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Academic Catalog 2025-26

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Your search for courses · during 2023-24 · tagged with FREN XDept Elective · returned 25 results

  • ARTH 140 African Art and Culture 6 credits

    This course will survey the art and architecture of African peoples from prehistory to the present. Focusing on significant case studies in various mediums (including sculpture, painting, architecture, masquerades and body arts), this course will consider the social, cultural, aesthetic and political contexts in which artistic practices developed both on the African continent and beyond. Major themes will include the use of art for status production, the use of aesthetic objects in social rituals and how the history of African and African diaspora art has been written and institutionally framed.

    • Winter 2019, Spring 2023
    • International Studies Literary/Artistic Analysis
    • FFST Hist & Art Hist Conc French Pertinent Course FRST Elective Africana Studies Survey Course
    • ARTH  140.00 Winter 2019

    • Faculty:Ross Elfline 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • M, WBoliou 161 11:10am-12:20pm
    • FBoliou 161 12:00pm-1:00pm
    • ARTH  140.02 Spring 2023

    • Faculty:Ross Elfline 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • M, WBoliou 161 9:50am-11:00am
    • FBoliou 161 9:40am-10:40am
  • ARTH 172 Modern Art: 1890-1945 6 credits

    This course explores developments in the visual arts, architecture, and theory in Europe and America between 1890 and 1945. The major Modernist artists and movements that sought to revolutionize vision, culture, and experience, from Symbolism to Surrealism, will be considered. The impact of World War I, the Great Depression, and the rise of fascism will be examined as well for their devastation of the Modernist dream of social-cultural renewal. Lectures will be integrated with discussions of artists’ theoretical writings and group manifestoes, such as those of the Futurists, Dadaists, Surrealists, Constructivists, and DeStijl, in addition to select secondary readings.

    • Winter 2018, Winter 2022
    • International Studies Literary/Artistic Analysis
    • EUST transnatl supporting crs CAMS Extra Departmental FFST Hist & Art Hist Conc French Pertinent Course FRST Elective
    • ARTH  172.00 Winter 2018

    • Faculty:Ross Elfline 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • T, THBoliou 161 10:10am-11:55am
    • ARTH  172.00 Winter 2022

    • Faculty:Ross Elfline 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • M, WBoliou 161 11:10am-12:20pm
    • FBoliou 161 12:00pm-1:00pm
  • ARTH 236 Baroque Art 6 credits

    This course examines European artistic production in Italy, Spain, France, and the Netherlands from the end of the sixteenth century through the seventeenth century. The aim of the course is to interrogate how religious revolution and reformation, scientific discoveries, and political transformations brought about a proliferation of remarkably varied types of artistic production that permeated and altered the sacred, political, and private spheres. The class will examine in depth select works of painting, sculpture, prints, and drawings, by Caravaggio, Bernini, Poussin, Velázquez, Rubens, and Rembrandt, among many others.

    • Spring 2017, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2024
    • International Studies Literary/Artistic Analysis
    • FFST Hist & Art Hist Conc EUST transnatl supporting crs French Pertinent Course FRST Elective MARS Supporting
    • ARTH  236.00 Spring 2017

    • Faculty:Jessica Keating 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • T, THBoliou 161 1:15pm-3:00pm
    • ARTH  236.00 Spring 2020

    • Faculty:Jessica Keating 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • T, THBoliou 161 10:10am-11:55am
    • ARTH  236.00 Spring 2021

    • Faculty:Jessica Keating 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • T, THWeitz Center 161 1:45pm-3:30pm
    • ARTH  236.00 Spring 2024

    • Faculty:Jessica Keating 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • M, WBoliou 161 11:10am-12:20pm
    • FBoliou 161 12:00pm-1:00pm
  • CAMS 219 African Cinema: A Quest for Identity and Self-Definition 6 credits

    Born as a response to the colonial gaze and discourse, African cinema has been a deliberate effort to affirm and express an African personality and consciousness. Focusing on the film production from West and Southern Africa since the early fifties, this course will entail a discussion of major themes such as colonialism, nationalism and independence, and the analysis of African symbolisms, world-views, and their links to narrative techniques. In this overview, particular attention will be given to the films of Ousmane Sembène, Souleymane Cissé, Mweze Ngangura, Zola Maseko, Oliver Schmitz, Abderrahmane Sissako and many others.

    Extra Time

    • Spring 2017, Spring 2024
    • International Studies Literary/Artistic Analysis
    • CAMS Elective FFST Social Sci Conc FRST Elective French Pertinent Course AFAM Distro Arts/Lit Africana Stds Literary/Artisti
    • CAMS  219.00 Spring 2017

    • Faculty:Chérif Keïta 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • M, WWeitz Center 132 12:30pm-1:40pm
    • FWeitz Center 132 1:10pm-2:10pm
    • CAMS  219.00 Spring 2024

    • Faculty:Chérif Keïta 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • M, WWeitz Center 231 9:50am-11:00am
    • FWeitz Center 231 9:40am-10:40am
  • CCST 245 Meaning and Power: Introduction to Analytical Approaches in the Humanities 6 credits

    How can it be that a single text means different things to different people at different times, and who or what controls those meanings? What is allowed to count as a “text” in the first place, and why? How might one understand texts differently, and can different forms of reading serve as resistance or activism within the social world? Together we will respond to these questions by developing skills in close reading and discussing diverse essays and ideas. We will also focus on advanced academic writing skills designed to prepare students for comps in their own humanities department.

    Formerly LCST 245

    • Winter 2024
    • International Studies Literary/Artistic Analysis Writing Requirement
    • At least one 200- or 300-level course in Literary/Artistic Analysis (in any language) or instructor permission

    • Asian Studies Methodology Asian Studies Disciplinary French Pertinent Course German Pertinent Course CAMS Extra Departmental FRST Major Core FFST Literature & Culture Russian Pertinent Ccst Princ Cross-Cult Analysis Dig Art&Hum Crit&Eth Reflctn Russian Methods
    • CCST  245.00 Winter 2024

    • Faculty:Seth Peabody 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • M, WWillis 114 12:30pm-1:40pm
    • FWillis 114 1:10pm-2:10pm
  • EUST 110 The Nation State in Europe 6 credits

    This course explores the role of the nation and nationalism within modern Europe and the ways in which ideas and myths about the nation have complemented and competed with conceptions of Europe as a geographic, cultural and political unity. We will explore the intellectual roots of nationalism in different countries as well as their artistic, literary and musical expressions. In addition to examining nationalism from a variety of disciplinary perspectives–sociology, anthropology, history, political science–we will explore some of the watershed, moments of European nationalism such as the French Revolution, the two world wars, and the Maastricht treaty.

    • Winter 2017, Winter 2019, Winter 2021, Winter 2022
    • Humanistic Inquiry International Studies
    • Posi Area Studies 2 EUST Core Course FRST Elective French Pertinent Course FFST Social Sci Conc
    • EUST  110.00 Winter 2017

    • Faculty:Paul Petzschmann 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • M, WLeighton 330 11:10am-12:20pm
    • FLeighton 330 12:00pm-1:00pm
    • EUST  110.00 Winter 2019

    • Faculty:Paul Petzschmann 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • M, WLeighton 402 11:10am-12:20pm
    • FLeighton 402 12:00pm-1:00pm
    • EUST  110.00 Winter 2021

    • Faculty:Paul Petzschmann 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • M, WLeighton 305 11:30am-12:40pm
    • FLeighton 305 11:10am-12:10pm
    • EUST  110.00 Winter 2022

    • Faculty:Paul Petzschmann 🏫 👤
    • Size:30
    • M, WLeighton 303 11:10am-12:20pm
    • FLeighton 303 12:00pm-1:00pm
  • EUST 159 “The Age of Isms” – Ideals, Ideas and Ideologies in Modern Europe 6 credits

    “Ideology” is perhaps one of the most-used (and overused) terms of modern political life. This course will introduce students to important political ideologies and traditions of modern Europe and their role in the development of political systems and institutional practices from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. We will read central texts by conservatives, liberals, socialists, anarchists and nationalists while also considering ideological outliers such as Fascism and Green Political Thought. In addition the course will introduce students to the different ways in which ideas can be studied systematically and the methodologies available.

