In Plato’s "Gorgias," Socrates argues with three sophists who practice and teach the art of rhetoric in democratic ancient Athens. To Socrates’ mind, rhetoric is a dangerous tool that aims at mere persuasion, indifferent to questions of truth or falsity. Philosophy, in contrast, aims at truth and knowledge. In this class, we will examine and participate in the ancient battle between philosophy and rhetoric. What makes for good speech?
It is estimated that nearly 2 trillion photographs were taken in 2024 alone; arguably the photograph has become the dominant language of contemporary culture. The recorded image is increasingly used as evidence and has had a meaningful social impact. Simultaneously, the camera has also become a pervasive tool of surveillance. Yet, how deeply do we really look at photographs? How often is the lasting effect of these multitudinous images really considered, by either the maker or the consumer? Are everyday photographs works of art, or simply a kind of currency?
This course examines the experiences of women from diverse backgrounds during the Progressive Era (1890-1920). During this period characterized by rapid industrialization, mass immigration, and contested civil rights, women advocated for reforms of all kinds. But they did not always share the same visions of progress. Course units on labor, settlement work, sexual and racial politics, education, and physical culture will put these competing visions in historical context. Who defined the terms and goals of progress?
Think of Staying with the Trouble as a semester-long conversation with Ursula Le Guin (author) and Donna Haraway (historian of science and feminist theorist), a conversation about storytelling, ecology, and alternative perspectives on human and non-human relationships. Le Guin and Haraway were familiar with each other's work. They both engage the relationships between science, technology, and power in their mutual quest for social and environmental justice. Their life works have a knack of creating a “meeting place, or an encounter between times and generations” (cf.
In the last century, genocide has occurred all too often. The Holocaust is the most famous case, but it was not the first, nor has it been the last. Indeed, in recent decades, genocide has occurred in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sudan and, arguably, in other conflicts. But just what is genocide? Why do states engage in mass murder? How do they mobilize citizens to become perpetrators? What happens to societies in the aftermath of genocide? How unique is the Holocaust as a case of genocide? And finally, what are the politics surrounding the term “genocide”?
A number of historians have recently turned from doing more traditional, “objective” academic projects to writing the histories of their own kin. The genre of family history has proved especially fruitful in areas like African-American history where archives hold limited materials, as scholars sometimes have access to rich and illuminating sources within their own families—sources like oral histories, diaries, and letters.
