Social Sciences
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CGS SS 101: Introduction to Historical Sociology and the Social Sciences
Introduces the student to the basic tools of anthropology, sociology, social psychology, economics, and history. Students examine and apply the methods and principal concepts of these disciplines to the problems of contemporary society. The course introduces the structures and processes involved in an analysis of culture, society, the socialization process, social stratification, and social institutions. Cross-cultural inquiry demonstrates the universal social needs of people and illustrates how these can be met in a variety of social configurations. -
CGS SS 102: Social Change and Modernization in the Western World
This course examines the social change in the West. The focus of this semester's work is a case study of social and cultural transformation from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. The historical phenomena of industrialism, nationalism, imperialism, socialism, communism, and fascism - all of which are elements of the process of modernization - are examined both in their historical contexts and within the framework of theories of social change. The historical case study offers the student a vehicle for analyzing in depth the impact of these phenomena on the life, institutions, and ways of thinking of a given society. -
CGS SS 103: Changing Times, Changing Minds: Revolutions in the Ancient World through the Enlightenment
This course examines social change in ideologies, governance, economies, and social structures of the Western world. It will consider the rise of monotheism and democracy in the ancient world, the role of trade in economic and political development, and shifts in social inequalities. It will look at challenges to authority with the Reformation, the political philosophies of the Enlightenment, and their impact on the social and political revolutions of the 18th century. Along the way, students gain familiarity with the social science "toolkit" of analytical concepts. Course themes of social, cultural, political, and economic change will be illustrated by sites in southern New England. [Open only to students admitted to the CGS January Program] -
CGS SS 104: Changing Times, Changing Minds: The Industrial Revolution to the Digital Revolution
This course focuses on social change in ideologies, governance, economies, and social structures of the West. It looks at technological innovation, the triumphs and trials of capitalism, and the impact of industrial society on ordinary workers. It considers the views of classical liberalism and its twin challengers, communism and fascism. It examines the devastation of industrialized warfare and racialized mass murder and the new international structures that resulted. It concludes with the globalization of economies and social structures in the digital revolution. Our study of social change will be deepened by visits to relevant sites in England and France. [Open only to students admitted to the CGS January Program] -
CGS SS 201: Social Change and Modernization in the Non-Western World: China and Russia.
This course centers on two case studies in rapid modernization: Russia and China. Russia, the Soviet Union, and its successor, the Confederation of Independent States, are considered as recent examples of rapid social change and serve as the basis for a comparison of the problems of modernization in contemporary China. The historical roots of Western industrialism, the culture of the non-Western peoples as it affects their responses to Western experiences, and the dramatic complexities of social change combine to challenge the students' grasp of the problems facing the modern world. -
CGS SS 202: America's Response to Aggression and Revolution: U.S. Foreign Policy Since the 1930s
This course focuses on the reaction of the United States to the revolutionary changes that have taken place abroad in the post-World War II era. After considering the events that destroyed the wartime relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union, the course examines how fear of communism operated as a prism through which our government viewed both foreign and domestic affairs. The factors that led to America's involvement in Vietnam, to the American-Soviet detente in the 1970s, to the nuclear arms race, and, ultimately, to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end the cold war are examined. All of these developments are studied with a view toward answering how our national interests should be defined and pursued in the post-cold war world. -
CGS SS 250: Death and the Victorians
Examines the key place "death" occupied in the Victorian cultural and social imagination, using an interdisciplinary approach for its materials and for its method. The course will focus on literary and artistic portrayals of death and mourning, demographic and cultural change, the origins of medical epidemiology, the rise of spiritualism, and shifting views of the meaning of life and death in a modernizing world. Required materials, assignments, and experiential exercises (such as an excursion to Cambridge's Mount Auburn Cemetery) reinforce trans-Atlantic connections and the prevalence of cultural attitudes about death and mourning.