    • Spring 2017, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023
    • International Studies Social Inquiry
    • Democracy, Society & State 2 Polisci/Ir Elective Social Thought EUST transnatl supporting crs FFST Social Sci Conc French Pertinent Course FRST Elective
    • EUST  159.00 Spring 2017

    • Faculty:Paul Petzschmann 🏫 👤
    • Size:30
    • M, WLeighton 305 11:10am-12:20pm
    • FLeighton 305 12:00pm-1:00pm
    • EUST  159.00 Spring 2019

    • Faculty:Paul Petzschmann 🏫 👤
    • Size:30
    • M, WLeighton 402 11:10am-12:20pm
    • FLeighton 402 12:00pm-1:00pm
    • EUST  159.00 Spring 2020

    • Faculty:Paul Petzschmann 🏫 👤
    • Size:30
    • M, WLeighton 402 11:10am-12:20pm
    • FLeighton 402 12:00pm-1:00pm
    • EUST  159.00 Spring 2022

    • Faculty:Paul Petzschmann 🏫 👤
    • Size:30
    • M, WLeighton 402 9:50am-11:00am
    • FLeighton 402 9:40am-10:40am
    • EUST  159.00 Spring 2023

    • Faculty:Paul Petzschmann 🏫 👤
    • Size:30
    • M, WWeitz Center 233 9:50am-11:00am
    • FWeitz Center 233 9:40am-10:40am
  • HIST 137 Early Medieval Worlds 6 credits

    Through the intensive exploration of a variety of distinct “worlds” in the early Middle Ages, this course offers an introduction to formative political, social, religious, and cultural developments in Europe between c.300 and c.1050. We will pay special attention to the structures, ideologies, practices, and social dynamics that shaped and energized communities large and small.  We will also focus on developing the ability to observe and interpret various kinds of textual, visual, and material primary sources. 

    • Winter 2019, Winter 2022
    • Humanistic Inquiry International Studies Writing Requirement
    • CCST Regional FRST Elective MARS Core Course HIST Ancient & Medvl MARS Supporting EUST transnatl supporting crs French Pertinent Course FFST Hist & Art Hist Conc History Pre-Modern
    • HIST  137.00 Winter 2019

    • Faculty:William North 🏫 👤 · Austin Mason 🏫 👤
    • Size:35
    • M, WLeighton 305 1:50pm-3:00pm
    • FLeighton 305 2:20pm-3:20pm
    • M, WLeighton 402 1:50pm-3:00pm
    • FLeighton 402 2:20pm-3:20pm
    • HIST  137.00 Winter 2022

    • Faculty:William North 🏫 👤
    • Size:30
    • M, WLeighton 236 8:30am-9:40am
    • FLeighton 236 8:30am-9:30am
  • HIST 139 Foundations of Modern Europe 6 credits

    A narrative and survey of the early modern period (fifteenth through eighteenth centuries). The course examines the Renaissance, Reformation, Contact with the Americas, the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment. We compare the development of states and societies across Western Europe, with particularly close examination of the history of Spain.

    • Fall 2018, Spring 2021, Winter 2024
    • Humanistic Inquiry International Studies Quantitative Reasoning Encounter
    • Posi Area Studies 2 CCST Regional MARS Core Course EUST transnatl supporting crs HIST Early Mdrn Europe History Atlantic World MARS Supporting Acad Cvc Engmnt/Appl French Pertinent Course FFST Hist & Art Hist Conc FRST Elective History Modern
    • HIST  139.00 Fall 2018

    • Faculty:Susannah Ottaway 🏫 👤
    • Size:30
    • M, WLeighton 304 12:30pm-1:40pm
    • FLeighton 304 1:10pm-2:10pm
    • HIST  139.00 Spring 2021

    • Faculty:Susannah Ottaway 🏫 👤
    • Size:30
    • T, THWeitz Center 236 1:45pm-3:30pm
    • THLeighton 304 1:45pm-3:30pm
    • HIST  139.00 Winter 2024

    • Faculty:Susannah Ottaway 🏫 👤
    • Size:30
    • M, WLeighton 402 9:50am-11:00am
    • FLeighton 402 9:40am-10:40am
    • FLeighton 301 9:40am-10:40am
    • FLeighton 301 1:10pm-2:10pm
  • HIST 141 Europe in the Twentieth Century 6 credits

    This course explores developments in European history in a global context from the final decade of the nineteenth century through to the present. We will focus on the impact of nationalism, war, and revolution on the everyday experiences of women and men, and also look more broadly on the chaotic economic, political, social, and cultural life of the period. Of particular interest will be the rise of fascism and communism, and the challenge to Western-style liberal democracy, followed by the Cold War and communism’s collapse near the end of the century.

