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Catalogue 2020-2021 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Course Descriptions
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Psychological Science: III. Advanced Satisfactory completion of a research methods course (PSYC 209 , PSYC 229 , PSYC 239 , PSYC 249 , PSYC 259 , PSYC 269 ) is a prerequisite for these courses. Seminar seats are assigned according to a department lottery system. Please contact department office for lottery information. Non-majors and juniors should consult the instructor.
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PSYC 389 - Seminar Special Topic: Tools for Transformation Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
What’s the science behind self-help? What processes keep us mired in habit, and what processes help us transform? And why do we need so many guides? In this seminar we explore methods of awareness and self-transformation, particularly examining theory and research evidence of effectiveness. Additionally, we sample a variety of evidence-based practices, in class and course projects. Students engage in a project of personal value, and interview others about methods that work for them. We consider principles of motivation, development, neuropsychology, creativity, cognition, relationship, individual differences, and topics of specific interest to enrolled students. Carolyn Palmer.
Prerequisite(s): At least two 200-level Psychological Science courses, and a research methods course (may be concurrent).
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 390 - Senior Research Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
Graded independent research. A student wishing to take this course must first gain the support of a member of the psychology faculty, who supervises the student as they design and carry out an empirical investigation of some psychological phenomenon. In addition to a final paper and regular meetings with their faculty sponsor, students also attend weekly meetings organized by the course instructor. Both the course instructor and the supervising faculty member participate in the planning of the research and in final evaluation. The Department.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Course Format: INT
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PSYC 397 - Senior Empirical Thesis Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This is a year-long thesis project conducted collaboratively with a participating faculty member on an empirical research project. In Psychology 397, students work to identify a conceptual question of interest, read and integrate background literature on that topic, and formulate a novel research plan. In PSYC 398 , students carry out their proposed studies by collecting data, statistically analyzing the results of the study, and interpreting how the results relate to the study’s original hypothesis and existing findings in the field. Both semesters involve intensive writing, with detailed feedback from the primary faculty adviser and a second faculty reader, as well as a formal presentation of the research findings to other students and faculty. Completion of PSYC 398 is required to receive credit for Psychology 397. The Department.
Prerequisite(s): Psychology research methods course and permission of the instructor.
One 4-hour period.
Course Format: INT
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PSYC 398 - Senior Empirical Thesis Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This is a year-long thesis project conducted collaboratively with a participating faculty member on an empirical research project. In PSYC 397 , students work to identify a conceptual question of interest, read and integrate background literature on that topic, and formulate a novel research plan. In Psychology 398, students carry out their proposed studies by collecting data, statistically analyzing the results of the study, and interpreting how the results relate to the study’s original hypothesis and existing findings in the field. Both semesters involve intensive writing, with detailed feedback from the primary faculty adviser and a second faculty reader, as well as a formal presentation of the research findings to other students and faculty. Completion of Psychology 398 is required to receive credit for PSYC 397 . The Department.
Prerequisite(s): Psychology research methods course and permission of the instructor.
One 4-hour period.
Course Format: INT
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PSYC 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Individual or group studies with prior approval of the adviser and of the instructor who supervises the work. The Department.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor; each instructor sets content-specific prerequisites.
Course Format: INT
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Religion: I. Introductory |
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RELI 100 - Introduction to American Studies Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course reveals and challenges the histories of the categories that contribute to the definition of “America.” The course explores ideas such as nationhood and the nation-state, democracy and citizenship, ethnic and racial identity, myths of frontier and facts of empire, borders and expansion, normativity and representation, sovereignty and religion, regionalism and transnationalism as these inform our understanding of the United States and American national identity. One goal of the course is to introduce students to important concepts and works in American Studies. Either AMST 100 or AMST 105 satisfies the 100-level core requirement of the American Studies major. Topics vary with expertise of the faculty teaching the course.
Topic for 2020/21a: The American Secular: Religion and the Nation-State. (Same as AMST 100 ) Is there a distinct realm in American politics and culture called the secular, a space or a mode of public discourse that is crucially free of and from the category of religion? This class considers the sorts of theoretical and historical moments in American life, letters, and practice that have, on the one hand, insisted the importance and necessity of such a realm, and on the other hand, resisted the very notion that religion should be kept out of the American public square. We ask whether it is possible or even desirable—in our politics, in our public institutions, in ourselves—to conceive of the secular and the religious as radically opposed. We ask if there are better ways to conceive of the secular and the religious in American life, ways that acknowledge their mutual interdependence rather than their exclusivity. Jonathon Kahn.
Open to first-year students and sophomores only.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 102 - Religion, Media & American Popular Culture Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
How does the mass media change religious values and behaviors? How might we understand the relationship between American Christians and American culture? Has sports, television or entertainment replaced religion? Is popular culture hostile to faith or is it religious in wholly new and unexpected ways? In this course we explore these questions by looking in detail at American television, film, popular literature and the internet. We also examine how specific religions and religious symbols are expressed in popular culture, what happens when traditional religions borrow pop cultural forms or ideals, and how the American media is abetting a trend towards religious eclecticism and hybridity. Christopher White.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 104 - Religion, Prisons, and the Civil Rights Movement
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 104 ) African American citizenship has long been a contested and bloody battlefield. This course uses the modern Civil Rights Movement to examine the roles the religion and prisons have played in theses battles over African American rights and liberties. In what ways have religious beliefs motivated Americans to uphold narrow definitions of citizenship that exclude people on the basis of race or moved them to boldly challenge those definitions? In a similar fashion, civil rights workers were incarcerated in jails and prisons as a result of their nonviolent protest activities. Their experiences in prisons, they exposed the inhumane conditions and practices existing in many prison settings. More recently, the growth of the mass incarceration of minorities has moved to the forefront of civil and human rights concerns. Is a new Civil Rights Movement needed to challenge the New Jim Crow? Jonathon Kahn and Quincy Mills.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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RELI 107 - Inner Paths: Religion and Contemplative Consciousness
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 107 ) The academic study of religion spends a lot of time examining religion as a social and cultural phenomenon. This course takes a different approach. Instead of looking at religion extrinsically (through history, philosophy, sociology, scriptural study, etc.) “Inner Paths” looks at the religious experience itself, as seen through the eyes of saints and mystics from a variety of the world’s religious traditions. By listening to and reflecting upon “mystic” and contemplative narratives from adepts of Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Daoist and other traditions we learn to appreciate the commonalities, differences, and nuances of various “inner paths.” Readings include John of the Cross, Theresa of Avila, Rabbi Akiba, Rumi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Ramakrishna, and Mirabai. Rick Jarow.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 112 - An Introduction to Islam
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 112 ) This course introduces students to Muslim cultures, beliefs, and practices through the lens of journey, migration and quest. Voyage and migration have characterized Muslim communities ever since Muhammad sent a group of his followers to seek refuge with the Christian king of Abyssinia. Over the centuries, Islamic legal, literary, and philosophical traditions have reflected deeply on migration and journeying, and Muslim communities have settled around the world. We explore Muhammad’s miraculous journey to Jerusalem, the event of migration to Medina, the role of travel in the expansion of the Islamic world, Muslims as religious minorities in the 20th century, and the place of Islam in the contemporary global refugee crisis. Sources include scripture, theology, history, poetry and literature, ethnography, autobiography, and film. Kirsten Wesselhoeft.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 150 - Jews, Christians, and Muslims Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as JWST 150 ) An historical comparative study of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The course focuses on such themes as origins, development, sacred literature, ritual, legal, mystical, and philosophical traditions, and interactions among the three religions. Marc Michael Epstein, Kirsten Wesselhoeft.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 152 - Religions of Asia Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 152 ) This course is an introduction to the religions of Asia (Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Zen, Shinto, etc.) through a study of practices, sites, sensibilities, and doctrines. The focus is comparative as the course explores numerous themes, including creation (cosmology), myth, ritual, action, fate and destiny, human freedom, and ultimate values. Rick Jarow and Michael Walsh.
Open to all students except seniors.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 160 - Uncertainty, Probability and Spirituality: Physics in Popular Culture Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as PHYS 160 and STS 160 )
This course examines the cultural history of key ideas and experiments in physics, looking in particular at how non-scientists understood key concepts such as entropy, relativity, quantum mechanics and the idea of higher or new dimensions. It begins with an assumption that’s widely accepted among historians – namely, that the sciences are a part of culture and are influenced by cultural trends, contemporary concerns and even urgent personal ethical or religious dilemmas. In this course we are attuned to the ways that physicists drew key insights from popular culture and how non-scientists, including religious or spiritual seekers, appropriated (and misappropriated) scientific insights about the origin and nature of the world, its underlying laws and energetic forces, and its ultimate meaning and purpose. Brian Daly and Christopher White.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 180 - Unlocking the Bible: Traditional and Radical Readings Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as JWST 180 ) Mark Twain once said that “when a library expels a book of mine and leaves an unexpurgated Bible around where unprotected youth and age can get hold of it, the deep unconscious irony of it delights me.” The Hebrew Bible, (or Old Testament, as it is known to Christians,) is a book that can feel startlingly contemporary, and can be radically moving. It has also undoubtebly been misread and misunderstood. Our course together revisits familiar stories—often talked about, but increasingly rarely closely read—in the context of textual and interpretative history. We consider what the “Good Book” might have meant in its original ancient Israelite context, and how it has since accumulated meanings in various interpretive communities over the millennia since its composition. What can we learn from the interpretations of thinkers in earlier times about how the Bible might speak to us as postmodern, politically and gender-aware thinkers in an academic context— secular or religiously observant alike? No previous knowledge of the Bible or the study of religion required. Agnes Veto.
Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 182 - Reading the Qur’an Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 182 ) This intensive explores the Qur’an, the central text of sacred revelation in Islam, through the ways that it has been read, recited, and interpreted by Muslims and non-Muslims throughout history. Themes include performance and sound, ethics and politics, environmental ethics, gender and family, technology, and translation and literary theory. The intensive is multi-lingual, and students are encouraged to integrate their competencies in any language/s into the course. Primary readings can be done in multiple languages, including Arabic. Students develop their own practices of reading, interpretation, and analysis as part of the class, which culminates in an independent creative project. Kirsten Wesselhoeft.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: INT
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RELI 183 - Christian Theology and the Body Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This introduction focuses on the relationship between spirituality and embodiment in Christian thought, ritual, and ethics. Religion 280 provides an overview of the historical development of Christianity while integrating analyses of contemporary communities, literatures, and practices. The main question that guides the class is how Christians in different times and places experience the gap between spirit and flesh. How does this binary apply to notions of the human being, the interpretation of divine revelation, and political movements? Over the course of the semester, students examine Christian concepts of the relationship between body and spirit for the ways in which they have been used to legitimate as well as subvert social hierarchies and forge new communities. Klaus Yoder.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 185 - Religion and Sports Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Religion is not just a set of ideas about the world, but a way of embodying values and living out sacred narratives through what Ignatius Loyola named “spiritual exercises.” The overlap between self-training and embodied performance leads to a ready comparison between religious and athletic subjectivities. This extends not only to active performance but also to the culture of spectatorship that grows up around sports and religion. A game or match between two heated rival teams (think Yankees vs. Red Sox) is often said to provoke passion among “the Yankee faithful” or “Red Sox Nation,” names for fan collectives. The word “fan” itself is an abbreviated form of “fanatic,” a term for zealous devotees dedicated to a particular temple [Latin: fanum.] In this course we begin to examine this overlap between sports and religion by examining its deep histories, starting with the ancient Olympic games in Greece, the role of competitive sports in Aztec religious culture, and the spiritual resonances of martial arts training in pre-modern Japan, among others. We then shift to the present and explore a sequence of themes located in contemporary athletic culture, such as the intersections between race, ethnicity, sports, and faith; athletic contests as sites of religiously-infused socio-political critique with regard to gender roles and racial injustice; and finally, a consideration of sports-media consumption (fandom) as an instance of civil religion in “a secular age.” Learning through these different lenses, students come away with deepened historical insight into the shared genealogies of athletic and religious cultures along with a broader knowledge of the myriad ways sports and spirituality inform each other in the present. Klaus Yoder.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 189 - Trances, Visions, Meditative States and Altered States of Consciousness Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as STS 189 ) This course introduces students to ways of interpreting trances, visions, religious experiences, peak experiences and other altered states of consciousness. Readings range from first-hand accounts written by mystics and visionaries to interpretations of unusual experiences by psychologists, theologians, anthropologists, reporters, writers, philosophers and neuroscientists. The course raises a number of questions that we consider during the semester, including—What are the best ways to describe or explain someone else’s anomalous/religious experience? How do we talk about experiences or behaviors that seem exotic, unhealthy, deviant or odd? Should we strive for “objective,” scientific knowledge or seek other ways of appreciating religious insight and experience? Can scientific methods or tests explain the insights that religious or spiritual people experience? In addition to understanding basic characteristics of different types of experiences we also address these and other controversial questions. Christopher White.
Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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Religion: II. Intermediate |
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RELI 200 - Regarding Religion Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
To study religion is to study culture and society, as well as to critically engage and participate in the humanities and social sciences. In this course we compare and critique different approaches to the study of religion and think about the category of religion in relation to other topics and social concerns. Michael Walsh.
Required for all majors. Encouraged for correlates.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 207 - Christian Ethics and Modern Society
1 unit(s)
This course is an introduction to Christian ideals of faith, conduct, character, and community, and to modern disputes over their interpretations and applications. Our emphasis is on how Christian thinkers have negotiated the emergence of modern values about authority, rights, equality, and freedom. In what ways have Christian beliefs and moral concepts been consonant with or antagonistic to democratic concerns about gender, race and pluralism? Some of the most prominent Christian ethicists claim a fundamental incompatibility with this democratic ethos. We examine these claims and devote special attention to how Christian thinkers have dealt with the ethics of war, sexuality and the environment. Jonathon Kahn.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 211 - Islam in Europe and the Americas
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 211 and INTL 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.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 216 - Israeli Media Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as JWST 216 and MEDS 216 ) This course provides students with an in-depth understanding of current political, social and religious developments in Israel by reading and analyzing Israeli media including newspapers, web sites, blogs, TV clips and more. Through the study of historical texts and current media, students gain an understanding of Israel’s complex multi-party political system, key political actors, the economic structure and the differences between the religious and political sectors in Israeli society.
