1815-1914: a century of fundamental change without a general war. The international order established at the Congress of Vienna and its challengers: liberalism, nationalism, Romanticism, socialism, secularism, capitalism and imperialism.

Topics course.: What is Ignorance? Is it simply lack of knowledge? What is its relation to illusion, deception, self-deception? What is the difference between being ignorant of something and ignoring it? Is ignorance something for which one can be held responsible? Something for which one can be punished? Something for which one can be rewarded? To what social and political ends has ignorance been put, and how?

Slavery is almost universally condemned in the modern world, but it was accepted as an integral part of the moral order for most of history. This course explores various manifestations of slavery in ancient and modern times—war captives, debt slaves, convicted felons, chattel slaves, sex slaves, child soldiers—and their treatment in the philosophical literature. It explores the moral arguments for and against European slavery, the African slave trade, American slavery and contemporary forms of forced labor.

What is thinking? What is the distinction between mind and body, and ought we to accept it? Can the mind survive the death of the body? Can you be thoughtful and passionate at the same time? What kind of access can we have to the worlds of human beings from other cultures and historical periods? Readings from ancient, modern and contemporary philosophers primarily in the Western tradition. Designed to introduce beginning students to problems and methods in philosophy and to the philosophy department at Smith. Maximum number of students per section 20.

Students in this class engage in detailed studies of the formation of carbonate sediments and rocks through participation in a required 7–10 day field trip to one of the modern tropical carbonate-producing environments (such as the Bahamas) during January interterm, followed by semester-long research projects based on the data and specimens collected in the field. Students present their results at Celebrating Collaborations in April. Class discussion topics include the history of carbonate rocks from the Precambrian to the present. Prerequisite: GEO 232 and/or 231. Enrollment limited to 8.

This course examines immigration from a comparative perspective by drawing on European, American, and Asian examples. Part I explores theories and empirical evaluations of the economic, humanitarian, and cultural causes of immigration. Part II explores the consequences of immigration faced by receiving countries, as well as immigrants. We specifically focus on how native citizens, politicians, political parties, states, and the media respond to increasing immigration. We also investigate the raced, gendered, and classed effects of the economic, social, and political integration of immigrants.

A critical introduction to government regulation of employment and to legal theories of freedom and justice in the workplace.

Enduring patterns of Buddhist thought concerning the interpretations of self, world, nature, good and evil, love, wisdom, time and enlightenment as revealed through major primary texts, contemporary writings and films. Enrollment limited to 35.

Same as IDP 291. A course designed for students who have spent a semester, summer, Interterm or year abroad. After introducing the methodology of digital storytelling, in which images and recorded narrative are combined to create short video stories, students write and create their own stories based on their time abroad. Participants script, storyboard, and produce a 3–4 minute film about the challenges and triumphs of their experience, to then share it with others. Prerequisite: Significant experience abroad (study abroad, praxis, internship, Global Engagement Seminar, or other).

The drive to represent reality has animated media makers throughout history. In the service of this urgent, impossible ambition, documentarians have used myriad forms of media and produced some of each form’s most complex works. This course examines how they have done so, concentrating on different approaches to documentary (observational, ethnographic, essayistic, autobiographical), and considering work in photography, film, television, radio/podcasts, websites and virtual reality.