chaseharmon/MIT_Course_Catalog · Datasets at Hugging Face

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21H.283	The Indigenous History of MIT	Students work with MIT faculty, staff, and alumni, as well as faculty and researchers at other universities and centers, to focus on how Indigenous people and communities have influenced the rise and development of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Students build a research portfolio that will include an original research essay, archival and bibliographic records, maps and images, and other relevant documentary and supporting materials. Limited to 15.	true	Fall	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.284	South Asia, the United States, and MIT: Transformative Connections	Explores the longstanding connections between MIT and South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal) since 1882. Investigates the history of MIT's alumni, faculty, and staff to examine the history of colonization and nation-building in South Asia, race and immigration in the United States, and globalization and technical revolutions across the world. Examines key historical moments of significance to both South Asia and America such as decolonization, the Cold War, and globalization as they intersected with the lives of MIT's South Asian affiliates. Instruction provided in historical methodologies through archival research and oral histories that are showcased in a final project. Limited to 18.	false	Spring	Undergraduate	2-0-10	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.285[J]	Making the Modern World: The Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective	Global survey of the great transformation in history known as the "Industrial Revolution." Topics include origins of mechanized production, the factory system, steam propulsion, electrification, mass communications, mass production and automation. Emphasis on the transfer of technology and its many adaptations around the world. Countries treated include Great Britain, France, Germany, the US, Sweden, Russia, Japan, China, and India. Includes brief reflection papers and a final paper.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	STS.025[J]	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.289	History Near and Dear: Writing Yourself into History	Studies a broad range of writers who have investigated their family history or an instance of local history near and dear to their hearts. Examines questions about historical and emotional truths, memory and identity and place, and the ability of individual experience to illuminate a broader social and political history. Selected texts are simultaneously narrative nonfiction, investigative memoir, and cultural criticism. Students produce a paper investigating an aspect of their own family or local history. Exercises include workshops, peer-review, reflections, and revisions.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	CI-H
21H.290	Economic Classics: The History of Economic Ideas from Ancient Times to the Present	Surveys the history of economics by introducing students to some of the most powerful and influential economic thinkers, from Xenophon and Huan K'uan through Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Paul Samuelson, to Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. Explores the evolution of key economic concepts — the state and the market, natural resources, and crises — by situating them in historical context and perspective. Through the close reading, analysis and discussion of some of the most important texts in the history of economic thought, traces the development of ideas, norms and ways of thinking that continue to shape decision-making in both daily life and global policy. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.315	American Consumer Culture	Examines the role of commerce and consumption in shaping American life. Introduces theoretical approaches to commodities and consumerism. Explores social and cultural transformations linked to the emergence of a market economy in the 19th century, the rise of a mass consumer society in the 20th century, and the development of a global digital marketplace in the 21st century.	false	Fall	Undergraduate	2-0-10	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.317	Free Expression, Pluralism, and the University (New)	Explores how American higher education has grappled with the hard questions that live at the intersection of free expression, academic freedom, and the commitment to a diverse and inclusive learning environment. Discusses the history and law of free speech and academic freedom and considers the contemporary disputes that have arisen over these values. Studies the responses of American university communities (public and private) to these conflicts since the 1950s: the bitter contests over McCarthy-era loyalty oaths, the student-led civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protests of the 1960s, the hate speech codes of the 1990s, and today's ongoing turf wars over so-called "cancel culture" and control of teaching and the curriculum.	true	Fall	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.319	Race, Crime, and Citizenship in American Law	Provides an introduction to the law of race in the United States, focusing on the development of America's criminal justice system since Reconstruction. Examines ongoing debates over whether "mass incarceration" amounts to an instrument of racial control. Considers the relationship between American race legislation and changing definitions of citizenship at key moments in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Case studies include immigration restriction, the death penalty, criminal procedure, and national security policing before and after 9/11.	true	Fall	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Social Sciences	False
21H.320[J]	Gender and the Law in US History	Explores the legal history of the US as a gendered system. Examines how women have shaped the meanings of American citizenship through pursuit of political rights such as suffrage, jury duty, and military service, as well as how the legal system has shaped gender relations through regulation of such issues as marriage, divorce, work, reproduction, and the family. Readings draw from primary and secondary materials, focusing on the broad historical relationship between law and society. No legal knowledge is required or assumed.	true	Fall	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	WGS.161[J]	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.321[J]	Downtown	Seminar on downtown in US cities from the late 19th century to the late 20th. Emphasis on downtown as an idea, place, and cluster of interests, on the changing character of downtown, and on recent efforts to rebuild it. Considers subways, skyscrapers, highways, urban renewal, and retail centers. Focus on readings, discussions, and individual research projects. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	2-0-7	null	11.026[J]	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.322	Christianity in America	Examines Christian encounters with Judaism, Islam, and the indigenous religions of Africa and America. Explores the intellectual and social consequences of Christian imperialism and the transformations of Christianity during its American encounters.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.330	Ancient Empires: Persians and Greeks in Antiquity	Explores interactions between Greeks and Persians in the Mediterranean and Near East from the Archaic Period to the Hellenistic Age, and works to illuminate the interface between these two distinct yet complementary cultures. Examines the general narrative of Greco-Persian history, from the foundation of the Achaemenid Empire in the middle of the sixth century BCE to the Macedonian conquest of Persia some 250 years later. Discusses how contact between Persia and the Greeks in antiquity has influenced discourse about the opposition between East and West in the modern world. Students examine archaeological, epigraphical, numismatic, and literary materials from a variety of sources including Greek historiography, tragedy, and oratory; Persian royal inscriptions and administrative documents; and the Hebrew Bible.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.331	Julius Caesar and the Fall of the Roman Republic	Ancient Rome from 133 to 27 BC. Explores political, social, and economic factors commonly offered to explain the fall of the Roman Republic: growth of the territorial empire, increased intensity of aristocratic competition, transformation of the Italian economy, growth of the city of Rome and dependence of the urban plebs, changes in military recruitment and dependence of soldiers on their generals. Emphasis on the reading of ancient sources in translation, including Cicero, Sallust, Caesar, Augustus, Appian, Plutarch, and Suetonius. Instruction and practice in oral and written communication provided. Taught in seminar format with emphasis on class participation. Limited to 15.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.332	Medieval Warfare (New)	Investigates the organization and conduct of war in the medieval world, from barbarian invasions in Late Antiquity to the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. Explores continuities and transformations in warfare from the late Roman empire to the successor kingdoms of medieval Europe, Byzantium, and the Muslim world. Examines the complex interplay between war, politics, and society, and problematizes popular images of medieval warfare as primitive, heroic, and chivalric. Topics include the barbarian invasions of the Roman empire, the expansion of Islam, Charlemagne's subjugation of the Saxons, the Viking raids, castle building and siege warfare, the Norman Conquest and Crusades, and ideologies of just war, holy war, and jihad.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.333	Early Christianity	Introduction to the history of early Christianity, from Jesus to Muhammad. Investigates the origins and spread of the Jesus movement within the ancient Jewish and Roman worlds, the emergence of the Church, and the diversity of early Christian thought, spirituality, literature, and art. Examines such topics as the historical Jesus and Paul, relations among Jews, Romans, and Christians, debates over orthodoxy and heresy, the conversion of the Roman empire, the rise of bishops and monasticism, the Church Fathers, and the cult of the saints.	true	Fall	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.336	The Making of a Roman Emperor	Through close examination of the emperor Augustus and his Julio-Claudian successors, this subject investigates how Roman emperors used art, architecture, coinage, and other media to create and project an image of themselves, how the surviving literary sources from the Roman period reinforced or subverted that image, and how both phenomena have contributed to post-classical perceptions of Roman emperors. Also considers works of Suetonius and Tacitus, and modern representations of the emperors such as those found in the films I, Claudius, Quo Vadis, and HBO's Rome series. Enrollment limited to 15.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.343[J]	Making Books in the Renaissance and Today	Explores the impact of new technology on the recording and distribution of words and images in Europe from 1400-1800. Assignments include essays and online projects. Students participate in the design and printing of an eight-page pamphlet on a hand-set printing press. Limited to 12.	true	Fall, Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	CC.120[J]	false	false	false	False	Arts	False
21H.350	Business in China Since 1800	Analyzes the characteristics of business in China since 1800 to provide a historical context for its contemporary economic development. Topics include China's place in the world economy; early efforts at state-led industrialization; legal and social frameworks for business; foreign investments, companies, and competition; the emergence of a Chinese business class; the influence of socialism and reform-era politics on business. Includes case studies of contemporary companies and a research project.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.351[J]	Shanghai and China's Modernization	Considers the history and function of Shanghai, from 1840 to the present, and its rise from provincial backwater to international metropolis. Examines its role as a primary point of economic, political, and social contact between China and the world, and the strong grip Shanghai holds on both the Chinese and foreign imagination. Students discuss the major events and figures of Shanghai, critique the classic historiography, and complete an independent project on Shanghai history.	true	Fall	Undergraduate	2-0-10	null	11.153[J]	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.352[J]	Three Kingdoms: From History to Fiction, Comic, Film, and Game	Analyzing core chapters of the great Chinese epic novel, Three Kingdoms, and its adaptations across diverse media, considers what underlies the appeal of this classic narrative over the centuries. Through focus on historical events in the period 206 BC to AD 280, examines the representation of power, diplomacy, war, and strategy, and explores the tension among competing models of political authority and legitimacy. Covers basic elements of classical Chinese political and philosophical thought, and literary and cultural history. Final group project involves digital humanities tools. Readings in translation. Films and video in Chinese with English subtitles.	false	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	21G.042[J], 21L.492[J], CMS.359[J]	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.354	World War II in Asia	Examines World War II in the Asia-Pacific region, starting with the rise of the Japanese Empire after World War I and ending with the Allied occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1952. Highlights the diverse and, at times, contradictory forces in politics, society, and culture that shaped the wartime experiences of the empire's inhabitants.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.357	South Asian Migrations	Studies how and why South Asians, who have migrated to America, Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and the Middle East, are considered a model minority in some countries and unwanted strangers in others. Through literature, memoirs, films, music, and historical writing, follows migrants as they discovered the world beyond their countries of origin: India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Students complete final projects on different aspects of MIT's relationship with the Indian subcontinent including research on South Asian students and alumni.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.358[J]	Colonialism in South Asia and Africa: Race, Gender, Resistance	Provides a comparative perspective on the history of colonialism in India and Africa. Explores the political, social, and economic changes brought about by colonial rule. Discusses the international context for the emergence of European Imperialism in the 19th century; the nature of early colonial expansion and consolidation; the re-invention of tradition in colonial societies, especially with regard to racial and ethnic identity, gender, religion, and caste; and expressions of anti-colonial resistance. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	2-0-10	null	WGS.315[J]	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.361	Echoes of Slavery: Recovering the Histories of Enslaved People (New)	Students conduct archival research about slavery and create a research project to be made available to the public online. Examines archival data from digitized collections online or physical collections in the Boston area. Projects may range from devising an innovative interface for public use of the data or carrying out a demographic study to creating a story map or making a podcast or video. Students write accompanying short essays that situate the data in historical context and document the research projects.	