Course Offerings

This gateway course surveys the histories, theories, concepts, actors, and pedagogies that compose the growing transdisciplinary field of justice and peace studies. We will familiarize ourselves with current issues in the field, as well as the movements and structures that both contribute to and provide obstacles to the creation and sustainability of a more just and peaceful world. The course presents a wide range of theoretical and practical perspectives on peace and social justice, including: poverty, hunger, and homelessness; racism, sexism, and homophobia; violence, oppression, slavery, and colonization; and complex issues of sustainable development and humanitarian aid. Through historical and contemporary analyses, the course addresses critical issues of militarism, inequality, and injustice, emphasizing the development of viable alternatives. This course is highly recommended for first-year students and sophomores interested in pursuing the JUPS major or minor. As an introductory course, it requires permission for seniors. (Offered Spring, Fall, and online in Summer).

This foundational seminar is taught each fall and spring semester; it is designed to introduce students to a perspective on nonviolence that integrates theory and practice, drawing upon a wide range of literature and examples. A central aim of the course is to develop a holistic view of nonviolence as a set of practices that range from the personal and local to the national and global. The course seeks to foster an experiential engagement with the tenets of nonviolence, through participation in workshops, activities, and projects in the community and region. The overarching objective is to develop a systematic analysis of nonviolence in order to cultivate effective approaches to addressing contemporary challenges in society through nonviolent means, as well as envisioning and animating a world built on the tenets of nonviolence. (Offered Spring, Fall)

This course offers a thorough grounding of Conflict Transformation as a philosophical orientation, practical approach, and theoretical framework, as well as an analysis of its recent developments. The course strives to “transform” our understanding of three major aspects of conflict: 1) what we think about conflict; 2) how we think about conflict; and 3) how we engage in conflict. Students focus their learning on various contexts as contested spaces for social change and transformation regarding issues of violence, oppression, injustice, development, and difference. Particular emphasis is placed on the work and philosophies of John Burton, John Paul Lederach, Johan Galtung, and Paulo Freire, with a grounding in Conflict Transformation’s foundation of ‘peace by peaceful means’. Drawing on Lederach’s idea that Conflict Transformation is a way of “looking and seeing” conflicts, the course explores the deep culture and structure (Galtung) of conflicts in different settings, and identifies approaches to positive and sustainable change through a social justice lens. (Offered Spring, Fall)

Offered in the fall and summer semesters, this course explores the theories, practices, and ethics unique to research methodologies in the JUPS field. The course examines both qualitative and quantitative research frameworks including: participatory action research, feminist research methods, ethnographic methodologies, community-based research, ethnomethodologies, phenomenology, and participant observation. Students gain knowledge and experience with various techniques appropriate to inquiries in peace studies and social justice, such as active interviewing, working in fragile contexts and conflict settings, considering context, constructing meaningful surveys, identifying cases appropriate for study, and utilizing research as a tool for social change. The course considers the ethical issues involved with such research, from informed consent and IRB concerns to “ownership” of data and responsible use of research results. Through theoretical and practical engagement, students acquire the research skills necessary for developing a research proposal as they move toward the completion of the JUPS major. Open to JUPS minors and majors, or by permission of the instructor. (Offered Fall)

In this class, we will explore how social movements emerge, mobilize people, assert structural demands, and spur solidarity. We will assess and compare historical and contemporary movements that advance racial, economic, and gender justice, immigrant rights, LGBTQ+ equality, and climate resilience. Through case studies, movement dispatches, first-person perspectives, and theoretical frameworks, we will explore the phases, characteristics, strategies, and short-and long-term impacts of social movements.

This course will examine historical and contemporary international, US, Palestinian, and Israeli efforts to resolve the conflicting issues between the Palestinian national movement and the Zionist movement/Israel over the past century. This course also will delve into the policies established and legislation enacted by the United States in relation to Israel and the Palestinian people to explore whether they have helped or hindered these efforts.

We use the terms human rights and justice every day, but what exactly do they mean? What are our human rights? What happens when they are violated? What do we mean when we ask for justice? Furthermore, what happens when our notions of justice clash with core concepts of fundamental human rights? This course will consist of a combination of theoretical and hands-on clinical explorations of domestic and international justice systems and international human rights standards, with the goal of better understanding the interplay between these two intertwined, but often divergent, concepts. Included in the course will be meetings with victims of crime, as well as conversations with justice system professionals, human rights lawyers, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and law enforcement. The course will include a visit to D.C. Superior Court to view a criminal trial and culminates in a mock trial where students will search for the proper balance between human rights and justice.

This seminar introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of peace education from both theoretical and applied/practical perspectives. The course content and processes will explore a range of conceptual, analytical, and praxis-oriented perspectives and encourage students to reflect on the possibilities and challenges of educating for peace in a world of complex and escalating conflicts and violence. It provides an overview of the history, central concepts, scholarship, and practices within the field, with a particular focus on case-studies of peace education in practice worldwide. Additional focal points include the role of culture, ethnicity, gender, intergenerational relations and religious affiliation on peace education dynamics and non-violent conflict resolution processes. Given the pedagogical focus of peace education, this course requires the active and thoughtful participation of all class members. Seminar-style discussions, lectures, guest presentations and practical exercises constitute the bulk of the course’s structure, supplemented with occasional videos and guest speakers.

Climate Change, Conflict, & Displacement This course explores the relationship between climate change, conflict, and human mobility, focusing on the impacts, challenges, and opportunities associated with this set of interrelated, complex, and dynamic phenomena. We will examine the various types of human mobility, the environmental, social, and economic drivers of climate- and conflict-driven displacement, and the ways in which displaced people are affected by human rights and policy responses. We will also explore how climate change intersects with other manifestations of environmental, national, and human (in)security, and investigate the adaptation strategies and opportunities available to communities and governments to mitigate the negative impacts of displacement while fostering resilience and adaptive capacity. Throughout the course, we will examine case studies from around the world to gain a deeper understanding of the diverse experiences of people on the move, and the policy responses that have been developed to address this increasingly urgent issue.

This course examines the process of decolonization of peace and Justice. It considers what it means to decenter or dismantle and challenge the superiority of Eurocentric/ Western thoughts, frameworks, power and approaches, as well as how to bring into the center the worldviews, narratives and practices of those who have been marginalized or silenced. Students will learn the impact of colonization of peace and justice in communities in conflict, in order to support practices in developing meaningful, effective, and sustainable pathways for building inclusive communities and transformative possibilities in peacebuilding.

Women, Domesticity, and Social Change This course will examine the changing relationship between women and their homes in American television shows, films, books, and new media. While the idea of showing a woman in her home is deeply traditional—as in, “a woman’s place is in the home”—there are ways to do it that queer the relationship between women and domesticity. As we put such films as Grey Gardens, books like In the Dream House, and shows like Keeping Up with the Kardashians in a transnational context, we will consider the following questions: How does the relationship between women and domesticity iterate and change across space and time? How do different kinds of genres (e.g., the domestic novel, and the horror film) grapple with this longstanding relationship? Why are texts that take place in the home often referred to as “guilty pleasures?” What are the political implications of off-kilter depictions of women in their homes? Under what conditions do visual and literary texts allow women to live together or live alone? Upon completion of the course, students will be able to perform close reading in order to consider how visual and literary texts engage with the broader sociopolitical contexts from which they emerge, understand the history of the relationship between women and the home, and also think critically about the stakes of this ever-evolving connection in today’s culture.

This course addresses prison literature—writings by established authors such as Franz Kafka and James Baldwin, as well as unpublished fiction by inmates. Many of the texts that we examine are written by people of color, women, or LGBTQ+ inmates. These stories, poems, and essays provide an impactful view of racial and socioeconomic injustice in the prison system. They provide a platform for critical analysis of mass incarceration and related policy issues. We also consider other carceral confinement, such as immigration detention, camps and internment. The course has an interdisciplinary reach and includes consideration of documentary and Hollywood film and other media.

Immigrant stories convey a great variety of experience: determination to undertake difficult journeys; loneliness and nostalgia for the home country; anxieties associated with family separation; economic and occupational challenges; response to racism and prejudice; ambivalence about assimilation; identity (re)formation and hybridity. Our sampling of fiction, first person narratives, and film will include works from Latinx, Asian, Middle Eastern, and African immigrant communities. Through these stories we will examine inter-family dynamics from a variety of perspectives, including food and mealtime experiences; intergenerational tensions; exercise of patriarchal authority; and domestic abuse. We will address the obstacles faced by refugees in obtaining admission and seeking asylum, as well as the experience of immigrants consigned to detention camps. We will also consider challenges that immigrants confront once admitted, including language barriers, racism and colorism, homophobia, and anti-ethnic prejudice.

In consequence of its Catholic and Jesuit heritage and purpose, Georgetown University is committed to assisting students in exploring and probing the ethical dimensions and consequences of every field of human endeavor and scholarship. For those studying and preparing to work in the field of international relations, the ethical challenges are great, given phenomena like: genocide; terrorist attacks on non-combatants; state–sponsored brutalization of poor and/or powerless populations; famine; refugee and migrant outflows, and environmental degradation. Moreover, states continue to arm themselves with weapons of mass destruction capable of destroying the human community and the planet and “small arms”—ranging from machetes to anti-personnel landmines—capable of wreaking widespread harm. The purpose of “GOVT 420: Ethical Issues in International Relations” is to investigate three questions in world politics: To what extent are states (and their leaders) obligated to act in accord with moral principles in their relations with other states? What is the chief content of these obligations—as these constrain a state’s external and internal sovereignty—and what are the limits of obligation? What ethical frameworks have theorists and practitioners of world politics developed over the centuries that may assist students of international relations in developing a coherent perspective on the question of moral obligations between and among states? This course has been renumbered, effective Fall 2014. A student who earned credit for GOVT 420 Ethical Iss Intrnl Reltns in a prior term should not enroll and cannot earn credit in this class.

How would you have decided the court cases that have shaped health care in America, if you were the judge? In this class, students will put themselves in the shoes of the lawyers and jurists whose decisions form the backbone of modern U.S. health law—analyzing major opinions through a feminist and antiracist lens, arguing their own cases, and rewriting seminal decisions based on what they have learned. Through robust discussion, students will explore how politics, paternalism, and precedent have shaped health policy and the law. The class will cover a range of topics including: patient autonomy, informed consent, medical and nursing malpractice, reproductive healthcare, biomedical research, the influence of religious directives on healthcare, nursing home care, private health insurance, and the Affordable Care Act. Recent and ongoing health care litigation will be woven into course readings and discussions.

This listening-intensive course looks at music as a component of cultural identities and collisions through the dual lens of ethnomusicology (anthropology of music) and “world music” (a pop-cultural/journalistic/marketing view). The syntheses that arise from the interactions of the dominant Western culture with its “others” are politically charged as much as they may be musically potent and are increasingly dependent upon globalization and technology for their creation and dissemination. Case studies will examine the dynamics of different forms of cultural interaction over the past couple of centuries, from Cold War nationalism in the Bulgarian Radio Choir to the impact of the Chernobyl meltdown on the underground rock scene of the Belarusan intelligentsia, from the meteoric rise (and fall) of Anglo-Indian pop of the 1990s to the complex multi-ethnic mix that has driven flamenco across a millennium from Moorish Andalucía to the art-school scene of Barcelona of the 2000s. Other subjects include Javanese gamelan and its confluences with Western art music, South African township jive echoing the arc of apartheid, the alliance of dance forms with nationalism in 20th century South America, the colonial and diasporic sources of the Riverdance phenomenon, a Canadian First Nations songwriter’s foundational role in the genre we call “Americana,” and the multiple Francophone audiences of Cajun-American rocker Zachary Richard.

Sociology Core Topics Course: Law & Society, focuses on detailed examination of some of contemporary society’s most salient legal issues. Students learn legal history, socio-political influences, and Supreme Court decisions on issues including abortion, affirmative action, discrimination against same-sex couples, federal elections, gun rights/regulations, and voting rights, among others. Students read primary sources and journal articles, watch documentaries, do simulations, and keep up with current events. Of particular interest are cases before the Supreme Court currently whose decisions will be announced in the summer.

Sociology Core Topic: Education is a complex social institution that is responsible for a wide-range of individual and societal outcomes. The study of education has deep roots among the founders of sociology, including Emile Durkheim, who considered education “the base of democratic morality.” The study of education continues to be a major focus of sociological inquiry, with a frequently debated question of whether education is a tool for social mobility and the realization of one’s full potential, or a tool of oppression that reinforces inequality. This course will examine the institution of education using both theoretical and empirical texts, as well as applied examples of current policy issues. This course will also take a deeper dive into two urgent issues that are at the top of the education policy agenda this spring: (1) the current and future impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and (2) the improvement of civic education to preserve and advance our democracy and democratic institutions.

M 3:30 – 6:00pm In Rebel Cities, David Harvey poses the central question of twenty-first century cities as a question of the right to the city, echoing the influential theorist, Henri Lefebvre.  “The question of what kind of city we want cannot be divorced from the question of what kind of people we want to be, what kinds of social relations we seek, what relations to nature we cherish, what style of life we desire, what aesthetic values we hold,” Harvey writes. “The freedom to make and remake ourselves and our cities is one of the most precious yet most neglected of our human rights.  How best to exercise that right?”   Drawing on a range of theoretical perspectives, this seminar investigates the question at the heart of David Harvey’s Rebel Cities – namely, how best to understand, evaluate and exercise the right to the city.  The seminar engages debates over the right to the city through a critical analysis of the contested process of gentrification.  Over the last couple decades, the sweep of gentrification has remade many urban neighborhoods.  In doing so, it has raised new questions about the rights of long-term citizens to shape their own communities, and the unequal distribution of benefits from the process of gentrification.  Despite extensive neighborhood changes, the ghettoization of poverty and a legacy of racial segregation continue to pose unique challenges to the creation of more equitable, just cities. These challenges, many of which are heightened by the process of gentrification, push issues of social justice to the forefront of our conversations about contemporary cities.  They raise new questions about inequality, equity and the twenty-first century urban condition.   Through an exploration of the process of gentrification in American cities, this interdisciplinary seminar investigates the ways that we, as urban citizens, can contribute to the creation of more just cities.  As David Harvey suggests in Rebel Cities, the ways that cities are shaped, patterned and contested tells us something deeply meaningful about contemporary social relations, power dynamics and political rights.  By studying gentrification, this course engages arguments about the right to the city – who has the right to occupy and shape urban spaces, and how conflicts over those rights play out in American neighborhoods – in the quest for a more equitable, just city. 

This course explores creative approaches to the theatrical adaptation and embodiment of historical LGBTQ+ materials. Students are invited to serve as artist-investigators who research, adapt, and perform in short theatre works born verbatim from the oral histories and archival documents of LGBTQ+ activists, change-makers, and allies. Interview transcripts, letters, video recordings, newspaper coverage, diaries, and more will serve as creative material for short performances seeking to give voice to the many who have fought for queer justice at Georgetown, in the United States, and around the world. Students will engage with a range of core dramatic texts and primary source materials, harnessing the documentary theatre model (also called verbatim theatre, docudrama, ethnodrama) to illuminate our intersectional humanities in innovative and imaginative ways. Primary assignments include student-led creative research projects, live interviews and transcriptions, monologue-making, core text analysis, and self-reflection posts. Students will work solo, in pairs, and in small groups to produce work throughout the semester. Students are expected to attend plays, talks, and other events as relevant to the core curriculum. This course culminates in a sharing of works created over the course of the semester. Suitable for students with considerable performance experience and for beginners.

This course is open to undergraduate and graduate enrollment. <br><br> In a moment of particularly intense division within an already highly ideologically, socially, and politically polarized era, we find ourselves experiencing what we might call a “conversation emergency” in which meaningful, productive conversation itself is increasingly elusive. Yet so many of us yearn for alternatives that cut against the prevailing grain of silos and slogans, “us and them” thinking, retreat and avoidance, rigidity and the circling of wagons. In order to meet this moment with wisdom, these times call on us to slow down and clarify our vision, strengthen our resolve, and acquire the skills for more productive engagement with one another when significant social, ideological or political differences are present among us. We can derive great benefit for ourselves and others from experiences that nurture our resilience, fortify our empathy, inspire our search for unity of purpose while at the same time honoring our real differences, and build diverse communities equipped to forge new ways forward together. <br><br> Undergraduate and graduate students will practice verbal and nonverbal communication skills in a creative and engaging environment. Students will learn and practice dialogue and facilitation skills that are useful in resolving conflict in various careers. In this course we will co-create such an alternative way of being together that is both substantive and exciting. The course will feature a creative and supportive exploration of our own experiences* of today’s “conversation emergency” through the In Your Shoes performance technique-based process. Though absolutely no theater experience is at all necessary nor presumed**, we will also co-create and present a very informal performance piece (what we call a “share out”) for peers and friends, scripted directly from our interactions throughout the process. We will thereby widen the circle to include the audience in our experience and offer them a glimpse into what is possible when we create communities of trust in challenging times. In this course, we’ll do all that and through guest speakers, we’ll gain some exposure to organizations engaged in a range of other approaches to dialogue and working together across differences.

This course provides an introduction to the body of knowledge that has come to be known as feminist theory. Throughout the course we will consider a wide range of feminist thought, focusing particularly on theory in action – that is, how theory becomes, how it influences and creates, and how it can both dismantle and (re)build. To do so, we will pay close attention to the spaces in and through which theories are articulated, as well as the ways in which theories themselves can construct and transform space. Through a range of feminist writing on such intersecting topics as gender, race, colonialism, capitalism, globalization, and emotion we will learn how theory can give us insight into the mechanisms of belonging, marginalization, and socio-material change. The course will culminate in a rigorously curated final project that interprets feminist theories into feminist practice aimed at affecting positive change in the Georgetown community.

This course will examine the social and economic costs and benefits of access to reproductive health in the United States. Specifically, our goal will be to look at current and historical case studies, and state-by-state comparisons, to examine the impact of access to reproductive health on educational prospects, employment, earning power, the gender gap in pay, marriage and motherhood, mental health, and social and racial justice. In order to do so, we will first explore the changing legal model of reproductive access in the United States today, focusing on contraception, comprehensive sex education and abortion. We will also consider the historical, social, racial and religious context of the regulation of reproduction, after which we will turn to the economic, social, racial and practical impacts of the regulations in effect today. This course is primarily focused on the United States.

How do we become courageous but not reckless? Maintain hope in a world full of despair? Discover how discourse, habits and Christian virtues sustain courage, hope, and justice in its religious, psychological and social dimensions. We will explore physical, moral, and spiritual courage, hope, and justice through the lives of individuals, such as Colin Kaepernick, and communities, such as the protestors of the Dakota Access Pipeline. We will look at how courage and hope manifest in everyday life—in addiction, in financial stress, playgrounds, and in the context of a warming planet. While there is an emphasis on Christian ethics, readings and discussion are not limited to Christian approaches. This course is a Community Based Learning course. Student volunteer over the course of the semester with local community organizations as part of regular course work. Partnering opportunities include working with after school programming, people experiencing homelessness, or through existing CSJ programs. Bus/metro costs are covered. Questions? Please email Kerry.Danner@georgetown.edu

Social Justice Documentary takes up three intersecting bodies of knowledge: • Documentary Filmmaking techniques and practices • Film and Media Studies scholarship • Social Justice Theory and the practices of Community Based Organizations in Washington, DC The course will enable students to collaborate with members of DC-based Community Organizations in order to create documentary video projects and learn about non-fiction video as a tool for social action. Students in Social Justice Documentary will work in small teams to produce short documentary videos about social justice issues as related to the work of Washington, DC-based Community Organizations. At the end of the course students should be able to define, summarize, and interpret documentary theories; have a working knowledge of pre-production, production, and post-production processes that are part of making a documentary video; and be able to formulate and demonstrate ways through which documentary video can be used to meet social justice ends. In addition, students will have gained experience in working as members of video production team—as successful video production heavily depends on cooperation, collaboration, and respect among team members. This is a 4-credit course and will require substantial time outside of scheduled class meetings. This course will include hands-on workshops on camera, lighting, sound, and editing scheduled in additional to regular course meetings.

UNXD 130 CBL: Social Action is a 1-credit, community-based, experiential course offered through Georgetown University’s Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching, and Service (CSJ): csj.georgetown.edu. UNXD 130 students integrate their academic studies with direct or indirect community engagement work of their choice in Washington, DC. Community work must enhance and deepen the classroom learning of a 3-credit course in which the student is currently enrolled. While most of the learning takes place in the community, UNXD 130 participants meet four times for reflective dialogue sessions, read pertinent scholarly work on critical social activism, compose three reflective activities and contribute to discussion board reflections over the course of the semester. Participation in UNXD 130 requires the completion of an interest form in which students explain the connection between coursework and community-based work. For more information and to complete this interest form, visit http://csj.georgetown.edu/unxd130. This course was previously known as the 4th Credit Option for Social Action, when it was “added” to a 3 credit course. It now stands alone, an is taken as a “pass/fail” type of course.

This course will examine Christian environmental ethics. Some topics we will cover are: Christian theological interpretations of creation/nature (including how/why nature is valued in a Christian perspective), methodological approaches to environmental ethics, and the interplay between environmental ethics narrowly understood and other ethical topics (e.g., climate change and its impact on the poor). We will use the recent encyclical by Pope Francis on the environment (Laudato Si ,“On Care for Our Common Home”) to frame some of these questions.

Environmental justice movements raise a powerful ethical call to challenge entrenched patterns of environmental racism and classism that force marginalized communities to bear the brunt of climate change and environmental harm. This course examines disability as a cornerstone of environmental justice ethics, reckoning with the way disabled people face disproportionate harm from climate crisis and environmental violence. We analyze the ways ableism, racism, and other forms of structural inequality intensify disabled people’s risk during and after extreme weather and natural disaster, as well as the way such forces intensify environmental inequality, toxic exposures, and chemical harm. We ask how Jewish and Christian traditions might reimagine ethics for an age of environmental crisis, reading contemporary accounts of disability and climate catastrophe alongside biblical and rabbinic traditions of flood and cataclysm. We also center the voices of disability activists and disabled artists to consider how disability culture prompts new ways of living with an imperiled earth, honoring adaptation, embodied limits, and the practice of community care. Select students will also have the opportunity to join a faculty-led research team as part of the Disability and Climate Change Public Archive Project, documenting the insights and expertise of disability activists and community leaders grappling with climate crisis.

This course will explore what it means to live sustainably, and how spiritual paradigms can help or hinder our efforts to do so. We will consider the influences that have shaped western conceptions of God and will reimagine our own conceptions in light of ecological insights. We will examine the legacy of the Christian tradition on ecological and social systems, while mining that tradition for its potential to address contemporary ecological and social concerns. Through project-based and discursive learning, this course ultimately will invite students to articulate their own worldview and to discover who they are and who they want to be as participants in the community of life.

Pope Francis, Catholic Social Thought and U.S. Public Life: Principles, Policies, and Politics is a seminar of less than 20 students that will analyze the principal themes of Catholic social thought in the context of Pope Francis’ leadership and priorities. The seminar will introduce these themes and then explore their application to key issues in American public life such as poverty and economic justice, human life and dignity, migration, religious freedom, war and peace, and environmental issues. We’ll also examine the role of faith in U.S. political life. The seminar will center around discussion among participants, and will be based on readings and other materials that can help us understand the influence of Catholic social thought and Pope Francis on U.S. public life. The seminar is taught by Kim Daniels, the Director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life.

**Full Course Title: Nurturing Excellence in the Diaspora: Pan-African Ecumenism** Using case studies, this course examines contemporary organizations with an ecumenical mandate and a Pan-African ethos working to address common systemic issues faced by black people the world over such as hunger, poverty, and access to education. This class is important because understanding the work of Pan-African ecumenical organizations is necessary as the majority of Christians are no longer located in the “global North.” The class is useful to students who desire an introduction to African diasporic studies and diasporic religion. The class would also be of interest to students who want to better understand the role that global governments have in transforming injustices and promoting systemic structural change critical to obtaining sustainable just communities. Course Goals To introduce students to the history of Pan-Africanism including the ideology, leadership, and strategies To introduce students to the ecumenical movement and its relationship to Pan-Africanism To explore the relationship between colonialism and social ills/poverty in the Pan-African experience To investigate the methodology of ecumenical organizations with a Pan-African ethos that seek to alleviate social ills/poverty and nurture excellence in the diaspora

This course will explore ethical approaches and critical ethical issues related to nonviolence and just peace. We will orient our exploration with theological contributions as we also draw from other disciplines. We will address various dimensions of human experience, such as interpersonal, communal, international, and global. Core ethical issues will include conflict transformation, nonviolent communication, unarmed civilian protection, nonviolent resistance, nonviolent civilian-based defense, restorative justice, sustainable peace, self-defense, policing, responsibility to protect, militarism and war, and environmental justice and integral ecology.

