Courses Related to Diversity and Racial Justice

AFROAM 591E. Black Feminist & Queer Insurgencies

Tuesdays 1:00-3:30 p.m.

This course traces black feminist and queer theories of militancy, insurgency, and revolutionary planning from Harriet Tubman to the present day. Untethering our perspective from the domain of normative masculinities, we will instead focus on forms of organization, revolt, and defensiveness (Nash) that are equally attuned to care, healing, and the transformative force of pleasure and desire (Hartman; Musser). We will study how people take care of each other in the face of state violence and the neoliberal state?s ongoing divestment from public infrastructure and services by exploring histories and experiments in mutual aid, community and armed defense, femme expertise and care webs (Piepzna-Samarasinha), revolutionary mothering (Gumbs, Martens, Williams), radical separatism and communal living, critical solidarities, sex radicalism, and abolition as a form of both radical imagination and social transformation. We will seek to map an alternative genealogy of black revolutionary theory through the history of black feminist and queer militancy. Throughout, we will be invested in the long-term work of black study (Moten and Harney) and utopian planning at the same time as we investigate practical tactics and strategies that approach white supremacy as a racial and gendered act of war that requires immediate mobilization and response.

AFROAM 597R. Reparations for African Descendants

TuTh 1:00-2:15 p.m.

The United Nations declared 2015 to 2024 the International Decade of People of African Descent. The International Decade is a follow up of the process from the 2001 UN World Conference against Racism, where the international community designated the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade as a Crime against Humanity. In that spirit, this course will explore the issue of reparations for the descendants of enslaved Africans in the United States. Reparations to the descendants of captive Africans has been debated in African-American political discourse for decades. This course will look at other cases for reparations internationally, engaging the history and the basis for the demand as well as proposals for reparations for African descendants.

AFROAM 692T. Gender and Power in the Atlantic World

Tuesdays 4:00-6:30 p.m.

This course examines the history of the Atlantic World through a gendered lens, exploring the ways in which European conquest and colonization of the Americas and the enslavement of millions of Africans and indigenous Americans gave rise to modern gender categories and hierarchies. In this course, students will engage with both foundational and more recent scholarly works on the subject, encountering a broad temporal and geographical range. Over the course of the semester, they will come to understand the ways in which the formation and reformation of gendered ideologies and identities lay at the center of Atlantic colonial and imperial projects, racial slavery, and nascent Western capitalism.

AFROAM 693C. The History of Love, Sex, and Marriage in Black America

Thursdays 1:00-3:30 p.m.

Why aren't more African Americans married? Are African American women doomed to stay single? Is the two-parent black household a myth? These are some of the questions frequently asked about contemporary black relationships. This graduate course examines the history of African American love, sex, and marriage. Spanning slavery to present, this course investigates the political, economic, and social drivers that have shaped black love and family. It will pay special attention to the relationship between African American romantic and sexual encounters -heterosexual and queer - and mid-twentieth century social movements (e.g. Civil Rights and Black Power Movements). This course also will explore miscegenation; rape and sexual violence; free love and the sexual revolution; reproduction, childrearing, and family; pornography and sex work; marriage reform and welfare rights; and disease and medicine.

Art 795 Graduate Art Seminar

TuTh 4-6:50 p.m.

Graduate-level seminar course which will focus, this spring, on performance artists of color. Class will be taught by Professor Daniel Sack as a direct collaboration between English and Art students.

Art 511 Visual Arts & Human Dev II

TuTh 1-3:45 p.m.

None available.

Hist 111 World History since 1500

MW 9:05-9:55 a.m. (plus discussion)

The development of the modern world, with particular attention to colonialism, imperialism, and the revolutionary movements for national liberation. (Gen.Ed. HS, DG)

Hist 112 Introduction to World Religions

MW 12:20-1:10 p.m. (plus discussion)

What is religion, and why do people care so much about it? This course will examine the origins and development of some of the world's major religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. We will read sacred texts and travel to sites of worship. We will also consider how religion continues to shape current affairs. Students will prepare analytic essays, participate in group discussions, and attend off-campus field trips. The course will demonstrate that understanding religion is critical to participating in a global community and will neither advocate or denigrate religious participation. (Gen. Ed. I, DG)

Hist 112H Introduction to World Religions Honors

TuTh 4:00-5:15 p.m.

Hist 115 China: 1600 to the Present

MW 11:15-12:05 p.m. (plus discussion)

The history and culture behind China's emergence as a modern power. Topics include: heritage of the Ming and Qing dynasties; Western maritime trade and naval power; Christian missionaries and Western educators; peasant rebellion and overthrow of imperial rule; Chinese nationalism, the Marxist-Maoist order; China as contender for superpower status. (Gen.Ed. HS, DG)

Hist 120 Latin America: The Colonial Period

TuTh 1:25-2:15 p.m. (plus discussion)

General view of the cultural, economic, and political development of Latin America, 1492 to 1824. Topics include the Iberian and Indian backgrounds; Spanish and Portuguese imperial organization; role of Indians, Blacks, and Europeans in the New World; the coming of independence. (Gen.Ed. HS, DG)

Hist 131 Middle East History II

MW 12:20-1:10 p.m. (plus discussion)

Survey of social, political and cultural change in the Middle East from the rise of the Ottoman Empire around 1300 to the present. Topics include the impact on the Middle East of the shift in world trade from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic; social, political, and cultural change; Ottoman and European relations; imperialism and revolution; World War I and the peace settlement; state formation; and the rise of nationalism and religious fundamentalism. (Gen.Ed. HS, DG)

Hist 155 From Empires to Nations: The Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800

MW 1:25-2:15 p.m. (plus discussion)

The transformation of the Atlantic World from a world of empires into one of nation-states through examining the interactions between Africans, American Natives, and Europeans from the fifteenth through the end of the eighteenth century. (Gen. Ed. HS, DG)

Hist 161 Africa Since 1500

TuTh 10:00-10:50 a.m. (plus discussion)

African and European imperialism, nationalism, and independence; how these developments have changed the life and culture of African people. (Gen.Ed. HS, DG)

Hist 170 Indigenous Peoples of North America

TuTh 4:00-4:50 p.m. (plus discussion)

The diverse histories of indigenous peoples in North America from their origins to the present. Focus on indigenous perspectives, examining social, economic, and political issues experienced by indigenous peoples. Emphasis on diversity, continuity, change, and self-determination. (Gen.Ed. HS, DU)

Hist 281 The Global History of Soccer

MW 2:30-3:45 p.m.

Soccer is without question the world's most popular sport. Its impact reaches beyond entertainment to influence and reflect cultural values and identities, economic interests and power relationships between peoples and nation states. The course takes a historical approach by surveying important developments within the game and how they impacted people at the local, national and international level. Select case studies examine in detail the particular ways the sport has promoted and/or challenged significant global phenomena such as the expansion and resistance to imperialism and authoritarianism, the development of racial and national identities and gender relationships. (Gen.Ed. HS, DG)

Hist 347 Traditional Japan

TuTh 8:30-9:45 a.m.

This course traces the history of Japan from the distant past through the centralization and prosperity of the Tokugawa period (1600-1868). It will focus on social, political, cultural, and religious history and will place familiar figures like the Japanese samurai, sumo wrestler, geisha, haiku poet, and Buddhist monk in their proper historical context. Through a variety of primary sources, from the performance piece to the autobiography to the legal edict, as well as a textbook, students will learn about the diversity, constant reinvention, conflict, and harmony that characterized traditional Japan.

Hist 354 History of Mexico

MW 2:30-3:45 p.m.

This course traces the history of Mexican society, politics, and culture from the late 18th century to the present. The first half analyzes the turbulent formation of Mexico, the legacies of Spanish colonialism, peasant uprisings of the 19th century, and the origins and course of the famous Revolution of 1910. The second half focuses on the century since the revolution, including the consolidation of a conservative one-party state, the so-called "Mexican miracle" of the mid-20th century, the adoption of neoliberal economic policies starting in the 1980s, and the ongoing political struggles of workers, peasants, women, students, and indigenous people. Equipped with this historical grounding, we will then try to make sense of the crises of neoliberalism, drug-related violence, and declining state legitimacy in the early part of this century. Previous Latin American history survey desirable.

Hist 394AI Age of the Crusades

MWF 1:25-2:15 p.m.

Students will study the history of the Age of the Crusades (1090s-1290s). They will cover the eight major crusades to the Middle East and North Africa, including personalities, ideologies, and military and logistical challenges. They will investigate the European Crusaders, those Muslim, Christian and Jewish who were "Crusaded Against", and the cultural interactions among them all. Student will also examine Crusades in Europe, and Crusades of later centuries. Satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-Hist majors.

Hist 394TI Mongol and Turkish Empires

MWF 10:10-11:00 a.m.

In this course students investigate the history of Genghis Khan and the Great Mongol Empire, the Mongol Successor Empires, and the copycat Temurid Empire, covering the time period 1150-1500. They look at the rise, expansion and fall of these empires, and at the complexities that make this history so gripping. They also learn unexpected secrets about the contributions made by Chinggis Khan?s womenfolk to this history, based on new research. Course fulfills the History Department?s pre-1500 requirement and one of its two non-Western requirements. In it students will reflect on themselves as students and history majors, on their college careers so far, and on what they have learned in their college careers. They will then make connections between these reflections and the diverse topics we cover in Mongol and Turkish history. This will be through a special paper, on two of four response papers, on both exams, and in guided discussion during most lectures. At the end of the course, they will not only have gained insight into the class material, but also insight into themselves and into their own personal knowledge of the world. Satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-Hist majors.

Hist 397GGH Gandhi: Myth, Perspective, and Politics

TuTh 4:00-4:15 p.m.

The most prominent figure in India's anti-colonial nationalist movement, Mahatma Gandhi has also been one of the most remarkable global leaders and thinkers of the twentieth century. Charting Gandhi's trajectory against the background of events in South Africa and colonial India, this course examines the ideas, strategies, achievements and limitations of Gandhian politics. Using a variety of written sources and films, we will critically assess Gandhi's influence on and conflicts with various streams of anti-colonial nationalism(s) in India. A critical evaluation of these themes will not only afford insights into the life, ideology and activism of Gandhi, but also allow us to better understand the nature of British imperialism, the different strands of Indian nationalism, and the features of political transition that occurred in 1947.

Hist 392AH A Poisoned Well: Ancient Heritage and Modern Racism

TuTh 11:30-12:45 p.m.

Ancient Greeks and Romans thought about the world and its inhabitants in racialized categories. Climate, diet, bloodlines, and other factors supposedly made some peoples inherently superior and others immutably inferior. The writings and assumptions behind this racialized thinking were taken up and used by European intellectuals from the Renaissance forward, becoming a poisoned well that informed the formation of racist ideologies, regimes, and policies in twentieth century. This seminar explores the entanglement between ancient racialized thinking and modern expressions of racism?and even resistance against racism. We will explore this topic by reading recent books, articles, and media reports on the following topics: ancient strategies of othering, the encounter between Europeans and indigenous peoples in the New World, the valorization of Greek and Roman texts and artifacts in colonial Algeria and Nazi Germany, and the use of Greek and Roman imagery in contemporary ethno-nationalist movements in Europe and the United States.

Hist 253H Asian-Pacific American History: 1850-Present

TuTh 1:00-2:15 p.m.

