This course explores the history and politics of gender and sexuality in relation to the racial politics of prisons and the police. By engaging recent work in queer studies, feminist studies, transgender studies, and critical prison studies, we will consider how prisons and police have shaped the making and remaking of race, gender, and sexuality from slavery and conquest to the contemporary period. We will examine how police and prisons have regulated the body, identity, and populations, and how larger social, political, and cultural changes connect to these processes.

There is growing interest in studying empire and citizenship in a postcolonial context. Yet, how can this perspective apply to delocalized Puerto Rican communities? In order to address this question, we will study conquest, colonial "encounters," and empire formation in the Americas, with a particular emphasis on Puerto Rico's unique position in the Atlantic world. This seminar will analyze Puerto Rico, its Diaspora, and its decolonial struggles, commencing from the Spanish conquest and the U.S.

The dramatic increase in transnational migrations has prompted new debates by policymakers, activists, and scholars over the expanding global economy, cultural diversity and tolerance, and national and human security. We cannot intelligently engage these debates without first understanding the reasons for these migrations and the perspectives of migrants themselves. Using documentaries, feature films, and ethnographic works, this course will explore a variety of migrant lives and the processes that structure them. Why do people decide to go abroad?

In this course, we will examine the politics and poetics of space and the built environment. Space, broadly conceived, is not merely a physical manifestation of social processes that are embedded within it; rather, all social relations are fundamentally spatial. Accordingly this course looks at the social, political, and economic relations that produce space, focusing on urbanization and the spatial production of cities of the Global South and the Global North.

Why do some students think about college as the natural next step in their education, while others do not consider college as an available option? What are the various factors that influence college access and what types of resources and programming contribute to the inclusion and retention of first generation and underserved students in college and universities.

To this day, the charm of the Kennedy style and the drama of the Kennedy assassination disguise the mounting critique of American society during the first half of the 1960s. Upon closer examination, the criticism appears not only prescient but quite artful in its presentation. We will explore the social and political particulars under question - and also look to the writing as models for our own prose. We will devote considerable time to the development of effective writing strategies.

Many people have learned and are accustomed to thinking of history as an authoritative account of the past, based on indisputable facts. Scholars of history, by contrast, understand history as a matter of contested and evolving interpretation: debate. And they argue not just over the interpretation of facts, but even over what constitutes a relevant fact. This course will use some representative debates to show how dynamic the historical field is. Topics may include: Did women have a Renaissance? How did people in early modern France understand identity?

What is the connection between the consumption of colonial postcards in Senegal, cosmetic products in Zimbabwe, African-American bric-a-brac during segregation, second-hand clothing in Zambia, Coca-Cola in Trinidad, and African art in New York? This course examines two central themes for material culture studies: commodities and consumption. Consumption is a process that enables people to reproduce themselves as social beings, as well as the maintenance and reproduction of social relationships, giving commodities 'value'.

This course is designed for students working in all genres of creative writing who are completing their second semester of Division 3. The seminar will provide a supportive, critical forum for sharing and responding to independent work as students bring their projects to a close. We will also consider the question of a 'community' for writers, who often labor in private. Students may be invited to attend and respond in writing to three public readings that will take place in the spring.

This Division III seminar will provide a forum for Division III students working on a wide spectrum of creative projects that intersect with issues of social justice, social and political change. The seminar will be explore some new shared readings but will be structured collaboratively by participants and will explore a common selection of short readings/ viewings / activities alongside student presentations and discussion of their work.