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Catalogue 2020-2021 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Course Descriptions
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History: III. Advanced Prerequisite for advanced courses is ordinarily 2 units of 200-level work in history, or by permission of the instructor. Specific prerequisites assume the general prerequisite. |
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HIST 355 - Childhood and Children in Nineteenth-Century Britain Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as VICT 355 and WMST 355 ) This course examines both the social constructions of childhood and the lived experiences of children in imperial and domestic Britain during the long nineteenth century. We analyze new ideals of childhood arising at the beginning of this period and explore how these ideals—of childhood innocence and dependence, for example—applied to the experiences of actual children in vastly different ways. Thus, a main theme of the course is how age categories intersect with racial, class, gender, and national identities. Topics include the relationships between children and adults, child labor, sexuality, gender, education, welfare, and the ways in which ideals of childhood upheld imperialism. The course takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of childhood; we examine a variety of primary sources ranging from parliamentary reports and memoirs to photographs and children’s literature. Lydia Murdoch.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 362 - The Cuban Revolutions Semester Offered: Spring.
1 unit(s)
Questions of sovereignty and issues of inequality have roiled the surface of the Cuban Republic since its founding in 1902; during the past century there were two major upheavals, the revolutions of 1933 and 1959. This course examines the context out of which those revolutions emerged and the manner in which post-revolutionary governments addressed (or failed to address) the concerns that prompted Cubans to choose the “revolutionary option.” We pay particular attention to the relationship between Cuba and the United States, the legacies of slavery and racism, and the shaping of Cuban society after 1959. Leslie Offutt.
Prerequisite(s): HIST 264 .
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HIST 363 - Revolution and Conflict in Twentieth-Century Latin America
1 unit(s)
(Same as LALS 363 ) Revolution has been a dominant theme in the history of Latin America since 1910. This course examines the revolutionary experiences of three nations—Mexico, Cuba, and Nicaragua. It examines theories of revolution, then assesses the revolutions themselves—the conditions out of which each revolution developed, the conflicting ideologies at play, the nature of the struggles, and the postrevolutionary societies that emerged from the struggles. Leslie Offutt.
Prerequisite(s): HIST 264 or permission of the instructor.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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HIST 364 - Race, Class & Gender in the United States Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 364, WMST 364 This course examines how African Americans have navigated the intersectionality of race, class, and gender at several moments in American history. Topics might include the slave experience, abolitionism, black mobilization in the union movement, or the quest for civil and social justice. To deepen their understanding of one of these topics, students write research papers, using primary documents and secondary sources. To be announced.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 366 - American Encounters: Natives, Newcomers, and the Contest for a Continent Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Moving past today’s fixation on Pocahontas and John Smith, Squanto and the Pilgrims, this course will examine the Native response to the invasion of North America, focusing on peoples living east of the Mississippi River before the early 19th century, the era of ‘Removal’ that marked the beginning of the end of Indian Country. Confronting the challenges in the way of understanding the Native experience (lack of evidence, modern stereotypes, loaded language), we will combine scholarly works with Native writings, explorers’ accounts, treaty texts, captivity narratives, and films to consider the central arenas where Indians engaged foreigners from beyond the eastern horizon, from trade and missions through war and diplomacy to ideas of “race” and notions of gender. James Merrell.
One 2-hour period.
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HIST 367 - Strategic Thinking in Global Affairs Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as POLI 364 ) This seminar explores strategic thinking to attain large ends with limited means. We examine a historical set of instances in which individuals, groups, and/or nations have attempted to harness political, military, diplomatic, economic, environmental, legal, and scientific resources to advance national and global interests. Because strategic thinking requires the art of reconciling ends and means, we also examine how a range of people and groups with various levels of power balance what they think and want with the constraints that they face. Elizabeth Bradley and Robert Brigham.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 369 - Social Citizenship in an Urban Age
1 unit(s)
(Same as EDUC 369 and URBS 369 ) During a 1936 campaign speech President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that in “1776 we sought freedom from the tyranny of a political autocracy.” Since then “the age of machinery, of railroads; of steam and electricity; the telegraph and the radio; mass production and mass distribution—all of these combined to bring forward a new civilization and with it a new problem … . For too many of us the political equality we once had won was meaningless in the face of economic inequality.” Therefore, the President concluded, government must do something to “protect the citizen’s right to work and right to live.” This course looks at how Americans during the twentieth century fought to expand the meaning of citizenship to include social rights. We study efforts on behalf of labor laws, unemployment and old age insurance, and aid to poor mothers and their children. How did these programs affect Americans of different social, racial, and ethnic backgrounds? How did gender shape the ways that people experienced these programs? Because many Americans believed that widening educational opportunities was essential for addressing the problems associated with the “new civilization” that Roosevelt described, we ask to what extent Americans came to believe that access to a good education is a right of citizenship. These issues and the struggles surrounding them are not only, as they say, “history.” To help us understand our times, we look at the backlash, in the closing decades of the twentieth century, against campaigns to enlarge the definition of citizenship. Miriam Cohen.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 374 - The African Diaspora Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 374 ) This seminar investigates the social origins, philosophical and cultural ideas, and the political forms of Pan-Africanism from the late nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century. It explores how disaffection and resistance against slavery, racism and colonial domination in the Americas, Caribbean, Europe, and Africa led to the development of a global movement for the emancipation of peoples of African descent from 1900 onwards. The seminar examines the different ideological, cultural, and organizational manifestations of Pan-Africanism as well as the scholarly debates on development of the movement. Readings include the ideas and works of Edward Blyden, Alexander Crummell, W. E. B. Dubois, Marcus Garvey, Amy Garvey, C.L.R. James, and Kwame Nkmmah. Ismail Rashid.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instrcutor.
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HIST 375 - Years of Disunion: The U.S. Civil War
1 unit(s)
This course considers the Civil War as a political, military, social, and cultural watershed in American history. Topics covered include the secession crisis and the political transformation wrought by the Republican Party; events on the battlefield and on the Union and Confederate home fronts; the gradual unfolding of Emancipation as a Union war aim, and its results; human responses to the war’s grim toll of death and destruction; and the conflict’s long-term legacies. Readings include recent works of scholarship as well as eyewitness accounts and works of fiction. Rebecca Edwards.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 378 - Cold War America Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Following the Second World War, many Americans expected the United States to create a better world abroad and a more equitable society at home. We examine those expectations along with the major social, political, cultural, and economic changes in the United States from1945 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, including the dawn of the cold war, McCarthyism, suburbanization, high mass consumption, civil rights and the Black Power movement, the Vietnam War, and the Reagan years. Robert Brigham.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 380 - Refugees Past and Present: Camps, Survival Strategies, Entrepreneurship Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Refugees and forcibly displaced people throughout history have had to be innovative and resourceful in order to survive and provide for future generations. What might now be called “refugee entrepreneurship” has historically been labeled survival strategies. Historical case studies, theoretical readings, and some policy papers form the background for this research-intensive seminar. Students examine the creation of the Lager and urban refugee communities in post-WWI Europe, and survival strategies in displacement camps during WWII and its aftermath. These historical case studies of survival, preservation of culture, and identity are juxtaposed with more recent examples of displaced populations, in both urban and camp settings.
