2005-2006 Courses

Quantitative Reasoning

Quantitative Reasoning courses are open to first-year and sophomore students. Approved substitute courses are available for other students still needing to satisfy the Quantitative Reasoning component of the MAP.

FALL 2005 V55.0101 Quantitative Reasoning: Mathematical Patterns in Nature
Prof. Greenleaf (Mathematics) syllabus
This course reviews the basic tools of mathematics, emphasizing their relevance to the natural and social sciences. The math topics covered are fairly elementary but our use of them is not. In order to understand the natural world you have to learn to think for yourself using the tools mathematics provides. This course shows how one can take verbally presented problems, recognize the mathematical patterns in them, and solve them. Heavy use is made of a basic scientific calculator (not programmable). Our understanding of the natural world is explored in four in-depth case studies: The Art of Making Estimates: The scale of distances in our universe and the geological time scale; dealing with powers of ten and physical units; case studies in the art of making estimates (size of an atom, information content of a picture, the Basic Sampling Principle). Growth and Decay Phenomena: Geometric progressions and their manifestations in nature: growth of populations; isotopes, radioactivity, and the radioactive decay law; growth of money by continuous compounding; present value, investments, and cost-benefit analyses; inflation, constant dollars and the consumer price index; logarithms and why we need them in mathematical modeling; radioisotope dating method and the demise of the dinosaurs. Introduction to Probability and Statistical Thinking: basic counting principles and combinatorics; list counting and probabilities; binomial probabilities; independent events and the multiplication law for probabilities; random variables and expected values; introduction to statistical issues. How Big the Sun, How Far the Stars? How do we know our place in the cosmos? Scaling laws and their consequences in biology and engineering; Greek determination of the size of the Earth; similar triangles, scaling and the basics of trigonometry; measuring things at a distance by triangulation; the resolving power of the human eye and of modern telescopes; early milestones in astronomy; radar ranging the solar system; parallax and the distances to the nearest stars; standard candles, the cosmic distance ladder, and the size of the universe.

FALL 2005 V55.0105 Quantitative Reasoning: Elementary Statistics
Prof. Gunturk (Mathematics) syllabus
An introduction to the use of statistical methods. Mathematical theory is minimized. Actual survey and experimental data are used. Computations are done with desk or pocket calculators. Topics: description of data, elementary probability, random sampling, mean, variance, standard deviation, statistical tests, and estimation.

FALL 2005 V55.0107 Quantitative Reasoning: Probability, Statistics and Decision Making
Prof. Kosygin (Mathematics) syllabus
Elementary probability theory from the point of view of games and gambling. Topics include probability, expectation, introduction to game theory, gambler's ruin, gambling systems, and optimal strategies. Examples are taken from games of chance, including backgammon, blackjack, craps, and poker.

SPRING 2006 V55.0101 Quantitative Reasoning: Understanding the Mathematical Patterns in Nature
Staff (Mathematics)
This course reviews the basic tools of mathematics, emphasizing their relevance to the natural and social sciences. The math topics covered are fairly elementary but our use of them is not. In order to understand the natural world you have to learn to think for yourself using the tools mathematics provides. This course shows how one can take verbally presented problems, recognize the mathematical patterns in them, and solve them. Heavy use is made of a basic scientific calculator (not programmable). Our understanding of the natural world is explored in four in-depth case studies: The Art of Making Estimates: The scale of distances in our universe and the geological time scale; dealing with powers of ten and physical units; case studies in the art of making estimates (size of an atom, information content of a picture, the Basic Sampling Principle). Growth and Decay Phenomena: Geometric progressions and their manifestations in nature: growth of populations; isotopes, radioactivity, and the radioactive decay law; growth of money by continuous compounding; present value, investments, and cost-benefit analyses; inflation, constant dollars and the consumer price index; logarithms and why we need them in mathematical modeling; radioisotope dating method and the demise of the dinosaurs. Introduction to Probability and Statistical Thinking: basic counting principles and combinatorics; list counting and probabilities; binomial probabilities; independent events and the multiplication law for probabilities; random variables and expected values; introduction to statistical issues. How Big the Sun, How Far the Stars? How do we know our place in the cosmos? Scaling laws and their consequences in biology and engineering; Greek determination of the size of the Earth; similar triangles, scaling and the basics of trigonometry; measuring things at a distance by triangulation; the resolving power of the human eye and of modern telescopes; early milestones in astronomy; radar ranging the solar system; parallax and the distances to the nearest stars; standard candles, the cosmic distance ladder, and the size of the universe.

SPRING 2006 V55.0105 Quantitative Reasoning: Elementary Statistics
Staff (Mathematics)
An introduction to the use of statistical methods. Mathematical theory is minimized. Actual survey and experimental data are used. Computations are done with desk or pocket calculators. Topics: description of data, elementary probability, random sampling, mean, variance, standard deviation, statistical tests, and estimation.

SPRING 2006 V55.0106 Quantitative Reasoning: Number Theory, Computers, Crypt Analysis
Staff (Mathematics)
An introduction to the theory of numbers—prime numbers, factorization, congruences, Diophantine equations—and its applications to cryptography. This science, which studies techniques for encoding and decoding messages, is important in an age where sensitive information is regularly transferred over the Internet. Workshops involve computers and emphasize discovery and group work.

SPRING 2006 V55.0107 Quantitative Reasoning: Probability, Statistics and Decision Making
Staff (Mathematics)
Elementary probability theory from the point of view of games and gambling. Topics include probability, expectation, introduction to game theory, gambler's ruin, gambling systems, and optimal strategies. Examples are taken from games of chance, including backgammon, blackjack, craps, and poker.

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Natural Science I

The prerequisite for all Natural Science I courses is completion of or exemption from Quantitative Reasoning, or completion of an approved substitute course.

FALL 2005 V55.0202 Natural Science I: The Cosmos and the Earth
Prof. Adler (MAP) syllabus
Modern scientific findings relating to major questions about the universe and our place in it. What is the origin of the universe? How did the elements form? Where do stars and planets come from? How did life on Earth originate? How did intelligence develop and human beings come to exist? Are we alone in the cosmos? Topics include the big bang theory of the creation of the universe and the formation of elements during stellar evolution; the constituents of the universe, from the large-scale realm of the galaxies to exotic objects such as neutron stars and black holes; the evolution of life and intelligence in the context of the sometimes catastrophic geologic history of our planet; and the possibilities for intelligent life in the cosmos.

FALL 2005 V55.0203 Natural Science I: Energy and the Environment
Prof. H. Brenner (Chemistry) syllabus
Uses the principles of chemistry to analyze the environmental implications of energy usage and policy decisions concerning energy and the environment. Topics include the atmosphere, ozone and its depletion, greenhouse gases, and acid rain. Case studies from the New York City environment, such as the Hudson River, are used to focus discussions. Finally, questions about the basis of our need for energy, fossil fuels and their supplies, and the available alternatives are discussed.

FALL 2005 V55.0204 Natural Science I: Einstein's Universe
Prof. Adler (MAP) syllabus
Addresses the science and life of Einstein in the context of 20th-century physics, beginning with 19th-century ideas about light, space, and time in order to understand why Einstein's work was so innovative. Einstein's most influential ideas are contained in his theories of special relativity, which reformulated conceptions of space and time, and general relativity, which extended these ideas to gravitation. Both these theories are explored quantitatively, together with wide-ranging applications of these ideas, from the nuclear energy which powers the sun to black holes and the big bang theory of the birth of the universe.

FALL 2005 V55.0205 Natural Science I: Exploration of Light and Color
Prof. Sleator (Physics) syllabus
Color science is an interdisciplinary endeavor that incorporates both the physics and the perception of light and color. It provides an understanding of visual effects that dramatically enhances our appreciation of what we see. The study of color, light, and optics has applications to photography, art, natural phenomena, and technology. We also study the eye as both an optical and an image processing instrument. Topics include how color is classified and measured (colorimetry), how light is produced, how atoms and molecules affect light, how the human retina detects light, and how lenses are used in cameras.

FALL 2005 V55.0206 Natural Science I: From Plato to Pluto
Prof. Schucking (Physics) syllabus
Begins with the basic phenomena of astronomy: the earth and sky, the motions of stars, sun, moon, and planets. After this introduction considers the historical development of astronomy from antiquity to the 17th century. Concludes with the space-age exploration of the solar system. Laboratory exercises help to familiarize students with basic astronomical concepts.