true	Fall	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.363[J]	Abortion: Global and Interdisciplinary Perspectives (New)	Addresses topics such as the development of abortion law in the US and around the world, ethics of abortion and forcible pregnancy, pro- and anti-abortion activism, economics of abortion, and terms related to abortion, including reproductive justice, reproductive rights, bodily autonomy, and fetal politics. Tackles questions including how different societies at different times have approached the question of the removal of a fetus from a human body, who are (or should be) stakeholders in making the decision to deliberately terminate a pregnancy or ban such a decision, and whether abortion was always a "question" that different groups and individuals discussed, evaluated, and regulated. Encourages students to think about this issue in historical context to help them form analytically sound arguments.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	WGS.330[J]	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.365	Minorities and Majorities in the Middle East	Seminar considers "difference" and "sameness" as they have been conceived, experienced, and regulated by peoples of the Middle East, with a focus on the 19th and 20th centuries. First half discusses the Ottoman Empire. Explores how this multiethnic, polyglot empire survived for several relatively peaceful centuries and what happened when its formula for existence was challenged by politics based on mono-ethnic states. Second half focuses on post-Ottoman nation-states, such as Turkey and Egypt, and Western-mandated Arab states, such as Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Iraq. Concludes with a case analysis of Israel.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.380[J]	People and Other Animals	Historical exploration of the ways that people have interacted with their closest animal relatives, for example: hunting, domestication of livestock, exploitation of animal labor, scientific study of animals, display of exotic and performing animals, and pet-keeping. Themes include changing ideas about animal agency and intelligence, our moral obligations to animals, and the limits imposed on the use of animals. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments.	true	Fall	Undergraduate	2-0-10	null	21A.411[J]	false	false	false	False	Social Sciences	False
21H.381[J]	Women and War	Examines women's experiences during and after war and genocide, covering the first half of the 20th century in Europe and the Middle East. Addresses ways in which women's wartime suffering has been used to further a variety of political and social agendas. Discussions focus on a different topic each week, such as sexual violence, women survivors, female perpetrators of genocide, nurses, children of genocidal rape, and the memory of war.	true	Fall	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	WGS.222[J]	false	false	false	False	Social Sciences	False
21H.383	Technology and the Global Economy, 1000-2000	Examines the global history of the last millennium, including technological change, commodity exchange, systems of production, and economic growth. Students engage with economic history, medieval and early modern origins of modern systems of production, consumption and global exchange. Topics include the long pre-history of modern economic development; medieval world systems; the age of discovery, the global crisis of the 17th century; demographic systems, global population movements; the industrial revolution, the rise of the modern consumer; colonialism and empire building; patterns of inequality, within and across states; resources and development; and the threat of climate change to modern economic systems. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Social Sciences	False
21H.385[J]	The Ghetto: From Venice to Harlem	Provides an in-depth look at a modern institution of oppression: the ghetto. Uses literature to examine ghettoization over time and across a wide geographical area, from Jews in Medieval Europe to African-Americans and Latinos in the 20th-century United States. Also explores segregation and poverty in the urban "Third World."	true	Fall	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	11.152[J]	false	false	false	False	Social Sciences	False
21H.388	Global Commodities, American Dreams	Explores how American actors and institutions got the raw materials that built the nation. Approaches commodities as a lens through which to understand a more specific relationship between the United States and the wider world in political, economic, and environmental terms, and examines a global cartography of commodities, resources, and other "stuff" that became enmeshed in American life. Examines materials like sugar, cotton, wheat, bananas, rubber, aluminum, petroleum, uranium, drugs, and others, to trace a pattern of global resource exploitation back to sites of policymaking and consumption in the United States. Explores interconnections between human society and the non-human environment, troubling the boundary often understood to divide them. Includes themes of US empire, environment, labor, consumption, modernity, race, gender, class, and transnationalism. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.	true	Fall	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.390	Theories and Methods in the Study of History	Examines the distinctive ways in which historians in different parts of the world have approached the task of writing history. Explores methodologies used, such as political, social, economic, cultural, and popular histories through the reading and discussion of relevant and innovative texts. Introduces a variety of sources (archival documents, statistical data, film, fiction, memoirs, artifacts, and images) and the ways they can be used to research, interpret, and present the past. Assignments include an original research paper. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.	true	Fall	Undergraduate	3-0-9	Two History subjects or permission of instructor	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21H.391	Undergraduate Independent Study	Individual supervised work for students who wish to explore an area of interest in history. Before registering, a student must plan a course of study with a member of the History Faculty and secure approval from the Head of the History Faculty. Normal maximum is 6 units; exceptional 9-unit projects occasionally approved.	true	Fall, IAP	Undergraduate	rranged	null	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.392	Undergraduate Independent Study	Individual supervised work for students who wish to explore an area of interest in history. Before registering, a student must plan a course of study with a member of the History Faculty and secure approval from the Head of the History Faculty. Normal maximum is 6 units; exceptional 9-unit projects occasionally approved.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	rranged	Permission of instructor	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.C30	Encoding Culture: Computation Methods in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences	Applies computational methods for manipulating and analyzing encoded media, and draws from a wide range of practices including computational linguistics, audio processing, computer vision, and machine learning. Explores what it means to digitally encode and analyze culture. Studies the history and current practice of digitally encoding text, images, audio, and tabular datasets, along with the cultural and social issues implicit in these systems. Confronts the underlying issues of what is lost and gained when we encode culture. Limited to 25.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	6.100A, 6.100B, or 6.100L	null	false	false	false	False	Elective	False
21H.S01	Special Subject: History	Opportunity for group study of special subject not listed in the regular History curriculum.	true	Fall, Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	Permission of instructor	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.S02	Special Subject: History	Opportunity for group study of special subject not listed in the regular History curriculum.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	Permission of instructor	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.S03	Special Subject: History	Opportunity for group study of special subject not listed in the regular History curriculum.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	rranged	null	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.S04	Special Subject: History	Opportunity for group study of special subject not listed in the regular History curriculum.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	2-0-10	null	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.S05	Special Subject: History	Opportunity for group study of special subject not listed in the regular History curriculum.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.THT	History Pre-Thesis Tutorial	Students writing a thesis in History develop their research topics, review relevant research and scholarship, frame their research questions and arguments, choose an appropriate methodology for analysis, and draft the introductory and methodology sections of their theses. Includes substantial practice in writing (with revision) and oral presentations.	true	Fall	Undergraduate	rranged	null	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.THU	History Thesis	Completion of work on the senior major thesis under supervision of a faculty thesis advisor. Includes oral presentation of thesis progress early in the term, assembling and revising the final text, and a final meeting with a committee of faculty evaluators to discuss the successes and limitations of the project. Required for students pursuing a full major in History.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	rranged	21H.THT	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.UR	Undergraduate Research	Individual participation in an ongoing research project. For students in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.	true	Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer	Undergraduate	rranged [P/D/F]	null	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.URG	Undergraduate Research	Individual participation in an ongoing research project. For students in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.	true	Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer	Undergraduate	rranged	null	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.902	Reading Seminar in American History: 1877 to Present	Develops teaching knowledge and research skills through extensive reading and discussion of major works in modern US history. Readings cover a range of topics and historical methods. Students make frequent oral presentations and submit a major work consisting of original research or historiographic interpretation.	true	Spring	Graduate	3-0-9	21H.991 and permission of instructor	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.920	Economic Classics: The History of Economic Ideas from Ancient Times to the Present (New)	Surveys the history of economics by introducing students to some of the most powerful and influential economic thinkers, from Xenophon and Huan K'uan through Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Paul Samuelson, to Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. Explores the evolution of key economic concepts — the state and the market, natural resources, and crises — by situating them in historical context and perspective. Through the close reading, analysis and discussion of some of the most important texts in the history of economic thought, traces the development of ideas, norms and ways of thinking that continue to shape decision-making in both daily life and global policy. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.	true	Spring	Graduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.958	Colonialism in South Asia and Africa: Race, Gender, Resistance	Provides a comparative perspective on the history of colonialism in India and Africa. Explores the political, social, and economic changes brought about by colonial rule. Discusses the international context for the emergence of European Imperialism in the 19th century; the nature of early colonial expansion and consolidation; the re-invention of tradition in colonial societies, especially with regard to racial and ethnic identity, gender, religion, and caste; and expressions of anti-colonial resistance. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.	true	Spring	Graduate	2-0-10	null	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.960[J]	HASTS Dissertation Writing Workshop (New)	Bi-weekly seminar for students in the doctoral program in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology & Society (HASTS) who have completed research and are in the process of writing their dissertations. Each class focuses on a particular element of the writing: organizing chapters, engaging the secondary literature, the art of the vignette, etc. Depending on student needs, some classes may be tailored to anthropological writing or to historical writing. Students are given ample opportunity to workshop draft passages and chapters. For PhD students only. PhD students outside the HASTS program require permission of instructor.	true	Fall	Graduate	1-0-5	null	21A.989[J], STS.860[J]	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.980[J]	People and Other Animals	Historical exploration of the ways that people have interacted with their closest animal relatives, for example: hunting, domestication of livestock, exploitation of animal labor, scientific study of animals, display of exotic and performing animals, and pet-keeping. Themes include changing ideas about animal agency and intelligence, our moral obligations to animals, and the limits imposed on the use of animals. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments.	true	Fall	Graduate	2-0-10	null	21A.419[J]	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.981	Seminar in Nature, Environment, and Empire	Explores the relationship between the study of natural history, both domestic and exotic, by Europeans and Americans, and concrete exploitation of the natural world. Focuses on the 18th and 19th centuries.	true	Fall	Graduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.982	Technology and the Global Economy, 1000-2000	Examines the global history of the last millennium, including technological change, commodity exchange, systems of production, and economic growth. Students engage with economic history, medieval and early modern origins of modern systems of production, consumption and global exchange. Topics include the long pre-history of modern economic development; medieval world systems; the age of discovery, the global crisis of the 17th century; demographic systems, global population movements; the industrial revolution, the rise of the modern consumer; colonialism and empire building; patterns of inequality, within and across states; resources and development; and the threat of climate change to modern economic systems. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.	true	Spring	Graduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.983[J]	Gender: Historical Perspectives	Examines the definition of gender in scientific, societal, and historical contexts. Explores how gender influences state formation and the work of the state, what role gender plays in imperialism and in the welfare state, the ever-present relationship between gender and war, and different states' regulation of the body in gendered ways at different times. Investigates new directions in the study of gender as historians, anthropologists and others have taken on this fascinating set of problems. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.	false	Spring	Graduate	3-0-9	null	WGS.310[J]	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.984[J]	Risk, Fortune, and Futurity	Exploration of interdisciplinary scholarship on risk, chance, and fortune. Begins with a survey of theoretical approaches to the field, then proceeds chronologically to explore the emergence of risk and its impacts on human life in multiple arenas including economics, politics, culture, environment, science, and technology from the 16th century to the present. Open to undergraduates with permission of instructor; consult department for details.	false	Spring	Graduate	3-0-9	null	STS.414[J]	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.985	Money, Credit, and Financial Crisis, 1600-1850	Examines the role of money and credit in the "boom and bust" dynamic that has characterized North Atlantic financial capitalism since its emergence in the late 17th century. Studies the late 17th to the early 19th centuries when the North Atlantic economies (France, Britain, the Netherlands, and their colonial dependencies) developed modern, capitalist institutions and practices of money, credit, and finance. Studies the creation of state banks, stock markets, the relationship between war and finance, and the transition from metallic to paper currency. Explores the explosive politics of speculation, banking, and paper money in the Atlantic revolutionary era and the interdependence of plantation slavery and credit markets in the antebellum period. While 21H.985 and 21H.986 are sequential, students have the option of taking either or both. Open to undergraduates with permission of instructor; consult department for details.	true	Fall	Graduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.986	Money, Credit, and Financial Crisis, 1850-2020	Examines some of the major turning points in the development of the modern (American) financial system: the Civil War Greenback movement, the rise and fall of the gold standard, Wall Street's role in the Caribbean during the interwar period, the crash of 1929, the development of the Federal Reserve, the subprime crisis of 2007-2008, and the international effort to maintain the public bond and corporate borrowing markets under the strains of Covid-19. Concludes with the dollarization of large parts of the global economy, contemporary crises of currency devaluation and hyperinflation in the developing world, and the emergence of cryptocurrencies and digital money. While 21H.985 and 21H.986 are sequential, students have the option of taking either or both. Open to undergraduates with permission of instructor; consult department for details.	true	Spring	Graduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.988	Global Commodities, American Dreams	Explores how American actors and institutions got the raw materials that built the nation. Approaches commodities as a lens through which to understand a more specific relationship between the United States and the wider world in political, economic, and environmental terms, and examines a global cartography of commodities, resources, and other "stuff" that became enmeshed in American life. Examines materials like sugar, cotton, wheat, bananas, rubber, aluminum, petroleum, uranium, drugs, and others, to trace a pattern of global resource exploitation back to sites of policymaking and consumption in the United States. Explores interconnections between human society and the non-human environment, troubling the boundary often understood to divide them. Includes themes of U.S. empire, environment, labor, consumption, modernity, race, gender, class, and transnationalism. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.	true	Fall	Graduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.989	Histories of Extraction and Mining	Explores the period after the Industrial Revolution, with a geographic emphasis on the United States, a major mineral producer and seeker in the wider world. Surveys mineral components of the lithosphere that became valued for an array of purposes above ground. Follows miners, geologists, engineers, investors, policymakers, and canaries into mines from the continental United States to Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Extends beyond political territories to zones of activity, from the oceans to the Arctic to outer space. Asks how mining, unfolding at the local level, interacted with global processes, including the Anthropocene, the latest planetary-scale transformation. Examines the relationship between economic activity and environmental wellbeing, and the consequences of this relationship. Open to advanced undergraduates with permission of instructor. Limited to 15.	true	Spring	Graduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.990[J]	Narrating the Anthropocene: Understanding a Multi-Species Universe	Examines human concern about the planet and how that fixation shapes concepts of time & space, knowledge-production, understandings of what it means to be human and non-human, as well as trends in scholarship, art, culture & politics. Indexes the way numerous actors and institutions came to understand, debate & narrate the Anthropocene, a geological epoch defined by human-induced climate change. Explores how it as a concept has opened up new ways of understanding relations within the planet, including care, accountability & multi-species mutualism. Considers narrative registers as well, how scholars, writers, artists & working people narrate the Anthropocene. Students undertake an original project in research &/or experimental narrative forms inspired by the reading. Limited to 12.	false	Fall	Graduate	3-0-9	null	STS.432[J]	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.991	Theories and Methods in the Study of History	Examines the distinctive ways in which historians in different parts of the world have approached the task of writing history. Explores methodologies used, such as political, social, economic, cultural, and popular histories through the reading and discussion of relevant and innovative texts. Introduces a variety of sources (archival documents, statistical data, film, fiction, memoirs, artifacts, and images) and the ways they can be used to research, interpret, and present the past. Assignments include an original research paper. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.	true	Fall	Graduate	3-0-9	Permission of instructor	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.992	Graduate Independent Study	Individual supervised work for students who wish to explore an area of interest in history. Before registering, a student must plan a course of study with a member of the History Faculty and secure approval from the Head of the History Faculty.	true	Fall, Spring	Graduate	rranged	Permission of instructor	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.993	Graduate Independent Study	Individual supervised work for students who wish to explore an area of interest in history. Before registering, a student must plan a course of study with a member of the History Faculty and secure approval from the Head of the History Faculty.	true	Fall, Spring	Graduate	rranged	Permission of instructor	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21H.999	Teaching History	For qualified graduate students serving as either a teaching assistant or instructor for subjects in History. Enrollment limited by availability of suitable teaching assignments.	true	Fall, Spring	Graduate	rranged [P/D/F]	null	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21L.000[J]	Writing About Literature	Intensive focus on the reading and writing skills used to analyze literary texts such as poems by Emily Dickinson, Shakespeare or Langston Hughes; short stories by Chekhov, Joyce, or Alice Walker; and a short novel by Melville or Toni Morrison. Designed not only to prepare students for further work in writing and literary and media study, but also to provide increased confidence and pleasure in their reading, writing, and analytical skills. Students write or revise essays weekly. Enrollment limited.	false	Fall, Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	21W.041[J]	false	false	false	False	Humanities	CI-HW
21L.001	Foundations of Western Literature: Homer to Dante	Studies a broad range of texts essential to understanding the two great sources of Western conceptions of the world and humanity's place within it: the ancient world of Greece and Rome and the Judeo-Christian world that challenged and absorbed it. Readings vary but usually include works by Homer, Sophocles, Aristotle, Plato, Virgil, St. Augustine, and Dante. Enrollment limited.	true	Fall	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	CI-H
21L.002	Foundations of Western Literature: From Shakespeare to the Present	A broad survey of texts, literary, philosophical, and sociological, studied to trace the growth of secular humanism, the loss of a supernatural perspective upon human events, and changing conceptions of individual, social, and communal purpose. Stresses appreciation and analysis of texts that came to represent the common cultural possession of our time. Enrollment limited.	true	Fall	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	CI-H
21L.003	Reading Fiction	Samples prose narrative from different traditions, examining texts that feature distinctive styles and formal rhythms in their social and historical contexts. May include European and US classics, alongside global and contemporary authors. Considers writing and reading as forms of social engagement, with special attention to the ways that authors borrow from and innovate on the past. Enrollment limited.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	CI-H
21L.004	Reading Poetry	Concentrates on close analysis of poems written in English in various forms (lyric, epic, dramatic). Syllabus varies from term to term but typically includes Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Blake, Keats, Whitman, Dickinson, Frost, Eliot, Langston Hughes, Lowell, and Plath. Enrollment limited.	true	Fall, Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	CI-H
21L.005[J]	Introduction to Drama	A study of the history of theater art and practice from its origins to the modern period, including its roles in non-Western cultures. Special attention to the relationship between the literary and performative dimensions of drama, and the relationship between drama and its cultural context. Enrollment limited.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	21T.141[J]	false	false	false	False	Arts	CI-H
21L.008[J]	Black Matters: Introduction to Black Studies	Interdisciplinary survey of people of African descent that draws on the overlapping approaches of history, literature, anthropology, legal studies, media studies, performance, linguistics, and creative writing. Connects the experiences of African-Americans and of other American minorities, focusing on social, political, and cultural histories, and on linguistic patterns. Includes lectures, discussions, workshops, and required field trips that involve minimal cost to students.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	24.912[J], 21H.106[J], 21W.741[J], CMS.150[J], WGS.190[J]	false	false	false	False	False	CI-H
21L.009	Shakespeare	Focuses on the close reading of six to eight of Shakespeare plays, as well as their adaptation for stage and/or film. Selected texts cover the range of genres in which Shakespeare wrote (i.e., history, comedy, tragedy, and romance). Special emphasis in some terms on performances and adaptions of Shakespearean drama around the world. Plays studied vary across sections and from term to term, and have recently included Henry IV Part 1, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, King Lear, Othello, and The Tempest. Enrollment limited.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	CI-H
21L.010[J]	Writing with Shakespeare	Focuses on writing and speaking using Shakespeare as a model and means for mastery of English language skills. Emphasizes the development of students' ability to write clearly and effectively in a range of genres with an awareness of audience. Designed to increase students' confidence and pleasure in verbal communication and analysis of language. Students write frequently, give and receive feedback, improve their work through revision, and participate actively in class discussions and presentations. Enrollment limited.	true	Fall	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	21W.042[J]	false	false	false	False	Humanities	CI-HW
21L.011	Introduction to Film Studies	Concentrates on close analysis and criticism of a wide range of films, including works from the early silent period, documentary and avant-garde films, European art cinema, and contemporary Hollywood fare. Through comparative reading of films from different eras and countries, students develop the skills to turn their in-depth analyses into interpretations and explore theoretical issues related to spectatorship. Syllabus varies from term to term, but usually includes such directors as Eisenstein, Fellini, Godard, Griffith, Hawks, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Kurosawa, Tarantino, Welles, and Wiseman.	true	Fall, Spring	Undergraduate	3-3-6	null	null	false	false	false	False	Arts	CI-H
21L.012	Forms of Western Narrative	Examines a wide assortment of narrative forms, from Homer to the present, and considers why and how stories are told. Focuses on the close reading of literary and cultural issues, the emergence of different narrative genres, and how different media affect the construction and interpretation of narratives. Syllabus varies by term, but usually includes materials such as epics, novels, tales, short stories, films, television programs, graphic novels, and interactive games. Enrollment limited.	false	Fall	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	CI-H
21L.013[J]	The Supernatural in Music, Literature and Culture	Explores the relationship between music and the supernatural, focusing on the social history and context of supernatural beliefs as reflected in key literary and musical works from 1600 to the present. Provides an understanding of the place of ambiguity and the role of interpretation in culture, science and art. Explores great works of art by Shakespeare, Verdi, Goethe (in translation), Gounod, Henry James and Benjamin Britten. Readings also include selections from the most recent scholarship on magic and the supernatural. Writing assignments range from web-based projects to analytic essays. No previous experience in music is necessary. Projected guest lectures, musical performances, field trips. Limited to 36.	true	Fall	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	21M.013[J]	false	false	false	False	False	CI-H
21L.014[J]	Introduction to Ancient and Medieval Studies	Explores the fascinating history, culture, and society of the ancient and medieval worlds and the different methodologies scholars use to interpret them. Wrestles with big questions about the diversity of life and thought in pre-modern societies, the best ways to study the distant past, and the nature (and limitations) of knowledge about long-ago eras. Considers a wide range of scholarly subjects such as the rise and fall of the Roman empire, the triumph of Christianity and Islam, barbarian invasions and holy wars, courts and castles, philosophy and religion, and the diversity of art, literature, and politics. Ponders different types of evidence, reads across a variety of disciplines, and develops skills to identify continuities and changes in ancient and medieval societies.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	21H.007[J]	false	false	false	False	Humanities	CI-H
