Catalog
Interdisciplinary Courses
Interdisciplinary courses fully engage more than two distinct intellectual disciplines. They are identified by the subject code INDS. The departments and programs in which INDS courses are cross-listed are listed in each INDS course description. Interdisciplinary courses are integral to the course offerings of the cross-listing departments and programs.
The list below includes INDS-designated courses in the curriculum. The list does not represent a specific course of study.
INDC 100. African Perspectives on Justice, Human Rights, and Renewal.
This team-taught course introduces students to some of the experiences, cultural beliefs, values, and voices shaping contemporary Africa. Students focus on the impact of climatic, cultural, and geopolitical diversity; the politics of ethnicity, religion, age, race, and gender and their influence on daily life; and the forces behind contemporary policy and practice in Africa. The course forges students' critical capacity to resist simplistic popular understandings of what is taking place on the continent and works to refocus their attention on distinctively "African perspectives." Students design a research project to augment their knowledge about a specific issue within a particular region. The course is primarily for first- and second-year students with little critical knowledge of Africa and serves as the introduction to the General Education concentration Considering Africa (C022). Cross-listed in anthropology, French and Francophone studies, history, and politics. Enrollment limited to 39. (History: Africa.) (Politics: Identities and Interests.) (Politics: Security, Conflict, and Cooperation.) Normally offered every year. A. Dauge-Roth, E. Eames, P. Otim.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDC 130. Food in Ancient Greece and Rome.
Participants in this course study the history of the food supply for agrarian and urban populations in ancient Greece and Rome; malnutrition, its probable impact on ancient economies, and its uneven impact on populations; famine; the symbolism of the heroic banquet—a division of the sacrificial animal among ranked members of society, and between men and gods; cuisine and delicacies of the rich; forbidden food; the respective roles of men and women in food production, and their unequal access to food supply; dietary transgression; and sacred food. Cross-listed in classical and medieval studies, gender and sexuality studies, and history. Not open to students who have received credit for CMS s28. Enrollment limited to 49. (History: European.) (History: Premodern.) D. O'Higgins.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 200. Women's Movements and Religion across East Asia.
What are the key challenges faced by women’s movements across East Asia? What roles do religious ethics and cultural norms play in creating either obstacles or opportunities for women activists who seek to counter gender disparity in the pursuit of economic development? Do religious traditions offer challenges or resources for socio-economic reform? From Islam among Malay and Hui Chinese communities to Confucian-influenced Christianity among South Korean communities, this course provides an opportunity to explore how women’s movements in East Asia engage with religious and cultural traditions in their struggles for human rights and civil liberties, as well as equal access to education, labor markets, affordable childcare, and other development opportunities. Recommended background: one introductory course in anthropology, economics, history, sociology, or politics. New course beginning winter 2020. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 39. Normally offered every year. A. Akhtar.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 208. Introduction to Medieval Archaeology.
The Middle Ages were a time of major cultural changes that laid the groundwork for Northwest Europe's emergence as a global center of political and economic power in subsequent centuries. However, many aspects of life in the period from 1000 to 1500 C.E. were unrecorded in contemporary documents and art, and archaeology has become an important tool for recovering that information. This course introduces the interdisciplinary methods and the findings of archaeological studies of topics including medieval urban and rural lifeways, health, commerce, religion, social hierarchy, warfare, and the effects of global climate change. Cross-listed in anthropology, classical and medieval studies, environmental studies, and history. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 39. (History: Premodern.) [HS] [S] [SR] G. Bigelow.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDC 210. Technology in U.S. History.
Surveys the development, distribution, and use of technology in the United States from colonial roadways to digital media, using primary and secondary source material. Subjects treated include gendered and racialized divisions of labor, theories of invention and innovation, and the ecological consequences of technological change. Cross-listed in American studies, gender and sexuality studies, and history. Enrollment limited to 29. (History: United States.) R. Herzig.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 211. U.S. Environmental History.