History of Asian-Pacific Americans as it is inextricably linked to the empire-building projects of the United States and other imperial powers in the Asia-Pacific region, 1850-present. (Gen.Ed. HS, DU)

Hist 265 US LGBT and Queer History

TuTh 11:30-12:45 p.m.

This course explores how queer individuals and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities have influenced the social, cultural, economic, and political landscape in United States history. With a focus on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the course covers topics such as the criminalization of same-sex acts, cross-dressing, industrialization and urbanization, feminism, the construction of the homo/heterosexual binary, transsexuality and the "lavender scare" during the Cold War, the homophile, gay liberation, and gay rights movements, HIV/AIDS, and (im)migration. We will often look to examples from the present to better explore change over time and the modes and influences that shape both current and past understandings of gender and sexual difference. (Gen. Ed. HS, DU)

Hist 290A African American History from Africa to the Civil War

MW 2:30-3:45 p.m.

This 4-credit General Education course introduces students to the study of African American History. It begins with a discussion of the early twentieth-century Black intellectuals who pioneered the field of African American History and how the field has grown and changed over the past century. The course then charts the history of the African and African American experience, mainly in North America/United States from the late 17th Century through the end of the US Civil War. The course material includes lectures and readings that highlight other geographic locations and major events in the African Diaspora, such as the Haitian Revolution, and considers the connections to people and events in the United States. Topics covered in this course include: the Middle Passage; African American culture, religion, and art; slavery and the US Constitution and US law; free Black communities in antebellum US; southern slavery and the domestic slave trade; slave resistance and rebellion; Black intellectual and literary traditions; Black women's and men's political activism; colonization and emigration movements; Black soldiers and civilians in the Civil War; emancipation and the end of slavery in the United States. (Gen.Ed. HS, DU)

Hist 293R U.S. Woman Against Imperialism: Resistance and Resilience

TuTh 4:00-5:15 p.m.

This course explores the relationship of women (cis, trans, identifying as non-binary) to the social, cultural, economic, and political developments shaping the United States as an empire from 1890 to the present. It examines the regulation of womxn's bodies and sexualities, the gendered narrative of imperialism, and womxn's resistance to imperial power at home and abroad. This course will specifically focus on how class, race, ethnicity, and sexual identity have affected womxn's historical experience through a transnational lens. It questions the mainstream historical narrative to reclaim the voices of underrepresented and/or silenced groups.

Hist 297ME From Muhammad to Islamic Empire: Rise of Islam in Late Antique Context

TuTh 4:00-5:15 p.m.

What was the world like at the time of the Rise of Islam and how did the new religion change the Global World Order? The Historical circumstance of the rise of Islam is often misunderstood and shrouded in mystery, or obfuscated by partisan bickering. In this course we take a historical analytical approach to the History of Islam and Empire, We will put under scrutiny the religious structure of the Late Antique Near East, the Rise of Islam and the early Arab conquests, to the establishment of the first Arab Empire and its transformation into a new "Islamic Empire" under the hegemony of the Abbasids. No prior background assumed. All readings in English.

Hist 346 China in the 20th and 21st Centuries

TuTh 2:30-3:45 p.m.

The personalities, events, and forces that shaped China during the last century: collapse of the imperial order; warlordism, foreign invasion; political and cultural revolutions; Mao and the Chinese Communist Party; the struggle to "modernize" China's economy, society, and culture; role of China in today's world.

Hist 392E The U.S. in Latin America

MW 4:00-5:15 p.m.

This class explores the long and contentious relationships between the United States and the Latin American nations. It focuses on the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, analyzing the Spanish-American war, upheaval in Central America in the 1920s, the place of Cuba within the growing informal U.S. empire, trade relations with the South American nations, the impact of the Cold War on the hemisphere, the role of the CIA in destabilizing and overthrowing popularly elected government, and the U.S. as both a supporter and opponent of Human Rights and democracy under various late twentieth-century presidents. We analyze these events through the lenses of political, economic, social, and cultural history.

Hist 397JL Social Justice Lawyering

Th 2:30-5:00 p.m.

From fighting Jim Crow segregation to challenging the recent Muslim travel ban, judicial review has historically been used as a strategy to reign-in executive and legislative over-reach and protect Constitutional rights. This course will examine how lawyers, social movements, and everyday people have used litigation to advocate for social justice in the United States. Through reading in-depth studies of important civil and criminal cases, we will explore such questions as: What is the history of social justice lawyering in the United States and how, why and when have social movements turned to litigation to advance their causes? What are the pros and cons of using litigation to achieve social justice, versus other tools like direct action, lobbying for political change, and community organizing? How effective is litigation in achieving the goals originally envisioned by lawyers, activists, and litigants? How have lawyers constrained or expanded the vision of social justice movements? What dilemmas do lawyers?who are ethically bound to zealously advocate for the interests of individual clients?face when they are additionally interested in advancing "a cause"? Cases explored may include issues such as civil rights, women's rights, free speech, LGBT/Queer rights, disability rights, environmental justice, criminal justice, poverty and people's lawyering, immigration rights, and the rise of conservative social movement lawyering. Prior law-related coursework helpful, but not required.

Hist 397RR History of Reproductive Rights Law

TuTh 10-11:15 a.m.

This course will explore the history of reproductive rights law in the United States, centering the reading of statutes, court decisions, amicus briefs, and law review articles. We will look at the progression of cases and legal reasoning involving a wide variety of reproductive rights issues, including forced sterilization, contraception, abortion, forced pregnancy/c-sections, policing pregnancy (through welfare law, employment policies and criminal law), and reproductive technologies. We will pay particular attention to how differently situated women were/are treated differently by the law, particularly on the basis of age, class, race, sexual orientation, and ability. We will also examine the role lawyers have historically played in advancing (or constraining) the goals of the reproductive rights movement(s) and explore the effectiveness of litigation as a strategy to secure these rights. Finally, we will consider the question of reproductive rights versus reproductive justice and whether reproductive justice can be obtained through advocating for reproductive rights.

Hist 397SC Sex and the Supreme Court

Tu 2:30-5:00 p.m.

This course focuses on the U.S. Supreme Court and its rulings regarding sex and sexuality. What has the Court said about what type of sexual activity or sexual relationships are constitutionally protected and how and why has this changed over time? What is or should be the Court?s role in weighing in on these most intimate issues? We will examine several hot button issues such as reproduction (sterilization/contraception/abortion); marriage (polygamous/interracial/same sex); pornography/obscenity; sodomy; sexual assault on college campuses; and sex education in public schools. We will consider how the Court and advocates framed these issues, used or misused historical evidence, and how the argument and/or evidence changed depending on the audience (i.e. the Court or the general public). Students will write several short argumentative essays, learn how to read and brief Supreme Court cases, and present an oral argument based on one of their argumentative essays. Prior law-related coursework is helpful, but not required.

Hist 397SL American Slavery

MW 2:30-3:45 p.m.

This advanced course explores the role of the institution of racial slavery in the United States. We will examine the economic, political, and social importance of slavery in the development of the United States, paying special attention to recent literature reexamining the relationship between nineteenth-century slavery and capitalism. Although our focus will be on the enslavement of Africans and African Americans, we will also learn about Native American slaves and enslavers. Along the way, we will explore varied experiences of slavery, with a focus on the dynamic construction of slave cultures, religions, and families. We will learn about the spectrum of slave resistance and study the impacts of various forms of resistance. We will then examine the forces driving the abolition of slavery during the Civil War. Finally, in order to evaluate the outcome of emancipation, the last weeks of class will examine the legacies of racial slavery and the movement for slavery reparations. The course closes with an examination of modern slavery in the United States.

Hist 450:01 Travel Writing: Explorations into the History of the Middle East

MW 2:30-3:45 p.m.

In this Junior Writing Seminar, we will explore major milestones in the history and historiography of the modern Middle East through travel writing, construed broadly as texts composed by authors on the move. We will use the vantage points of men and women from the region and beyond to examine Middle Eastern political and social history from circa 1800 to the present day. General topics include: the origins of the modern era, the rise of Western imperialism, new conceptions of political belonging, the formation of nation states, and the road to revolution. A priority of this course is to improve the quality of your writing through papers based on our study of these topics, and through regular and fun grammar drills. Towards this end, you will write several short papers and one term paper, and will workshop your drafts in class with me and with your classmates. Strengthen your ability to communicate effectively to readers, while learning about key moments in modern Middle East history and how they have been experienced by those who lived through them.

Hist 450:03 Anatomy of the Barbarian: Ethnography and Empire in the Greco-Roman World

MW 2:30-3:45 p.m.

Our 21st century world has been, and continues to be shaped by traditional, often stereotypical ideas about `foreign? peoples and their customs, and the same was true for the ancient Greeks and Romans. In this seminar, we will look beyond the generic `barbarian? label so common in Greek and Latin writing about foreigners in order to explore how ancient ethnographic thought fundamentally shaped the way Greeks and Romans perceived the world around them, and interacted with peoples from beyond their cultural cores. Beginning with Herodotus and other Greek writers and continuing through the period of the Roman empire, we will discuss topics including ancient ideas about ethnicity and race, theories of environmental determinism, and ancient imperial ideologies. Throughout the course, we will also explore how ancient ethnographic writings have been employed in early modern and contemporary settings to shape and justify more recent imperial projects and social agendas.

Hist 450:04 Monsters, Foreigners - Outsiders in Antiquity - The Middle Ages

TuTh 4:00-5:15 p.m.

Idealized and despised, outsiders, both real and imagined, define a society through negative and positive examples. We will examine numerous primary sources including Babylonian epic, Greek tragedies, paintings, sculpture, histories, geographies, saints' lives, theology, Viking poems, manuscript illumination, Arthurian legends, and witch-hunting manuals. By placing our sources in their historical contexts, we will examine the ways that a society represents and uses its outsiders. The structure of the class will be roughly chronological beginning in the Ancient Near East and continuing through the Classical world, and medieval Europe, but will also proceed thematically to examine different kinds of outsiders. The subjects of our inquiry will be the fantastic--monsters, zombies, revenants, wild men--but we will also consider the related representations of real peripheral groups and individuals including Jews, Muslims, saints, heretics, and those accused of witchcraft.

Hist 492CW China at War: The Opium War, Taiping Rebellion, and WWII

M 2:30-5:00 p.m.

This is an advanced readings seminar focusing on recent English-language scholarship on modern Chinese military history. Roughly a third of the semester will be devoted to each of three major conflicts that helped shape China's modern history: the Opium War (1840-1842): the Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864); and the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945 that intersected with World War II. A basic background in modern Chinese history, such as one would get from an undergraduate survey, is strongly recommended.

Hist 492P The War for Palestine, 1948: New Interpretations and Approaches

Tu 2:30-5:00 p.m.

The war for Palestine in 1948 has been the subject of exciting new research in the last several years. At the center of this war stands the interdependence of Jewish independence and the Palestinian Nakba (the expulsion and dispossession of the Palestinians during the war). New studies have contributed to our knowledge of the war, as well as to its causes, going back to the British Mandate in 1917-1948, and to its consequences for Jews, Palestinians, and other Arabs after 1948. In this seminar we shall explore the local, regional, and global factors that gave meaning to this war, looking at the cultural and political history of Jewish and Palestinian societies, while placing it within a larger international context of the post-1945 period. Some of the topics to be discussed are the British Mandate, social studies on Jewish and Palestinian society, decolonization, partitions, ethnic cleansing, and settler colonialism. An important goal of our endeavor is to capture the experience of Jews and Palestinians during the war; we shall therefore read primary sources, particularly diaries of contemporaries.