21L.015	Children's Literature	Analyzes children's literature from a variety of eras and genres, taking even the most playful texts seriously as works of art and powerful cultural influences. Considers the types of stories adults consider appropriate for children, and why; how opinions about this subject have changed over time and across cultures; and the complex interplay of words and images in children's books. Enrollment limited.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	CI-H
21L.016	Gods and Mortals	Introduces students to moral and philosophical questions that emerge from the study of pre-modern literature, such as how humans have grappled with life on earth and negotiated their relationships with the known and unknown, nature and the cosmos, past and future, the physical and the metaphysical, life and death, one another, and the divine. Focuses on careful reading of major works and authors, including selections from Sappho's lyric poems, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, Augustine's Confessions, and Dante's Inferno. Develops skills in close reading and in persuasive and personal analytical writing. Students have the opportunity to present on their readings and research in a variety of forms.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	CI-H
21L.017	The Art of the Probable	Examines literary texts and/or films in relation to the history of the idea of probability. Traces the growing importance of probability as a basic property of things and the world, as well as a measure of the reliability of our ideas and beliefs. Connects the development and use of probabilistic reasoning (e.g., in the lottery and in statistics) with literary and cultural concerns regarding the rationality of belief, risk and uncertainty, free will and determinism, chance and fate. Discussion of the work of scientific and philosophical pioneers of probabilistic thought (e.g., Pascal, Leibniz, Bernoulli, Laplace) in conjunction with works by Shakespeare, Voltaire, H. G. Wells, Pynchon and Stoppard, among others. Enrollment limited.	true	Fall	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	CI-H
21L.018	Introduction to English Literature	Examines the rich heritage of English literature across genre and historical period. Designed for students who want to know more about English literature or about English culture and history. Studies the relationships between literary themes, forms, and conventions and the times in which they were produced. Explores (for instance) Renaissance lyrics and drama, Enlightenment satires in word image, the 19th-century novel, and modern and contemporary stories, poems and film.	true	Fall	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	CI-H
21L.019	Introduction to European and Latin American Fiction	Studies great works of European and Latin American fiction. Attention to a variety of forms including: the picaresque, epistolary, realist, naturalist, and magical realist fiction. Emphasizes ways in which the unique history of each country shaped the imaginative responses of its writers. Authors include Cervantes, Laclos, Goethe, Mann, Dostoevsky, Flaubert, Zola, Unamuno, Wolf, García Márquez, and Allende. Taught in English.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	CI-H
21L.021	Comedy	Surveys a range of comic texts in different media, the cultures that produced them, and various theories of comedy. Authors and directors studied may include Aristophanes, Shakespeare, Moliere, Austen, Wilde and Chaplin.	true	Fall	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	CI-H
21L.024	Literature and Existentialism	Studies major literary works associated with the 19th- and 20-century philosophical movement known as existentialism. Through close reading of these works, students explore how existentialist writers grappled with the question of death; the nature of free will; emotions like boredom, disgust, and radical doubt; and the fate of the individual in a modernity marked by war, illogic, and absurdity. Includes novels, short stories, and aphorisms by Sartre, Camus, Dostoevsky, Kafka, Hesse, Chopin, and Nietzsche; plays by Beckett and Stoppard; and films by Bergman, Tarkovsky, and others. Enrollment limited.	false	Fall	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	CI-H
21L.025	A History of the Book from Papyrus to Pixel	Studies a broad range of texts and artifacts related to the history of writing and reading across cultures. Introduces students to the history and theory of media, to literary topics such as metafiction and narratology, and to the study of rare books and distinctive collections. Readings vary but may include literary works by authors such as Miguel Cervantes, Emily Dickinson, and Italo Calvino and theoretical writing by scholars including Marshall McLuhan and Roland Barthes. Regular sessions in MIT Libraries lead to capstone research projects on objects in MIT Archives and Special Collections. Students present on their readings and research in a variety of forms.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	CI-H
21L.032[J]	Afrofuturism, Magical Realism, and Other Otherwise Worlds	Examines Afrofuturism, magical realism, and other forms of the fantastic in literary texts, film, and other media. Through close reading and attention to historical, cultural, and sociopolitical context, students consider how these works reinterpret the past, diagnose modernity, and posit alternative futures. Particular attention given to the roles race, gender, class, and sexuality play within these radically imaginative worlds. Topics vary from term to term but might include work by Octavia Butler, Gabriel García Márquez, Samuel Delany, Toni Morrison, N.K. Jemisin, José María Arguedas, and Janelle Monáe. Limited to 18.	false	Fall	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	WGS.130[J]	false	false	false	False	Humanities	CI-H
21L.040[J]	Foundations of East Asian Literature and Culture: From Confucius to the Beats	Studies foundational works from East Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam) with a focus on their cultural context and contemporary relevance and asks how "Literature" looks different when conceived through some of the world's oldest literatures beyond the West. Explores philosophical texts, history writing, poetry, stories and diaries, tales, and novels. Hones skills of reading, writing, and speaking with a sense of cultural sensitivity, historical depth, and comparative contemplation. Students who have taken this topic under 21L.007 cannot also receive credit for 21L.040.	true	Fall	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	21G.041[J]	false	false	false	False	Humanities	CI-H
21L.310	Bestsellers	Focuses on works that caught the popular imagination in the past or present. Emphasizes texts that are related by genre, theme or style. Books studied vary from term to term. May be repeated once for credit if content differs. Confirm start and end dates on Literature website. Enrollment limited.	true	Fall	Undergraduate	2-0-4	null	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21L.315	Prizewinners and Laureates	Examines particular texts and authors as having special merit and significance. Considers modern authors and filmmakers who have received such accolades as a Nobel Prize, a Pulitzer Prize, or an Oscar, as well as older authors who have been named as poets laureate, or honored by traditions of commentary, interpretation, and translation. Specific topics vary from term to term. May be repeated once for credit if the specific works studied differ. Confirm start and end dates on Literature website. Enrollment limited.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	2-0-4	null	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21L.320	Big Books	Intensive study of a single major literary work or a very small set of related literary works. Emphasizes texts that encourage close analysis in a way that cannot easily be integrated into the regular literature curriculum. The Big Books taught in previous terms include Moby-Dick, Canterbury Tales, and the Faerie Queene. May be repeated once for credit if the works studied differ. Confirm start and end dates on Literature website. Enrollment limited.	false	Fall, Spring	Undergraduate	2-0-4	null	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21L.321[J]	Childhood and Youth in French and Francophone Cultures (New)	Studies the transformation of childhood and youth since the 18th century in France, as well as the development of sentimentality within the family in a francophone context. Examines the personification of children, both as a source of inspiration for artistic creation and a political ideal aimed at protecting future generations. Considers various representations of childhood and youth in literature (e.g., Pagnol, Proust, Sarraute, Laye, Morgiévre), movies (e.g., Truffaut), and songs (e.g., Brel, Barbara). Taught in French.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	One intermediate subject in French	21G.321[J]	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21L.323[J]	French Literature and the Goncourt Prize (New)	A study of contemporary French literature and classics through the participation in the US Goncourt Prize jury. "Le Goncourt" is the most prestigious literary prize in France. Students study and rank books from the Goncourt shortlist. Prepares students to serve as representatives of MIT on a prize jury at Villa Albertine in New York and choose the winner along with students from Princeton, Duke, Yale, Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Virginia. Students write a press article to present their experience as a jury. Special attention is devoted to the improvement of French language skills, oral and written. Taught in French. Limited to 18 for pedagogical reasons.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	One intermediate level subject or permission of instructor	21G.323[J]	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21L.324[J]	New Culture of Gender: Queer France (New)	Addresses the place of contemporary queer identities in French discourse. Discusses the new generation of queer authors and their principal concerns. Introduces students to the main classical references of queer subcultures, from Proust and Vivien to Hocquenghem and Wittig. Examines current debates on post-colonial and globalized queer identities through essays, songs, movies, and novels. Authors include Didier Eribon, Anne Garréta, Abdellah Taïa, Anne Scott, and Nina Bouraoui. Taught in French.	false	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	One intermediate subject in French	21G.325[J], WGS.233[J]	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21L.325	Small Wonders	Close examination of a coherent set of short texts and/or visual works. The selections may be the shorter works of one or more authors (poems, short stories or novellas), or short films and other visual media. Content varies from term to term. May be repeated once for credit if the works studied differ. Confirm start and end dates on Literature website.	true	Fall, Spring	Undergraduate	2-0-4	null	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21L.338	Reading in the Original	Close examination of literary texts in their original languages. Language and texts studied vary from term to term. May be repeated once for credit if content differs. Confirm start and end dates on Literature website.	true	Fall	Undergraduate	2-0-4	Permission of instructor	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21L.340	Pleasures of Poetry	Strengthens writing and reading comprehension skills. Students attend all public sessions of the Pleasures of Poetry readings and discussions as well as several additional classes. The poems chosen by the various moderators range across the history of literature, from ancient Chinese lyrics to contemporary texts. May be repeated for credit with permission of instructor. Confirm start and end dates on Literature website	true	IAP	Undergraduate	3-0-3	Permission of instructor	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21L.345	On the Screen	Examines works of film, television or other screen-based media, with emphasis on texts that are related by genre, time period, style, or director. Works studied vary from term to term. May be repeated for credit once with permission of instructor. Confirm start and end dates on Literature website.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	2-0-4	Permission of instructor	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21L.350	Science and Literature	Examines intersections and channels of influence between the sciences and forms of imaginative literature. Addresses topics such as depictions of scientific experimentation in imaginative works, the history of scientific experimentation, and experimentation in literary works; the emergence of science fiction; and depictions of scientific practice in literature. May be repeated once for credit if content differs. Confirm start and end date on Literature website.	true	Fall	Undergraduate	2-0-4	null	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21L.355	Literature in the Digital Age	Examines how emerging computational methods and tools are transforming practices of reading and writing in the present. Topics may include the exploration of experimental literary forms and digital media practices (hypertext, Twitter fiction, etc.) or focus on the use of digital tools for analyzing literature (GIS mapping, data mining, etc.). May be repeated once for credit if content differs. Confirm start and end dates on Literature website.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	2-0-4	null	null	false	false	false	False	False	False
21L.400	Medical Narratives: Compelling Accounts from Antiquity to Grey's Anatomy	Explores fundamental questions about the experience of illness from the points of view of the patient, the physician, and the caretaker. Examines the ways in which these narratives have changed across centuries and across cultures. Asks about the physician's role in determining treatment; whether storytelling leads to more ethical life and death decisions; what special insights patient narratives provide; and what new awareness physicians derive from narrating illness. Materials include essays, fiction, poetry, memoir, blogs, film and television. As a capstone project, students develop their own medical narratives that emerge in interaction with a mentor from the greater-Boston medical community.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-3-6	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21L.429[J]	Narrative and Identity: Writing and Film by Contemporary Women of Color (New)	Explores the diverse voices and experiences reflected in writing and film by and about women of color. Examines the roles that culture, community, and kinship play in the development of the writer's individual voice, and compares the similarities and differences of the writer experience across texts and genres. Discussion and assignments, including an independent research presentation, consider the social and political contexts that inform each work, with an emphasis on gender, race, and economic status. Includes works by a variety of novelists, poets, and filmmakers.	true	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	WGS.142[J]	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False
21L.430	Popular Culture and Narrative	Examines relationships between popular culture and art, focusing on problems of evaluation and audience, and the uses of different media within a broader social context. Typically treats a range of narrative and dramatic works as well as films. Previously taught topics include Elements of Style; Gender, Sexuality and Popular Narrative. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Approved for credit in Women's and Gender Studies when content meets the requirements for subjects in that program. May be repeated for credit with permission of instructor.	false	Spring	Undergraduate	3-0-9	null	null	false	false	false	False	Humanities	False

21H.283

The Indigenous History of MIT

Students work with MIT faculty, staff, and alumni, as well as faculty and researchers at other universities and centers, to focus on how Indigenous people and communities have influenced the rise and development of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Students build a research portfolio that will include an original research essay, archival and bibliographic records, maps and images, and other relevant documentary and supporting materials. Limited to 15.

true

Fall

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.284

South Asia, the United States, and MIT: Transformative Connections

Explores the longstanding connections between MIT and South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal) since 1882. Investigates the history of MIT's alumni, faculty, and staff to examine the history of colonization and nation-building in South Asia, race and immigration in the United States, and globalization and technical revolutions across the world. Examines key historical moments of significance to both South Asia and America such as decolonization, the Cold War, and globalization as they intersected with the lives of MIT's South Asian affiliates. Instruction provided in historical methodologies through archival research and oral histories that are showcased in a final project. Limited to 18.

false

Spring

Undergraduate

2-0-10

null

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.285[J]

Making the Modern World: The Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective

Global survey of the great transformation in history known as the "Industrial Revolution." Topics include origins of mechanized production, the factory system, steam propulsion, electrification, mass communications, mass production and automation. Emphasis on the transfer of technology and its many adaptations around the world. Countries treated include Great Britain, France, Germany, the US, Sweden, Russia, Japan, China, and India. Includes brief reflection papers and a final paper.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

STS.025[J]

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.289

History Near and Dear: Writing Yourself into History

Studies a broad range of writers who have investigated their family history or an instance of local history near and dear to their hearts. Examines questions about historical and emotional truths, memory and identity and place, and the ability of individual experience to illuminate a broader social and political history. Selected texts are simultaneously narrative nonfiction, investigative memoir, and cultural criticism. Students produce a paper investigating an aspect of their own family or local history. Exercises include workshops, peer-review, reflections, and revisions.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

CI-H

21H.290

Economic Classics: The History of Economic Ideas from Ancient Times to the Present

Surveys the history of economics by introducing students to some of the most powerful and influential economic thinkers, from Xenophon and Huan K'uan through Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Paul Samuelson, to Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. Explores the evolution of key economic concepts — the state and the market, natural resources, and crises — by situating them in historical context and perspective. Through the close reading, analysis and discussion of some of the most important texts in the history of economic thought, traces the development of ideas, norms and ways of thinking that continue to shape decision-making in both daily life and global policy. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.315

American Consumer Culture

Examines the role of commerce and consumption in shaping American life. Introduces theoretical approaches to commodities and consumerism. Explores social and cultural transformations linked to the emergence of a market economy in the 19th century, the rise of a mass consumer society in the 20th century, and the development of a global digital marketplace in the 21st century.

false

Fall

Undergraduate

2-0-10

null

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.317

Free Expression, Pluralism, and the University (New)

Explores how American higher education has grappled with the hard questions that live at the intersection of free expression, academic freedom, and the commitment to a diverse and inclusive learning environment. Discusses the history and law of free speech and academic freedom and considers the contemporary disputes that have arisen over these values. Studies the responses of American university communities (public and private) to these conflicts since the 1950s: the bitter contests over McCarthy-era loyalty oaths, the student-led civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protests of the 1960s, the hate speech codes of the 1990s, and today's ongoing turf wars over so-called "cancel culture" and control of teaching and the curriculum.

true

Fall

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.319

Race, Crime, and Citizenship in American Law

Provides an introduction to the law of race in the United States, focusing on the development of America's criminal justice system since Reconstruction. Examines ongoing debates over whether "mass incarceration" amounts to an instrument of racial control. Considers the relationship between American race legislation and changing definitions of citizenship at key moments in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Case studies include immigration restriction, the death penalty, criminal procedure, and national security policing before and after 9/11.

true

Fall

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Social Sciences

False

21H.320[J]

Gender and the Law in US History

Explores the legal history of the US as a gendered system. Examines how women have shaped the meanings of American citizenship through pursuit of political rights such as suffrage, jury duty, and military service, as well as how the legal system has shaped gender relations through regulation of such issues as marriage, divorce, work, reproduction, and the family. Readings draw from primary and secondary materials, focusing on the broad historical relationship between law and society. No legal knowledge is required or assumed.

true

Fall

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

WGS.161[J]

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.321[J]

Downtown

Seminar on downtown in US cities from the late 19th century to the late 20th. Emphasis on downtown as an idea, place, and cluster of interests, on the changing character of downtown, and on recent efforts to rebuild it. Considers subways, skyscrapers, highways, urban renewal, and retail centers. Focus on readings, discussions, and individual research projects. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

2-0-7

null

11.026[J]

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.322

Christianity in America

Examines Christian encounters with Judaism, Islam, and the indigenous religions of Africa and America. Explores the intellectual and social consequences of Christian imperialism and the transformations of Christianity during its American encounters.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.330

Ancient Empires: Persians and Greeks in Antiquity

Explores interactions between Greeks and Persians in the Mediterranean and Near East from the Archaic Period to the Hellenistic Age, and works to illuminate the interface between these two distinct yet complementary cultures. Examines the general narrative of Greco-Persian history, from the foundation of the Achaemenid Empire in the middle of the sixth century BCE to the Macedonian conquest of Persia some 250 years later. Discusses how contact between Persia and the Greeks in antiquity has influenced discourse about the opposition between East and West in the modern world. Students examine archaeological, epigraphical, numismatic, and literary materials from a variety of sources including Greek historiography, tragedy, and oratory; Persian royal inscriptions and administrative documents; and the Hebrew Bible.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.331

Julius Caesar and the Fall of the Roman Republic

Ancient Rome from 133 to 27 BC. Explores political, social, and economic factors commonly offered to explain the fall of the Roman Republic: growth of the territorial empire, increased intensity of aristocratic competition, transformation of the Italian economy, growth of the city of Rome and dependence of the urban plebs, changes in military recruitment and dependence of soldiers on their generals. Emphasis on the reading of ancient sources in translation, including Cicero, Sallust, Caesar, Augustus, Appian, Plutarch, and Suetonius. Instruction and practice in oral and written communication provided. Taught in seminar format with emphasis on class participation. Limited to 15.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.332

Medieval Warfare (New)

Investigates the organization and conduct of war in the medieval world, from barbarian invasions in Late Antiquity to the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. Explores continuities and transformations in warfare from the late Roman empire to the successor kingdoms of medieval Europe, Byzantium, and the Muslim world. Examines the complex interplay between war, politics, and society, and problematizes popular images of medieval warfare as primitive, heroic, and chivalric. Topics include the barbarian invasions of the Roman empire, the expansion of Islam, Charlemagne's subjugation of the Saxons, the Viking raids, castle building and siege warfare, the Norman Conquest and Crusades, and ideologies of just war, holy war, and jihad.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.333

Early Christianity

Introduction to the history of early Christianity, from Jesus to Muhammad. Investigates the origins and spread of the Jesus movement within the ancient Jewish and Roman worlds, the emergence of the Church, and the diversity of early Christian thought, spirituality, literature, and art. Examines such topics as the historical Jesus and Paul, relations among Jews, Romans, and Christians, debates over orthodoxy and heresy, the conversion of the Roman empire, the rise of bishops and monasticism, the Church Fathers, and the cult of the saints.

true

Fall

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.336

The Making of a Roman Emperor

Through close examination of the emperor Augustus and his Julio-Claudian successors, this subject investigates how Roman emperors used art, architecture, coinage, and other media to create and project an image of themselves, how the surviving literary sources from the Roman period reinforced or subverted that image, and how both phenomena have contributed to post-classical perceptions of Roman emperors. Also considers works of Suetonius and Tacitus, and modern representations of the emperors such as those found in the films I, Claudius, Quo Vadis, and HBO's Rome series. Enrollment limited to 15.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.343[J]

Making Books in the Renaissance and Today

Explores the impact of new technology on the recording and distribution of words and images in Europe from 1400-1800. Assignments include essays and online projects. Students participate in the design and printing of an eight-page pamphlet on a hand-set printing press. Limited to 12.

true

Fall, Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

CC.120[J]

false

False

Arts

False

21H.350

Business in China Since 1800

Analyzes the characteristics of business in China since 1800 to provide a historical context for its contemporary economic development. Topics include China's place in the world economy; early efforts at state-led industrialization; legal and social frameworks for business; foreign investments, companies, and competition; the emergence of a Chinese business class; the influence of socialism and reform-era politics on business. Includes case studies of contemporary companies and a research project.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.351[J]

Shanghai and China's Modernization

Considers the history and function of Shanghai, from 1840 to the present, and its rise from provincial backwater to international metropolis. Examines its role as a primary point of economic, political, and social contact between China and the world, and the strong grip Shanghai holds on both the Chinese and foreign imagination. Students discuss the major events and figures of Shanghai, critique the classic historiography, and complete an independent project on Shanghai history.

true

Fall

Undergraduate

2-0-10

null

11.153[J]

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.352[J]

Three Kingdoms: From History to Fiction, Comic, Film, and Game

Analyzing core chapters of the great Chinese epic novel, Three Kingdoms, and its adaptations across diverse media, considers what underlies the appeal of this classic narrative over the centuries. Through focus on historical events in the period 206 BC to AD 280, examines the representation of power, diplomacy, war, and strategy, and explores the tension among competing models of political authority and legitimacy. Covers basic elements of classical Chinese political and philosophical thought, and literary and cultural history. Final group project involves digital humanities tools. Readings in translation. Films and video in Chinese with English subtitles.

false

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

21G.042[J], 21L.492[J], CMS.359[J]

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.354

World War II in Asia

Examines World War II in the Asia-Pacific region, starting with the rise of the Japanese Empire after World War I and ending with the Allied occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1952. Highlights the diverse and, at times, contradictory forces in politics, society, and culture that shaped the wartime experiences of the empire's inhabitants.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.357

South Asian Migrations

Studies how and why South Asians, who have migrated to America, Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and the Middle East, are considered a model minority in some countries and unwanted strangers in others. Through literature, memoirs, films, music, and historical writing, follows migrants as they discovered the world beyond their countries of origin: India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Students complete final projects on different aspects of MIT's relationship with the Indian subcontinent including research on South Asian students and alumni.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.358[J]

Colonialism in South Asia and Africa: Race, Gender, Resistance

Provides a comparative perspective on the history of colonialism in India and Africa. Explores the political, social, and economic changes brought about by colonial rule. Discusses the international context for the emergence of European Imperialism in the 19th century; the nature of early colonial expansion and consolidation; the re-invention of tradition in colonial societies, especially with regard to racial and ethnic identity, gender, religion, and caste; and expressions of anti-colonial resistance. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

2-0-10

null

WGS.315[J]

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.361

Echoes of Slavery: Recovering the Histories of Enslaved People (New)

Students conduct archival research about slavery and create a research project to be made available to the public online. Examines archival data from digitized collections online or physical collections in the Boston area. Projects may range from devising an innovative interface for public use of the data or carrying out a demographic study to creating a story map or making a podcast or video. Students write accompanying short essays that situate the data in historical context and document the research projects.

true

Fall

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.363[J]

Abortion: Global and Interdisciplinary Perspectives (New)

Addresses topics such as the development of abortion law in the US and around the world, ethics of abortion and forcible pregnancy, pro- and anti-abortion activism, economics of abortion, and terms related to abortion, including reproductive justice, reproductive rights, bodily autonomy, and fetal politics. Tackles questions including how different societies at different times have approached the question of the removal of a fetus from a human body, who are (or should be) stakeholders in making the decision to deliberately terminate a pregnancy or ban such a decision, and whether abortion was always a "question" that different groups and individuals discussed, evaluated, and regulated. Encourages students to think about this issue in historical context to help them form analytically sound arguments.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

