Course Schedule for Spring 2019

DLS Foundational Love, Death, and God: From the Bible through the Renaissance

“The approach taken in the Foundational courses is primarily historical….their goal is to make the student aware of the complex historical dynamics of cultural evolution by careful analysis of selected episodes of important cultural conflict, continuity, and change, so as to identify the multiple interactions of the subject matters of traditional academic disciplines in such episodes…Such interdisciplinary inquiry is designed to produce a style of questioning that more realistically corresponds to the actual dynamics of human cultural development throughout history.” Handbook, p. 9 In this course we will focus on the relationship between text and context in Europe within a global framework. The discipline of history investigates the ways in which human society experiences change and continuity. It provides, through generations of historians, working, for the most part, in a collegial fashion, an increasingly complex context for understanding the human story. The thematic focus of the course will be on the interaction of rulers and religion, what is today called the relationship between church and state. The organization of the course is around texts and contexts between the time of the Roman Empire to the early modern period in European history as we approach the rise of religious toleration and the Enlightenment.

Note: DLS Seminar 2, must take in sequence. Attendance at first class strongly advised. DLS students only.

DLS Foundational The Challenge of Postmodernism

The fourth and final required foundational course focuses on the period from roughly 1850 to the present, loosely characterized as “postmodern.” This course covers issues from an interdisciplinary perspective because the realities of cultural evolution and conflict demonstrate the interaction of economic, political, religious, moral, scientific and aesthetic forces, as well as other factors peculiar to particular societies and time periods. Specific topics, texts, thematic emphases, and approaches to these periods may vary. Course may not be repeated for credit. Pre-Requisites: LSHV 601; LSHV 602; LSHV 603

Note: DLS Seminar 4, must take in sequence. Attendance at first class strongly advised.

DLS Qualifying Exam

This section of DLS Qualifying Exam Prep is intended for students who have enrolled in the program primarily on a part-time basis (3-6 credits per semester) and who intend to complete their DLS Qualifying Exam at a similar pace. This section counts as Half-Time Status. Notes: DLS students only. 36 hrs completed. Student provides exam checklist to Asst. Dean by Sept. 15th. Course certifies half-time status Repeatable course Fall and Spring terms with DLS Director approval

Note: Course certifies Full-Time status. Repeatable in Fall and Spring terms with DLS director approval. DLS students must have 36 earned credit hours prior to the Spring 2018 semester. Full-time status carries an automatic Health Insurance Fee. Contact Student Health Services if requesting a waiver.

DLS Qualifying Exam

This section of DLS Qualifying Exam Prep is intended for students who have enrolled in the program primarily on a part-time basis (3-6 credits per semester) and who intend to complete their DLS Qualifying Exam at a similar pace. This section counts as Half-Time Status. Notes: DLS students only. 36 hrs completed. Student provides exam checklist to Asst. Dean by Sept. 15th. Course certifies half-time status Repeatable course Fall and Spring terms with DLS Director approval

Note: Halftime status. Repeatable in fall and spring terms. DLS students must have 36 earned credit hours prior to the Spring 2018 semester.

DLS Thesis Proposal/Thesis Writing

After successful completion of the Qualifying Examination, the DLS student reviews carefully the The Graduate Liberal Studies Guidelines for Thesis Writers, liberalstudies.georgetown.edu/DLS students/resources/thesis, downloads the DLS Thesis Proposal Form and registers for DLS Thesis Proposal Preparation/Thesis Writing in either the fall or spring term following the successful completion of the DLS Qualifying Examinations. During or prior to that semester the student, with the assistance of the DLS Director as needed, determines the tentative thesis topic and the three faculty members representing research areas appropriate to the topic. These faculty constitute the student’s Doctoral Thesis Committee, a Chair and two Readers. In general the Thesis Proposal includes an explanation and an outline of the topic of study, a preliminary bibliography, a suggested table of contents, and any special methodologies. Upon determining the topic and Thesis Committee and by mid-semester, the student must set a date for the “oral defense” of the completed Thesis Proposal by an examining board whose members are the student’s Thesis Committee and the members of the DLS Executive committee. Upon final approval of the Thesis Proposal the student proceeds with the research and writing of the Doctoral Thesis. Students registered for DLS Thesis Proposal Prep./Thesis Writing are encouraged during that semester to participate in the two session (Saturday and one evening) DLS Thesis Proposal Workshop which is offered once each Fall and Spring semester

Note: Half-time status Repeatable course, Fall and Spring terms.

DLS Thesis Writing

The Doctor of Liberal Studies thesis is expected to demonstrate a level of competence and academic rigor in the field of interdisciplinary studies comparable to, though distinct from, the equivalent level of competence and rigor expected in a Ph.D. thesis in a disciplinary field. Topics are limited to the liberal arts and social sciences and must be approved by the DLS Director. The Doctoral Thesis represents the creative synthesis of primary sources and secondary materials. Students must follow the Graduate Liberal Studies Guidelines for Thesis Writers provided each student upon successful completion of the Qualifying Examination for steps and procedures in the preparation and defense of the Thesis Proposal as well as the submission, defense, and approval of the DLS thesis. The Guidelines are also online, liberalstudies.georgetown.edu/DLS students/resources/thesis. Additionally, the student must follow the “rules” of manuscript preparation according to the methods provided in A Manual for Writers, 8th edition, Kate Turabian, in particular, the choice of one of the two suggested styles for citations.

Note: Half-time status Repeatable course, Fall and Spring terms. Final online Proquest approval is April 15, 2018. following successful Thesis Defense. Must have successfully defended Thesis Proposal on file from previous Fall or Spring semester.

DLS Thesis Writing

The Doctor of Liberal Studies thesis is expected to demonstrate a level of competence and academic rigor in the field of interdisciplinary studies comparable to, though distinct from, the equivalent level of competence and rigor expected in a Ph.D. thesis in a disciplinary field. Topics are limited to the liberal arts and social sciences and must be approved by the DLS Director. The Doctoral Thesis represents the creative synthesis of primary sources and secondary materials. Students must follow the Graduate Liberal Studies Guidelines for Thesis Writers provided each student upon successful completion of the Qualifying Examination for steps and procedures in the preparation and defense of the Thesis Proposal as well as the submission, defense, and approval of the DLS thesis. The Guidelines are also online, liberalstudies.georgetown.edu/DLS students/resources/thesis. Additionally, the student must follow the “rules” of manuscript preparation according to the methods provided in A Manual for Writers, 8th edition, Kate Turabian, in particular, the choice of one of the two suggested styles for citations.

Note: Course certifies Full-Time status. Repeatable in Fall and Spring terms. Final online Proquest approval is April 15, 2018 following successful Thesis defense. Full-time status carries an automatic Health Insurance Fee. Contact Student Health Services if requesting a waiver. Must have successfully defended Thesis Proposal in previous semester.

FDN: Cyberethics

The wide range of human activities now taking place in cyberspace raises classic as well as novel ethical, legal and social issues. Social media such as Facebook and Twitter and many issues related to the active presence of the internet in general, have outstripped the bounds of any moral consensus or U.S. case law related to property, privacy and confidentiality for example. In addition, there is a growing body of information about harms and abuses that take place in cyberspace. Cybercrime and the possibility of cyber attack have galvanized both governments and citizens of the world. This course approaches these issues as areas of inquiry within philosophical ethics. It begins with basic information about ethical theories and principles and then proceeds to an examination of the various cyber modalities, one by one. Careful analysis of the relevant ethical issues including the development of ethical arguments will shed light on the question of how should we respond to the opportunities and challenges presented in cyberspace? In addition, legal cases that do exist will be considered. The course will have a strong values component, a global orientation and also provide ample opportunity for creative thought and active participation on the part of students.

Note: Graduate Liberal Studies students only. Attendance at first class session strongly advised.

FDN: Path to the Future: The U.S. in the 21st Century World

In 1941, the publisher Henry Luce predicted the coming of what he called the “American Century.” According to Luce, the time had arrived for Americans “to accept wholeheartedly our duty and our opportunity as the most powerful and vital nation of the world and in consequence to assert upon the world the full impact of our influence, for such means as we see fit.” In the decades that followed, many Americans enthusiastically accepted this challenge and the remaining decades of the 20th century bore witness to their efforts. But what have been the consequences for the United States, and the world, in the “present”? Although much of the attention directed toward US foreign policy in the last several years has been focused the “War on Terrorism,” a vast number of other significant issues also present the United States with challenges and opportunities in the 21st century. While not ignoring the “War on Terrorism,” this course also will examine some of the other areas of policy as a means of assessing the current global status of the United States and providing insight regarding its “path to the future.”

Note: Attendance at first class strongly advised. Follow Mon/Wed rule. First class session is Wed, Jan. 17. Graduate Liberal Studies students only.

Free Speech and Supreme Court

Free Speech is very much about line-drawing. We are generally agreed that political speech, no matter how heated, is the hallmark of an open society, and highly protected under the First Amendment. We are also generally agreed (per Justice Holmes) that you can't cry fire in a crowded theater when there is no fire; and that child pornography is bereft of any constitutional protection. Those are easy. What about the gray areas, where unfettered speech is a threat to safety, to reputation, to national security, to morality? In pushing the free speech envelope, how far is too far? Where (if at all) should society -- and the Supreme Court -- draw the line? Justice Brandeis, a champion of free speech, noted that "freedom to think as you will and to speak as you think are means indispensable to the discovery and spread of political truth." Justice Jackson, also a proponent, nonetheless cautioned that speech free of reasonable fetter, if unchecked, can lead to anarchy and convert the Bill of Rights "into a suicide pact." Who is right? Or are they all right? When is speech so uncivil that domestic tranquility takes precedence? What is lost and what is gained as a society in resolving these tensions? This course grapples with these issues. Through historical analysis and case study of the leading Supreme Court speech cases from the Founding to the present, we will examine the interplay between speech and censorship, liberty and order; majoritarianism and libertarianism; and the legal, societal and ethical implications of the Supreme Court's First Amendment pronouncements in this volatile, contentious/perpetually vexing area.

MALS Continuous Reg. (HT)

Note: Must be taken by MALS candidates who have an "Incomplete" in Thesis Writing. No scheduled classes. Do not sign up for this as a substitute for a leave of absence.

MALS Thesis Prop. Wksp. (FT)

Note: This course certifies full-time credit. Full-time status carries an automatic Health Ins. Fee. Contact Student Health Services if requesting a waiver. Needs Department Approval

MALS Thesis Prop. Wksp. (HT)

Effective Fall 2013, (a) this course will carry an automatic program fee of $500, (b) may only be taken once after receiving an "Incomplete" in Thesis Writing, and (c) has been re-numbered from 991/992. If students do not complete Thesis Writing, s/he must register in the next semester in "MALS Thesis Continuous Registration I" which carries a $500 fee charge, is 0-credits and is part-time status. Students may take "MALS Thesis Continuous Reg. I" only once. If the student decides to withdraw from Thesis Writing before the deadline, s/he can pursue the 36-cr./Coursework degree plan. No exceptions will be considered.

Note: This course certifies half-time status. Final thesis proposal approval is May 1st, 2018. Repeatable in Fall and Spring terms only. "Course meets 1/24, 2/21, 3/28, and 4/25. Must have completed seven courses (21 credits); must have 3.0 GPA

MALS Thesis Writing (FT)

Note: Course certifies full-time status. Needs Department Approval

MALS Thesis Writing (HT)

Note: Pre-req 27 earned credits and Satisfactory in MALS Thesis Proposal Workshop. Course certifies half-time status.

FDN: Politics of Gender in World Religions

In what ways is gender socially constructed? How does religion provide the theological matrix for conceptions of gender norms? This course will explore such questions by analyzing the theological context for the construction of gender in world religions. We will analyze, for example, issues of ritual impurity and Torah fulfillment in Judaism, what Buddhism looks like ‘after patriarchy’, and Qur’anic egalitarianism. The dynamic force of “fundamentalism” in contemporary world religions will be examined, and we will answer the question: Why do women choose more restrictive religious paths when more open paths are available? We will also examine how religion serves as a cultural system, offering its own political aims, both liberalizing and conservatizing, with regard to gender.

Note: Graduate Liberal Studies students only. Attendance at first class session strongly advised.

Postcolonial Fiction and Film

In a broad sense, postcolonialism deals with the (after)effects of European colonization on cultures and societies. In this course, we will consider the historical, political, moral, and cultural context of European colonialism and its immense impact on fiction and film from around the world. Although not ‘postcolonial,’ we will begin by reading Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, a fictional narrative written in the heydays of colonialism, as a means to understand the profound and inescapable effects of colonization. We will then read fiction from Africa and South Asia in order to explore how such historical and political fissures as the Partition of India in 1947, the policy of Apartheid in South Africa, the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya, and the birth of postcolonial nations such as Botswana and Pakistan, among others, have played a significant role in shaping the ethics and values of fictional narratives which have emerged from these diverse locations. In addition, we will also watch films from and about Africa and South Asia as a means to further facilitate our discussions about postcolonialism.

Note: Graduate Liberal Studies students, only. Attendance at first class session is strongly advised.

Religious Practice/Politics in South Asia

This course explores the complexity of religious belief and practice and its impact on the political context in contemporary South Asia. While the methodology is interdisciplinary, the main focus is the analysis of religion and politics through the lens of Hinduism, Islam and Christianity in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. In the first half of the course, students will learn how religious ideologies are embedded in all arenas of cultural, political, and social life in South Asia. In the second half of this course, students will analyze case studies and contemporary issues that complicate how religious beliefs influence politics. What are the religious dimensions of communal violence, marginalization, and political protest? Are the laws in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh reflective of particular theological values and norms? How do these laws incorporate and protect minority communities in these countries, if at all? Case studies will include an analysis of religious/communal violence, women’s rights, third-gender/LGBTQ rights, and religious minorities. The course is especially relevant for students who wish to better understand how religious beliefs function in contemporary politics and world affairs. For the final paper, students can focus on any country/region/religion to analyze and discuss.

Understanding Terrorism and Countering Terrorists

This course examines the terrorist threat and government responses. It has been designed in the context of events leading up to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, and subsequent actions in response to those attacks. The course initially considers the international environment from which terrorism emanates, and then proceeds to focus on the definitions of terrorism, terrorist group's motivations and tactics, US policies and defensive mechanisms to counter terrorism, and terrorism's future. Students will develop an understanding of the dynamics of terrorism and counterterrorism. The course objective is to provide students a solid foundation upon which further expertise can be developed on an issue which will confront the United States and the international community for the foreseeable future.

Values and Issues in International Affairs

Since the moral issues involved in the Cold War receded, the world has faced new ethical problems involving environmental action, trade policy, economic sanctions, dealing with terrorism, use of drones, cyberwarfare, mass refugee flows, and decisions on when and where to intervene abroad to aid those suffering from atrocities and ethnic conflicts. Actually, in both periods most of the moral choices have just been variations on themes as old as civilization. This course will stress the processes of "moral reasoning" to decide where a nation's obligations lie when moral principles conflict. This is a course in "applied ethics". We will take the moral principles generally used by writers on international ethics and apply them to currently relevant political, economic, military, and environmental topics. We will briefly contrast various approaches to the role of morality in international affairs: realism vs. idealism, absolutism vs. consequentialism, and natural law vs. positive law. However, this is not a course in the philosophy of international ethics. We will not be concerned with how the main writers in the field have derived the approaches they take, that is, we will not be looking into the epistemology of international ethics. Thus we will be more concerned with the writings of Michael Walzer, Stanley Hoffman, and Reinhold Niebuhr than with those of Aristotle, Kant, and John Rawls.

What Is Italian Renaissance?

The word “renaissance” means “rebirth” and thus the use of the term inevitably yields the question: rebirth of what? While it becomes clear, as one follows the period that has received that label, that much of classical, Greek and Roman, culture is re-achieving the center of the stage, this realization causes two further questions inevitably to present themselves: how is classical cultural redux similar to and how different from its original model? Does the re-engagement of the classics and their ideas, which are pagan, mean that the centuries’-long evolution of Christian culture and Christian ideas has dissipated? How so and how not? Further, what does the term “humanism” mean as it is used to refer to this era?

William James: Writings, Literature and Life

William James is one of the seminal thinkers of the late 19th and early 20th Century. A founder of American Pragmatism, he influenced thinkers in philosophy, ethics, psychology, and even law, as well as being, in a sense, the originator of the study of religion. In this course we will read three of his most important works, The Principles of Psychology, The Varieties of Religious Experience, and Pragmatism, as well as some of his essays. We will also read two lives written of James, Linda Simon’s comprehensive Genuine Reality: A Life of William James and Jacques Barzun’s incomparable A Stroll with William James. In addition we will read a collection of James’s letters. Finally we will read some feminist criticism of James, Cornel West’s critique and appreciation of James in The American Evasion of Philosophy, and Richard Rorty’s evaluation of him. It’s possible that we will read a novel by Gertrude Stein, James’s student, to see how his views came to life in her writing.