Associated Course Pairings:

Course Descriptions

CC101: A Political History of Salsa Music

Instructor: Andres Carrizo
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Analysis & Interpretation of Meaning
Block: 1

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?

Occasional evening concert attendance.

CC120: Introduction to Political Philosophy

Instructor: John Grace
Block: 4

Investigates the foundation and aims of politic rule as well as fundamental debates over the meaning of justice, liberty, power, authority, law and rights through an examination of basic but competing perspectives drawn from ancient, medieval, and modern texts. Thinkers include, but are not limited to, Aristotle, Aquinas, Machiavelli, and Locke.

CC104: The Empires Strike Back: From Anti-Colonial Resistance to Star Wars

Instructor: Danielle Sanchez
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Historical Perspectives
Block: 1

CC120: The Landscape of Empire

Instructor: Jennifer Golightly
Block: 2

This course will examine the ways in which a variety of landscapes around the world were shaped by global empires that arose in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. How has the geography of various continents been influenced by nationalist and imperialist projects? How does colonialism shape the way landscapes are depicted and talked about, and how do particular landscapes come to be considered as symbolic of specific cultural or national values? Our focus will include a variety of primary and secondary texts, including maps and visual texts, and discussions of the ways in which cultivation, use, and aesthetics of land are influenced by empire. We will use this thematic focus as a lens for exploring writing about historical and cultural topics. We’ll look at models of writing in public history, cultural history, and investigate writing as a process of thinking connected to discipline-based modes of inquiry. We’ll also spend time reflecting on our own writing processes and how to adapt what works for us as individuals to the requirements of specific genres and audiences.

CC106: Feminist Texts, Feminist Subjects

Instructor: Nadia Guessous
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Societies & Human Behaviors
Block: 1

What does it mean to raise feminist questions, think like a feminist, or write a feminist text? How have different writers articulated their feminist selves, visions, dreams, politics, and critiques through their texts? Are feminist writers always preoccupied with questions of gender and sexuality above all else? Do feminist writings always take the form of resistance, rebellion, and opposition to existing forms of knowledge and structures of power? Or do feminist writers also endeavor to celebrate, honor, remember, dream, connect, rejoice, recognize, heal, repair, build, and recover? Through a close reading of feminist texts that is attentive to questions of positionality and epistemology, this course seeks to introduce students to the complexity, heterogeneity, and capaciousness of feminist thought. Throughout, we will strive to enact an intentional learning community that is attentive to nuance, difference, and complexity; inclusive, collaborative, and welcoming of the rich and varied life experiences, embodied, lived, and affective forms of knowledge that students bring to their encounters with texts and with each other.

Some evening lectures and one local afternoon field trip.

CC120: Queer Latine and Latin American Popular Cultures

Instructor: Naomi Wood
Block: 2

This course seeks to acquaint students with some of the relationships of colonial Latin America to contemporary society in the U.S and Latin America; engage a variety of artistic forms to expand our sense of the documentation of historical events and social struggles; and, explore a variety of entry points for analyzing relationships across nations that form part of the Americas. This course focuses not only on queer-identified art and artists, but also centers the notion of queering as a verb that can disrupt systems of oppression and contribute to decolonial practices. We will examine music, dance, film, visual arts and critical approaches from the interdisciplinary fields of Feminist and Latin American Studies.

Some afternoon film screenings.

CC106: Language, Power, and White Supremacy

Instructor: Christina Leza
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Societies & Human Behavior
Block: 1

This course addresses the role of language in shaping and maintaining unequal relationships of power in societies, with an emphasis on the ongoing impacts of colonialism and white supremacy. Drawing from multiple disciplines including linguistics, anthropology, Indigenous studies, race and ethnic studies, and cognitive studies, the course introduces students to various epistemological and methodological approaches to the study of power in society. While introducing students to disciplinary-specific ways of producing knowledge, the course will also critically explore the relationship between Western scientific paradigms and colonialism. Comparing Indigenous and decolonizing approaches to knowledge production with Western scientific and philosophical traditions, the course allows students to critically think across and toward the expansion of disciplinary paradigms.

One afternoon/evening community event late week 3/early week 4.

CC120: Introduction to Political Philosophy

Instructor: John Grace
Block: 2

Investigates the foundation and aims of politic rule as well as fundamental debates over the meaning of justice, liberty, power, authority, law and rights through an examination of basic but competing perspectives drawn from ancient, medieval, and modern texts. Thinkers include, but are not limited to, Aristotle, Aquinas, Machiavelli, and Locke.

CC106: Constructing Social Problems

Instructor: Gail Murphy-Geiss
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Societies & Human Behavior
Block: 1

This course will investigate how social conditions come to be defined as social problems, specifically examining the roles of advocates, policy makers, experts, the media, and the public. Why do some social problems receive so much attention, while others are ignored? What are the impacts of defining social problems in a particular way? Drawing on case studies of contemporary issues, including racism, wealth inequality, health care access, the criminal justice system, and climate change, the uneven consequences of social problems will be exposed; some groups are disproportionately disadvantaged while others disproportionately benefit. This course counts as a 100-level Sociology course toward the major.

One local field trip to visit local court.

CC120: Private Troubles, Public Issues, and Social Change

Instructor: Sandi Wong
Block: 3

“The sociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society. That is its task and its purpose.” C. Wright Mills described the “sociological imagination” as a quality of mind that compels us to situate our biographies in history and society and enables us to relate our experiences to our location within social structures. By engaging theories of social stratification, we will study how institutions shape our opportunities, our socioeconomic status and our positions of power or powerlessness, and how cultural values, ethics, and community norms inform our identities and affiliations, our aspirations and pursuits, and our notions of dignity, meaning, and worth. To relate private troubles and public issues, we will ask: What is the role of education in achieving the American Dream? What is the relationship between inequality, the rise of meritocracy, persistent poverty, and political divisions? What are the implications of meritocratic values and capitalist priorities for social change, and alternative visions of the common good?