WGS.330[J]

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.365

Minorities and Majorities in the Middle East

Seminar considers "difference" and "sameness" as they have been conceived, experienced, and regulated by peoples of the Middle East, with a focus on the 19th and 20th centuries. First half discusses the Ottoman Empire. Explores how this multiethnic, polyglot empire survived for several relatively peaceful centuries and what happened when its formula for existence was challenged by politics based on mono-ethnic states. Second half focuses on post-Ottoman nation-states, such as Turkey and Egypt, and Western-mandated Arab states, such as Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Iraq. Concludes with a case analysis of Israel.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.380[J]

People and Other Animals

Historical exploration of the ways that people have interacted with their closest animal relatives, for example: hunting, domestication of livestock, exploitation of animal labor, scientific study of animals, display of exotic and performing animals, and pet-keeping. Themes include changing ideas about animal agency and intelligence, our moral obligations to animals, and the limits imposed on the use of animals. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments.

true

Fall

Undergraduate

2-0-10

null

21A.411[J]

false

False

Social Sciences

False

21H.381[J]

Women and War

Examines women's experiences during and after war and genocide, covering the first half of the 20th century in Europe and the Middle East. Addresses ways in which women's wartime suffering has been used to further a variety of political and social agendas. Discussions focus on a different topic each week, such as sexual violence, women survivors, female perpetrators of genocide, nurses, children of genocidal rape, and the memory of war.

true

Fall

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

WGS.222[J]

false

False

Social Sciences

False

21H.383

Technology and the Global Economy, 1000-2000

Examines the global history of the last millennium, including technological change, commodity exchange, systems of production, and economic growth. Students engage with economic history, medieval and early modern origins of modern systems of production, consumption and global exchange. Topics include the long pre-history of modern economic development; medieval world systems; the age of discovery, the global crisis of the 17th century; demographic systems, global population movements; the industrial revolution, the rise of the modern consumer; colonialism and empire building; patterns of inequality, within and across states; resources and development; and the threat of climate change to modern economic systems. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Social Sciences

False

21H.385[J]

The Ghetto: From Venice to Harlem

Provides an in-depth look at a modern institution of oppression: the ghetto. Uses literature to examine ghettoization over time and across a wide geographical area, from Jews in Medieval Europe to African-Americans and Latinos in the 20th-century United States. Also explores segregation and poverty in the urban "Third World."

true

Fall

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

11.152[J]

false

False

Social Sciences

False

21H.388

Global Commodities, American Dreams

Explores how American actors and institutions got the raw materials that built the nation. Approaches commodities as a lens through which to understand a more specific relationship between the United States and the wider world in political, economic, and environmental terms, and examines a global cartography of commodities, resources, and other "stuff" that became enmeshed in American life. Examines materials like sugar, cotton, wheat, bananas, rubber, aluminum, petroleum, uranium, drugs, and others, to trace a pattern of global resource exploitation back to sites of policymaking and consumption in the United States. Explores interconnections between human society and the non-human environment, troubling the boundary often understood to divide them. Includes themes of US empire, environment, labor, consumption, modernity, race, gender, class, and transnationalism. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

true

Fall

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.390

Theories and Methods in the Study of History

Examines the distinctive ways in which historians in different parts of the world have approached the task of writing history. Explores methodologies used, such as political, social, economic, cultural, and popular histories through the reading and discussion of relevant and innovative texts. Introduces a variety of sources (archival documents, statistical data, film, fiction, memoirs, artifacts, and images) and the ways they can be used to research, interpret, and present the past. Assignments include an original research paper. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

true

Fall

Undergraduate

3-0-9

Two History subjects or permission of instructor

null

false

False

Humanities

False

21H.391

Undergraduate Independent Study

Individual supervised work for students who wish to explore an area of interest in history. Before registering, a student must plan a course of study with a member of the History Faculty and secure approval from the Head of the History Faculty. Normal maximum is 6 units; exceptional 9-unit projects occasionally approved.

true

Fall, IAP

Undergraduate

rranged

null

false

False

21H.392

Undergraduate Independent Study

Individual supervised work for students who wish to explore an area of interest in history. Before registering, a student must plan a course of study with a member of the History Faculty and secure approval from the Head of the History Faculty. Normal maximum is 6 units; exceptional 9-unit projects occasionally approved.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

rranged

Permission of instructor

null

false

False

21H.C30

Encoding Culture: Computation Methods in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

Applies computational methods for manipulating and analyzing encoded media, and draws from a wide range of practices including computational linguistics, audio processing, computer vision, and machine learning. Explores what it means to digitally encode and analyze culture. Studies the history and current practice of digitally encoding text, images, audio, and tabular datasets, along with the cultural and social issues implicit in these systems. Confronts the underlying issues of what is lost and gained when we encode culture. Limited to 25.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

6.100A, 6.100B, or 6.100L

null

false

False

Elective

False

21H.S01

Special Subject: History

Opportunity for group study of special subject not listed in the regular History curriculum.

true

Fall, Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

Permission of instructor

null

false

False

21H.S02

Special Subject: History

Opportunity for group study of special subject not listed in the regular History curriculum.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

Permission of instructor

null

false

False

21H.S03

Special Subject: History

Opportunity for group study of special subject not listed in the regular History curriculum.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

rranged

null

false

False

21H.S04

Special Subject: History

Opportunity for group study of special subject not listed in the regular History curriculum.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

2-0-10

null

false

False

21H.S05

Special Subject: History

Opportunity for group study of special subject not listed in the regular History curriculum.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

21H.THT

History Pre-Thesis Tutorial

Students writing a thesis in History develop their research topics, review relevant research and scholarship, frame their research questions and arguments, choose an appropriate methodology for analysis, and draft the introductory and methodology sections of their theses. Includes substantial practice in writing (with revision) and oral presentations.

true

Fall

Undergraduate

rranged

null

false

False

21H.THU

History Thesis

Completion of work on the senior major thesis under supervision of a faculty thesis advisor. Includes oral presentation of thesis progress early in the term, assembling and revising the final text, and a final meeting with a committee of faculty evaluators to discuss the successes and limitations of the project. Required for students pursuing a full major in History.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

rranged

21H.THT

null

false

False

21H.UR

Undergraduate Research

Individual participation in an ongoing research project. For students in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.

true

Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer

Undergraduate

rranged [P/D/F]

null

false

False

21H.URG

Undergraduate Research

Individual participation in an ongoing research project. For students in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.

true

Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer

Undergraduate

rranged

null

false

False

21H.902

Reading Seminar in American History: 1877 to Present

Develops teaching knowledge and research skills through extensive reading and discussion of major works in modern US history. Readings cover a range of topics and historical methods. Students make frequent oral presentations and submit a major work consisting of original research or historiographic interpretation.

true

Spring

Graduate

3-0-9

21H.991 and permission of instructor

null

false

False

21H.920

Economic Classics: The History of Economic Ideas from Ancient Times to the Present (New)

Surveys the history of economics by introducing students to some of the most powerful and influential economic thinkers, from Xenophon and Huan K'uan through Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Paul Samuelson, to Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. Explores the evolution of key economic concepts — the state and the market, natural resources, and crises — by situating them in historical context and perspective. Through the close reading, analysis and discussion of some of the most important texts in the history of economic thought, traces the development of ideas, norms and ways of thinking that continue to shape decision-making in both daily life and global policy. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

true

Spring

Graduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

21H.958

Colonialism in South Asia and Africa: Race, Gender, Resistance

Provides a comparative perspective on the history of colonialism in India and Africa. Explores the political, social, and economic changes brought about by colonial rule. Discusses the international context for the emergence of European Imperialism in the 19th century; the nature of early colonial expansion and consolidation; the re-invention of tradition in colonial societies, especially with regard to racial and ethnic identity, gender, religion, and caste; and expressions of anti-colonial resistance. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

true

Spring

Graduate

2-0-10

null

false

False

21H.960[J]

HASTS Dissertation Writing Workshop (New)

Bi-weekly seminar for students in the doctoral program in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology & Society (HASTS) who have completed research and are in the process of writing their dissertations. Each class focuses on a particular element of the writing: organizing chapters, engaging the secondary literature, the art of the vignette, etc. Depending on student needs, some classes may be tailored to anthropological writing or to historical writing. Students are given ample opportunity to workshop draft passages and chapters. For PhD students only. PhD students outside the HASTS program require permission of instructor.

true

Fall

Graduate

1-0-5

null

21A.989[J], STS.860[J]

false

False

21H.980[J]

People and Other Animals

Historical exploration of the ways that people have interacted with their closest animal relatives, for example: hunting, domestication of livestock, exploitation of animal labor, scientific study of animals, display of exotic and performing animals, and pet-keeping. Themes include changing ideas about animal agency and intelligence, our moral obligations to animals, and the limits imposed on the use of animals. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments.

true

Fall

Graduate

2-0-10

null

21A.419[J]

false

False

21H.981

Seminar in Nature, Environment, and Empire

Explores the relationship between the study of natural history, both domestic and exotic, by Europeans and Americans, and concrete exploitation of the natural world. Focuses on the 18th and 19th centuries.

true

Fall

Graduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

21H.982

Technology and the Global Economy, 1000-2000

Examines the global history of the last millennium, including technological change, commodity exchange, systems of production, and economic growth. Students engage with economic history, medieval and early modern origins of modern systems of production, consumption and global exchange. Topics include the long pre-history of modern economic development; medieval world systems; the age of discovery, the global crisis of the 17th century; demographic systems, global population movements; the industrial revolution, the rise of the modern consumer; colonialism and empire building; patterns of inequality, within and across states; resources and development; and the threat of climate change to modern economic systems. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

true

Spring

Graduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

21H.983[J]

Gender: Historical Perspectives

Examines the definition of gender in scientific, societal, and historical contexts. Explores how gender influences state formation and the work of the state, what role gender plays in imperialism and in the welfare state, the ever-present relationship between gender and war, and different states' regulation of the body in gendered ways at different times. Investigates new directions in the study of gender as historians, anthropologists and others have taken on this fascinating set of problems. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

false

Spring

Graduate

3-0-9

null

WGS.310[J]

false

False

21H.984[J]

Risk, Fortune, and Futurity

Exploration of interdisciplinary scholarship on risk, chance, and fortune. Begins with a survey of theoretical approaches to the field, then proceeds chronologically to explore the emergence of risk and its impacts on human life in multiple arenas including economics, politics, culture, environment, science, and technology from the 16th century to the present. Open to undergraduates with permission of instructor; consult department for details.

false

Spring

Graduate

3-0-9

null

STS.414[J]

false

False

21H.985

Money, Credit, and Financial Crisis, 1600-1850

Examines the role of money and credit in the "boom and bust" dynamic that has characterized North Atlantic financial capitalism since its emergence in the late 17th century. Studies the late 17th to the early 19th centuries when the North Atlantic economies (France, Britain, the Netherlands, and their colonial dependencies) developed modern, capitalist institutions and practices of money, credit, and finance. Studies the creation of state banks, stock markets, the relationship between war and finance, and the transition from metallic to paper currency. Explores the explosive politics of speculation, banking, and paper money in the Atlantic revolutionary era and the interdependence of plantation slavery and credit markets in the antebellum period. While 21H.985 and 21H.986 are sequential, students have the option of taking either or both. Open to undergraduates with permission of instructor; consult department for details.

true

Fall

Graduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

21H.986

Money, Credit, and Financial Crisis, 1850-2020

Examines some of the major turning points in the development of the modern (American) financial system: the Civil War Greenback movement, the rise and fall of the gold standard, Wall Street's role in the Caribbean during the interwar period, the crash of 1929, the development of the Federal Reserve, the subprime crisis of 2007-2008, and the international effort to maintain the public bond and corporate borrowing markets under the strains of Covid-19. Concludes with the dollarization of large parts of the global economy, contemporary crises of currency devaluation and hyperinflation in the developing world, and the emergence of cryptocurrencies and digital money. While 21H.985 and 21H.986 are sequential, students have the option of taking either or both. Open to undergraduates with permission of instructor; consult department for details.

true

Spring

Graduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

21H.988

Global Commodities, American Dreams

Explores how American actors and institutions got the raw materials that built the nation. Approaches commodities as a lens through which to understand a more specific relationship between the United States and the wider world in political, economic, and environmental terms, and examines a global cartography of commodities, resources, and other "stuff" that became enmeshed in American life. Examines materials like sugar, cotton, wheat, bananas, rubber, aluminum, petroleum, uranium, drugs, and others, to trace a pattern of global resource exploitation back to sites of policymaking and consumption in the United States. Explores interconnections between human society and the non-human environment, troubling the boundary often understood to divide them. Includes themes of U.S. empire, environment, labor, consumption, modernity, race, gender, class, and transnationalism. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

true

Fall

Graduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

21H.989

Histories of Extraction and Mining

Explores the period after the Industrial Revolution, with a geographic emphasis on the United States, a major mineral producer and seeker in the wider world. Surveys mineral components of the lithosphere that became valued for an array of purposes above ground. Follows miners, geologists, engineers, investors, policymakers, and canaries into mines from the continental United States to Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Extends beyond political territories to zones of activity, from the oceans to the Arctic to outer space. Asks how mining, unfolding at the local level, interacted with global processes, including the Anthropocene, the latest planetary-scale transformation. Examines the relationship between economic activity and environmental wellbeing, and the consequences of this relationship. Open to advanced undergraduates with permission of instructor. Limited to 15.

true

Spring

Graduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

21H.990[J]

Narrating the Anthropocene: Understanding a Multi-Species Universe

Examines human concern about the planet and how that fixation shapes concepts of time & space, knowledge-production, understandings of what it means to be human and non-human, as well as trends in scholarship, art, culture & politics. Indexes the way numerous actors and institutions came to understand, debate & narrate the Anthropocene, a geological epoch defined by human-induced climate change. Explores how it as a concept has opened up new ways of understanding relations within the planet, including care, accountability & multi-species mutualism. Considers narrative registers as well, how scholars, writers, artists & working people narrate the Anthropocene. Students undertake an original project in research &/or experimental narrative forms inspired by the reading. Limited to 12.

false

Fall

Graduate

3-0-9

null

STS.432[J]

false

False

21H.991

Theories and Methods in the Study of History

Examines the distinctive ways in which historians in different parts of the world have approached the task of writing history. Explores methodologies used, such as political, social, economic, cultural, and popular histories through the reading and discussion of relevant and innovative texts. Introduces a variety of sources (archival documents, statistical data, film, fiction, memoirs, artifacts, and images) and the ways they can be used to research, interpret, and present the past. Assignments include an original research paper. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

true

Fall

Graduate

3-0-9

Permission of instructor

null

false

False

21H.992

Graduate Independent Study

Individual supervised work for students who wish to explore an area of interest in history. Before registering, a student must plan a course of study with a member of the History Faculty and secure approval from the Head of the History Faculty.

true

Fall, Spring

Graduate

rranged

Permission of instructor

null

false

False

21H.993

Graduate Independent Study

Individual supervised work for students who wish to explore an area of interest in history. Before registering, a student must plan a course of study with a member of the History Faculty and secure approval from the Head of the History Faculty.

true

Fall, Spring

Graduate

rranged

Permission of instructor

null

false

False

21H.999

Teaching History

For qualified graduate students serving as either a teaching assistant or instructor for subjects in History. Enrollment limited by availability of suitable teaching assignments.

true

Fall, Spring

Graduate

rranged [P/D/F]

null

false

False

21L.000[J]

Writing About Literature

Intensive focus on the reading and writing skills used to analyze literary texts such as poems by Emily Dickinson, Shakespeare or Langston Hughes; short stories by Chekhov, Joyce, or Alice Walker; and a short novel by Melville or Toni Morrison. Designed not only to prepare students for further work in writing and literary and media study, but also to provide increased confidence and pleasure in their reading, writing, and analytical skills. Students write or revise essays weekly. Enrollment limited.

false

Fall, Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

21W.041[J]

false

False

Humanities

CI-HW

21L.001

Foundations of Western Literature: Homer to Dante

Studies a broad range of texts essential to understanding the two great sources of Western conceptions of the world and humanity's place within it: the ancient world of Greece and Rome and the Judeo-Christian world that challenged and absorbed it. Readings vary but usually include works by Homer, Sophocles, Aristotle, Plato, Virgil, St. Augustine, and Dante. Enrollment limited.

true

Fall

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

CI-H

21L.002

Foundations of Western Literature: From Shakespeare to the Present

A broad survey of texts, literary, philosophical, and sociological, studied to trace the growth of secular humanism, the loss of a supernatural perspective upon human events, and changing conceptions of individual, social, and communal purpose. Stresses appreciation and analysis of texts that came to represent the common cultural possession of our time. Enrollment limited.

true

Fall

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

CI-H

21L.003

Reading Fiction

Samples prose narrative from different traditions, examining texts that feature distinctive styles and formal rhythms in their social and historical contexts. May include European and US classics, alongside global and contemporary authors. Considers writing and reading as forms of social engagement, with special attention to the ways that authors borrow from and innovate on the past. Enrollment limited.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

CI-H

21L.004

Reading Poetry

Concentrates on close analysis of poems written in English in various forms (lyric, epic, dramatic). Syllabus varies from term to term but typically includes Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Blake, Keats, Whitman, Dickinson, Frost, Eliot, Langston Hughes, Lowell, and Plath. Enrollment limited.

true

Fall, Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

CI-H

21L.005[J]

Introduction to Drama

A study of the history of theater art and practice from its origins to the modern period, including its roles in non-Western cultures. Special attention to the relationship between the literary and performative dimensions of drama, and the relationship between drama and its cultural context. Enrollment limited.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

21T.141[J]

false

False

Arts

CI-H

21L.008[J]

Black Matters: Introduction to Black Studies

Interdisciplinary survey of people of African descent that draws on the overlapping approaches of history, literature, anthropology, legal studies, media studies, performance, linguistics, and creative writing. Connects the experiences of African-Americans and of other American minorities, focusing on social, political, and cultural histories, and on linguistic patterns. Includes lectures, discussions, workshops, and required field trips that involve minimal cost to students.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

24.912[J], 21H.106[J], 21W.741[J], CMS.150[J], WGS.190[J]

false

False

CI-H

21L.009

Shakespeare

Focuses on the close reading of six to eight of Shakespeare plays, as well as their adaptation for stage and/or film. Selected texts cover the range of genres in which Shakespeare wrote (i.e., history, comedy, tragedy, and romance). Special emphasis in some terms on performances and adaptions of Shakespearean drama around the world. Plays studied vary across sections and from term to term, and have recently included Henry IV Part 1, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, King Lear, Othello, and The Tempest. Enrollment limited.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

CI-H

21L.010[J]

Writing with Shakespeare

Focuses on writing and speaking using Shakespeare as a model and means for mastery of English language skills. Emphasizes the development of students' ability to write clearly and effectively in a range of genres with an awareness of audience. Designed to increase students' confidence and pleasure in verbal communication and analysis of language. Students write frequently, give and receive feedback, improve their work through revision, and participate actively in class discussions and presentations. Enrollment limited.

true

Fall

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

21W.042[J]

false

False

Humanities

CI-HW

21L.011

Introduction to Film Studies

Concentrates on close analysis and criticism of a wide range of films, including works from the early silent period, documentary and avant-garde films, European art cinema, and contemporary Hollywood fare. Through comparative reading of films from different eras and countries, students develop the skills to turn their in-depth analyses into interpretations and explore theoretical issues related to spectatorship. Syllabus varies from term to term, but usually includes such directors as Eisenstein, Fellini, Godard, Griffith, Hawks, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Kurosawa, Tarantino, Welles, and Wiseman.

true

Fall, Spring

Undergraduate

3-3-6

null

false

False

Arts

CI-H

21L.012

Forms of Western Narrative

Examines a wide assortment of narrative forms, from Homer to the present, and considers why and how stories are told. Focuses on the close reading of literary and cultural issues, the emergence of different narrative genres, and how different media affect the construction and interpretation of narratives. Syllabus varies by term, but usually includes materials such as epics, novels, tales, short stories, films, television programs, graphic novels, and interactive games. Enrollment limited.

false

Fall

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

CI-H

21L.013[J]

The Supernatural in Music, Literature and Culture

Explores the relationship between music and the supernatural, focusing on the social history and context of supernatural beliefs as reflected in key literary and musical works from 1600 to the present. Provides an understanding of the place of ambiguity and the role of interpretation in culture, science and art. Explores great works of art by Shakespeare, Verdi, Goethe (in translation), Gounod, Henry James and Benjamin Britten. Readings also include selections from the most recent scholarship on magic and the supernatural. Writing assignments range from web-based projects to analytic essays. No previous experience in music is necessary. Projected guest lectures, musical performances, field trips. Limited to 36.

true

Fall

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

21M.013[J]

false

False

CI-H

21L.014[J]

Introduction to Ancient and Medieval Studies

Explores the fascinating history, culture, and society of the ancient and medieval worlds and the different methodologies scholars use to interpret them. Wrestles with big questions about the diversity of life and thought in pre-modern societies, the best ways to study the distant past, and the nature (and limitations) of knowledge about long-ago eras. Considers a wide range of scholarly subjects such as the rise and fall of the Roman empire, the triumph of Christianity and Islam, barbarian invasions and holy wars, courts and castles, philosophy and religion, and the diversity of art, literature, and politics. Ponders different types of evidence, reads across a variety of disciplines, and develops skills to identify continuities and changes in ancient and medieval societies.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

21H.007[J]

false

False

Humanities

CI-H

21L.015

Children's Literature

Analyzes children's literature from a variety of eras and genres, taking even the most playful texts seriously as works of art and powerful cultural influences. Considers the types of stories adults consider appropriate for children, and why; how opinions about this subject have changed over time and across cultures; and the complex interplay of words and images in children's books. Enrollment limited.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

CI-H

21L.016

Gods and Mortals

Introduces students to moral and philosophical questions that emerge from the study of pre-modern literature, such as how humans have grappled with life on earth and negotiated their relationships with the known and unknown, nature and the cosmos, past and future, the physical and the metaphysical, life and death, one another, and the divine. Focuses on careful reading of major works and authors, including selections from Sappho's lyric poems, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, Augustine's Confessions, and Dante's Inferno. Develops skills in close reading and in persuasive and personal analytical writing. Students have the opportunity to present on their readings and research in a variety of forms.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

