Massachusetts College of Art and Design

A reading-intensive introduction to the history of art or liberal arts, emphasizing critical reading and thinking. In some cases, may include a research paper or other assignments in critical writing.

Prerequisites:

None

Type:

lecture/seminar

An introduction to essay writing. Six to eight writing assignments concentrate on the expository and critical essay and may include some subjective writing and a research paper. Students also read and discuss outstanding pieces of prose, poetry, and fiction. All college required.

Prerequisites:

None

Type:

lecture/seminar

An exploration of the sources of culture through a survey of some of the literary masterpieces, from the ancient world to the nineteenth century.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100 (Freshman Seminar

Type:

lecture/seminar

This is a course about the idea of masculinity and how it is portrayed in literature from ancient times to the twenty-first century. In addition to looking at how men traditionally view manhood, it will also look at men's attitudes toward women, since "masculinity" is usually defined in opposition to "femininity." Thus we will have plenty of opportunity to discuss perceptions of what it means to be a man or a woman, and to explore the elusive concept of gender identity. Our syllabus will include works by Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen, Ernest Hemingway, and Medieval feminist Christine du Pisan. We will also be viewing films, including Neil Jordan's "The Crying Game" and listening to selections from Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni."

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

A critical study of the expressive elements of film. Class meetings consist of film viewing, evaluations, and discussions. Students frequently write critical papers.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

Novels by Junger, Grass, Lenz, Bernard and Sebald read with twentieth century German-Austrian history in mind. Emphasis on literary innovation and on the novels' expressive use of painting, photography, art history and musical performance.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

What makes a children's book a classic? We'll find out as we read, analyze, and enjoy the best of the field--fantasies from "Peter Pan" to "Harry Potter," realistic novels from "Anne of Green Gables" to "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry," and stories falling somewhere in between, like "The Secret Garden." Though our emphasis will be on longer books for older children, we'll also consider fairy tales and picture books. Final project: writing a "classic" children's book, illustrating one, or both!

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

The course will explore the art and composition of the graphic novel, and will examine its many sub-genres, from superhero tales to memoirs to manga. The text book will be Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics." Other texts will include "Watchmen," "Contract With God," "Sandman," "Maus," and "Persepolis." For the final project, students will create and make preliminary sketches for an original graphic novel.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

This course intends to give an overview of African Literature from the pre-colonial period to its future perspectives. It covers material dealing with oral literature, its transition to written works, its main themes and evolution through time. It develops the main ideas covering African literature in English, French, and Portuguese and connects them to African Arabic Literature. It thus offers a full coverage of Africa including the West, the East, the Center, the South and partially the North. The course is divided in two main parts. The first concentrates on oral traditions and their important genres. It depicts the production environments, oral usages in community organizations and historical conservations throughout time. The second part deals with literary challenges and productions and will give a survey of the main trends in West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa and South Africa. Amos Tutuola, Cyprian Ekwensi, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Ayi Kwei Armah, Peter Abrahams, Nadine Gordimer are among the writers whose texts offer the African survey.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

Famous Writers & their Celebrated Illustrators combines literature and art. Discussed will be great works of literature and the visual images they inspired. Writers, from Dante and Cervantes to Pushkin, Gogol, Corneille, Swift, Defoe and Wilde, among others, will be discussed. Illustrators will include Botticelli, Dore, Delacroix, Beardsley, Picasso, Pasternak (the father), Favorsky, Baskin, as well as numerous contemporary illustrators.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

An introduction to literature by Asian-American writers (Americans of Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indian, and Filipino heritage). The course includes writers who have written modern classics, such as Maxine Hong Kingston, as well as other known and less familiar writers of various literary genres, including David Henry Hwang, Chang-Rae Lee, Lawson Inada, and Bharati Mukherjee.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

African Art, Religion, Philosophy and Culture: This course studies art productions in Africa as part of religious, philosophical and cultural systems. Emphases are on art objects that reflect and participate in historical evolution, community management and stand for philosophical and cultural expressions. Artists' skills are presented from their sources to their different expressions and social implications through different diffusions and trends. The course also looks at different village communities in order to find out the artist and his artifacts as they participate in daily social life and in the construction of a world vision. The course presents art productions in different parts of Africa, but will concentrate much more on Central Africa. It discusses the understanding of symmetry versus asymmetry, the use of colors, wood, rocks, stones, iron, feathers, clothes and other media as they carry religious, philosophical and cultural lessons. The course suggests different interpretation procedures of art objects in order to understand how religion, philosophy and culture are reflected in art productions. Gender understanding, religion construction and power distribution in different communities are largely linked to artifacts motifs and icons.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

A course that teaches the fundamentals of writing drama for the stage. Students study the craft of successful plays by Edward Albee, August Wilson, Paula Vogel, and others, applying what they learn to writing their own scenes and plays. The course culminates in a public developmental reading of some of the best one-act plays written by the students.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

An exploration of literature that portrays the family, the complicated dynamics of family relationships, the conflicts between parents and children, the loyalties and rivalries of siblings. The syllabus is cross-cultural and trans-historical, ranging from Absalom (in the Bible) to "Absalom, Absalom!" (Faulkner) and includes novels, plays, lyric poems, folk tales from around the world, Celtic romance, and gothic fantasy.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

Of course, we will be rounding up the usual suspects: the appalling and tragic monster and his equally appalling and tragic creator, the charismatic vampire and his bevy of vamps; a commonplace fellow who wakes up to find himself transformed into a giant insect. But, more broadly, we will examine the idea of the monstrous, the shadow side of human nature and human experience that we refuse to acknowledge as our own. In addition to physical monsters, we will encounter monstrous actions (incest, murder, cannibalism), monstrous thoughts, and monstrous transformations of the soul. Our syllabus includes: "Frankenstein,"" Dracula," Kafka's "Metamorphosis," John Ford's "Tis Pity She's A Whore," and John Gardner's "Grendel."

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

This course examines the relationship between how texts have been written and what they say during the millennia from the cuneiform tablet to the iPad. The course examines the relationship between spoken and written language, between libraries and scholarship, and between text for eyes and text for ears. It considers text-centric and image-centric book making as expressions and creators of human history. The course examines the possible future of books.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

An examination of the contributions that distinguished filmmakers, including directors, editors, and cinematographers, have made to the art of motion pictures.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

Russian literature is a relatively new phenomenon. It burst on world stage suddenly and unexpectedly in the early nineteenth century and almost immediately gained tremendous world-wide influence. Everyone knows the names of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, Chekhov and Pasternak, Nabokov and Solzhenitsyn. Great Russian literature is also uniquely connected to Russian philosophy and politics. Thus, reading and studying it will help students to better understand the trials and tribulations of the modern times.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

A study of the ways in which works of visual art and the lives of visual artists, both fictional and historical, are represented in selected short stories, novels, plays, poems, films, and essays.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

An examination of feature films adapted from novels. Discussions and writing assignments address the challenge of adapting a work from print into film.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

Readings of several modern playwrights, from Ibsen and Chekhov to the present. The course examines how these writers responded to cultural change, modified dramatic conventions, and explored shifting relations between comedy and tragedy, illusion and reality.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

Literary analysis and oral readings of lyric poems from several eras and cultures. Particular attention is given to subtle interactions between linguistic and structural elements such as rhythm, meter, stanza form, syntax, diction, and imagery.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

A focus on major writers who have emerged in the twentieth century. The course concentrates on contemporary figures and earlier modernist writers.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

The class studies texts addressing universal religious themes such as creation, sacrifice, love, death and the problem of evil. Several religious perspectives (including polytheistic ones) are represented. The class uses the texts as lenses through which to examine some of humankind's deepest concerns and questions. More generally, the class examines the complicated and often strained relationship between art and ideology. Students are assigned three critical papers and a final examination. The syllabus includes biblical texts, Sufi poems by Rumi, Black Elk Speaks and "The Death of Ivan Illych."

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

An examination of recent poems of the Americas in the context of modernist innovations in the twentieth century. African-American, Asian-American, and Native American contemporary poetry is covered, as is Beat poetry, confessional poetry, sound poetry, and other current voices. Poetic styles and themes are examined in relation to the visual arts and to intellectual and social currents.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

This course, conducted as a workshop with essays read aloud and critiqued in class, provides students with an opportunity to explore through their own writing the power and variety of the essay form. From memoir to observation, personal profile to political observation, this course encourages students to transmit interior reflection and external observation into essay form. Assigned reading of essays. Grade based on 25-page portfolio (usually five essays).

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

A study of the poetry, drama, and fiction of British and Irish writers and how their writings helped shape a modernist aesthetic. Selections are from the work of Wilde, Joyce, Auden, Lawrence, Woolf, Behan, Lessing.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

This course explores the literature of Romanticism from its development in England to its reverberations in America. Romantic literature was, variously, the voice of Nature, the song of the common man, the manifestation of the Sublime, the cry of emotion in extremity, the language of a transcendent God, the howl of the wilderness, and the urgent song of erotic love. We seek to hear and understand all these Romantic voices by studying important Romantic texts. Romantic prototypes that contributed to our popular culture are also a focus:- the variants of the "Romance"novel from the works of the Bronte sisters; detective and crime novels from Edgar Allan Poe's Romantic brain. Finally, we attempt to make connections between Romantic literary styles and visual and musical art of the time.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

An examination of American film from its beginnings to about 1950. This course deals with the cultural sources of American film and the developments in the international community as they were important to the development of film in America.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

A workshop in poetic form and structure.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

A study of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, Hamlet, and King Lear, using a genre approach. Emphasis is on reading and understanding Shakespeare. The films are studied as contemporary realizations and interpretations of the plays.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

A study of The Taming of the Shrew, Henry IV: Part I, Julius Caesar, Othello, and Anthony and Cleopatra, using a genre approach. Emphasis is on reading and understanding Shakespeare. The films are studied as contemporary realizations and interpretations of the plays.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

A study of the major writers of the century (Melville, Whitman, James, Twain) with special attention to the American Renaissance period and its contribution to a sense of national identity and the expansion of possibilities of literary form.

Prerequisites:

LALW200.

Type:

lecture/seminar

Irish Literature: The Easter Rebellion, will study the literature and politically explosive speeches that reflected Irish-English tensions and inflamed Ireland's desire for freedom. We will analyze Yeats, Joyce, Synge and others.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

This course is an interdisciplinary look at the intersection of literature and art. Students will be creating work combining the visual and the written. The course will provide lectures and readings of work by artists working in both media, as well as critique of student work, field trips and visiting artists. Emphasis will be on making things, individual or collaborative, combining these two elements.

Prerequisites:

MPPH 100 or MPPH 200 or equivalent, LALW200, or by permission of instrutor

Type:

critique

Under the Pol Pot Regime of 1975- 1979, Cambodia killing fields took the lives of 2,000,000 people. Using individual survivor narratives, we will seek to understand Pol Pot's rise to power during the Vietnam War, and the near destruction of Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

Students registering for LALW 345 also register in the same semester for 3DSC 345. The two courses are interdisciplinary co-requisites of each other that marry the practices of writing and sculpting. The objects made in the five-hour 3D course and the writing done in the three-hour LA seminar inspire and "talk to" each other through various iterations throughout the semester. Students are expected to complete two projects, each of which consists of both visual work and written work. The courses will culminate with an exposition of these completed projects. Grading for both courses will be jointly determined by the two faculty leading the respective sections. Students who successfully complete the classes will receive 3 Liberal Arts elective credits and 3 Sculpture studio electives.

Prerequisites:

co-requisite 3DSC345

Type:

co-requisite, Lecture/seminar

A study of the literary epics of the legends surrounding Camelot and King Arthur, their origins in the middle ages and subsequent variations.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

This course surveys film history from the 1890s to the present. Students use history of film textbook and general history readings to study works demonstrating the evolving development of motion picture art and the motion picture industry. Students produce written research treating trends and questions in motion picture history.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

An exploration of both the backgrounds and issues of feminism and the literature by and about women that raises questions about women's identity and the many factors that shape it. Selections are drawn from the writings of Gilman, Charlotte Bronte, Woolf, Morrison, Rich, Lourde, Cixous and others.

Prerequisites:

LALW200.

Type:

lecture/seminar

This course surveys recent trends in the cinema of England, Scotland, Wales and the rest of the UK. We'll study a variety of genres unique to Britain, including heritage films and the Thatcherite cinema. Major figures like Mike Leigh, Stephen Frears, Anthony Minghella, Lynne Ramsay, Danny Boyle and Ken Loach will be studied, as well as some independent filmmakers. The course format will be seminar discussion and lecture, with several essays and one mid-term exam.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

We will study a number of trends in recent European cinema, discussing different themes and production values across genres and cultures, from western to Eastern Europe and including Scandinavia and Great Britain. Filmmakers studied will include Lars von Trier, Patrice Chereau, Fatih Akin, Hanif Kureishi, Catherine Breillat and others. This is a seminar course, with a lecture and discussion format, several essays and one mid-term.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

The course will trace the journey of the Third World women writers in the USA starting with Bharati Mukherjee's "Middle Men and Other Short Stories." In the first phase we study women's suffering and hardship as cyborgs, in the process of merging themselves with the First World coming from the Third World. In the next phase, we study the female novelist Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's "Arranged Marriage," which portrays Indian women's dilemma in various marriage situations in the USA and informs us about Indian culture and how marriage is perceived from different angles. The theme of marriage and mother-daughter relation will be studied further through the Caribbean writer Jamaica Kincaid's collection of short stories," At the Bottom of the River" and the African writer Ama Ata Aidoo's "No Sweetness Here" by delving into the specific cultural contexts. In the third phase, we study more recent writings by women authors like Jhumpa Lahiri's "Namesake" looking at the evolution of cultural adjustment and assimilation. The other strain that we study in this phase is the concept of "magical realism" encountered in the Indian author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's novel "Mistress of Spices" and in the Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector's "An Apprenticeship or the Book of Delights" which harps on the notion of solution and hope. Another attraction of the course will be an interesting array of films by Third World female filmmakers like Mira Nair and Aparna Sen among others.

Prerequisites:

LALW100

Type:

lecture/seminar

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

A study of the continuing hold that ancient Greek and Roman myths exert on the modern imagination. The course examines selected poems, novels, plays, paintings, sculpture, films, and dance that recycle the old myths to find contemporary meaning in them.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

The critical reading of novels as a way of increasing the reader's entertainment and appreciation of them as works of literary art. Particular attention is paid to the historical development of the English novel.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

An opportunity for seniors to read widely in some area of literature without the structure or time restrictions of class meetings. Individual meetings are arranged with an instructor.

Prerequisites:

LALW200 enrollment senior elective, and consent of the instructor.

Type:

lecture/seminar

An exploration of more complex forms of poetry such as the sonnet, ballad, and sestina, along with free verse and prose poems.

Prerequisites:

Poetry Workshop LALW320

Type:

lecture/seminar

A workshop in which initial drafts and subsequent revisions of students' writings are photocopied, distributed to all members of the class, and critiqued. The objective is to help students develop artist's statements that: (a) are appropriate to the purposes for which they are written; (b) articulate what the student wants to say about their art; and (c) communicate clearly to the intended audiences. Open only to seniors.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

What is opera? German composer Richard Wagner described it as a "total art work," in which music, drama, singing, and scenic design are fused. The course encourages new ways of thinking about the relationship between different artistic disciplines and forms. We we view and study a selection of operas, examining opera from every aspect, from musical to scenic. No classical music background necessary, and no one is expected to sing! In the final project, combining art work and critical commentary, students will design sets for an opera of their choice. The projects will be published in an online catalogue designed by students under the auspices of the instructor.

Prerequisites:

LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

A study of how the basic laws of physics and astronomical observations lead to an understanding of the universe as a whole.

Prerequisites:

FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

Algebra is introduced in a context relevant to adults working as artists and designers. Data sets from practical applications are used to develop a numeric, verbal, graphic and symbolic understanding of linear, quadratic and exponential functional relationships. Applications include use of data sets by artists, design of parabolic devices, motion graphics, tumor growth, pollution decay, and financial issues such as taxation, bank interest and credit card debt. Custom software is used to explain algebra in an interactive visual way particularly suited for visual thinkers, and commercial spreadsheet software is used for processing and graphing data.

Prerequisites:

FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

This course uses principles of physics to understand musical instruments, scales, and chords. Required background: Students must be able to find notes from written music on an instrument of their choice. The course will draw upon high school algebra.

Prerequisites:

FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

A study of the veracity of mathematics and mathematical thought. Axioms of mathematics, elements of formal logic, and Godel's proof and its philosophical consequences are covered.

Prerequisites:

FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

A study of the great ideas of physics, their origins and history, and something of their impact on our modes of thought. Emphasis is on the content of the ideas and their significance for our understanding of the universe. Students learn about science as a human endeavor. No mathematical background is required.

Prerequisites:

FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

An examination of the importance of shape, or form, to biological function. Students explore selected examples at several levels of organization (molecule, cell, individual, community) in a variety of organisms (viruses, bacteria, plants, fungi, invertebrate and vertebrate animals, embryos and mature forms.) The course seeks to increase knowledge of biology and compare biological and artistic form and function.

Prerequisites:

FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

A survey of the birth and death of stars, red giants, white dwarfs, black holes, galaxies, and cosmological theories. The presentation focuses on modern descriptions and theories of these objects.

Prerequisites:

FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

An investigation of what we know scientifically about cells, genes, DNA, and proteins. The course considers the elegance of classical and molecular experiments and looks at promised applications such as human disease treatments, plant hybrids, cross-species transplants, and bacteria as miniature vats for chemical manufacture. The course explores business and bioethical decisions about product development and human privacy.

Prerequisites:

FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

After a brief review of basic algebra including linear and quadratic functions, students work on theory and application of polynomial, exponential, base 10 and natural logarithm and trigonometric functions, using symbolic, numeric and graphic methods. Calculus is approached through incremental methods with readily understood applications of rate of change and accumulation. Prerequisite: High School Algebra.

Prerequisites:

FRSM100

Type:

lectire/seminar

A study of the fundamental principles of ecology, with the intertwining of many biological and physical science fields. The course distinguishes the scientific, technological, and social domains. This study of complex human impacts and environmental concerns (such as biodiversity, population size, food and energy resources, air and water pollution, waste management, recycling, and sustainability) also raises issues of environmental ethics, risk assessment, and policy planning.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100; LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

An examination of the coordinated functioning of the most familiar of organisms, the human body. Topics include structure and function of systems, tissues and cells, macromolecules, and the progression through development and aging. Students consider the nature of experimental evidence, evaluate popular claims, and explore bioethical issues in health and disease.

Prerequisites:

FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

Prerequisites:

FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

A study of American history beginning with its roots in early America, Africa and Europe, continuing through the colonial period, the War for Independence, the Constitution and the Creek War (also known as the War of 1812), which set the stage for the developing internal conflict leading up to the Civil War.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

What is Romanticism? To what areas of intellectual life does the term have reference? To art? Literature? Philosophy? Religion? History? Politics? The answer is yes to all the above, and then some. The seminar explores the nature of this immense cultural movement while focusing on the work of the great Romantic poets, writers and artists of the nineteenth century in Europe and America.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

In this course, students examine how people live in different places. We explore the basic anthropological question, "What does it mean to be a human being?" What, if anything, do all humans have in common with one another? Are there any universals? In reflecting on cultural identity, who are we? Who are they? These questions are examined in general, and also with regard to particular cultures. Hence, we study the concept of culture through comparative analyses of institutional forms and functions.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100

Social Psychology explores the behavior of individuals and groups in social contexts. In this course, an emphasis will be placed on how social aspects may be relevant to being an artistic individual in today's society. Some examples of topics to be discussed are: How are our thoughts, feelings, and behavior influenced by the presence of other human beings? Can we manipulate someone else's opinion? Does self-fulfilling prophesy exist? What are social norms? Questions related to how a person's self-image develops, how individuals think about and react to the world, and how they understand themselves and others will also be explored. In addition, students will learn about concepts such as impression and attitude formation, persuasion, pro-social behavior, prejudice and discrimination, obedience and compliance, aggression, group psychology, and personality.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

US history from the Missouri Compromise of 1820 to the presidential election of 1876.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

This course will look at how "race" is constructed and affirmed, drawing on images and texts from nineteenth century minstrelsy through 1950s depiction of the American family up to the current pluralistic moment.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

From the Spanish-Cuban-Filipino-American War to the present.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

The story of Boston in the 1760s and 1770s told from the point of view of the "mobs" who populated the streets of this port city. Sailors, pirates, prostitutes, apprentices, and indentured servants all played a part in the life of Boston at the time of the American Revolution. Their stories provide new perspectives on the events of that time.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

Cities are places of great opportunity for many, but at the same time, they are also places of great inequality. This course introduces students to how cities function on a variety of levels, including their development and planning, racial and ethnic transformations within cities, and the role of arts and culture in urban centers. The course includes lectures, guest speakers, lively discussion, and several optional site visits that enhance our shared understanding of Boston, and by extension, other urban locales.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

This course surveys the economic life of the United States from colonial times to Reconstruction, focusing upon the history of capitalism and slavery in the long nineteenth century. Often opposed to one another, we will explore capitalism and slavery as commensurable, if competitive, modes of economic theory and practice, as we interrogate the interplay of those regional, national, and international economies that shaped the nineteenth century US. Topics addressed will include the relationship between Native Americans and mercantile colonialism, the international movement to abolish slavery and the growth of American industry, the relationship between financial speculation and American geography, the impact of the American Civil War on US currency markets, and the enfranchisement of African Americans and the rise of the corporation.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

