In this CC100 course, we investigate the often-neglected histories of Black and Brown Muslims as they have negotiated a place for themselves as Muslims in the context of a hegemonic White (Euro-American) Protestant milieu. In the process, we discover how Islam has served minority communities as a site of religious creativity and adaptation, as well as an emblem of a distinctive, if often contested, religious identity—both before and after 9/11.

Contemporary global and world literature enables us to examine not only environmental dilemmas in specific contexts, but also the understudied linkages between global ecological issues and various systems of injustices, including colonialism, racism, ethnification, sexism and global economic inequality. By critically engaging the work of contemporary social and eco-activists, documentary/film makers, journalists, ethnographers, ecologists and literary authors from diverse national locations—South Africa, multicultural U.S., India, Nigeria, the Maldives, the Caribbean and the Middle East, this critical inquiry seminar helps students explore how the environment has a direct impact on the production, circulation and perception of knowledge in the world today.

What is it to lead a meaningful and good life? How can we embrace a way of living that is respectful of others and authentic to ourselves? This course explores a diverse array of thinkers and texts that seek to answer such questions and to help people understand how to live well. The course draws upon and puts into creative and critical conversation the diversity of ways in which philosophers across time and around the globe have grappled with the challenges of living a human life.

This course investigates the impact new media technologies and infrastructures have on the notion of the public through an analysis of select global-scale social and migratory movements in the recent. We will carry out our investigation with attention to three media phenomena of the twenty-first century: social media's instrumentality in mass protests and insurgent movements of the last decade; the increasing deployment of unmanned vehicles of surveying, mapping, and targeted killings in contemporary warfare; and activist-artists' response to ongoing humanitarian crises of mass displacements and migrations through conventional and new media. We will thereby examine how shifting present-day media practices and networks signal an emergent public that expands the communicative and practical methodology of revolutionary, anticolonial, and transnational social and political activism.

Many colleges across the country, including CC, claim to be engaged in the enterprise of “liberal” or “liberal arts” education. Yet, when pressed, we often find it difficult to articulate precisely what a “liberal education” is, or ought to be. In this course we will seek to clarify the following questions: what, if anything, is distinctive about a liberal education? How does it differ from, and why might it be preferable to, specialized training, no matter how sophisticated and informed? If it has never been primarily understood as such, what is its aim, and how might different disciplines help us to reach that aim? Is it to seek “truth”? To “liberate” us? If so, from what and to what? To teach us how to live? To make us more morally serious? To prepare us to engage in public service? And if these aims are in tension with one another, how would we prioritize these concerns? We will read various contemporary and historical readings on liberal education, as well as portions of texts often considered to exemplify one.

By reading and discussing some classic and some contemporary essays, both philosophical and historical, on the idea of liberal arts education, and on the challenges to it, we aim to understand more fully why there have always been places set aside in society for reflection on fundamental questions of the human condition from Plato's Academy to the contemporary liberal arts college. We consider also the significant expansion of the opportunities to have this opportunity in the past two centuries. We also look at some of the unresolved questions about the present and future of higher education.

In this course, we will explore Japanese culture, both traditional and contemporary, from social and linguistic aspects. The goal of the course is to promote understanding of the underlying aesthetics of Japanese culture and literature and analyze the impact of language on Japanese history, society, and culture. By the end of the block, students will be able to experience and understand the historical and social aspects of both traditional and contemporary Japanese culture, from Japanese zen garden to anime. Students will also learn about ethnic minorities and socially marginalized populations in Japan, and the impact of language on these people. Through discussing and analyzing these topics with Japanese language and culture as the target of analysis, students are encouraged to reflect on their own language and culture. The course will integrate various forms of learning materials including books on cultural studies, films, research articles, and field trips. The course will introduce students to the study of Japan at a collegiate level by familiarizing them with campus resources and standard writing and research practices in the field of linguistic and cultural studies. Students will gain skills in critical thinking and analysis, as well as in research and oral presentation.

Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, works of metafiction do not follow the advice to “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” Nor do they allow readers to do so either. Instead, works of metafiction pull back the curtain and call attention to themselves as fictional constructs. They do not let readers forget they are reading texts that have been written and are being read. In doing so, works of metafiction call into question the boundaries between fiction and reality. Although the term “metafiction,” which William Gass coined in 1970, is used most often to refer to postmodern works in the Western tradition written in the 1960s and 1970s, works of metafiction date back to antiquity and can be found across the globe. Accordingly, this course examines contemporary works of metafiction from East Africa, China, Europe, Latin America, and the United States, as well as their precursors. Emphasis on close reading of literary texts as well as on critical analysis and writing.

