Courses

CITY B185 Urban Culture and Society

Fall 2024

Examines techniques and questions of the social sciences as tools for studying historical and contemporary cities. Topics include political-economic organization, conflict and social differentiation (class, ethnicity and gender), and cultural production and representation. Philadelphia features prominently in discussion, reading and exploration as do global metropolitan comparisons through papers involving fieldwork, critical reading and planning/problem solving using qualitative and quantitative methods.

Course does not meet an Approach

Power, Inequity, and Justice (PIJ)

Counts Toward International Studies

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CITY B190 The Form of the City: Urban Form from Antiquity to the Present

Spring 2025

This course studies the city as a three-dimensional artifact. A variety of factors, geography, economic and population structure, politics, planning, and aesthetics are considered as determinants of urban form.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

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CITY B201 Introduction to GIS for Social and Environmental Analysis

Fall 2024, Spring 2025

This course is designed to introduce the foundations of GIS with emphasis on applications for social and environmental analysis. It deals with basic principles of GIS and its use in spatial analysis and information management. Ultimately, students will design and carry out research projects on topics of their own choosing. Prerequisite: At least sophomore standing and Quantitative Readiness are required (i.e.the quantitative readiness assessment or Quan B001).

Quantitative Readiness Required (QR)

Counts Toward Data Science

Counts Toward Environmental Studies

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CITY B207 Topics in Urban Studies

Section 001 (Spring 2024): Philadelphia Architecture & Urbanism

Not offered 2024-25

This is a topics course. Course content varies.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Power, Inequity, and Justice (PIJ)

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CITY B217 Topics in Research Methods

Section 001 (Fall 2023): Research Mthds/Social Sciences
Section 001 (Spring 2025): Qualitative Methods

Spring 2025

This is a topics course. Course content varies.

Current topic description: This course is a hands-on introduction to the research process. It will provide students with the practical skills needed to design, conduct, and analyze original research of the complexity of a thesis-length project. Specifically, students will build knowledge and experience in research design (how to craft a good research question and match methods to the question), quantitative research methods (analysis of pre-existing large-n survey data), and data analysis (basic descriptive and inferential statistical analysis using Excel and SPSS). Students will also get an introduction to qualitative research methods and how they compare to quantitative methods. No computer programming is required or taught.

Quantitative Methods (QM)

Counts Toward Data Science

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CITY B226 Introduction to Architectural Design

Fall 2024

This studio design course introduces the principles of architectural design. Suggested Preparation: drawing, some history of architecture, and permission of instructor.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

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CITY B228 Problems in Architectural Design

Spring 2025

A continuation of CITY 226 at a more advanced level. Prerequisites: CITY B226 or permission of instructor.

Course does not meet an Approach

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CITY B229 Topics in Comparative Urbanism

Section 001 (Spring 2024): Colonial & Post Colonial Reflections
Section 001 (Spring 2025): Metros, Regions, and Belts
Section 002 (Spring 2025): Metros, Regions, and Belts

Spring 2025

This is a topics course. Course content varies.

Current topic description: The fight for spatial justice in contemporary cities is a demand for recognition, representation, and a more equitable redistribution of scarce public resources. In practice, however, both the formal institutions and informal power relations of urban governance are often supra-local. This writing-intensive class employs a comparative case-study approach to study the role of metropolitan areas, larger urban regions, and even expansive regional belts in the growth, governance, and experience of everyday life in cities. We will study the Delaware Valley (Philadelphia) and compare the discursive and material roles of regional planning, governance, and activism there with cases in East Asia and Latin America.

Current topic description: The fight for spatial justice in contemporary cities is a demand for recognition, representation, and a more equitable redistribution of scarce public resources. In practice, however, both the formal institutions and informal power relations of urban governance are often supra-local. This writing-intensive class employs a comparative case-study approach to study the role of metropolitan areas, larger urban regions, and even expansive regional belts in the growth, governance, and experience of everyday life in cities. We will study the Delaware Valley (Philadelphia) and compare the discursive and material roles of regional planning, governance, and activism there with cases in East Asia and Latin America.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward International Studies

Counts Toward Latin American,Iberian,Latinx

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CITY B240 Cities of the Global South

Not offered 2024-25

This course surveys the dynamic social and spatial processes that make (and constantly re-make) cities in the Global South. We examine what it means to be a city in the 'Global South' and study the commonalities that unite these spaces in a post-colonial, post-Bretton Woods world. That said, this is a course that centers diversity among cases in Latin America, the Middle East/North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia: the unique demands and interventions of people and community groups working for a better urban life, the experimental efforts of local political leaders and planners, and the ways in which particular local histories layer upon themselves to produce a world of singular urban experiences. Local film, memoir, activist non-fiction, and interviews with local planners and practitioners will supplement academic readings to provide a 'street-level' view of everyday life in global cities.

