Category Archives: Liberal Arts & Sciences – Core

All Liberal Arts Core Courses: Cultures & Contexts, Texts & Ideas

Spring 2021

Art and Architecture of the Islamic World (ARTH-UH 1810X)

A broad survey, we will consider works of architecture, ceramics, metalwork, textiles and the arts of the book. Given the span of centuries embraced by the term ’Islamic art’ – from the 7th century up to the present day – and the expanse of geography – from Spain to China and beyond – this course cannot be a complete survey within the constraints of a single semester. Instead, this course will present a select group of materials within a chronological and dynastic framework, with an emphasis on specific case studies. These selections will highlight important internal developments as well as ’points of contact’ between cultural entities. This approach – at once global and local – speaks to the dynamic and fluid qualities of many of the arts produced in the regions under scrutiny.

Art History (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2021)

ARTH-UH 1810X-000 (18559)01/17/2021 – 05/03/2021 Tue,Thu9:00 AM – 10:00 AM (Morning)at Abu DhabiInstructed by Teece, Denise

Cultures and Contexts Undergraduate

France and Islam (FREN-UA 9806)

Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Wed

Islam is the second most important religion in France (after Roman Catholicism) and France has the highest Muslim population in Europe. Complex events from the mid-20th century forward have led to continuous heated debate and controversy about the place of Muslim citizens within the secular Republic. France’s interwoven history with Islam dates back, however, to the first Umayyad conquests of the Iberian peninsula in the 8th century and then to the period of the Crusades. Through the use of primary sources, literary and filmic texts, and critical readings (notably in history, sociology and cultural studies), this course traces the complexity and heterogeneity of French perceptions of Islam within a broad historical perspective beginning with these early encounters and continuing up to the present day.

French (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Cultures and Contexts Fall 2025 Spring 2026 Undergraduate
Spring 2023

Foundations: What is Philosophy? (PHIL-SHU 101)

This course is an introduction to the problems and methods of contemporary philosophy. Topics may include: 1. What is the relationship between mind and body? 2. Can belief in the existence of the external world be justified? 3. Are there any good arguments for the existence of God? 4. Can we act freely if everything that we do is determined by laws of nature? 5. Is there a theory of how we ought to live? Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Humanities Foundational/Introductory Courses (18-19: Critical Concepts).

Philosophy (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2023)

PHIL-SHU 101-000 (20186)01/30/2023 – 05/12/2023 Tue,Thu3:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Late afternoon)at ShanghaiInstructed by Yuan, Yuan

Texts and Ideas Undergraduate
Spring 2022

Youth and Consumer Culture in China (GCHN-SHU 246)

How can a hamburger symbolize progress, an animated character provide comfort, and rock music define one’s identity? In this course we will study the role of consumer culture in the lives of Chinese youth, both today and in the past. By examining popular commodities including sneakers, coffee, backpacking, and celebrity idols, we will think about how young people use these things to find friendship and love, to seek success and happiness, and to define who they are. As we consider why people like particular commodities, we will learn about class, gender, ethnicity, and modernity in China. Reading about the history of commodities in China, we will consider what is new about consumer culture, and why people’s tastes change over time. Alongside studies of specific commodities, we will read key theoretical texts about shopping, advertising, media, identity, and fantasy: these texts will help us understand how commodities can be imbued with tremendous power to shape our desires and create our identities. During the semester, each student will conduct qualitative research about a commodity, including online research and offline interviews with people who buy and sell this commodity. At the end of the semester, we will gather your research together to produce a handbook of Chinese youth and consumer culture. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing. Fulfillment: CORE SSPC/IPC; GCS Elective: The Politics, Economy, and Environment of China; Social Science focus Anthropology 200 level.

Global China Studies (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Cultures and Contexts Societies & the Social Sciences Undergraduate

Hist of Nationalism in Cent & Eastern Europe (HIST-UA 9176)

Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Mon,Wed

The goal of this course is to introduce the students into nationalism studies and into a plethora of historical and present roots of national identities and manifestations of nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe. The course will examine how selected aspects of national histories have been used (and misused) in 19., 20. and 21. century to support/justify national political programs and leaders; specifically, how a romantic picture of national history influenced the development of national identity and what role its interpretation has had in political struggles and programs of Central and East European nations. The course focuses on forces that triggered many eruptions of ethnic hatred and atrocities in Central and Eastern Europe including Holocaust, post World War II expulsion of Germans, civil war in former Yugoslavia, and most recently the nationalist aspects of conflict between Ukraine and Russia. The course will focus on Ukraine and Russia, Poland, Hungary, former Czechoslovakia, present-day Czech Republic and Slovakia, on former Yugoslavia and on independent states on its territory, and it will motivate the students to formulate a positive and cooperative prospect for the region’s future.

