Instructor: Michael G. Hanchard
T 3:30PM-6:29PM

Heightened authoritarianism, neo-liberal austerity and intensifying geo-political conflict in the contemporary moment provides an opportunity to reflect on how prior generations of thinkers, activists, artists, governments, formal political actors, and everyday people understood and responded to the economic, political, and cultural crises of their era.

This course provides an opportunity to situate our epoch in a dhistorical and structural context, to understand black responses to fascism, imperialism, apartheid, ecological degradation, genocide, and other maladies produced by humans. These and related phenomena provide the backdrop to reflect on several key texts from the 20th and 21st century, and why such texts remain important outside their moment.

The objective of this course is to examine several black liberal and left responses to highly unequal economic and political orders: solidarity movements, national sovereignty, and their limitations. One of the enduring, recurrent features of movements such as environmentalism, non-nuclear proliferation, anti-racism, feminism, and adjacent movements across time and space is their emphasis on ethical and moral suasion. These and other movements have not (could not) relied on powerful armies, technologies of destruction, and vast amounts of capital to make common cause for justice, equality, reparation, or retribution. In the third decade of the 21st century we can consider whether the ethico-political posture of liberal and left movements (residuals of 19th century thinking) remain viable discursive strategies in an era of post-truth. 

Crosslistings: PSCI 655-4401
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Instructor: Kevin Burke
MW 10:15AM-11:14AM

This course sets the current state of globalization in historical perspective. It applies the concepts of anthropology, history, political economy and sociology to the study of globalization. We focus on a series of questions not only about what is happening, but about the growing awareness of it and the consequences of this increasing awareness. In answering these questions we draw on a variety of case studies, from historical examples of early globalization (e.g. The Atlantic and Indian Ocean Worlds, global flows of conspicuous commodities such as sugar, coffee, and tea, the rise and transformations of early capitalism), to issues facing our current globalized world (e.g. mass-mediatization and multilingualism, border regimes and international migration, planetary urbanization). The body of the course deals with particular dimensions of globalization, reviewing both the early and recent history of each. The overall approach is historical and comparative, setting globalization on the larger stage of the economic, political and cultural development of various parts of the modern world. The course is taught by anthropologists who draw from economic, linguistic, sociocultural, archaeological, and historical perspectives, offering the opportunity to compare and contrast distinct disciplinary approaches. It seeks to develop a general social-science-based theoretical understanding of the various historical dimensions of globalization: economic, political, social and cultural. 

Crosslistings: SOCI 2910-401
Fulfills: Hum & Soc Sci Sector (new curriculum only)
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Instructor: Andrew Carruthers
TR 10:15AM-11:44AM

Anthropology is the study of what it means to be human across space and time. In this introductory course, we explore how language is at the heart of what it means to be human, examining the constituting role of language in the human experience in societies across the globe. We address a number of questions: How is being a speaker being a member of a society? How do ways of speaking about the world shape ways of experiencing the world? What is linguistic diversity and why is it important? How does one's identity emerge through one's way of speaking? How are large-scale forces like globalization shaping languages and fashions of speaking around the world? Throughout, we explore how language reflects and shapes the ways in which human beings navigate the flux of everyday life.

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Instructor: Haider Manzer
R 3:30PM-6:29PM

This course uses a biological foundation to explore general issues at the interface of biology and society. We will use both historical and contemporary reading materials, with an emphasis on the primary scientific literature, to inform discussions on often controversial issues in biology as well as the social responsibility of scientists to respond to these issues. The course will cover how science has shaped social and political opinions on such topics as race, ethnicity, and gender, as well as how society and politics are influenced by and impact science. This course will provide a background and context in which to consider, anticipate, and respond to biology's present and future ethical and social implications.

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Instructor: John Nicholas Betley, Kimberly L Gallagher
MW 10:15AM-11:44AM

From Farm to Gut will explore the biology that underlies food and feeding. We begin by looking at sources of food and the genetics behind food. We will examine how food is processed and delivered for widespread consumption. The second part of the course will focus on how the consumption of food affects your physiology, specifically looking at how food in your gut signals your body and brain. Intermediate level coursework in genetics, cell and molecular biology is encouraged.

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Instructor: Lori Haynes Spindler
T 11:15AM-1:29PM, R 10:15AM-11:14AM

Step outside of Penn's classroom into West Philadelphia High School to teach biology to local high school students. At Penn, students will learn inclusive and evidence-based approaches to science pedagogy through readings and discussion. At West Philadelphia High school, Penn students will act as facilitators of learning, presenting hands-on activities to the students and guiding them in their conceptual understanding of topics in the high school biology curriculum. To deepen their understanding of these foundational topics. Penn students will trace the scientific development of a topic of their choosing from the high school curriculum. They will identify seminal studies that have contributed significantly to our current understanding and synthesize these findings into a timeline illustrating how scientific knowledge has evolved over time. Through this combination of pedagogy, community engagement, and scientific inquiry, students will gain experience both in teaching biology and in understanding how biological knowledge is constructed. This is an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course supported by the Netter Center for Community Partnerships.

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Instructor: Jeremy McInerney
TR 12:00PM-1:59PM

Rhetoric and the Community is a class designed to improve the quality of students' speaking abilities. Through debates, impromptu speeches and various other types of oral reports, students will develop their skills as speakers. The emphasis here is on practical advice, constant positive criticism and an active exploration of the art of oratory. We will emphasize the role of effective oral communication in contributing to a higher level of engagement and discourse in the community. This class will particularly help those planning careers in advocacy, public service, teaching and other areas where confident, thoughtful, and articulate communication are important.

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Instructor: Malcom Nelson
TR 1:45PM-3:15PM

In this course, we will study the rise and development of Macedonia from a tiny kingdom on the northern fringes of the Greek world to one of the major powers of the region and beyond. Regarded by the Greeks as an at least semi-barbarian culture on the periphery, Macedonia became the dominant power in the Greek world during the fourth century BC and its king Alexander the Great set out to conquer the world. After his death, Macedonia was one of the Hellenistic kingdoms competing for power and influence in the Mediterranean until it finally came under Roman control. Topics that will be discussed include questions of ethnicity and identity, Macedonian kingship, culture and society (including the role of women) and the role of Macedonian traditions in the Hellenistic era in general. Special emphasis will therefore be laid on critical reading and interpretation of ancient literary texts, documentary evidence and archaeological material. that will be discussed include questions of ethnicity and identity, Macedonian kingship, culture and society (including the role of women) and the role of Macedonian traditions in the Hellenistic era in general.

Crosslistings: ANCH 3102-401
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Instructors: Jonathan Fagan, TBA
(See Chemistry Department listings for course times and section information)

Basic concepts and principles of chemistry and their applications in chemistry and closely-related fields. The first term emphasizes the understanding of chemical reactions through atomic and molecular structure. This is a university level course, treating the material in sufficient depth so that students can solve chemical problems and can understand the principles involved in their solution. It includes an introduction to condensed matter. This course is suitable for majors or non-majors and is recommended to satisfy either major or pre-professional requirements for general chemistry. This course is presented for students with high school chemistry and calculus. Students with a lesser background than this should take CHEM 1011. Prerequisite: Students with credit for CHEM 1011 may not enroll in CHEM 1012. Credit is not awarded for both CHEM 1011 and CHEM 1012.

Fulfills: Physical World Sector
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Instructors: Anthony Cirri, Matthew Glasscott, Zahra Fakhraai
(See Chemistry Department listings for course times and section information)

Continuation of CHEM 1012: General Chemistry I. The second term stresses the thermodynamic approach to chemical reactions, electrochemical processes, and reaction rates and mechanisms. It includes special topics in chemistry.

Fulfills: Physical World Sector
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Instructor: Daniel Mindiola
MWF 12:00PM-12:59PM

An advanced course for students who have had very strong background in Chemistry in High School (AP, IB, or equivalent). Advanced material from the general chemistry curriculum will be covered in the context topics selected from current research areas. A continuation of CHEM 1151: Honors Chemistry I, CHEM 1161: Honors Chemistry II will focus on topics in biochemistry and biophysical chemistry relating to thermodynamics, equilibrium, kinetics, and electrochemistry. Prerequisite: Advanced High School Chemistry (AP or equivalent).

Fulfills: Physical World Sector
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Instructor: Nora Bradford
TR 12:00PM-1:30PM

What makes a conversation "good"? How do we achieve the feeling of being "on the same page" with an interlocutor? This course explores the neurological and cognitive underpinnings of effective communication, equipping students with the scientific knowledge necessary to foster constructive dialogue. Drawing on cuttingedge research - including the work of Thalia Wheatley, Michael Frank, Carolyn Parkinson, and Robert Hawkins - the class investigates the social neuroscience and cognitive psychology of human connection. By analyzing primary literature on theory of mind, neural alignment, active listening, and the creation of shared meaning, students will translate up-to-date scientific insights into actionable strategies for navigating complex dialogues. Paideia program courses are open to all students, not just Paideia fellows.

SNF Paideia Program Course
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Instructor: Murali Balaji
MW 1:45PM-3:15PM

Journalism in North America has changed significantly over the past two decades, from the decline of newspapers to the rise of digital platforms such as Substack and journalism streaming sites. Moreover, the industry has seen significant changes to its operating model due to increasing monopolies, the outsized influence of content aggregation, and the loss of full-time jobs in newsrooms. These changes also correspond with how people are consuming journalistic content, fueling a rise in curated journalism sites that feed into a divided public's desire to get "their" news. This course will tackle issues in contemporary journalism from the perspective of those reading the news, those in the news, and those producing the news. We will explore a range of critical questions including: What does fact-based reporting look like in an era disinformation? What are the ethical challenges to modern journalism? Who is journalism for? Who is a journalist today? And why is journalism like this?

