Ethics & Society Certificate Electives Search

PSY 197FS

Addiction and Substance Abuse: Global Health Perspectives

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [The major goal of the course is to develop scientific, clinical, and social perspectives on the issue of addiction and substance abuse disorders. Students will be able to develop a scientific perspective on the etiology of addiction and effects of social factors such as disease pandemic in its manifestation. We will explore the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on substance abuse and mental health. We will also address the positive and negative aspects of legalization of marijuana. Be ready for an exciting scientific debate.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0284441

Cross-lists:  

ETHICS 510S

Adversarial Ethics

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Course attempts to identify general principles for designing the rules & regulations for deliberately adversarial institutions (ie; markets, electoral systems/legislatures, criminal law, warfare, sports). Looks at the special virtues of sportsmanship, professionalism, business ethics, etc. people are expected to follow within these hyper-competitive contexts. By examining ways the criteria for being an ethical businessperson, lawyer, soldier, and so on may differ from the criteria for simply being an “ethical person”, this course seeks to prepare students for future professional roles in these adversarial domains. No formal pre-requisites.]

Link to course description: https://graduateschool.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0211133

Cross-lists: PHIL510S POLSCI585S  

AAAS 345

African Americans, Mass Incarceration, and Citizenship

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Explores in depth the presence of African Americans within the phenomenon of U.S. mass incarceration and its implications for notions of citizenship. Surveys the history of prison build-up resulting from legislation and policy over the past forty years including the governmental discussions of drug policy and welfare reform that disproportionately affected African Americans. Course will explore definitions of citizenship and the means by which African American citizens were and are both included in and excluded from participation in the movement toward mass incarceration as part of their changing position in the U.S. polity.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0229311

Cross-lists: LIT343 RIGHTS345  

CULANTH 273

Amazon.com and the Cybereconomy

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [This course will introduce students to the complexities and controversies around the meteoric growth of the digital economy, with a focus on the biggest company of them all, Amazon. We will examine questions that range from labor conditions and consumerism to data harvesting, algorithmic marketing, and monopoly concerns. By drawing on insights from cultural anthropology, economics, history, and other disciplines, the course will give students a new understanding of how e-commerce is changing the structure of our economy, society, and everyday lives. Students will do an individual research project on some aspect of Amazon for a final project.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0278131

Cross-lists: ECON273 PUBPOL252  

POLSCI 188FS

American Perspectives on Citizenship

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [An overview of American perspectives on citizenship. Explores ongoing controversies about the influence of liberalism and republicanism on American conceptions of citizenship, whether American individualism threatens civic duty, whether civil disobedience is justified, whether there are certain values and experiences that all American citizens should share, and whether national identities are relevant in an increasingly global world. Open only to students in the Focus Program. Department consent required.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0227181

Cross-lists: ETHICS 188FS  

LATIN 370S

Ancient Autobiography: Augustine’s Confessions

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Readings in Latin and in English translation from the Confessions, St. Augustine’s intimate and influential spiritual autobiography. Important topics include the genre of ancient autobiography, the relation of Christianity to Greco-Roman literature and culture, the nature of good and evil, memory and time, human motivation, self-transformation, and self-knowledge.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0252711

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CLST 312S

Ancient Greek Notions of Justice

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Examines constructions of “justice” in ancient Greek literature and culture and explores their reception and modern significance.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0246341

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CLST 571S

Ancient Political Philosophy

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Intensive analysis of the political philosophy of Plato, Aristotle, and other ancient theorists. Research paper required.]

Link to course description: https://graduateschool.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0085481

Cross-lists: POLSCI575S PHIL571S  

AAAS 316S

Apartheid South Africa & Struggles for Democracy

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Working through an array of diverse organizations – including the African National Congress, the Pan African Congress, the Black Consciousness Movement, a host of liberal organizations, the churches, the trade union federations, and countless more – South Africans fought against apartheid from its inception. In 1994 they achieved a multi-racial democracy led by President Nelson Mandela. This seminar explores key themes in post-World War II South African history, paying special attention to the plethora of anti-apartheid struggles, while analyzing the tenets of apartheid policies.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0238881

Cross-lists: HISTORY386S PUBPOL327S POLSCI337S RIGHTS316S ICS211S-2  

ETHICS 265

Applied and Environmental Ethics

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics, Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [A critical examination of ethical dimensions of several contemporary individual and political normative problems, including abortion, affirmative action, national and international economic redistribution, and the environmental impact of economic changes and political decisions.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0077162

Cross-lists: PHIL215  

ETHICS 221

Arab Society and Culture in Film

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [Examination of Arab worldviews (including cultural variations, artistic expressions, view about gender, and religion, and perspectives toward the U.S.). Explores the development of images of the Arab and seeks to understand them in the context of the Arab world as well as in its relationship to the West. Analyzes the dynamics between norms of modern civil society and those dictated by religious traditions. Critically examines current Western assumptions, representations and understanding of Arab societies, and the moral frameworks in which different choices are debated in the Arab context.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0187772

Cross-lists: AMES221  

ARTHIST 555S

Art and the Holocaust: Achitecture, Art, and Cultural Politics duirng the Nazi Period

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective, Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [This course will analyze the history of the genocide of the European Jews, and its connection to antisemitic art and cultural policy during the Nazi period. With a sound understanding of the development of oppressive policies against the Jews, and looking at a variety of media (painting, architecture, film, photography, design), the course will explore the complicated relationship between developing racist policies and the world war as they impacted and were in turn influenced by artists. Examines not only artists involved in the Nazi state, but also those who resisted in exile or were its victims.]

Link to course description: https://graduateschool.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0251111

Cross-lists: GERMAN565S JEWISHST555S HISTORY531S VMS525S  

EDUC 345S

Asians in American Higher Education: Trends and Issues

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [An interdisciplinary examination of the history and experience of students of Asian descent at the higher education level, including demographic trends, sociocultural development, and access and support. Special attention will be given to intragroup diversity within the Asian/American community in today’s global context.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0241091

Cross-lists: SOCIOL346S  

PUBPOL 298

Authentic Leadership in Private, Public, and Not-for-Profit Orgs

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Exploration of the attributes of leadership, why some leaders fail and other succeed; identification of the core values each student possesses which will bring success to organizations throughout their lives. Case study format, class participation is critical to success. Each student will develop a personal perspective on leadership, learn from examples of success and failure, look at the ethical challenges facing leaders today, learn the tools leaders use to support successful cultures, enhance self-awareness, and prepare to become successful leaders. Strong emphasis on writing skills, how to communicate briefly and effectively in written memos. Students will also work in teams.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0250301

Cross-lists:  

HISTORY 370

Aztecs and Mayans

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective, Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [Within modern imaginaries, Aztecs and Mayans become seen as those who engaged in brutal sacrifice and cannibalism atop their great temples. In order to question this pornographic assumption, this course examines the sources–art available at the Nasher Museum and many visual sources and written texts from the times of the Classic Maya civilization through today. We will collectively think about the ways in which these peoples have lived their lives and responded to the challenges of colonialism and globalization. Students should expect a hands on course as they will examine everything from ancient pottery to weapons, paintings, photographs, films, and written documents.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0268801

Cross-lists:  

GSF 333S

Bad Behavior

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [What does it mean to behave badly? How is ‘bad behavior’ distinguished from actions that are otherwise described as evil or criminal? This course addresses these questions by examining ideas of deviance, wrongdoing, and misconduct in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries—that is, modern behavioral categories that are considered to be aberrant without necessarily being strictly defined as transgressions of the law. We will consider how bad behavior concerns the disruption of implicit social norms rather than the explicit violation of legal or moral codes.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0268662

Cross-lists: LIT333S SOCIOL330S  

GSF 376S

Black Feminist Theory

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [The course explores canonical and contemporary texts to consider how various theorists inform, challenge, and extend understandings of what constitutes the social and political realms. Topics for the course include, but are not limited to: life, death, violence, sociality, politics, and the Human.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0263211

Cross-lists:  

GSF 350

Brains, Everywhere

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Over the last three decades we have witnessed the speedy rise of the “neurosciences,” an historical event characterized by some “neuro-cultures” and “neuro-subjects.” In this course we will track this history and ask what change in meaning might “neuro” effect in the disciplines that were previously “neuro”-free. If there is a neuro-turn in the humanities and social sciences, what is it that’s “turning”? We will consider the centrality of brain research in these discussions to ask questions about the meaning of “personhood/subjectivity,” “human/post human,” “mind/body,” “self/ego,” and “emotion/affect.”]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0259763

Cross-lists: LIT350 NEUROSCI250 LSGS350 ROMST350  

AMES 114

Buddhism

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Introduction to Buddhist texts, beliefs, rituals, and ethics in the past and present.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0091902

Cross-lists: RELIGION120  

AMES 286

Buddhism & Sexuality

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [Critical examination of the relation of religion and sexuality with special attention to Buddhism. Discusses religious interpretations of sex, sexuality, and gender; the codification and normalization of these rules through texts, symbols, and practices; and recent challenges to these interpretations. Topics include homosexuality, same-sex marriage, abortion, contraception, gender equality, clerical marriage, married clerics’ wives, and clerical sexual abuse. Draws on religious theory, gender theory, and critical theory. Places Buddhism in conversation with Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions. Extensive class discussion.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0218132

Cross-lists: RELIGION328 ICS389  

RELIGION 321S

Buddhist Ethics

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Survey of various Buddhist understandings of ethics, both classical and contemporary. How different Buddhist communities have responded to such ethical problems as the existence of evil, war, injustice, and suffering as well as contemporary Buddhist debates over abortion, ethnic fratricide, human rights, environmental problems, economic justice, and cloning.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0154901

Cross-lists: AMES331S ETHICS321S  

ETHICS 270

Business Ethics: Debate Over Corporate Social Responsibility

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Debates about obligations of firms and business leaders over and above legal obligations. Examination of foundations and implications of corporate governance, corporate law, and the theory of the firm. Evaluation of challenges by supporters of stakeholder theory and corporate social responsibility.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0185892

Cross-lists: PHIL270 ICS271  

HISTORY 483S

Capstone Seminar: History of Torture

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [This class offers a history of torture in the western world, from the Renaissance to the present. Students explore the topic primarily within the framework of legal history, from the institution of legal judicial torture in the late Middle Ages, through its formal abolition in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, down to its reemergence as an instrument of combat in wars in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0243541

Cross-lists: MEDREN443S  

HISTORY 470S

Capstone Seminar: Leadership in American History

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Focuses on political, social, business and artistic leaders in American history and problems that have called for leadership. Instructor consent required.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0200331

Cross-lists:  

EDUC 243S

Children, Schools, and Society

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [The processes by which children are educated in the United States. Ways children acquire through schooling social skills, moral values, and a sense of their role in society. Evaluation of the appropriateness of these goals for schooling, how schooling shapes children’s development, and how the education policies that sanction these processes are formed. Application of theory and research for solving complex societal problems that confront children, schools, and communities. Required participation in service-learning.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0157551

Cross-lists: PUBPOL243S  

VMS 207S

Children’s Self Expression: Literacy Through Photography

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [Children’s self-expression and education through writing, photography and documentary work. Focus on reading and critical interpretation of images. The history, philosophy, and methodology of Literacy Through Photography. Includes internship in an elementary or middle school classroom. Required participation in service-learning. Consent of instructor required.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0130313

Cross-lists: DOCST224S EDUC244S  

PHIL 263

Chinese Philosophy

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [The major schools of classical Chinese philosophy: Confucianism, Moism, and Taoism. Confucianism on the ideals of harmonious human life; Moism’s charge that Confucianism encourages an unjustified partiality toward the family; Taoism’s claim that no logically consistent set of doctrines can articulate the “Truth.” Debates and mutual influences among these philosophies. Comparisons between Chinese and Western cultures with respect to philosophical issues and solutions.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0143291

Cross-lists: AMES275  

ETHICS 220

Christian Ethics and Modern Society

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [An introduction to Christian ideals of conduct, character, and community, and to modern disputes over their interpretation and application. Are Christian virtues and principles fundamentally at odds with the ethos of liberal democracy oriented toward rights, equality, and freedom? What do Christian beliefs and moral concepts imply about issues related to identity and pluralism? What is the relationship between religious convictions, morality, and law? Special emphasis on selected political and economic problems, sexuality and marriage, capital punishment, animals and the environment, abortion, and the role of religion in public life.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0268741

Cross-lists: POLSCI253 RELIGION254  

RELIGION 150

Christianity

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Introduction to Christian doctrine, ritual, social organization and ethics in the past and present.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0091871

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PUBPOL 167FS

Citizenship, Patriotism, and Identity

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics, Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [This course introduces students to fundamental moral questions about nation states and individuals’ membership in them. Do people owe more to their compatriots than to foreigners? Is it desirable—or at least permissible—for countries to have and promote a national identity? What different forms can patriotism take, and in which (if any) of these forms is it a virtue? Should we all be “citizens of the world?” These questions will be explored primarily through readings in contemporary moral and political philosophy. Open only to students in the Focus Program.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0246462

Cross-lists: ETHICS150FS POLSCI150FS  

ENVIRON 445A

Climate Change in the Marine Environment

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Exploration of climate change science focusing on marine ecosystems and inhabitants – specifically ocean acidification, warming and sea level rise. Factors causing climate change, and how those vary spatially, focusing on sensitive polar ecosystems and marine mammal populations. Critical examination of climate change modeling using EdGCM (research-grade Global Climate Model), focusing on how scientists use models, observations/theory to predict climate, and assumptions/uncertainty implicit in modeling. Discussion of potential human impacts including consequences of sea level rise and potential increases in disease due to climate change. Taught in Beaufort at Duke Marine Lab.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0229561

Cross-lists: BIOLOGY445A PUBPOL445A MARSCI445A  

PUBPOL 415

Communities of Practice

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Capstone course for students completing community-based research projects through Service Opportunities in Leadership, a signature curricular and experiential learning offering in the Hart Leadership Program. Course involves critical reflection on summer projects, exploration of leadership models that center community-led work and systemic analysis, development and practice of skills for lifelong civic leadership, and interrogation of how individual lives of commitment to the common good are formed and sustained in community with others. Instructor consent required. Students must be members of the SOL program and have completed both PUBPOL 263 and an approved summer project.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0194711

Cross-lists:  

