CSS102F History and the Turn to the Present (FYS)

This course attempts to make sense of contemporary politics, economics, and society through an historical examination of the present. It will discuss contemporary topics such as neoliberalism, nationalism, COVID-19, critical race theory, the forever war, the New Cold War, etc. It will also raise methodological questions on the promises and perils of using history to understand the present.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSS
Prereq: None

CSS213 History and the Turn to the Present

This course attempts to make sense of contemporary politics, economics, and society through an historical examination of the present. It will discuss contemporary topics such as neoliberalism, nationalism, COVID-19, critical race theory, the forever war, the New Cold War, etc. It will also raise methodological questions on the promises and perils of using history to understand the present.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSS
Prereq: None

CSS220 Sophomore Economics Tutorial: Markets, Welfare & the State

This tutorial takes a topical approach to studying economic ideas and policy. We start with writers who drew either the admiration or ire of Adam Smith. These include the scholastics, mercantilists, and physiocrats. Next, we compare the classical school with competing schools of economic thought from Marxian, utilitarian, and Austrian to neoclassical and Keynesian. Throughout the course, we read radical critiques from the political right and left, touching upon monetarist theory, supply-side economics, institutional, behavioral and evolutionist schools. We see how the policy and economic debates reflect the socio-economic struggles of their time and shed light on the controversies of our own.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 1.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ECON
Prereq: None

CSS230 Sophomore Government Tutorial: State and Society in the Modern Age

This tutorial examines the rise and evolution of the modern state. While many of the readings focus on Western Europe and the United States, the course draws on cross-regional comparisons to tease out theoretical propositions, compare historical processes across different parts of the world, and consider different understandings of the body politic. We start by exploring what factors account for the rise and consolidation of the nation state in the Western context, after which we consider how the process of state-building occurred in the Middle East and North Africa and explore some of the challenges the sovereign state model faces outside the European context. We then move on to discuss the emergence of different systems of governance and some of the challenges to the state. We will consider whether there are certain paths that lead to democracy and whether there is something unique about American democracy. We will take into account the challenges posed by modernization and evaluate what factors best explain the rise of communism and fascism. We will then consider how the communist and fascist past impacted the rise of the social democratic model in Europe and compare the European and Japanese approaches to welfare provisions. We conclude by considering yet another model for organizing the political community--the religious state. We will examine when, how, and why the notion of the Islamic state emerged, reflect on the extent to which the concept of an Islamic state challenges Western notions of the nation-state and investigate how the discourse on Islam and the state has changed over time in Indonesia, the largest Muslim majority country.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 1.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-GOVT
Prereq: None

CSS240 Sophomore History Tutorial: The Emergence of Modern Europe

This tutorial sequence analyzes the formation of modern European society from the late 18th to the last quarter of the 20th century. Most attention will be placed on Britain, France, Germany and Russia as these countries were shaped by, and responded to, demographic, economic, social, political, and intellectual forces that led to revolutions, political and social reforms, new modes of production, changes in social hierarchies, and new forms of warfare. Much attention will be placed on the social and political consequences of the French Revolution and industrialization, but empire, the origins and consequences of the two world wars (including the Russian revolution and the rise and defeat of Nazism) will also come under extensive discussion, as will the creation of a more stable and prosperous postwar European order. Europe's links to Africa, Asia and the Americas will be discussed in the context of imperialism and the two world wars. In addition to developing knowledge of the most important processes that have shaped the modern world, this tutorial seeks to foster a critical awareness of the varieties of historical narrative, the skills needed to interpret historical primary sources, and the possibilities and limits of history as a tool of social investigation.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 1.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-HIST
Prereq: None

CSS271 Sophomore Colloquium: Modern Social Theory

This colloquium examines a number of competing conceptual frameworks in the social sciences derived from major political philosophers and social theorists, such as Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, Nietzsche, Weber, and Freud.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-GOVT
Prereq: None

CSS320 Junior Economics Tutorial: Topics in Latin American Economic History

This tutorial will focus on macroeconomic policies in post-1950s Latin America from a historical perspective. Specifically, it will address three key issues. First, we will analyze the long-standing debate on Latin American economic development, which revolves around the two paradigms of import substitution industrialization (ISI) and export-led growth. Second, we will examine the management of economic crises in the region, highlighting two major challenges: the tendency of Latin American economies to experience high inflation and constraints on the balance of payments. Finally, we will explore the predominance of informal labor, analyzing how it relates directly to the inability of Latin American governments to achieve full employment. In summary, the tutorial will provide a comprehensive overview of the historical roots of persistent heterogeneity and extreme inequality within the socio-economic structure of the region.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ECON
Prereq: None

CSS330 Junior Government Tutorial: Uprisings and Revolutions in the Middle East: The Arab Spring in Context

The course examines the dynamics of uprisings and revolutions in the Middle East, with a primary focus on the "Arab Spring" and its historical antecedents. Drawing from theories of revolutions, contentious politics, and democratization, the readings examine both general patterns across the region and the political dynamics of individual cases. We will start with a discussion of the nationalist uprisings of the 1950s and the 1979 Iranian Revolution, after which we will examine the deep roots and major explanations of the Arab Spring. We will consider what explains the variation in protests and in government responses, what role different actors played during the uprisings, and what effects historical legacies had on the dynamics of the uprising. We will also attempt to understand what factors led to the militarization of the protests and the descent into civil war in Syria. The course concludes with a discussion of the aftermath, exploring what factors led to the democratic breakdown in Tunisia a decade after the uprising.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-GOVT
Prereq: None

CSS340 Junior History Tutorial: Women Make the World (Global Technologies and Gender)

Women are only recently appearing as actors in global histories of technology, yet they have long been inventors and creative innovators in a wide range of fields, from domestic textile production and technologies for household maintenance to industrial manufacture. In this tutorial we will explore the global history of technology with women at the center. Initially, scholars located women in relation to specifically gendered objects, such as reproductive technologies like the birth control pill, and tools for "women's work," such as the washing machine. Yet, women have also made "masculine" technological work such as engineering and computer programming their own. Few individual women are credited for their inventions, and one of our challenges will be to locate women's creative production of technological tools and processes in diverse societies from the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia. What constitutes women's technology, even women's work, is an unstable category that we will examine together. Moving beyond the domestic space and the family, women's technological work contended with new and emerging state projects related to the economy and politics. Women found their technological identities entangled with discourses of state building and increasingly, after the end of the Cold War, with narratives about international development. These histories of the state overlapped with the domestic, and, over the course of the semester, we will engage with women's global technological stories in relation to big questions about the family, sexuality, and gender and labor. In turn, these same histories will allow us to unpack the ways in which women have engaged with state and international discourses on the economy and development.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-HIST
Prereq: None

CSS371 Junior Colloquium: Liberalism and Its Discontents

This course is a continuation of the sophomore colloquium covering several important social and political theories in the post-World War II era. The course will focus on post-World War II philosopher/theorists who have developed compelling large-scale theories about the nature of modern society: Hannah Arendt, Jürgen Habermas, Theodor Adorno (and other Frankfurt School thinkers), Friedrich Hayek, Franz Fanon, and Michel Foucault. The politics of human rights and humanitarianism will also be examined, as will issues pertaining to national borders and sovereignty.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-PHIL
Prereq: None

CSS391 Senior Colloquium: Big Powers and Small Wars

This course examines the international politics, theory, and logic of wars that see big powers wage wars of conquest against smaller powers. It explores and applies scholarly works of theory and analyzes historical case studies to gain a deeper understanding of how and why weaker belligerents can often achieve their political aims when facing stronger adversaries. Students will analyze the contradictions that can make these wars of asymmetry difficult for stronger states. The seminar discussions will develop a keener grasp of the politics and logic that inhere in conflicts where the weak fight defensive wars against the strong. This interdisciplinary colloquium intersects international relations, conflict studies history, and theory. This course will improve students' knowledge in international security studies and hone their critical analysis skills.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-GOVT
Prereq: None

CSS401 Individual Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F

CSS402 Individual Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F

CSS403 Department/Program Project or Essay

Project to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F

CSS404 Department/Program Project or Essay

Project to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F

CSS407 Senior Tutorial (downgraded thesis)

Downgraded Senior Thesis Tutorial - Project to be arranged in consultation with the tutor. Only enrolled in through the Honors Coordinator.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

CSS408 Senior Tutorial (downgraded thesis)

Downgraded Senior Thesis Tutorial - Project to be arranged in consultation with the tutor. Only enrolled in through the Honors Coordinator.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F

CSS409 Senior Thesis Tutorial

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F

CSS410 Senior Thesis Tutorial

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F

CSS411 Group Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

CSS412 Group Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

CSS419 Student Forum

Student-run group tutorial, sponsored by a faculty member and approved by the chair of a department or program.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U

CSS420 Student Forum

Student-run group tutorial, sponsored by a faculty member and approved by the chair of a department or program.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U

CSS465 Education in the Field, Undergraduate

Students must consult with the department and class dean in advance of undertaking education in the field for approval of the nature of the responsibilities and method of evaluation.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

CSS467 Independent Study, Undergraduate

Credit may be earned for an independent study during a summer or authorized leave of absence provided that (1) plans have been approved in advance, and (2) all specified requirements have been satisfied.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

CSS469 Education in the Field, Undergraduate

Students must consult with the department and class dean in advance of undertaking education in the field for approval of the nature of the responsibilities and method of evaluation.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: None
Prereq: None

CSS491 Teaching Apprentice Tutorial

The teaching apprentice program offers undergraduate students the opportunity to assist in teaching a faculty member's course for academic credit.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

CSS492 Teaching Apprentice Tutorial

The teaching apprentice program offers undergraduate students the opportunity to assist in teaching a faculty member's course for academic credit.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT