ST 600: Multidisciplinary Perspectives in Social Theory: Animals
Instructors: Dierdra Joy Reber, Erin Koch, Jon Anthony Stallins, Douglas N Slaymaker
Time: Fridays, 2-4:30pm
How do we think with animals? How do they shape us as we shape them through our discursive entanglements? In this seminar we explore how animals are folded into ways of thinking about the world, from how we define our identities to how we articulate and recognize otherness.
ST 610: disClosure Editorial Collective
Instructor: Stefan Bird-Pollan
Time: TBD
Course provides editorial experience in the production of "disClosure," a multidisciplinary social theory journal operated by students. Activities include: soliciting manuscripts, overseeing the external review process, communicating with authors, accepting and rejecting manuscripts, producing and distributing a single issue. May be repeated to a maximum of three credits. Lecture, two hours per week.
HIS 700-001: War and Memory
Instructor: Akiko Takenaka
Time: Tuesdays 2-4:30 pm
This course explores how war is remembered both by the individuals who lived through them and those who have come after them. Central to our inquiry are representation and transmission of memory, and how memory is shaped and reshaped over time. The forms of memorialization we investigate include: testimonies, oral history narratives, memoirs, popular media, visual and material culture, museum exhibits, and daily life. We will study various categories of memory such as collective memory, official memory, counter memory, and postmemory. We will investigate the impact of trauma on memory. We will discuss the relationship between memory and history. The course focuses on wars and catastrophes in the modern period drawing case studies from around the world.
SOC 735: Seminar in Inequalities: Masculinities
Instructor: Edward Morris
Time: Thursdays: 3-5:30pm
This course provides an introduction to sociological research and theory on masculinity. While the
majority of scholarship in gender has focused on women, in this course we will critically interrogate men
and the constitution of masculinity. This tack is crucial to understanding gender inequality because men
as a group benefit from the gender order, and enactments of masculinity tend to reproduce power and
dominance. At the same time, we will consider how intersections with other dimensions of inequality
such as class, race, place, and sexuality complicate masculinities and position men differently in
relationship to gender dividends. The course is organized to examine: 1) masculinity in theoretical and
historical context, 2) masculinity and gender socialization, 3) masculinity in intersectional perspective, 4)
spaces and strategies for enacting masculinity, and 5) the future of masculinity research and praxis. We
will cover topics such as the theory of hegemonic masculinity and critiques; inclusive and hybrid
masculinity; how masculinity intersects with race, class, geography, and sexuality; masculinity and
violence; and enactments of manhood in areas such as education, sport, criminal justice, and virtual spaces.
EPE 773/525: Campus Activism and Educational Justice
Instructor: Karen Tice
Time: Wednesdays 4-6:30pm
This graduate (EPE 773) and upper level undergraduate course (EPE 525) will consider student movements and campus dissent across time and space. We will examine a variety of precursor and contemporary student movements that have challenged gendered and racial injustices and exclusions on campus; militarism/imperialism/neoliberalism; gendered violence; university investments and budgets; workplace issues; policing and repression; anti-immigration sentiments; governance and diversity policies; student debt and privatization; LGBTQ rights and right-wing student movements. We will analyze various forms of student protest including teach-ins, occupations, and hashtag activism as well as the variant state and administrative responses to student mobilizations.
PSYC 778: Diverse Families
Instructor: Rachel Farr
Time: Mondays 9:30am-12pm
The notion of the “traditional American family” is transforming. With new historical circumstances, families in the United States have become increasingly more diverse. This course is intended to provide graduate students in psychology (others may enroll with instructor’s permission) with an overview and analysis of a variety of contemporary family systems in the U.S., such as single-parent families, adoptive and foster family systems, families who have children via reproductive technologies, and families with sexual minority parents. Taught from a developmental psychological perspective, graduate students will also gain understanding in family systems theory and in research methods for studying family systems. Course material will be considered within the context of social issues, questions, and public controversies, e.g., “Is the traditional family disappearing?”, “Is the institution of marriage dying or changing?”, “Do children need both a mother and a father for optimal development?”. The course will address factors that contribute to positive family functioning and healthy outcomes for children and parents. Implications for future research, clinical practice, public policy, and law surrounding parenting and families (e.g., custody and placement decisions) will be covered. Course goals are accomplished through interactive dialogue of course readings, multiple opportunities for presentation on course topics, and several course projects/papers.
GWS 600 / PSYC 779 / SOC 779 (section 1): Prejudice and Inequality: Views from the Social Sciences
Instructor: Jenn Hunt
Time: Thursdays 2-4:30pm
In recent decades, there have been marked improvements in attitudes toward many groups that are stigmatized due to race, gender, sexual orientation, class, and other social identities. Nevertheless, considerable inequalities remain across social groups, subtle forms of discrimination thrive, and, in many cases, prejudice is still openly expressed. This course will attempt to understand this juxtaposition by examining theories of prejudice and inequality from different social science perspectives, including Psychology, Sociology, Gender Studies, Critical Race Theory, and Critical Whiteness Studies. First, we will consider theories on the nature of contemporary prejudice to understand why biases related to race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. persist, how prejudices against different groups are similar and different, and how intersectional oppression occurs. Second, we will consider how pervasive inequality and discrimination affect members of stigmatized groups. We also will examine how members of dominant groups, especially White people, form group-based identities and understand their experiences of privilege. Third, we will analyze different approaches – both good and bad – to reducing prejudice and promoting meaningful rather than rhetorical equality.
- Please note: Currently, there are 7 seats for the GWS prefix, 7 seats for the PSY prefix, and 1 seat for the SOC prefix. I am happy to shift them around based on student needs.
AAS 654 / HIS 654: Readings in Modern African American History
Instructor: Anastasia Curwood
Time: Wednesdays 3-5:30pm
The scholarly field of African-American History is distinguished by its rendering of black historical actors as full participants, and by centering the perspectives of those historical actors, along with blunt analysis of power relationships within the United States and investigation into the workings of other aspects of identity (gender, class, sexuality) as they mediate the experiences of black Americans. This course takes up those topics in the period since the Civil War.
ENG 651: Studies in American Literature before 1860: Disenfranchised Voices in Early American Narrative
Instructor: Marion Rust
Time: TBD
"Disenfranchised": African American, Native American, female, transgender, nonmarital, antinomian, young, indentured. "Narrative": poetry, captivity narrative, criminal narrative, spiritual autobiography, feminist theory, musical drama, trial transcript, slave narrative, epistolary correspondence, novel, newspaper. In this class, we will read work by and about escaped captives, religious subversives, con men, anonymous congregations, abused wives, midwives, Black seamen, same-sex married women, and Native American preachers. Possible authors include Anne Hutchinson, Anne Bradstreet, Mary Rowlandson, Olaudah Equiano, Martha Ballard, Abigail Abbot Bailey, Samson Occom, William Apess, Sarah Pierpont Edwards, Phyllis Wheatley, Judith Sargent Murray, Stephen Burroughs, and others whose names we may never know. Requirements consist of active preparation and participation, a final research paper of about 20 pages, multiple short written commentaries, and willingness to lead at least one class.
GWS 650: Feminist Theory
Instructor: Karen Tice
Time: Tuesdays 5-7:30pm
This seminar will explore the major themes and debates falling within the broad terrain of feminist theorizing. The seminar will analyze historical trajectories as well as contemporary theorizations of feminist analyses of gender, sexualities, race/ethnicity, identities, intersectionality, nationalism, neoliberalism/imperialism, populism, precarity, violence, and transnationalism across geo-political and personal borders. The objectives of this seminar is for students to become familiar with multi-disciplinary applications of feminist theory and the ways in which feminist frameworks and methodologies can be applied to your particular research interests.
LIS 690 (online course): Informal Learning in Information Organizations
Instructor: Daniela Kruel DiGiacomo
Virtual office hours: Wednesdays 2-4pm
How people learn has implications for how learning environments should be designed. This course examines theories of informal learning— primarily drawing upon research from the sociocultural tradition of learning and human development—and considers how they can be practically implemented into information organization contexts. Being grounded in a sociocultural tradition means that this class will center issues of equity, diversity, and justice as they relate to the organization and design of information organization contexts and settings (e.g. libraries, museums, youth programs, new media centers, non-profit organizations). For example, how do issues of culture and learning inform the development of afterschool literacy programs in public libraries or Maker spaces in school libraries, especially those that serve predominantly minoritized communities? By gaining a deep understanding of how people learn across their lifespan, students will be able to consider how to create a community of learners in a range of settings in which people from various backgrounds participate. Topics covered include issues related to culture and cognition, identity development, adult-youth partnerships, access to/relationships with new digital media, and design thinking. No prerequisites.
EPE 628: Ethics in Educational Decision Making
Instructor: Eric Thomas Weber
Time: Tuesdays, 4-6:30pm
This course concerns major moral challenges for leadership in educational decision making. These include conflicts between religion and ethics, as well as the responsibilities of and for education in democratic societies. We will draw on resources from bioethics and ethical norms that have arisen in relation to the performance of research on human subjects to examine and reveal the ways in which historical norms are applied, updated, challenged, and revised in the light of new democratic contexts, particularly applied to the contexts of colleges and schools. We will review dominant moral theories and how they variously apply or conflict with modern norms, yet continue to inspire divergent outlooks on education. We will then conclude the course with focus on particular contexts for challenges in democratic societies, such as with regard to integration and self-segregation, conflicts of interest, challenges for teachers, administrators, and testing in schools, as well as with regard to special education.
ARC 513: Architecture and War
Instructor: Wallis Miller
Time: Tuesdays, 2-4:30pm
War has been an unusual topic of interest to architects since it has more to do with the destruction of architecture than with its production. But contemporary politics as well as the turn toward social change in architectural theory and practice have made it a central topic for designers. In this seminar, we will look at a range of examples that address the multiple intersections of architecture and war. For example, we will look at structures built for war and try to understand them architecturally and the militarization of the civilian landscape to see the ways in which the techniques as well as the structures of war have affected the everyday. The consequences of war will also be an important subject in terms of how architects have addressed refugees and the destruction of the landscape as well as how they have used their visualization techniques to identify war crimes. And, finally, we will consider the ways in which people remember war and inscribe those memories in the landscape or erase them from it.
