Results for FEMGEN141

As weapons, the pen and the sword have been used to wound, punish, and condemn as well as to protect, liberate, and elevate. Historically entangled with ideals of heroism, nobility, and civility, the pen and the sword have been the privileged instruments of men. Yet, throughout history, women have picked up the pen and the sword in defense, despair, and outrage as well as with passion, vision, and inspiration. This course is dedicated to them, and to study of works on love, sex, and power that articulate female experience. In our readings and seminars, we will encounter real and fictive women in their own words and in narrations and depictions by others from classical antiquity to the present, with a special focus on the Renaissance and on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Touching on such topics as flattery and slander through the study of misogynistic, protofeminist, and feminist works in the early modern and modern periods in various European literary traditions, we will consider questions of truth and falsehood in fiction and in life. Course materials span a variety genres and media, from poetry, letters, dialogues, public lectures, treatises, short stories, and drama to painting, sculpture, music, and film works regarded for their aesthetic, intellectual, religious, social, and political value and impact.

The last few decades have seen remarkable progress in lifting millions of people out of poverty worldwide. Yet, millions still are unable to meet even their most basic sustenance needs. This course examines foundational reasons for why some countries remain poor and why inequality persists today. In addition to answering the why question, we will also examine how practitioners, policy-makers, and academics have tackled global development challenges, where they have met success, and where failure has provided key lessons for the future. The course will examine how social, political, and economic institutions affect prospects for development, including by covering issues of colonialism and contemporary foreign aid. Students will learn about and explore patterns of development across the world, critically evaluate foundational theories of development, and understand the practical challenges and possible solutions to reducing poverty, creating equality, and ensuring good governance. Course assignments will aim to have students practice linking data and evidence with policy innovation, using global datasets to perform statistical analyses. Students will leave this class with an understanding of how development works (and does not work) in practice.