SAS 303/GSS 412
Location: Delhi, India
Instructor: Fauzia Farooqui, Lecturer in South Asian Studies

Famed for its openness to sexually explicit literature and art and ill-famed for its treatment of women, South Asia often presents contradictory views about gender, sexuality, and feminism. This course will survey ideas regarding gender and sexuality at various points in the cultural history of South Asia and how these ideas have shaped women’s and men’s lives and experiences in the society. We will also examine how different communities have pushed against gender norms and cultural expectations using different ideologies and strategies resulting in a diverse range of feminist projects in South Asia, each shaped by its own concerns and contexts. The course will explore ideas about gender, sexuality, and feminism in various domains of South Asian life, including social institutions and social change; politics and activism; aesthetics of body, love, and sex; cultural products and practices; religious rituals and customs; literature and performing arts; and fashion and media. Apart from reading scholarship on relevant topics, we will analyze primary textual sources, such as religious texts, literary genres, and folklore. We will also interrogate objects and aspects of material cultural, including sculptures, paintings, music, cinema, and commercials. Applications are closed.

URB 392/ARC 392/HIS 381/AFS 392

Location: Dakar, Senegal
Instructor: Gregory H. Valdespino, Princeton-Mellon Fellow

This course examines how Africans have made cities from the Medieval era to the present day. Students will learn about the forces that have structured the buildings found on African cityscapes, the jobs done by urban workers, and the relationship African urbanites had with their environments. Students will examine how people experienced and transformed urban landscapes across Africa and develop the skills needed to critically analyze urban built environments. By doing so, students will develop the tools to interpret how cities are made and remade as well as the ability to explain how cities have structured Africa's past, present and future. Applications are closed.

SPA 204

Instructor: Paloma Moscardó-Vallés, lecturer in Spanish and Portuguese.

This is an advanced Spanish course aiming to enhance language skills while exploring health-related topics in Latin America, with a focus on Colombia. The classes will be complemented by a virtual exchange with the medical school students at the University of Caldas, and different guest speakers. During Spring break, students will visit Manizales, immersing in the lives of their medical students' partners. Post-trip, they will choose a health-related topic, conducting research, presenting findings to the class, and producing a final paper. Applications are closed.

Nigel Smith, William and Annie S. Paton Foundation Professor of Ancient and Modern Literature and professor of English

Inter-disciplinary class on early modern Amsterdam (1550-1720) when the city was at the center of the global economy and leading cultural center; home of Rembrandt and Spinoza (Descartes was nearby) and original figures like playwrights Bredero and Vondel, the ethicist engraver Coornhert, the political economist de la Court brothers and English traveling theater. We go from art to poetry, drama, philosophy and medicine. Spring Break is in Amsterdam with museum visits, guest talks and participation in recreation of traveling theater from the period.

Paloma Moscardó-Vallés, lecturer in Spanish and Portuguese

SPA 204 is an advanced Spanish course focusing on health and medical topics. Its main purpose is to put students in contact with the healthcare situation in the indigenous communities of Ecuador. During the first six weeks of the semester, students will learn about those topics and will get ready for a medical mission that will take place during spring break. The last six weeks will be dedicated to research and reflection.

Christina H. Lee, associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese

How are ideas of belonging to the body politic defined in Spain, Latin America, and in Spanish-speaking communities in the United States? Who is “Latin America,” Latinx,” “Chino,” “Argentine,” “Guatemalan,” “Indian,” etc.? Who constructs these terms and why? Who do they include/exclude? Why do we need these identity markers in the first place? Our course will engage these questions by surveying and analyzing literary, historical, and visual productions from the time of the foundation of the Spanish empire to the present time in the Spanish speaking world.

This seminar fulfills the literature and the arts (LA) general education requirement.

Fauzia Farooqui, lecturer in Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies

This course surveys ideas regarding gender and sexuality at various points in the cultural history of South Asia and how these ideas have shaped women’s and men’s lives and experiences in the society. We examine how different communities pushed against gender norms and cultural expectations using different ideologies and strategies resulting in a diverse range of feminist projects in South Asia. The course explores ideas about gender, sexuality, and feminism in various domains of South Asian life. Apart from reading scholarship on relevant topics, we analyze primary textual sources, such as religious texts, literary genres, and folklore.

This seminar fulfills the social analysis (SA) general education requirement.

Rubén Gallo, Walter S. Carpenter, Jr., Professor in Language, Literature, and Civilization of Spain and professor of Spanish and Portuguese

After Fidel Castro marched into Havana in January 1959, a cultural revolution followed the political one: literature, the arts, architecture, film, and dance sought to break with the past and proposed new, utopian ways of artmaking. This seminar will offer an overview of some of the most important cultural productions of this era, including films, novels, political essays, and architectural works, which ended by the early 1970s with the rise of censorship.

This seminar fulfills the literature and the arts (LA) general education requirement.

Katherine Reischl, assistant professor of Slavic languages and literatures and Christian Gauss Fund University Preceptor
Aaron Shkuda, program manager of Princeton Mellon Initiative and lecturer in architecture

This seminar introduces urban studies research methods through two cultural capitals: Moscow and New York. Focused on communities and landmarks represented in historical accounts, literary works, art and film, we will travel through these cityscapes as cultural and mythological spaces - from the past to the present day. We will examine how standards of evidence shape what is knowable about cities and urban life, what “counts” as knowledge in urban studies, and how these different disciplinary perspectives construct and limit knowledge about cities as a result.

This seminar fulfills the epistemology and cognition (EC) general education requirement.