printer friendly pageTHINK 24: Evil
What is evil? Are we naturally good or evil? How should we respond to evil? There are many books and courses that focus on the good life or the virtues. Yet despite their obvious apparent presence in our life and world, evil and the vices are rarely taken as explicit topics. We will read philosophical and literary texts that deal with the question of evil at an abstract level and then use other readings that help us focus on more practical implications of the meaning and consequences of evil. By exploring the issue of evil, we will confront larger questions about the nature of humans, the responsibility to address evil as a society, and the moral and ethical ways we might begin to define what is evil.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: College, THINK, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
THINK 26: How Do You Build a Nation? Inclusion and Exclusion in the Making of Modern Iran
Why were minority religious groups excluded from the majority's vision of a Shi'i Iranian nation? How and when were women included as citizens of a new Iran? nnIn this course, specific attention will be paid to key events of the 20th century that shaped modern Iran: the Constitutional Revolution (1905-11), the 1953 coup, the White Revolution (1963), the Islamic Revolution (1978-79), the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), and the post-revolutionary period in general. Through a close reading of key poems, short stories, and films created in this period, this course will identify major inclusionary and exclusionary forces in the process of nation-building in 20th-century Iran. Specific attention will be paid to issues of ethnicity, religion, and gender. In addition to reading texts (poetry and prose) and watching films, students will be called on to present critiques of these literary and cinematic products in the form of brief oral presentations and short writing assignments. The final project will involve interviewing Iranian expatriates on issues covered in the lectures. Students will work in small groups to produce short videos of these interpersonal encounters.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| UG Reqs: College, THINK
THINK 27: Human Rights and Humanitarianism
Why do certain governments and citizens feel obliged to ease the suffering of distant people in need? How did the humanitarian sensibilities and human rights discourses that now define global politics come into being?nnnnIn this course, you will consider how contemporary ethical motivations for human rights and humanitarianism have developed. We will investigate the emergence and transformation of these ideas through the study of key historical events in the modern world ¿ slavery and its abolition, colonialism, the World Wars, apartheid, decolonization, and the Cold War. We will then consider how this longer history has influenced the ways activists, NGOs, and governments today draw attention to global crises and abuses. Our ultimate objective is to gain an understanding of how the language and ideals of human rights and humanitarianism emerged from the context of liberalism, capitalism, and imperialism.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| UG Reqs: College, THINK
THINK 29: Networks: Ecological, Revolutionary, Digital
Why is the word network used to describe the behavior of computers, ants, and people? Do all these networks share certain properties? What might we learn by comparing them?nnWe like to think of social networks as a contemporary phenomenon. But before Facebook, individuals organized themselves in social networks; before Twitter, revolutionaries used media to communicate and coordinate their messages. In fact, even animal societies are networked. Through project-based exercises, you will learn to study, analyze, and write about networks from the perspectives of a biologist, a computer scientist, and a historian. We will retrace social networks in the 18th and 21st centuries, observe the organization of animal networks, and investigate the structure of online networks. Our goal is to use the concept of the network to deepen our understanding of the natural world, historical change, and our own social lives.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| UG Reqs: College, THINK, WAY-SI
THINK 30: Race Matters
What are race and ethnicity? How do they shape society and individual experience? What role do they play in identity formation?nnnGoing to school and work, renting an apartment, going to the doctor, watching television, voting, reading books and newspaper, or attending religious services are all activities that are influenced ¿ consciously and unconsciously ¿ by race and ethnicity. In this course, we will draw on scholarship from psychology, genetics, history, and cultural studies to understand contemporary racial formations and cultural representations. We will look at how recent research on the human genome has reinvigorated biological conceptions of race and ethnicity, engage in activities that highlight the psychological consequences of race and ethnicity, and analyze selected race-relevant memes that appear in popular media.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| UG Reqs: College, THINK
THINK 31: Reimagining America
How have Americans remembered the Civil War - what it meant, what it accomplished, and what it failed to accomplish? How did Americans reimagine the United States as a nation after the war? Who belonged in the national community and who would be excluded? In 1865, the peace treaty was signed at Appomattox and the Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery, but the battle over memory and national identity had just begun. The questions that the Civil War addressed - and failed to address - continue to affect our lives today. We will focus on how Americans negotiated issues of cultural memory and national identity through a close analysis of historical texts, novels, poems, films, paintings, cartoons, photographs, and music. Our interpretations will foreground the particular themes of race and nationhood, freedom and citizenship, and changing notions of individual and collective identity. Our assumption in this course is that history is not available to us as a set of events - fixed, past, and unchanging. Rather, history is known through each generation's interpretations of those events, and these interpretations are shaped by each generation's lived experience. What stories get told? Whose stories? And in what ways? The stories we choose to tell about the past can shape not only our understanding of the present, but also the kind of future we imagine and strive to realize.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: THINK, WAY-A-II, College, WAY-EDP
THINK 32: Subversive Acts: Invention and Convention in the 20th Century
Can art subvert social practice and politics? nnnIn this course, we will learn how to "read" art and analyze the ways aesthetic objects can raise larger conceptual questions about culture, society, and change. We will do this by investigating the broad range of artistic, social, and political meanings of the term "avant-garde" in the 20th century. The course looks at some of the key moments in avant-garde art in Europe, including Dadaism and Futurism, with a particular emphasis on Russia. Through an examination of various aesthetic case studies, we will be able to ask the larger question of whether art can actually challenge social conventions and established political ideologies.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| UG Reqs: College, THINK
THINK 33: The Water Course
How can we balance all the competing, and growing, demands for freshwater? When you turn on your tap, where does the water come from?nnnWater is essential for life. But, around the world, governments and citizens are challenged to balance the human demands on our freshwater resources, while protecting the integrity of natural ecosystems. At the core of the challenge is our limited understanding, in many parts of the world, of the watershed-scale hydrologic cycle ¿ the course that the water follows from rainfall, to river, to groundwater, to ocean, to atmosphere, and back again. The Water Course takes students along that course, exploring the role that natural systems and human systems play in impacting both the quantity and quality of our freshwater. We will consider questions surrounding decisions about water allocation, and discuss new scientific methods that provide support for science-based decision making in the management of freshwater resources. You will connect global-scale issues to your personal experiences with water through a quarter-long project investigating both water quantity and water quality for a city or watershed in the western U.S. You will produce a numerical model, and make approximations, to describe a complex natural system. Using online resources you will explore the pathway that water takes from rainfall to your tap.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| UG Reqs: College, THINK, WAY-AQR, WAY-SMA
THINK 39: Energy? Understanding the Challenge, Developing Solutions
How much energy do we need to run the world and what energy resources can we use? How do we convert those resources into energy services? What are the economic, environmental, and security costs of energy services? How will energy markets address the challenges of reducing greenhouse gas emission? Energy is the lifeblood of human societies. Energy use is intricately woven through the fabric of the productive (and comfortable) lives we live in the developed world. We use energy to move and sometimes make fresh water, grow food, transport it to markets, heat, cool, and light our dwellings and workplaces, communicate and compute, and travel the world. We worry about energy security and fret about the cost of gasoline. And as world population continues to grow and the developing world seeks to use energy for the services we enjoy, the challenge of supplying the energy the world needs will grow commensurately. Energy is also a primary way human activities interact with global air, water, and biological systems that provide essential services to us and the planet. Balancing our interactions with those systems will require dramatic changes to the world¿s energy systems in the decades to come. This course examines the energy challenges, opportunities, and choices that lie ahead.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| UG Reqs: College, THINK, WAY-AQR
THINK 40: Meeting the Global Sustainability Challenge
What are the most critical sustainability challenges facing us in this century? How can natural and social sciences, humanities, and technology fields interact to contribute to their solution? How do we balance the needs and desires of current generations with the needs of future generations? The term sustainability seems to be everywhere. Businesses, cities, non-governmental organizations, individuals, and universities such as Stanford use the term to characterize decisions that make sense for the well-being of people as well as the environment. Beyond the popular use of the term is an emerging field of study that focuses on the goals of sustainable development - improving human well-being while preserving Earth's life support systems (air, water, climate, ecosystems) over the long run - and explores how science and technology can contribute to the solution of some of the most critical problems of the 21st Century. The goal of this course is to engage you in critical thinking and analysis about complex sustainability challenges and to encourage you to consider the need for integrative solutions that draw on different disciplines. We will examine some of the major problems of sustainable development (including issues related to food, water, and energy resources, climate change, and protection of ecosystem services), grapple with the complexities of problem solving in complex human-environment systems, and participate in the design of effective strategies and policies for meeting sustainability goals. You will learn to develop policy briefs addressing sustainability issues in the university, local communities, state and the nation as well as work on team projects with decision makers that address real-life challenges in your local area.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: College, THINK, WAY-SMA
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