This course explores the theoretical and practical dimensions of virtue ethics from philosophical and religious frameworks, drawing on both Western (e.g., Aristotelian) and Eastern (e.g., Confucian) perspectives. After a general introduction to ethics (i.e., metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics), we will wrestle with a deeper understanding of virtue and how such contributes to the good life and the flourishing of communities. With a theoretical foundation of ethics in place, we will subsequently explore some contemporary social problems and the virtuous solutions various religious traditions have proposed to ensure human and planetary flourishing. The social problems we wrestle with will be decided upon through class deliberation, but possible areas of exploration include state-sponsored violence such as policing and penal systems; the morality of capitalist economic and technocratic systems; social inequalities, especially those concerning race, gender, sexuality, and class; questions in bioethics such as abortion and euthanasia; and ecological problems such as climate change and animal abuse

This course will involve an examination of the growing role of religion in international affairs and of ethical approaches to international politics. Topics to be covered include: Religion as a source of conflict, justice, and peace; debates about political realism vs. moral idealism; and religious and ethical contributions to the protection of human rights, the use of force, post-conflict reconciliation, global economic justice.

Forgiveness and reconciliation are terms that we often honor and imbue with a certain social sense of nobility, but it is impossible to speak about such concepts without also understanding the costs, compromises, and commitments that we must face in order to embrace them. This course will examine “forgiveness” and “reconciliation” through the lens of religious ethics to develop a better sense of what it means to be a person committed to a worldview and who finds their way of perceiving the world both challenged and constructed by the difficult realities of what forgiving and reconciling means. We will examine texts and case studies by thinkers and activists who are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu, who are from the United States, Germany, Israel, India, Vietnam, and South Africa, who are from a variety of racial backgrounds. Without privileging any one religious tradition, we will undertake a pilgrimage together to better conceive what is involved in the work of forgiveness and reconciliation and use that knowledge to better understand how we might employ these meaningfully in our own lives and for the betterment of our communities.

Religion has often been faulted for being the root cause of so many of the world’s violent conflicts. It has also been associated with numerous other forms of oppression and violence (e.g. Taliban rule in Afghanistan, and Buddhist nationalism in Myanmar, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and the persecution of minority religious groups worldwide). However, religion has also been at the heart of some of the most powerful and transformative peace movements in human history as well, and it continues to serve as the impetus behind activists worldwide seeking to provide sustainable solutions to the conflicts plaguing their communities. This class will guide students through a series of case studies that demonstrate the various ways in which religion and faith can drive peacebuilding efforts at all levels of diplomacy—from conventional forms of state-level diplomacy efforts to the various efforts led by non-state actors—including those that are grassroots-led.

This course explores the role of religion in both fueling conflict and in fostering peace and justice. The rise of extremism and interreligious violence in many places has brought growing attention and concern to the role of religion in promoting conflict. Yet across contexts, religious actors also play critical roles as peacebuilders, including as mediators and negotiators, peace educators, social justice advocates, and in supporting the healing and reconciliation of their communities. For many people in conflict, their religious and spiritual beliefs serve to strengthen their resilience, capacity for forgiveness, and their motivation for peace and justice. By studying this paradox of religion and the dynamic roles of religious identity, ideology, values and faith, students in this course strengthen their analysis of conflict and understanding of how to encourage more effective peacebuilding. Drawing on a diversity of recent and current cases across contexts and religions, this course looks at the peacebuilding approaches of different religious actors, including traditional institutions, interfaith networks, and religious individuals as both official and lay leaders. Particular attention will be paid to gender-inclusive religious peacebuilding as well as inter- and intra-faith approaches to transforming cultures of violence.

This course explores the role of religion in both fueling conflict and in fostering peace and justice. The rise of extremism and interreligious violence in many places has brought growing attention and concern to the role of religion in promoting conflict. Yet across contexts, religious actors also play critical roles as peacebuilders, including as mediators and negotiators, peace educators, social justice advocates, and in supporting the healing and reconciliation of their communities. For many people in conflict, their religious and spiritual beliefs serve to strengthen their resilience, capacity for forgiveness, and their motivation for peace and justice. By studying this paradox of religion and the dynamic roles of religious identity, ideology, values and faith, students in this course strengthen their analysis of conflict and understanding of how to encourage more effective peacebuilding. Drawing on a diversity of recent and current cases across contexts and religions, this course looks at the peacebuilding approaches of different religious actors, including traditional institutions, interfaith networks, and religious individuals as both official and lay leaders. Particular attention will be paid to gender-inclusive religious peacebuilding as well as inter- and intra-faith approaches to transforming cultures of violence.

Friendship and Community in Film and Media While much early- and mid-twentieth-century film and media naturalized the importance of romantic relationships, this course will explore a recent tendency to frame friendship as a primary relationship. As we analyze American visual media from the late-twentieth century to today, we will ask the following questions: What are the representational strategies used to center friendship and community in film and media? How do film and media negotiate the place of friendship and community in American culture? How are stories about friends legitimized for a culture that emphasizes the importance of romance and the nuclear family? Upon completion of the course, students will be acquainted with textual analysis and some major modes of thought from cultural studies and film theory, with an ability to apply this knowledge to film and media they encounter both in and outside the classroom.

Mass Movements Mass Incarceration This course looks at mass movements & mass incarceration in tandem, exploring their many contestations, confrontations, and connections. Rather than framing mass movements strictly as responses to the U.S. police State, we will consider how groups that were deemed “ungovernable” from the perspective of the State became widely criminalized through pro-white patriarchal tropes produced and perpetuated by people with economic and political power. From this perspective, widespread imprisonment appears to be the engine, and not simply the response, of the U.S. police State. Course materials are organized such that, over the duration of the semester, we will read theories, histories, ethnographies, and journalistic endeavors alongside music, television shows, and documentaries with an aim toward crafting practical tools for understanding formations of collective life and for fighting against technologies of power and punishment in U.S. society today.

This course will introduce students to the theory and practice of post-conflict justice and reconciliation models including truth commissions, war crimes tribunals, reparations, and related responses to genocide, crimes against humanity, and other mass atrocities. To debate how to adequately deal with the past in newly democratizing countries, exploring the relative benefits of “forgetting” or “remembering” gross violations of human rights. Students will gain an understanding of the constraints on legal theory and practice in the context of the creation of a culture of human rights in post-conflict countries.