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Instructor: Ken Winneg
MW 5:15pm-6:44pm

How do emerging media technologies reshape political power, public opinion, and democratic participation? This course explores one of the most consequential transformations in contemporary politics: the rise of digital media and its impact on elections, governance, journalism, and civic life. Drawing from political communication theories, media studies, and campaign strategy, students will explore the evolution of the American media environment from the rise of radio and television in the early to mid-20th century to the introduction of the internet into presidential campaigns in 1996 and the subsequent emergence of social media, platform politics, and artificial intelligence as forces shaping contemporary democracy. Particular attention will be given to the role of social media platforms, podcasts, online influencers, and artificial intelligence in shaping political discourse, mobilizing voters, influencing public opinion, and redefining the relationship between citizens and political institutions. The course combines historical analysis with real-time examination of current events, including the aftermath of the 2026 midterm elections, the remaining presidential term of Donald Trump, and the emerging dynamics of the 2028 presidential race. Students will critically assess questions surrounding misinformation and disinformation, political persuasion, campaign advertising, public opinion measurement, and election law all operating in a fragmented information ecosystem.

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Instructor: Sarah Jackson
TR 1:45pm-3:14pm

This course examines the communication strategies and tactics of 20th and 21st-century social movements, both U.S. and global. We analyze the communication social movements create (including argumentation and persuasion, art activism, bodily communication, protest music, media campaigns, public protest, and grassroots and policy organizing), and the role of communication in the identity formation, circulation, and efficacy of social movements. We also consider the communication created by forces seeking to undermine social change, define the study of social movements from a communication perspective, identify major historical and contemporary movements, and apply theories of communication and social change to “real world” activism. Students are required to research and design their own social movement campaign.

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Instructor: Ted McCormick
MW 12:00PM-1:30PM

The Enlightenment is popularly seen as an “Age of Reason” that ended an early modern era marked by famine, plague, persecution, and superstition, and paved the way for a modern age of secular politics, commercial wealth, intellectual freedom, scientific progress and the inklings of liberal government. Yet the Enlightenment’s meaning, unity, extent, and significance have been debated from the eighteenth century to today: What was it? How did it begin? What did it do, and for whom? How did its ideas relate to action, in Europe or beyond? Is there an ongoing Enlightenment “project”? Rather than taking the Enlightenment as either a narrow movement or a synonym for eighteenth-century ideas, this course looks at what Enlightenment has meant thematically and as a complex historical phenomenon – exploring its origins in responses to seventeenth-century social, political, and intellectual challenges; examining the social and geographical contexts in which it took place; surveying key developments in political ideas, social thought, history, and natural science through readings of primary sources; finally, looking at the social, geographical and political limits of Enlightenment, at its ends and its legacies.

Crosslistings: HIST 1225
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Instructor: Maria Cuellar
MW 12:00PM-1:29 PM

This course explores the integration of technology in the criminal justice system, focusing on its impact on law enforcement, judicial processes, and corrections. Students will examine cutting-edge technological tools such as forensic analysis, AI algorithms, predictive policing, ShotSpotter, and facial recognition. The course will emphasize the ethical and fairness implications of these technologies, questioning their efficacy and the potential for bias. Through a combination of lectures, case studies, and hands-on projects, students will critically analyze the benefits and challenges associated with the adoption of technology in criminal justice.

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Instructor: Charles E. Loeffler
R 1:45PM-4:44PM

This course explores wrongful convictions from an interdisciplinary perspective. Using research from the disciplines of law, criminology, psychology and sociology, this course explores how legal errors occur and how they might be prevented in the future. Connections to quality control research and practice in other industries will also be examined. No prerequisites are required.

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Instructor: Charles Loeffler
R 8:30AM-10:29AM

What should society do when children break the law? This seminar will explore the theory and practice of juvenile justice in the United States from the 18th century until the present. Using the lenses of legal history and policy evaluation we will explore the development and current state of juvenile justice policies, practices, and institutions. Students will be asked to assess the continuities and changes between different policy regimes as well as the risks and opportunities that they represent. Class visits by juvenile justice practitioners will provide another opportunity to learn about and explore these themes and topics.

