Amherst College Course Catalog
AboutEDST-390 EDST-490
Special Topics
Independent reading course. How to handle overenrollment: null Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Reading, independent work, assessment as agreed on with instructor. Attention to ResearchDivisions: Arts; Humanities; Language Other than English; Science & Mathematics; Social Sciences
EDST-470
Advanced Writing and Research in Education Studies
This course is designed for Education Studies majors (and prospective Education Studies majors) working on theses and other intensive research projects that examine the history, purpose, politics, and consequences of education. The course is intended to provide guidance and scholarly community for majors as they complete the requirement to produce a significant research project. Research may take a variety of forms, including but not limited to writing and research associated with a community-based project in an educational setting. Students will engage in the pre-writing, drafting, and revision of writing associated with an advanced research project in the field of Education Studies. Beyond writing skills, the course will (a) teach students how to identify, examine, and integrate primary and secondary research materials; (b) review protocols for ethical research; (c) when appropriate, connect students with community research sites; and (d) workshop students' work in progress. Students will engage in several research and writing exercises throughout the semester, submit a significant research paper at the end of the semester, and participate in a “works in progress” presentation for the Education Studies community. Requisite: one Education Studies course and one research methods course. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor McLeod IV. How to handle overenrollment: Preference first will be given to senior Education Studies majors, followed by junior Education Studies majors, and then seniors and juniors with projects situated within the field of Education Studies. Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Emphasis on written work, readings, independent research, oral presentations, group work. Attention to Research; Attention to Speaking; Attention to Writing; Community-based LearningDivisions: Humanities
EDST-498D EDST-498
Senior Honors
Independent work on an extended academic, creative, or pedagogical project on a topic relevant to the field. Thesis progress will be assessed by the department at the end of the first semester as a precondition for entrance to the next semester of thesis work. How to handle overenrollment: null Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Independent scholarly work; assessment based on completion of substantial thesis project. Attention to ResearchDivisions: Arts; Humanities; Language Other than English; Science & Mathematics; Social Sciences
AMST-117 FAMS-130
Women, Gender, and Pop Culture
In this course, students will interrogate the precarious relationship between political and popular culture. As we study how politics has successfully deployed popular culture as an ideological tool, we will also consider how politics has overburdened popular culture as a vehicle of change. These broad issues will serve as our framework for analyzing black femininity, womanhood, and the efficacy of the word “feminism” in the post-Civil Rights era. We will think critically about the construction of gender, race, sexuality, and class identity as well as the historical and sociopolitical context for cultural icons and phenomena. Students will read cultural theory, essays, fiction as well as listen to, and watch various forms of media. Expectations include three writing/visual projects as well as a group presentation. Limited to 18 students. Fall semester. Professor Henderson. How to handle overenrollment: Priority goes to student who are registered and attend first day of class Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: emphasis on written work, readings, oral presentations, group work, in-class quizzes or exams, artistic work, field work or trips, visual analysis and aural analysis. Attention to Issues of Class; Attention to Issues of Gender and Sexuality; Attention to Issues of Race; Attention to Speaking; Attention to WritingDivisions: Humanities; Social Sciences
AMST-210
American Jewish Keywords
In its “Jewish Americans in 2020” analysis, the Pew Research Center reported that nearly three quarters of Jewish American adults felt that “being part of a Jewish community” was important to them. The study also found that definitions of Jewishness and Jewish communities extended beyond religion to include ancestry and culture. What terms have come to embody American Jewish experience? In what ways have Jewish communities been constituted? What fosters healthy and vibrant communities? This course offers an introduction to American Jewish Studies and community-engaged learning. Raymond Williams defines keywords as offering a “shared body of words and meanings.” Four keywords will frame the semester—Generations, Service, Community, and Place. In each of these units, we will probe a range of materials: historical writing, sociology, literature, statistical analyses, films/documentaries, and personal narratives. Course materials will offer background and context for our engagement with communities outside the classroom. We will visit the Yiddish Book Center, the Amherst Senior Center, Not Bread Alone, and other local organizations. Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Senior Lecturer Bergoffen.How to handle overenrollment: Preference given to American Studies majors.Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Writing, collaborating, and reflecting will be central practices in this course. Students will go on several field trips (at least one on a weekend) and participate in community-engaged learning. Students will gain skills in close reading, reflective writing, and learning outside the classroom. Attention to Issues of Class; Attention to Issues of Race; Attention to Issues of Social Justice; Attention to Research; Attention to Writing; Community-based LearningDivisions: Humanities; Social Sciences
AMST-217
Religion, Democracy, and American Culture
[Pre-1900] The United States has inscribed the separation of church and state into its constitutional order, and yet Americans have for two centuries been more deeply committed to religious faith and practice than any other people in the Western world. This course endeavors to explore that paradox. Topics addressed include the changing meanings of "the city on a hill"; the varieties of millennial belief and utopian community; the relationship between religion, ethnicity, and gender; religious political activism, including abolition, prohibition, anti-war and anti-abortion movements; and the limits of religious tolerance from movements against Catholics and Mormons to recent warnings of a "clash of civilizations" with Muslim cultures. Limited to 25 students. Fall 2025. Professors Couvares. How to handle overenrollment: Preference given to majors, then first and second year students Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Emphasis on discussion, reading, written work, critical analysis, and at least one field trip; and exposure to various American Studies readings, ranging from the colonial era to the present; and the use of various methods, including interpreting historical, sociological and other scholarly work, as well as poems, novels, photographs, and paintings. Attention to Issues of Class; Attention to Issues of Gender and Sexuality; Attention to Issues of Race; Attention to Issues of Social JusticeDivisions: Humanities; Social Sciences