Utopia and Dystopia: Peace and Justice in Literature and Film Dystopias portray an imagined society dominated by oppressive power, negative social and political control. This course addresses peace and justice with the reforming agenda of dystopian literature and film—specifically texts that highlight issues related to injustice. The dystopian texts that we will examine raise awareness about racism, income inequality, war crimes, war-mongering, misuse of A1s and drones, surveillance, disease and epidemic, environmental destruction, and the Anthropocene. We will read fiction and watch films that deal with conflict, real-world problems, and crises, couched in imaginative unrealities that point the way to urgent threats and potential solutions. Instructor: Sara Schotland

This course will center on the writings of one of the most important writers of the 21st century, Ta-Nehisi Coates. We will be especially engaged with his important and influential essays first in The Atlantic and later in his book, We Were Eight Years in Power and his book, Between the World and Me. As a public intellectual, Coates has used the power of his pen to advance a number of issues essential to African American life and experience, including reparations, slavery, representation, leadership, racism, politics, police murders, and mass incarceration. Literacy, in the African American tradition, is a tool of activism; how does Coates contribute to the tradition of activism? We will examine the substance and effectiveness of Coates’s writerly activism as we also learn from the public histories Coates examines. We will read Coates with a number of his interlocutors, including James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Toni Morrison, Claudia Rankine, and Angela Davis. This course is reading intensive, and students should expect reading quizzes, short writing assignments, a researched seminar paper/project, and great class discussions.

What’s it like to go to war? This course examines the experience of war through fiction, true accounts, documentary and Hollywood film. We examine how soldiers cope with the challenges of death and injury and the guilt of killing their enemies and often civilians. We discuss war tragedies and human rights abuses, including Mylai and Abu Ghraib. We consider how the experience of war may differ for women soldiers, LGBT +soldiers, and minorities. We will also see and hear war stories told by past enemies, those of German, Japanese, and Vietnamese soldiers. We consider the effects of war on the home front, including stories that address the impact of post traumatic stress disorder on veterans and their families. We discuss the drone operator’s perspective and speculate on the future of wars driven increasingly by technology. A wide gulf separates the myth of the heroic soldier who fought the “good war,” World War II from today’s more cynical, critical, and sophisticated film portrayals. Students will gain an appreciation of significant differences in how war narratives are constructed given the perspective and rhetorical agenda of authors and producers.

Law and Literature offers us the opportunity to consider the impact of law on those Othered by our society, to obtain an empathetic understanding of how law affects those who are most marginalized—the poor and powerless; racial minorities, prisoners; drug addicts, immigrants, and Native Americans. The readings range from canonical texts (Antigone, Merchant of Venice) to science fiction to Outsider fiction by prisoners and drug addicts. Many of the readings are by African American authors and are relevant to the Black Lives Matter Movement. We will also consider some outstanding film adaptations related to the assigned texts. The texts examined here invite us to consider important questions of public policy and criminal law, including civil disobedience, collateral damage in war, the insanity defense, domestic abuse, and the death penalty.

About two million people currently reside in American jails and prisons, often under conditions of severe overcrowding, race-based segregation, and horrific physical and sexual violence. Yet even though incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people (and their family members) constitute a substantial portion of the American population, they are generally a powerless and forgotten group of people, with few rights or opportunities. This course will address the following questions: Why does the U.S. maintain an incarceration rate that is seven times higher than other democracies, even though Americans are no more likely to be the victims of crimes than are people in other societies? Why is the criminal legal system in this country the most punitive in the democratic world? Why is the U.S. one of the few democratic countries to sanction the death penalty? In exploring these larger themes, we will start by focusing on the crucial underlying issue of race—both historically and in the contemporary period—before turning to the different elements of the criminal legal system, including the roles of prosecutors, defense lawyers, and judges, as well as the routine practice of plea bargaining. We will then consider the issue of wrongful convictions, before turning to prison conditions, the incarceration of women, societal reentry, a comparative perspective on American punitiveness, and capital punishment. Although this is primarily a lecture course, it will be very interactive, with extensive student engagement. In addition to the lectures, the course will consist of four additional elements: 1) several outstanding guest speakers; 2) the viewing of several excellent documentaries; 3) in-person visits to the D.C. Jail; and 4) weekly discussion sections led by four fantastic formerly incarcerated Teaching Assistants who now work for the Georgetown Prisons and Justice Initiative. The introduction of discussion sections—for the first time in the Fall 2024 semester—will help to advance the core mission of this course by bringing Georgetown students into close proximity with people who have experienced the American criminal legal and prison systems firsthand.

The most powerful idea of the twentieth century—an idea that instantiates a watershed in international politics far more fundamental and transformative than the Treaty of Westphalia—is the following moral claim: All persons everywhere have basic and universal human rights; Thus, “we” (members of the human community) are obligated to find ways to within not only at the national, but also at the international level to devise guarantees for basic and universal human rights. Since World War II, the international community has instantiated the norm that an essential moral obligation of the society of states is to promote, protect, and extend Human Rights. Morally, this obligation to uphold human rights ought to trump, delimits, authorize and/or orient the exercise of so-called “state sovereignty.” The syllabus includes classic texts on human rights as well as contemporary literature on human rights in world politics. We study: key international human rights documents; content of rights claims; international strategies for human rights protection and advocacy, and implementation; and predictable challenges in international efforts to do so. In their presentations, students explore the ways various international actors work to support human rights, aid those whose rights have been violated, and shine the international spotlight on violators and their egregious acts.

Material goods surround us; they are necessary for our well-being and express identity and status. In today’s global economic market, we are all entangled in webs of consumption, production, and the disposal of goods that often harm the environment and others. How do we ethically navigate this shifting terrain when the environment and human person are increasingly subject to commodification? In this course we seek to understand inequality and identity in consumer culture, particularly in light of Christian economic ethics. Practices of religious and secular resistance will be covered and special attention will be given to how both religion and dissent are also commodified. While there is an emphasis on Christian theology, readings and discussion are not limited to Christian approaches. This course has been previously offered as JUPS380: Justice and Consumer Culture. Content may be reshaped based on economic and social realities come fall.

