2006-2007 Courses

Quantitative Reasoning Fall 2006 | Spring 2007
Natural Science I Fall 2006 | Spring 2007
Natural Science II Fall 2006 | Spring 2007
Conversations of the West Fall 2006 | Spring 2007
World Cultures Fall 2006 | Spring 2007
Societies and the Social Sciences department courses | Spring 2007
Expressive Culture Fall 2006 | Spring 2007

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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 2006 V55.0101 Quantitative Reasoning: Mathematical Patterns in Nature

Staff (Mathematics)
The role of mathematics as the language of science, through case studies selected from the natural sciences and economics. Topics include the scale of things in nature; the art of making estimates; cross-cultural views of knowledge about the natural world; growth laws, including the growth of money and the concept of "constant dollars"; radioactivity and its role in unraveling the history of Earth and the solar system; the notion of randomness and basic ideas from statistics; scaling laws-why are things the size they are?; the cosmic distance ladder; the meaning of "infinity." This calculator-based course aims to help students use mathematics with some confidence in applications.


FALL 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.


FALL 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.


SPRING 2007 V55.0101 Quantitative Reasoning: Mathematical Patterns in Nature

Staff (Mathematics)
The role of mathematics as the language of science, through case studies selected from the natural sciences and economics. Topics include the scale of things in nature; the art of making estimates; cross-cultural views of knowledge about the natural world; growth laws, including the growth of money and the concept of "constant dollars"; radioactivity and its role in unraveling the history of Earth and the solar system; the notion of randomness and basic ideas from statistics; scaling laws-why are things the size they are?; the cosmic distance ladder; the meaning of "infinity." This calculator-based course aims to help students use mathematics with some confidence in applications.


SPRING 2007 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 2007 V55.0106 Quantitative Reasoning: Cryptography
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 2007 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 2006 V55.0203 Natural Science I: Energy and the Environment
Prof. 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 2006 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 2006 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 2006 V55.0214 Natural Science I: How Things Work
Prof. Adler (MAP) syllabus
Do you know how electricity is generated? How instruments create music? What makes refrigerator magnets stick? For that matter, why is ice skating possible, how do wheels use friction and why can someone quickly remove a tablecloth without moving any dishes? All of the devices that define contemporary living are applications of basic scientific discoveries. The principles underlying these devices are fascinating as well as useful, and help to explain many of the features of the world around us. This course familiarizes you with some basic principles of physics by examining selected devices such as CD and DVD players, microwave ovens, the basic electronic components of computers, lasers and LEDs, magnetic resonance imaging as used in medicine, and even nuclear weapons. In learning the basic physics behind these modern inventions, you will develop a deeper understanding of how the physical world works and gain a new appreciation of everyday phenomena that are ordinarily taken for granted. The course is designed for non-science students with an interest in the natural world. The basic physical ideas needed to understand how things operate are presented using some mathematics, but none beyond elementary high school-level algebra.


FALL 2006 V55.0214 Natural Science I: How Things Work
Prof. Stein (Physics) syllabus
Do you know how electricity is generated? How instruments create music? What makes refrigerator magnets stick? For that matter, why is ice skating possible, how do wheels use friction and why can someone quickly remove a tablecloth without moving any dishes? All of the devices that define contemporary living are applications of basic scientific discoveries. The principles underlying these devices are fascinating as well as useful, and help to explain many of the features of the world around us. This course familiarizes you with some basic principles of physics by examining selected devices such as CD and DVD players, microwave ovens, the basic electronic components of computers, lasers and LEDs, magnetic resonance imaging as used in medicine, and even nuclear weapons. In learning the basic physics behind these modern inventions, you will develop a deeper understanding of how the physical world works and gain a new appreciation of everyday phenomena that are ordinarily taken for granted. The course is designed for non-science students with an interest in the natural world. The basic physical ideas needed to understand how things operate are presented using some mathematics, but none beyond elementary high school-level algebra.


SPRING 2007 V55.0202 Natural Science I: The Cosmos and the Earth
Prof. Gabadadze (Physics) 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 2007 V55.0203 Natural Science I: Energy and the Environment
Prof. Jordan (MAP) & Prof. Kallenbach (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.


SPRING 2007 V55.0203 Natural Science I: Energy and the Environment
Prof. Ward (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.


SPRING 2007 V55.0205 Natural Science I: Exploration of Light and Color
Prof. Adler (MAP)
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.


SPRING 2007 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 2007 V55.0214 Natural Science I: How Things Work
Prof. Adler (MAP) syllabus
Do you know how electricity is generated? How instruments create music? What makes refrigerator magnets stick? For that matter, why is ice skating possible, how do wheels use friction and why can someone quickly remove a tablecloth without moving any dishes? All of the devices that define contemporary living are applications of basic scientific discoveries. The principles underlying these devices are fascinating as well as useful, and help to explain many of the features of the world around us. This course familiarizes you with some basic principles of physics by examining selected devices such as CD and DVD players, microwave ovens, the basic electronic components of computers, lasers and LEDs, magnetic resonance imaging as used in medicine, and even nuclear weapons. In learning the basic physics behind these modern inventions, you will develop a deeper understanding of how the physical world works and gain a new appreciation of everyday phenomena that are ordinarily taken for granted. The course is designed for non-science students with an interest in the natural world. The basic physical ideas needed to understand how things operate are presented using some mathematics, but none beyond elementary high school-level algebra.


