Search Results
Your search for courses · during 26SP · meeting requirements for HI, Humanistic Inquiry · returned 52 results
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AFST 225 Black Music, Resistance, and Liberation 6 credits
For every defining moment in black history, there is a song. Every genre of black music makes a statement not only about the specific historical epoch it was created but also about the people’s dreams. For black people, songs are a means of resistance to oppression and an expression of the will to live. Through the analysis of black music, this course will expose students to black people’s struggles, hopes, and aspirations, and also American history, race relations, and much more. The class will read insightful texts, listen to songs, watch films, and engage in animated discussions.
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One course that applies toward the Humanistic Inquiry requirement with a grade of C- or better.
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AFST 225.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Chielo Eze 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- T, THLeighton 330 1:15pm-3:00pm
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AMST 115 Introduction to American Studies 6 credits
This overview of the “interdisciplinary discipline” of American Studies will focus on the ways American Studies engages with and departs from other scholarly fields of inquiry. We will study the stories of those who have been marginalized in the social, political, cultural, and economic life of the United States due to their class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, citizenship, and level of ability. We will explore contemporary American Studies concerns like racial and class formation, the production of space and place, the consumption and circulation of culture, and transnational histories.
Sophomore Priority
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AMST 234 American Identities in the Twentieth Century 6 credits
What does it mean to be an American and how has that definition changed over time? This course examines how individual Americans have explored the relationship between their selves and their country’s recent history. We will read memoirs and autobiographies to explore American identities through a variety of lenses, including race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, citizenship status, region, and ability. Key texts will include works by Alison Bechdel, Audre Lorde, Malcolm X, and Mine Okubo.
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AMST 234.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Christopher Elias 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- T, THAnderson Hall 329 10:10am-11:55am
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AMST 396 AIDS in America 6 credits
This junior seminar for AMST majors studies AIDS in America as a means of preparing students to write their own research papers. The AIDS crisis made deep impact on various areas of American society, resulting in a robust, interdisciplinary discourse about the pandemic’s origins, scope, impact, and legacy. We will utilize a variety of media, including poetry, music, memoir, fiction, oral history, film, visual art, performance art, and scholarship. Using the tools of inquiry encountered in this class and throughout their work in the major, students will then prepare an original research paper on a topic of their choice.
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): AMST 115 with grade of C- or better.
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AMST 396.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Christopher Elias 🏫 👤
- Size:15
- T, THLeighton 301 1:15pm-3:00pm
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ASST 285 Mapping Japan, the Real and the Imagined 6 credits
From ancient to present times, Japan drew and redrew its borders, shape, and culture, imagining its place in this world and beyond, its From ancient times to the present, Japan drew and redrew its borders, reimagining its cultural and racial identity, and its place in this world and beyond. This course is a cartographic exploration of this complex and contested history. Cosmological mandalas, hell images, travel brochures, and military maps bring to light Japan’s religious vision, cartographic imagination, and political ambition that dictated its geopolitical expansion and the displacement of minority peoples at home, defining its real and imagined boundaries. We will explore a variety of maps, focusing on those in Carleton’s unique library collection.
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ASST 285.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Asuka Sango 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- T, THLeighton 236 1:15pm-3:00pm
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CCST 208 International Coffee and News 2 credits
Have you recently returned from studying or living abroad? This course is designed to help you keep in touch with the culture you left behind, while deepening your understanding of current issues across the globe. Relying on magazines and newspapers in the local language or in English-language media, students will discuss common topics and themes as they play out in the countries or regions where they have lived or studied. Conducted in English.
Recommended preparation: Participation in an off-campus study program (Carleton or non-Carleton), substantial experience living abroad, or instructor permission. Not recommended for first-year students.
Repeatable: This course can be retaken once, for a total of four credits.
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
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CCST 208.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:David Tompkins 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- Grading:S/CR/NC
- M, WLeighton 301 12:30pm-1:40pm
- FLeighton 301 1:10pm-2:10pm
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CCST 230 Worlds of Jewish Memory 6 credits
Transmitting Jewish memory from one generation to the next has always been a treasured practice across the Jewish world. How have pivotal environments for Jews lived on in Jewish collective memory? How do they continue to speak through film, art, photography, music, architecture, museum/ memorial/ summer camp design, prayer, cuisine, and more? We'll compare dynamics of remembering and memorializing several Jewish worlds: ancient Egypt, medieval Spain, early modern Germany, pre- through post-Holocaust Europe and Russia, colonial into contemporary New York City, 1950s Algeria, and pre-State into contemporary Israel. Research projects can include family history explored through scholarship on cross-cultural memory.
CCST 230 is equivalent to MELA 230.
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CCST 230.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Stacy Beckwith 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WLanguage & Dining Center 244 1:50pm-3:00pm
- FLanguage & Dining Center 244 2:20pm-3:20pm
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CHIN 212 Discovering Chinese Medicine 6 credits
Unveil the ancient world of Chinese medicine by exploring a rich blend of historical sources, from classical texts and excavated manuscripts (in translation) to medical images, tools, and artifacts. Spanning two millennia from the dawn of Chinese civilization, this course invites students to discover the social and material history behind the foundational concepts, diagnostic techniques, and treatment methods of traditional Chinese medicine. No prior knowledge is required—just curiosity!
In translation.
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CHIN 212.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Lin Deng 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WLanguage & Dining Center 244 12:30pm-1:40pm
- FLanguage & Dining Center 244 1:10pm-2:10pm
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CLAS 130 The Greek and Latin Roots of English 6 credits
We speak it every day on campus, and it is the second most common language on the planet, but where did English come from? While its basic grammar is Germanic, much of its vocabulary—probably around 60 percent—comes from Greek and Latin. This course explores the varied and fascinating contributions that these two languages have made to English, focusing on the basic building blocks of words—bases, prefixes, and suffixes—while also considering the many routes the Classical languages have taken to enter modern English. This course is suitable for students of science, linguistics, and literature, as well as language lovers generally.
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry QRE, Quantitative Reasoning
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CLAS 130.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Chico Zimmerman 🏫 👤
- Size:30
- M, WLanguage & Dining Center 104 1:50pm-3:00pm
- FLanguage & Dining Center 104 2:20pm-3:20pm
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CLAS 200 Greece at a Crossroads: History, Landscape, and Material Culture 6 credits
This course provides a long-term view of the history, landscape, and material culture of Greece, from prehistory to the present day. While the monuments of ancient Greece are cultural touchstones, Greece has a remarkably diverse past, occupying a borderland between continents, empires, and cultures, both ancient and modern. Classroom study and on-site learning examine the wide range of sources that inform us about the Greek past (texts, archaeology, the environment), and focus especially on the stories told by places and things. Site visits in Athens and on trips throughout Greece highlight the importance of local and regional contexts in the “big histories” of the eastern Mediterranean.
Requires participation in OCS Program: Greece at a Crossroads: History, Landscape, and Material Culture
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
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Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Greece at a Crossroads program.
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ENTS 320 Seminar: Listening to the Land 6 credits
For many Indigenous peoples, land is a relative, a teacher, and a source of knowledge. This seminar examines Indigenous relationships with land through the writings of Native authors, scholars, and activists, exploring Traditional Ecological Knowledge, stewardship, and environmental challenges. We will consider how Indigenous knowledge informs responses to climate change, land use, biodiversity loss, and other environmental threats, while also recognizing land and non-human beings as active participants in cultural and ecological systems. Through a reading-group format, discussions will foster critical reflection and connections to broader environmental issues. Students will also conduct an independent research paper, applying course themes to a focused topic of inquiry.
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FREN 208 French and Francophone Studies in Paris Program: Contemporary France: Cultures, Politics, Society 6 credits
This course seeks to deepen students’ knowledge of contemporary French culture through a pluridisciplinary approach, using multimedia (books, newspaper and magazine articles, videos, etc.) to generate discussion. It will also promote the practice of both oral and written French through exercises, debates, and oral presentations.
Requires participation in OCS Program: French and Francophone Studies in Paris
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
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Acceptance in the Carleton OCS French and Francophone Studies in Paris Program and student has completed any of the following course(s): FREN 204 or higher level course with a grade of C- or better.
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FREN 210 Coffee and News 2 credits
Keep up your French while learning about current issues in France, as well as world issues from a French perspective. Requirements include reading specific sections of leading French newspapers, (Le Monde, Libération, etc.) on the internet, and then meeting once a week to exchange ideas over coffee with a small group of students.
Sophomore Priority
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): FREN 204 with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 4 or better on the French Language and Culture AP exam or received a score of 6 or better on the French: Language B IB exam or received a score of 205 on the Carleton French Placement exam. .
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FREN 210.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Sandra Rousseau 🏫 👤
- Size:15
- Grading:S/CR/NC
- WLanguage & Dining Center 330 3:10pm-4:20pm
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GERM 209 German for Music Enthusiasts 2 credits
From chart-topping hits to old classics, explore the sounds of the German-speaking world while honing your language skills. Each weekly session explores the cultural and social context of selected songs, providing valuable insights into contemporary German society. Engage in interactive singing sessions to learn and perform these songs, improving your pronunciation and language fluency. No prior musical experience is required.
