Winter 2021 Class Schedule
Winter 2021 class Schedule
Winter 2021 course descriptions
HUM 260-0: Economics and the Humanities: Understanding Choice in the Past, Present, & Future
Co-listed with Slavic Languages and Literatures 260
This course offers a cross-disciplinary approach to the concept of alternatives and choices. At any given moment, how many alternatives are possible? Is there really such a thing as chance or choice? On what basis do we choose? How does our understanding of the past affect the future? Can we predict the future? With Professor Schapiro, President of Northwestern and a labor economist, and Professor Morson, a specialist in literature, you will examine approaches to these questions and learn how to evaluate assumptions, evidence, moral questions, and possibilities across disciplines.
HUM 310: Global Humanities Lab
The Global Humanities Lab comprises investigation of an international humanities topic through experiential learning and offsite research. The course runs for a full quarter and includes an international field study component.
NOTE: Due to COVID-19, Kaplan's Global Humanities Lab will be on hiatus for Winter 2021. Read about past Global Humanities Labs—which have included travel to Istanbul, Vienna, Madrid, and Mexico City— here: https://www.humanities.northwestern.edu/undergraduate/global-humanities-lab/past-global-humanities-lab.html
HUM 370-3: Traveling While Muslim: Islam, Mobility, and Security After 9/11
Co-listed with Anthropology 390 and Middle East and North African Studies (MENA) 301
Particularly after the 9/11 attacks and during the war on terror that has ensued shortly thereafter, Muslims on the move—ranging from international students, pilgrims as well as scientists and artists—have continued to face increasingly scrutiny and surveillance in both global travel economies and national immigration regimes. These regimes gained even more important under the rule of authoritarian leaders in power across the globe from the US to India. What often unites Modi’s India and Trump’s United States is Islamophobia—albeit in different guises—as racialization of Islam and Muslims continues to punctuate our current era. What are the stakes of traveling while Muslim in that post 9/11 era of racing Islam? How do we come to understand such mobility? What assumptions underpin the attendant construction of Islam in such understandings, as various state and non-state actors enlist themselves to manage the movements of Muslims, specifically and exceptionally? In probing these questions, amongst others, in this seminar we aim to examine the interlocked relationship between Islam, mobility, and security. We have three aims in front of us: (1) becoming well-versed in studies of Islam and Islamophobia in the US and across the globe, (2) gaining a better understanding of Islam as a center tenet in a deeply uneven and racialized regime of ‘global’ mobility, and lastly, (3) critically analyzing global and local designs of security that underpin and manage those differential regimes of mobility.
HUM 370-4: Constructing Identity in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Co-listed with Art History 319, Classics 310, and Anthropology 390
How did individuals define themselves in the ancient Mediterranean world, and how did they express their affiliation with multiple and diverse ethnic, religious, linguistic, and other collective social identities? How did groups portray perceived differences between themselves and others? What do we know of the construction of gender identities, race, age, and class distinctions? What dynamic roles did dress, hairstyle, body decoration or ornament, and personal possessions play in establishing and expressing individual and collective identities? This course explores evidence for self- and group-fashioning in Greece, Rome, and their neighbors in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Persia. We examine a wide range of textual and material sources, including works of art, archaeological contexts such as burials and religious institutions, biographies, autobiographies, and legal documents, including dowries. We also consider culturally significant modes of self-representation and commemoration, such as portraits and funerary monuments, along with the collecting and transfer of objects that represented accumulated social entanglements, such as heirlooms.
HUM 370-6: The Crime Centered Documentary
Co-listed with Legal Studies 376 and Radio/Television/Film 377
In this course, we will view non-fiction and hybrid films that revolve around crime, criminal justice, and criminal court cases. Our emphasis will be on cases that are either mired in controversy and/or emblematic of wider social concerns. Readings will accompany viewings and experts will weigh in with legal, philosophical, or scientific perspectives: What is accurately depicted? What is omitted? What is misrepresented? Concurrently, we will investigate the films aesthetically: How is the film structured and why? What choices are being made by the filmmaker in terms of camera, sound, and editing and how do these choices affect viewers? Throughout the course, we will consider the ethics of depicting real people and traumatic events. We will also look at specific films in regard to their legal or societal impact. Assignments will include a series of short response papers and a substantial final project, which can take the form of either (up to the student) a final 12-15 page paper or an 8-12 minute film or podcast. The final should center upon a legal topic. Ideas include, but are not limited to: A comparison of two films depicting the same criminal case, a polished/edited interview with a person somehow connected to a crime, an investigation of a local court or legal advocacy center. Registration Requirement: For RTVF students, RTVF 190. Please note: Students may use their cell phones and their computers for final media projects. However, technical skills such as lighting, camera, sound, and editing will not be taught in this class. Group projects (two people max) will be allowed. Students creating media projects must strictly adhere to RTVF COVID safety guidelines.