Reimagining Society

Capitalism, Socialism, and the Space We Live In

July 12 – August 1, 2025

In this three-week program, students learn how scholars from three disciplines—Sociology, German Studies, and Political Science—discuss what it means to live as a human being in a society grappling with economic insecurity, social inequality, community, and freedom. Some questions we’ll explore include: In what ways are we trapped in a capitalist economic system? How can we counteract our current understanding of human existence with the help of alternative social models? What would it take to reimagine our relationship with our community, work, and living arrangements? Finally, why is college the time to tackle these questions and take action, both personally and institutionally? Students in our program will learn strategies for entering and participating in a space of scholarly inquiry. Some specific skills we’ll work on include: close reading of scholarly texts; finding and citing sources; communicating ideas effectively, both orally and in writing; and intellectual conversations in small and large groups. We are seeking students who are excited to attend college and approach their learning with curiosity, energy, and diligence, and are not afraid to push their own comfort zone.

A student holds up an artifact while another person examines it. The student holding the artifact is providing an explination of the item.

Students sit in a half circle with laptops in their laps, smiling in a computer lab.

Summer Carls can earn up to six Carleton course credits (typically transfers as three semester credits) for successfully meeting faculty expectations and completing course requirements. In addition to receiving written feedback about course performance from faculty, students will receive one of the following three possible grade designations: satisfactory (S), credit (Cr), or no credit (NC). Formal academic transcripts are available upon request for Summer Carl alumni and will reflect the name of the course and grade earned.

Courses and Faculty

Students in this program will experience one week of learning in each of the following course topics.

A Socialist Perspective on Working and Living

If capitalism can be described as the age of insecurity, we explore in the second part of the course whether and how socialism–especially in East Germany with its advocacy for the worker, free healthcare and education, low unemployment, and the highest rate of working women then and now–offered its citizens greater security. How did the cost of limited personal freedoms, restricted access to information, political repression, and intrusive surveillance impact this security? What are the key differences in the experience of living in German socialism and the socio-political system in the United States today, and how do these systems address the challenges of balancing work, life, and happiness?

Faculty

Juliane Schicker

Program Director

Born in East Germany, Juliane Schicker grew up in a family of educators, and is now an award-winning teacher and scholar in North American academia. As Associate Professor of German at Carleton College, she teaches classes on East Germany, music, social justice issues, and German language skills. She received her Ph.D. in German at the Pennsylvania State University and also holds an M.A. in German from Texas Tech University with a minor in Linguistics, as well as a teaching certification for Secondary Education for German and English with minors in pedagogy and didactics from the Otto-von-Guericke-University in Magdeburg (Germany). In her research, Juliane is particularly interested in the connections between artistic expressions, socio-political issues, and human well-being. She has published, among other things, about the German band Rammstein, the classical composer Gustav Mahler, and East German film. She also translates children’s books. In her spare time, she pretends to live in a European city, bikes everywhere with her amazing daughter, bakes German bread, and enjoys music, good food, and conversation.

Working in a Capitalist Society

Human beings have always had to work. Capitalism changed when, where, and how we work. Today we spend the largest portion of our lives “at work” and what we do for a living shapes our daily activities, personal identities, and nearly everything in-between.

In the 19th century, Karl Marx argued that the capitalist system is rigged. Alienated from their labor, workers are mere cogs in the machine. If Marx was alive today, he would no doubt also be concerned with the insecurity most workers now experience. In this course, we’ll examine instabilities inherent to modern employment and consider some of the ways workers push back.

Faculty

Annette Nierobisz

Annette Nierobisz is a Professor of Sociology and the Ada M. Harrison Distinguished Teaching Professor of the Social Sciences at Carleton College. Born to a Polish refugee family who settled in Winnipeg, Canada, she is co-author of the forthcoming book, American Idle: Late Career Job Loss in a Neoliberal Era. This work explores how older workers struggled to find employment after a layoff related to the 2008 economic crash. At Carleton for more than two decades, Annette enthusiastically teaches aging and the life course, modern employment and unemployment, criminology and mass incarceration, and social science research methods. In the Summer Liberal Arts Institute, she loves helping energetic high schoolers discover what it means to be a successful student in a liberal arts environment. Annette enjoys gardening, cooking, playing foosball with her husband Rob, and walking their two rambunctious Alapaha Blue Blood bulldogs, Pooka and Pony.

The well-ordered city: Chinese modernity and state capitalism

As one of the few remaining communist regimes today that is also the factory of the world, China has sought to embrace both the free market and communist ideals–or socialism with Chinese characteristics, as the nation’s leaders proclaim. What lifestyle has this unique political thinking produced? Are people getting the best of the two worlds, being more secure than those in unbridled capitalistic societies and freer than those in unreformed communist systems? Chinese cities, with their futuristic skylines and a dearth of homelessness, shantytowns, and violent crimes, seem to suggest a unique success. Yet has this mixed system created other kinds of problems? In this third part of the course, we explore Chinese cities to understand how they work, what forces–communist, capitalist, and Chinese–shape them, and what kinds of lives they produce.

Faculty

Huan Gao

Huan Gao is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Carleton College. She teaches courses on Chinese politics, Asia-Pacific security issues, dictatorships, and urban politics. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University and a BA in sociology and economics from UC Berkeley. Her research interests include Chinese politics, civil society, emergency management, and spatial politics. Her book project investigates the 2008 earthquake in China and its impact on civil society mobilization and corresponding state control, focusing on how the physical environment shapes political behavior and state power. This research has also expanded into current work on the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on local governance and state power. In her spare time, Huan enjoys exploring political possibilities and alternatives through creative writing.

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