SPRING 2007 V55.0214 Natural Science I: How Things Work
Prof. Grier (Physics) syllabus
Do you know how electricity is generated? How instruments create music? What makes refrigerator magnets stick? For that matter, why is ice skating possible, how do wheels use friction and why can someone quickly remove a tablecloth without moving any dishes? All of the devices that define contemporary living are applications of basic scientific discoveries. The principles underlying these devices are fascinating as well as useful, and help to explain many of the features of the world around us. This course familiarizes you with some basic principles of physics by examining selected devices such as CD and DVD players, microwave ovens, the basic electronic components of computers, lasers and LEDs, magnetic resonance imaging as used in medicine, and even nuclear weapons. In learning the basic physics behind these modern inventions, you will develop a deeper understanding of how the physical world works and gain a new appreciation of everyday phenomena that are ordinarily taken for granted. The course is designed for non-science students with an interest in the natural world. The basic physical ideas needed to understand how things operate are presented using some mathematics, but none beyond elementary high school-level algebra.

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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 2006 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 2006 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 2006 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 2006 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 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.


FALL 2006 V55.0313 Natural Science II: The Brain: A User's Guide
Prof. Azmitia (Biology)
The Human Brain is the most complex organ. Despite the central position it has in nearly every aspect of our daily lives, it remains to many a mystery. How does it work? How can we care for it? How long will it function? This MAP course is designed to provide answers to these questions, and many more at an academic level accessible to the non-scientist student, and of interest to the scientist with little exposure to neuroscience. The aims of the course are to provide the student with a firm foundation in what the brain looks like and what each of the parts do. To accomplish this, we will learn about the functions of the cortex in higher learning and memory, as well as discuss the basic work of the brainstem in regulating the internal environment of the body. The importance of nutrition on neurotransmitter synthesis, the function of sleep on memory and why we need so much of it, and the effects of alcohol and drugs on brain harmony and the meaning of addiction will be some of the points covered in this course. We will look at brain development and the special needs of children, as well as brain aging and illness and the difficulty of helping. The laboratories are designed to provide hands-on experience in exploring the structure of the brain as well as learning how to measure brain functioning. We will provide specially prepared slides so the student can recognize a neuron and differentiate a dendrite from an axon. The molecular shape of neurotransmitter will be covered, as well as learning how to measure alcohol and determining its levels in your body. It is expected that by the end of the course, the student will be familiar with the biological basis of brain structure and function, and not only be able to detect how a normal brain works, but also how to help keep it healthy.


SPRING 2007 V55.0305 Natural Science II: Human Origins
Prof. Bailey (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, the Neandertal enigma, the importance of studies of chimpanzees for understanding human behavior, and the 6-million-year-old fossil evidence for human evolution.


SPRING 2007 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 2007 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.


SPRING 2007 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 2007 V55.0314 Natural Science II: Genomes and Diversity
Prof. Siegal (Biology) syllabus
Millions of species of animals, plants and microbes inhabit our planet. Genomics, the study of all the genes in an organism, is providing new insights into this amazing diversity of life on Earth. We begin with the fundamentals of DNA, genes and genomes. We then explore microbial diversity, with an emphasis on how genomics can reveal many aspects of organisms, from their ancient history to their physiological and ecological habits. We follow with examinations of animal and plant diversity, focusing on domesticated species, such as dogs and tomatoes, as examples of how genomic methods can be used to identify genes that underlie new or otherwise interesting traits. Genomics has also transformed the study of human diversity and human disease. We examine the use of DNA to trace human ancestry, as well as the use of genomics as a diagnostic tool in medicine. With the powerful new technologies to study genomes has come an increased power to manipulate them. We conclude by considering the societal implications of this ability to alter the genomes of crop plants, livestock and potentially humans.


SPRING 2007 V55.0390 Natural Science II: Human Genetics Seminar
Prof. Jordan (MAP)
This two-credit seminar is designed for students who have completed or are currently enrolled in V55.0303 Natural Science II: Human Genetics. The seminar provides an opportunity to continue your study of human genetics from both a scientific and societal perspective. Weekly seminar meetings examine current research topics, with a focus on the origin of human genetic disorders. All students will also participate in service-learning activities in partnership with local organizations that are involved in scientific research, patient support or educational outreach.

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Conversations of the West

FALL 2006 V55.0400 Conversations of the West: Topics in Antiquity and Modernity - Gods, Men and Heroes
Prof. Javitch (Comparative Literature) syllabus
Readings: Homer's Iliad; Genesis, Job, Luke; Euripides' Bacchae; Vergil's Aeneid; Ovid's Metamorphoses; Augustine's Confessions; Dante's Inferno; Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered; Milton's Paradise Lost. The readings serve, first of all, to examine different conceptions of divinity in ancient Greek, Roman, Jewish, and Christian cultures. What governs relations between humans and the divine? How differently are these relations represented in these texts? A second topic is the definition of heroism in these works, especially in the epic poems assigned. We examine the changes in Western notions of individual worth and consider whether these changes explicitly criticize prior models of heroism. For example, does Vergil's idea of heroism call into question the values that Homer's warriors live by? How do Tasso's and Milton's Christian ideas of heroic virtue challenge ancient, pagan one? By posing such questions we highlight the dialectical and critical aspects of "conversations" with the past that mark Western culture from the time of the Greeks to the end of the Renaissance.


