Clusters
S = Objectives
Clusters are the heart of the
new curriculum. They exemplify the concept of connected learning:
that students share an intellectual excitement when courses connect
and are related to each other. Each cluster focuses on the multidisciplinary
study of a particular topic, theme, problem, region, or period.
A cluster is constituted by a convener and affiliated faculty
members.
The aim of clusters is to allow
students to examine a general problem or issue from a variety
of different disciplinary perspectives. In an increasingly complex
world, no single discipline is adequate for examining the breadth
and depth of most topics. Thus clusters offer students the unique
opportunity of guided multidisciplinary inquiry and provide a
centerpiece for liberal arts education.
The clusters draw on the richness
and diversity of our nationally acclaimed research faculty. Cluster
faculty will meet and exchange syllabi regularly and may offer
special multidisciplinary events, including speakers, colloquia,
and other group activities to facilitate student-faculty interaction.
Every student entering after the fall of 1994 must complete one cluster prior to graduation. To accomplish this, students need to complete three courses, from at least two schools, from those listed in the cluster. Transfer students who enter Brandeis with 14 or more course credits are exempted from one cluster course--they must complete two courses, from at least two schools. Occasionally courses may be added to a cluster or new clusters added to the curriculum after a student has taken such courses. In such cases, students may petition a cluster convener to count courses previously completed toward their cluster requirement. These petitions must be approved by the cluster convener and the chair of the Clusters Program Committee. Cluster courses may be taken any time during a student's undergraduate career, but students are advised to begin their cluster course work in their first year. While most courses in a cluster do not require prerequisites, some do. Cluster courses can fulfill other University requirements as well. Students select courses within a cluster based on their interests and backgrounds.
S = Courses of Instruction
S = Cluster 1: The Aging Process
Convener: Margie Lachman
The cluster addresses the biomedical, psychosocial, and ethical issues associated with growing older in our society and in other cultures. The goal is to understand the basic human developmental processes of aging (physical and psychological) and to examine how they play out in the context of society and culture.
S = Courses of Instruction
BCSC 6b
How Muscles Contract and Cells
Move
BISC 7a
Biology of People
NPSY 154a
Human Memory
NPSY 159a
Advanced Topics in Episodic
Memory
NPSY 199a
Neuropsychology
PHIL 23b
Biomedical Ethics
PSYC 101b
The Psychology of Adult Development
and Aging
PSYC 131b
Seminar in Health Psychology
PSYC 145b
Aging in a Changing World
SOC 165a
Sociology of Birth and Death
SOC 177b
Aging in Society
SOC 192b
Sociology of Disability
S = Cluster 2: The Baroque
Convener: Lynette Bosch
Courses in this cluster shed light on 17th-century developments in history, art, music, literature, and philosophy.
S = Courses of Instruction
ENG 164b
Restoration and Eighteenth-Century
Drama and Performance
FA 45a
St. Peter's and the Vatican
FA 60a
Baroque in Italy and Spain
HIST 132a
European Thought and Culture:
Marlowe to Mill
MUS 42a
The Music of Johann Sebastian
Bach
SECS 150a
Golden Age Drama and Society
S = Cluster 3: Colonialism and Neo-Colonialism in the Third World
Convener: Silvia Arrom
Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East have experienced centuries of control by imperial powers. This cluster explores the impact of colonialism--and in independent countries, of neo-colonialism--on the politics, society, economics, and cultures of Third World countries, as well as the reactions of the subject peoples. Courses provide perspectives from anthropology, history, literature, politics, and sociology, and contrast the views of both colonized and colonizers.
S = Courses of Instruction
AAAS 18b
Africa and the West
AAAS 123a
Third World Ideologies
AAAS 133b
The Literature of the Caribbean
AAAS 158a
Theories of Development and
Underdevelopment
AAAS 167a
African and Caribbean Comparative
Political Systems
ANTH 55a
Development and the Third World
COML 193a
Topics in New World Studies:
The Empire Writes Back
ENG 145a
British Colonialism
FREN 165b
Topics in Francophone Literatures
HIST 71a
Latin American History, Pre-Conquest
to 1870
HIST 71b
Latin American History, 1870
to the Present
HIST 80b
East Asia in the Nineteenth
and Twentieth Centuries
NEJS 147a
The Rise and Decline of the
Ottoman Empire, 1300-1800
POL 144a
Latin American Politics I
POL 150a
Politics of Southeast Asia
SOC 125b
U.S.-Caribbean Relations
S = Cluster 4: Conceptions of Personhood and Self
Convener: Eli Hirsch
Philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and literature have focused on conceptions of the person and of the self. This topic provides a pivot for discussion of the way human beings conceive of themselves in relation to the natural and social world, and the way these conceptions influence human values.
S = Courses of Instruction
AMST 10a
Foundations of American Civilization
COML 105b
Sex and Sensibility in Pre-Revolutionary
European Novels
ENG 144b
The Body as Text: Castiglione
to Locke
HOID 108b
Greek and Roman Ethics: From
Plato to the Stoics
LGLS 137a
Libel and Defamation, Privacy
and Publicity
PHIL 136a
Personal Identity
PSYC 31a
Personality
SOC 164a
Existential Sociology
S = Cluster 5: Creativity in Art and Science
Convener: Karen White
This cluster focuses on the creative impulse and process, the workings of the imagination, the makings of a creative environment, and the possibilities for creativity in any field or arena. Opportunities are provided for the exploration of creativity from varied points of view: theoretical, historical, scientific, and "hands on," or experiential.
