ENROLL

Daniel Williams

In this course, we examine the ways that race structures difference and inequality in non-U.S. contexts with varying degrees of racial “diversity.” As a construct fundamentally grounded in white supremacy through encounters between Europe and its “Others,” race from its inception has been a global construct for organizing and stratifying human difference. Yet the specific ways that race is constructed varies across societies, with ethnicity and other related concepts of difference substituting for race. Foundational to this course will be how the notions of blackness and whiteness figure into the creation of racial categories, boundaries, and inequalities. Course topics include skin color stratification, “colorblindness,” ethnicity and nationhood, migration and citizenship, media representations, anti-blackness as a global phenomenon, transnational and global flows of racial ideas and categories, and social movements for racial justice.

Jessica Keating

Between 1300 and 1600 depictions of witches, monsters, and demons moved from the margins of medieval manuscripts and the nooks of church architecture to the center of altarpieces and heart of princely collections. Although this diabolical imagery was extremely diverse, it came from one place: the mind of the Renaissance artist. This course examines how images that came from within were devised and fashioned into works of art. It considers why fantastical imagery that showcased the artist’s imagination was so highly valued during the Renaissance--a period typically associated with the rebirth of classical antiquity. Finally, it explores the connection between illusions, visions, dreams, and other visual phenomena that highlighted the potential malfunction of the mind, and artistic creation. Some of the artists discussed include, but are not limited to, Hieronymous Bosch, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci

Held for new first year students

Jessica Keating

Kathleen Ryor

This course will survey art and architecture in China from its prehistoric beginnings to the end of the nineteenth century. It will examine various types of visual art forms within their social, political and cultural contexts. Major themes that will also be explored include: the role of ritual in the production and use of art, the relationship between the court and secular elite and art, and theories about creativity and expression.

Ken Abrams

This course will examine key developments in Czech visual art and architecture from the early medieval to the contemporary periods. Slide-based lectures will be supplemented by visits to representative monuments, art collections, and museums in Prague.

Prerequisite: Participation in Cross-Cultural Psychology in Prague program

OCS Cross Cultural Psychology in Prague

Humberto Huergo

This course offers an introduction to Spanish art from el Greco to the present. Classes are taught in some of the finest museums and churches of Spain, including the Prado Museum, the Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofía, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Toledo Cathedral in Toledo, and the Church of Santo Tomé.

Prerequisite: Spanish 205 and approved participation in Madrid Program

Requires participation in OCS Program: Spanish Studies in Madrid

Kathleen Ryor

This seminar will examine the role of plants have played in China from ancient times through the end of the imperial era. It will investigate the uses of different types of plants (fruits, vegetables, flowers, grasses, etc.) in such areas as medicine, food, literature, art, and landscape management. We will seek to understand the ways in which plants function across and make connection between various aspects of human activities. In addition, the course will emphasize how plants have actively helped form Chinese cultural practices and systems of meaning throughout various historical periods.

Held for new first year students

Arthur McKeown

This course provides students with an introduction to the history of South Asian Buddhism. Using primary and secondary sources and resources available to us in Bodh Gaya, we evaluate competing perspectives on the history of Buddhism and debate significant historical and ethical questions. How did Buddhism relate to other ancient Indian religions? What was the relationship between Buddhism and ancient Indian political, social, and economic structures? How did Buddhism change during its 2000 years in India? What impact did South Asian Buddhism have on the ancient and medieval world? What is the relationship between modern Buddhism and ancient Buddhism?

Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Buddhist Studies India Program required

Participation in GEP India Program

Carol Donelan

Extra Time required. Evening Screenings.

Stephanie Cox

First-year students interested in this program should enroll in this seminar. The course is recommended but not required for the minor and it will count as one of the electives. From cradle to grave, cultural assumptions shape our own sense of who we are. This course is designed to enable American and international students to compare how their own and other societies view birth, infancy, adolescence, marriage, adulthood, and old age. Using children's books, child-rearing manuals, movies, and ethnographies, we will explore some of the assumptions in different parts of the globe about what it means to "grow up."

Held for new first year students

Stacy Beckwith

How have Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel shaped their senses of personal and collective identity since the early twentieth century? We will explore mental pictures of the land, one's self, and others in a selection of Israeli Jewish and Palestinian short stories, novels, and films. We will also explore some of the humanistic roots of U.S. involvement in Israeli-Palestinian relations today, particularly in the realm of American initiated bi-cultural youth camps such as Seeds of Peace. Students will enrich our class focus by introducing us to perspectives on Israel/Palestine in their home countries or elsewhere. In translation.

