All Courses
-
2022SP - WAR AND PEACE 01:860:289:01
In this course, we have the rare chance to spend a semester reading one great book: Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace (1865–69). War and Peace tells the story of Russia’s military struggles with Napoleon between 1805 and 1812, but it is also a story about friendship, seduction, love, marriage, and death; parents and children, politics and strategy, the search for one’s place in the world, and ultimately, the structure of history and time itself. As we read the novel, we will pause to explore in depth some of the big questions it raises: how history gets written; the uses of art and literature; and the problems of causality, moral responsibility, and free will. We will discuss the place of War and Peace in Tolstoy’s life and career, and also the book’s own afterlife in film and stage adaptations, from Sergei Bondarchuk’s 1960s film epic to the hit Broadway musical “Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812.” Through all these topics, the course combines immersion in the world of War and Peace with an investigation of how and where the novel leads us beyond its covers. All readings and discussions in English; no prerequisites.
-
2022SP - JUNIOR SEMINAR 01:750:368:01
This is a one-credit course for current non-professional physics majors, i.e., students not planning PhD studies in Physics or Astrophysics. The purpose is to learn about and prepare for careers after you graduate from Rutgers, including your professional development. Seminar sessions will feature Rutgers alumni guest speakers, workshops on professional development and ethical conduct, and culminate with a short, term paper and oral presentation.
-
2022SP - NABOKOV
This course explores the world and works of the Russian and American writer Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977). As Nabokov taught his students, “great novels are great fairy tales.” We will read his novels with an eye to the spells they cast and how they cast them. The course begins with short stories from Nabokov’s Russian-language Berlin period and selected chapters from his luminous autobiography, Speak, Memory. We’ll go on to a selection of his major English-language novels, including The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Lolita, Pnin, and Pale Fire. Throughout these works, we will trace the threads of a few defining themes: the breathtaking deceptions of nature and of art; the games of poetry, narrative, and chess; and aesthetic freedom preserved in the face of tyranny (political and otherwise). What is love, and how does perversion help explain it? What does it mean to be exiled from your home, country, language, or past? How should we read literature, and what can ways of reading tell us about the ways we live? No prerequisites; all readings and discussions in English.
-
2022SP - NATURE OF POLITICS 01:790:101:91
The Nature of Politics is an introductory course to political theory, is the foundational course for political science, and those interested in politics. This class will focus on texts (or speeches that have been transcribed) and how different theorists understand political life. There are different approaches that are addressed in this course 1) how political life is or has been empirical (descriptive), 2) interpretations (analysis and evaluations utilizing texts), 3) how values influence political life and how politics should be (normative), and 4) making arguments (taking positions with evidence to advance a point of view). This class will address both historical and conceptual aspects and emphasize governance, gender, race, and democratic ideals.
-
2022SP - SIX GREAT READS 01:920:215:01
Sociologists offer a unique perspective on a wide variety of social phenomena and contemporary societal problems. In this course, we will engage with six award-winning books, written by sociologists, that critically examine social justice and the role of power in social systems for a variety of topics. In addition to discussing and debating the substance of these issues, we will look closely at how authors support their findings as well as how they present the implications of their research. While each study stands on its own as a complete work, each also enters into ongoing conversations, both in academia and the public at large. As such, we will also consider the contexts of these studies. Finally, we will consider connections between the different concepts and ideas developed in each separate work. The defining feature of this course, and perhaps distinction from other courses (at least the ones I’ve taught) will be prioritizing deep engagement with a few topics rather than the broad overview of the discipline that relies on far more numerous works.
-
2022SP - LAW & POLITICS 01:790:106:91
Course Description: This class is designed to introduce you to the study of law and the courts as an integral part of the political process in the United States, and connections to political science as a subfield. By the end of the semester, each of you will understand the history and principles of the US Constitution, the structure and function of US court systems, the process for selecting judges and justices, how the Supreme Court in particular functions and makes decisions, what factors influence legal decisions, how to interpret Supreme Court decisions, and the on-going debate on the proper role of the Court in a democratic political system.
-
2022SP - LIT&CULT HISP CARIBB 01:940:332:01
Through contemporary poetry, narrative, theater, and film, this course explores central themes in the Hispanic Caribbean literature such as colonialism, imperialism, dictatorship, revolution, and migration. The course is taught in Spanish, and the pre-req is 940:215/217 or Special Permission by the department. Assessments in this course include: 2 papers, 1 exam, 2 oral activities, and a vocabulary diary.