ALICE KAPLAN INSTITUTE FOR THE HUMANITIES

Co-listed with CLASSICS 210-0-1
Fulfills FD-HS / Distro 4, Historical Studies

What do we know of the world inhabited by the heroes of Homer’s epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey? Do the poems describe a largely imaginary realm, or do they reflect a particular period of ancient Greek history—and if so, which one? How did the circulation of the poems help contribute to a collective sense of Greek identity over a wide area of the eastern Mediterranean?

This course explores the society, economy, and culture of Iron Age Greece with special emphasis on the Geometric and early Archaic periods, emphasizing what scholars have learned through archaeological discoveries along with study of the poems themselves. Topics include the excavations at Troy and other sites; contacts with Egypt and the Near East and overseas settlements in the Mediterranean world; trade, exchange, and the technology of travel; literacy and oral tradition; political communities and warfare; gender and family relationships; religion, burial practices, and the art of ritual and commemoration. We will also examine some of the ways scholars and artists today are re-exploring the poems and their enduring themes.

Co-listed with COMP_LIT 270-0-20
Fulfills FD-LA / Distro 6 - Literature and Arts

Law and its Discontents will explore the ways in which the figure of the criminal has been represented across national traditions from the 19th century to the present, with a special focus in the Americas. By carefully examining aesthetic depictions of the “outlaw” — from the American “Cowboy,” to the Argentinian “Gaucho,” the Venezuelan “Llanero,” to contemporary portrayals of state violence — this course will address not only the role that these figures have played in the construction of national identities, but will also explore their potential for unsettling our conceptions of lawfulness, institutional justice, and ultimately, of the nation itself. Through the analysis of literary and visual cultural practices that revisit the figure of the criminal, we will address key questions about the relationship between legal order and violence, criminality and popular justice, law and ecological disaster, and the (out)law’s place in civil society. These discussions will culminate in a collaborative podcast project, where students will creatively engage with course materials in a public-facing format. Course materials for this course will include works from Roberto Bolaño, J. L. Borges, Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, Jane Campion, Angela Davis, Ariel Dorfman, Mariana Enriquez, Franz Kafka, Sergio Leone, and Josefina Ludmer, among others.

Co-listed with GBL_HLTH 390-0-34
Fulfills FD-HS / Distro 4 - Historical Studies

Note: Course enrollment was by application only; the deadline has passed and there are no more slots available.

People’s ideas about pregnancy—how to prevent or enable, when it starts and how it progresses, how to ensure it is healthy, how to intentionally end it early, and what it means when it ends early unintentionally—have changed, in some cases dramatically, over the past 275 years. In addition, ideas about childbirth have also changed since 1750, going from what was largely a female event, one assisted (if assisted at all) by women who had gained their knowledge through experiential learning, to one where the most ‘appropriate’ attendant obtained their skills formally, in alignment with biomedical ideas, and overseen by the state. How have laboring women, midwives (both formally and experientially trained), physicians, fathers, family members, and the state participated in changes regarding conceptualizations of pregnancy and childbirth? We will consider this question within both local and global frames, seeking to juxtapose microhistory “and broadly comparative narratives” to, per Northwestern History professor Amy Stanley, zoom in “on the particularities of a local situation” and pan out “to ponder the commonalities."

Co-listed with ART_HIST 317-0-1
Fulfills FD-HS / Distro 4 - Historical Studies and FD-LA / Distro 6 - Arts and Literature

Griffins, sphinxes, demons, and other fabulous creatures appear frequently in the art of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Eastern Mediterranean world. They stand at the intersection of the normal and abnormal, the natural and unnatural. Why did these images become so widespread, and what cultural functions did they serve? Can we connect their invention and dissemination with key moments in human history and cross-cultural interaction? What was the role of material representations of the supernatural in preventing and healing disease and in coping with other human misfortunes? Why have they become a significant subject in the study of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and their neighbors?

This course explores the supernatural subject in ancient art with new perspectives drawn from art history, history, anthropology, cognitive science, and archaeology. Employing art historical methodologies of formal and stylistic analysis and iconographic interpretation, we will examine a wide range of objects and representations (including architectural sculptures, figurines, seals, amulets, and other media) along with ancient texts that help us understand their meaning and function. Since these objects and their images largely formed the visual culture encountered in the daily lives of many individuals, we are able to engage with numerous objects belonging to non-elite members of society and that remain outside the established canon of histories of ancient art. We are also able to understand how ideas about the supernatural developed in response to specific circumstances of environment, history, and culture.