Held for new first year students

Luciano Battaglini

Have you just returned from Asia, Africa, Europe, or South America? This course is an excellent way to keep in touch with the culture (and, when appropriate, the language) you left behind. Relying on magazines and newspapers around the world, students will discuss common topics and themes representing a wide array of regions. You may choose to read the press in the local language, or read English-language media about your region, meeting once each week for conversational exchange. (Language of conversation is English.)

Prerequisite: Students must have participated in an off-campus study program (Carleton or non-Carleton) or instructor permission

Judith Howard

In this class we will look at dance through various lenses; queer/feminist, ethnographic, Africanist, disability studies, and activism. We will examine and broaden the definition of dance and situate it within the discourse of “performance,” recognizing the larger meaning of “performance” to include all bodily movements, acts and gestures, whether onstage or off. We will ask questions about the performance of culture, race, gender and ability in various dance contexts.  Researching through the body and movement as well as written and visual texts, students will develop skills of critical dance viewing, analysis, and writing through formal and informal writing assignments.  We will read, write, view, attend live performance, discuss and move.  No previous dance experience is necessary.

Held for new first year students

Phil S.C. Chan

Magic carpets, glittering pagodas, harem fantasies...Orientalism dominated Europe's creative landscape and imagination since the 1700s, but what purpose did it serve? This class will explore over 300 years of "exotic" portrayals of "Orientals" on the Western ballet and opera stages, and geopolitics that impacted how we view Asian people and cultures to this day: from Genghis Khan, the Opium Wars, Chinese Exclusion, to Japanese Internment and #StopAsianHate. The course will also examine the creative process of shifting a Eurocentric work of art for a multiracial audience and provide practical frameworks for how to create art outside of your own cultural experience.

Prathi Seneviratne

This seminar focuses on empirical analysis of topics in the economics of inequality. Specific areas of study depend on student interest and may include: labor markets; earnings gaps across gender, race, sexual orientation, disability, and immigrant status; labor-market discrimination; gender inequality in different countries and regions; immigration and the role of cultural transmission; and family decision-making. Class time is primarily devoted to discussion of peer-reviewed journal articles, theory and application of advanced econometric techniques, and student-led presentations.

Prerequisite: Economics 329, 330 and 331 or instructor permission

Arnab Chakladar

Authors from the colonies and ex-colonies of England have complicated our understandings of the locations, forms and indeed the language of the contemporary English novel. This course will examine these questions and the theoretical and interpretive frames in which these writers have often been placed, and probe their place in the global marketplace (and awards stage). We will read a number of major novelists of the postcolonial era from Africa, South Asia, the Caribbean and the diaspora as well as some of the central works of postcolonial literary criticism.

Prerequisite: One English foundations course and one additional 6 credit English course

Kofi Owusu

This seminar focuses on fictional masterpieces published since 2005. We will map out the threads of multiple storylines and track the variety of voices and dialects in Verghese's Cutting for Stone, Adichie's Americanah, and James's A Brief History of Seven Killings. The heft and scope of these three long narratives will be complemented by shorter, but equally multilayered, ones including Danticat's Claire of the Sea Light, Selasi's Ghana Must Go, Mengestu's The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, and Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

Prerequisite: English 295 and one 300-level English course

Daniel Hernandez, Constanza Ocampo-Raeder

The course will explore how the idea of sustainability is complicated when evaluated through a socio-ecological framework that combines anthropology and ecology. To highlight this complexity, the course is designed to provide a comparative framework to understand and analyze sustainable socio-ecological propositions in Minnesota and Oaxaca. Key conceptual areas explored include: coupled human-natural systems, resilience (ecological and cultural), self-determination, and social justice across stakeholders. The course includes a series of fieldtrips to nearby projects of interest. This course is part of the OCS winter break Oaxaca program, involving two linked courses in fall and winter terms. This class is the first class in the sequence.