S = Courses of Instruction
BCSC 1a
The Brain: From Molecules to
Control of Movement
CLAS 133b
The Art and Archaeology of
Ancient Greece
CLAS 134b
The Art and Archaeology of
Ancient Rome
FA 19b
Lives of the Artists
HIP 10b
Lyric Poetry and Drawing
HIST 20b
Images of the Cosmos
HIST 131a
The Scientific Revolution
LING 130a
Semantics: The Structure of
Concepts
MUS 107a
Introduction to Electro-Acoustic
Music
PHSC 3b
Twentieth-Century Physics and
Its Philosophical Implications
SOC 148a
Social Psychology of Consciousness
I
SOC 148b
Social Psychology of Consciousness
II
THA 109a
Improvisation
S = Cluster 6: Crime and Punishment
Convener: Jacob Cohen
What human behaviors, in what situations, come to be called "crimes," and what manner of human beings come to be called "criminals"? What are the causes of criminality and how can they be reduced (if they can be)? How are crimes detected and how should adjudged criminals be thought of and treated? Answers require the perspectives of sociology, law, anthropology, history, philosophy, literature, biology, and forensic science.
S = Courses of Instruction
AMST 175a
Violence in American Life
COML 185a
Dickens and Dostoevsky
ENG 145b
The Image of Crime: Realism
and Victorian Detective Fiction
PHIL 20a
Social and Political Philosophy:
Democracy and Disobedience
PHIL 22b
Philosophy of Law
PHIL 116a
Seminar in Political Philosophy:
Justice
POL 123b
The Politics of Urban Criminal
Justice
SOC 106a
Issues in Law and Society
S = Cluster 7: Cultural Representations of Gender
Convener: Sylvia Fishman
The relationship between women and men has always been the subject of the media, usually from a male perspective. Painting, sculpture, music, film, literature, popular culture, journalism, and every other form of communication have portrayed, and thus created, gender. This cluster examines how gender is portrayed in cultural objects.
S = Courses of Instruction
AMST 139b
Reporting on Gender, Race,
and Culture
COML 198a
Feminist Theory in Literary
and Cultural Studies
ENG 134a
The Woman of Letters, 1600-1800
FA 61b
Inventing Tradition: Women
as Artists, Women as Art
NEJS 172a
Women in American Jewish Literature
NEJS 176a
Seminar in American Jewish
Fiction: Literary Readings: Roth and Ozick
RECS 137a
The Heroine in Nineteenth-Century
Russian Literature
SPAN 192a
Contemporary Hispanic Women's Fiction in Translation
S = Cluster 8: Discovering Our Origins
Convener: John Wardle
This cluster provides a broad study of the physical and human universe. We explore the origins and workings of the universe, planet earth, humankind, the brain, and human perception. These themes and our perception of them are explored further in the history of cosmological thought, and through classical myth and literature.
S = Courses of Instruction
ANTH 5a
Human Origins
BCSC 1a
The Brain: From Molecules to
Control of Movement
BCSC 3b
Dinosaur Paleobiology
BIOL 17b
Ecology
CHSC 3a
The Planet as an Organism:
Gaia Theory and the Human Prospect
CLAS 170a
Classical Mythology
HIP 20a
Imagining How We Are: East
and West I
HIST 20b
Images of the Cosmos
HOID 108b
Greek and Roman Ethics: From
Plato to the Stoics
PHSC 2b
Introductory Astronomy
S = Cluster 9: The Enlightenment
Convener: Robert Greenberg
The European era that includes the 18th century, known as the Enlightenment, consists of some of the greatest achievements of Western civilization. From philosophy, literature, and drama to music and art, the mind of Europe was at its full flower. All this occurred during a period of great social upheaval that culminated in the French Revolution. This is a cluster of study to engage the most inquiring minds.
S = Courses of Instruction
ENG 124a
Reason and Ridicule: The Literature
of Britain in the Enlightenment
FREN 132b
The French Enlightenment
HIST 130a
The French Revolution
HIST 132a
European Thought and Culture:
Marlowe to Mill
MUS 43a
Mozart and Eros
MUS 45a
Beethoven
PHIL 166b
Berkeley
PHIL 168a
Kant
POL 185b
Politics of the Enlightenment
S = Cluster: 10: Ethnicity, Race, and Culture
Convener: Steven Burg
The contemporary analysis of ethnicity, race, and culture in comparative perspective provides the basis for this cluster.
S = Courses of Instruction
AAAS 116b
Comparative Race and Ethnic
Relations
AMST 169a
Ethnicity and Race in the United
States
ANTH 139b
Language, Ethnicity, and Nationalism
NEJS 160a
The Making of the American
Jew
NEJS 161a
American Jewish Life
NEJS 164b
The Sociology of the American
Jewish Community
NEJS 165a
American Jewish Culture
NEJS 168a
History and Culture of the
Jews in East-Central Europe to 1914
NEJS 168b
History and Culture of the
Jews in East-Central Europe, 1914 to the Present
POL 127b
Seminar: Managing Ethnic Conflict
S = Cluster 11: Families, Households, and the Life Cycle
Convener: David Jacobson
This cluster focuses on the structure of and processes in families and households at different times and in different cultures. It provides an understanding of this most basic of social institutions as well as of the similarities and differences among the various disciplines that study it.
S = Courses of Instruction
AMST 124b
American Love and Marriage
AMST 150b
The Family in the United States
ANTH 157a
Families and Households
BISC 2a
Human Reproduction, Population
Explosion, Global Consequences
BIOL 160b
Human Reproductive Biology
COML 102a
Love in the Middle Ages
HIST 55b
The History of the Family
HIST 127a
Women, Sexuality, and Family
Life in Early Modern Europe
HIST 153a
Americans at Home: Families
and Domestic Environment, 1600 to the Present
JCS 202b
Jewish Life Cycle
JCS 203b
Jewish Family Dynamics
RECS 147b
Tolstoy
SOC 130a
Families
S = Cluster 12: Feminist Perspectives on Society
Convener: Karen Hansen
This cluster analyzes cultures around the world and the ways in which they generate and sustain hierarchies based on gender, race, and class. It combines analyses of cultural practices, political systems, economies, and legal structures to understand the maintenance of inequalities. Drawing on a variety of feminist perspectives, the cluster courses also explore avenues for social transformation.
S = Courses of Instruction
ANTH 144a
The Anthropology of Gender
ENG 181a
Making Sex, Performing Gender
ENG 197b
The Political Novel in the
Twentieth Century
HSSW 326a
Race, Class, and Gender
HSSW 333b
Feminism, Law, and Social Policy
NEJS 153b
History of Jewish and Christian
Women in the Roman Empire
SOC 105a
Feminist Critiques of American
Society
SOC 107a
Global Apartheid and Global
Social Movements
SOC 171a
Women Leaders and Transformation
in Developing Countries
WMNS 5a
Women in Culture and Society: A Multidisciplinary Perspective
S = Cluster 13: Film and Society
Convener: Thomas Doherty
The motion picture medium is a vivid reflection of and powerful influence on society. The cluster on film and society offers an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspective on film as an art to be appreciated and as a cultural force to be reckoned with.
S = Courses of Instruction
AMST 114a
American Film and Culture of
the 1920s
AMST 120b
Film Theory and Criticism
COML 195a
Feminism and Film
FECS 157a
Topics in French Film
FILM 100a
Introduction to the Moving
Image
GECS 165a
German Film in Cultural Context
GECS 166b
Dreams and Nightmares: The
Third Reich on Film
NEJS 190b
Images of Jews on Film
NEJS 191b
Revisioning Jewish Life in
Film and Fiction
PHIL 113b
Aesthetics: Painting, Photography,
and Film
RECS 149b
Twentieth-Century Russian Literature,
Art, Film, and Theater
SECS 183a
Spanish Fictions and Films
of Modern Life
THA 126b
American Musical Theater and Film
S = Cluster 14: Food
Convener: Kenneth Hayes
Food is among the essentials of life. What is food, how do our bodies use it, and what is the impact of diet on the chronic diseases of humans? How has the world's population obtained adequate food in the past? What policies and programs have been developed to help promote adequate production and equitable consumption of food in the world? How can these policies be strengthened to end hunger and provide adequate food for the world's growing population? Students pursuing in this cluster will have the opportunity to explore many of these questions and to learn about food from a variety of perspectives.
S = Courses of Instruction
AAAS 60a
Economics of Third World Hunger
AMST 20a
Environmental Issues
ANTH 20b
The Development of Human Food
Production
BISC 10b
Nutrition: Principles, Issues,
and Applications
BIOL 42a
Human Physiology
BIOL 55b
Diet and Health
POL 179a
Seminar: Politics and Hunger
SOC 175b
Environmental Sociology
S = Cluster 15: Gender and Work
Convener: Joyce Antler
This cluster examines social, psychological, legal, political, and economic factors that shape the work of women and men. Work is understood broadly to include the professions, scholarly work, science, and art as well as industrial and service occupations and housework. The gendered meanings and divisions of work are addressed critically. The primary focus is on contemporary United States, although some analyses of 18th- and 19th-century America as well as Europe will be included.
S = Courses of Instruction
AMST 118a
Gender and the Professions
ECON 58b
Gender and Economics
ENG 134a
The Woman of Letters, 1600-1800
ENG 157b
American Women Poets
FA 61b
Inventing Tradition: Women
as Artists, Women as Art
HSSW 319a
Work, Individual and Social
Development, and Social Welfare
HSSW 540b
Families, Work, and the Changing
Economy
LGLS 120a
Sex Discrimination and the
Law
PHSC 4a
Science and Development
POL 159a
Seminar: The Politics of the
Modern Welfare State: Women, Workers, and Social Citizenship
SOC 117a
Sociology of Work
SOC 134a
Women and Intellectual Work
S = Cluster 16: The Global Commons: Environmental Issues in International Relations
Convener: Robert Art
Environmental issues have taken a prominent place in international politics ever since the 1972 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. This cluster examines the full dimensions of environmental degradation on a global scale and the efforts to retard and reverse it.
S = Courses of Instruction
AMST 20a
Environmental Issues
ANTH 20b
The Development of Human Food
Production
BISC 2a
Human Reproduction, Population
Explosion, Global Consequences
BIOL 17b
Ecology
CHSC 3a
The Planet as an Organism:
Gaia Theory and the Human Prospect
ENG 60b
Writing About the Environment
LGLS 132b
Environmental Law and Policy
PHSC 4a
Science and Development
PHSC 7b
Technology and the Management
of Public Risk
POL 165a
Seminar: International Relations
and the Global Environment
POL 179a
Seminar: Politics and Hunger
S = Cluster 17: Greece and Rome, Seen and Seen Again
Convener: Leonard Muellner
This cluster contains basic courses on aspects of the civilization of Ancient Greece and Rome, specifically, their art, archaeology, history, mythology, and, in the case of Greece, its philosophy. There are also basic courses in comparable fields during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The goal is to provide the student with a broad view of the culture of classical antiquity and the creative and critical reinterpretation of it that took place in Europe before the modern era.
S = Courses of Instruction
CLAS 100a
Survey of Greek History: Bronze
Age to 323 B.C.E.
CLAS 133b
The Art and Archaeology of
Ancient Greece
CLAS 134b
The Art and Archaeology of
Ancient Rome
CLAS 145b
Topics in Greek and Roman Art
and Archaeology
CLAS 170a
Classical Mythology
FA 41a
Art and the Origins of Europe
FA 51a
Art of the Early Renaissance
in Italy
FA 58b
High and Late Renaissance in
Italy
HIST 103a
Roman History to 455 C.E.
HOID 108b
Greek and Roman Ethics: From
Plato to the Stoics
PHIL 71a
Medieval Philosophy
PHIL 161a
Plato
PHIL 162b
Aristotle
S = Cluster 18: Human Population Dynamics
Convener: Judith Herzfeld
This century has seen unprecedented global changes in human numbers, numbers which will be dwarfed by the changes that will occur in the coming decades. To put these changes into perspective, this cluster explores various aspects of human demographics, including growth, migration, and decline in various times and places. The cluster draws on the vantage points of disciplines in the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities.
