Courses

Social Studies 10a. Introduction to Social Studies
David Armitage and members of the Committee
Half course (fall term). Tuesday 12:45-2:45, and a weekly section TBA. 

This course offers an introduction to the foundations of modern social theory from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. Our focus will be on the development of modern moral, political, and economic ideas, with special emphasis on empire, race, inequality, and the environment. Authors we will examine include, among others, Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, Ottobah Cugoano, Mary Wollstonecraft,  Frederick Douglass, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx.

Note: This course is limited to sophomores and Social Studies concentrators. This course is a prerequisite for sophomores applying to Social Studies. Students planning to take this class must attend the first lecture to be admitted.

Social Studies 10b. Introduction to Social Studies 
Joel Suarez and members of the Committee
Half course (spring term). Tuesday 12:45-2:45, and a weekly section TBA. 

This class continues the introduction to the classic texts of social theory begun in Social Studies 10a through the twentieth century. Authors include Friedrich Nietzsche, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, W.E.B. Du Bois, Sigmund Freud, Simone de Beauvoir, Frantz Fanon, and Michel Foucault.

Note: This course is limited to Social Studies concentrators. Please sign up for the Thursday 12:45-2:45 section time. If you have a scheduling conflict, you may sign up for the TBD section time in order to register; however, we cannot guarantee an alternate section time.

 

Social Studies 50. Foundations of Social Science Research
Matthew Reichert
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Tuesday and Thursday 10:30-11:45.
This course introduces students to the diversity of methods that social scientists use to answer questions about the social and political world. We survey both qualitative and quantitative approaches, and consider how to make the most of each at all stages of the research process, from exploring ideas, to collecting evidence, to communicating findings. Students learn how to conduct interviews and focus groups, use archives and primary sources creatively, and design interesting case studies. Students also learn how to conduct in-depth ethnographic observation, use an array of quantitative tools, run surveys, and understand the logic of experiments and causal inference. We consider how deeper epistemological commitments shape our methodological choices, and how politics and power shape the scientific communities in which we work. Course assignments help thesis-writers explore potential topics and prepare them to immediately conduct productive original research.  

Note: This course will be lotteried and is open to non-concentrators if space permits.

Social Studies 60. Making Sense of Methods for Theoretical and Historical Research
Charles Clavey
Half course (spring term). 
This course has three interrelated aims. First, it will introduce students to the foundational questions of the philosophy of social science. How do social scientists and theorists interpret and explain the world around them? How are models and concepts created and applied? What does it mean to argue that one event causes another one? Second, the class will familiarize students with the range of theoretical and historical methods that could be used in a senior thesis. What are the established and cutting-edge paradigms of social-science research? Where do these disciplines converge and diverge? What topics and questions are best suited to each method? Third, the course will prepare juniors and first-semester seniors to undertake thesis research. Through a range of exercises and activities, students will shape their interests into precise questions and feasible projects. In deciding which approach might be the most apt for their theses, they will confront the stakes—practical, philosophical, and political—of methodological choices.

Note: This course will be lotteried and is open to non-concentrators if space permits.

Social Studies 68ai: AI Theory in Action: Agency and Resistance in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism - NEW
Lowry Pressly
Half course (spring term). 

This course takes students’ concern with the challenges of the digital age beyond the classroom and into the practical world of technological, political, and artistic creation. In doing so, we will take on a pair of common challenges concerning the ethical and political status of new technologies. First, although it is common to feel that something is wrong with at least some aspect of technology in our society, many of us have trouble articulating these concerns in coherent theoretical terms. Second, we often feel not only inarticulate about the problem, but impotent to do anything about it; the enormity of the relevant structures and technologies overwhelm the imagination for individual action. This class seeks to remedy both aspects of this predicament by giving students the theoretical and practical tools first to understand and then to practically intervene in the social, political, and economic challenges of the digital era.

