HSS2025 Decolonization and Revolution in the 20th Century
4 Intermediate CreditsThe 20th Century is viewed by most historians as the most violent and tempestuous century in human history. In particular, this narrative is largely dominated by the two great wars and the Cold War. However, what made those conflicts so important was not just their impact on Europe and the Western World, but how those conflicts catalyzed mass movements globally. This class examines the history of decolonization and revolution in the 20th Century, and how the world wars and the Cold War impacted processes of nationalism, independence, decolonization and revolution. Starting with the rise of Turkey and the Bolshevik revolution during the first world war, we will then analyze the independence movements that sprouted from the vestiges of the second world war, particularly those of China and India, as well as the emergence of Apartheid in South Africa. We will also explore the impact of the Cold War on revolution and decolonization, especially Vietnam and Algeria. Finally, the course will analyze how more recent revolutions, such as those in Iran and Israel /Palestine, are rooted in longer historical processes which highlight the continuing legacy of Imperialism and revolutionary resistance to imperialism in the contemporary world. The course will use a variety of books, articles, movies, and music to analyze this deep, violent, and often conflicted aspect of human history.

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

CSP2009 East Asian Cultures

(Formerly CVA2009)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsWelcome to Cultures and Values 2009, an intermediate level Liberal Arts course which will introduce you to the cultures of East Asia. This course builds on the themes and techniques in the H&S and A&H Foundation courses to analyze our subject using the materials and methodology of history pursued in an interdisciplinary manner. We will focus on the cultures of East Asia, China, Japan, and Korea; with thematic examples from ancient, medieval and modern periods. East Asia is integrated due to location and the influence that China had on the cultures of Japan and Korea. We will begin our study with the major ways of thinking in ancient China-Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, with some consideration of Legalism, and Militarism. The ethical structures, ideas, concepts and vocabulary in part one will inform and be assumed in our study of Japan and Korea. We will next study the uses of Chinese Ethics in Japan and Korea, Shinto in Japan, and Shamanism in Korea. Although these three cultures have elements in common, Japan and Korea developed in unique ways and in no way should be seen as pale imitations of Chinese culture. We begin our study analyzing written (Chinese) classical texts, which became classics throughout East Asia. These are elite cultural documents, but we will also consider their impact on popular culture. The fourth section of the course will consider East Asia as a cultural unit. We will interrogate the cultural constructions of identity and meaning in these cultures and the political and social contexts in which these were found. We will consider the impact of modernization and globalization, and the change and continuity within East Asian cultures. Some attention will be given to the cultural impact from and on the West. We approach this course through readings in philosophy, religion, anthropology, art, literature, film, and music.

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

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

CSP2036 Environmental Justice

(Formerly CVA2036)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

The objective of this course is to understand, explore, and analyze the inequities and power dynamics associated with many types of environmental (in)justice. Depending on the instructor, the focus may be on waste and consumption; global health; city design etc. in relation to issues of justice. How can we reimagine solutions for environmental justice? By thinking critically about these issues, we will challenge our thinking about environmental justice and why it matters today and in the future.

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

HSS2040 Environmental Politics
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsEnvironmental issues are inherently multidisciplinary. They intersect with a variety of other knowledge areas, such as economics, finance, politics, and sociology. To better understand these interactions, we require the ability to think holistically. This course provides some tools that helps us understand how environmental issues are connected to a wide range of topics. It is designed for business students, and it looks at the many roles played by the private sector in environmental governance. The central part of the course focuses on political challenges related to environmental issues: Who has influence over environmental decisions? How are decisions made? How are natural resources managed? The course is organized in four building blocks: Water-Food-Energy, Environmental Governance and International Relations, Sustainable Development, and Politics of Climate Change. All of them draw on contemporary debates about global environmental politics, and each building block uses case studies to contextualize the topics under discussion.

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

CSP2090 Food and the African American Canon

(Formerly CVA2090)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsThis 4 credit history and foodways course discusses food and space in restaurants, dining cars, street venders and wherever food is made and sold (by whom), and eaten (by whom) at the center. The course will include readings in James Weldon Johnson's The Autobiography of a Colored Man, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, Zora Hurston's Their Eyes Where Watching God, John Washington's The Chaneysville Incident, Paule Marshall's classic essay From The Poets in the Kitchen, and Richard Wright's Man of All Work. Readings on segregated restaurants come from James Baldwin's Notes of a Native Son, and in No Name in the Street. A chapter on Ntzoake Shange's novel, Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo and her novel Liliane.

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

FCI1000 Foundations of Critical Inquiry
4 Credits

The Foundations of Critical Inquiry course, a theme-based course of study at the 1000 level, engages an interdisciplinary style of reasoning, interpreting, and understanding. As an introduction to the liberal arts, the course examines the processes by which individuals and societies create meaning. While there is a selection of themes through which this is explored, each course pays special attention to issues of identity and systems of power. This space for critical inquiry also allows students to reflect on their own agency. Currently, students may choose one of the following themes:

• Justice and Inequality

• Memory and Forgetting

• Nature and Environment

• Self in Context

Click Here for a more detailed description.

Prerequisites: None

ENV4602 Gender and Environment
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

The objective of this course is to understand, explore, and analyze the linkages between gender and the environment. Using multiple case studies (fashion, food, waste, illegal wildlife trade, climate change etc.), the course will focus on three core themes: 1) foundational concepts and theories of gender as they relate to the environment 2) the inequities and power dynamics associated with environmental challenges 3) knowledge and tools to mainstream gender and create effective change. By thinking critically about these concepts, we will challenge our current understanding about complex, global environmental challenges, the meaning of gender, and why it matters today and in the future.

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

CSP2010 Gender Studies

(Formerly CVA2010)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsThis course provides an interdisciplinary introduction to gender studies. Designed as an intermediate course, Introduction to Gender Studies aims to identify and critically examine the interactive relationships among gender, cultural/social institutions, and individuals in contemporary American society. This implies two foci of attention. First, through readings and discussion, we will explore gender roles and resulting power inequities in contexts such as families, the music industry, conceptions of both race and sexuality, and novels. Equally important, we will analyze how the behaviors of individuals reflect, sustain and sometimes alter social conceptions of gender. In concert, these two emphases serve to underline the relationships among gender, culture, and individuals.

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

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

HSS2042: Germans and Others: Germany in the 20th and 21st Centuries

4 intermediate liberal arts credits

**This course is for students in the Babson Leadership in a Global Context program in Berlin and is not open to students not enrolled in the program.**

What does it mean to be German in the 20th-21st centuries? Who decides who living within Germany is German and who is Other? Using this theme, you will be introduced to the political, social, economic, and cultural history of contemporary Germany within Europe and the world in the past 100 years. After a brief overview of German history, we will examine four moments: 1.The Holocaust
2. The Guest Worker (Gastarbeiter) Phenomenon
3. The Division and Reunification of East and West Germany
4. Refugees and Migrants in the 21st Century

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001 or RHT1001)

HIS4626 Global Cities
4 Advanced Liberal Arts CreditsThis course explores global cities to understand the varied and discrepant historical experiences of urban modernity. Drawing on a wide variety of literature from different disciplines and regions, we will critically examine the shaping of cities across the world: Boston, London, Paris, Shanghai, Mumbai, Singapore, Dubai, Bangalore, and Brasilia among others. We will examine city-space at two levels: first, at the more formal level of the state and town planners; and, second, at an everyday level, where city dwellers contest and redraw town plans in their daily lives.

The course begins with an analysis of race, class, and gender that segregated the industrial metropolis. We will then discuss colonial cities using space as a lens to review empire and imperialism. Next, our focus will be on neoliberal governance; megacities; the conceptualization of 'community' in a neoliberal city; gentrification; privatization of urban space; urban informality; and the new language of urban inclusion/exclusion.

A specific focus of this course will be on the impact of globalization on South Asian city space: has globalization sharpened class, caste, and religious divides in these cities?

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