Current Course Offerings
P&P offers courses from a wide array of offerings across the disciplines.
Students may request that the Academic Director count a course that does not appear on the list below. Courses taken to satisfy a major or minor may also count among the classes contributing to the Academic Cluster. Of the courses you choose to complete the Cluster program, classes should represent at least three distinct academic disciplines (e.g., history, sociology, philosophy).
This list is subject to change. Not all courses will be available every year or to every student. Some courses may be restricted to majors and/or have prerequisites. If you have questions regarding a particular course, please contact the instructor or sponsoring department.
Some courses not included below may count toward the P&P elective. Please Matt Lawrence, P&P Academic Director, for permission to substitute.
Fall 2025 Courses
Foundations
Courses offered in the past four years. Courses offered currently are as noted.
EDST 0115
Current
Upcoming
Education In the USA
Course Description
Education in the USA
What are schools for? What makes education in a democracy unique? What counts as evidence of that uniqueness? What roles do schools play in educating citizens in a democracy for a democracy? In this course, we will engage these questions while investigating education as a social, cultural, political, and economic process. We will develop new understandings of current policy disputes regarding a broad range of educational issues by examining the familiar through different ideological and disciplinary lenses. 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
ENVS 0215
Current
Upcoming
Contested Grounds
Course Description
Contested Grounds: U.S. Cultures and Environments
Throughout the history of the United States, Americans have created a complex set of meanings pertaining to the environments (wild, pastoral, urban, marine) in which they live. From European-Native contact to the present, Americans’ various identities, cultures, and beliefs about the bio-physical world have shaped the stories they tell about “nature,” stories that sometimes share common ground, but often create conflicting and contested understandings of human-environment relationships. In this course we will investigate these varied and contested stories from multi-disciplinary perspectives in the humanities—history, literature, and religion--and will include attention to race, class, gender, and environmental justice. 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Terms Taught
Requirements
GEOG 0208
Land and Livelihoods
Course Description
Land and Livelihoods - From Local to Global
How do flows of money, people, materials, and ideas connect local livelihoods to distant sites and global processes? How do geographers study patterns of poverty and inequality at different scales? How do we define human development and wellbeing, how do we determine who participates, and why does it matter? In this course we will draw from perspectives in fields ranging from development geography and political ecology to post-colonial studies to examine livelihood dynamics in the Global South. We will use texts, interviews, writing assignments, problem sets, and mapping exercises to explore relationships between economy, identity, and place in an increasingly connected world. 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
GEOG 0216
Current
Rural Geography
Course Description
Rural Geography
This course explores the intersection between demographic, economic, cultural, and environmental forces on the rural landscape in both advanced economies and LDCs. Students will be exposed to theoretical and empirical approaches to rural development in different international and regional contexts, as well as problems associated with these development paradigms. Particular attention will be paid to neoliberal economic policies and their impacts on rural areas, and the course will frequently draw on examples from New England and North America. Additionally, the world is becoming increasingly urbanized, so we will examine the ways people come to know rural areas through the media, literature, and travel. This course includes opportunity for service learning. (Formerly GEOG 0221) 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
GHLT 0257
Current
Upcoming
Global Health
Course Description
Global Health
This course provides an introductory survey of the basic issues and initiatives in contemporary global public health, demonstrating the inextricability of public health problems from the social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental issues that exist in an era of globalization. Examining these connections will enable us to critically evaluate the goals and strategies of public health interventions, and discuss factors impacting their success or failure. To do this, we must also examine the lens through which the West views public health problems as they relate to our cultural beliefs, biomedical views of health, sense of justice, and strategic interests. (Not open to students who have taken INTD 0257 or SOAN 0267) (GHLT minors, others by waiver.) 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Terms Taught
Requirements
GHLT 0281
Food Power & Justice
Course Description
Food Power & Justice
Students in this course will learn to analyze power and justice in relation to the food system. We will explore cases in which groups of people are experiencing injustice in opportunities to make a living through food production or other food system activities, inequitable access to food and resources, inequitable health outcomes related to diet (e.g., diabetes, obesity), and silencing or lack of political participation. Students will investigate organizations of their choice that are working to remedy inequitable power relations in the food system, and will present their findings to the rest of the class. (formerly INTD 0281) 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