CI-H

21L.017

The Art of the Probable

Examines literary texts and/or films in relation to the history of the idea of probability. Traces the growing importance of probability as a basic property of things and the world, as well as a measure of the reliability of our ideas and beliefs. Connects the development and use of probabilistic reasoning (e.g., in the lottery and in statistics) with literary and cultural concerns regarding the rationality of belief, risk and uncertainty, free will and determinism, chance and fate. Discussion of the work of scientific and philosophical pioneers of probabilistic thought (e.g., Pascal, Leibniz, Bernoulli, Laplace) in conjunction with works by Shakespeare, Voltaire, H. G. Wells, Pynchon and Stoppard, among others. Enrollment limited.

true

Fall

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

CI-H

21L.018

Introduction to English Literature

Examines the rich heritage of English literature across genre and historical period. Designed for students who want to know more about English literature or about English culture and history. Studies the relationships between literary themes, forms, and conventions and the times in which they were produced. Explores (for instance) Renaissance lyrics and drama, Enlightenment satires in word image, the 19th-century novel, and modern and contemporary stories, poems and film.

true

Fall

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

CI-H

21L.019

Introduction to European and Latin American Fiction

Studies great works of European and Latin American fiction. Attention to a variety of forms including: the picaresque, epistolary, realist, naturalist, and magical realist fiction. Emphasizes ways in which the unique history of each country shaped the imaginative responses of its writers. Authors include Cervantes, Laclos, Goethe, Mann, Dostoevsky, Flaubert, Zola, Unamuno, Wolf, García Márquez, and Allende. Taught in English.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

CI-H

21L.021

Comedy

Surveys a range of comic texts in different media, the cultures that produced them, and various theories of comedy. Authors and directors studied may include Aristophanes, Shakespeare, Moliere, Austen, Wilde and Chaplin.

true

Fall

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

CI-H

21L.024

Literature and Existentialism

Studies major literary works associated with the 19th- and 20-century philosophical movement known as existentialism. Through close reading of these works, students explore how existentialist writers grappled with the question of death; the nature of free will; emotions like boredom, disgust, and radical doubt; and the fate of the individual in a modernity marked by war, illogic, and absurdity. Includes novels, short stories, and aphorisms by Sartre, Camus, Dostoevsky, Kafka, Hesse, Chopin, and Nietzsche; plays by Beckett and Stoppard; and films by Bergman, Tarkovsky, and others. Enrollment limited.

false

Fall

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

CI-H

21L.025

A History of the Book from Papyrus to Pixel

Studies a broad range of texts and artifacts related to the history of writing and reading across cultures. Introduces students to the history and theory of media, to literary topics such as metafiction and narratology, and to the study of rare books and distinctive collections. Readings vary but may include literary works by authors such as Miguel Cervantes, Emily Dickinson, and Italo Calvino and theoretical writing by scholars including Marshall McLuhan and Roland Barthes. Regular sessions in MIT Libraries lead to capstone research projects on objects in MIT Archives and Special Collections. Students present on their readings and research in a variety of forms.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

CI-H

21L.032[J]

Afrofuturism, Magical Realism, and Other Otherwise Worlds

Examines Afrofuturism, magical realism, and other forms of the fantastic in literary texts, film, and other media. Through close reading and attention to historical, cultural, and sociopolitical context, students consider how these works reinterpret the past, diagnose modernity, and posit alternative futures. Particular attention given to the roles race, gender, class, and sexuality play within these radically imaginative worlds. Topics vary from term to term but might include work by Octavia Butler, Gabriel García Márquez, Samuel Delany, Toni Morrison, N.K. Jemisin, José María Arguedas, and Janelle Monáe. Limited to 18.

false

Fall

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

WGS.130[J]

false

False

Humanities

CI-H

21L.040[J]

Foundations of East Asian Literature and Culture: From Confucius to the Beats

Studies foundational works from East Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam) with a focus on their cultural context and contemporary relevance and asks how "Literature" looks different when conceived through some of the world's oldest literatures beyond the West. Explores philosophical texts, history writing, poetry, stories and diaries, tales, and novels. Hones skills of reading, writing, and speaking with a sense of cultural sensitivity, historical depth, and comparative contemplation. Students who have taken this topic under 21L.007 cannot also receive credit for 21L.040.

true

Fall

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

21G.041[J]

false

False

Humanities

CI-H

21L.310

Bestsellers

Focuses on works that caught the popular imagination in the past or present. Emphasizes texts that are related by genre, theme or style. Books studied vary from term to term. May be repeated once for credit if content differs. Confirm start and end dates on Literature website. Enrollment limited.

true

Fall

Undergraduate

2-0-4

null

false

False

21L.315

Prizewinners and Laureates

Examines particular texts and authors as having special merit and significance. Considers modern authors and filmmakers who have received such accolades as a Nobel Prize, a Pulitzer Prize, or an Oscar, as well as older authors who have been named as poets laureate, or honored by traditions of commentary, interpretation, and translation. Specific topics vary from term to term. May be repeated once for credit if the specific works studied differ. Confirm start and end dates on Literature website. Enrollment limited.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

2-0-4

null

false

False

21L.320

Big Books

Intensive study of a single major literary work or a very small set of related literary works. Emphasizes texts that encourage close analysis in a way that cannot easily be integrated into the regular literature curriculum. The Big Books taught in previous terms include Moby-Dick, Canterbury Tales, and the Faerie Queene. May be repeated once for credit if the works studied differ. Confirm start and end dates on Literature website. Enrollment limited.

false

Fall, Spring

Undergraduate

2-0-4

null

false

False

21L.321[J]

Childhood and Youth in French and Francophone Cultures (New)

Studies the transformation of childhood and youth since the 18th century in France, as well as the development of sentimentality within the family in a francophone context. Examines the personification of children, both as a source of inspiration for artistic creation and a political ideal aimed at protecting future generations. Considers various representations of childhood and youth in literature (e.g., Pagnol, Proust, Sarraute, Laye, Morgiévre), movies (e.g., Truffaut), and songs (e.g., Brel, Barbara). Taught in French.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

One intermediate subject in French

21G.321[J]

false

False

Humanities

False

21L.323[J]

French Literature and the Goncourt Prize (New)

A study of contemporary French literature and classics through the participation in the US Goncourt Prize jury. "Le Goncourt" is the most prestigious literary prize in France. Students study and rank books from the Goncourt shortlist. Prepares students to serve as representatives of MIT on a prize jury at Villa Albertine in New York and choose the winner along with students from Princeton, Duke, Yale, Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Virginia. Students write a press article to present their experience as a jury. Special attention is devoted to the improvement of French language skills, oral and written. Taught in French. Limited to 18 for pedagogical reasons.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

One intermediate level subject or permission of instructor

21G.323[J]

false

False

Humanities

False

21L.324[J]

New Culture of Gender: Queer France (New)

Addresses the place of contemporary queer identities in French discourse. Discusses the new generation of queer authors and their principal concerns. Introduces students to the main classical references of queer subcultures, from Proust and Vivien to Hocquenghem and Wittig. Examines current debates on post-colonial and globalized queer identities through essays, songs, movies, and novels. Authors include Didier Eribon, Anne Garréta, Abdellah Taïa, Anne Scott, and Nina Bouraoui. Taught in French.

false

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

One intermediate subject in French

21G.325[J], WGS.233[J]

false

False

Humanities

False

21L.325

Small Wonders

Close examination of a coherent set of short texts and/or visual works. The selections may be the shorter works of one or more authors (poems, short stories or novellas), or short films and other visual media. Content varies from term to term. May be repeated once for credit if the works studied differ. Confirm start and end dates on Literature website.

true

Fall, Spring

Undergraduate

2-0-4

null

false

False

21L.338

Reading in the Original

Close examination of literary texts in their original languages. Language and texts studied vary from term to term. May be repeated once for credit if content differs. Confirm start and end dates on Literature website.

true

Fall

Undergraduate

2-0-4

Permission of instructor

null

false

False

21L.340

Pleasures of Poetry

Strengthens writing and reading comprehension skills. Students attend all public sessions of the Pleasures of Poetry readings and discussions as well as several additional classes. The poems chosen by the various moderators range across the history of literature, from ancient Chinese lyrics to contemporary texts. May be repeated for credit with permission of instructor. Confirm start and end dates on Literature website

true

IAP

Undergraduate

3-0-3

Permission of instructor

null

false

False

21L.345

On the Screen

Examines works of film, television or other screen-based media, with emphasis on texts that are related by genre, time period, style, or director. Works studied vary from term to term. May be repeated for credit once with permission of instructor. Confirm start and end dates on Literature website.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

2-0-4

Permission of instructor

null

false

False

21L.350

Science and Literature

Examines intersections and channels of influence between the sciences and forms of imaginative literature. Addresses topics such as depictions of scientific experimentation in imaginative works, the history of scientific experimentation, and experimentation in literary works; the emergence of science fiction; and depictions of scientific practice in literature. May be repeated once for credit if content differs. Confirm start and end date on Literature website.

true

Fall

Undergraduate

2-0-4

null

false

False

21L.355

Literature in the Digital Age

Examines how emerging computational methods and tools are transforming practices of reading and writing in the present. Topics may include the exploration of experimental literary forms and digital media practices (hypertext, Twitter fiction, etc.) or focus on the use of digital tools for analyzing literature (GIS mapping, data mining, etc.). May be repeated once for credit if content differs. Confirm start and end dates on Literature website.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

2-0-4

null

false

False

21L.400

Medical Narratives: Compelling Accounts from Antiquity to Grey's Anatomy

Explores fundamental questions about the experience of illness from the points of view of the patient, the physician, and the caretaker. Examines the ways in which these narratives have changed across centuries and across cultures. Asks about the physician's role in determining treatment; whether storytelling leads to more ethical life and death decisions; what special insights patient narratives provide; and what new awareness physicians derive from narrating illness. Materials include essays, fiction, poetry, memoir, blogs, film and television. As a capstone project, students develop their own medical narratives that emerge in interaction with a mentor from the greater-Boston medical community.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-3-6

null

false

False

Humanities

False

21L.429[J]

Narrative and Identity: Writing and Film by Contemporary Women of Color (New)

Explores the diverse voices and experiences reflected in writing and film by and about women of color. Examines the roles that culture, community, and kinship play in the development of the writer's individual voice, and compares the similarities and differences of the writer experience across texts and genres. Discussion and assignments, including an independent research presentation, consider the social and political contexts that inform each work, with an emphasis on gender, race, and economic status. Includes works by a variety of novelists, poets, and filmmakers.

true

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

WGS.142[J]

false

False

Humanities

False

21L.430

Popular Culture and Narrative

Examines relationships between popular culture and art, focusing on problems of evaluation and audience, and the uses of different media within a broader social context. Typically treats a range of narrative and dramatic works as well as films. Previously taught topics include Elements of Style; Gender, Sexuality and Popular Narrative. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Approved for credit in Women's and Gender Studies when content meets the requirements for subjects in that program. May be repeated for credit with permission of instructor.

false

Spring

Undergraduate

3-0-9

null

false

False

Humanities

False