* Important *

This page will be updated each quarter around the time that the Schedule of Classes comes out.  Please check back regularly for updates/ corrections.  Please NOTE that a course which has been accepted in the past may not be in the future. For any questions relating to this minor, please either contact us or visit the Humanities Undergraduate Counseling Office in HIB 143.

Courses Prior to Fall 07 (and Summer courses prior to Summer 08) are shown in a different format and can be accessed by clicking HERE.

Approved Courses

Course Term (Y=Summer Session 1, Z=Session 2):  

Winter Quarter (W18)

Dept/Description Course No., Title  Instructor
HISTORY (W18)144G  CAPITALISMMCCLURE, D.

This course will outline the history and development of capitalism and its role in creating the modern world. The first part of the course will examine how capitalism evolved from Mercantile capitalism to industrial capitalism to postindustrial globalization. The course
frames capitalism within the “matrix of modernity”: the historical processes of colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, the Atlantic slave system, the enlightenment, and nationalism. The second half of the semester will focus on the role of commodities and the overall environmental consequences of capitalism.
Days: TU TH  03:30-04:50 PM

AFAM (W18)157  CRITICAL RACE THRYHAN, S.
AFAM (W18)112A  EARLY AFAM LITCHANDLER, N.

African American Literature I
x-lists AfAm/English/History

This course will introduce students to the history of the African American intellectual and literary construction of the American experience, focusing on the 18th and 19th centuries – highlighting its early emergence, intensity and breadth – the colonial period through the advent of the Twentieth century. The will focus will be on Phillis Wheatley, Oluadah Equiano, Ottobah Cugoano, David Walker, Maria Stewart, and Frederick Douglass. W. E. B. Du Bois’s reflections on African American intellectual traditions will be of basic reference. In addition to established and recognized literary and intellectual texts, the readings and lectures also include, or consider, inscribed oral texts such as orations and public addresses, sermons, testimonials, songs, especially spirituals, and folklore. Other readings referenced or discussed in the class include published poetry, essays, petitions, legal appeals and declarations, editorials, slave narratives and other autobiographical narratives, fiction, and histories. The student who completes this course will have an understanding of the African American intellectual and literary construction of the American experience and thus the emergence of a modern literature and intellectual tradition, noting its early announcement within the history of the United States and a profound sense of its intensity and breadth.



Days: TU TH  12:30-01:50 PM

HISTORY (W18)150  EARLY AFAM LITCHANDLER, N.

This course will introduce students to the history of the African American intellectual and literary construction of the American experience, focusing on the 18th and 19th centuries – highlighting its early emergence, intensity and breadth – the colonial period through the advent of the Twentieth century. The will focus will be on Phillis Wheatley, Oluadah Equiano, Ottobah Cugoano, David Walker, Maria Stewart, and Frederick Douglass. W. E. B. Du Bois’s reflections on African American intellectual traditions will be of basic reference. In addition to established and recognized literary and intellectual texts, the readings and lectures also include, or consider, inscribed oral texts such as orations and public addresses, sermons, testimonials, songs, especially spirituals, and folklore. Other readings referenced or discussed in the class include published poetry, essays, petitions, legal appeals and declarations, editorials, slave narratives and other autobiographical narratives, fiction, and histories. The student who completes this course will have an understanding of the African American intellectual and literary construction of the American experience and thus the emergence of a modern literature and intellectual tradition, noting its early announcement within the history of the United States and a profound sense of its intensity and breadth.
Days: TU TH  12:30-01:50 PM

ENGLISH (W18)105  EARLY AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURECHANDLER, N.

This course will introduce students to the history of the African American intellectual and literary construction of the American experience, focusing on the 18th and 19th centuries – highlighting its early emergence, intensity and breadth – the colonial period through the advent of the Twentieth century. The will focus will be on Phillis Wheatley, Oluadah Equiano, Ottobah Cugoano, David Walker, Maria Stewart, and Frederick Douglass. W. E. B. Du Bois’s reflections on African American intellectual traditions will be of basic reference. In addition to established and recognized literary and intellectual texts, the readings and lectures also include, or consider, inscribed oral texts such as orations and public addresses, sermons, testimonials, songs, especially spirituals, and folklore. Other readings referenced or discussed in the class include published poetry, essays, petitions, legal appeals and declarations, editorials, slave narratives and other autobiographical narratives, fiction, and histories. The student who completes this course will have an understanding of the African American intellectual and literary construction of the American experience and thus the emergence of a modern literature and intellectual tradition, noting its early announcement within the history of the United States and a profound sense of its intensity and breadth.
Days: TU TH  12:30-01:50 PM

COM LIT (W18)102W  ECOPOLITICSSCHWAB, G.

In this course we will study the entanglement of two of the gravest dangers humanity faces today, namely nuclear politics and environmental violence.  The course will be divided into two sections: 1. Nuclear Politics; 2. Ecological  Violence, Resource Depletion and Climate Change.  Drawing on Gregory Bateson’s “ecology of mind,” we will open with questions regarding the production of ecological knowledge and consciousness.  We then move to the legacy of Hiroshima and nuclear politics.  In this section, we will discuss nuclear colonialism, critical nuclear race theory and the gendering of nuclear politics, nuclear war and transgenerational nuclear trauma, nuclear energy, nuclear accidents and nuclear waste.  In the second section, we will discuss the anthropocene, slow ecological violence, climate change and the extinction of species and planetary life as well as a possible politics of resistance and ethics of trans-species care.

Days: MO WE  03:00-04:20 PM

GERMAN (W18)102  GERMAN CONTROVERSIES 1945 – 2018EVERS, K.

This course looks at German culture and politics from the end of the Second World War to today by retracing major debates, scandals, and controversies that shaped the two Germanys and that continue to reverberate in today’s Germany.  How did the two new German states deal differently after 1945 the loss and the destructions of the Second World War II? How did they reckon with a past of war crimes and genocide? What was the impact of the 1960s student movement on German culture and society? How were the protection of civil liberties debated during the times of terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s? What debates and controversies surrounded the German unification 1989/90? What has been Germany’s changing role in the EU under Chancellor Merkel? How are the German-American relations changing with President Trump? These are just some of the questions we will address in analyzing non-fictional and fictional texts, films, German TV broadcasts. The course will pay particular attention to contemporary debates on the environment, social justice, and the current political crises by reading current newspaper articles and watching German news programs.
Days: TU TH  09:30-10:50 AM

ENGLISH (W18)106  HUMANISM-NATIONALSMRADHAKRISHNAN, R.

This course will focus rigorously on the hyphenated category of the "onto-political" by way of nationalism and humanism.  What is the relationship between ontology (theory of general Being) and politics (theory of specifically situated, socio-historical beings)?  Are the two symbiotic, mutually constitutive?  Is the relationship hierarchic? Is ontology the deep structure and politics the symptom?  Is ontology temporal and politics historical: and if so, what is the relationship between temporality and historicity?  Is ontology sublimated politics, and is politics ontology handed down?  Crucial to all these questions is the constitution of the human as simultaneously being and citizen, non-sovereign and sovereign.  Is humanism complicit with nationalism; or, can nationalism be "post-ed," i.e., transcended critically in the name of humanism?  Is the post in the post-national the same as the post- on the post-human?  How is the imprimatur of the human different from or ideologically identical with the imprimatur of the national?  Are refugee non-citizens human, sub-human, human manqué?  Is nationalism racist? Is humanism racist? Is the human animal, hum-animal? Is sovereignty anchored in the human, the national, or both differentially?  In the move towards a new and transformative, deep ecological post-colonial humanism, should nationalism be discredited, deconstructed, transcended transgressively? Are there good and bad nationalisms, just as there are useable and culpable humanisms? Or, should the nationalism-humanism paradigm be abandoned tout court?  What about the possibilities of a politically grounded exilic humanism? These are the questions that I hope to explore symptomatically in this seminar, in conjunction with other isms such as colonialism, transnationalism, feminism, anthropocentrism as well as the politics of race, the body, gender, and sexuality.

Please fear not, if some of this sounds intimidating.  This is an advanced seminar rich in theory and you will have all the opportunity to bring in literature (poetry, fiction, short fiction) and contemporary events, AND I will do all I can and more to facilitate you into all, and particularly, the more dense readings.  Believe me, the times we are living on are more complex than the readings which are after all but a commentary on lived collective experience.