Prerequisite: One of the following is recommended: Environmental Studies 110, Sociology/Anthropology 110, Sociology/Anthropology 250, Biology 210, History 170 or History 205

Winter Break Program in Oaxaca Mexico

Paul Petzschmann

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, America often served as a canvass for projecting European anxieties about economic, social and political modernization. Admiration of technological progress and political stability was combined with a pervasive anti-Americanism, which was, according to political scientist Andrei Markovits, the "lingua franca" of modern Europe. These often contradictory perceptions of the United States were crucial in the process of forming national histories and mythologies as well as a common European identity. Accordingly, this course will explore the many and often contradictory views expressed by Europe's emerging mass publics and intellectual and political elites about the United States during this period.

Held for new first year students

Ken Abrams

This course covers important political, social, and cultural developments in Central Europe during the twentieth century. Studies will explore the establishment of independent nations during the interwar period, Nazi occupation, resistance and collaboration, the Holocaust and the expulsion of the Germans, the nature of the communist system, its final collapse, and the post-communist transformation.

Cathy Yandell

Keep up your French while learning about current issues in France, as well as world issues from a French perspective. Class meets once a week for an hour. Requirements include reading specific sections of leading French newspapers, (Le Monde, Libération, etc.) on the internet, and then meeting once a week to exchange ideas over coffee with a small group of students.

Prerequisite: French 204 or instructor approval

Sophomore Priority

Waitlist for Juniors and Seniors: FREN 210.WL0 (Synonym 64759)

Cathy Yandell

Recent events in France have highlighted the issues of free speech and religious intolerance, among other cultural questions. Some of the most fascinating and now canonized works in French and Francophone literature were once banned because they called into question the political, religious, or moral sensibilities of the day. Even today, Francophone books deemed to be subversive are routinely censored. Through texts, graphic novels, and films by Sade, Baudelaire, Camus, Frantz Fanon, Pontecorvo, Julie Maroh, Hergé (Tintin), and others, we will explore the crucial role of forbidden works in their cultural contexts.

Prerequisite: French 204 or equivalent

Sandra Rousseau

In the Francophone world comics are known as the ninth art, a popular, legitimate--albeit contested--art form. What then differentiates this art form from others? How do comics create meaning? How do they tell stories? What stories do they tell? In this class we will develop a multilayered approach to comics by analyzing the form and content of texts, but also by questioning the place of comics in French, Algerian, and Québecois societies. Readings will include iconic texts (Asterix, Tintin), alternative comics (by Fabcaro, Louerrad, Ziadé), theoretical pieces on bandes dessinées, and conversations with working artists.

Prerequisite: One French course beyond French 204 or instructor permission

Seth Peabody

Where do I feel at home? What causes me to feel not at home in certain spaces? In the face of transforming societies and environments, can a stable sense of home be preserved—and should it be? In this course, we will study texts from a wide range of geographic locations and cultural backgrounds that investigate the stakes of creating a sense of home within unfamiliar, unwelcoming, and seemingly ruined environments. Ultimately, we will seek ways to think both critically and creatively about human environments, both in cultural texts and in our own reflection on the places we call home.

Open only to new first year students

Juliane Schicker

An excellent opportunity to brush up your German while learning about current issues in German-speaking countries. Relying on magazines, newspapers, podcasts, and streamings, students will discuss common topics and themes once a week to exchange their ideas over snacks with a small group of students. 

Prerequisite: German 204 or equivalent

Kiley Kost

Vergangenheitsbewältigung is the German word for reconciling the past; it is a process that has shaped collective memory in Germany and other European countries since the end of the Holocaust and World War II. Berlin in particular has been formed by its difficult history and memories, the traces of which are visible in the city today. In this class, we will examine the relationship between history, memory, and collective identity in Germany. How are narratives of the past preserved in the present? Which stories are told, which are left out, and who makes these decisions? How does the geography of a city interact with its history? How do memorials impact public space? In addition to analyzing fiction, essays, and visual culture, we will also confront this topic through several field trips and walks in Berlin.

Prerequisite: German 103 or equivalent and acceptance in Berlin program

Participation in OCS Berlin Program

Kiley Kost

How is your identity connected to a certain place? And what happens when you leave that place, either voluntarily or out of necessity? In this course, we will learn about migration in German-speaking countries by reading historical and contemporary texts and researching policies on asylum and migration. We will critically examine concepts of the nation and nationality in historical contexts, learn about artists in exile, and encounter contemporary perspectives on migration in Europe. Course activities will include several site visits in Berlin. By reading and analyzing texts by Hannah Arendt, Bertolt Brecht, Anna Seghers, Ilse Aichinger, Paul Celan, May Ayim, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Yoko Tawada, and Fatma Aydemir among many others, we will become mindful readers of different literary genres and craft thoughtful analyses on topics connected to migration.