Hist 492W U.S. Women and Gender History

TuTh 1:00-2:15 p.m.

This course will focus on selected topics in U.S. women's and gender history from 1877 to the present. In addition to analyzing women's experiences, we will also consider how gender has been mediated by class, race, ethnicity, and sexuality. Other topics will include women's political participation and social activism; reproduction, race, and eugenics; immigration and migration; shifting conceptions of gender and sexuality; and women's changing labor force participation.

Art-Hist 327 Contemporary Art

TuTh 1:00-2:15 p.m.

This course will address the increasingly broad and complex range of materials, meaning, and social functions of contemporary art from a western perspective, but in the context of multiple global art worlds. How do we make sense of this seemingly chaotic landscape where sometimes directly conflicting interpretations of art making coexist? This course introduces students to a series of major issues in contemporary art and criticism. It will provide a historical and critical perspective on major social/aesthetic problems such as conceptualism, new media, earth art, postmodernism, neo-expressionism, institutional critique, identity politics, political interventions, installation art, ecology, globalization, relational aesthetics, and the role of consumerism and the art market. It brings a new emphasis on community engagement and social practice art for Spring 2021: students will work with the UMCA education curator to coordinate group visits of high school students from Springfield to the museum, in person or virtually, for critical discussions on the culture of museums and the way they relate to diverse and racialized communities.

Art-Hist 329 Latin American/US Latinx Art 1800-Present

TuTh 11:30-12:45 p.m.

This course is an introduction to the art produced in Latin America and by people of Latin American descent, from 1800 to the present. Organized chronologically, the course emphasizes the essential role that art and visual culture have played in the political, social, and religious spheres of Latin America since the wars of independence, as well as the way art is mobilized by Latinx people in the United States. Classes will focus on key topics, including the art of national propaganda, the activation of indigenous visual traditions, the representation and erasure of Afro-Latin Americans, the visualizations of diasporic identities, and art as a contemporary political tool.

MES 190A The Middle East in Global Policy -- university's only interdisciplinary intro to Middle East region

TuTh 10:00-11:15 a.m.

This course is a basic, interdisciplinary introduction to the contemporary Middle East, and uses three substances central to contemporary society as organizing metaphors for issues that help define the region that stretches from Morocco to Iran. We consider a wide range of topics including the modern legacy of Western colonialism in the region, the impact of oil, the roles of religion, gender politics, Arab-Israeli conflicts, and US policies towards the region. Satisfies the modern 100-level requirement for the Middle Eastern Studies major. (Gen. Ed. SB, DG).

MES 220 The Middle East and the World: 1400-1800

MW 2:30-3:45 p.m.

In many textbooks, the history of the Middle East is the mirror opposite of European history. We are told that the Middle East was a rich and cosmopolitan region of the world in the Middle Ages, but that its failure to properly modernize led first to weakness and colonization and more recently to extremism and violence. While Europe soared ahead in the years between 1400 and 1800, the Middle East appeared to languish. Explaining why the Middle East failed to "keep up" with Europe has preoccupied a number of scholars. In contrast to the above, this course will question whether a narrative of European success and Middle Eastern failure is the most fruitful way to understand the transformations of the early modern period (1400-1800). While our focal point in the course will be the Middle East, we will use a comparative historical approach to investigate how the challenges of this era were navigated across the globe. We will examine topics such as the rise of the capitalism, the spread of new technologies and organizational models, and the evolution of the modern state. How did the peoples of the Middle East shape - as well as cope with - such massive changes? How did their adaptations compare with those of contemporaries in Asia, Africa and America as well as Europe? Using a framework of shared transformation, we will try to form a more nuanced view of what was gained and lost in the early modern Middle East. What aspects of the Middle Eastern experience were familiar in other parts of the world? What can our understanding of the past tell us about the possibilities for the Middle East's future? (Gen. Ed. HS, DG)

MES/Judaic 327 Jewish Food in Historical Perspective

TuTh 11:30-12:45 p.m.

This course examines the production, consumption, and meaning of food within the context of Jewish civilization in a global, diachronic framework, beginning in Biblical times and ending with the modern Jewish deli. (Gen. Ed. HS, DG)

MES/Judaic 344 Film and Society in Israel

W 4:00-6:45 p.m.

This course uses film to discuss Israeli society. Topics include: foundation of Israel, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Holocaust survivors, religion, gender, and interethnic relations. All film showings are with English subtitles. (Gen. Ed. AT, DG)

MES/Judaic 351 Crossing Borders in Israel/Palestine

MWF 12:20-1:10 p.m.

This course will provide a literary lens through which to approach the Palestine-Israel Conflict and the narratives, concerns and dreams of those living in its crosshairs. Building upon notion of crossing borders, this course will consider some of the most prominent Arabic and Hebrew-language literary and cultural works of the conflict via thematic units including Empathy, Rage and (In)Justice; History and Memory, The Body and the Senses, and Shaping The Future. Throughout, we will consider Israeli and Palestinian literatures and cultures comparatively, both within and beyond the geopolitical borders, epistemological confines and linguistic proscriptions of the political status quo. To this end, we will read and analyze in light of debates concerning competitive and multidirectional memory, politics and aesthetics, citizenship and refugees, social and restorative justice, self-determination, and the politics of translation. (Gen. Ed. AL, DG)

Judaic 101 Jewish Experience 1: Ancient to Medieval

TuTh 11:30-12:45 p.m.

A survey of the literature and culture of the Jewish people in the formative years of its history. Emphasis on the development of Judaism in the biblical, Graeco-Roman, and rabbinic periods. Final unit treats the Jewish life-cycle and the system of religious practices. (Gen. Ed. HS, DG)

Judaic 102 Jewish Experience 2: Medieval to Modern

TuTh 10:0-11:15 a.m.