FALL 2005 V55.0208 Natural Science I: The Human Body - The Ultimate Machine
Prof. Walker (NYU School of Medicine) syllabus
Highlights the role of mechanical principles in explaining the function and maintenance of the human body, and the application of biomedical engineering in devising treatments when body parts or functions fail mechanically or biologically. From an engineering point of view, the capabilities of the human body, are truly remarkable. The musculoskeletal system enables the body to perform myriad movements and functions. The cardiovascular and pulmonary systems are marvels of fluid mechanics and transport. The various senses act as inputs to discern and act on the external environment. The neurological system provides the control for all activities and functions. From a structural point of view, the human body develops and maintains itself by the action of mechanical stimuli on complex biological systems. For example, stresses and motions caused by body movements lead to cyclic deformations in the cells within the tissues, producing new tissue and activating reparative processes; and this concept applies to many other systems in the body. Eventually some of the structures break down, a situation for which the field of bioengineering has produced treatments including artificial parts and organs, augments, transplants, grafts, tissue engineered parts, and external functional aids. Supporting topics include design methodology and guidelines on carrying out, documenting, and presenting research. Guest speakers will present their specialties in related areas. Student participation and continuing assessment is emphasized.

SPRING 2006 V55.0202 Natural Science I: The Cosmos and the Earth
Prof. Adler (MAP) syllabus
Modern scientific findings relating to major questions about the universe and our place in it. What is the origin of the universe? How did the elements form? Where do stars and planets come from? How did life on Earth originate? How did intelligence develop and human beings come to exist? Are we alone in the cosmos? Topics include the big bang theory of the creation of the universe and the formation of elements during stellar evolution; the constituents of the universe, from the large-scale realm of the galaxies to exotic objects such as neutron stars and black holes; the evolution of life and intelligence in the context of the sometimes catastrophic geologic history of our planet; and the possibilities for intelligent life in the cosmos.

SPRING 2006 V55.0202 Natural Science I: The Cosmos and the Earth
Prof. Weiner (Physics) syllabus

SPRING 2006 V55.0203 Natural Science I: Energy and the Environment
Prof. Jordan (MAP) syllabus
Uses the principles of chemistry to analyze the environmental implications of energy usage and policy decisions concerning energy and the environment. Topics include the atmosphere, ozone and its depletion, greenhouse gases, and acid rain. Case studies from the New York City environment, such as the Hudson River, are used to focus discussions. Finally, questions about the basis of our need for energy, fossil fuels and their supplies, and the available alternatives are discussed.

SPRING 2006 V55.0204 Natural Science I: Einstein's Universe
Prof. Dvali (Physics) syllabus
Addresses the science and life of Einstein in the context of 20th-century physics, beginning with 19th-century ideas about light, space, and time in order to understand why Einstein's work was so innovative. Einstein's most influential ideas are contained in his theories of special relativity, which reformulated conceptions of space and time, and general relativity, which extended these ideas to gravitation. Both these theories are quantitatively explored, together with wide-ranging applications of these ideas, from the nuclear energy which powers the sun to black holes and the big bang theory of the birth of the universe.

SPRING 2006 V55.0205 Natural Science I: Exploration of Light and Color
Prof. Adler (MAP) syllabus
Color science is an interdisciplinary endeavor that incorporates both the physics and the perception of light and color. It provides an understanding of visual effects that dramatically enriches our appreciation of what we see. The study of color, light, and optics has applications to photography, art, natural phenomena, and technology. We also study the eye as both an optical and an image-processing instrument. Topics include how color is classified and measured (colorimetry), how light is produced, how atoms and molecules affect light, how the human retina detects light, and how lenses are used in cameras.

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Natural Science II

The prerequisite for all Natural Science II courses is completion of or exemption from Quantitative Reasoning, or completion of an approved substitute course. The completion of Natural Science I is recommended prior to taking Natural Science II.

FALL 2005 V55.0303 Natural Science II: Human Genetics
Prof. Small (Biology) syllabus
We are currently witnessing a revolution in human genetics, where the ability to scrutinize and manipulate DNA has allowed scientists to gain unprecedented insights into the role of heredity. Beginning with an overview of the principles of inheritance, such as cell division and Mendelian genetics, we explore the foundations and frontiers of modern human genetics, with an emphasis on understanding and evaluating new discoveries. Descending to the molecular level, we investigate how genetic information is encoded in DNA and how mutations affect gene function. These molecular foundations are used to explore the science and social impact of genetic technology, including topics such as genetic testing, genetically modified foods, DNA fingerprinting, and the Human Genome Project. Laboratory projects emphasize the diverse methods that scientists employ to study heredity.

FALL 2005 V55.0303 Natural Science II: Human Genetics
Prof. Jordan (MAP) syllabus
We are currently witnessing a revolution in human genetics, where the ability to scrutinize and manipulate DNA has allowed scientists to gain unprecedented insights into the role of heredity. Beginning with an overview of the principles of inheritance such as cell division and Mendelian genetics, we explore the foundations and frontiers of modern human genetics, with an emphasis on understanding and evaluating new discoveries. Descending to the molecular level, we investigate how genetic information is encoded in DNA and how mutations affect gene function. These molecular foundations are used to explore the science and social impact of genetic technology, including topics such as genetic testing, genetically modified foods, DNA fingerprinting, and the Human Genome Project. Laboratory projects emphasize the diverse methods that scientists employ to study heredity.

FALL 2005 V55.0306 Natural Science II: Brain and Behavior
Prof. Glimcher (Neural Science) syllabus
The relationship of the brain to behavior, beginning with the basic elements that make up the nervous system and how electrical and chemical signals in the brain work to effect behavior. Using this foundation, we examine how the brain learns and how it creates new behaviors, together with the brain mechanisms that are involved in sensory experience, movement, hunger and thirst, sexual behaviors, the experience of emotions, perception and cognition, memory and the brain's plasticity. Other key topics include whether certain behavioral disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder can be accounted for by changes in the function of the brain, and how drugs can alter behavior and brain function.

Note: Handling of animals and animal brain tissue is required in some labs.

FALL 2005 V55.0309 Natural Science II: The Body - How it Works
Prof. Goldberg (Chemistry) syllabus
The human body is a complex system of mutually interdependent molecules, cells, tissues, organs and organ systems. We examine the human body with the goal of understanding how physiological systems operate at these varying levels. Examples include the circulation of blood, the function of our muscles, the utilization of oxygen in respiration, and how our immune system detects and fights foreign invaders. Disturbing the delicate balance of these systems can produce various human diseases, which will also be examined throughout the course. Laboratory work provides firsthand experience with studying molecular processes, cell structures, and physiological systems.

FALL 2005 V55.0310 Natural Science II: The Molecules of Life
Prof. Jordan (MAP) syllabus
Our lives are increasingly influenced by the availability of new pharmaceuticals, ranging from drugs that lower cholesterol to those that influence behavior. We examine the chemistry and biology of biomolecules that make up the molecular machinery of the cell. Critical to the function of such biomolecules is their three-dimensional structure that endows them with a specific function. This information provides the scientific basis for understanding drug action and how new drugs are designed. Beginning with the principles of chemical bonding, molecular structure, and acid-base properties that govern the structure and function of biomolecules, we apply these principles to study the varieties of protein architecture and how proteins serve as enzymes to facilitate biochemical reactions. We conclude with a study of molecular genetics and how recent information from the Human Genome Project is stimulating new approaches to diagnosing disease and designing drug treatments.

FALL 2005 V55.0311 Natural Science II: Lessons from the Biosphere
Prof. Volk (Biology) syllabus
Provides a foundation of knowledge about how Earth's biosphere works. This includes the biggest ideas and findings about biology on the global scale-the scale in which we live. Such knowledge is especially crucial today because we humans are perturbing so many systems within the biosphere. We explore four main topics: (1) Evolution of Life: How did life come to be what it is today? (2) Life's Diversity: What is life today on the global scale? (3) Cycles of Matter: How do life and the non-living environment interact? (4) The Human Guild: How are humans changing the biosphere and how might we consider our future within the biosphere? Laboratory experiments are complemented by an exploration at the American Museum of Natural History.