S = Courses of Instruction
AMST 160a
U.S. Immigration History, Policy,
and Law
ANTH 5a
Human Origins
ANTH 20b
The Development of Human Food
Production
ANTH 147b
The Rise of Mesoamerican Civilization
BISC 2a
Human Reproduction, Population
Explosion, Global Consequences
BIOL 17b
Ecology
BIOL 160b
Human Reproductive Biology
CHSC 3a
The Planet as an Organism: Gaia Theory and the Human Prospect
S = Cluster 19: Intelligent Behavior: Natural and Artificial
Conveners: Maya Mataric and
Edgar Zurif
This cluster deals with some immensely complicated cognitive capacities that underlie intelligent behavior--capacities that we acquire naturally and easily and take for granted. Different approaches to this topic are presented. These include psychological experimentation, efforts to program language processing and problem-solving skills into computers, studies of how cognitive capacities are neurologically organized and of how they relate to cultural systems, and a consideration of how theorizing in these various domains of inquiry reflect and are illuminated by philosophical ideas.
S = Courses of Instruction
COSI 35a
Fundamentals of Artificial
Intelligence
COSI 111a
Topics in Computational Cognitive
Science
LING 150b
Introduction to Cognitive Science
LING 153a
Consciousness
LING 173a
Psycholinguistics
NPSY 22b
Cognitive Processes
NPSY 137b
Cognitive Modeling
NBIO 140b
Introductory Neuroscience
NPSY 154a
Human Memory
NPSY 199a
Neuropsychology
PHIL 39b
Philosophy of Mind
PHIL 141b
Topics in the Philosophy of Psychology
S = Cluster 20: Justice
Convener: James Kloppenberg
The question of justice has always been central to political theory and moral philosophy. Students in this cluster will confront various perspectives on justice emerging from different traditions of thought in different historical periods; they will also examine conceptions of individual responsibility as well as political ideals and institutions.
S = Courses of Instruction
AMST 188b
Justice Brandeis and Progressive
Jurisprudence
ENG 197b
The Political Novel in the
Twentieth Century
HIST 162a
From Liberal Democracy to Social
Democracy
HOID 108b
Greek and Roman Ethics: From
Plato to the Stoics
PHIL 20a
Social and Political Philosophy:
Democracy and Disobedience
PHIL 114b
Topics in Ethical Theory
PHIL 116a
Seminar in Political Philosophy:
Justice
POL 108b
Seminar: Liberty and Equality
in American Politics
POL 181b
Red Flags/Black Flags: Marxism
vs. Anarchism, 1845-1968
POL 196b
Romantic and Existentialist
Political Thought
RECS 146a
Dostoevsky
SOC 111a
Political Sociology and Democratic Empowerment
S = Cluster 21: Knowledge, Subjectivism, and Relativism
Convener: David Wong
Is truth independent of our modes of justification and basic assumptions about the world? Is moral truth independent of culture and convention? Or is truth perspectival and "constructed" by social forms and individual subjectivity? These central questions are approached through a broad range of courses in the humanities and the sciences.
S = Courses of Instruction
AMST 170a
The Idea of Conspiracy in American
Culture
ANTH 171a
Crosscultural Inquiry in Social
Science
COML 198a
Feminist Theory in Literary
and Cultural Studies
ENG 121b
Contemporary Literary Theory
HIST 132a
European Thought and Culture:
Marlowe to Mill
HIST 132b
European Thought and Culture
Since Darwin
HOID 108b
Greek and Roman Ethics: From
Plato to the Stoics
PHIL 114b
Topics in Ethical Theory
PHIL 138a
Metaphysics
PHIL 142b
The Subjective Point of View
PHSC 3b
Twentieth-Century Physics and
Its Philosophical Implications
POL 185b
Politics of the Enlightenment
SOC 164a
Existential Sociology
S = Cluster 22: Medicine, Health, and Social Policy
Convener: Joan Tucker
Health and health care are among the dominant concerns of any society. In modern society, health care has become so technologically sophisticated and organizationally complex that a single discipline is no longer adequate for understanding its dimensions. This cluster examines the scientific basis, social and legal organization, and psychological and ethical issues surrounding health and medical care.
S = Courses of Instruction
BCSC 7b
Drug Discovery and Development
BISC 2a
Human Reproduction, Population
Explosion, Global Consequences
BISC 4a
Heredity
BISC 6a
Recombinant DNA
BISC 10b
Nutrition: Principles, Issues,
and Applications
BIOL 42a
Human Physiology
BIOL 55b
Diet and Health
BIOL 125a
Immunology
LGLS 114a
American Health Care: Law and
Policy
LGLS 139b
Medical Malpractice on Trial
PHIL 23b
Biomedical Ethics
PSYC 131b
Seminar in Health Psychology
SOC 189a
Sociology of Body and Health
SOC 190b
On the Caring of the Medical Care System
S = Cluster 23: Modern French Culture
Convener: Stephen Gendzier
This set of courses will introduce students to a variety of cross-disciplinary orientations toward the study of French art, music, history, literature, politics, and social thought.
S = Courses of Instruction
FA 170b
Nineteenth-Century European
Painting and Sculpture
FA 171a
Impressionism: Avant-Garde
Rebellion in Context
FA 175b
Duchamp to Deconstruction
FECS 174b
Contemporary French Civilization
FECS 182b
French Literature and Painting
HIST 130a
The French Revolution
HIST 132b
European Thought and Culture
Since Darwin
HIST 145b
Introduction to Modern France
MUS 57a
Music and Culture: From Romanticism
to the Modern Era
POL 196b
Romantic and Existentialist
Political Thought
SOC 164a
Existential Sociology
S = Cluster 24: Modern Latin America
Convener: Silvia Arrom
This cluster brings the insights of five disciplines to bear on understanding South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean during the 19th and 20th centuries. It shows how social, economic, political, and intellectual developments are interrelated and encourages students to consider Latin America's strengths and problems from a Latin American perspective.
