Academics

Course List

Humanities

• American Studies View >>
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• History View >>
  200 LEVEL COURSES
  
  201 THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD: THE CRUSADES TO NAPOLEON
  This course explores the history of the Mediterranean World with an emphasis on the Arab provinces of the empire. Beginning in the twelfth century, we will examine the Muslim reconquest of Jerusalem and move to the Ottomans in Anatolia, exploring their expansion into southeast Europe as well as their sixteenth century conquest of Arab lands.  The main focus of the course will be the Ottoman history of these provinces. In addition to exploring the political trajectory of the empire, we will interrogate questions of community organization, economic interactions, and the significance of religion within the Ottoman realm. Among the questions that we will explore in this course are: How did regional conflicts shape the history of the empire?  How were communities structured within the Ottoman realm?  What was the role of religion in organizing the empire?  What patterns shaped Ottoman interactions with Europe?  What was the impact of the rise of nationalism in the nineteenth century on the organization of the empire?  How did the rise of European colonialism impact the empire?  Why did the Ottoman Empire come to an end?
  
  202 THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST: FROM NAPOLEON TO WORLD WAR I
  Between the beginning of the nineteenth century and the end of World War I, the regions of the Middle East ruled by the Ottoman Empire experienced great political transformations. This region’s historical trajectory included the imposition of European colonialism, the emergence of nationalism(s), the break-up of empire, and the eventual division of the region into individual nation-states. A series of cultural and social transformations, including shifts within political, religious, and communal identities, shaped these political moments. Beginning with the nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire, this course critically analyzes the historical moments and trends comprising the history of the former Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire and North Africa. Among the topics we will explore are:  political and legal shifts in the late Ottoman Empire; the break-up of the Ottoman Empire and the legacies of WWI.  
  
  203 COLONIALISM: THE RISE OF THE GLOBAL ORDER
  European expansion through imperialism and colonialism has been one of the most significant forces in history.  Colonialism greatly impacted European thinking about race and the “Other,” altering the way Europeans constructed their identities.  At the same time, colonized communities redefined their own identities both in resistance to the colonizers and by appropriating some of their ways.  In this course we will look at the ways in which imperialism impacted various geographical areas (Africa, the Caribbean, Asia, the Middle East, and the West) in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  We will also consider the various forms of imperialism (cultural, economic, and political) from the perspective of both the colonizer and the colonized.
  
  204 RESEARCH METHODS FOR THE HUMANITIES 
  The Research Methods for the Humanities is required of all moderated History students. The purpose of the colloquium is to create a community of dialogue for students and faculty within the Humanities and to help students develop independent research skills for the senior project. The colloquium will consist of several dimensions: introduction of bibliographic tools and research skills; discussion of recent historical work; formulation and development of senior project topics; and presentation of work in progress by students, faculty, and visiting scholars. Students and faculty will exchange ideas about projects at every stage, from the formulation of a research topic to the project’s completion and presentation, giving students insight into the trajectory and process of historical work. 
  
  205 REVOLUTIONARY MOMENTS: SCEINCE, ART, RELIGION, AND POLITICS
  What is revolution? Why does it happen? Where and when have revolutions occurred, and to what effect? This course addresses these questions by exploring a range of revolutions in Europe and Asia during the past five centuries. A primary focus of the course will center on analyzing and comparing some of the most iconic and influential political revolutions in world history: the French Revolution of 1789, the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, and the Chinese Communist Revolution of 1921-1949.  Moving beyond politics, the course will also examine the scientific revolution(s), the Industrial Revolution, and the information revolution.  As we compare revolutions over time, we will try to discern links or lines of influence between revolutionary movements. We will also explore how particular revolutionary movements contributed to a shared repertoire of revolutionary thought and action.
  
  206 THE AGE OF EXTREMES: TOPICS IN EUROPEAN HISTORY, 1789-PRESENT
  
  300 LEVEL COURSES
  
  301 MODERN PALESTINIAN HISTORY
  This course will survey modern trends in Palestinian history from the late nineteenth century to the present with an eye to gaining a contextualized understanding of the modern Palestinian problem.  Beginning with the rise of Jewish Zionism and British Christian Zionism as well as Arab Nationalism, the course will then examine the World War I period and the post-War settlements, including President Wilson’s vision of a new world order and its impact on the emerging Palestinian problem.  Utilizing post-war documents, students will delve deeply into the British Mandate period with a close look at the nature of Palestinian Arab Society, the emergence of the Jewish National Home, burgeoning Palestinian nationalism, early Arab-Jewish confrontations and the rise of factionalism in the Palestinian nationalist movement.  Through the lens of UN resolutions, refugee issues and Israeli-Palestinian agreements, students will examine the impact of the Nakba, the 1967 war, and the first and second Intifada, as well as the relationship between Palestine and the greater Arab world.    
  
  302 COLONIALISM IN THE MIDDLE EAST
  The lingering effects of colonialism in the Middle East can be seen not only in ongoing regional conflicts, but also in the tenuously drawn boundaries, many of which ignored historically important ethnic and tribal lines.  This class will explore the Middle East under protectorate status and colonial rule, asking questions about the connection between colonialism and nationalism.  By focusing on case studies such as Egypt, Syria and Transjordan, the course will also attempt to elucidate the varying experiences of Middle Eastern states through the lenses of gender relations, socio-economic divisions, ethnic and racial understandings.  
  
  303 FROM GUTENBERG TO GOOGLE: TECHNOLOGY AS SOCIAL CHANGE
  
  304 POST-COLONIALISM: FROM GANDHI TO ARAFAT 
  This course will examine the lasting impact of twentieth century colonialism, with a special emphasis on the French and British colonial projects in Africa, the Middle East and India.  Students will examine the emergence of nationalist movements and the shape of anti-colonial movements; changing cultural and social norms within the formerly colonized, including those related to gender and economy; the emergence of independent nation-states and regional conflicts in the late twentieth century. 
• Literature and Society View >>
  100 LEVEL COURSES
  
  101 Introduction to Literary Analysis
  What is "literature"? Why do we study it? How do literary texts differ from other types of cultural production? What is "theory?" Can literary theories be applied to non-literary texts? How do literature and criticism relate to other aspects of culture such as gender, race, class, and nation? What is at stake in choosing one critical/theoretical methodology over another? This course examines the different ways in which the forms and functions of literature have been conceptualized and evaluated from the time of Plato to contemporary debates. The course focuses on the key issues that animate theoretical discussion among literary scholars today. These include questions about the production of cultural value, about ideology, about the patriarchal and colonial bases of Western culture, and about the status of the cultural object, of the cultural critic, and of cultural theory itself. Students will become familiar with a range of seminal approaches to the study of literature, such as formalist, psychoanalytic, Marxist, reader-response, New Historicist, feminist, postcolonial, structuralist and post-structuralist methods of analysis. At the same time, students will acquire a solid grasp of the importance of form through discussions of the major genres—poetry, short fiction, drama, and the novel—developing the requisite analytical skills, terminology and concepts specific to each genre. Students will become familiar with important concepts deployed in literary criticism, such as meter, rhyme, allegory, irony, metaphor, symbol, figure, genre, and trope. Finally, we will consider the more abstract and philosophical ideas that guide literary studies: What is an author? What is the function of literature in society; how does literature relate to politics and ideology? What is the role of form, genre and language in the production of literary effects?
  
  200 Level
  
  CORE SEQUENCE COURSES: Literature & Society
  
  201 Literature & Society I: Foundations of Literary Experience
  This course introduces students to the foundations of literary experience through the study of representative works of world literature from Antiquity through the Middle Ages. The first part of the course focuses on readings by authors writing originally in Greek (Homer, Euripides, Sophocles, Sappho, the Gospels); Latin (Cicero, Virgil, Augustine); and Hebrew (Genesis, Song of Songs, Job). In the second part of the course, students engage with major works of the Middle Ages, with an emphasis on those written in al-Andalus, and in what are today France, Germany, and England. The works of literature a society produces, reads, and values gives insight into the nature of that society. This course situates early literary production within the context of society-shaping historical events, such as the rise of feudalism and court society, and the spread of Christianity and Islam. Texts include Thousand and One Nights, Layla and Majnun, Beowulf, The Song of Roland, the Nibelungenlied, among others.
  
  202 Literature & Society II: Reason and Sentiment in Enlightenment Culture
  Often characterized simply as the “Age of Reason,” the cultural landscape of the European Enlightenment is shaped by myriad intellectual and literary currents that cannot be reduced to any purely rational calculus of human experience. What was at stake in these literary and philosophical discussions was to assign meaning to human existence, to define what it meant to be a specifically human being, endowed not only with reason but with “moral sentiments;” not only “sense” but “sensibility” came to define the human condition. In this course we will explore two currents of Enlightenment thought and how their competing conceptions of “human nature” inform representative literary texts of the period. Authors such as La Rochefoucauld, Hobbes, Mandeville, and La Mettrie considered the individual to be governed primarily by self-interest, while their opponents—such as Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Ferguson, Hume, Rousseau, Lessing, and Herder—argued against the reduction of human nature to self-interest by drawing attention to benevolent passions such as sympathy, generosity and good will. We will examine how these competing conceptions of “human nature” inform representative literary texts of the period, by authors such as Pope, Richardson, Austen, Molière, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, Mozart, Goethe and Schiller.
  
  203 Literature & Society III: Modernity and its Discontents
  This course examines how the radical transformations in society that usher in the modern era are reflected in representative literary texts from Romanticism to Modernism. The period from 1789 to 1915 is witness to industrialization, urbanization, the rise of mass production, rapid economic growth, communicate the experience of modernity, which is often seen to bring fragmentation to social relations and the alienation of the individual. The shifting, often fraught relationship between individual and society is a common theme of literary works of te period. We will explore this and other common themes by engaging with a broad array of authors, such as Apollinaire, Balzac, Baudelaire, Calvino, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Duras, Eliot, Goethe, Gogol, Hofmannsthal, James, Kafka, Kincaid, Lautréamont, Mallarmé, Márquez, Rilke, Rushdie, Salih, Sebald, Schlegel, Schiller, Wilde, and Woolf. Students will  also be introduced to seminal works in the critique of modernity, by authors such as Marx, Lukàcs, Simmel, Adorno, and Benjamin. 
  
  GENDER COURSE
  
  204 Literature & Politics of Gender
  In this course students explore the contributions of women authors to literature by reading and analyzing works by women from diverse eras and cultures; these works represent the primary traditional literary genres of fiction, poetry, and drama, as well as such genres as autobiography, testimonio, diary, oratory, and essay. In addition to investigating such issues as the literary canon and the roles played by race, ethnicity, class, and cultural context, students trace the development and characteristics of feminist literary theory and explore feminist literary criticism.
  
  GENRE COURSES (Two Required)
  
  206 Rise of the Modern Novel 
  Exploring the emergence of the modern novel in England, France and Germany, this course will provide students with a forum for critical engagement with major novels of the Enlightenment period. The novel emerges in conjunction with enormous social change and the genre proved especially suited to critical reflection on social relations. Through close readings of representative novels from the period, we will explore the role of the genre in the emergence of a distinctly bourgeois culture, in the formation of female identity, and in the shaping of social mores. The course is comparative in design; special emphasis will be placed on the way novels have figured in the shaping of national identities. With an attention to important sub-genres of the novel, such as the sentimentalist novel, the anti-novel, the psychological novel, the philosophical novel, and the Bildungsroman, our readings will be informed by eighteenth-century theories of the emergent genre, as well as contemporary literary theory. We will read works by Richardson and Sterne, Voltaire, Diderot, Goethe and Hofmann, as well as short theoretical texts ranging from Blankenburg and Sade to Frye, Watt, McKeon and Moretti.
  
  207 The Novel in English
  This course will trace the historical development of the novel in English from 1800 to the modernist period.  Students will become familiar with the romantic and realist traditions of the19th novel, and then explore how the formal innovations of the modernist novel engage and challenge the ideological tenets and aesthetic formulations of its predecessors. Central text may include Jane Austen, Persuasion, Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, Charles Dickens‚ Great Expectations, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Scarlet Letter, Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn, D.H Lawrence, Women in Love, Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
  
  208 Writing the Self: Autobiography, Biography, Memoir
  From seminal works of Antiquity, such as Plutarch’s Lives and Augustine’s Confessions, to the emergence of Puritan spiritual autobiographies in the 17th century, autobiography has been a shaping force in the innovation of new literary techniques and the development of new genres. This course applies Foucault’s notion of “writing the self” to representative texts of autobiography, biography and memoir to explore how certain practices of writing give shape to the self, and how different authors communicate the experience of self through writing.  Students will examine a cross-cultural selection of texts from various periods and places, including early examples of biography and spiritual autobiography, and well as more recent examples of the genre. Themes may include the problem of autobiographical truth; the social and cultural influences on of the formation of the self; the use of "I" as metaphor; mystical experience and conversion; fragmentation and the crisis of self in modernity, among others. Authors may include: Augustine, Teresa of Avila, Carlyle, De Quincey, Frederick Douglass, Kinkaid, Mill, Nightingale, Harriet Jacobs, Sarraute, Stein, Rousseau, Ruskin, Wordsworth Darwin, Hopkins, Gosse, Petrarch or Woolf. Theoretical texts may include critical essays by authors such as Michel Foucault, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Leigh Gilmore, Philippe Lejeune, Shirley Neuman, Linda Peterson, Paul Ricoeur, and Jean Starobinski.
  
  209 Poetry & Poetics
  Students learn how to read and write metrical verse by writing exercises in the principal meters (accentual/syllabic, accentual, syllabic, Anglo-Saxon alliterative, haiku, etc.) and principal forms (ballad, sonnet, blank verse, nonsense verse, ode, dramatic monologue, villanelle, sestina) that make poetry in the English language one of the richest traditions in the world. Particular concerns are the relationship between meter and the speaking voice, and the kinds of tropes that distinguish classical (figurative) from modernist (elliptical) poetry. The course aims to develop close reading and reasoning skills, and students pay attention to the sound system of prosody, grammar, and rhetoric, and the uses of figurative language. In addition to readings in rhetoric, poetics, and linguistics, authors studied may include Shakespeare, Donne, Milton, Blake, Shelley, Keats, Byron; Schiller, Goethe, Rilke, Benn, Celan; Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Jabès; Whitman, Dickinson, Yeats, Eliot, Stevens, Williams, Hopkins, Pound, Auden, Oppen, and Darwish, and Ashbery.
  
  210 The Politics of Dramatic Form
  This introductory course traces the emergence of distinctively “modern” forms of theater in late 19th- and 20-century Europe. Students engage closely with a number of major dramatic texts whose importance in this process is widely recognized. Attention is paid to the fact that theater is not a textual genre, but an embodied “practice” played out in “real time” and in a concrete space. Readings include plays by Büchner, Jarry, Strindberg, Pirandello, Handke, and Müller. The complex history of tragedy is viewed in the light of major theories of Aristotle, Hegel, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and others. Study includes the disappearance and revival of the chorus, as well as works by Marlowe, Shakespeare, Goethe, Kleist, Büchner, Dostoevsky, Ibsen, Strindberg, O’Neill, Brecht, Sartre, and Miller.
  
  211 Modern Short Prose
  In this course students will read representative short prose in modern world literature from the early 20th century to the present. The course will emphasize the major themes, stylistic trends, formal devices, and motifs that characterize the genre. Students will be introduced to the scholarly literature on the genre and will engage in literary analysis and interpretation. By the end of the semester, students will acquire a solid foundation in this crucial genre of Modern literature. Authors to be examined may include: Franz Kafka, E.T.A. Hofmann, Arthur Schnitzler, Gottfried Benn, Herman Hesse, Thomas Mann, Flannery O’Conner, D.H. Lawrence, Catherine Mansfield, Catherine Anne Porter, Woolf, Shirley Jackson, James Joyce, Willa Cather, Raymond Carver, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, H.G. Wells, Feodor Dostoevsky, Guy de Maupassant, Nikolai Gogol, Anton Chekov, Luis Borges, Tobias Wolf, Jamaica Kinkaid, John Cheever, J.D. Salinger, Raymond Carver, David Foster Wallace, Jhumpa Lahiri, Karen Russell, Nathan Englander, Kevin Brockmeier, Jacob Appel, George Saunders and Dan Chaon.
  
  THEMATIC CORE  (Two Required)
  
  212 Literature & Ideology
  This course examines the ways in which political ideas and social values and beliefs are made manifest in literature. In this course, students will explore the function of ideology in literary production. The course will provide students with a rigorous introduction to ideology as a concept through an examination of the classical theories of writers such as Marx, Lenin, Lukàcs, Althusser and Gramsci, as well as Frankfurt School writers such as Adorno, Horkheimer and Benjamin. Students will also engage with contemporary theories by writers such as Derrida, Zizek, Williams and Eagleton. Having acquired a nuanced understanding of ideology as a concept, students will explore the ways that literature can serve both to promote and contest a particular ideology. A broad range of works in world literature are analyzed for their ideological content and method of presentation. Students will acquire a nuanced understanding of the concept of ideology and the ways the term is applied to the analysis not only of literature, but of a range of discourses and cultural products, including the news media, film, and the visual arts. The class explores the lines between art and propaganda in the products of the culture industry. Writers to be examined may include Dostoyevsky, Ibsen, T. S. Eliot, Kafka, Thomas Mann, Brecht, Sartre, Camus, Malraux, Orwell, Koestler, Gordimer, Kundera, Neruda, as well as writings about the Palestinian Nakba and the war in Lebanon and recent writings by Arab poets and bloggers. Theoretical texts by authors such as Marx, Lukàcs, Adorno, Kracauer, Horkheimer, Benjamin, Eagleton, Williams, Said, and Spivak. 
  
  213 Literature of Exile & Migration
  Students will engage with the theoretical literature on exile and diaspora and key arguments in post-colonial theory. This course provides students with an in-depth knowledge of the culture, literature and cultural history arising from the historical and social processes of collective population movement and individual displacement. Some of the theoretical concerns that will shape the course include the relationship between language and identity, concepts of race and hybridity, the impact of globalisation and transnationalism, the gendered construction of nationhood, the significance of cultural memory and effects of trauma and shifting definitions of imagined community as mediated by culture. Possible issues to be explored include the contexts for the newly invigorated field of migration and diaspora studies; the multiple meanings and models of diaspora and migration; the relation of migration and diaspora to conquest, colonialism, postcolonialism, refugees, political exile, etc.; the heterogeneity of diasporic groups, especially by gender, class, sexuality, caste, religion (etc.); the problematics and potentials of assimilation, acculturation, and transculturation; nativism and the hostility of hostlands; generational conflicts and continuities in the (re)production of culture; the role of language and other cultural practices in migratory experiences; the significance of memory for the production of what Salman Rushdie calls "imaginary homelands.” Selected short fiction, poetry, and novels by such writers as Barghouti, Camus, Darwish, Jabès, Kanafani, Kafka, Kundera, Mann, Nabokov, Singer, Naipaul.
  
  214 Narrative & National Identity
  Whether with early 18th-century arguments advocating German as a literary language, or with the emergence of a specifically Palestinian literature in the wake of 1948, the idea of a national literature has been of central importance in the shaping of national identity. I this course, students will explore what it means to have a national literature. This course will examine the intersection of literature with issues of nationalism, immigration, and the politics of identity. Students will engage with a range of texts and genres, including poetry, autobiography, the novel, critical essays and legal documents. The course will emphasize how literature figures in the formation of national identities, and will trace how the development of the idea of a national literature has been forged by a complex cultural and political history. Discussions will be guided by questions such as: How does one draw the parameters of a national literature, such as in the United States, where literary production is split into proliferating subspecies along the lines of ethnicity, race, gender, and class? On other words, how does one define national unity across the diversity of cultural and linguistic communities?
  
  215 Colonialism/ Post-Colonialism
  This course examines works of world literature in the light of the experience of colonization and its cultural consequences for literary production. This course offers students the opportunity to engage critically with key texts in  post-colonial theory and to apply them to a range of literary works in a cross-continental, comparative framework. Students will consider the ways that these texts reflect on the nature of imperialism, the moment of colonial contact, independence struggles, migration, the experience of diaspora, postcolonial negotiations of "tradition" and "modernity," cosmopolitanism, multi-"ethnic" and "racial" nationalism, and the globalization of economic, technological, and cultural development. Discussions will be guided by general questions concerning the relationship between history, power, knowledge, and representation. Writers may include: Franz Fanon, Joseph Conrad, Chinua Achebe, Salman Rushdie, Dereck Walcott, Amin Malouf, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Bessie Head, or others from Africa or Asia, authors from other parts of the world such as Australia and Canada, as well as modern Arab and Palestinian writers.
  
  217 Travel Literature
  Travel writing provides interesting commentaries on a range of cultural, historical, religious, philosophical, political, environmental and other concerns. While this writing has been associated with exploration and colonization, it has also been regarded as the form of narrative that led to the evolution of the novel as a major genre. This course explores these developments over the past two millennia, with particular attention to Palestine and the region. It poses important questions about the meanings of and motives for travel (necessity, displacement, pilgrimage, exploration, pleasure, search for material or immaterial gains), the nature of nomadic and sedentary modes of life, how fact and fiction interact, how the spirit of an age and cultural preconceptions affect actual observations, and how travel differs from tourism, as well as issues such as the literariness of travel writing and the aesthetics of landscape. The course also introduces recent critical approaches, questions of gender, and post-colonial readings and writing. Since travel is a site of cultural encounters and perceptions, the course pays particular attention to the Eastern Mediterranean and Palestine as subjects of interest in travel writing and literature. Students examine the complex relationship between the traditions of literary travel, political journalism, and imperial exploration during the era that saw the rise of Britain as the world’s preeminent imperial power.
  
  218 Literature and Religion
  The course examines the complex relationship between religion and modern literature from the nineteenth century to the present. Drawing upon a range of literary texts from the Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions, the course focuses on questions of modernity and faith, the legitimacy of ritual, the relationship between church and state, the reception of antiquity, as well as the emergence of the modern discourses of gender and sexuality in light of religious practices and dogma.
  
  ELECTIVE COURSES
  
  219 US Literature I: 1650-1850
  Introduction to American thought and expression from the first English settlements to the eve of the Civil War. Writers include the Puritans, Jonathan Edwards, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Herman Melville. Themes include the rise of an American national consciousness, the transformation of religion, ideas of nature and democracy, debates over immigration, race, and slavery.  
  
  220 US Literature II: 1850-1950
  A survey of the major literary developments of the period. Topics and authors likely to include realism (Henry James, William Dean Howells, Mark Twain), naturalism (Jack London, Theodore Dreiser, Edith Wharton), and modernism (Hart Crane, William Faulkner, Eugene O'Neill, Jean Toomer, Sophie Treadwell, William Carlos Williams), as well as the emergence of African-American poetry and fiction (Charles Chesnutt and Paul Laurence Dunbar).
  
  221 US Literature III: 1950-Present
  This course surveys major works of American fiction, poetry, essays, literary and cultural criticism written since 1945. It will situate the analysis of literature against a historical backdrop that includes such key events as the Holocaust; the atomic bomb; the Beatniks; youth counterculture; the women's, peace, and Civil Rights movements; the Korean, Vietnam, and Gulf Wars; the energy crisis; globalization; the rise of the internet; and the War on Terror. We will also consider major literary and artistic movements such as postmodernism, the Beats, confessional poetry, minimalism, the New Journalism, and historiographic metafiction. The course will emphasize literature in its cultural-historical context, but will also attend to its formal-aesthetic properties. This course pursues a deeper understanding of the social, cultural, and political issues that characterize developments in American literature and culture, particularly the literary innovations of the 1950s and 1960s. Special attention is paid to the formal experiments of American modernists authors. Topics include the constraints of suburban life, Cold War paranoia, counter-culturalism, race, and gender. Authors examined may include Ashbery, Bellow, Bradbury, Cather, Dos Passos, Ellison, Faulkner, Fitzgerald Ginsberg, Hurston, Kerouac, McCarthy, Miller, Nabokov, Salinger, Stein, Wallace.
  
  222 British Literature I: 1550-1750
  In this course students are introduced to major writers, genres, and issues in the early-modern history of English literature, beginning with 16th-century poetry and drama, with some attention to prose, and running through the authors of the early Enlightenment. Writers include authors such as Shakespeare, Chaucer, the Gawain poet, Sidney, More, Marlowe, and Ben Jonson. Students will also investigate poetry, fiction, drama, and criticism of the 17th and early 18th centuries by Donne, Herbert, Marvell, Wroth, Milton, Congreve, Fielding, Pope, and Swift.
  
  223 British Literature II: 1750-1900
  This course begins with the literature of the late Enlightenment (1750-1798), and goes on to explore the poetry, drama, prose and fiction of the Romantic (1798-1832) and Victorian periods (1832-1901). Students will of locate these texts in their specific historical and cultural contexts, as well as in the broader context of literary history.  In our engagement with representative literary texts from these three periods we will pay special attention to the particular society out of which these texts arose, and try to understand how the works of these writers continue to influence our own ideas of what modern society is and how it can be represented. Our own middle-class, economic, mobile, complex and interwoven world, increasingly urbanized and organized, was first described and mapped in this period- thus, perhaps, the continuing power and allure of these cultural products. Authors may include: Arnold, Blake, the Brontës, Browning, Byron, Coleridge, Dickens, Eliot, Gaskel, Keats, Hopkins, Hardy, Rosetti, Shelley, Swinburne, Tennyson, Wilde, Wordsworth.
  
  224 British Literature III 1900-Present
  This course concentrates primarily on the poetry and fiction of the 19th and 20th centuries, with some attention to criticism and drama; Writers may include Amis, Auden, Pat Barker, Eliot, Graham Greene, Joyce, Lawrence, David Mitchell, V.S. Naipaul, Orwell, Owen, Sasson, Shaw, Yeats, and Woolf.
  
  225 Arabic Literature I: 600-1750
  This course offers an overview of classical Arabic literature covering the pre-Islamic era, the early Islamic, the Umayyad and the Abbasid periods. It explores the artistic poetic characteristics of each of these periods and their most important genres. Special emphasis is placed on the role of the political, social, intellectual and religious environments in the emergence of these four distinctive literatures. The course will also engage critically with Western scholars’ views of Arabic literature. On the completion of this course students will have a broad perspective on classical Arabic literature within the context of larger questions of human experience. Authors examined may include: Ta’abat Sharran, Imru’ al-Qays, Amr bin Kulthum, Zuhayr Labid, Abu Nuwas, Abu Al-Atahiya, Abu Al-Ala’ al-Maarri, Layla al-Akhyaliyyah, Antara Ibn Shaddad al-'Absi, Muhammad al-Qasim al-Hariri, Al-Jahiz, Muhammad al-Nawaji bin Hasan bin Ali bin Othman, Ibn Tufail, Ahmad ibn-al-Husayn al-Mutanabbi, Abu Tammam, Al-Khansa, Abu Nuwas.
  
  226 Arabic Literature II: 1750-Present
  A survey of the history and texts of diverse and polycentric literary and artistic traditions of the Middle East and North Africa during the last two centuries. Students will engage with the major literary, cultural, and philosophical currents that have shaped modern Arab culture, including works of fiction, poetry, visual art, autobiography, memoir, and film. Seminar discussions are informed by recent developments in cultural and critical theory. Authors studied may include Marun Abbud, Yusuf al'Ani, Layla Ba'albakki, Hoda Barakat, Mahmoud Darwish, Bishr Faris, Yusef Ghusub, Muhammed Abd al-Muti al Hamshari, Muhammad Husayn Haykal, Sonallah Ibrahim, Yusuf Idris, Ghassan Kanafani, Mutlaq Abd al Khaliq, Elias Khoury, Naguib Mahfouz, Muhammed Mandur, Zuhrabi Mattummal, Adib Mazhar, Hanna Mina, Ahlam Mosteghanemi, Abdul Rahman Munif, Orkhan Muyassar, Aii Mahmud Taha, Abu Shabaka, Alifa Rifaat Ibrahim Naji, May Ziade, Suhayr al-Qalamawi, Ulfat Idlibi, Tayeb Salih, Ahmad Zaki Abu Shadi, Hanan al-Shaykh, Fadwa Touqan, Saadallah Wannous, Georgy Zeidan, May Ziadeh.
  
  227 Recent Nobel Laureates
  In this course, we will read and discuss the fiction, non-fiction, and acceptance speeches of the most recent recipients of the Nobel Prize in Literature. The writers to be examined, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio (2008), Orhan Pamuk (2006), Harold Pinter (2005), Elfriede Jelinek (2004), V. S. Naipaul (2001), Gao Xingjian (2000), and Günter Grass (1999) record cultural shifts and social forces central to their societies as well as our civilization, addressing the world wars, immigration, post-colonialism, class inequities, gender oppression, and often, the fragility of identity. Although coming from vastly different backgrounds and countries, the recent Nobel laureates share a difficult and challenging view of human nature. We will analyze whether and how their art, potentially disturbing, challenges the traditional cultural understanding of narrative representation, evident in their experimentation with language and modes of representation. We will also explore the relationship between the author’s personal point of view and national concerns with global and universal themes and issues that they address. Finally, we will explore the tradition of prize-giving as a vehicle of literary canonization and the global recognition that Nobel brings to its winners.
  
  228 Literature and Landscape
  This course introduces students to the different ways in which landscape has been represented in literature and how landscape functions in the cultural imagination and the cultural framing of the city and modernity. Some of the key aspects/terms of this topic to be explored include the role of the pastoral, contrasts between city and country, eighteenth-century conceptions (from neo-classical to the picturesque and Romantic ideas of the sublime). Readings may include poems and prose extracts from writers such as Marvell, Wordsworth, Shelley, George Eliot, Hardy, Lawrence and Seamus Heaney.
  
  229 The City in Literature
  This course explores the conjunction of cities and literature in nineteenth-century Europe and the United States, along with theoretical questions: what is a city? how does literature represent time and space? what does it mean to speak of urban and literary form? This international survey of fiction will focus on representations of the metropolis and urban life in literature, with a focus on the modern novel. The fascination of modern novelists with the modern city not only reshaped the novel thematically, but also structurally, since writers felt they needed to invent new techniques to describe the bewildering multiplicity of big cities. Special emphasis is placed on the way that authors render the experience of space in language. Literary representations of the cityscape to be explored may include the London of Dickens or Woolf; the Paris of Baudelaire, Balzac, Hugo, Zola or Proust; the Cairo of Mahfouz; The St. Petersburg of Dostoevsky; the Berlin of Keun or Döblin, the New York of Crane or Dos Passos, Secondary readings may include the work of Georg Simmel, Walter Benjamin, Lewis Mumford, Marshall Berman, David Harvey, and Franco Moretti.
  
  230 Romantic Literature in English
  A critical introduction to the literature produced in Britain at the time of the Industrial and French Revolutions, and Napoleonic wars. Emphasis is placed on the historical and social contexts of the works and specific ways in which historical forces and social changes shape the formal features of literary texts. Readings may include works by Blake, Burke, Wordsworth, Helen Maria Williams, Burke, Wollstonecraft, Paine, Southey, Coleridge, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Keats, and John Clare.
  
  231 Domesticity and Power
  Many American women writers of the 19th and 20th centuries used domestic novels as insightful critiques of U.S. society and politics. Students read a range of work, including Catharine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s handbook of housekeeping, The American Woman’s Home (1869), and the novels and short stories of Harriet Jacobs, Kate Chopin,Nella Larsen, Jessie Fauset, Frances E.W. Harper, Edith Wharton, and Willa Cather.
  
  232 Palestinian Literature
  This course will introduce students to the literature of Palestine, understood to encompass works produced not only within the occupied territories, but also by Palestinians living inside Israel by the Palestinian diaspora. This course will consider literature of Palestinian as resistance literature, taking as its point of departure the Palestinian literature that has developed since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Under more than half a century of Israeli military occupation, Palestinians have produced a vibrant culture of resistance, and literary production has been a key medium for political dissent. This class will examine the history of the Palestinian resistance and the way that it is narrated by Palestinian authors. Discussions will focus on several intersecting questions: How do Palestinian writers imagine art under the occupation?; How does the communication of resistance shape the work that is produced?; Are there limitations to the representation of the Israeli occupation in literature?; What is the difference between political art and propaganda and how do the debates about those terms inflect the production of literature?; How does one interpret the contradictory feeling expressed in many poems: a desire to escape and at once the longing for home; How does literature communicate the idea of a nation without a state?; What social or political obligations, if any, to writers have of when they represent the occupation?  We will consider works by authors including: Ghassan Kanafani, Mahmoud Darwish, Samih al-Qasim, and Tawfiq Zayyad, Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Liana Badr, Muhammed al- Dhahir, Waleed al-Halees, Salem Jubran, Ibrahim Nasrallah, Kamal Qaddura, Mureed Bargouthy, Ahmad Hussain, and others.
  
  233 Arab-American Literature
  Surveying over one hundred years of Arab-American literature, thought, art and film, this course will examine important moments in the formation and consolidation of cultural connections between the United States and the Arab world. The aim of the course is to introduce students to the early and later works of influential Arab-American thinkers, writers, artists and public intellectuals. We will explore issues of intertextuality; stylistic appropriations of romanticism, transcendentalism, modernism, post-modernism, and themes related to diasporic expression, cultural metamorphosis and imaginative portrayals of Arab-Americans before and after the event of “9/11”. Major writers will include Gibran Khalil Gibran, Ameen Rihani, Mikhail Nuayma, Samuel John Hazo, Etel Adnan, Abinader Elmaz and Edward Said. Our analysis and discussions will be informed by the recent developments in critical/ literary theories and cultural studies. The course will be organized around four themes/ topics: Representations of the Middle East in Early American literature; Key pioneers of Arab-American exchange; Forms and modes of inscribing Arabness/ Muslimness, diaspora and worldliness; pre and post “9/11” images and imaginings.
  
  234 Major American Poets 
  This course introduces students to the rich traditions in American poetry from the 19th century to the present. Student will begin by engaging with major poets, whose innovative writing transformed American poetry: such as Poe, Whitman, Dickinson, Pound, Frost, Eliot, Stevens, and Williams. We will then turn to examine contemporary developments in poetry, up to the present day. Late twentieth-century American poetry is remarkable for its formal innovations; during no period have questions of the "meanings" of poetic form been so important. Students will study a range of poets focusing on writing that is formally innovative or otherwise unconventional, and prose works in which the poets reflect on practice (poetics). The class will examine the continuities and ruptures implied by the terms Modernism and Postmodernism, as well as parallel trends in the visual arts. Poets include Gertrude Stein, Mina Loy, Ezra Pound, W. C. Williams, Louis Zukofsky, John Ashbery, Robert Creeley, Robert Grenier, Clark Coolidge, Charles Bernstein, Susan Howe, Harreyette Mullen, Craig Dworkin, and K. Silem Mohammed.
  
  235 Literature of the Harlem Renaissance
  An examination of the Harlem Renaissance from a variety of perspectives that interrogate and reveal the complexity of the period’s monolithic terms and contexts. The class considers how black writers of the interwar period connected with broader American modernist, nativist, and pluralist trends; how pragmatist and Marxist philosophies influenced a formidable reconsideration of political and aesthetic representation; how various musical forms, as well as European and African art forms, provided rich and varied cultural resources for emerging literary production.
  
  236 Modernism/ Postmodernism
  This course provides students the opportunity to explore the concepts of Modernism, Modernity and Post-Modernity. It aims to investigate the key texts and concepts which shape our understanding of literature and culture across a period of unprecedented change.  The course pursues this goal in two ways: through an examination of the aesthetic and cultural assumptions of different 'modern' cultural movements; and through an examination of issues in modern writing, particularly those relating to modernity (mass culture, revolution and technology) and post-modernity (space, simulation and paranoia). Throughout the course, texts studied may be related to developments in other cultural practices, such as film, theatre and the visual arts.
  
  237 Oratory & Rhetoric
  The course begins with classical rhetoric and examines how it is applied in speeches and debate in ancient and modern times. Among other topics, the following will be analyzed: presidential or kingly or queenly rhetoric in various cultures, candidate debates, newspaper editorials, UN resolutions, as well as different rhetorical strategies in various cultural contexts.
  
  238 Arab Women Writers
  This course explores Arab women's experiences and expression through an examination of writing by Arab women from the 1860s to the present. Beginning with a discussion of the problematics of discussing Arab women within a western frame of reference, we will address the historical development of Arab feminism, reading fiction, poetry, memoirs and polemical pieces.  Subsequently, we will read contemporary novels by Egyptian, Palestinian, Jordanian, Lebanese, Moroccan, and Algerian women writers. Discussion will focus on the ways in which Arab women have articulated their subjectivity,  challenged or reformulated societal and familial roles, negotiated tradition, responded to political and cultural exigencies, and formulated a literary and feminist aesthetic.
  
  239 Literature and Film
  A seminar on literary works and their adaptations into film. Readings and films may include: Romeo and Juliet, Anthony and Cleopatra, Robinson Crusoe, Huckleberry Finn, Doctor Zhivago, An American Tragedy, Breakfast at Tiffany's, A Clockwork Orange, Heart of Darkness (“Apocalypse Now”), To Kill a Mockingbird, The Witches of Eastwick, The English Patient, Gate of the Sun. As part of the course, films are analyzed for the factors that influence Hollywood productions and the changes from the original novels, and in cases where more than one film exists how the versions differ.
  
  240 Creative Writing Workshop
  While it requires reading of some original works and guides to creative writing, the course is primarily conducted as a workshop in which prompts are used as starting points for experiences, ideas, words and forms to generate original writing and give expression to what has not been said. It is essential for those taking the course to identify their interests and potential strengths as writers by trying a variety of genres and choosing at least two from the following: poetry, short fiction, autobiography/biography, drama, script writing, travel writing, translation, adaptation, or creative essays. All creative attempts are encouraged to be geared to the regional experience. The course demands experimentation, creative thinking, revision and editing, which would be helpful to aspiring writers and to anyone interested in an understanding of the writing process.
  
  241 Manifestos & the Politics of Form
  This course takes the history of the manifesto as a lens through which to examine the intersection of art, philosophy, and revolution in the late-nineteenth and twentieth century. Readings include Althusser, Artaud, Breton, Burke, Cage, Eliot, Hulme, Lewis, Marinetti, Marx, Pound, Sorel and others.
  
  242 The Historical Avant Garde
  This course will explore the relation between Modernism, the various Isms of the Avant-Garde (Symbolism, Cubism, Futurism, Imagism, Vorticism, Dadaism, Surrealism), and the variety of movements that arise in response (the Harlem Renaissance, the Beats, the Black Mountain School, the Black Arts Movement, the Language poets). We will examine the authoritative culture of T.S. Eliot and the bohemia of F.T. Marinetti and André Breton; we will look at writers such as H.D. who return to myth and writers such as Gertrude Stein and who turn instead to the everyday; we will explore the mainstream culture of Ford Maddox Ford and the political alternatives of Amiri Baraka. This course, in short, will challenge the divisions between high art and low art, between the canonical and the popular, and will question just how far apart these groupings really are.
  
  243 Jerusalem in Literature
  
  244 Special Topics in Literature
  A course for comparative literature majors whose themes and content will vary from semester to semester and from instructor to instructor. Other students could take the course as an elective if they satisfy the prerequisites determined for it at the time it is offered. The course could involve, for example, studies in ethnic or regional literature, or intensive study of literature from three or four different regions that reflect the experiences of diverse ethnic groups, with the intention to develop understanding of race, region, gender and ethnicity. All offerings of this course will seek to cultivate students’ skills in comparative literary and cultural analysis and to foster a level of intellectual engagement with texts, contexts, and traditions that recognizes the benefits to be derived from pursuing advanced study of literary works. It will also require a substantial writing project.
  
  300 LEVEL
  
  301 Single Author Seminar
  
  302 Advanced Topics in Literary Theory
  During the last century major changes in the ways works of art and culture were conceived took place under the influence of modernism and poststructuralism. This course engages key texts, both classic and contemporary, in this transformation of our knowledge of language and representation. Reading full-length studies or significant excerpts of major theorists, the seminar will introduce students to the aesthetics and ethics of modernist and postmodern debates about representation, and about the links between ethics, politics and language. Perspectives to be introduced include semiotics, deconstruction, Lacanian analysis, Foucauldian history, and arts theory. Students will be working collaboratively as theorists, independently as writers, and collectively as members of the whole seminar. Theorists to be read include Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, Julia Kristeva, Giorgio Agamben, Slavoj Zizek, Hal Foster, and Judith Butler. Admission by interview prior to registration; Upper College standing is assumed. A college course in philosophy, literary, cultural, political or arts theory is ordinarily a prerequisite. During the last century, major changes in the ways works of art and culture were conceived took place under the influence of modernism and poststructuralism. This seminar engages key texts in this transformation. Through the reading of full-length studies or significant excerpts of major theorists, students are introduced to the aesthetics and ethics of modernist and postmodernist debates about representation.
  
  303 Translation Workshop
  The workshop is intended for students interested in exploring both the process of translation and ways in which meaning is created and shaped through words. Class time will be divided between a consideration of various approaches to the translation of poetry and prose, comparisons of various solutions arrived at by different translators, and the students' own translations into English of poetry and prose from any language or text of their own choosing.
  
  304 Poetry & Society
  What consequences, if any, do the poetries of a culture and a time have on the ethical, if not moral, framework of the society’s relation to its citizens and those it considers “others”? This question could of course be asked exactly the other way around, probing how social contexts generate certain kinds of poetics. In considering the forms of life that poetries enact and imply, we’ll be engaging in inquiries that are both domestically and internationally “cross-cultural.” We will also importantly consider poetics not explicitly political at all, since they too embody social values. Poets whose work will be studied include those responding (or not!) to times of civil and “world” wars, occupation, imprisonment, racial and ethnic injustice, sexual and gender discrimination, and ecological concerns. Poetic form will be as much under scrutiny as arguments or messages. Work by Guillaume Apollinaire, Frederico Garcia Lorca, Anna Akhmatova, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, Wittgenstein, T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, Langston Hughes, Amiri Baraka, Yehuda Amchai, Etel Adnan, Mahmoud Darwish, Caroline Bergvall, C.D. Wright, and Juliana Spahr are likely to be included. 
• Media Studies View >>
  100 Level
  
  101 The Medium is the Message: Introduction to Media Studies
  This introductory course takes an interdisciplinary comparative, historical, and critical approach to the examination of our global multimedia landscape. As in the McLuhan tradition, “media” broadly includes oral storytelling and print all the way to television and YouTube. Such media systems have played important roles in the creation of cultural “canons” of knowledge and likewise in the strengthening or subversion of structures of power. Students will look at the functions of media over time, the history of its institutions, the role it has played in society, and the broad influence it has over the definition of modern identities. To represent the variety of angles on media, a series of guest speakers from the “real world” of the industry will attend classes and meet with students.
  
  102 History of Film I
  This course offers a broad introduction to the history and aesthetics of film from a roughly chronological perspective. There will be weekly screenings of major films widely acknowledged as central to the evolution of the medium and supplementary reading that provides both a narrative history and a strong encounter with the leading critical and theoretical issues of cinema, often within a context of 20th-century art and literature.
  
  103 History of Film II
  An introduction to the history of moving-image art made with electronic media, with a focus on avant-garde traditions. Topics include video art, guerrilla television, expanded cinema, feminist media, Net art, music video, microcinema, digital feature filmmaking, and art made from video games.
  
  104 Media, Law and Ethics
  
  200 LEVEL COURSES
  
  201 Writing for Media
  This class explores the process of story or script development through spontaneous written response to assigned problems, situations, complications, and possibilities. The purpose: to unhinge caution and access story by putting aside logic and judgment in the initial stages of creating an idea, character, and plot. Later in the semester, elements of structure, balance, collaboration, and evaluation are added to the mix. All assignments are handwritten in class and read aloud. Think of it as a scavenger hunt for the imagination. Open to all students interested in writing for literature, theater, or film. This course explores many genres of creative writing for the media such as journalism, essays, film scripts, and blogs. Students will also learn “flash writing,” a rising genre of tightly written short stories in the online Twitter world that can be more easily read on a computer screen or a cell phone. The goal of this class is the completion of a 30-minute screenplay or video-podcast play. HC faculty will bring in guest speakers including successful screenwriters, playwrights, novelists and actors.
  
  202 Video I
  An introduction to video technology (cameras and editing software) that integrates image and sound. This course is designed to be taken in the sophomore year and leads to a spring Moderation project. Prerequisite: a 100- or 200-level course in film history.
  
  203 Digital Media Lab I
  Class members function as a rotating production team, combining their talent, imagination, and industry in the creation of an original digital film. Each student has an opportunity to write, direct, and edit one scene, and to act as crew or cast in other scenes. Issues of art direction, narrative continuity, and collaboration are addressed as they arise. The primary goal is for students to develop technical and storytelling proficiency through working in a variety of roles in a film production.
  
  204 Digital Media Lab II
  In the second semester students will be expected to produce their own short video. This lab is required of all second-year students.
  
  205 Media Images of Exile and Return
  Exile and return feature not only as recurrent themes in literature, but also in film. This course examines the narrative forms used by filmmakers and screenplay writers - the metaphors they use, the central tropes they employ – in capturing the human drama of exile and return.  We will explore questions of shifting identity and home, trauma and embodiment, belonging and return. Our focus will be on the Middle East as a place of dispersion and new networks, not just of people but also of media systems, values, and ideas. We will look at how the individual and national identities of Palestinians have been affected through books, political pamphlets, performance, film, video/cassette tapes, and the Internet. Students analyze and discuss scholarly writings, archival documents, memoirs, fiction, blogs and films, and write papers drawing on course materials, lectures, and discussions.
  
  206 Integrated Arts Seminar: Special Topics in World Cinema
  Seminars offer an in-depth examination of a particular period, style, filmmaker, or national school of filmmaking. Weekly screenings of acknowledged and influential masterpieces and related lectures make up the bulk of the course, with supplementary reading.
  
  207 Integrated Arts Political Video
  This production course investigates the work of film and video artists who have produced work critical of a specific social or political situation. Whether didactic, subversive, agitprop, rant, provocation, or documentation, these works employ inventive solutions to visual aesthetics and narrative structure. Students engage in an examination of these practices, past and present, through the screenings of a wide range of experimental films and video art. Assigned readings of historical and theoretical texts augment the screenings and class discussions. Students are also expected to apply these investigations to the production of three video projects.
  
  208 Media Human Rights Video 
  In documenting human rights abuses around the world, amateur filmmakers often produce short documentary projects for webcast. Using footage shot by Witness partner groups and working in teams, students in this class will similarly produce short “Rights Alerts” from start to finish, including tape logging, research on issues and advocacy objectives, liaison with human rights advocates, script preparation, narrative strategy, sound and narration, editing and production, and webcasting.
  
  209 Cinematic Adaptation
  We will examine different types of adaptation that include film remakes, graphic novels, short fiction, and the novel, noting how film fuses, assimilates, and synthesizes narratives from other media. Is adaptation translation or response? This workshop takes on all kinds of inspirational forms—music, science, painting, literature, dance, philosophy, etc.—and uses them as the basis for cinematic adaptation. Through a series of exercises, students engage an outside work and translate it to film.
  
  210 Networks and Media
  Networks are not just media conglomerates; they are also decentralized centers of communication best characterized today by the Internet. This course compares the large media networks that have long dominated media, with what Marshall McLuhan has called the Global Village. This course is part history of Internet and part introduction to thinking behind networks. A class project will be to create a class multi-media website. Storyboard and project development integrated into all aspects of class.
  
  211 New Media
  With participatory media such as blogs, Facebook, multi-player computer games, Twitter, and “swarm journalism” the lines between performer, performance, and audience are becoming blurred. This course looks at the ways new forms of social performance affect the way we look at ourselves, the way others see us, and how life online affects who we think we are. Mobile digital technology also opens the door for entirely new forms of creative - and subversive - engagement with the world by challenging the incumbent power of print and television media. Learning to master the tools of new media also opens up career opportunities for talented Palestinians eager to be a part of the globalized media world. This is a survey course with a lot of writing, and the writing is itself instances of participatory media because everything will be presented to the world through podcasts, blogs, wikis, mesh-ups, and the final project.
  
  212 World War II and the Cold War in Politics and Film
  The best fiction and documentary works can successfully capture the complex narratives and legacies of warfare. This course will survey many of the most distinctive films in the genre, including classics from the American, German, French, English, and American film industries. This course also provides a structure for students to capture, ¬process, frame, and produce some aspect of conflict in terms of their personal experience. Works may reflect any political persuasion and take any form, including documentary, diary, personal essay, fiction, or music.
  
  213 From Cosmopolitanism to Globalization [revise title]
  This course will look critically at the changes in the film industry – in content but also in production – due to the rise of a global digital media landscape. How dependent was post-World War II cosmopolitanism on European and American hegemony? Has the Internet shifted power from the center to the peripheries? This course compares major large-budget productions from the 1950s with today’s often low-budget digital media.
  
  214 American Experience through Film
  This course uses film as a medium through which to get at issues relevant to the American experience.  The course begins with a brief historical overview of the American experience and introduces issues of American identity in the first decades of the twentieth-century. It looks at idealized version of the “American dream,” patriotic films, films about American triumph. This survey leads to the study of a more self-conscious American cinema in the 1960s and 1970s, a cinema that questions the assumptions of mainstream media. We will examine “revisionists” in feature films as well as social and political documentaries.
  
  215 American West in Film and History
  A survey of one of the most significant artistic movements in film following World War II, this course focuses on a relatively small number of major filmmakers in the genre of Western filsm: from the early pioneers of the 1940s to more modern interpretations of the genre. We will look at shifting narrative strategies, different perspectives on issues of violence, conquest, gender, and race. Supplementary readings include many theoretical works by the filmmakers themselves and material touching on parallel movements in painting, photography, poetry, and music.
  
  216 Human Rights and the Media
  This course will look at the interconnections between media and human rights. Students will develop nuanced approaches to media and human rights theory, policy and practice, and explore both historical and global developments as well as issues related to Palestine. We will expect students to interrogate the influence of global digital technologies on a range of global, national and local human rights issues.
  
  217 Cinema and Urban Space
  The city has long been a center for filmmakers and filmmaking, as the place where films are made, financed, and conceived of, but just as importantly in the imagination.  There is a romance, or alternatively horror, of the city that has inspired filmmakers. This course looks at the place of urban space in films, and dialectical relationship between filmmakers and the city.
  
  300 Level
  
  301 Video 2
  
  302 Screenwriting
  The scriptwriting process is studied from idea through plot and outline to finished script, including character development and dramatic/ cinematic structure. Students’ work is analyzed throughout the course. Limited enrollment, open to students with a demonstrable background in film or writing and a willingness to share their work with others.
  
  303 Film Script to Screen
  This workshop is designed for juniors and first-semester seniors in preparation for shooting an ambitious video or film project (narrative, experimental, or documentary). The first portion of the course is devoted to script revision and development, with an emphasis on craft and production feasibility. Using the revised screenplay as a map, the second half of the course is devoted to creating a detailed production plan. Students are expected to present choices for media, stock, lighting, production design, editing strategies, sound, locations, tone, and casting as an extension of the central ideas expressed in their scripts. Students are also expected to bring a draft of a script they plan to shoot to the first class meeting.
  
  304 Electronic Discourses
  An exploration of computer-based applications for work with sound and image. Students develop their own projects using desktop video, compositing (After Effects), and sound programs. Apart from production, some emphasis is given to critical discussions of issues such as film versus video; media essentialism and technological development; the future of film and video; and digital delivery.
  
  305 Images and Sound
  This course explores how images and sounds become cinematic building blocks for a filmmaker’s ideas and narrative content.  It is an investigation of the mutual influence of sound and picture in audiovisual perception that is two parts postproduction (hands-on individual and collaborative sound projects) and one part theoretical analysis. Students explore the process of building tracks on digital nonlinear editing systems and the technical, aesthetic, and sonic relationships between sound and image in the production of cinematic, electronic, and digital works. Students should be familiar with the fundamentals of computer-based electronic media.
  
  306 Advanced digital editing
  Students are guided through all phases of postproduction, from an assembly cut to sound mix to getting an answer print made. The course consists of in-class viewings, analysis of editing strategies, critiques of student projects from start to finish, and technical instruction. Advanced postproduction steps covered include creating a sound track, making and shooting titles, preparing the film for the lab (original cutting, hot splicing, A&B rolling), and obtaining corrected answer prints. Also discussed are options for labs, sound-mixing facilities, optical houses, grant writing, and future exhibition.
  
  307 Thinking about Video Games
  An analysis of computer gaming through philosophy, history, cultural theory, and art. Topics include the nature of games and their function in society; the qualities of human-computer interaction; depictions of gender, race, national identity and war; aesthetic theories of game design; ludology versus narratology in game studies; “serious games,” game worlds, and virtual reality; videogame modification, machinima, and artist-made videogames. Readings include Wittgenstein, Winnicott, Huizinga, Caillois, McLuhan, Jenkins, Nakamura, Dibbell, Aarseth, Juul, Frasca, Poole, Atkins, Manovich, Bogost, and Galloway. Prerequisite: previous course work in film and electronic arts, art history, or philosophy.
  
  308 Topics in the Business of Media
  Explores the significance of creativity and creative entrepreneurship, positioning the creative industries as key ingredients of the knowledge economy. Considers the importance for the media and content industries of technological convergence, intellectual property laws, globalization and the rise of the creative class. This course also looks at the inherent conflicts between the media industry's drive for ever-greater profits, and the necessity within a democratic society for media also to serve the public interest. This course takes the history of the industry as a jumping off point to explore business strategies developed under the “old media” industry are being undermined by the new media, and ways traditional media companies are, or are not, adapting. It also looks at the uses of today’s social media in creating a more democratic vibrant public sphere.
  
  309 Power, the Word, the Image
  We are bombarded by messages in the public sphere: ads on walls, graffiti, and government pronouncements are messages we passively absorb and which deeply define our attitudes. “He who molds public sentiment,” said Abraham Lincoln, “goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. Public sentiment is everything.” Some of society’s best artists earn their living by writing speeches for politicians, propaganda films for their governments, or copy for products and commercials. This course looks at the use and abuse of media in branding and communications strategy.
  
  310 Critical Theory
  Special film-related topics, both theoretical and practical, are studied in depth. The seminar is designed for students who have already taken a film course or who, through personal experience and interest, have acquired some knowledge of the medium. Weekly screenings are held and a strong emphasis is placed on supplementary reading.
• Philosophy View >>
  100 Level
  
  Problems in Philosophy
  An introduction to the problems, methods, and scope of philosophical inquiry. Among the philosophical questions discussed are those associated with morality, the law, the nature of the mind, and the limits of knowledge. Do we have free will? Do we know what the world around us is really like? Does God exist? How should we treat one another? This course critically examines historical and contemporary texts that address these and other central themes of the philosophical tradition. Philosophers read include Plato, Descartes, Rousseau, Hume, Kant, James, Heidegger, Sartre and Rawls.
  
  Intro to Moral & Political Philosophy: Justice
  
  200 Level
  
  History of Ancient Philosophy
  This course provides close readings of Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, along with a number of secondary sources on these and related works. The course considers questions of philosophical method, epistemology, metaphysics, social and political philosophy, philosophy of mind, philosophy of education, philosophy of the arts, and numerous detailed issues in ethics (e.g., responsibility, intention, consequence, character, etc.).
  
  History of Medieval Philosophy
  This course is an introduction to philosophical thought during the medieval period (approximately 300 C.E. to 1500 C.E.). It will consider the thought of various major figures from the Islamic, Jewish, and Christian traditions. Far from being “Dark Ages” the so-called “Middle Ages” were a period of lively debates and important advances in philosophical thought. This course will focus on the confluence of Greek, Christian, Jewish and Islamic thought that flourished in Al-Andalus. While Maimonides and others radically changed the course of Jewish thought, towering Muslim thinkers, such as Ibn-Sina (Avicenna), Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Al- Ghazali solidified Islamic philosophy. Students will explore how Avicenna and Avveroes rediscovered and expanded on the works of Aristotle. By introducing Aristotle to the Christian West, Islamic thinkers paved the way for the seminal thought of Thomas Aquinas. A prominent feature of medieval thought is the encounter between emergent Christianity and the earlier thought of Judaism and classical antiquity. Students will examine how the early Church Fathers sought to both distance themselves from and actively synthesize Christian theology with Judaic and Greco-Roman thought. In Christian philosophy, students will engage with the works of Augustine, Anselm, Abelard, Aquinas and Ockham. The course will emphasize the common themes that intersect Islamic, Jewish, and Christian thought during the period: the relationship between faith and reason; the problem of universal and particular; the division of philosophy; problems of law and ethics; the nature and existence of the human soul, and the nature of human knowledge.
  
  History of Modern Philosophy
  This course examines the history of modern philosophy, from seventeenth-century proponents of Rationalism—such as Pufendorf, Hobbes, Bacon, Locke, Newton, Leibniz, Spinoza, Bayle and Descartes—through eighteenth-century proponents of Enlightenment, such as Hume, Smith, Wollstonecraft, Rousseau, Diderot, Herder and Kant. Students will examine the development of modern philosophy within the conventional division between the early Enlightenment, or Age of Reason, and the late Enlightenment, or Age of Critique. The course will provide students with the social, political and cultural contexts in which Enlightenment thought unfolds. We will examine critically the term “Enlightenment” itself, and how the dominant intellectual concerns of the period influence the emergence of new methods of acquiring and organizing knowledge. The seventeenth-century marked the beginning of modern science, with the development of empirical methods and attempts to negotiate between apparent contradictions between scientific reasoning, empirical facts and scripture. Students will be introduced to the main branches of philosophical enquiry: epistemology, ethics, theology, aesthetics, and anthropology. Questions to be considered in this course include: What can we know? How do we come to know what we can know? What is the scope and what are the limits of our knowledge? What is the nature of reality? Do we have access to reality? How is causal interaction possible, if at all? Does God exist, and if so, how do we know and what relation does God have to the world? What is the human being and what is the final goal or purpose of our existence?
  
  Classical of Political Philosophy
  
  Ethical Theories
  What is the “moral dimension” of our life, and what constitutes its key elements? Are there such things as “happiness,” “virtue,” and “wisdom”? Do we have “rights” and “duties” and, if so, how do we recognize them? This course critically examines the primary texts of four philosophers whose thoughts on these fundamental questions have had a permanent influence onWestern thought: Aristotle, Epictetus, Immanuel Kant, and John Stuart Mill.
  
  History & Philosophy of Science
  This course takes a thematic approach to examine the nature and limits of science and scientific reasoning. Topics broached include the demarcation problem (what distinguishes scientific theories from putatively nonscientific theories such as astrology and creationism?); the riddles of induction (what reason is there to think the future will resemble the past?); and the realism/antirealism debate (does science tell us what the world is really like?).
  
  Philosophy of Art
  In attempting to explain important features of our experience of art and nature, philosophers have proposed the existence of a mental faculty or type of judgment not wholly reducible to either sense perception or conceptual thought. “Aesthetic” is the most common term for this faculty, and the judgments for which it is responsible. This course examines various accounts of the notion of the aesthetic—and closely related issues concerning art, taste, and beauty—through scrutiny of both historically important and contemporary texts.
  
  Philosophy of Religion
  
  Philosophy of Education
  
  Classical Political Philosophy
  
  Contemporary Political Philosophy
  The tension created by the promise of equality and the guarantee of liberty has largely shaped the debate among contemporary political theorists. Most believe it is the function of the liberal state to meld these two goals, but a resolution of the conflict requires, in turn, an examination of more fundamental normative questions—such as, are there moral limits to actions sanctioned by individual or collective consent? Readings include late 20th-century political works by Rawls, Nozick,Walzer, Dworkin, Nagel, and others.
  
  Law and Society
  Law has a dynamic role in society - law and a range of legal institutions embody and constitute political, cultural, economic, and social forces. The course will examine these socio-legal phenomena from a number of different angles through practical case studies by presenting students with the tools to analyze and critically evaluate the role of Law in society and Society in law, in its various contexts of creation and enforcement. Legal theory and practice are traditionally seen through the judicial system, but they have wide-ranging effects on society, and it has contributed to the systematization and normalization of our outlooks as well as to the development of our thinking. The course will also consider the relationship between making social policy and the use of litigation by social movements (e.g., women's movement, antidiscrimination/ racism struggle). What are the political dimensions of legal arguments and legal remedies? Under what conditions is law an empowering and/or effective political resource? What are the limits of legality in the making of social change? Students will tackle these socio-political, philosophical and historical questions through practice-based learning by examining specific case studies from the Palestinian and other contexts and working on a practical project for the purpose of documenting and addressing the phenomena discussed in class. Students will choose a social problem, relate it to legal and social issues and devise a plan of action to research the problem and develop informed policy. Students will also write reports on their chosen research subjects.
  
  Philosophy of History
  
  Philosophical Anthropology 
  
  Philosophy and Film
  While much writing about film concerns the evaluation of particular works, the development of motion picture technology raises questions of a general or theoretical nature. This course examines major approaches to such questions from within philosophy, film studies, and criticism. Issues addressed include how film’s characteristic features bear on the range of aesthetic possibilities available to the medium; whether “authorship” can be applied to something as collaboratively complex as a film; and if films can be significant sources of social criticism and philosophical insight.
  
  Free Speech
  An introduction to the intersections between literature and human rights, from the Greeks to the French Revolution, hate speech and censorship on the Internet. The course will examine the ways in which rights, language, and public space have been linked together in ideas about democracy. What is 'freedom of speech'? Is there a right to say anything? We will investigate who has had this right, where it has come from, and what it has had to do with literature. Why have poetry and fiction always been privileged examples of freedom and its defense? What powers does speech have, who has the power to speak, and for what? Is an encounter with the fact of language, which belongs to no one and can be appropriated by anyone, at the heart of democracy? In asking about the status of the speaking human subject, we will ask about the ways in which the subject of rights, and indeed the thought of human rights itself, derives from a 'literary' experience. These questions will be examined, if not answered, across a variety of literary, philosophical, legal and political texts, including case studies and readings in contemporary critical and legal theory (Foucault, Derrida, Butler, Spivak, Fish, Agamben.) Arabic writings will include Mahmoud Darwish, Abdul Wahab al-Bayati, Nizar Qabbani, Ghassan Kanafani, and even Iraqi bloggers and the cartoonist Naji Ali,among others. International texts in translation will include Nazim Hikmet from the Turkish, Yannis Ritsos and Nikos Kazantzakis from the Greek. The course will be a place to discuss the traditional role of the artist as dissident and voice of conscience in the Arab World and to place this within an international context.
  
  Media and Culture
  This course introduces students to a range of contemporary mass media systems and examines the different factors –historical, economical, political and cultural- that condition the role media plays in contemporary culture. The course emphasizes a cultural approach toward the role of media venues, content and audiences. The course examines the media industry as a social force as well as the content and effects of different media in contemporary society. Students will engage actively in current debates concerning ownership concentration, civic engagement, access and power.
  
  Islam and the West
  This course is designed to provide students with an in-depth understanding of the history and evolving dynamics between Islam and the West. Certain branches of scholarship construe Islam and the West as two diametrical entities locked in opposition, inherently pitted against one another, as suggested by conservative, culturalist scholars such as Bernard Lewis or Samuel Huntington. Conversely, scholars such as Edward Said and Jacques Derrida have articulated a far more complex relationship between Islam and the West: one of exchange, influence, and mutual mythologization. In this course, students will become familiar with both traditional and contemporary approaches to the relationship. We will consider whether prevailing notions of “Islam” and “the West” inadequately capture the multifaceted dimensions of the relationship, and how they may serve to foster distorted representations and prejudiced perceptions of the Other. Students will examine the relationship between Islam and the West both historically and in the contemporary geo-political arena. We will consider the role that imagined realities play in modern politics, in constructing national and individual identities, in cultural exchange, and in understanding cultural differences.
  
  Feminist Philosophy 
  This course examines a variety of feminist philosophical approaches to issues surrounding our culture’s production of images of sexuality and gender. Readings from de Beauvoir, Delphy, Irigaray, and Leclerc, among others, cover a diverse range of feminist theoretical frameworks. However, the course focuses on “applied” philosophy rather than theory. Many issues are explored, among them the cultural enforcement of both feminine and masculine gender identities, the intersection of feminism and environmentalism, and feminist perspectives of different ethnic groups.
  
  Informal Logic & Critical Reasoning
  This course reviews several symbolic systems in order to formally test the validity of deductive arguments expressed in ordinary language of various levels of complexity. Beginning with the common notion of a valid argument, the course progresses through such topics as truth tables, Aristotelian logic, Venn diagrams, and general quantification theory, including identity. It ends with a discussion of the extension of such work into higher orders of logic and the foundations of mathematics, and the initial surprise of Gödel’s incompleteness proof.
  
  Philosophy of Space
  
  Environmental Ethics
  An exploration of ethical issues regarding the relation of human beings to their environment. Students review critiques of the anthropocentric character of traditional moral paradigms by deep ecologists, ecofeminists, social ecologists, and others who argue for new accounts of the moral standing of nature and the ethical duties of humans to nonhuman creatures and things. Readings include work by such 19th- and early 20th-century writers as John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, Rachel Carson, and Aldo Leopold.
  