Student-generated work includes a website of research materials and teaching tools that become part of a digital archive on Forced Migration that the Consortium on Forced Migration, Displacement, and Education (CFMDE) is building. For their final community-engaged learning project, students research entrepreneurship/survival strategies employed by refugees and migrants in Poughkeepsie since WWI, through archival/scholarly research and interviews. Their findings are presented as an exhibition on campus, and also at the Mid-Hudson Heritage Center or the Trolley Barn. Maria Höhn.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: INT
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HIST 382 - Marie-Antoinette
1 unit(s)
(Same as WMST 382 ) More than 200 years after her death, Marie-Antoinette continues to be an object of fascination because of her supposed excesses and her death at the guillotine. For her contemporaries, Marie-Antoinette often symbolized all that was wrong in French body politic. Through the life of Marie-Antoinette, we investigate the changing political and cultural landscape of eighteenth-century France including the French Revolution. Topics include women and power, political scandal and public opinion, fashion and self-representation, motherhood and domesticity, and revolution and gender iconography. Throughout the course, we explore the changing nature of the biographical narrative. The course also considers the legacy of Marie Antoinette as martyr and fetish object in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and her continuing relevance today. Sumita Choudhury.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 385 - Colonialism, Nationalism, and Social Identities in the Modern Middle East Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course explores how social sciences, colonialism, and nationalism have shaped identities in the modern Middle East. The course begins with a brief survey of older, foundational scholarship on “The Orient” in order to map out how scholars understood the non-European world, including regions later labeled “The Middle East.” We then discuss how these European mythologies, as well as imperial interventions, international institutions, and post-colonial nationalisms nurtured new differences, leading to violence along sectarian, racial, ethnic, or national lines. We focus particularly on the question of how Middle Eastern and North African societies have come to be seen as divided between religious “minorities” and “majorities.” Joshua Schreier.
Recommended: HIST 174 or HIST 214 or HIST 255 .
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 386 - Central Asia and the Caucasus: Nation Building and Human Rights Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as INTL 386 ) The Muslim regions between Russia and China are becoming more populated, prosperous, and connected. The Caspian Sea region is booming with new oil and gas wealth. A wave of democracy movements swept newly independent states but oligarchs and long-term autocratic presidents dominate politics and business. An Islamic revival after the fall of communism has brought a crisis of political Islam, including problems like terrorism, re-veiling campaigns, and bride-kidnappings. Chechnya and the North Caucasus became magnets for violence, while Tatarstan has seen a quiet renaissance of liberal Russian Islam. This cross-listed seminar explores nation building, human rights, and spiritual life in Central Asia and the Caucasus from a historical perspective. Topics include the legacies of Mongol and Tatar power verticals, the impact of communism on Central Asia, the war in Chechnya and its effect on human rights in the region, the history of Kazakhstan’s new capital, Astana, and daily life and politics since independence in 1991. Michaela Pohl.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 387 - Modern China: Wealth, Power and Revolution
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 387 ) The search for wealth and power in China has been profoundly shaped by the country’s twentieth-century revolutionary experiences. In contextualizing China’s ambitions from its history from the eighteenth century to the present, this seminar critically explores the rise and fall of an expansive Qing Empire, debates the vibrancy of Republican-era Chinese society, and investigates the contingencies and legacies of the communist revolution. In addition, we explore the multifaceted experiences of intellectuals, cadres, diplomats,politicians, businessmen, scientists, artists, students, workers, and peasants living in the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China on Taiwan through the lens of gender, ethnicity, work, diaspora, and ideology. Students understand the rise of China today within the context of its dynamic recent past.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 391 - Independent Study - Thesis Preparation and Methodology Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1 unit(s)
As a yearlong independent research project, a senior history thesis can be an exhilarating but also challenging experience. Many questions must be considered: How do I clearly define my research question? How do I locate my work within the existing scholarship in my field? Where are the most relevant sources? How do I organize and interpret the information that I have uncovered? This seminar provides the opportunity for students to grapple with these questions and to prepare for writing their senior history thesis. Students develop clear research ideas and questions, locate necessary sources, become acquainted with different historical methods, and discuss strategies for different stages of the process. Rebecca Edwards.
One 2-hour period and individual conferences with the instructor.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 392 - Independent Study - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This 1-unit course, which builds on the work done in HIST 391 , culminates in the completion and submission of a thesis that is approximately 10,000 words long. James Merrell.
One 2-hour period and individual conferences with the instructor.
Course Format: OTH
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HIST 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Permission required.
Course Format: OTH
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Independent Program |
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INDP 290 - Community-Engaged Learning
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Course Format: INT
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INDP 298 - Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Course Format: OTH
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INDP 300 - Thesis Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
An ungraded thesis written in two semesters for one unit.
Yearlong course 300-INDP 301 .
Course Format: INT
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INDP 301 - Thesis Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
An ungraded thesis written in two semesters for one unit.
Yearlong course INDP 300 -301.
Course Format: INT
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INDP 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Course Format: OTH
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Interdepartmental |
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INTD 150 - EMT Training Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
This course provides training as required for state certification as an emergency medical technician. The course is taught by state-certified instructors. Students must attend all sessions to qualify for a certificate. The course meets weekly through both semesters, with one or two Saturday sessions each semester. Observation times in the emergency department and with an ambulance are required. Upon completion of the Vassar EMT course, it is expected that the students will serve on the Vassar EMT squad.
Yearlong course 150-INTD 151 .
Course Format: OTH
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INTD 151 - EMT Training Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
This course provides training as required for state certification as an emergency medical technician. The course is taught by state-certified instructors. Students must attend all sessions to qualify for a certificate. The course meets weekly through both semesters, with one or two Saturday sessions each semester. Observation times in the emergency department and with an ambulance are required. Upon completion of the Vassar EMT course, it is expected that the students will serve on the Vassar EMT squad.
Yearlong course INTD 150 -151.
Course Format: CLS
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International Studies: I. Introductory |
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INTL 106 - Perspectives in International Studies Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
An introduction to the varied perspectives from which an interdependent world can be approached. Themes which the course may address are nationalism and the formation of national identity, state violence and war, immigration, religion, modernization, imperialism, colonialism and postcolonialism, indigenous groups, cultural relativism, and human rights. These themes are explored by examining the experiences of different geographic areas. This multidisciplinary course uses texts from the social sciences and the humanities. The particular themes and geographic areas selected, and the disciplinary approaches employed, vary with the faculty teaching the course. Paulina Bren and Tracey Holland.
This course is required for all International Studies majors. Sophomores and first-year students should take this course if they are interested in pursuing an International Studies major.
Two 75-minute periods.
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INTL 109 - A Lexicon of Forced Migration Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Every minute, 20 people are forced to leave their homes due to conflict or persecution, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Given the unresolved (and interrelated) challenges of climate change, global inequality, technological innovation, and war, forced migration will continue to increase. This course will help us prepare for the implications of these challenges, which will dominate global politics and domestic discussion for years to come. This process demands that we interrogate our terms, conscious of how much is at stake in excavating the underground meanings of the words we use to describe political realities. Global in scope and interdisciplinary in methodology, the course will be focused around the four thematic anchors of time, space, and movement; home, belonging and hospitality; discourse, representation, and memory; and law, ethics, and policy. Students should be ready to work collaboratively and creatively on a digital Lexicon of Forced Migration. TBA
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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INTL 110 - International Study Travel Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
One 3-hour period.