Co-listed with INTL_ST 390-0 and LATIN_AM 391-0
Fulfills FD-HS / Distro 4, Historical Studies

In this course, students will research a case study from among the many refugee and migration crises that have dominated the news cycle in recent years. The final project is a short video about your case study.

To develop your research projects, the class foregrounds different methodological approaches: 1) To move beyond journalism, we will conduct primary and secondary historical research to understand the complex historical roots of each case study. 2) We will analyze and practice forms of ethnographic writing to better situate and describe the lived experiences of migration and exile, both past and present. 3) We will pay attention to various forms of media, whether print culture, sound, or visual media, to interrogate but also experiment with contemporary modes of narrating and conveying human experience in the digital age. Our work in class will be collaborative, thus a key prerequisite is that you are mature and self-motivated. You do not need to have prior research experience, but you need to demonstrate a desire to dig into your topic and hone your ability to write deeply informed, rigorous, and nuanced arguments and to think about creative ways to bring rigorous historical and ethnographic detail to visual storytelling.

Co-listed with CLASSICS 380-0-1
Fulfills FD-HS / Distro 4, Historical Studies and FD-LA / Distro 6, Literature and Fine Arts

Ancient Rome is visible in Chicago—walk the city and learn to “read” the streets, buildings, and monuments that showcase Chicago’s engagement with the classical past! You’ll gain digital mapping and video editing skills as you collaborate on a virtual walking tour mapping Chicago’s ongoing dialogue with antiquity. With a combination of experiential learning and rigorous research methodologies, you’ll explore architecture, history, visual arts, and urban topography in this quintessential modern American city.

Fulfills FD-LA / Distro 6, Literature and Fine Arts

Chicago, as well as the broader Midwest region, has often been cast as geographically shielded from climate change-induced environmental destabilization. And yet the city and its environs are still affected by the impacts of climate change in increasingly extreme weather patterns, subsidence, and other environmental upheavals, leading the city to declare a state of climate emergency in 2020. How do the stories we tell about place shape how we understand and respond to climate change? In this project-based course, students will be immersed in diverse approaches to telling stories of climate change in a primarily U.S. context. Throughout the quarter, we will examine a wide range of research-driven, place-based stories of climate change across media, from a documentary film about the hottest August in New York City to a StoryMap about climate resilience in the Ohio River Valley and nonfiction writing and journalism about how landscape changes exacerbated by climate change are transforming life for different urban and coastal communities. Alongside our discussion of such storytelling projects, students will work in teams on a quarter-long collaborative project about how a place or community in the Chicagoland area has experienced, addressed, or imagined climate change. Teams will be formed based on student interests in a location/topic and in a particular storytelling medium. Project-based work will require independent travel to off-campus locations.

Co-listed with SPANISH 395-0-3
Fulfills FD-LA / Distro 6 - Literature and Arts

Co-listed with SOCIOLOGY 376-0-21
Fulfills FD-SBS / Distro 3, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Co-listed with SOCIOL 376-0-21 and GNDR_ ST 332-0-21
Fulfills FD-SBS / Distro 3 - Social and Behavioral Sciences

How do developments in the life sciences affect our understandings of who we are, how we differ, and how social inequalities are created, perpetuated, and challenged? This seminar explores how scientific claims and technological developments help transform cultural meanings of race, gender, and sexuality. Conversely, we will consider how cultural beliefs about race, gender, and sexuality influence scientific knowledge and medical practice. By studying a range of cases, we will explore the dynamic interplay among expert findings, social identities, and political arguments.

Co-listed with PERF_ST 305-0-1
Fulfills FD-LA / Distro 6 - Literature and Arts

What is a bootleg? What makes appropriating an original work a subversive act or a creative endeavor as opposed to blatant theft? In this class, we will look at how artists, musicians, and designers, such as TELFAR, Shanzhai Lyric, Kandis Williams, and Arthur Jafa, have incorporated the practice and phenomenon of “bootlegging” into their work. We begin by tracing the history of cultural reproduction, familiarizing ourselves with its guerilla forms. Further situating its practices within the context of late capitalism, we will analyze a range of objects including performance, media, sculpture, and the detritus of consumerism. Drawing on concepts from performance studies like “repetition,” “iterability,” and “citation,” we ask, what happens when the copy exceeds the original to reveal something more? Critically, we will develop our considerations against the historical backdrop of colonial plunder and racial dispossession. Through class discussions, close reading, written assignments, and creative exercises, we will learn to think critically about aesthetics (what makes something “good,” “bad,” “beautiful,” or “grotesque”?) and our judgements of taste.