GSFS 0200
Current
Upcoming
Feminist Foundations
Course Description
Feminist Foundations
This course provides an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of gender, sexuality, and feminist studies. Focusing on the histories of feminism in the U.S., from the nineteenth century to the present, the course reveals the importance of gender and sexuality as analytical categories to understand social reality and to comprehend important areas of culture. Examining gender and sexuality always in conjunction with the categories of race and class, the course foregrounds how inequalities are perpetuated in different fields of human activity and the creative ways in which feminist movements have resisted these processes. 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
LNGT 0102
Current
Intro to Sociolinguistics
Course Description
Introduction to Sociolinguistics
In this course, we will explore the ways that language creates and reflects social identities. We will look at the contextual factors-social, cultural, geographical, political, etc.-that impact language use and variation. Themes for this course will include linguistic variation, language and identity, language policy, and language in the media. We will consider questions such as: What distinguishes a language from a dialect? How and why do some language varieties become privileged? How do notions of politeness and respect vary across linguistic contexts? In essence, we will learn how language shapes our world, and how we shape language itself.
Terms Taught
Requirements
SOCI 0240
Upcoming
Inequality & American Dream
Course Description
Inequality and the American Dream
In this course we will explore sociological attempts to explain who “gets ahead” in the contemporary United States. We will discuss two distinct issues that are often conflated in public discussions: economic inequality and social mobility. We will consider the conceptual and empirical associations between these measures, how each has changed over time, how the United States compares to other countries, and how different social environments (such as colleges, neighborhoods, and families) influence life chances within and across generations. We will also examine the challenges of producing research about these topics, focusing on both theoretical and methodological issues. (formerly SOAN 0240) 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Terms Taught
Requirements
Electives
Courses offered in the past four years. Courses offered currently are as noted.
AMST 0175
Current
Immigrant America
Course Description
Immigrant America
In this course we will trace American immigration history from the late 19th to the turn of the 21st century, and examine the essential place immigration has occupied in the making of modern America and American culture. The central themes of this course will be industrialization and labor migrations, aftermaths of wars and refugees, constructions of racial categories and ethnic community identities, legal defining of "aliens" and citizenship, and diversity in immigrant experiences. To explore these themes, we will engage a range of sources including memoirs, novels, oral histories, and films.
Terms Taught
Requirements
AMST 0234
Upcoming
American Consumer Culture
Course Description
American Consumer Culture
For many Americans in the 20th century, consumer goods came to embody the promise of the "good life." Yet mass consumption also fostered economic, political, and social inequalities and engendered anti-consumerist activism. In this course we will pursue an interdisciplinary approach to American consumer culture, focusing on the rise of commercialized leisure and advertising; the role of radio, television, and film in shaping consumer practices; and the relationship of consumerism to social inequality and democratic citizenship. Readings will include works by Veblen, Marcuse, Bordieu, Marchand, Cohen, and Schor. 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
AMST 0259
Re-Presenting Slavery
Course Description
Re-Presenting Slavery
In this course we will examine 20th century American portrayals of chattel slavery through creative works and situate them in their historical contexts. Working primarily with fiction (Oxherding Tale, Kindred, The Underground Railroad), film (Mandingo, Django Unchained, Twelve Years a Slave), television (Roots, Africans in America, Underground), and visual art (works by Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, and Kara Walker), we will evaluate how those various representations of the “Peculiar Institution” have changed, and/or have been changed, by the cultural moments in which they appeared. 3 hrs lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
AMST 0260
American Disability Studies
Course Description
American Disability Studies: History, Meanings, and Cultures
In this course we will examine the history, meanings, and realities of disability in the United States. We will analyze the social, political, economic, environmental, and material factors that shape the meanings of "disability," examining changes and continuities over time. Students will draw critical attention to the connections between disability, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status, and age in American and transnational contexts. Diverse sources, including films and television shows, music, advertising, fiction, memoirs, and material objects, encourage inter and multi-disciplinary approaches to disability. Central themes we consider include language, privilege, community, citizenship, education, medicine and technology, and representation.