The life and history of the Jews in the medieval and modern worlds. Topics include Jewish-Christian relations; development of Jewish philosophy and mysticism; Jewish life in Eastern Europe; the Holocaust; State of Israel; Jews and Judaism in North America. (Gen.Ed. HS, DG)

Judaic 365 Anti-Semitism in Historical Perspective

MW 2:30-3:45 p.m.

Survey of antisemitism through its various stages of historical development, from ancient times to the present. Primary focus on the intellectual, religious, political, and social roots of Jew-hatred. Special attention to its impact on Jewish life and thought, and to the range of Jewish re-sponses to anti-semitism. Topics include: the Jews in Graeco-Roman society; medieval Christendom and Islam; the emergence of modern political and racial anti-semitism. (Gen.Ed. HS, DG).

Judaic 492P The War for Palestine: 1948

Tu 2:30-5:00 p.m.

The war for Palestine in 1948 has been the subject of exciting new research in the last several years. At the center of this war stands the interdependence of Jewish independence and the Palestinian Nakba (the expulsion and dispossession of the Palestinians during the war). New studies have contributed to our knowledge of the war, as well as to its causes, going back to the British Mandate in 1917-1948, and to its consequences for Jews, Palestinians, and other Arabs after 1948. In this seminar we shall explore the local, regional, and global factors that gave meaning to this war, looking at the cultural and political history of Jewish and Palestinian societies, while placing it within a larger international context of the post-1945 period. Some of the topics to be discussed are the British Mandate, social studies on Jewish and Palestinian society, decolonization, partitions, ethnic cleansing, and settler colonialism. An important goal of our endeavor is to capture the experience of Jews and Palestinians during the war; we shall therefore read primary sources, particularly diaries of contemporaries.

LINGUIST 101: People and Their Language

MW 1:25-2:15 p.m.
F Section

This course considers language from the viewpoint of nature and of society. A central concern is the question of what distinguishes a dialect from a language. We look at how accents and dialects are important markers of regional and social identity and closely examine the pernicious effects of dialect prejudice.

LINGUIST 389: Introduction to African American English

TuTh 10:00-11:15 a.m.

African American English (AAE) is a linguistic variety with set rules governing sentence structure, sound structure, word structure and meaning. We will investigate five areas related to the structure of AAE in social contexts: speech events, components of the grammar, history, educational issues, and representation in the media and literature.

LINGUIST 411: Introduction to Language Acquisition

MW 2:30-3:45 p.m.

How does a child choose one grammar from a million possible grammars? How are grammar and thought alike and not alike. Stresses the child's use of an inborn linguistic mechanism to produce creative sentences. Acquisition of syntax and semantics from the one-word stage through complex utterances. Linguistic principles as a window to unconscious principles of mind. Recent discoveries in the area of complex syntax. Students learn to search naturalistic data and do a small experiment. The course explores the acquisition of African American English, bilingualism, 2nd language acquisition, and heritage languages.

Theater 130: Contemporary Playwrights of Color, (Lec 1)

TuTh 11:30-12:45 a.m. (remote)

Theater movements of Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans, and the body of literature by contemporary playwrights of color within a historical context. (Gen.Ed. AL, DU)

Theater 130: Contemporary Playwrights of Color, (Lec 2)

TuTh 8:30-9:45 a.m. (remote)

Theater movements of Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans, and the body of literature by contemporary playwrights of color within a historical context. (Gen.Ed. AL, DU)

Theater 130: Contemporary Playwrights of Color, (Lec 3)

MW 4:00-5:15 p.m. (remote)

Theater movements of Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans, and the body of literature by contemporary playwrights of color within a historical context. (Gen.Ed. AL, DU)

Theater 293B: Brown Paper Studio, An Applied Theater Process

MW 1:25-3:25 p.m. (F2F)

In spring 2021 Brown Paper Studio's curriculum focus will be on practices inspired by Black Feminist Theater and Theatrical Jazz. We will explore the concept of`Radical Presence as a path of self-care and its importance in building healthy, sustainable community.

Theater 333: Contemporary Repertory: Queer Theater

TuTh 1:00-2:15 p.m. (remote)

This course will explore the politics, aesthetics, and themes of contemporary queer theater. Students will examine several plays through queer and performance theory lenses. Meets Junior Year Writing and Theater Major dramaturgy elective requirements.

Theater 334: Contemporary Repertory: Women

MW 2:30-3:45 p.m. (remote)

Explores how women voice themselves and their concerns through theatre/performance. Students will read texts and see performances by and about women and will examine them within their sociopolitical/historical contexts.Meets Junior Year Writing and Theater Major dramaturgy elective requirements.

Theater 393N & Theater 393NH: Devised Theater

TuTh 4:00-6:00 p.m. (F2F)

Course participants will be co-creators in a campus community celebration entitled `The Rites/Rights of Spring: A Festival of Unity? produced by the Theater Dept. in cooperation with Afro-Am Studies in April 2021. Our festival is conceived as both a virtual and if conditions permit, a live event. Festivals are a society's way of restoring and renewing its core values; The Rites/Rights of Spring affirms beauty, freedom, humanity and art in these transformative times. Students will serve in a variety of roles including festival planning, management, facilitation, promotion, performance, etc. Prerequisites are TH140 or an equivalent theater course.

Theater 597D: Multicultural Theater Practice (open to undergrads)

W 12:20-2:15 p.m. (remote)

In this course, students will examine African and African American theater produced in the 20th and 21st century and written or translated into English. We will observe the differences and similarities between work across geographic and temporal locations and conduct dramaturgical research to support concept statements that could facilitate professional productions of these works. Because the literary work we will consider spans about a century and comes from the U.S., the Caribbean and the African continent, we will pay special attention to questions about race, culture and representation including problematic practices such as the consistent exclusion of dramatic work that challenges dominant social and political agendas across the US. More importantly, we will examine how artists use their creative work to articulate a sense of self, community and nation and just how contentious this process continues to be for artists of the African diaspora. Using post-colonial theory, we will hone our skills in understanding culturally specific dramatic literature that explores concepts of power, oppression, and representation.