Crosslistings: CRIM 6022
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Instructor: Christopher Atwood
MW 1:45PM-3:14PM

"Why was the Great Wall of China built? What made the two people of China and Mongolia so hostile that a vast wall had to be built to separate them? Is this wall a symbol of Chinas might and glory, or a symbol of tyranny like the Berli n wall? Did the wall actually keep out the barbarians? Can it really be seen from the moon? For almost 2,000 year how to handle the nomads of Mongolia was the most important foreign policy question for Chinas rulers. At several differ ent times and several different places from the third century BC to the twentieth century AD, they used walls to defend themselves from the nomads. The wall thus came to symbolize the social, economic, military, political, and cultural clash between China and Mongolia. Across this frontier, nomads and Chinese fought, but also traded, exchanged diplomatic missions, and made peace. In understanding this conflict, students will explore fundamental issues of international relations: is conflict between different societies and cultures inevitable? Does greed always cause war or can economic interests be harnessed to make peace profitable? How much does domestic politics and ideology tie the hands of policy-makers confronting foreign threats? Can smaller powers make peace with larger neighbors without losing their independence and identity? "

Crosslistings: EALC 7711
Fulfills: Cross Cultural Analysis
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Instructor: So-Rim Lee
M 10:15AM-1:14PM

In 2019, Bong Joon-ho's Parasite won the Palme d'Or at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival. This event marked the apex of South Korean cinematic renaissance, having steadily become a tour de force in the international film festival scene since 1997 onwards. This course explores the major auteurs, styles, themes, and currents of the so-called "New Korean Cinema" that emerged in the mid-to-late 1990s to continue to this day. Drawing from texts on critical film and Korean studies, we will pay particular attention to how the selected works re-present, resist, and interweave the sociopolitical climate they concern and are born out of. Using cinema as a lens with which to see the society, we will touch upon major events of the twentieth century including national division, military dictatorship and democratization movements, IMF economic crisis, youth culture, hallyu (the Korean wave), and damunhwa (multiculturalism initiative). In so doing, we will closely examine how each cinematic medium addresses the societal power structure and the role of the "Other" it represents in terms of class, race, gender, and sexuality in the construction of contemporary Korean society. We will also briefly survey the history of South Korean cinema that has evolved hand-in-hand with the history of modern Korea itself, walking through its five different phases (1945-Korean War era;1955-1972 "Golden Age"; 1973-1979 censorship era; 1980-1996 democratization era; and 1997 onwards). No prior experience of Korean studies courses necessary; all films will be screened with English subtitles.

Crosslistings: CIMS 1371, CIMS 6371, EALC1371
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Instructor: Ori Tavor
T 5:15PM-8:15PM

Representations of a perfect society and imagined scenarios of a dystopian or apocalyptic future are a common features of all human societies. Philosophical, religious, and literary attempts to imagine alternative futures and critique present conditions enjoyed wide popularity and considerable influence throughout Chinese history. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to the major themes and trends in utopian and apocalyptic thought in China, from the premodern age to our times. In the first part of the semester, we will learn about the utopian and apocalyptic narratives that emerged in early and medieval China. We will begin by discussing the two archetypal models of a utopian society in early China: the Confucian harmonious moral society and its Daoist counterpart of an idyllic secluded community located in faraway lands. We will then turn our attention to the emergence of organized religion and the utopian and apocalyptic scenarios promoted by Daoist and Buddhist writers and religious innovators. In the second part of the semester, we will focus on the modern and contemporary periods and the study the impact of the introduction of Western utopian and millenarian narratives on the Chinese imagination. In addition to surveying some real-world attempts to establish a utopian society, such as the 19th century Taiping Rebellion, Mao Zedong's attempts to re-fashion China into a Community Utopia in the 20th century, and the 21st century eco-village green movement, students will be introduced to a wide variety of literary and cinematic texts that try to imagine a possible future - from the utopian sci-fi nationalism of The Wandering Earth to the dystopian fiction of leading writers such as Han Song, Chen Qiufan, and Han Jingfang. Using these works as case studies, we will strive to ascertain the role of utopianism as a tool of political, social, and environmental criticism and as a way to construct a better and more just society in the 21st century. No knowledge of Chinese is necessary - all readings will be in English. As a split-level seminar, the course will be discussion-based. Students will be asked to post weekly 500-word response papers in which they will analyze and critique the readings. The goal of this task is to help students familiarize themselves with the assigned sources before the in-class discussion thus facilitating a meaningful and productive discussion. For their final project, students will conduct their own research on a topic of their choice and present it during the last meeting. Undergraduate paper will be limited to 10-pages; graduate papers should be around 20-25 pages, including original-language research.

Crosslistings: EALC 7528
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Instructor: Fernando Arteaga
TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM

This course will study the political economy of Early America, from the British Settlement to c. 1820. In particular, we will explore the forces behind the economic growth of the British colonies, the economic forces behind the Revolution, the economic consequences of the Revolution, the political economy of the constitutional convention and ratification, the role of SCOTUS in creating a national market, and the opposing Hamilton-Jefferson views of an American economy. Early America is a fascinating and rich historical period, and we will need to skip many issues of interest. Nevertheless, we hope to provide you with a good overview of how a group of small peripheral colonies created an institutional arrangement that allowed them, in less than two centuries, to become the biggest economy in the world.

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Instructor: Fernando Arteaga
TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM

This course surveys the history of the development of economic thought, beginning with the Classical school and the works of Smith, Ricardo, J.S. Mill, Marx and others and continuing to the 20th century thought, including Keynes, Hayek, and Arrow.

