A Eurocentric perspective dominates the approaches to studying international politics. However, in this course, we will explore international politics from the perspective of the Global South, That is, understanding international affairs from the experiences and perspectives of poorer and less powerful countries in the world. We will rely on theories from postcolonialists, critical race theorists, feminist scholars, queer scholars, and environmentalists to study topics such as war and conflict, migration, global environmental politics, trade, human rights, and other topics. Students should come away from the course with a beginner's understanding of international affairs that can help them competently follow and participate in current and civic affairs.

Elective

A Eurocentric perspective dominates the approaches to studying international politics. However, in this course, we will explore international politics from the perspective of the Global South, That is, understanding international affairs from the experiences and perspectives of poorer and less powerful countries in the world. We will rely on theories from postcolonialists, critical race theorists, feminist scholars, queer scholars, and environmentalists to study topics such as war and conflict, migration, global environmental politics, trade, human rights, and other topics. Students should come away from the course with a beginner's understanding of international affairs that can help them competently follow and participate in current and civic affairs.

Elective

The purpose of S301 is for students to engage in scholarly exploration of topics that are of interest to them (including topics that directly impact their studio practice). Students will be guided by the particular expertise of their faculty, and the epistemological frameworks of a given HPSS discipline or interdisciplinary area, to build a liberal arts-based practice that deepens and expands understanding of their area of focus. Placement in the junior year is scaffolded to allow students to have had the time to take several liberal arts electives and be far enough along in their major to start to develop specific interests and questions that could benefit from deeper exploration and integration across bodies of knowledge. The project-based focus of the course should allow students to start to gain background understanding of a topic of interest that may serve them as they enter their final year of study at RISD, including optionally a reflection about the relevance of the project to their studio work.

Major Requirement | BFA, BArch

The purpose of S301 is for students to engage in scholarly exploration of topics that are of interest to them (including topics that directly impact their studio practice). Students will be guided by the particular expertise of their faculty, and the epistemological frameworks of a given HPSS discipline or interdisciplinary area, to build a liberal arts-based practice that deepens and expands understanding of their area of focus. Placement in the junior year is scaffolded to allow students to have had the time to take several liberal arts electives and be far enough along in their major to start to develop specific interests and questions that could benefit from deeper exploration and integration across bodies of knowledge. The project-based focus of the course should allow students to start to gain background understanding of a topic of interest that may serve them as they enter their final year of study at RISD, including optionally a reflection about the relevance of the project to their studio work.

Major Requirement | BFA, BArch

The purpose of S301 is for students to engage in scholarly exploration of topics that are of interest to them (including topics that directly impact their studio practice). Students will be guided by the particular expertise of their faculty, and the epistemological frameworks of a given HPSS discipline or interdisciplinary area, to build a liberal arts-based practice that deepens and expands understanding of their area of focus. Placement in the junior year is scaffolded to allow students to have had the time to take several liberal arts electives and be far enough along in their major to start to develop specific interests and questions that could benefit from deeper exploration and integration across bodies of knowledge. The project-based focus of the course should allow students to start to gain background understanding of a topic of interest that may serve them as they enter their final year of study at RISD, including optionally a reflection about the relevance of the project to their studio work.

Major Requirement | BFA, BArch

This section of S301 on Bodies & Borders introduces students to transdisciplinary and intersectional discussions focused on relationships between bodies and borders. Students will engage with theories of embodiment and explore linguistic, spatial, and identity borderlands, as well as issues of global mobility, contested citizenship, and radical vulnerability. Through these perspectives, they will build strong contextual and theoretical foundations, alongside skills in research methodologies. This work will be reflected in the development of a final project, including a literature review, iterative drafts, and a final presentation that reflects their intellectual engagement throughout the seminar.

Major Requirement | BFA, BArch

In this course, we explore the expansive sonic worlds of Latin America. We understand sound as a mode of being in and knowing worlds. To do so, we engage concepts of cosmologies, worldings, and pluriverses, all of which center the intersection of peoples and more-than-human actors. Much of this class is about Latin American music--a particularly salient and exceptionally diverse category of organized sound. But we will also explore the politics of sound(s) beyond music such as: el grito mexicano, radio voices, indigenous language ideophones, Amazonian bird song, motorcycle noise, and tourist architectures. We work to understand sound as a practice that makes social relations, mediates power dynamics, and connects us to the cosmos. Each week, students will complete outside of class readings, listenings, and viewings accompanied by short informal writings in a listening journal. Class time will be spent between discussion, activity, and occasional lecture. Students will have two main projects:

1) a critical essay unpacking a sonic phenomenon in Latin America

2) a self-designed project developed in consultation with the professor and through in-class workshops.

Elective

In this class we study cities and examine the shared lessons and power relations that frame urbanism today. We ponder upon the valences and representations of the terms Global South-Global North, and developing-developed, and the impacts they have on urban studies, through this we challenge conventional EuroAmercian centric ways of looking at urban life. The course highlights global mega cities such as Mumbai, Kunming, Sao Paolo, Bangkok, and Lagos and places them at the center of urban studies. The course will explore the resonances between these cities and the kinds of challenges they face as they encounter rapid urban growth and renewal. We will ask: What do cities of the Global South tell us about urbanism and urbanization today? What are formal and economic challenges facing urbanism today and how do global megacities exhibit them? What forms of knowledge, activism, and contestation emerge from urban areas outside of Europe and North America?

Like most courses in the History, Philosophy, and Social Sciences (HPSS) department, this course builds a critical understanding of diverse cultures of the world, raises ethical questions that arise as different groups interact, develops an analysis of social situations in the world, and highlights forms of power and inequity. Class texts will case study different cities and compare experience in cities in Latin America, Asia, Africa, United States, and the Middle East. Modules in the class will discuss planning and the built environment, commodities and capital, informality and climate change, infrastructure and energy, as well as think through theory from the Global South. This is a discussion-based seminar and active in-class participation is required of all students. Class activities will include mapping sessions, group work, and discussions on films.

Elective

In this class we study cities and examine the shared lessons and power relations that frame urbanism today. We ponder upon the valences and representations of the terms Global South-Global North, and developing-developed, and the impacts they have on urban studies, through this we challenge conventional EuroAmercian centric ways of looking at urban life. The course highlights global mega cities such as Mumbai, Kunming, Sao Paolo, Bangkok, and Lagos and places them at the center of urban studies. The course will explore the resonances between these cities and the kinds of challenges they face as they encounter rapid urban growth and renewal. We will ask: What do cities of the Global South tell us about urbanism and urbanization today? What are formal and economic challenges facing urbanism today and how do global megacities exhibit them? What forms of knowledge, activism, and contestation emerge from urban areas outside of Europe and North America?

Like most courses in the History, Philosophy, and Social Sciences (HPSS) department, this course builds a critical understanding of diverse cultures of the world, raises ethical questions that arise as different groups interact, develops an analysis of social situations in the world, and highlights forms of power and inequity. Class texts will case study different cities and compare experience in cities in Latin America, Asia, Africa, United States, and the Middle East. Modules in the class will discuss planning and the built environment, commodities and capital, informality and climate change, infrastructure and energy, as well as think through theory from the Global South. This is a discussion-based seminar and active in-class participation is required of all students. Class activities will include mapping sessions, group work, and discussions on films.

Elective

The study of international politics assumes gender neutrality, which tends to render women invisible in the global political economy order. In this course, we question the assumption that international politics should be gender neutral, deconstruct the role of gender in the field, and view the role of gender in transformative global change. Particularly, we employ a gendered and intersectional lens to study global and domestic political and economic processes.

Elective

How do goods/products get from producers to consumers? Global supply chains are involved in the global system of organizations, people, processes, and resources that transform raw materials into finished products. Additionally, these complex processes and networks are responsible for delivering finished products to consumers. In this course, we will first lay a foundation for understanding global supply chains, drawing from political science, economics, and management. Next, we will engage in critical analysis of the process and network with respect to issues that include human rights, gender, the environment, and labor standards. We will correspondingly examine the roles of actors such as governments, firms, consumers, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations involved in global supply chains. This course adopts the flipped classroom approach, requiring students to spend one class session a week preparing for active learning activities in the second class session of the week.

