Incipit vita nova: The Implications of Origins. Why does western culture seek to understand or to articulate beginnings? What cultural significance is to be attached to a given representation of a beginning? This course will study texts that purport to describe cosmic, natural, historical, political or cultural origins. In addition, the course will investigate the cultural implications of the desire to seek or to establish origins. Readings will be drawn from Plato, the Bible, Bernardus Silvestris, Virgil, Dante, the anonymous Roman d’Eneas, Rousseau, Jefferson, and Nietzsche.

All political systems must operate according to the "rule of law" if they are to be deemed legitimate. This statement has assumed the quality of a truism: we hear it repeated by the President of the United States, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and the President of the International Criminal Court. At the same time, though, that everyone seems to agree that the "rule of law" is a good thing, no one seems able to say for sure what the "rule of law" is. What, then, do we mean by the "rule of law"? What does it mean to speak of government limited by law?

Events in recent years in the United States and across the world have revealed how tragic human life can be. But what does it mean to call something “tragic”? This course explores the tragic condition by reading the great works of Ancient Greek tragedy by writers like Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides alongside modern retellings of these tragedies by authors from diverse communities around the world. We will learn about the origins of tragedy in Greece and about the performance of tragedy in ancient Athens by studying the conventions of music, dance, and the mask.

In this seminar, we will grapple with the profound impact of China’s modern transformation against a backdrop of the global circulation and competition of ideas and ideals. The course uses a variety of sources and approaches to make sense of the Chinese quest for modernity. We examine a selection of key historical figures, intellectual movements, and cultural milestones from the mid-19th -century to the early 21st -century.

A vital question in today’s multicultural societies is how individuals with different identities—religious, racial, ethnic, etc.—can live and prosper together. Participants in this seminar will explore the literature, culture, and history of medieval Spain, where Christians, Muslims and Jews lived side-by-side for centuries. Through readings and class discussion, we will examine how varied relations between Christians, Muslims, and Jews developed and how writers from the three cultures treated questions of acculturation and assimilation, tolerance/intolerance, religion, and gender.

This course is about the centrality of images produced by mechanical means in the rituals, practices, and representations of everyday life—what we now understand as visual culture. With a focus on the last 50 years, we will explore why it is important to understand the image as utterly diverse in its functions. We will dissect examples from contemporary photography, new media, screen culture, and cultural theory that critically challenge visual culture.