Prerequisite: German 103 or equivalent and acceptance in Berlin program

Participation in OCS Berlin program

Kiley Kost

How is your identity connected to a certain place? And what happens when you leave that place, either voluntarily or out of necessity? In this course, we will learn about migration in German-speaking countries by reading historical and contemporary texts and researching policies on asylum and migration. We will critically examine concepts of the nation and nationality in historical contexts, learn about artists in exile, and encounter contemporary perspectives on migration in Europe. Course activities will include several site visits in Berlin. By reading and analyzing texts by Hannah Arendt, Bertolt Brecht, Anna Seghers, Ilse Aichinger, Paul Celan, May Ayim, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Yoko Tawada, and Fatma Aydemir among many others, we will become mindful readers of different literary genres and craft thoughtful analyses on topics connected to migration.

Prerequisite: German 103 or equivalent and acceptance in Berlin Program

Participation in OCS Berlin Program

Iveta Jusova

This course examines the history and present of feminist and LGBTQ activisms across Western and East-Central Europe. We study the impact of the European colonial heritage on the lives of women and sexual/ethnic minorities across European communities, as well as the legacies of World War II, the Cold War, and the EU expansion into Eastern Europe. Reproductive rights, LGBTQ issues, “anti-genderism,” sex work, trafficking, and issues faced by ethnic minorities are among topics explored. These topics are addressed comparatively and historically, stressing their ‘situated’ nature and considering their divergent sociopolitical national frameworks.

Prerequisite: Acceptance into the WGST Europe OCS Program required

OCS GEP GWSS Program in Europe

Iveta Jusova

This course explores the following questions: What is the relationship between methodology and knowledge claims in feminist research? How do language and narrative help shape experience? What are the power interests involved in keeping certain knowledges marginalized/subjugated? How do questions of gender and sexuality, of ethnicity and national location, figure in these debates? We will also pay close attention to questions arising from the hegemony of English as the global language of WGS as a discipline, and will reflect on what it means to move between different linguistic communities, with each being differently situated in the global power hierarchies.

Prerequisite: Acceptance into the WGST Europe OCS Program required

OCS GEP GWSS Program in Europe

Iveta Jusova

Addressing the impact of Anglo-American influences in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, this course examines European, including East-Central European, approaches to key gender and sexuality topics. It raises questions about the transfer of feminist concepts across cultures and languages. Some of the themes explored include nationalism and gender/sexuality, gendered dimensions of Western and East-Central European racisms, the historical influence of psychoanalysis on Continental feminist theories, the implications of European feminisms in the history of colonialism, the biopolitics of gender, homonationalism, as well as Eastern European socialist/communist theories of women’s emancipation.

Prerequisite: Acceptance to WGST Europe OCS Program

OCS GEP GWSS Program

Seungjoo Yoon

An introduction to the study of historical biography. Instead of what we heard or think about Confucius, we will examine what his contemporaries, both his supporters and critics, thought he was. Students will scrutinize various sources gleaned from archaeology, heroic narratives, and court debates, as well as the Analects to write their own biography of Confucius based on a particular historical context that created a persistent constitutional agenda in early China. Students will justify why they would call such a finding, in hindsight, "Confucian" in its formative days. Themes can be drawn from aspects of ritual, bureaucracy, speech and writing

Held for new first year students

Antony Adler

This course provides an introduction to the global history of exploration. We will examine the scientific and artistic aspects of expeditions, and consider how scientific knowledge--navigation, medicinal treatments, or the collection of scientific specimens--helped make exploration, and subsequently Western colonialism, possible. We will also explore how the visual and literary representations of exotic places shaped distant audiences’ understandings of empire and of the so-called races of the world. Art and science helped form the politics of Western nationalism and expansion; this course will explore some of the ways in which their legacy remains with us today.

Held for new first year students

Brendan LaRocque

The struggle for independence from colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent involved a wide array of nationalist movements, prominently including the struggle led by M. K. Gandhi, who forged a movement centered on non-violence and civil disobedience which brought down the mighty British empire. We will study this alongside numerous other powerful nationalist currents, particularly those based on Islamic ideas and symbols. A significant part of the course will involve a historical role-playing game, Reacting to the Past: Defining a Nation, wherein students will take on roles of actual historical figures and recreate a twentieth century debate about religious identity and nation-building in the colonial context.

Held for new first year students

Pedro F Quijada

As a region, Latin America is famous for the warmth of its people, its historic sites, and its natural wonders. At the same time, it is often treated as a periphery plagued by underdevelopment, violence, and social, economic, and political troubles. This course explores important histories of peoples, places, and events in Latin America that are not widely known yet challenge these stereotypes in fundamental ways. Through primary sources, scholarship, projects, and discussion, we will examine these histories to understand the conditions, connections, and actions that created "bright chapters" and advanced important movements, products, people, and ideas in the political, economic, social, and cultural lives of countries in the region. 

Held for new first year students

William North

In Late Antiquity (200-800 CE), certain men and women around the Mediterranean and beyond came to occupy a special place in the minds and lives of their contemporaries: they were known as holy men and women or saints. What led people to perceive someone as holy? What were the consequences of holiness for the persons themselves and the surrounding societies? When they intervene in their worlds, what are their sources of authority and power?  How did these holy figures relate to the established institutions--secular and religious--that surrounded them?  Working with a rich array of evidence, we will explore themes such as asceticism, embodied and verbal pedagogy, wealth and poverty, work, marginality, cultural difference, and protest/resistance. We will journey from the lands of Gaul, Italy, and Spain to North Africa and Egypt and the Holy Land, to Armenia and the Fertile Crescent.

Extra Time Required

Amna Khalid

An introductory survey course to familiarize students with some of the key themes and debates in the historiography of modern India. Beginning with an overview of Mughal rule in India, the main focus of the course is the colonial period. The course ends with a discussion of 1947: the hour of independence as well as the creation of two new nation-states, India and Pakistan. Topics include Oriental Despotism, colonial rule, nationalism, communalism, gender, caste and race. No prior knowledge of South Asian History required.

Adeeb Khalid

Austin Mason

This course explores the world of Early Medieval England from Rome's decline through the Norman Conquest (c.400-1066) through its material culture. These six centuries witnessed dramatic transformations, including waning Roman influence, changing environmental conditions, ethnic migrations, the coming of Christianity, the rise of kingdoms, and the emergence of new agricultural and economic regimes. We will look beyond the kings and priests at the top of society by analyzing objects people made and used, buildings they built, and human remains they buried alongside primary and secondary written sources. Students will practice writing history from, and experiment with (re)making, early English "things""

Seungjoo Yoon

How did China become a global player in the market economy? This course surveys Chinese business history in the recent past focusing on the origins of industrial development in China, agrarian “involution” and famine, vernacular commercialism, and arguments about China’s economic divergence from and convergence with the rest of the world. Historical examples are drawn from enterprises that produced salt, medicine, cotton textile, machine tools, electricity, automobiles, and the iPhone. Students will pick one of them and write a historical biography of a businessperson, an economic thinker, a company, or an entrepreneurial activity (e.g., operating department stores or advertising companies).  

Extra Time Required

Adeeb Khalid

Chie Tokuyama

This course provides an introduction to contemporary Japan through a variety of literary works dating from the early postwar period (1945) to the present. While becoming familiar with prize-winning Japanese writers, literary genres, and various artistic conventions, we will examine how writers reacted to, shaped, and critiqued historical events and social situations in which these literary texts are written. Topics for discussion include: war memory, postwar economic success, loss of national identity, shifting concepts of families, gender roles, and lifestyles, minorities, alienation, and disaster. Through readings, lectures, and discussions, you will become familiar with major cultural and historical movements that comprise the complexity of contemporary Japan, and develop the critical skills necessary to analyze literary texts. All readings are in English, and no background knowledge of Japan is required.

In translation

Chie Tokuyama

In this advanced Japanese language course, we will explore a wide range of concepts, social media buzzwords, and cultural phenomena that constitute the fabric of everyday life in Japan today. From “geeks” and “idols” dominating the cultural scene to the “working poor” and “hikikomori,” who represent the precarity Japan faces in the contexts of economic, political and psychological crisis, the course delves into the aspects of key phenomena surrounding contemporary Japanese society. You will develop skills to read, analyze, summarize, and critique various texts written in Japanese, including newspaper articles, scholarly essays, literary texts, and films, while becoming familiar with historical contexts in which these keywords emerged and are used.