This course explores the relationship between the North American environment and the development and expansion of the United States. Because Americans' efforts (both intentional and not) to define and shape the environment were rooted in their own struggles for power, environmental history offers an important perspective on the nation's social history. Specific topics include Europeans', Africans', and Indians' competing efforts to shape the colonial environment; the impact and changing understanding of disease; the relationship between industrial environments and political power; and the development of environmental movements. Cross-listed in American studies, environmental studies, and history. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 39. (History: Modern.) (History: United States.) J. Hall.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 219. Environmental Archaeology.
Over the past two hundred years archaeologists, scientists, and humanists in many disciplines have worked together to understand the interactions of past human populations with the physical world, including plants, animals, landscapes, and climates. This course outlines the methods and theories used by archaeologists, geologists, biologists, physicists, chemists, and historians in reconstructing past economies and ecologies in diverse areas of the globe. The course also discusses how archaeology contributes to our understanding of contemporary environmental issues such as rapid climate change, shrinking biodiversity, and sustainable use of resources. Cross-listed in anthropology, environmental studies, and history. Recommended background: ANTH 103. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 39. (History: Premodern.) Normally offered every year. [HS] [S] [SR] G. Bigelow.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 221. Venice to Tokyo: Religion and Trade along the Spice and Silk Routes.
This course examines the intersection of religion and trade along the silk and spice routes that linked Venice and Istanbul with Isfahan, Malacca, Nanjing, and Tokyo in the medieval and early modern periods (800-1800 C.E.). Adherents of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, and other spiritual traditions traversed these trade routes as merchants, diplomats, and pilgrims. As cultural brokers connecting Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia, these merchants transmitted objects as diverse as silk textiles, relics, and texts on philosophy and ethics. This course follows the transfer of culture and commerce along these trade routes, focusing on a key thematic question: How are urban economies impacted by religion and culture? Cross-listed in Asian studies, classical and medieval studies, and religious studies. Not open to students who have received credit for CM/RE 221. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 39. A. Akhtar.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 227. Death and Immortality in Chinese Tradition.
This course explores ideas and practices surrounding death in premodern China, including norms of burial, the afterlife, the concept of immortality and spirits and ghosts in Chinese religious and cultural traditions. Students scrutinize religious-philosophical writings, mortuary art, and literary works, asking the following questions: How did premodern Chinese perceive death and immortality? How did and should the knowledge that one is going to die affect the living? How did verbal and visual arts help to materialize the hope and illusion of immortality? How did death and immortality engage with political discourses? New course beginning winter 2020. Enrollment limited to 39. One-time offering. C. Ling.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 236. Race Matters: Tobacco in North America.
This course explores race and the history of tobacco in North America. With a primary focus on the intersection of tobacco capitalism and African American history, the course introduces students to the impact of tobacco on the formation of racial ideologies and lived experiences through a consideration of economic, cultural, political, and epidemiological history. Cross-listed in Africana, American studies, and history. Recommended background: at least one course in Africana, African American history, American studies, or gender and sexuality studies. Enrollment limited to 29. (History: United States.) M. Plastas.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 238. Queer Power: Political Sociology of U.S. Sexuality Movements.
This course introduces students to social movement theory and interest group politics in the United States via the case study of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) politics from the immediate post-World War II period to the present, and examines the relationship of sexuality to the racial and gender dynamics of American identity-based social movements. The course traces the development of research methodologies to study collective action from early rational choice models to resource mobilization theory to new social movement models and political opportunity and process models. How the LGBTQ movements drew upon, expanded, and challenged foundations established by both African American civil rights and feminism is also explored. A range of source materials includes political science, sociology, and history monographs and articles, primary source documents, literature, and film. Cross-listed in gender and sexuality studies, politics, and sociology. Prerequisite(s): any 100-level course in gender and sexuality studies, politics, or sociology. Enrollment limited to 29. (Politics: Identities and Interests.) (Politics: Institutional Politics.) S. Engel.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 250. Interdisciplinary Studies: Methods and Modes of Inquiry.
Interdisciplinarity involves more than a meeting of disciplines. Practitioners stretch methodological norms and reach across disciplinary boundaries. Through examination of a single topic, this course introduces students to interdisciplinary methods of analysis. Students examine what practitioners actually do and work to become practitioners themselves. Cross-listed in Africana, American studies, and gender and sexuality studies. Prerequisite(s): AFR 100, AMST 200, or GSS 100, and one other course in Africana, American studies, or gender and sexuality studies. Enrollment limited to 39. Staff.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 257. African American Women's History and Social Transformation.
This course examines the political, social, and cultural traditions African American women have created from slavery to the current moment, notably the influence of African American women on the major social movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries including abolition, woman's suffrage, the club movement, women's liberation, the black arts movement, the civil rights movement, and Black Power. Through novels, plays, autobiography, music, and nonfiction produced by and about African American women, students explore a range of intellectual and cultural traditions. Cross-listed in Africana, gender and sexuality studies, history, and politics. Recommended background: one course in gender and sexuality studies and/or one course in Africana. Enrollment limited to 30. (Africana: Gender.) (Africana: Historical Perspective.) (Politics: Identities and Interests.) (Politics: Institutional Politics.) M. Plastas.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 266. Environmental History of China.
This course investigates the deep historical roots of China's contemporary environmental dilemmas. From the Three Gorges Dam to persistent smog, a full understanding of the environment in China must reckon with millennia-old relationships between human and natural systems. In this course students explore the advent of grain agriculture, religious understandings of nature, the impact of bureaucratic states, and the environmental dimensions of imperial expansion as well as the nature of kinship and demographic change. The course concludes by turning to the socialist "conquest" of nature in the 1950s and 1960s and China's post-1980s fate. Cross-listed in Asian studies, environmental studies, and history. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 39. (History: Early Modern.) (History: East Asian.) (History: Modern.) (History: Premodern.) W. Chaney.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 267. Blood, Genes, and American Culture.
Places recent popular and scientific discussions of human heredity and genetics in broader social, political, and historical context, focusing on shifting definitions of personhood. Topics include the ownership and exchange of human bodies and body parts, the development of assisted reproductive technologies, and the emergence of new forms of biological citizenship. Cross-listed in Africana, American studies, and gender and sexuality studies. Recommended background: course work in biology and/or gender and sexuality studies. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 29. R. Herzig.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 285. Welcome to Paradise: The United States and the Caribbean.
This course explores the relationship of codependency between the United States and the Caribbean by highlighting power dynamics within the region. It goes beyond the perception of the Caribbean as a space of leisure or disasters to show how the U.S. imperial stance has affected the experiences of Caribbean people and how Caribbean people have resisted U.S. hegemony. By examining a variety of sources and historical scholarship that offer a transnational reading of these historical processes, students analyze how the circulation of goods, images, people, and ideas profoundly influenced the political, material, and social cultures in both spaces. Special attention is given to issues of race, gender, ethnicity, tourism, and immigration. New course beginning Fall 2019. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 29. (History: Modern.) (History: United States.) J. Essame.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 295. Afro-diasporic Activism.
This course examines Afro-diasporic connections in the twentieth century. Beyond the artistic encounters that generated new visual or musical expressions that celebrated black pride, this course explores transnational black activism spanning across the United States, the Caribbean, and Europe from the Harlem Renaissance to the Black Power movement. By looking at the historical processes that made room for people of African descent from different backgrounds to unite against racial oppression and colonialism at specific points in time, this course analyzes diaspora as a political practice. Students consider black political thought and cultural production to investigate the making of global blackness. New course beginning winter 2020. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 29. (History: Modern.) (History: United States.) Normally offered every year. J. Essame.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 301A. Sex and the Modern City: European Cultures at the Fin-de-Siècle.
Economic and political change during the 1800s revolutionized the daily lives of Europeans more profoundly than any previous century. By the last third of the century, the modern city became the stage for exploring and enacting new roles, new gender identities in particular. This course examines the cultural reverberations of these cataclysmic changes by focusing on sex, gender, and new urban spaces the decades around the turn of the twentieth century. Students consider the writings of Zola and Freud, investigate middle-class flirtations with the occult, and read about sensational crimes like those of Jack the Ripper. Cross-listed in European studies, gender and sexuality studies, and history. Enrollment limited to 15. (History: European.) (History: Modern.) [W2] C. Shaw.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 301D. US Immigration in the 20th Century: A Gender Perspective.