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CITY B248 Architectural History Research Workshop

Fall 2024

This course aims to build students' mastery at working with historical documents, both visual and textual, and the rich body of scholarly writings that offer key materials for research in architectural and urban history. The course will operate as a collective workshop that will frame structured adventures in research, starting with a detailed focus on the evolution of places through time. We will work with a wide range of document types, and among our best new friends will be highly detailed old maps and historical views, from watercolors and prints to early photographs. City directories, records of ownership, census information, newspaper notices, and documents related to building construction and form will complement these to fill in key elements in emerging narratives. Such sources will also allow us to explore the agency of individuals in a variety of roles that have shaped places, and the lives framed by those building activities. Beyond focusing on specific sites to construct microhistories, we will also look for larger patterns of built form in which they participate, alongside other contingent narratives from the practices of architects to the activities of developers, well-defined building typologies, and the roots of demographic distributions. In our workshop sessions we will engage different types of evidence and analytical resources through small exercises, imagining the kinds of questions and curiosities such materials might inform, as well as inverting such inquiries, starting with the questions. Our overall model will be to delve in and then report out, in a range of ways.

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

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CITY B250 Topics: Growth & Spatial Org of Cities

Section 001 (Spring 2024): Urban Morphology

Not offered 2024-25

This is a topics course. Course content varies.

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

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CITY B253 Before Modernism: Architecture and Urbanism of the 18th and 19th Centuries

Spring 2025

The course frames the topic of architecture before the impact of 20th century Modernism, with a special focus on the two prior centuries - especially the 19th - in ways that treat them on their own terms rather than as precursors of more modern technologies and forms of expression. The course will integrate urbanistic and vernacular perspectives alongside more familiar landmark exemplars. Key goals and components of the course will include attaining a facility within pertinent bibliographical and digital landscapes, formal analysis and research skills exercised in writing projects, class field-trips, and a nuanced mastery of the narratives embodied in the architecture of these centuries.

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

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CITY B254 History of Modern Architecture

Fall 2024

A survey of the development of modern architecture since the 18th century.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

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CITY B280 Reading Architecture

Not offered 2024-25

Reading and responding to different species of writing about the built environment, old and new, participants will closely weigh intent and form, and will try their own hand at each.

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CITY B306 Advanced Fieldwork Techniques: Places in Time

Spring 2025

A hands-on workshop for research into the histories of places, intended to bring students into contact with some of the raw materials of architectural and urban history. A focus will be placed on historical images and texts, and on creating engaging informational experiences that are transparent to their evidentiary basis.

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CITY B328 Analysis of Geospatial Data Using GIS

Not offered 2024-25

An advanced course for students with prior GIS experience involving individual projects and collaboration with faculty. Completion of GIS (City 201) or equivalent with 3.7 or above. Instructor permission required after discussion of project.

Quantitative Readiness Required (QR)

Counts Toward Data Science

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CITY B337 The Chinese City

Spring 2025

This course examines Chinese urbanization as both a physical and social process. Drawing broadly on scholarship in anthropology, political science, geography, and city planning, we will construct a history of the present of Chinese cities. By taking the long view on China's urban development, this course seeks to contextualize and make sense of the sometimes dazzling, sometimes dismal, and often contested landscape of everyday life in contemporary urban China. Prior familiarity with China and the Chinese language is welcomed but not required.

Course does not meet an Approach

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CITY B340 History and Design Workshop

Not offered 2024-25

This course combines historical and theoretical research with studio and design practice in architecture. It is project based and allows students to work collaboratively on research questions relevant to built environments. This iteration tracks the form and choices shaping three successive built landscapes over five centuries - from the agricultural communities of Quakers in Wales and the Welsh Tract in Lower Merion in the 17th and 18th centuries to the commuter suburb of the 19th and 20th. The course also looks ahead from this history as a studio collectively exploring key elements of a "New Bryn Mawr" as an idealized sustainable community of 1000 residents whose design specifically addresses environmental concerns, inequality, anxiety, joblessness, and spatial fragmentation.

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CITY B345 Advanced Topics in Environment and Society

Not offered 2024-25

This is a topics course. Topics vary.

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CITY B350 Urban Projects: Cities Praxis

Spring 2025

In this course advanced students will work with local groups around concrete projects. Class sessions will convene to discuss background readings as well as evaluation of tools and experiences.

Course does not meet an Approach

Counts Toward Praxis Program

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CITY B360 Topics: Urban Culture and Society

Section 001 (Fall 2023): Urban Theory
Section 001 (Spring 2024): New Urbanism
Section 001 (Fall 2024): Carceral Geographies
Section 001 (Spring 2025): The Legal City

Fall 2024, Spring 2025

This is a topics course. Course content varies.