Terms Taught
Requirements
ANTH 0274
Upcoming
Migration and Social Justice
Course Description
Migration and Social Justice: Power, Place, and Human Experiences.
This course examines migration through bottom-up approaches, drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives from political and legal anthropology, feminist and decolonial studies, and social scientific and historical methodologies. It critically explores how gender, race, ethnicity, social class, and global disparities shape migratory experiences and influence notions of justice, agency, and belonging. Key topics include migration governance, borders, economic aspects of migration, climate displacement, refugee camps, and everyday lives, agencies, and solidarity practices of migrants; themes explored across South-to-North and South-to-South migration to illuminate the global and interconnected dimensions of migration experiences and governance. Through diverse materials – ethnographic texts and documentaries, primary legal sources, art and activist projects, and podcasts – students will analyze the lived experiences of migrants alongside the structural realities that shape migrants’ lives.3 hrs. lect./disc.
This course is part of the Axinn Center for the Humanities’ Mellon Foundation Public Humanities Initiative.
Terms Taught
Requirements
ANTH 0287
Medical Anthropology
Course Description
Medical Anthropology: Approaches to Affliction and Healing
In this course, an introduction to medical anthropology, we will explore cultural and political-economic perspectives on health, illness, and disease. Topics covered include: (1) biocultural approaches to understanding health; (2) medical systems, including biomedicine and others; (3) the effects of poverty and inequality on health outcomes; and (4) the social construction of health and illness. Students will apply these concepts in understanding an aspect of health, illness, or healing in their own research project with an ethnographic component. An introductory course in anthropology or familiarity with medical or public health issues is recommended. (Juniors and Seniors register in section B) (formerly SOAN 0387) 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Terms Taught
Requirements
BLST 0101
Current
Upcoming
Introduction to Black Studies
Course Description
Introduction to Black Studies
This course considers the issues, epistemologies, and political investments central to Black Studies as a field. We will explore chronologically, thematically, and with an interdisciplinary lens the social forces and ideas that have shaped the individual and collective experiences of African-descended peoples throughout the African Diaspora. This course is a broad survey of the history of chattel slavery, colonial encounters, community life, and social institutions of black Americans. We will address issues of gender and class; the role of social movements in struggles for liberation; and various genres of black expressive cultures. Students will develop critical tools, frameworks, and vocabulary for further study in the field. Course materials may include Maulana Karenga’s Introduction to Black Studies, C.L.R. James’s The Black Jacobins, and Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
BLST 0174
Spacing
Course Description
Spacing
In this course we will investigate physical structures encountered daily. Buildings, parks, and infrastructure constitute this built environment, reflecting their societies. But what could abolitionist architecture look like, or how might public space in the U.S. create new social relations? Through lenses of race, class, and gender we will build critical vocabularies around the practice of making space. We will focus on the historical and contemporary embodiment of power, race, and culture of the U.S. through the built environment. This studio class will then present a series of projects addressing basic three-dimensional construction and model making techniques. We will engage historical and contemporary artworks, urban planning, architecture, and poetry from perspectives of resistance to dominant modes of constructing space.
Terms Taught
Requirements
ECON 0207
Economics and Gender
Course Description
Economics and Gender
Economics and Gender is an introduction to using the tools of economics to understand gender-related issues. In the first part of the course we will review economic models of the household, fertility, and labor supply and discuss how they help us interpret long-term trends in marriage and divorce, fertility, and women’s labor-force participation. In the second part of the course we will study economic models of wage determination and focus on explanations of, and policy remedies for, earnings differentials by gender. The final part of the course will focus on new research in economics on gender-related topics. (ECON 0155) 3hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
ECON 0228
Current
Econ of Agricultural Transtion
Course Description
Economics of Agricultural Transition
In 1860 farmers made up over half the population of this country and fed about 30 million people. Today they number 2% of the population and produce more than enough to feed 300 million people. In this course we will look at the history, causes, and results of this incredible transformation. While studying the economic forces behind the changing farming structure, we will examine farm production, resources, technology, and agricultural policy. Field trips to local farms and screenings of farm-related videos and movies will incorporate the viewpoint of those engaged in agriculture. (ECON 0150 or ECON 0155) 2hrs. lect., 2 hrs. lab
Terms Taught
Requirements
ECON 0466
Environment and Development
Course Description
Environment and Development
Climate change, air pollution, tropical deforestation: there is little doubt that economic development affects, and is affected by, the global and local environment and natural resources. In this course we will explore the complex relationship between environment and development using the theoretical and empirical tools of applied economic analysis. We will begin with pioneering research papers on the empirics of economic growth, examine the macroeconomic evidence, and then move to the micro foundations of the poverty-environment nexus. Major topics will include the resource curse and environmental Kuznets curve hypotheses, approaches for understanding responses to climate variability and disasters in poor communities, management of natural resources in smallholder agriculture, choosing policy instruments for pollution reduction, conservation, and environmental protection, and relationships between human health and the environment. We will conclude with a number of selected topics and issues of contemporary policy relevance. (ECON 0111 (formerly ECON 0210) and ECON 0255 or IPEC 0240 [formerly ECON 0240]) 3 hrs. sem.
Terms Taught
Requirements
EDST 0215
Culturally Relevant Pedagogies
Course Description
Culturally Relevant and Sustaining Pedagogies
Gloria Ladson-Billings’ foundation work on culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) rests on these core propositions—students must experience academic success; students must gain cultural competence in relation to their own culture and at least one other culture; and students must develop a critical consciousness. In this class we will examine CRP and other liberatory pedagogies such as Culturally Sustaining (Paris, 2012); Reality Pedagogy (Emdin, 2016), Abolitionist Teaching (Love, 2019) each of which “seek to open up possibilities,” so that students can bring their “whole self into the classroom and into the world.” (Ladson-Billings, 2021). This is a required course for all students seeking a Vermont teaching licensure. (EDST 0115) 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
ENGL 0270
Postcolonial & Indigenous Lit
Course Description
Reading Postcolonial and Indigenous Literature
European colonialism and racial capitalism have radically and violently transformed people’s lives across the globe. The effects of racial capitalism continue to be felt, and arguably imperialism continues but in other forms. How have writers responded to the experiences of colonization, racial capitalism, nationalism, development, globalization and migration? In this course, we will discuss writing by indigenous and postcolonial writers such as Chinua Achebe, Chimanda Ngozie Adichie, Mourid Barghouti, J. M. Coetzee, Tstitsi Dangarembga, Frantz Fanon, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Shailja Patel, Raja Rao, Arundhati Roy, Salman Rushdie, Leanne Betasomosake Simpson, and Wole Soyinka (readings will vary), focusing on colonization, anti-colonial resistance, nationalism, representation, agency and power. The class will include lectures, in-class discussions, writing exercises, and group work. (formerly ENAM 0270) (REC)
Terms Taught
Requirements
ENGL 0320
Indigenous/SettlerColonial Lit
Course Description
Indigenous and Settler Colonial Fictions
The term “settler colonialism” has gained currency recently as a way of describing the unjust displacement of indigenous peoples, the theft of their lands and resources, and the negation of native epistemologies, cultures, and histories. This course foregrounds indigenous literary voices that challenge and present alternatives to settler colonial narratives. Students will adopt a comparative approach that identifies continuities and disparities between Native American/First Nations, Mexican, Pacific Islander, South African, Palestinian, Maori, and Hawaiian depictions of indigeneity. Authors will include Haunani-Kay Trask, Leslie Marmon Silko, Oscar Zeta Acosta, Craig Santos Perez, Joy Harjo, Maxine Hong Kingston, Rigoberta Menchu, Keri Hulme, Joe Sacco, and J.M Coetzee. (Race, Empire, and Colonialism)
