Approved Courses
Spring Quarter (S18)
Dept/Description | Course No., Title | Instructor |
---|---|---|
COM LIT (S18) | 107 GLOBALIZATION: SHIFTING PARADIGMS | AHMAD, A. |
The term ‘globalization’ has become popular only over the past quarter century, since about 1990. By the end of the 20th century a decade later, ‘globalization’ had become one of the dominant terms for academic analyses, in the social sciences as much as in studies of culture, literature, film, media, ecology the arts and so on. | ||
E ASIAN (S18) | 130 KOREAN SOC & CULTRE | CHOI, C. |
This course is a survey of modern Korean society and culture. We will examine and interpret the meaning of Korean social and cultural institutions. Topics of discussion include family and gender relationship, multiculturalism, religion and ritual, popular culture, colonialism, war, national division, industrialization, social movement, globalization, and culture industry. We will also briefly explore life and society of North Korea. | ||
EURO ST (S18) | 103 FRNCE NATION/MDRNTY | FARMER, S. |
When the French destroyed their monarchy in the Revolution of 1789, they created a republic based on ideas of nationhood and citizenship specifically tied to France, its language and its people -- but with universal inspirations. Students will learn about the tumultuous century, from the reign of Napoleon to the eve of World War I, during which the French forged a nation based on republican principles. Fought over at home and imposed abroad in the French empire, these principles also inspired revolutionaries around the globe. We will study the dynamism of French culture and society that gave France an importance in world history disproportionate to its size. We will end the class by considering the ways in which contemporary developments (particularly the rise of Islam in Europe) have challenged the French republican model elaborated in the nineteenth century. | ||
PHILOS (S18) | 101 INTR TO METAPHYSICS | FIOCCO, M. |
In this context, modality pertains to what is possible (i.e., what could be the case) and what is necessary (i.e., what must be the case). If one accepts that there are ways the world could be though it, in fact, is not or that there are features of the world that must be as they are, one might wonder what the source of this modality is. Is modality merely a result of how we think or speak or interact with the world? Or is it, somehow, in the world itself, independent of conscious beings? Can modality be reduced to non-modal, categorical features of things in the world? Or is modality irreducible? This course considers the prospects of accounting for modality in terms of the things that actually exist and their dispositions. A disposition (also known as a capacity or power) is a feature of a thing that makes it able to do something or be a certain way, even if it never actually does that thing or is that way. Thus, a glass has the disposition of fragility, it is disposed to shatter if struck, even if it never is struck or breaks at all. We will consider what can be said in support of such modal dispositionalism, as well as what problems the position faces and any limits it might have. Days: TU TH 08:00-08:50 AM | ||
PHILOS (S18) | 144 PHILOS OF SOC SCI | GILBERT, M. |
This version of the course will consider basic questions about the social world such as the following. What is it to do something with another person? How does it differ from acting in parallel with them? What are we talking about when we speak of the beliefs of groups as opposed to individual human beings? What about our talk of the emotions of groups as in “The team was so excited about winning the trophy”? To what extent, if at all, does it make sense to think of the partners in a long-term relationship as “two become one”? This course will focus on contemporary philosophical work on such issues. It will also consider the relationship of this work to other areas of philosophical concern, such as the possibility that a group, as such, can be morally blameworthy and the consequences of such blameworthiness, if it is possible, for the blameworthiness of the individual group members. Same as LPS 144. Days: 12:00-12:00 AM | ||
PHILOS (S18) | 130 TPCS IN MORAL PHILO | GILBERT, M. |
RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS This version of the course focuses on rights and obligations. It concerns such questions as the following. What are rights? Why are they regarded as good to have? How do we come by them? Do human beings have some rights “naturally”, just by virtue of their very existence? When people refer to “human rights” what kind of rights are these? What kinds of rights, if any, can non-human animals have? How is it that a promise to someone gives that person a right to its fulfillment, as it is generally supposed to do? Rights are often linked to obligations, indeed, some rights are said to be equivalent to obligations. What is the nature of these obligations? In considering such questions the course will introduce key distinctions and positions in the philosophical literature on rights. Days: TU TH 03:30-04:50 PM | ||
PHILOS (S18) | 120 PHILOS OF RACE | HEIS, J. |
Visit the Logic and Philosophy of Science website for more information. | ||
PHILOS (S18) | 103 INTR TO MORAL PHIL | JAMES, A. |
Ethics and Technology How do we know right from wrong? What risks of harm can we justifiably create for the sake of public benefit? This course considers utilitarian and contractualist answers with particular concern for the risks and the benefits of technology. We'll discuss trade and technological change in recent history, artificial intelligence and the risk of mass unemployment or a robot apocalypse, and climate change, and we'll consider what all this might mean for the future of work and leisure, basic income, social insurance, and democracy. Days: TU TH 02:00-03:20 PM | ||
REL STD (S18) | 110W THNKING ABOUT REL | KENT, B. |
This course focuses on influential approaches to the study of religion: not only the “classic” approaches dominant in the 19th and 20th centuries but also post-modern critiques of them from the late 20th century to the present. Theories and methods go hand in hand, since someone’s answer to the theoretical question “What is religion?” will do much to determine the most appropriate method of studying religion. Some theories, adopting the standpoint of an observer, go about explaining religious experience from the perspective of history, economics, sociology, psychology, or some other familiar discipline. Other theories, adopting the standpoint of a participant, regard religion as an irreducible phenomenon, such as an experience of the sacred, although this quest manifests itself differently in different cultures and historical periods. In general, post-modern critiques aim at exposing the various forms of racial, gender, ethnic, and cultural oppression thought to be implicit in, and perpetuated by, earlier theories of religion. | ||
ASIANAM (S18) | 168 ANIMAL RIGHTS | KIM, C. |
ENGLISH (S18) | 105 POSTNATIONAL KOREA | LEE, J.W. |
Through an examination of various texts, including theory, historiography, ethnography, and literature, this course will explore the possibility of “Korea” as a necessarily postnational imaginary in that it transcends the very paradigm of nationalism, which as a political doctrine aspires to consolidate a people within a predefined territory and ideological matrix. Scholars have used the expression postnational to refer to forms of social belonging that counteract the ideological and geopolitical expectations of the nation-state. Yet, by invoking the notion of postnational to describe the emergence of global Koreanness, this of course is not meant to suggest that the national is no longer relevant, that it has somehow been transcended by the macro-processes of globalization, or that official criterion of state recognition, including documents ranging from passports to birth certificates, have been rendered obsolete. Indeed, the national remains so central to social belonging in many Korean communities, whether in Korea “proper” or in global Koreatowns, such as those in Los Angeles, Beijing, or New York. This course, therefore, considers the ways in which the “national” is inflected in various everyday social practices, but also the ways in which nationness can be said to emerge, in some cases, more prominently than it does in the ostensibly originary point of Korea. | ||
E ASIAN (S18) | 140 POSTNATIONAL KOREA | LEE, J.W. |
Through an examination of various texts, including theory, historiography, ethnography, and literature, this course will explore the possibility of “Korea” as a necessarily postnational imaginary in that it transcends the very paradigm of nationalism, which as a political doctrine aspires to consolidate a people within a predefined territory and ideological matrix. Scholars have used the expression postnational to refer to forms of social belonging that counteract the ideological and geopolitical expectations of the nation-state. Yet, by invoking the notion of postnational to describe the emergence of global Koreanness, this of course is not meant to suggest that the national is no longer relevant, that it has somehow been transcended by the macro-processes of globalization, or that official criterion of state recognition, including documents ranging from passports to birth certificates, have been rendered obsolete. Indeed, the national remains so central to social belonging in many Korean communities, whether in Korea “proper” or in global Koreatowns, such as those in Los Angeles, Beijing, or New York. This course, therefore, considers the ways in which the “national” is inflected in various everyday social practices, but also the ways in which nationness can be said to emerge, in some cases, more prominently than it does in the ostensibly originary point of Korea. | ||
AFAM (S18) | 115 CINEMA OF POLICING | SEXTON, J. |
HISTORY (S18) | 144G US LABOR HISTORY | STAFF |
This course will provide students with a history of work in 20th and 21st century United States, with particular attention to the role of race, gender, and citizenship status in structuring one's position within the working class. The course will focus on three separate but interrelated topics: the rise and decline of labor unions in the United States; workers' activism to prohibit discrimination at work; and the growing role of undocumented workers in the U.S. economy since the 1960s. | ||
COM LIT (S18) | 132 AVERSION TO POLITICS | TERADA, R. |
Today "anti-political" sentiments are common globally: the sense that elections, legislative processes, and political candidates are inadequate, irrelevant, or even harmful to societies. In this class we'll explore the various things that these sentiments can mean in contemporary discourse, media, and literature. Anti-political stances may be part of neo-fascism and can express disdain for any aspiration to justice. They influence the rise of so-called "strong man" figures like Trump, Duterte, and Modi. They can also, separately, reflect legitimate discontents with what passes for justice and the desire for something better than just being governed. Marx was a critic of "politics." Direct action activism bypasses calling your congressman in favor of doing something ourselves. In many rural and urban areas social organization operates somewhat independently from national government; a political system is not an inevitable way of organizing community life. How should we think about aversion to politics in connection with racial, gendered, and sexual justice today, and in various parts of the world? The class will emphasize guest lectures, media, critical theory, feature films and documentaries, possibly including Martin Scorcese's Taxi Driver, Sky Hopinka's Dislocation Blues (about Standing Rock), and Wang Bing's Three Sisters (a documentary located in Yunnan). As well as a midterm and final, requirements emphasize oral and written participation and collaboration in a friendly relaxed atmosphere. | ||
GEN&SEX (S18) | 157A POLICING GEN&SEX | THUMA, E. |
ENGLISH (S18) | 105 WRITING RACE IN THE U.S. | TOBAR, H |
(same as 29932 Lit Jrn 103, Lec B) | ||
LIT JRN (S18) | 103 WRITING RACE IN THE U.S. | TOBAR, H. |
This course aims to be a survey of nonfiction writing about race in the United States of America, from the 19th century to the present. We will examine how writers have tackled issues of racial inequality and discrimination, and constructed narratives centered on the lives of people of color in various nonfiction genres: journalism, investigative reporting, essays, criticism and memoirs. Readings will include works by W.E.B Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, Octavio Paz, Carey McWilliams, Luis Alberto Urrea, Ta-Nehisi Coates and others. As a final requirement, students will produce their own work of cultural criticism or reportage. | ||
ENGLISH (S18) | 101W WORKING | TUCKER, I. |
This course will take up the topic of work from a variety of different angles. We will read the writings of several important theorists of work, including John Locke and Karl Marx. In these readings, we will try to figure out both how Locke and Marx understand work to organize the social relations among people and also what they understand the “opposites” of work to be. We will also read some poetry about work from poets ranging from William Wordsworth to Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The heart of the course centers on our engagement with one of the strangest novels about work ever written, Frank Norris’s McTeague, which tells the story of dentist whose practice and relationship with his wife complicate the process of transforming work into money. We will conclude by viewing the 1982 musical version of Studs Turkel’s classic of literary journalism, Working. | ||
ENGLISH (S18) | 100 INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY THEORY | WARMINSKI, A. |
Literary theory from Plato on. Focus on the way that the question of "the literary"--once posed correctly--frustrates any and all attempts to theorize it. Texts by Plato, Aristotle, Longinus and their "modern" inheritors. Two exams. |