Elective Graduate Courses Spring 2008

CLT 601.01/EGL 611.01 Theorizing the Archive
E. Ann Kaplan / Susan Scheckel
Tuesday 12:50 - 3:40pm Humanities 1008

The archive has long been understood as foundational to the study of history.  In recent years, the concept of the archive has emerged as a powerful site, both literal and symbolic, for the production and articulation of knowledge in the humanities.  In the wake of a heavy emphasis on abstract (often philosophical) theory, there has been a call from some humanities scholars to return to the archive. At the same time, theoretical investigations have opened up questions regarding the status of the archive itself as something constructed, mediated, fragmentary, and highly political. This course participates in this moment of re-evaluation by exploring, from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, the theories and practices of the archive. 

We will begin by interrogating various definitions of the archive—as history, as memory, as affect, to name just a few.  We will proceed to question the role of forgetting in relation to the archive.  Is there such a thing as an “impossible archive”?  What histories are erased, not archived? Can silences be made to speak meaningfully?  Other questions we will consider include:  How does the archive maintain or disrupt power relations?  What is the nature and foundation of the representational and symbolic power of the archive?  “How might an “archive of the future” be conceived? 

Readings will include works by:  Michel Foucault, Carolyn Steedman, Ann Stoler, Edward Casey, Cathy Caruth, Dori Laub, Ann Cvetkovich, Roland Barthes, Susan Sontag, Jacques Derrida.  In addition we will read articles from special issues of History of the Human Sciences and English Language Notes devoted to theorizing the archive, and selections from an anthology, Refiguring the Archive. 

Students will be expected to participate fully in seminar discussion, to write a seminar paper applying the concepts and theories explored in the course to a particular project grounded in an “archive” from their particular fields of study, and to present to the class a portion of their own work in progress.

CLT 608.01 Cross-Cultural Contexts: Creative Imagination in Islamic Thought
William Chittick, 6:50 - 9:40 pm, Humanities 2052

In 1958 the phenomenologist Henry Corbin published L’Imagination créatrice dans le Soufisme d’Ibn ‘Arabi (English translation in the Bollingen series, Princeton University Press, 1964).  With this and several other seminal studies of Muslim philosophers and mystics, Corbin argued persuasively that the reality of the imaginal (not the “imaginary”) played a central role in the more sophisticated Muslim understandings of the world and the soul.  He also demonstrated that the perception of the real presence of this third, intermediary realm, halfway between the spiritual and bodily, allowed scholars and poets to see into the symbolism of scripture, grasp the nature of visionary experience, and avoid reducing reality to the apparent.  It was the real perception of this intermediate realm, says Corbin, that  prevented the sort of philosophical moves that in the West led to Cartesian dualism and all its consequences.  With Corbin in the background, we will look at a selection of translated writings from a few of the outstanding theoreticians and poets of Islamic civilization.   Besides Ibn Arabi (d. 1240), we will read philosopher-theologians like al-Ghazali (d. 1111), Suhrawardi (d. 1191), and Mulla Sadra (d. 1640) and mystic poets like Ibn al-Farid (d. 1235) and Rumi (d. 1273). 

CLT 609.01/CST 609.01 Politics of Cultural Translation
E.K. Tan, Wednesday 3:50 - 6:40 p.m. Humanities 2052

Building his theory of cultural translation based on the positionality of “the Other,” in relation and reaction to Western theories, Homi Bhabha problematizes the celebration of difference and hybridity. As a counter narrative, Bhabha promotes the examination of political and social inequalities generated by the hegemonic western discourses of cultural relativitism and multiculturalism. The topography of our world, demarcated into boundaries such as “first-worlds” and “third-worlds,” has conveniently naturalized a value system that legitimizes the unequal power dissemination in the realms of the economic, political and cultural. This course surveys works by both “Western” and “non-Western” theorists in order to examine the historical development, political agendas, and logical structures of cultural exchange. Culture, in this context, is employed as a general term to facilitate the discussion of interactions between national, communal, social and ethnic groups. By acknowledging the imbalance nature of cultural exchange, this course will focus on (re)conceptualizing cultural translation as a process that destabilizes and reevaluates the structural pattern of global cultural flows and productions.