Prerequisite: Japanese 206 or equivalent

Silvia Lopez

This is an advanced multidisciplinary research seminar on contemporary Latin America. New forms of political populism, indigenous understanding of the relationship between human and non-human forms of being, transformative urbanistic solutions at work in its largest cities, the political economy of migration, and vibrant cultures of protest, will be among our topics of study. Ideal for students going to or returning from study abroad in Latin America. Required course for minors and majors in Latin American Studies.

Prerequisite: Latin American Studies gateway course

Gao Hong

The ensemble will use indigenous instruments and a Chinese approach to musical training in order to learn and perform music from China. In addition to the Wednesday meeting time, there will be one sectional rehearsal each week.

Prerequisite: Previous experience in a music ensemble, Chinese Musical instruments or instructor permission

Daniel Groll

Is there a key to a happy and successful human life? If so, how do you acquire it? Ancient philosophers thought the key was virtue and that your chances of obtaining it depend on the sort of life you lead. In this course we’ll examine what these philosophers meant by virtue and how they understood its implications for your everyday life. We will situate the ancient understanding of virtue in the context of larger questions of metaphysics (the nature of being and reality), psychology, and ethics, as they arise in foundational works from Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics.

Arthur McKeown

This course introduces students to major trends in Buddhist philosophy as it developed in India from the time of the Buddha until the eleventh century CE. The course emphasizes the relationships between philosophical reasoning and the meditation practices encountered in the Buddhist Meditation Traditions course. With this in mind, the course is organized into three units covering the Indian philosophical foundations for the Theravāda, Zen, and Tibetan Vajrayāna traditions. While paying attention first and foremost to philosophical arguments and their evolution, we also examine the ways in which metaphysics, epistemology and ethics inform one another in each tradition.

Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Buddhist Studies program

OCP GEP Buddhist Studies India

Barbara Allen

From political actions taken by leaders, citizens, cross-border workers, and inhabitants during the pandemic to news coverage of political campaigns, global communication networks have transformed politics and challenged personal as well as political communication. This seminar examines news coverage of events in the comparative contexts of US, UK, and EU politics as well as the challenges we face in personal communication in cross– and trans-cultural communication in global and local political and social spaces.

Held for new first year students

Laurence Cooper

The modern age has been characterized by the unprecedented advance of natural science and the attempt to achieve technological mastery of nature. How did this come about? What worldview does it express, and how does that worldview affect the way we live and think? We will investigate these questions by studying classic works by some of modernity's philosophic founders (including Francis Bacon, René Descartes, and Thomas Hobbes) and some of its most penetrating interpreters and critics (including Jonathan Swift and Friedrich Nietzsche).

Held for new first year students

Huan Gao

Sophomore Priority

Waitlist for Juniors and Seniors: POSC 120.WL0 (Synonym 65075)

Tun Myint

Barbara Allen

This course will focus on the major theories of political communication in election advertising and political news contexts. Our case studies will focus on recent U.S., French, and UK elections. We compare the legal and cultural contexts of election news coverage and advertising in these countries and analyze media effects on voter perceptions using political psychology studies based on research in the U.S., UK, and EU.

Paul Petzschmann

In this course students will explore the different kinds of welfare states that exist in Europe, the political economic and social conditions that made them possible and the debates about their strengths, weaknesses and prospects. We will review the so-called “varieties of capitalism” literature along with key welfare policies such as social insurance, health care, education, unemployment insurance, family and income support, and pensions. Welfare states use combinations of these policies differently to insure citizens against “old” and “new” risks. Finally, the course looks at how welfare regimes have responded of migration, financial, and public health crises.

Huan Gao

This course examines the political, social, and economic transformation of China over the past century. Though contemporary issues are at the heart of the course, students will delve into an entire century of changes and upheaval to understand the roots of current affairs in China. Particular emphasis will be placed on state-building and how this has changed state-society relations at the grassroots. Students will also explore how the Chinese Communist Party has survived and even thrived while many other Communist regimes have fallen and assess the relationship between economic development and democratization.

Mihaela Czobor-Lupp

Ideological fanaticism is on the rise today. Individuals prefer the incantation of slogans and clichés to autonomous thinking, moderation, and care for the diversity and complexity of circumstances and of human beings. The results are the inability to converse across differences and the tendency to ostracize and exclude others in the name of tribal and populist nationalism, as well as of racism. Hannah Arendt called totalitarianism this form of ideological hypnosis, which characterizes not only totalitarian political regimes, but can also colonize liberal-democracies. In this class we will read some of the works of Arendt to better understand the power of imagination to enhance critical and independent thinking and resist totalitarianism.

