This course will provide an introduction to economics from a political economy perspective. We will examine the historical evolution and structure of the capitalist system, distinguishing it from other economic systems that have preceded it, such as feudalism, and existed alongside it, such as state socialism. Most of the class will be devoted to examining economic theories that have been developed to explain and support the operation of this system.

This course will explore the questions surrounding the coming of the American Civil War, the war itself and the period of Reconstruction. How we have come to remember the era will also be part of our study. As much a writing seminar as a history class, the course will focus on selections from the voluminous writing the conflict inspired: journals, diaries, journalism and memoir - as well as poetry, short stories and novels. More recent scholarly monographs and articles, biographies and works of fiction will serve as models for student written work.

This course is designed for students transitioning from Division I to II to introduce the diverse methodologies employed in the social sciences, while critically considering the implications of method for the production of knowledge. What philosophical assumptions underlie our methodological choices? How does choice of method shape what we can know? Why are some methodologies privileged as more legitimate ways of knowing than others? When do methodological conventions work for or against other goals, such as community empowerment and social change?

China Rising: Reorienting the 21st Century: After a brief overview of the Maoist era, this course will examine the rapid economic, political, and social changes that have swept China in the last three decades. We will examine major issues in China's astonishingly rapid transformation from an agrarian to an industrial society (e.g.

Today, newspapers speak of a decided tilt to the left in Latin America (Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia, Uruguay, for example, all have presidents who affirm socialism). This movement is accompanied, or propelled by, indigenous coalitions, that are challenging even governments firmly in the US orbit (Columbia and Mexico). This was not the case twenty years ago, when, to everyone's astonishment, the Zapatistas rose in revolt in Chiapas. Surfacing the same day that NAFTA went into effect-January 1, 1994, they announced a different vision of Mexico's future.

How and under what circumstances are non-human animals considered persons before the law? Using perspectives from anthropology, science studies, and legal studies, this course explores the shifting status of non-human animals in Anglo-American legal tradition. While our main focus will be the understanding and treatment of non-human animals in the contemporary United States, we will also examine these issues from historical and cross-cultural perspectives. Of particular interest is how scientific knowledge comes to bear on these kinds of legal questions.

Anthropologists, as well as travelers, conquerors, priests, journalists, novelists, and natives have constructed numerous accounts through which the Andean region has been imagined.

Large numbers of students, particularly Latino, African American, and Native American students, disengage from school every year. Often this is in the form of "dropping out." However, there also is clear evidence that social policies as well school policies and practices work to push these students out of schools or exclude them all together. This course will examine the conditions of schooling that work to support students' formal and informal disengagement with school. We will explore what schools and their community partners can do to reengage students in schooling.

This course will discuss the geographic imaginations through which the Middle East has been constructed as an entity, imagined as a space, intervened in and acted upon economically, militarily, and socially.

How does speculation on Wall Street affect wheat prices halfway across the globe? Why do most tomatoes taste so bad? Can organic farming methods feed the world? In this course, we'll use questions like these to guide our study of the economics, politics and environmental impacts of the modern industrial food system. In addition to studying and critiquing the existing system, we will spend significant time exploring more sustainable alternatives to mainstream methods of food production, distribution and consumption.