Topic for 2020/21a: Negotiating Identity. How has identity in Israel has been constructed and deconstructed? Particular attention is paid to the recent emphasis on ‘hyphenated identities’ (like that of the “Arab Jew”). Key themes include ethnicity, gender, language, as well as political resistance and solidarity. The course explores how Israeli media has embodied or challenged social thought and perception, its major focus is upon contemporary cinema as a site of representation and expression. Sigal Yona.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 218 - Spiritual Seekers in American History & Culture 1880-2008
1 unit(s)
(Same as AMST 218 ) This course examines the last 120 years of spiritual seeking in America. It looks in particular at the rise of unchurched believers, how these believers have relocated “the religious” in different parts of culture, what it means to be “spiritual but not religious” today, and the different ways that Americans borrow from or embrace religions such as Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. We focus in particular on unexpected places of religious enchantment or “wonder” in our culture, including how science and technology are providing new metaphors for God and spirit. Christopher White.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 219 - New and Alternative Religious Movements in the United States
1 unit(s)
All religions, new and old, have a beginning, and all religions change over time. Even the most established and popular religions today, like Islam and Christianity, began as small, marginalized sects. In this class, we think carefully about how religions develop and change by examining closely religious movements in one of the most vibrant religious nations in world history, modern America. We study radical prophets, doomsday preachers, modern messiahs, social reformers and new spiritual gurus and we talk about how their new religious movements developed and interacted with more mainstream religious currents in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. This course proceeds in a roughly chronological fashion, beginning with new and alternative religions in the nineteenth century and moving on to more recent groups. Some of the questions we consider as we proceed are: Why do new religions begin? Why do people join them? How do they both challenge and conform to wider American norms and values? How should the American legal system respond to them? How do more mainstream believers respond to them? Christopher White.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 222 - Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Islamic Spaces Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as WMST 222 ) This course explores the relationship between Islam, gender, and sexuality through a focus on space. The course is organized through six key spaces that have formed gendered bodies in Islamic contexts and diasporas: the home, the mosque, the baths (hammam), the school, the public square, and the interior soul. As we move through each of these spaces, we explore how sexual difference, gender, sexuality, and religious practice take on different shapes in different settings, and at different life stages. We read canonical works of Muslim feminist thought, as well as the classical sources they engage with. We pay attention to gender diversity in the classical traditions and contemporary Islamic contexts, coming-of-age and other life stages, and to the role of gender and sexuality in mystical relationship with the divine. Kirsten Wesselhoeft.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 225 - Ethnography of Religion
1 unit(s)
This course is an introduction to religion as a set of cultural practices. We explore different ways that people have confronted “big questions,” such as how to live well in community with others, why bad things happen to good people and what to do about it, whether or not there is a life beyond the visible one and how to influence it, and how to produce ultimate meaning in an unpredictable world. Our entry point to these questions is a series of ethnographies of religion, secularism, and spirituality: accounts of religious culture that are grounded in immersive participant observation, interviews, and engaged, collaborative research. We consider how the categories of “religion” and “secular” have been produced through ethnographic texts, confront ethnography’s colonial legacy, and work with a range of innovative ethnographic genres, including performance, creative writing, and film. Students who are interested in pursuing their own ethnographic research should co-register for RELI 286 Ethnography of Religion Fieldwork Practicum . Based upon their fieldwork, students enrolled in this Intensive craft original ethnographic projects in a genre of their choice, such as writing, performance, or short film. Students may also enroll in Religion 225 without enrolling in the intensive; they do other coursework in lieu of an original ethnographic project. Contact Professor Wesselhoeft for more details about the relationship of the Intensive to this course. Kirsten Wesselhoeft.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 231 - Hindu Traditions
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 231 ) An introduction to the history, practices, myths, ideas and core values that inform Hindu traditions. This year’s course focuses on the major systems of Indian philosophy and the spiritual disciplines that accompany them. Among topics examined are yoga, upanishadic monism and dualism, the paths of liberative action (karma), self realization (jnana), divine love (bhakti), and awakened immanence (tantra). Philosophical understandings of the worship of gods and goddesses will be discussed, along with issues of gender, caste, and ethnicity and post modern reinterpretations of the classical tradition. Rick Jarow.
Prerequisite(s): 100-level course in Religion, or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 233 - The Buddha in the World
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 233 ) An introduction to Buddhist traditions, beginning with the major themes that emerged in the first centuries after the historical Buddha and tracing the development of Buddhist thought and practice throughout Asia. The course examines how Buddhist sensibilities have expressed themselves through culturally diverse societies, and how specific Buddhist ideas about human attainment have been (and continue to be) expressed through meditation, the arts, political engagement, and social relations. Various schools of Buddhist thought and practice are examined including Theravada, Mahayana, Tantra, Tibetan, East Asian, and Zen. Michael Walsh.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 235 - Religion in China
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 235 ) An exploration of Chinese religiosity within historical context. We study the seen and unseen worlds of Buddhists, Daoists, and literati, and encounter ghosts, ancestors, ancient oracle bones, gods, demons, buddhas, dragons, imperial politics, the social, and more, all entwined in what became the cultures of China. Some of the questions we will try to answer include: how was the universe imagined in traditional and modern China? What did it mean to be human in China? What is the relationship between religion and culture? What do we mean by ‘Chinese religions’? How should Chinese culture be represented? Michael Walsh.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 250 - Across Religious Boundaries: Understanding Differences Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
The study of a selected topic or theme in religious studies that cuts across the boundaries of particular religions, allowing opportunities for comparison as well as contrast of religious traditions, beliefs, values and practices.
Topic for 2020/21a: African American Religions and the Practice of Social Criticism. (Same as AFRS 250 ) This class introduces students to the study of African American religions. Our focus is not only the historical variety of religious practices, but equally on the way the study of African American religious practices, serve to influence, wrestle with, protest, and critique constructions of race and racial identities. By considering topics such as the religious culture of the enslaved in the antebellum South, the development of independent black churches in the late 18th and 19th centuries, expressive culture in music, sermon, and song, and the intersections of religion and black political movements, we explore the ways the category of religion functions as a contested site to think through notions of black liberation, agency, and struggle. Jonathon Kahn.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 254 - A Hundred Gospels and the Confusing, Conflicted Life of Jesus
1 unit(s)
(Same as JWST 254 ) Who was Jesus? What does the Bible say about him? How did it come to say what it does? Was he a humble carpenter? A divine being? A revolutionary? A rabbi? Was he learned in ancient wisdom, or simple and charismatic and fresh in his teaching? The sources dance in, about and around the issues as they alternately confirm and confound definitions. The canonical Gospels-accounts of Jesus’ life accepted as authoritative by Christians-number four. But even these four contradict each other and require “harmonization” in the eyes of believing Christians. And they are only four out of ten completely preserved examples. In addition to these ten, there are a further six Gospels describing only the childhood of Jesus, four partially preserved Gospels (including the Gospel of Mary Magdalene), and tens of fragmentary, reconstructed, and completely lost Gospels. Once thing is certain from all of these documents: Jesus wasn’t a Christian. How, then, did he come to be regarded as the founder of a new religion, a religion that would be called Christianity? And how did he come to be understood as God, the Son of God, or both at the same time? Marc Michael Epstein.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 255 - Western Mystical Traditions Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as JWST 255 ) Textual, phenomenological and theological studies in the religious mysticism of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. May be taken more than once for credit when content changes.
