Spring 2025 Class Schedule: Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities

Spring 2025 Class Schedule

Course	Title	Instructor	Lecture
HUM 260-0-20	Law and its Discontents: Representations of Criminality in Comparative Perspective	Mauricio Oportus	TuTh 12:30 - 1:50 pm
HUM 260-0-20 Law and its Discontents: Representations of Criminality in Comparative Perspective 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.
Bio coming soon
HUM 310-4-20	Pregnancy & Childbirth, c. 1750 to the Present	Sarah Rodriguez	TuTh 12:30 - 1:50 pm
HUM 310-4-20 Pregnancy & Childbirth, c. 1750 to the Present 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."
Bio coming soon
HUM 317-0-20	Monsters, Art, and Civilization	Ann Gunter	TuTh 9:30 - 10:50 am
HUM 317-0-20 Monsters, Art, and Civilization 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.
Bio coming soon
HUM 325-6-20	Reclaiming Lost Ancestries in the Digital Age	Quan Zhou	TuTh 9:30 - 10:50 am
HUM 325-6-20 Reclaiming Lost Ancestries in the Digital Age Co-listed with SPANISH 395-0-3 Fulfills FD-LA / Distro 6 - Literature and Arts This seminar examines migration and cultural memory across transatlantic and transpacific networks, situating contemporary Spanish cultural production within broader global circuits of movement, diaspora, and archival occlusions. Taught in Spanish (while reading and listening Spanish skills are required, participation can be in English). The course foregrounds critical fabulation as a method for addressing archival gaps, interrogating official histories, and reimagining ancestry beyond documentary evidence. Students will examine the ethical implications of AI in shaping historical and genealogical narratives, from archival access and preservation decisions to digital reconstruction. Class sessions will include visits to local community archives such as the Shorefront Legacy Center and Evanston ASPA. The seminar culminates in a digital family history project, completed in Spanish or English. The students will participate in structured in-class workshops to scaffold their progress, ensuring both conceptual depth and technical proficiency. At once experimenting with digital tools and interrogating the limits of historical knowledge, students will create projects with impact beyond the classroom. This course advances the role of digital humanities in transmedia storytelling, memory studies, and contemporary genealogical inquiry.
Bio coming soon
HUM 370-3-20	Race/Gender/Sex and Science	Steve Epstein	TuTh 3:30 - 4:50 pm
HUM 370-3-20 Race/Gender/Sex and Science 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.
Bio coming soon
HUM 370-6-20	Bootlegging and Other Performances of Subversion	Clara Lee	TuThu 10 - 11:20 am
HUM 370-6-20 Bootlegging and Other Performances of Subversion 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.
Bio coming soon
HUM 370-6-21	Why Can’t We Be Friends? Politics, Solidarity, Kinship	Ishan Mehandru	MW 9:30 - 10:50 am
HUM 370-6-21 Why Can’t We Be Friends? Politics, Solidarity, Kinship Co-listed with COMP_LIT 301-0-20 Fulfills FD-LA / Distro 6 - Literature and Arts We live in an age where friends are rapidly disappearing. On social media, friends have been replaced by ‘followers.’ In increasingly precarious job markets and workplaces, we are pitted to compete against (both artificial and human) ‘colleagues’ and ‘co-workers.’ Queer relationships, once overflowing with blurred boundaries between friends and lovers, are becoming neatly organized into legal and paralegal vocabularies of primary and secondary ‘partners.’ This course inquires if friendship can still be imagined as a site for political and interpersonal solidarities outside of traditional kinships. Our explorations will be guided by a counter-cultural archive of artist, activist, and informal collectives formed in the backdrop of historical flashpoints like the HIV-AIDS epidemic, the COVID-19 pandemic, and authoritarian and repressive regimes in colonial India, rural Iran, and contemporary US. We will go through memoirs, novels, Hollywood and South Asian rom-coms and “buddy” films, manifestos, and documentaries emerging out of insurgent feminist, queer, and trans* collectives. Together, we will ask if friendship can help us navigate the perils and pleasures of loneliness, desire, and joy in increasingly neoliberal and individualized times. Or does this dreamy and utopic bond collapse in a world riven by hierarchies of race, religion, caste, and class?
Bio coming soon
HUM 370-6-22	Imagining Repair: Art, Memory, and Justice in the Americas	Sofía Sánchez	TuTh 12:30 - 1:50 pm
HUM 370-6-22 Imagining Repair: Art, Memory, and Justice in the Americas Co-listed with SPANISH 361-0-1 Fulfills FD-LA / Distro 6 - Literature and Arts Who shapes collective memory, and why does it matter? In an era of fake news, artificial intelligence, and deep political divisions, this course asks not only what we remember about the past, but how those memories are produced, circulated, and contested. We will explore how artists, activists, and communities in Chicago and across Latin America use art and storytelling to respond to histories of violence, inequality, and injustice. Through performances, photography, literature, and film, we will study creative responses to issues such as police violence, dictatorship, and social inequality. Materials approach these topics from both institutional perspectives (such as museums, memorials, and official narratives) and community-based forms of memory-making grounded in lived experience and collective action. The course pays special attention to how cultural work imagines reparations not only as legal or financial solutions, but also as ethical, emotional, and creative ways of repairing harm. We will also spend time thinking about public space as a site where memory is debated and reimagined, inviting students to reflect on how history and memory shape their everyday surroundings.
Bio coming soon
HUM 395-0-20	Archives in Public	Jayme Collins	T 2:00 - 4:50 pm
HUM 395-0-20 Archives in Public To whom do archives matter, and how do they matter? Archival collections are powerful resources for both scholarly and community knowledge, and yet not all communities have equal access to collections or analogous ideas about how they should be used. For this reason, archives frequently appear in a range of public humanities projects, collaborations, and initiatives. These include archival recovery and restoration projects, digitization and dissemination projects, and educational programming and skills-based community archiving workshops. In this seminar, we will explore theoretical, methodological, experimental, and practical questions about the role of archives in the public humanities. The class discussion will develop dually through readings about archives and publics and through visits to area archival institutions. Tasked with designing an archive-based public humanities project by the end of the quarter, students will be asked to work collaboratively in and with archives in community settings, and to experiment with what it means to make archives public or to connect archives with communities. Some sessions of the seminar will meet at off-campus archival institutions in Evanston and Chicago.
Bio coming soon