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International Studies: II. Intermediate |
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INTL 211 - Islam in Europe and the Americas
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 211 and RELI 211 ) Various processes of migration and conversion have contributed to the development of Muslim minority communities in Europe and the Americas, dating back to the 17th century. From enslaved Muslims in the Americas, to the Nation of Islam, to colonial and post-colonial migrations, to the debates over whether and how to define “European,” “American,” and “Latin@” Islams, this course covers the history of these religious communities and movements, their relationships with European and American states, and how contemporary European and American Muslims have described and theorized the experience of being a religious minority or diaspora. Key themes include race & ethnicity, gender & sexuality, transnational media, political resistance, ethics, and spirituality. Kirsten Wesselhoeft.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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INTL 235 - Ending Deadly Conflict
1 unit(s)
(Same as HIST 235 ) This course uses historical case studies to identify practical ways to end conflict and build sustainable peace. It is concerned with the vulnerability of the weak, failed and collapsed states, with post conflict periods that have reignited into violence, and problems of mediating conflicts that are unusually resistant to resolution. Of particular interest will be the role that third party intermediaries and global governance institutions have played in bringing about a negotiated end to violence. Major topics may include: the Paris Peace Accords, South Africa’s truth and reconciliation commissions, the Good Friday Agreement, Israel-Palestine negotiations, the Dayton Peace Accords ending the Balkans wars, and negotiations to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Robert Brigham.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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INTL 238 - Environmental China: Nature, Culture, and Development Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 238 , ENST 238 and GEOG 238 ) As environmental actions suffer setbacks in the United States, it becomes even more important to understand the dynamics in other nations. China has emerged as a leading player in the environmental field. China is not only the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases; it is also suffering from many acute environmental problems related to its air, water and soil, among others, all of which make China the world’s most important experimental site for environmental actions. How do the Chinese government and Chinese people view their environment problems? What are the geographical and historical conditions underlining the evolution of such problems? As the world oldest continuous civilization and the most populous nation, China has a deep history in dealing with its environment, thus has formulated ancient cultures and practices regarding nature, some of which have reemerged in the country’s headlong march into modernity. What can China teach the world? Employing a political-ecological approach, this course explores the roots of China’s environmental challenges as created by and mediated through historical, cultural, political, economic and social forces, both internal and external to the country, and especially instigated by the movements of global socialism and capitalism in the last one and a half centuries. It also examines some of the solutions that the Chinese government and the people are taking on. Lessons from China have profound implications for the future of our livable world. Yu Zhou.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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INTL 242 - Brazil in Crisis: Continuity and Change in Portuguese America Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 242 , GEOG 242 , and LALS 242 ) Brazil, a giant of Latin America and the Global South, has long been known as the “land of the future.” Yet frustrating political-economic crises have repeatedly followed periods of rapid growth and social progress. Taking current crises as a point of departure, this course examines Brazil’s contemporary evolution in light of the country’s historical geography, the distinctive cultural and environmental features of Portuguese America, and the political-economic linkages with the world system. Specific topics for study include: the legacies of colonial Brazil; race relations, Afro-Brazilian culture, and ethnic identities; issues of gender, youth, violence, and poverty; processes of urban-industrial growth; regionalism and national integration; environmental devastation and sustainability; controversies surrounding the occupation of Amazonia; and long-run prospects for democracy and equitable development in Brazil. Brian Godfrey.
Two 75-minute periods.
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INTL 248 - The Human Rights of Children - Select Issues
1 unit(s)
(Same as EDUC 248 and LALS 246 ) This course focuses on both theories surrounding, and practices of, the human rights of children. It starts from the foundational question of whether children really should be treated as rights-holders and whether this approach is more effective than alternatives for promoting well-being for children that do not treat children as rights holders.. Consideration is given to the major conceptual and developmental issues embedded within the framework of human rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The course covers issues in both the domestic and international arenas, including but not limited to: children’s rights in the criminal justice context including life without parole and the death penalty; child labor and efforts to ban it worldwide; initiatives intended to abolish the involvement of children in armed conflict; violence against street children; and the rights of migrant, refugee, homeless, and minority children. The course provides students with an in depth study of the Right to Education, including special issues related to the privatization of education and girls’ education. The course also explores issues related to the US ratification of the CRC, and offers critical perspectives on the advocacy and education-based work of international human rights organizations. Tracey Holland.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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INTL 249 - National Model United Nations
1 unit(s)
Prepares students to participate in the National Model United Nations in New York City. Students represent a country, research its history, its political, economic and social systems, and its foreign policy. There is also a comprehensive evaluation of the UN system, and the role of states and non-state actors, such as NGOs. Participation in the Model United Nations simulation occurs in the spring.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor. Application is required early in the fall term.
One 4-hour period.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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INTL 251 - Global Feminism Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as WMST 251 ) Women have long been the silent figure at the center of debates on nation-building; the object to be saved in the event of catastrophe, pillaged in the event of war, exalted in the efforts to populate and nourish the nation. This course takes as its premise the intersections between key terms “migration,” “citizenship” and “feminism” and looks at ways women and gender nonconforming people work against this objectification to make themselves heard and form community in new spaces. Through a study of literature, film and theoretical texts, we explore the ways communities and activist groups are shaped and influenced by feminist networks across the globe, and the ways individuals define themselves in relation to concepts of feminism and nationhood. Close readings of personal and fictional narratives that center on gender and migration are paired with material on the relevant socio-political and historical contexts, in an effort to encourage critical reflection on how certain discourses surrounding both migration and feminism are racialized and gendered. We look at the consequences of repeating or ignoring those ideological underpinnings, as well as ways people are working against these norms. We consider fictional narratives, testimonials and media coverage as we follow the journeys of people traveling through Africa and Central America, across the Mediterranean through the Middle East and Asia in no small part because of current rising tensions and real peril surrounding these highly trafficked migratory thoroughfares. We pair analysis of cultural material with a body of theoretical work aimed at providing students with a toolbox of global feminist scholarship. Sole Anatrone.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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INTL 252 - Cities of the Global South: Urbanization and Social Change in the Developing World
1 unit(s)
(Same as GEOG 252 and URBS 252 ) The largest and fastest wave of urbanization in human history is now underway in the Global South—the developing countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Most of the world’s urban population already resides here, where mega-cities now reach massive proportions. Despite widespread economic dynamism, high rates of urbanization and deprivation often coincide, so many of the 21st century’s greatest challenges will arise in the Global South. This course examines postcolonial urbanism, global-city and ordinary-city theories, informal settlements and slums, social and environmental justice, and urban design, planning, and governance. We study scholarly, journalistic, and film depictions of Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro in Latin America; Algiers and Lagos in Africa; Cairo and Istanbul in the Middle East; and Beijing and Mumbai in Asia. Brian Godfrey.
