Human Rights Courses

Four credit hours. H, U. Asch

Explores the Reconstruction era, the remarkable, tumultuous, and misunderstood period following the American Civil War. During Reconstruction, the U.S. enjoyed a brief flowering of interracial democracy followed by the violent overthrow of biracial governments across the South. Reconstruction’s achievements and failures help students understand the roots of racial inequality in America today. Examines Reconstruction’s effects on the law, politics, economics, and culture, as well as how the distorted memory of the era hindered future efforts to achieve racial equality. Students will analyze and interpret primary and secondary sources, including films; and create a research-based documentary.

Four credit hours. U. Saltz

Introduction to the history and contemporary manifestations of surveillance culture in the United States and its global implications. We ask, what is the role of surveillance in American culture, and how does it shape our bodies, behaviors, relationships, communities, and political possibilities? We look at how surveillance unevenly affects marginalized communities, and consider how artists and activists have responded to surveillance culture through re-purposing these technologies into tools of resistance. Students will familiarize themselves with surveillance technologies, such as iris scanning and drone imaging. Previously offered as American Studies 298 (Spring 2020).

Four credit hours. L, U. Fugikawa

Engages the lenses of race, gender, and sexuality in an analysis of graphic novels. In the United States visual representations have long played a role in creating meanings associated with racialized bodies. How have writers used this visual and literary genre to address social inequalities and explore gendered experiences of racialization? How have people of color, queer, and trans writers transformed the canon of graphic novels? What knowledge, ideas and effects emerge from reading graphic novels, and what makes the form unique?

Four credit hours. U. Besteman

Incarceration causes a multitude of losses, for those who have caused and experienced harm, for families and communities. How can we build restorative pathways toward healing and recovery for everyone involved? The course develops an understanding of the losses associated with incarceration and envisions alternative responses to harms that prioritize accountability, healing, repair, and building healthy communities. We will explore the concepts of loss, grief, accountability, justice, repair, reparation, healing, restorative and transformative justice through narrative, poetry, art, video, role play and engagement with formerly incarcerated class guests. Prerequisite: Anthropology 112.

Four credit hours. S. Besteman

Speed is the language, praxis, and expectation of our era. In contrast, this course will play with slowness, exploring and deconstructing the space/time compression associated with capitalism and learning about alternative modes of being and living that engage slowness, close observation, and the art of detailed engagement and reflection. Each week will include one class devoted to a slowness practice and one class devoted to an analysis and reflection of that experience. We will work toward gaining Anthropological perspectives on speed, time/space compression, time, and the temporal rigors of capitalism. Previously offered as AY297 (Fall 2023). Prerequisite: Anthropology 112.

Four credit hours. Qureshi

Focus on ethnography as both the central research strategy of anthropologists and the written text produced by such research. Examines anthropological methods of data collection and ethnographic writing as these encompass not only the discipline’s historical focus on localized communities but also contemporary understandings of connections to global processes, the analysis of complex inequalities, and a reflexive and engaged relationship with the human world. Explores practical strategies for conducting ethnographic research, including interviewing, observation, and other modes of qualitative data collection; the ethical issues presented by such research; and the application of analytical and theoretical models. Prerequisite: Anthropology 112, a 200-level anthropology course or global studies 251, a W1 course, and sophomore standing.

Four credit hours. Tate

Toxicity is ubiquitous but elusive, a defining feature of contemporary life. In this course, we will examine how toxicity as an analytic can illuminate the materialities of social difference, the politics of evidence, the nature of health, and the nature of nature. Much of contemporary toxicity results from attempts to improve human lives, with often devastating impacts on human and non-human. We will examine how toxicity is differentially distributed, and how it is debated and represented with a particular focus on visual forms. We conclude examining efforts to engineer human capacities and health through pharmaceutical intervention. Prerequisite: Anthropology 112.

Three credit hours. N. Marshall

Agriculture is a fundamental way in which humans interact with their environment and is at the nexus of ecological, social, and economic systems. An introduction to the ecological bases, practicalities, and philosophies of food and agricultural systems. Provides a foundation in such concepts as agroecology, sustainable soil management, pest and weed control, and organic farming. Also considers social, economic, and public-policy issues. Field trips to local farms and other agricultural institutions. Cannot be counted toward the biology major.