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): GERM 204 with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 4 or better on the German Language and Culture AP exam or received a score of 6 or better on the German: Language B IB exam or received a score of 205 on the Carleton German Placement exam.
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GERM 262 German Studies in Austria Program: Cultural History of Food and Drink in Vienna 6 credits
What are the cultural, historical, environmental, social, and political forces that shape our experience with food and drink? This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to learning about the important food and drink culture in Vienna and Austria. Site visits to the city’s iconic markets, taverns, producers, breweries and cafés deepen understanding and language skills.
Requires participation in OCS Program: German Studies in Austria
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
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Acceptance in the Carleton OCS German Studies in Austria program.
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HIST 114 Indigenous Histories, Time Immemorial to 1887 6 credits
Indigenous presence in North America pre-dates the United States by millennia and persists in spite of colonial attempts to eliminate Indigenous peoples. As Part I of the Indigenous Histories in the United States survey, we begin with Indigenous Knowledges of place, time, and identity since time immemorial. We then move through thousands of years of stories of diplomacy, captivity, colonialism, resistance, removal, and reconstitution. We conclude in the mid-1880s, a drastic period of change for lands, humans, and more-than-human relations. This course takes an ethnohistorical approach which centers Indigenous perspectives and draws on History, Indigenous Studies, and Anthropology.
Extra Time Required: If the ACE collaboration continues, students will travel to Hocokata Ti in Prior Lake, MN for a training and archives tour.
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HIST 114.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Meredith McCoy 🏫 👤
- Size:30
- T, THWillis 203 1:15pm-3:00pm
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HIST 123 U.S. Women’s History Since 1877 6 credits
In the twentieth century women participated in the redefinition of politics and the state, sexuality and family life, and work and leisure as the United States became a modern, largely urban society. We will explore how the dimensions of race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality shaped diverse women’s experiences of these historical changes. Topics will include: immigration, the expansion of the welfare system and the consumer economy, labor force segmentation and the world wars, and women’s activism in civil rights, labor, peace and feminist movements.
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HIST 123.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Annette Igra 🏫 👤
- Size:30
- T, THLeighton 330 3:10pm-4:55pm
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HIST 136 The Global Middle Ages 6 credits
Encounter, interaction, and communication across space and between cultures are fundamental parts of the human story yet are often marginalized when we use national, regional, or religious frameworks to shape our study. In this course, we will center our investigation of the medieval time period (roughly 500-1500CE) on interactions among cultures and peoples across Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas. We will think comparatively about how peoples around the globe approached similar questions and problems and ask how a global approach helps improve our understanding of this dynamic and creative period. Extra time required for one field trip.
Extra time for one field trip
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HIST 136.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Victoria Morse 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WLeighton 304 1:50pm-3:00pm
- FLeighton 304 2:20pm-3:20pm
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HIST 161 From Mughals to Mahatma Gandhi: An Introduction to Modern Indian History 6 credits
An introductory survey course to familiarize students with some of the key themes and debates in the historiography of modern India. Beginning with an overview of Mughal rule in India, the main focus of the course is the colonial period. The course ends with a discussion of 1947: the hour of independence as well as the creation of two new nation-states, India and Pakistan. Topics include Oriental Despotism, colonial rule, nationalism, communalism, gender, caste and race. No prior knowledge of South Asian History required.
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HIST 161.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Amna Khalid 🏫 👤
- Size:30
- T, THHulings 316 1:15pm-3:00pm
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HIST 205 American Environmental History 6 credits
Environmental concerns, conflicts, and change mark the course of American history, from the distant colonial past to our own day. This course will consider the nature of these eco-cultural developments, focusing on the complicated ways that human thought and perception, culture and society, and natural processes and biota have all combined to forge Americans’ changing relationship with the natural world. Topics will include Native American subsistence strategies, Euroamerican settlement, industrialization, urbanization, consumption, and the environmental movement. As we explore these issues, one of our overarching goals will be to develop an historical context for thinking deeply about contemporary environmental dilemmas.
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HIST 205.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:George Vrtis 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- T, THLeighton 426 10:10am-11:55am
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HIST 213 Politics and Protest in the New Nation 6 credits
In the first years of the United States, men and women of all races had to learn what it meant to live in the nation created by the U.S. Constitution. This class will focus on the American attempts to form a more perfect union, paying close attention to the place of slavery, Native dispossession, sexuality, and politics during the years 1787-1840. Throughout the course we will examine the ways in which the politics and protests of the early Republic continue to shape the current United States.