Prerequisite(s): A previous Geography or Urban Studies course.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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INTL 253 - Transitions In Europe Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as POLI 253 and RUSS 253 ) This course addresses themes such as collapse of authoritarianism, democratic consolidation, institution of ‘rule of law’, deepening of markets, break-up of nation-states, and education and collective identity formation. These themes are explored in the European and Eurasian areas, where in recent decades there have been break ups (sometimes violent other times peaceful) of former countries; as well as an unprecedented deepening of the sharing of previously national power in the peculiar entity of the European Union.
The course focuses on the political history of, and alternative explanations for changes that have taken place in the spaces of the former Soviet Union, particularly Russia, and the European Union. The course focus includes the demise of communism in the former Soviet Union; the challenges of democratic consolidation, and institution of a capitalist market economy in post-Soviet Russia; the deepening of the Single European Market and capitalism in the European Union; the state of the nation-state and democracy in the European Union; migration and citizenship; and nationalist backlashes. Leah Haus.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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INTL 255 - Global Political Economy Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as LALS 255 ) This course explores competing visions of economic globalization, and uses these distinct frameworks to analyze the meaning, causes, extent, and consequences of globalization, with a particular focus on the relationships among global, national and local economic phenomena. What do we mean by globalization? What are the effects of globalization on growth, inequality, and the environment? How might international economic policy and the particular form(s) of globalization that it promotes help to explain the pace and form of urbanization? Who benefits from globalization, and who might be hurt? Why do economists and others disagree about the answers to these and related questions? This course explores some of the ways that interdisciplinary analysis might enrich our understanding of economic globalization. Timothy Koechlin.
Two 75-minute periods.
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INTL 256 - Race, Ethnicity and Nationalism
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 256 and POLI 256 ) Conflicts over racial, ethnic and/or national identity continue to dominate headlines in diverse corners of the world. Whether referring to ethnic violence in Bosnia or Sri Lanka, racialized political tensions in Sudan and Fiji, the treatment of Roma (Gypsies) and Muslims in Europe, or the charged debates about immigration policy in the United States, cultural identities remain at the center of politics globally. Drawing upon multiple theoretical approaches, this course explores the related concepts of race, ethnicity and nationalism from a comparative perspective using case studies drawn from around the world and across different time periods. Zachariah Mampilly.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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INTL 260 - International Relations of the Third World: Bandung to 9/11
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 260 and POLI 260 ) Whether referred to as the “Third World,” or other variants such as the “Global South,” the “Developing World,” the “G-77,” the “Non-Aligned Movement,” or the “Post-Colonial World,” a certain unity has long been assumed for the multitude of countries ranging from Central and South America, across Africa to much of Asia. Is it valid to speak of a Third World? What were/are the connections between countries of the Third World? What were/are the high and low points of Third World solidarity? And what is the relationship between the First and Third Worlds? Drawing on academic and journalistic writings, personal narratives, music, and film, this course explores the concept of the Third World from economic, political and cultural perspectives. Beginning at the dawn of the 20th century with the rise of anti-colonial movements, we examine the trajectory of the Third World in global political debates through the end of the Cold War and the start of the War on Terror. Zachariah Mampilly.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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INTL 261 - “The Nuclear Cage”: Environmental Theory and Nuclear Power
1 unit(s)
(Same as ENST 261 and SOCI 261 ) The central aim of this course is to explore debates about the interaction between beings, including humans, animals, plants, and the earth within the context of advanced capitalism by concentrating on the production, distribution, consumption, and disposal of nuclear power. The first question concerning the class is how does Environmental Theory approach nuclear power and its impact on the environment. The second question deals with how this construction interacts with other forms of debate regarding nuclear power, especially concentrating on the relation between science, market and the state in dealing with nature, and how citizens formulate and articulate their understanding of nuclear power through social movements. Pinar Batur.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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INTL 265 - International Political Economy Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as POLI 265 ) This course addresses the relationship between power and wealth in the international arena. The interaction between politics and economics is explored in historical and contemporary subjects that may include the rise and decline of empires; economic sanctions; international institutions such as the IMF; regional integration in the European Union; globalization and its discontents; mercenaries and military corporations; education and internationalization. Leah Haus.
Two 75-minute periods.
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INTL 266 - Population, Environment and Sustainable Development Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as GEOG 266 ) Concerns about human population are integral to debates about matters of political stability, socio-economic equity, ecological sustainability, and human wellbeing. This course engages these debates via an examination of environmental change, power and inequality, and technology and development. Case studies include: water supplies, fishing and agriculture and the production of foodstuffs. Being a geography course, it highlights human-nature relations, spatial distribution and difference, and the dynamic connections between places and regions. Joseph Nevins.
Two 75-minute periods.
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INTL 270 - Diasporas
1 unit(s)
(Same as JWST 270 and POLI 270 )
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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INTL 271 - Hello, Dear Enemy: Mounting an Exhibition of Picture Books on Experiences of War and Displacement Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as EDUC 271 , LALS 271 , MEDS 271 and WMST 271 ) At a time when the world is witnessing the largest displacement of people since WWII, due in significant measure to armed conflict, this course examines select case studies (both past and present) of armed conflict and their consequences for children. Journalists, photographers and writers of young adult literature have done much to raise awareness about children and armed conflict, and to treat them in such a way that audiences develop understanding, empathy, and solidarity with children affected by armed conflict. A principal aim of the course is to study the topics of war and displacement, journalism and photography, and young adult literature, and then to mount an exhibition in the Collaboratory of photographs and books that will travel to area schools and libraries, where Vassar students serve as docents. Our work is enriched by study of human rights statutes and policy pertaining to children affected by armed conflict, as well as by interaction with visiting artists and educators. Tracey Holland.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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INTL 273 - Development Economics Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ECON 273 ) A survey of central issues in the field of development economics. Topics include economic growth, the role of institutions, trade, poverty, inequality, education, child labor, health, the environment, conflict and impact evaluation. Examples and case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America provide the context for these topics. Gisella Kagy.
Prerequisite(s): ECON 102 .
Two 75-minute periods.
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INTL 275 - International and Comparative Education Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 275 and EDUC 275 ) This course provides an overview of comparative education theory, practice, and research methodology. We examine educational issues and systems in a variety of cultural contexts. Particular attention is paid to educational practices in Asia and Europe, as compared to the United States. The course focuses on educational concerns that transcend national boundaries. Among the topics explored are international development, democratization, social stratification, the cultural transmission of knowledge, and the place of education in the global economy. These issues are examined from multiple disciplinary vantage points. Christopher Bjork.
Prerequisite(s): EDUC 235 or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
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INTL 276 - Economic Geography: Spaces of Global Capitalism Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as GEOG 276 ) We live in turbulent times. In the past decades, global capitalism has profoundly reorganized global space for production, distribution and consumption. Geography discipline, economic geography, in particular, is uniquely equipped to provide critical analysis of the spatial dynamics of the global economy. Differing from other disciplines concerning economics, economic geography studies the relationship between economics and space and place. Economic geographers argue that in all economic activities, accessibility, proximity and spatial agglomeration play essential roles in the location choice, organization and performance of economic units. Space, place, and mobility resulted in uneven development, which is deeply implicated features in the capitalist system in its emergence, development, and transformation.
Two areas of focus in this course are the globalization of the world economy and regional development under the first and third world contexts. We analyze the history of the emergence of the global the capitalist system, the commodification of nature, transformation of agriculture, the global spread of manufacturing, restructuring of transnational corporations and its regional impacts. Yu Zhou.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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INTL 278 - Education for Peace, Justice and Human Rights
1 unit(s)
(Same as EDUC 278 ) The aim of this course is to introduce students to the field of peace education and provide an overview of the history, central concepts, scholarship, and practices within the field. The overarching questions explored are: What does it mean to educate for peace, justice and human rights? What and where are the possibilities and the barriers? How do identity, representation and context influence the ways in which these constructs are conceptualized and defined and what are the implications of these definitions? How can we move towards an authentic culture of peace, justice, and human rights in a pluralistic world? In order to address these questions, we survey the human and social dimensions of peace education, including its philosophical foundations, the role of gender, race, religion and ethnicity in peace and human rights education, and the function and influence of both formal and non-formal schooling on a culture of peace and justice. Significant time is spent on profiling key thinkers, theories, and movements in the field, with a particular focus on case-studies of peace education in practice nationally and worldwide. We examine these case studies with a critical eye, exploring how power operates and circulates in these contexts and consider ways in which to address larger structural inequities and micro-asymmetries. Since peace education is not only about the content of education, but also the process, the course endeavors to model peace pedagogy by promoting inquiry, collaboration and dialogue and give students the opportunity to practice these skills through presentations on the course readings and topics. Maria Hantzopoulos.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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INTL 279 - Spaces of Exception
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 279 and PHIL 279 ) This course charts and critically examines a series of exceptional spaces in which inclusion in the political community is possible only by mechanisms of exclusion and intensified precarity that place vulnerable subjects at the outskirts of political legibility. We map the mechanisms of identification, exclusion, dispossession, penalization, and abandonment through a number of theoretical sources as well as the history of sovereign claims, territoriality, resistance, community, and transformations in bio and necropolitics.
Practices of capture as well as regimes of death and penalization are analyzed in their entanglements with the history of the Colony, citizenship, manhunting, jurisprudence, and the humanitarian logic of care. We engage these thematics through literary and cinematic texts in conversation with theorists such as Hannah Arendt, Giorgio Agamben, Etienne Balibar, Grégoire Chamayou, Achille Mbembe, Angela Davis, Jacques Derrida, Franz Fanon, Paul Gilroy, and Suvendrini Perera among others.
By confronting the psychological, physical, moral, and political ways in which violence inscribes itself on the body, both individual and collective, this course discloses the pivotal role played by the biologization of subjectivity, achieved through biometrics, therapeutics, the power of extra-territorial formations, immunization, and technologies of capture, enclosure, penalization, and encampment. Ultimately, our immanent critique of spaces of exception brings us to examine the ethical dimensions of practices that draw new maps, create new archives, and foster everyday enactments of hospitality, life, and co-habitation. Giovanna Borradori and Samson Opondo.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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INTL 280 - State-Society Relations in Comparative Perspective: China, the US, and the EU Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as SOCI 280 ) What do sociologists mean when they refer to “the state” and what does it mean for a state to be “legitimate” in the sociological sense? How do information and individuals flow across the state/society boundary? How do state-society negotiations diverge in democratic and autocratic nations? This course examines in the interplay between—and co-production of— state and society across three global contexts: China, the United States, and the European Union. We will begin by examining different sociological theories of the state, state-building, and governance. Using these theories as scaffolds for our discussion, we next look at how different state institutions distribute material assets, political power, and social capital among different social groups, analyze the strategies these social groups use as they work to pursue their interests vis a vis the state, and investigate how states, in turn, adapt to these changes. Throughout the semester, the class moves from examining tactics employed by disenfranchised groups to those used by elite actors in society. Weekly topics include, but are not limited to, strategies of economic development, repertoires of collective action, migrant and minority experiences, controversies surrounding the governance of new technologies, the role of experts and intellectuals in governance, and the sociopolitical function of legal institutions. Through our examination of these topics, this course will also provide students with an overview of the main methodologies sociologists employ to conduct comparative research. Abigail Coplin.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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INTL 290 - Community-Engaged Learning Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Course Format: INT
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INTL 298 - Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Course Format: OTH
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International Studies: III. Advanced |
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INTL 300 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1 unit(s)
A 1-unit thesis written in the fall or spring semester. Students may elect to write their theses in one semester only in exceptional circumstances. Usually students will adopt INTL 301 -INTL 302 .
Course Format: INT
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INTL 301 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
A 1-unit thesis written in two semesters.
Yearlong course 301-INTL 302 .
Course Format: INT
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INTL 302 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
A 1-unit thesis written in two semesters.
Yearlong course INTL 301 -302.
Course Format: INT
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INTL 305 - Senior Seminar Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
An examination of selected global topics in a multidisciplinary framework. Topics vary from year to year. Timothy Koechlin.
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INTL 368 - Toxic Futures: From Social Theory to Environmental Theory
1 unit(s)
(Same as ENST 368 and SOCI 368 ) The central aim of this class is to examine the foundations of the discourse on society and nature in social theory and environmental theory to explore two questions. The first question is how does social theory approach the construction of the future, and the second question is how has this construction informed the present debates on the impact of industrialization, urbanization, state-building and collective movements on the environment? In this context, the class focuses on how social theory informs different articulations of Environmental Thought and its political and epistemological fragmentation and the limits of praxis, as well as its contemporary construction of alternative futures. Pinar Batur.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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INTL 372 - Topics In Human Geography Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This seminar focuses on advanced debates in the socio-spatial organization of the modern world. The specific topic of inquiry varies from year to year. Students may repeat the course for credit if the topic changes. Previous seminar themes include the Geography & Social Movements, Lines, Fences and Walls, Political Ecology, and Ethnic Geography.
Topic for 2020/21a: Capitalist Imperatives: Space, Nature, and Technology. (Same as GEOG 372 ) Since the financial crisis in 2008, there has been surging intellectual discussion about the fundamentals and contradictions of global capitalism. Using influential writings by scholars such as Harvey, Piketty, Brenner, Zuboff, A. Ong, Dempsey and others, this seminar explores the range of theoretical analysis during the last decade about the roles of space, nature, and technology in the accumulation and crisis of capitalism. These works underpin our understanding of uneven global development, spatial inequality, technology transformation, and environmental destruction. The following topics are discussed: political economies of neoliberalism and its crisis, accumulation by dispossession, commercialization of nature; surveillance capitalism, and alternative economic systems. Yu Zhou. 
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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INTL 385 - Women, Culture, and Development Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as LALS 385 , SOCI 385 , and WMST 385 ) This course examines the ongoing debates within development studies about how integration into the global economy is experienced by women around the world. Drawing on gender studies, cultural studies, and global political economy, we explore the multiple ways in which women struggle to secure well-being, challenge injustice, and live meaningful lives. Light Carruyo.