S = Courses of Instruction
ECON 26a
Latin America's Economy
FA 24b
Twentieth-Century and Contemporary
Latin American Art
HIST 71b
Latin American History, 1870
to the Present
HIST 175a
Modern Mexico
POL 144a
Latin American Politics I
POL 144b
Latin American Politics II
SOC 125b
U.S.-Caribbean Relations
SPAN 163a
Modern Latin American Fiction
SPAN 164b
Studies in Latin American Literature
SPAN 190b
Latin American Fiction in Translation
SPAN 192a
Contemporary Hispanic Women's Fiction in Translation
S = Cluster 25: Modern Russia
Convener: Barney Schwalberg
The extraordinary experience of modern Russia--encompassing czarist autocracy, communist totalitarianism, and the current turmoil of transition to a more liberal social system--is examined from the perspectives of the social sciences and of the literature of the period.
S = Courses of Instruction
ECON 25b
Transition and Institutional
Economics
ECON 32b
Comparative Economic Systems
HIST 147b
Russia Since 1861
HIST 149a
Soviet History: Major Issues,
New Approaches
POL 129a
East European Politics
POL 130b
Politics in Russia and Ukraine
RECS 130a
Nineteenth-Century Russian
Literature
RECS 135a
The Short Story in Russia
RECS 143b
History of Russian and Soviet
Film
RUS 148a
A Survey of Russian Theater
from 1719-1917
RUS 148b
A Survey of Twentieth-Century
Russian Theater: Chekhov to the Present
RECS 149b
Twentieth-Century Russian Literature, Art, Film, and Theater
S = Cluster 26: Modernism: The Twentieth Century
Convener: James Kloppenberg
The culture of modernism sprang from the unsettling but liberating experience of uncertainty in Europe and America during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Artists, writers, and philosophers deliberately discarded tradition and experimented with radically new ideas and forms of expression. Students will examine the sensibility of modernism through courses drawn from a variety of disciplines dealing with European and American culture.
S = Courses of Instruction
ECS 100a
European Cultural Studies:
The Proseminar
ENG 67b
Modern Poetry
FA 70a
Paris/New York: Revolutions
of Modernism
FA 71a
Modern Art and Modern Culture
FECS 157a
Topics in French Film
FECS 182b
French Literature and Painting
GER 195b
German Modernism and the Fascist
Backlash
HIST 132b
European Thought and Culture
Since Darwin
HIST 169a
Thought and Culture in Modern
America
PHIL 74b
Foundations of American Pragmatism
S = Cluster 27: Nationalism in World Politics
Convener: Robert Art
With the Cold War's end, the destructive forces of nationalism have appeared with full force in central Europe and the former Soviet Union. But nationalism is a force as old as the nation-state and is global in its manifestations. This cluster examines the origins and effects of nationalism in world politics and the international attempts to cope with it.
S = Courses of Instruction
AAAS 116b
Comparative Race and Ethnic
Relations
COML 193a
Topics in New World Studies:
The Empire Writes Back
ENG 145a
British Colonialism
HIST 80b
East Asia in the Nineteenth
and Twentieth Centuries
HIST 134b
Nineteenth-Century Europe:
Nationalism, Imperialism, Socialism (1850-1919)
NEJS 144b
Nationalism and Islam in the
Modern Middle East
NEJS 145b
The Making of the Modern Middle
East
POL 15a
Introduction to International
Relations
POL 127b
Seminar: Managing Ethnic Conflict
POL 150a
Politics of Southeast Asia
POL 151b
Seminar: Nationalism and Development
S = Cluster 28: Nature-Nurture
Convener: Peter Conrad
The question of the contributions of biology and the social environment to human behavior and human nature has been debated for more than two centuries. This debate has increased salience with the emergence of the new genetics and neuroscience. This cluster examines the issues of nature and nurture from a variety of social and biological perspectives.
S = Courses of Instruction
ANTH 166a
The Nature of Human Nature
BISC 1a
Biology of Neurological and
Mental Illness
BISC 4a
Heredity
BIBC 22a
Genetics and Molecular Biology
BIOL 128a
Human Genetics
COML 105b
Sex and Sensibility in Pre-Revolutionary
European Novels
LING 181b
Language and Human Nature
PHIL 137a
Innate Knowledge
PSYC 33a
Developmental Psychology
PSYC 160b
Seminar on Sex Differences
SOC 176a
Nature, Nurture, and Public Policy
S = Cluster 29: Power and Politics: Theory, Literature, and Practice
Convener: Karen Klein
This cluster provides multiple perspectives on the uses and abuses of power by states, political systems, and individuals and an investigation of the relation of class, gender, and race to the structures of power. The perspectives range across political theory and philosophy, studies of political structures from diverse Western and non-Western societies, and examples of political movements and fictional narratives that illuminate and critique political realities.
S = Courses of Instruction
ENG 197b
The Political Novel in the
Twentieth Century
HIST 132a
European Thought and Culture:
Marlowe to Mill
HIST 132b
European Thought and Culture
Since Darwin
PHIL 19a
Human Rights
PHIL 20a
Social and Political Philosophy:
Democracy and Disobedience
POL 128a
The Politics of Revolution:
State Violence and Popular Insurgency in the Third World
POL 184a
Utopia and Power in Modern
Political Thought
SECS 182b
The Spanish Civil War
SOC 107a
Global Apartheid and Global
Social Movements
SOC 119a
War and Possibilities of Peace
SOC 161a
Society, State, and Power: The Problem of Democracy
S = Cluster 30: The Renaissance
Convener: Richard Lansing
The courses in this cluster will provide a forum for the study of the art, literature, music, history, and culture of the Renaissance from its inception in Italy in the late 15th century to the closing of the theaters in England in 1642.