Tentative Readings: Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Martin Heidegger, Edward Said, Karl Marx, Frantz Fanon, Adrienne Rich, Virginia Woolf, W.E.B. Du Bois, Giorgio Agamben, Etienne Balibar, Rabindranath Tagore, Mohandas Gandhi, Ernst Renan, Partha Chatterjee, Benedict Anderson, Antonio Gramsci.  I will prioritize these readings as we go along. We may not be able to cover all, and that is just fine.

No texts: just pdfs, and most of the texts are accessible on the web.

Expectations: Rigorous class participation, and most likely 2 term papers, 1 short (7-10 pages) and 1 long (10-15 pages). The seminar will be a combination of lecture, presentations, close readings of texts, and freewheeling discussion and dialogue.
Days: TU TH  02:00-03:20 PM

PHILOS (W18)103  INTR TO MORAL PHILOSOPHYHELMREICH, J.

Truth and Truthfulness. Why be truthful? Is it always wrong to lie, deceive, break promises or speak hypocritically? What about well-meaning falsehoods and innocent mistakes? We will face these sorts of questions, with the help of philosophers from Aristotle and Augustine to Hume, Kant and contemporary theorists, along with everyday examples.

Days: TU TH  05:00-06:20 PM

PHILOS (W18)102W  INTRO TO KNOWLEDGECOLIVA, A.

The course will introduce students to two forms of skepticism, the Cartesian and the Humean, and will present some of the main contemporary anti-skeptical strategies. In particular, we will study the writings of Putnam, Nozick, DeRose, G. E. Moore, Pryor, McDowell, Strawson and Wright.
The course will also teach students how to write a philosophy paper, through a series of intermediate assignments, such as summaries, argument reconstructions and argument evaluations.   

Prerequisite: Satisfactory completion of the Lower-Division Writing Requirement. 
Overlaps with PHILOS 102, LPS 102.

Days: WE FR  09:30-10:50 AM

GEN&SEX (W18)100A  KNOWLDG & SOCL CHNGMAHMUD, L.

"This course explores feminist modes of knowledge production in relation to the histories and activist practices of various social movements. What constitutes “change”? What is the relationship between critical social theories and political struggles, or between “engaged intellectuals” and social activists? How do revolutionary engagements play out both within and against the status quo? Through a wide range of case studies, we will interrogate notions like resistance, revolution, and social activism in relation to an interdisciplinary intellectual history of change. Specific topics will be contextualized in terms of political economy, transnational studies, institutional structures, and identity politics particularly around race, gender, sexuality, and class."



Days: TU TH  05:00-06:20 PM

LIT JRN (W18)103  LITERATURE OF LAWWEINSTEIN, H.

THE LITERATURE OF LAW: A Study of Dramatic Civil Cases

The students in this course will read, discuss, analyze and write about four books, "Make No Law," by Anthony Lewis, "History on Trial," by Deborah Lipstadt, "The Buffalo Creek Disaster," by Gerald Stern and "A Civil Action," by Jonathan Harr.

Each of the books presents a strong narrative, laced with history and social context.

Lewis’ book is considered by many to a brilliant account of the most important First Amendment decision of the 20th Century—New York Times v. Sullivan. That 1963 ruling set the standards for libel litigation in the United States. Lewis, the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes as a New York Times reporter and the author of 'Gideon’s Trumpet,' not only dissects all the key facets of the case; he presents a brilliant history of First Amendment law in the U.S.

Lipstadt’s book presents a stark contrast to Lewis' in at least one major respect. In 1993, the Emory University History professor published an acclaimed book, 'Denying the Holocaust,' in which she called historian David Irving, who once said that more people died in Ted Kennedy’s car at Chappaquiddick than in the gas chambers at Auschwitz, 'one of the most dangerous spokesperson for Holocaust denial.' Irving sued Lipstadt for libel in London and the American historian was forced to defend herself in England, where the defendant, not the plaintiff, has the burden of proof in a libel case. These two books will present a striking glimpse of the difference between the U.S. and British legal systems.

The third book is 'The Buffalo Creek Disaster', a tale of how the survivors of one of the worst disasters in coal mining history brought a suit against a major coal company and won. The author is attorney Gerald M. Stern, who represented the victims. Besides being a fascinating yarn about people caught in a disaster and how a lawyer represents low-income people against a powerful adversary, the book affords us the opportunity to discuss how Stern, a lawyer, writes about his own work compared to how Lipstadt, the professor, writes about herself as a litigant.