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INTL 386 - Central Asia and the Caucasus: Nation Building and Human Rights Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as HIST 386 ) The Muslim regions between Russia and China are becoming more populated, prosperous, and connected. The Caspian Sea region is booming with new oil and gas wealth. A wave of democracy movements swept newly independent states but oligarchs and long-term autocratic presidents dominate politics and business. An Islamic revival after the fall of communism has brought a crisis of political Islam, including problems like terrorism, re-veiling campaigns, and bride-kidnappings. Chechnya and the North Caucasus became magnets for violence, while Tatarstan has seen a quiet renaissance of liberal Russian Islam. This cross-listed seminar explores nation building, human rights, and spiritual life in Central Asia and the Caucasus from a historical perspective. Topics include the legacies of Mongol and Tatar power verticals, the impact of communism on Central Asia, the war in Chechnya and its effect on human rights in the region, the history of Kazakhstan’s new capital, Astana, and daily life and politics since independence in 1991. Michaela Pohl.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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INTL 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
The program faculty.
Course Format: OTH
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Irish/Gaelic: I. Introductory |
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IRSH 105 - Introductory Irish/Gaelic Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Yearlong course IRSH 105-106 .
Course Format: OTH
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IRSH 106 - Introductory Irish/Gaelic Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Yearlong course IRSH 105 -106.
Course Format: OTH
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Irish/Gaelic: II. Intermediate |
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IRSH 210 - Intermediate Irish/Gaelic Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Year long course 210-IRSH 211 .
Course Format: OTH
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IRSH 211 - Intermediate Irish/Gaelic Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Year long course IRSH 210 -211.
Course Format: OTH
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Irish/Gaelic: III. Advanced |
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IRSH 310 - Advanced Irish/Gaelic Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Course Format: OTH
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IRSH 311 - Advanced Irish/Gaelic Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Course Format: OTH
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Italian: I. Introductory |
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ITAL 105 - Elementary Italian Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
The course offers a yearlong introduction to the essentials of Italian language, and an opportunity for students to engage with a different culture and a new way of thinking. By the end of the course students are able to understand speech, have a simple conversation, and produce a presentation on everyday topics. They can read and write short essays on a variety of familiar topics, and they are familiar with relevant cultural practices and phenomena associated with Italy and Italian speakers. Class time is devoted to conversation, grammar explanation and practice, student presentations, games, songs, films, etc. Reading and performance of a play by a contemporary author concludes the course. Simona Bondavalli.
Electronic versions of required materials are not accepted.
Yearlong course 105-ITAL 106 .
Open to all classes; four 50-minute periods; one hour of drill and one hour of aural-oral practice.
Course Format: CLS
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ITAL 106 - Elementary Italian Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
The course offers a yearlong introduction to the essentials of Italian language, and an opportunity for students to engage with a different culture and a new way of thinking. By the end of the course students are able to understand speech, have a simple conversation, and produce a presentation on everyday topics. They can read and write short essays on a variety of familiar topics, and they are familiar with relevant cultural practices and phenomena associated with Italy and Italian speakers. Class time is devoted to conversation, grammar explanation and practice, student presentations, games, songs, films, etc. Reading and performance of a play by a contemporary author concludes the course. Simona Bondavalli.
Electronic versions of required materials are not accepted.
Yearlong course ITAL 105 -106.
Open to all classes; four 50-minute periods; one hour of drill and one hour of aural-oral practice.
Course Format: CLS
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ITAL 107 - Intensive Elementary Italian
2 unit(s)
A single-semester equivalent of ITAL 105 -ITAL 106 . Eugenio Giusti.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Open to all classes; four 75-minute periods; one hour of drill and one hour of aural-oral practice. Supplementary material from Andiamo in Italia, a web-based trip to Italy. Electronic versions of required materials are not accepted.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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Italian: II. Intermediate |
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ITAL 205 - Intermediate Italian I Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Intermediate language course designed to reinforce and build upon the communication and cultural competencies acquired at the introductory level. Among the goals of this course are: improving reading comprehension, writing, and conversational skills; developing critical thinking in Italian; and deepening students’ understanding of Italian culture. A variety of texts from various genres, both written and audiovisual, provide the context for activities aimed at facilitating grammar review and expansion, vocabulary development, and writing practice. Short stories, essays, poems, newspaper articles, websites, pop songs, videos, and a feature film provide material for analysis and discussion. Students are invited to work in collaborative and communal ways, and to understand a different language and culture by rethinking their own. Simona Bondavalli.
Prerequisite(s): ITAL 105 -ITAL 106 , ITAL 107 or permission of the instructor.
Electronic versions of required materials are not accepted.
Two 75-minute periods and one hour of conversation.
Course Format: CLS
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ITAL 206 - Intermediate Italian II Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
An upper-intermediate language and culture course designed to improve reading comprehension and refine oral and written expression. The reading of coming-of-age novel Io non ho paura (I am not scared) by Niccolò Ammaniti provides ample opportunities to discuss childhood activities, family life, regional and social differences, popular music, television, comic books, nature and landscape in 1970s Italy. Grammar review is conducted in context, while the novel’s conversational style stimulates vocabulary expansion. We also analyze the film adaptation of the novel and discuss authorial choices in both media. Writing assignments range from analytical to creative, while brief presentations allow students to explore specific aspects of the novel and develop effective oral expression. Simona Bondavalli.
Prerequisite(s): ITAL 205 or permission of the instructor.
Electronic versions of required materials are not accepted.
Two 75-minute periods and one hour of conversation.
Course Format: CLS
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ITAL 217 - Advanced Composition and Oral Expression Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Development of oral and written skills through extensive conversation and essay writing. The course makes use of a variety of “texts” available in traditional formats (books, magazines, journals, films), as well as web-based materials. The topics covered are in the area of contemporary and historical issues, with emphasis on Italy’s variety of cultural, socio-political, and linguistic phenomena. Advanced grammatical topics, related to the reading material, are reviewed or introduced. Sole Anatrone.
Prerequisite(s): ITAL 205 , ITAL 206 or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
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ITAL 218 - On the Edge of Catastrophe: Giorgio Bassani’s The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
1 unit(s)
Giorgio Bassani (1916-2000), novelist, poet, essayist wrote this classic of modern Italian literature in 1962. Through the story of the Finzi-Continis, a wealthy Jewish family from Ferrara, Bassani recounts an important part of Italian history: Mussolini’s Fascist regime with its race laws, persecutions, and deportations. However, this is not simply a historical novel, it is also an autobiographical one, a book of memory, and a love story. The novel’s sophisticated structure, its clear and fiercely crafted language, at once high and idiomatic, its evocation of Ferrara, make this work a wonderful medium for the study of Italian language, history, literature, and culture. Particular attention is devoted to the development of oral and written skills. Individual and group multi-media projects.
Prerequisite(s): ITAL 206 , ITAL 217 or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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ITAL 220 - Italian Roots and Branches
1 unit(s)
We explore political, economic, social, cultural and linguistic phenomena of the thirteenth-sixteenth centuries, which are essential to the understanding of contemporary Italian culture and society. We search in early modern literary texts for the roots of our contemporary Italian society. We apply a wide range of strategies to experience, comprehend, interpret, and evaluate the texts (progressive reading). We read brief but significant selections from major authors of the time, among others: Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Castiglione, Compiuta Donzella, Gaspara Stampa, and Veronica Franco. Eugenio Giusti.