Four credit hours. Nasim

The objective is to develop and apply economic tools to current environmental and resource-management issues. Causes of and remedies to environmental and resource-management problems are analyzed through economic modeling. These models in turn serve as the theoretical foundation for designing and evaluating policy instruments and practices. Students will learn to analyze current environmental problems and assess the effectiveness of environmental and resource-management policies using economic tools. Prerequisite: Economics 133 and sophomore or higher standing.

Four credit hours. S, U. Yoshizawa

An introduction to the relationship between education (theory, research, and practice) and social justice in U.S. schools. Goals include (1) understanding the concept of social justice, the dynamics of power, privilege, and oppression, and how these dynamics shape the experience of students and teachers; (2) developing relationships with children and youth in the greater Waterville area; (3) expanding moral capacities, including compassion, empathy, respect, responsibility, and commitment to social justice; (4) honing key academic and intellectual skills. In addition, students are required to spend 20 hours in a local educational setting. Previously offered as Education 201.

Four credit hours. Howard

An intensive reading and discussion course focusing on contemporary methodological theory related to educational research guided by social justice aims, this course examines how social justice research is conducted, how data are theorized and analyzed, and how interpretive texts are written. The activity of the course works from a social justice framework that seeks to engage in research for the purposes of creating a more just world, addressing inequalities, questioning and challenging oppressive and privileging practices and systems, and advocating for change. Students work collaboratively to apply theories and methods of social justice research. Prerequisite: Senior Education major or minor.

Four credit hours. L. Walker

What can literature teach us about nature and environmental justice? Do the humanities and environmental studies share a vision of a sustainable future? Is it possible to understand climate change without telling stories about its uneven global impacts? To address these and other questions, we will examine how the environmental humanities implicitly respond to the “two cultures” debate. We will then investigate the relationship between environmental justice and western societies’ extractive logics, economies, and management of nature. From within this theoretical framework we will analyze novels, poetry, and environmental films. Fulfills English C and D requirements.

Four credit hours. Schneider-Mayerson

Can media play an important role in addressing the climate crisis? Are some kinds of narratives more effective than others? We will answer these and related questions by considering select examples from different mediums (from film to literature) and situating them within scholarship from both the humanities (ecocriticism) and the social sciences (environmental communication). For their final project, students will be asked to create a work of art, craft a detailed research design for an empirical study, or write a public-facing ecocritique of a contemporary text. Fulfills English C and LE requirements. Prerequisite: Any one of the following: Anthropology 256, East Asian Studies 120, English 120H, 283, 350, 357, or 493; Environmental Studies 118, Philosophy 126, 243, or 328; or Religious Studies 232, or Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 339.

Four credit hours. L, I. Shabangu

Ever wondered how the logic of racism operates in South Africa? This course investigates postcolonial writing and aesthetic practices of South Africa after the legislative end of apartheid (1994 –). We examine the traumas of postcoloniality, paying attention to the aesthetic and ethical implications of these works. We’ll also explore the ethics and politics of witnessing; the impossibility and yet the absolute necessity of certain ethical gestures such as hospitality, forgiveness , shame, and responsibility, all of which are at the core of the post-apartheid nation’s self-image. Fulfills English C and D requirements.

Four credit hours. W1. Becknell

This course will use writing to examine newly proposed solutions to environmental problems. Solutions are frequently proposed to environmental problems but not all of them make sense. Some prove ineffective or can even make things worse. The information about solutions is complex and can leave us uncertain about which solutions to support. In this course, we will discuss the evidence supporting these solutions and think about if they work, who benefits, and who is harmed. Students will write essays that explain, promote, decry, and/or explore the complexity of proposed novel solutions to environmental problems.

Four credit hours. Carlson

Explores the history, theory, and practice of environmental activism in the U.S. and around the world, largely through primary source narratives and case studies from individual activists, grassroots groups, indigenous people, and large environmental organizations. Motivations, strategies and outcomes of a variety of environmental campaigns will be explored, along with how experiences vary by race, ethnicity, class, gender, and indigeneity. Students will learn effective oral and written communications in a variety of forms, along with collaborative activism skills, which they will have an opportunity to put into practice. Students may not earn credit for this course and Environmental Studies 126. Prerequisite: Environmental Studies 118.

