Spring Junior Tutorials

SPRING 2015 TUTORIALS

*Social Studies 98cl. Law and Society
Catalog Number: 7389 Enrollment: Limited to 10. This course will be lotteried. 
Terry K. Aladjem 
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Examines law as a defining force in American culture and society in four dimensions—as it establishes individual rights, liberties, and limits of toleration; as it attempts to resolve differences among competing constituencies; as it sets out terms of punishment and social control, and as a source of informing images and ideological consistency.
Note: A prison trip is planned, subject to approval. This course will be lotteried.

*Social Studies 98hp. Is Democracy Possible Everywhere?
Catalog Number: 2183 Enrollment: Limited to 10. This course will be lotteried. 
Daniel F. Ziblatt 
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Debates today rage about whether democracy is really possible in places like China or the Middle East. This tutorial asks whether there are, in fact, any preconditions for or impediments to the establishment and consolidation of democracy. Among the factors we will consider: mass culture, elite norms, religion, economic development, ethnic pluralism, and associational life.
Note: This course will be lotteried.

*Social Studies 98kb. Gender in Developing Nations
Catalog Number: 2276 Enrollment: Limited to 10. This course will be lotteried. 
Meghan Elisabeth Healy 
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
This seminar examines national identities, international solidarities, and struggles for social justice in the modern world from gendered perspectives. We take an historical approach, informed by ethnography and social theory. We first explore how gendered ideals and relations shaped colonial and anti-colonial projects in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We then analyze how gender has shaped transnational movements since the Second World War, emphasizing international development projects and ’Third World’ and ’Global South’ alliances.
Note: This course will be lotteried.

[*Social Studies 98kg. The Political Economy of Health in the Developing World]
Catalog Number: 0037 Enrollment: Limited to 10. 
Nara Dillon 
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
This course places the politics of health care in the context of economic development. Although health care and social programs are often considered secondary to economic growth, they have come to play an increasingly central role in development policy. This course explores the interaction between development and health through a survey of different theoretical approaches to development, combined with empirical research on public health, AIDS, family planning, and development programs.
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2014–15. Expected to be given in 2015–16. This course will be lotteried.

*Social Studies 98lc. Global Climate Change - (New Course) 
Catalog Number: 80579 Enrollment: Limited to 10. This course will be lotteried. 
Lauren Nicole Coyle 
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Global scientific communities now widely regard climate change as one of the most pressing challenges to our present and future. This course draws upon interdisciplinary debates to examine the ways in which global climate change generates complications for notions of environmental governance, political community, sovereignty, economic development, demographic stability, eco-sociality, cultural vitality, and sustainability. The course also examines broader legal, political, and policy discussions, along with signal agreements that have surfaced on the global stage. Throughout our discussions, we will attend to geopolitical stakes, strategic economic interests, and various visions for alternative political and environmental futures for global society.
Note: This course will be lotteried.

*Social Studies 98md. Race in America - (New Course) 
Catalog Number: 38039 Enrollment: Limited to 10. This course will be lotteried. 
Matthew Stephen Desmond 
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Today we find ourselves in a remarkable historical moment, attempting to make sense of a nation beset by racial contradictions and paradoxes. Astounding racial progress has been documented at the individual level while, at the social level, racial inequality remains entrenched. Racial dynamics continue to permeate contemporary American life, and they bring with them new uncertainties in interpersonal life, workplace relations, and public policy. This course investigates race in America today, examining advances toward racial tolerance, entrenched racial inequality, and theoretical arguments plumbing the ends and means of racial democracy.
Note: This course will be lotteried.

*Social Studies 98mf. Liberalism
Catalog Number: 36649 Enrollment: Limited to 10. This course will be lotteried. 
Carla Yumatle 
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Liberalism is a political theory about the limitation of state power based on constitutional rights that guarantee freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to elect our representatives, private property and due process and equal protection. These institutional mechanisms have been justified on a liberal philosophical outlook. This course examines the central values of the liberal worldview including freedom, equality, toleration, individualism, secularism, pluralism, constitutionalism and the public and private divide. The purpose of this conceptual analysis is to understand the justificatory basis of liberalism and eventually assess its achievements and limitations.
Note: This course will be lotteried.

*Social Studies 98nc. The Economics of Education
Catalog Number: 98561 Enrollment: Limited to 10. This course will be lotteried. 
Amanda D. Pallais 
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
This course examines economic aspects of education issues, using quantitative research. We will examine several of the major proposed strategies for improving schools including increasing school resources, enhancing school accountability, improving teacher selection and training, and creating school choice through vouchers and charter schools. We will also discuss how to write a quantitative research paper.
Note: This course will be lotteried.