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Instructor: Cathy Turner
R 1:45-4:44pm

Did ideas and print make the American Revolution? Is it possible that Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense converted colonists in the spring of 1776 to independence? Is there something particular about the pamphlet or the city of Philadelphia that made the idea of the United States possible? In this class, students will start to ask if a text can really make a change and what we would need to know to answer that question. 

At the same time, we will create texts ourselves and follow in Paine’s footsteps both literally and figuratively. Class will involve field trips to archival sites throughout Philadelphia as well as printing and papermaking. We will read and study Common Sense and other pro-and anti-Revolutionary texts to begin thinking about what makes a text work to change minds. We will end by considering the lasting meaning of the Revolution and making our own texts.

Fulfills: Arts & Letters Sector
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Instructor: Nancy Bentley
MW 3:30-4:59pm

Many of the central issues in law––evidence, criminality, confession, punishment, justice––are also central preoccupations in literature. We will explore the way literature “cross-examines” aspects of law and, conversely, how law relies on fictions and counterfactual worlds to rule on cases. Some of the questions we will explore include: Is the law a reliable tool for pursuing justice, or does it generate its own kinds of injustice? Should courts rule in accord with the way justice is understood by the majority of the community? In modern democracies, law is supposed to have a monopoly on legitimate physical force; how should we understand the relations between law and violence? Our objects of study will include literary texts, films, legal commentaries, and some legal opinions. Students will have the opportunity to think about methods of interpretation and to strengthen critical analysis skills and writing skills. 

Assignments will likely include two essays and two exams. Students considering enrolling in this course should be aware that AI tools will not be permitted for reading and writing assignments. Laptops and tablets will be restricted during class (with the exception of students needing accommodations). Most writing assignments will be completed during class time.

Fulfills: Humanities and Social Science Sector, Cultural Diversity in the U.S.
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Instructor: Vance Byrd
T 5:15 PM-8:14 PM

In this course, we will examine how commemorative traditions in Europe and the Americas have been invented and contested since the nineteenth century. We will discuss why certain events in the past rather than others have been the object of commemoration; what these creations stood for originally; how their meanings have changed over the time; and the lessons, if any, these commemorative practices continue to teach us today. We also will examine the ways in which Europeans and Americans have protested, torn down old monuments, erected new ones, and turned to a wide variety of artistic forms to call into question stories about empire, fascism, communism, westward expansion and settler colonialism, enslavement, as well as military victory and loss. To answer these questions, we will focus on the history and theory of public monuments and sculpture, painting, commemorative sites, museum exhibitions, and film. The lecture topics will range from the Napoleonic Wars and Occupation, the American Civil War, German Unifications, National Socialism and Fascism, Holocaust Memorials and Museums, the Disappeared in Argentina, Spanish Civil War and Post-Francoism, Refugees and Migrants in the Mediterranean, as well as works by individual artists who have reflected on these historical events. Taught in English. This is an SNF Paideia-designated course and is open to all Penn students, not only Paideia fellows.

Crosslistings: ARTH 2779, ARTH 6779 
Fulfills: Cross Cultural Analysis, Cultural Diversity in the U.S.
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Instructor: Andrea Goulet, Laura Flippin
T 1:45 PM-4:44 PM

In this seminar, we will study French representations of modern America from the Revolutionary Age through the 20th century, with an eye to what stereotypes of the transatlantic Other say about France’s own cultural, political, and literary shifts. From Alexis de Tocqueville’s 1830’s observations on religious freedom and penal institutions in the new democracy to Jean Baudrillard’s 1986 musings on America as the site of the “hyper-real,” French writers have displayed an ambivalent fascination with their “brother nation” across the sea. The 19th century in particular set a template of stereotypes that contrasted the dynamism of capitalist growth and technological invention in American cities with their underside of materialist corruption and cultural lack of sophistication. In addition to reading Voltaire, Tocqueville and Baudrillard, we will explore the nuanced range of literary representations of the United States through post-revolutionary ruralism (Chateaubriand, René/Voyages en Amérique), 19th-century vaudeville theater (De Leuvan, Les Sept Péchés Capitaux; Sardou, L’Oncle Sam), satirical writing (Assolant, Un Quaker à Paris), comic journalism (Allais, “Supériorité de la Vie américaine sur la nôtre”), the scientific fantastic (Villiers, Contes cruels), science fiction (Verne, Le Testament d’un excentrique/Voyage autour du monde en 80 jours), 20th-century experimentalism (Céline, Voyage au bout de la nuit), poetry (Cendrars, Les Pâques à New York), and travel writing (Duhamel, Scènes de la vie future; de Beauvoir, Amérique au jour le jour). Secondary works will include chapters from Extrême-Occident (Mathy), Posthumous America (Hoffmann), Fascination and Misgivings (Portes), The American Enemy (Roger), L’Amérique au tournant (Dubosson et Geinoz), and Frères Ennemis (Cloonan). Readings and discussions in French.