MILITSCI 402S

Company Grade Leadership

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Examines behavioral science theories (individual, group, and organization) in a small group learning environment in order to build healthy classroom discourse. It explores professional challenges and competencies that are needed for effective execution of the profession of arms through the examination of history, psychology, leadership/management theories, decision sciences, and military doctrine. Through this course, students will examine military ethics, ethical decision-making, Geneva Convention rules, and NATO rules of engagement.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0241611

Cross-lists:  

AAAS 234S

Comparative Urban Politics and Policymaking

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions, Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [DukeImmerse Seminar. A comparative examination and analysis of urban governance in South Africa and the United States. Examines potential consequences of persistent racial and class disparities for housing and neighborhoods, public health, education, community infrastructure, and general economic and social development. Specific attention to how the physical layout, government structures, politics, culture, and the civil society of cities and urban areas may both promote and hinder human development and social justice. Instructor consent required.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0222395

Cross-lists: POLSCI235S PUBPOL285S ICS213S RIGHTS235S  

ETHICS 205S

Composing Oneself: Stress, Identity, and Wellness

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art, Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Interdisciplinary exploration of arts and science related to stress, identity, and wellness. Multi-dimensional focus fusing science, theory, art, literature, and performance to understand structural causes of stress, their physiological effects, and how stressors impact our identities and community ethics. Through text analysis and experience, students explore how arts of wellness, including yoga, mindfulness, and art therapies, impact stress, identity, and ethics. Course texts include literary and discourse theory, social science, neuroscience, and primary texts related to stress, identity, and wellness, including nonfiction, fiction, poetry, art, music, performance.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0247063

Cross-lists: ARTS&SCI205S WRITING205S  

GERMAN 340S

Contemporary Culture through the German Media Landscape

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [This course examines contemporary cultural trends in German society through the lens of the German media landscape. Students will continue to develop their competencies in German at an advanced level by discussing and analyzing current issues and debates, with an emphasis on vocabulary building through oral and written response and analysis. Topics will vary based on current events, but may include politics, arts and entertainment, business, education, multiculturalism, Germany’s role in Europe and the world, among others. Recommended prerequisite: German 303, 305, 306, or permission of instructor.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0259521

Cross-lists:  

AMI 257

Contemporary Israeli Cinema

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [A comparative approach to Israeli cinema, in the context of American and European cinemas. Cinema and nationalism. Cinematic representations of social, political, racial, and ethnic tensions and fissures: social gap, immigration to and emigration from Israel, militarism and civil society, masculinity and femininity, and the Israeli-Arab conflict. Popular culture and its relationship with high culture.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0184811

Cross-lists: VMS248 LIT217 JEWISHST241 CINE257 GSF214 AMES143  

ETHICS 578S

Contemporary Theories of Democracy

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Seminar has three aims: (a) to introduce students to some important topics and approaches in contemporary democratic theory; (b) to investigate the ways in which these issues are related to broader discussions about the strengths and weaknesses of democracy and the rule of law; (c) to familiarize students with a range of strategies for justifying or criticizing political arrangements or policies. Topics include social justice, individual rights and community, representation, deliberation, the relationship between democratic decision-making and markets and the normative implications of moral, religious and ideological pluralism.]

Link to course description: https://graduateschool.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0085552

Cross-lists: POLSCI578S  

AAAS 226D

Crime and the City from Dickens to The Wire

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [Compares representation of crime and the city in two key “texts”: Charles Dickens’s “Oliver Twist” and the HBO television series, “The Wire.” Juxtaposes the social and political contexts to which each text refers, paying particular attention to the nature and causes of criminal activity therein. Explanations emphasizing individual or personal responsibility will be contrasted to those that take structural factors into account, including urban housing, public health, child labor, public education, poverty and its relief, urban governance, as well as the criminal justice system.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0217862

Cross-lists: HISTORY313D  

AAAS 226

Crime and the City from Dickens to The Wire

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions, Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Compares representation of crime and the city in two key “texts”: Charles Dickens’s “Oliver Twist” and the HBO television series, “The Wire.” Juxtaposes the social and political contexts to which each text refers, paying particular attention to the nature and causes of criminal activity therein. Explanations emphasizing individual or personal responsibility will be contrasted to those that take structural factors into account, including urban housing, public health, child labor, public education, poverty and its relief, urban governance, as well as the criminal justice system.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0211342

Cross-lists: HISTORY313  

AAAS 286S

Critical Pedagogy of Hip Hop

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [This course examines the role of critical pedagogy in developing learning environments that engage and empower youth. Emphasis is placed on the context of Hip Hop as a foundation for instructional decision-making and social justice advocacy/activism. Students will explore the historical and socio-cultural foundations of education initiatives, teaching and learning strategies, federal and state mandates and educational policy issues that contribute to marginalization. Innovations, interdisciplinary collaboration and community programs designed to strengthen schools and communities will be highlighted.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0275102

Cross-lists: EDUC285S MUSIC285S PUBPOL266S SOCIOL285S  

EDUC 118FS

Critical Race Theory in Education

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Critical exploration of systemic and endemic racism and ways that structural racism intersects with educational systems. Course begins with an examination of identity, positionality, privilege, bias at the individual level, then moves to an analysis of institutional structures and systems. Students will reflect on their educational experiences and apply case study analysis to their own K-12 education utilizing the framework of critical race theory. Students will examine data on educational inequities and work in teams to prepare a policy proposal that addresses systemic racial inequities within K-12 education.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0276771

Cross-lists:  

AMES 531S

Culture & Environment in Modern Chinese History

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Examination of the changing patterns through which the physical environment and culture are mutually formed in late imperial and modern China. Culture includes creation of cosmological and social ideas as well as long term practices of settlement and utilization of the environment. In what ways did cultures represent limits to environmental exploitation? Special attention to how communities and the state respond to environmental disasters and explore the feedback loops for protection and prevention. Explores the importance of long-term understanding for the current environmental crisis in China.]

Link to course description: https://graduateschool.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0239422

Cross-lists: HISTORY514S  

LINGUIST 498

Cyber Law: Law, Language, and Computers

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Cyber law refers to the legal principles that govern the creation, use of computers, software, and computer networks, or that relate to the transfer, use, and storage of electronic information. In this course we will analyze the key legal principles concerning: ownership of the designs of integrated circuits and computer software; crimes involving the use of computers; protection of electronic data, with particular concern for the protection of privacy interests; freedom of expression on the internet. There will be several over-arching meta-themes in this course, and other related themes. This course is designed for students with little or no familiarity with the American legal system.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0267431

Cross-lists:  

HISTORY 253

Dante’s Divine Comedy/ Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [A voyage through the three otherworldly places of Dante’s philosophical poem (Hell, Purgatory, Paradise) whose transformation of human actions into an ordered ethical system continues to captivate readers.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0182816

Cross-lists: ITALIAN281 MEDREN341 RELIGION262 LIT245  

EDUC 303S

De/Re/Segregation in Education: A Case of Back to the Future?

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective, Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Course traces timeline of segregation, desegregation, integration and resegregation in education in the United States, from policies and practices first enacted at this nation’s birth through current policies and practices that challenge our commitments to opportunity, equality, and equity. Course invites students to study historical and contemporary practices in education, comparing segregation and resegregation as moments in the education history of the US, taking recent developments in North Carolina education policy and practice as cases to enrich understanding. Students engage in a minimum of 20 hours of planned service activities.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0244161

Cross-lists: PUBPOL340S RIGHTS303S  

SOCIOL 264

Death and Dying

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [The biomedical, economic, social, and psychological issues surrounding death and dying in the twenty-first century in America. Religious and cultural perspectives both in the Judeo-Christian ethic and in other religious frameworks. Theories of dying from sociological and social psychological perspectives. Required participation in service-learning.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0244161

Cross-lists:  

CULANTH 285S

Death, Burial, and Justice in the Americas

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [This interdisciplinary course explores the phenomenon of necroviolence: attacks on the dignity, integrity, and memory of the dead. Cases come from the United States, Latin America, and Canada. Topics include the rights of the dead, cultural attitudes towards the dead, and the “ambiguous loss” experienced by loved ones of the disappeared. We also explore the activism of family members, volunteer cemetery reclamation groups, and forensic scientists who exhume mass graves to identify bodies. Students will interact with guest speakers, spend time in a local African American cemetery with ties to Duke, and do community work and research on behalf of the marginalized dead.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0262432

Cross-lists: AAAS283SL ICS283SL LATAMER283SL RIGHTS283SL  

GSF 335S

Decolonization: Histories, Meanings, Struggles

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [This course explores decolonization as an historical event, a category of theoretical analysis, and a series of contemporary social movements. Course material will introduce students to the history of decolonization as both idea and event, putting global anti-colonial movements of the twentieth century into conversation with contemporary struggles for the decolonization of occupied land, institutions, and epistemologies. This interdisciplinary course draws on work in history, geography, anthropology, women’s studies, and postcolonial and decolonial Studies. Students will also read and research manifestos, memoirs, archival documents, documentary films, oral histories, and museum exhibits.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0259533

Cross-lists: ICS335S HISTORY289S  

CLST 275

Democracy: Ancient & Modern

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Examines democracy in its ancient and modern forms, with special attention to Athenian and American democracy. Does modern democracy fulfill the promise of ancient democracy, or betray its fundamental tenets? Topics may include freedom, equality, and rights; democratic institutions; citizenship; rhetoric; democratic knowledge and decision-making; foreign policy; corruption; religion; and hope.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0219961

Cross-lists: POLSCI211 HISTORY234 ETHICS275  

ECON 285

Denial, Faith, Reason: Sustainability & Survival

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [This course investigates both theory and history of the concept of sustainability, and explores its various economic and political manifestations over time. What are the historical roots of the sustainability debate? What aspects of life do various concepts of sustainability entail, and how do they inform modern ethics? What, in the end, does the history of political economics teach us about the possibility of sustainable development?]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0225482

Cross-lists: ENVIRON276 ETHICS285 HISTORY325 PUBPOL284 SUSTAIN276  

ARTSVIS 212 S

Digital Documentary Photography: Education, Childhood, and Growth

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art, Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Documentary photography as a tool for exploring public education in Durham. Learn digital techniques including camera function, Photoshop, ink-jet printing, audio capture and production of audio-visual slide shows. Discuss ethical issues that emerge as a result of digital photographic impermanence. Service-learning environment consisting of fieldwork photography in collaboration with community organization, culminating in an exhibit. Consent of instructor required.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0178752

Cross-lists: DOCST209S VMS212S EDUC209S  

ARTSVIS 212 FS

Digital Documentary Photography: Education, Childhood, and Growth

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art, Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Documentary photography as a tool for exploring public education in Durham. Learn digital techniques including camera function, Photoshop, ink-jet printing, audio capture and production of audio-visual slide shows. Discuss ethical issues that emerge as a result of digital photographic impermanence. Service-learning environment consisting of fieldwork photography in collaboration with community organization, culminating in an exhibit. This is a Focus Program Course for Knowledge in the Service of Society. Department consent is required.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0242212

Cross-lists: DOCST209FS VMS212FS EDUC209FS  

ISS 187FS

Digital Storytelling and Interactive Narrative

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Digital storytelling methodologies, theory, and practice. In-depth analysis of digital storytelling in various media forms and modes of production. Cultural impact of new media narratives. Exploration of digital storytelling affordances and approaches: text, video, audio, design, animation, and interactivity. Critical analysis of existing media and remediation of older media forms. Experimentation with non-linear, spatial, ludic, and hypermedia approaches. Questions of authorship, agency, authority, and collaboration in blogs, games, fan fiction, adaptations. Hands-on experience developing digital narratives and creating digital critiques. Analytical paper and regular crits.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0277971

Cross-lists: CMAC187FS VMS187FS  

CULANTH 342

Displacements: Migration and Human Trafficking

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Examination of the meaning of migration in the global world through cross-disciplinary texts and visual media. Situates the phenomenon of human trafficking within the context of these general movements focusing on the risks involved when people endanger their lives to find a better and more strategic position in the world. Explores how these experiences should be interpreted, and how processes and the politics of race, space and place are a condition and/or outcome of these movements. Investigates and considers ways to resolve some of the problems associated with such movements.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0221653

Cross-lists: AAAS343 LATAMER343 SOCIOL343 RIGHTS339  

DOCST 279S

Docu-Poetry: Real Life Truths Outside and Inside the Poetic Narrative

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [Investigates written and oral poetry as a mode of documentary storytelling. Engage with contemporary and historical poetry examining real-life, historical events. Investigate relationship between history, documentary, and poetry. Write poems based on research with multiple forms of archival source material and critical interpretation thereof.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0241551

Cross-lists: ENGLISH279S LIT279S  

AMES 511

Documentary and East Asian Cultures

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions, Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [Focus on documentary films from various regions in East Asia, including China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan, studying the specific historical and social context of each while attending to their interconnected histories and cultures. Emphasis on the ethical implications of documentary in terms of its deployment of visual-audio apparatus to represent different groups of people and beliefs, values and conflicts, both intra- and inter-regionally in East Asia. Special attention paid to the aesthetics and politics of the documentary form in terms of both its production of meanings and contexts of reception.]

Link to course description:

Cross-lists: ICS 513 DOCST 511 ICS 513 CINE 511  

SOCIOL 265

Drug Use and Abuse: Getting High in the United Statesre

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Explores trends in the use, abuse, and regulation of mind-altering substances in the United States. Topics include: patterns of drug use over time and across social groups; drug market creation and regulation; media promotion and condemnation of drug activities; drug policy legislation and enforcement; medicalization of deviance; rise and fall of drug panics; and critical analysis of the casualties of the current war on drugs.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0238671

Cross-lists:  

ETHICS 190FS

Dynamics of Environmental Justice: Movements, Countermovements, and Institutional Responses

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [This course examines the environmental justice movement, its countermovements, including nationalist and conservative movements, and how their interplay shapes political opportunities and responses. We will consider the substantive concerns of the environmental justice movement (the needs of humans in the built environment), its methods (community-based political organizing carefully coordinated with allies within legal professions and academia), and the scales at which it operates (local, national, global). Because social movements of political significance will generate opposition, we will also consider the rise of nationalist and conservative movements that interact with and challenge the environmental justice movement. These topics will be explored using a range of materials, including scholarly books, articles, case studies, and documentary films.]