Both women and men have fled their countries to escape political, ethnic, or religious persecution, wars, dire economic conditions, or the consequences of natural disasters. Historical processes such as the global Cold War have resulted in various population movements. How did gender expectations, relations, and rights impact migrants? This seminar examines the role of gender in the migration experience and migration settlement practices. By looking at case studies, it explores how migrants have negotiated gendered and racialized structures in the U.S. Students read a range of texts highlighting several aspects of the migrant experience such as shifting gender roles. New course beginning winter 2020. Enrollment limited to 15. (History: Modern.) (History: United States.) [W2] Normally offered every year. J. Essame.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 301G. Black Resistance from the Civil War to Civil Rights.
From antebellum slavery through twentieth-century struggles for civil rights, black Americans have resisted political violence, economic marginalization, and second-class citizenship using strategies ranging from respectability to radicalism. Engaging with both historical and modern scholarship, literary sources, and other primary documents, this course explores the diverse tactics and ideologies of these resistance movements. By considering the complexities and contradictions of black resistance in American history and conducting source-based research, students develop a deep understanding of the black freedom struggle and reflect on the ways that these legacies continue to shape present-day struggles for racial justice. Cross-listed in Africana, American studies, and history. Enrollment limited to 15. (Africana: Historical Perspective.) [W2] Normally offered every year. [AC] [HS] A. Baker.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 301Y. The Spanish Inquisition.
Were witches and heretics really tortured in the Spanish Inquisition's infamous jails? This course examines both the institution of the Spanish Inquisition and the lives of those who came before it. The sins that concerned the Inquisition depended on the time and place, and the crimes prosecuted in sixteenth-century Spain or eighteenth-century New Spain reveal a great deal about early modern (ca. 1500–1800) culture and society. Students read and analyze original Inquisition cases from Spain and New Spain as well as consider the ways historians have used cases to investigate topics such as sexuality and marriage, witchcraft, and the persecution of Jews and Muslims. Cross-listed in history, Latin American studies, and religious studies. Enrollment limited to 15. (History: Early Modern.) (History: European.) (History: Latin American.) [W2] K. Melvin.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 301Z. Race and U.S. Women's Movements.
This course focuses on how racial formations develop in women's movements and how gender ideologies take shape through racialization. Some of the movements examined include the woman's suffrage movement, the anti-lynching movement, the civil rights movement, moral reform movements, the welfare rights movement, the women's liberation movement, and the peace movement. Students analyze how the intertwined categories of race and gender shape various women's responses to debates about issues including citizenship, U.S. foreign policy, reproductive rights, and immigration. Students consider current theoretical and methodological debates and examine the topic through the perspectives of women in various ethnic and racial groups. Cross-listed in gender and sexuality studies, history, and politics. Enrollment limited to 15. (Africana: Gender.) (Africana: Historical Perspective.) (History: Modern.) (History: United States.) (Politics: Identities and Interests.) [W2] M. Plastas.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 302. Black Feminist Activist and Intellectual Traditions.
This junior-senior seminar examines the intersections of gender with Black racial and ethnic identities as they have been and are constructed, expressed, and lived throughout the African/Black diaspora. Special attention is given to the United States but substantial consideration is given to Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, Canada, Europe, and Australia. The course combines approaches and methodologies employed in the humanities, social sciences, and arts to structure interdisciplinary analyses. Using Black feminist (womanist), critical-race, and queer theories, students examine African-descended women’s histories, activism, resistance, and contributions to culture, knowledge, and theorizing. Cross-listed in Africana, American studies, and gender and sexuality studies. Prerequisite(s): one course in Africana, American studies, or gender and sexuality studies. Enrollment limited to 15. (Africana: Diaspora.) (Africana: Gender.) (Africana: Historical Perspective.) [AC] S. Houchins.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 305. Art, Power, and Politics.