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HIST 213.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Serena Zabin 🏫 👤
- Size:30
- T, THLeighton 304 10:10am-11:55am
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HIST 217 Pirates, Rebels, Voodoo Queens: Black New Orleans 6 credits
Founded as La Nouvelle-Orléans in 1718, New Orleans was an imperial arena for France, Spain, and the US. It has a unique, diverse heritage, and its motto, “Let the Good Times Roll,” champions joy for life. The Big Easy is a distinct space for African, African American, and Caribbean histories and cultures. Through the 20th century, one third or more of the city’s population has been Black. This course uncovers NOLA’s Black and Creole populations' lives from the 1700s to Hurricane Katrina, including enslaved people's resistance, cultural expressions (such as music, carnival, cuisine, and religious practices like Voodoo), environmental challenges, race, class, and gender.
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HIST 217.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Rebecca Brueckmann 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- T, THLeighton 330 10:10am-11:55am
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HIST 234 Constantinople, 1453: History, Experience, Narrative 6 credits
In the spring of 1453, the inhabitants of the city of Constantinople found themselves besieged and eventually conquered by the rising power of the Ottoman Turks. The density and variety of the surviving historical evidence offer a distinctive opportunity to explore and to understand the ways in which people, structures, interests, beliefs, and circumstances interacted to bring about this transformative event. The contemporary and, at times, eyewitness nature of the sources also pose profound questions about historical analysis, narrative, explanation, and story-telling. In this collaboration between the History department and the Theater program, we will develop our own historically informed narratives along with performances that do justice to the events' many facets and implications.
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
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HIST 234.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:William North 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WWillis 114 12:30pm-1:40pm
- FWillis 114 1:10pm-2:10pm
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HIST 247 The First World War as Global Phenomenon 6 credits
This course will explore the global context for this cataclysmic event, which provides the hinge from the nineteenth century into the twentieth. We will spend considerable time on the build-up to and causes of the conflict, with particular emphasis on the new imperialism, race-based ideologies, and the complex international struggles for global power. In addition to the fighting, we will devote a significant portion of the course to the home front and changes in society and culture during and after the war. For History majors, the field will be determined by the student's research project.
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
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HIST 247.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:David Tompkins 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WLeighton 304 9:50am-11:00am
- FLeighton 304 9:40am-10:40am
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HIST 252 Social Movements in Modern China 6 credits
Working with evidence is what allows historians to encounter past societies and people. What kind of evidence we have and our approaches to interpreting it shape the questions we can ask and the interpretations we can offer. This course will provide interested students with hands-on experience in working with various kinds of evidence and learning about the process of writing histories with a focus on the origins and developments of the Chinese Cultural Revolution between 1966 and 1976. Themes will include practices and reflections on personality formation, knowledge and power, class and nation, legitimatization of violence, and operations of memory.
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
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HIST 252.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Seungjoo Yoon 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WLeighton 304 11:10am-12:20pm
- FLeighton 304 12:00pm-1:00pm
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HIST 266 History of Islam and Hinduism in South Asia 6 credits
This course explores the emergence and development of the two major religions in South Asia, Hinduism and Islam. We will study the rich history of these traditions' beliefs, textual sources, architecture, political systems, culture, and social developments. Of particular interest will be a look into the ways Hindu and Muslim communities in local contexts understood their respective religions traditions, how this changed over time, and how this informed relations between followers of these traditions.
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HIST 266.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Brendan LaRocque 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WLeighton 236 12:30pm-1:40pm
- FLeighton 236 1:10pm-2:10pm
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HIST 272 The Mexican Revolution: History, Myth and Art 6 credits
The Mexican Revolution was the twentieth-century’s first major social and political upheaval and a watershed moment in Latin American history. This course examines the factors that precipitated the conflict, as well as its main domestic and international dimensions. It explores how an official myth of “The Revolution” was created and contested by the Mexican state, artists, intellectuals, and peasants through the means of education, murals, photography, protest, commemorations, and shrines. The mythification of martyred agrarian leader and rebel chieftain Emiliano Zapata will be examined. Students will work with the College’s collection of Mexican silkscreen posters created in commemoration of the ninetieth anniversary of Zapata’s assassination in 1919.
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HIST 272.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Andrew Fisher 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WLeighton 202 11:10am-12:20pm
- FLeighton 202 12:00pm-1:00pm
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HIST 287 From Alchemy to the Atom Bomb: The Scientific Revolution and the Making of the Modern World 6 credits
This course examines the growth of modern science since the Renaissance with an emphasis on the Scientific Revolution, the development of scientific methodology, and the emergence of new scientific disciplines. How might a history of science focused on scientific networks operating within society, rather than on individual scientists, change our understanding of “genius,” “progress,” and “scientific impartiality?” We will consider a range of scientific developments, treating science both as a body of knowledge and as a set of practices, and will gauge the extent to which our knowledge of the natural world is tied to who, when, and where such knowledge has been produced and circulated.
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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HIST 287.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Antony Adler 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WLeighton 236 9:50am-11:00am
- FLeighton 236 9:40am-10:40am
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HIST 314 Crime and Punishment: Early American Legal History 6 credits
In this advanced seminar, you will learn to research and write a compelling microhistory about early America (1607-1860) through legal documents such as depositions, complaints, accusations, confessions, and laws themselves. The archives of American law are rich with evidence about a diverse array of people, events, and places; your 20- to 25-page paper, based on your original research, will have many topics from which to draw. The seminar will include common readings with a variety of approaches to legal history as well as extensive peer review.
Recommended Preparation: At least one US History course and/or HIST 298.
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HIST 314.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Serena Zabin 🏫 👤
- Size:20
- T, THLeighton 202 1:15pm-3:00pm
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HIST 341 The Russian Revolution and its Global Legacies 6 credits
The Russian revolution of 1917 was one of the seminal events of the twentieth century. It transformed much beyond Russia itself. This course will take stock of the event and its legacy. What was the Russian revolution? What was its place in the history of revolutions? How did it impact the world? How was it seen by those who made it and those who witnessed it? How have these evaluations changed over time? What sense can we make of it in the year of its centenary? The revolution was both an inspiration (to many revolutionary and national-liberation movements) and used as a tale of caution and admonition (by adversaries of the Soviet Union). The readings will put the Russian revolution in the broadest perspective of the twentieth century and its contested evaluations, from within the Soviet Union and beyond, from its immediate aftermath, through World War II, the Cold War, to the post-Soviet period. The course is aimed at all students interested in the history of the twentieth century and of the idea of the revolution.
X-list FRST 341
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One Modern European History course (with tag HIST Early Modern Europe) with a grade of C- or better.
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HIST 341.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Adeeb Khalid 🏫 👤
- Size:15
- T, THLeighton 202 10:10am-11:55am
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IDSC 251 Windows on the Good Life 2 credits
Human beings are always and everywhere challenged by the question: What should I do to spend my mortal time well? One way to approach this ultimate challenge is to explore some of the great cultural products of our civilization–works that are a delight to read for their wisdom and artfulness. This series of two-credit courses will explore a philosophical dialogue of Plato in the fall, a work from the Bible in the winter, and a pair of plays by Shakespeare in the spring. The course can be repeated for credit throughout the year and in subsequent years.
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry
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IDSC 251.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Laurence Cooper 🏫 👤
- Size:18
- Grading:S/CR/NC
- MHasenstab 105 3:10pm-4:55pm
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IDSC 251.02 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Laurence Cooper 🏫 👤
- Size:18
- Grading:S/CR/NC
- MHasenstab 105 8:00pm-9:45pm
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LTAM 398 Latin American Forum 2 credits
This colloquium will explore specific issues or works in Latin American Studies through discussion of a common reading, public presentation, project, and/or performance that constitute the annual Latin American Forum. Students will be required to attend two meetings during the term to discuss the common reading or other material and must attend, without exception. All events of the Forum which take place during fourth week of spring term (on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning). A short integrative essay or report will be required at the end of the term. Intended as capstone for the Latin American Studies minor.
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
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PHIL 111 Bullshit: How To Spot It and Protect Yourself 6 credits
Bullshit is all around us. A potent mix of lies, half-truths, clickbait, AI-generated content, and half-baked reasoning makes it difficult to separate truths from falsehoods. We’ll categorize different kinds of bullshit and study the strategies bullshit artists use to confuse and deceive us. We’ll learn how to distinguish good and bad reasoning–and the psychological mechanisms that trick even trained scientists and philosophers into being snookered by poor reasoning. That knowledge will help us devise strategies to protect our communities from misinformation and determine whether politicians, AI, and professors are giving us good reasons to believe their claims–or just bullshitting us.