FALL 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.


FALL 2006 V55.0402 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Renaissance
Prof. Gerety (Collegiate Professor) syllabus
The discovery and exploration of the soul, focusing and refocusing on the great questions about the soul--the conscious self and its identity persisting up to and perhaps beyond death. Some say that Socrates 'discovered' the human soul, but the idea that we have souls that may outlast us is an idea as old as humanity. Our understanding of the nature of our souls often dictates the way we feel we should live. We explore these ideas from Homer and Heraclitus through Socrates himself and then on to Plato, Aristotle, the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament (including the Gnostics) and Augustine, looking for the elements that made up personal identity and value in the ancient world, both religious and secular, and seeing how much these notions change from Homer's world to that of Augustine and the Roman Empire. We then turn to some of the great thinkers and artists of the Renaissance, most notably Shakespeare and DaVinci but also Montaigne, Villon, and El Greco. In all of these, the permanence and even presence of our souls seem more uncertain, more threatened by death and obliteration, than in Plato or Paul, and this threat reaches our morality and values as well. In this way, the Renaissance marks the beginning of the world in which all of us must now find our way.


FALL 2006 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; Voltaire's Candide; Diderot's Supplement to the Voyage of Bougainville; and Graffigny's Letters from a Peruvian Woman.


FALL 2006 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 2006 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Renzi (MAP) syllabus
Socrates and Jesus, with constant reference to Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. For their idiosyncratic religious beliefs, each of these ancients, so we are told, was lawfully executed. Through this shared circumstance of their deaths-a combination of religious and political motives-they have together had an undeniable influence on moral imagination in the West. Neither appears to have written anything himself. Thus, to appreciate their influence we are left to rely on study of their precursors, contemporaries, and later doxographers. Readings: Genesis, Exodus, selections from Isaiah and Daniel, Matthew, Galatians, 1 Corinthians; Gospel of Mary; Rosenberg and Bloom's Book of J; Aristophanes' Clouds; Xenophon's Apology; Plato's Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Gorgias, and Phaedo; Euripides' Medea; Augustine's Confessions; Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling and selections from Philosophical Fragments; Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality and selections from other works; Freud's Moses and Monotheism.


FALL 2006 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 2006 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century - Writing Intensive
Prof. Renzi (MAP) syllabus
Socrates and Jesus, with constant reference to Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. For their idiosyncratic religious beliefs, each of these ancients, so we are told, was lawfully executed. Through this shared circumstance of their deaths-a combination of religious and political motives-they have together had an undeniable influence on moral imagination in the West. Neither appears to have written anything himself. Thus, to appreciate their influence we are left to rely on study of their precursors, contemporaries, and later doxographers. Readings: Genesis, Exodus, selections from Isaiah and Daniel, Matthew, Galatians, 1 Corinthians; Gospel of Mary; Rosenberg and Bloom's Book of J; Aristophanes' Clouds; Xenophon's Apology; Plato's Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Gorgias, and Phaedo; Euripides' Medea; Augustine's Confessions; Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling and selections from Philosophical Fragments; Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality and selections from other works; Freud's Moses and Monotheism.

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


FALL 2006 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Chioles (Comparative Literature) syllabus
The examination of some ethical issues as these emerge in philosophical and dialogic writings. Readings: Genesis, Matthew; Aeschylus' Persians; Sophocles' Women of Trachis; Euripides' Alcestis and Heracles; Conrad's Heart of Darkness; selections from the Presocratics, Plato, philosophies of the Academy, Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, Augustine, James' "Does Consciousness Exist?" and Varieties of Religious Experience, Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents.


FALL 2006 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Levene (Classics) syllabus
Every society places demands on individuals: it could not do otherwise and still remain a society. But what happens when those demands are inconsistent? Can--or should--an individual determine the right course of action by reason alone? Or should one simply obey--but then, whom should one obey? What happens when people's moral judgements differ from the expectations of those around them? How can one maintain a society in the face of such conflicts? From the first moments of Western literature those questions are explored; they became all the more insistent in the unprecedented political, social, intellectual, and economic upheavals of the 19th century. One effect was the increasingly central role given to art itself, seen as the dynamic force able to create a cohesive society. Our study will include Richard Wagner's remarkable music-drama The Ring of the Nibelung, perhaps the most significant and influential art-work of the era (studied primarily as a text, though there will be opportunities to hear the music as well). Other readings will include selections from the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures; Homer's Iliad; Sophocles' Antigone; Plato's Gorgias; Vergil's Aeneid; poetry by (among others) Shelley, Tennyson, and Matthew Arnold; Arnold's Culture and Anarchy; Wagner's Art and Revolution; and Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality.


FALL 2006 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Corradi (Sociology) syllabus
A guide to the intellectual heritage distinctive to the West, with special attention to the nature of the person, freedom, rationality, democracy, and the social order. The works we study continue to shape the way people understand themselves and the world. They are “classic” in the sense that they have not finished saying what they have to say. We situate them in historical context, looking for ways in which later authors responded to themes introduced by earlier ones. From the particularity of the West, these themes show a vocation for universality. Readings include: Genesis, Exodus, Luke, Corinthians; Sophocles' Oedipus and Antigone; Plato's Apology and Republic; Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics; Pericles’ Funeral Oration; Epictetus' Discourses; Augustine's Confessions; Tocqueville's Democracy in America; Mill's On Liberty; Darwin’s Origins of the Species; Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto; Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling; Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality; Weber's Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism; Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address; Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents.


FALL 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.


FALL 2006 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Borenstein (Russian & Slavic Studies) syllabus
Focuses on origins and endings: How do human beings lend meaning to their lives by inventing a myth of origin and a corresponding myth of the end of days? Readings include: Genesis, Daniel, Revelation; Plato's Republic; a Greek tragedy; and works by More, Bacon, Marx, Engels, Nietzsche, Solovyov, Dostoevsky, Freud, and Perkins Gilman.


SPRING 2007 V55.0400 Conversations of the West: Topics in Antiquity and Modernity - Science, Literature, and the Imagination
Prof. Freccero (Italian) syllabus
In modernity, the development of scientific investigation has accustomed us to thinking of literature and science as widely divergent activities, despite instances in which they may be said to have arisen from common sources in the imagination of the West. While scientific activity is commonly defined in terms of experimentation and mathematical analysis, there is a creative dimension of science which is logically prior to these institutional activities. We are thus not concerned with the "influence" of science on literature, or vice-versa, but rather with examining the imaginative themes which writers and scientists have in common in three revolutionary moments in the history of the West. The first is the Copernican revolution in the early sixteenth century, the second is what has been called the "Machiavellian moment," at about the same time. The last, one that is still with us, is the Darwinian revolution of the nineteenth century. Like all revolutions, however, these had their antecedents and their posterity, extending back to antiquity and forward to our own time. Readings: Genesis, Lucretius' On the Nature of Things, Augustine's Confessions, Dante's Inferno and Paradiso, Italo Svevo's Confessions of Zeno, Galileo's Starry Messenger, Darwin's Origin of Species, George Eliot's Middlemarch, Machiavelli's Prince, Shakespeare's Richard III, Nicholas of Cusa's Learned Ignorance, Pico's Dignity of Man, Pope's Essay on Man, Giordano Bruno's Ash Wednesday Supper, Gramsci's The Modern Prince, selections from Plato, Ovid, John Donne.


SPRING 2007 V55.0400 Conversations of the West: Topics in Antiquity and Modernity - Self and Alter Ego
Prof. Krabbenhoft (Spanish) syllabus
In defining the nature of individuality, Western thought and literature have given special importance to the self's relationship with its alter ego or double. Aristotle coined the expression "A friend is another self," and the bond of fellow-warriors is the starting point of the discussion of love in Plato's Symposium. Brotherhood as a human reflection of God's relationship with mankind, created "in His image," is a major theme of the Jewish Scriptures and is fundamental for understanding the Christian ideals of charity and conversion. The appearance of depth psychology in the late classical period, and its rapid development in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, have led to an increasingly subjective definition of the self and attention to the dynamics of neurosis and projection. We trace how the alter ego of antiquity gave rise to the Doppelgänger in the nineteenth century and the mad (schizophrenic) narrator of the twentieth, and what this says about the changing Western definition of what it means to be a person. Readings: Plato's Symposium, Seneca's Letters to Lucilius, Sophocles' Philoctetes, Vergil's Aeneid, Genesis, Gospel of John, Augustine's Confessions, Ignatius Loyola's autobiography, Cervantes's Don Quixote, Lombroso's The Man of Genius, Freud's "Paths to Formation of Symptoms," Shelley's Frankenstein, James' "The Jolly Corner," Beckett's Endgame, Nabokov's Pale Fire, Dick's A Scanner Darkly, and selections from Derrida, Blanchot, Rorty, and the poetry Fernando Pessoa.


SPRING 2007 V55.0400 Conversations of the West: Topics in Antiquity and Modernity - Conflict and Resistance
Prof. Meineck (Classics) syllabus
Examines the themes of conflict and resistance in Western literature, focusing primarily on two important texts, Joseph Heller's Catch-22 and Homer's Iliad. Heller cast Yossarian as a modern day Achilles (he is even named as such at one point in the novel), not a coward, nor even anti-war, just reluctant to waste his life in a cause he no longer believes in-a hero or anti-hero trapped by circumstance. The 1970 release of Mike Nichols' film version and America's involvement in Vietnam brought a new notoriety to the text. Today seems a good time to re-examine the importance of Catch-22, in many ways an American Iliad. Homer's Iliad forms the base of Western epic, lyric poetry, and drama. By viewing this seminal text through the prism of a modern popular work like Catch-22, we better see the power, savage beauty, vitality, and tragedy of this story of the consequences of rage run amok. Achilles faces his own Catch-22 as he broods alone in his tent after being publicly slighted by Agamemnon. He has nowhere to go, he cannot desert, he will not fight, and his protest has disastrous results. Linking these two great works, we look at other important texts dealing with the themes of conflict and resistance. Readings: Homer's Iliad; Exodus, Luke; Hesiod's Theogony; Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound; Sophocles' Philoctetes; Aristophanes' Birds; selections from Plato, Thucydides, Plutarch's Lives, Augustine's City of God; Chaucer's "The Knight's Tale"; Shakespeare's Coriolanus; Byron's "Prometheus"; Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade"; Kipling's The Man Who Would be King; selections 20th century "War Poets"; Heller's Catch-22.