The fourth book, "A Civil Action," is also about an epic courtroom showdown. In this instance, a group of bereaved parents sued two giant corporations who they believe are responsible for the deaths of their children. This book, brilliantly written by Jonathan Harr, is a classic tale of a legal system gone awry. It takes you inside the operation of two law firms, dissects legal strategy and presents a close-up view of how lawyers inter-act with their clients. "A Civil Action" won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, a tribute to its literary merit. (In addition, the book was considered important for lawyers that a leading legal book company published a documentary companion to the book, used in law schools.) "A Civil Action," was also made into a movie starring John Travolta, John Lithgow, Robert Duvall and Lindsay Crouse, among others.
Days:   12:00-12:00 AM

HISTORY (W18)169  MEXICO:PAST&PRESENTDUNCAN, R.

Mexico is an enigma—from tropical rainforests to searing deserts, pinnacles of wealth to depths of despair, it is a land of extremes. On the verge of collapse more than once, Mexico now boasts one of the world’s largest economies. This course introduces students to the story of Mexico’s formation and evolution from colonial times to the present. This will be a broad analysis of the place that history has played in national political structures, economic formations, and social movements. We will examine the indigenous roots of pre-Columbian Mexico, the impact of conquest and colonization, the struggle of nation-building, revolution, reconstruction, and development. Particular attention will focus on the forces—both internal and external—that have contributed to shaping a Mexican identity. These issues will be covered through lectures, videos, and primary/secondary readings.
Days: MO WE  01:00-01:50 PM

LIT JRN (W18)101BW  NARRATIVES OF SCIENCE AND THE MINDHAYASAKI, E.

In narrative journalism, we often emphasize getting to the emotional core of the people we write about. But what about writing narratives that try to unravel the mysteries of emotions themselves? In this class, we will read about the science of behavior and the mind. We will consider stories about neurological disorders like schizophrenia, autism, Alzheimer’s, and perhaps some that you have never heard of like mass psychogenic illness (which led to a ticking outbreak among cheerleaders), or Morgellons Disease (which can be blamed for extreme itching), or body integrity disorder (in which a person might become obsessed with cutting off his arm). We will explore questions like what drives human behavior? Can emotions like shame or empathy be pinpointed to a particular part of the brain? What if memories can be planted? Or what if a sociopath is just born like that? How do these questions complicate the law? Such scientific discoveries could change the way journalists write crime narratives like In Cold Blood, particularly when we get into questions like: Does the brain dictate behavior? Is it our genes? Or can morality still be boiled down to the choices we make? Although we will be asking big universal questions that will help drive our narratives, we will still seek stories that address these topics through literary journalism, with characters, scenes and tension. Who are the people behind these disorders and discoveries—the scientists, patients, families, or defendants? Each student will be responsible for writing and reporting a science-inspired narrative as a final paper.
Days: TH  02:00-04:50 PM

PHILOS (W18)110  PHILOSOPHY &TRAGEDYPERIN, C.

Plato thought that tragedy was bad for soul, and for this reason he banished it from his ideal city. In this course we'll examine Plato's objections to tragedy and Aristotle's response to those objections. Readings include Euripides' Medea, Plato's Republic, Sophocles' Oedipus the King, and Aristotle's Poetics

Repeatability: May be taken for credit 2 times as topics vary.

Days: TU TH  12:30-01:50 PM

ASIANAM (W18)144  POLITICS OF PROTESTKIM, C.
GEN&SEX (W18)157B  QUEER LIVES KNOWLEDTERRY, J.
ASIANAM (W18)138  RACE & URBAN SPACELEE, J.

This course examines the impact of urban space on experiences of race and racial difference. We tend to think of space as simply setting – a blank canvas upon which we live our lives. This class hopes to make clear that urban and other kinds of environments play a crucial role in the formation of both individuals, communities, and the interactions between these groups. The first part of the quarter will be devoted to considering how the space of the city produces, naturalizes, and/or replicates various social and political hierarchies. The second and third units of this class are case-studies and will focus on two kinds of urban spaces associated with Asian Americans: the ethnic ghetto (Chinatowns, K-towns, Little Tokyos, Little Saigons, and the like) and the ethnoburb (ethnic suburbs attached to large cities). Drawing upon the fields of anthropology, geography, cultural studies, queer studies, ethnic studies, literary criticism, and urban history, we will explore how Asian Americans negotiate their racial identities within these specific kinds of spaces.


Days: TU TH  09:30-10:50 AM

REL STD (W18)115  RELIGION & POLITICSLYNCH, C.

Secularism very generally involves a rejection of theocracy and the creation of some distance between church and state. It is a defining feature of liberal democracy. But what secularism specifically demands of the liberal state and the liberal citizen is a contentious and contested question.  Indeed secularism has undergone a vigorous re-examination over the last 15 years as the result of multiple challenges.  In this course we will survey some of these challenges and investigate the contemporary debates that seek to rethink secularism for the 21st century.

The course will begin with some conceptual and historical ground work.  We will look at the rise of secularism and some contemporary definitions of secularism. We will also look at some contemporary definitions of religion. Religion is exceedingly difficult to define and this too complicates attempts to draw clear lines between religion and politics.

After this preliminary conceptual work the rest of the course will be devoted to specific challenges faced by the secular liberal state today.  We will examine controversial cases involving God-talk in election campaigns, religious head and face coverings, blasphemous cartoons and images, and religious freedom being invoked to resist such things as gay marriage.  The cases that we will consider will be drawn from the US, Canada, and Europe.
Days: TU TH  11:00-12:20 PM

HISTORY (W18)166B  REV&REACT IN LAT AMTINSMAN, H.

This class explores how revolution, and reaction to revolution, shaped Latin America during the late 20th century cold war.  While the term “cold war” connotes the absence of direct military confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union, in Latin America, the years 1945 to 1990 were times of extraordinary violence, including military coups, civil wars, and prolonged dictatorships.  They were also times of utopian imagination, democratic reform, and socialist revolutionary experiments to end profound inequality.  Events within Latin America always responded to the global stand-off between superpowers, but they were never solely determined by foreign intervention. This course examines Latin American experiences with capitalist development, socialist revolution, military rule, and struggles for democracy.  What did these concepts mean to different Latin Americans? How and why did people become so bitterly divided over competing visions? The class pays particular attention to the political transformations of women, indigenous and peasant communities, factory workers, and students. While the course addresses Latin America as a whole, required readings and films focus on Guatemala, Cuba, Chile, Argentina, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.  Assignments include two in-class exams and one paper.
Days: TU TH  12:30-01:50 PM

FLM&MDA (W18)130  SEX POLITICS MEDIAHILDERBRAND, L.

This course will examine recent political and media debates, scandals, and activism related to gender and/or sexuality. Although such cultural/media events are often reduced to binary logics, this course will strive to interrogate the range of investments for stakeholders in such representations and critiques, as well as strategize how to recognize false equivalencies. In addition, we will seek to recognize how generational divides operate, even within supposedly unified identity or political groups. The topical case studies will include trigger warnings, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Bros, “fragile” and “toxic” masculinities, questions of who gets to represent trans-of-color lives, the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment and rape charges, industry practices of diversity and inclusion (or lack thereof), and the work of memes, among others. This course is cross-listed with Gender& Sexuality Studies 139.
Days: TU TH  03:30-04:50 PM

GEN&SEX (W18)139  SEX POLITICS MEDIAHILDERBRAND, L.

This course will examine recent political and media debates, scandals, and activism related to gender and/or sexuality. Although such cultural/media events are often reduced to binary logics, this course will strive to interrogate the range of investments for stakeholders in such representations and critiques, as well as strategize how to recognize false equivalencies. In addition, we will seek to recognize how generational divides operate, even within supposedly unified identity or political groups. The topical case studies will include trigger warnings, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Bros, “fragile” and “toxic” masculinities, questions of who gets to represent trans-of-color lives, the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment and rape charges, industry practices of diversity and inclusion (or lack thereof), and the work of memes, among others. This course is cross-listed with Gender& Sexuality Studies 139.
Days: TU TH  03:30-04:50 PM

PHILOS (W18)144  TOPICS PHIL SOC SCIGILBERT, M.

Selected topics in the philosophy of the social sciences, e.g., is their goal to understand behavior or to predict and control it?; are they normative and the natural sciences not?; do they incorporate philosophical doctrines about language and mind?.   

Repeatability: Unlimited as topics vary. 

Same as LPS 144.

Days: MO WE  03:00-04:20 PM