History (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Cultures and Contexts Societies & the Social Sciences Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Germany and East Central Europe (HIST-UA 9514)

Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Wed

This course will focus on the history of the culturally rich region of “Mitteleuropa” through analysis of the parallel evolution of Germany and the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. Mitteleuropa as a region produced such important figures as Franz Kafka, Gustav Mahler, Sigmund Freud, Theodor Herzl and Milan Kundera; historical personalities whose influence internationally is indisputable. We’ll delve into the history of the region and on the central role played by German politics and culture from the end of the 19th century, through the turbulent 20th century to the present day. Emphasis will be on the evolution of the concept of nationalism as well as on Germany’s foreign policy in the “concert of nations”, especially towards its Eastern neighbors. The aim is to achieve an understanding of the complex evolution of national entities and their interaction between the birth of the modern German state and the integration of the Visegrád countries in NATO and the European Union.

History (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Cultures and Contexts Fall 2025 Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Comp Modern Societies: Pol & Soc in 20C Germany (HIST-UA 9133)

Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Wed

The history of Germany in the twentieth century offers rich material to explore various approaches to organizing modern society. Beginning with Imperial Germany in 1900 and moving forward to today’s reunited Germany, we will look at different ways in which the relationship between the state and the individual, and relationship between politics, economy, and society developed over five different political systems. We will interrogate how these institutional arrangements were envisioned and structured and how they were experienced in everyday negotiations. In this course, principle narratives and events will be situated in a European and global context, allowing us to place the concept of German modernity in a comparative framework. Lectures will provide an overview of Germany in the twentieth century; readings and in-class discussions will explore different approaches to analyzing German history and society. During museum visits and walking tours, we will analyze contestations over the various attempts to integrate – both in concerted efforts to memorialize as well as to forget and erase – Germany’s oft-problematic pasts within the narrative of Germany’s present.

History (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Cultures and Contexts Fall 2025 Societies & the Social Sciences Spring 2026 Undergraduate
Fall 2022

Virgins Martyrs Monks & Saints: Early Christianity (RELST-UA 846)

What was it about Christianity that it made it so popular in the ancient world? Was it the martyrs volunteering for public execution? Monks’ sexual renunciation? The isolation of hermits living on the tops of columns in the wilderness? Or perhaps orthodoxy and its politically divisive anxieties about heretics and Jews? In fact, all these things (and more) explain how a small Jewish messianic sect from Palestine became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. This course will provide an introduction to the big questions in the history of early Christianity. The focus will be on early Christian literature, such as martyr texts, saints’ lives, and works of monastic spirituality and mysticism. Issues addressed will include the Christian reception of Greco-Roman antiquity, the origins of anti-Semitism, gender and sexuality in the early Church, and the emergence of Christian theology.

Religious Studies (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Cultures and Contexts Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Undergraduate
Fall 2022

The Bible as Literature (HBRJD-UA 23)

Over the past few decades, many readers have come to a fuller appreciation of the emotional and imaginative power of the Bible?s narratives, which still speak with remarkable clarity to our own sensibilities, leading one critic to characterize the Bible as a ?full-fledged kindred spirit? of modernism. The course pursues this ?kindred spirit,? using a broadly literary approach as its guide. While the focus is on narrative?the Pentateuch (Genesis?Deuteronomy) and the Former Prophets (Joshua?Kings), as well as shorter narrative books (Ruth, Jonah, and Esther)?it also studies Ecclesiastes and Job as ancient precursors to modern skepticism. Finally, it studies one modernist engagement with the Bible: Kafka?s Amerika.

Hebrew & Judaic Studies (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2022)

HBRJD-UA 23-000 (21860)09/01/2022 – 12/14/2022 Tue,Thu3:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Feldman, Liane

Texts and Ideas Undergraduate
Fall 2022

The Novel in Antiquity (CLASS-UA 203)

Survey of Greek and Roman narrative fiction in antiquity, its origins and development as a literary genre, and its influence on the tradition of the novel in Western literature. Readings include Chariton?s Chaereas and Callirrhoe, Longus?s Daphnis and Chloe, Heliodorus?s Ethiopian Tale, Lucian?s True History, Petronius?s Satyricon, and Apuleius?s Golden Ass. Concludes with the Gesta Romanorum and the influence of this tradition on later prose, such as Elizabethan prose romance.

Classics (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2022)

CLASS-UA 203-000 (19322)09/01/2022 – 12/14/2022 Tue,Thu12:00 AM – 1:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Barchiesi, Alessandro

Texts and Ideas Undergraduate
Fall 2022

Introduction to The New Testament (RELST-UA 302)

Introduces students to issues and themes in the history of the Jesus movement and early Christianity through a survey of the main texts of the canonical New Testament as well as other important early Christian documents. Students are given the opportunity to read most of the New Testament text in a lecture hall setting where the professor provides historical context and focus on significant issues, describes modern scholarly methodologies, and places the empirical material within the larger framework of ancient history and the theoretical study of religion.

Religious Studies (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2022)

RELST-UA 302-000 (26095)09/01/2022 – 12/14/2022 Tue,Thu2:00 PM – 3:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Cady, Alyssa

Cultures and Contexts Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Undergraduate

Advanced Seminar: (SOC-UA 9942)

Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates:

This interdisciplinary course examines the works of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud, three German speaking writers who pioneered radically different and influential interpretations of modern life, which continue to shape our contemporary understanding of society and individuality. The seminar not only delves into the origins of these prominent traditions of modern Western thought, but also underscores their relevance in modern social theories and poetics. Hence, the course will also include references to the writings of their contemporaries, as well as explications of the direct and indirect influences of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud on other writers.

Sociology (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2026 Texts and Ideas Undergraduate

Europe Since 1945 (HIST-UA 9156)

Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Wed

The course will begin with an examination of the background to and condition of Europe in 1945. The outbreak of the Cold War and the division of Europe will be discussed as will the promotion of European unity, the establishment of NATO and the emergence of COMECON and the Warsaw Pact. The pressures leading to the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC) will be considered together with the firm establishment of the democratic principle in Western Europe. The Suez Crisis and Decolonisation in Britain and France will be explored together with the corollary, the first application by Britain for membership of the EEC. The effect of President de Gaulle’s presidency on France, NATO and the EEC will be considered. The end of Stalinism in the USSR will be examined as will the first cracks in the Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe in Hungary and Poland. This will be followed by a discussion of the merits and demerits of Khrushchev’s period in power, the U2 crisis and the construction of the Berlin Wall. The Prague Spring off 1968 will be discussed. The continued integration of Europe will be analyzed together with the impact of Ostpolitik in Germany. Brezhnev’s domination of the USSR and Détente in the 1970s will be examined. Following this, the forces that led to the triumph of Neo-Liberalism in Britain will be considered, as will the return of conservatism in Germany and the cohabitation of Mitterrand’s France. The re-launch of the European Community in the 1980s will be analysed. In Eastern Europe the Gorbachev era and the rise of Solidarność will be explored and the course will conclude with an examination of the disintegration of the Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe, the reunification of Germany, the collapse of the Soviet state and the conclusion of the Maastricht Treaty.

History (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Cultures and Contexts Fall 2025 Spring 2026 Undergraduate
Spring 2023

Literatures in English I: Medieval and Early Modern Literatures (ENGL-UA 111)

Survey of English literature from its origins in the Anglo-Saxon epic through Milton. Close reading of representative works, with attention to the historical, intellectual, and social contexts of the period.

English (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2023)

ENGL-UA 111-000 (8756)at Washington SquareInstructed by

ENGL-UA 111-000 (8757)at Washington SquareInstructed by

ENGL-UA 111-000 (8758)at Washington SquareInstructed by

ENGL-UA 111-000 (8759)at Washington SquareInstructed by

ENGL-UA 111-000 (8760)at Washington SquareInstructed by

Texts and Ideas Undergraduate
Fall 2023 Spring 2023 Spring 2024

The Performing Arts in Global Cultures (MPATC-UE 1505)

The study of the intersection of key philosophical and ethical systems with the analysis of performing art works and the music industry. Students learn an “Eclectic Method” of analysis to holistically explore and study works of art from cultures from around the world while studying ethical complexities and analytical systems in relation to the performing arts industries.

Music Theory and Composition (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2024)

MPATC-UE 1505-000 (16548)01/22/2024 – 05/06/2024 Tue,Thu4:00 PM – 6:00 PM (Late afternoon)at OnlineInstructed by White, Leonard · Bush, Christopher

Cultures and Contexts Expressive Culture Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Undergraduate
Spring 2023 Spring 2024

Aesthetics (PHIL-UA 60)

Introduces problems raised by the nature of art, artworks, and aesthetic judgment. Considers the expressive and representational properties of artworks, aesthetic attention, and appreciation, as well as the creation, interpretation, and criticism of artworks. Readings from classical and contemporary sources.

Philosophy (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2024)

PHIL-UA 60-000 (10283)01/22/2024 – 05/06/2024 Tue,Thu3:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Hopkins, Robert

Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Art & Design) Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Texts and Ideas Undergraduate
Spring 2019 Spring 2022

Shakespeare (MEDI-UA 410)

Medieval & Renaissance Studies (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2019)

MEDI-UA 410-000 (10578)01/28/2019 – 05/13/2019 Tue,Thu11:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by

MEDI-UA 410-000 (10579)01/28/2019 – 05/13/2019 Thu4:00 PM – 6:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by

MEDI-UA 410-000 (10580)01/28/2019 – 05/13/2019 Thu6:00 PM – 7:00 PM (Evening)at Washington SquareInstructed by

Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Texts and Ideas Undergraduate
Spring 2022

Studies in Shakespeare: (THEA-UT 700)

Focussed each time by genre (comedies, tragedies, romances, histories), or by theme or topic (theatricality, gender, race, politics, religion, etc.), this course explores the works of Shakespeare as text and performance – on stage or on film. Various critical methodologies, including biographical and cultural analysis, are used to reveal the continuing vitality of these plays and their relevance to the theatre of our time. (THEATRE STUDIES C)

Drama (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Texts and Ideas Undergraduate