Current topic description: What is the relationship between the prison system, policing, capitalism, and race? This course is a historical and theoretical examination of the interlocked institutions, social structures, and systems that constitute the carceral state in America.

Current topic description: This seminar examines legal issues encountered in the built environment. Cities and other urbanizations are built upon legal structures that assign (or deny) rights and space, finance and govern public and private projects, and order the city on multiple scales from neighborhood to city to metropolitan sprawl. Drawing on materials from planning, business, community development and social sciences, this seminar looks at topics such as zoning, home ownership, land use, and federal policies to understand how law shapes the city and how we understand, use, resist or change these legal tools.

Counts Toward Africana Studies

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CITY B365 Topics: Techniques of the City

Section 001 (Spring 2024): Making & Remaking Philadelphia
Section 001 (Spring 2025): Urban Renewal

Spring 2025

This is a topics course. Course content varies.

Current topic description: This course explores physical, social, economic, and political aspects of neighborhood change, with a particular emphasis on the 1950-1970 urban renewal and interstate highway programs in the US. These large-scale government-led efforts will be compared with more incremental neighborhood change from neighborhood-based community development efforts, gentrification, market actors, and grassroots advocacy.

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CITY B377 Topics in Modern Architecture

Section 001 (Fall 2024): Multiplicity & Singularity in later 19th C. Archit

Fall 2024

This is a topics course on modern architecture. Topics vary.

Current topic description: This will be a closely focused seminar, temporally and geographically, that centers on three common, moderate-scale architectural venues, urban houses, suburban houses, and urban places of business -- places that were pervasive and numerically dominant elements of the American built landscape as it was transformed between the 1870s and the 1890s.

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CITY B398 Senior Seminar

An intensive research seminar designed to guide students in writing a senior thesis.

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CITY B403 Independent Study

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CITY B415 Teaching Assistant

An exploration of course planning, pedagogy and creative thinking as students work to help others understand pathways they have already explored in introductory and writing classes. This opportunity is available only to advanced students of highest standing by professorial invitation.

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CITY B420 Praxis Fieldwork Seminar

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CITY B425 Praxis III: Independent Study

Praxis III courses are Independent Study courses and are developed by individual students, in collaboration with faculty and field supervisors. A Praxis courses is distinguished by genuine collaboration with fieldsite organizations and by a dynamic process of reflection that incorporates lessons learned in the field into the classroom setting and applies theoretical understanding gained through classroom study to work done in the broader community.

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CITY B450 Urban Internships/Praxis

Individual opportunities to engage in praxis in the greater Philadelphia area; internships must be arranged prior to registration for the semester in which the internship is taken. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.

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ANTH B216 Transnational Movements Across the Americas

Not offered 2024-25

Globalization has enabled the movement of people, the trade of goods, and the exchange of culture and ideas but it has also created unprecedented problems such as inequality, exploitation, and environmental crisis. However, the networks formed by globalization have also created exciting opportunities for activists to organize across borders, tackle issues of global concern, and develop creative solutions. This course will introduce students to the study of transnational social movements with a focus on the Americas. We will make use of ethnographic case studies, documentary film, and an interdisciplinary social science literature to examine transnational movements on a variety of themes such as: human rights, the rights of indigenous peoples, the environment, biodiversity conservation, climate justice, the alter-globalization movement, and the rights of nature. Students will learn about the historical context of transnationalism, theories of social movement and collective action, the study of networks of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the strategies mobilized by transnational actors to advocate on issues of social and environmental justice. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing and up; or first years who have taken Anth 102

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ANTH B356 The Politics of Public Art

Not offered 2024-25

In this class we will explore the politics of public art. While we will look at the political messaging of public art, we will also seek to understand how public art, through its integration into a social geography, has a political impact beyond its meaning. We will see how art claims public space and structures social action, how art shapes social groups, and how art channels economic flows or government power. By tracing the ways that art is situated in public space, we will examine how art enters into urban contest and global inequality. Class activity will include exploration of public art and students will be introduced to key concepts of urban spatial analysis to help interrogate this art. One 200-level course in Social Sciences, Humanities, or Arts fields, or permission of the instructor

Course does not meet an Approach

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ARCH B203 Ancient Greek Cities and Sanctuaries

Not offered 2024-25

A study of the development of the Greek city-states and sanctuaries. Archaeological evidence is surveyed in its historic context. The political formation of the city-state and the role of religion is presented, and the political, economic, and religious institutions of the city-states are explored in their urban settings. The city-state is considered as a particular political economy of the Mediterranean and in comparison to the utility of the concept of city-state in other cultures.

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ARCH B212 Visual Culture of the Ancient Mediterranean

Fall 2024

This course explores the visual culture of the ancient Mediterranean world from the second millennium BCE to early Roman times. Drawing from an extensive variety of extant evidence that includes monuments, sculpture, paintings, mosaics, and artifacts deriving from culturally and geographically distinct areas, such as the Minoan world, Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Phoenicia, Cyprus, Greece, Macedonia, Italy, Tunisia, and Spain, the course explores how such evidence may have been viewed and experienced and how it may have, in turn, shaped the visual culture of the well-interconnected ancient Mediterranean world. Focusing on selected examples of evidence, including its materials, style, and methods of production, the course will also consider how past and current scholarly attitudes, approaches, and terminology have affected the understanding and interpretation of this evidence.

Writing Attentive

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward MECANA Studies

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ARCH B244 Great Empires of the Ancient Near East

Not offered 2024-25

A survey of the history, material culture, political and religious ideologies of, and interactions among, the five great empires of the ancient Near East of the second and first millennia B.C.E.: New Kingdom Egypt, the Hittite Empire in Anatolia, the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires in Mesopotamia, and the Persian Empire in Iran.

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ARCH B249 The Archaeology of Urban Revolutions in Western Asia

Spring 2025

This course examines the archaeology of one of the most fundamental developments to have occurred in human society in the last 6,000 years, the origins of cities. Via assigned readings, class work and lectures we will consider the varied factors which led (or did not lead) to the emergence of cities, questioning what cities were (and are) and how they functioned in the ancient world. We will explore different trajectories towards urbanism that can be identified in the archaeological record and consider societies that did not experience these changes. By exploring processes and practices over the long-term, students will address issues of inequality in the earliest urban societies, developing an understanding of how axes of power and difference interacted to produce inequalities and hierarchies. We will also discuss the impacts these developments have had, and continue to have, on modern society and culture in the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. Themes covered will include the 'urban revolution', rurality and urbanism, urban planning and growth, houses and households, communication and mobility, climate and environment, power and inequality.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Power, Inequity, and Justice (PIJ)

Counts Toward MECANA Studies

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ARCH B252 Pompeii

Spring 2025

Introduces students to a nearly intact archaeological site whose destruction by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 C.E. was recorded by contemporaries. The discovery of Pompeii in the mid-1700s had an enormous impact on 18th- and 19th-century views of the Roman past as well as styles and preferences of the modern era. Informs students in classical antiquity, urban life, city structure, residential architecture, home decoration and furnishing, wall painting, minor arts and craft and mercantile activities within a Roman city.

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward Museum Studies

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ARCH B260 Daily Life in Ancient Greece and Rome

Not offered 2024-25

The often-praised achievements of the classical cultures arose from the realities of day-to-day life. This course surveys the rich body of material and textual evidence pertaining to how ancient Greeks and Romans -- famous and obscure alike -- lived and died. Topics include housing, food, clothing, work, leisure, and family and social life.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

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ARCH B316 Trade and Transport in the Ancient World

Not offered 2024-25

Issues of trade, commerce and production of export goods are addressed with regard to the Bronze Age and Iron Age cultures of Mesopotamia, Arabia, Iran and south Asia. Crucial to these systems is the development of means of transport via maritime routes and on land. Archaeological evidence for traded goods and shipwrecks is used to map the emergence of sea-faring across the Indian Ocean and Gulf.

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ARCH B352 Ancient Egyptian Archaeology

Not offered 2024-25

This course will examine two aspects of ancient Egyptian Archaeology. This first is the history of archaeological work in Egypt: tracing methodological developments, the impact of imperialism, colonialism, and race-based theories of the 19th and early 20th centuries on the development of archaeological thought, and where the field of archaeology in Egypt stands today. The second will examine settlements in ancient Egypt - from workmen's villages to planned "temple towns" to "lost cities" - in order to understand the built environment inhabited by the ancient Egyptians. Although the material that the ancient Egyptians used to build their homes, as well as their location in the flood-plain, often makes finding and studying settlements difficult, there are sources of evidence that can help us to rediscover where and how the ancient Egyptians lived, and allow us to reevaluate older theories about ancient Egyptian culture and society.

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ARCH B516 Trade and Transport in the Ancient World

Not offered 2024-25

Issues of trade, commerce and production of export goods are addressed with regard to the Bronze Age and Iron Age cultures of Mesopotamia, Arabia, Iran and south Asia. Crucial to these systems is the development of means of transport via maritime routes and on land. Archaeological evidence for traded goods and shipwrecks is used to map the emergence of sea-faring across the Indian Ocean and Gulf while bio-archaeological data is employed to examine the transformative role that Bactrian and Dromedary camels played in ancient trade and transport.

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BIOL B262 Urban Ecosystems

Not offered 2024-25

Cities can be considered ecosystems whose functions are highly influenced by human activity. This course will address many of the living and non-living components of urban ecosystems, as well as their unique processes. Using an approach focused on case studies, the course will explore the ecological and environmental problems that arise from urbanization, and also examine solutions that have been attempted. Prerequisite: BIOL B110 or B111 or ENVS B101.

Course does not meet an Approach

Counts Toward Environmental Studies

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ECON B208 Labor Economics

Fall 2024

Analysis of labor markets. Focuses on the economic forces and public policies that determine wage rates and unemployment. Specific topics include: human capital, family decision marking, discrimination, immigration, technological change, compensating differentials, and signaling. Prerequisite: ECON B105.

Course does not meet an Approach

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ECON B213 Industrial organization and Antitrust

Spring 2025

Introduction to the economics of industrial organization and regulation, focusing on policy options for ensuring that corporations enhance economic welfare and the quality of life. Topics include firm behavior in imperfectly competitive markets; theoretical bases of antitrust laws; regulation of product and occupational safety, environmental pollution, and truth in advertising. Prerequisite: ECON B105.

Course does not meet an Approach

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ECON B214 Public Finance

Fall 2024

Analysis of government's role in resource allocation, emphasizing effects of tax and expenditure programs on income distribution and economic efficiency. Topics include sources of inefficiency in markets and possible government responses; federal budget composition; social insurance and antipoverty programs; U.S. tax structure and incidence. Prerequisites: ECON B105.

Counts Toward Health Studies

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ECON B215 Urban Economics

Not offered 2024-25

Micro- and macroeconomic theory applied to urban economic behavior. Topics include housing and land use; transportation; urban labor markets; urbanization; and demand for and financing of urban services. Prerequisite: ECON B105.

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ECON B225 Economic Development

Not offered 2024-25

Examination of the issues related to and the policies designed to promote economic development in the developing economies of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Focus is on why some developing economies grow faster than others and why some growth paths are more equitable, poverty reducing, and environmentally sustainable than others. Includes consideration of the impact of international trade and investment policy, macroeconomic policies (exchange rate, monetary and fiscal policy) and sector policies (industry, agriculture, education, population, and environment) on development outcomes in a wide range of political and institutional contexts. Prerequisite: ECON B105.

Course does not meet an Approach

Counts Toward Environmental Studies

Counts Toward International Studies

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ECON B236 Introduction to International Economics

Fall 2024, Spring 2025

An introduction to international economics through theory, policy issues, and problems. The course surveys international trade and finance, as well as topics in international economics. It investigates why and what a nation trades, the consequences of such trade, globalized production, the role of trade policy, the economics of immigration, the behavior and effects of exchange rates, and the macroeconomic implications of trade and capital flows.Prerequisites: ECON B105. The course is not open to students who have taken ECON B316 or B348.

Counts Toward International Studies

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ECON B253 Introduction to Econometrics

Fall 2024, Spring 2025

An introduction to econometric terminology and reasoning. Topics include descriptive statistics, probability, and statistical inference. Particular emphasis is placed on regression analysis and on the use of data to address economic issues. The required computational techniques are developed as part of the course. Class cannot be taken if you have taken H203 or H204. Prerequisites: ECON B105 and a 200-level elective. ECON H201 does not count as an elective.

Quantitative Methods (QM)

Counts Toward Data Science

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ECON B314 The Economics of Social Policy

Not offered 2024-25

Introduces students to the economic rationale behind U.S. government programs and the evaluation of U.S. social policies. Topics include minimum wage, unemployment, safety net programs, education, health insurance, and climate change. Additionally, the instructor and students will jointly select topics of special interest to the class. Emphasis will be placed on the use of statistics to evaluate social policy. Writing intensive. Prerequisites: ECON B200 and (ECON B253 or ECON B304)

Writing Intensive

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ECON B324 The Economics of Discrimination and Inequality

Fall 2024

Explores the causes and consequences of discrimination and inequality in economic markets. Topics include economic theories of discrimination and inequality, evidence of contemporary race- and gender-based inequality, detecting discrimination, identifying sources of racial and gender inequality, and identifying sources of overall economic inequality. Additionally, the instructor and students will jointly select supplementary topics of specific interest to the class. Possible topics include: discrimination in historical markets, disparity in legal treatments, issues of family structure, and education gaps. Writing Intensive. Prerequisites: At least one 200-level applied microeconomics elective; ECON 253 or 304; ECON 200.

Writing Intensive

Power, Inequity, and Justice (PIJ)

Counts Toward Gender/Sex Studies (Min/Conc)

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EDUC B266 Geographies of School and Learning: Urban Education Reconsidered

Spring 2025

This course examines issues, challenges, and possibilities of urban education in contemporary America. We use as critical lenses issues of race, class, and culture; urban learners, teachers, and school systems; and restructuring and reform. While we look at urban education nationally over several decades, we use Philadelphia as a focal "case" that students investigate through documents and school placements. Weekly fieldwork in a school required.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Power, Inequity, and Justice (PIJ)

Counts Toward Africana Studies

Counts Toward Child and Family Studies

Counts Toward Praxis Program

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ENVS B202 Environment and Society

Fall 2024

An exploration of the ways in which different cultural, economic, and political settings have shaped issue emergence and policy making. We examine the politics of particular environmental issues in selected countries and regions, paying special attention to the impact of environmental movements. We also assess the prospects for international cooperation in addressing global environmental problems such as climate change. Pre-requisite ENVS B101 or ENVS H101 or instructor's permission.

Current topic description: An exploration of the ways in which different cultural, economic, and political settings have shaped issue emergence and policy making. We examine the politics of particular environmental issues in selected countries and regions, paying special attention to the impact of environmental movements. We also assess the prospects for international cooperation in addressing global environmental problems such as climate change.

Writing Attentive

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Power, Inequity, and Justice (PIJ)

Counts Toward Environmental Studies

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GEOL B209 Natural Hazards

Spring 2025

A quantitative approach to understanding the earth processes that impact human societies. We consider the past, current, and future hazards presented by geologic processes, including earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, floods, and hurricanes. The course includes discussion of the social, economic, and policy contexts within which natural geologic processes become hazards. Case studies are drawn from contemporary and ancient societies. Lecture three hours a week.

Quantitative Methods (QM)

Quantitative Readiness Required (QR)

Scientific Investigation (SI)

Counts Toward Environmental Studies

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GERM B217 Representing Diversity in German Cinema

Not offered 2024-25

German society has undergone drastic changes as a result of immigration. Traditional notions of Germanness have been and are still being challenged and subverted. This course uses films and visual media to examine the experiences of various minority groups living in Germany. Students will learn about the history of immigration of different ethnic groups, including Turkish Germans, Afro-Germans, Asian Germans, Arab Germans, German Jews, and ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe. We will explore discourses on migration, racism, xenophobia, integration, and citizenship. We will seek to understand not only the historical and contemporary contexts for these films but also their relevance for reshaping German society. Students will be introduced to modern German cinema from the silent era to the present. They will acquire terminology and methods for reading films as fictional and aesthetic representations of history and politics, and analyze identity construction in the worlds of the real and the reel. This course is taught in English

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Power, Inequity, and Justice (PIJ)

Counts Toward Gender/Sex Studies (Min/Conc)

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GERM B245 Interdisciplinary Approaches to German Literature and Culture

Section 001 (Fall 2023): Scenes of Observation:

Not offered 2024-25

This is a topics course. Taught in German. Course content varies. Previous topics include, Women's Narratives on Modern Migrancy, Exile, and Diasporas; Nation and Identity in Post-War Austria.

Writing Attentive

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Counts Toward Gender/Sex Studies (Min/Conc)

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GERM B321 Advanced Topics in German Cultural Studies

Section 001 (Fall 2023): Asia and Germany through Film
Section 001 (Spring 2024): The Letter, the Spirit, and Beyond
Section 001 (Spring 2025): The Letter, the Spirit, and Beyond

Spring 2025

This is a topics course. Course content varies. Recent topic titles include: Asia and Germany through Film; The Letter, the Spirit, and Beyond: German-Jewish Writers and Jewish Culture in the 18th and 19th Century.

Current topic description: The Letter, the Spirit, and Beyond: German-Jewish Writers and Jewish Culture in the 18th and 19th Century: While Jewish history extends well over a thousand years in German-speaking lands, the political, cultural, and social changes in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries lay the foundation for German-Jewish relations today, and begin articulating new dimensions of the experiences the "Other," treated metaphorically through the tension between the "Letter" and the "Spirit." Starting in the Age of Reason, this course focuses on depictions of Jewishness in the literary works and intellectual contributions by German and German-Jewish authors, and explores ways in which German-Jewish identity goes beyond "the Letter" and "the Spirit." The fragile utopia of religious tolerance staged in Lessing's Nathan the Wise is followed by grotesque antisemitic tropes in the folk tales and fairy tales in Romanticism, and in other nationalist, artistic endeavors such as those by Richard Wagner. Stories of disguise, concealment, and intrigue double as metaphors of assimilation and conversion of Jewish life, highlighting the complicated and conflicted place of many German-Jewish writers. The salons cultivated and attended by German-Jewish women such as Rahel Varnhagen and Fanny Lewald yield generative, philosophical thought and intellectual contributions. We will conclude by looking at twentieth century German-Jewish writers after the Holocaust, and the status of antisemitism and philosemitism in Germany today.