An anthropological examination of the relationship among art, power, and politics. What can the artistic works of various societies say about their worlds that other creations cannot? What claims can art make about the workings of power, and what artistic techniques does power itself employ? Students consider these and other questions from a number of different perspectives, including the politics of perception, the place of art in modern life, the artistry of terror, the art of protest and propaganda, and the dream of building a beautiful regime. Recommended background: familiarity with classical social theory, especially Marx, is encouraged but not necessary. Cross-listed in Africana, American studies, and anthropology. Prerequisite(s): one course in Africana, American studies, anthropology, art and visual culture, or gender and sexuality studies. Enrollment limited to 15. J. Rubin.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 306. Queer Africana: History, Theories, and Representations.
This course examines the debates among authors, politicians, religious leaders, social scientists, and artists in Africa, the African Americas, and Afro-Europe about the very existence of same-sex desire and relationships—any non-normative sexualities, in general—throughout the African world. While the course analyzes histories of sexualities, legal documents, manifestos by dissident organizations, and anthropological and sociological treatises, it focuses primarily on textual and cinematic representations, and proposes methods of reading cultural productions at the intersection of sexualities, race, ethnicities, and gender. Cross-listed in Africana, English, and gender and sexuality studies. Recommended background: at least one course in Africana, gender and sexuality studies, or literary analysis. Enrollment limited to 15. (Africana: Diaspora.) (Africana: Gender.) (Africana: Historical Perspective.) (English: Post-1800.) (English: Race, Ethnicity, or Diasporic Literature.) S. Houchins.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 321. Afroambiente: Escritura negra y medio ambiente.
This course studies the response of black writers and intellectuals of the Spanish-speaking world to issues related to the natural environment. In several countries, including Colombia, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, and Equatorial Guinea, from colonial times to the present, modernity has brought serious challenges to notions of economic progress, human rights, and national sovereignty as well as individual and communal identity. Course materials include written texts from local newspapers and magazines as well as other sources of information such as websites that present issues related to the environment and the arts. All readings are in English. Taught in Spanish. Cross-listed in Africana, environmental studies, Latin American studies, and Spanish. Prerequisite(s): one 200-level Spanish course above 211. Only open to juniors and seniors. Enrollment limited to 15. (Africana: Diaspora.) B. Fra-Molinero.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 325. Black Feminist Literary Theory and Practice.
This seminar examines literary theories that address the representation and construction of race, gender, and sexuality, particularly, but not exclusively, theories formulated and articulated by Afra-diasporic women such as Spillers, Ogunyemi, Henderson, Carby, Christian, Cobham, Valerie Smith, McDowell, Busia, Lubiano, and Davies. Students not only analyze theoretical essays but also use the theories as lenses through which to explore literary productions of women writers of Africa and the African diaspora in Europe and in the Americas, including Philip, Dangarembga, Morrison, Herron, Gayl Jones, Head, Condé, Brodber, Brand, Merle Collins, and Harriet Wilson. Cross-listed in Africana, and gender and sexuality studies. Strongly recommended: at least one literature course. Enrollment limited to 15. (Africana: Gender.) (English: Race, Ethnicity, or Diasporic Literature.) S. Houchins.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 342. Performance, Narrative, and the Body.
This course examines the politics of the body through the inter/transdisciplinary frames of the narrative and performance, including the specific ways performance and narrative theories of the body and cultural practices operate in everyday life and social formations. Students examine how the "body" is performed and how narrative is constructed in a variety of different contexts such as race, gender, disease, sexuality, and culture. The course places narrative and performance at the center (rather than the margins) of inquiry, asking how far and how deeply performativity reaches into our lives and how performances construct our identities, differences, and our bodies: who we are and who we can become. Cross-listed in Africana, American studies, anthropology, and gender and sexuality studies. Prerequisite(s): GSS 100. Recommended background: course work in Africana, American studies, anthropology, gender and sexuality studies, politics, or sociology. Enrollment limited to 15. (Africana: Historical Perspective.) M. Beasley.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 352. Preserving the Vibration: Digitizing the Legacy of Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor.