Link to course description:

Cross-lists: ENVIRON 190FS PUBPOL 190FS  

CULANTH 520S

Eco-Media: Sutdies in Planetary Futures

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art, Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [This seminar explores film, photography, online media, museum and artistic productions about the contemporary planetary ecological crisis. Visual materials will focus on climate change, environmental activism, plastic and nuclear waste, digital rubbish, “cancer alleys” and “cancer villages,” pollution and toxic environments, among other topics. Course readings will introduce students to debates about the Anthropocene, post-human natures, species extinction, multi-species care, geo-engineering, and planetary futures.]

Link to course description: https://graduateschool.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0259971

Cross-lists: VMS520S  

PSYCH 240

Educational Psychology

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions, Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Principles of developmental, social, and cognitive psychology as applied to education, with a focus on how children learn. Examination of the impact on learning of race, class, gender, and ethnicity, including a comparative analysis of cultural differences in American schools. Through structured service-learning experiences in local schools, students reflect through writing on ethical issues in teaching. Required service-learning.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0035192

Cross-lists: EDUC 240  

EDUC 420

Elementary Education: Practicum

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Engagement, as part of a teaching practicum in elementary schools, in active classroom research projects by designing, implementing, and evaluating units of instruction. Creation of a portfolio of products to demonstrate technology competencies for teaching certification. Students also reflect and write on ethical issues involved in their service experiences in public schools. Instructor consent required. Service-Learning course.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0035201

Cross-lists:  

CULANTH 140S

Empires In Modern European History

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [An introduction to political theories of imperialism and a comparative historical analysis of several European empires. Explores questions of nationalism, race, religious pluralism, state formation, globalization, and international governance. Readings drawn from history, sociology, anthropology, and political science.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0259914

Cross-lists: HISTORY140S POLSCI140S SOCIOL148S  

RELIGION 361

End of the World: Apocalyptic Arguments from Antiquity to the Present Day

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [Traces end-time arguments, predictions, and prophecies from the second-century BCE until the present day. Why are prophecies of doom so compelling? Why must time come to a stop? What happens after the world’s end? Who decides? Close study of the role of apocalyptic eschatology in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam across time and place provides a lens for interpreting more recent apocalyptic movements, texts, claims, and artistic productions.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0262411

Cross-lists:  

PUBPOL 265S

Enterprising Leadership

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [The central goal of Enterprising Leadership is to provide students with analytical competence, enterprising leadership identity, and personal agency important to exercising leadership in organizations, in communities, and in life. The course explores the many facets of leadership and leadership development including the processes by which people affect change in a variety of roles and situations. Leadership within a framework of ethics, values, and innovative action are emphasized as a basis for contributing to the process of making good things happen without reliance on formal authority. This is not a traditional course in leadership studies or leading organizations.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0080881

Cross-lists:  

ECON 432S

Environmental Justice: The Economics of Race, Place, and Pollution

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Minorities, people of color, and low-income households bear a disproportionate burden from environmental pollution. Since the Clinton Administration, addressing environmental injustice has been among the policy objectives of the EPA. Course examines how environmental injustices may arise out of discriminatory behavior and/or market forces founded on individual, firm, and government incentives. We begin with the theoretical framework used to document and explain disproportionate exposures, then review existing empirical evidence through case studies and evaluate competing explanations for injustice using an economics framework. Prerequisite: Economics 201D and Economics 204D or 208D.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0235441

Cross-lists: ENVIRON332S  

MGM 120FS

Ethical Implications of Genetic and Genomic Research

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [This course will examine the ethical implications raised by genetic and genomic research. Students will gain an understanding of the historical basis of human subjects’ protections in the United States, the ethical pillars of research, and the issues that arise from genetics and genomics research. Case studies in genomics research will be used to illustrate various ethical implications. Readings will consist of reviews of the history of human subjects’ protections, federal regulations, actual informed consent documents, and scientific papers from the primary literature. Open only to students in the Focus Program. Instructor consent required.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0235393

Cross-lists: PUBPOL186FS  

ETHICS 315S

Ethics and Philosophy of Sport

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [An examination of ethical issues and dilemmas of sport in the modern world. Topics to be discussed include amateurism, the NCAA and college athletics, performance enhancement, money in college and professional sport, gambling, the athlete as a role model, and the coach as sage. Inevitably, consideration of these issues will lead to a discussion of wider issues, such as the value of sport and the role of sport in the “good life”. Students will write two short papers examining particular ethical dilemmas, and will write a longer term-ending paper which evaluates in depth one of the issues raised in the course of the semester. Instructor consent required.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0231681

Cross-lists:  

PHIL 163D

Ethics for Robertson Scholars

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Robertson Scholars First-Year colloquium; Introduction to ethical reasoning & argument. Asks questions/examines concepts & arguments related to the nature of moral reasoning. Examines contemporary ethical issues to gain understanding of the kinds of reasons/arguments used to establish or support ethical claims. Restricted to Robertson scholars. Class meets half the semester at Duke, half at UNC, with weekly discussion sections on both campuses]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0219591

Cross-lists:  

PUBPOL 283

Ethics in an Unjust World

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [The course considers the question, “How can we fix poverty?” It begins by exploring the nature of poverty through a variety of descriptive metaphors (for example, poverty as a “trap” or a “disease”). It then considers the word “we,” and in doing so introduces several basic understandings of ethics (deontology, utilitarianism, virtue ethics, etc.) Finally it considers the word “fix” and offers three models for responding to poverty: working for, working with, and being with. Each model explores several examples of good practice followed by critical reflection as students engage with opportunities in Durham displaying each approach.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0241051

Cross-lists: CESC283  

EVANTH 580S

Ethics in Evolutionary Anthropology

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Ethical issues and controversies in the study of evolutionary anthropology including treatment of primates in research; appropriate use of human genetic data, skeletal remains, and fossils. Professional ethics will also be addressed (e.g., ethical behavior in grant and paper reviewing, plagiarism, intellectual property). Course will make use of films, interviews and discussion primary and popular literature.]

Link to course description: https://graduateschool.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0221851

Cross-lists:  

CULANTH 280S

Ethics of Ethnography: In the Field and on the Page

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Inquiry into the practical and ethical considerations of ethnography as both a research method and a writing genre. Students learn to identify rhetorical strategies of ethnographic texts and interrogate the moral, political, and ethical issues in representing the ‘other.’ Frequent workshops guide students through individual research on the intersection of ‘race’ and some aspect of Durham’s social or historical context. Students develop observation and interviewing skills, conduct fieldwork in Durham, and work through several drafts of their own ethnographies, while learning to give and receive feedback. Prerequisite: Writing 101. Open only to DukeImmerse students. Instructor consent required.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0254202

Cross-lists: WRITING280S  

GLHLTH 341

Ethics of Global Infectious Disease Control

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Examination of the role of ethical decision-making when controlling infectious disease epidemics. Applies classic public health ethics of balancing individual liberty vs. public good to the new global health context of emerging infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Ebola, and SARS, plus re-emerging infectious diseases such as multidrug-resistant TB, polio, and cholera. Explores questions of resource allocation, mandatory or voluntary prevention measures, and ethical obligations of health care workers vs. responsibilities of individuals in the context of new global public health. Prior global health coursework recommended.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0221691

Cross-lists: ICS299 SCISOC341 RIGHTS341  

CULANTH 404S

Ethics of Hope

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Hope involves the expectation or desire for good things to happen. Yet, does this set up people for despair when hopes get dashed or have no possibility of realization? Or, is the conjuring of something better—somewhere, sometime—what enables life to be sustained in the face of difficulties or just the daily grind of making do? In this class we raise the issue of the ethics, politics, and tactics of hope, drawing on philosophy, feminism, and anthropology.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0285161

Cross-lists: ICS427S GSF404S ETHICS404S  

LIT 285

Existentialism

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Existentialism in philosophy and literature. Key themes will be existence, ethics, meaning of life, freedom, death, and writing. Texts may include writings by Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Heidegger, Sartre, Camus, Beauvoir, Fanon, Murdoch and others.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0160661

Cross-lists: ENGLISH285S PHIL285S  

HISTORY 389S

Family Rights/Human Rights

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Explores relationship between state, family formation, and individuals. Surveys regulation of sexuality, reproduction, adoption, immigration, and incarceration with focus mainly on U.S. and past 200 years.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0238681

Cross-lists: PUBPOL346S RIGHTS389S  

DOCST 246S

Feeding Diaspora: Global Food Stories & Audio Journalism

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [Audio production-based course. Learn histories of global diaspora and their relationship to food and culture. Understand social, political and economic factors that shape global food production. Develop journalistic and storytelling skills including interview techniques, interpersonal and cross-cultural engagement with subjects, journalistic research, and narrative construction. Critical engagement with ethical considerations of representation central to journalism in a cross-cultural, diasporic context. Build audio-production skills including recording techniques and editing software. Produce broadcast-quality, full-length audio journalism piece on a global food story of student’s choosing.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0262971

Cross-lists:  

ETHICS 204S

Feminist Reproductive Ethics

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Do women experience the world differently than men? An examination of women’s experience, women’s ways of knowing, ethical systems and feminist critique, patriarchy, dualistic thinking, gender oppression, care ethics, ethical dilemmas.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0193782

Cross-lists: GSF367S  

AAAS 228S

Fictions that Mark the Moment

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [Course is an engagement with novels from spectacular moments of history, an imagination of the future, a response to narrative conventions of realism and thinking with and against the grain of social understandings. Look at examples of historical, speculative, postcolonial, experimental, science, magical realist fictions and theoretical work. Will consider the means by which narratives produce or rely on ethical beliefs and arguments within the specifics of their world-making as well as the ethical problems presented by relations of power within the particular histories of the texts’ various moments.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0236522

Cross-lists: LIT382S ENGLISH379S  

CULANTH 302

Fieldwork Methods: Cultural Analysis and Interpretation

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Anthropology as a discipline (a field of study) and the site where anthropologists work: the field. Combines theories of anthropological fieldwork methods with practice, including participation, observation, and interviews. Students undertake original research in a local fieldsite of their choice and produce their own mini-ethnography. This requirement may also be satisfied by taking Cultural Anthropology 290A Duke in Ghana Anthropological Field Research.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0157451

Cross-lists: I&E302  

CULANTH 389S

Food, Culture, and Society

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [This DukeImmerse course provides a broad overview of food as culture and its role in society. Exploration of the intersections between food and identity from gender, ethnic, class, religious, and political identities to how people use food to develop a sense of themselves as ethical beings. Food and democracy and food activism. Readings from anthropological, sociological, linguistic, and literary writings with ethnographic observations in local communities of practice. Instructor consent required.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0252462

Cross-lists: ROMST388S SOCIOL388S ITALIAN388S  

ENVIRON 209

Food, Farming, and Feminism

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Viewing “agriculture,” “nature,” and “consumption” as pressing feminist themes and exploration of various dimensions of the cultural and political ecology/economy of producing, processing, circulating, preparing, and consuming sustenance. Particular focus on the ethical impact of US policy on rural farm communities and developing nations.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0193752

Cross-lists: GSF275 GLHLTH225 HISTORY221  

LIT 450

Foucault in Slow Motion

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Michel Foucault’s work has been a powerful influence shaping debates in the humanities and social sciences around the world. Intensive study of key aspects of his arguments, including history, discourse, repression, the will to knowledge, visibility, soul production, biopolitics, and the socioeconomics of governance. Will focus on his major books, select essays and interviews, as well as articles by some of his interlocutors. “Slow motion” is intended here as a methodological emphasis, highlighting both the deliberateness of this course’s approach and the intimate ways in which Foucault’s thinking partakes of the historically changing aesthetics and politics of seeing as well as of speaking.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0262451

Cross-lists:  

FRENCH 335

Free Speech: Francophonie World-USA

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions, Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Critical history of free speech in French-speaking world in relation to the US, earliest debates and current controversies. Investigation of key concepts and issues: blasphemy, pornography, hate speech, sedition. Is this freedom absolute? Whose speech is censored? Whose ‘unspoken?’ Case studies & “causes célèbres” include Voltaire, Rabelais, Sade, Céline, Camus, Djaout. Work culminating in debate around free press and fake news with North African journalists and human rights activists.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0044561

Cross-lists: PJMS335 RIGHTS335  

PHIL 124FS

Freedom and Moral Obligation

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Are moral obligations limitations on our freedom, or are they, as some philosophers have insisted, the fullest expression of freedom? To understand the disagreement, we’ll look at moral obligations, particularly social and political obligations. How do collective moral obligations, like climate change or reparations for slavery, obligate us individually—or do they? Is freedom of speech morally required? Finally, we will consider Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, in which Kant argued that we are only free when our actions are dictated entirely by morality.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0252421

Cross-lists: POLSCI195FS  

PHIL 123FS

Freedom and Responsibility

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Conflicting visions of freedom and responsibility that characterize the modern world; the possibility of leading ethical lives in the face of conflicting demands that a complex vision of the good engenders. Readings include Luther, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, Kant, and Jack London. Course aims to be an intense introduction to Western philosophical ideas of freedom and responsibility. Open only to students in the Focus Program. Department consent required.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0194172

Cross-lists: POLSCI175FS  

MMS 195FS

Freedom and the Market

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Introduces students to three ethically distinct perspectives on the market using approaches in political philosophy from the right, left and center; explores the works of political theorists and economists such as Robert Nozick, Milton Friedman, John Maynard Keynes, Frederick Hayes and Amartya Sen; examines the ethical stances that these authors take; explores contemporary media to see how the former thinkers have influenced current debate; examines]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0236791

Cross-lists: SOCIOL197FS  

ENGLISH 254

From History to Fantasy: Medieval Religions in Film & Fiction

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [Explores the intersection of modern popular culture and medieval religious culture. Deep dive into how modern creators of mass entertainment use common notions of medieval faith, power, race, sexualities and violence to capture and hold our interest, teach us lessons about ourselves, and sell products. How do our ideas of faith, sexuality, race and power inspire or constrain the fiction we create about the past? What impact does this have on consumers? Monks, nuns, knights, crusades, secret societies, suffragists, alt-right, plague. Modern novels, commentaries, history, medieval texts, neurobiology, TV, films, ads, games, memes, clubs. Read, discuss, write, research.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0204454

Cross-lists: RELIGION261 HISTORY244 MEDREN354 GSF261  

SOCIOL 257

From Madness to Mental Disorders

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Investigates mental health processes and policies in historic, cultural, and socioeconomic context. Explains why definitions of and responses to mental illness have changed across time and place. Probes ethical dilemmas created by the medicalization of deviance. Examines how social conditions shape the development and consequences of mental disorders, treatments, and policies. Evaluates alternative theoretical explanations for how mental well-being and mental health services are linked to socioeconomic status, gender, race, ethnicity, citizenship, age, and sexuality. Assesses ability of alternative policies to improve public mental health.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0256241

Cross-lists: GLHLTH257 PSY267  

GLHLTH 101

Fundamentals of Global Health

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [Introduction to global health issues and challenges. Develop an understanding of key concepts, tools, and frameworks essential for continued study in global health. Focus on global disease burden, health determinants and disparities, health policy and actors, and challenges of global health interventions. Explore the importance of understanding and addressing global health through multidisciplinary frameworks of the natural sciences, social-behavioral sciences, humanities, and policy.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0244641

Cross-lists:  

HISTORY 166S

Gateway Seminar – Anarchism and its Discontents

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics, Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Introduction to the 19th century philosophical foundations of anarchist thought and to the history of the major anarchist movements in the 20th century in Russia, Italy and Spain. The first part of the course is an intensive investigation of the thought of Michael Bakunin, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Leo Tolstoy and Peter Kropotkin suing selections from their own writings. The next unit focuses on the movements they inspired in Russia and Western Europe. The last unit concerns the more contemporary manifestations of anarchism in the U.S. under the influence of Murray Bookshin. Students will write a major paper due at the end of the course.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0221091

Cross-lists: ICS166S  

HISTORY 164S

Gateway Seminar: Antisemitism

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [Focuses on selected anti-Judaic and antisemitic episodes from ancient antiquity through modern times, paying attention to both antisemitic texts and events. It evaluates competing theoretical frameworks for understanding antisemitism as ethnic, racial, religious and cultural phenomenon. Can antisemitism be understood as part of the history of racism or of other forms of ethnic hatred? Why were Jews so often target of hatred? How did both Jews and antisemites view their relations with each other? How do historians understand them? If there is limited continuity among antisemitic episodes, how can the prevalence and repetitiveness of antisemitism be explained?]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0208061

Cross-lists: ICS164S  

HISTORY 183S

Gateway Seminar: Civil Rights & Asian Americans

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Study of crucial legal and political moments in the struggle for equal civil rights of minorities, beginning with the laws of Chinese Exclusion, the struggle to define who was “White,” the Asian Immigration Exclusion Acts, the relationships of Asians and African Americans and the struggle for equal schooling in the American South, the Japanese Concentration camps, the Redress and Reparations Civil Rights struggle, and the involvement of Asians Americans in the African American-led Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, including working with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, and Asian Americans in the anti-sweatshop unionization movement.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0200701

Cross-lists: AAAS133S AMES187S ICS183S RIGHTS183S PUBPOL175S AADS183S  

HIST 156S

Gateway Seminar: Cold War America

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [A gateway seminar designed to introduce undergraduates to historical analysis, research, and writing through study of one of the most gripping and hotly debated periods of modern history: the early Cold War contest between the US and the USSR. The course will examine both foreign relations and domestic life, with a focus on the searing impact of a politics of fear. We will explore areas ranging from the dropping of the atomic bomb to McCarthyism, from the crippling of the civil rights movement and the purge of gays from government employment to the devastating 1950s interventions in Iran, Guatemala, and Vietnam.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0241471

Cross-lists: RIGHTS156S  

HISTORY 157S

Gateway Seminar: Empires in Historical Perspective

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Study of modern empires in historical comparative-connective perspective. Approaches, methods, themes include social history from below, maritime history, history of technology, debates about the ethicality of war, occupation and regime change in sovereign territories. Final research paper involving intensive primary-source research, extensive use of secondary and on-line sources for the study of empires.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0202081

Cross-lists: ICS157S  

CULANTH 167S

Gateway Seminar: Nationalism

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [What is a nation? What is a nation state? Is the nation state still a useful unit of government today? The goal of this seminar is to teach you theoretical and methodological tools and historical examples to critically think about nationalism in globalization. Readings include primary sources, classic theories on nationalism, fresh arguments from sociology and anthropology. The historical and contemporary case studies include American, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and European examples.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0259542

Cross-lists: HISTORY167S SOCIOL167S  

SOCIOL 167S

Gateway Seminar: Nationalism: Ideology, Technology, Globalization

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [What is a nation? What is a nation state? Is the nation state still a useful unit of government today? The goal of this seminar is to teach you theoretical and methodological tools and historical examples to critically think about nationalism in globalization. Readings include primary sources, classic theories on nationalism, fresh arguments from sociology and anthropology. The historical and contemporary case studies include American, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and European examples.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0259543

Cross-lists: CULANTH167S HISTORY167S  

GSF 188S

Gateway Seminar: The Price of Sex: Gender and the Global Political Economy

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Explores how sex and gender have shaped economic policies and opportunities in different settings, particularly in the modern era (19th, 20th, and 21st centuries). Will focus on public policies and normative practices at the local, national, and international levels. As a gateway seminar for the history major, will focus on developing an understanding of historiography and methodology culminating in a prospectus for a future research project.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0256122

Cross-lists: HISTORY188S ICS188S  

CULANTH 432S

Gender, Sex, and Citizenship

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Explore current issues and debates relating to the relationship between gender, sexuality and global flows of people, labor, capital and ideas. Consider feminist analyses of the citizen-subject and foundational questions central to this area of study relationship between cultural representation, queer subjectivities, and sexual citizenship. Examine scholarship on gendered vulnerability and the welfare state; the politics of ‘terror’, security, and stereotyped masculinities; domestic labor and contemporary slavery; and the controversial debates about the connections between sex tourism, human trafficking and commercial sex work. Prerequisite: Previous gender studies course or consent of the instructor.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0207551

Cross-lists: SXL432S GSF432S ICS428S RIGHTS428S  

HISTORY 272

Genocide & Human Rights

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Analyzes the phenomenon of genocide from an interdisciplinary perspective, exploring the ways that violence intersected with gender, race, and religion. Combines the history of genocide with the history of humanitarianism, international law, and human rights, seeking to understand their successes and failures. Case studies cover the twentieth century up to the present and may include mass violence in Armenia, the Congo, the Holocaust, Nigeria/Biafra, Cambodia, Rwanda, and Sudan. An interdisciplinary approach will be used, seeking to investigate genocide and human rights from the heights of international law to the depths of the human heart, using tools of political science, literature, and history.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0225801

Cross-lists: PUBPOL345 RIGHTS272  

GERMAN 387

Germany Confronts Nazism and the Holocaust

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective, Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [The ways in which official German culture comes to terms with its Nazi past. Background reading in history and politics; primary focus on films, dramas, novels, and poetry, as well as public memorials, monuments, and museums. Authors treated include: Wolfgang Borchert, Rolf Hochhuth, Peter Weiss, Ruth Klüger. Taught in English.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0172951

Cross-lists: JEWISHHST369 LIT369 HISTORY261 RIGHTS387  

CULANTH 220FS

Global ‘Mixed Race’ Studies

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [By exploring pioneering and controversial writings from both the social and the biological sciences as well as the humanities, this course will situate debates on ‘race’, ‘mixed race’ and social hierarchies within broader global, comparative, and historical contexts. These comparative examples shed light on the the different social, social, and historical meanings attached to ‘race’ and ‘mixed race’ and address social and cultural variations in the symbolic rules which determine the social status of ‘mixed race’ communities. Open only to students in the Focus Program.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0268911

Cross-lists: AAAS250FS  

CULANTH 220S

Global ‘Mixed Race’ Studies

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [By exploring pioneering and controversial writings from both the social and the biological sciences as well as the humanities, this course will situate debates on ‘ race’, ‘mixed race’ and social hierarchies within broader global, comparative, and historical contexts. These comparative examples shed light on the different social, cultural, and historical meanings attached to ‘race’ and ‘mixed race’ and address social and cultural variations in the symbolic rules which determine the social status of ‘mixed race’ communities. Open only to DukeImmerse students. Instructor consent required.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0253481

Cross-lists:  

AMES 360S

Global Apple: Life and Death and the Digital Revolution

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Examination of the Apple Corporation’s development from a Silicon Valley garage operation to a company with unprecedented global reach; the Cult of Steve Jobs, the Apple Launch and use the design and development of the Apple Store; labor and environmental struggles over Apple supply chain and production processes, from cobalt mining in Africa to Foxconn factories in China; migrant worker suicide and poetry as forms of protest in China; e-waste villages and digital rubbish; everyday uses of Apple technology and the ethics of consuming Apple products.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0253474

Cross-lists: CULANTH360S LIT316S PUBPOL358S SOCIOL360S ICS369S  

ARTHIST 381D

Global Art Since 1945

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [Major avant-garde movements of the post-World War II era, with a concentration on the unprecedented changes in the mediums of art, its forms, impact on society and politics, and ethical role in shaping culture through painting and sculpture, conceptual and performance art, installation and new media, video, photography, and film.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0006021

Cross-lists: GSF277D ICS219D VMS382D  

ETHICS 267S

Global Cold War

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Traditional narratives of the Cold War focus on a bi-polar series of conflicts that pit the United States against the Soviet Union in a good-versus-evil battle for global political and military supremacy. This course destabilizes this account of a process that affected every continent on earth – and even reached into space – over the period of more than half a century. It explores the Cold War from East-West, North-South, global, and interstellar perspectives. In addition to political and military issues, the course will also discuss the Cold War in social, cultural, intellectual, and economic spheres.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0267906

Cross-lists: HISTORY267S RUSSIAN267S PUBPOL267S SOCIOL267S SES267S  

FRENCH 325S

Global Displacement: Voix Francophone

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [Explores migration and resettlement of Francophone refugees in North America through examination of current policy, law, and practice. Analysis of personal interviews and narratives with attention to ethical questions related to politics of listening to and speaking for other communities. Community-based language component (20 hours) engages students with refugee community in Durham. Conducted in French. Recommended prerequisite: one course at 300-level or equivalent.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0229351

Cross-lists: ICS332S GLHLTH325S RIGHTS325S  

GLHLTH 345

Global Health as an Ethical Enterprise

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Introduces the challenges of living an ethical life when conceived as an expression of compassion for distant strangers. Considers the organization of compassion into the multi-billion dollar political-economic enterprise of global health. Explores tensions between global health as an ethical enterprise and the political-economic realities of the high-income countries and multinational organizations that fund global health and support a vast development industry populated by thousands of non-governmental organizations, pharmaceutical and chemical corporations, and countless organizations dedicated to the advancement of medicine and health science. Fulfills global health ethics requirement.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0249981

Cross-lists: ETHICS 344  

ICS 397

Global Health Ethics: Policy Choice as Value Conflict

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [The primary foci of this course are: the ethics of engagement with marginalized/stigmatized populations; understanding the influence of power dynamics; and understanding the ways in which policies create structures that limit abilities. Students explore the roots of their personal value systems and those of others, in an effort to understand causes of conflict and ethical missteps in global health engagement. Involves reading texts and coming to class ready to engage in conversations and activities related to the learning objectives. Weekly 5-question quizzes help to ensure that students come to class prepared to engage with the material.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0179493

Cross-lists: GLHLTH210 PUBPOL330 RIGHTS330  

CULANTH 399

Global Russia

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [This course will examine the process of globalization of Russian culture and institutions as manifested in political, economic, and legal institutions; religion; education; popular and academic cultural forms, including media and artistic texts, film, theatre and television; diplomacy; reproductive rights; health care; the role of censorship; views of citizenship, patriotism, and sport. We will evaluate the ethical issues, potential shift of cultural values, and their impact on 21st century Russian institutions.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0202782

Cross-lists: RUSSIAN399 PUBPOL223 ICS399  

CULANTH 223S

Global Stories, Local Issues

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [What stories are there to tell about often overlooked objects and people and places? How can we research and share those stories with generosity and integrity? In every corner of our lives—the stickers on our computers, the plates at a local restaurant, the wood in our guitars—there is a story to be told that connects our individual experiences to broader, often global, phenomena. Participants will learn and use methods of ethnography and archival research to connect their experiences and their observations about a place, community, or thing to larger stories about culture and society, and they will practice writing about their research in engaging and broadly accessible ways.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0268841

Cross-lists: DOCST223S ICS260S  

ECON 112FS

Globalization and Corporate Citizenship

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Are corporations citizens? And if so who defines their rights and responsibilities? To whom are they obligated? This course will critically examine the origins and diffusion of increasingly prevalent notions of corporate citizenship and corporate social responsibility from an anthropological perspective. Particular emphasis will be upon corporate environmental and conservation policies in East Africa and the United States. Open only to students in the Focus Program. Director of undergraduate studies consent required.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0235614

Cross-lists: ETHICS160FS HISTORY127FS PUBPOL187FS  

GREEK 308S

Greek Philosophy

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Philosophy. Investigation into key trends, themes, developments in Greek Philosophy, especially moral and political, through readings from the Pre-Socratic philosophers, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, and/or others. Must have 2 years of Greek (or equivalent).]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0190111

Cross-lists:  

DOCST 329S

Historical Documentary Production

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [Course examines how archival footage and photographs are used in historical documentaries about struggles for social equity in America. Iconic films will be reviewed to assess editors’ strategies for employing archival material in documentaries on the labor movement, civil rights movement, anti-Vietnam war movement, and early lesbian and gay rights movement. Students will then conduct research for film footage and photographs and learn practical steps needed to acquire rights to use the material. During the second half of the semester, students will be guided in the production and editing of their own short historical documentary.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0244222

Cross-lists: CINE429S VMS429S  

PUBPOL411S

Historicizing Whiteness

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Examines origins, historical development, and consequences of white racial identity, from the 17th century to the present, beginning with the emergence of white racial grammar among trafficked white servants and so-called “white slaves” to the creation of racialized rights and privileges for white people in Great Britain and the United States in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0201842

Cross-lists: HISTORY 411S RIGHTS411S  

HISTORY 363

History of Capitalism in the United States

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Rather than debating religious truth, the course explores and analyzes the many religious perspectives that have shaped American history. This exploration includes looking at things that many students would not consider “religious” at first glance, and thus thinking deeply about how we define religion with a goal toward understanding and appreciating the richness, complexity, and influence of this country’s contemporary religious landscape.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0218171

Cross-lists:  

HISTORY 410S

History of Death

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Explores the history of aging and dying in the modern world, focused on the United States and the recent past. Integrates medical and humanistic approaches, giving students the chance to use philosophy, literature, and science together. Brings the history of medicine together with histories of race, gender, and religion. Aimed especially at pre-med students, but open to all.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0276961

Cross-lists: RIGHTS410S  

HISTORY 288

History of Inequality

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [This course familiarizes students with the field of Inequality Studies through examination of the causes and consequences of social inequality throughout history. It addresses theories of group and sub-group social stratification and ways that disparity operates across multiple axes of stigmatized identities. This is a required course for the minor in Inequality Studies.]

Link to course description:

Cross-lists: SOCIOL 288 AAAS288  

ECON 305

History of International Financial and Monetary Crises

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Course examines monetary/financial crises plaguing world since 16th century. Analyzes origin, unfolding, and impact of crises, debates generated by them, and formulation/implementation of policy measures. Attention to international implications/connections on European/Asian money supply, banking/credit systems; reaction to South Sea Bubble and John Law Credit Systems in numerous European nations; experiments with paper money in America; rise/demise of gold standard in 19th/20th century; currency and exchange rate problems of last three decades. Case studies will be selected and assigned according to participants’ interests. Prerequisite: Economics 201D and 210D.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0206041

Cross-lists: HISTORY305 ICS305  

GSF 122

History of Latinxs in the US

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [This introductory course will cover the social, cultural, and political histories of Latino/as in the United States from 1848 to the present including the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the Great Depression, WWI/WWII, the creation of Latino/a civil rights organizations, and the civil wars and free trade agreements of the 1980s and 1990s that have spurned so much of contemporary migration. Themes include colonialism and conquest, sexuality and gender, race and ethnicity, transnationalism and migration, social inequality and practices of resistance. This class will highlight the diversity of the Latino/a experience—focusing on the history of Afro-Latino/as, queer Latino/as, and undocumented Latino/as.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0262893

Cross-lists: HISTORY122 LATAMER122 ICS122 LSGS222  

HISTORY 344

History of US Social Movements

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Examines the social movements that have shaped U.S. history, starting with the American Revolution itself and covering others including the anti-slavery movement, women’s rights, Populism, Socialism, the Ku Klux Klan, the labor movement, the Black Freedom Movement and broader New Left, lesbian and gay liberation, and the recent conservative movement, focusing on the ethical issues arguments they raised, and how new civil, political, and social rights were created through social movement organizing. Lectures and readings explore why these movements arose, what they achieved, why many opposed them, and what we can learn about American history writ large from their experiences.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0206181

Cross-lists: PUBPOL344 RIGHTS344  

ETHICS 195S

Human Rights and Legal Redress: Seeking Justice through Human Rights

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [In this course, students will analyze through case studies the issues that confront the implementation of human rights ethics down through the layers separated by geography and culture to local implementation and enforcement. They will acquire an understanding of the international, regional and local human rights conventions and structures which propose, cultivate and enforce the ethical norms of the international human rights regime. This class addresses questions including: in what respects do enforcement options differ from place to place? When, where and under what circumstances is the human rights apparatus most effective in providing redress for rights violations? And, what are the alternatives to the human rights approach to justice?]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0247611

Cross-lists: PUBPOL209S  

ETHICS 129FS

Human Rights and World Politics

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Examines the role of human rights and global justice in world politics. We will consider questions such as whether human rights are universal, what role human rights and global justice should be play in U.S. foreign policy, which strategies are most effective in promoting human rights and global justice, and which risk inciting backlash. The course will cover topics including civil and political rights; economic, social and cultural rights; genocide, torture, humanitarian intervention, and the international criminal court. Instructor: Katzenstein]

Link to course description:

Cross-lists: ICS 128FS POLSCI176FS PUBPOL 181FS  

CULANTH 228FS

Human Rights on Camera

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [This course studies the interplay between cameras and human rights; how media technologies are used by activists and human rights workers to amplify grievances. Focus on cases studies where state violence was captured on camera: the Rodney King beating; the Abu Ghraib torture images; the Syrian revolution; and the Black Lives Matter movement. How are legal assessments impacted by visual aesthetics? How much faith do we have in the power of cameras to deliver justice? Readings in foundational theoretical texts about media, technology, and visuality. Open only to students in the Focus Program.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0271341

Cross-lists: ISS228FS  

CULANTH 103FS

Human Rights: Back to the Future, Looking at Roots and Current Reality of Human Rights

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [This Focus course introduces students to a brief history of rights as a way to ground our exploration of current human rights challenges and what rights may be envisioned in the future. Rights have never been static. Recent changes in how we see rights include the right to truth in post-conflict societies and animal rights. We’ll explore how cutting-edge thinkers contribute to an expanded horizon of rights. We will be engaging with activists, scholars, and artists. Open only to students in the Focus Program.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0277801

Cross-lists: PUBPOL115FS ICS119FS RIGHTS103FS  

LINGUIST 409S

Identity and Linguistic Rights in the Spanish Speaking Americas

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [This course brings together the topics of language and human rights, exploring questions of language contact, bilingualism and endangered languages from the perspective of social injustices and human rights. The focus of the course is on how language is used to shape and negotiate identities and how it reflects and sustains social realities; this course will examine and reflect on situations of oppression and how they are associated to sociolinguistic attitudes, behavior and cultural expressions. Taught in Spanish.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0243442

Cross-lists: SPANISH409S RIGHTS409S  

HISTORY 352

Immigrant Dreams, US Realities: Immigration Policy History

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Immigrants and immigration policy in the United States from 1850 to the present, with focus on origins and power of immigrant exclusion during three waves of migration: Northern European and Asian migrations between 1850 and 1880, Eastern European, Latin American, and Asian migrations, 1880-1920, and Latin American, African, and Asian migrations, post 1965. Immigrant roles in shaping policy debates, citizenship rights, labor movements, and American culture, past and present.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0218161

Cross-lists: PUBPOL220 RIGHTS352  

SOCIOL 228

Incarceration and Inequality in the United States

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Investigates the causes, consequences, experience and potential transformation of US prisons, jails, and detention centers. Stimulates critical thought, discussion, and research on alternative ethical positions on criminal justice policies, such as immigration detention, the war on drugs, prison privatization and mandatory sentencing, which have created and maintain the unequal distribution of mass incarceration. Examines the US carceral state as an institution of stratification that exacerbates social problems it is charged with tackling, prevents social mobility for the most marginalized, and solidifies disadvantages based on age, class, gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and citizenship.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0266041

Cross-lists:  

AMES 157S

Indian Civilization

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Surveys the rise of civilization and kingdoms on the Indian subcontinent from the first urban centers of the Indus Valley through the establishment of the Mughal Empire in the 16th century. Uses literary, archeological, linguistic, ethnological, and inscriptional evidence on the diversity of Indic peoples and their complex social, religious, and caste integration into the major states and empires of pre-modern India; considers wider civilizational networks and extensions of the Indian cultural sphere into other parts of Asia; integrates a historical and anthropological perspective on various primary materials.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0206073

Cross-lists: HISTORY219S CULANTH215S  

POLSCI 384

Inequality in Western Polictical Thought

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Study of egalitarian and inegalitarian theories in the history of Western Political Thought. Distinction between forms of inequality (political, economic, social, racial, gender, etc.). Analysis of what kind of equality should be achieved (resources, opportunities, rights, respect, etc.). Connection of equality with other political and moral issues (freedom, responsibility, class conflict, well-being, poverty, exclusion, solidarity, difference, etc.) Readings include Aristotle, Machiavelli, Locke, Rousseau, Smith, Wollstonecraft, Tocqueville, Marx, Veblen, Du Bois, Friedman, Rawls, and Piketty.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0247251

Cross-lists: RIGHTS384  

POLSCI 362

International Security

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [The various causes, processes and impacts of international conflict in contemporary international affairs. Topics include: causes of war; factors that make international conflict more or less likely; domestic politics of international security; impacts of scientific and technological developments; ethical arguments and beliefs associated with the use of violence; contemporary and non-traditional security threats. No formal prerequisite, but Political Science 160 recommended.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0083721

Cross-lists:  

POLSCI 265S

Intro to American Political Thought

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective, Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Basic elements of the American political tradition examined through a critical analysis of the ethical and political issues and controversies that developed from its historical English roots to the present day.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0084071

Cross-lists:  

PHIL 217

Intro to Ethical Theory

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Historically informed introduction to ethical theories in the Western tradition. Major historical figures (Aristotle, Kant, Mill) are read as well as some contemporary defenders of views inspired by these thinkers. This course is intended to provide a foundation for further study of ethics in philosophy.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0077181

Cross-lists:  

LIT 201

Intro to Global Cultural Studies

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [Introductory course for the Literature Major in Global Cultural Studies. Examines how the work of the humanities provides conceptual and analytic skills for processing complex textual, cultural, scientific, mediatic, and ethical information in circulation in the contemporary world. Begins by asking what Global Cultural Studies is and why exploring culture in a global frame is important in our world today. Focuses on a particular area of cultural production and combines theoretical and historical analysis with concrete exploration of films and other media, literary texts, and other cultural material.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0216421

Cross-lists:  

CULANTH 104

Intro to Human Rights

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [This is the Gateway course for the Human Rights Certificate. Students are introduced to the history, theory, practice of, and current issues in human rights. The course is interdisciplinary.]

Link to course description:

Cross-lists: PUBPOL 162D ICS 113 RIGHTS 104 HISTORY 116  

POLSCI 175D

Intro to Political Philosophy

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Same as Political Science 175 except instruction is provided in two lectures and one small discussion meeting each week. An intensive comparative examination of the nature and enduring problems of political philosophy through the confrontation, interpretation, and normative assessment of classic texts from the Greek polis to the present. Selected theorists and their arguments and beliefs within the Western political tradition concerning justice, the good life, freedom, community, power, authority, and others. Careful attention to the ways argument and rhetoric operate in texts of political philosophy, as well as diverse modes of interpretation.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0149561

Cross-lists:  

RELIGION 101

Intro to Religious Studies

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics, Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [Introduction to leading themes and concepts in the study of religions from the ancient world to the present. Course is divided into two parts: 1) what is religion? and 2) how is religion studied? A variety of religious traditions are examined as well as various theories and definitions of religion. Includes exploration of key ways in which different religions understand such social problems as violence and ideological conflict.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0210801

Cross-lists:  

STA 470S

Intro to Statistical Consulting

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Immerses students into real world consulting, exposing them to all aspects of research including data collection, modeling, and evaluating results. Through campus-wide consulting program, students work with researchers from various disciplines providing recommendations for statistical methodologies appropriate for their research. Projects examined through lens of research ethics underlying data collection, model assumptions, analysis, reproducibility, and reporting of results. Case studies such as the recent Potti case highlight what can go wrong in interdisciplinary research when researchers are not vigilant of the highest ethical standards. Prerequisite: Statistical Science 360L or 601.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0174761

Cross-lists:  

HISTORY 114

Intro to the History of Modern Warfare

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [The course covers the history of warfare since the end of the eighteenth century. Our explorations focus on the nature and aims of European and US pursuits of war and the practices, languages, and experiences of its participants. We will pay special attention to the different ways in which militaries and civilian populations became the subjects and objects of warfare in the modern age.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0221681

Cross-lists: PUBPOL160  

ETHICS 201

Introduction to Engaged Citizenship and Social Change

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Introduction to key concepts, theories, and critiques of civic engagement and social change, with a focus on competing notions of democratic citizenship. Examination of voluntarism, philanthropy, community service, political participation, social activism and other forms of community engagement. Critical reflection on ethical issues related to community engagement and social change, including critiques of progressivism and service. Students will also be asked to apply these various approaches to pressing social issues of our time, such as income inequality, environmental justice, education reform and gender and race equality.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0269016

Cross-lists: CESC201 EDUC201 PUBPOL203 POLSCI213 RIGHTS201  

AAAS 325S

Introduction to Hip-Hop Production

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [Introduction to Hip-Hop Production examines the history, background, functionality, and techniques of hip-hop production. This class will examine the art of sampling, borrowing, context, and practices in hip-hop production, while studying the history of beat machines and digital audio workstations.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0243271

Cross-lists: MUSIC337S  

CULANTH 104

Introduction to Human Rights: Gateway for the Human Rights Certificate

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions, Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [This is the Gateway course for the Human Rights Certificate. Students are introduced to the history, theory, practice of, and current issues in human rights. The course is interdisciplinary.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0239541

Cross-lists: PUBPOL162 ICS113 RIGHTS104 HISTORY116  

POLSCI 322

Introduction to Middle East Politics

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Introduction to political systems, processes, movements, and conflicts in the Middle East.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0083911

Cross-lists:  

AMES 122

Islamic Civilization I

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions, Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [A global history of Islamic thought, practice, spirituality, politics, and culture. This course analyzes the emergence of Islam and the spread of Muslim culture and learning across Africa, Asia, and Europe. It introduces how Muslims fostered a globalized economy and international community of scientists, scholars, agriculturalists, musicians, artisans, and philosophers of diverse backgrounds – along with other key themes that students may pursue in greater detail in future coursework. Gateway course for an interdisciplinary certificate in Islamic studies.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0092715

Cross-lists: CULANTH256 HISTORY210 MEDREN268 RELIGION217 ICS217  

AMES 373S

Islamic Mysticism

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [This course introduces the history and key concepts of Islamic spirituality through the lives, writings, institutions, and influence of Muslim sages, ascetics, and saints across Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Critical topics include Sufi origins, psychology, healing, music, poetry, politics, and the aspiration to beautify one’s self and society through connection with the Divine.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0092793

Cross-lists: RELIGION373S ICS380S ETHICS373S HISTORY380S  

ARTHIST 232

Japanese Art, 1600 to the Present

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [Japanese visual culture from the end of the sixteenth century to the contemporary period encompassing the country’s unification under Tokugawa rule and later emergence on the world stage through painting, sculpture, architecture, ceramics, decorative arts, photography, and print media. The relationship between artistic production and Japanese sociopolitical development seen through the critical issues of religion, region, gender, class, and nationalism. Ethical questions surrounding the establishment of the Japanese colonial empire in Asia, the Pacific War, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the internment of Japanese-Americans in the United States, and the American Occupation of Japan.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0006161

Cross-lists:  