WGSS 187 – Gender, Sexuality and Culture

MW 4:00-5:15 p.m. - Derek Siegel
TuTh 11:30-12:45 p.m. - Sandra Russell
UWW Section – Adina Giannelli

This course offers an introduction to some of the basic concepts and theoretical perspectives in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Drawing on disciplinary, interdisciplinary and cross-cultural studies, students will engage critically with issues such as gender inequities, sexuality, families, work, media images, queer issues, masculinity, reproductive rights, and history. Throughout the course, students will explore how experiences of gender and sexuality intersect with other social constructs of difference, including race/ethnicity, class, and age. Special attention will be paid to the ways in which interlocking systems of oppression have shaped and influenced the historical, cultural, social, political, and economical contexts of our lives, and the social movements at the local, national and transnational levels which have led to key transformations. (Gen. Ed. I, DU)

WGSS 201 – Gender and Difference: Critical Analyses

TuTh 10:00-11:15 a.m.
TuTh 11:30-12:45 p.m.

An introduction to the vibrant field of women, gender, and sexuality studies, this course familiarizes students with the basic concepts in the field and draws connections to the world in which we live. An interdisciplinary field grounded in commitment to both intellectual rigor and individual and social transformation, WGSS asks fundamental questions about the conceptual and material conditions of our lives. What are "gender," "sexuality," "race," and "class?" How are gender categories, in particular, constructed differently across social groups, nations, and historical periods? What are the connections between gender and socio-political categories such as race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, (dis)ability and others? How do power structures such as sexism, racism, heterosexism, and classism and others intersect? How can an understanding of gender and power enable us to act as agents of individual and social change? Emphasizing inquiry in transnational feminisms, critical race feminisms, and sexuality studies, this course examines gender within a broad nexus of identity categories, social positions, and power structures. Areas of focus may include queer and trans studies; feminist literatures and cultures; feminist science studies; reproductive politics; gender, labor and feminist economics, environmental and climate justice; the politics of desire, and others. Readings include a range of queer, feminist and women thinkers from around the world, reflecting diverse and interdisciplinary perspectives in the field.

WGSS 205 – Feminist Health Politics

TuTh 2:30-3:45 p.m.

What is health? What makes health a matter of feminism? And what might a feminist health politics look like? These questions lay at the heart of this course. In Feminist Health Politics, we will examine how health becomes defined, and will question whether health and disease are objectively measured conditions or subjective states. We will also consider why and how definitions and standards of health have changed over time; why and how standards and adjudications of health vary according to gender, race, sexuality, class, and nationality; and how definitions of health affect the way we value certain bodies and ways of living. Additionally, we will explore how knowledge about health is created; how environmental conditions, social location, politics, and economic conditions affect health; how various groups have fought for changes to health care practices and delivery; and how experiences of health and illness have been reported and represented.

WGSS 286 – History of Sexuality and Race in the U.S.

MW 10:10-11:00 a.m.

This course is an introduction to the interdisciplinary feminist study of sexuality. Its primary goal is to provide a forum for students to consider the history of sexuality and race in the U.S. both in terms of theoretical frameworks within women's and gender studies, and in terms of a range of sites where those theoretical approaches become material, are negotiated, or are shifted. The course is a fully interdisciplinary innovation. It will emphasize the links rather than differences between theory and practice and between cultural, material, and historical approaches to the body, gender, and sexuality. Throughout the course we will consider contemporary sexual politics "from the science of sex and sexuality to marriage debates" in light of histories of racial and sexual formations. (Gen. Ed. HS, DU)

WGSS 291P – From Shrek to Killing Eve: Gender and Pop Culture

MW 2:30-3:45 p.m.

This course examines popular culture—including television, film, music, music videos, sports, and social media—from a feminist perspective. We will watch and read a range of popular media and look at popular culture as a site of political and social ideology, interrogating how popular culture works to normalize and perpetuate oppression. Course content will address the question of how film and television produce meaning around race, gender, and other identities and what popular culture says about society. Course content will include the changing of LGBT depictions throughout recent history, the impact of the Hayes code, and the continues representational violence that occurs through the trope of "bury your gays" which continues to be an issue in film and television. We will watch films, such as Shrek, to explore satire and its limit and will watch television shows, such as Killing Eve and Black Mirror, to look at how they utilize generic conventions to disrupt normative meanings around gender, violence, and technology. We will also take a deep dive into social media and its effects on current politics and our own experiences with social media usage. This will be examined within the broader context of propaganda, the rise of authoritarianism, and distorted representations of fascism in popular media. We will also examine the relationship of media and pop culture to social justice and the potential for different types of media to disrupt norms, such as hip-hop culture, short stories that resist normative structures, and various films/TV shows.

WGSS 292L/AFROAM 292L – Losing Gender

MW 2:30-3:45 p.m.

Have you ever felt that gender is a bit odd? Ever feel a little perplexed about "gender reveal parties" and the obsession around an unborn child's genitals? Binaries are strange, knowing the range of thought, expression and creativity humanity* is capable of. Why are we told there are two main genders? What happens when you take all of this into account alongside histories of slavery and conquest? This course will take seriously the claim that gender is anti-Black, that slavery marked an epochal rupture and that slavery is a technology for producing a kind of human. Following the work of Hortense Spillers' Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book, this course is interested in thinking through how the politics gender differentiation was and still is central to black subject making in the New World. One of the objectives for this course, is to develop a way to advocate for a politics vested in the abolition of gender in the long run and in the short-run, doing the work in thinking about how race, gender, and sexuality has been vital to subject making.