Course does not meet an Approach

Power, Inequity, and Justice (PIJ)

Counts Toward Gender/Sex Studies (Min/Conc)

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GNST B245 Introduction to Latin American, Iberian and Latina/o Studies

Not offered 2024-25

A broad, interdisciplinary survey of themes uniting and dividing societies from the Iberian Peninsula to the Americas. The class introduces the methods and interests of all departments in the concentration, posing problems of cultural continuity and change, globalization and struggles within dynamic histories, political economies, and creative expressions. Course is taught in English.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Power, Inequity, and Justice (PIJ)

Counts Toward International Studies

Counts Toward Latin American,Iberian,Latinx

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HART B103 Survey of Western Architecture

Not offered 2024-25

The major traditions in Western architecture are illustrated through detailed analysis of selected examples from classical antiquity to the present. The evolution of architectural design and building technology, and the larger intellectual, aesthetic, and social context in which this evolution occurred, are considered. This course was formerly numbered HART B253; students who previously completed HART B253 may not repeat this course.

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

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HART B110 Introduction to Medieval Art and Architecture

Fall 2024

This course takes a broad geographic and chronological scope, allowing for full exposure to the rich variety of objects and monuments that fall under the rubric of "medieval" art and architecture. We focus on the Latin and Byzantine Christian traditions, but also consider works of art and architecture from the Islamic and Jewish spheres. Topics to be discussed include: the role of religion in artistic development and expression; secular traditions of medieval art and culture; facture and materiality in the art of the middle ages; the use of objects and monuments to convey political power and social prestige; gender dynamics in medieval visual culture; and the contribution of medieval art and architecture to later artistic traditions. This course was formerly numbered HART B212; students who previously completed HART B212 may not repeat this course.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

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HART B268 Telling Bryn Mawr Histories: Topics, Sources, and Methods

Not offered 2024-25

This course introduces students to archival and object-based research methods, using the College's built environment and curatorial and archival collections as our laboratory. Students will explore buildings, documents, objects, and themes in relation to the history of Bryn Mawr College. Students will frame an original group research project to which each student will contribute an individual component. Prerequisite: An interest in exploring and reinterpreting the institutional and architectural history of Bryn Mawr College and a willingness to work collaboratively on a shared project.

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HART B310 Topics in Medieval Art

Section 001 (Fall 2023): Art and Medieval Jewish Communities
Section 001 (Spring 2024): Africa & Byzantium

Fall 2024

This is a topics course. Course content varies. Prerequisite: one course in History of Art at the 100- or 200-level or permission of the instructor. Enrollment preference given to majors and minors in History of Art.

Course does not meet an Approach

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HART B330 Topics in Renaissance and Baroque Art

Section 001 (Fall 2023): Palladio and neo-Palladianism
Section 001 (Spring 2024): The Fresco

Not offered 2024-25

This is a topics course. Course content varies. This course was formerly numbered HART B323.

Course does not meet an Approach

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HART B346 The History of London Since the Eighteenth Century

Spring 2025

Selected topics of social, literary, and architectural concern in the history of London, emphasizing London since the 18th century. This course was formerly numbered HART B355; students who previously completed HART B355 may not repeat this course. Prerequisite: one course in History of Art at the 100- or 200-level or permission of the instructor. Enrollment preference given to majors and minors in History of Art.

Course does not meet an Approach

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HART B370 Topics in History & Theory of Photography

Not offered 2024-25

This is a topics course. Course content varies. Prerequisite: one course in History of Art at the 100- or 200-level or permission of the instructor. Enrollment preference given to majors and minors in History of Art. This course was formerly numbered HART B308.

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HIST B237 Themes in Modern African History

Section 001 (Spring 2024): Public History in Africa

Not offered 2024-25

This is a topics course. Course content varies

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward Africana Studies

Counts Toward Gender/Sex Studies (Min/Conc)

Counts Toward International Studies

Counts Toward Museum Studies

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HIST B319 Topics in Modern European History

Section 001 (Fall 2024): History of Sexology

Fall 2024

This is a topics course. Course content varies.

Current topic description: The course examines the history of sexology in Europe from the late 19th century to the present. We will explore the emergence and development of sexology as a scientific discipline, tracing its cultural, social, and medical roots. Through the works of pioneering works of figures like Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Havelock Ellis or Sigmund Freud to less known but equally influential sexologists like Kurt Freund and Vilmos Szilágyi, the course traces the evolution of sexology in both Western and Eastern Europe. We will consider both the societal contexts that influenced the development of sexological theories and the impact of these theories on broader cultural attitudes toward gender and sexuality.