SPRING 2007 V55.0401 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Prof. Regalado (French) syllabus
Our goal is to join a great chain of readers and writers, linking it to our own time. Reading important works from Antiquity and the Middle Ages, we study how each author rereads and rewrites works from the past to represent his or her own beliefs, ways of knowing, and ideas about the world. We "listen in" on conversations in Antiquity, as Greek poets and playwrights read and argue with each other, as Christians reread the Hebrew Bible, as Vergil seeks to outdo Homer, and as Augustine moves from philosophy to Christian belief. How are these pagan and Christian works then read in the Middle Ages? Like Augustine, the medieval writers and readers we will encounter are men and women of passion and desire. They receive the classical legacy as a storehouse of authority and truth but radically reinterpret it to fit their own systems of belief, intermingling it with Celtic and Christian legends, with songs of love, and with stories of their own daily lives. Readings: Genesis, Exodus, Luke, Acts, selections from Isaiah and Revelations; Euripides' Antigone; Plato's Symposium; Vergil's Aeneid; Augustine's Confessions; Heloise and Abelard's Letters; Chrétien de Troyes' Erec and Enide; Dante's Inferno; Chaucer's Canterbury Tales; Christine de Pizan's The City of Ladies.


SPRING 2007 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 2007 V55.0402 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Renaissance
Prof. Appuhn (History) syllabus
The writers of the Renaissance understood themselves as being engaged in an ongoing conversation with the classical tradition. One of the aims of the conversation was to come to an understanding of human nature and its sometimes pernicious effects on efforts to build effective political communities. We explore the various ways in which ancient cultures sought to understand the problem of human nature and the ways in which these ideas were appropriated and reshaped during the European Renaissance. Readings: Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, Augustine, Ariosto, Machiavelli, Luther, Erasmus, Hobbes.


SPRING 2007 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 2007 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.


SPRING 2007 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Ertman (Sociology) syllabus
Explores the ancient foundations of traditional Western culture by examining the political and social institutions, religious beliefs, and value systems of the Israelites, Greeks, Romans, and early Christians; then turns to the radical challenges to this traditional culture, in the areas of the economy, politics, religion, and morality, that arose over the course of the 19th century, challenges that continue to reverberate to this day. Readings: Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Luke, Acts, Romans; Thucydides' Peloponnesian War; Plato's Apology and Symposium; Vergil's Aeneid; Augustine's Confessions; Smith's Wealth of Nations; Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto; Mill's On Liberty; Darwin's Origin of Species; Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality; Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents.


SPRING 2007 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Renzi (MAP) syllabus
Whence morality? Adulterers, murderers, religious fanatics-to our modern eyes, many characters celebrated in Scripture don't look very moral. Are they nevertheless meant as moral examples? How so? Some say we should adopt a moral life from self-interest. Is morality then a decadence of egotism? A means to pleasure and self-advantage? In a world where people claim the freedom to follow their own 'personal ethics', is there nothing left that is really and truly right and noble and good?...There are easy answers to these questions; we will seek, however, to make these problems more difficult. Readings: Genesis, Exodus, Matthew, Galatians; Gospel of Mary; Rosenberg and Bloom's Book of J; Aristophanes' Clouds; Plato's Apology and Republic; Euripides' Medea and Bacchae; Augustine's Confessions; Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling and selections from Philosophical Fragments; Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality and selections from other works; Freud's case of Lucy R. and Moses and Monotheism.


SPRING 2007 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. P. Fleming (German) syllabus
A dialogue between Antiquity and the nineteenth century created by juxtaposing crucial texts from each epoch around such topics as origins, divine abandonment, the definition of the human, morality, and politics. In other words, the material will not be read chronologically but according to shared themes, problems, and conflicts. Of central concern is the paradigm shift that occurs between the foundations of Western society and the nineteenth century, in particular the move from metaphysics to history, in which essences give way to contingencies. Readings include Genesis, Job, selections from Christian Scriptures; Darwin's Origin of Species; Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling; Dostoevsky's "The Grand Inquisitor"; Plato's Republic; Nietzsche's "On Truth and Lie"; Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics; Kant's "On the Supposed Right to Lie"; Goethe's Sufferings of Young Werther; Tocqueville's Democracy in America; Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto.


SPRING 2007 V55.0404 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century
Prof. Baker (English) syllabus
Examines Western conceptions of the relation between humans and the natural world. Considers how 19th-century thinkers embraced, revised, and overturned ancient ideas about creation, natural order, the distinction between humans and animals, and the risks and rewards of probing nature's mysteries. Readings: Homer's Odyssey, Hebrew and Christian scripture, Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, Shelley's Frankenstein, Darwin's Origin of Species, and works by Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Emerson, Goethe, and Nietzsche.