WGSS 293W - Beauty as Work: Nail Salons, Fashion and Medical Tourism

TuTh 11:30-12:45 p.m.

How have bodies become both the site and the vehicle for new forms of labor, consumption, production and reproduction? What does the commercialization of the body and embodied exchanges reveal about interconnections between personal, local, national and global contexts? This course will examine enactments of body labor in locations and processes ranging from nail salons, beauty pageants, cosmetic surgery, surrogacy, medical tourism to frontline healthcare work within the pandemic. Drawing on interdisciplinary feminist, transnational and ethnic studies scholarship, it centers bodies and body labor as lenses through which to examine race, gender, sexuality, class, ability, labor, migration and globalization.

WGSS 293R/HISTORY 293R – Womxn Against Imperialism

TuTh 4:00-5:15 p.m.

This course explores the relationship of women (cis, trans, identifying as non-binary) to the social, cultural, economic, and political developments shaping the United States as an empire from 1890 to the present. It examines the regulation of womxn's bodies and sexualities, the gendered narrative of imperialism, and womxn's resistance to imperial power at home and abroad. This course will specifically focus on how class, race, ethnicity, and sexual identity have affected womxn's historical experience through a transnational lens. It questions the mainstream historical narrative to reclaim the voices of underrepresented and/or silenced groups.

WGSS 295D - Democracy Works: People, Power and Government

MWF 10:10-11:00 a.m.

Civil Rights leader, Dolores Herta, is famous for saying, "The only way Democracy can work is if people participate." With this in mind, class participants will take a deep dive into Massachusetts state government to explore the legislative and budget processes focusing on where people - as individuals and as part of social movements - are powerful. This course will start with the basics and move on to the intersection of inside and outside strategy and organizing.

WGSS 340 – Critical Prison Studies

TuTh 11:30-12:45 p.m.

There are currently over 2 million people living in prisons and jails across the United States - more incarcerated people per capita than any other country in the world. What is the carceral state and how do particular gendered and racialized bodies get caught up in its logics? How do gender, race, sexuality, and class shape systems of discipline, punishment, surveillance, and control? What is "anti-carceral feminism" and what are some of the abolitionist critiques of the prison industrial complex? This course approaches the issue of mass incarceration through the lens of feminist social justice theory, gender and sexuality studies, and critical race theory. An intersectional and deeply interdisciplinary exploration of the carceral, the course draws on literature, memoir, film, history, social science, psychology, art and popular media to interrogate and explore the many dimensions of mass incarceration in the US.

WGSS 393G – Global Mommy Wars

TuTh 2:30-3:45 p.m.

How has motherhood become a highly contested site for racial politics? How are mothers pitted against each other in ways that undermine struggles for reproductive justice? The "mommy wars" were once shorthand for a mostly media-fueled catfight between middle class stay-at-home versus working mothers. These old mommy wars have not gone away, but they have been sutured to newly virulent debates focused on racialized discourses regarding tiger mothers, "anchor babies," birthright citizenship and family separations at the border. This course will focus on constructions of Asian American motherhood while situating these in comparison to scholarship and debates regarding Black, Latinx, Native and Indigenous and White mothers and motherhood. It will draw on a wide range of materials, including feminist and ethnic studies scholarship, public debates, policy initiatives, media representation, and creative writing to explore how race, gender, sexuality, ability, class, nation and migration have shaped current and historical constructions of motherhood. This course will count towards the theory requirement for WGSS majors.

WGSS 395N/ANTHRO 395N – Gender, Nation and Body Politics

TuTh 10:00-11:15 a.m.

In this course, we will examine feminist theorizations, critiques, and accounts of gender and sexuality in the context of nation-state formations, colonization, globalization, and migration. We will interrogate how the gendered body becomes a target of violence, regulation, and objectification, but also functions as a site of resistance. We will also examine how the body serves as a marker nation and identity, and a locus generating knowledge, both scientific and experiential. Some issues we will cover include racialization, labor, citizenship, heteronormativity, reproduction, schooling, and incarceration, as well as the role of anthropology and ethnography in both understanding and enacting political engagements with these issues.

WGSS 491E/ANTHRO 491E – Queer Ethnographies

TuTh 11:30-12:45 p.m.

Ethnography, the signal methodology of anthropology, is now a widespread research method, taken up by scholars across disciplines seeking to understand social processes in everyday life. Queer scholars in the United States pioneered the use of ethnographic methods within the US, arguing that queer communities constituted 'subcultures' that should be studied in their own right. This course begins with these earlier works, from the 1970s and 1980s, and will quickly move to a survey of contemporary queer ethnographic work. The course will end with a consideration of ethnographic film that addresses the everyday lives of LGBTQI people and movements from around the world. Students will come away from the course with a better understanding of the theoretical critiques that ethnography makes available for scholars of sexuality and gender, and of the history of ethnography within anthropology. This course will count towards the theory requirement for WGSS majors.

WGSS 494TI – Unthinking the Transnational

TuTh 10:00-11:15 a.m.

This course is about the framework of transnational women's and gendered activisms and scholarship. We will survey the field of transnational feminist research and praxis, locating structures of power, practices of resistance, and the geographies of development at work in a range of theories and social movements. The course will not only examine the implementation of feminist politics and projects that have sought to ensure some measurable social, cultural, and economic changes, but also explore the ways conceptions of the `global' and `transnational' have informed these efforts. Students will have the opportunity to assess which of these practices can be applicable, transferable, and/or travel on a global scale. We will focus not only on the agency of individuals, but also on the impact on people's lives and their communities as they adopt strategies to improve material, social, cultural, and political conditions of their lives. Satisfies the Integrative Experience for BA-WoSt majors.