RELIGION 176

Japanese Religions: Buddhas, Kami, and other Dieties

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Buddhas, deities, and demons inhabit daily life in contemporary Japan, but many Japanese people insist that they are not religious. This course examines how “religion” itself is understood in Japan, as well as the various strands of Japanese religious life from prehistoric times until the present. We will explore traditions including Shinto and kami (deity) worship, Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, and the New Religions; and investigate the ethical, social, and political dimensions of these traditions.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0146491

Cross-lists: AMES174  

PHIL 331

Kant

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Immanuel Kant’s philosophy, its background and influence. His early work in metaphysics and ethics and his mature philosophy of the ‘Critical Period’ in which he wrote The Critique of Pure Reason, The Critique of Practical Reason, and The Critique of Judgment. Recommended prerequisite or corequisite: Philosophy 201.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0077301

Cross-lists:  

KOREAN 455S

Korean Politics and Society: Academic Reading and Writing

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [An advanced class for students having completed a fourth year course in Korean, or for international students schooled in Korea. Explores controversial issues in contemporary South Korea such as economic aid to North Korea, restrictions on online anonymity, legal status of immigrants, the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement, revision of National Security Laws, with focus on their ethical dimensions, diverging perspectives, underlying ideologies, and historical contexts. Course materials drawn from media and academic publications in Korean. Prerequisite: Korean 407S or 408S. Students with equivalent preparation to the prerequisite course may contact instructor for a permission number.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0215371

Cross-lists:  

AAAS 264

Latin American Wars of Independence

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [This course covers the conspiracies, uprisings, and wars that led to the independence of Haiti and the Latin American colonies of Spain and Portugal between 1780 and the 1898 withdrawal of Spain from Cuba. It focuses on the key military and political leaders of anti-colonial struggles conducted on a continental scale from the islands of the Caribbean to the Andean highlands and beyond. Military strategy and political tactics were decisively shaped by modern debates about the meaning of freedom in terms of slavery and national self-determination. No prior knowledge of Latin America and the Caribbean required.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0255982

Cross-lists: HISTORY264 ICS232 POLSCI257  

LSGS 365S

Latino/a Popular Culture

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Examines connections between US Latina/o and Latin American populations mediated by contemporary popular culture and the world of the commodity. Explores sociocultural and political issues in US national culture, the ways US Latina/o cultures dialogue across the Americas, and how Latina, Latino, LatinX, and Latin American bodies inhabit particular cultural and geographic contexts. Addresses how popular cultural forms are developed, contested, or resolved vis-à-vis issues of difference, multicultural inclusiveness, domestic history, narratives of exile and migration. Materials covered include films, documentaries, television shows, art, advertising, comic strips, food fusions, music.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0259592

Cross-lists: ROMST365S  

LINGUIST 212FS

Law, Ethics & Responsibility

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Examines the intersection of law and neuroscience, including the use of neuroimaging to determine if a witness is telling the truth; the implications of neuroscience for determining the mental competency of defendants, the insanity defense, the imposition of punishment on defendants. Considers the extent to which recent advances in brain science cause us to reevaluate fundamental legal concepts of “intent,” “insanity,” and responsibility; the ways in which neuroscience may be applied to these and related issues; and the inherent limitations and incongruities of applying brain science to legal questions.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0214131

Cross-lists: PUBPOL250FS SCISOC212FS  

PUBPOL 270S

Lead the Way Durham: Civic Engagement, Social Innovation, and Community Leadership in the Bull City

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [This course will facilitate the exercise of innovative leadership to address important social and civic needs in Durham. We will explore and shape democracy through grassroots work by engaging with issues of participation, citizenship, equity, justice, and well-being in the Durham community. Learning about Durham’s history and with the goal of helping create positive change, students will identify a need, garner the necessary resources, and develop a context specific solution to address this need for the service-learning component of the course. Through active participation and mindful reflection, students will have the opportunity to shape and refine their personal models of social change. Instructor consent required.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0130051

Cross-lists:  

NAVALSCI 423S

Leadership & Ethics

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Capstone Course that examines principles of leadership and ethical decision-making through study and interactive discussion of classical and contemporary course documents and case studies. Coursework includes Constitutional Law, Natural Law Theory, as well as works by Kant, Mill, and Aristotle, among others.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0116331

Cross-lists:  

SOCIOL 227

Leadership and Collaboration

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Leadership is essential to the success of groups, organizations, and societies. To be effective, leaders must possess a clear understanding of human behavior and social processes. This course is an introduction to the study of leadership from the perspective of the social sciences. We will draw on a range of social science research to address key questions about the process and practice of collaborative leadership and followership. The goal of the course is to not only expose students to the empirical study of leadership and followership but also stimulate them to think critically about human behavior.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0263201

Cross-lists: PSY227  

EDUC 275S

Leadership and the Changing Landscape of Health Care

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Investigates historical, educational, social, political, economic and ethical implications of healthcare in US. Explores educational preparation of providers and current calls for reform. Analyzes health outcomes and costs as well as implications for future national economy. Investigates proposed healthcare models, methods of educating healthcare workers for an aging population, inequalities in distribution and political and ethical implications of change. Writing intensive: includes short weekly written reflections of assigned readings, mid-term paper on either education or policy. Final project will investigate solutions for identified population health problem.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0241601

Cross-lists: GLHLTH275S  

PUBPOL 263S

Leading In and With Community

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [As the gateway course for Service Opportunities in Leadership (SOL), this class explores the theory and practice of ethical community engagement, as well as frameworks for leadership that enable social change to flourish within communities. In preparation for SOL summer experiences, students will create ethical community engagement memos articulating their commitments to living into their values, honoring community self-determination, and acknowledging their social location when choosing how to exercise their citizenship in communities. Foundational texts for this class will be narrative stories, guest interviews, and case studies. Students will practice reflective and reflexive writing.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0190681

Cross-lists:  

ICS 275

Left, Right, and Center: Competing Political Ideals

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Analysis of liberalism, conservatism, socialism, and their diverse conceptions of justice, freedom, community, and equality. Exploration of how these political philosophies interpret various social, religious, and political issues. The origins of these ideologies in early modern European thought.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0141532

Cross-lists: POLSCI275  

ETHICS 170FS

Liberty and Equality: Ancient and Modern Perspectives

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics, Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [Examines the democratic values of liberty and equality in Greek, Roman, and American political thought. Are democracy and liberty allies or foes? What is the relationship between liberty and equality? Is freedom possible under non-democratic regimes? Is individual liberty protected by equal and inalienable human rights? What is the relationship between individual liberties and aspirations for a good and just society? Why have some democratic societies embraced imperialism or slavery? Readings drawn from Aristophanes, Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Epictetus, Tacitus, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Lincoln, Douglass, London, Du Bois, Hamer, King, and Vonnegut, among others. Focus only.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0234343

Cross-lists: CLST170FS POLSCI170FS  

LINGUIST 389S

Linguistic Human Rights in the Americas

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [This DukeImmerse course brings together topics of language and human rights, focusing on situations of linguistic disparities in the Americas. Explores questions of language contact, bilingualism and endangered languages from perspective of social injustices and human rights. Examines how language aids in the construct of social context and institutions and how it reflects and sustains social realities, reflecting on situations of oppression and how they are associated to sociolinguistic attitudes and behavior. Explores overlap of linguistic human rights with cultural and minority rights; all in connection to the right of maintaining one’s identity as well as sustaining human rights. Instructor consent required.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0246552

Cross-lists: ROMST389S  

ENGLISH 243S

Literatures and Films of Pandemic

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art, Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [This course explores past pandemics as a way to think about how to best live through COVID-19 and prevent or minimize future pandemics. Through examining literature and film, we will analyze the psychosocial dimensions of pandemic. We will read a variety of texts including: histories, fiction (Bulgakov, Porter, Tolstoy, Colson Whitehead); short essays; and films (e.g., Contagion, Outbreak). How do science, medicine, and society interact in a time of pandemic? How do pandemics reveal social inequities, and how could we use this knowledge to decrease disparities? And why do people turn to the humanities and arts in times of pandemic?]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0278725

Cross-lists: RUSSIAN278S ICS251S GLHLTH278S LIT278S  

CULANTH 240

Love & Loneliness: What’s Happening to Relationships in the 21st Century?

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [Long-standing ties to other—whether of kinship, marriage, or community—have long been considered to be fundamental to the human condition. But in an age of dissipated and shifting social worlds, the relationships we form with others are radically changing in the twenty-first century. The class will critically examine the ideals, premises, and obstacles for forming intimacy with others through such cases as hook-ups, solitary death, solo weddings, domestic violence, human/non-human attachments, and migrancy.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0263151

Cross-lists: ICS250 SOCIOL240 ETHICS240  

CULANTH 114FS

Making Your Case: Global Advocacy for Humanitarian Causes

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [This course equips students with public speaking skills and cultural awareness in the pursuit of effective advocacy for humanitarian causes. At the heart of students’ initiative for advocacy lie three questions: 1) Does it improve the human condition? 2) Will it cause no harm and 3) Is it ethical? Centered on the skill of researching an area of humanitarian need, and presenting an initiative of advocacy through effective communication skills, it stresses the critical importance of cultural and ethical considerations in both the analysis of humanitarian challenges, and processes through which these pressing issues can be addressed in the quest of advocating for change.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0278021

Cross-lists:  

MARSCI 286A

Marine Policy

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Policy and policy-making concerning the coastal marine environment. History of marine-related organizations, legislation, and issues and their effects on local, regional, national, and international arenas. Use of theoretical and methodological perspectives, including political science, sociology, and economics. Taught in Beaufort at Duke Marine Lab.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0174913

Cross-lists: ENVIRON286A PUBPOL281A  

AAAS 249

Martin Luther King & the Prophetic Tradition

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Situates Martin Luther King as a preacher in the black Christian tradition with a liberationist reading. Traces the movement from civil rights to opposition to economic injustice, war, and militarism. Analyzes what the prophetic voices of today have to say about issues of poverty, racism, environmental destruction, militarism, homophobia, drones, sexism.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0235453

Cross-lists: AMES317 RELIGION234 PUBPOL253 RIGHTS249  

GERMAN 380

Marx, Nietzsche, Freud

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [A critical examination and assessment of the thought of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud: revolutionary theory and practice; nihilism and the challenge of overcoming it; the hidden foundations of the self and of culture.]

Link to course description:

Cross-lists: LIT 280 PHIL 286 POLSCI 378  

CULANTH 203

Marxism and Society

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [Introduction to Marx’s core concepts, such as alienation, commodity, and revolution. Includes examination of Marx’s own major historical & political analyses, his economic texts, and his philosophical writings. Students also gain familiarity with the role of Marxist thought in different fields and disciplines, including feminist theory, anthropology, history, political science, and literary studies.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0019111

Cross-lists: EDUC239 LIT380 SOCIOL339 POLSCI371  

CULANTH 424-1

Medical Anthropology

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Cross-cultural study of health and illness. Prerequisites: Completion of both Writing 101 and any First Year Seminar.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0185311

Cross-lists: GLHLTH321-1 ICS424-1 HLTHPOL424-1  

PHIL 218

Medical Ethics

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Examination of ethical issues in the practice of medicine. Course examines the concepts of well-being, autonomy, health, and disease; the ethics of informed consent; problems of capacity assessment; ethics of making decisions for incompetent patients; ethical issues of advance directives; the ethics of legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia. Course also looks at ethical dimensions of decision-making for particular vulnerable groups: elderly dementia patients, permanently unconscious patients, impaired newborns, people with various disabilities. The focus is on clinical medicine, but the course serves also as a foundation for further study in bioethics.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0077191

Cross-lists:  

SOCIOL 250

Medical Sociology

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Interface between sociology and health-related issues. Analysis of macro, mezzo, and micro perspectives as they apply to health and illness. Examination of the social and cultural context in which health care in the United States is delivered, particularly in terms of racial and age disparities, as well as disparities in rural and urban healthcare settings. Objective and subjective experience of health and illness, political, economic and environmental issues, including engagement with ethical issues around end of life care, physician assisted suicide, health rights versus health privileges. Exposure to these areas takes place theoretically in class, as well as in real-world settings.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0228291

Cross-lists:  

ETHICS 214

Medicine and Human Flourishing

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics, Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [This course examines the nature, ends, and practice of medicine as it relates to the human condition. How can medicine foster human flourishing and well-being—individual and social—against the experience of injury, pain, and suffering? Beginning with ancient Greece and its Hippocratic corpus, students explore answers to this question within a variety of historical and contemporary contexts. Taught by an interdisciplinary team of scholars that includes medical professionals, the course highlights the importance and professional relevance of posing big questions about personal meaning and human values at stake in the practice of medicine.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0284542

Cross-lists: CLST214 GLHLTH238  

ETHICS 214D

Medicine and Human Flourishing

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics, Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [This course examines the nature, ends, and practice of medicine as it relates to the human condition. How can medicine foster human flourishing and well-being—individual and social—against the experience of injury, pain, and suffering? Beginning with ancient Greece and its Hippocratic corpus, students explore answers to this question within a variety of historical and contemporary contexts. Taught by an interdisciplinary team of scholars that includes medical professionals, the course highlights the importance and professional relevance of posing big questions about personal meaning and human values at stake in the practice of medicine.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0282062

Cross-lists: CLST214D GLHLTH238D  

MEDREN 354

Medieval Christianity in Film & Fiction

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [Explores the intersection of modern popular culture and medieval religious culture. Deep dive into how modern creators of mass entertainment use common notions of medieval faith, power, race, sexualities and violence to capture and hold our interest, teach us lessons about ourselves, and sell products. How do our ideas of faith, sexuality, race and power inspire or constrain the fiction we create about the past? What impact does this have on consumers? Monks, nuns, knights, crusades, secret societies, suffragists, alt-right, plague. Modern novels, commentaries, history, medieval texts, neurobiology, TV, films, ads, games, memes, clubs. Read, discuss, write, research.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0204453

Cross-lists: ENGLISH254 RELIGION261 HISTORY244 GSF261  

ENVIRON 365D

Modern Regulatory State

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Interdisciplinary inquiry into the origins/evolution of modern regulatory institutions in Western Europe and North America, along with the more recent rise of global regulatory bodies. Examines conceptual frameworks from across the social sciences, and considers the ethical dimensions of current debates over regulatory purposes, strategies, and policies in areas such as finance and the environment.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0218903

