This course examines key themes in Jewish intellectual, religious, and political life from the late 17th century to the present.

This course examines key themes in Jewish intellectual, religious, and political life from the late 17th century to the present.

This course examines key themes in Jewish intellectual, religious, and political life from the late 17th century to the present.

This course investigates economic development and globalization through a sociological lens. What is development? Why and how has the idea of development changed over time? Which development policies has this promoted, and with what consequences on people's lives in developing countries? Based on case studies across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, the course examines economic, political, and institutional factors that inform global development processes from post-WWII to the present.

We go to performances, in part, for the spectacle: for visions that thrill and compel us to look. This course will offer analysis of the different ways in which stage spectacle can work its magic. Consideration will be given to the use of the performer's body, deployment of stage violence, the appearance of animals, and the development of stage technologies.

This course introduces the oral traditions, important playwrights, and aesthetic innovations in postcolonial literary theatre in some African societies. The oral theatre traditions of Africa are an example of the innate human quest to perform and will eventually be the basis for understanding some of the innovations made in African literary theatre. We shall also focus on writings by African writers and writers of African descent who deal with the post-colonial conditions of Black Africa and the African Diaspora.

This course introduces the oral traditions, important playwrights, and aesthetic innovations in postcolonial literary theatre in some African societies. The oral theatre traditions of Africa are an example of the innate human quest to perform and will eventually be the basis for understanding some of the innovations made in African literary theatre. We shall also focus on writings by African writers and writers of African descent who deal with the post-colonial conditions of Black Africa and the African Diaspora.

This course interrogates the representation of human, divine, and "other" bodies in Classical art. Through the body, we will engage with questions regarding the roles and perceptions of divinities, humans, and "others" in visual culture from both the ancient and contemporary world. We will also unpack ancient attitudes and expectations of males and females, human and the divine, citizens and "others", and engage with questions of ancient perceptions of beauty, masculinity and femininity, and social and sexual normativity and deviation.

This is an introduction to contemporary and classical Buddhist ethical ideals. Working with primary and secondary sources, we will ask the following questions: Is the universe moral? What are Buddhist ethical ideals and who embodies these? How do contemporary Buddhists interpret classical ethical ideals? What moral dilemmas do Buddhists face today? How do Buddhists grapple with moral ambiguity? We will consider the perspectives of Buddhists from different cultures including India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, and the United States.

This course seeks to understand how protest fuels the creation and sustenance of black religious movements and novel spiritual systems in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We will examine the dissentive qualities of selected African American activists, community workers, scholars, spiritual/religious leaders and creative writers. By the end of this course, students will be able to thoughtfully respond to the questions, "What is spirituality?"; "What is dissent?"; and "Has blackness required resistive spiritual communities?"