How does Shakespeare intersect with contemporary experiences of race, gender, and disability? In this course, we explore how three of Shakespeare’s plays (Twelfth Night, Richard III, and Othello), and contemporary adaptations of these plays, represent power, inequity, and resistance. As scholar Kim F. Hall writes, “To study Shakespeare is to study power.” We will address not only the operations of power within the plays themselves, but also the powerful forces that have made Shakespeare an authority on “universal” human experience. This course considers the relationship of Shakespeare’s plays to contemporary experiences of gender, disability, and racial identity; it will equip you to understand the idea of “Shakespeare” as multiple, contested, contingent, and evolving.

From the Roman writers Horace and Juvenal to television commentators Samantha Bee and Jon Stewart, the art of satire remains a controversial yet powerful expression of protest in contemporary society. This course will explore the idea and practice of satire through literature, visual art, cinema, and digital media. We will read works by some of the most influential English and American satirists, such as Aphra Behn, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Voltaire, Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain, and Evelyn Waugh. We will also see how satire shifts into various other media, such as caricature, cartoon, and film in graphic works by William Hogarth, James Gillray, and G.B. Trudeau (Doonesbury) and films by Stanley Kubrick, Monty Python, and Jordan Peele. Requirements will include spirited class participation, various short writing assignments, and a satirical work of your own creation.

Salsa music can be readily identifiable by American audiences as a type of pan-Latin music, which indeed it is: it is an amalgam of rhythms, lyric structures, and harmonic patterns derived from across the Caribbean basin. Yet Salsa was truly forged in the heart of New York City, a musical response to the socio-economic plight of both Latin America as a whole and the Spanish-speaking communities that made up Spanish Harlem. This can be observed most clearly in its lyrical content: salsa songs, especially in the genre’s early days, often tell gritty stories of city life and migration; meditate on Latin America’s authoritarian politics; and even dwell on societal crises like the AIDS pandemic and issues of gender. Throughout this course, we will explore the History of Salsa Music, viewed through the prisms of politics and power. What were the musical elements that came to make up salsa? How did salsa reflect the issues of its time? What made it so popular with Latin American audiences? What was its impact? Who were its major players, both on the creative and the corporate side? And what were the socio-economic forces that came to target salsa?

This class will focus primarily on the fairy tale (“Märchen” in German), a category of folklore containing elements of the supernatural, miraculous, and wondrous. In Germany, the fairy tale is most closely associated with the Brothers Grimm, who collected and transcribed these tales in the early nineteenth century. In 1812, they published the first edition of Children’s and Household Tales (Kinder- und Hausmärchen), which they continued to edit and update throughout their lives. This collection contains many fairy tales that are familiar to us today, including “Hansel and Gretel,” “Cinderella,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Snow White,” and “Sleeping Beauty.” Our class will engage with fairy tales and fairy tale scholarship in a variety of ways. We will study the social and political history of fairy tales and analyze their formal structure. We will critically examine how fairy tales represent different aspects of human identity—including gender, race, class, ability, sexuality, and age—as well as how they represent animals, plants, and the natural world. We will also compare different versions of the same tale, including queer, Black, and feminist adaptations and retellings.

How can literary representation help us better understand climate change—both the threats it poses to the natural and social worlds, and our responses to these potential changes? In this course, we’ll investigate literature’s fascination with humankind’s detrimental environmental impact by focusing our critical attention on literature about climate and climate change. Does global catastrophic climate change mean humans are now at the whim of a threatening natural world, or is this the ultimate expression of human control over their environment? We’ll read a mix of genres (poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama) to consider the following: the divide between nature and culture; environmental justice; toxicity and pollution; and the Anthropocene, a proposed new geological epoch in which the human species can now be considered a geological force. Our own writing for the class will include literary analysis, considerations of the literary analysis of other scholars, as well as a brief piece of creative climate fiction, which we’ll share in our final class meeting. As a CC100 course, we’ll discuss the broader implications of approaching these questions through the lens of literary and cultural studies.

This course will study Afro-Latin American & Caribbean Culture through different disciplinary fields and cultural productions. This includes the study of literature, art, history, and music (from a non-canonical viewpoint). We will read contemporary poetry, fiction and watch Afro-Latin American films. The students will appreciate how these literary and cultural productions intersect with colonial Latin American & Caribbean history and legacy. This course will analyze issues of power, race, gender, and resistance and touch on culture, ethnicity, and economic dependency. We will examine who writes and defines Latin America & the Caribbean, its population, literature, art, and politics.

This course provides a college entry-level experience with three Shakespeare plays and their adaptation/ appropriation into now. How does Shakespeare intersect with contemporary experiences of race, gender, and disability? In this course, we explore how Twelfth Night, Richard III, and Othello, and contemporary encounters with these plays, confront power, inequity, and resistance. As scholar Kim F. Hall writes, “To study Shakespeare is to study power.” We will address not only the operations of power within the plays themselves, but also the powerful forces that have made Shakespeare an authority on “universal” human experience. This course will equip you to consider the idea of “Shakespeare” as multiple, contested, and evolving. This course will meet you where you are. We’ll read Shakespeare (slowly, and with support), watch films and clips from theatrical productions, and read contemporary rewritings of Shakespeare. You’ll have the opportunity to engage with Shakespeare in both creative and analytical ways.

What does the term “fascism” mean, and which are its historical origin and conceptual antecedents? Which are some of the main theories of fascism? How has fascism been represented, which symbols did it create, appropriate, instrumentalize? What is its relationship to media? Why and how is fascism “fascinating”? Is fascism a recurrent “disease of power”? And, if we are seeing a resurgence of fascism in the contemporary world, why does it keep happening, and which are the similarities and differences from other instantiations of fascism? Through the reading of academic texts, newspaper articles, the analysis of films and documentaries, and a podcast, this course is designed as an introduction to the concept fascism through its first historical instantiation: Italian Fascism. This course is also an invitation to acquire the tools to explore meaningfully other forms of fascism, populism, and totalitarianism in the world.

In this CC100 course, we investigate the often-neglected histories of Black and Brown Muslims as they have negotiated a place for themselves as Muslims in the context of a hegemonic White (Euro-American) Protestant milieu. In the process, we discover how Islam has served minority communities as a site of religious creativity and adaptation, as well as an emblem of a distinctive, if often contested, religious identity—both before and after 9/11.

What is it to lead a meaningful and good life? How can we embrace a way of living that is respectful of others and authentic to ourselves? This course explores a diverse array of thinkers and texts that seek to answer such questions and to help people understand how to live well. While different sections of “Philosophy as a Way of Life” may approach these questions in different ways, all sections will seek to draw upon and put into creative and critical conversation the diversity of ways in which philosophers across time and around the globe have grappled with the challenges of living a human life.

This course starts with introducing students to Chinese concepts of Nature, family and self and how Chinese philosophical thinking (Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism) transformed way of life for the East, but will focus on discussing the social and political changes happened in modern China, and analyzing how these changes perceived and conjured up cultural landscape in China. This is an introductory course that lead students to study Chinese culture in a broader, historical, social, political and global context cross-culturally.

We will consider individual myths Ovid’s Metamorphoses with an eye to close readings of the Ovid renditions of Greek myth, comparisons with creation and flood myths across cultures (Greek and Mesopotamian), major mythemes surrounding women and patriarchies, and connections with ritual and art. Students will notice that while there are overarching themes that appear in most of the texts we read, they also have distinct cultural differences. We will try to understand, what we can glean from the texts themselves about peoples’ relation to god(s), nature, culture, and gender, what these relations show about social, cultural and political values as well as archetypal, seemingly universal themes that suggest a possible understanding and development of our own human psyches. These texts, of course, have authors, so we must always read through the lens of individual and collective authors’ styles. Meaning is always embodied in the shape and style of the text, and cannot be excerpted. THEMES IN OVID, HESIOD, BABYLONIAN ENUMA ELISH, BIBLE We will be reading text selections each day that contain more than one of the themes below. We will focus, however, on one category at a time. 1. Creation of the World, Floods, (Five Ages – Thakur, Block 2) 2. Myths of Original Sin: Prometheus, Pandora, Adam and Eve: Expulsion from Garden of Eden 3. Redemption: Noah, Deucalion and Pyrrha (Baucis and Philemon) 4. Battles of the Gods – Creation of World Orders

Historical and philosophical study of the origins and development of liberal arts education, including the formation of modern colleges and universities, and the present and future issues and prospects of liberal arts education.