This course introduces public and digital humanities through the life and work of noted journalist, food anthropologist, and public broadcaster Vertamae Grosvenor. Public humanities is concerned with expanding academic discourse beyond academia and facilitating conversations on topics of humanistic inquiry with the community at large. Digital studies provide a plethora of unconventional ways to engage community in public dialogues for the greater good. Drawing from books, operas, NPR audio segments, interviews, cookbooks, and other artifacts of Grosvenor, students create and curate a digital archive. Themes include Gullah culture, African American migration, foodways, memoir, public memory, and monuments. Leading theories and methods of black feminism, material culture, race, food studies, new media and digital humanities are foregrounded. Cross-listed in Africana, American studies, digital and computational studies, and gender and sexuality studies. Prerequisite(s): one of the following: AF/AM 119; AF/HI 243; AFR 100; AMST 200; AM/EN 395B; AV/GS 287; GSS 100; INDS 250 or 267; REL 255 or 270. Enrollment limited to 15. M. Beasley.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 390. Afro-Latinoamérica.
The 500-year presence of Africans and their descendants in the Spanish-speaking world has produced a significant body of literature by Blacks and about Blacks. Spanish America was the main destination of the African diaspora. Writers of African descent attest to the struggle for freedom and the abolition of slavery as well as anti-colonialism. Their literature shows how the participation of Blacks in the wars of Latin American independence was a struggle for their emancipation. Afro-Hispanic writers in Spain, the Americas, and Africa use their art and ideas to address the postnational migrations of the twenty-first century, a diaspora that has not ceased. Cross-listed in Africana, Latin American studies, and Spanish. Recommended background: AFR 100. Only open to juniors and seniors. Not open to students who have received credit for INDS 290. Enrollment limited to 15. (Africana: Diaspora.) (Africana: Historical Perspective.) B. Fra-Molinero.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC s10. Sexuality in the Stacks: How Archives Shape Political Memory.
In this introduction to queer archives and sexual histories, students encounter how the institutions in which we house political memory shape our conception of the actors, stakes, and even the outcomes of political struggles. Throughout the course, students read contemporary research that creatively grapples with questions of power, silence, and political possibility in and through the archive. The course also emphasizes practical challenges of working in the archival research on marginalized sexualities, and will feature hands-on research in digital archives and a speaker series by scholars, archivists, and other researchers to share how their understanding of sex and sexuality are created and contested by the limits and possibilties of archives.New course beginning short term 2020. Enrollment limited to 30. (Politics: Identities and Interests.) (Politics: Philosophical, Literary, and Legal Studies.) One-time offering. E. Gambino.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC s11. Bordering Hispaniola: Blackness, Mixture, and Nation in the Dominican Republic.
This course explores Dominican identity and its relation to ideas of nation vis-à-vis the island’s shared border with Haiti. Before departing for Santo Domingo, students consider the contexts of colonialism, state formation, and labor migration that shape contemporary Dominican identities. In the Dominican Republic, students visit key sites in the African and Haitian diasporas in the country. Further, they examine performance and popular culture as key sites of antiracist engagement. Students employ participatory ethnographic methods and map making to examine key themes of identity, performance, and resistance. Cross-listed in Africana, anthropology, and Latin American studies. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission is required. (Africana: Diaspora.) J. Lyon.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC s15. Health, Culture, and Community.
This course examines dimensions of health through classroom and community-based experiences, with a special emphasis on current public health issues. The course covers the history and organization of public health; methods associated with health-related research; disparities in health, including those related to race, class, and gender; public policy and health; population-based approaches to public health; and cultural constructions of health and illness. The course is designed to be integrative: expertise from different disciplines is used to address current challenges in public health. Cross-listed in anthropology, biology, and psychology. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. K. Palin.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDC s18. Wilde Times: Scandal, Celebrity, and the Law.
Oscar Wilde, an icon today, was popular in his own time as well. His relationship with Alfred Douglas was an open secret despite the fact that homosexuality was at the time a criminal offense. Indeed, Wilde’s sexuality was tolerated until he sued Douglas' irascible father for libel. This course begins with the 1895 trials, seeking to understand cultures of sexuality in a period notorious for sexual repression, and contextualizing issues they raise of scandal and the law, celebrity, gender, and sexuality. Designed to encourage independent research, the course guides students through the research process, drawing to the fore histories often hidden from view. Cross-listed in European studies, gender and sexuality studies, and history. Not open to students who have received credit for INDS 107. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. (History: European.) (History: Modern.) C. Shaw.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC s20. Politics of Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Brazil.
Forever the country of the future, but never forgetful of the past, Brazil pushes forward through turbulent political times that threaten hard-won progressive change. From Zumbí dos Palmares to Lei Afonso Arinos and Lei Maria da Penha to PL João W. Nery, Brazil boasts a rich tradition of engaging social justice through non-institutional and institutional avenues. This course analyzes the relationship between protest and policy through an investigation of race, gender, and sexuality movements and institutional responses to advocacy. Despite the saying that Brazil is not for amateurs, by the end of this course students gain a deeper understanding of Brazilian politics, identity, and institutions, and even um pouquinho de português. Cross-listed in gender and sexuality studies, Latin American studies, and politics. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 29. (Politics: Identities and Interests.) (Politics: Institutional Politics.) J. Longaker.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC s23. Creativity and Conscience: Modern Russian Women's Writing and Film.
Women writers, artists and film makers have made significant, often controversial contributions to Russian culture for at least two centuries. This course provides an introduction to this diverse body of work by focusing on how women’s cultural productions have manifested resistance – political, emotional and aesthetic. In a political context dominated by patriarchal and masculinist ideals, women have found ways to articulate alternative visions, whether responding to oppressive cultural models, political terror or the liaisons of church and state. The course begins with the present day and the remarkable efforts of Russian women journalists and performers to expose human rights abuse and environmental degradation (Anna Politkovskaya, Masha Gessen, Pussy Riot), and then considers work by late Imperial and Soviet writers and film makers. Crosslisted in European studies, gender and sexuality studies, and Russian. New course beginning short term 2020. Enrollment limited to 30. One-time offering. J. Costlow.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC s24. Shetland Islands: Archaeology, History and Environment.
In this course students participate in the excavation of a late medieval/early modern farmstead at Brow, Shetland (Scotland). Early settlement in Shetland was on the margin of successful medieval colonization of the North Atlantic. The Brow site is a revealing "laboratory" in which to explore the interaction of climate change and human settlement in a fragile coastal zone. A series of field trips in mainland Scotland place the Brow excavation in the wider context of settlement, environment, archaeology, and the history of Scotland and the North Atlantic. Cross-listed in classical and medieval studies, environmental studies, and history. Recommended background: courses in medieval history or archaeology. Enrollment limited to 10. Instructor permission is required. (History: Premodern.) G. Bigelow.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC s26. Vikings of the North Atlantic: Explorations and Adaptations.
Vikings are often associated with raiding early medieval Europe. They were also the first Europeans to sail into the North Atlantic in large numbers. In Scotland they met and mixed with Celtic peoples, but they populated uninhabited landscapes in Iceland and Greenland. Around 1000 C.E. their wave of migration washed up on the shores of North America where they interacted with Native Americans before abandoning the colonization attempt. This course traces this epic movement of peoples, its likely causes, and lasting impacts. The island settlements may be seen as cultural experiments leading to adaptation and resilience, and sometimes extinction. Cross-listed in anthropology, classical and medieval studies, and history. Not open to students who have received credit for INDS s21. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. G. Bigelow.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC s27. Feminisms of the 1970s and 1980s.
This course explores the rise of multiple feminist theories and forms of activism during the 1970s and 1980s. Students critically examine the genealogy of the conceptualization of "second-wave feminism," and explore the role of gay, Chicano, and black liberation, civil rights, and labor struggles on the development of feminist thinking and action. The course pays particular attention to how feminists of this period addressed questions of U.S. foreign policy in Vietnam, Central America, and South Africa; the nuclear arms race; and U.S. domestic race relations. Students read from primary source material and study the literature produced by Marxist feminisms, black feminisms, lesbian feminisms, liberal feminisms, and radical feminisms. Cross-listed in gender and sexuality studies, history, and politics. Recommended background: GSS 100. Not open to students who have received credit for PT/WS s27. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 25. (Politics: Identities and Interests.) M. Plastas.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)