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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PHIL 111.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Andrew Knoll 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WWillis 211 11:10am-12:20pm
- FWillis 211 12:00pm-1:00pm
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PHIL 202 Philosophy Lab: Leading a Pre-Collegiate Philosophy Program 3 credits
In this course, Carleton students will collaborate with local high school students from the Area Learning Center (ALC) to develop and articulate views on philosophical issues of interest to Carleton students and students at the ALC. Our overarching objectives are to promote the joy of doing philosophy and to foster skills among Carleton and ALC students for having good philosophical conversations. These skills include, but are not limited to listening, empathy, intellectual humility, and flexibility.
Meets M/W only
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): Two Philosophy (PHIL) courses with a grade of C- or better.
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PHIL 202.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Daniel Groll 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- Grading:S/CR/NC
- M, WLeighton 303 12:30pm-1:40pm
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PHIL 221 Philosophy of Law 6 credits
This course provides students with an opportunity to engage actively in a discussion of theoretical questions about law. We will consider the nature of law as it is presented by natural law theory, legal positivism and legal realism. Then we will deal with responsibility and punishment, and challenges to the idea of the primacy of individual rights from legal paternalism and moralism. We will next inquire into the explanations of why individuals should obey the law, and conditions under which civil disobedience is justified. Finally, we will discuss issues raised by feminist legal theory and some theories of minority rights.
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PHIL 221.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Anna Moltchanova 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- T, THLeighton 426 3:10pm-4:55pm
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PHIL 225 Philosophy of Mind 6 credits
What is the relationship between the mind and the brain? Are they identical? Or is there mental “stuff” in addition to physical stuff? Or perhaps some physical stuff has irreducibly mental properties? These, and related questions, are explored by philosophers under the heading of “the mind-body problem.” In this course, we will start with these questions, looking at classical and contemporary defenses of both materialism and dualism. This investigation will lead us to other important questions such as: What is the nature of mental representation, what is consciousness, and could a robot have conscious states and mental representations?
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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PHIL 225.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Jason Decker 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WLeighton 305 1:50pm-3:00pm
- FLeighton 305 2:20pm-3:20pm
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PHIL 272 Early Modern Philosophy: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Philosophy 6 credits
Our inquiry into seventeenth and eighteenth century philosophy is not limited to any geographic region: it is open to Indigenous philosophical traditions as well as those of Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia. We will cover selections from Anton Wilhelm Amo, Mulla Sadra, Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz, Im Yunjidang, Isaac Newton, Baruch Spinoza, Immanuel Kant, and more. The topics include, but are not limited to, the mind body distinction, divinity, love, freedom, virtue, and the good life. The final paper project for this course asks you to creatively connect philosophical concepts, themes, or problems from different units of the course.
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PHIL 272.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Hope Sample 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- T, THWeitz Center 233 10:10am-11:55am
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PHIL 276 Existentialism and Literature 6 credits
Against the background of the Industrial Revolution, the rise of secularism, the spread of mass consumption and technocracy, and the devastation of war, the question of the human being’s place in the world became increasingly pressing. ‘Existentialism’ became the term associated with intellectuals and artists who grappled with questions of authenticity, freedom, and our responsibilities to others, all while seeking new forms of meaning and value that were not rooted in traditional sources of authority. We’ll read texts that give voice to modernity’s social upheaval and alienation as well as works of philosophy and literature that responded to this predicament. Authors include Kafka, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, Sartre, Camus, and Viktor Frankl.
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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PHIL 276.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Allison Murphy 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- T, THLeighton 305 1:15pm-3:00pm
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PHIL 320 Surviving Death 6 credits
“Death is the great leveler; if the good and the bad [person] alike go down into oblivion, if there is nothing about reality itself that shores up this basic moral difference between their lives, say by providing what the good deserve, then the distinction between the good and the bad is less important. So goodness is less important.” This is the challenge Mark Johnston articulates and aims to answer in his book Surviving Death, where he argues, “with no recourse to any supernatural means”, that a good person “quite literally survives death.” We will make our way through Johnston’s book, which covers copious ground in general metaphysics, the metaphysics of personal identity, and ethics.
Students must also register for PHIL 321.
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One Philosophy course excluding Independent Studies or Directed Research courses with a grade of C- or better.
- PHIL 321: Surviving Death: Writing Lab
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PHIL 320.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Jason Decker 🏫 👤 · Daniel Groll 🏫 👤
- Size:15
- M, WLeighton 303 9:50am-11:00am
- FLeighton 303 9:40am-10:40am
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POSC 232 PS Lab: Interview Techniques 3 credits
This class provides a hands-on introduction to how researchers devise, conduct, and analyze interviews in political science. Students will learn about different types of interview methodologies with a particular focus on semi-structured techniques. Over the course of the class, students will consider the types of questions most appropriately answered by interviews, the fundamentals of different sampling strategies, how to devise questionnaires, and how to use the information collected for both quantitative and qualitative analysis. We will also cover interview ethics, how to employ culturally sensitive techniques, and how to employ interviews in individual, group, and crowd situations.