S = Courses of Instruction
COML 103b
Madness and Folly in Renaissance
Literature
ENG 3a
The Renaissance
ENG 33a
Shakespeare
ENG 63a
Renaissance Poetry
ENG 173a
Spenser and Milton
FA 51a
Art of the Early Renaissance
in Italy
FA 58b
High and Late Renaissance in
Italy
FREN 122b
The Renaissance
MUS 10b
Early Music Ensembles
MUS 32a
Music and the Idea of Renaissance
SPAN 120b
Don Quijote
S = Cluster 31: The Scientific Model of the Universe
Convener: Hugh Pendleton
The emergence of scientific determinism during the Enlightenment guided the Western image of the universe for over 200 years, but has recently come under attack on scientific, philosophical, and political grounds. This cluster examines the content and principles of scientific determinism and its impact on philosophy and culture in general, as well as contemporary challenges to this world view.
S = Courses of Instruction
CHSC 7a
Chaos
HIST 20b
Images of the Cosmos
MATH 2a
Order and Chaos
MATH 8a
Introduction to Probability
and Statistics
PHIL 35a
Philosophy of Science
PHSC 3b
Twentieth-Century Physics and Its Philosophical Implications
S = Cluster 32: Sustainable Development
Convener: Robert Lange
There are no easy answers to reducing human poverty and to managing, rather than damaging, the environment. Environmental degradation, human poverty, scarcity of resources, and ineffective institutions handicap development efforts. This cluster introduces students to a variety of different approaches to sustainable development. The designated courses in the social sciences and the sciences give particular attention to problems in the lower income countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
S = Courses of Instruction
ANTH 55a
Development and the Third World
BIOL 17b
Ecology
CHSC 4a
Chemicals and Toxicity
ECON 175a
Introduction to the Economics
of Development
LGLS 132b
Environmental Law and Policy
PHSC 4a
Science and Development
POL 151b
Seminar: Nationalism and Development
POL 179a
Seminar: Politics and Hunger
S = Cluster 33: The City
Convener: Ann Koloski-Ostrow
This cluster explores the city in time and space from several perspectives in order to address a number of questions. What is a city? What functions does it perform? What are its origins and composition in the ancient world (Athens, Rome, Pompeii), and how do these relate to modern cities? Is there a city yet to be built which will enrich and further human development?
S = Courses of Instruction
ANTH 158a
Urban Anthropology
CLAS 133b
The Art and Archaeology of
Ancient Greece
CLAS 134b
The Art and Archaeology of
Ancient Rome
CLAS 145b
Topics in Greek and Roman Art
and Archaeology
COML 185a
Dickens and Dostoevsky
ENG 23a
Domains of Seventeenth-Century
Performance
FA 14a
When Tokyo was called Edo:
Japanese Art from Edo to Meiji
FA 22b
History of Boston Architecture
FA 45a
St. Peter's and the Vatican
GER 190b
Vienna at the Turn of the Century
GECS 195b
German Modernism and the Fascist
Backlash
HIST 169a
Thought and Culture in Modern
America
NEJS 151b
Merchants, Moneylenders, and
Ghetti of Venice
NEJS 161b
The Monument and the City
NEJS 167b
A History of the Jews in Warsaw, Lodz, Vilna, and Odessa
S = Cluster 34: Values, Technology, and Society
Convener: Olga Davidson
Throughout history, scientific discoveries and their technological applications have changed the contours of our lives. This cluster explores the differential impact of scientific advances and cognition on politics, social values, religious beliefs, and the arts. Courses from biochemistry, computer science, history, politics, sociology, Near Eastern studies, and comparative literature emphasize the interdisciplinary dimensions of science in our world.
S = Courses of Instruction
BCSC 1b
Biotechnology: Its Origins,
Scientific Basis, and Impact
COSI 2a
Introduction to Computers
HIST 131b
Science and Technology in the
Twentieth Century
HIST 133b
Science and Religion in Modern
Europe
LGLS 129b
Law, Technology, and Innovation
NEJS 195b
The Woman's Voice in the Muslim
World
PHSC 7b
Technology and the Management
of Public Risk
POL 183b
Community and Alienation: Social
Theory from Hegel to Freud
SOC 108b
Modern Society in Transition
SOC 194b
Technology and Society
S = Cluster 35: Visual Literacy
Convener: Susan Moeller
Courses in the visual literacy cluster allow students to explore the power of images. In spite of Americans' growing sophistication at the end of the 20th century, we continue to be moved--consciously and unconsciously--by the pictures we see in print, on television, in movies, and even in museums. Visual literacy courses examine the role of images in our society by investigating images much as written texts have always been analyzed. These courses trace an image-conscious sensibility in literature, art, popular culture, politics, and even the sciences.
S = Courses of Instruction
AMST 120b
Film Theory and Criticism
AMST 135b
The History and Principles
of Photojournalism
CHSC 8b
Chemistry and Art
ENG 144b
The Body as Text: Castiglione
to Locke
FA 61b
Inventing Tradition: Woman
as Artists, Women as Art
FA 75a
High Art/Low Art: Modern Art
and Popular Culture
FA 175b
Duchamp to Deconstruction
FILM 100a
Introduction to the Moving
Image
PHIL 113b
Aesthetics: Painting, Photography,
and Film
PSYC 13b
Perception
S = Cluster 36: Women and Society in the United States
Convener: Julie Nelson
This cluster explores the experience of women in the United States from colonial times to the present. Looking at gender roles from a variety of perspectives, and listening to women's voices as represented in sources ranging from social policy to poetry, painting, biography, and history, the cluster will investigate the gendered dimensions of female experience in America as well as the divisions among American women.
S = Courses of Instruction
AMST 121a
The American Jewish Woman:
1890-1990s
AMST 123b
Women in American History:
1865 to the Present
BISC 2a
Human Reproduction, Population
Explosion, Global Consequences
BIOL 160b
Human Reproductive Biology
ECON 58b
Gender and Economics
ENG 157b
American Women Poets
FA 173a
Georgia O'Keeffe and Stieglitz
Circle
HIST 153a
Americans at Home: Families
and Domestic Environment, 1600 to the Present
HIST 154b
Women in American History:
A Survey, 1600-1865
HIST 187a
Problems in American Women's
History
HSSW 549a
Family Policy
NEJS 174b
Changing Roles of Women in
American Jewish Life
SOC 131b
Women's Biography and Society
S = Cluster 37: Women: Other Times, Other Places
Convener: Marc Brettler
The aim of this cluster is to provide an examination of women in pre-modern and non-Western cultures. Sub-areas considered by courses in the cluster include artistic and literary creation, family life, and religious ideas from historical and comparative perspectives.
S = Courses of Instruction
ANTH 144a
The Anthropology of Gender
HIST 55b
The History of the Family
HIST 154b
Women in American History:
A Survey, 1600-1865
NEJS 115b
Women and the Bible
NEJS 153b
History of Jewish and Christian
Women in the Roman Empire
NEJS 195b
The Woman's Voice in the Muslim
World
PHSC 4a
Science and Development
RECS 137a
The Heroine in Nineteenth-Century
Russian Literature
SOC 171a
Women Leaders and Transformation
in Developing Countries
SPAN 192a
Contemporary Hispanic Women's Fiction in Translation
S = Cluster 38: World Cultures
Convener: Olga Davidson
The purpose of this cluster is to introduce the student to some of the important cultures of the non-Western world. It accomplishes this by offering a choice of introductory courses designed to provide a broad acquaintance with a variety of traditions.
S = Courses of Instruction
AAAS 115a
Introduction to African History
ANTH 147b
The Rise of Mesoamerican Civilization
HIST 71a
Latin American History, Pre-Conquest
to 1870
HIST 80a
Introduction to East Asian
Civilization
IMES 104a
Islam: Civilization and Institutions
NEJS 109a
Ancient Near Eastern History
and Culture I
NEJS 128b
Explorations in Islamic Literature
II: The Persian World
POL 150a
Politics of Southeast Asia
S = Cluster 39: The Birth of Europe
Convener: Charles McClendon
Western Europe first emerged as a cultural force following the fall of the Roman Empire when a patchwork of barbarian tribes gave rise to a network of kingdoms that foreshadowed today's national states. Basic features of European civilization, from its language to its religious and educational institutions, were formed during this period. Students explore this creative process from an interdisciplinary perspective.
S = Courses of Instruction
COML 102a
Love in the Middle Ages
ENG 122a
The Medieval World
ENG 132b
Chaucer I
ENG 152b
Arthurian Literature
FA 41a
Art and the Origins of Europe
FA 42b
The Age of Cathedrals
FA 43a
The Art of Medieval England
FREN 120a
The French Middle Ages
HIST 110a
The Civilization of the Early
Middle Ages
HIST 110b
The Civilization of the High
and Late Middle Ages
HIST 113a
English Medieval History
ITAL 140a
Dante's Divine Comedy
MUS 32a
Music and the Idea of Renaissance
PHIL 71a
Medieval Philosophy
S = Cluster 40: Conflict and Cooperation
Convener: Seyom Brown
A system of interdependent decision-makers has the potential for symbiotic cooperation or mutual detriment: war or peace, ecological balance or catastrophe, strength in numbers or recrimination. What factors shape the outcome? Does cooperation require the suspension of self-interest or its enlightenment? How do self-organizing dynamic systems evolve?
S = Courses of Instruction
BIOL 17b
Ecology
BIOL 60b
Evolution
LGLS 125b
International Law, Organizations,
and Conflict Resolution
LGLS 130a
Conflict Analysis and Intervention
NEJS 147b
The Arab-Israeli Conflict
PHIL 17a
Introduction to Ethics
PHIL 114b
Topics in Ethical Theory
POL 127b
Seminar: Managing Ethnic Conflict
POL 163a
Seminar: Human Rights and International
Relations
POL 165a
Seminar: International Relations
and the Global Environment
SOC 119a
War and Possibilities of Peace
SOC 135a
Group Process
SOC 195b
Group Solidarity
S = Cluster 41: Introduction to East Asia: China and Japan
Convener: John Schrecker
This cluster provides an introduction to East Asian civilization through comprehensive study of China and Japan.
S = Courses of Instruction
ECON 27b
The Economy of Japan
FA 181b
The Art of Japan
FA 182a
The Art of China
HIP 30b
The Persistence of Tradition:
An Introduction to Japanese Poetry, Drama, Fiction, and Film
HIST 80a
Introduction to East Asian
Civilization
HIST 80b
East Asia in the Nineteenth
and Twentieth Centuries
HIST 176a
The Emergence of Modern Japan
HIST 181a
Seminar on Traditional Chinese
Thought
PHIL 119b
Chinese Philosophy
POL 147a
The Government and Politics
of China
POL 148a
Seminar: Contemporary Chinese Politics
S = Cluster 42: Theater and Life: What Shapes Performance?
Convener: John Bush Jones
To quote an old song, "It's not what you do, it's the way you do it." What gives theater its special quality? What makes a reader of a play or a spectator in an audience see, feel, or understand things about life? Some courses in this cluster explore not just what happens in a play but how it happens: in other words, how the playwright, the actors, the director, and the designers structure the contents to make their work say what they want it to say. Other courses examine performance in life--the ways in which we and our relationships to others are perceived, not just by who we are but by how the forms of our behavior reveal ourselves.
S = Courses of Instruction
AMST 128b
History as Theater
ANTH 105a
Symbol, Myth, and Ritual
ENG 23a
Domains of Seventeenth-Century
Performance
ENG 144b
The Body as Text: Castiglione
to Locke
ENG 181a
Making Sex, Performing Gender
FA 131b
Center Stage: Women in Contemporary
American Art
THA 17b
Storytelling: Narrative Aspects
of Acting
THA 104a
Playwriting I
THA 115b
The Avant-Gardes
THA 120b
Movement and Dance Theater
Composition
THA 185b
Dramatic Structure: Analysis and Application
S = Cluster 43: Romanticism
Convener: John Burt
Romanticism in European and American literature, philosophy, religion, art, and politics, along with its historical context, its relationship to earlier cultural movement, and its consequences down to modern times.
S = Courses of Instruction
ENG 125a
Romanticism I: Blake, Wordsworth,
and Coleridge
ENG 125b
Romanticism II: Byron, Shelley,
and Keats
ENG 126b
American Romanticism
FA 170b
Nineteenth-Century European
Painting and Sculpture
HIST 130a
The French Revolution
MUS 56b
Romanticism and Music
PHIL 168a
Kant
POL 183b
Community and Alienation: Social
Theory from Hegel to Freud
POL 196b
Romantic and Existentialist Political Thought
S = Cluster: 44: Law, Politics, and Public Values
Conveners: Richard Gaskins
and R. Shep Melnick
The rights and responsibilities of modern democratic life are defined through legal and political processes, supported by the framework of social values. These courses explore changing concepts of individual welfare and social citizenship; examine the comparative strengths of courts, legislatures, and bureaucracies in shaping the public interest; and ask how modern welfare states should evolve in the coming decades.
S = Courses of Instruction
AMST 187a
The Legal Boundaries of Public
and Private Life
ENG 126a
American Realism and Naturalism,
1865-1900
HIST 191a
Seminar: Governance
LGLS 114a
American Health Care: Law and
Policy
LGLS 121b
Law and Social Welfare: Citizen
Rights and Government Responsibilities
PHIL 74b
Foundations of American Pragmatism
PHIL 112b
Philosophy and Public Policy
PHSC 7b
Technology and the Management
of Public Risk
POL 112a
National Government of the
United States
POL 159a
Seminar: The Politics of the Modern Welfare State: Women, Workers, and Social Citizenship
S = Cluster 45: Religion: People of the Book
Convener: Bernadette Brooten
Religion shapes the world values to a far greater extent than generally recognized. Within this cluster, students can explore comparatively several world religions and learn theoretical frameworks for understanding them. They can examine foundational texts, such as the Jewish and Christian Bibles; major religious art works, institutions, and practices; as well as religious conflict, such as that between religion and science.
S = Courses of Instruction
ANTH 154b
Selected Topics in Comparative
Religion: Seminal Works in the Study of Religion
FA 42b
The Age of Cathedrals
FA 45a
St. Peter's and the Vatican
HIST 133b
Science and Religion in Modern
Europe
NEJS 111a
The Hebrew Bible
NEJS 130a
The New Testament: A Historical
Introduction
NEJS 135a
Jesus of Nazareth and the Christian
Faith
NEJS 150b
Paul Among Jews and Gentiles
NEJS 153a
Hasidism as a Religious and
Social Movement
NEJS 162a
American Judaism
NEJS 195b
The Woman's Voice in the Muslim World
S = Cluster 46: Sexualities and Society
Convener: Thomas A. King
Although we tend to believe that our sexualities express universal and unchanging truths about ourselves, various societies and historical periods reveal markedly different organizations of sex. This cluster explores sexuality as the set of beliefs, representations, and ethics surrounding individuals' relations to their bodies. How has the sexed body and its pleasures been made socially meaningful?
S = Courses of Instruction
ANTH 144a
The Anthropology of Gender
BISC 2a
Human Reproduction, Population
Explosion, Global Consequences
COML 102a
Love in the Middle Ages
COML 105b
Sex and Sensibility in Pre-Revolutionary
European Novels
ENG 58b
AIDS, Activism, and Representation
ENG 151a
Lesbian and Gay Studies: Desire,
Identity, and Representation
ENG 181a
Making Sex, Performing Gender
HIST 139a
Women, Gender, and Family
LGLS 120a
Sex Discrimination and the
Law
LGLS 133b
AIDS, Health Care, and the
Law
NEJS 148b
Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual
Jews and Christians: Sources and Interpretations
SOC 105a
Feminist Critiques of American
Society
SOC 169b
Issues in Sexuality
S = Cluster 47: Disease and Society
Convener: Joan Press
The presence of disease is a significant and constant element in human history. This cluster analyzes the biological bases of diseases, of infectious and of non-infectious origin, and the new biomedical technologies developed to treat disease. It also examines society's past and present reactions to disease, including medical, philosophical, legal, political, and cultural responses.
S = Courses of Instruction
ANTH 127a
Medicine, Body, and Culture
ANTH 142a
AIDS in the Third World
BISC 1a
Biology of Neurological and
Mental Illness
BISC 5a
Viruses and Human Disease
BISC 9a
Immunity and Disease
BISC 9b
Physiology of the Human Body
BIOL 125a
Immunology
BIOL 132a
General Microbiology
BIOL 172b
Cancer
ENG 58b
AIDS, Activism, and Representation
LGLS 133b
AIDS, Health Care, and the
Law
PSYC 131b
Seminar in Health Psychology
SOC 191a
Health, Community, and Society
S = Cluster 48: Myth, Ritual, and Religion
Convener: Luis Yglesias
This cluster enables students to understand how different cultures have made sense of human experience in relation to the spiritual: the realm of the divine, the realm of animal spirits and the supernatural. In other words, "whatever is grave and constant in human experience."
S = Courses of Instruction
ANTH 80a
World Religions
ANTH 105a
Symbol, Myth, and Ritual
CLAS 170a
Classical Mythology
COML 194b
Topics in Myth, Literature,
and Folklore
ENG 152b
Arthurian Literature
FA 13b
Buddhist Art
HIP 21a
Mysticism and the Moral Life:
Abraham Heschel, Howard Thurman, Thomas Merton
NEJS 114b
Biblical Ritual and Cult
NEJS 124b
Introduction to Jewish Mysticism
NEJS 127b
The Jewish Liturgy
NEJS 142b
Dealing with Evil in Ancient
Babylon and Beyond: Magic and Witchcraft in Antiquity
NEJS 156b
Ancient Near Eastern Religion
and Mythology
SOC 165a
Sociology of Birth and Death