printer friendly pageCOMPLIT 123A: Resisting Coloniality: Then and Now (ILAC 123A)
What are the different shapes that Western colonialism took over the centuries? How did people resist the symbolic and material oppressions engendered by such colonialist endeavors? This course offers a deep dive into history of the emergence of Western colonialism (alt: Spanish and Portuguese empires) by focusing on literary and cultural strategies of resisting coloniality in Latin America, from the 16th century to the present. Students will examine critiques of empire through a vast array of sources (novel, letter, short story, sermon, history, essay), spanning from early modern denunciations of the oppression of indigenous and enslaved peoples to modern Latin American answers to the three dominant cultural paradigms in post-independence period: Spain, France, and the United States. Through an examination of different modes of resistance, students will learn to identify the relation between Western colonialism and the discriminatory discourses that divided people based on their class, gender, ethnicity, and race, and whose effects are still impactful for many groups of people nowadays. Authors may include Isabel Guevara, Catalina de Erauso, el Inca Garcilaso, Sor Juana, Simón Bolívar, Flora Tristán, Silvina Ocampo, Jorge Luis Borges, and Gabriel García Márquez. Taught in Spanish.
Last offered: Summer 2021
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
COMPLIT 158: Rebelión: Black Resistance in the Caribbean (AFRICAAM 158, HISTORY 177C)
In 1978, Afro-Columbian artist recorded his hit song "Rebelión," including lines such as "esclavitud perpetua," a reference to the 1455 Romanus Pontifex Papal Bull, and lines like "No le pegue a la negra," which evince a slave resistance based on a bond of kinship and affection. This is an introductory course in Caribbean history with a focus on labor and rebellion. In this course, we will discuss slave revolts and revolutions in the Caribbean from the beginning of the Transatlantic Slave trade through present-day labor strikes in the Caribbean. Using Caribbean resistance music as the backdrop to many of our discussions, this course will engage with the metaphors and motifs found in riotous iconography, such as the machete (i.e. "El machete de Maceo," in Celia Cruz¿s "Guantanamera"). Revolts covered include the 1500s slave revolts in Quisqueya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1843 La Escalera conspiracy in Cuba, the 1831 Christmas Rebellion in Jamaica, the Cuban Ten Years War, Little War, and present-day labor strikes in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. We will review and study historical records, as well as take in archival and musical sources. No prior knowledge in Caribbean history is required.
Last offered: Autumn 2022
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
COMPLIT 213: Culture and Revolution in Africa (AFRICAAM 213, FRENCH 213E, HISTORY 243E)
This course investigates the relationship between culture, revolutionary decolonization, and post-colonial trajectories. It probes the multilayered development of 20th and 21st-century African literature amid decolonization and Cold War cultural diplomacy initiatives and the debates they generated about African literary aesthetics, African languages, the production of history, and the role of the intellectual. We will journey through national cultural movements, international congresses, and pan-African festivals to explore the following questions: What role did writers and artists play in shaping the discourse of revolutionary decolonization throughout the continent and in the diaspora? How have literary texts, films, and works of African cultural thought shaped and engaged with concepts such as "African unity" and "African cultural renaissance"? How have these notions influenced the imaginaries of post-independence nations, engendered new subjectivities, and impacted gender and generational dynamics? How did the ways of knowing and modes of writing promoted and developed in these contexts shape African futures?
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI, WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Seck, F. (PI)
COMPLIT 287: Hope in the Modern Age (GERMAN 287, JEWISHST 287)
Immanuel Kant famously considered "What may I hope?" to be the third and final question of philosophy. This course considers the thinkers, from Immanuel Kant to Judith Butler, who have attempted to answer this question from within the context of modernity. Has revolution replaced religion as the object of our hope? Has Enlightenment lived up to its promises? These topics and more will be discussed, with readings from thinkers including Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Benjamin, Adorno, and Arendt, alongside the literature of writers such as Kafka, Celan, Nelly Sachs, among others, and with particular focus on the question of hope within the German-Jewish tradition.
Last offered: Autumn 2021
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
CSRE 3P: America: Unequal (PUBLPOL 113, SOC 3)
The U.S. is in the midst of an inequality explosion. The upper class has become unimaginably rich. Extreme racial discrimination and animus remain at the center of the American story. Abject poverty persists amidst so much wealth. A de facto caste system ¿ in which opportunities to get ahead depend on a birth lottery ¿ is firmly in place. The historic decline in gender inequality, which many had thought would continue on until full equality was achieved, has stalled out across many labor market indicators. Why is this happening? And what should be done about it? A no-holds-barred exploration of America¿s inequality problem.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
CSRE 4: The Sociology of Music (AMSTUD 4, SOC 4)
This course examines music - its production, its consumption, and it contested role in society - from a distinctly sociological lens. Why do we prefer certain songs, artists, and musical genres over others? How do we 'use' music to signal group membership and create social categories like class, race, ethnicity, and gender? How does music perpetuate, but also challenge, broader inequalities? Why do some songs become hits? What effects are technology and digital media having on the ways we experience and think about music? Course readings and lectures will explore the various answers to these questions by introducing students to key sociological concepts and ideas. Class time will be spent moving between core theories, listening sessions, discussion of current musical events, and an interrogation of students - own musical experiences. Students will undertake a number of short research and writing assignments that call on them to make sociological sense of music in their own lives, in the lives of others, and in society at large.
Last offered: Winter 2022
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
CSRE 5C: Human Trafficking: Historical, Legal, and Medical Perspectives (FEMGEN 5C, HISTORY 5C, INTNLREL 5C)
(Same as
History 105C. 5C is 3 units; 105C is 5 units.) Interdisciplinary approach to understanding the extent and complexity of the global phenomenon of human trafficking, especially for forced prostitution, labor exploitation, and organ trade, focusing on human rights violations and remedies. Provides a historical context for the development and spread of human trafficking. Analyzes the current international and domestic legal and policy frameworks to combat trafficking and evaluates their practical implementation. Examines the medical, psychological, and public health issues involved. Uses problem-based learning. Required weekly 50-min. discussion section, time TBD. Students interested in service learning should consult with the instructor and will enroll in an additional course.
Last offered: Autumn 2022
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
CSRE 20N: What counts as "race," and why? (SOC 20N)
Preference to freshmen. Seminar discussion of how various institutions in U.S. society employ racial categories, and how race is studied and conceptualized across disciplines. Course introduces perspectives from demography, history, law, genetics, sociology, psychology, and medicine. Students will read original social science research, learn to collect and analyze data from in-depth interviews, and use library resources to conduct legal/archival case studies.
Last offered: Winter 2019
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
CSRE 28N: The Cultural Shaping of Emotion (PSYCH 28N)
This seminar examines how our cultural ideas and practices shape our conceptions, perceptions, and experiences of emotion. We will read and discuss empirical research and case studies from psychology, anthropology, sociology, and medicine. Course requirements include weekly reading and thought papers, weekly discussion, and a final research project and presentation.
Last offered: Spring 2022
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
CSRE 31N: Does Science Have Culture? (ANTHRO 30N)
In this course students will engage with the anthropology of science and medicine to explore the how cultural norms shape scientific understandings. Through a series of diverse global case studies, seminar participants will assess how historical conditions yield political possibilities that inflect discoveries. Lastly, students will probe how cultural understandings of nature, human difference and national esteem influence how scientific facts come to cohere as reflections of the societies in which they emerge.
Last offered: Spring 2021
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
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