Core course for Cultural Studies Certificate

CST 680.01 Research Seminar
Krin Gabbard, Monday 3:50-6:40 p.m. Humanities 2052

Any student in the Humanities will benefit from this course, a workshop on how to write a scholarly article worthy of publication in a journal.  Students will learn the methods and tools of research and familiarize themselves with the journals in their areas of special interest.  We will analyze exemplary articles selected by the students themselves in order to understand how a publishable essay is constructed and argued.  The final project, due in the twelfth week of the semester, will be an essay that the student can then send out for consideration at a scholarly journal.

Core course for Cultural Studies Certificate

EGL 587.01 Topics in Race, Ethnic or Diaspora Studies: Black British Cultural Studies
Helen Cooper, Tuesday 3:50-6:50 p.m. Humanities 2030

Until recently Black British Literature referred to works by people who lived in Britain but whose origins lay in the Caribbean, Africa, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.  That is, either these writers or their families originated from countries which Britain had once colonized as part of its vast Empire. Recently, however, the different cultural situations of those of African, Caribbean, and South Asian origin proved the term “Black British,” while once a useful political and activist category, to be problematic.  In this course, we will read literature and watch films which address the diverse nature of Black British cultural producers. I will select readings from the some of the following: Abdulrazak Gurnah, Hanif Kureishi, Zadie Smith, Jackie Kay, Meera Syal, Caryl Phillips, Fred D’Aguiar, David Dabydeen, and Bernadine Evaristo.  Writing requirements: a series of 1-2 page responses to readings, and two 5-6 page papers or a 10-12 page paper.

EGL 611.2/WST 610 Fashion: In Theory/In Film
Professor Munich, Thursday 3:50-6:40 p.m. Humanities 2094

Fashion has been one of the most influential phenomena in Western civilization since the early modern period. With its introduction in the modern period, film has arguably been the most influential among the media. This course considers fashion theory along side some films about fashion and some film figures who have become fashion icons.  Drawing from a range of disciplines, sociology, cultural studies, material culture, philosophy, media studies, we will read a range of theorists such as Roland Barthes, Pierre Bourdieu Giles Lipovetsky,  John Berger, Thorstein Veblen, Joanne Entwistle, Joan DeJean and others. The course is intended as an opportunity to theorize about the interconnections between cinema and fashion, with films as case studies and opportunities for original work.  In conjunction with the course, there will be a one-day symposium on film and fashion on February 23, featuring outstanding scholars in the intersections of film and fashion.  Students are expected to give short seminar reports, attend the fashion symposium, and prepare a researched seminar project, written, visual, or a combination, based on the knowledge gained from the seminar.   

EGL 606.01 The Career of William Wordsworth in Context
Peter Manning, Wednesday 3:50-6:50 p.m. Humanities 2094

This seminar will track the range of Wordsworth's career from the 1790s though to the 1840s, setting his work against selected contemporaries--poems by Scott and Byron, reviews by Jeffrey, Hazlitt, and others, perhaps some of the Biographia Literaria. There will be some texts for purchase, such as the Routledge edition of Lyrical Ballads and the Norton Critical edition of the Prelude. but much of the reading is out of print, and assignments will depend heavily on reserve books or Internet downloads. For convenience students interested in the course should get a copy of the old Oxford Standard Authors Wordsworth, edited by Hutchinson (later editions revised by DeSelincourt), out of print but copies are listed at ABEBooks at moderate prices. Stephen Gill's William Wordsworth: A Life is also recommended. Course mechanics: participation in discussion, a 20 page essay at the end that can be worked up to with shorter papers during the term.

HIS 615 The Modern State from an Historical Perspective
Themis Chronopoulos
Monday 4:30-7:30pm SBS S309

This course will review classic works on state formation and consolidation since the 16th century, examine contemporary approaches to the study of the state; and explore the challenges that many states have been experiencing as a result of late-twentieth century events and processes such as the end of the cold war, neoliberalism, regionalism, and warlordism. Course requirements include the reading of all assignments, regular in-class contributions, and a stubstantial research paper.