- Spring 2026
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POSC 232.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Summer Forester 🏫 👤
- Size:18
- THasenstab 109 10:10am-11:55am
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POSC 232 PS Lab: Political Philosophy and the Art of Reading 3 credits
Required course for Data Analysis for POSC major, specific section description available each term
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry
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POSC 232.02 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Laurence Cooper 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WHasenstab 109 12:30pm-1:40pm
- FHasenstab 109 1:10pm-2:10pm
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POSC 352 Political Theory of Alexis de Tocqueville 6 credits
This course will be devoted to close study of Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, which has plausibly been described as the best book ever written about democracy and the best book every written about America. Tocqueville uncovers the myriad ways in which equality, including especially the passion for equality, determines the character and the possibilities of modern humanity. Tocqueville thereby provides a political education that is also an education toward self-knowledge.
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POSC 352.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Laurence Cooper 🏫 👤
- Size:15
- T, THHasenstab 109 1:15pm-3:00pm
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RELG 110 Understanding Religion 6 credits
How can we best understand the role of religion in the world today, and how should we interpret the meaning of religious traditions–their texts and practices–in history and culture? This class takes an exciting tour through selected themes and puzzles related to the fascinating and diverse expressions of religion throughout the world. From politics and pop culture, to religious philosophies and spiritual practices, to rituals, scriptures, gender, religious authority, and more, students will explore how these issues emerge in a variety of religions, places, and historical moments in the U.S. and across the globe.
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RELG 110.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Chumie Juni 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WLeighton 426 9:50am-11:00am
- FLeighton 426 9:40am-10:40am
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RELG 120 Judaism: Text, History, Practice 6 credits
What is Judaism? Who are Jewish people? What are Jewish texts, practices, ideas? What ripples have Jewish people, texts, practices, and ideas caused beyond their sphere? These questions will animate our study as we touch on specific points in over three millennia of history. We will immerse ourselves in Jewish texts, historic events, and cultural moments, trying to understand them on their own terms. At the same time, we will analyze them using key concepts such as ‘tradition,’ ‘culture,’ ‘power,’ and ‘diaspora.’ We will explore how ‘Jewishness’ has been constructed by different stakeholders, each claiming the authority to define it.
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RELG 120.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Chumie Juni 🏫 👤
- Size:30
- M, WLeighton 330 12:30pm-1:40pm
- FLeighton 330 1:10pm-2:10pm
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RELG 155 Hinduism: An Introduction 6 credits
Hinduism is the world’s third-largest religion (or, as some prefer, “way of life”), with about 1.2 billion followers. It is also one of its oldest, with roots dating back at least 3500 years. “Hinduism,” however, is a loosely defined, even contested term, designating the wide variety of beliefs and practices of the majority of the people of South Asia. This survey course introduces students to this great variety, including social structures (such as the caste system), rituals and scriptures, mythologies and epics, philosophies, life practices, politics, poetry, sex, gender, Bollywood, and—lest we forget—some 330 million gods and goddesses.
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RELG 155.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Kristin Bloomer 🏫 👤
- Size:30
- T, THLanguage & Dining Center 104 10:10am-11:55am
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RELG 225 Faith and Doubt in the Modern World 6 credits
Is religion an illusion we create to explain what we don’t understand? An elaborate means to justify the violence we commit? A way to hold onto meaning in the face of radical doubt? This course explores how Western theologians and philosophers have grappled with the loss of traditional religious beliefs and categories. What is the appropriate response to losing one's religion? It turns out that few abandon it altogether, but instead find new ways of naming the sacred, whether in relation to existential courage, aesthetic experience, moral hope, prophetic insight, or passionate love.
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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RELG 225.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Lori Pearson 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- T, THLeighton 402 1:15pm-3:00pm
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RELG 251 African American Religious History 6 credits
African American religions are a mix of African, European, and indigenous American influences. The unique social, political, and economic concerns of Black people shape their spiritualities in intricate and surprising ways. This course explores the history of African American religions through a consideration of historical works, historiographical debates, and hermeneutical trends. Readings survey themes of race, gender, reproduction, natal alienation, and political struggle in African American religious experiences through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Course assignments introduce students to the practice of method and theory in the historical study of religion by emphasizing how historiography informs narrations of the past.
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RELG 251.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Jorge Banuelos 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WLeighton 402 12:30pm-1:40pm
- FLeighton 402 1:10pm-2:10pm
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RELG 266 Modern Islamic Thought 6 credits
Through close reading of primary sources, this course examines how some of the most influential Muslim thinkers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the Middle East and South Asia conceptualized God and the ideal God-human relationship to address such pressing questions as: How should religion relate to modern technological and scientific advancements? Can Islam serve as an ideology to counter European colonialism? Can Islam become the basis for the formation of social and political life under a nation-state, or does it demand a transnational political collectivity of its own? What would a modern Islamic economy look like?
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RELG 266.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Kambiz GhaneaBassiri 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- T, THLibrary 344 10:10am-11:55am
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RELG 287 Many Marys 6 credits
Christianity, by its very name, focuses on Jesus. This course shifts the focus to Mary, his mother: her various manifestations and her contributions to the myriad experiences of peoples around the world. Race, gender, class, and feminist and liberation theologies come into play as Mary presents as: the Mother of God; queen of heaven; a Black madonna; a Mestiza madonna; an exceptional woman with her own chapter in the Qur'an; various goddesses in Haitian Vodoun, Hinduism, and Buddhism; a tattoo on the backs of U.S. prisoners–and so on. In addition to considering Miriam (her Jewish name) as she appears in literature, art, apparition, and ritual practice around the world, we will also consider Mary Magdalene, her foil, who appears in popular discourse from the Gnostic gospels to The Da Vinci Code.
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RELG 287.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Kristin Bloomer 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- T, THLeighton 402 3:10pm-4:55pm
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RELG 322 Apocalypse How? 6 credits
When will the world end, and how? What’s wrong with the world that makes its destruction necessary or inevitable? Are visions of “The End” a form of resistance literature, aimed at oppressive systems? Or do they come from paranoid minds disconnected from reality? This seminar explores apocalyptic thought, which in its basic form is about unmasking the deceptions of the given world by revealing the secret workings of the universe. We begin with ancient Jewish and Christian apocalypses and move into modern religious and “secular” visions of cosmic collapse, including doomsday cults, slave revolts, UFO religions, and Evangelical fantasies about armageddon in the Middle East. We will also create a giant handwritten manuscript of the book of Revelation using calligraphy pens, paint, and gold leaf.
X-List WMST 322
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RELG 322.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Sonja Anderson 🏫 👤
- Size:15
- M, WLeighton 303 1:50pm-3:00pm
- FLeighton 303 2:20pm-3:20pm
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SPAN 246 Not by Blood: Family Beyond Kinship 6 credits
Motherhood is central in Latin-American literature of the twenty-first century. Beyond the tendency to represent motherhood as a paradise of love and snuggles, Latin-American writers have been proposing new reconfigurations of family. Families that are not bonded by blood. In this class we will study novels, poems, and short stories about these non-traditional families, for example, families that are led by trans-women, families that are formed between species (with plants or animals), among others. We will analyze what insights these fictional families can offer on topics such as race, reproductive rights, legalization of abortion, marriage equality, and new feminisms.
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): SPAN 205 with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 205 on the Carleton Spanish Emmersion Placement exam.
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SPAN 246.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Ingrid Luna 🏫 👤
- Size:20
- M, WLanguage & Dining Center 242 12:30pm-1:40pm
- FLanguage & Dining Center 242 1:10pm-2:10pm
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SPAN 320 Death and Dying Under Capitalism: An Ecological and Humanistic Perspective 6 credits
Within the capitalist system, the concept of dying well (Ars moriendi) has progressively lost its collective sense and meaning, relegated instead to the realm of individual responsibility. Simultaneously, the notion of a dignified death has ceased to be an inalienable right for all individuals, becoming contingent upon inherited privileges and access to private resources. Death, transformed into a taboo, coexists with an apocalyptic culture and a state of eco-anxiety stemming from ecological crises and the looming extinction of numerous species, potentially including humans. Some of our guiding questions will be: What implications does dying under capitalist conditions entail? Can cultural representation do more than merely comply with, comment or oppose these scenarios? Our exploration will encompass a diverse array of texts, films, and workshops featuring various guest speakers.
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One SPAN course numbered 205 or higher excluding Independent Studies with a grade of C- or better.
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SPAN 320.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Palmar Álvarez-Blanco 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WWeitz Center 233 11:10am-12:20pm
- FWeitz Center 233 12:00pm-1:00pm