Students will be exposed to a range of theoretical perspectives for understanding the challenges of the digital age, as well as a range of responses to these challenges drawn from computer science, engaged scholarship and journalism, law and politics, and the arts. For their final projects, students will create their own intervention into a challenge of the digital age (accompanied by a written theoretical justification). Students will develop these projects over the course of the semester in concert with the professor and their classmates. Final projects may take the form of: (1) technical responses (e.g., apps, algorithms, or websites); (2) academic or journalistic writing (e.g., data-science exposés or long-form investigation); (3) law and politics (e.g., white papers, draft legislation, or political organization); and (4) the arts (e.g., documentary film, critical digital arts, or wearable obfuscation technology). We will study many examples of practical interventions from each of these categories, as well as the theoretical analysis and justifications that motivate them.

In applying for the course, students should describe, to the extent that they can, the type of final project they intend to pursue with reference to the four categories enumerated above.

Note:  This course will be lotteried and is capped at 12 students.
 

Social Studies 68de: Democracy in the Trenches: Journalism and Activism in India and the US - NEW
Vatsal Naresh
Half course (spring term). 

This Theory in Action seminar will focus on the theory and history of democracy and conflict; and on the work of social activism and journalism in protecting and enabling democratic resurgence in the US and India. Students will work with award-winning video and audio journalists, documentary filmmakers, non-fiction writers across genres, activists, and lawyers to develop skills in quickly accessing and conveying complex historical and philosophical material so it may be used in journalistic and documentary work.

Note:  This course will be lotteried and is capped at 12 students.

Note: Admission is based on student preferences and a lottery system. Undergraduate non-concentrators may enroll in these tutorials if space is available.

Social Studies 98dg. Drug Wars and US Empire in Latin America - NEW
Agnes Mondragón-Celis Ochoa
Half course (fall term). Wednesday 3:00-5:00.
This course explores the War on Drugs through the lens of US imperial politics. We will analyze how this war, conceived and orchestrated by the American state, largely unfolds as a violent conflict south of its border. We will do so by directing critical attention to different themes, including: 1) contemporary imperialism, both as a theoretical concept and an empirical phenomenon unfolding in the Western hemisphere; 2) the production, commodification, and consumption of particular psychoactive substances, including their political-economic relations, regimes of prohibition, and sociocultural effects; 3) the war’s violent consequences, particularly affecting racialized populations in the United States and Latin America. We will finish the course by considering peace efforts undertaken in the region, focusing on forms of transitional justice. The course’s overarching goal is for students to gain a critical perspective of the War on Drugs as situated in longstanding US warfare practices, as well as geopolitical and economic relations in the hemisphere.

Social Studies 98eo. Art, Political Culture, and Civic Life
Kiku Adatto
Half course (fall term). Thursday 9:45-11:45.
The seminar explores the interplay of the arts, political culture, and civic life. It will draw on studies in art, history, political philosophy, literature, sociology, and photography. Among the questions we will address are: How is historical memory constructed, and what are the competing forces that shape it? What is the significance of public apologies, and does solidarity create moral responsibilities for historical injustices? How is cultural domination exerted, and how is it resisted? In what ways does rhetoric shape politics, and what role does it play in national narratives? Why does the contest to control images loom so large in politics, the media, and in our everyday lives?

Social Studies 98lf. Globalization and the Nation State
Nicolas Prevelakis
Half course (fall term). Wednesday 12:45-2:45.
Despite globalization, the nation is still a major actor in today's world. This course tries to understand why this is so by examining the role that nationalism plays in peoples’ identities and the effects of globalization on nations and nation-states. It includes theoretical texts, but also an examination of ethnic conflicts around the world, the rise of populism and authoritarianism, and the urgency of global issues such as climate change, inequality, and migration. Case studies from the United States, Europe, Latin America, China, and the Middle East. 

Social Studies 98lr. Liberal Democracy and Its Critics - NEW
Daniel Ziblatt
Half course (fall term). Thursday 3:00-5:00.
Liberal democracy appears embattled around the world. In new and old democracies alike, demagogues have been on the rise. Once in power, elected leaders with authoritarian inclinations have often entrenched themselves in power. Voters seem increasingly susceptible to misinformation. Economic inequality has made democracy vulnerable to “capture” by powerful economic interests. And intense party polarization has left voters blind to abuses of elected autocrats. This course explores the concept of liberal democracy—its institutions and norms-- and some chronic dilemmas in the practice of it to understand what makes liberal democracies work and what are challenges facing them today. We explore significant historical cases of democratic death from Weimar Germany to contemporary cases of democratic backsliding. We als9 explore historical and contemporary critiques and defenses of liberal democracy. And we will draw on these lessons to ask what can be done to renew liberal democracy today.

Note: Up to four spots will be reserved for Government concentrators.

Social Studies 98nd. Justice and Reconciliation after Mass Violence
Jonathan Hansen
Half course (fall term). Monday 12:45-2:45.
This seminar examines the problem of justice and reconciliation after mass violence: How does a nation sundered by genocide, civil war, or gross human rights violations reestablish the social trust and civic consciousness required of individual and collective flourishing? What is the proper balance between individual and collective responsibility? What is the role of trials, truth commissions, and apology in civil reconciliation? How do specific types of mass violence influence outcomes? What makes some reconciliations successful, others less so? The course engages these and other questions from historical and contemporary perspectives, exploring the legacy of mass violence going back centuries, while examining reconciliation projects across cultures, countries, and continents.

This course comprises three units: 1) a typology of mass violence (civil war, genocide, state repression, for instance) and historical responses; 2) case studies of the U.S. Civil War (and its continuing legacy), the Spanish Civil War, and the Rwandan genocide; and 3) a research and writing workshop emphasizing students own work. The goal of the course is to introduce students to the literature of mass violence from an interdisciplinary perspective (including but not limited to historical, sociological, and anthropological approaches), ultimately launching students on their own research projects.

Social Studies 98nq. Global East Asia
Nicole Newendorp
Half course (fall term). Tuesday 12:45-2:45.
In this course, we will consider the everyday effects of globalization on contemporary East Asia as well as topics related to cultural exchange and interaction more broadly around the globe. How do citizens of various East Asian countries interact with the global realm in everyday life? How does this interaction affect people’s hopes and dreams and create desires for social mobility and change? What kinds of social and cultural transformations have already taken place through East Asia’s engagement with the global? What additional transformations might we expect to see in coming years, not just in East Asia but in the world more generally? Ethnographic readings focus on cultural production, migration, consumption, media, and scientific knowledge as we trace the role of the global in everyday life and how anthropologists study and write about the social and cultural transformations that accompany individuals’ engagement with global processes in both East Asia and other world areas. We will examine market structures and actors that connect vastly divergent regions in particular ways; investigate how East Asia contributes to global movements of people, ideas, and goods; question how specific pathways of movement matter for the cultural interactions that result; and consider the complexities involved with documenting and studying these contemporary global processes that affect us all.

Social Studies 98pv. The Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School
Charles Clavey
Half course (fall term). Wednesday 9:45-11:45.
This course examines the distinctive critical theory created by members of the Institute for Social Research—better known as the Frankfurt School—from its origins in the interwar era to the present day. Over these decades, critical theory has used tools from philosophy, psychology, and sociology to grasp the pathologies of the present and to chart a path towards emancipation in the future. We will reconstruct the Frankfurt School’s evolving theory through its connections to the most important themes of twentieth-century thought: capitalism, authoritarianism, individuality, bureaucracy, and alienation. Our goal is not only to gain a deep understanding of critical theory but also to assess its continued relevance to modern social and political thought. 

Social Studies 98ri. Religion in Politics: Origins, Dissent, and Disruptions - NEW
Sarah Greenberg
Half course (fall term). Monday 3:00-5:00.
This course problematizes the place, space, and role of religion in political and social life. We will question how, when, and why religion shapes, generates, and complicates politics, and if religion as such ontologically belongs to any political party or location on a right-left spectrum, or a public-private distinction. Topics and texts of the course include The Eumenides by Aeschylus; “A Model of Christian Charity” by John Winthrop, the Protestant Reformation and social contract theory; Jewish activist history, including works by Abraham Joshua Heschel; Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the civil rights movement; Liberation Theology; Mohandas K. Gandhi, satyagraha, and nonviolence; French laïcité; state interactions with religious garb (e.g., France, US, Iran); and contemporary US Supreme Court cases relating to religion and its intersection with other areas of law. Assignments in this course are focused on completing an independent research paper by the end of the term.

Social Studies 98ss. Statecraft and Sexuality - NEW
Miriam Gleckman-Krut
Half course (fall term). Wednesday 3:00-5:00.
Sexuality is central to modern statecraft. This junior tutorial explores how – and why – states regulate sex, sexual violence, sexual taboos, sexual identities, and even talk of sex. Through attention to cases in North America and Southern Africa, we learn how sexuality is embedded in state formation, in the distribution of citizenship entitlements, and in efforts to maintain political legitimacy. Our transnational comparisons elucidate generalizable features of sexuality and statecraft, as well as historical moments in which states learned from one another about how to deploy sexuality as a technology of power. Our examination of cases in the Global North and South exposes how these state processes operate in the context of global inequalities. 

Social Studies 98vt. Solidarity: Group, Self, Identity
Rosemarie Wagner
Half course (fall term). Wednesday 12:00-2:00.
People are fighting for themselves and they’re fighting for one another, but how do you figure out whom to stand with, and when and how? People with different experiences, beliefs, and commitments, are struggling, fighting, and organizing to get free from oppression and empower themselves.  This course examines how agency, solidarity, and coalition can be possible in our post-foundational world, and how we bridge the gap between social theory and social action.  Can we theorize a self or a group identity without relying on on essentialist and perhaps harmful beliefs?  We will learn from theoretical debates in feminist, queer, Black, democratic, radical, postcolonial, and disability studies on questions of agency, solidarity, and liberation, and will also analyze real-world case studies of coalitions. This course focuses on theoretical and historical methodology.

Social Studuies 98wd. The Politics of Health and Medicine in the United States
Matthew Reichert
Half course (fall term). Wednesday 9:45 - 11:45.
How does politics shape our health? In this multidisciplinary class, students explore the historical origins of institutions like Medicare and Medicaid, the FDA, and the NIH. We seek to explain the politics of why American healthcare policy differs so dramatically from its peers, with narrowly targeted public programs and a dominant private insurance sector. Students learn how epidemiologists and clinicians today think about social determinants of health, especially racial disparities in care and outcomes. We conduct deep dives into topics like the sociology of mental illness, maternal mortality, the Affordable Care Act, Covid-19, and the medical ecosystem here in Boston. We consider normative questions, like how to balance cultural competency or patient autonomy with the medical mission to provide care and prevent harm. Finally, students also observe how public health researchers make use of social science methods, from the ethnographic case study to the clinical trial. 

Social Studies 98wk. Comparative Education Politics: How Power Shapes Teaching and Learning Across the Globe - NEW
Julia Coyoli
Half course (fall term). Monday 9:45-11:45.
Despite the importance of a good education, students around the globe are not getting one, whether because they are unable to get into the classroom to begin with, or due to what occurs in those classrooms. In this class, we will explore the various ways in which politics, understood as who has power and how they use that power, shapes the education that students receive across the globe. Specifically, we examine the political drivers of three main aspects of any education system: how many children go to school, how teachers are recruited and trained, and how the curriculum is designed. The answers we will contemplate, drawing on texts from a variety of social science disciplines that cover countries across the globe (including the United States), focus our attention on factors such as regime type, teachers’ unions, clientelism, political parties, and parental organizations.

 

Social Studies 98wl. Work, Labor Movements, and Social Change - NEW
Joel Suarez
Half course (fall term). Thursday 12:45-2:45.
This course introduces students to key historical episodes and theories of class formation within the history of capitalism primarily in, but not limited to, the United States. It will explore the social, economic, and political dynamics of class formations and capitalist transitions through historical readings, archival sources, and competing theoretical frameworks that familiarize students with methodological disputes within labor history and the broader political stakes of those disputes. It considers not only the history of labor unions, but also how slavery and unwaged labor, racial and gender ideology, finance and banking, and informal markets and the law have shaped the history of work and labor movements. Throughout the course, students will explore the connection between material and ideological change over time from the abolition of slavery and industrialization to deindustrialization and the demise of labor union power. Students will thus be guided through the social history of how class is formed, decomposed, and recomposed with particular attention to the shifting conceptual vocabularies through which social relations are understood, contested, and changed. 

Note: Admission is based on student preferences and a lottery system. Undergraduate non-concentrators may enroll in these tutorials if space is available.

Social Studies 98cl. Law and American Society

Terry Aladjem
Half course (spring term). 

At a time when the rule of law is imperiled, our democracy and equal rights of every kind under assault by multiple forces, the importance of understanding our constitutional system of rights and laws as essential to the fabric of the nation cannot be overstated. The course will examine law as a vehicle of political conflict and a defining force in American society in four dimensions: 1.) as it establishes individual rights, liberties, and the limits of toleration; 2.) as it attempts to resolve differences among competing constituencies; 3.) as it sets out terms of punishment and social control having effects on race and class, and 4.) as a source of informing images and ideological meaning. We will examine these themes with close attention to their historical roots and their constitutional and theoretical origins, to their manifestations in our current political discourse. We will take up issues at the level of jurisprudence or political theory, but also as they arise in public controversies, or are settled in legal cases by the courts—cases in which racial or gender equality are at stake, religious or sexual freedom, cases in which the nature and content of political speech are questioned, cases in which the imperatives of religious communities seem irreconcilable with public institutions, cases in which the nature and extent of punishment have been debated and the question of who deserves to be punished decided, and notorious public trials in which the national self-understanding has been shaped. Our aim is to bring theory to bear, and down to earth, in each consideration (we will read Foucault’s Discipline and Punish, and also examine prisons and mass incarceration). 

 

Social Studies 98dc. Is Democracy in Crisis? - NEW
Carla Yumatle

Half course (spring term). 

In his inauguration speech of January 2021, President Joe Biden declared that democracy was in a fragile state. Four years later, saving democracy is still the center of his second presidential campaign. Is liberal democracy indeed in crisis? This course examines several aspects of this ongoing debate to better understand the symptoms, scope and causes of this alleged turning point. It reviews a series of political maladies that are seen as evidence of the democratic decay—from extreme polarization to populist leadership to the failure of the party system among others. It then surveys the competing explanations (economic, political and cultural) that led democracy to the crossroads and explores the institutional arrangements—from lottocracy to citizen assemblies, etc.—that have been proposed as remedies for the democratic deficit. It assesses the intersections and departures of the phenomenon between the democracies of the Global North and South, in particular Latin America. Finally, the course suggests an alternative angle to the problem. It focuses not on the democratic political regime and its institutions but on democracy as a social order and the transformation of its social roots. We critically explore how the experience of being an individual in democracy has changed (mediated by several displacements such as technology, solitude, alienation, organized crime, comparative metric, inequality, and gender identities), and whether the erosion of the collectivist dimension of democracy (its public sphere, social and labor organizations, and state capacities) may suggest that we face a new great social transformation at odds with the old institutional scaffolding of the democratic regime. 

 

Social Studies 98fr. Fascism and Far-Right Movements - NEW
William Callison
Half course (spring term). 
What was twentieth-century fascism, and what might it mean to call something “fascist” today? This seminar explores historical, theoretical, and sociological approaches to the study of fascism and far-right movements. It begins with an introduction to longstanding debates over the meaning of the term. We will consider the advantages and limitations of using typological criteria to define fascism, and we will reflect on its different forms of articulation (as ideology, movement, and regime). To critically grasp its notions of “national rebirth” and “racial purity,” we will also cover fascism’s historical relationship with conservatism, imperialism, militarism, and nationalism in moments of perceived crisis. Turning toward the present, we will examine different methodological approaches to the dynamics of class, race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality in contemporary far-right movements. From there we will discuss a number of questions at the heart of current debates: What is “new” or “alternative” about contemporary far-right movements, and what are their connections, if any, to fascist (or colonial) legacies of the past? Are concepts like “post-fascism,” “authoritarianism,” “populism” or “neoliberalism” essential or limiting for conceptualizing the far right today? What are the differences between “fossil fascism” and “ecofascism,” and what are their implications for present and future struggles over climate change mitigation? What new insights can be gained by approaching these and related questions through an empirical, ethnographic, or comparative lens?

 

Social Studies 98mr. Exile, Migration, Diaspora - NEW

Samuel Chan

Half course (spring term). 
Increasingly people are on the move, but not on equal terms. In this class, we will study contemporary regimes of movement, explore the diasporic experiences of navigating and resisting these regimes, and reflect upon the broader environment these regimes are embedded in. In that process, we will learn to uncover our biases, expand our horizons with perspectives from different positionalities, and incorporate texts of different disciplines, times, and places into our research.

We will begin by interpreting the narratives of exile across space and time, engaging with exiles ranging from those in ancient Greece to those from contemporary Tibet. Through these narratives, we will discuss the implications of statelessness, rethink themes of political membership and belonging, and reflect upon the roles of exiles in transforming democratic and anti-colonial politics. In the second part of the course, we will zoom out from individual exiles and examine migration trends and policies. Drawing on migration studies and political theory, we will attend to histories of migrant categorization, emerging practices of bordering, and the politics of immigrant resistance. Thus grounded, we will scrutinize the normative grounds for the state to control its territorial and membership boundaries. In the final part of the course, we will turn to the theme of diaspora. In dialogue with scholars of sociology and international relations, we will interrogate competing conceptions of diaspora, parse the triangular relations between a diaspora, its “home state”, and its “host state”, and evaluate the promises and challenges of transnationalism as disclosed by diasporic politics.

Social Studies 98po. States, Empires, and Postcolonialism - NEW
Yasemin Bavbek
Half course (spring term). 
This seminar introduces major approaches to empires in social sciences, with a particular focus on the global and postcolonial turns and their critiques. We will discuss canonical works of postcolonialism and subaltern studies together with contemporary empirical work on empires. This seminar aims to 1) develop a comprehensive understanding of the conceptual toolkit of postcolonial thought and address the sociopolitical context which gave rise to it, 2) compare postcolonial approaches to other major paradigms of anti-imperialist thought, and 3) survey approaches to empires and borderlands that do not conform to the categories of postcolonial thought. We will explore imperial legacies in social thought, political organization, and state formation from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Some of the questions this seminar addresses are: How are racialization and empire related in different contexts? How can we apprehend the histories of (physical, epistemic, symbolic etc.) violence and extraction from a subaltern anti-imperial perspective? How do the metropoles and colonies relate to and constitute each other? Do empires learn from each other, and if so how? How do imperial relations structure contemporary politics, culture, and power relations? What forms does imperial domination and resistance against empire take?

Social Studies 98rt. Right to the City - NEW
Xinyu Guan
Half course (spring term). 
What does it mean to belong in a city? To have rights and to participate in urban life? The seminar explores how marginalized urban communities – racialized minorities, diasporas, queer bodies, informal settlement residents – struggle for space, rights, and belonging in cities. The cities covered include New York, Los Angeles, Istanbul and Hong Kong. We will read ethnographies, watch films and discuss social theories. Students will write about an urban community of their own choosing for the final project.

Social Studies 98ud. Critical Theory of Knowledge, Technology and Power
Bo-Mi Choi
Half course (spring term).
This tutorial explores the role and impact of science and technology on society, culture, and politics from the perspective of critical theory. Building on the foundations of Marxian philosophy and the works of 20th-century critical theorists such as Lukáçs, Benjamin, Heidegger, Marcuse, and Foucault, we will explore more recent contributions in the philosophy and post-phenomenology ­­of technology as well as in science and technology studies (STS). While the tutorial is largely designed as a theory course, we will take a closer look at machine learning and artificial general intelligence, automation and robotics, surveillance capitalism, data feminism, Afrofuturism, and digital culture. Questions we will address along the way include: how do science and technology transform and mediate human experience and knowledge of the world? co-produce our political and social order? shape concepts of human subjectivity and regulate human behavior? And what kinds of political, ethical, and aesthetic consequences do we need to consider as we adopt new technology? Rather than conceptualizing science and technology in Promethean terms as “tools” of progress, we will closely examine how they are intrinsically constitutive of the ways we experience, order and govern the world. The aim is to collaboratively articulate, over the course of the semester, an amplified social theoretic framework that enables us to critically engage the existential challenges and potential dangers of new technology and normatively evaluate scientific and technological innovations from the standpoint of human flourishing.

Social Studies 98wb. Inequality Under Capitalism
Adaner Usmani
Half course (spring term).
All capitalist societies are characterized by significant forms of inequality. Some people and some groups have more of the things that we think make for a good life, while other people and other groups have less. But inequality is not static; not all societies are equally unequal. Social and political movements have transformed the distribution of well-being in numerous ways. This class ponders the empirical and normative questions raised by these facts. First, what explains inequality? Why do some people have more than others? Second, what should be done about these facts? What kinds of inequalities do we care about? What does justice require? And, given that only some of what justice requires is feasible, what should we demand?

Social Studies 98we. Encounters: Travel Narratives and the Origins of Race 
John Harpham
Half course (spring term). 
This course will examine the deep roots of race and racism with reference to the travel narratives that shaped them. The course will proceed in chronological order, with each week devoted to one of the classics of the genre. Our focus in time will be the period that came to be known as the Age of Discovery, which lasted from around the middle of the fifteenth century to around the end of the seventeenth century. Our focus in space will be the Atlantic world. Particular attention will be paid to narratives that describe (or claim to describe) Africa and America and to accounts that were the work of Indigenous American and African authors. The interests and the contexts that inform the construction of such accounts will be central objects of inquiry, but so will be the contents of the texts themselves. We will consider the ideas about the common structure of human life that seem to be embedded in these texts. And of course we will work to understand the complex manner in which travel narratives at once resisted and disrupted and also contributed to the invention of the modern concept of race.

In addition to open class discussion, this course will include on-campus field trips to Houghton Library, the Harvard Map Collection, and the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments.

Social Studies 98wh. Climate Justice: The Politics of Decarbonization
Jonathan Masin-Peters
Half course (spring term).
Given the urgent need to shift societies away from carbon-based energy, how can such transitions occur so as not to reproduce existing injustices? Answering this question requires an interdisciplinary approach. Texts from historians and anthropologists will provide insight into how societies across time and space have made large-scale energy transitions. Political science scholarship will contribute knowledge about political transitions, which were widespread in the twentieth century, from socialist transitions in the early twentieth century to democratic transitions in the post-Cold War era. Texts by political theorists and philosophers will enable conceptual analysis of ideas like democracy, injustice, and nature. At the same time, work by sociologists will attune students to the forms of stratification and inequality energy transitions are likely to foster. Finally, literary and cultural criticism will provide insights into the interpersonal tensions, nuances, and lived experiences of people undergoing large-scale changes. Students will build their conceptual vocabulary, learn the strengths and limits of each disciplinary approach, and understand how to formulate compelling research questions and problems. 

Social Studies 98wj. Du Bois and Social Theory: Democracy, Groups, and Conflict
Vatsal Naresh
Half course (spring term).
This junior tutorial examines W. E. B. Du Bois' writings to study his (and interlocutor's) contributions to social theory in the long twentieth century. The course will survey The Suppression of the African Slave Trade, The Philadelphia Negro, Souls of Black Folk, The Negro, Darkwater, Dark Princess, Dusk of Dawn, and Color and Democracy. We will read Black Reconstruction in detail. The junior tutorial will equip students with knowledge of Du Bois' interventions across genres and disciplines: history, sociology, political theory, literature, philosophy, aesthetics, propaganda, novels, and exhibitions. We will also engage Du Bois with familiar and new interlocutors, including Anna Julia Cooper, Ida Wells-Barnett, Saidiya Hartman, Shatema Threadcraft, Robert Gooding-Williams, M. K. Gandhi, Eric Foner, Lajpat Rai, among other authors from Social Studies 10B.

Social Studies 99a. Tutorial — Senior Year
Nicole Newendorp 
Full course (indivisible). 
Writing of senior honors essay. 
Note: Required for concentrators.

Social Studies 99b. Tutorial — Senior Year
Nicole Newendorp 
Full course (indivisible). 
Writing of senior honors essay. 
Note: Required for concentrators.

Social Studies 91. Supervised Reading and Research
Nicole Newendorp and members of the Committee 
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Individual work in Social Studies on a topic not covered by regular courses of instruction. Permission of the Director of Studies required.