PHI 506.60 Philosophy of Architecture
Martin Woessner, HTBA, Manhattan

Since Socrates, philosophy and architecture have been in constant dialogue with each other.  Both inform our sense of ourselves, especially insofar as they shape our culture, our lives, our work-places, and our homes.  This course explores the relationship of philosophy and architecture with the ultimate aim of articulating a working understanding of both contemporary architectural discourse as well as contemporary philosophy.  Beginning with a meditation on the shared origins of both disciplines, we will proceed to analyze architecture from various vantage points, including those of aesthetics, phenomenology, and postmodernism.  Specific issues to be addressed include the capitalist production of space, the uses of architecture for pleasure and for punishment, and what Karsten Harries has called “the ethical function of architecture.”  In addition to Harries, we will read and discuss works by such thinkers as Gaston Bachelard, Jean Baudrillard, Michel Foucault, Elizabeth Grosz, and Jürgen Habermas, Martin Heidegger, and Christian Norberg-Schulz.  Class requirements include two presentations, and a final research paper.     

PHI 507.60 The Production of Space: Heri Lefebvre
Eduardo Mendieta, HTBA-Manhattan

In this seminar we will focus on the work of Henri Lefebvre, specifically on his work on the social production of space. We will study closely his classic work The Production of Space, as well as the essays now collected in Writings on Cities, as well as the Urban Revolution and Rythmanalysis. We will also read his Introduction to Modernity, and time permitted, we will have a look at his work on the Critique of Everyday Life and how it relates to his pioneering work on spatiality and topology. We will compare Lefebvre’s work with that of Foucault, de Certeau, Harvey, and Massey.

508.60 Philosophy and Literature: Proust and the Arts
Mary Rawlinson, Wednesday 5:00 p.m. HTBA-Manhattan

Plato describes philosophy’s “old quarrel” with art over truth as an “ancient enmity.”  Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu explicitly identifies itself as a philosophical project engaging this debate about truth in art.  As part of his “philosophical vocation,” the hero encounters a series of artists whose works educate him about the epistemology of art: Berma on theatre, Vinteuil on music, Elstir on painting, and, most importantly, Bergotte on literature. As a result of this education, the hero concludes that philosophy must become literature in order to achieve its own philosophical aims. After a brief review of the “old quarrel” between philosophy and art over truth in Plato and Kant, we will focus on Proust’s analysis of these arts and the account of philosophical truth that emerges from it.  The course will include a number of field trips and performances. (Proust’s fictional artists are based on actual historical figures, e.g., Turner and Vermeer, among others, are prototypes for Elstir, so we will spend some time engaging the works that provided the models for Proust’s analyses.) Assignments for the course will be based on individual contracts, reflecting each student’s interest and experience.

PHI 509.60 Racialized Oppressions and the Idea of Humanity
Eva Kittay, HTBA, Manhattan

 When one reads accounts of slavery, of genocide, of the systematic denial of rights to a group because of a racial identity, the question always arises whether the oppressors view the racialized other as fully human?  I want to explore this question and the meaning of what it means to view an individual or group as fully human.  How have philosophical understandings of the moral importance and the moral meaning of “humanity” served to exacerbate, moderate or fight against racial oppression?  How does racial and gender oppression compare in this respect?  Is there a comparison to be made between racial oppression and the treatment accorded to disabled people with respect to the understanding of what it is to be human?  Does shifting the ground from a biologically based concept such as “humanity” to a philosophical concept of “personhood” serve to justify or serve as a tool against these identity-based oppressions?  Does shifting the ground justify the analogy of racism with the abuse of animals, as in the idea of “speciesism”?  We will explore as many of these questions as interest dictates and time permits. We will read works by Harriet Jacobs, W.E.B.Du Bois, Charles Mills, Joshua Cohen, Hannah Arendt, Claudia Card, Linda Alcoff, Jonathan Glover, among others.

PHI 616 Philosophy and Technology [The technoscience research seminar]
Don Ihde, Monday, 2:00-4:00 p.m.

 Spring term continues the tradition of the technoscience seminar readings in the philosophy of science, philosophy of technology and science studies disciplines.  Only living authors are read, and a principal author will be roasted sometime during the term.  All participants will develop their own research projects and have opportunity to present results.  This last term, five Ph.D. students presented papers at the Society for the Social Study of Science in Montreal and were highly acclaimed.  The seminar is deeply international with current and coming Visiting Scholars from Belgium, China and Sweden.
     The spring term roastee will be Paul Forman, Curator of Medicine and Science at the Smithsonian.  Forman is an intellectual historian and the editor of the most recent issue of History of Technology.  His thesis is that in intellectual history science was seen as primary in modernity, but with the onset of postmodernity technology becomes primary, a shift which most historians, he claims, missed.  We will be reading this and other contemporary works during spring term.    Questions may be addressed to Don Ihde, director of the seminar.