Topic for 2020/21b: Kabbalah. A survey of the historical and phenomenological development of the theoretical/theosophical and practical/magical dimensions of the Jewish mystical tradition from its biblical origins to postmodernity. Marc Epstein.
Prerequisite(s): Any 100-level course in Religion or Jewish Studies or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 264 - Controversies in Science, Technology & Religion Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as STS 264 ) This course introduces students to new and controversial topics in the study of religion, science, technology and spirituality. We examine controversial issues such as evolution/creation, artificial intelligence, science fiction as spirituality, religious and secular views of the mind, issues in biomedical ethics such as cloning, the neurology of religious experience, technologically-mediated spirituality, pseudo-science and parapsychology. Christopher White.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 280 - The Devil You Know: Personifying Evil in the West Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course addresses a set of theological and moral questions: what does it mean to be evil? Is evil something external, foreign, and Other, or does it abide in us all? Is evil a product of circumstances, psychology, or the exercise of free will? How much power does the category of evil have in contemporary culture and discourse? In order to approach these questions, we trace the history of the Devil in the Christian thought and proximate cultural milieus. What are the intellectual and cultural sources of this personage and how has he changed in different moments and locations in history? Why are certain personifications of evil (demons, the Devil, heretics, monsters, and witches) most visible at a given time and what do these evil characters say about the values and anxieties of a given culture or civilization? In this course we investigate the different stories that get told about the Devil in Christianity and Christian-influenced societies from antiquity to the present in order to de-familiarize, contextualize, and re-interpret the concept of evil.. Klaus Yoder.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 281 - From Anti-Judaism to Anti-Semitism Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as JWST 281 ) An exploration of the historical trajectory from religious to racial Jew-hatred through the study of religious, historical, political and sociological sources as well as art, literature and music. Agnes Veto.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 282 - The Land of Israel Before the State of Israel Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as JWST 282 ) This course deals with the Holy Land in Jewish (as well as Christian and Muslim) reality and imagination before Zionism. Love of and attachment to the Land in religious texts, poetry, art, literature and music, as well as the tensions between such sentiments and diasporist thought; and the collusions and collisions between and among the communities which claimed these attachments from antiquity through the Ottoman Period. Agnes Veto.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 287 - Six Systems of Meditation Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course focuses on the practice of meditation. We meet in the Quiet Room of the Library a couple of evenings a week and learn six very different practices; including vipasanna/zen, brahma-vichara (self-inquiry), movement meditation, outer and inner visualization, tantric chakra meditation, and active imagining. Students are expected to practice daily and to keep a meditation journal. E H Jarow.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: INT
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RELI 290 - Community-Engaged Learning Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Supervised community-engaged learning in the community in cooperation with the Office of Community-Engaged Learning.
Topic for 2020/21a: Life in a Buddhist Monastery. (Same as ASIA 290 ) Buddhist monasteries are complex, hierarchical spaces within which the monk or nun must learn to discipline their body, generate transferable merit, and come to a deeper understanding of life and death as realized through the daily routine of the monastery. Monastics are ordinary people living an extraordinarily alternative lifestyle. In this Intensive we explore the tensions between textual ideals and material lived lives within monastic space. Our readings include primary and secondary texts. In addition to the Community Engaged Learning weekend spent at Tsechen Kunchab Ling, you also visit, as part of a research project, other Buddhist monasteries in the region and discover the continuities and discontinuities between monastic institutions. Michael Walsh.
Course Format: INT
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RELI 298 - Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
The department.
Prerequisite(s): One semester of appropriate intermediate work in the field of study proposed.
Permission of instructor required.
Course Format: OTH
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Religion: III. Advanced |
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RELI 300 - Senior Seminar Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
An exploration of critical issues in the study of religion. Michael Walsh.
Senior Religion majors only.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 301 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
Written under the supervision of a member of the department; taken in the Spring semester. Christopher White.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Course Format: INT
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RELI 302 - Intensive in Religion, Media & Pop Culture Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
In this small intensive we examine in detail special topics in religion, media and popular culture. Our reading list is tailored to student interest and may include in-depth readings on media effects theory, film and mysticism, multi-platform imaginary fictional worlds such as Harry Potter or Star Wars, mobile technologies and religion, iphones and spiritual practices, science fiction and spirituality, and other topics. Christopher White.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: INT
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RELI 320 - Studies in Sacred Texts
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 320 ) Examination of selected themes and texts in sacred literature.
May be taken more than once when content changes.
Prerequisite(s): Open to Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors only.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 330 - Religion, Critical Theory and Politics Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Advanced study in selected aspects of religion and contemporary philosophical and political theory. May be taken more than once for credit when content changes.
Topic for 2020/21b: Religion, Art and Politics. (Same as ART 330 ) Nowadays, we accept the idea that religion, like so much else, is political. It makes sense, then, that visual culture, which can be used, situated, manipulated and exploited in the service of religion can serve to affirm and in some cases to subvert the political messages of religion. This class explores examples of the collusions of religion, art and politics, as well as their collisions in the productions of majority and minority culture in Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the West, from antiquity to postmodernity. Marc Epstein.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 345 - Violent Frontiers: Colonialism and Religion in the Nineteenth Century Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 345 ) What is the relationship between religion and colonialism and how has this relationship shaped the contemporary world? During the nineteenth century the category of religion was imagined and applied in different ways around the globe. When colonialists undertook to ‘civilize’ a people, specific understandings of religion were at the core of their undertakings. By the mid-nineteenth century, Europe’s territorial energy was focused on Asia and Africa. Themes for discussion include various nineteenth-century interpretations of religion, the relationship between empire and culture, the notion of frontier religion, and the imagination and production of society. Michael Walsh.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 350 - Comparative Studies in Religion
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 350 ) E H Jarow.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 360 - Religion, Sex, and the Modern State Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as WMST 360 ) This course examines the intertwined regulation of religion and sexuality by modern states through six case studies from around the world: Nigeria, France, Norway, Iran, Uganda, and India. These cases take us through a range of political systems and both religiously homogenous and religiously diverse societies, showing how in each case the state is intimately concerned with the relationship between religion, sexuality, and sexual difference. Through our analysis of these cases, we cover topics including comparative secularisms, race and citizenship, Islamic law, postcolonial feminist and queer theory, the sociology of religious revival, and religion and global media. At the end of the course, students will have a globally-informed and nuanced understanding of the stakes of contemporary debates about religious freedom, women’s rights, and LGBTQ rights around the world. Kirsten Wesselhoeft.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 375 - The I-Ching: China’s Great Text of Divinatory Wisdom
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 375 ) One of the great texts of Classical China, The I-Ching (Fu Xi 伏羲, c. 2800 BCE), has emerged as a global phenomenon; connecting to fields of science, architecture, psychology, and to a “situational spirituality” based on the Daoist notion that all things incorporate the wisdom of the Way.
This course offers an intensive study of the text (in translation) along with its corollary subjects of Daoist cosmology, divination, ethics, and “finding the right path” through any situation. The eight archetypal trigrams, sixty-four divinatory modalities, understanding of the nature of change through the permutations of yin and yang are examined, as are the I-Ching’s prominent values of modesty and wu-wei or “effortless effort.” Every student learns how to work with the text, so that its study becomes more than a theoretical exercise. In this spirit of the I-Ching we “Approach with small steps/quantities (小過)”, and “be flexible to constant change in order to be sustainable (易窮則變,變則通,通則久). Rick Jarow.
Prerequisite(s): Any 100-level Asian Studies, Chinese/Japanese, or Religion course, or permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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RELI 385 - Asian Healing Traditions Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 385 ) This seminar offers a comprehensive view of the traditional medical systems and healing modalities of India and China and examines the cultural values they participate in and propound. It also includes a “laboratory” in which hands-on disciplines (such as yoga and qi-gong) are practiced and understood within their traditional contexts. From a study of classical Ayur Vedic texts, Daoist alchemical manuals, shamanic processes and their diverse structural systems, the seminar explores the relationship between healing systems, religious teachings, and social realities. It looks at ways in which the value and practices of traditional medical and healing systems continue in Asia and the West. Rick Jarow.
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RELI 399 - Senior Independent Work
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Course Format: OTH
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Russian Studies: I. Introductory |
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RUSS 105 - Elementary Russian Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
The essentials of grammar with emphasis on the development of oral-aural proficiency. Charles Arndt III.
Open to all classes.
Yearlong course 105-RUSS 106 .
Four 50-minute periods plus drill and conversation periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 106 - Elementary Russian Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
The essentials of grammar with emphasis on the development of oral-aural proficiency. Farida Tcherkassova.
Open to all classes.
Yearlong course RUSS 105 -106.
Four 50-minute periods plus drill and conversation periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 107 - Intensive Introductory Russian Semester Offered: Spring
2 unit(s)
Single-semester equivalent of RUSS 105 -RUSS 106 . Intensive training in fundamental language skills. Designed for beginning students who wish to accelerate their learning of Russian. Farida Tcherkassova.
Open to all classes.
Five 75-minute periods, plus drill and conversation periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 135 - The Russian Classics: The Great Realists of the Nineteenth Century (in English) Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
The great tradition of Russian literature with its emphasis on ultimate existential and moral questions. Selected works by such nineteenth-century masters as Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky. Nikolai Firtich.
Open to all classes. Readings and lectures in English. Russian majors see RUSS 235 .
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 142 - Dostoevsky and Psychology (in English)
1 unit(s)
Fyodor Dostoevsky was an avid student of the human mind, with particular interest in aberrant and self-destructive behavior. He drew on his observations of people from all strata of society and his four-year-long prison experience to endow his characters with fascinating psychological depth. After Dostoevsky’s death, his works have been cited by Freud, existentialist philosophers and others to support theories of their own. This course focuses on a number of works in which Dostoevsky’s depiction of psychological issues is particularly crucial to the central message he attempts to convey. Readings include three of the major novels (Crime and Punishment, The Devils, and The Brothers Karamazov) as well as a number of Dostoevsky’s shorter works. This course entails detailed examinations of the texts and discussion of how Dostoevsky’s works relate to current psychological issues and problems. Charles Arndt III.
All readings and discussion are in English.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 143 - The Genius of Chekhov: Theatre and Tales (in English) Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as DRAM 143 ) Close reading of major plays and selected short stories by Anton Chekhov. Focus on the forms and themes of Chekhov’s works, as well as their historical contexts in terms of dramaturgy, reception and artistic legacy. Special attention is given to the spectrum of interpretations of Chekhov’s works in a transnational context. Accompanied by film screenings. Nikolai Firtich.
Open to all classes. Readings and discussions are in English. Russian majors see RUSS 243 .
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 152 - The Russian Modernists: Decadence, Revolution, & The Avant-Garde (in English) Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Outstanding works of major twentieth-century Russian writers, with emphasis on those who broke with the realist tradition of the nineteenth century.
Open to all classes. Readings and lectures in English. Russian majors see RUSS 252 .
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 153 - Russian Sci-Fi Cinema (in English)
0.5 unit(s)
A survey of the rich tradition of Russian cinematic science fiction, from mainstream entertainment to the philosophical masterpieces of Andrei Tarkovsky. Subjects include futuristic fantasies of the 1920s and 1930s, scientific experiments gone astray, post-apocalyptic visions, space travel and journeys of the mind, intergalactic romance and humorous takes on the genre. Dan Ungurianu.
Taught in English.
Second six-week course.
Two 75-minute periods, plus weekly screenings.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 154 - The Cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky (in English) Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
The haunting impression produced by Tarkosvky’s films is aptly summarized by Ingmar Bergman: “My discovery of Tarkovsky’s first film was like a miracle. Suddenly, I found myself standing at the door of a room the keys of which had, until then, never been given to me. Tarkovsky is for me the greatest, the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream.” The course examines the work of the Russian director against the background of various “new waves” in European filmmaking, concentrating on Tarkovsky’s unique blend of poetic and philosophical cinema that, following the great Russian literary tradition, can be described as metaphysical realism. Dan Ungurianu.
Taught in English.
Second six-week course.
Two 75-minute periods, plus weekly screenings.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 155 - WW II in Russian Cinema (in English) Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
The most massive armed conflict in history, World War II also inspired an unprecedented number of films. Many of them are inevitably imbued with patriotic propaganda, yet others strive to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of war, an event that, in Leo Tolstoy’s words, is opposed to human reason and to all human nature. The course samples seminal Russian works of the genre produced from the late 1940s to our days against changing historical and ideological backgrounds. Special attention is given to cinematic masterpieces exploring war as an existential experience that probes the limits of humanity, such as The Cranes Are Flying (1957), Ivan’s Childhood(1962), The Ascent (1976), and Come and See (1985). Dan Ungurianu.
Taught in English.
Second six-week course.
Two 75-minute periods, plus weekly screenings.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 156 - The Cinema of Sergei Eisenstein (in English) Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
Sergei Eisenstein, a brilliant pioneer and a seminal theorist of cinema as a form of art, remains one of the most famous directors in the history of film. The course examines Eisenstein’s artistic trajectory from his early avant-garde creations of the 1920s (The Strike and Battleship Potemkin) to the late masterpieces produced during the period of high Stalinism (Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible). Special attention is paid to the cultural and historical contexts of Eisenstein’s films. Dan Ungurianu.
Taught in English.
First six-week course.
Two 75-minute periods, plus weekly screenings.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 157 - A Revolutionary Apocalypse: Russian Civil War in Film (in English) Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
The Russian Revolution of 1917, rather bloodless at its initial stages, resulted in an all out war waged from 1918 into the early 1920s. Numerous factions (Reds, Whites, “Greens,” Anarchists, nationalists and the rest, all the way down to mere adventurers and bandits) and also invading foreign armies (German, British, American, French, Polish, and many others) fought at the vast expanses of the former Russian Empire. Our course examines the legacy of the Civil War in Russian film. We cover Eisenstein’s propaganda masterpieces (The Battleship Potemkin, October), early works of Socialist Realism and also the complex body of cinematic texts of the later Soviet years in a variety of genres from high tragedy to the ironic “Eastern.” We conclude with recent revisionist takes on the topic produced during the post-Soviet period. Dan Ungurianu.
Second six-week course.
Two 75-minute periods accompanied by film screenings.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 158 - Masterpieces of Russian Animation (in English) Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
We examine the rich tradition of Russian Aanimation from its inception around 1910 to our days. We begin with experiments of Wladislaw Starewicz and end with the current blockbusters, including Masha and the Bear series, (one of its episodes has over four billion views on YouTube!). A special attention is given to the masterpieces of the 1960s and 80s that mix the appeal of popular culture with avant-garde visual experimentation. Dan Ungurianu.
First six-week course.
Two 75-minute periods accompanied by film screenings.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 160 - A Slap in the Face of Public Taste: Revolutionary Art in Russia 1910-1917 (in English) Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
This course surveys the most turbulent and brilliant period in the development of Russian avant-garde’s literary and visual arts, preceding the political revolutions of 1917, which celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary this year. In English. Nikolai Firtich.
First six-week course.
Two 75-minute periods accompanied by film screenings.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 161 - Nabokov Before “Lolita”: The Making of a Genius in the Age of Jazz and Surrealism (in English) Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course considers the novels and novellas of Vladimir Nabokov written during the 1920s and 1930s in a broad cultural context of the period. Nabokov became an international celebrity with the publication of Lolita (1955). The scandal and sensationalism aside, the book earned him the reputation as one of the most accomplished stylists in the English language. But in the decades before producing Lolita, Nabokov had had a brilliant literary career as a Russian émigré writer in Europe. This course approaches Nabokov’s pre-Lolita works through a comparison with the writings of Franz Kafka, Evelyn Waugh, Nathaniel West, and the art of Surrealism. The goal of the course is to explore the cultural atmosphere that helped shape Nabokov as we know him. Nikolai Firtich.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 165 - Arts and Music in Imperial Russia (in English) Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Our main focus is on the dazzling artistic explosion that took place in the Russian Empire in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This includes the visual arts, architecture, music, and performing arts in historical contexts. Prominent examples include Borodin’s opera Prince Igor, Musorgsky’s opera Boris Godunov, Diaghilev’s legendary Ballets Russes, and also the radical revolutionary aesthetics of the Russian Avant-Garde that upends accepted notions of art. Dan Ungurianu.
Open to all classes. All readings and discussion are in English.
Two 75-minute periods, plus occasional film screenings.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 168 - Vampires, Monks, and Holy Fools: The Mystical in Russia and Eastern Europe (in English) Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Focusing on these three phenomena of the Eastern European and Russian cultural-spiritual landscape will allow us to explore a number of subthemes. While examining Eastern European vampire legends, we will encounter regional folk beliefs and the paradoxical coexistence of pagan and Christian views concerning such things as liminal spaces, the unpredictability of evil, and the role of the undead. Comparisons will be made between early vampire stories and vampire incarnations in British and American literature and pop-culture. Our foray into Russian Orthodox monasticism will provide insight into the significance of mysticism, anchoritism, piety, and apocalypticism in Russia. Lastly, our study of the often scandalous and provocative behavior of the Holy Fool will help us understand how a seemingly carnivalesque inversion of values can serve as a spiritual beacon. The course will be a combination of short readings and films. Course materials and discussion will be in English. No prior knowledge of Russia or Eastern Europe is required. Charles Arndt III.
Open to all classes.
Two 75-minute periods, plus occasional film screenings.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 169 - The Great Utopia: Ideals and Realities of the Russian Revolution (in English)
1 unit(s)
The Russian Revolution of 1917 and the ensuing “Soviet Experiment” had major implications for the global political and ideological landscape of the twentieth century. The revolutionary era also saw an explosive proliferation of bold futuristic visions and utopian projects. The course explores reflections of the Revolution in literature, theatre, film, painting and other arts against a broad historical background. Topics include apocalyptic premonitions of the fin-de-siècle, Russian Cosmism and dreams of earthly immortality, competition among revolutionary ideologies, the art of avant-garde, Agitprop and Proletkult, Constructivism, Socialist Realism, the creation of the New Man, Stalin’s “Empire Style” and return of traditionalism, and a new – and final – wave of revolutionary aspirations during Khrushchev’s “Thaw.” Dan Ungurianu.
Open to all classes. All readings and discussions are in English.
Two 75-minute periods, plus occasional film screenings.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 171 - Russia and the Short Story (in English) Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
In this course we read and discuss a number of classic short stories by such Russian masters of the genre as Gogol, Turgenev, Chekhov, Babel, and Olesha. Charles Arndt III.
Satisfies college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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Russian Studies: II. Intermediate |
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RUSS 210 - Intermediate Russian Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Review of the basics of grammar and analysis of more complex grammatical phenomena through the study of literary, historical, and newspaper texts, composition, and discussion. Farida Tcherkassova.
Prerequisite(s): RUSS 105 -RUSS 106 or permission of the instructor.
Year long course 210-RUSS 211 .
Four 50-minute periods plus one hour of oral practice.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 211 - Intermediate Russian Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Review of the basics of grammar and analysis of more complex grammatical phenomena through the study of literary, historical, and newspaper texts, composition, and discussion. Farida Tcherkassova.
Prerequisite(s): RUSS 105 -RUSS 106 or permission of the instructor.
Year long course RUSS 210 -211.
Three 75-minute periods plus one hour of oral practice.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 222 - Six Masterpieces: Exploring the Treasures of the Hermitage Museum (in English) Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
The Hermitage, founded in the 18th century as the depository of art treasures acquired by Russian tsars, is one of the world’s greatest museums. For the past fifteen years our students have been able to study at the Hermitage through a unique JYA program conducted by Vassar. Under the current special circumstances, this course brings the Hermitage to Vassar by showcasing six of its masterpieces selected by our Russian colleagues. Six Zoom sessions are conducted live by the Hermitage curators and members of the museum’s Education Department. The choice of subjects highlights the immense diversity of the museum’s collection and includes masterpieces of both West European and Oriental art, and also some of its magnificent architecture (the museum complex occupies a number of historical buildings in the heart of St. Petersburg, including the Winter Palace, the main imperial residence ). These sessions serve as a point of departure for your further exploration of the museum. Nikolai Firtich.
Prerequisite(s): Introductory coursework in Art History or Russian Studies, or permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period and individual conferences with the instructor.
Course Format: INT
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RUSS 235 - The Russian Classics: The Great Realists of the Nineteenth Century Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Individually designed for Russian majors and other students with some knowledge of Russian. Students in this course attend the same lectures and discussions as those in RUSS 135 , but are required to do part of the work in Russian. Nikolai Firtich.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 243 - The Genius of Chekov: Theatre and Tales
1 unit(s)
Same as RUSS 143 with one additional track:
Individually designed for Russian majors and other students with sufficient knowledge of Russian. Students in this course attend the same lectures and discussions as those in RUSS 143 , but are required to do part of the work in Russian. Nikoali Firtich.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 252 - The Russian Modernists: Decadence, Revolution, and the Avant-Garde Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Individually designed for Russian majors and other students with some knowledge of Russian. Students in this course attend the same lectures and discussions as those in RUSS 152 , but are required to do part of the work in Russian. Nikolai Firtich.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 253 - Transitions In Europe (in English) Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as INTL 253 and POLI 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.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 272 - Beyond the Looking Glass: Nonsense and Absurd in Russian and European Literature and Visual Arts
1 unit(s)
Individually designed for Russian majors and other students with some knowledge of Russian. Students in this course attend the same lectures and discussions as those in RUSS 172 , but are required to do part of the work in Russian. Nikolai Firtich.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus extra periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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RUSS 290 - Community-Engaged Learning
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Course Format: INT
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RUSS 298 - Independent Work
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Program to be worked out in consultation with an instructor. The department.
Course Format: OTH
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Russian Studies: III. Advanced |
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RUSS 300 - Senior Thesis
1 unit(s)
Course Format: INT
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RUSS 303 - Senior Project Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1 unit(s)
A 1-unit project done in one semester. The department.
Open only to majors and correlates.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
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RUSS 331 - Advanced Russian Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
A course designed to increase all aspects of Russian proficiency. Includes readings on a wide range of topics, discussion, oral reports, stylistic analysis, written assignments, and review of persistent grammatical difficulties. Farida Tcherkassova.
Yearlong course 331/RUSS 332 .
Two 75-minute periods, plus one hour of conversational practice.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 332 - Advanced Russian Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
A course designed to increase all aspects of Russian proficiency. Includes readings on a wide range of topics, discussion, oral reports, stylistic analysis, written assignments, and review of persistent grammatical difficulties. Dan Ungurianu.
Yearlong course RUSS 331 /332.
Two 75-minute periods, plus one hour of conversational practice.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 370 - Russian Animation and Popular Culture Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
The course examines some of the most famous works of Russian animation: from the early full-length features by Ivanov-Vano to such recent blockbusters as the Bogatyri series and Ivan Tsarevich and the Grey Wolf. A special emphasis is given to the Soviet productions of the 1960s and 1980s which acquired a cult status and remain an important part of the popular culture in the Russian-speaking world. We study artistic, cultural, and linguistic contexts of the films in question. Dan Ungurianu.
Prerequisite(s): RUSS 210 /211 or the equivalent; or permission of instructor.
Two 75-minute periods
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 371 - Seminar on Russian Culture Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Advanced seminar on Russian culture. Designed for majors and students with sufficient knowledge of Russian.
Topic for 2020/21a: Russian Rock n’ Roll Culture. This course explores the popular music culture in the USSR and Russia starting from the 1920s through current trends. Particular emphasis is given to the development of the Soviet rock scene in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s and to the ideological role of rock music during the Cold War. Nikolai Firtich.
Prerequisite(s): RUSS 210 /211 or the equivalent; or permission of the instructor.
Advanced seminar conducted in Russian.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 373 - Seminar on Russian Literature Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Focused analysis of an author, work, theme, genre, or literary school in the nineteenth or twentieth century.
Prerequisite(s): RUSS 331 or permission of the instructor.
Advanced seminar conducted in Russian.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 374 - Russian Poetry of the Silver Age
1 unit(s)
We read and discuss selected masterpieces from the rich poetic tradition of the turn of the twentieth century with its decadence, mysticism, apocalyptic premonitions, and tantalizing artistic finesse. Nikolai Firtich.
Prerequisite(s): RUSS 331 or permission of the instructor.
Conducted in Russian.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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RUSS 399 - Senior Independent Work
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Program to be worked out in consultation with an instructor. The department.
Course Format: OTH
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Sociology: I. Introductory |
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SOCI 110 - Gender, Social Problems and Social Change
1 unit(s)
(Same as AMST 110 and WMST 110 ) This course introduces students to a variety of social problems using insights from political science, sociology, and gender studies. We begin with an exploration of the sociological perspective, and how social problems are defined as such. We then examine the general issues of inequalities based on economic and employment status, racial and ethnic identity, and gender and sexual orientation. We apply these categories of analysis to problems facing the educational system and the criminal justice system. As we examine specific issues, we discuss political processes, social movements, and individual actions that people have used to address these problems. Eve Dunbar and Eileen Leonard.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
This class is taught at the Taconic Correctional Facility for Women to a combined class of Vassar and Taconic students.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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SOCI 111 - Social Change in South Korea Through Film
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 111 ) This course explores cultural consequences of the dramatic transformation of South Korea, in four decades, from a war-torn agrarian society to a major industrial and post-industrial society with dynamic urban centers. Despite its small territory (equivalent to the size of the state of Indiana) and relatively small population (50 million people), South Korea became one of the major economic powerhouses in the world. Such rapid economic change has been followed by its rise to a major center of the global popular cultural production. Using the medium of film, this course examines multifaceted meanings of social change, generated by the Korean War, industrialization, urbanization, and the recent process of democratization, for lives of ordinary men and women. Seungsook Moon.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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SOCI 112 - The House is on Fire!: Climate Change, Society and Environment Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course focuses on the challenges of global climate change in the 21st century. Our central aim is to examine the foundations of the discourse on society, and environment in order to explore two questions: how do social thinkers approach the construction of the future, and how has this construction informed the present debates on societal challenges and the environment in the age of climate change? Thus, we examine how social thought informs different articulations of policy, the limits of praxis, and its contemporary construction of alternative futures. Our focus is on the policy making process as influenced by the commodities, production and consumption, and risks related to the climate change. Pinar Batur.
Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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SOCI 151 - Introductory Sociology Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1 unit(s)
An introduction to major concepts and various approaches necessary for cultivating sociological imagination.
Although the content of each section varies; this course may not be repeated for credit.
Topic One: Classical traditions for contemporary social issues. This section explores the significance and relevance of foundational thinkers of sociology to the understanding and analysis of contemporary social issues and problems. Examples include consumerism, teenage suicide, Occupy Wall Street, and race/ethnicity in colleges; housing, education, immigration, and childhood. Lastly, this course also examines the works of marginalized social thinkers within the classical tradition and considers why they have been silenced, erased and how they can help us to better understand many contemporary social issues. Carlos Alamo, Seungsook Moon, Eréndira Rueda.
Topic Two: Cooked! Food and Society. The flavor of this class will come from the impact of the classical debates on the current discourse of sociology, specifically debates on social problems and interpretations of our everyday life. To examine diverse and contentious voices, we will explore theoretical works with a focus on past, present and future of theory and how it reflects the transformation of society, and ask how can we propose a critical debate for our future to realize theory’s promise? Our special focus will be the challenges of food production and consumption in the 21st century. Pinar Batur.
Topic Three: Just Add Water!: Water and Society. The flow of this class will be from the impact of the classical debates on the current discourse of sociology, specifically the debate on social problems and the interpretations of our everyday life. To examine diverse and contentious voices, we will explore theoretical works with a focus on past, present and future of theory and how it reflects the transformation of society, and ask how can we propose a critical debate for our future to realize theory’s promise? Our special focus will be the challenges of water consumption and distribution in the 21st century. Pinar Batur.
Topic Four: Other Voices: Sociology from the Margins. Ideas about society that we value usually come from the European, the heterosexual, the male or the fully-abled. In this course we will examine sociological ideas from those who may be overlooked, excluded, othered, minimized or dismissed. This may include Ibn Khaldun, David Walker, Maria Stewart, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mother Jones, Marcus Garvey, Jane Addams, Ida B. Wells, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Horace Cayton and Malcolm X. Diane Harriford.
Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
Topic Five: Race/Class/Gender. An introduction to key questions, ideas, and methods used by sociologists to make sense of human interaction and the social world. We use classical and contemporary texts to uncover and examine the forces and structures outside of the individual that shape and are shaped by us. Sociology has a long history of concern with inequality; this course pays special attention to how inequalities are structured, experienced, maintained and challenged along the lines of race, class, gender and their intersections. Light Carruyo.
Topic Six: A Social Justice Approach. This course aims to introduce you to a sociological perspective through an exploration of social justice. We will begin with an analysis of what a sociological perspective entails, including an understanding of the structural and cultural forces that shape our lives and those of the people around us and how, in turn, individuals make choices and influence social change. Social justice delineates and describes injustices such as economic inequality, racism, sexism, and homophobia and, by definition, addresses solutions and alternative social systems. Sociology has a long tradition of commitment to social justice issues and we will consider a wide variety of them including: issues of power, how social advantages and disadvantages are distributed, the relationship between social location and inequality, and the practice of reducing the gap between them at the local, national, and global levels. Social justice is a perspective for understanding and for action. Eileen Leonard.
Topic Seven: Sociology of Everyday Life. This section introduces sociology as a perspective that highlights the connections between individuals and the broader social contexts in which they live. We focus a sociological eye on the activities and routines of daily life, seeking to illuminate the social foundations of everyday behavior that we often take for granted. Reading both classical and contemporary texts, we build a sociological imagination and apply sociological theory as we focus our inquiry on issues such as the persistence of inequality, changing patterns of family life, new workplace dynamics, and the power of social networks. William Hoynes, Leonard Nevarez.
Topic Eight: Cells, Cyborgs, and Science Wars. How has the evolution of technology changed the organization of society and our understanding of identity? Do new forms of science and technology break down existing inequalities, reinforce them, or produce new forms of inequity? Is science “objective” or “socially constructed” and “politically interested”? This class awakens students’ sociological imagination by examining major sociological thinkers, perspectives, and concepts through the lens of science and technology. By using the theories of Durkheim, Marx, Weber, de Beauvoir, Bourdieu, Foucault, and other scholars to analyze contemporary scientific controversies around the globe, this course presses students to view social theory as tool for critical thinking. Contemporary topics may include debates surrounding genetic testing and manipulation, artificial intelligence and surveillance technologies, GM crops, climate science, the globalization of drug development, reproductive cell markets, the rise of robotics in manufacturing, and issues tied to pollution and environmental degradation. Abigail Coplin.
Topic Nine: Killing the Black Body. In 2016, a study revealed, In the United States, 3 out of 5 black families know of someone that has been treated unfairly by the police. In this class, we explore the historical violence committed against black bodies from the killing of Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin. We examine the killing of black bodies utilizing major theorist in the field of sociology including Durkheim, Marx, Weber, Mills, and others. Topics explored include: gender and violence, race and violence, violence as a form of social control, and blackness as a mark of criminality. We examine the long-term psychological consequences of violence against black bodies for families, communities of color, and the larger society. Ruth Thompson-Miller.
Topic Ten: Mind, Body, Soul. We tend to think of the mind, body, and soul as personal and individual, best understood through the lenses of psychology, biology, and religion. And yet, our minds, bodies, and souls are fundamentally social and cultural in so far as they are molded by institutions such as the family, church, media, economy, and state – and indeed re-shaped increasingly by technologies of medicine, communication, security, and surveillance. In this introductory course, we engage sociological perspectives to analyze: how we become self-aware, conscious subjects; how our bodies produce and consume, and how they come to bear inscriptions of class, race, gender, and sexuality; and finally how our identities and most deeply held beliefs develop and change over time. As we read classic sociological texts alongside more contemporary thinkers and popular culture, we consider topics such as the performance of online selves; genres of dystopia; food culture and politics; gender and sports; race and genetic testing; and social movements including #metoo and Black Lives Matter. In addition to classic texts by Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Simmel, DuBois, and Freud we also read works by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Octavia Butler, Barbara Ehrenreich, Judith Lorber, and Alondra Nelson among others. John Andrews.
Topic Eleven: Privilege, Power, and Social Mobility. The objective of this course is to help students cultivate their sociological imagination, shifting their analytical perspective from individuals to societies, from “biographies” to “histories.” This course pairs classical and contemporary theory to explore issues of privilege, power, and social mobility. How is privilege reproduced? How is poverty an inter-generational trap? How does belief in meritocracy obfuscate structural inequalities? What would an equitable system look like? Throughout this course, students engage with classical/contemporary theorists, such as: Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, Max Weber, W.E.B. Dubois, C. Wright Mills, Pierre Bourdieu, and Herbert Marcuse. Students also apply sociological theory to analyze current debates and issues. For example, during the week on privilege and education, students bring into conversation Pierre Bourdieu’s “The Forms of Capital,” Shamus’s Privilege, and Anthony Jack’s The Privileged Poor. Catherine Tan.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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Sociology: II. Intermediate |
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SOCI 207 - Commercialized Childhoods
1 unit(s)
(Same as AMST 207 ) This course examines features of childhoods in the U.S. at different times and across different social contexts. The primary aims of the course are 1) to examine how we’ve come to the contemporary understanding of American childhood as a distinctive life phase and cultural construct, by reference to historical and cross-cultural examples, and 2) to recognize the diversity of childhoods that exist and the economic, geographical, political, and cultural factors that shape those experiences. Specific themes in the course examine the challenges of studying children; the social construction of childhood (how childhoods are constructed by a number of social forces, economic interests, technological determinants, cultural phenomena, discourses, etc.); processes of contemporary globalization and commodification of childhoods (children’s roles as consumers, as producers, and debates about children’s rights); as well as the intersecting dynamics of age, social class, race/ethnicity, gender, and sexuality in particular experiences of childhood.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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SOCI 210 - Domestic Violence Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as WMST 210 ) This course provides a general overview of the prevalence and dynamics of domestic violence in the United States and its effects on battered women. We examine the role of the Battered Women’s Movement in both the development of societal awareness about domestic violence and in the initiation of legal sanctions against it. We also explore and discuss, both from a historical and present day perspective, ways in which our culture covertly and overtly condones the abuse of women by their intimate partners. Darlene DePorto.
Course Format: CLS
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SOCI 214 - Transnational Perspectives on Women and Work Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as LALS 214 and WMST 214 ) This class is a theoretical and empirical exploration of women’s paid and unpaid labor. We examine how women’s experiences as workers — across space, place, and time — interact with larger economic structures, historical moments, and narratives about womanhood. We pay particular attention to the ways in which race, class, gender, sexuality and citizenship intersect and shape not only women’s relationships to work and family, but to other women workers (at times very differently geopolitically situated). We are attentive to the construction of women workers, the work itself, and the meanings women give to production, reproduction, and the global economy. Light Carruyo.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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