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World Cultures

FALL 2006 V55.0500 World Cultures: Topics - Empires and Political Imagination
Prof. Burbank (History) & Prof. Cooper (History) syllabus
Comparative study of empires, from the Romans to the present, and the ways that empires have inspired and constrained their subjects' ideas of rights, belonging, and power. Throughout history, few people lived for very long in a state that consisted entirely or even mainly of people with whom they shared a language and culture. Empires--polities that maintained social and cultural distinction even as they incorporated different people--have been one of the most common and durable forms of political organization. An examination of the variety of human cultures must take account of how people lived in empires--sometimes seeking higher degrees of autonomy, sometimes accommodating to rulers' authority, sometimes trying to extend their own power over others. The study of empire expands our ideas of citizenship and challenges the notion that the nation-state is natural and necessary. We investigate how empires were held together--and where they were weak--from perspectives that focus on political and economic connections over long distances and long time periods. We also explore how scholars have approached the topic of empires, examining their methods and their interpretations. Readings include historical scholarship on the Roman, Chinese, Mongol, Spanish, Russian, French, British, and American empires, as well as primary sources produced by people living in these and other imperial polities.


FALL 2006 V55.0501 World Cultures: Ancient Near East and Egypt
Prof. Roth (Hebrew & Judaic Studies) syllabus
The two oldest world civilizations, Egypt and Mesopotamia, are both familiar and exotic to most Westerners. Because of their influence on the Classical and Biblical cultures, many elements of these civilizations are familiar: hieroglyphs and cuneiform tablets, the history of Cleopatra and the laws of Hammurabi, the myth of Osiris, and the stories of the Ark, the Pyramids, the Sphinx, and the Tower of Babel (Babylon). But looking at these ancient cultures through the prism of later peoples' impressions gives us a distorted view of their nature. We examine the textual, archaeological, and artistic evidence that these cultures have left us and the scholarly questions and approaches that can be asked of that evidence. Such approaches give us a more balanced picture of the way these ancient peoples lived, believed, and understood the world around them. The primary focus is on ancient Egypt, but Mesopotamia is considered extensively by way of comparison. We turn finally to later perceptions of these cultures in order to evaluate their accuracy and to study the ways in which they have been used and abused to create both new and original cultural forms and political propaganda, both in the West and in the modern countries built on their ruins.


FALL 2006 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 2006 V55.0507 World Cultures: Japan
Prof. Looser (East Asian Studies) syllabus
Japanese national identity is the product of a diversity of cultures and communities. Starting with a broad historical overview of this diversity, critical focus is given to those categories commonly used to describe a single coherent "Japanese" culture. These include the categories of nation (e.g., Japan as an economic state, Japan as a nation defined by beauty and aesthetics), modernity (e.g., gender, family, ethnicity, new religions), and popular culture (e.g., mass culture, subcultures).


FALL 2006 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 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.


FALL 2006 V55.0514 World Cultures: Ancient Israel
Prof. 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 2006 V55.0516 World Cultures: India
Prof. Ganti (Anthropology) syllabus
Utilizing a variety of sources -- novels, films, and academic scholarship -- students are introduced to the history, culture, society, and politics of modern India. Home to one billion people, eight major religions, twenty official languages (with hundreds of dialects), histories spanning several millenia, and a tremendous variety of customs, traditions, and ways of life, India is almost iconic for its diversity. We examine the challenges posed by such diversity as well as how this diversity has been understood, represented, and managed, both historically and contemporarily.


FALL 2006 V55.0529 World Cultures: Contemporary Latino Cultures
Prof. Flores (Social and Cultural Analysis) syllabus
Latino cultures are present everywhere in contemporary American life, and are reshaping what it means to be American. Beginning with an overview of Latin American cultural theory going back to the time of the Spanish conquest--and including such thinkers as Bartolomé de las Casas, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Simón Bolívar, José Martí, and José Vasconcelos--we then trace the development of Latino cultural identity, examining issues of race, citizenship, gender, class, and sexuality, in seeking to gain a critical perspective on Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and other Latino communities in today's society. Turing to the dramatic political and cultural movements of the 1960s and 1970s, we then study the emergence of the idea of a pan-ethnic "Latino" identity encompassing all of the diverse national groups, with attention to instances of this new situation in music, literature, performance, and media representation. Some of the cultural forms and styles to be considered include salsa, border art, Nuyorican poetry, hip hop, and reggaeton; and students are encouraged to engage in and report about the many Latino cultural institutions and movements here in New York City.


FALL 2006 V55.0538 World Cultures: Islamic Diasporas - Africa, America, Asia and Europe
Prof. Ben-Dor (History) & Prof. Gomez (History) syllabus
Familiarizes students with some of the many Muslim communities that live outside the Islamic heartlands, that is, outside what is referred to in Islamic tradition as the Dar al-Islam, or house of Islam. In some cases these diaspora communities are old. China, for instance, has been home to Muslims since the time of the prophet Muhammad. Sub-Saharan Africa makes a similar case. Others are far newer: Europe, the United States, and other Western countries are recently home to sizable Muslim communities. While the initial rise of Islamic diasporas came about largely through military and political expansions, other factors include trade, migration, forced migration, and the missionizing activities of various Sufi orders beyond the pale of Islam. Increasingly in the modern period, conversion to Islam has been a major factor in the rise of such communities. Territories and cultures considered include: Asia (eastern and central), Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Although not proceeding in chronological order per se, we begins by setting the stage with Asia and Africa's earliest Islam communities, moving on to the later diaspora communities of the Americas and Europe. Thematically, the class will consider such questions as: How real is the distinction between the Dar al-Harb (House of War), and the Dar al-Islam (House of Islam)? How does it affect the perception different Muslim groups have of one another? How have trade and Sufi networks shaped the creation and expansion of Muslim communities outside the House of Islam? What role did slavery play in the global dissemination of Islam? How does the specific history of slavery shape some contemporary diasporic Muslim communities' self-understanding? What is the relationship between pan-Islamic movements and Islamic diasporas?


