Global Arc

With its rapid economic growth in the past three decades, China already has the world's second largest economy. Meanwhile its financial markets are also being quickly liberalized and integrated with the rest of the world. As the current trend continues, there are growing interests to learn and understand the workings of China's financial and monetary systems. This course aims to serve this objective with a particular emphasis on understanding the role provided by the financial system in facilitating China's economic development, in addition to the investment opportunities and risk presented by the system to the outside world.

Drawing on the expertise of distinguished Princeton faculty and visitors, this seminar aims to provide a broad, multidisciplinary perspective on central debates in European culture and society that remain urgent in the present and expand beyond geographic and temporal limits. It serves as the core course for the Program in European Cultural Studies (ECS) and the Program in Contemporary European Politics and Society (EPS).

Symbolic systems and social life in specific historical eras. Topics will vary. Recent course topics include, magic, art, and science in Renaissance culture, political discourse and nationalism, culture and inequality, history of technology, and the rhetoric of new media.

Symbolic systems and social life in specific historical eras. Topics will vary. Recent courses include, for example, magic, art, and science in Renaissance culture, political discourse and nationalism, culture and inequality, history of technology, and the rhetoric of new media.

Three hundred and sixty years ago, the young Louis XIV, King of France, began transforming his father's hunting lodge at Versailles into the site par excellence of absolute monarchy and court society. In this course we will study the making and meaning of the palace and its gardens, and analyze some of the manifold cultural artifacts associated with them. Readings, both literary and non-literary, will be complemented by various visual resources, ranging from original prints to websites and films.

The arts and the media in different cultures. Topics will vary. Recent course topics include history of the book, art/architecture and society, opera and nationalism, literature and photography, theater and politics.

The arts and the media in different cultures. Topics will vary, for example, history of the book, art/architecture and society, opera and nationalism, literature and photography, theater and politics.

The course examines the history of fascism, with a focus on Italy and Germany. It also asks whether the concept of fascism is still useful for understanding contemporary developments. Special emphasis is placed on the evolution of fascism as a form of political ideology, on the expression of fascist ideas in film and architecture, and on the question whether fascism can be understood as a matter of individual and collective psychology. Students will become familiar with a range of theories of fascism, as well as larger trends in twentieth-century visual culture and literature.

Since its advent in the 19th century, photography has been a privileged figure in literature's efforts to reflect upon its own modes of representation. This seminar will trace the history of the rapport between literature and photography by looking closely at a number of literary and theoretical texts that differently address questions central to both literature and photography: Questions about the nature of representation, reproduction, memory and forgetting, history, images, perception, and knowledge.

The course examines the interplay between architecture and the built environment on the one hand and political belief ideas on the other. Our focus is on the twentieth century, sometimes dubbed an "age of ideologies." We will not assume that ideas are in uncomplicated ways reflected in architecture, nor that the descriptions architects give of their own work and intentions can be taken at face value. Students will become familiar with major architectural theories, different approaches in political theory, and also learn how to craft arguments at the intersection of politics and aesthetics.