Jon R Olson

This course covers the U.S. Intelligence Community, how intelligence supports national security policy development, and how intelligence is applied to execute strategy in pursuit of policy objectives (specifically, implementation of national security and foreign policy initiatives). Studying the structure, processes, procedures, oversight, and capabilities of the Intelligence Community will enhance understanding of how intelligence supported or failed policymakers in national security decision-making, including the areas of diplomatic and economic cooperation and engagement, and security challenges ranging from deterrence to conventional war. The course concludes with the study of asymmetric/hybrid warfare in our modern age and how intelligence might be used to better understand the changing dynamics of future global conflict.

Dev Gupta

Extra Time Required

Ken Abrams

In the West mental illness has traditionally been approached with a biomedical model that views it as independent of culture. By contrast the "relativist" position assumes that, to a large extent, human behaviors are culturally determined and that the etiology and manifestation of mental disorders are affected by society and culture. This course will address such issues as well as their implications for assessment and treatment through an examination of several Western and non-Western societies, with a special emphasis on Czech society. There will be several guest lectures by Czech psychology professors as well as excursions within Prague to psychiatric hospitals and clinics, where students will meet with Czech clinicians and patients.

Prerequisite: Acceptance in Cross-Cultural Studies in Prague program

OCS Cross Cultural Psychology in Prague

Asuka Sango

This course will examine Buddhism’s engagement with the modern world in global and local contexts from Asia to North America. How do Buddhists draw on the resources of their tradition to change the social structures of gender, class, and race without invalidating that tradition? How do Buddhist teachings provide tools to combat and reinforce racism and violence while empowering and oppressing individuals? Do the Buddhist and scientific views of the mind agree or disagree? Can the effects of meditation be scientifically explained? In exploring these questions, students will be introduced to the multiplicity of Buddhisms.

Held for new first year students

Kambiz GhaneaBassiri

This course aims to introduce students to the Qur’an as the sacred text of Islam. It assumes no background in Islamic Studies nor does it introduce students to the religion of Islam. Rather it familiarizes students with one of the most widely read, dynamic, and influential texts in human history. Topics in the course include the history of the Qur’an and its codex, the Qur’an’s literary style and structure, its references to other religions, its commentarial tradition, and its roles and significance in Muslims’ devotional, social, and political lives.

Asuka Sango

Jonathan H Dickstein

This course introduces students to the history of the South and East Asian religious ethic of nonviolence (ahiṃsā). We will discuss nonviolence and vegetarianism in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions, including critical perspectives from inside and outside of those traditions. The course will explore the philosophical and cultural aspects of nonviolence, with a focus on its relationship to karma, self-purification, animal welfare, and food practices. We conclude by examining modern deployments of the ethic in charged discourses concerning agriculture, nationalism, environmental destruction and conservation, and social justice.

Jonathan H Dickstein

As the inevitable conclusion of every human existence, our lives are profoundly shaped by death. Consequently, we are all in the process of approaching death—both our own and that of others. This course examines the stunning variety of ways in which humans have approached death and mortality throughout history and across the globe. We will (1) develop a vocabulary of human mortality and death that will allow us to (2) illuminate the structural and functional continuities/discontinuities present across human approaches to death and (3) think critically about mortality and death as we approach them in our own lives.

Kambiz GhaneaBassiri

Sufism broadly refers to a complex of devotional, literary, ethical, theological, and mystical traditions in Islam. More specifically, it refers to the activities associated with institutionalized master-disciple relationships, which define the paths through which Muslims have sought experiential knowledge of God. In both the broad and narrow sense of Sufism, love has been a prominent means of Sufi self-representation. In this course, we will explore the ideas and practices semantically associated with love in the Sufi tradition and analyze the ways in which these ideas and practices have both shaped and been shaped by individual lives, religious institutions, and socio-cultural contexts.

Arthur McKeown

Students will complement their understanding of Buddhist thought and culture through the study and practice of traditional meditation disciplines. This course emphasizes the history, characteristics, and approach of three distinct meditation traditions within Buddhism: Vipassana, Zazen, and Dzogchen. Meditation practice and instruction is led in the morning and evening six days a week by representatives of these traditions who possess a theoretical as well as practical understanding of their discipline. Lectures and discussions led by the program director complement and contextualize the three meditation traditions being studied.

Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Carleton-Antioch Program required

OCP GEP Buddhist Studies India

Anna Dotlibova

Beginning in the 1910’s, Russian and then the Soviet Union was home to some of the most creative and innovative animated films in the world. In this course we will examine selected animated shorts in the context of Russian history and culture. Topics to be considered include the roots of animated film in the folk tale, the role of cartoons in educating the model Soviet child, the language of Soviet colonial discourse, and the ways in which post-Soviet animated films perpetuated or subverted past traditions. 

Prerequisite: Russian 205 or consent of the instructor

Colin McLaughlin-Alcock

Anthropology is the study of all human beings in all their diversity, an exploration of what it means to be human throughout the globe. This course helps us to see ourselves, and others, from a new perspective. By examining specific analytic concepts—such as culture—and research methods—such as participant observation—we learn how anthropologists seek to understand, document, and explain the stunning variety of human cultures and ways of organizing society. This course encourages you to consider how looking behind cultural assumptions helps anthropologists solve real world dilemmas.

Sophomore Priority.

Waitlist for Juniors and Seniors: SOAN 110.WL0 (Synonym 64838)

Arthur McKeown

This course introduces students to the complexity and plurality of Buddhist traditions that have flourished in diverse societies and cultures in the modern era. This course enables students to sympathetically understand and critically investigate various Buddhist traditions and their historically and culturally specific configurations of philosophical beliefs, cultural values, everyday practices, social institutions, and personal experiences. Focusing on Buddhist traditions of South and Southeast Asia, Japan, and Tibet, we explore topics including syncretism and popular religion, monasticism, gender, economic development, social movements, political violence, and religious revival. Students expand their research skills in anthropology through field assignments in Bodh Gaya.

Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Buddhist Studies Program required

OCP GEP Buddhist Studies India

Anna Estes

The course introduces students to East Africa--its geography, people groups, and their cultures. The focus will be on the peoples of Tanzania and their linguistic groupings. We shall look at what scholars and the citizens themselves say about their origins, social, economic, ecological, and modern conditions. The course explores the history, social structure, politics, livelihood and ecology, gender issues, and the changes taking place among the Maasai, Arusha, Meru, Chagga, and Hadzabe cultural groups. Homestays, guest speakers, and excursions in northern Tanzania offer students and instructors enviable interactions with these groups and insights into their culture and socio-ecology.

Prerequisite: One Anthropology, Biology or Environmental Studies course or instructor consent

Participation in Ecology and Anthropology Tanzania Program

Silvia Lopez

An excellent opportunity to brush up your Spanish while learning about current issues in Spain and Latin America. The class meets only once a week for an hour. Class requirements include reading specific sections of Spain's leading newspaper, El País, everyday on the internet (El País), and then meeting once a week to exchange ideas over coffee with a small group of students like yourself.

Prerequisite: Spanish 204 or equivalent

Humberto Huergo

This course offers a fresh look of Spain's current political and economic life. Discussion topics include the rise of Podemos and the new Spanish political scene, the Catalan separatist movement, political corruption, illegal immigration, and the role of the European Union.

Prerequisite: Spanish 205 or higher and acceptance in Madrid OCS Program

Participation in Carleton OCS Madrid Program

Palmar Alvarez-Blanco

Since the death of Franco in 1975, Spain has undergone huge political, socio-economic, and cultural transformations. Changes in the traditional roles of women, the legalization of gay marriage, the decline of the Catholic church, the increase of immigrants, Catalan and Basque nationalisms, and the integration of Spain in the European Union, have all challenged the definition of a national identity. Through contemporary narrative and film, this course will examine some of these changes and how they contribute to the creation of what we call Spain today.

Prerequisite: Spanish 204 or equivalent

Jorge Brioso

Prerequisite: Spanish 205 or above

Humberto Huergo

More than a study of the image of Madrid in Spanish literature, this course examines the actual experience of living in a cosmopolitan city through a variety of disciplines, including Urban Studies, Geography, Architecture, Sociology, and Spanish poetry and fiction. Special attention will be given to imaginative walking and counter-tourist tactics as theorized by Phil Smith and the British psychogeographic movement.

Prerequisite: Spanish 205 or above

Participation in Carleton OCS Madrid Program