EDST-258 AMST-258
Museums and Education
All too often, when we think of education we think of the grammar of schooling—desks, the classroom, a teacher lecturing—but some of the most exciting and creative educational work is happening in museum spaces. Museums are educational institutions in that they seek to preserve and disseminate knowledge, culture, aesthetics, and scientific insight. Museums are innovators in expanding the modes of conveying information beyond reading and writing—the written text. They have worked hard to be sites of experiential learning for students of all ages. Examining museums and education together highlights the complementary nature of these endeavors as well as their inherent tensions. How does a museum’s materiality affect its educational mission? What economic and political forces (philanthropy, governments, public sentiment) set and shape museums’ educational programming? This course introduces students to the educational mission of different kinds of museums through weekly visits to local museums and semester-long group projects with a specific museum partner. This course interrogates the opportunities and challenges of creating and sharing knowledge in museum settings and through that process provides new insights into the goals and methods of education. Note on field trips: Occasionally class sessions will involve transportation to area museums and may conclude after 3:50 pm (closer to 4:30 pm instead). Limited to 24 students; Fall 2024; Professor Sanchez-Eppler and Professor McLeod IV How to handle overenrollment: Priority to majors in American Studies or Education Studies and then to sophomores and first year students Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: close reading, object analysis, analytic writing, active discussion, community engagement, and public facing group projects. Attention to Speaking; Attention to Writing; Community-based LearningDivisions: Humanities EDST: Culture and Education
EDST-306 AMST-306
The Politics of Social Studies Education in American Public Schools
EDST 306/HIST 306/AMST 306: This course explores the recent politicization of social studies education (with a particular focus on the teaching of History and Civics) in American public schools through a close examination of the process through which the standards and curriculum for the teaching of social studies are determined, revised, and legislated. By analyzing the debates over legislation to restrict the teaching of “divisive concepts,” as well as the associated revision of state standards in a variety of contested spaces, students will gain awareness not only of how guidelines for the teaching of social studies are created, but also why an understanding of the political process influencing curriculum and classroom instruction is vital for the protection of free speech and public education within our democracy. With state history standards as the case study, students will complete the course having considered how educational reform is advanced, who does and should have a say in U.S. Social Studies education, and what role they wish to assume in education as a project of democracy. This course will involve community engagement with public school educators, state and national social studies scholars and advocates, and state legislators. This course is open to all and no prior experience is necessary; however, students must be willing to work collaboratively and attend one event scheduled outside of class time. Limited to 18 students. Fall 2025. Professor Boucher and Professor Luschen How to handle overenrollment: Priority will be given to Education Studies, History, and American Studies majors. Juniors and seniors will receive priority followed by sophomores. Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: an emphasis on written work, readings, independent and group research projects, oral presentations, group work and participation in community engaged learning involving public school educators. Attention to Issues of Race; Attention to Issues of Social Justice; Attention to Research; Attention to Writing; Community-based LearningDivisions: Humanities EDST: Culture and Education; Schools, Society and PolicyHIST: United States
AMST-331 LLAS-234 RELI-334
The Sanctuary Movement: Religion, Activism, and Social Contestation
From sanctuary cities and states to sanctuary campuses and churches, declarations of sanctuary sites have swept the nation in recent years. The U.S. Sanctuary Movement, established in 1982 to harbor Central American asylum seekers fleeing civil wars, has today assumed broader social implementations in the New Sanctuary Movement. Beginning with an examination of antecedents to the U.S. Sanctuary Movement in global contexts, this course will offer students an in-depth study of the Sanctuary Movement since the 1980s with special attention to the New Sanctuary Movement which is active today throughout the country. Fall semester. Professor Barba. How to handle overenrollment: Seniors and majors will have priority. Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: emphasis on written work, readings, independent research, oral presentations, group work, and discussion Attention to Issues of Class; Attention to Issues of Gender and Sexuality; Attention to Issues of Race; Attention to Issues of Social Justice; Attention to Research; Community-based LearningDivisions: Humanities
AMST-364 ENGL-355
Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson’s poetry is rich in what she called “illocality.” Her writing characteristically dissolves images and refuses specificity of place or event, and yet no writer is more intimately connected to a particular place. Dickinson wrote almost all of her poems in this one house on Main Street, in Amherst. Coursework will include close collaborations with The Emily Dickinson Museum and rare access to the Dickinson manuscripts housed at Amherst College archives and special collections. Thus, in this course we will have the extraordinary opportunity to read these poems in Amherst, to study both her individual life and her practices of literary expression in the place where she lived and wrote and with access to her manuscripts and to many of the spaces, artifacts, and records of family and local history. It is a complicated history, and starting with new scholarship on the roles the Dickinson family played in the white settlement of the Connecticut River Valley, this class will be particularly attuned to the inequalities of race, class, and gender that structure Dickinson's poetic practice and legacy. How to handle overenrollment: Preference given to junior and senior English majors. Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Close reading of poetry, literary criticism, and historical materials, independent research including archival research and work with material culture objects. Local field trips. Collaborative work on group projects for the Dickinson Museum. Attention to Research; Attention to Speaking; Attention to Writing; Community-based LearningDivisions: Arts; Humanities
AMST-377
Rhythm & Blues Music and Culture
Aretha Franklin insists that rhythm and blues music is “the truth.” With Franklin’s profound theory as its anchor, this seminar explores how 1990s rhythm and blues music offers truth, metaphor, narrative, and history about African American life and culture. We will explore how canonical artists from the 1990s such as Mary J. Blige, Aaliyah, and Brandy as well as “girl groups” such as Total, Xscape, and SWV dramatically transformed American culture. Taking cues from existing scholarship on Black music and culture, we will parse how rhythm and blues artists redefined and remixed various forms of creative expression, including music, visual art, hair, and fashion. Limited to 15 students. Open to juniors and seniors. Fall semester. Professor Henderson. How to handle overenrollment: If over-enrolled, students will be asked to provide a short statement about their interest in taking the course. Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: archival research, independent research, oral presentations, collaborative research, group work, close reading and visual analysis, data collection and analysis, digital mapping and storytelling, and assessment: emphasis on written work, reading. Attention to Issues of Gender and Sexuality; Attention to Issues of Race; Attention to WritingDivisions: Humanities; Social Sciences
AMST-390 AMST-490
Special Topics
Independent reading course. Fall and spring semesters. The Department. How to handle overenrollment: null Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: independent research, critical analysis, close reading, and extended writing. Divisions: Humanities; Social Sciences
AMST-496
Capstone Project
A one-semester project—either a shorter essay or some other form of independent interdisciplinary research and production. The capstone project serves as the grounds for a comprehensive evaluation of each student's achievement in the major. Fall and spring semesters. The Department. How to handle overenrollment: null Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: independent research, critical analysis, close reading, and extended writing. Divisions: Humanities; Social Sciences
AMST-498
Senior Departmental Honors
Fall semester. The Department. How to handle overenrollment: null Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: independent research, critical analysis, close reading, and extended writing. Divisions: Humanities; Social Sciences
ANTH-112
Sociocultural Anthropology
Through the comparative study of culture and society, anthropology explores fundamental questions about what it means to be and become human. Based on deep engagements with specific groups, communities, and settings, anthropology examines the practices, structures, and meanings that shape lived experience. This course introduces students to the basic concepts and methods of sociocultural anthropology. Drawing on a wide range of ethnographic cases, the course will provide frameworks for analyzing diverse facets of human experience such as gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, politics, economics, language, technology, medicine, and art. In addition to giving students a taste of the variety of topics explored by anthropologists, the course will also introduce students to the discipline's central methodological investment in ethnography as a uniquely illuminating mode of inquiry. Limited to 45 students. Fall semester. Professor Dole. How to handle overenrollment: Preference to first- and second-year students, and to majors who have yet to take this required course. Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: emphasis on written work, reading, in-class quizzes or exams. Attention to Issues of Class; Attention to Issues of Gender and Sexuality; Attention to Issues of Race; Transnational or World Cultures Taught in EnglishDivisions: Humanities; Social Sciences
ANTH-117
Anthropological Perspectives on Building a Better World
How can anthropological perspectives help us understand the intended and unintended consequences of our efforts to build a better world? This course will address this question by looking at anthropological studies of the implementation and consequences of large-scale, deeply transformative policies and practices intended to improve people’s lives, solve current problems, and prevent future catastrophes. We will focus especially on comparisons between China and the United States, which have two of the world’s largest and most influential economies and face many similar problems, but have developed very different approaches to trying to build a better world. We will evaluate current proposals for transformative new policies and practices, and consider how efforts to build a better world might benefit from anthropologists’ ability to look holistically at relationships between personal experiences, psychology, cultural norms, social structures, philosophy, laws, history, politics, economics, biology, technology, environmental issues, global systems, and international relations. Students will learn to draw on anthropological perspectives as they develop and write about their own ideas for building a better world and about consequences those ideas might have. Limited to 19 students. Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor Fong. How to handle overenrollment: Priority goes to Anthropology majors and students who contribute to balance between different graduation years, majors, and academic backgrounds. First priority to first-year students during fall orientation. Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Emphasis on written work, readings, oral presentations, group work. Attention to Issues of Class; Attention to Issues of Gender and Sexuality; Attention to Issues of Race; Attention to Issues of Social Justice; Attention to Speaking; Transnational or World Cultures Taught in EnglishDivisions: Humanities; Social Sciences
ANTH-201
Anthropology and Science Fiction
How can anthropology help us understand the cultural assumptions, empirical knowledge, and causal and interpretive theories underlying science fiction and related genres such as fantasy, magical realism, and social science fiction? How can anthropology help writers of such genres draw on more valid and plausible assumptions, knowledge, and theories as they build fictional worlds and characters? How can fictional writers’ hypotheses about what events, people, and processes might look like under different conditions, and their efforts to write about such hypotheses in innovative, engaging, and thought-provoking ways, help us think about how anthropologists might write about real-life experiences that differ from those we already understand? This course will help students think about such questions by engaging with anthropological studies and science fiction stories that relate to each other in enlightening ways. We will read and discuss stories that describe how people in a variety of societies might react to experiences that have not yet been documented in our world, as well as anthropological ethnographies of how real people in those same societies deal with analogous experiences in our world. As part of this process, we will discuss the nature and meaning of life, the universe, science, and human behavior, and consider how understandings of anthropology, science fiction, and related genres might help us predict the outcomes of current news events. Limited to 19 students. Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor Fong. How to handle overenrollment: Priority given to Anthropology majors and to students who contribute to a balance between different graduation years Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Emphasis on written work, readings, oral presentations, group work. Attention to Speaking; Transnational or World Cultures Taught in EnglishDivisions: Humanities; Social Sciences
ANTH-209 SOCI-207 SWAG-209
Intersectional Feminist Science Studies
This seminar uses feminist theory and methods to consider scientific practice and the production of medicoscientific knowledge. We will explore how medicine and science reflects and reinforces social relations, positions, and hierarchies as well as whether and how medicoscientific practice and knowledge might be made more accurate and socially beneficial. Central to this course is how assumptions about sex, gender and race have shaped what we have come to know as “true,” “natural,” and “fact.” We will explore interdisciplinary works on three main themes: feminist critiques of objectivity; the structure and meanings of natural variations, especially human differences; and challenges to familiar binaries (nature/culture, human/animal, female/male, etc). Students who completed SWAG 108/ANTH 211 Feminist Science Studies in Fall 2019/20 will need to consult with Professor Karkazis prior to enrolling. Limited to 20 students with 5 seats reserved for first-year students. Fall and spring semesters. Professor Karkazis. How to handle overenrollment: Priority given to SWAGS majors; then students will be selected to maximize diversity across major, class year, and institution Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Readings, written work, class lead, oral presentation, analysis. Attention to Issues of Class; Attention to Issues of Gender and Sexuality; Attention to Issues of Race; Attention to Issues of Social Justice; Attention to SpeakingDivisions: Social Sciences
SOCI-229
The Sociology of Exclusionary Politics and the Ascendant Far Right
The early twenty-first century has been marked by the convergence of populism, ethno-nationalism, and authoritarianism in all corners of the world. Exclusionary movements have emerged to challenge cultural and intellectual currents in world society that were, at one point, viewed as inevitable agents of progress that would usher in a world liberated from the divisive and demagogic forces that produced immense human suffering and countless theaters of war in the twentieth century. Today, the pendulum appears to be swinging back in the other direction. The far right represents the fastest growing party family in Europe and is translating mass disaffection and cultural anxieties around immigration into electoral victories and political power. Narratives of national decline and revival are giving new life to restrictive strains of nationalism in India and the United States, the two largest democracies in the world. Elsewhere, exclusionary political movements in Latin America, the Middle East and beyond are threatening the democratic norms and institutions that sustained the world system in the postwar period. To make sense of these developments, this course will critically examine the rise of right-wing radicalism in the US, the European far right, and other exclusionary movements around the world by marshaling theoretical insights and empirical evidence from political sociology, cultural sociology, and the broader study of comparative politics.Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Assistant Professor Karim.How to handle overenrollment: Preference will be given to Sociology and Anthropology majors, then juniors and seniors.Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: An emphasis on written work, readings, independent research, oral presentations, and group work. Attention to Issues of Gender and Sexuality; Attention to Issues of Race; Attention to Issues of Social Justice; Attention to Research; Attention to Speaking; Attention to WritingDivisions: Humanities; Social Sciences
ANTH-265 ASLC-266
The Middle East and North Africa
This course explores the cultural, political, and historical complexity of everyday life in the Middle East and North Africa. Rather than attempting a survey of the entire region, the course draws on ethnographic accounts, literature, and film to engage a number of important themes in the anthropology of the Middle East and North Africa (such as, among others, colonialism, imperialism, modernization, nationalism, religion, and gender). By the end of the course, students will have gained an understanding of some of the most pressing issues being faced in the region today, and the ways that anthropologists have approached these issues in their research and writing. Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Professor Dole. How to handle overenrollment: Priority given to majors and second and third year students. Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: emphasis on readings, written work, and independent research. Attention to Issues of Class; Attention to Issues of Gender and Sexuality; Attention to Issues of Race; Transnational or World Cultures Taught in EnglishDivisions: Humanities; Social Sciences ASLC: West Asia
ANTH-268
Contentious Natures: Race, Nature, Power
How do appeals to nature—so called “natural” traits or “essences”—undergird the way race adheres to specific bodies? How does race, in turn, go beyond bodies to mark particular “natural” landscapes and non-human entities as other? In short, how can we understand the historically powerful relationship between race and nature? Drawing on anthropology and critical race studies, this course examines how race and nature work to convey “timeless truths”, inform notions of identity, and justify inequalities. Throughout the semester, we consider how race and nature act through bodies, environments, discourses, and metaphors to create new forms of belonging and exclusion. To these ends, we analyze concepts such as wilderness/wildness, scientific racism, contamination and purity, human-animal relations, sovereignty and nationalism, environmentalism, and environmental disasters to explore how race gets naturalized, and nature racialized. Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Professor Nguyen How to handle overenrollment: Anthro & Soc majors given first priority, second priority given to balancing out different cohort years Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: an emphasis on close reading, discussion, and written assignments. Attention to Issues of Class; Attention to Issues of Race; Attention to Issues of Social Justice; Attention to Speaking; Attention to WritingDivisions: Humanities; Social Sciences
SOCI-269
An Introduction to Quantitative Sociology: Culture and Power
How do sociologists define, model, and visualize social phenomena using quantitative tools and statistical software? This seminar will provide a technical, theoretical and practical overview. During the semester, students will learn how to use R and Python to clean, analyze and visualize data that are suitable for sociological analysis. At the same time, the course will interrogate how social inequality can be masked—and deeply pernicious ideas can be reproduced—if quantitative data analyses are not informed by, or sensitized to, social theory and the hierarchies of power and privilege that structure the social world. To this end, we will engage with recent work in cultural sociology that draws attention to variation within and across social groups (defined in terms of race, gender, class and so on) to understand how social inequalities emerge and endure. Throughout the course, we will scrutinize policy-relevant social issues while discussing topics like race, ethnicity, religion, class, gender and sexuality. Prior knowledge of statistics or programming is not required but may be an asset. Limited to 18 students. Professor Karim. How to handle overenrollment: Preference will be given to Sociology and Anthropology majors, then juniors and seniors.Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: group discussions, live coding Attention to Issues of Class; Attention to Issues of Gender and Sexuality; Attention to Issues of Race; Attention to Issues of Social Justice; Attention to Research; Quantitative ReasoningDivisions: Humanities; Social Sciences
SOCI-315
Foundations of Sociological Theory
Sociology emerged as part of the intellectual response to the French and Industrial Revolutions and the global expansion of capitalism via colonialism and imperialism. In various ways, the classic sociological thinkers sought to make sense of these changes and the kind of society that resulted from them. We shall begin by examining the social and intellectual context in which sociology developed and then turn to a close reading of important social thinkers from the classical period, including: Karl Marx, W.E.B. DuBois, Jane Addams, Max Weber, and Ida B. Wells-Barnett. We shall attempt to identify the theoretical perspective of each thinker by posing several basic questions: According to each social thinker, what is the general nature of society, the individual, and the relationship between the two? What holds societies together? What pulls them apart? How does social change occur? What are the distinguishing features of modern Western society in particular? What distinctive dilemmas do individuals face in modern society? What are the prospects for human freedom and happiness? Although the thinkers we read differ strikingly from each other, we shall also determine the extent to which they share a common “sociological consciousness.” In addition to engaging the original works of classical thinkers, we will read contemporary extensions of their work to understand the living traditions of sociological theory. Required of sociology majors. Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Holleman. How to handle overenrollment: Sociology and anthropology majors have preference Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Emphasis on written work and reading. Attention to WritingDivisions: Humanities; Social Sciences
ANTH-329
Feeling Politics: An Anthropology of Political Affect
This course is about feeling politics as much as about the political power of feelings. How often do you feel outraged at the state of politics? Do you ever experience an inexplicable love for political symbols? Do they ever make you cringe? Or perhaps you glean much pleasure from the nature of modern political life? Do you cry, laugh, get scared, or feel overwhelmed by political spectacles that make up our 24/7 existence? If so, like all of us, you experience politics at a corporeal level. Instead of discounting these feelings as irrational and secondary to reasoned deliberations and solemn institutions, this seminar takes them seriously. The texts in this upper-level, discussion-based course consider public political life as an affect-laden world where emotional and bodily attachments – some articulate, others unconscious – are as indispensable and ubiquitous as discourse and procedure. Even when our feelings seem deeply personal, the forms of their expression reveal larger histories of modernity, imperialism, race, labor, and the economy, among others. The seminar is ultimately aimed at understanding how our senses, much like our institutions, are shaped by cultural differences. Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Professor Chowdhury. How to handle overenrollment: Priority will be given to majors in Anthropology and Sociology Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Emphasis on written work, intensive reading, and speaking in class Attention to Issues of Class; Attention to Issues of Gender and Sexuality; Attention to Issues of Race; Attention to Issues of Social Justice; Attention to WritingDivisions: Humanities; Social Sciences
ANTH-339
The Anthropology of Food
Because food is necessary to sustain biological life, its production and provision occupy humans everywhere. Due to this essential importance, food also operates to create and symbolize collective life. This seminar will examine the social and cultural significance of food. Topics to be discussed include: the evolution of human food systems, the social and cultural relationships between food production and human reproduction, the development of women’s association with the domestic sphere, the meaning and experience of eating disorders, and the connection among ethnic cuisines, nationalist movements and social classes. Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Gewertz. How to handle overenrollment: If the course is overenrolled, will privilege majors and ask students to provide the reasons they wish to take the course. Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: emphasis on written work and reading. Divisions: Humanities; Social Sciences
ANTH-378
Anthropology of Toxicity: Environment, Exposure and Inequality
Toxins today pervade our lives and bodies. Yet they remain difficult to pin down, simultaneously ubiquitous and elusive, proliferating harm as well as uncertainty. With an eye toward these contradictions, this course begins by asking: What is toxicity? How does it enter our awareness? Who bears the burden of its designation? From here, we consider how the uncertainty of toxic exposure shapes the politics of evidence, social difference, and assumptions about the integrity of bodies and nations. Throughout our readings, we interrogate the relationship between toxicity, politics, memory, and remedy to explore how living in a toxic world requires technical, ethical and aesthetic modes of understanding. Connecting ethnographies of environmental exposure and contamination with larger contexts, histories, and settler colonial logics, we investigate relations of segregation, contingency, and kinship in uneven terrains of vulnerability and risk. Limited to 21 students. Fall semester. Assistant Professor Nguyen. How to handle overenrollment: Anthropology and Sociology majors given first priority, second priority given to balancing sophomores, juniors and seniors. Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: an emphasis on close reading, discussion, and written assignments. Attention to Issues of Class; Attention to Issues of Race; Attention to Issues of Social Justice; Attention to Speaking; Attention to Writing; Community-based LearningDivisions: Humanities; Social Sciences
SOCI-390 SOCI-490
Special Topics
Independent reading course. A full course. Fall and spring semesters. The Department. How to handle overenrollment: null Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: emphasis on written work, readings, independent research. Divisions: Humanities; Social Sciences
SOCI-498
Senior Departmental Honors
Fall semester. The Department. How to handle overenrollment: null Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: emphasis on written work, readings, independent research. Divisions: Humanities; Social Sciences
ANTH-490H ANTH-490
Special Topics
Independent reading course. A full course. Fall and spring semesters. The Department. How to handle overenrollment: null Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: emphasis on written work, readings, independent research. Divisions: Humanities; Social Sciences
ARCH-105 ARHA-105
Space and Design: Introduction to Studio Architecture
This hands-on design studio will foster innovation as it guides students through the development of architectural ideas. Students will investigate the physical world around us and propose new visions for the future. Through a series of projects that build on each other, students will develop their own design language and experiment with architecture at several scales - from a space for sitting to a dynamic built structure and its integration into a site. Students will explore a variety of graphic tools and techniques, including drawing and physical model-making to analyze and understand space as they develop skills in architectural representation. Guest critics will attend a review, and students will present their work to design professionals and professors. No prior experience necessary! All that's needed is a curiosity about the built world, and a desire to consider what might be. Admissions with consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Fall semester. Visiting Instructor Gretchen Rabinkin. How to handle overenrollment: First priority to ARCH majors, then ARHA majors, then sophomores, first-years, juniors, seniors. Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Creative problem solving, research on green building technologies and implementation of the concepts in their own designs, 3D modeling, sketching, and physical model making. Assessment is based on level of exploration, quality of craft, openness to feedback and willingness to pursue multiple iterations of their designs. Artistic PracticeDivisions: Arts; Humanities
ARCH-122 ARHA-122
Urban Sketching
The proliferation of photo-realistic rendering software has brought a sense of fatigue with digital imagery in the architectural design discipline. This fatigue is bringing a renewed interest in hand-drawn representations of architectural and urban environments. In this course, students will learn and develop abilities to hand-sketch buildings and urban spaces, doing it onsite and in a relatively quick manner. Students will learn the basics of three techniques appropriate for the task: pencil, ink, and watercolor. Afterwards, students will be able to use sketching for the purposes of quickly envisioning space-related ideas and carrying out formal analyses of architectural and urban spaces. Activities involve open-air exercises and practice with different sketching methods as well as different techniques of representation.Limited to 16 students. Fall semester. Professor Gabriel Arboleda. How to handle overenrollment: Priority to ARCH students, sophomores, and juniors in that order. Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Emphasis on independent work, artistic work, field work, visual analysis, and oral presentations. Artistic Practice; Attention to SpeakingDivisions: Arts; Humanities
ARCH-125 ARHA-125 BLST-125
Urban Africa: Ancient and Modern Lives
This introductory course is a survey of the spaces and places that have defined urban Africa over time. From the ancient pyramids of Giza to modern metropolises like Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Dakar, Senegal, Africa has long incubated some of the world's most diverse urban centers. This course introduces students to African urban environments while also engaging the social, political, economic, and cultural phenomena that have shaped the lives of these locales. Some of the places that we will consider include: the Pyramids of Giza; the ancient Nubian pyramids of Sudan; the Medieval site of Great Zimbabwe; the coral stone cities of the early modern Swahili Coast of East Africa; the ports of the West African slave trade; the twentieth-century colonial cities of French West Africa and Italian East Africa; and modern urban centers from Casablanca, Morocco to Antananarivo, Madagascar. Traversing the continent while simultaneously moving from ancient to modern times, this course introduces students to the broad range of questions that emerge when we investigate the cities, buildings, landscapes, and cultures of Africa. Students will hone their reading, writing, and research skills through response essays, position papers, and a final research project. Discussions will focus on encouraging all students to share their ideas about African architecture and urban environments. No prior knowledge of architecture or African history and geography is required. No prerequisites. Fall 2025: Assistant Professor Carey. How to handle overenrollment: null Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: An emphasis on written work, readings, independent research, visual analysis. Attention to Issues of Class; Attention to Issues of Gender and Sexuality; Attention to Issues of Race; Attention to Issues of Social Justice; Attention to Research; Attention to Writing; Transnational or World Cultures Taught in EnglishDivisions: Arts; Humanities
ARCH-126 ARHA-126 EUST-126
Terrible Beauty: Early Modern European Art and Architecture
In this course, we will explore the environments, materials, and representations of the early modern European world. Taking an expansive view, we will look at a wide range of European objects and sites including maps, frescos, oil paintings, tapestries, coffee pots, prints, churches, grottoes, and studios. We will consider how these artworks and monuments were products of cultural exchange and imperial entanglements with Africa, the Americas, South and East Asia, and the Ottoman Empire. While we study objects of luxury, we will learn about the territorial expansion, extraction of resources, and exploitation of human beings that allowed the arts to flourish in Europe during these tumultuous and formative centuries. The course will follow a roughly chronological arc, from Columbus’s invasion of the Americas in 1492 to the French and Haitian Revolutions in the 1790s. Lectures will be thematic, covering topics like changing conceptions of artistic labor, how portraiture shaped gender, the material cultures of coffee and tea, and imperialist landscapes. In addition to lectures, we will study objects in person in local collections, experiment with making, and build research and writing skills. Throughout the course we will grapple with how art shaped history, interrogate how those histories shape the present, and ask ourselves if it is possible to reconcile the terrible and the beautiful. Limited to 25 students. Fall 2025: Assistant Professor Dostal. How to handle overenrollment: If significant demand would consider adding a discussion section. Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Build skills in visual analysis, critical reading, and argumentative writing; engage in independent research, group work, and creative thinking; class will include field trips and collections-based assignments; students will be assessed on participation, two short papers, one group project, and a cumulative reflection. Attention to Issues of Class; Attention to Issues of Gender and Sexuality; Attention to Issues of Race; Attention to Research; Attention to WritingDivisions: Arts; Humanities
ARCH-152 ARHA-152 ASLC-142
Visual Culture of the Islamic World
This course, a gateway class for the study of art history and architectural studies, introduces the art, architecture, and urban planning of the Islamic world, from the origins of Islam in the seventh century to the contemporary moment. Among the questions we will address are: When, how, and why was the Qur’an first copied as a written text? Why does the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, completed in 691–2 A.D., closely resemble Christian churches and shrines from the same period? Why did medieval Europeans judge objects from the Islamic world, especially those bearing Arabic script, to be sacred in nature? How did commercial and diplomatic exchanges with China and Viking Scandinavia impact the arts of Central Asia and the Middle East during the premodern period? What can contemporary comic books tell us about the visual logic of fifteenth-century Iranian manuscript painting? And how have nineteenth- and twentieth-century artists used photography and film to address the legacies of colonialism and Orientalism? We will attempt to answer these questions through close and careful analysis of objects in a range of media, from silver and rock crystal to silk textiles and video; cities and architectural sites in Spain and India, and the many places in between; and primary and secondary texts. Films, museum websites, musical recordings, and visits to the Mead Art Museum and Amherst’s Archives and Special Collections will supplement readings, lectures, and discussions. No previous background is presumed, and all readings will be available in English. No enrollment cap. Fall 2025: Associate Professor Rice. How to handle overenrollment: null Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Emphasis on visual analysis, close reading, written work, group work, in-class exams, and field trips. Students with documented disabilities who will require accommodations in this course should be in consultation with Accessibility Services and reach out to the faculty member as soon as possible to ensure that accommodations can be made in a timely manner. Attention to Issues of Gender and Sexuality; Attention to Issues of Race; Attention to Writing; Transnational or World Cultures Taught in EnglishDivisions: Arts; Humanities ASLC: West Asia
ARCH-159 ARHA-159 EUST-159
Modernity and the Avant-Gardes, 1890–1945
This course is an examination of the emergence, development, and dissolution of European modernist art, architecture and design. The course begins with the innovations of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, created in consort with the growth of modern urbanism, colonialist politics, and psychological experimentation. Distinctions between the terms modernity, modernism, and the avant-garde will be explored as we unpack the complex equations between art, politics, and social change in the first half of the twentieth century. Covering selected groups (such as Expressionism, Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism, l'Esprit Nouveau, Bauhaus, and Constructivism), this course will consider themes such as mechanical reproduction, nihilism, nationalism, consumerism, and primitivism as they are disclosed in the making and reception of modernist art and architecture. Limited to 50 students. Fall 2025: Visiting Professor Koehler. How to handle overenrollment: Preference to ARHA, ARCH, and EUST majors. Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Emphasis on visual analysis and historical contextualization, through lecture, discussion, written work, readings, and group work. Attention to Issues of Class; Attention to Issues of Gender and Sexuality; Attention to Issues of Race; Attention to WritingDivisions: Arts; Humanities
ARCH-164 ARHA-164
North American Art and Architecture
(Offered at ARHA 164 and ARCH 164) This introductory course addresses the history of North American art and architecture, broadly defined. Our investigation will encompass a wide range of objects and makers across the continent, with particular attention to local collections and histories. Through thematic units, we will situate key works of art and architecture in relation to social, political, and ecological change. Topics may include Indigenous and settler approaches to mapping, the role of art in the abolitionist movement, artistic exchanges across ocean worlds, the visual culture of national parks, and the construction of skyscrapers. In the classroom, we will enrich our study of the visual world by engaging with primary texts and recent scholarship, and in nearby collections, we will encounter key works firsthand. Although we will focus on the period between European colonization and the Second World War, our conversation will return frequently to the present, as we interrogate the role of art and architecture in shaping contemporary North America. Limited to 25 students. Fall 2025: Visiting Assistant Professor Fein. How to handle overenrollment: Priority to ARHA and ARCH majors and Five College ARCH majors Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: An emphasis on visual analysis, readings, written work, lectures, in-class discussions, field trips, and exams. Attention to Issues of Gender and Sexuality; Attention to Issues of Race; Attention to Issues of Social JusticeDivisions: Arts; Humanities
ARCH-202 ARHA-202
Architectural Anthropology
Why some people in the world build circular houses, while others build square-shaped ones? Why some people used to perform human sacrifices when building a new home? How does the floor plan of an Amazonian traditional house represent motherhood? On the other hand, what could be the problems of being fascinated only by the exotic aspects of traditional architecture? What happens when Euro-American architects travel to rural areas in Africa and other continents to build mud houses for traditional people who might now prefer to live in cement houses? These are some of the themes that we explore in Architectural Anthropology. This course is about a type of architecture that, until a couple of decades ago, was excluded from mainstream architectural history books. Rather than studying palaces in, for example, Rome or Paris, we focus on humble constructions in places like Iquitos or Port Moresby. We explore architectural anthropology as an emerging field that connects the main concerns of architecture (buildings), and anthropology (people). We study the motivations, history, methods, ethics, and challenges of this field. Recommended prior coursework: The course is open to everyone; previous instruction in architectural studies, area or ethnic studies, or social studies can be beneficial but is not mandatory. Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Gabriel Arboleda. How to handle overenrollment: Priority to Architectural Studies majors, Art and The History of Art majors, sophomores, juniors, seniors, and first-year students, in that order. Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Attendance to class, doing the assigned readings, participating in class discussions, and timely submitting all the assignments. Attention to Issues of Class; Attention to Issues of Race; Attention to Research; Attention to WritingDivisions: Arts; Humanities; Social Sciences
ARCH-257 ARHA-257 BLST-253
Captives, Voyagers, and Strangers: Building Colonial Cities
Creole dwellings were first erected by enslaved builders working under Diego Colón (the son of Christopher Columbus) on the island of Hispaniola. By the end of the first wave of European expansion in the early nineteenth century, the creole style existed across imperial domains in the Caribbean, North and South America, Africa, the Indian Ocean, and even Asia. We will examine the global diffusion of this architectural typology from its emergence in the Spanish Caribbean to its florescence in British and French India in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In doing so, we will address buildings and towns in former Spanish, French, Dutch, Portuguese, and British colonies worldwide. Some of the urban centers that we will engage include: Kingston, Jamaica; Pondicherry, India; Cape Town, South Africa; Cartagena, Colombia; Saint-Louis, Senegal; and Macau, China. In investigating both creole structures and the cities that harbored such forms, we will think through the social and economic factors that caused buildings and urban areas to display marked continuities despite geographical and imperial distinctions. Fall 2025: Assistant Professor Carey. How to handle overenrollment: ARHA and ARCH majors. Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Emphasis on written work, readings, independent research, oral presentations, and visual analysis. Attention to Issues of Class; Attention to Issues of Race; Attention to Research; Attention to Writing; Transnational or World Cultures Taught in EnglishDivisions: Arts; Humanities
ARCH-322 ARHA-322 ASLC-322 EUST-322
Weaving Worlds: The Art and Architecture of Cloth (TBC)
Textiles are the stuff of life. For all of human history, in every culture, people have found ways to process plant fibers, animal hair, and, more recently, synthetic materials to make clothing, furnishings, and architecture. Cloth is central to self-expression and identity, community and tradition, and comfort and care. At the same time, cloth has played a fundamental part in global histories of colonialism, industrialization, extraction, and trade. In this course, we will explore the complex and at times paradoxical stories associated with textiles—from cotton threads and indigo dye to saris and tents—focusing in particular on Asian, European, North African, and North American case studies dating from the medieval period to the present. We will consider these materials through the lenses of shelter and belonging, mobility and migration, authority and power, craft and labor, exploitation and commodification, revolution and resistance, and self-fashioning and gender. We will analyze textiles in local collections; learn from a variety of specialists, including the director of the Mead Art Museum; and experiment with making exercises in order to better understand the materials and technologies of textile production. Students will have the opportunity to engage closely with an exhibition of contemporary textile artist Swapnaa Tamhane’s work at the Mead Art Museum in fall 2025. Previous study or knowledge of textiles is not required. Limited to 12 students. Fall 2025: Associate Professor Rice and Visiting Assistant Professor Dostal. How to handle overenrollment: Priority given to: ARHA, ARCH, ASLC, EUST Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Visual analysis, writing, critical reading, application of varied methodologies, object-centered learning, research, field trips, experience with making, conversations with varied specialists and practitioners Attention to Issues of Class; Attention to Issues of Gender and Sexuality; Attention to Issues of Race; Attention to Issues of Social Justice; Attention to Research; Attention to Speaking; Attention to Writing; Community-based Learning; Transnational or World Cultures Taught in EnglishDivisions: Humanities ASLC: South Asia; West Asia
ARCH-333 ARHA-333
Drawing a Shifting Landscape
This studio course will explore our evolving relationship with land and climate through wide-ranging approaches to drawing. We will examine how our connection to landscape as an artistic genre is being reshaped by urgent environmental changes, positioning drawing as a tool to reflect, trace, and map these shifts. Through studio assignments, site visits, readings, and discussions, we will explore themes of representation, ownership, ecology, and environmental crises that reckon with loss but also generate sites of hope and imagination toward the future. How do we represent a shifting, fluid landscape? How do maps emerge as anchors of reference through which communities make sense of their transfigured environments, and where does the logic of the map break down? Supplementing our studio work we will consider a range of artists, landscape architects, and writers who consider these questions. Assignments will be rooted in drawing and may include collage, writing, performance, installation, media, and interdisciplinary approaches. Limited to 14 students. Fall 2025: Visiting Assistant Professor Flanagan. How to handle overenrollment: Priority given to ARHA and ARCH majors, then evenly distributed between classes Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Artistic work, field work or trips, visual analysis, readings Artistic Practice; Attention to Issues of Social Justice; Attention to Research; Community-based LearningDivisions: Arts; Humanities