This course will examine intimate partner violence, sexual assault and stalking. We will examine theories about intimate partner violence, frequency and prevalence of rape, and social and cultural contributors to domestic violence, rape, and sexual assault on college campuses. We will also evaluate current systems and policies that exist to support survivors and hold perpetrators accountable. We will then discuss what we can do individually and collectively as a community to end gender violence

Anyone entering the thickets of argument relating to violence, gender, and human rights today has to contend with the range and variety of meanings that these concepts have accrued in current usage. While there is broad consensus that there does exist a contemporary crisis around global violence and the suspected gendered aspect of it, how the relationships between globalization and human rights violations, and between violence against women and redefinition of human rights, are to be interpreted, and what is to be done about it is matters of vigorous intellectual and political debate. This class aims to explore the gendered manifestations of violence in public and private spheres within the context of the more general relationship among globalization, development, and human/civil/citizen rights. We will pay attention to banal violence (that is, daily and “banal” violence in everyday life), spectacular violence at moments of crisis, and the type of violence that disrupts the boundary between the two. Special emphases will be given to the issues of racism, sexual exploitation, poverty, labor, health care, homophobia, militarism, and globalization. The readings will include _We Wish to Inform you That Tomorrow We will be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda_ by Philip Gourevitch, _A Problem from Hell_ by Samantha Powers, _Violence against Women_ by Stanley French et al., _Are Prisons Obsolete_ by Angela Davis, _The Sterilization of Carrie Buck_ by J. David Smith and K. Ray Nelson, and _Pathologies of Power: Health, Human rights, and the New War on the Poor_ by Paul Farmer. May also be taken as JUPS 260-01

Realizing the American promise of equal access for all children to high quality education has been an ongoing struggle, even as the definitions of equal and everyone have broadened and shifted over time. Advocacy, defined here as “organized efforts and actions based on the reality of what is and a vision of what should be,” has long played a central role in the evolution of equitable, universal education. In this course students will examine historical trends and pertinent theoretical frameworks to explore ways that educational advocacy organizations have defined what is and worked to advance their respective goals for what should be regarding educational equity. A major component of this course involves students engaging in field-based learning as partners with a non-profit community group, organization, or institution that advocates for educational equity. Through work with their advocacy partners, students will have the opportunity to conduct in-depth research and complete a project on a specific topic as they work to advance their host organization’s efforts. In-class learning experiences for this course include professor and student-facilitated discussion, lecture, multi-media presentations, and guest speakers.

Priority given to EDIJ students. As the gateway course for the Program in Education, Inquiry, and Justice (EDIJ), EDIJ 241 Seminar in Urban Education (CBL) is a general introduction to education in urban schools. This course will use articles, books, discussions, podcasts, and videos to pry open the processes of education and explore the systemic, interrelated nature of learning and teaching in schools. As a 3-credit community-based learning (CBL) learning course, students in EDIJ 241 volunteer at a pre-selected DC public school a minimum of 20 volunteer hours (minimum 2 hours a week for 10 weeks evenly distributed across the semester) during the school day (typically 8:30am -3:30pm). The focal question that guides this course is: In what ways do schools reproduce or interrupt inequity in urban communities?

This is a community-based learning (CBL) course conducted in Spanish that focuses on the dynamic interaction between language, society and identity among the Latinx communities in the U.S. This 4-credit course requires 20+ hours of community-based work with a local, community-based partner organization in addition to preparation for and attendance to two weekly class sessions. Community work contributes to course credit with the Registrar’s Office, but students will schedule their own time with their partner organizations, according to their needs. Topics include: migration, labor and U.S. national identity; access to education; bilingualism, language ideologies, language contact and language shift in the United States.

This course is a community-based learning (CBL) course on the interaction between language, society, and identity (individual, group, and national) in the Spanish-speaking world, which is rooted in critical sociolinguistics and critical discourse analysis to explore how race/ethnicity, class, and gender are used as tools in the unequal distribution of power, status, and material goods. Critical sociolinguistics examines systems of oppression and movements of liberation intending to make social change for the common good. This course covers, among others, the following topics: gender, race, ethnicity, and language, and the construction of nation; language, power, oppression, and colonialism; bilingualism; indigeneity and capitalism/modernity; language ideologies, language policy, and language contact/shift. It examines and contrasts different speech communities on three continents through units focused on Latin America, Spain, and the United States. It also explores the less well-known use of Spanish in the Philippines and Africa, and the fascinating linguistic case of Judeo-Spanish or Ladino. For the CBL component, students will work with Project Olas, a social impact startup dedicated to Spanish language learning, founded by a GU student, and with Guatemala Solidarity Project (GSP), a coalition of Mayan and American activists. Through Project Olas, students will connect via WhatsApp with young moms from Guatemala City who work and live by its massive urban garbage dump. With GSP, students will be in contact with indigenous activists and their struggle for their land, environmental, cultural, and political rights in Guatemala. All students are welcome – no background in Sociolinguistics is needed.

UNXD 130 CBL: Social Action is a 1-credit, community-based, experiential course offered through Georgetown University’s Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching, and Service (CSJ): csj.georgetown.edu. UNXD 130 students integrate their academic studies with direct or indirect community engagement work of their choice in Washington, DC. Community work must enhance and deepen the classroom learning of a 3-credit course in which the student is currently enrolled. While most of the learning takes place in the community, UNXD 130 participants meet four times for reflective dialogue sessions, read pertinent scholarly work on critical social activism, compose three reflective activities and contribute to discussion board reflections over the course of the semester. Participation in UNXD 130 requires the completion of an interest form in which students explain the connection between coursework and community-based work. For more information and to complete this interest form, visit http://csj.georgetown.edu/unxd130. This course was previously known as the 4th Credit Option for Social Action, when it was “added” to a 3 credit course. It now stands alone, an is taken as a “pass/fail” type of course.

This course explores key issues and challenges facing the Catholic Church in the 21st century. Specific topics include models for understanding the Church (especially at Vatican II), the clerical sex-abuse crisis, ecumenism, Catholic-Jewish relations, inter-religious dialogue and Pope Francis’s vision for human fraternity, women and feminism, religious disaffiliation among young people, the crisis of authority, Catholic social teaching, immigration and the global south, the Church’s relationship with politics and authoritarianism, and fundamentalism and traditionalism.

This course will introduce students to the history, theology, and pastoral considerations of the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church. We will explore various aspects of worship, including symbol and ritual, the mystery of time, the sacramental rites of the Church, sacred space and architecture, the symbolic languages of worship, the liturgical assembly, and beauty. The relationship between liturgy and ecology, justice, culture, spirituality, personal prayer, and Catholic identity will be examined. We will also look at the impact of our social media/online culture on the spiritual life.

The course introduces students to the diverse expressions of religion in Africa. We will examine the various rituals, practices, aesthetics, material forms, and artistic expressions of Islam, Christianity, and traditional religions through a multidisciplinary and multi-methodological approach. We will particularly focus on religion’s role in shaping collective identity and socio-political subjectivities in various colonial and post-colonial societies. We will study processes of transformations, adaptations, circulation, fluidity, and pluralism that shaped and still shape diverse forms of Christianity, Islam, and traditional religions both in the Continent and the Diasporas. Some examples include the Antonian movement of Kimpa Vita in colonial Congo, the rise of Pentecostalism in Nigeria and Ghana, Catholicism and traditional religions in Senegal and the Gambia, and the rituals, practices, and religious material culture (statue, sacred objects, paintings, music, and dances) of the Yoruba, Igbo, Akan, Fanti, Mancagnes, Manjago and Creole of West Africa among others.

The course explores the sources, methods, disputes and insights of Christian ethics. Central themes and issues include freedom, conscience and the passions, the relation of God and morality, love and justice, virtue and law, and the question whether there is a distinctive Christian ethics. Because Christian ethics is a form of reflection which arises out of moral conflict, the course utilizes specific moral problems as a way of exploring these themes. Ultimately, these explorations will provide the student with a theoretical basis for understanding the nature of moral thinking itself and the form which it takes within a Christian context.

This course introduces students to the scholarly and comparative study of religious ethical traditions, or to the various moral values, teachings, practices, and accounts of the virtues and the good life to be found in the world’s religious traditions. Given the sheer number of religions that exist or have existed and the internal diversity (as well as disagreement) that characterizes any given religion, the study of religious ethics is unavoidably selective, and which traditions and topics are covered will reflect the particular interests and expertise of the instructor. Nevertheless, the course aims to expose you to a variety of Western and Non-Western religious perspectives on morality; to help you better understand the moral commitments and lives of religious people, and to identify important areas of similarity and difference between (and within) religious traditions; and to broaden and deepen your thinking about the nature of morality, including both its religious and secular forms

This half-semester module will examine Christian environmental ethics. Some topics we will cover are: Christian theological interpretations of creation/nature (including how/why nature is valued in a Christian perspective), methodological approaches to environmental ethics, and the interplay between environmental ethics narrowly understood and other ethical topics (e.g., climate change and its impact on the poor). We will use the recent encyclical by Pope Francis on the environment (Laudato Si ,“On Care for Our Common Home”) to frame some of these questions.

The unprecedented assault on the common goods of land, air, sea, and biological diversity endangers the shared ecological home of the community of life on earth and poses new challenges to the practice of religion and politics. This course will examine contemporary interpretations of religion and politics in relation to the ecological crisis threatening the common good of all creatures on earth. The course will begin with Sallie King’s presentation of the principles of Socially Engaged Buddhism for addressing the issues of philosophy and ethics, spirituality, war and peace, economics, ecology, human rights and criminal justice, and challenging tradition. We will study Daniel Scheid’s reflection on the cosmic common good as understood in Catholic social teaching in dialogue with Hindu, Buddhist, and American Indian traditions. We will explore how John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker analyze the transformed role of religion today in relation to ecological threats to the common good and their confidence in the resources of Christianity, Confucianism, Indigenous Traditions, and Hinduism to work together to respond to this situation. We will examine resources for shaping ecological and political solidarities in the aftermath of the history of colonialism in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and efforts to cultivate deep listening and shape appropriate identities.

This course will involve an examination of the growing role of religion in international affairs and of ethical approaches to international politics. Topics to be covered include: Religion as a source of conflict, justice, and peace; debates about political realism vs. moral idealism; and religious and ethical contributions to the protection of human rights, the use of force, post-conflict reconciliation, global economic justice.

Ever wondered about configurations of Christian faith that address systemic problems in American society such as racism? This class explores those configurations from the perspective of Protestant ecumenical activity that has taken place since the early 1900s. What is ecumenism? Should all Christians have a uniform faith, doctrine, and worship? How does race inform Christian belief and practice in the United States? Must one’s theology and behavior be in sync? Designed as an introduction to ecumenism (Christian church unity movement) in the United States and its relationship to Protestant black churches, this class examines the mosaic of the American pluralist religious scene by honing in on the different ethical approaches that exist. Black churches are often described in terms of their function—a social response to the prejudice and discrimination experienced by black Christians; nonetheless, black churches can also be described as addressing the search for ultimate meaning in light of the dominant racism that denied blacks in the United States their personhood and severely limited their life choices. With this historical background, whenever members of the Black Church enter into ecumenical dialogue, issues of race and ethics become a part of the discussion along with questions of doctrine, theology, and ecclesiology. Emphasizing the ecumenical experiences of black Anglican, Methodist, and Pentecostal Christians, students will investigate what prompts black churches to engage in ecumenical activity with the very denominations from which they broke away, ideological methods to ecumenism, and the differences in the theological and ethical approaches to ecumenism between black and white Christians.

This course studies Christian and Western secular “just war” traditions, and compares them critically (if also somewhat briefly) with pacifist and realist approaches to warfare. As often as possible, course discussions will revolve around concrete cases that address past, present, and future wars; the concrete circumstances, challenges, and costs of combat; and the prospects for securing a justly ordered peace by means of and in the aftermath of war.

This question of distributive justice is at issue in current debates about income inequality, the proper level of taxation, access to health care, the financing of education, affirmative action, gender inequality, religious liberty etc. Most of us agree that justice is an important, if not the most important, standard for political and social life. But we disagree about the criteria for distributing benefits and burdens in society justly. In this class, we will examine contemporary conceptions of justice that propose answers to this question: Utilitarianism, Liberal Egalitarianism, Libertarianism, Marxism, and Communitarianism. We will consider the connection between justice and other political ideals such as fairness, equality, liberty, wellbeing, inclusion, and recognition. We will have a look at feminist critique of classical conceptions of justice, and consider whether justice is best thought of in terms of distribution at all. The readings will include texts by John Rawls, Robert Nozick, Gerald A. Cohen, Michael Sandel, Susan Okin, and Iris M. Young. We will assess the strengths and weaknesses of these conceptions, and discuss their implications for some of the current political debates mentioned above. Throughout the class, you will be developing the skills to interpret arguments accurately and criticize them cogently. The overall goal of the class is to help you become a thoughtful and critical participant in political and social debates.

This course is a systematic, intensive exploration of philosophical ethics. It aims to provide philosophy majors and minors with a broad overview of ethical theory, but in a way that enables a deep level of engagement with its central concerns and considerations. Students will gain or improve their grasp of the most influential versions of normative ethical theory, including virtue ethics, Kantianism, utilitarianism, among others. We will consider the accounts of moral psychology presupposed by those theories. We will also consider important questions in metaethics. Finally, we will examine the resources of ethical theory for resolving practical ethical problems. Reading lists and specific topics addressed vary from year to year and from instructor to instructor, as do required work and expectations. Please consult the syllabi posted online by individual instructors for more detail.