Prerequisite(s): ITAL 217 , ITAL 218 or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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ITAL 222 - Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Italian Culture Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Topic for 2020/21b: Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Italian Culture. In the brief century and half since its formation as a nation Italy has undergone many dramatic transformations, from colony to colonizer, from Fascist dictatorship to socialist parlament to founding member of the EU, from mafia hotbed to Cinecittà, from struggling rural economy to home of the Made In Italy and center of the foodie world. This course tracks those social, political and environmental changes through a study of cinema and literature from the end of the 19th century through the present day. In addition to developing their reading, writing and speaking skills in Italian, students come away with an understanding of key moments and significant cinematic and literary texts in modern Italian history, and a keener sense of how to engage in critical cultural studies. The course is conducted in Italian. Films are in Italian with English subtitles. Sole Anatrone.
Prerequisite(s): ITAL 217 , ITAL 218 or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods accompanied by film screenings.
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ITAL 240 - Italy and its Migrations: Stories of Italian Emigration and Immigration
1 unit(s)
(Same as AMST 240 ) This course follows the waves that shape and change Italian culture from the time of Unification, in 1861, up through today. We learn about the experiences, dreams, memories and politics of Italian emigration and immigration through a careful study of novels, poetry, cinema, and theater, as well as letters and media coverage. We consider the ways different narrative styles reflect the historical realities of the times, and take a critical analysis approach to the question of how public attitudes towards immigrants have shaped Italian national and diasporic sentiment. Beginning with the first major waves of emigration to the United States in the 1880s, this course provides a unique look at a moment of significant transition in Italian history and the makings of Italian-American Culture; we read literary texts, personal letters detailing the immigrant experience of cross the Atlantic at the turn of the century and of crossing the Mediterranean today, news coverage of significant events like the trial and execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, and cinematic renditions of past and current migrant experiences. We look at this cultural material in relation to the specific historical context in which it was produced, reflecting on the impact and legacy of things like the U.S. Emergency Quota Act of 1921, and the Italian Race Laws of 1938. As we read and discuss narratives of migration, we also examine the ways gender, sexuality and social roles determine and are determined by movement through space and time, reflecting critically on the exclusion of women’s voices from early accounts of migration. Sole Anatrone.
This course is offered in English; Italian majors please see ITAL 340 .
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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ITAL 250 - Italian Cinema in English
1 unit(s)
Italian cinema is studied through interdisciplinary analyses of historical, social and political changes in Italy. From Fascism to post-war reconstruction, to neo-capitalism and the troubles of the ‘68 generation, and finally to the current national crisis of identity, we explore the cinematic power to symbolize as a matter of privilege. Class, gender, race, and the normative State are concepts through which we examine the paradoxes of an increasingly multi-cultural and multi-ethnic nation. Close readings of films explore the genres, ideologies, and filmic techniques of important trends and phases in Italian film: the Neorealism of the 40s, the auteur cinema of the 50s, 60s and 70s, the political films of the 80s, and the postmodern satires of current directors. Cinematic interpretive skills are developed through visual and linguistic exercises, group projects, and film-making. Conducted in English. Rodica Blumenfeld.
Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. May be counted towards the Italian major.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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ITAL 255 - Four Italian Filmmakers (in English) Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as FILM 255 ) Close analysis of the narrative and visual styles of Bernardo Bertolucci, Federico Fellini, Gianni Amelio and Nanni Moretti, in the context of post-war Italian cinema and culture. Theoretical literature on these directors and on approaches to the interpretation of film-such as psychoanalytic film theory, feminist theory, deconstruction, and post-colonial analyses of dominant discourses-aid us in addressing questions of style and of political and social significance. Cinematic interpretive skills are developed through visual and linguistic exercises, group projects, and film-making. Conducted in English. Rodica Blumenfeld.
Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. May be counted towards the Italian major.
Two 75-minute periods and two film screenings.
Course Format: CLS
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ITAL 282 - In and Out of Hell: Teachings for Today’s World in Dante’s Divine Comedy and Boccaccio’s Decameron Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as MRST 282 ) Today’s news media defines our times as an ‘unprecedented challenge’. Undoubtedly thecombination of a pandemic, pervasive social and political unrest, and environmental crisis present a serious challenge, but today’s challenge is hardly ‘unprecedented’. Both our planet and humankind have faced, and overcome, even more dramatic challenges in the past. In this course we look at two literary masterpieces: Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy and Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron. Written fifty years apart in a century that witnessed dramatic events like the Black Death, the Church’s Avignon Captivity, and Europe’s social and economic collapse, these works may offer valid teachings on how to cope with today’s challenges, both at the personal and social level. After an in-depth introduction to the time period and a detailed analysis of the nature and structure of the two works, we read selections of cantos from the Comedy and novellas from the Decameron that are particularly meaningful to our quest. We apply a wide range of strategies to experience, comprehend, interpret, and evaluate the chosen texts (i.e. progressive reading and imagery exercises). We emphasize inter-textuality to underline the authors’ different approach to similar issues, and the multiplicity of their teachings. In the last part of the semester, students conduct their own research on the works and present their results in oral and written form. The course is conducted in English. Eugenio Giusti.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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ITAL 290 - Community-Engaged Learning Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Course Format: INT
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ITAL 297 - Reading Course
0.5 unit(s)
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: OTH
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ITAL 298 - Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Course Format: OTH
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Italian: III. Advanced |
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ITAL 301 - Senior Seminar Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
An examination of selected topics in recent Italian culture or of a single topic across several centuries. May be taken more than once for credit when topic changes. Required of all senior majors.
Topic for 2019/20b: The Language of Desire and the Modern Self. The course explores ways in which early writers in the Italian vernacular developed the modern concept of selfhood and articulated it through the language of desire. We investigate intimate expressions of both spiritual and physical longing, and analyze how the affirmation of one’s desire requires striking a balance with, or even bending, social norms of gender, ethics, spirituality, and class. We read texts and selections from, among others, San Francis of Assisi, Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio, Isotta Nogarola, Castiglione, Gaspara Stampa, Veronica Franco e Michelangelo. Eugenio Giusti.
Prerequisite(s): ITAL 220 , ITAL 222 or ITAL 217 , ITAL 218 with permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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ITAL 302 - Senior Project Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
The course is intended to provide Italian majors, who have chosen to produce a senior project, with a collective and regular learning environment. Through regular group and individual meetings, students receive systematic guidance from their instructor, and discuss problems they encounter in various stages of their project creation with both the instructor and their peers. Simona Bondavalli.
Prerequisite(s): One 300-level course.
Yearlong course ITAL 302-303 .
Three 2-hour periods a semester plus one hour, bi-weekly individual meetings.
Course Format: INT
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ITAL 303 - Senior Project Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
The course is intended to provide Italian majors, who have chosen to produce a senior project, with a collective and regular learning environment. They will receive systematic guidance from their instructor, and discuss problems they encounter in various stages of their project creation with both the instructor and their peers. The class meets three times a semester for two hours. One hour individual meetings are scheduled bi-weekly. Simona Bondavalli.
Prerequisite(s): One 300-level course.
Yearlong course ITAL 302 -303.
Three 2-hour periods a semester plus one hour, bi-weekly individual meetings.