SPRING 2007 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 2007 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 2007 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.


SPRING 2007 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 2007 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.


SPRING 2007 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 2007 V55.0514 World Cultures: Ancient Israel
Prof. M. Smith (Hebrew & Judaic Studies) syllabus
The culture of the ancient Israelite societies of biblical times, covering the period from about 1200 b.c.e. to the conquests of Alexander the Great, in the fourth century b.c.e. Topics include the achievements of these societies in the areas of law and social organization, prophetic movements, Israelite religion, and ancient Hebrew literature. The Hebrew Bible preserves much of the creativity of the ancient Israelites, but archaeological excavations in Israel and neighboring lands, as well as the discovery of ancient writings in Hebrew and related languages, have added greatly to our knowledge of life as it was lived in biblical times. The civilizations of Egypt and Syria-Mesopotamia also shed light on Israelite culture. Of particular interest is the early development of Israelite monotheism, which, in time, emerged as ancient Judaism, the mother religion of Christianity and Islam.


SPRING 2007 V55.0516 World Cultures: India
Prof. Sears (Fine Arts) syllabus
The South Asian subcontinent houses one of the largest and most diverse populations in the world. Because cultural practices vary significantly from region to region, it is impossible to say exactly what "South Asians are like" or what "South Asians do." South Asia might thus be better defined by its many physical places--cities, towns, and built structures--where diverse groups of people come together and interact. We examine ideas of space, place, and pilgrimage in order to introduce students to the cultural history of South Asia from the Indus Valley through the present day. We look at the distinct spaces carved out by different political, religious, social, and economic groups, and we explore the relationship between past and present histories as articulated through transformations in the physical landscape. Case studies range from the multi-cultural and layered history of Delhi to pilgrimage practices at Banaras and Amritsar, and from physical expressions of economic development in Bombay and Banglore to the construction of communal identities and the controversy around Ayodhya. Materials include a wide variety of primary literary texts (translations of Indic language texts, pilgrimage accounts, novels) as well as visual sources (film, art, architecture, and urban form).


SPRING 2007 V55.0532 World Cultures: The African Diaspora
Prof. Morgan (Social and Cultural Analysis) syllabus
The dispersal of Africans to various parts of the world and over time, examining their experiences and those of their descendants. Regions of special interest include the Americas and the Islamic world, centering on questions of slavery and freedom while emphasizing the emergence of cultural forms and their relationship to both African and to non-African influences.


SPRING 2007 V55.0539 World Cultures: Asian/Pacific/American Cultures
Prof. Shimakawa (Social and Cultural Analysis and Performance Studies) &
Prof. Siu (Social and Cultural Analysis and Anthropology) syllabus
What do the USA PATRIOT Act, Japanese manga, and transcultural adoption have in common? What can they tell us about the social and political formation of Asian/Pacific/American communities, including the historical forces that have shaped them and the expressive cultures they produce? Focusing on pivotal events and movements in Asian/Pacific/American history and contemporary life--the Los Angeles riots, the casting of the Broadway musical "Miss Saigon," 9/11 and its aftermath--we discuss ethnic and class conflict, the politics of representation, and question of racial profiling, among other topics. The approach is interdisciplinary, combining a socio-cultural perspective with legal and performative lenses to illuminate Asian/Pacific/American cultures. Through films, novels, guest speakers, and museum exhibitions, in addition historical readings and social science literature, students examine not only contemporary practices of Asian/Pacific/America, but their historical contexts and wider social implications. By considering current and emerging A/P/A issues, we also gain a better understanding of how new forms of culture emerge from global flows of people, ideas, and media.


SPRING 2007 V55.0540 World Cultures: Mongols, Turks and Their Empires
Prof. Peirce (Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies) syllabus
It is well known that the armies of Ghengis Khan swept across Asia into Europe and the Middle East, creating havoc, destruction, and death. What is less commonly known is that the Mongols went on to create a vast Eurasian empire that facilitated cultural, technological, and ideological exchange among the civilizations over which they ruled, especially between China and Iran. And while many have heard of the Ottomans, who built one of the longest-lasting empires in history (1300-1923), less is known of earlier Turkish-speaking nomadic peoples of Inner Asia, whose shorter-lived states and empires also mingled religions and cultures. Some of the questions we ask are: Why could and did nomadic peoples of Inner Asia build empires? Even if short-lived, why was the memory of these empires so persistent and powerful? What transformations occurred when the sons and grandsons of nomadic conquerors found themselves ruling over settled territories with venerable cultures and structured economies, e.g., the Turks in the Islamic lands of the Middle East, the Mongols in China? What compromises had to be made when a people of nomadic heritage, the Ottomans, established a conquest empire in a region with a long pedigree of "high civilization"? Topics include religious identity and the management of religious diversity, the roles of women and men, oral and written legends and histories, and the reflections of outsiders on these empires.

