Class Schedules

Can we all live by one set of rules? This course investigates the broad field of global studies by addressing fresh and age-old issues in international law from the personal to the global, including borders, sources and enforcement of international law, law of the sea, immigration and asylum, post-national federation, colonization, world order, and global citizenship. Readings include case studies, memoirs, fiction, and other texts focusing on individuals, cultures, and states. Open to first- and second-year students, or permission of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Can we all live by one set of rules? This course investigates the broad field of global studies by addressing fresh and age-old issues in international law from the personal to the global, including borders, sources and enforcement of international law, law of the sea, immigration and asylum, post-national federation, colonization, world order, and global citizenship. Readings include case studies, memoirs, fiction, and other texts focusing on individuals, cultures, and states. Open to first- and second-year students, or permission of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

How should you live your life? This course is dedicated to exploring that BIG question. One dimension of that question is: what is good for you? Or in other words, what makes a life go well? Is it all dependent on the amount of pleasure and pain that you experience? All about how many desires of yours are satisfied? Or something else? However we answer such questions, we might also wonder - is morality just about self-interest? If not, what else is it about? And so another dimension of the question of how to live is: what makes an action morally right or wrong? Is it all about the consequences - for you or other people? Is it about treating people as more than just a means to get what you want? Is it about virtue? About caring for others? Is morality a messy combination of all of these things, and more? No matter what we think morality is, we can all admit: sometimes we morally mess up. And so we must wonder: what do we do in the wake of wrongdoing? Should we express blame? If so, when, and how? If I myself am the wrongdoer, can I ever forgive myself? This course is about questions like these. Along the way, we'll consider myriad real-world ethical issues - how to treat animals; how to live a life with meaning; whether we have obligations to donate to charity; what it means to give consent to sex; how to feel about and respond to our complicity in various structural injustices; and more. Readings will include not just philosophical papers, but also films, short stories, comedy, and popular essays. If you want a chance to reflect deeply on how to live - a chance to work together to explore the big questions in life - this course is for you.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

How should you live your life? This course is dedicated to exploring that BIG question. One dimension of that question is: what is good for you? Or in other words, what makes a life go well? Is it all dependent on the amount of pleasure and pain that you experience? All about how many desires of yours are satisfied? Or something else? However we answer such questions, we might also wonder - is morality just about self-interest? If not, what else is it about? And so another dimension of the question of how to live is: what makes an action morally right or wrong? Is it all about the consequences - for you or other people? Is it about treating people as more than just a means to get what you want? Is it about virtue? About caring for others? Is morality a messy combination of all of these things, and more? No matter what we think morality is, we can all admit: sometimes we morally mess up. And so we must wonder: what do we do in the wake of wrongdoing? Should we express blame? If so, when, and how? If I myself am the wrongdoer, can I ever forgive myself? This course is about questions like these. Along the way, we'll consider myriad real-world ethical issues - how to treat animals; how to live a life with meaning; whether we have obligations to donate to charity; what it means to give consent to sex; how to feel about and respond to our complicity in various structural injustices; and more. Readings will include not just philosophical papers, but also films, short stories, comedy, and popular essays. If you want a chance to reflect deeply on how to live - a chance to work together to explore the big questions in life - this course is for you.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course provides an introduction to law and literature. How does literature shape law and vice versa? How does literature help us to better understand the consequences of revenge, the elusiveness of confession, and the tension between justice and law? How does literature "tell the story that must be told"; (M. NourbeSe Philip)? Readings will come from a variety of literary traditions and periods: fairy tales, early modern drama, contemporary film and poetry, and literary and legal scholarship.  This counts as a foundational course for the English major; counts for the Legal Studies Concentration.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

An examination of civil liberties and rights in the U.S., focusing on the cases decided by the Supreme Court. Central topics include the First Amendment freedoms of speech, press, and religion; privacy and reproductive freedom; and the Fourteenth Amendment protection of equality as it affects discrimination, affirmative action, and voting rights.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course examines Native history since 1871, the year Congress unilaterally chose to stop making treaties with Native nations. By focusing on Native sovereignty, resistance, and the exercise of treaty rights, this course highlights histories and contemporary experiences of Native people in what is now the United States. Meets the post-1800 requirement, and can count towards "Colonization and Empire," or "Race and Indigeneity," or "Law and Social Justice," or "North America" fields.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course examines Native history since 1871, the year Congress unilaterally chose to stop making treaties with Native nations. By focusing on Native sovereignty, resistance, and the exercise of treaty rights, this course highlights histories and contemporary experiences of Native people in what is now the United States. Meets the post-1800 requirement, and can count towards "Colonization and Empire," or "Race and Indigeneity," or "Law and Social Justice," or "North America" fields.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

During the last three decades, a global indigenous rights movement has taken shape within the United nations and other international bodies, challenging and reformulating international law and global cultural understandings of indigenous rights. The recognition of indigenous peoples' rights in international law invokes the tensions between sovereignty and human rights, but also challenges the dominant international understandings of both principles. In this course, we examine indigenous peoples' movements by placing them in a global context and sociologically informed theoretical framework. By beginning with a set of influential theoretical statements from social science, we will then use indigenous peoples' movements as case studies to examine the extent to which these theoretical perspectives explain and are challenged by case studies. We will then analyze various aspects of indigenous peoples' movements and the extent to which these aspects of the movement are shaped by global processes.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Religion and Law in Africa is an intermediate cross-listed history and religion course designed to teach students how to think like historians and assess how the legal systems of indigenous African societies have been shaped by their respective religions and cosmologies. This course also explores how Arab migration and European colonization in different parts of Africa imposed new legal systems that were influenced by either Islam or Christianity. The major themes of this class include African agency, indigenous African forms of knowledge and periodization, the interconnectedness of religious, legislative, and judicial facets of African societies, and diversity among African regions, societies, ethnic groups, religions, and languages. It counts toward the Legal Studies and African Studies concentrations. For history, it meets either the pre-1800 or post-1800 requirement and can count towards the “Law & Social Justice,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Africa & Atlantic World” fields.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Religion and Law in Africa is an intermediate cross-listed history and religion course designed to teach students how to think like historians and assess how the legal systems of indigenous African societies have been shaped by their respective religions and cosmologies. This course also explores how Arab migration and European colonization in different parts of Africa imposed new legal systems that were influenced by either Islam or Christianity. The major themes of this class include African agency, indigenous African forms of knowledge and periodization, the interconnectedness of religious, legislative, and judicial facets of African societies, and diversity among African regions, societies, ethnic groups, religions, and languages. It counts toward the Legal Studies and African Studies concentrations. For history, it meets either the pre-1800 or post-1800 requirement and can count towards the “Law & Social Justice,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Africa & Atlantic World” fields.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Law is omnipresent in contemporary social life. How should we understand this development and its consequences? How does law operate to the advantage or disadvantage of various members of society? Can law be the source of significant social change? This course examines the development of a formal, legal system and the ways in which such a system connects to other parts of society. We begin by focusing on individual experiences and understandings of law and what these tell us about how law fits into the larger social order. We then evaluate explanations about the connections between social and legal development. We also consider how the "law in action" operates by examining empirical studies of legal institutions and the limits and potential of law as a source for social change.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

One facet of contemporary politics largely taken for granted is that states—as well as institutions such as Macalester and even student orgs—have written constitutions. This phenomenon has a history, however, and in recent years scholars have given higher priority to untangling its sources and consequences. This seminar will examine the origins and development of constitutionalism; the particular qualities of constitutional politics, such as institutional design and adaptation to social change; and related concepts such as the rule of law, corruption, and republicanism. After launching from American debates on originalism and the U.S. Supreme Court, the course will offer a broad tour that will include some theory (e.g., Aristotle and Machiavelli), early modern European history, and many modern cases from around the world. The primary student written work will be a research paper. Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Globalization has helped the international community to come together with an unprecedented immediacy. It has also enabled individuals and on-state actors to assume powers and duties formerly exclusive to state. The dispersion of state prerogatives can be liberating, as when oppressed people use new communication technologies to overthrow their masters. It can also provide opportunities for criminal enterprises and other agents of disorder to act with impunity. Our senior seminar will explore the tensions between the centripedal forces that bring us together, and the centrifugal forces that tear the global community apart. The state will most often be the law. The Westphalian sovereign state has often been declared vanquished by globalization, yet it is still very much alive, and has proven creative in deriving new means to control its subjects. It must do so because those subjects have proven equally creative in resisting state control; and globalization, in both its modern and older forms, has provided those subjects with many tools of resistance. Prerequisite(s): Senior standing or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

How should you live your life? This course is dedicated to exploring that BIG question. One dimension of that question is: what is good for you? Or in other words, what makes a life go well? Is it all dependent on the amount of pleasure and pain that you experience? All about how many desires of yours are satisfied? Or something else? However we answer such questions, we might also wonder - is morality just about self-interest? If not, what else is it about? And so another dimension of the question of how to live is: what makes an action morally right or wrong? Is it all about the consequences - for you or other people? Is it about treating people as more than just a means to get what you want? Is it about virtue? About caring for others? Is morality a messy combination of all of these things, and more? No matter what we think morality is, we can all admit: sometimes we morally mess up. And so we must wonder: what do we do in the wake of wrongdoing? Should we express blame? If so, when, and how? If I myself am the wrongdoer, can I ever forgive myself? This course is about questions like these. Along the way, we’ll consider myriad real-world ethical issues - how to treat animals; how to live a life with meaning; whether we have obligations to donate to charity; what it means to give consent to sex; how to feel about and respond to our complicity in various structural injustices; and more. Readings will include not just philosophical papers, but also films, short stories, and popular essays. If you want a chance to reflect deeply on how to live - a chance to work together to explore the big questions in life - this course is for you.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

How should you live your life? This course is dedicated to exploring that BIG question. One dimension of that question is: what is good for you? Or in other words, what makes a life go well? Is it all dependent on the amount of pleasure and pain that you experience? All about how many desires of yours are satisfied? Or something else? However we answer such questions, we might also wonder - is morality just about self-interest? If not, what else is it about? And so another dimension of the question of how to live is: what makes an action morally right or wrong? Is it all about the consequences - for you or other people? Is it about treating people as more than just a means to get what you want? Is it about virtue? About caring for others? Is morality a messy combination of all of these things, and more? No matter what we think morality is, we can all admit: sometimes we morally mess up. And so we must wonder: what do we do in the wake of wrongdoing? Should we express blame? If so, when, and how? If I myself am the wrongdoer, can I ever forgive myself? This course is about questions like these. Along the way, we’ll consider myriad real-world ethical issues - how to treat animals; how to live a life with meaning; whether we have obligations to donate to charity; what it means to give consent to sex; how to feel about and respond to our complicity in various structural injustices; and more. Readings will include not just philosophical papers, but also films, short stories, and popular essays. If you want a chance to reflect deeply on how to live - a chance to work together to explore the big questions in life - this course is for you.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

In the Plan of Union prepared during the 1754 "Albany Convention," Anglo-American colonists met to consider uniting as a loose confederation for their common defense and to ally with the Iroquois confederacy. That plan failed, but a later experiment in unity succeeded when the united colonies declared independence. Nevertheless, social, cultural, and ideological differences persisted, and the union formed in 1776 was tried and tested before finally fracturing with the secession of South Carolina, precipitating the Civil War. In the intervening years, Americans grappled with how they should govern themselves, who should be included in the polity, and how society should be organized. Reformers considered the controversial issues of women's rights, the role of Native Americans within the US, and the place of slavery in a nation founded on the precept that "All men are created equal." This course covers the periods of the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, the early national and antebellum periods, before concluding with the Civil War. It also considers the global causes and consequences of the war and the rise of the new United States. We will also analyze the construction of the myth and historical memory of Alexander Hamilton, the founding father who has captured the imagination of people in the modern U.S.  Through a study of the recent biography of Hamilton along with the music and stage production of Hamilton, we will consider both the biographical and mythical Alexander Hamilton in order to understand his era and our own. Can count towards "Colonization and Empire," or "Race and Indigeneity," or "Law and Social Justice," or "North America" fields.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The use of imprisonment as a form of criminal punishment is only about as old at the United States. Currently, 1 in 100 adults in the United States are in prison or jail. How should we understand the growth of this form of criminal punishment? How is it similar to other methods to react to and to attempt to control unwanted behavior? What are the social consequences of these formal institutions of social control? In this course, we examine these developments in the processes and organization of social control, paying particular attention to criminal behavior and formal, legal responses to crime. We study and evaluate sociological theories of criminal behavior to understand how social forces influence levels of crimes. We examine recent criminal justice policies in the United States and their connections to inequality, examining the processes that account for expanding criminalization. Finally, we compare the development of formal, bureaucratic systems of social control and informal methods of social control, paying attention to the social and political implications of these developments.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q2
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

After a brief but essential global history of drugs, this course will focus primarily on the 20th century to the present. We will examine histories of substance use and abuse, temperance and prohibition, the "War on Drugs," the shifting concept of addiction as a moral failing to addiction as a treatable disease, as well as study the history of the recovery movement and harm reduction. This course is not intended to be an exhaustive, comprehensive history of the subject-but it will provide you with a solid base from which to explore other aspects of this fascinating and contentious aspect of human history.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

After a brief but essential global history of drugs, this course will focus primarily on the 20th century to the present. We will examine histories of substance use and abuse, temperance and prohibition, the "War on Drugs," the shifting concept of addiction as a moral failing to addiction as a treatable disease, as well as study the history of the recovery movement and harm reduction. This course is not intended to be an exhaustive, comprehensive history of the subject-but it will provide you with a solid base from which to explore other aspects of this fascinating and contentious aspect of human history. Meets the post-1800 requirement, and can count towards "Gender," or "Race and Indigeneity," or "Law and Social Justice," or "North America" fields.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course explores how and why we make moral judgments about people and their behavior. How are our moral judgments shaped by intuition, emotion, and reasoning? What are the moral implications of climate change? Do we ever put the interests of our broader group or community above our own self-interest? How do we balance punishment motives of retribution and deterrence, and how do these relate to policy decisions about capital punishment? Could a robot have moral rights and responsibilities? We will examine these questions by considering theories and findings from social, developmental, evolutionary, and political psychology, as well as from related fields like philosophy and artificial intelligence. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 201 and one intermediate psychology course, or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials