ANT4606 Modern Israel: Conflicts in Context
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

The goal of this seminar is to provide a broad, anthropological context for Israeli culture, politics, and history on a global scale. Through a combination of scholarly texts, films, artwork, and other works of fiction and non-fiction from both Jewish Israelis and Palestinians, we will consider the conception, founding, and current conflicts surrounding the state of Israel, its occupied territories, and the Palestinian people. Our topics will cover the diasporic history of the Jewish people, the international optics of Israeli self-determination, the internal ethnic and cultural conflicts of modern Israeli society, as well as the history of Palestinian resistance and the current state of suspension in Gaza and the West Bank. Students will be expected to emerge with a nuanced understanding of the past and current political realities of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and an appreciation for the complexities, ambiguities, and possible futures of Israeli/Palestinian society.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

HSS2038 Modern Middle East
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsThis course studies Middle Eastern politics, culture, and society from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. To do this, we will focus on a wide variety of historical developments in different areas of the Middle East, starting with the late Ottoman period and moving into the Mandates of the interwar period, moments of decolonization, and eventually focusing on the post-independent states that emerge in the second half of the 20th century. Additionally, the course provides historical contexts to events, actors, and conflicts that have come to shape the present-day Middle East as well as the world, such as the Arab-Israeli conflict, the politics of oil, the rise of Islamism, and the US-Middle East relations. In order to understand these complex issues, we will engage with works of scholarly analysis, primary documents, memoirs, fiction, and film.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

LTA2045 Modernism and the Making of the New
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsThe British novelist Virginia Woolf declared that human nature underwent a fundamental change _on or about December 1910.The first few decades of the twentieth century are characterized by a fervent desire to break with the past and to reject traditions that seemed outmoded and too genteel to suit an era of psychological and technological breakthroughs and violence on a grand scale. This class will look at works that reflect ideas of experimentation, in both form and content, and that engaged new understandings of time, space, and human subjectivity. We will read writers such as Virginia Woolf, Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, E.M. Forster, Djuna Barnes, and Katherine Mansfield, as well as the theories of Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein (this is a tentative list). Be prepared; there is a lot of reading. These are difficult and challenging texts that do not rely on straightforward plot and narrative; they require careful analysis and critical engagement.

This course is typically offered in the following semesters: Spring or Fall

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

LTA2014 Money and Literature
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsThis course looks at money and economic thinking in literature. We will examine works from a wide range of periods and genres, with a strong grounding in fiction and drama from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Aesthetic genres such as naturalism, modernism, post-modernism, and expressionism will be considered in terms of how they inform and are informed by thinking about money. There will also be contextual/theoretical readings from Marx, Benjamin, Simmel, Freud, Lacan, and others.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

ECN3615 Money, Banking, and the Economy
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Elective CreditsCentral Banks exert a tremendous influence over the economy and financial markets. Anyone interested in investing in or running a business should have a firm grasp on the effects of their policies and a general ability to predict their actions. Moreover, the behavior of central banks has radically changed over the last decade, implementing in practice experimental polices that were largely theoretical previously (e.g. quantitative easing) if not unfathomable (e.g. negative interest rates). In this class, we will focus on how and why central banks implement these polices and adjust interest rates, and how those policies affect the economy. We will also focus heavily on central banks' interactions with bond markets, stock markets, and foreign exchange markets. In studying these asset markets, we will also discuss general frameworks for thinking about how financial prices are determined, including potential behavioral influences.

Prerequisites: ECN2000

STR7501: Moonshot Innovation: The Strategies Behind Giant Leaps in Progress

3 credits

This course will give Babson graduate students a deeper understanding of how a strategic approach to "moonshot" innovations can solve significant societal challenges. We will explore several historical examples, focusing on the original and emergent strategies and technologies, the characteristics of successful teams, and the role of strategic problem-solving. Today's world faces seemingly insurmountable challenges: rapid climate change, and income inequality at the top of a growing list. Businesses have been faulted for contributing to these challenges but are also considered essential partners in finding solutions. Understanding the strategies that organizations and individuals can apply in solving today's "moonshot" challenges requires us to deconstruct the strategic approaches of those who solved the seemingly insurmountable challenges of their day. This course will examine past moonshots to learn the strategies, innovations, and processes that enable teams to achieve what most thought impossible. We will also look at failed moonshot efforts and explore how businesses and entrepreneurs can avoid their fate as they apply their energy and efforts to address today's challenges.

STR3510 Moonshot Innovations

4 Advanced Management Credits

This course will provide Babson students with a deeper understanding of how a strategic approach to "moonshot" innovations can solve significant societal challenges. We will explore several historical examples, focusing on the original and emergent strategies and technologies, the characteristics of successful teams, and the role of strategic problem solving.

Today's world faces seemingly insurmountable challenges: a global pandemic, rapid climate change, and income inequality at the top of a growing list. Businesses have been faulted for contributing to these challenges, but are also looked upon as strategic partners in finding solutions. Understanding the strategies that organizations and individuals can apply in solving today's "moonshot" challenges requires us to deconstruct the strategic approaches of others who solved the seemingly insurmountable challenges of their day.

This course will examine past moonshots to learn the strategies, innovations, and processes that enable teams to achieve what most thought impossible. We will also look at failed moonshot efforts and explore how businesses and entrepreneurs can avoid their fate as they apply their energy and efforts to address today's challenges.

Prerequisites: (FME 1000 and FME 1001) or (MOB 1010 and EPS 1000)

SEN1203 Motivate Yourself: Making Health and Fitness Easy(Senior Instructor: Jamie Doyle) This course focuses on motivating and educating men and women about good health in the fields of fitness and nutrition. Over the weeks of the course, we will delve into and practice the basics of strength training, nutrition and overall fitness. We will also discuss the importance of clean eating, cardio and living a heart-healthy life. The course ranges from etiquette at the gym to the actual biology and physics behind working out and eating right. We will dispel myths about the field and students will spend time researching and analyzing websites, companies, and fitness centers that promote good health. In addition to active discussion and interaction with class lectures, this class will involve participation in fitness activities.

OPS6110 Operations Management

MSEL Course

1.5 CreditsIn enterprises of any kind, managing operations effectively is essential to success. The course explores the role of operations in enabling a firm's strategy, affecting its business model, and in creating extensible systems to capture value for multiple stakeholder classes. Students will identify critical systems, design solutions, and apply problem solving practices in ways that could potentially reset competitive conventions or enable a new initiative or venture to overcome constraints posed by a nascent & uncertain operating environment.

STR3506 Mysteries, Puzzles and Imagination

(Formerly MOB3506 Mysteries, Puzzles and Wicked Problems)
4 Advanced Management Credits

The course will help you learn how to think insightfully and become a skilled problem solver. Excelling in both is essential for success, no matter what your choice of career. Employers rank critical thinking and problem solving as prized skills that are difficult to find in business school graduates. A rising number of companies look for these skills using case interviews.

We will learn a variety of techniques and approaches to solving strategic, consequential, and wicked problems. Wicked problems are messy, multifaceted, lack sufficient information, and are difficult to solve. It is easy to get them wrong, especially under time pressure. We will approach them as mysteries or puzzles to better solve them. And we will learn how imagination might play a role in solving business problems.

Using various techniques and ways to think, we will learn to frame problems well to make sense of messy, ambiguous situations; identify needed evidence without wasting time on irrelevant information, draw upon different business disciplines but not be limited by any, find the story in numbers, use judgment, be original, and so much more. Throughout the course, I will ask you how you thought and made decisions and how others thought and made decisions. Effective problem solving needs such awareness about oneself and others.

The course uses a workshop format to emphasize in-class exercises and practice. We will minimize using conventional cases (14 pages of text and many more with exhibits). Instead, to simulate case interviews and workplace realities, we will use cryptic cases and live cases.

Few business schools teach problem solving rigorously. Acquiring this skill will differentiate you in the job market, prepare you for doing well in case interviews, and position you for success in your career of choice.

Prerequisites: (FME 1000 and FME 1001) or (MOB 1010 and EPS 1000)