SPRING 2006 V55.0303 Natural Science II: Human Genetics
Prof. Goldberg (Chemistry) syllabus
We are currently witnessing a revolution in human genetics, where the ability to scrutinize and manipulate DNA has allowed scientists to gain unprecedented insights into the role of heredity. Beginning with an overview of the principles of inheritance, such as cell division and Mendelian genetics, we explore the foundations and frontiers of modern human genetics, with an emphasis on understanding and evaluating new discoveries. Descending to the molecular level, we investigate how genetic information is encoded in DNA and how mutations affect gene function. These molecular foundations are used to explore the science and social impact of genetic technology, including topics such as genetic testing, genetically modified foods, DNA fingerprinting, and the Human Genome Project. Laboratory projects emphasize the diverse methods that scientists employ to study heredity.

SPRING 2006 V55.0305 Natural Science II: Human Origins
Prof. Disotell (Anthropology) syllabus
An introduction to the approaches and methods scientists use to investigate the origins and evolutionary history of our own species. This interdisciplinary study synthesizes research from a number of different areas of science. Topics include reconstructing evolutionary relationships using molecular and morphological data, the mitochondrial Eve hypothesis, ancient DNA, human variation and natural selection, the use of stable isotopes to reconstruct dietary behavior in prehistoric humans, solving a 2,000-year-old murder mystery, the importance of studies of chimpanzees for understanding human behavior, and the 4-million-year-old fossil evidence for human evolution.

SPRING 2006 V55.0306 Natural Science II: Brain and Behavior
Prof. Hawken (Neural Science) syllabus
The relationship of the brain to behavior, beginning with the basic elements that make up the nervous system and how electrical and chemical signals in the brain work to effect behavior. Using this foundation, we examine how the brain learns and how it creates new behaviors, together with the brain mechanisms that are involved in sensory experience, movement, hunger and thirst, sexual behaviors, the experience of emotions, perception and cognition, memory and the brain's plasticity. Other key topics include whether certain behavioral disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder can be accounted for by changes in the function of the brain, and how drugs can alter behavior and brain function.

Note: Handling of animals and animal brain tissue is required in some labs.

SPRING 2006 V55.0310 Natural Science II: The Molecules of Life
Prof. Jordan (MAP) syllabus
Our lives are increasingly influenced by the availability of new pharmaceuticals, ranging from drugs that lower cholesterol to those that influence behavior. We examine the chemistry and biology of biomolecules that make up the molecular machinery of the cell. Critical to the function of such biomolecules is their three-dimensional structure that endows them with a specific function. This information provides the scientific basis for understanding drug action and how new drugs are designed. Beginning with the principles of chemical bonding, molecular structure, and acid-base properties that govern the structure and function of biomolecules, we apply these principles to study the varieties of protein architecture and how proteins serve as enzymes to facilitate biochemical reactions. We conclude with a study of molecular genetics and how recent information from the Human Genome Project is stimulating new approaches to diagnosing disease and designing drug treatments.

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Conversations of the West

FALL 2005 V55.0400 Conversations of the West: Topics in Antiquity and Modernity—Tragedy
Prof. Reiss (Comparative Literature) syllabus
The concepts, performance, and experiences of "tragedy" and "the tragic," traced initially in the West, then into early and modern Europe and to their later re-use and re-experience especially in contemporary Africa and the African diaspora. During and since the European Renaissance, tragedy as usually been explained as a performance of some universal constraining reality in which humanity is caught, or of some eternal and ubiquitous limitations by which the human spirit is wholly bound. It is suggested that such claims have served to make Western tragedy a "cultural instrument" for particular kinds of aesthetic and political relations to different cultures. Over the last four decades, African and Caribbean writers in particular have turned this "instrument" "back," writing major works that are political and aesthetic commentaries on that Western tradition and its impositions, as well as on their own cultures. Emphasizing this contemporary transcultural phenomenon, Caribbean and African writings will be set constantly against European writings, as part of an ongoing "conversation." Readings: Aeschylus' Oresteia; Job; Sophocles' Oedipus, Antigone; Aristotle's Poetics; Rotimi's The Gods Are Not to Blame; Bemba's Noces posthumes de Santigone (English); Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy; Walcott's "What the Twilight Says"; Euripides' Alcestis, Bacchae; Sutherland's Edufa; Soyinka's Bacchae of Euripides; Matthew’s Passion; Shakespeare's King Lear, Othello; Carlin's Not Now, Sweet Desdemona; Lorca's Blood Wedding; Brecht's Mother Courage; Clark's Song of a Goat; Aidoo's Anowa; Hussein's Kinjeketile; Sofola's Wedlock of the Gods; Césaire's A Season in the Congo.

FALL 2005 V55.0401 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Prof. Tylus (Italian) syllabus
Reluctant Heroes and Cultures in Conflict: In much great literature, the quest for meaning in a world that threatens to be senseless takes on the form of an actual physical quest to the realm of the dead, to the land of one's forefathers, or to the place of one's own death. Such quests in turn tend to define the genre of epic. We will explore epic poetry in the ancient world and how it was inflected by what could be called rival claims: by women writers and characters, by a Platonism deeply hostile to storytelling, by Christianity and Islam. As we read, we will talk about the creation of communities within and without the poems, and thus about literature and its relationship to religious, social, and other cultural practices. Finally, we will discuss how cultures and communities revise their—and others'—pasts in order to create narratives conducive to present needs. How does the Hebrew Bible revise Canaanite myths? How do the Romans rewrite works of the Greeks, or Christians writings of the Romans? Works include Mesopotamian hymns to Inanna; Genesis, Ruth, Mark, Luke; Homer's Iliad; poems of Sappho and Akhmatova; selections from Plato, Augustine, Vergil's Aeneid, and Auerbach's Mimesis; early Christian saints' lives; Sufi poetry; Dante's Inferno; The Name of the Rose (film version).

FALL 2005 V55.0402 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Renaissance
Prof. Klein (General Studies) syllabus
Argument, Violence, and Agreement in the Social Thought. Do people assemble into tribes, city-states, principalities, nations, churches, etc., out of fear of violence or because of some innate sociable urge? Do they come to agreement through reason or does their "reason" mask unconscious or unacknowledged capitulation to brute natural forces? Can thinking about the nature of our reason and discourse lead us beyond the circle of nature, or is such philosophizing simply more idealistic covering up of the ugly predicament of humankind? Using a few trenchant models from contemporary social theory as background, we will examine some Western thinkers' explorations of these questions, at the same time asking how a thinker's own civilization (with its own forms of violence, subjugation, peace, and beauty) shapes his contribution to the ongoing discussion. In our case this will involve examining the very idea of "The Renaissance" as a rebirth of classical civilization; and we will ask: Why "his" civilization? What was "she" doing while he was writing? Authors: Plato, Thucydides, Epicurus, Aristotle, Tacitus, Plutarch, Machiavelli, More, Shakespeare, Hobbes.

FALL 2005 V55.0403 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Enlightenment
Prof. Manin (Politics) syllabus
An introduction to central themes of modern Western political thought and their sources in both the Judeo-Christian tradition and ancient Greece. Topics include: conceptions of human nature, foundations of human society, the place of law, the notion of covenant, the sources and nature of political authority, individuals' rights and duties. Readings: Genesis, Exodus, Romans; Sophocles' Antigone; Thucydides' Peloponnesian War; Plato's Republic; Aristotle's Politics; Hobbes' Leviathan; Locke's Second Treatise on Government; Rousseau's Discourse on the Origins of Inequality.

FALL 2005 V55.0403 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Enlightenment
Prof. Connolly (Classics) syllabus
"Know yourself" was the phrase inscribed over the entrance to the temple of Apollo at Delphi. How did the ancient Greeks and Romans come to know themselves and those around them—as mortal men and women, civilized or barbarian, slaves to fate or masters of their destinies, naturally virtuous or vicious—and how did Enlightenment thinkers rework classical thought about the self? We trace the arguments of historians, philosophers, poets, and priests in defense of their chosen paths to self-knowledge: memory, imagination, reason, passion, taste, and religious devotion. We ask: how do the communities we create (family, nation, race) affect individual identity? Must we understand the past to make sense of the present? How do philosophical ideals and literary inventions relate to practical ideas about the truly well-lived life? What about the unpredictable effects of love, the irrational, the unknown, and luck? Readings: Genesis, Exodus, Acts, Romans; Euripides' Bacchae; Sophocles' Oedipus; Plato's Symposium; Thucydides' Peloponnesian War; Vergil's Aeneid; Augustine's Confessions; Kant's "What is Enlightenment?", "Perpetual Peace", "Idea for a Universal History"; Rousseau's Social Contract; Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women; Shelley's Frankenstein.

