海角社区

Carlo Rotella, English
David Quigley, History, Provost and Dean of Faculties

How does a city鈥搕his city in which we find ourselves鈥揷reate meaning?

Meaning flows through a city just as populations, capital, power, resources, and ideas do, and each of these flows conditions the others. In this course, we will consider what Boston has meant in different moments and to different people as we think about the forms of literary texts, how they express meaning, and their relationships to the historical moments in which they took shape and/or seek to capture. We will also consider the local in relation to national and international events and artistic movements. Throughout the semester, our discussions will move beyond the received meanings and standard tropes of Boston鈥搕he accent, the city on a hill, the regular-guy mythos retailed by Hollywood鈥搕o explore questions that Boston has consistently raised about human beings and nature, race and class difference, the form and function of the good life, the double-edged quality of moral causes, and the contest between the persistence of old ways and the succession of new ones.

These course lectures meet:

• TTh 12:00 鈥� 1:15 p.m.
• TTh 1:30 鈥� 2:45 p.m.

Reflection will be held four times during the semester:

• Th 6:00 鈥� 7:50 p.m.
  

Stephanie Leone, Art History
Sarah Ross, History

How do women shape culture and society?

In 1971, Linda Nochlin posed the trailblazing question, 鈥淲hy are there no great women artists?鈥� A few years later, in 1976, medievalist Joan Kelly similarly inquired, 鈥淒id women have a Renaissance?鈥� Prior to that time, women scarcely appeared in the pages of history and art history books. Since then, scholars have unearthed abundant evidence of women鈥檚 productivity beyond the domestic sphere. These paired courses examine how women made significant contributions in political, intellectual, creative, and artisanal work during the long Renaissance (1400-1650), as well as explore connections with creative women in our own time.

These course lectures meet:

• TTh 1:30 鈥� 2:45 p.m.
• TTh 3:00 鈥� 4:15 p.m.

Reflection will be held four times during the semester:

• Th 6:00 鈥� 7:50 p.m.
  

Dermot Moran, Philosophy
Thomas Sapsford, Classical Studies

What is the relationship between the individual self and its social roles?

These paired courses examine what factors make us free individuals and how that freedom has historically been removed from certain people. One course will explore the nature of the self in historical and contemporary perspectives from East and West to look at the nature of self-consciousness and personhood. The other will investigate how ancient Greeks and Romans justified the enslavement of individuals for material gain and how ancient slavery influenced American society both in terms of its use of slave-labor and in the arguments made for abolition.

These course lectures meet:

• TTh 9:00 鈥� 10:15 a.m.
• TTh 10:30 鈥� 11:45 a.m.

Reflection will be held four times during the semester:

• T 6:00 鈥� 7:50 p.m.
  

Deanna Danforth, English
Liam Bergin, Theology

What is the role of food in shaping identity and building community?

More than daily acts that provide physical nourishment, eating and drinking are primordial human experiences that inform our relationships with others. The food we choose to eat and the gatherings at which we partake in these meals have social, cultural, environmental, religious, political, and ethical dimensions. These paired courses examine the deeper meanings of food encountered in literary forms and in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Discussions will be enriched by opportunities to cook and eat together.

These course lectures meet:

• TTh 10:30 鈥� 10:45 a.m.
• TTh 12:00 鈥� 1:15 p.m.

Reflection will be held four times during the semester:

• Th 6:00 鈥� 7:50 p.m.
  

Timothy Muldoon, Philosophy
L. Matthew Petillo, Theology

What is the relationship between human beings and God?

These paired courses explore conceptions of the divine that have been a fundamental part of Western civilization as well as the relationships that human beings have with the divine. The Philosophy course will examine how the Greeks viewed their gods in their literature and philosophy. The Theology course will explore various perspectives on God in ancient, medieval, and contemporary theological writings. There will be many intersections and divergences on the divine between the two courses.

These course lectures meet:

• MWF 9:00 鈥� 9:50 a.m.
• MWF 10:00 鈥� 10:50 a.m.

Reflection will be held four times during the semester:

• M 6:00 鈥� 7:50 p.m.
  

Nicholas Block, German Studies
Sarah Lindmark, Music

What does it mean to own art ethically?

These paired courses challenge students to question the nature of authenticity as it is legally constructed and performed in the media they engage with on a daily basis. Through the two distinct yet intertwined topics of stolen art and copied music, these courses attend to core concerns of ethical ownership. By the end of the semester, students will be able to form and articulate sophisticated ideas about how authenticity is produced, performed, and sold among art collectors and in the music industry, gaining an informed perspective on the ways in which the law assesses truth in art and music.

These course lectures meet:

• MWF 12:00 鈥� 12:50 p.m.
• MWF 1:00 鈥� 1:50 p.m.