Sub-Saharan African Politics is an open window on African countries' politics since the independences, i.e. the 60s. It provides students with details on African political institutions and governance. It considers African countries in general, but concentrates much more on: Angola, Congo, Gabon, Central Africa Republic, Botswana, Burundi, Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo as cases covering the sub region. It depicts these countries' political management, nation building process, cooperation, health care, and education projects. The course surveys Africa from the pre-colonial empires to republics, and depicts power structures and social limitations. A number of countries are presented in their evolution from the early 60s in order to show their political situation and changes often related to the international balance of power between the West and the East. The Cold War had a serious impact on African politics, its end inaugurated the era of African Democracies still submitted to a new kind of western presence. At the same time, Asia implements its presence in Africa and challenges the western world.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

This course presents art produced in different parts of Africa, but concentrates on Central Africa. It discusses the understanding of symmetry versus asymmetry, and the use of color, wood, rocks, stones, iron, feathers, clothes, and other media in the production of artifacts. The class also teaches interpretation procedures, showing how religion, philosophy, and culture participate in artistry. It also explains how art and initiation participate in the same world vision, gender understanding, religion construction and power distribution in different communities.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

Would you like to know more about Shepard Fairey's controversial poster of Barack Obama or "Dread" Scott Tyler's confrontational art installation "What is the Proper Way to Display a US Flag?"? Or what do you make of the attempted censorship of Chris Ofili's "Holy Virgin Mary?" In this course we will study recent debates as well as past disputes over freedom of speech and exhibiting works of art from socio-cultural perspectives including art historical and legal views on the subject.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

One hundred years ago, the borders of modern Middle Eastern states did not exist. With the conclusion of World War I in 1918, however, the European powers divided up the territories of the former Ottoman Empire and created new borders, new states, and new conflicts. Beginning with the end of World War I, then, the class will explore the development of each Middle Eastern country's unique identity and history and how they interact with one another, and with the outside world, today. In this context we will explore the differences between Sunni and Shii Muslims, Middle Eastern minorities such as Druze, Christians, Alawis, Alevis, and Ismailis, and the differences between Jews, Arabs, Turks, Persians and Kurds. The impact of the Arab-Israeli conflict, oil, the war in Iraq, and the rise of political Islam throughout the region will also be considered. The class will include readings, lectures, video, and class discussions in order to illuminate the region's unique history and political style.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

The course will be highly interdisciplinary and will explore the basic cultural roots of India through the study of a group of writers both ancient and modern. We will start our mental journey with the ancient Indian philosophical text "Isha Upanishad" in translation which is at the root of Indian culture and written by a group of unknown scholars in ancient times. We then come to the medieval India and read "Gita-Govinda" by Jaydeva the legend of Radha and Krishna which combines literature, philosophy and history of India during that time period. Thus, in the first phase, we read Pre-Colonial India through "Upanishad" and "Gita-Govinda" thus looking at the texts and listening to musical chanting. In the second phase, we study colonial India through Tagore's novel "Home and the World" and study British colonization and culture of India during that time. To delve into philosophy we also read Tagore's "King of the Dark Chamber" which deals with the critique of colonization and the notion of redemption and transcendence in colonial time. At the last phase, we construct the modern and postmodern Indian culture, history and philosophy through the writers who are writing in the USA both male and female, for example writers like Amitav Ghosh, Chitra Banerjee and Jhumpa Lahiri. We read Chira Banerjee's "Mistress of Spices" and Jhumpa Lahiri's "Namesake," as well as Amitav Ghosh's "Calcutta Chromosomes." A special attraction of the course will be films of Satayjit Ray and Aparna Sena, the two great filmmakers of India.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

This course explores the history of successive Islamic empires and capital cities within them, from the foundation of Islam in the early seventhth century to Napoleon's conquest of Egypt at the dawn of the nineteenth century. The crusades and their continuing impact on relations between the Middle East and the west, as well as historically significant Islamic art and architecture are explored. Relations between Muslims, Christians, and Jews, as well as the lesser-known religions of the Middle East such as the Zoroastrians, Alawis, and Druze, are examined. Photos and videos that help to illuminate the region constitute an important part of this course and are used in every class.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

Financial literacy. Practical knowledge about personal finance (budgets and credit) and money management (banking and and the ABCs of investing). Readings and discussion on current financial topics.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