FALL 2005 V55.0403 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Enlightenment
Prof. Chazan (Hebrew & Judaic Studies) syllabus
Focuses on the understanding of knowledge and truth in antiquity and the Enlightenment. Divergent perspectives on knowledge and truth have important implications for society and the individual. They lead to alternative notions of how society should be ordered, who should exercise power in society, the goals of individual endeavor, and the nature of individual fulfillment. Key texts from antiquity and the Enlightenment will be read and analyzed with these issues uppermost in mind. Readings: Genesis, Exodus, Luke, Acts, Galatians; Sophocles' Antigone; Euripides' Bacchae; Plato's Apology and Symposium; Augustine's Confessions; Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-Politicus; Locke's Letter Concerning Toleration; Lessing's Nathan the Wise; Montesquieu's Persian Letters; Voltaire's Letters Concerning the English Nation; Paine's Age of Reason.

FALL 2005 V55.0403 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Enlightenment
Prof. Goldwyn (French) syllabus
Focuses on voyage, discovery, errantry, and exile in key ancient and Enlightenment texts and how these stories transformed and shaped understanding of the world, the "other," and the self. We examine the way the Enlightenment thinkers revisited, reinterpreted, redefined, and, at times, rejected their intellectual and cultural legacy. Readings: Euripides' Medea; Genesis, Exodus, Job, Luke, and Acts; Plato's Symposium; Vergil's Aeneid; Augustine's Confessions; Swift's Gulliver's Travels; Voltaire's Candide; Diderot's Supplement to the Voyage of Bougainville; and Graffigny's Letters from a Peruvian Woman.

FALL 2005 V55.0403 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Enlightenment
Prof. Starr (English) syllabus
Important and dynamic moments in the history of the Western engagement with concepts of the imagination. What roles does the imagination play in religion, philosophy, and literature? What does it mean to "imagine" for the writers of Hebrew scripture, for Plato, or for Descartes, Hume, or Jane Austen? What are the limits of imagination, and what do those limits tell us? How does imagining relate to thinking, desiring, and knowing? Readings: Genesis, Job, Revelation; Homer's Odyssey; Plato's Symposium and Phaedrus; Vergil's Aeneid; Augustine's Confessions; Descartes' Meditations; Hume's Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding; Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Austen's Northanger Abbey.

FALL 2005 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Mitsis (Classics) syllabus
We will be reading, not kneeling at the shrine of, a selection of ancient and more recent texts which, whether one likes it or not, have set a standard of measurement for those wishing to engage in any authentic forms of individual thinking or of moral and social criticism. Since these texts also happen to be inescapably difficult and complex, this course offers no reassuring thematic overviews, dumbed-down summaries of historical contexts, or hip nods to contemporary popular culture. What it offers instead is an opportunity to become more practiced in the pleasures and pains of aesthetic experience, in the rational canons of moral and political argument, and in what used to be characterized as the proper use of one's solitude, that is, examining what it means to be a human being faced with death, or perhaps even worse, faced with eternal life. Readings from Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, Thucydides, Plato, Lucretius, Epictetus, Hebrew and Christian scriptures, Augustine, Mill, Marx, Nietzsche, Tolstoy, Freud, Proust.

FALL 2005 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Renzi (MAP) syllabus
Religion, human self-understanding, and the basis of political life. Readings: Plato's Apology, Gorgias, and Republic; Aristophanes' Clouds; Sophocles' Oedipus and Antigone; Augustine's Confessions; Genesis, Exodus, Matthew, Luke, Acts; Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling; Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality; Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents.

FALL 2005 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century—Writing Intensive
Prof. Renzi (MAP) syllabus
Religion, human self-understanding, and the basis of political life. Readings: Plato's Apology, Gorgias, and Republic; Aristophanes' Clouds; Sophocles' Oedipus and Antigone; Augustine's Confessions; Genesis, Exodus, Matthew, Luke, Acts; Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling; Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality; Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents.

Note: Offered in conjunction with selected sections of V40.0100, Writing the Essay.

FALL 2005 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Patell (English) syllabus
Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is widely thought to be one of the greatest masterpieces of American, and indeed Western, literature. This genre-defying book mixes comic, tragic, and epic modes as it wrestles with questions about the relationship between free will and fate that have tantalized humankind from antiquity to the present. By studying Melville's engagement with his classical and biblical inheritances, we seek to understand the sources of the cosmopolitan vision from which his novel springs. If Moby-Dick is "the Great American Novel," then what does that tell us about the nature of "America"? From what kind of "America" does Moby-Dick arise, and how different is that "America" from the one that the novel seeks to promote? In addition to Moby-Dick, readings include Kriwaczek's In Search of Zarathustra, selections from the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, Sophocles' Oedipus, Vergil's Aeneid, Shakespeare's Hamlet and King Lear, selections from Emerson and Nietzsche, George Lakoff's Moral Politics.

Note: Offered in conjunction with the residential education Explorations program and open to freshmen only. Selected recitation sections are reserved for students in the residence hall living-learning community for the course. Students in the remaining recitations need not live in the residence hall but are also welcome to take part in the Explorations co-curricular activities, such as museum outings, walking tours, and trips to the theater and opera. These events are designed to extend conversations about the course beyond the classroom into the city beyond.

FALL 2005 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Calhoun (Sociology) syllabus
A guide to the intellectual heritage distinctive to the West, with special attention to the nature of the person, faith, ethics, and the social order. The works we study continue to shape the way people understand themselves and the world. We situate them in historical context, looking for ways in which later authors responded to themes introduced by earlier ones. Readings include: Genesis, Exodus, Luke, 1 Corinthians; Sophocles' Oedipus; Plato's Apology and Crito; Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics; Epictetus' Discourses; Augustine's Confessions; Shelley's Frankenstein; Tocqueville's Democracy in America; Mill's On Liberty; Marx and Engels' The Communist Manifesto; Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling; Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality; Weber's Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism; and Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment.

FALL 2005 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Ulfers (German) syllabus
A conversation between two paradigms informing Western culture: the dominant, optimistic one, revolving around notions of historical progress toward absolute knowledge and utopian visions of the world and society; and the subterranean, pessimistic one, which looks on the former as a human construct or fiction that must come to naught. Readings: works from the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, Plato, and Sophocles; Augustine's Confessions; selections from Darwin; Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto; Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy; Freud's Interpretation of Dreams; Kafka's Metamorphosis; Mann's Death in Venice.

SPRING 2006 V55.0401 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Prof. K. Fleming (History) syllabus
Aims to familiarize students with the origins and recurrence of central themes and problems in Western culture, specifically with the so-called "Judeo-Christian" and Hellenic traditions--the two traditions underpinning Western cultural development from classical antiquity on--and the reinterpretation, reception, and, in some instances, rejection of those traditions during the Middle Ages. Special attention is given to the textual genres that characterized these two periods. Texts of antiquity include the Hebrew Bible, Plato's Republic, Sophoclean tragedies, and Homer's Iliad. Medieval texts include readings from Chaucer, Boccaccio, Dante, and the Thousand and One Nights. Provides a historical and social context for the texts under consideration and an assessment of the ways in which Medieval thinkers attempted to reconcile their own unique historical circumstances with the legacy of the classical Judeo-Christian and Hellenic traditions. Consideration is also given to the questions: What do we mean when we refer to "the West"? Why are the "Middle Ages" called the "Middle" ages?

SPRING 2006 V55.0401 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Prof. Momma (English) syllabus
Introduces students to major texts from antiquity (including Hebrew and Christian scriptures, the writings of Plato, Greek tragedy, ancient epic, and Augustine's Confessions) and compares these with counterparts in the Middle Ages (such as Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, the Old English heroic poem Beowulf, Chrétien de Troyes's Arthurian Romance Lancelot, Dante's Divine Comedy). Consider how medieval Europe resembles or differs from the ancient Mediterranean world, and how these varied cultures constitute the foundation of the West as we know it. Topics include literature and performance, different genres of writing, transmission of knowledge, the idea of human, and ethics manifested in different belief systems.

SPRING 2006 V55.0402 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Renaissance
Prof. Gilman (English) syllabus
The "Renaissance" understands itself as an age bearing witness to the "rebirth" of classical antiquity. In art, philosophy, and literature it also assumes the task of reconciling the cultural inheritance of Greece and Rome with the Christian tradition (itself entering into a moment of crisis as allegiances split between the Catholic church and the "reformed" church of Luther and Calvin). Our first task is to look at antiquity; our second, to explore the ways in which European culture between 1400 and 1700 invents the modern by making itself conversant with the past. Readings: Homer's Odyssey; Sophocles' Antigone; Plato's Phaedo and Symposium; Vergil's Aeneid; Genesis, Exodus, Job, Luke, Acts, John; Augustine's Confessions; Castiglione's Book of the Courtier; Machiavelli's Prince; Erasmus's Praise of Folly; Montaigne's Essays; More's Utopia; Shakespeare's Tempest.

SPRING 2006 V55.0402 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Renaissance
Prof. Zezula (French) syllabus
Renaissance—the French term for rebirth—refers to the epoch in which the awareness of the dignity of the human being, inspired and nurtured in many shapes and forms by the legacy of antiquity, set in motion the flowering of arts and sciences, and the rise of the world we now call "modern." Readings: selections from Hebrew and Christian Scriptures; Hesiod's Theogony; Sophocles' Oedipus and Antigone; Plato's Apology and selections from Republic; Petronius' Satyricon; More's Utopia; Machiavelli's Prince and Mandragola; Cellini's Autobiography; Marlowe's Doctor Faustus; selections from Castiglione, Marguerite de Navarre, Montaigne, Rabelais.

SPRING 2006 V55.0403 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Enlightenment
Prof. Rubenstein (Hebrew & Judaic Studies) syllabus
Beginning with the collision of the "Judeo-Christian" and Hellenistic traditions and their encounter in the Christian Scriptures and Augustine, we see Enlightenment thinkers grapple with the fusion of these traditions they had inherited, subjecting both to serious criticism and revising them as a new tradition—science and technology—rises to prominence. Reading from the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, Sophocles, Plato, Augustine, Montesquieu, Pope, Voltaire, and Rousseau.

SPRING 2006 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Krabbenhoft (Spanish & Portuguese) syllabus
Divided into four units—Origin, Morality, Community, and Self—studies these concepts in antiquity and the modern period, in a wide range of literary, scientific, philosophical, and religious texts: Genesis, Exodus, Luke, Acts; Plato's Symposium; Euripides' Medea; selections from Virgil's Aeneid, Augustine's Confessions, and Darwin's Origin of Species; Henry Drummond's "Biogenesis"; Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto; Mill's Utilitarianism and On Liberty; Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality; selections from Bergson's Creative Evolution and Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents; Henry James' What Maisie Knew.

SPRING 2006 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Renzi (MAP) syllabus
Religion, human self-understanding, and the basis of political life. Readings: Plato's Apology, Gorgias, and Republic; Aristophanes' Clouds; Sophocles' Oedipus and Antigone; Augustine's Confessions; Genesis, Exodus, Matthew, Luke, Acts; Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling; Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality; Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents.

SPRING 2006 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Ulfers (German) syllabus
A conversation between two paradigms informing Western culture: the dominant, optimistic one, revolving around notions of historical progress toward absolute knowledge and utopian visions of the world and society; and the subterranean, pessimistic one, which looks on the former as a human construct or fiction that must come to naught. Readings: works from the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, Plato, and Sophocles; Augustine's Confessions; selections from Darwin; Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto; Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy; Freud's Interpretation of Dreams; Kafka's Metamorphosis; Mann's Death in Venice.

SPRING 2006 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century—Writing Intensive
Prof. Renzi (MAP) syllabus
Religion, human self-understanding, and the basis of political life. Readings: Plato's Apology, Gorgias, and Republic; Aristophanes' Clouds; Sophocles' Oedipus and Antigone; Augustine's Confessions; Genesis, Exodus, Matthew, Luke, Acts; Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling; Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality; Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents.

Note: Offered in conjunction with selected sections of V40.0100, Writing the Essay.

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World Cultures

FALL 2005 V55.0501 World Cultures: The Ancient Near East and Egypt
Prof. Goelet (Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies) syllabus
Egypt and Mesopotamia, the two great non-Western civilizations of the Ancient Near East, examined through ancient texts illustrating their historical development and culture. These are the civilizations where writing began; and each had a significant impact on Israel, Greece, Rome, and, eventually, the West. Egypt and Mesopotamia are compared and contrasted for developments such as urbanism and state formation, imperialism, religion, warfare, family life, trade and economy, kingship, the role of men and women, literature, cosmology, and art. We explore literature in the broadest sense, including documents that might otherwise simply be classed as historical.

FALL 2005 V55.0502 World Cultures: Islamic Societies
Prof. Chelkowski (Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies) syllabus
Examines the common base and regional variations of Islamic societies. An "Islamic society" is here understood as one that shares, either as operative present or as historical past, that common religious base called Islam. For Muslims, Islam is not simply a set of beliefs or observances but also includes a history; its study is thus by nature historical, topical, and regional. Here our particular focus is on the society of Shi'i Muslims. Shi'ism has been neglected in the last 200 years of the Western study of Islam, and only since the 1978–79 Islamic Revolution in Iran has it received attention in the West. Now, with American forces in Iraq, Shi'ism is suddenly one of the main topics of interest for the news media. The Shi'is of Iraq are the majority—some 60%—of the population, but historically they have been deprived of power in the government and of access to the political and economic life of the country.

FALL 2005 V55.0505 World Cultures: Africa
Prof. Beidelman (Anthropology) syllabus
Key concepts for understanding sub-Saharan African cultures and societies, and ways of thinking critically and consulting sources sensibly when studying non-Western cultures. Topics include: problems in the interpretation of African literature and history, gender issues, the question of whether African thought and values constitute a unique system of thinking, the impact of the slave trade and colonialism on African societies and culture, and the difficulties of and means for translating and interpreting the system of thought and behavior in an African traditional society into terms meaningful to Westerners. Among the readings are novels, current philosophical theory, and feminist interpretations of black and white accounts of African societies.

FALL 2005 V55.0507 World Cultures: Japan
Prof. Vincent (East Asian Studies) syllabus
Japanese "culture" has been the subject of endless theorizing by ideologues both inside and outside Japan. As the only non-western nation seriously to challenge the military and economic hegemony of the West, Japan has always both demanded and resisted explanation. The result is a bizarre mess of contradictions: Japan is alternately depicted as a place where history either stands still in a past steeped with "tradition" or accelerated into a postmodern dystopia. Students are introduced to the study of culture and modernity through an examination of Japan's experience over the past two centuries. Topics include the conversion of people into populations and of place into abstract space, the rise of nationalism and colonialism, the invention of translation, and the rise of the "individual." Readings include literary and polemical texts that give an understanding both of the massive changes wrought by the advent of modernity in Japan and how those changes were understood, narrated, and politicized.

FALL 2005 V55.0509 World Cultures: The Caribbean
Prof. Khan (Anthropology) syllabus
Examines the impact of the Caribbean's long colonial history through race, class, culture, gender, and attending to the diversity of peoples who live on the islands. Known for its beauty, cultural vitality, and mix of peoples, cultures, and languages, the Caribbean is where today's global economy began, some 500 years ago. Its sugar economy and history of slave labor and colonialism made it the site of massive transplantations of peoples and cultures from Africa for more than four centuries and from Asia since the mid-19th century, and of a sizable influx of peoples from Europe all along. Readings examine the history of the regions differing forms of colonialism; the present postcolonial economic and political structures; anthropological material on family and community life, religious beliefs and practices, gender roles and ideologies; and ways in which national, ethnic, and racial identities are expressed today.

FALL 2005 V55.0509 World Cultures: The Caribbean
Prof. Aching (Spanish & Portuguese) syllabus
The Caribbean and Revolutionary Thought: Examines the Caribbean in four units as a site where radical challenges to and within Western thought have emerged. Begins with the 16th-century theological problem of how to explain the existence of the American continent when these lands were unaccounted for in the Scriptures and the debate in the Spanish court and universities on whether the "Indian" possessed a soul. The second focus is on the enigmas of freedom during the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804), when slaves defeated Napoleon's army, thereby creating the world's only successful slave rebellion and the second independent nation-state in the hemisphere. Third, we consider the Cuban Socialist Revolution (1959) through an interrogation of the relationship between man and society that Fidel Castro and Che Guevara advocated. Finally, we ask whether the Caribbean is currently undergoing a revolution based on invigorated, neoliberal economics. Here, the focus is on Jamaica and its long traditions of both participating in and resisting the world economy. Materials for analysis include political speeches, films, and song lyrics.

FALL 2005 V55.0510 World Cultures: Russia between East and West
Prof. Kotsonis (History) syllabus
Focuses on distinctive historical and geographical dichotomies and issues in Russian culture. Emphasis is on primary documents, including literary works, travel notes, works of art, and political statements from all periods, chosen to establish the particular matrix of competing positions that make up the Russian national and cultural identity.

FALL 2005 V55.0511 World Cultures: Middle Eastern Societies
Prof. Fahmy (Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies) syllabus
The histories, societies, and cultures of "the Middle East"—a relatively recent name for a very diverse region of western Asia and northern Africa. Focusing on the period from the heyday of Ottoman power in Europe and the Middle East in the sixteenth century until the present, we use a range of materials, including translated texts, novels and short stories, films and videos, and photographs, to explore changing forms of individual and collective identity, patterns of social life, and modes of government. We pay special attention to how people in the region experienced and grappled with the profound transformations their societies underwent from the eighteenth century onward, especially the expansion of European economic, political, and cultural power; colonial rule; and the rise of new nation-states. We conclude by discussing the Middle East today and some of the issues its peoples face.

FALL 2005 V55.0512 World Cultures: China
Prof. Waley-Cohen (History) syllabus
Major themes of Chinese culture and civilization ranging from antiquity to the early twentieth century. Topics include art and politics, loyalty and dissent, women and gender, social organization, the civil/military relationship, unification and fragmentation, foreign relations, material culture (including food), science, law, belief systems (Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism), and the role and importance of history. Readings focus on primary source material in translation, including classical texts, biographies, memoirs, government documents, novels, poetry, and other personal and private writings.

FALL 2005 V55.0512 World Cultures: China
Prof. Ben-Dor (History) syllabus
China, Ancient and Imperial: A cultural history of traditional China from some of the earliest historical records (about 1200 B.C.E.) up through the late imperial period (about 1800 C.E.). Covers major historical events, developments, and trends: social, political, economic, military, philosophical, literary, and cultural. Primary sources (read in translation) are the main focus. These include some of the most important writings from the Chinese tradition—bone inscriptions (used for divination), early Chinese philosophy and thought, dynastic histories, historical biographies, novels, satires, poetry, songs, ritual manuals, diaries, scientific treatises, philological studies, political debates, and erotic literature—as well as some Chinese television adaptations of historical novels. Takes an interdisciplinary approach, integrating history with literary studies, philosophy, sociology, and anthropology, in order to understand these works in their historical context. Emphasizes the various textual traditions that emerged in China—Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism—and how knowledge was communicated, transmitted, preserved, and developed in China and its vicinity (mainly Japan, Korea, and Vietnam).

FALL 2005 V55.0514 World Cultures: Ancient Israel
Prof. D. Fleming (Hebrew & Judaic Studies) syllabus
The people of the Hebrew Bible understood themselves to be united as an ancient tribe called Israel, a name that lay behind even the eventual state. Working backward from the fullest early definition of Israel, when the Hebrew Bible was taking final form, toward the time of older origins, we push back in time, using the Bible as the primary point of reference, while examining various independent evidence. Writing projects focus mainly on interpretation of biblical texts.

FALL 2005 V55.0515 World Cultures: Latin America
Prof. Yúdice (American Studies) syllabus
Explores the cultural, social, and political organization of indigenous people before the period of European colonization. Studies the dynamics of the colonial encounter, focusing on such themes as indigenous responses to European rule, the formation of "Indian" society, and the interaction of Europeans, Africans, and indigenous people. Considers postcolonial Latin America, focusing on themes such as political culture, competing ideologies of economics and social development, and the construction of collective identities based on region, race, ethnicity, gender, and class. Readings consist mostly of primary sources and allow us to hear diverse voices within Latin American society, including works by European conquerors, Inca and Aztec descendants in the colonial period, and African and creole slaves. Course materials also include novels, short stories, films, photographs, and music.

FALL 2005 V55.0516 World Cultures: India
Prof. Rajagopal (Culture & Communication) syllabus
By examining representations of the Indian diaspora in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Caribbean, we see that a fixed idea of "India" is misleading in the effort to understand its changing manifestations. We investigate the ways in which colonialism reshaped indigenous society, as well as the currents of religious, cultural, and political change that developed in the process, leading to Indian nationalism and its contemporary variations.

SPRING 2006 V55.0500 World Cultures: Nations and Nationalism - Islam, Jews and the West
Prof. Berenson (History) syllabus
Considers problems of nationalism and national identity in the modern world: what a nation is, how nations came to be, what historical experiences particular nations have undergone, and what forms of nationalism their peoples have displayed. In pursuing these objectives, we examine different theories of nationalism and then look in detail at four case studies, each representing a different form of nationalism: 1) The rise of Arab nations and nationalism amid the collapse empire—Ottoman, British, and French (1914-58); the extreme racist nationalism epitomized by Nazi Germany (1918-45); the nationalism of the movement for national liberation in Algeria (1954-62); and the rival religion-tinged nationalisms of Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians, since 1917. We conclude with some reflections on the persistence of nationalism in our globalized world.

SPRING 2006 V55.0502 World Cultures: Islamic Societies
Prof. Katz (Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies) syllabus
One of the most widespread and fastest-growing religious traditions in the contemporary world, Islam attracts a disproportionate share of media attention, much of it negative and distorted. Through readings of primary texts in translation, we examine and problematize prevalent images of Islam and engage with various facets of the tradition. Often perceived as monolithic, Islamic discourse provides a range of symbols, concepts, and practices that have been appropriated and re-interpreted in many ways in different historical and cultural contexts. We survey many of the most influential trends in Islamic thought and practice (including Islamic law, ritual, and mysticism) and trace the ways in which they have been redefined and transformed in changing circumstances.

SPRING 2006 V55.0502 World Cultures: Islamic Societies
Prof. Gilsenan (Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies) syllabus
One of the most widespread and fastest-growing religious traditions in the contemporary world, Islam attracts a disproportionate share of media attention, much of it negative and distorted. Through readings of primary texts in translation, we examine and problematize prevalent images of Islam and engage with various facets of the tradition. Often perceived as monolithic, Islamic discourse provides a range of symbols, concepts, and practices that have been appropriated and re-interpreted in many ways in different historical and cultural contexts. We survey many of the most influential trends in Islamic thought and practice (including Islamic law, ritual, and mysticism) and trace the ways in which they have been redefined and transformed in changing circumstances.

SPRING 2006 V55.0505 World Cultures: Africa
Prof. Sanders (Comparative Literature) syllabus
Key concepts for understanding sub-Saharan African cultures and societies, and ways of thinking critically and consulting sources sensibly when studying non-Western cultures. Topics include: problems in the interpretation of African literature and history, gender issues, the question of whether African thought and values constitute a unique system of thinking, the impact of the slave trade and colonialism on African societies and culture, and the difficulties of and means for translating and interpreting the system of thought and behavior in an African traditional society into terms meaningful to Westerners. Among the readings are novels, current philosophical theory, and feminist interpretations of black and white accounts of African societies.

SPRING 2006 V55.0506 World Cultures: The Chinese and Japanese Traditions
Prof. Roberts (East Asian Studies) syllabus
Essential aspects of Asian culture—Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Shintoism—studied through careful reading of major works of philosophy and literature. A roughly equal division between Chinese and Japanese works is meant to give a basic understanding of the broad similarities and the less obvious, but all-important, differences among the cultures of Confucian Asia. One reading is a Vietnamese adaptation of a Chinese legend. The last two readings, modern novellas from Japan and China, show the reaction of the traditional cultures to the Western invasions.

SPRING 2006 V55.0510 World Cultures: Russia Between East and West
Prof. Borenstein (Russian & Slavic Studies) syllabus
What is Russia? What does it mean to be "Russian"? These questions have troubled Russians for centuries. Certainly, most nations engage in such soul-searching at one time or another; but Russia, thanks to special historical circumstances, has been obsessed with the problem of its own identity. Central to this concern is an issue that would appear to be more geographical than cultural: Is Russia a part of Europe (the West), or of Asia (the East)? Or, is it some hybrid that must find its own unique destiny? As we trace the development of this problem throughout Russia's history, we also become acquainted with the major characteristics and achievements of Russian culture, from its very beginnings to the present day.

SPRING 2006 V55.0512 World Cultures: China
Prof. Guthrie (Sociology) syllabus
The most populous nation on earth, China plays a crucial role in the world economy. An understanding of China's place in the world must begin with its modern history—from the Qing Dynasty and the Western encroachment to the recent economic reforms of the People's Republic. Structured not as a historical chronology, but as a sampling of approaches to Chinese society from various analytical perspectives, in the first half we consider some of the major events, issues, and themes that have shaped modern Chinese society, focusing on the period from the Opium War to the present. Through various social-scientific lenses, we examine issues of war, political upheaval and crisis, social movements, and the structure of communist society. In the second half we focus on modern-day Chinese society, examining the current state of the economic reforms, human rights, and prospects for democratization.

SPRING 2006 V55.0515 World Cultures: Latin America
Prof. Abercrombie (Anthropology) syllabus
Explores the wonderful, magical, sometimes nightmarish world of Latin America through the past and present doings of its persons, and their representations, religious manifestations, song, dance, and literature. Aims both to uncover the roots of Latin-Americanness in the historical confluence of Europe, Africa, and America, and to discover how those roots are continually remade as each generation strives to rise from the ashes of its forebears. Case studies include the samba schools and Candomble religion in Brazilian carnival, the role of Vodou in the Haitian revolution and in New York City, the Mexican burlesques of death in the Day of the Dead, and "Indian" saints whose processions are associated with rites to underworld beings as well as to national integration. At base, the course seeks to answer more fundamental questions: What does it mean to have an identity, Latin American or Gringo, White, Black, Indian, or Mixed? How are the collectivities called nations, ethnicities, races, and classes brought into being and sustained? How is the vanished past resuscitated to serve the needs of the present? What does it mean to be Latin American in the age of so-called globalization?

SPRING 2006 V55.0516 World Cultures: India
Prof. Goswami (History) syllabus
Introduces students to the society, culture, and economy of modern India, from the foundation of British colonial rule in the late 18th century to the nationalist struggle in the early 20th century, through the lens of broader issues in historical and cultural inquiry. Examines shifts in society and culture during the modern period from different perspectives: British colonial agents, religious groups, the middle and educated classes, women and peasants, and the many-faceted struggle for independence before and during the period of Gandhi. Secondary sources are read in conjunction with primary sources (political treatises, novels, and film) that speak to the more general issues at hand: colonial domination, the relationship between cultural and economic shifts, political identities and nationalism, and collective memory and violence.

SPRING 2006 V55.0529 World Cultures: Contemporary Latino Cultures
Prof. Muñoz (Performance Studies) syllabus
Examines the growth and development of Latino as a distinct category of identity out of the highly diverse populations of Latin American background in the U.S., paying particular attention to the social processes shaping its emergence. Provides a detailed examination of the processes of cultural creation behind the rising growth of transnational cultures and identities worldwide, and of the forces that are fueling their development. We start by exploring the immigration of Latin American peoples to U.S. cities, turn to three case studies of emerging Latino communities, and end by examining contemporary issues involving Latinos in urban centers, such as New York.

SPRING 2006 V55.0536 World Cultures: Indigenous Australia
Prof. Myers (Anthropology) syllabus
The indigenous people of Australia have long been the subject of interest and imagination by outsiders for their cultural formulations of kinship, ritual, art, gender, and politics, and they have entered into representations as distinctively "Other"—whether in negative or positive formulations of the "Primitive." These representations—in feature films about them such as Walkabout and Rabbit Proof Fence, in New Age Literature, or museum exhibitions—are now also in dialogue with their own forms of cultural production. At the same time, Aboriginal people have struggled to reproduce themselves and their traditions in their own terms, asserting their right to forms of cultural autonomy and self-determination. We explore the historical and geographical range of Aboriginal Australian forms of social being through ethnographic texts, art, novels, autobiographies, film and other media, and consider the ways in which identity is being challenged and constructed.

SPRING 2006 V55.0537 World Cultures: Modern Israel
Prof. Zweig (Hebrew & Judaic Studies) syllabus
Modern Israel—Society and Culture: Despite its small size and population, Israel is a diverse, dynamic, and complex society. To understand its ethnic, religious, and political divisions, the different ethnic origins of the Jewish population over the last 150 years will be examined, and the growing role of the Arab population (approaching 20%) in Israeli society will be discussed. The special role of religion in the secular state, the development of Hebrew speaking culture, the political system, the settlement movement and the peace movement, gender issues, and the role of the army in everyday life are all addressed, concluding with a survey of the debate on whether Israel is a Jewish state or a state of all its citizens. Although the controversial issues that keep Israel in the headlines are touched on, the focus is the character of Israeli society and the impact on everyday life of living in the international limelight.

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Societies and the Social Sciences

FALL 2005 V55.0631 Societies and the Social Sciences: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Metropolitan Studies
Prof. N. Brenner (Sociology) syllabus
Considers the major approaches that have been deployed to investigate the urban experience in the modern world and explores the historical geography of capitalist urbanization with particular attention to North American and Western European cities, colonial and postcolonial cities, and the global contexts of urban development. Major topics include: urban and regional planning, urban politics and governance, suburbanization and regional development, gentrification and urban social movements, the gendering and radicalization of urban space, racial segregation, and urban design and architecture.

FALL 2005 V55.0660 Societies and the Social Sciences: Linguistic Perspectives
Prof. Costello (Linguistics) syllabus
Examines language from a dual perspective: as part of mankind's biological endowment and as a social phenomenon. Considers the structure, universality, and diversity of human language. Introduces the core areas of grammar: its sound system, the structures of words and sentences, and meanings. Examines the representation of language in the brain, first language acquisition, and processing. Introduces linguistic universals, dialect, sociolects, and the mechanism of linguistic change.

FALL 2005 V55.0690 Societies and the Social Sciences: Sociological Perspectives on the Rule of Law
Prof. Greenberg (Sociology) syllabus
Theories of law and the research that tests those theories, with an emphasis on historical and comparative issues, as well as contemporary policy debates. How have social scientists conceptualized law? What social processes shape the formulation of law and its application to particular cases? What role does law play in the functioning of society? How is law implicated in social change? What issues arise when law is used in efforts to overcome disadvantages associated with class, race, sex, and sexual orientation?

SPRING 2006 V55.0631 Societies and the Social Sciences: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Metropolitan Studies
Prof. Molotch (Sociology) syllabus
Considers the major approaches that have been deployed to investigate the urban experience in the modern world and explores the historical geography of capitalist urbanization with particular attention to North American and Western European cities, colonial and postcolonial cities, and the global contexts of urban development. Major topics include: urban and regional planning, urban politics and governance, suburbanization and regional development, gentrification and urban social movements, the gendering and radicalization of urban space, racial segregation, and urban design and architecture.

SPRING 2006 V55.0640 Societies and the Social Sciences: Anthropological Perspectives
Prof. Himpele (Anthropology) syllabus
Anthropology concerns the ways in which people live in society, especially as mediated through cultural processes. Concerned with non-Western as well as Western ways of life and the relations between them, it addresses the problem of difference and similarity within and between human populations, including the use of difference to establish or resist power within social formations. Students explore how anthropologists use data to develop basic premises about the nature of human societies and the foundations of distinctive regimes of sociality, and they examine theories of social life in terms of a commitment to grasping the perspectives, knowledge, and lived-experience of social actors through the methodology of ethnographic fieldwork.

SPRING 2006 V55.0660 Societies and the Social Sciences: Linguistic Perspectives
Prof. Baltin (Linguistics) syllabus
Examines language from a dual perspective: as part of mankind's biological endowment and as a social phenomenon. Considers the structure, universality, and diversity of human language. Introduces the core areas of grammar: its sound system, the structures of words and sentences, and meanings. Examines the representation of language in the brain, first language acquisition, and processing. Introduces linguistic universals, dialect, sociolects, and the mechanism of linguistic change.

SPRING 2006 V55.0690 Societies and the Social Sciences: Sociological Perspectives on the Social Foundations of Public Issues
Prof. Jackson (Sociology) syllabus
Controversial issues such as abortion, welfare, the death penalty, and affirmative action force everyone to choose sides. Students will learn how responsible citizens can use social science and they will learn the key assumptions and viewpoints guiding work in the various social sciences. The class uses an innovative approach that lets you learn how to work in groups: You have been hired as a consultant for a candidate running for president. Working with a team of other consultants, you have to prepare position papers that recommend ways to resolve public disputes over divisive social issues. You have to research each issue's history, how other countries have responded, what explains which side people take, which "facts" used by advocates are true and which are false, and what we can predict about the effects of alternative policies. Your group has to decide how to conduct research and then integrate your results and ideas into a joint paper. For each of the four main issues, you will work with a different group of people. Along with the usual library work, you will do research over the Internet, and all position papers and commentaries will be exchanged on the class website. The learning experience is intensive, social, and self-directed, and challenges you to ground your beliefs and opinions in realistic findings and theories derived from social research.

Expressive Culture

FALL 2005 V55.0710 Expressive Culture: Words
Prof. Donoghue (English)
What is literature or the literary? Is there a literary language that works differently from ordinary language? What is literary style and form? What is the position of the writer or artist in relation to society, and what is the function of the reader? Is literature a mirror of the world that it describes, an attempt to influence a reader's ideas or opinions, an expression of the identity of the writer, or none of these?

FALL 2005 V55.0720 Expressive Culture: Images
Prof. Silver (Fine Arts) syllabus
What is the place of art in an image-saturated world? We begin by considering the power and taboo of images and the ways in which individuals and institutions that constitute "the art world" classify some of these images as works of art, turn to explore the visual and conceptual challenges presented by major works of sculpture, architecture, and painting, and conclude with a selection of problems raised by art today. Students develop the vocabulary to both appreciate and question the artistic "gestures" of society in various places and times.

FALL 2005 V55.0722 Expressive Culture: Images—Architecture in New York Field Study
Prof. Broderick (Fine Arts) syllabus
New York's rich architectural heritage offers a unique opportunity for firsthand consideration of the concepts and styles of modern urban architecture, as well as its social, financial, and cultural contexts. Meets once a week for an extended period combining on-campus lectures with group excursions to prominent buildings. Attention is given both to individual buildings as examples of 19th- and 20th-century architecture and to phenomena such as the development of the skyscraper and the adaptation of older buildings to new uses.

FALL 2005 V55.0730 Expressive Culture: Sounds
Prof. Moreno (Music) syllabus
Contemporary everyday soundscapes are saturated with sound. To some, there is a sense of dread: music's ubiquity—a sonic cacophony of sorts—might render it banal and incapable of offering little more than superficial amusement or serving as a convenient social lubricant. To others, music's presence confirms its status as a fundamental aspect of human experience. We explore in a variety of ways how, why, where, and when we make sense of music: music and/as the everyday, music and/in the culture industry, music and/as cultural policy; music and/as technology, music and/as identification (generational, gendered, racial, sub-cultural, planetary, national, regional, local), music and/as the body. Our exploration critically examines the notion of "expressive culture" and engages musical forms from wide geo-cultural spheres and historical moments. We strive to develop creative strategies for listening through these musical forms and build a basic vocabulary to communicate our musical impressions.

FALL 2005 V55.0730 Expressive Culture: Sounds
Prof. Ochoa-Gautier (Music) syllabus
Our lives pulsate with patterns of sounds that we call music. We encounter these sounds in our homes, cars, stores, and exercise salons; they accompany us to the grocery store, the dentist's office, and the movies; yet we rarely think consciously about what they mean. Through a series of specific case studies we investigate the function and significance of music and the musician in human life. We raise basic questions about how music has been created, produced, perceived, and evaluated at diverse historical moments, in a variety of geographical locations, and among different cultural groups. Through aural explorations and discussion of how these vivid worlds "sound" in time and space, we assess the value of music in human experience.

FALL 2005 V55.0750 Expressive Culture: Film
Prof. Simon (Cinema Studies) syllabus
American narrative films, produced primarily during the period 1965-75, considered as an innovative cycle of filmmaking in dialogue with significant historical, political, and cultural transformations in American society. Examines developments in film genre during this period especially in relation to political and cultural change. Narrative innovations are emphasized, with special attention to the specificity of film form and style (e.g., editing, mise-en-scène, sound). Provides an introduction to the methods and principles of film analysis as well as dealing with this period of filmmaking in depth. Includes films by Kubrick, Coppola, Altman, and Scorsese.

SPRING 2006 V55.0720 Expressive Culture: Images
Prof. Geronimus (Fine Arts) syllabus
What is the place of art in an image-saturated world? We begin by considering the power and taboo of images and the ways in which individuals and institutions that constitute "the art world" classify some of these images as works of art, turn to explore the visual and conceptual challenges presented by major works of sculpture, architecture, and painting, and conclude with a selection of problems raised by art today. Students develop the vocabulary to both appreciate and question the artistic "gestures" of society in various places and times.

SPRING 2006 V55.0721 Expressive Culture: Images—Painting and Sculpture in New York Field Study
Prof. Broderick (Fine Arts) syllabus
New York's public art collections contain important examples of painting and sculpture from almost every phase of the past, as well as some of the world's foremost works of contemporary art. Meets once a week for an extended period combining on-campus lectures with group excursions to the museums or other locations where these works are exhibited.

SPRING 2006 V55.0730 Expressive Culture: Sounds
Prof. Cusick (Music) syllabus
How do human beings use sound-based cultural behaviors to negotiate, explore, resist, sustain, or transform our sense of selfhood, identity, and subjectivity? To explore this question, we focus on some ways that sound-based "expressive cultures"—especially musical ones—have served as a means for negotiating a range of sexualities and gendered subjectivities. We examine "queer" or "feminist" issues in 20th-century North American music from blues to disco; from queercore to musical responses to the AIDS epidemic; from "the problem of women composers" to the late-century phenomenon of a distinctively "queer" music scholarship; from the musical practices of contemporary drag kings and queens to historicized models of cross-dressing in the Western traditions of opera and musical theatre; and from musicals as projecting mythic ideals of gender, race, and nation to musicals as a genre especially appealing to people with non-normative subjectivities.

SPRING 2006 V55.0730 Expressive Culture: Sounds
Prof. Roesner (Music) syllabus
The Arts of Music. People have not only developed modes of thought, systems of belief, and diverse ways to organize themselves collectively into societies and cultures; in all cultures and traditions they have also engaged in creative activity of a more specifically aesthetic nature—they have expressed themselves through art. One of the most potent modes of artistic expression is through music, a medium cultivated in one way or another by every human society. We examine and compare the nature, purposes, and social functions of three different forms of musical expression—music informed by a Platonic/Pythagorean aesthetic, Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, and jazz to c. 1950—raising fundamental issues about the nature and interpretation of music while developing a basic formal, critical, and historical vocabulary for discussion, and, directly and indirectly, relating this discussion to an appraisal of the state of the arts today. While devoting a considerable amount of attention to European art music from the middle ages to the end of the twentieth century, and to three repertories that are considered "classical" in most respects, we also draw on the whole range of musics in the world today—classical, popular, and non-Western musics in all their diversities—and students are encouraged to introduce the music with which they themselves are most familiar into the discussion where appropriate.

SPRING 2006 V55.0730 Expressive Culture: Sounds
Prof. Stanyek (Music) syllabus
Our lives pulsate with patterns of sounds that we call music. We encounter these sounds in our homes, cars, stores, and exercise salons; they accompany us to the grocery store, the dentist's office, and the movies; yet we rarely think consciously about what they mean. Through a series of specific case studies we investigate the function and significance of music and the musician in human life. We raise basic questions about how music has been created, produced, perceived, and evaluated at diverse historical moments, in a variety of geographical locations, and among different cultural groups. Through aural explorations and discussion of how these vivid worlds "sound" in time and space, we assess the value of music in human experience.

SPRING 2006 V55.0750 Expressive Culture: Film
Prof. Polan (Cinema Studies) syllabus
As the U.S. moved in the 1940s from a war-time experience to a new, postwar context, works of popular culture expressed both the hopes and fears that came with that transition. For example, a series of postwar films such as the well-known It's a Wonderful Life used magic figures who descended to earth to help lost and bedraggled protagonists find their way again in the confusions of the moment. But the way in which George Bailey's American dream so quickly can become a nightmare suggests an underside to 1940s optimism. In this respect, film noir, a trend of films that started during the war but really exploded in the postwar era, expresses a bleaker, more bitter and downbeat vision of the historical moment. Here, heroes turn into confused losers or loners caught in the labyrinths and dead ends of the city. Noir expresses tensions around urban life, around sexual roles and identity, around work and success, and so on. We examine noir both thematically and stylistically to pinpoint its expressive commentary on social trends and tensions, and attend to the ongoing fascination with--and frequent revival of--noir style and subject-matter to study how the social concerns of film noir continue to express complications in the success story of America as a nation.

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