This seminar explores the relationship between the culture and theory of postmodernity and the practice of science and technology. All are welcome. The course presumes no formal background in cultural theory or science. We will develop our sense of the present, however, drawing from separate members’ knowledge of art or science, as well as from our sense of what is urgent in our contemporary world. Discussion will focus around readings, films, and demonstrations.

We spend our lives in a sea of light, but rarely develop the ability to imagine light as a distinct “material.” This seminar addresses both the figurative and practical integration of light in architecture, art, and engineering. By integrating the physical world of light with the theme of “illumination” in the humanities, students will develop a vocabulary for interpreting light across the disciplines. Class projects and textual responses encourage students to partner light with writing in a team-taught, interdisciplinary environment.

This is a course about democratic processes and institutions (e.g. parties, electoral systems, and branches of government) from a comparative perspective. The main objective of this course is to analyze two central challenges confronting democratic institutions: aggregation of diverse interests into collective decisions and organization of the deliberative process. We will resort to an in-depth single country case analysis as well as cross-country comparisons to consider the plausibility of propositions derived from the literature on these topics.

What do we know about the future of the U.S. economy? Is it still a New Economy? This course will examine how technology and government policies affect economic growth, the creation of jobs, and the level of incomes. It will provide a basic theoretical framework for analyzing economic issues. We will also discuss current economic issues in the news, and analyze them in terms of economic theory. We will examine current economic controversies as well, including the trade-off between laissez faire market economics and government regulation and intervention. In particular, we will examine how new technology contributes to the economy, as well as the ongoing myths and exaggerations about technology, growth, and development.

This course will focus on the relationship between the built environment and human behavior. The design of spaces (mostly public, and mostly urban) as a reflection of, as well as impetus for, certain types of interactions and reactions will be our specific interest. Another overarching interest of the course will be to consider the notion of community as it plays out in the disciplines of sociology and architecture B how they intersect, and how they are changing in our post-modern, post-industrial terrain. We will trace the social, economic, psychological and political consequences and meaning of designs and spaces and consider how we can plan spaces that might reduce negative effects and increase positive ones. Some of the broad areas of interest of urban sociologists, along with substantive issues that fall within those interests, will also be considered. This is a course that will encourage hands on work, observation, creativity as much as critical reading of the texts assigned.

This course will introduce the basic concepts of macroeconomic theory and policy analysis. We will begin by deriving the basic categories used in measuring the national wealth and show how these categories form the foundation for national income accounting as it is practiced today. We will then move into a discussion of the determination of output, employment and inflation and confront the debates around the uses and effectiveness of fiscal and monetary policy. This will be followed by a discussion of the determinants and aggregate demand and aggregate supply, including theories of investment, consumption, government, the trade balance, the behavior of money and the relationship between output and prices.

A study of the basic historical patterns and crucial events of the twentieth century, including the epoch-making significance of the First World War; Weimar culture; modernity and modernism in interwar Europe; totalitarianism, fascism, national socialism, the Holocaust; the cold war, decolonization and the end of the European era; the postwar economic miracle; 1968 B East and West; Europe in the 1970's and 1980's: the social and cultural dilemmas of postindustrial society.

Since the end of the Cold War, certain international issues have achieved a level of global significance. Global Issues will consider some of the most pervasive of these as well as their implications for policy and decision-making now and in future decade trends. The course will begin by providing a basic vocabulary and framework for understanding, such as (1) the reconfiguration of political authority: supra-national organizations and sub-national identities; (2) the emergence of global economy; (3) the environment and sustainable development; (4) population, demographic, and epidemiological changes; (5) the revolution in communications and information technologies; (6) the new politics of identity, including gender, ethnicity, religion and territoriality, and (7) the development of new security issues, including societal and environmental stress.

While the subject matter is broad and crosses a number of disciplines, the approach taken will be essentially political. After considering the factors contributing to each of these changes, we will attempt to identify a range of possible outcomes and related issues and the interests that would be affected by them.

This course explores the turbulent and innovative interwar years 1918-1933 in Weimar Germany, paying particular attention to cultural and social politics. We will study the difficult establishment of the “republic that nobody wanted” in the wake of a lost war, a collapsed empire, and a failed revolution; the chaotic period of rebellion and inflation until 1923; the brief “Golden Twenties” of relative stabilization and Neue Sachlichkeit (New Sobriety) with its burst of social welfare initiatives, architectural and engineering innovations, and efflorescence of art, music, theater, and literature; and finally the crises of economic depression and political polarization that culminated with Adolf Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of Germany in January 1933.

Beginning in the 1960s one of the most massive migrations in modern history has meant that Latin America has gone from being a rural region to a region of city dwellers. During the 1960s and 70s in Brazil alone 30 million people left the countryside for the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo and other regional capitals. Consequently, two of the largest cities in the world B Mexico City and Sao Paulo B are in Latin America. In this course we will survey the history of urban settlement in Latin America, from the foundation of colonial fortresses and capitals to the emergence of the “megacity.” Through readings that approach Latin America with a range of disciplinary perspectives we will consider 1) the role of the city in empire; 2) the city as a crucible of colonial society; 3) the city and the mission of civilization; 4) the city as “the nation”; 5) the historical production of social, cultural, and political spaces by architects, politicians and city-dwellers and the dilemmas of urban planning and engineering that contemporary growth creates. We will consider a range of urban contexts including Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires and Brasilia.