Course Format: INT
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ITAL 305 - Italophone African Narratives, from Colonialism to Post-Colonialism
1 unit(s)
From Italy’s Fascist colonial aspirations of the 1930s, through the “un-thinking eurocentrism” of the post-war generation, to the contemporary migritudine, we trace the engendering of Africa as concept and as reality in the Italian sociolect and society. Films may include Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, Antonioni’s L’Eclisse, Pasolini’s The African Orestes, Bertolucci’s Besieged, and Michele Placido’s Pummarò. Texts by African and African-Italian women writers may include works by Igiaba Scego, Cristina Ubax Ali Farah, Ribka Sibhatu, and Ramzanali Fazel. In Italian. Rodica Blumenfeld.
Prerequisite(s): ITAL 220 , ITAL 222 ; or ITAL 217 , ITAL 218 with the permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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ITAL 320 - The Language of Desire and the Modern Self
1 unit(s)
The course explores ways in which early writers in the Italian vernacular developed the modern concept of selfhood and articulated it through the language of desire. We investigate intimate expressions of both spiritual and physical longing, and analyze how the affirmation of one’s desire requires striking a balance with, or even bending, social norms of gender, ethics, spirituality, and class. We read texts and selections from, among others, San Francis of Assisi, Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio, Isotta Nogarola, Castiglione, Gaspara Stampa, Veronica Franco e Michelangelo. Eugenio Giusti.
Prerequisite(s): ITAL 220 , ITAL 222 ; or ITAL 217 , ITAL 218 with permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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ITAL 331 - Heroes, Paladins, and Non-existent Knights: The Italian Epic Tradition from Charlemagne to Calvino.
1 unit(s)
A study of the epic tradition from the early Carolingian cantari and Arthurian romances of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries to the leading Italian epics of the sixteenth century written at the Ferrara Renaissance court and their great influence on later literature, music, and paintings. Readings include selections from the Chanson de Roland and the Roman de Tristan, Pulci’s Morgante, Bolardo’s Orlando Innamorato, Ariosto’s Orlando furioso, Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata, and Italo Calvino’s parody Il cavaliere inesistente, as a contemporary reference to the traditional epic poetry. This book, epitomizing Calvino’s long interest in the epic poem, provides a good basis for analyzing the archetypal character of Roland, his stoic and ascetic demeanor, and his transformation through the centuries until he becomes indeed “nonexistent.”
Prerequisite(s): ITAL 220 , 220 or 218 with permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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ITAL 340 - Italy and its Migrations: Stories of Italian Emigration and Immigration Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course follows the waves that shape and change Italian culture from the time of Unification, in 1861, up through today. We learn about the experiences, dreams, memories and politics of Italian emigration and immigration through a careful study of novels, poetry, cinema, and theater, as well as letters and media coverage. We consider the ways different narrative styles reflect the historical realities of the times, and take a critical analysis approach to the question of how public attitudes towards immigrants have shaped Italian national and diasporic sentiment. Beginning with the first major waves of emigration in the 1880s, this course provides a unique look at a moment of significant transition in Italian history that is of particular interest to students who have followed departmental courses in Early Modern and Twentieth century studies.
This course is particularly relevant for those students recently returning from their study-aboard experience in Italy, as they have a chance to reflect on their experiences as migrants with a broader historical and cultural frame. This course builds on the linguistic skills developed in the first two years of Vassar’s Italian language program, pushing students to think and form arguments within the target language.
Students develop their critical and analytic thinking skills and learn about key moments in Italian and Italian diasporic history (with a special emphasis on the Italian-American context), and they significantly expand their Italian written and oral comprehension and communication skills though readings, oral presentations, and written compositions (short in-class pieces and longer research essays crafted in a series of drafts and rewrites to ensure students gain a solid familiarity with the logic of grammar and style).
Individually designed for Italian majors and other students with some knowledge of Italian. Students in this course attend the same lectures and discussions as those in ITAL 240 , but are required to do part of the work in Italian. Sole Anatrone. Sole Anatrone.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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ITAL 342 - Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron: The “Novella” as a Microcosm
1 unit(s)
A reading of the one hundred tales with specific emphasis on social, cultural and gender issues of the later Middle Ages, as represented in the novella genre. Particular attention is devoted to the Decameron’s frame as a connective tissue for the one hundred tales and a space for gender debate and social re-creation. Reference is made to some of the Decameron’s subtexts (Apuleius’ The Golden Ass, the Novellino, the French Fabliaux, and Courtly Literature). Critical interpretations are analyzed after the reading of the entire masterpiece. Issues related to textual censorship, and contemporary re-writings through different media are addressed. Eugenio Giusti.
Prerequisite(s): ITAL 220 , ITAL 222 ; or ITAL 217 , ITAL 218 with permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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ITAL 375 - Fictions of Youth: Youth Culture in Twentieth-Century Italian Literature Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
The course examines the relationship between youth and literature in post-WWII Italy from a double perspective: adolescents as a literary subject, as protagonists of fiction and non-fiction, and as authors. Variously associated with innocence and vitality, innovation and peril, self-creation and anti-authoritarianism, youth long embodied individual and social ideals and fears in literature. In the twentieth century, it also increasingly suggested uncertainty and incompletion. As adolescence acquired importance in both the historical landscape and collective imagination, its symbolic connotations became progressively unstable. When young people wrote about themselves and their peers, first-hand experience mixed with inherited notions in unexpected ways. Using the Bildungsroman as a narrative model for the representation of youth in modern fiction, we study the different ways in which European and American coming-of-age novels influence modern Italian literature. The significance of youth in post-Fascist Italy, the construction of a generational identity through media and popular culture, and the creation of a new literary language for the expression of youth are some of the topics we address. Readings by Pasolini, Moravia, Tondelli, Brizzi, Santacroce, and others. Simona Bondavalli.
Prerequisite(s): ITAL 220 , ITAL 222 ; or ITAL 217 , ITAL 218 with permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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ITAL 379 - Food and Fiction in Modern Italy
1 unit(s)
The course investigates the role of food as both subject and metaphor of modern Italian literature and film in the 19th and 20th century. While the representation of eating and cooking practices contributes to the realistic mode in fiction, food often mediates memories, anxieties, and desires in narratives of personal or national coming-of-age. Even non-fictional forms of food writing, such as cookbooks or documentary films, contribute to the narrative of Italian national unification and modernization as much as canonical novels and cinema. We analyze both written texts and film, try some of the dishes described, and explore the relationship between writing, cooking, reading, and eating, as acts of creation and fruition that shape personal, regional, and national identity. Tradition and innovation; scarcity and excess; inclusion and exclusion; taste and disgust; local, national, and global trends are among the ideas structuring class discussion and writing. In Italian. Simona Bondavalli.
Prerequisite(s): ITAL 220 , ITAL 222 ; or ITAL 217 , ITAL 218 with permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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ITAL 385 - Three Contemporary Women Writers: Dacia Maraini, Rossana Campo, Laila Wadia Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course explores new literary styles that reflect the new freedoms of contemporary Italian women and women writers. We study the texts of these writers from the 1970s to 1990s, from the early days of feminist activism, to recent transformations in literature and politics, asking whether postmodernism leads to the de-ideologization of feminism. Rodica Blumenfeld.
Prerequisite(s): ITAL 220 , ITAL 222 ; or ITAL 217 , ITAL 218 with permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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ITAL 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Course Format: OTH
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