Reflection will be held four times during the semester:

• Th 6:00 鈥� 7:50 p.m.
  

Elizabeth Graver, English
Lynne Anderson, English

How does migration in today's world shape questions of identity, borders, and belonging and lead to a reimagining of home?

In these paired courses, students will read a range of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry by authors whose migration stories offer different ways to think about what it means to be an outsider and build a new life and home. They will explore how their own roots and routes shape their identities. We will consider the gifts and challenges of making a home across cultures and discuss themes of power, voice, silence, memory and multilingualism, along with the experience of migrating in a globalized, wired, yet often divided world. Activities may include an author talk, a museum visit, an excursion to an immigrant neighborhood, creative writing, and several shared meals.聽

These course lectures meet:

• TTh 10:30 鈥� 11:45 a.m.
• TTh 12:00 鈥� 1:15 p.m.

Reflection will be held four times during the semester:

• W 6:00 鈥� 7:50 p.m.
  

Ingu Hwang, International Studies
Christina Klein, English

What is the relationship between politics and popular culture?

How did East Asia emerge from the wreckage of the Second World War to become the dominant political, economic, and cultural force it is in the world today? What is the relationship between politics and popular culture? Since 1945, East Asia has experienced the Cold War, civil war, communist revolution, modernization, capitalism, democratization, and economic booms and busts. It has also become a powerhouse producer of popular and art cinema. In these paired courses, students will explore the relationship between politics and culture as they learn how historians and filmmakers have grappled with the tumultuous events of the past 75 years.

These course lectures meet:

• TTh 12:00 鈥� 1:15 p.m.
• TTh 1:30 鈥� 2:45 p.m.

Reflection will be held four times during the semester:

• M 7:00 鈥� 8:50 p.m.
  

Sarah McMenamin, Biology
Robert Stanton, English

What does it mean to experience metamorphosis or transformation?

Metamorphosis is a rich concept in both the sciences and the humanities. These paired courses will explore the transition of metamorphosis from the perspective of the natural world and from the perspective of literature, considering how bodies, minds, and characters undergo discrete transformations through time. We will explore what stimulates 鈥渕etamorphosis鈥� in biological organisms and fictional characters and what comes next after a major transformation. We will also ask where the raw materials of the metamorphic transformation come from and examine the risks, challenges, and rewards of emerging in the world with a new, mature form. In addition, we will investigate how metamorphic transformations are coordinated with growth鈥攂iological, physiological, psychological, or spiritual. The two courses will evaluate and test one another鈥檚 definitions of metamorphosis in order to understand this fundamental concept from two different disciplinary perspectives.

These course lectures meet:

• TTh 3:00 鈥� 4:15 p.m.
• TTh 4:30 鈥� 5:45 p.m.

Reflection will be held four times during the semester:

• T 6:00 鈥� 7:50 p.m.
  

Christy Pottroff, English
Rebekah Mitsein, English

What is the relationship between where we are and who we are?

Where we are shapes our being, enables our thinking, inspires creativity, and facilitates connection. In these paired courses, students will think about where we are at a range of scales, from the local (What does it mean to be at 海角社区?) to the historical (How are we part of the story of Boston?) to the global (What does the far-away have to do with us?). Students will cultivate a mindful and ethical relationship to place by bridging the imaginative possibilities that literary analysis facilitates with the sense of empowerment and personal agency that writing affords.聽

These course lectures meet:

• MWF 1:00 鈥� 1:50 p.m.
• MWF 2:00 鈥� 2:50 p.m.

Reflection will be held four times during the semester:

• T 6:00 鈥� 7:50 p.m.
  

Taylor Beauvais, Core Fellow
Kathryn Bruce, Core Fellow

What does it mean to create scientific knowledge?

These paired courses examine the social construction of knowledge through the lenses of social science and history. We will investigate how the creation, framing, accessibility, and purpose of knowledge are intertwined with broader cultural, political, and economic forces. We also examine the ways individuals and institutions claim expertise and authority. Students will examine the history of science through in-depth case studies addressing pivotal themes, including gender, class, sites of research, scientific communication, controversy and debate in the scientific community, and the influence of domestic and international politics. Students will also learn how social theory and scientific methodology embed social forces into knowledge production by dissecting case studies ranging from college ranking fraud, social media algorithms, micro-loans in Bangladesh, and why billionaires want to colonize space.

These course lectures meet:

Section 01

• MWF 10:00 鈥� 10:50 a.m.
• MWF 11:00 鈥� 11:50 a.m.

Section 02

• MWF 11:00 鈥� 11:50 a.m.
• MWF 12:00 鈥� 12:50 p.m.

Reflection will be held four times during the semester:

• Th 6:00 鈥� 7:50 p.m.