Four credit hours. Carlson

Examines the impacts of changing climate dynamics on human livelihoods, rights, health, and well-being. Through interdisciplinary readings, class discussions, research projects, and innovative communications, students will engage deeply with data from the natural and social sciences about human impacts, adaptations, and vulnerabilities, as well as explore climate justice activism. Key learning goals include improved information literacy and written and oral communication skills and increased understanding of the ways climate change is impacting the world in which we live. Prerequisite: Environmental Studies 118 or 12.

Four credit hours. S, U. Konya

This course is an introduction to the interdisciplinary feminist study of gender and sexuality. We will study these concepts through theoretical frameworks within and outside of “Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies,” as well as through histories of feminist and queer struggles and literary narratives. Our collaborative task will be to understand the material, historical, and theoretical approaches to body, gender, and sexuality, and investigate how those approaches are complicated by questions of race, capitalism, coloniality, and power. Throughout the course, we will connect theoretical texts to life experiences and personal anecdotes to institutional legacies.

Four credit hours. S, U.

Many scholars predicted that the internet would enhance democratic citizenship and weaken autocratic regimes around the world. Yet thirty years into the digital revolution, few of those optimistic predictions have come to fruition. Why has the internet become such an effective tool for antidemocratic actors? Why do extreme ideas spread so easily in the digital, and how do extremist actors use the internet so successfully? Are digital social movements more or less meaningful than their traditional counterparts? Digital Extremism traces the course of political activity and media into the digital era, asking how the digitization of society has changed journalism, campaigning, and social movements.

One credit hour.

DetailsAlthough it can be hard to define, health is not, as the World Health Organization (WHO) reminds us, simply the absence of disease. Instead, health should be understood as a holistic and affirmative way of existing in the world. We can think of health at many different, interconnected scales: individual, family, community, society, and planetary. After all, the preamble of the 1946 Constitution of the World Health Organization states that “the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.” But reality falls far short of this declaration because of ever-changing climate and environmental factors, pandemics, politicization of health-related issues, lack of access to the social and structural factors that make health possible such as safe drinking water and adequate sanitation; nourishing and nutritious food and housing; healthy working and environmental conditions; health-related education and information; access to health care; and racial and gender equality. Nongraded.

Four credit hours. S. Razsa

Is revolutionary change possible today? Explores the promises and failures of radical movements from the First International in 1864 to the “global uprisings” of recent years. Considers the historical genealogy of today’s transnational movements and their complex relationships to the modern nation-state. To what extent do labor, anarchist, anticolonial, indigenous struggles, as well as the World Social Forum, Arab Spring, and Black Lives Matter, offer ways to understand the world today and to imagine alternative political futures? Strong emphasis on discussion and collaborative debate.

Four credit hours. Razsa

Whether continent or idea, Europe dominates political, cultural, and intellectual hierarchies. What can we learn from the most perceptive critics of Europe, often from the very communities whose material and symbolic exclusion was central to the formation of Europe? How do those racialized and colonized by Europe challenge Europeans’ amnesia about colonialism and racial capitalism? How do Muslim diasporas across Western Europe-and Muslim peoples in the Balkans-expose the Islamophobic foundations of European identity? How do queer women of color in Berlin or Paris challenge heteronormative ideas of belonging? How do Romani and anti-nationalist activists interrogate the nature of the state’s colonial power.

Four credit hours. S. El-Shaarawi

What does it mean to seek to relieve suffering on a global scale? How could such an impulse be political? Students will have the opportunity to critically analyze and understand humanitarian action in global perspective. We will investigate the principles and history of humanitarianism and consider their application on a global scale by a range of humanitarian actors, such as NGOs and states. We will investigate the politics and ethics of philanthropy, volunteerism, and humanitarian-military intervention and will discuss and debate the intersections and divergences between humanitarianism, human rights, and development. Prerequisite: Anthropology 112.

Four credit hours. H, I. van der Meer

The terms genocide and globalization aptly describe the long 20th century in world history, which begins in the 19th century with the “opening” of China and Japan, German unification, and the onset of imperialism. By focusing on the roots and the context, the history of the 20th century as well as present tensions in the Middle East, Ukraine, South China Sea, etc. are easier to understand. The focus will shift from national (Germany, United States, China) to regional (Europe, Africa, Americas, Asia) to global perspectives. Introduces the major relevant ideologies and systems, such as nationalism, National-Socialism, fascism, communism, capitalism, social democracy, imperialism, decolonization, total war, genocide, and globalization.

Four credit hours. H, I. Jiang

This course explores the history of gender and sexuality in modern China (20th century till the present) by analyzing literary, visual, filmic, and musical sources. The class explores how gender and sexuality interact with nationalism and colonialism in the (de-)construction of multiple identities in modern China. Reflecting on conventional gender roles and definitions of masculinity and femininity, students uncover the intricate global network of body, power, and knowledge production through the representations of people ’s lived experiences and memories–some nostalgic, others traumatic. Students explore these histories through the prism of the individual, and rethink them in affective, ethical, and political terms.

Four credit hours. H.

From taking over factories to stealing from cash registers, working people have resisted bosses since before they were called that. This seminar will explore the deep history of this labor resistance, beginning with its early modern roots. In the process, you will learn about the radical political visions workers across the globe have made and fought for over the course of the last several centuries. Our guiding questions will be: how have working people and their struggles changed the world? How can they today?

Four credit hours. Duff

This seminar traces the fraught and complex histories–and contested and often unequal present status–of assisted reproductive technology (ART). While we may be familiar with the first use of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) in 1978, humans have long used technology to address infertility and to shape the kinds of children and families they wish to raise. Technology is never neutral, though, and these reproductive projects have been–and have the potential to be –used to create and entrench racial and gendered inequalities. While grounded in historical scholarship, this is an interdisciplinary seminar which takes a closer look at the histories, use, and implications of ART around the globe.

Four credit hours. S, I. Kesler

Debates about immigration abound in recent years, as political and economic strife in origin countries drives significant population movements. International migrants move within a fundamentally unequal world, in which differential access to rights and resources arises from and reinforces categorical distinctions, such as those of citizenship, social class, gender, race and ethnicity, and religion. In this course, we will address major social scientific explanations for international migration as well as variation (across groups, countries, and historical periods) in patterns of incorporation of immigrants and their descendants.

Four credit hours. Miller

Students will learn about Indigenous understandings of disseminating knowledge in Abiayala (Latin America) as they give back to LatinX migrant students in Maine. Through this civic engagement, students will explore non-Western Indigenous forms of knowledge and issues surrounding migration to the United States from Mexico and Central America while analyzing contemporary issues surrounding LatinX diasporas, land sovereignty, and Critical Indigenous Studies. Topics may include trans-indigeneity, alternative forms of “writing,” oraliterature, digital humanities, hybridity, modernity, decoloniality, and ecocriticism. Prerequisite: A 200-level Spanish literature, culture, or film course.

Four credit hours. I. Tybinko

Focuses on the cultures and communities that make up contemporary Spain, with particular emphasis on the modern waves of immigration that have radically changed the country. Covering the latter years of the dictatorship and into the democracy (from 1970 forward), we examine how regionalism, multiculturalism, and diversity have been represented across a range of media and literature in Spain. Topics may include Latin American, African and Asian migration and diasporas, sex and sexuality, racial politics, and linguistic and cultural difference in Spain. Prerequisite: Spanish 135.

Four credit hours. U. Fugikawa

Discussion-based course considering central writers in queer studies, with an emphasis on historical and theoretical work on sex, gender, and sexuality. Topics include gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersexual, and queer political movement and theory; sexual identities and feminism; sexual identities and the law; alternative family practices; and queer theory in academia.

Four credit hours. S, I. Thomas

This course critically examines the concept of human rights through articles in the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Focusing each week on a particular article of the declaration, we will examine feminist activism in the context of women’s rights as human rights; question how, who, and what are protected by the declaration; and bring the particular into conversation with the universal. Students will understand the concept of universal human rights, analyze human rights abuses from multidisciplinary perspectives, and critically analyze feminist activism for social justice across local and global contexts.