Elective

How do goods/products get from producers to consumers? Global supply chains are involved in the global system of organizations, people, processes, and resources that transform raw materials into finished products. Additionally, these complex processes and networks are responsible for delivering finished products to consumers. In this course, we will first lay a foundation for understanding global supply chains, drawing from political science, economics, and management. Next, we will engage in critical analysis of the process and network with respect to issues that include human rights, gender, the environment, and labor standards. We will correspondingly examine the roles of actors such as governments, firms, consumers, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations involved in global supply chains. This course adopts the flipped classroom approach, requiring students to spend one class session a week preparing for active learning activities in the second class session of the week.

Elective

This seminar examines the theoretical framework of Queer of Color Critique (QoCC). QoCC is a mode of analysis grounded in the lived experiences of queer, trans, people of color. It has been used to interrogate the intersections of race, gender, class, nation, and diaspora as a response to the inherent whiteness in queer theory and the persistent heterosexism in ethnic/race studies. Students will learn the foundational theory of QoCC. Students will assess various forms of media using a QoCC lens. This course will include short and long form writing assignments as well as in depth class discussions.

Elective

While many tend to think about bureaucracies in emotionally charged terms (for example, Kafka and Orwell) or treat them with sarcastic derision (e.g., Parkinson), bureaucratic organizations are specific social structures possessing well-defined characteristics and following certain logic of behavior and development. They are present in government and business, as well as non-government organizations. Individual entrepreneurs and small businesses have to deal with bureaucracies to survive and thrive. This course will tell you how to behave around bureaucratic organizations. There are four major themes: organizational behavior, organizational boundaries, organizational environment, and interaction between organizations. Each theme will be looked at from the point of view of various types of bureaucracies: government, private, and non-profit. We will have a specific discussion of social entrepreneurship and its ability to navigate bureaucratic structures. Special attention will be paid to interaction between government and private bureaucracies. The course relies on a combination of lectures and in-class discussion. Students will be asked to write four short papers based on case studies and present them in class. There will be a final exam.

Electi

As part of a broad civics and liberal arts education, the main goal of this course is to provide students with the opportunity to increase their knowledge of US elections, US electoral demography, and the US political system.  In addition to a focus on the campaign(s) for the US Presidency, this course will explore the cultural, demographic, social, and spatial dimensions of the current US electorate, identify and examine important swing states and congressional districts in the race for control of the Senate and the House of Representatives, detail the stakes involved for control of these two governmental bodies, analyze image-making in and the visual culture of US political campaigns and elections, and detail the mechanics and mechanisms of US elections and US electoral cycles.  The main theme addressed in this course will be the dynamic of and dialogue between a particular cultural and social moment in US history and the course and outcome of US political campaigns and elections.  Additional themes that will be developed in this course include: the on-going diversification of the nominees put forward by US political parties; splits (within and without) in the ideology and positioning of the Democratic and Republican parties; and the evolving demography and political positioning of the US electorate.  In this regard, this course will look forward to and prepare students to analyze and grapple with the run-up to and results of the next US Presidential elections.  As young adults whose lives, in many ways, will be shaped by the outcome of US elections present and future, the over-arching objective of this course will be to raise students’ civic awareness and underline the importance of US elections in articulating, defining, and reflecting the identity and future of America as a nation.

Elective

Multicultural Psychology is more than just understanding and appreciating diversity, it's about the influence that a multicultural world has on individuals and social systems that exist within it. Together we will explore the social constructs of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, class, and ability through readings, videos, in-class activities, and class discussion. Informed by psychological theory and research, we will examine the impact that these labels have on a person's identity development, societal positioning, and mental and physical health and well-being. By the end of the class, students will be able to explain the advantages and challenges that individuals and societies face as we become more interconnected in a diverse world.

Elective

In the late 1990's and early 2000's research psychologists began the field of positive psychology to combat two trends:

• a large and growing body of faux scientific self-help literature that was not based on empirical science
• a historical legacy of the field of psychology almost exclusively focusing on the function and operation of negative emotions (fear, anxiety, depression, anger, etc.)

Positive psychology focuses squarely on positive emotions (e.g., happiness, gratitude, love, awe) as well as experiences like forgiveness, resilience, and flow that improve our psychological well-being. With a focus on human strengths and virtues, the difference between that which we think will make us happy compared to what will actually improve happiness, the ways in which we can improve our satisfaction with relationships, and meaningful cognitive and behavioral changes that can have a big impact on one's psychological well-being, this class will review research on how to achieve a more satisfying life. Although this is not a self-help or "self-care" course, by reviewing the scientific literature and assigning exercises for personal practice this course will offer meaningful experiences for self-reflection and insight into how techniques can be applied to one's own daily life.

Elective

The health of the American economy and, at times, the strength of our spirit as a people are measured by how much we spend on consumer goods. Both individually and collectively, we are defined not only by what we purchase, but by the act of shopping itself. How did we become a nation of citizen consumers? What drives consumer demand? Already in the late 19th century, middle-class values were shifting from thrift to indulgence, though we remained a producer nation for much of the 20th century. Nonetheless, the steady decline of manufacturing in the United States and the outsourcing of production in an increasingly globalized context have done little to cool our love affair with consumer goods. Using an interdisciplinary American Studies approach that explores the intersections of history, politics, material culture, gender and sexuality, class, race, religion, immigration and ethnicity, and the built environment, this course examines the nature and expansion of mass consumption, the democratization of desire, the meanings attached to consumer goods and the act of spending, the role of technology and advertising, and the impact of mass consumption upon the built environment. We will investigate consumption patterns over time among women, people of color, immigrants and their descendants, sexual minorities, and youth. Studies of consumption within ethnic communities, in particular, suggest the creation of transnational identities. As a result, we will also explore globalized consumer products and patterns. Finally, the course will look at the various kinds of controls to which American consumerism has been subjected.

Elective

Have you ever wondered how social situations guide how we think about and act toward others, what determines who we love and who we hate, how we form attitudes about our own and others behavior, what determines whether we will help or hurt others, or how we construct knowledge about the self? If so, social psychology addresses these questions and many more. Social psychology is the science of how others influence the way people think, feel, and act. The aim of this course is to familiarize you with current and classic research and theory in social psychology, help you to develop critical thinking skills about social-psychological phenomena, and stimulate you to think about the implications of social-psychological research for everyday living. For this course, students will complete readings from a textbook and articles. There be will be four quizzes and a final project applying one concept within social psychology to everyday life.

This course is being offered as a large format class, and will involve primarily lectures with small group lab projects during class time. Assessments will include quizzes, a midterm and final exam, as well as homework assignments related to the lab based projects.

Elective

Millions of people around the world have been forced from their homes by interlinked factors including persecution, armed conflict and war, natural disasters, structural violence, and development projects. The seminar explores the “refugee” and “migrant” status and examines the refugee crisis and forced migration in a global perspective and through an interdisciplinary lens. It provides a historical background of the formation of the “refugee” concept going back to inter-war Europe and placing emphasis both on its construction in international law and on the precarious state that refugees and migrants face today globally through various case studies. The seminar also addresses the politics of humanitarianism, the role of international organizations, especially UNHCR, and the securitization of human rights as well as the ethnic, gendered, and religious identities being reshaped by forced displacement. 

The course is organized both chronologically and thematically, to understand the ways in which global migration and contemporary refugee crises have changed over time, highlighting continuities and ruptures especially in the construction of the refugee and the migrant as the “other.” Lectures and readings provide a global perspective but focus on regional case studies, often using a comparative and transdisciplinary framework. Similarly, writing assignments, lectures, and class materials will draw upon international relations, anthropology, gender studies, sociology, and history, and examine different types of sources, including academic books and journal articles, first-person narratives, and visual resources.

Elective