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Societies and the Social Sciences

The Societies and the Social Sciences component can be satisfied through completion of an approved major or minor program, by completing an approved department course or by completing a special MAP course offering.


SPRING 2007 V55.0600 Societies and the Social Sciences: Topics in Interdisciplinary Perspective - American Primacy
Prof. Mead (Politics) syllabus
How did the United States become the world's dominant nation? There is much debate over whether American power is good or bad, but much less about how it arose. If we explain American primacy at all, we usually attribute it to our market economy or to "democracy." We presume that other countries, too, could become rich and powerful if they adopted the same institutions. Here we suggest, rather, that American primacy has deep historical roots, in Europe and especially in Britain. We consider several theories concerning what is special about Europe, Britain, and America, drawing on economics, sociology, and political science. Students thus also learn about what differentiates these social sciences. Finally, we ask what these theories suggest about current issues such as America's relations with Islam or China or the problem of immigration.

Expressive Culture

FALL 2006 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 2006 V55.0720 Expressive Culture: Images
Prof. K. Smith (Fine Arts) syllabus
An introduction to the visual language and functions of art from a cross-cultural, thematic perspective. Students will develop the vocabulary to analyze and appreciate works of art and architecture from antiquity to the present, to be considered through the lens of such topics as art, beauty, and the ideal; visual narrative; art, power, and propaganda; the role of the artist; the body; art and illness; art, science, and technology; landscape; techniques of art-making; abstraction, naturalism, and realism; image, worship, and belief; art, death, and commemoration; portraiture; and censorship of art. Course work includes readings and discussion, exams, and papers, some based on encounters with monuments and collections in New York City.


FALL 2006 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 2006 V55.0730 Expressive Culture: Sounds
Prof. Moloney (Music)
Drawing from selected studies and recordings of music in a variety of world cultures and a semester-long series of live in-class performances by, and interviews with, some of the world's greatest musicians, we examine the complex roles that music plays in day-to-day life. We explore the ways in which music is learned, composed, performed, admired, critiqued, used, and consumed, and look at the multi-faceted relationships between music and music making and race, gender, sexual preference, class, and regional and national identities. Close attention is paid to the ways in which different kinds of music can function as crucial identity markers, particularly in times of great social change and population movements. We consider the ways we 'hear' music in multiple social situations, such as individual and community rituals, and performance events, such as concerts and festivals, and we also look at how music is 'used' in media forms such as film and television and, more generally, as a commodity in the world market place. We study the increasingly complex ways all of us 'consume' or enjoy music in multiple modalities, from street music to radio, CD players and iPods, and downloading from internet sites. In our journey we familiarize ourselves with and interrogate terms like 'musicality', 'musical literacy', 'musical language', 'orality', 'aurality', and various other analytical and descriptive constructs that have been used in discussions on music and society. Most of all, we try to learn not to take music for granted but to be mindful, appreciative, and questioning of the various ways it touches, and can enrich, our lives.


FALL 2006 V55.0730 Expressive Culture: Sounds
Prof. Mueller (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 2006 V55.0750 Expressive Culture: Film
Prof. Guerrero (Cinema Studies) syllabus
Science fiction cinema is clearly one of America's most popular and lucrative genres, one that has evolved from the once campy, comic book inspired B movies of the 1950s, into the one hundred million dollar, computer imaged "space operas" and dystopian spectacles of the contemporary imaginary. While multivalent and far ranging in their themes and visionary horizons, science fiction movies' great appeal and power have always been at least twofold. One attraction of the genre is its ability to explore the political and cultural issues, and the psychic fears and hopes of the social present, masked and subtly woven into "future world" narratives. As importantly, science fiction cinema has the power to imagine our future in dystopian, or utopian, outcomes, in societies and worlds driven by an ever quickening pace of technological innovation, accelerating sense of time compression, and an encroaching sense ecological exhaustion. Following a roughly historical trajectory starting in the "Cold War" 1950s, we explore the representational and aesthetic styles and expressive trends of the genre as it rockets us into the social and off-planet worlds of our techno-future.


SPRING 2007 V55.0720 Expressive Culture: Images
Prof. Karmel (Fine Arts) syllabus
Full appreciation of the visual arts requires familiarity with their distinctive vocabulary and syntax. We explore the vocabulary of art via a series of key motifs in examples from antiquity to the present--the body, the portrait, landscape, narrative, still life, temple, and house--focusing in particular on the varied uses of images for religious, political, and personal goals. Course work includes papers, exams, and hands-on experiments with sculpture, drawing, and photography.


SPRING 2007 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 2007 V55.0730 Expressive Culture: Sounds
Prof. Boorman (Music)
Music as Sound, Music as Communication. How does music works, what are its elements, and how do they help it act as a communicative device? To explore the various ways in which music has been used to communicate different types of messages, we consider case studies of classical music of the 18th and 19th centuries, music in Indonesia, music as a vehicle for political messages, and new ideas about music itself.


SPRING 2007 V55.0730 Expressive Culture: Sounds
Prof. Stanyek (Music)
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 2007 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