*Social Studies 98nq. Global East Asia
Catalog Number: 49314 Enrollment: Limited to 10. This course will be lotteried. 
Nicole D. Newendorp 
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
In this course, we will explore how social life in contemporary East Asia is both influenced by and contributes to processes of globalization. Ethnographic readings on China, Korea, and Japan focus on migration, gender roles, consumption, media, and markets as we trace the role of the global in everyday life for rural and urban inhabitants of a variety of East Asian locations. For these individuals, engagement with the global structures how they make sense of the world and creates desires for future life change.
Note: This course will be lotteried.

*Social Studies 98ns. Culture and Politics in the United States
Catalog Number: 95758 Enrollment: Limited to 10. This course will be lotteried. 
Lisa Stampnitzky 
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
This course aims to provide a conceptual and methodological toolkit for studying the intersection of "culture," broadly understood, and politics in American society. Key questions to be addressed will include: How can "culture" help us understand American politics? What, if anything, is distinctive about American politics and society? And how does culture shape individual and societal approaches to particular political issues?
Note: This course will be lotteried.

*Social Studies 98nu. Poor People’s Politics in Latin America
Catalog Number: 15145 Enrollment: Limited to 10. Course will be lotteried. 
Steven R. Levitsky 
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
This course critically examines efforts to organize the poor in Latin America, with a focus on the bases of collective action. It covers early patterns of popular sector organization, such as corporatism and populism, revolutionary movements of the 1960s, contemporary parties, social movements, and transnational advocacy networks, and the persistence of clientelism and populism. Finally, the course examines the causes and consequences Latin America’s recent turn to the left.
Note: This course will be lotteried.

*Social Studies 98ny. And Justice for All: Ethics and America’s Schools
Catalog Number: 85576 Enrollment: Limited to 10. This course will be lotteried. 
Olivia K. Newman 
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
This course explores moral and ethical questions concerning the provision of education in the United States. What kind of education is appropriate in a free society? What is a just distribution of educational resources? What rights do students (and parents) have? How should we settle conflicts over curricula? We will address these and related questions with help from classic and contemporary philosophers, political theorists, sociologists, legal scholars, educators, and policy analysts.
Note: This course will be lotteried.

[*Social Studies 98of. Democracy and the Psychology of Inequality]
Catalog Number: 42851 Enrollment: Limited to 10. 
Gwyneth McClendon 
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
This course explores individuals’ and societies’ responses to economic inequality in the context of democracy. Why is economic inequality met in some democracies and at some times with discontent and in other democracies and at other times with acceptance or even celebration? How do the sources and structure of economic inequality shape citizens’ reactions to it? And do citizens’ responses to inequality then actually shape politics and public policymaking in democracies? In investigating these questions, we examine research from political science, social psychology and economics conducted in Sub Saharan Africa, the United States, Western and Eastern Europe, and India.
Note: This course will be lotteried.

*Social Studies 98oj. The Politics of Economic Development in the Post-Cold War Era - (New Course) 
Catalog Number: 36132 Enrollment: Limited to 10. This course will be lotteried. 
Nara Dillon 
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
How can the transition to a market economy be managed? What is the impact of globalization? What are the politics and policies that contribute to rapid economic growth? To answer these questions, this course starts by examining China’s rapid economic growth in the last 35 years. The Chinese case is then placed in comparison to other post-communist countries, East Asian developmental states, and finally liberalizing countries in the developing world. Through these comparisons, the course covers the main theoretical debates about the economic development in the field of comparative politics.
Note: This course will be lotteried.

*Social Studies 98pv. The Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School - (New Course) 
Catalog Number: 28428 Enrollment: Limited to 10. This course will be lotteried. 
Peter Verovsek 
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
This tutorial examines the major thinkers and themes associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. From its origins in the interwar crisis, critical theory has sought to diagnose the pathologies of the present in order to chart paths for future emancipation. The readings trace the development of the Frankfurt School through four generations of theorists, including Horkheimer, Adorno, Habermas, Honneth, Benhabib, Fraser, and Forst. The tutorial will conclude with a workshop examining the writings of contemporary critical theorists on the current crisis of democratic capitalism, as we will attempt to determine the continued relevance of the Frankfurt School.
Note: This course will be lotteried.