Global Arc

Close reading of selected premodern Japanese texts from Nara to Meiji. Texts: Oku no hosomichi, Uji shui monogatari, etc. Prerequisite: 403 or instructor's permission. Three hours.

This course emphasizes continued development of the four skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) used in academic or professional settings. Materials include novels, essays, reports, films, and documentaries. Prerequisite: JPN 402 or equivalent.

A continuation of JPN 407. This course emphasizes continued development of the four skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) used in academic or professional settings. Materials include novels, essays, reports, films, and documentaries. Prerequisite: JPN 407 or equivalent.

The seminar will concentrate upon themes and topics in Latin American history, politics, society, literature, and/or culture. The focus will vary from year to year.

The seminar will draw on Anibal Quijano's work to explore three major themes: the intertwined notions of race and gender in Latin America; the understanding of gender and patriarchy in the work of contemporary decolonial feminist theory; and the oppressive intersectional inequalities introduced by the Conquest and colonization that continue to shape our world. Although Quijano's scholarship tends to be read in a disjointed and disconnected way, this course will take a more unified approach. This seminar will be taught by PLAS fellow Rita Segato, an internationally acclaimed anthropologist and feminist thinker.

This course examines the world of political regimes and regime transitions. Why are some countries democracies and others dictatorships? Why does democracy sometimes break down? Why so some dictatorships eventually democratize? We will explore these questions through a diverse range of cases. We will learn about cases from Latin America and beyond, including the world's biggest democracy (India) and the world's biggest authoritarian regime (China).

Some of the best movies ever made focus on the how and why of theatermaking. This course will focus on five classics of Global Cinema that deploy filmic means to explore how theaters around the world have wrestled with artistic, existential, moral, cultural, and professional issues equally central to any serious consideration of moviemaking. These films prompt questions about the nature of each medium, their interrelationship, and our apparent need for both. Along the way, they also offer compelling snapshots of theater and film history.

How have Black healers and communities conceived of health and healing throughout history? Notions of health and healing and healing practices in the "Black Atlantic" (inclusive of Africa and the Americas) from the era of slavery to the present are the focus of this course. Students will engage with primary sources, historical and sociological scholarship, and historical documentaries concerning healing and Black life.

This is an undergraduate seminar about the urban experiences and representations of the modern city as society. Beginning with the premise that the "soft city" of ideas, myths, symbols, images, and psychic expressions are as important as the "hard city" of bricks and mortar, this course explores the experiences and imaginations of modern cities in different historical contexts. Among cities we will examine are Manchester, London, Paris, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Algiers, Bombay, and Hong Kong. The course will use a variety of materials, but will focus particularly on cinema to examine different imaginative expressions of the urban experience.

This seminar uses the history of medicine in China over two millennia to explore a set of essential questions faced by all societies: What kind of persons with special skills and quality should we entrust with the care of the sick, and how to raise and allocate resources to foster the growth of medicine as an intellectual and social enterprise? In this class, we explore the health-related issues and challenges still facing governments and the general public today by looking back in time, and also discover how the history of medicine can illuminate aspects of social life and human experiences marginalized in conventional historiography.