Global Arc

Is Talk Cheap? The Art and Science of Conversation-Based Methods for Social Research Grounded in social-science inquiry, this seminar invites students to explore the art and science of conducting interviews, introducing them to different modes and contexts for analyzing survey results, and guiding them as they undertake an original research project of their own design. This single credit course is a year long. Completion of both semesters is required for credit.

Modeled on the undergraduate writing seminar taken by Princeton's own transfer students, WRI 100 prepares Transfer Scholars for the rigors of independent research, and facilitates their transition from a consumer to producer of scholarship. Emphasizing evidence-driven argument in response to Transfer Scholars' own intellectual curiosities, WRI 100 provides analytical tools for working with humanities and social science theory.

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How did ancient Greeks respond to the trauma of death? In this class, we will look at the material culture from ancient Greek burials to discover what it can tell us about ancient Greek death, life, society, and beliefs. The rich and sometimes startling material includes grave markers, containers for the deceased, tomb offerings, and images. We will complement the material record with close reading of primary sources.

Women and their associated symbolism are a perpetual presence across a wide range of mediums throughout Chinese art history. Spanning the longue durée from 1200 BCE to the twentieth century, this course focuses on how the production, mediation, and reception of gendered artistic symbols operate in various contexts. It proceeds chronologically and thematically. The instructors intend to incorporate novel formats, such as classroom interviews and VR headsets, in investigating Chinese artworks concerning women and their relevant discourses from the angles of gender politics and identity construction, with a special emphasis on women's agency.

Pottery is the most common discovery on a Greek archaeological site. What can it tell us about the ancient Greeks, their lives, and their arts? This class offers an in depth exploration of the major pottery shapes and styles produced in Greece, studying how and why vases were made and used. Most seminars will involve hands-on work with objects from the Princeton University Art Museum collection. In addition, the class will visit the ceramics studio and learn the principal techniques of pottery manufacture.

Love is a deeply personal experience. Yet, powerful social, political, and economic forces determine who we love, when we love, and how we love. Looking at practices of romantic love, dating, sex, marriage, queer love, friendship, and familial love across different social and global contexts, this course explores how social and cultural factors shape our most intimate relationships. Drawing on ethnography, history, and journalism, we examine the intersections between love and technology, gender, race, the law, capitalism, colonialism, and religion. For the final project, students will use creative writing or multi-media to tell a love story.

This course looks at Ancient Greco-Roman sport, spectacle entertainment and games; its origin in myth, its place in religious festivals, and the increasing institutional outlay on entertainment in the Roman empire. Areas of competition include: chariot, horse and foot-races, boxing, wrestling, dance, gladiatorial fights, beast-hunts, public executions and more. We will also consider leisure activities (swimming, hunting, board games), magic and curses, sport medicine and diet, and gambling. We close with the direct interaction of Christianity with Roman spectacle entertainment and the after-life of the games in this new world order.

Living as we do in a culture that is primarily either secular or monotheistic and in which the sacred and profane are largely kept separate, how can we possibly understand the world of ancient polytheism? The ancient Greeks did not have a word for "religion", nor did they conceive of "religion" as a distinct domain of human experience. Rather, the practices, beliefs, and rituals that we would term "religious" were embedded in every aspect, public and private, of life. We will explore how people interacted with their gods in their everyday lives, both individually and collectively, and how this interaction shaped and structured Greek society.

What constitutes the current conjuncture in global environmental governance, and in what ways and to what ends is biological life-human and non-human-made part of neoliberal environmental projects? This course will use the concept of neoliberal natures to explore the challenges rapid global environmental change pose for conservation, sustainability and ecosystem health in the contemporary era. We consider the ecological and political implications of growing efforts to enroll material nature in market-based environmental schemes, and explore how these schemes unfold across different contexts to shape social and environmental sustainability.