Cross-lists: HISTORY365D PUBPOL219D POLSCI340D  

PSY 335S

Moral Development

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [How do children learn to tell right from wrong? How are they socialized into ethical practices of their culture? This course explores the sources of human morality by surveying major theories of moral development and analyzing the latest research on the emergence of the moral sense. It investigates the development of early prosocial behavior, socio-moral emotions (empathy, guilt, pride), cooperation, altruism, concepts of justice, moral identity, moral evaluation, and related phenomena. In addition to age-related changes, special attention is paid to cross-cultural comparisons. Prerequisite: Psychology 103 or Psychology 235 or Psychology 325 or consent of instructor.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0249771

Cross-lists:  

AMES 213S

Muslim Ethics and Islamic Law: Issues and Debates

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Premodern judicial arrangements and the contestations surrounding their modern incarnations. Topics include bioethics, gender and family law, war and peace, environmental issues, and political ethics.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0185652

Cross-lists: RELIGION388S ETHICS345S  

AMES 324S

Muslim Philosophy and Theology, An Introduction

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Philosophy and theology as the foundation of Shari’a law; Islamic philosophy as a part of medieval philosophy under the influence of Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus. Impact on western philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas; major concepts, issues of Islamic philosophy and translation of two trends: from Greek to Arabic, from Arabic to western languages. Brief discussion on mysticism, ethics and politics.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0213283

Cross-lists: RELIGION374S ETHICS235S MEDREN374S  

GSF 366

Nature, Culture, and Gender

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [Understanding human identity through a consideration of the human animal boundary, feminist primatology, animal welfare, the great ape project. Do women view nature differently than men? Ethics of primate research, primate gender roles, human justice and non-human animals, subjectivity and emotional lives of nonhuman animals, the relationship between gender, nature, and animals, new formulations of “nature/culture,” women and animals.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0242221

Cross-lists:  

ETHICS 269

Neuroethics

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics, Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Focus on emerging ethical controversies concurrent with advances in neuroscience. Background material covered: concepts and methods in neuroscience; theories of ethics and morality from philosophy, law, and other fields. Ethical topics covered: biological bases of morality; emotions and decision making; neuroeconomics and neuromarketing; pathologies of mind and behavior; volition and legal culpability. Course format: combined lectures, discussion, interactive activities, with case studies and real-world examples (e.g., neuroimaging as legal evidence). Prior coursework in neuroscience and/or ethical inquiry recommended.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0204664

Cross-lists: NEUROSCI267 PSY278 PHIL353  

RELIGION 155

New Testament

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Examination of the major books of the New Testament, covering their contents, ethical implications, historical and social setting, authorship, date, and theology.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0092251

Cross-lists:  

DOCST 371

News as a Moral Battleground

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Ethical inquiry into journalism and its effect on public discourse. Issues include accuracy, transparency, conflicts of interest and fairness. Topics include coverage of national security, government secrecy, plagiarism/fabrication, and trade-offs of anonymous sourcing.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0141564

Cross-lists: PUBPOL371 PJMS371 ETHICS259 RIGHTS371 POLSCI375  

GERMAN 576S

Nietzsche’s Political Philosophy

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Study of the thinker who has, in different incarnations, been characterized as the prophet of nihilism, the destroyer of values, the father of fascism, and the spiritual source of postmodernism. An examination of his philosophy as a whole in order to come to terms with its significance for his thinking about politics.]

Link to course description: https://graduateschool.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0125022

Cross-lists: POLSCI577S PHIL537S  

HISTORY 345

North American Environmental History

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Historical roles of nature—as a cultural construct and a set of biological relationships—in shaping human choices in North America, from colonial times to the present. Special attention to historical origins of contemporary environmental politics, including the origins of wilderness; environmental justice movements; the changing politics of food, animal rights, and pollution; and tragedies of the commons, and the ethical challenges posed by global warming and population growth.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0051891

Cross-lists: PUBPOL278 ICS340  

JEWISHST 145

Old Testament/Hebrew Bible

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Historical, literary, ethical, and theological investigations of the ancient Near Eastern context of Israelite religion and culture.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0092202

Cross-lists: RELIGION145  

ETHICS 140FS

On Suffering: How Science and Stories Shape Us

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [By studying written and oral storytelling (including news articles, research reports, case histories, speeches, etc.), this course explores arguments for, and critiques of, appealing to stories in the face of suffering—personal and environmental—and starts articulating theological and ethical implications of ‘being an engaged witness in the world.’ We will listen to historical and contemporary voices that have shaped our views of the world, explore characteristics of pseudoscientific movements that make us squirm, and dig into the apparent and real differences between scientific, experiential, and theological reasoning. Open only to students in the Focus Program. Department consent required.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0252201

Cross-lists: GLHLTH140FS SCISOC140FS SOCIOL140FS  

EDUC 272S

Overlooked Children: Topics of Equity and Access in Gifted Education

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [The underrepresentation of certain groups in gifted programs persists. This course will examine the enrollment disparities that exist in gifted and advanced programs, critically review the assessment practices used to identify gifted students, and explore educational policy designed to reconcile equity and access issues in education. A variety of partners will host students for the service-learning component for this course. Potential partners include, but are not limited to, local schools, non-profit organizations, and research centers focusing on equity and access issues in education.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0267391

Cross-lists: PUBPOL272S  

PHIL 345

Phil & Methodology of Economics

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Introduction to conceptual and methodological issues raised in modern economics. Topics may include choice, rationality and irrationality, realism, models, the relationship between microeconomics and macroeconomics, prediction and explanation, value judgments and policymaking, and causality. Case studies of applications to economic problems. Prerequisites: One course in economics or consent of instructor.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0158371

Cross-lists: ECON319  

AAAS 352

Pigging Out: The Cultural Politics of Food

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [Examines cultural influences of food while linking class, geography, and ethnicity to food practices. Investigates link between overeating and cheap food, under-eating and expensive food; discrepancy between cost and quality; changing diets in US and elsewhere; current debates regarding food production, specifically in the U.S., Americas, Africa and Asia. Discussion of Cargill companies’ restrictions on spread of their hybrid grains; questionable agricultural practices, e.g. animal cruelty, overuse of pesticides, condition of migrants. Environmental policies examined in relation to pursuit of such industrial agricultural practices. Will include hands-on experiments with food preparation and tasting.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0202631

Cross-lists: SOCIOL374 ICS206  

VMS 336

Pilgrimage and Tourism

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [Investigation of pilgrimage and tourist destinations (Jerusalem, Rome, Santiago, Orlando, New York) from the Middle Ages to the present through a study of their material remains, primary sources and theoretical texts. Discussion of the moral and ethical issues involved in marketing authenticity from a cross-cultural and comparative perspective. Evaluation based on weekly student written assessments of the texts and the presentation of a pilgrimage site of their choice.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0188573

Cross-lists: ARTHIST336 RELIGION260 MEDREN236  

PUBPOL 302D

Policy Choice as Value Conflict

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Theoretical and practical problems in decision making in relation to conflicts of value and of interest. The manifestation of norms deriving from professional ethics, ideology, law, and other sources in such policy issues as welfare, environmental management, and national defense. Prerequisites: Public Policy 155D.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0080711

Cross-lists:  

POLISH 298S

Polish Cinema

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [Explores the films of four famous Polish directors—Andrzej Wajda, Andrzej Munk, Krzysztof Kieœlowski, and Agnieszka Holland—whose artistic approaches and ethical/political themes greatly influenced Polish and European cinema as well as Polish politics. Through viewing their movies and consulting biographical, historical, and critical materials, we’ll examine how these directors use film to reconstruct history, challenge politically or religiously orthodox myths, and suggest new ways of valuing the complexity and spiritual capacities of the individual. All texts in English translation. All films screened with subtitles.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0236551

Cross-lists: CINE298S VMS297S LIT298S  

POLSCI 338

Political Economy of South East Asia

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Course studies the history, political institutions, and economic development of South East Asia. Topics include the history of the region including the pre-colonial period, forms of colonialism, the impact of World War II, the struggles for independence, nationalism, and communism, and the impact of the Asian Financial Crisis; tools of political economy to place the countries in a broader comparative perspective; and issues of great powers in South East Asia and the growing influence of political Islam in the region.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0228761

Cross-lists:  

POLSCI 268

Politics and Literature

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [The enduring questions of ethical and political issues and controversies as expressed in political philosophy and politics and as illustrated in literature. Comparative historical, literary, and philosophical analysis.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0083701

Cross-lists:  

EVANTH 359S

Primate Conservation

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Concepts, practice, and ethics of conservation biology, both at the species and community level. Relevant aspects of biogeography, ecology, behavior and demography; human impact (deforestation, hunting); conservation strategies/policies (objectives, design of protected area networks, impact on local human populations). Impact of cultural, political, ethical considerations on primate conservation. Evolutionary Anthropology 101 recommended.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0013331

Cross-lists:  

CLST 144

Principles of Archaeology

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Introduction to the many disciplines of archaeology, using a survey of cultures and civilizations to explain archaeological techniques, methods, theory, results, and ethics.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0027591

Cross-lists:  

ECON 361

Prisoner’s Dilemma & Distributive Justice

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Economic, political, and philosophical perspectives on distribution justice and the problems in each discipline raised by variations on the prisoner’s dilemma. Classic texts include Hobbes and Hume, Smith and Mill, Rawls and Nozick. Gateway course to the Politics, Philosophy, and Economics certificate program. Recommended prerequisite: Economics 101 and a course in ethics or political philosophy.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0169592

Cross-lists: POLSCI331 PHIL246 RIGHTS331  

PHIL 216

Problems in Ethical Theory

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [The nature of morality, amoralism, utilitarianism, and deontology. Both historical and contemporary readings.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0077171

Cross-lists:  

PSY 425

Psychology of Consumers

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [The psychology of consumers and ways of influencing consumer behavior. How knowledge of consumer psychology and behavior is used to develop marketing techniques. How to use consumer psychology in making business decisions; the ethical issues associated with consumer influence. Prerequisite: Prior course in Psychology.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0088001

Cross-lists:  

EDUC 111FS

Pursuit of Equality: Rethinking Schools – Lens of Social Justice

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [In 1954 the Supreme Court case Brown versus the Board of Education forever changed American schools by ending segregation and creating educational equity. Or did it? Are today’s schools any more inclusive or socially just than schools were 50 years ago? Examination of ways schools may or may not perpetuate and reproduce social inequities. Focus on recent efforts to imagine and create socially-just schools. Discussion of our ethical responsibilities as civically engaged citizens to work towards educational equality and provide support of schools that are inclusive, culturally responsive, and democratic. Required service-learning experience working with children in a Durham public school.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0208231

Cross-lists: RIGHTS111FS  

AMES 439

Queer China

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [Examines queer discourses, cultures, and social formations in China, Greater China, and the global Chinese diaspora from the late imperial period to the present. Course will focus on cultural representations, particularly literary and cinematic, but will also consider a wide array of historical, anthropological, sociological, and theoretical materials.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0225811

Cross-lists: CULANTH439 LIT439 VMS439 GSF439  

AAAS 354S

Race and Society: South Africa and the US, 1890-present

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions, Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Scholars, pundits and historical actors have long drawn parallels between the United States & South Africa-two countries founded on the premises of racial inequality. This course explores the machinations of race from the quickening of industrial development to present. We will consider the benefits and pitfalls of thinking comparatively. Topics include segregation, transatlantic cultural exchanges, living apartheid and Jim Crow, government surveillance of political opponents, the American anti-apartheid movement, mass incarceration and privatization of prisons, memory and the struggles for social change as well as the persistence of racial inequality in two country’s contemporary societies.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0274491

Cross-lists: HISTORY296S PUBPOL362S SOCIOL322S ICS358S POLSCI274S  

AAAS 580S

Race Theory: Biological Classification and Moral Implications

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Topics to include: Biological classification theory and its applications to humans; The fit, or lack thereof, of biological categories and folk classifications of race; The historical/political motivations behind human racial classifications; The role of race in moral interactions; and The role of race in the construction of personal identity.]

Link to course description: https://graduateschool.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0211141

Cross-lists: PHIL 539S  

AAAS 201

Race, Film, and Religion

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art, Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [In this course, we will examine how cinema both constructs and reproduces anti-black racism and how cinema works to liberate blackness from the strictures of racial domination. We will watch films from the past three decades that provide an opportunity to interrogate the relationship between race, gender, and sexuality. These films will also enable us to think about how cinema introduces unconventional notions of the sacred, a process that involves affect, desire, and imagination. Films that we watch may include: Moonlight, Medicine for Melancholy, Black Panther, Daughters of the Dust, Get Out, US, Pariah, and Selma.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0243742

Cross-lists: RELIGION201 GSF201  

AAAS 261D

Race, Genomics, and Society

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [The field of genetics has been at the forefront of discourse concerning the concept of “race” in humans. This course explores human origins, human variation, human identity, and human health through a broad range of enduring and emerging themes and challenging questions related to race and genetics (and now, genomics) on a global scale. Students will acquire knowledge and skills required for integrative analyses of the relevant scientific, ethical, legal, societal, cultural, and psychosocial issues. Open to students at all levels from any discipline in the arts, humanities, and sciences (natural, social, formal, and applied).]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0193671

Cross-lists: SCISOC258D GLHLTH258D CULANTH261D BIOLOGY261D VMS274D  

POLSCI 238

Racial Attitutudes, Racial Prejudice, and Racial Politics

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Course delves into work from sociology, social psychology, and political science to explore the development of racial attitudes, stereotypes, and prejudice. Consideration of the way race matters for attitudes and behavior among all racial and ethnic group members and how racial attitudes have changed over time, corresponding to massive social, legal, and political changes in the United States. Examines how individual racial attitudes affect political outcomes, how they relate to individual political preferences, and how they have influenced voting behavior historically and in the present day. Not open to students who have taken Political Science 172FS.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0235711

Cross-lists: AAAS239  

SOCIOL 178FS

Refugees, Rights, and Resettlement

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [35 million refugees and internally displaced persons in the world. A comparative historical overview of international refugee policy and law dealing with this growing population. Students will grapple with the ethical challenges posed by humanitarian intervention on behalf of refugees and the often unintended consequences of such policies. Students examine case studies to determine how different models for dealing with refugee resettlement affect the life chances of refugees. Service-learning course. Students will work with refugees from Bhutan, Burma and Iraq recently resettled in Durham. Instructor consent required.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0201511

Cross-lists: ETHICS199FS RIGHTS178FS  

AMI 273

Religion and Film

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [A study of the relationship between motion pictures and religion. Focus on the comparative portrayal of organized religions; expressions of religious life; and religious topics, such as God, evil and morality, in both Western and non-Western films in which contemporary artists and intellectuals explore the challenges of modernity.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0093104

Cross-lists: RELIGION268 DOCST268 VMS269 CINE273  

RELIGION 237

Religion in American Life

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [A historical survey, with emphasis on the ways that religious experiences, beliefs, and traditions have found expression in religious communities and institutions, and in American public life.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0092491

Cross-lists: VMS233  

RELIGION 286S

Religion in Cyberspace

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Is cybertechnology a religion? If so, what does that mean? Rather than an analysis of how Christians, Buddhists, Jews, or Muslims use cyberspace to practice their religions, this course will take up the thesis that cyberspace has challenged the very idea of what it means to be human and, in so doing, has itself become a religion. We will look at the “canonization” of eccentric technologists like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs, examine the startling philosophical ideas about personhood embedded in artificial intelligence, study communities of cyberspace users casual and obsessive, and look at the ways in which cyberspace is reshaping the political landscapes of the contemporary United States.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0262881

Cross-lists:  

AMES 301D

Religion, Restrictions, & Violence

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [An examination of the historical roots and current manifestations of religiously-justified violence and disenfranchisement, with a focus on the Abrahamic traditions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). The violence treated will include the expressly physical as well as the more insidiously existential, including political and cultural marginalization. Major loci of exploration will include gender and sexuality; Israel-Palestine, and the intersection of contemporary identities. Topics include the nature of extremisms within each tradition, the challenges of assimilation and “modernity,” and the role and nature of citizenship and territory.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0259606

Cross-lists: RELIGION301D JEWISHST301D POLSCI303D PUBPOL313D ETHICS303D  

AMES 288S

Religions & Politics in Post-Revolutionary Iran

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Examines ethical crises of Islamic regime: Did Islamic Republic promote ethics or decline morality? Analyzes tensions between secularism, democracy and theocracy; semi-democracy and semi-dictatorship; Shi’i doctrine of imamate and the theory of guardianship of the jurist; I.RI. Constitution; the doctrine of justice versus the privileges of the ruling political order; the role of Shari`a in law making; controversial religious issues in reformist discourses; women’s rights; religious and ethnical minorities; identity, diversity and power; traditionalists, reformists and fundamentalists; the administration of two supreme leaders and six presidents; Shi’a authorities and revolutionary guards.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0225362

Cross-lists: RELIGION377S POLSCI379S HISTORY265S  

AMES 115

Religions of Asia

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [Problems and methods in the study of religion, followed by a survey of the historical development, beliefs, practices, ethics, and contemporary significance of the Islamic religion and religions of south and east Asia.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0091913

Cross-lists: RELIGION175 ICS108  

ETHICS 375

Reproductive Ethics

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [This class examines the role that technology, globalization, late capitalism, ideas about health and ability, and advances in feminist theory play in human reproduction. It will investigate new frontiers of reproductive technology, and try to understand the many different ways of using and viewing interventions such as IVF, surrogacy, and embryo selection. We will examine popular ideas about “the perfect child,” and how the issue of abortion intersects and competes with the quest for healthier, able-bodied children.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0259742

Cross-lists: GSF375  

AMI 298S

Revealing Histories: Polish Cinema

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [Explores the films of four famous Polish directors—Andrzej Wajda, Andrzej Munk, Krzysztof Kieœlowski, and Agnieszka Holland—whose artistic approaches and ethical/political themes greatly influenced Polish and European cinema as well as Polish politics. Through viewing their movies and consulting biographical, historical, and critical materials, we’ll examine how these directors use film to reconstruct history, challenge politically or religiously orthodox myths, and suggest new ways of valuing the complexity and spiritual capacities of the individual. All texts in English translation. All films screened with subtitles.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0236552

Cross-lists: POLISH298S VMS297S LIT298S CINE298S  

AAAS 420S

Role of Race & Culture of Development

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Critical examination of racial, cultural, and social influences on development of African American children in the U.S. Traditional and nontraditional theoretical and empirical approaches; issues surrounding children’s cognitive, language, and psychosocial development, plus educational attainment explored from a socio-cultural perspective. Includes discussion of racial stereotypes, familial interactions, social policy, the media, and peer groups. Prerequisites: Introductory Psych, Developmental, Human Development, Research Methods courses. Juniors and Seniors only.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0088602

Cross-lists: PSY435S  

CLST 278

Roman Political Thought and its Modern Legacy

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Why does Rome still capture the imagination of modern political commentators and theorists? This course examines Roman political thought as it was conceived under the Republic, reimagined under the Empire, and transformed by Christianity. Topics may include the Roman constitution, liberty, equality, property, slavery, rights, citizenship, civil religion, political corruption, rhetoric, imperialism, just war theory, and cosmopolitanism.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0246591

Cross-lists: HISTORY262 ETHICS276 POLSCI278  

LATIN 336S

Satire

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [Readings in Roman Satire with special attention to the genre’s self-critical posture and its ethical critique of Roman culture and the Latin literary tradition. Authors might include Lucilius, Horace, Persius, and Juvenal. Students must have two years of Latin or equivalent.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0191781

Cross-lists:  

HISTORY 106

Science and the Modern World: Introduction to the History of Science

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [This course surveys the history of science from the sixteenth century through the present day. It addresses science not just as a body of knowledge and methods but as a cultural activity that has shaped and been shaped by modern global history. Topics will range across physical sciences, life sciences, earth and environmental sciences, and social sciences. This course takes a global perspective, with emphasis on parallels, differences, and interconnections among ways of knowing nature in different places and times, as well as the role of specific materials, environments, technologies, and practical problems in the development of modern science.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0262901

Cross-lists: SCISOC118 ICS118  

ARTHIST 238

Science Fiction Film

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [Science fiction film from the 1950s to the present. From talking apes to mind control, forbidden planets to genetic dystopias, alien invasions to travel in time and space, an exploration of classic films in the genre with attention to how the films imagine the relationships among science, politics, and society over time. Attention to visual as well as literary story telling.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0064492

Cross-lists: ENGLISH386  

RELIGION156

Scripture: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are characterized as religions of the book. Their sacred texts are foundational to the faiths they represent. In spite of shared histories, overlapping contents, and parallel perspectives, their Sacred Scriptures diverge in key points of content, interpretation, and uses by their communities. In this course, students will be introduced to the history, contours, and content of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Qur’an and hadith, exploring issues of scripture and authority, texts and manuscripts, translation and interpretation, performance, canonicity, ethical issues, and contemporary use.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0252983

Cross-lists: AMES138 JEWISHST 156  

AMES 111

Self, Society, and Art in Modern Hinduism

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [An exploration of the beliefs, ethics, everyday and ceremonial practices, philosophies, mythologies, and movements that are part of the aggregately-named religion of Hinduism.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0091892

Cross-lists: RELIGION110  

SXL 116

Sexual Pleasure in the Modern World

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Interdisciplinary study of ways societies around the globe have understood sexual pleasure. Investigates ethics of the manners in which people have explored sexual pleasure and ways that such pleasure relates to creation of the modern person. Emphasizes effects of colonialism and development of race in relation to sexuality. Includes an extensive discussion of pornography, sexual fantasy, orgasm and virtual sex, asking how sexual pleasure relates to histories of danger and violence.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0244102

Cross-lists: HISTORY112  

ETHICS 272S

Sexuality and the Law

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [This course will introduce students to legal and ethical issues at the intersection of law, gender and sexuality. The course will use interpretive methods used in jurisprudence, as well as conceptual tools developed by feminist, critical race and queer theoreticians to explore such issues as the criminalization of gay sex, the equal protection of all persons regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, and the role of the state in resolving perceived conflicts between that right to equal protection and the right to religious freedom. The course will take a cross-cultural / multi-jurisdictional comparative approach to these issues.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0274362

Cross-lists: GSF272S PUBPOL277S SCISOC272S SXL272S  

ENGLISH 235

Shakespeare

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [Introduction to the major works of Shakespeare. Exploration of the author’s central themes and contexts, with particular focus on Shakespeare’s exploration of love as a mode of ethical inquiry and moral philosophy. Satisfies Area I requirement for English majors.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0193831

Cross-lists: MEDREN330 THEATRST222  

CULANTH 214S

Shamanism & Spirit Possession

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [Anthropological, psychological, and Religious Studies approaches to cross-cultural study of spirit possession and shamanism. Examination of in-depth case-studies and comparative works, from both literate civilizations and non-literate cultures. Engage with contemporary concerns with nature and boundaries of personhood and embodiment and their relation to leadership.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0210352

Cross-lists: RELIGION213S HISTORY215S ICS256S  

EDUC 101

Social and Philisophical Foundations of Education

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Interdisciplinary examination of issues confronting American education, incorporating historical, political, economical, philosophical, and social perspectives. Exploration of ways cultural influences and differences have shaped public schools. Students participate in structured service learning experience in which they reflect on ethical issues related to schooling. Required participation in service-learning.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0035131

Cross-lists:  

HISTORY 333S

Social Engineering & Social Movements in Eastern Europe & Asia

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [Combining perspectives of political sociology and history, this course questions the respective roles of state policies and social movements in transforming societies. Explores concepts such as social engineering, violence, revolution, totalitarianism, social movements, non-violent resistance, collective action and many others in historically-informed case studies of: colonialism/anticolonial movements (passive resistance and nationalism) in India; revolutionary communism, socialist reconstruction of society, everyday resistance and collective dissent in the Soviet Bloc; authoritarian capitalism and dissent in the form of environmentalist and anti-corruption movements in post-Maoist China.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0232282

Cross-lists: SES375S POLSCI359S PUBPOL282S  

ECON 337S

Social Inequalities and Low-Wage Work

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [This course introduces students to several, different economic theories and viewpoints regarding social inequality, class, and socio-economic status in the United States. Current debates are discussed, such as the possible raising of the minimum wage. Students also gain first-hand knowledge concerning the livelihood strategies of low-wage workers in Durham, through students’ participation in a service-learning project in the community.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0256901

Cross-lists:  

I&E 261

Social Innovation

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [This course will provide an introduction to the field of social innovation. Through readings, classroom discussion, experiential learning, and individual and team assignments, the course will provide students with concepts and frameworks for understanding and practicing effective social innovation. The course develops a theory of innovation and describes examples of persons and organizations demonstrating innovative approaches. We will look at how to innovate effectively and the attributes and skills that cultivate such innovation. We will also explore the limitations of social innovation and consider critical arguments that the field must address.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0234441

Cross-lists: PUBPOL256  

AAAS 247S

Social Movements and Social Media

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Examines uses and abuses of social media by social movements. Interested in a broader historical study of mediating technologies and oppositional public sphere, course considers the uses of cameras, phones, cassette players, radio, and social media platforms, but also books, bodies, art, fashion, and automobiles as oppositional technologies. Studies political and ethical uses of technologies in social unrest. Investigates impact of technologies on social movements and social transformations in contemporary history. Student driven case studies will highlight contemporary engagement with social media by networked social movements.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0213693

Cross-lists: LIT320S ICS320S LATAMER320S ISS323S VMS323S RIGHTS323S AMES318S 

SOCIOL 110

Sociological Inquiry

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Introduction to social networks, groups, organizations and institutions with a focus on the contemporary US. The impact of technology on social interaction and cultural change. Investigation of cultural and social construction of individual characteristics (e.g., race, gender) as well as of scientific and professional standards. Ethical controversies surrounding health care, education, income inequality, and related topics. Course will help prepare students for the social and behavioral science portion of the MCAT exam.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0097801

Cross-lists:  

ETHICS 190FS

Sovereignty, Space & Storytelling: Solidarity & Resistance in a Decolonizing World

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions, Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [How do we understand others, especially when so much of modern geopolitics is centered on domination? In this course, we’ll use a variety of tools to uncover the moments of resistance and narrative freedom that have always been present in even the most totalizing environments. In so doing, we will hopefully build a framework for thinking about how to live beyond the legacies of the colonial templates that continue to reverberate in our political and imaginative landscapes. Through analysis of literature and other artforms, historical accounts and performance, we will examine how disempowered or marginalized individuals and peoples retain and renew their sovereignty. A larger goal of the course is to explore what ethical re-orientations are necessary to engage such sovereign spaces, and what stands to be gained by the engagement. Course materials will draw on South Asian, Native American, African, and African American sources.]

Link to course description:

Cross-lists: RELIGION 190FS ICS 190FS  

AMI 274

Spies Like Us: Screening Cold War Espionage

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [When the Cold War erupted in the wake of World War II, filmmakers were poised to screen it as propaganda, entertainment (thriller, horror, science fiction), and morally reflective realism. This course explores the films/television series produced on both sides of the Iron Curtain as well as those made after the Cold War (post-1989). Discussion will focus on ethical justifications and critiques of espionage; the characterizations of the spy and those spied on, and the interactions between these protagonists; and the changing aesthetics of screening espionage.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0253315

Cross-lists: SES270 LIT225 ICS262 VMS258 CINE274  

EDUC 408S

Teaching Practices in Elementary Language Arts and Social Studies

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Research-based teaching practices in elementary language arts and social studies for culturally diverse populations. Emphasis on literacy development across grade levels and content areas. Readings and field experience promoting critical analysis of ethical teaching practices, role of teachers and schools in society, and impact of teacher effect on environment and student learning. Consent of instructor required. Includes a service-learning component involving work in the community.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0035161

Cross-lists:  

COMPSCI 342S

Technical & Social Analysis of Information and the Internet

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [The development of technical and social standards governing the Internet and information technology in general. The role of software as it relates to law, patents, intellectual property, and IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) standards. Written analysis of issues from a technical perspective with an emphasis on the role of software and on how standards relate to social and ethical issues. Current events as a driver for writing in traditional and online formats related to technology and policy. Open only to students with declared Computer Science major. Prerequisite: Computer Science 201. Instructor consent required.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0149241

Cross-lists:  

CULANTH 208FS

The Anthropology of Race

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Same as Cultural Anthropology 208 but taught as part of the FOCUS program.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0207721

Cross-lists:  

MILITSCI 401S

The Army Officer

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Explores dynamics of leading in complex situations of current military operations. Examines differences in customs/courtesies, military law, principles of war, and rules of engagement. