printer friendly pageINTNLREL 61Q: Food and security (EARTHSYS 61Q, ESS 61Q)
The course will provide a broad overview of key policy issues concerning agricultural development and food security, and will assess how global governance is addressing the problem of food security. At the same time the course will provide an overview of the field of international security, and examine how governments and international institutions are beginning to include food in discussions of security.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Naylor, R. (PI)
;
Stedman, S. (PI)
INTNLREL 62Q: Truth Commissions and War Crimes Tribunals in Germany, South Africa, Bosnia, Rwanda, and elsewhere
Imagine you lived in a country in which a delusional dictator imprisons untold masses of citizens in labor camps, tortures them, and slaughters millions of them. Imagine you lived in a country, in which the ruling and unelected elite holds on to power by intimidating its citizens by pervasive secret reporting, sending many of them to prison. Imagine you lived in a country, in which one ethnic group slaughters the other. Imagine you lived in a country in which a racial white minority terrorizes and discriminates against a huge majority of black population. Imagine you lived in a country in which members of one group engage in an "ethnic cleansing" of their old neighbors.nNow imagine something else: some big political change comes to each of these societies, and the oppressors lose their power and fall into disgrace. Now the previously oppressed engage in a deliberation what to do with their former oppressors. For the most part it is not a question of a brutal revenge by the former victims, but a legitimate and democratically authorized process.nWelcome to the questions of transitional justice. The scenarios mentioned above are real ones: Cambodia, Germany, Rwanda, South Africa, and Bosnia. All of them happened in the last few decades.nIn this course we will explore different paths these societies chose to come to terms with past injustices. Each path was devised and decided in a complex public and political debate.nWe will discuss these and other cases of specific injustices, and the subsequent means to achieve a new start for the country. We will reflect on whether its citizens gained a sense of fairness and hope for a better future, and what it means to come to terms with the past.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-ER, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Lutomski, P. (PI)
INTNLREL 71Q: Aesthetics of Dissent: the Case of Islamic Iran (COMPLIT 40Q)
Censorship, Borges tells us, is the mother of metaphors. The Islamic regime in Iran censors all aethetic production in the country. But Iranian dissident artists, from film-makers and fiction writers to composers in a thriving under-ground musical scene, have cleverly found ways to fight these draconian measures. They have developed an impressive body of work that is as sophisticated in style as it is rich in its discourse of democracy and dissent. The purpose of the seminar is to understand the aesthetic tropes of dissent in Iran, and the social and theological roots of rules of censorship. Masterpieces of post-revolutionary film, fiction, and music will be discussed in the context of tumultuous history of dissent in Islamic Iran.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 2-3
Instructors:
Milani, A. (PI)
ITALIAN 41N: Imagining Italy
No city in Italy has inspired the imagination of writers, artists, and filmmakers more than Venice, with its golden dance of water and stone, its carnival masks, and its melancholic intimations of mortality. This course will be devoted to the city¿s imaginary life in literature and film. Readings include Marco Polo, Henry James¿s The Aspern Papers, Italo Calvino¿s Invisible Cities, John Ruskin¿s The Stones of Venice, and Joseph Brodsky¿s Watermarks. Films include ¿Dangerous Beauty,¿ ¿Casanova,¿ ¿Don¿t Look Now,¿ ¿Death in Venice,¿ and ¿The Comfort of Strangers.¿
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Harrison, R. (PI)
ITALIAN 75N: Narrative Medicine and Near-Death Experiences (FRENCH 75N)
Even if many of us don't fully believe in an afterlife, we remain fascinated by visions of it. This course focuses on Near-Death Experiences and the stories around them, investigating them from the many perspectives pertinent to the growing field of narrative medicine: medical, neurological, cognitive, psychological, sociological, literary, and filmic. The goal is not to understand whether the stories are veridical but what they do for us, as individuals, and as a culture, and in particular how they seek to reshape the patient-doctor relationship. Materials will span the 20th century and come into the present. Taught in English.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Wittman, L. (PI)
JEWISHST 17N: Intimacy, Secrets and the Past: Biography in History and Fiction (HISTORY 17N)
Biography is one of the most popular- and controversial- modes of writing about the past and perhaps its greatest draw is in its promise to revel the otherwise sequestered details of life, its everyday secrets otherwise sequestered from view. This, of course, is also at the heart of most modern fiction, and the two modes of writing have many other similarities as well as, needless to say, differences. The rhythms of life writing in biography as well as fiction will be explored in this class, along with the difficulties (factual, ethical, and otherwise) of ferreting out the secrets of individual lives. Among the figures explored in the course will be Sigmund Freud, Sabina Spielrein, Sylvia Plath, Hannah Arendt, and Woody Allen.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-4
Instructors:
Zipperstein, S. (PI)
JEWISHST 37Q: Zionism and the Novel (COMPLIT 37Q)
At the end of the nineteenth century, Zionism emerged as a political movement to establish a national homeland for the Jews, eventually leading to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. This seminar uses novels to explore the changes in Zionism, the roots of the conflict in the Middle East, and the potentials for the future. We will take a close look at novels by Israelis, both Jewish and Arab, in order to understand multiple perspectives, and we will also consider works by authors from the North America and from Europe.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Berman, R. (PI)
KORGEN 101N: Kangnam Style: Korean Media and Pop Culture
For over a decade now, South Korea has established itself as a tireless generator of soft power, the popularity of its pop-culture spreading from Asia to the rest of the world. This class will look into the economic engine that moves this "cultural contents" industry, and will examine some of its expressions in the form of K-pop. Class meets in East Asia Library (Lathrop Library), Rm 338.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Zur, D. (PI)
LAWGEN 112N: Law and Inequality
Most Americans know that discrimination on the basis of race, sex, and religion is unlawful. Seems simple enough. But advertisements in the back of newspapers still announce: "Single White Female Seeks Single White Male?" Isn't that discrimination on the basis of race and sex? Most businesses don't consider men for women's locker room or bathroom attendant. And why aren't those men and women's bathrooms and locker rooms illegal segregation? After all we know what would happened if some business set up separate bathrooms for blacks and whites. Isn't it discrimination for an employer to insist that men wear a jacket and tie and women wear nylons and a skirt? Why are some forms of discrimination unlawful and others not? Why is discrimination against short people, overweight people, or people with annoying personalities not against the law? We will answer these and many other questions by looking at court cases, legal theory, and philosophy. We may also have conversations with guest lecturers who work in civil rights enforcement, and the seminar may include a field trip to visit the offices of civil rights lawyers (lawyers tend to be busy people so these opportunities will depend on their schedules). Class participation and a short final paper are required, but here are no prerequisites other than an open mind and a willingness to delve into unfamiliar material.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Ford, R. (PI)
LAWGEN 115N: Human Rights Advocacy
What are the origins of the human rights movement and where is it headed? What does it mean to be a human rights activist? What are the main challenges and dilemmas facing those engaged in human rights advocacy? In the space of 60 years, human rights advocates have transformed a marginal utopian ideal into a central element of global discussion, if not practice. In this seminar we will examine the actors and organizations behind this remarkable development as well as the vast challenges faced by advocates in the recent past and today. Together, we will learn to be critical of, as well as to think, and act, like human rights advocates. This seminar will introduce you to some the main debates and dilemmas within the human rights movement. We will consider and understand the differing agendas of western international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) and their counterparts in the frequently non-western) developing world, as well as tensions between and among rights advocates along other important dimensions (civil and political vs. economic, social and cultural rights; rights promotion through engagement of powerful actors vs. challenging structures of power, etc.). The seminar seeks to develop your ability: 1) to understand human rights and social justice issues as contested political, legal and cultural phenomena; 2) to review advocacy texts, videos and other interventions critically; 3) to appreciate the political dimensions of efforts to promote human rights; 4) to understand how recent history constrains and structures options and possibilities for social intervention to promote rights and justice. During the course of the quarter you will be required to submit several short reflection papers and develop a human rights advocacy campaign.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Cavallaro, J. (PI)
Filter Results: