With Jaime Dávila This course will examine the ways in which current technology facilitates and even encourages the collection of information on individuals, the ways in which that information can be used, pros and cons of such tendencies, and a variety of techniques to either expand or restrict the sharing and collection of data. The […]

With Alexis Salas Understanding cinema as one of the most active forces in the visual, political, and social structure of place, we will screen and discuss films that have acted as social agents in the Americas. We will read major thinkers on class, social movements, and colonialism such as Hegel, Marx, Fanon, Malcom X, Castro, […]

With Patricia Montoya This course will examine historical and contemporary stereotyping and representations of class/race/gender/ethnicity/sexuality in contemporary media, and discuss music videos, documentaries, experimental film and video that challenge such notions. Through readings, screenings and discussions, the class will inquire into the reasons for and consequences of stereotyping and the ways in which tensions of […]

With Daniel Altshuler and Polina Barskova This course will explore how narratives live and die; how society can endanger them and bring them to fruition; how various environments, social and natural, influence production of language and narrative. Among these environments, we will look at writing in and about prison, concentration camps and environmental disaster, with […]

With Donna Cohn This course will look at the issues involved with design and fabrication in situations where there are limited resources. Students will engage in the hands-on study and design of technologies considered appropriate for less developed and small-scale local economies. Topics will include water quality, human powered cargo transportation, energy production, food storage […]

With Ernie Alleva We will examine diverse concerns regarding work: What is “work”? What significance does it have in our lives? How does work vary across social groups, classes, professions, communities, and traditions? How are individual and group identity related to work? What makes work be regarded as easy or hard, desirable or undesirable, meaningful […]

With Marlene Fried Abortion rights continue to be contested in the U.S. and throughout the world. Since the legalization of abortion in the U.S. in 1973, there have been significant erosions in abortion rights and access to abortion. Harassment of abortion clinics, providers, and clinic personnel by opponents of abortion is routine, and there have […]

With Laura Greenfield This interactive seminar for students selected to work as peer mentors with Hampshire’s Transformative Speaking Program will provide an opportunity to help shape the work of a new discipline emerging at the intersections of education, politics, communications, philosophy, anthropology, and critical social thought: peer mentoring in speaking. Students will grapple with questions […]