Counts Toward International Studies

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HIST B325 Topics in Social History

Section 001 (Fall 2023): American Health Politics

Fall 2024

This a topics course that explores various themes in American social history. Course content varies. Course may be repeated. Current topic description Health care in America has always been political. From historical debates to modern controversies, this course explores the social and cultural dimensions of American medicine and public health, with particular attention to their politics. Incorporating analysis of primary historical sources, we will examine issues such as health activism, health insurance reform, medical civil rights battles, reproductive justice, the doctor-patient relationship, and the rise of modern bioethics.

Counts Toward Gender/Sex Studies (Min/Conc)

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ITAL B318 Falling Statues: myth-making in literature, politics and art

Not offered 2024-25

We have become accustomed to the rituals of the dismissal of the heroes of the past: we tear down statues, we rename buildings and places. But how did we get there? How, why and by whom are heroes constructed? When old heroes are questioned, what substitutes them? How are the raise and fall of heroes tied to shifting models of masculinity, womanhood, power and the state? In this course, we will explore these questions focusing on Italy and Russia, two countries that in the 19th and 20th century went through several cycles of construction and deconstruction of their political heroes. In the first part of the course, we will investigate the codification of the "type" of the freedom-fighter in the representations of the protagonists of 19th-century European revolutionary movements, focusing on the links between the Italian Risorgimento and the anti-Tsarist movement in Russia, culminating in the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. From the pamphlets that consecrated the Italian Garibaldi as the "hero of the two worlds" to the autobiographies of the Russian terrorists and the transcripts of their trials, we will investigate myth-making as a constitutive part of political movements and reflect on the models of masculinity and womanhood at the foundation of the "typical" revolutionary hero. In the second part of the semester, we will focus on Stalinism and Fascism, systems that exploited their revolutionary roots to mobilize supporters in favor of oppressive institutions. Finally, we will discuss the many ways in which 19th - and 20th-century heroes have been confronted, neutralized, dismantled - and the many ways in which their models still haunt us. We will focus on literary texts and political speeches, but we will also analyze propaganda posters, movies, paintings, photographs, monuments and even street names. For your final project, you will have the option of building on our class discussions to explore myth-making in contemporary movements or forms of deconstruction of existing heroes.

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MEST B210 The Art and Architecture of Islamic Spirituality

Not offered 2024-25

This course examines how Muslim societies across time and space have used art and architecture in different ways to express and understand inner dimensions of spirituality and mysticism. Topics to be studied include: the calligraphical remnants of the early Islamic period; inscriptions found on buildings and gravestones; the majestic architecture of mosques, shrines, seminaries, and Sufi lodges; the brilliant arts of the book; the commemorative iconography and passion plays of Ashura devotion; the souvenir culture of modern shrine visitation; and the modern art of twenty-first century Sufism. Readings include works from history, religious studies, anthropology, sociology, and the history of art and architecture.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Counts Toward MECANA Studies

Counts Toward Visual Studies

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POLS B256 Global Politics of Climate Change

Not offered 2024-25

This course will introduce students to important political issues raised by climate change locally, nationally, and internationally, paying particular attention to the global implications of actions at the national and subnational levels. It will focus not only on specific problems, but also on solutions; students will learn about some of the technological and policy innovations that are being developed worldwide in response to the challenges of climate change. Only open to students in 360 program.

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SOCL B200 Urban Sociology

Not offered 2024-25

How do social forces shape the places we live? What makes a place urban? What is a suburb and why do we have them? What's environmental racism? Why are cities in the US still highly racially segregated? We will take on these questions and more in this introduction to urban sociology. Classic and contemporary urban social theories will inform our investigations of empirical research on pressing urban issues such as housing segregation, the environment, suburbanization, transportation and inequality. The course has a special focus on the social, economic and political forces that shape in urban space in ways that perpetuate inequality for African Americans.

Course does not meet an Approach

Counts Toward Africana Studies

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SOCL B205 Social Inequality

Spring 2025

In this course, we will explore the extent, causes, and consequences of social and economic inequality in the U.S. We will begin by discussing key theories and the intersecting dimensions of inequality along lines of income and wealth, race and ethnicity, and gender. We will then follow a life-course perspective to trace the institutions through which inequality is structured, experienced, and reproduced through the family, neighborhoods, the educational system, labor markets and workplaces, and the criminal justice system.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Counts Toward Child and Family Studies

Counts Toward Gender/Sex Studies (Min/Conc)

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SOCL B338 The Black Diaspora in the US: African and Caribbean Communities.

Not offered 2024-25

An examination of the socioeconomic experiences of immigrants who arrived in the United States since the landmark legislation of 1965. After exploring issues of development and globalization at "home" leading to migration, the course proceeds with the study of immigration theories. Major attention is given to the emergence of transnational identities and the transformation of communities, particularly in the northeastern United States.

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