  Topics in Philosophy
  
  300 Level
  
  Single Philosopher Seminar
  
  The Frankfurt School 
  
  Epistemology
  Do you know anything and, if so, what do you know? What does it mean to know something? Is knowing something different from believing it, thinking it, or being sure of it? This course examines these questions, and questions like them, and studies the answers philosophers give to them. Readings are drawn from the works of Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Plato, Descartes, Moore, Unger, Gettier, Goldman, Quine, and others.
  
  Philosophy of Language
  
  Politics & Arts: Art, Philosophy, and Democratic Culture
  This course explores the ways that philosophers (and philosophically engaged critics) have approached issues concerning the nature and value of art. After a discussion of Plato’s influential account of representation and the place of art in society, we turn to questions raised by painting, photography, film, and music. From there, broader topics that cut across various art forms are considered. Readings include Hume and Kant on taste, Stanley Cavell on the moving image, and Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin on mass culture.
  
  Advanced Topics in Philosophy
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Natural Science, Mathematics, and Computing

• Biology View >>
  100 Level
  
  Principles of Life
  
  Biostatistics
  
  200 Level
  
  Cell Biology
  
  Zoology
  
  Botany
  
  Ecology and Evolution
  
  Anatomy and Physiology with lab)
  
  Medicinal Plants of Palestine
  
  300 Level  Biochemistry
  
  Microbiology
  
  Genetics
  
  Biodiversity
  
  Molecular Biology
  
  Bioinformatics
  
  Bio-organic 
  
  Plant Structure and Function
  
  Environmental Ecology
  
  Parasitology
  
  Viruses and Bacteria
  
  Parasites 
  
  400 Level
  
  Bioinformatics
  
  Cancer Biology
  
  Industrial Microbiology
  
  Bio Control
  
  Special Topics in Evolution
  
  Green House Management
• Chemistry View >>
  Core Courses
  
  100-Level
  
  Gen Chem I
  
  Gen Chem II
  
  200-Level
  
  Organic I (with lab)
  
  Organic II (with lab)
  
  Physical I
  
  300-Level
  
  Analytical Chemistry (with lab)
  
  Physcial Chemistry II (with lab)
  
  Inorganic Chemistry w/lab
  
  Calculus I
  
  Calculus II
  
  Physics I
  
  Physics II
  
  Senior Project
  
  Elective Courses
  
  200 Level
  
  Medicinal Plants of Palestine
  
  Detergents Soaps and Cosmetics
  
  Environmental Chemistry
  
  300 Level
  
  Biochemistry with Lab
  
  Advanced Organic with Lab
  
  Materials Chemistry
  
  Polymer Chemistry
  
  Fats and Oils
  
  Environmental Chemistry: Water Analysis
  
  400-Level
  
  Advanced Physical Chemistry
  
  Organo-metallics
  
  Instrumental Analysis
  
  Medicinal Chemistry-Drug Design
  
  Pharmaceutical Chemistry with Lab
  
  Computation Chemistry
  
  Differential Equations
  
  Selected Topics
  
• Computer Science View >>
  Required Courses
  
  100 Level
  
  Intro to Computer Science I
  
  Intro to Computer Science II
  
  Introduction to Management
  
  200 Level
  
  Data Structures and Algorithms
  
  Discrete Mathematics
  
  Computer Organization & Architecture
  
  HCI: Human-Computer Interaction
  
  300 Level
  
  Database Information Systems
  
  Software Engineering
  
  Elective Courses
  
  300-Level
  
  Computer Networks
  
  Web Design and Programing
  
  Experimental Methods and Statistics
  
  Multimedia
  
  Creative Design
  
  Computer Graphics & Animation
  
  GIS
  
  Bioinformatics
  
  Simulation Tools
  
  Genetic Algorithms
  
  Translators and Programming Languages
  
  Artificial Intelligence
  
  400-Level
  
  Operating Systems
  
  Mobile Computing
  
  Software Quality Control
  
  Artificial Intelligence
  
  Distributed Systems
  
  Semantic Web
• Environmental Studies View >>
  100 Level
  
  Introduction to Environmental Sciences
  
  200 Level
  
  Environmental Research Methods
  
  Environmental Problem Analysis (with lab)
  
  Field Study in Environmental Sciences (with lab)
  
  Hydrology (with lab)
  
  Environmental Ecology
  
  300 Level
  
  Aquatic Sciences
  
  Energy Systems Analysis
  
  400 Level
  
  Environmental impact Assessment (with lab)
  
  Remote sensing and GIS systems (with lab)
  
  Senior Project
  
  Soil Sciences (with lab)
  
  Methods in Water and Wastewater
  
  Integrated Natural Resources Management
  
  Environmental Geology
  
  Environmental Pollution Protection
  
  Technology and Environmental Problems
  
  Global Environment and Environment Change
  
  Environmental Policy and Legislations
  
  Environmental Education and Awareness
  
  Environment and Public Health
  
  Global Environmental Politics
  
  Urban Environmental Planning and Management
  
  Urban Design and Environmental Planning
  
  Marine Environment
  
  Aquatic Ecosystem Research
  
  The Ecological Crisis
  
  Toxicology
  
  Biodiversity
• Health Sciences Track View >>
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• Mathematics View >>
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Social Sciences

• Economics and Finance View >>
  101 Introduction to Microeconomics
  This course covers the essential ideas of economic analysis. Students will learn how economists explain human behavior as we seek to satisfy our needs and wants. The first part of the course develops models of consumer and firm behavior, including demand and supply, in the context of an idealized competitive market. From there we analyze several ways in which the real world deviates from this model, including monopoly and other forms of imperfect competition, information problems, minimum wages and other price controls, taxes, and government regulation. Along the way we will explore public policy problems such as pricing the environment, winners and losers from international trade, health care costs and insurance, and the high price of textbooks. Econ 101 and 102 may be taken in either order.
  
  102 Introduction to Macroeconomics
  This course begins with the examination of the aggregate behavior of modern economies: the factors leading to economic growth, explanations of booms and recessions, unemployment, interest rates, inflation, budget deficits or surpluses, and international trade. We will also analyze the government’s ability (or inability) to use monetary and fiscal policies to achieve economic goals such as full employment and price stability. Throughout the course, we will debate whether government should use monetary and fiscal policy tools to try to ‘fine tune’ the economy and what the likely effects of such government involvement are. We will analyze these issues using current domestic and international examples. Econ 101 and 102 may be taken in either order.
  
  103 Foundations of Finance and Investments
  This course explores the foundations of the pricing of financial instruments and the structure and organization of financial markets. Methods will be developed to analyze and measure financial performance, price stocks and bonds, evaluate portfolios, and understand financial derivatives as these relate to financial data. Additional topics include the investment decision-making process, trading practices, risk assessment, and diversification. The course involves a substantial amount of statistical analysis and calculation, but no prior knowledge of statistics is required.
  
  104 Accounting
  This course surveys financial and managerial accounting. The concepts and methods of financial accounting following generally accepted accounting principles and the effects of alternative principles on the measurement of periodic income and financial status are covered. Recent changes in accounting methods such as those stimulated by manufacturing advances are examined, as are concerns about ethical standards.
  
  100 Level
  
  200 Level
  
  201 Intermediate Microeconomics
  A further development of principles and analytical methods begun in Intro to Microeconomics: demand, supply, and the workings of the price system. The positive and normative characteristics of alternative market structures - perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, pure monopoly, and in resource markets, monopsony - are studies in depth. Market forces are examined in the context of social and political institutions that shape, and are shaped by, market outcomes. The alleged "trade-off" between equity and efficiency is debated in the context of a variety of applications. Prerequisite: Microeconomics 101
  
  202 Intermediate Macroeconomics
  This course is the continuation of the introductory macroeconomics course. In it, students will get acquainted with main models that macroeconomists use to analyze the way economies behave. The course starts by looking at the models that explain long run economic growth. We then focus our attention on investigating economic theories that explain short run business cycles, the periods of recessions and booms that occur on a regular basis. An important part of the course is to investigate the role of governments in affecting the long run and short run economic prospects of their countries. We apply the acquired theoretical knowledge to a range of current economic issues, including budget deficits and national debt, international trade, and the role of institutions. Prerequisite: Macroeconomics 102
  
  203 Statistics
  The first of a two-course series designed to examine empirical economics, and a prerequisite for Economics 329, Econometrics. Basic concepts of statistics, probability, probability distributions, random variables, correlation, and simple regression are introduced; the techniques of statistical inference hypothesis testing are developed. Numerous examples and computer-based exercises are included. Prerequisite: Economics 101 or 102
  
  204  Money and Banking
  This course examines the role of money and financial intermediaries in determining aggregate economic activity. Interactions of savers, investors, and regulatory authorities in domestic and international capital markets are analyzed, and the linkage between the financial system and the real economy is traced. The functions of central banks, commercial banks, securities dealers, and other intermediaries are covered in detail. The debate over the goals, tools, indicators, and effectiveness of monetary policy is considered in light of current economic problems. Prerequisite: Economics 101 or 102
  
  205 Mathematical Economics
  Introduction to the use of elementary calculus and linear algebra in economic theory. This course provides the basic mathematical skills necessary to approach the professional economics literature. Emphasis is on formulating economic problems and building economic models in mathematical language. Applications are based upon simple micro- and macroeconomic models. Prerequisites: ECON 102 or 102, calculus
  
  206 Public Finance
  This course introduces students to the complex theoretical and empirical issues and problems of public finance.  Public finance is the subfield of economics that considers the effects of government policy on the overall economic, social, and institutional environment of a particular nation.  Government policies are not like those of corporations or any other private institution of a society.  Governments have unusual power, in that government has final say about the rules of contracts, resource allocation, and all manner of other social behaviors.  The study of the economic impact of governmental decisions related to taxation, spending of social resources, and financing (whether in the form of debt or equity in state-owned enterprises) is of crucial importance.  Economic and social crises can result from policy decisions involving public budgeting, financing, and taxation. This course is designed to provide students with the tools to analyze public finance decisions and to have a better sense of the social implications of such decisions.   Prerequisites: 101, 102
  
  207 Economics of Climate Change 
  Through readings, lectures, discussions, and presentations this course will introduce the critical issues underpinning global change and its biological implications. The course will examine current scientific literature in exploring evidence for human-induced global change and its potential effects on a wide range of biological processes, focusing on (but not limited to) terrestrial ecosystems. We will examine these phenomena in terms of the economic drivers, economic consequences, and political processes related to changes in the global environment, including local, national and international laws and policies that impact global climatic change.
  
  208 History of Economic Thought I
  The early history of the yet-young science of economics: Petty, Locke, Hume, and the age of mercantilism; the Physiocrats of 18th century France, inventors of the first circular-flow analysis of the macroeconomy; the revolutionary work of philosopher Adam Smith in 1776; and the century of classical political economy that followed him in the English-speaking world: Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, and others who studied the virtues and vices of the market system and debated the great questions of the relations of land, labor and capital. At its maturity, the classical school gave rise to two very different attacks on existing politico-economic institutions:  in continental Europe, the socialist critique of Karl Marx; and in the United States and England, the Lockean critique of Henry George. This course focuses on the classical period to the late 19th century, when classical political economy gave way to the "marginal revolution," which, applying the mathematical insights of calculus to economic questions, focused more on subjective choice and perhaps less on political issues and institutions.
  
  209 History of Economic Thought II: Neoclassical and Keynesian Economics
  An examination of the development of economic thought through the past century, beginning with Alfred Marshall, originator of the graphical analysis of demand and supply. In depth coverage is given to the emergence of the now dominant neoclassical (anticlassical) school of economic thought and the Keynesian revolution in macroeconomic theory and policy after 1936. Prerequisite: one economics course; 208 is recommended but not required.
  
  210 Economic History of the Middle East
  This course will provide a historical account of the economies of the Middle East from the 6th century CE to the present age. The area between the Nile and Oxus is taken as the core geographical area of the Middle East; besides the core, the region includes Turkey and North Africa. The primary objective of this course is to identify the major economic and demographic trends in the region, or segments of the region, to examine the ecological bases of the economies of this region, to examine the connections between its political history and economic trends, and to understand the ways in which economies of the region have been engaged with other major economic regions, including Europe, West Africa and the economies of the Indian Ocean. We will situate our investigation against the backdrop of the systems of government and laws, the agriculture, commerce, and manufactures of the region.
  
  211 American Economic History
  A basic analysis of trends and events that shaped the economic development of the United States from the colonial period to contemporary times. Topics include economic aspects of the Constitution; the role of government in the economy; the rise of monopolistic corporations; income and wealth inequality; the Populist, Socialist, and Progressive movements; the growth of the welfare state from the New Deal to the War on Poverty; and the monetary system. Prerequisite: Economics 101 or 102
  
  212 Economics of Developing Countries
  This course explores the economic conditions and problems faced by the majority of the world’s population that live in the developing countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. The concept of economic development is defined and related to ideas such as economic growth, sustainable development and human development. Economic theories of development are introduced, and policies designed to promote development at the local, national and international levels are evaluated. Considerable attention is paid to understanding how household decisions in rural agricultural societies are shaped by the institutional and policy environments. Topics include the economic consequences of colonialism and economic dependence; poverty and income distribution; investments in physical and human capital; economic aspects of household choices such as schooling, and fertility; rural-urban transformation; the effects of trade, industrial and agricultural policies; the role of foreign capital flows; political economy aspects of development policy; population growth and the environment; gender and development. Students will be expected to carry out a case study of the development experiences of a country of their choice.
  
  213 Urban and Regional Economics
  An introduction to the economic analysis of the spatial distribution of human behavior, addressing such questions as:  Where and why do cities arise--why do people cluster their homes and workplaces together in certain places? What factors determine the market allocation of land among users, and the variations in land value from place to place? What determines the size, density, and number of urban areas? What are the causes and consequences of suburbanization and sprawl, so evident in the US and Canada in recent decades? The spatial structure of cities and of regional systems of cities is analyzed from the perspective of central place theory. This microeconomic theory of location complements a historical review of patterns of urbanization and sprawl. Also, contemporary urban problems are examined from an economic point of view:  housing and homelessness; crime; transportation; social services; segregation; inner-city blight. Issues of urban planning and policy are debated. Prerequisite: Economics 101
  
  214 Population Economics and Demography
  Theories and measures of population as they pertain to economic and social spheres are developed and evaluated. The history of theories of population growth and population control and their consequences is traced from Malthus and Marx to Boserup, Simon, and Easterlin. Particular attention is paid to current population issues–fertility control, famine, ecological consequences of population pressure, and migration. Both domestic and international population policies are treated. Domestic issues involve migration and shifting demographics as evidenced by the latest census; international issues focus mainly on fertility control in developing countries. Prerequisite: Economics 101
  
  215 Feminist Economics
  This course reexamines economics by looking at traditional theories through a feminist lens. Emerging feminist approaches challenge the currently used framework of economic analysis (at both the micro and macro levels) for omitting a crucial analytical category, that of gender. In introducing this centrally important category, feminist economics seeks to correct the mainstream vision of how contemporary societies organize the activities of production and distribution. From a scientific point of view, a gender-based schema makes the complexity of economic interactions among institutions and people more transparent, and is thus better suited to address issues of public policy and ultimately societal transformation. Topics that will be covered include: feminist critiques of economic theories–"en-gendering" the economic question per se; the importance of re-conceptualizing the economy as a three sector model–household sector, market sector and government sector; household production versus market oriented production–a gendered system; social division of labor by gender–structures of gender occupation and segregation; contemporary labor market issues and policies–wage gap, comparable worth, discrimination and affirmative action; economic growth, poverty trends and government policy–gendered impact; and "efficient" versus "equitable" growth–how do we evaluate economic prosperity? Prerequisite: 101 or 102, or permission of instructor.
  
  216 Economics of Globalized Food Systems
  The world food system is arguably in crisis: a reversal in the downward trend that food prices have shown in the past, increased environmental degradation of the agricultural resource base, and a rise of food deficits and malnutrition in the global South - along with an increase of surpluses of the industrial North - are indicators that the system is at a vulnerable state. This course will make use of basic economic concepts to critically analyze the driving forces behind these trends: namely changes in the composition and size of the global food demand, increases in energy prices and in the demand for bio-fuels, changes in urbanization patterns, climate change, and perhaps most importantly, the establishment of agricultural development and trade policies that have shaped the ways of production and consumption – and associated livelihoods – along with the global relations of exchange. The course will also address economic issues related to agricultural trade liberalization policies and the developments of WTO negotiations, on the implications of structural reform programs implemented in the less developed world, and on the role of agri-food corporations on the current state of the problem. This is an introductory course, designed for students with no prior coursework in economics. The economic concepts required to analyze the topics covered will be explained in class. Development of economic intuition using case studies and news articles drawn from the present time.
  
  217 The Economics of Globalization
  In the past two decades, globalization defined as the integration of goods, labor and financial markets has been a powerful force in the world economy. The debate surrounding the economics of globalization has played vociferously into the political arena of every country and across international financial institutions. The recent era of globalization is not unique. Evidence on migration, trade flows and capital flows suggests that integration in the 1870-1914 period was in some dimensions as extensive or more so than in the present. However just as in the current era, capital flows were fickle, leading to waves of financial crises in the emerging economies of the day, and calls for protection against free trade and mass immigration led to a backlash against the trends toward economic globalization. This course explores the economic debates surrounding the accelerating process of globalization. Students will examine the historic and current economic causes and consequences of market integration with respect to domestic labor markets, in particular, international trade, the multi-nationalization of production, the integration of financial markets and the role of international institutions in the developed and developing world.
  
  218 Religion and Economics
  Using an interdisciplinary approach, this course analyzes the relationship between the Abrahamic religions and economic development. We start by looking at the impact that religion and religious thinking have had on the formation of economic order in societies. What role has monotheism played in the development of economic ethics (e.g. attitudes towards money, charity, taxation, economic well-being, the meaning of work)? How have religious views affected the evolution of capitalism? What are the views of the three Abrahamic religions on accelerating consumerism and economic globalization? Students examine the role that economic incentives have played in the growth of religions. We analyze the relationship between the development of capitalism and the spread of Christianity. We also examine how  economic factors have helped shape the growth of Islam, and vice versa. We consider how views on charity and alms-giving, on interest figure in the fundamentals of Islamic banking and finance. Students may explore what, if any, relationship exists between the lack of economic opportunities in the Middle East and the rise of religious fundamentalism. Finally, the course will consider how Judaism and the principles of Zionism have shaped the distinctive economic institutions of Israel, from agricultural collectives to the large role played by labor unions, to contemporary negotiations between religious prohibitions and the secular demands of the global economy.  
  
  219  Labor Economics
  What makes labor markets different? How do economists model and study how people’s lives are affected by the unique characteristics of these markets? This course examines some of the key theoretical models of labor markets and considers how well these models hold up to real-world empirical scrutiny. Because this is an applied course, we will also consider what our theoretical and empirical explorations imply for public policy. Topics covered include labor supply and demand, minimum wage laws, human capital, family and life-cycle decision-making, efficiency wage theory, compensating wage differentials, worker mobility and migration, unions, discrimination, and theories of unemployment. The course is not designed to be comprehensive, however, and may vary depending on the interests of each semester’s students.  Prerequisite: Economics 101
  
  220 Economic History of the World
  This course surveys world economic history from Paleolithic times to the present. Major themes include the role of social institutions in promoting or inhibiting economic development; competition for territory and natural resources; population growth and decline; the disparity of wealth among nations; class structure and class struggles. Topics addressed include feudal systems, colonial systems, industrialization, urbanization, globalization, transition economies, economic imperialism, and environmental impacts of economic activity. Prerequisite: One economics course
  
  221 Economics and Community Based Development
  This course critically examines the concept and practice of community-based (or community-led) development as an alternative to the widely studied top-down theories and policies of development. We begin by asking whether the end goals of “development” are universal outcomes such as income, or outcomes that vary with the values of individuals or communities. Conceptualizations of well-being in Buddhist and Gandhian thinking will be considered to highlight the cross-cultural differences in what constitutes a “good life”. We will develop a broader definition of development as economic, social and political empowerment that allows an individual or a community to achieve whatever it is that they value and desire. We will then examine several grassroots development movements that have focused on empowerment. Two examples are the micro-credit movement that began with the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh and the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement of Sri Lanka. We will also attempt to relate the concept of community-based development to the neoclassical paradigm of economics. We will critically examine the impact of market expansion and the consequent erosion of informal exchange relations from the perspective of community empowerment. Several innovative ideas such as fair trade, eco-tourism and micro-credit that attempt to combine community empowerment with market expansion will be studied. Throughout the course, the relationship of community-based development with ecological sustainability and political decentralization will be highlighted.
  
  222 Comparative Economic Systems
  Beginning with an economic analysis of the traditional market system, this course investigates models that have presented alternatives to the market economy: central planning, the socialist market economy, and a “mixed” economic system. Case studies of contemporary economies are examined theoretically and empirically. Prerequisite: one economics course; 210 is recommended but not required.
  
  223 Economics from the Ground Up 
  Most introductory microeconomics courses begin by characterizing the processes and outcomes of complex markets involving exchanges of goods and money among millions of “agents” (households and firms), which are implicitly assumed to obey established social conventions and governmental directives. This course develops economic principles from the ground up through successive extensions of a simple intuitive model.  Following the standard conception of economics as the study of constrained choice, we first explore the economizing behavior of a single individual, acting alone, who struggles to survive by employing available resources to produce food and shelter. This model of production with no exchange reveals the meaning and practical significance of core concepts such as: Income, wealth, and utility; opportunity cost; labor and wages; capital and interest; land and rent; risk, profit and loss; competition; the equimarginal principle of optimization. We then build complexity and realism into the model, introducing cooperation and exchange among persons. We analyze markets, prices, property rights, externalities, public goods, money and credit, and the economic functions of government. Throughout the course, the human economy is understood as embedded in local and global ecosystems. Thought experiments are supplemented with an historical survey of actual economies, from hunter-gatherer societies to agricultural subsistence economies to contemporary industrial systems.
  
  224 Special Topics in Economics
  
  300 Level
  
  301 Econometrics
  Econometrics is the artful blending of economic theory with statistics. Economic theory helps us to develop behavioral hypotheses, while statistics help us to test these hypotheses. For example, consumer theory tells us that there is an inverse relationship between price and quantity demanded; we use econometrics to see if consumers actually behave in this way. This course covers the proper use of statistical tools, such as linear regression, multivariate regression and hypothesis testing. Students will have an opportunity to apply these tools to analyze a variety of economic issues. Prerequisites: ECONOMICS 229 and either ECONOMICS 201 or ECONOMICS 202.
  
  302 Corporate Finance
  This course analyzes the major financial decisions facing firms. Topics include capital budgeting, links between real and financial investments, capital structure choice, dividend policy, and firm valuation. Additional topics may include issues in value and risk; debt financing; risk management; corporate governance; managerial incentives and compensation; and corporate restructuring. Prerequisite: Accounting 104
  
  303 Competition, Cooperation, and Information
  This course covers industrial organization, from traditional ideas to ideas on the frontier of economic research. The traditional literature addresses the industrial structure of the US economy and antitrust policy, monopolies, and anti-competitive behavior. More recent work examines the structure of firms, markets and organizations. Other topics include vertical integration and coordination, product differentiation and patents, bilateral bargaining and the market for lemons, auction and bidding, and theories of advertising. The theory is examined in the context of real world situations, both current and historical. Prerequisite: ECONOMICS 201.
  
  304 Open-Economy Economics and International Finance
  This course analyzes the variables that characterize open economies, including the balance of payments, foreign exchange regimes, and international capital movements, among others. Careful attention is paid to the relationship between them and to the impact of macroeconomic policies on these variables. Also covered is the history of the international monetary system. Prerequisites: Economics 101 and 102.
  
  305 Contemporary Developments in Finance
  The seminar will contrast the academic analysis of financial economics with the coverage it receives in the newspapers and on the nightly newscast. The stories on the news are almost always connected with people, whether we observe them shouting bids in a trading floor or talking on two phones simultaneously. Financial markets are dominated by people behaving in many different ways. Yet traditional finance theories concentrate on efficient markets, predictable prices that are determined by the concepts of present value, rates of return and analysis and pricing of computable risks. Human behavior has neither a place in the theory nor a need to be studied. This prevailing view has recently been challenged by the new paradigm of behavioral finance that considers the many anomalies of "rational" behavior and "efficiency" of markets. The new paradigm concerns itself with economic decision making and investor psychology, and specifically with questions relating to how and why people exhibit a mixture of rational and irrational behavior. The seminar will examine the influence of economic psychology in the decision-making process of various agents as well as in the market's dynamics. Several guest lecturers will also offer their informed views in the development of contemporary finance.
  
  306 Economic Justice
  What is a just way of distributing the goods and resources of society? This is obviously an old question, an extremely difficult and divisive question, and yet an important and unavoidable question for thoughtful citizens. Furthermore, any adequate discussion of justice in distribution must also take into account the effects of such distribution. How do various ideals of justice interact with economic realities? Are there important distinctions to be made among the concepts of justice, fairness, equity, and equality? Some writers argue for an ideal of equal opportunity, while others prefer the notion of equality of outcomes. We will focus on these questions as applied to the United States. We will discuss not merely issues of values, for example, various ideas that have been proposed as to what is a just system of taxation, but also matters of historical/political fact: What is the current distribution of wealth in this country? What has it been in the past? How did we come to have the tax (and subsidy) system that we have? While some have held that all taxation is theft, others have taken the opposite view—that a person’s pre-tax income has no special ethical status because individual incomes depend on the actions of government and society. In short, we will be considering interrelated issues of fact and of value, of ideals and the possible, of philosophy and of economics and of history. Authors studied include John Stuart Mill, John Rawls, Richard Musgrave, Robert Nozick and Amartya Sen.  Prerequisite: At least one related course in philosophy, economics, or a related area. Permission of instructor required.
  
  307 Topics in Economic Theory and Methodology
  An introduction to historical and contemporary views of the methodology and philosophy of economic science. Works of Popper, Mill, Cairnes, Robbins, Hutchison, Friedman, Hayek, Caldwell, Blaug, and others are reviewed. Topics include normative versus positive science; induction and deduction; positivism and falsification; the role of assumptions in economic theory; and the nature of economic discourse. The focus is on a methodological appraisal of the neoclassical research program. Prerequisites: Economics 201 or 202, and 210.
  
  308 Topics in International Trade and Finance
  An examination of advanced topics in international economics using theory and empirical evidence. Recent theoretical advances in understanding trade under imperfect competition, strategic trade, political economy of trade policy, and international policy coordination are discussed. Classical, neoclassical, and modern theories are used to analyze important policy issues such as the effect of trade on economic growth and income distribution, international movements of labor and capital, crises in emerging markets, preferential trade agreements, and imbalances in agricultural trade. Prerequisites: Economics 101 and 102
• Human Rights View >>
  100 Level Courses
  
  101 Introduction to Human Rights
  What are humans and what count as rights? Where does the idea of rights come from? What is the “reality” of human rights in the world? This course offers an introduction to contemporary human rights discourses in their broader historical and theoretical contexts. The course examines the philosophical background of the contested categories making up the terms, “human” and “rights”. It explores the political, social, cultural, and aesthetic dimensions of the claims made by these terms. Students consider the foundations of rights claims, the legal and violent ways of advancing, defending and enforcing rights, and human rights instruments and institutions. The course explores debates over the universality of rights, humanitarian intervention and international crimes, terrorism and democracy and links between human rights and globalization. Using media sources, including screenings and the internet, students will examine and solve specific cases in relation to these contemporary challenges to the classical human rights discourse.
  
  200 Level Courses
  
  201 Public International Law and International Organizations
  Is there such a thing as “international law”? Can international rules and standards be enforced in an anarchical world? This course offers a comprehensive introduction to the law in inter-state, and supranational, relations. It acquaints students with the legal features of the “international community”: the subjects of international law, states, non-state actors and international organizations, the place of individuals in international law; the notion of state sovereignty; sources of international legal norms, treaties and custom; the implementation of international rules in domestic systems; violations of international law and their consequences; enforcement of international rules through the use of force and through judicial means, namely national and international courts and tribunals. The course touches upon contemporary issues of international law, such as the role of the UN in settling international disputes, the concept of collective security, legal restraints on violence in armed conflict, the growth of the international criminal legal system, and the international measures for the protection of the environment. The course considers the use of international legal discourses in the Palestine-Israel conflict, where international law itself has become a site of conflict, a means for gaining legitimacy and a forum for mounting acts of resistance.
  
  202 Human Rights in Armed Conflict
  The manner of applying human rights to situations of armed conflict has been a topic of heated debate in academia and in international and national courts. Modern warfare continues to contribute to the distortion of traditional legal norms that are often seen as unsuitable to the present day realities. This course offers an introduction to the law of armed conflict, known as international humanitarian law. It critically examines the role of law in guiding the conduct of hostilities and the relevance of its ultimate objective of protecting civilians. It reviews situations of (prolonged) occupation and the impact of terrorism on the law of armed conflict, particularly the invocation of the “state of emergency” paradigm. The ways in which international tribunals, regional and national courts have applied human rights law to compliment international humanitarian law in times of armed conflict, along with the traditional legal foundations of the convergence between human rights and the law of war, will be examined. The use of the human rights discourse in times of armed conflict will be examined through a number of case studies looking at practical sources such as NGO and IGO reports, amongst others.
  
  203 Politics of Human Rights
  Why human rights differ from one society, or culture, to another? Is there such a concept as global or universal human rights? How have human rights been used to intervene in the internal affairs of certain countries? This course explores human rights in international relations at the turn of the twenty-first century. By reviewing cases in which human rights are estimated according to power interests, the course surveys contemporary history commencing from the inter-war period after World War II, within and post the Cold War, and after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The course sheds light on the use of human rights in foreign policy, including the human rights approaches of the world’s superpowers towards dictatorial regimes. It considers similarly the manipulation of human rights by regimes as a pretext to the preservation of power, reflecting on the divide between south and north or west and rest. The course enables students to view the current events in the world from an informed position, offering an understanding of human rights issues at both the global and domestic level.
  
  204 Freedom of Expression
  What is “freedom of expression”? Is there a right to say anything? What powers does speech have, who has the power and right to speak and for what? The right to freedom of expression, or the freedom of expression as such, is one of the fundamental pillars of the civil liberties movement, and is located at the very root of the historical origins of most human rights systems. This right has been curtailed by various socio-political regimes across the globe for varying interests and other rights, ranging from national security to the right to privacy and home. The limits of the freedom of speech, as the various case studies and theoretical discussion will exemplify, are often distorted and are thereby left to the mercy of the meekest legal interpretation tools in the field of human rights, i.e. the principle of proportionality, reasonableness and other balancing mechanisms. The course investigates the nature, basis and limits of the right to freedom of speech, the legitimacy or otherwise of this right as associated with multiculturalism, freedom of the press and freedom of religion. The course will examine the ways in which rights, language and public space have been linked together in ideas about democracy by tackling the politico-philosophical debates surrounding this incendiary, contentious subject matter, through theoretical texts and a selection of case studies
  
  205 United Nations System
  What role has the UN played in articulating human rights law and monitoring its implementation? In the last fifty years or so, the international community has agreed on extensive human rights standards set forth in more than a thousand legal texts and instruments, including treaties and declarations, covering civil and political as well as economic, social and cultural rights. While states carry the primary responsibility under international law for the implementation of human rights law, several international and regional organizations have instituted an increasing number of monitoring institutions to scrutinize national performance. The course introduces the UN system for the protection focusing particularly on its principle objective of ensuring international peace and security, namely through the promotion of human rights and democracy. The system includes “treaty bodies”, the committees that monitor the core human rights treaties, particularly the UN Human Rights Council, and a selection of ”special procedures”. It touches upon the other means by which the UN has been involved in global human rights crises, e.g. the Security Council’s role in peacekeeping operations, the Economic and Social Council’s work around the globe and the work of UN specialized agencies. Students will critically evaluate the effectiveness of this system and analyze (by reading numerous reports produced by UN bodies) its notable achievements and existing drawbacks in both the political and legal field.
  
  206 Palestine-Israel Conflict and Human Rights
  The framing and definition of the Palestine-Israel conflict on both the international and regional levels is one of the greatest challenges of this time. The course surveys the historical developments of the use of various legal, political and historical narratives and substantive terminology in the conceptualization of the conflict. For instance, it normatively assesses both the benefits and detriments of framing the conflict in terms of international humanitarian law whilst acknowledging the relevance of the apartheid/colonialism framework. Students will evaluate the availability of different legal and political mechanisms for reparation and reconciliation of historical wrongs and their prospective application to the conflict, assessing their efficiency and effectiveness. Being a trans-substantive course, students will consider various aspects of the conflict – including the right of return and the status of Palestinian refugees, right to self-determination and statehood, the confiscation of land and construction of settlements, as well as the right to water and other more specific rights – from a legal, historical, political and spatial (urban studies) perspective. The material for the course includes a selection of historical primary documents and a variety of secondary political and legal texts.
  
  207 Immigration, Refugees, Citizenship and Human Rights
  Political upheaval throughout the world has made problems of asylum, refugees and immigration far more visible and controversial issues, leading in turn to a constantly-evolving body of policies. Since refugee and immigration issues emanate from the relationship between the individual and the state and the regulatory system in these fields is premised on the preservation of state sovereignty and socio-cultural integrity, they give rise to countless debates and political conflicts both locally and regionally. This course examines the various international attempts to meet the problem of forced migration due to persecution, armed conflict and great economic instability. The course introduces the history of the international protection of refugees and examine the definition of refugee status in international and regional instruments. The discussions will consider the role of UN High Commissioner for Refugees and other UN agencies in protecting and assisting refugees, immigrants and non-nationals. The concept of open borders is also addressed and contextualized to the present day global demographical reality of immigration control policies and the growing influence of the human rights discourse.
  
  208 Theories of Human Rights
  Behind the practical problems underlying the use of human rights as a tool lie many unresolved theoretical and philosophical questions. How do we establish which human rights exist? How can we connect human rights practices to theories of state and society and to the concerns of justice? Who is responsible for the protection of human rights? These debates raise many philosophical questions, both about rights in general and about particular rights, and the study of theories of the various notions of rights is both inherent and inseparable to the modern uses of the term. Covering critical legal and political thinkers ranging from Dworkin, Raz, and Hart to Hegel, Engels, Schmitt and Heidegger and over to more radical contemporary strings of intellects such as Foucault, Derrida and Zizek. The course is based on intensive reading of classic and contemporary texts that explore the central questions concerning the relationship between power and rights, justice and law, and morality and interest, which lie at the heart of what is known today as the universal human rights discourse.
  
  209 Human Rights and the Media
  What role does the media have in reporting on human rights violations? How can the media influence policies and shape public opinion on human rights situations? Why do different news agencies cover the same human rights situation differently? How can politics, power, interests and ideologies influence the way human rights events are covered? Why do some news agencies extensively cover certain human rights situations while ignoring sometimes equally serious human rights situations in other regions? This course will require students to research and critically analyze human rights situations through the eyes of the media by examining the ways that different media networks, national, regional and international cover these cases. By considering the role of the media in historical developments, wars and consequential political transitions, students will evaluate the power politics involved in the news industry as well as the overall level of authenticity that can is found in the daily news.
  
  210 Human Rights in the Arab World and in Islam
  The course introduces students to discourses on Islamic law and human rights, examining the areas of tension between the competing paradigms of universalism and relativism, ranging between the religious and the secular. It critically examines the proposed Islamic human rights schemes, and engages with the arguments of their proponents and critics. The course focuses on the controversial issues of Islamic law, the Sharia – including women rights, family law (marriage, divorce and inheritance), capital, corporal punishments, freedom of region and minority rights – and analyzes them from a universal human rights perspective. The course explores major human rights abuses in the Arab world and considers how religion has been used to promote political and personal interests for both regimes and their opposition groups.  It comparatively observes the modern constitutions of Arab countries with the purpose of evaluating interpretation techniques (of Sharia) used in the jurisprudence of national courts and the legislation of states.
  
  211 Three Generations of Human Rights
  The Universal Declaration of Human Rights makes no distinction between “civil and political rights” and “economic and social rights”. In fact, all human rights are envisaged as interdependent and interrelated, so that there is no hierarchical structure for rights. Is this, however, a conception of rights that is feasible in practice? The first two generations of rights have provoked different justifications and arguably differ in their normative elaboration and articulation of the obligation of states to respect such rights. For instance, are economic and social benefits “rights” or merely “goals” that state seek to achieve based on their abilities? Have third generations of rights, such as the right to an environment, or the right to self-determination, attained international recognition and, if so, what are the obstacles for their enforcement? This course engages, through case studies and comparative perspectives on the interpretation and implementation of various rights, with some of technical issues surrounding the enjoyment of rights, including negative and positive obligations of state agents, and the difficulties incumbent in the classification of rights subject to their normative scope and definition.
  
  212 Transitional Justice
  The course deals with legal, moral, social and political questions that arise in countries emerging from massive conflict or from periods of authoritarian or repressive rule. It examines the strategies available to new democratic governments in order to confront a legacy of human rights abuse. These strategies include prosecutions, truth commissions, reparation programs, institutional reforms and reconciliation programs. The course addresses the nature of the international law obligations that arise following the commission of gross violations of human rights and the constraints embryonic democracies face in attempting to comply with these obligations. It covers a historical period starting from the Nuremberg Trials until recent efforts to pursue accountability by the International Criminal Court and in a number of domestic jurisdictions.
  
  213 Human Rights Tribunals
  The course explores the variety of international courts and tribunals functioning at the inter-state level and addresses a range of theoretical and practical issues relating to their operation. It concentrates in particular on systematic concerns common to all existing tribunals and on doctrinal issues related to the work of specific tribunals. History of international tribunals will be visited and focus would be attached to the recent development of international criminal law, particularly the International Criminal Court.
  
  214 Labor Rights (National and International)
  Relations between employers and employees centrally shape people’s daily lives. Employment relations are simultaneously contractual and hierarchical. They thereby implicate significant legal and philosophical questions about consent, power, and participation. Workplaces in developed countries have become highly regulated institutions, which in turn govern the terms and conditions of workplace interactions among employees and employers. The development of these norms has also gained influence in developing countries as a mean for accelerating both social and economic growth. The course introduces the basics of international labor law, namely the core labor standards of the International Labor Organization, and considers the place of this group of rights in national human rights systems. It observes the widespread application of these standards and the particular uniqueness of their economic enforcement mechanisms.
  
  215 Regional Human Rights Systems
  Regional human rights systems, being at the forefront of human rights enforcement, have become a catalyst for the dynamic evolution of human rights standards and protection mechanisms. The jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Human Rights Court has taken course in shaping the face of the international legal framework for the protection of human rights. The course presents the intricate procedural avenues available at the regional human rights systems and their accessibility to groups and individuals from different national jurisdictions. It studies the case law of these courts from a critical eye and examines the uniqueness of their interpretation techniques and legal rationales. By presenting the framework of the work of these remarkable judicial bodies and examining various case studies, the course seeks to capture the role and position of these institutions in the supranational arena and their affect on national judiciaries and government practices in human rights protection.
  
  216 National Human Rights Systems 
  This course will undertake a select number of national human rights systems as test cases for examining the nature and extent of available domestic procedural and substantive remedies for victims of violations of human rights. National human rights litigation has been apprehended by some as a means for easing or even ending human sufferings in individual cases. This type of litigation empowers the abusive regime itself, contributing to its sustainability by affording it the opportunity to legitimize its actions through its own judicial institutions. These and other contentious issues arising out of contemporary systems of human rights protection and the institutions that claim to have undertaken this role, are reproached and deconstructed.
  
  217 Nation and State Building
  See Political Science program for course description.
  
  218 Media, Public Opinion, and Political Participation
  See Political Science program for course description.
  
  219 The Zionist Movement
  
  See Political Science program for course description.
  
  220 Population Economics and Demography
  
  See Economics program for course description.
  
  221 Space, Power & Politics: Case Study Jerusalem
  
  See Urban Studies program for course description.
  
  222 Politics of Non-Governmental Organizations
  
  See Political Science program for course description.
  
  223 Research Methods in Social Sciences
  This course offers a broad training in research skills and social research methods, both quantitative and qualitative, across the full range of the social sciences. The course offers students an opportunity to develop analytical skills, an interdisciplinary knowledge base and a practical understanding of research fields. Students will learn to search for sources and to interpret and evaluate findings, qualitatively and quantitatively, which will enable them to conduct different types of research in academic and professional contexts. Students will be provided with a thorough theoretical and practical knowledge of how to construct effective research studies, of the variety of data collection methods available to the social scientist and of the principal methods of analysing social scientific data. They will also be introduced to the political and ethical frameworks within which social science research is conducted; and to some of the ways in which the results of social science research are disseminated.
  
  224 Statistics
  
  See Mathematics program for course description.
  
  225 Colonialism
  
  See History program for course description.
  
  226 Topics in Human Rights
  
  300 LEVEL COURSES
  
  301 Human Rights Documentation and Reporting
  This course focuses on the development of practical professional skills. It seeks to equip students with tools required for professional documentation and reporting on human rights violations for a variety of purposes and for different types of institutions. After attending this course, students would be familiar with the basic elements needed for any proper human rights document. They would be able to structure and formulate reports to be submitted to regional and UN bodies, including national and international judicial bodies. Technical documentation methodology and tools for specific types of human rights reports, such as those in cases of torture and violence against women, will be taught and practiced in the course of the seminars, which will be conducted in part by a select group of external experts and practitioners.
  
  302 Internship
  
  See Urban Studies program for course description.
  
  303 Human Rights after 9/11
  What is “terrorism”? Is torture ever justified to combat terrorism? Can suspected terrorists be held in preventive detention? What is the significance of calling the current struggle against global terrorism a “war”? Is security versus rights a “zero sum game”? What role do human rights play in combating terrorism? Is terrorism a human rights violation? How has the global fight against terrorism impacted the promotion of human rights and human rights defenders? These questions reflect the essence of the new paradigm of the “war on terror” in the reality of post-September 11 human rights dilemmas. This course will examine the tensions between political and legal efforts to combat terrorism and preserve the stature of fundamental human rights principles.
  
  304 Women, Ethnic Minorities and Human Rights
  This course addresses the challenges of achieving the international legal protection of the human rights of women and ethnic minorities. It analyzes core themes and issues of women’s rights, incorporating a comparative cultural, national, and historical study of women’s movements and activisms. It reviews the way in which international and regional human rights conventions have been applied to prevent, punish and remedy the violations of the rights of ethnic minorities in different judicial and governmental forums. It also examines how the norm of the prohibition of all forms of discrimination against women has been applied and how it interacts with the rights of ethnic minorities. The course is basic predominantly on the examination and analysis of case studies.
  
  305 Constitutions and Human Rights
  The incorporation of human rights norms in national constitutions is often seen as the principal tool for the protection of human rights on the national level. Basic human rights notions exist in most constitutions. The various techniques of incorporating human rights into constitutions have also strongly influenced the development of international human rights law. Varying theories of constitutional interpretation have been offered over the years by different judiciaries around the world. The enforcement of rights through the constitutive mechanisms re-draws the relations between the judiciary and the other branches of government. The course examines these arguments and explicates their meaning for the protection of human rights by comparing different constitutional frameworks for the protection of human rights and assessing the importance of the role of the judiciary in each case.
  
  306 Critical Israel Studies
  
  See Political Science program for course description.
  
  307 Nation, Territory and Population
  
  See Urban Studies program for course description.
  
  308 Advanced Topics in Human Rights
  
  400 LEVEL COURSES
  
  Senior Seminar I & II
  Students would suggest and advocate for any human rights or international law course that would then be introduced in a given semester upon the availability of a visiting faculty.
• Political Science View >>
  100 LEVEL COURSES
  
  101 Principles and Theories of International Relations
  This course provides students with an understanding of the hows and whys of state how foreign policy is made; international organizations; and some of the “hot” issues in the world today— terrorism, preventive war, globalization, and the spread of democracy. Authors read include Thucydides, Morgenthau, Russett, Huntington, and Mearsheimer, among many others.
  
  102 Comparative Political Systems
  The intellectual premise of comparative politics is that we can better understand the politics of almost any country by placing it in its larger, global context. This perspective allows us to address some of the most fundamental questions of politics. Students examine not only the key institutions of liberal democracies, but also democracies constructed after dictatorships (Germany, Japan) and federalism as an emerging trend in contemporary regional politics.
  
  103 Political Theory: Modern and Contemporary 
  This course examines politics through a core body of writings. It takes a comparative look at texts from diverse historical eras and reflects critically on different ways of thinking about political concepts such as justice, democracy, authority, and “the political.” Students reconstruct (and perhaps deconstruct) key strategic alternatives to such enduring questions as the relationship between the state and the individual, the conditions for peaceful political order, and the relationship between political action, intellectual contemplation, and morality.
  
  104 Principles of Public Administration 
  This is an introductory course designed to give students a working knowledge of the history, theories and practice  of public administration in the United States at the national, state and local levels. Students are introduced to the concepts and major topics of public administration and its intellectual development. Some attention is given to its practical application through case studies. The course provides students with knowledge and competence in terms of analyzing significant factors and relationships in governmental agencies and nonprofit organizations as they function in their environments. Further, students will be able to identify and diagnose the principal types of problems encountered at levels of high administrative responsibility in government and the nonprofit sector. The course provides students with an overview of all subjects in the field and will serve as a basis for further study in public administration.
  
  105 Political Geography
  This course focuses on the international and cross-national perspectives of political geography. It deals with political, economic and social aspects of international relations from a geographical perspective and examines societies in transition in the post Cold War and 9-11 world As such, the course has an integrative character and requires basic knowledge about international affairs. Frequent reading of a substantive newspaper or magazine, such as The New York Times, The Guardian, Christian Science Monitor, or the Economist would help significantly to acquire (or develop) knowledge of global locations and current events. We will survey some important aspects of the discipline of political geography but will not engage in a systematic survey of regional issues and conflicts. Instead, contemporary developments in the world’s regions (especially Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, the Middle East and Africa) are used to illustrate the concepts from the lectures and readings.
  
  200 Level
  
  201 Politics of the Middle East
  This course is an introduction to the contemporary politics and international relations of the Middle East. It is intended to provide you with essential background information on the cultures and history of the Middle East, familiarize you with a survey of selected contemporary political issues from the region, and, hopefully, impart to you the enthusiasm and curiosity that I have about this politically complex and vibrant part of the world . By the end of the course, you should have a nuanced understanding of the main political, social, and economic factors at play in the region, and will be well-equipped to follow developments in the Middle East for years to come. The course will be divided into four sections -- an introduction to the region, the Arab- Israeli conflict, governance and the rise of political Islam, and international relations of the Middle East.
  
  202 Israeli Political System
  This course is designed to acquaint students with the fundamental political and social issues facing Israel today, through a critical analysis of academic literature, films, news reports, and novels by contemporary Israeli writers.
  
  203 The Palestinian Political System
  
  204 The Arab–Israeli Conflict
  See Human Rights program for course description.
  
  205 Public International Law and International Organizations 
  See Human Rights Program for course description.
  
  206 Nation and State Building 
  The modern state is of central interest to students of comparative politics, international relations, and American political development.  Whether condemned as an instrument of repression or elevated as an engine of economic development, the state is inarguably the fundamental unit of national political organization in the world today.  This course will examine the processes that produced the modern state in the region where it first appeared, Western Europe, and then analyze attempts to transplant this singular institutional innovation to Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa, East Asia, as well as the United States.  We will address the following questions: what is the modern state? In what historical circumstances did it originate?  Can state-builders in late-developing nations reproduce the institutional forms of the modern state, or are these institutions inevitably altered in transit?  When does state-building fail and why?  Finally, in an era of economic globalization and emerging supranational institutions such as the European Union, are some states undergoing fundamental redefinition?
  
  207 American Politics: Issues and Institutions
  This course introduces students to the basic institutions and processes of American government. The class is meant to provide students with a grasp of the fundamental dynamics of American politics and the skills to be an effective participant in and critic of the political process. Students examine how the government works, interpret current political developments and debates, and consider how to influence the government at various levels.
  
  208 Western European Politics and Society 
  The United States often figures as the implicit model for its citizens’ thinking about what a relatively prosperous, industrialized, democratic country can or should be like. This course challenges that “U.S.-centric” perspective by examining the politics, policies, and institutions of Western European countries, focusing primarily on Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Sweden from World War II to the present.
  
  209 African Politics 
  In what ways have precolonial and colonial historical processes shaped politics in postcolonial Africa? What are the human rights and democracy challenges that postcolonial Africa faces? In response to these and related questions, students explore Africa’s political culture, civil society, and the role of the media in shaping public political opinion. Emphasis is on South Africa, Sudan, Senegal, and Nigeria.
  
  210 Politics of the European Union 
  This course is designed to accomplish two primary tasks. First it will introduce students to the history, development and current state of the European Union (EU) and in particular its political institutions. The first part of the course will be dedicated to accomplishing this task through extensive reading and discussion of the existing EU-specific literature (books and articles). In the second part of the class we will turn to the remaining goal: the development of an understanding of the European Union and its political instructions, development and structure in comparative context.  The course encourages students to evaluate the history, development, current status and likely future of the EU in an explicitly comparative context. This is accomplished through a review of some of the basic theories in comparative politics on institutions and institutional development and an evaluation of the applicability of these theories (with and without revisions) to the EU case.
  
  211 Politics of Civil Wars 
  Internal armed conflicts are a major part of contemporary world politics, occurring far more frequently than interstate wars. These conflicts are not all the same, and the same con- flict can have many layers. This course focuses on a few Asian cases—Burma, northeast India, southern Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Tibet. Readings include texts that introduce students to the theoretical literature.
  
  212 Women and Islam: Politics and Society
  The position of women in Islam is the subject of ongoing debate in both the Islamic world and the West. However, since 9/11, this debate has found a wider audience. This course examines some of the fundamental laws of Islam and the role and position of women in various Islamic countries. It also considers “Islamic feminism” through women’s art, writings, and political activities.
  
  213 The Zionist Movement 
  The course will offer a historical introduction accompanied by a sociological analysis of the Zionist movement, the early settlement or 'Yishuv' and the first 50 years of the State of Israel. The first part of the course will be devoted to the emergence of Zionism, the ideologies of its early leaders, and the relationship of the Yishuv to internal Zionist debates and external powers. In the second part of the course, we will discuss the creation of the State; the Arab-Israeli conflict; the political system; the mass immigration and the ethnic gap; and relations with the Arab minority and the question of Identity.
  
  214 Media, Public Opinion, and Political Participation 
  This seminar addresses the interaction between government and news media, concentrating on the characteristics of different media systems, the role of news media in elections, the impact of news media on the formation of foreign and domestic policy, and recent news media restrictions related to national security concerns. Topics include public opinion polls, election campaigns, people’s voting decisions, the scope of citizen political activism, and fundamental attitudes toward government.
  
  215 Islamic Political Thought 
  This course will provide an advanced survey of the long and rich tradition of Islamic political theory  and is intended to provide students with a broad understanding of the key thinkers making contributions to Islamic political thought. There are two courses designed to divide Islamic political thought into two periods: 645-1500 CE and 1500 CE-Present. The pre-modern course is conceived as a prerequisite for the modern course because the modern period deals with the lingering problems of the pre-modern period. Classical Islamic political thought (645-1500 CE) spans from the historical context within which Islam emerged to the end of the classical period of Islamic political thought. Early modern and modern Islamic political thought (1500 CE-Present) spans the dynastic period beginning with the Safavids to contemporary political thinkers.
  
  216 Political Sociology 
  This course examines theory and research in political sociology. The course includes an overview of the theories of political behavior and political power. Attention will be given to the core ideas in each theory, the logical relationships among their parts (e.g., assumptions, concepts, propositions), and the central debates in political sociology. The seminar also includes an examination of empirical studies that test these competing theories, the development of alternative conceptual frameworks, and the extension of existing theories. Particular attention is given to how groups and classes mobilize to advance their political agenda. It includes an examination of the capacity of competing interests including corporations, trade associations, social classes, racial and ethnic groups, and the state. It also examines how historical contingencies affect the political power of classes and groups. The course includes an examination of public policy because the policy formation process is one of the primary mechanisms through which social actors realize their interests in contemporary society.
  
  217 United Nations and Model UN 
  The first part of this course explores the history of the United Nations, providing an introduction to its structure and principal aims. It examines the role of specialized agencies and how alliances impact on the UN’s day-to-day operations. The second part of the course focuses on an assigned country whose history, politics, and economics are studied. The course concludes with the writing of “position papers” that reflect that country’s approach to issues confronting the UN. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
  
  218 Development and Dependency 
  This course provides an overview of the theories and practices of development and globalization. By reviewing key concepts such as colonialism, cold war, dependency theory, state- led development, and neoliberalism, it explores ways in which development has been conceptualized, defined, and practiced for more than three centuries. It also examines the effects of development and globalization on the Third World. In particular, it focuses on the social dimension: freedom, inequality, exclusion, human rights, and environmental degradation.
  
  219 Introduction to Quantitative Analysis
  It has been said that “figures never lie, but liars figure,” and in political debates, the incentives to lie with figures are ubiquitous. Political scientists, however, frequently resort to statistical analysis to gain insights into social phenomena and causal relationships. This course cultivates rudiments of statistical analysis, with emphasis upon the ability to interpret and evaluate inferential claims in social science literature.
  
  220 The US and the Modern Middle East
  This seminar focuses on the complex and contradictory relationship between the United States and the Arab world. Students discuss the creation of Arab nation-states, the pivotal year 1948, Nasserism, the Cold War, the Six-Day War, and the first Gulf War, among other topics. The class then considers challenges to the American role (if any) in the Arab world as well as fundamentalism, terrorism, democratization, trade, the Gulf emirates as liberals, and the war in Iraq.
  
  221 International Organizations & Domestic Politics
  This course examines how international organizations such as the World Bank, the United Nations, and large, international nongovernmental organizations seek to influence domestic policy agendas and politics and how domestic political processes, in turn, constrain or respond to international actors. Issues covered in the course range from economic reform to poverty alleviation, human rights, indigenous rights, and the environment.
  
  222 Human Rights in Global Politics
  In this course, we will examine a variety of issues related to human rights. First, we will examine the history of the idea of human rights and the theoretical underpinnings of the idea. Second, we will undertake a thematic examination of human rights violations worldwide, looking at such issues as genocide and gender discrimination. Third, we will look at how attempts are made to protect human rights on the global scene, from the UN to regional organizations and nongovernmental organizations. Fourth, we will investigate the various attempts to redress past abuses through truth commissions and war crimes tribunals. Finally, throughout the course we will assess the impact human rights is having vis-à-vis theoretical concerns in global politics, focusing on the issue of the relationship between human rights and state sovereignty.
  
  223 Environmental Politics
  Environmental politics involves many crucial themes in global politics. This course considers how government regulation works and fails to work, how competing interests and values shape policy outcomes, how policymakers grapple with (or evade) complex technical issues, and such topics as toxic waste, environmental justice, climate change, wilderness conservation, endangered species protection, and related issues.
  
  224 Constitutional Law
  This course is an intense analysis of federal and state court decisions that interpret the United States Constitution as to the authority and process of criminal justice agencies. Topics include a historical overview, the Bill of Rights, trial and punishment, civil remedies and Constitutional conduct, and Constitutional and civil rights in the workplace.
  
  225 Topics in Political Studies
  
  From Cosmopolitanism to Globalization
  See Philosophy program for course description.
  
  Introduction to Statistics
  See Mathematics Program for course description.
  
  300 LEVEL
  
  301 Senior Seminar 
  
  302 Advanced Topics in Political Studies 
  This course focuses on a close reading of one important thinker or book in the tradition of political and legal theory. Authors and books vary from semester to semester.
• Urban Studies and Spatial Practices View >>
  101 Introduction to Urban Studies
  The main objective of the course is to provide students with the tools to be able to engage in a critical reading of contemporary urban conditions. The city is a material reality as well as a set of relations between people, technologies, media and buildings. What can we learn from studying the city? The urban space is explored with an interdisciplinary approach (using architecture, urban design, sociology, anthropology, geography, literature and visual arts) aiming to uncover the way cities are a result of a complex interaction of social, political and economic forces. In particular students will discuss how political conflicts are not only registered but also operate through the transformation of the urban space. The aim of the course is to develop students’ conceptual and practical skills for the critical reading and interpretation of the contemporary spatial regime in Palestine-Israel. Particular attention will thus be given to issues related to social and spatial justice.
  
  102 The Palestine Israel Conflict 
  See Human Rights program for course description.
  
  103 Research Methods in Social Science 
  This course offers a broad training in research skills and social research methods, both quantitative and qualitative, across the full range of the social sciences. The course offers students an opportunity to develop analytical skills, an interdisciplinary knowledge base and a practical understanding of research fields. Students will learn to search for sources and to interpret and evaluate findings, qualitatively and quantitatively, which will enable them to conduct different types of research in academic and professional contexts. Students will be provided with a thorough theoretical and practical knowledge of how to construct effective research studies, of the variety of data collection methods available to the social scientist and of the principal methods of analysing social scientific data. They will also be introduced to the political and ethical frameworks within which social science research is conducted; and to some of the ways in which the results of social science research are disseminated.
  
  100 LEVEL COURSES
  
  ELECTIVES
  
  104 Introduction to Human Rights 
  See Human Rights program for course description.
  
  105 Introduction to Environmental Studies 
  See Environmental Studies program for course description.
  
  200 LEVEL COURSES
  
  CORE
  
  201 Human Geography
  Human Geography investigates the interactions between people and territories. The course explores cultural and spatial issues, ranging from geopolitics, to cartography and human rights.  In particular, students will engage with problems related to land, rights and human interaction in Palestine and elsewhere. Through maps, field trips and texts, the course will analyze historical and contemporary developments in the politics of urban planning and space. The course will be structured around three main areas of investigation: A) The vertical prospective: topographical maps and areal photos. The “vertical representation” of the world has historically been considered as objective and scientific. However, we know that maps were produce by the powerful and implicitly or explicitly they thereby necessarily embody a certain ideological vision of the world. Students will learn to read critically such “objective” forms of representation and deconstruct its hidden political agenda. In particular we will read historical and contemporary maps of Palestine trying to contextualize their social and political vision of the world. B) The horizontal prospective: view from the road and walking. We will associate to the more classical and established forms of representation of territory on both a horizontal and dynamic perspective. This is a more subjective view but one that is nonetheless very useful for understating spatial transformation and the movements of people. Through the use of videos, photos, interviews with people we will learn how to map the territory from below. C) The vertical and horizontal approaches of investigation will be applied as strategies for reading phenomena such as colonization and decolonization, refugee camps and new towns.
  
  202 Space, Power & Politics: Case Studies in Jerusalem
  The course’s objective is to enhance spatial and territorial awareness and understanding of city and society (class, gender, age, disability, culture, ethnicity & access to economic opportunities and urban services). The course will introduce students to urban theories, participatory processes, mapping and urban ethnic conflict, and explain the role of urban planning as an operational tool that shapes geography and society. The lectures and readings will provide students with an overview of urban planning in the case study of Jerusalem (explain Israeli partisan urban planning policy, Jewish settlements and on going territorial/demographic engineering).  The suggested seminar topics for the course include: Space, power and the everyday life- strategies & tactics (a prism of spatial analysis): Lefebvre, de Certeau, Foucault; Territory, territoriality and global urbanization: Sassen, Sack, Dealaney; Urban social justice: David Smith, Harvey, Friedman; Urban governance and ethno-national conflict in divided cities: Bollens, Dumper, Yiftachel; Jewish settlement policy and the matrix of territorial control: Weizman, Klein and Halper; Israeli planning and urban policy in Jerusalem: Efrat, Hanafi and Cheshin; Instrumentalization of security: Bollens, Yiftachel; Jerusalem municipality and urban discrimination: Margalit, ‘Ir Shalem's publications and other NGO reports; Territorial control and manipulation of housing provision: Khamaisi, Cheshin & ICAHD; Multiple territorialities, urban fragmentation and territorial encapsulations: Yousef, and Palestinian & Israeli publication on the wall and its socio-political and economic effects.
  
  203 The Colonial and Postcolonial City
  What are the specific patterns of a colonial city? What are the continuities and discontinues between the colonial city and a the postcolonial city? In this course, the students will study, the delicate passage between colonial and postcolonial regimes and their impact on the structure of the city and society. Among the case studies: Delhi, Algiers, Rabat, Tripoli, Singapore, Jakarta, and Johannesburg.
  
  204 Planning in Zones of Conflict
  Examination of the spatial transformation of urban space; understanding the processes that shape urban form and its values; investigating the regulatory and institutional structures and powers the govern urban form; studying alternative productions of urban space; studio-based design that contest and form alternatives to the mainstream discourse on urban space.
      
  205 Internship: Urban Studies and Human Rights in Context 
  The course is designed to combine substantial academic engagement with the theoretical principles of urban planning and human rights, as well as practical, hands-on experience of working in a UN agency alongside professional planners, human rights organizations and community leaders. In addition to academic writing and research, students doing the program will attend conferences and seminars and conduct basic field work. The summer course will offer a group of students the unique opportunity to develop their knowledge of crucial and emerging professional and academic fields in Palestine through a series of contemporary case studies examined and scrutinized with the expertise and guidance of local and international professionals from a range of disciplines.
  
  ELECTIVE
  
  206 Planning tools and Principle of mapping
  This course is designed to introduce the undergraduate students to planning tools in Palestine and the impacts of planning laws and regulations on space and urban reform. The students will be trained to critique current regulations and utilize current and proposed regulations to impact urban development and changes. To be prepared, students will be updated with the urban status in Palestine with reference to current planning laws and regulations assessing how such regulations can impact urban development, both directly and indirectly.
  
  207 Colonialism and Post-colonialism 
  See History program for course description.
  
  208 Cinema and Urban Space
  Space as a product of representations, time and power structures; the examination of the work of different filmmakers in films which depict critical spatial issues; discussion of visual culture of space through film from the perspective of city planning, art, politics, architecture, economy and other disciplines.
  
  209 Urban and Regional Economics
  See Economics program for course description.
  
  210 Colonialism in the Middle East
  See History program for course description.
  
  211 Immigration, Refugees, Citizenship
  See Human Rights program for course description.
  
  212 Literature & Revolution
  See Comparative Literature program for course description.
  
  213 Literature of Resistance & Conflict
  See Comparative Literature program for course description.
  
  214 Narrative & National identity
  See Comparative Literature program for course description.
  
  215 The City in Literature
  See Comparative Literature program for course description.
  
  216 Political Geography
  See Political Science program for course description.
  
  217 History of the Zionist Movement
  See History program for course description.
  
  218 Modernism/ Postmodernism
  See History program for course description.
  
  219 History of Urbanism
  See History program for course description.
  
  220 Colonialism: The Rise of the Global Order
  See History program for course description.
  
  221 Post-Colonialism: Ghandi to Arafat
  See History program for course description.
  
  222 Creative Writing Workshop
  See Comparative Literature program for course description.
  
  223 Middle Easter Societies and Cultures
  This course is designed as an introduction to a selection of contemporary trends in the anthropology of the Middle East with an eye towards the current political and economic issues in the region. The aim is to acquaint students with some important texts and authors, and thereby encourage them to begin to think critically about the relationship between the Middle East and the West, as well as establish an understanding of the ways that anthropology can be practiced in order to help understand the area today. As such, the course will move through discussions of the politics of representation, Islam as practiced in parts of the Middle East and abroad, gender, contemporary political and economic issues, colonialism, Zionism, and the conflict in Israel and Palestine.
  
  224 Public International Law & International Organization
  See Human Rights program for course description.
  
  225 Politics of Non-Governmental Organizations
  See Political Science program for course description.
  
  226 Topics in Urban Studies
  
  300 LEVEL COURSES
  
  301 Seminar in Geopolitics and Local Practices
  What are the effects of geopolitical lines and divisions drawn on maps into a domestic space of a house? How an apparent clear political division impacts the everyday life of a domestic space? In this seminar in particular we will look how geopolitical lines established during the Oslo Agreement affected the everyday life of the Palestinian people.
  
  302 Urban Studies Research Seminar
  In urban studies Research Seminar we will invite international expert to engage with the most controversial and urgent problems around the urban grows and its political fallout. In particular we look at: urban identity, urban demolition, green spaces, public and private spaces, preserving urban history, cultural and social landscapes.
  
  303 Security, State, Population
  In this course we restudy the course that Foucalt gave at the Collège de France between 1977 and 1978 (Michel Foucault, Security, Territory, Population. Lectures at the Collège de France (1977-1978), Pelgrave MacMillan, 2007) where he investigated the passage of a disciplinary society into a society of security, by which he means a society in which there is a general economy of power which has the form of, or which is dominated by, the technology of security. We pay particular attention to the distinction between discipline and security in the Palestinian context and in their respective ways of dealing with the organization of spatial distributions.
  
  304 Critical Israel Studies
  See Political Science program for course description.
  
  305 Urbanism
  This is an advanced seminar in urban theory and the sociology of cities. Course readings and discussions will focus on the history of urbanism, the production of social space and the politics of urban knowledge. What are some major forms that urbanism has taken? What is the role of planners, experts, and social movements in shaping urban space? What factors make cities change, stagnate or transform?

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