At Brandeis, you are encouraged to learn about a wide variety of human societies, cultures, and countries and about causes and consequences of differences among racial, ethnic,
religious, and other groups. Listed below are a sampling of the Spring 2011 courses that address these issues; we hope that you will consider including some of them in your
studies. They are grouped under “Gender and Sexuality,” “Religion, Race, and Culture,” and “Global Perspectives,” though naturally many of the courses intersect these
groupings. For additional course offerings, please refer to the registrar’s website: www.brandeis.edu/registrar/.
Religion, Race and Culture
AAAS 156A The Civil Rights Movement
Explores the civil rights movement through primary
readings and films. Includes an assessment of the
consequences of the movement and the ongoing
controversies over the best ways to achieve equality
for black Americans.
Mr. Heinrich
M,W 5:10-6:30PM
AMST 139B Reporting on Gender, Race, and
Culture
Examines the news media's relationship to
demographic and cultural change, and the influence
of journalistic ideologies on the coverage of women
and various ethnic and cultural groups.
Ms. McNamara
T,F 10:40 AM–12:00 PM
ANTH 133A Culture and Power in Africa
An experiential learning course that explores the
variety and richness of indigenous African social and
cultural forms, such as the organization of the family;
indigenous political systems; rank and slavery;
traditional economics; ideas about magic, witchcraft,
and religion; and the arts.
Mr. Auslander
T,F 9:10-10:30AM
FA 40B The Formation of Jewish, Christian, and
Islamic Art
The origins and development of the synagogue,
church, mosque, and related arts in the first
millennium CE. Emphasis on the debate among these
three great religions about the proper form and
function of art and architecture.
Mr. McClendon
M,W 3:40PM–5:00PM
HSSP 114B Racial/Ethnic and Gender Inequalities
in Health and Healthcare
An examination of the epidemiological patterns of
health status by race/ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status. Addresses current theories and
critiques explaining disparities in health status,
access, quality, and conceptual models, frameworks,
and interventions for eliminating inequalities.
Ms. Jefferson
Th 2:10PM – 5:00PM
MUS 87B Music and Dance from Ghana
Students in this experiential learning course will study
and perform a repertory of traditional music and
dance of a variety of ethnic traditions from Ghana,
West Africa. The drum ensemble includes bells,
rattles and drums. The vocal music features call-andresponse singing in local languages. The dances have
choreographic formations as well as opportunity for
individual expression.
Mr. Agbeli
Th 6:10PM-8:30PM
NEJS 3A Introduction to Judaism, Christianity,
and Islam
Introduces the three major religions originating in the
Near East: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Areas of
focus include historical development, sacred texts,
rituals, and interpretive traditions. Ancient, medieval,
and modern periods are treated.
Mr. Decter
M,W 2:10PM – 3:30PM
NEJS 170A Studying Sacred Texts
This is an experiential learning course. What does it
mean to study a sacred text? What are the problems
with doing so? What is sacred about a sacred text?
How is studying a sacred text similar to and different
from studying other texts? How do different religious
traditions study texts differently?
Mr. Levisohn
M,W 5:10PM-6:30PM
NEJS 183B Jewish Secularism
Explores the philosophical foundations of Jewish
Secularism in the modern age. Focuses on Spinoza
and Nietzsche's critique of religion in general and on
their critique of Judaism in particular.
Mr. Jobani
M,W 5:10PM-6:30PM
PHIL 146A Idea of God
Engages in a philosophical investigation, not of
religion as an institution but of the very idea of God.
Studies the distinction between human being and
divine being and addresses the issue of the relation of
God's essence to his existence.
Mr. Yourgrau
M,W 5:10 PM–6:30 PM
POL 124B Race, Inequality, and Social Policy
Explores the causes and consequences of economic,
social, and political inequality in the United States.
Examines trends from the perspective of both liberal
and conservative social scientists. Asks what forms of
inequality matter and what should be done about
them.
Mr. Mapps
T,F 1:40PM -3:00PM
REL 121A Mysticism and the Moral Life
The lives and writings of Jewish, Roman Catholic,
and African American protestant mystics who
exemplify connections between the inner life of
prayer, the encounter with God, and social action.
Special focus on Heschel, Merton, Thurman, Teresa
of Avila, and others.
Mr. Kaplan
M,W 2:10PM-3:30PM
SOC 127A Gods and Nations: Identity in Global
Relations
Examines three sources of identity that are influential
in global affairs: religion, ethnicity and nationalism.
Considers theories of the relationship among these
identities, especially "secularization theory," then
reviews historical examples such as Poland, Iran,
Iraq, and Pakistan.
Mr. Rosenberger
M,W 5:10PM-6:30PM
Global Perspectives
AAAS 117A Communications and Social Change
in Developing Nations
Examines the role of communications and
information systems within and between developed
and underdeveloped nations. Addresses the larger
perspective of global communications.
Mr. Nyangoni
T,F 12:10 PM–1:30 PM
ENG 127A The Novel in India
Survey of the novel and short story of the Indian
subcontinent, their formal experiments in context of
nationalism and postcolonial history. Authors may
include Tagore, Anand, Manto, Desani, Narayan,
Desai, Devi, Rushdie, Roy, Mistry, and Chaudhuri.
Ms. Anjaria
T,F 10:40 AM–12:00 PM
ENG 127B Migrating Bodies, Migrating Texts
Beginning with the region's representation as a tabula
rasa, examines the textual and visual constructions of
the Caribbean as colony, homeland, backyard,
paradise, and Babylon, and how the region's
migrations have prompted ideas about evolution,
hedonism, imperialism, nationalism, and diaspora.
Ms. Smith
T,F 9:10AM-10:30AM
FA 76A Palestinian and Israeli Art Film and
Visual Culture: Intersecting Visions
Israelis and Palestinians have been creating vibrant
and bold works of art that both reflect and transcend
the region’s conflict-ridden history. This course offers
a critical comparative study of Israeli and Palestinian
art, exploring contentious expressions of pain and
trauma as well as shared visions of hope and peace.
Ms. Ankori
M,W,Th 1:10–2:00PM
FREN 165B Subsaharan Africa and the French
Language
Studies writing in French in Subsaharan Africa, with
particular emphasis upon its cultural and historical
contexts. Topics include Negritude, African
languages, defining "tradition,” oral and written
literature, Islam, film, and gender.
Ms. Hale
T,F 10:40AM-12:00PM
HISP 167B Colonial Imaginaries and Postcolonial
Fictions in the Americas
Explores the ongoing and often conflicted dialogue
that writers, essayists and filmmakers in the
modern/contemporary Americas establish with texts,
historical figures, and socio-cultural processes of the
colonial period.
Mr. Arellano
T,F 10:40AM–12:00 PM
HIST 176B Japan and Korea in Modern World
History
Investigates the long and problematic history of
interactions and exchanges between Japan and Korea
from early times to the present. Topics include
language, migration, art, architecture, material
culture, popular culture, propaganda, and warfare.
Mr. James
T,F 3:10 PM–4:30 PM
HIST 184B Swashbuckling Adventurers or Sea
bandits? The Chinese Pirate in Global Perspective
Explores the commercial role, political economy,
social structure, and national imaginations of the
Chinese pirate situated in both world history and in
comparison to "piracies" elsewhere.
Mr. Hang
T,F 1:40 PM–3:00 PM
JAPN 140A The World of Early Modern Japanese
Literature
Surveys the most celebrated works of literature from
Japan's early modern period (1600-1868). Explores a
wide range of genres, including fiction, travelogues,
memoirs, dramatic forms such as the puppet theater
and kabuki, as well as poetry in Japanese and
Chinese. All readings are available in English
translation; Japanese knowledge is not required.
Mr. Fraleigh
T,F 12:10 PM–1:30 PM
NEJS 124A Arabic Literature, Hebrew Literature
A comparative study of Arabic and Hebrew literature
from before the rise of Islam through the fifteenth
century. Studies major trends in Arabic poetry and
fiction and how Jewish authors utilized Arabic motifs
in their Hebrew writings, both secular and sacred, and
sometimes wrote in Arabic themselves.
Mr. Decter
M,W,Th 11:10AM-12:00PM
POL 134B Immigration, State, and Nation
Looks at immigration from the perspectives of policymakers, migrants, and the groups affected by
immigration in sender nations as well as destination
countries. Introduces students to the history of
migration policy, core concepts and facts about
migration in the West, and to the theories and
disagreements among immigrant scholars.
Ms. Klausen
M 2:10PM-5:00PM
Gender and Sexuality
AMST 40A Women in American History
A historical and cultural survey of the female
experience in the United States, with emphasis on
issues of education, work, domestic ideology,
sexuality, male-female relations, race, class, politics,
war, the media, feminism, and antifeminism.
Ms. Antler
M,W 3:40PM – 5:00PM
AMST 142B Love, Law, and Labor: Asian
American Women and Literature
Explores the intersection of ethnicity, race, class,
gender, and sexualities in the lives and literatures of
diverse Asian American women. Discusses the
historical, social, political, and economic forces
shaping those lives and how they are reflected in
literature.
Ms. Davé
T,F 10:40 AM–12:00 PM
COML 122B Writing Home and Abroad:
Literature by Women of Color
Examines literature written by women of color across
a wide spectrum of geographical and cultural sites.
The intersections of race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender,
and class as contained by the larger institutions of
government, religion, nationalism, and sectarian
politics are examined.
Ms. Singh
M,W 2:10 PM–3:30 PM
ENG 181A Making Sex, Performing Gender
Gender and sexuality studied as sets of performed
traits and cues for interactions among social actors.
Readings explore the possibility that differently
organized gender and sexual practices are possible for
men and women.
Mr. King
M,W,Th 11:10 AM–12:00 PM
MUS 150A Women and Music, Past and Present:
Style, Identity and Culture
Examines the interaction between gender and culture
in shaping music and musical life.
Ms. Curtis and
T,F 3:10 PM–4:30 PM
Ms. Montgomery
NEJS 115B Gender and the Bible
The Hebrew Bible, a complex work, reflects a wide
range of attitudes toward gender. This course
examines these attitudes as they are reflected in issues
such as the legal status of women, women in myths,
leadership, prostitution, masculinity, and the gender
of ancient Israel's deity.
Mr. Brettler
T,F 10:40 AM–12:00 PM
PHIL 108A Philosophy and Gender
Explores the place of gender in the works of
particular Western philosophers (e.g., Kant, Hume,
and Rousseau) and uses the tools of contemporary
analytic philosophy to address questions about gender
equality, sexual objectification, and the nature of
masculinity.
Ms. Smiley
M,W 3:40 PM–5:00 PM
SOC 126B Global Perspectives in Women, Work,
and Families
Integrating sociological and anthropological
theorizing on gender, families, kinship, and work,
with development perspectives on the formal/informal
economy and gender nexus, the course explores the
similarities and differences in gender regimes and
shifting work-family domains in several societies
globally.
Ms. Zaidi
M,W 3:40PM-5:00PM
WMGS 141A Gender in Iranian Cinema
With a primary focus on gender, this class explores
post-Revolutionary Iranian cinema. Topics include
politics; family relationships; women's social,
economic, and political roles; and Iran's religious
structure.
Mr. Mandrell and
T,F 9:10 AM–10:30 AM
Ms. Shavarini