Terms Taught
Requirements
ENVS 0208
Upcoming
Env Justice / the Anthropocene
Course Description
Environmental Justice in the Anthropocene
We live in a moment defined by environmental change. Yet the causes and consequences of these transformations are profoundly uneven. Across race, class, gender, and other forms of difference, “environmental problems” manifest in radically unequal ways, disproportionately burdening some while benefiting others. In this class we will dwell on this central tension in thinking about present socio-environmental crises and what to do about them, from toxic landscapes and biodiversity loss to global hunger and a warming climate. Certainly, these problems pose urgent, even existential problems that demand intervention. Yet common refrains about ‘how to save the environment’ always come with baggage. They have deep histories and hidden assumptions about causes and solutions, justice and inequality, politics and social change, which we will wrestle with together in this course. 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
ENVS 0401
Current
Upcoming
Community Engaged Practicum
Course Description
Community-Engaged Environmental Studies Practicum
In this course students work in small groups with one of a variety of partners and organizations to complete a semester-long, community-engaged project. Project themes vary by term and typically focus on local and regional environmental issues that have broader application. Projects rely on students’ creativity, interdisciplinary perspectives, skills, and knowledge developed through their previous work. The project is guided by a faculty member and carried out with a high degree of independence by the students. Students will prepare for and direct their project work through readings and discussion, independent research, collaboration with project partners, and consultation with external experts. The course may also include workshops focused on developing key skills (e.g., interviewing, public speaking, video editing). The project culminates in a public presentation of students’ final products, which may various forms such as written reports, policy white papers, podcasts, or outreach materials. (Open to Seniors) (ENVS 0112 OR APES[5]) AND (ENVS 0211 OR PSCI 0211) AND (ENAM 0215 OR ENVS 0215 OR ENGL 0215) AND (GEOG 0120 OR ENVS 0120 OR GEOG 0150 OR ENVS 0150 OR ENVS 0251 OR GEOG 0251 OR ENVS 0261 OR GEOG 0261 OR ENVS 0271 OR GEOG 0271 OR ENVS 0281 OR GEOG 0281 OR GEOG 0252)) 3 hrs. sem./3 hrs. lab
Terms Taught
FOOD 0280
Intro to Food Systems Issues
Course Description
Middlebury's Foodprint: Introduction to Food Systems Issues
Food systems encompass all activities, people and institutions determining movement of food from input supply and production (on land and water) through waste management. The dominant U.S. food system is responsible at least in part for some of the nation’s most troubling environmental and health challenges. What do we eat at Middlebury? What difference does it make? How do we know? We will examine impacts of how Middlebury sources and consumes its food, and disposes of food waste, as a lens to understand sustainable food systems and how they can be achieved. (formerly INTD 0280) 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
FOOD 0310
Agroecology
Course Description
Agroecology
In this course students will learn about agroecology as a set of practices, a philosophy, and a social movement. Agroecology takes advantage of natural processes to the greatest extent possible, using biological inputs rather than purchased pesticides and fertilizers. In addition to having major benefits for poor farmers in developing countries, it is attracting increased attention as an alternative to industrialized agriculture in wealthy countries. The course will include field trips to farms, films, and discussion of readings. We will leave between noon and 12:30 for some of the field trips, so don’t register for a class immediately before. 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Terms Taught
FREN 0224
Upcoming
Travelers and Migrants
Course Description
Travelers and Migrants in French and Francophone Literature
Multiple forms of traveling emerged with the expansion of the French empire, from colonial ventures to forced migration. In this course we will study how writers represent such experiences. We will discuss fictions that focus on mobility, passages, and border-crossing, and question what these fictions reveal about the cultures in contact. How do travel and migration narratives reconfigure the relation between here and there, self and other, the individual and the community? Studying literary texts in their historical contexts will allow us to discuss varied topics, such as nationhood, slavery, exoticism, identity, and difference, as well as to explore several artistic movements that have shaped French and Francophone culture. Writers will include Montesquieu, Balzac, Baudelaire, Madame de Staël, Gide, Césaire, Glissant, and Sinha. (FREN 0209, 0210 or placement) 3 hrs. sem.
Terms Taught
Requirements
FYSE 1005
Migrations: Pol, Ethics, Lit
Course Description
Migrations: Politics, Ethics, Literature
In this class we will learn about the political and ethical issues of migration. What are the rights of those who migrate and how can we hear and make space for their voices? How can we study and talk about migration in ways that are respectful to everyone? To answer these and other questions, we will analyze different texts (literary, journalistic, essays), learn how to assess their reliability, and apply them to our understanding of migration. We will consider migration in its local and global aspects with a focus on Italy and Europe compared with what happens in other parts of the world (eg. U.S. and Syria), through group and individual research that we will present in oral and written form. This course is part of the Public Humanities Labs Initiative administered by the Axinn Center for the Humanities.
Terms Taught
Requirements
FYSE 1292
Cultural Formations of 1980s
Course Description
Cultural Formations of the 1980s
In this course we will investigate cultural formations of the United States during the 1980s through a critical examination of fiction, music, television, art, advertising, and film. We will connect texts produced during and about the period with social, political, and economic transformations that began with the so-called “Reagan Revolution.” Social issues concerning race, class, gender, and sexuality will be analyzed through topics including the Culture Wars, globalization and outsourcing, the ascendance of Wall Street, the rise of AIDS, attacks on the welfare state, the emergence of hiphop, and the War on Drugs 3 hrs. sem.
Terms Taught
Requirements
FYSE 1554
Global Environmental Racism
Course Description
Literary and Filmic Protest of Environmental Racism
Can Literature and Film Save the Planet? This course focuses on literary and filmic responses to environmental racism. Bearing witness to those whose lives are most endangered, we will learn about environmental justice, economics, migration, globalization, and the anthropology of climate change through comparative study of works authored by Iraqi, Chinese, and African Americans, as well as by indigenous Latin Americans (Andean, Xavante, and Wayuu), Native Americans (Navajo and Sioux), Africans (Ogoni), Indians (Dalit and Adivasi), and Armenians. We will write literature and film reviews, and work incrementally toward the realization of activist essays.
Terms Taught
Requirements
FYSE 1575
Growth and its Limits
Course Description
Growth and its Limits
What is economic growth? Is it limited in a world of finite resources? In this seminar we will explore these questions from a multidisciplinary perspective, drawing on readings from 18th century philosophers to 21st century research on climate change and artificial intelligence. Particular attention will be paid to the role of demography, agricultural productivity, and fossil fuels. We will develop simple mathematical models of growth and seek out relevant data to help inform our discussions and writing. 3 hrs. sem.
Terms Taught
Requirements
FYSE 1580
Current
Imagining a Better Tomorrow
Course Description
Imagining a Better Tomorrow
In this class we will study some of the ways in which filmmakers, artists, activists, thinkers, and ordinary people have envisioned and/or strived to create a better future for humanity. We will watch and read fictional narratives in parallel with real-world examples of equitable societies, life-altering technology, sustainable living, and others. We will cover various aesthetic, political, and ideological frameworks and movements, such as Afrofuturism, ecofeminism, environmental activism, pacifism, etc. Texts include films (Metropolis, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind), television series (Star Trek), architecture (ecovillages and intentional communities), writers such as Marge Piercy, Samuel R. Delany, Octavia Butler, and others.
Terms Taught
Requirements
GEOG 0225
Environ Change Latin America
Course Description
Environmental Change in Latin America
This course examines Latin America from a geographical perspective with emphasis on the social, political and ecological underpinnings of change in the region. Building upon the theme of global environmental change in the context of human-environment geography, we will explore urgent challenges linked to the agricultural and extractive industries, urban expansion, land grabs, land reform, indigenous rights, and rural and urban poverty. 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
GEOG 0232
A Black Sense of Place
Course Description
A Black Sense of Place: Black Geographies
Black feminist geographer, Katherine McKittrick, defines Black geographies as “subaltern or alternative geographic patterns that work alongside and beyond traditional geographies and a site or terrain of struggle” (2006, 7).
This Black studies approach structures analyses of geographies across the Black diaspora in this course. Students will explore the relationships between race, racisms, space, and place through an interdisciplinary examination of the intimate, the material, the political, the body, and the collective as “sites of struggle.” We will read from texts such as Clyde Woods’ Development Drowned and Reborn: The Blues and Bourbon Restorations in Post-Katrina New Orleans and Erica Lorraine Williams’ Sex Tourism in Bahia: Ambiguous Entanglements.
Terms Taught
Requirements
GEOG 0413
Seminar: Population Geography
Course Description
Seminar in Population Geography: Migration in the Twenty-first Century
On average, 20 percent of the U.S. population changes residence in any given year, yet the scale, geography, motivations, and impacts of these movements are highly variable, making migration an incredibly pervasive and complex phenomenon. Furthermore, international immigration continues to attract considerable academic, political, and media attention. This course will explore contemporary approaches to migration studies emphasizing the important insights and contributions of geographers. How have geographers examined migration, and how have geographical approaches changed over time? In what ways has technology influenced the motivations, frequency, and implications of migration behavior? What are the different impacts of migration on individuals, households, and communities? And, what are the new innovations in scholarly approaches to migration? Through a combination of readings from contemporary migration literature, discussions, and analyses, students in this seminar will gain an appreciation for and understanding of this incredibly rich and complex phenomena of migration. (Open to second semester juniors and seniors only; others by waiver) 3 hrs. sem.
Terms Taught
Requirements
GHLT 0235
Soc Entrep and Global Health
Course Description
Social Entrepreneurship and Global Health
Social and structural determinants of health create barriers to availability, accessibility and uptake of health services in many countries. We will take a case study approach to examining how social entrepreneurs develop and scale up responses to help clients overcome these barriers. We will explore factors including: human rights, poverty, disenfranchisement of women, government health care systems and infrastructure, human resources for health, task shifting, the politics of sexual/reproductive health, and infectious diseases. We will draw on articles and online materials. This course mixes theory and case study, and will count as an elective towards the Global Health minor. (not open to students who have taken INTD 1213 or INTD 0235) 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
GSFS 0191
Current
Upcoming
Gender and the Body
Course Description
Gender and the Body
What is your gender and how do you know? In order to answer this question, we need to consider how gender is known through biology, psychology, consumer capitalism, and our everyday embodiment. We will also look at how the meaning and performance of gender have changed over time from Classical Greece to Victorian England to the contemporary U.S. Throughout, we will consider how gender does not operate along, but is always entangled with, race, class, sexuality, nationality, and ability. 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
GSFS 0207
Economics and Gender
Course Description
Economics and Gender
Economics and Gender is an introduction to using the tools of economics to understand gender-related issues. In the first part of the course we will review economic models of the household, fertility, and labor supply and discuss how they help us interpret long-term trends in marriage and divorce, fertility, and women’s labor-force participation. In the second part of the course we will study economic models of wage determination and focus on explanations of, and policy remedies for, earnings differentials by gender. The final part of the course will focus on new research in economics on gender-related topics. (ECON 0155) 3hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
HIST 0215
Cold War America
Course Description
Cold War America
This course examines the history of the United States during the Cold War (1945-1991). From the immediate post-WWII period through the Reagan era, we will investigate widely varied manifestations of anti-communism, paying special attention to how international affairs shaped Americans’ engagement with domestic developments, and vice versa. Topics include the social welfare state, Eisenhower’s New Look and Kennedy’s New Frontier, suburbanization, the Vietnam War, civil rights activism, the conservative movement, feminism, and the politics of globalization. Our goal is to reconsider these transformative changes in context with the Cold War’s geopolitical and ideological conflict. We will use many tools to do so: primary sources like state documents, essays, visual texts, and political tracts, as well scholarly monographs, documentaries, and discussion. (formerly HIST 0368) 2 hrs. lect., 1 hr. disc.
Terms Taught
Requirements
PGSE 0375
Coloniality & Lusophone World
Course Description
Coloniality and the Lusophone World
In this course we will critically analyze the meanings and ideas that shaped and undergirded European colonialism and its legacies in the interconnected realms of culture, race, language, gender, sexuality, and labor. In addition to studying the colonial period, we will pay particular attention to how the discourses of colonialism impact power structures concerning nation, globalization, and cultural consumption. In doing so, we will also address the problematics of the concept of “Lusophone,” starting with the historical legacies and cultural implications of such a transnational entity. Course materials will include critical theory, historical sources, literary texts, visual media, and music from Brazil, Lusophone Africa, Lusophone Asia, and Portugal. (PGSE 215 or equivalent) 3hrs. lect./disc.
Terms Taught
Requirements
RELI 0271
Death in Latin America
Course Description
Death in Latin America
The refrain of colonialism in the Americas was death. In its wake, encounters with dying and the dead shaped national cultures and popular religiosities across the hemisphere. In this course we will explore the diversity of rituals, stories, and devotions surrounding death in Latin America. Through a careful reading of Eduardo Galeano’s The Open Veins of Latin America, we will critically examine the geopolitical entity of Latin America in its historical context while learning how to write powerfully about its social and economic realities. We will cover death across secular and religious formations in Mexico, Haiti, Brazil, Guatemala, and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. 3 hrs. lect/3 hrs. lab.
Terms Taught
Requirements
SOCI 0288
Deviance and Social Control
Course Description
Deviance and Social Control
This course will introduce students to sociological perspectives on the nature, causes and control of deviant behavior and populations. We will consider, historically and theoretically, the construction of deviance, the social purpose it serves, and the societal response deviance engenders. We will pay special attention to the ways in which the deviant body is constructed and managed through a variety of frameworks – including medical, punitive and therapeutic - and reflect critically on the social and political ramifications of the categorizations “deviant” and “normal”. (formerly SOAN 0288) 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Terms Taught
Requirements
SOCI 0307
Soc Moves & Collective Actions
Course Description
Social Movements and Collective Action
An analysis of the range of factors which influence the emergence and development of social protest, social movements, rebellion, and revolution. Topics to be considered include: the generation and mobilization of discontent; recruitment and participation; member commitment; tactics and strategy; revolutionary situations and outcomes; collective violence; and the factors that influence the success and failure of movement organizations and collective action in general. Emphasis will be placed on critically analyzing alternative approaches and theories of social movements and collective action (i.e., self-interest/deprivation, participation gratification, traditional collective behavior and resource mobilization). Empirical studies will be used throughout the course. Limited places available for students to satisfy the College writing requirement. 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
SOCI 0356
Significance of Race in the US
Course Description
The Continuing Significance of Race in the United States
This course will introduce students to theories of race and racism in the United States, how racial categories are formed and maintained in a variety of social arenas, and how race and racism influence social systems. In order to demonstrate the prevalence of race and racism in the U.S., the course will be a “topics” course in that each week, we will explore a different topic (such as education, crime, gender) and examine how they are influenced by race and racism. In addition, the course will compare and contrast the experiences of different racial and ethnic groups in the United States and examine how these different experiences influences the way they are seen, how they see themselves, and how they interact with other groups. Upon completion of the course, students will have a better understanding of the historic and contemporary significance of race and how race influences our everyday interactions in multiple different social arenas. (formerly SOAN 0356) 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
Capstone
Courses offered in the past four years. Courses offered currently are as noted.
INTD 0204
Current
Experiential Learning Capstone
Course Description
Community Connected Experiential Learning Capstone
In this course students who have completed Middlebury-sponsored experiential learning opportunities will reflect on their experiences, identify key learning outcomes, and integrate that learning into their ongoing academic inquiry. They will identify the civic competencies developed through their experience, as well as the ways in which they have strengthened civic identity, cultivated their civic knowledge, and built their civic skills. In a project-based cohort, students will complete a summative public product that illustrates their evidence of learning. (This is a half credit course.)
Terms Taught