Global and Comparative Humanities

From prehistoric times, human populations have moved across the globe. Driven by environmental, economic, political, and social forces, they have carried with them and have been exposed to new customs, new technologies, and new ideas for structuring societies and interacting with other peoples. They have also brought war, disease, and reduced cultural and biological diversity. Through theoretical and empirical readings about cross-cultural, transnational, and global encounters, this course provides you with the analytical tools to examine the large sweep of such events and movements in the period since 1400 from a variety of perspectives, to understand their causes, their impacts, the counter-currents they engendered, and what we can learn from them. Throughout we pay attention not only to what happened in the past, but to how historians have interpreted these developments.

What’s ethically significant about being human, or about our identities as members of various social groups? What do we owe to animals, to ecosystems, to future generations, to AI, and how do our answers to these questions rely on theories of identity? How do social and political institutions and structures limit and enable who we are? How might we reimagine the boundaries of humanity to challenge oppressive and unjust power dynamics? In this course we will examine the origins and enduring justifications for core ethical beliefs, as well as challenges to the idea that there are universal ethical norms by exploring the emergence of different conceptions of humanity and human values from a wide range of globally diverse perspectives. While the course introduces students to many historically significant philosophical voices, most of our classes focus on applying philosophy to concrete contemporary ethical challenges, particularly in the areas of environmental ethics, data ethics, bioethics, and feminist ethics. Note: This course provides the foundations for, and is a prerequisite for, the Philosophy, Ethics and the Law concentration in the Arts & Humanities major. AH111 also counts toward the Minor in Sustainability because it addresses a broad range of environmental ethical topics, including food ethics, climate ethics, and environmental justice.

A fundamental characteristic of the arts is that they are transformative. They lead us to see ourselves in new ways, to re-conceptualize our world, and to rethink our relationship to it. Consequently, the arts are often harbingers and pacesetters for social change. This course explores the use of creative expression in the visual arts, literature, and music to question and sometimes resist authority, to reassess ideological constructs, and to advocate change in social and political systems as well as in the arts themselves. Under what circumstances are such efforts likely to be successful? How do we determine success? To address these issues, the course draws examples from literature, the visual and performing arts, and music from different parts of the world. This course is a foundation and a prerequisite for the Dynamics of the Arts and Literature concentration in the Arts & Humanities major.

Design affects the objects, spaces, and ideas of everyday life, from door handles and physical spaces to laws and the virtual spaces in which we experience our lives. Building on a broadly conceived and interdisciplinary understanding of “design,” this course covers approaches to design that are useful for all types of design practice. We explore how people and their technologies and material worlds have co-evolved over time. We also consider ethical questions related to design and practice transferring principles from one design field to other design fields. We conclude by covering recent developments in design studies that will directly equip you to recognize the contingency of different design logics and the intricacies of design trends that emerge in the future. You’ll leave this course with a deeper and more nuanced knowledge of your technological and material worlds, a robust foundation to further practice various types of design, and a nuanced set of tools to participate in the building and crafting of your communities as a designer and/or citizen. Note: This course qualifies as part of the Interdisciplinary Minor in Sustainability because it addresses sustainable design. Students learn how social, technological, and ecological systems interact in design processes and products and how to use the tools of design for more just and sustainable outcomes.

Historical narratives often rely on implicit comparisons between time periods and societies. In this course, students make these comparisons explicit in order to illuminate differences and similarities in the ways societies have responded to political, economic, social, and environmental challenges. Students combine the fundamentals of historical inquiry with methods and perspectives from sociology and anthropology to examine controversial debates about the relative success and failure of different societies and the responses of different societies to similar challenges from the seventeenth century to the present; they also analyze case studies on topics including empire, nationalism, responses to environmental and political crises, and social movements. Along the way, they consider what is gained and what is lost by approaching historical phenomena from a comparative perspective.

What is the law, why should we obey it, and what constitutes an ethical legal system? Are human rights universal or culturally relative? How should customary laws relate to constitutions, if at all? We examine fundamental legal concepts and practices, as well as the evolution of diverse understandings of law and its application from the perspectives of legal systems throughout the world. We then consider topics in legal theory such as the role of constitutions and customs, the theory of punishment, the purpose of civil disobedience, the roles of law in constructing social identities, the relationship between national and international law, and the nature and practice of human rights law. This course supports and is a prerequisite for both the Philosophy, Ethics and the Law Concentration and the Global and Comparative Humanities Concentration in the Arts & Humanities major because the course examines legal theory from a wide range of global perspectives, helping students draw comparisons and cross-cultural critiques of assumptions we find in legal theories.

For several centuries artistic and literary works were considered the product of the individual creative genius of artists and writers. More recently, scholars have argued that these works are also social products, that they are shaped by the economic, social, and cultural forces of their societies. To what extent and in what ways do socioeconomic and cultural forces influence the arts and literature? This course explores this and related questions as we examine issues such as the relationship between artists, writers, patrons, and clients; the social and cultural functions of different works of art and literature; the role of gender and power relations in the creation, production and reception of art; the education and training of artists and writers; the influence of globalization on artistic production and practice; and the organization of labor in the production of art. Who is in and who is out of the process of artistic and literary creation, production, and reception? And what implications does this have for participation in the various art markets that have emerged over time? Finally, how can an understanding of the social and economic processes influencing the arts and literature help us become more informed creators and consumers of art today? Drawing on key cultural and socioeconomic theoretical frameworks to ground our understanding, this course focuses on artistic and literary works from different time periods and locales, and ranging from popular and to elite traditions, in order to explore in greater depth a diversity of styles as well as interpretive perspectives.