    • Spring 2017, Spring 2019, Spring 2022
    • Humanistic Inquiry International Studies
    • Posi Area Studies 2 CCST Regional FRST Elective EUST transnatl supporting crs HIST Early Mdrn Europe Political Economy Lower Level French Pertinent Course FFST Hist & Art Hist Conc EUST Core Course
    • HIST  141.00 Spring 2017

    • Faculty:David Tompkins 🏫 👤
    • Size:30
    • M, WLeighton 304 9:50am-11:00am
    • FLeighton 304 9:40am-10:40am
    • HIST  141.00 Spring 2019

    • Faculty:David Tompkins 🏫 👤
    • Size:30
    • M, WLeighton 402 12:30pm-1:40pm
    • FLeighton 402 1:10pm-2:10pm
    • HIST  141.00 Spring 2022

    • Faculty:David Tompkins 🏫 👤
    • Size:30
    • M, WLeighton 402 11:10am-12:20pm
    • FLeighton 402 12:00pm-1:00pm
  • HIST 181 West Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade 6 credits

    The medieval Islamic and the European (or Atlantic) slave trades have had a tremendous influence on the history of Africa and the African Diaspora. This course offers an introduction to the history of West African peoples via their involvement in both of these trades from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. More specifically, students will explore the demography, the economics, the social structure, and the ideologies of slavery. They also will learn the repercussions of these trades for men’s and women’s lives, for the expansion of coastal and hinterland kingdoms, and for the development of religious practices and networks.

    • Winter 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2021
    • Humanistic Inquiry International Studies Writing Requirement
    • Posi Area Studies 2 HIST Africa & Diaspora History Atlantic World FFST Hist & Art Hist Conc French Pertinent Course FRST Elective AMST 1 Term Survey Africana Studies Humanistic in Africana Studies Survey Course
    • HIST  181.00 Winter 2018

    • Faculty: Staff
    • Size:30
    • M, WWeitz Center 132 11:10am-12:20pm
    • FWeitz Center 132 12:00pm-1:00pm
    • HIST  181.00 Fall 2019

    • Faculty: Staff
    • Size:30
    • M, WLeighton 426 1:50pm-3:00pm
    • FLeighton 426 2:20pm-3:20pm
    • HIST  181.00 Fall 2021

    • Faculty: Staff
    • Size:30
    • M, WLeighton 426 9:50am-11:00am
    • FLeighton 426 9:40am-10:40am
  • HIST 184 Colonial West Africa 6 credits

    This course surveys the history of West Africa during the colonial period, 1860-1960. It offers an introduction to the roles that Islam and Christianity played in establishing and maintaining colonial rule. It looks at the role of colonialism in shaping African ethnic identities and introducing new gender roles. In addition, we will examine the transition from slave labor to wage labor, and its role in exacerbating gender, generation, and class divisions among West Africans. The course also highlights some of the ritual traditions and cultural movements that flourished in response to colonial rule.

    • Spring 2019, Winter 2022
    • Humanistic Inquiry International Studies
    • Posi Area Studies 2 FRST Elective HIST Africa & Diaspora French Pertinent Course FFST Hist & Art Hist Conc Africana Studies Survey Course Africana Studies Humanistic in History Modern Ccst Encounters
    • HIST  184.00 Spring 2019

    • Faculty: Staff
    • Size:30
    • M, WCMC 301 11:10am-12:20pm
    • FCMC 301 12:00pm-1:00pm
    • HIST  184.00 Winter 2022

    • Faculty: Staff
    • Size:30
    • M, WWeitz Center 235 12:30pm-1:40pm
    • FWeitz Center 235 1:10pm-2:10pm
  • HIST 232 Renaissance Worlds in France and Italy 6 credits

    Enthusiasm, artistry, invention, exploration…. How do these notions of Renaissance culture play out in sources from the period? Using a range of evidence (historical, literary, and visual) from Italy and France in the fourteenth-sixteenth centuries we will explore selected issues of the period, including debates about the meaning of being human and ideal forms of government and education; the nature of God and mankind’s duties toward the divine; the family and gender roles; definitions of beauty and the goals of artistic achievement; accumulation of wealth; and exploration of new worlds and encounters with other peoples.

    • Fall 2021
    • Humanistic Inquiry International Studies Writing Requirement
    • Ccst Encounters FRST Elective MARS Core Course EUST transnatl supporting crs HIST Early Mdrn Europe MARS Supporting French Pertinent Course FFST Hist & Art Hist Conc History Pre-Modern
    • HIST  232.00 Fall 2021

    • Faculty:Victoria Morse 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • M, WLeighton 304 1:50pm-3:00pm
    • FLeighton 304 2:20pm-3:20pm
  • HIST 243 The Peasants are Revolting! Society and Politics in the Making of Modern France 6 credits

    Political propaganda of the French Revolutionary period tells a simple story of downtrodden peasants exploited by callous nobles, but what exactly was the relationship between the political transformations of France from the Renaissance through the French Revolution and the social, religious, and cultural tensions that characterized the era? This course explores the connections and conflicts between popular and elite culture as we survey French history from the sixteenth through early nineteenth centuries, making comparisons to social and political developments in other European countries along the way.

    • Spring 2018, Spring 2020, Spring 2024
    • Humanistic Inquiry International Studies Quantitative Reasoning Encounter Writing Requirement
    • Posi Area Studies 2 FRST Elective MARS Core Course HIST Early Mdrn Europe EUST Country Specific Course MARS Supporting History Atlantic World French Pertinent Course FFST Hist & Art Hist Conc
    • HIST  243.00 Spring 2018

    • Faculty:Susannah Ottaway 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • M, WLeighton 402 9:50am-11:00am
    • FLeighton 402 9:40am-10:40am
    • HIST  243.00 Spring 2020

    • Faculty:Susannah Ottaway 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • M, WLeighton 301 11:10am-12:20pm
    • FLeighton 301 12:00pm-1:00pm
    • HIST  243.00 Spring 2024

    • Faculty:Susannah Ottaway 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • T, THLaird 206 10:10am-11:55am
  • HIST 244 The Enlightenment and Its Legacies 6 credits

    The Enlightenment: praised for its role in promoting human rights, condemned for its role in underwriting colonialism; lauded for its cosmopolitanism, despised for its Eurocentrism… how should we understand the cultural and intellectual history of the Enlightenment, and what are its legacies? This course starts by examining essential Enlightenment texts by philosophes such as Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau, and then the second half of the term focuses on unpacking the Enlightenment’s entanglements with modern ideas around topics such as religion, race, sex, gender, colonialism etc.

    • Winter 2022
    • International Studies Writing Requirement
    • EUST transnatl supporting crs FRST Elective HIST Early Mdrn Europe History Atlantic World French Pertinent Course FFST Hist & Art Hist Conc History Modern Philosophic & Legal Inq 2 POSI Elective Non POSC subjct
    • HIST  244.00 Winter 2022

    • Faculty:Susannah Ottaway 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • T, THLeighton 202 10:10am-11:55am
  • HIST 289 Gender and Ethics in Late Medieval France 3 credits

    Acknowledged by contemporaries as one of the leading intellects of her time, Christine de Pizan (ca. 1364-ca. 1431) was an author of unusual literary range, resilience, and perceptiveness. In addition to composing romances, poetry, quasi-autobiographical works, royal biography, and political theory, she became one of the most articulate critics of the patriarchy and misogyny of her world and a critical voice in defense of female capability. Using Christine’s writings along with other contemporary documents as a foundation, we will explore perceptions of gender, the analysis and resistance to misogyny, the ethics love and personal relations, and the exercise of patriarchal power (and resistance to it) in domestic and public spheres in late medieval France.

    • Spring 2021, Winter 2023
    • Humanistic Inquiry International Studies
    • HIST Ancient & Medvl MARS Supporting FFST Hist & Art Hist Conc GWSS Elective French Pertinent Course EUST Country Specific Course GWSS Additional Credits
    • HIST  289.00 Spring 2021

    • Faculty:William North 🏫 👤
    • Size:30
    • M, WOlin 149 8:30am-9:40am
    • FOlin 149 8:30am-9:30am
    • HIST  289.00 Winter 2023

    • Faculty:William North 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • M, WLeighton 304 1:50pm-3:00pm
    • FLeighton 304 2:20pm-3:20pm
  • LCST 245 The Critical Toolbox: Who’s Afraid of Theory? 6 credits

    This class introduces students to the various theoretical frameworks and the many approaches scholars can use when analyzing a text (whether this text is a film, an image, a literary piece or a performance). What do words like ‘structuralism,’ ‘ecocriticism,’ ‘cultural studies,’ and ‘postcolonial studies’ refer to? Most importantly, how do they help us understand the world around us? This class will be organized around interdisciplinary theoretical readings and exercises in cultural analysis.

    • Winter 2017, Winter 2018, Winter 2019, Winter 2020, Winter 2021, Winter 2022, Winter 2023
    • International Studies Literary/Artistic Analysis Writing Requirement
    • At least one 200- or 300-level course in Literary/Artistic Analysis (in any language) or instructor permission

    • Asian Studies Methodology Asian Studies Disciplinary French Pertinent Course German Pertinent Course CAMS Extra Departmental FRST Elective FFST Literature & Culture FRST Major Core
    • LCST  245.00 Winter 2017

    • Faculty:Sandra Rousseau 🏫 👤 · Juliane Schicker 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • M, WLeighton 305 12:30pm-1:40pm
    • FLeighton 305 1:10pm-2:10pm
    • LCST  245.00 Winter 2018

    • Faculty:Sandra Rousseau 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • M, WLanguage & Dining Center 345 1:50pm-3:00pm
    • FLanguage & Dining Center 345 2:20pm-3:20pm
    • LCST  245.00 Winter 2019

    • Faculty:Juliane Schicker 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • M, WLanguage & Dining Center 242 1:50pm-3:00pm
    • FLanguage & Dining Center 242 2:20pm-3:20pm
    • LCST  245.00 Winter 2020

    • Faculty:Sandra Rousseau 🏫 👤
    • Size:20
    • M, WLanguage & Dining Center 330 12:30pm-1:40pm
    • FLanguage & Dining Center 330 1:10pm-2:10pm
    • LCST  245.00 Winter 2021

    • Faculty:Seth Peabody 🏫 👤
    • Size:20
    • M, WLocation To Be Announced TBA 2:30pm-3:40pm
    • FLocation To Be Announced TBA 3:10pm-4:10pm
    • LCST  245.00 Winter 2022

    • Faculty:Seth Peabody 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • M, WAnderson Hall 323 12:30pm-1:40pm
    • FAnderson Hall 323 1:10pm-2:10pm
    • LCST  245.00 Winter 2023

    • Faculty:Seth Peabody 🏫 👤
    • Size:20
    • M, WHasenstab 105 12:30pm-1:40pm
    • FHasenstab 105 1:10pm-2:10pm
  • POSC 251 Modern Political Philosophy: Liberalism and Its Critics 6 credits

    Liberalism is the dominant political philosophy of our time. Living in a liberal polity, each of us has been shaped by liberalism. But is liberalism the best political order? Do we even know what liberalism is? What are the strongest arguments in its favor, and what are the deepest criticisms we might level against it? In this course we will examine liberalism’s philosophic roots and engage with some of its most forceful advocates and most profound critics. Our readings will include authors such as Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, Mill, and Nietzsche.

    • Spring 2018, Winter 2023
    • Humanistic Inquiry International Studies
    • Polisci/Ir Elective Philosophic & Legal Inq 2
    • POSC  251.00 Spring 2018

    • Faculty: Staff
    • Size:20
    • M, WWillis 203 1:50pm-3:00pm
    • FWillis 203 2:20pm-3:20pm
    • Cross-listed with POSC 371

    • POSC  251.00 Winter 2023

    • Faculty:Laurence Cooper 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • T, THLaird 205 1:15pm-3:00pm
  • POSC 255 Post-Modern Political Thought 6 credits

    The thought and practice of the modern age have been found irredeemably oppressive, alienating, dehumanizing, and/or exhausted by a number of leading philosophic thinkers in recent years. In this course we will explore the critiques and alternative visions offered by a variety of post-modern thinkers, including Nietzsche (in many ways the first post-modern), Heidegger, Foucault, and Derrida.

    • Winter 2017, Fall 2017, Fall 2019, Winter 2022
    • Humanistic Inquiry
    • CCST Regional CCST Global FRST Elective EUST transnatl supporting crs Polisci/Ir Elective French Pertinent Course FFST Social Sci Conc Philosophic & Legal Inq 2
    • POSC  255.00 Winter 2017

    • Faculty:Mihaela Czobor-Lupp 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • M, WWillis 211 1:50pm-3:00pm
    • FWillis 211 2:20pm-3:20pm
    • POSC  255.00 Fall 2017

    • Faculty:Mihaela Czobor-Lupp 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • T, THWeitz Center 132 10:10am-11:55am
    • POSC  255.00 Fall 2019

    • Faculty:Mihaela Czobor-Lupp 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • T, THCMC 210 10:10am-11:55am
    • POSC  255.00 Winter 2022

    • Faculty:Mihaela Czobor-Lupp 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • M, WWeitz Center 233 1:50pm-3:00pm
    • FWeitz Center 233 2:20pm-3:20pm
  • POSC 278 Memory and Politics 6 credits

    The ways in which human societies narrate their past can powerfully impact their politics. It can enhance their capacity to be just or it can undermine it. The fashion in which history is told can help societies avoid conflict and it can heal the lingering memory of previous wars. At the same time, historical narratives can escalate violence and deepen socio-cultural and political divisions, inequality, and oppression. In this course we will learn about the various connections between history and politics by reading the works of G. W. F. Hegel, Friedrich Nietzsche, Michel Foucault, Hannah Arendt, and Paul Ricoeur.

    • Winter 2019, Fall 2021
    • Humanistic Inquiry International Studies
    • Social Thought Polisci/Ir Elective Leadership, Peace, Security 2 FFST Social Sci Conc FRST Elective French Pertinent Course
    • POSC  278.00 Winter 2019

    • Faculty:Mihaela Czobor-Lupp 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • M, WWeitz Center 233 1:50pm-3:00pm
    • FWeitz Center 233 2:20pm-3:20pm
    • POSC  278.00 Fall 2021

    • Faculty:Mihaela Czobor-Lupp 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • T, THAnderson Hall 036 1:15pm-3:00pm
  • POSC 329 Reinventing Humanism: A Dialogue with Tzvetan Todorov 6 credits

    Humanism is today severely criticized for reducing humanity to Western culture and history and for its aggressive control and destruction of the non-human. Concomitantly, the history of the twentieth century reveals a growing totalitarian and anti-humanistic tendency in (post)modern societies and their politics, to replace individual agency, freedom, and responsibility with systemic solutions. The course explores, through a dialogue with the work of the French thinker, Tzvetan Todorov, how being human could be reinvented today in ways that avoid the moral and political pitfalls of the previous humanistic tradition, without devaluing, in the process, the idea of a shared humanity.

    • Spring 2022
    • Humanistic Inquiry
    • POSI Elective Philosophic & Legal Inq 2 Polisci/Ir Adv Seminar Polisci Advanced Seminar FFST Social Sci Conc French Pertinent Course
    • POSC  329.00 Spring 2022

    • Faculty:Mihaela Czobor-Lupp 🏫 👤
    • Size:15
    • T, THWeitz Center 136 10:10am-11:55am
  • POSC 348 Strangers, Foreigners and Exiles* 6 credits

    The course explores the role that strangers play in human life, the challenges that foreigners create for democratic politics, the promises they bring to it, as well as the role of exiles in improving the cultural capacity of societies to live with difference. We will read texts by Arendt, Kafka, Derrida, Sophocles, Said, Joseph Conrad, Tzvetan Todorov, and Julia Kristeva. Special attention will be given to the plight of Roma in Europe, as a typical case of strangers that are still perceived nowadays as a menace to the modern sedentary civilization.

    • Winter 2018, Spring 2020, Winter 2023
    • International Studies Social Inquiry
    • Democracy, Society & State 2 Social Thought Polisci/Ir Adv Seminar Polisci/Ir Elective Polisci Advanced Seminar FFST Social Sci Conc French Pertinent Course FRST Elective
    • POSC  348.00 Winter 2018

    • Faculty:Mihaela Czobor-Lupp 🏫 👤
    • Size:15
    • T, THWeitz Center 136 1:15pm-3:00pm
    • POSC  348.00 Spring 2020

    • Faculty:Mihaela Czobor-Lupp 🏫 👤
    • Size:15
    • T, THWeitz Center 132 10:10am-11:55am
    • POSC  348.00 Winter 2023

    • Faculty:Mihaela Czobor-Lupp 🏫 👤
    • Size:15
    • T, THHasenstab 109 1:15pm-3:00pm
  • 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.

    • Winter 2017, Winter 2019, Spring 2021, Fall 2023
    • Humanistic Inquiry Intercultural Domestic Studies Writing Requirement
    • Philosophic & Legal Inq 2 AMST Group III Topical FRST Elective EUST transnatl supporting crs Polisci/Ir Adv Seminar Polisci Advanced Seminar French Pertinent Course FFST Social Sci Conc Polisci/Ir Elective
    • POSC  352.00 Winter 2017

    • Faculty:Barbara Allen 🏫 👤
    • Size:15
    • T, THWeitz Center 231 10:10am-11:55am
    • POSC  352.00 Winter 2019

    • Faculty:Barbara Allen 🏫 👤
    • Size:15
    • T, THWeitz Center 230 10:10am-11:55am
    • POSC  352.00 Spring 2021

    • Faculty:Laurence Cooper 🏫 👤
    • Size:15
    • T, THWeitz Center 233 10:20am-12:05pm
    • POSC  352.00 Fall 2023

    • Faculty:Barbara Allen 🏫 👤
    • Size:15
    • T, THHasenstab 109 10:10am-11:55am
  • SOAN 256 Africa: Representation and Conflict 6 credits

    Pairing classics in Africanist anthropology with contemporary re-studies, we explore changes in African societies and in the questions anthropologists have posed about them. We address issues of representation and self-presentation in written ethnographies as well as in African portrait photography. We then turn from the visual to the invisible realm of African witchcraft. Initiation rituals, war, and migration place selfhood and belonging back in this-world contexts. In-depth case studies include, among others: the Cameroon Grassfields, the Bemba of Zambia, and the Nuer of South Sudan.

    • Spring 2017, Spring 2020, Winter 2023
    • International Studies Social Inquiry Writing Requirement
    • The department strongly recommends that Sociology/Anthropology 110 or 111 be taken prior to enrolling in courses numbered 200 or above

    • Posi Area Studies 2 CCST Regional FRST Elective AFAM Social Inquiry French Pertinent Course FFST Social Sci Conc Africana Stds Social Inquiry Ccst Encounters
    • SOAN  256.00 Spring 2017

    • Faculty:Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • T, THLeighton 402 10:10am-11:55am
    • SOAN  256.00 Spring 2020

    • Faculty:Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • T, THLeighton 426 3:10pm-4:55pm
    • SOAN  256.00 Winter 2023

    • Faculty:Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • T, THLeighton 330 10:10am-11:55am
  • SOAN 395 Ethnography of Reproduction 6 credits

    This seminar explores the meanings of reproductive beliefs and practices in comparative perspective. Using ethnographies, it explores the relation between human and social reproduction. It focuses on (but is not limited to) ethnographic examples from the United States/Canada and from sub-Saharan Africa (societies with relatively low fertility and high utilization of technology and societies with mostly high fertility and low utilization of technology). Topics examined include fertility and birth, fertility rites, new reproductive technologies, abortion, population control, infertility, child survival and child loss.

    • Spring 2018, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Winter 2024
    • International Studies Social Inquiry Writing Requirement
    • GWSS Additional Credits FRST Elective French Pertinent Course Africana Stds Social Inquiry WGST Capstone GWSS Elective
    • SOAN  395.00 Spring 2018

    • Faculty:Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg 🏫 👤
    • Size:15
    • T, THLeighton 426 1:15pm-3:00pm
    • SOAN  395.00 Spring 2020

    • Faculty:Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg 🏫 👤
    • Size:15
    • T, THLeighton 301 10:10am-11:55am
    • SOAN  395.00 Spring 2021

    • Faculty:Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg 🏫 👤
    • Size:15
    • T, THLocation To Be Announced TBA 10:20am-12:05pm
    • SOAN  395.00 Winter 2024

    • Faculty:Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg 🏫 👤
    • Size:15
    • T, THLeighton 202 1:15pm-3:00pm

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Registrar: Theresa Rodriguez
Email: registrar@carleton.edu
Phone: 507-222-4094
Academic Catalog 2025-26 pages maintained by Maria Reverman
This page was last updated on 10 September 2025
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