Crosslistings: COML 5200
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Instructor: Kathryn Hellerstein
TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM

What makes Jewish American literature Jewish? What makes it American? This course will address these questions about ethnic literature through fiction, poetry, drama, and other writings by Jews in America, from their arrival in 1654 to the present. We will discuss how Jewish identity and ethnicity shape literature and will consider how form and language develop as Jewish writers "immigrate" from Yiddish, Hebrew, and other languages to American English. Our readings, from Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology, will include a variety of stellar authors, both famous and less-known, including Isaac Mayer Wise, Emma Lazarus, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Celia Dropkin, Abraham Cahan, Anzia Yezierska, Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, Cynthia Ozick, and Allegra Goodman. Students will come away from this course having explored the ways that Jewish culture intertwines with American culture in literature.

Crosslistings: COML1110, JWST 1110
Fulfills: Arts & Letters Sector, Cultural Diversity in the U.S.
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Instructor: Shea Martin
TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM

How do schools teach us which bodies belong and which are marked unruly for disrupting the order of things? Unruly Bodies, Contested Spaces examines K–12 schooling as a key site where racial, gender, and class order is taught, enforced, and challenged. From dress codes and discipline to bathrooms and curriculum, schools’ culture and policies have historically signaled which bodies and behaviors are rendered normal/abnormal, safe/dangerous, and aligned/disruptive. In the wake of continued battles over gender-affirming care, censorship, equity, and the role of public education, this course will ask how these political struggles are lived in the everyday spaces and lives of schooling. Grounded in women of color feminisms, trans studies, queer theory, and geographies, we will use theoretical, legislative, and literary texts to examine how youth navigate, refuse, and dream beyond the terms schools set for them. What might their unruliness reveal about the limits and possibilities of schooling in the past, present, and future?

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Instructor: Sarah Gronningsater
TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM

This course is designed to explore major themes and events in early American legal history. Because of the richness of the subject matter and the wealth of sources available, we will be selective in our focus. The course will emphasize several core areas of legal development that run throughout colonial and early national history: 1) the state: including topics such as war and other military or police action, insurrection, revolution, regulation, courts, economic policy, and public health; 2) labor: including race and racially-based slavery, varied forms of servitude and labor coercion, household labor, industrialization, unionization, and market development; 3) property: including property in persons, land, and business, and the role of lawyers in promoting the creation of wealth; 4) private spaces: including family, individual rights, sexuality, gender, and private relations of authority; 5) constitutionalism: various methods of setting norms (rules, principles, values) that create, structure, and define the limits of government power and authority in colonial/imperial, state, and national contexts; 6) democracy and belonging: including questions of citizenship, voting rights, and participation in public life. By placing primary sources within historical context, the course will expose students to the ways that legal change has affected the course of American history and contemporary life. The course will be conducted primarily in lecture format, but I invite student questions and participation. In the end, the central aim of this course is to acquaint students with a keen sense of the ways that law has operated to liberate, constrain, and organize Americans. Ideally, students will come away with sharper critical thinking and reading skills, as well. *This course is a core requirement for the Legal Studies and History Minor (LSHS).*

Crosslistings: AFRC 1119
Fulfills: Cultural Diversity in the U.S.
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Instructor: Ramya Sreenivasan
MW 3:30 PM-4:59 PM

This lecture course will examine the relationship between religion and politics in a region which has seen renewed conflicts in the name of religious communities over the past thirty years: South Asia. The course will cover the history of such conflicts between 1800 and 2000 C.E., and the genealogy of present-day conflicts, whether rooted in the recent past or in the distant past. The emphasis will be on political patronage of religious shrines and its converse, iconoclasm; on religious conversions; on clashes that were perceived as clashes between religious communities; on doctrinal and legal reforms of religious traditions and on popular religious movements and their appeal at particular historical moments. We will explore the politics of religion and of religious affiliation from the nineteenth to the twentieth centuries by reading primary sources and reviewing the rich historiography. No prior knowledge of South Asia is expected.

Crosslistings: SAST 1540
Fulfills: Cross Cultural Analysis
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Instructor: Cheikh Babou
W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM

This course examines Africa’s recent history by exploring various social, political, cultural, and economic developments during the independence struggles and post-colonial era. We will look in greater depth at key turning points, including Africans’ responses to colonial rule, the rise of nationalist and liberation movements, independence, and the crises of the post-colonial state. The focus will be mostly on West and Central Africa. Challenges facing independent Africa will be explored in the context of debates about development, neocolonialism, nation-building, democracy, authoritarianism, and the new solidarity between countries of the Global South. Using the works of scholars, films, archives, oral history, and artifacts, the course emphasizes African agency and investigates how Africans have navigated the legacies of colonial rule.

Crosslistings: AFRC 2360
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Instructor: Beth Linker
MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM

Disability is a near universal experience, and yet it remains on the margins of most discussions concerning identity, politics, and popular culture. Using the latest works in historical scholarship, this seminar focuses on how disability has been experienced and defined in the past. We will explore various disabilities including those acquired at birth and those sustained by war, those visible to others and those that are invisible. For our purposes, disability will be treated as a cultural and historical phenomenon that has shaped American constructions of race, class, and gender, attitudes toward reproduction and immigration, ideals of technological progress, and notions of the natural and the normal.

Crosslistings: STSC 0313
Fulfills: History & Tradition Sector
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Instructor: David Young Kim
MW 10:15AM-11:14AM

This course is an introduction to the history of art in a global context from the early 1400s to the present. Lectures will introduce students to significant moments in artistic production in both the Western and Eastern hemispheres through focused studies on crucial aspects of exchange between cultures and continents. Covering an era of increasing economic transactions, imperial conquests, and industrialization, this course will build recursively through themes such as: the emergence of authorial identity and models of artistic collaboration, the traffic of artistic materials and techniques and their adaptation in different cultural settings, and the foregrounding of art to both document and initiate political change. Developing vocabularies to discuss painting, sculpture, architecture, and prints, as well as photography and film, students will learn to analyze art's decisive role during times of social transformation, including modernization, colonization, and technological advances. We will also examine the role of broad-reaching media and the advent of art criticism in forming public opinion. Assignments will encourage students to think widely across geographies and study intimately local examples in the Philadelphia museums. 

Crosslistings: VLST  2320
Fulfills: Arts & Letters Sector (all classes)
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Instructor: Jonathan D. Katz
MW 12:00PM-1:29PM

It's no exaggeration to note that queers have long been at the forefront of innovation in the arts, and that the arts, generally, have been a comfortable home for queers, even at moments when society at large was distinctly hostile. In fact the concepts of modern art and homosexuality that we use today are twins, for they were both founded in the third quarter of the 19th century and grew up together. Introduction to Queer Art thus begins with the coining of the word "homosexual" in 1869, and surveys how a range of mediums including painting, sculpture, poetry, music, and film shifted in response to new definitions of sexuality. Along the way, we will work towards answering two related questions: 1) Why were queer creators largely responsible for the introduction of modernity in the arts, and 2) why do we find so often that queer social and political dissent found form in, and as, aesthetic dissent as well? In creating new forms for art that often seem far removed from any traditional definition of sexuality, including non-objective and abstract art, queer artists pushed the boundaries of normativity, leading to new ways of seeing, hearing, feeling and thinking that often dared to encode queer meanings as part of their formal innovation. We will look into the politics of queer art, and how and why in the US, even amidst often dangerous homophobia, it was queer artists who represented America to itself. Thus, we will cover such key cultural figures such as Walt Whitman, Gertrude Stein, Georgia O'Keeffe, Frank O'Hara, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and Agnes Martin. Throughout, new methods informed by queer, gender, and critical race theory will be utilized. 

Crosslistings: GSWS 1800
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Instructor: Matthew Coates
F 10:15 AM-1:14 PM

An advanced seminar in PPE offered by faculty in Philosophy. As an advanced interdisciplinary seminar, this course is open to juniors and seniors with a declared PPE major (open to others by departmental permission).

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Instructor: Jason Hartwig
M 12:00 PM-2:59 PM

An advanced seminar in PPE offered by faculty in Political Science. As an advanced interdisciplinary seminar, this course is open to juniors and seniors with a declared PPE major (open to others by departmental permission).

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Instructor: Brian Rosenwald
M 12:00 PM-2:59 PM

An advanced seminar in PPE offered by Paideia-affiliated faculty. As an advanced interdisciplinary seminar, this course is open to juniors and seniors with a declared PPE major (open to others by departmental permission).

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Instructor: Robert Johnson
TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM

This is a gateway course in programming, data analysis, and data science in Python appropriate for all College students. The course will cover a range of topics from basic programming, data manipulation, data visualization, randomness, probability, statistics, predictions, interpreting results, and data ethics. Some advanced topics including time-series and image analysis will also be covered. No prior exposure to programming is assumed. Registration for a separate coding lab section is required.

Fulfills: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Sector, Quantitative Data Analysis

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Instructor: Chris Chambers
MW 3:30 PM-4:29 PM

This course will provide an overview of major figures and themes of modern political thought. We will focus on themes and questions pertinent to political theory in the modern era, particularly focusing on the relationship of the individual to community, society, and state. Although the emergence of the individual as a central moral, political, and conceptual category arguably began in earlier eras, it is in the seventeenth century that it takes firm hold in defining the state, political institutions, moral thinking, and social relations. The centrality of "the individual" has created difficulties, even paradoxes, for community and social relations, and political theorists have struggled to reconicle those throughout the modern era. We will consider the political forms that emerged out of those struggles, as well as the changed and distinctly "modern" conceptualizations of political theory such as freedom, responsibilty, justice, rights and obligations, as central categories for organizing moral and political life.

Fulfills: History & Tradition Sector
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Instructor: Matthew Levendusky
M 1:45 PM-4:44 PM

This class explores whether or not America, and its politics, are divided. Is the American public polarized? What about political elites? Is there any connection between mass and elite polarization? What do we even mean when we say some group is “polarized”? This class will explore these questions in some detail. We will begin at the elite level and ask whether the political class is now more polarized than it was a half century ago. The answer will be a fairly unambiguous “yes.” We’ll then explore several different explanations for why elites have become more divided since mid-century. After that, we’ll turn our attention to the mass public. The situation there will be considerably more complicated, with evidence both for and against polarization. We’ll explore this evidence in some detail and try to document the ways in which the American public has—and has not—become more polarized over time, paying attention to differences based on issues as well as affect/sentiment toward the other party. Finally, we’ll conclude by exploring the effects of polarization on the legislative process and the mass electorate, and ask what (if anything) can or should be done about polarization.

Crosslistings: COMM 4206
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Instructor: Andrew Thompson
W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM

This course surveys major theoretical approaches and empirical research in the study of democratic backsliding and erosion across the mass public. We will focus primarily on American politics, although many of the theoretical perspectives are applicable outside the United States. Among the topics we will address are the underpinning of threat that motivate erosion, support for political violence, reactions, and reinterpretations of events of erosion, and authoritarian elites and their use of rhetoric for the sake of consolidating power. This course has three learning objectives: You will analyze contemporary debates in the study of democratic backsliding. You will think both appreciatively and critically about social scientific research. You will develop a research question and make progress on the question throughout the course.

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Instructor: Paula Fomby
MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM

Family life is deeply personal but at the same time is dramatically impacted by social forces outside of the family. In this course we will examine how families are organized along the lines of gender, sexuality, social class, and race and how these affect family life. We will consider how family life is continually changing while at the same time traditional gender roles persist. For example, how "greedy" workplaces, which require long work hours, create work-family conflicts for mothers and fathers. We will also examine diverse family forms including single-parent families, blended families, families headed by same-gender parents, and families headed by gender non-conforming parents. The lectures will also examine how economic inequality shapes family life. Students will have the opportunity to apply key concepts to daily life.

Crosslistings: GSWS 1011
Fulfills: Society Sector
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Instructor: Iuri Bauler Pereira
TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM

This course will explore the cultural and political life of Brazil during the last military dictatorship (1964-1985) through literature, film, popular music, visual arts, and archival documents. We will discuss regime change, authoritarianism, censorship, cultural resistance, revolutionary politics, human rights violations, and the return to democracy, with an eye to its long-term effects in contemporary Brazil. Instruction of this course is not in English.

Crosslistings: LALS 3807
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Instructor: Megan E Robb

Professional football player Tim Tebow used to publicly kneel in prayer before almost every game. Elite runner Mo Farah rescheduled his Ramadan fast in 2011 when the Muslim month of fasting coincided with the world championships. What happens when religion and sports meet? Can a sport really be a religion? How do sports communities grapple with questions of equity and power, particularly in Philadelphia? By the end of this course you will be able to articulate a sophisticated answer to these two questions and be better prepared to understand and interpret the role of sports in society today.
This course will teach you how to think about sports as ritual that brings people together, divides them, and gives athletes the power to remake themselves through the way they use and talk about their bodies. We will first look at the ceremonial and ritual aspects of sports from the view of the spectator or fan, considering the question of whether sports teams are functionally similar to religion. Then we will look at the ritual aspect of sport from the viewpoint of the athlete, considering the ways that athletes use their bodies in sports to foster community and self-realization. There will be a secondary focus on raising ethical questions through a discussion of case studies based on real events. Issues of religion, race, ethnicity, gender, age and disability will be prominently featured. There will be guest speakers- athletic and academic and at least one class visit to a sporting event. Sports discussed include but are not limited to American Football, Baseball, Cricket, Wrestling, Football (Soccer), Basketball and Track & Field.

Fulfills: Humanities & Social Science Sector
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Instructor: Mitchell Orenstein
MW 3:30 PM-4:59 PM

The rise and fall of Communism dominated the history of the short twentieth century from the Russian revolution of 1917 to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. As a system of government, Communism is more or less dead, but its utopian ideals of liberation from exploitation and want live on. Communism remains the one political-economic system that presented, for a time, an alternative to global capitalism. In this course, students will gain an introduction to socialist and Communist political thought and explore Communist political and economic regimes their successes and failures, critics and dissidents, efforts at reform, and causes of collapse. We will learn about the remnants of Communism in China, North Korea, and Cuba and efforts of contemporary theorists to imagine a future for Communism.

Crosslistings: PSCI 0102
Fulfills: Society sector (all classes)
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