An examination of the dynamics of the self from the interpretative, clinical perspective. The course discusses the growth and the making of the "solid self" and explores the influences that can further or hinder the constitution of a coherent, stable personality. Narcissistic disorders, the most common psychic disorders of our time, are also addressed.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

This course will examine psychology as it relates to the human potential for growth and flourishing as well as for resiliency. Traditionally, psychologists have aimed at helping individuals notice and fix unwanted or dysfunctional habits, uncover and repair unfortunate or traumatic childhood experiences, or calibrate damaged brain chemistry. Rather than focusing on human weakness and dysfunction, this class will explore the human condition from a positive psychology perspective. That is, students will study concepts such as hope, happiness, optimism, and resiliency, and will survey human core character strengths and virtues.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

Global Black Studies. This course intends to guide students in an introductory survey of Global Black Studies. The latter are more and more imposing themselves in a discipline at the crossroad of literature, history, literary criticism, and ideologies based on the analyses of Black life within a global diaspora. Visual didactic materials and the most representative books lead the study of the historical, political, religious, social and economic dynamics of the Black experiences all around the world. All through the course, a particular stress will be put on the perception of the Black (by Blacks and by others), prejudices accumulated all through history, the diaspora in time, identities, racism, artistry, underdevelopment versus development, and creeds. Texts are selected in such a way that a chronological line goes far in the past, but also predicts much for the future.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

How did various peoples from America, Africa, and Europe, speaking different languages and possessing different cultures, come to be defined as "red", "black", and  "white", and how did later immigrants or conquered peoples from Asia and the western hemisphere get fitted into this scheme? This class will examine how race categories were formed in the colonial period and have been repeatedly remade up to the present.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100;

Type:

lecture/seminar

This course is for enthusiasts, juniors and seniors, who like ideas and think that valid reasons exist to examine art in the social, intellectual, and cultural context. Our framework is that of social philosophy. Three central themes organize the course: the pre- modern and the rise of modernity, the transition of modernity into postmodernity, and the character of art at our current moment. We will examine the roots of the modern, and the current, in the pre-modern. Why did the Romanesque give way to the Gothic? Was it just that people became bored with the same old style? If not that, then what? How far do you need to go to understand the phenomenon? The art-historical background is paramount. If you do not have this background, you should take the course at a later date. I also rely on your historical background. If you do not have a sufficient background to understand historical references this material takes for granted, you will have to make up for it by reading. I have supplied the necessary historical texts in the Reader. Our intention is not descriptive but analytic and critical. Many of your preconceived notions will be challenged. We will use examples from art-history as we need them to enlighten a larger point: the intersection between ideas, culture, society, and the art world as it evolves from the premodern into the modern, and into our current moment.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100;

Type:

lecture/seminar

This class looks at film as an important part of mass culture. The course is a social science course, not a "film viewing" one. Expect to analyze sociological themes having to do with gender, class, and race as such themes are reflected in the actions of the film's characters; in their relations with other characters; in their expectations, hopes, and dreams; and, implicitly, in the film's cinematic, visual aspects.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100;

Type:

lecture/seminar

This course will provide an introduction to the field of abnormal psychology. Questions around what qualifies as  "abnormal" or "normal"  in historical and cultural contexts will be explored. In addition, students will study diagnostic criteria and statistical data of the major mental disorders as compiled in the DSM-IV-TR (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). Treatment options for each disorders and associated theoretical perspectives will be examined. The role of environment, genetic factors, psychodynamics, neuropsychology, and biochemistry in the determination of psychopathology will also be discussed.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100;

Type:

lecture/seminar

This course explores the origins and development of one of the most intractable conflicts of our time - the Arab-Israeli conflict. It explore relations between Arabs and Jews under the Ottoman and British Empires between 1882 and 1948, and war, the prospects for peace, and the peace process after the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948. The course examines the diplomatic and military options the two sides have used, the impact of oil, religious fundamentalism, political militancy, and prospects for the peaceful resolution of the more than century-long conflict. In addition to a main textbook, excerpts from biographies and autobiographies of Israeli, Palestinian, and other Arab leaders are included . Extensive use of video, including newscasts, documentaries and dramatic movies dealing with the conflict, produced both from within the region as well as abroad, are used in every class and constitute a major part of this course.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100

Type:

lecture/seminar

An introduction to basic linguistic concepts, including word play, language games, and the symbolic power of language. Supplementing the course textbook are : Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass; cartoons by Saul Steinberg; remarks by Oscar Wilde and Groucho Marx; puns by Shakespeare; paintings that incorporate words; newspaper headlines; advertising slogans; bumper-stickers; word puzzles and brain teasers.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100;

Type:

lecture/seminar

A survey of the extensive period from the Old Stone Age to the fall of Rome in the fifth century AD. The course first investigates the ancient river valley civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and China, concentrating on the major achievements of each. The second half of the course offers a detailed account of the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome and an in-depth discussion of Judaism and early Christianity.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100;

Type:

lecture/seminar

The writings of Mark Twain are discussed and placed in historical context.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100;

Type:

lecture/seminar

A comprehensive overview of the last four centuries of European history. The course surveys political and international history, social history, and intellectual history. Students gain a deep appreciation for the rich complexity of European civilization and a solid understanding of the continuity of events from the seventeenth century onward.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100;

Type:

lecture/seminar

An analysis of the potential for progressive political and social change in America.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100; LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

A critical reading and discussion of some of Marx's writings on history, philosophy and society, plus commentary.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100; LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

This course examines intimate human relationships ranging from infancy through adulthood by exploring new findings in neuroscience as well as in developmental/relational/depth psychologies. The course treats questions about selfhood and emotion; the capacities for empathy, attachment and solitude, and received ideas of love in the relationships we form. Readings in psychology, neuropsychology and fiction; documentary and popular film clips.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100; LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

Political theories underwrite political policies, practices, and campaign rhetoric, but how can we argue rationally about which theory is most compelling? Even if we agree on a political theory, can there be rational arguments to resolve political disagreements about policies and practices that matter to us? Can't we agree on what an objectively valid or sound argument is, or on the meaning and use of fundamental political concepts like liberty, law, neutrality, equality, justice, authority power and rights? How might philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Nill, Marx, Rawls, Nozick, Sen, or Rorty help answer these questions? Our course will address such questions as these, while analyzing social issues broached in our texts or otherwise selected from international ethics, the market economy, world poverty, terrorism, war, affirmative action, racism, sexism, art censorship and local manifestations of such issues. The course is thesis defense essay driven and classroom Socratic dialogue participation intensive (sometimes in small classroom groups), so you must buy assigned books, read assignments, speak up in class and write! You must also make two "fieldtrips" to political philosophy events of your choosing in greater Boston, demonstrating your ability to apply reading and class discussions to the "real world."

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100; LALW200

A study of major trends in Europe from the French Enlightenment to the present. Topics include an analysis of the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, Romanticism, and major nineteenth and twentieth century schools of philosophy and criticism.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100; LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

An introduction to the relationship between art and politics, with emphasis on the application of Marxist ideas and categories to the arts.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100; LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

An analysis of the relationship between the individual and the law, showing how and why the law is "political." Students study the effects of politics and economics on the issue of constitutional rights.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100; LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

A study of the relationship between technological advance and social, economic, political, intellectual, and artistic change. Historical in method, the course concentrates on the last two hundred years.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100; LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

This course explores the intersecting realms of memory and dream. Dreaming is an entirely subjective experience, but how objective is remembering? How do we understand phenomena like post-traumatic or implanted or false memories? How can culture construct our memories--and our forgettings--for us? How can we separate identity from memory and either from forms of fiction? The world of dream: meaningful, nonsense, prophetic, usable? As in our work on memory, we'll call on current neuroscience and neuropsychology, see film clips, read case histories, fiction, analytic theory. In preparation for the final project people will keep a nightly dream journal. In all this we'll be asking questions about the nature of consciousness and subjectivity, about the existence of a coherent self over time, and about the creative uses to which memory and dream may be put.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100; LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

An exploration of a spectrum of relevant social themes (race, gender, the avant-garde, modernism, postmodernism). Emphasis is not on seeking a direct link between art and world of culture, but on examining how ways of living, beliefs, values, and expectations come to constitute the "subtext" of the work of art.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100; LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

An opportunity for seniors with a solid background in 200- and 300-level social science courses to research a topic of their choosing. The course requires eight meetings with the supervising instructor and final written report of the research undertaken.

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100; LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar

The course is organized around the following core questions: What is truth and is it attainable? Why is truth important? How do we get to know objective reality? What is a "good life" in the ethical sense, and why should one desire to live a "good life"?

Prerequisites:

LALW100; FRSM100; LALW200

Type:

lecture/seminar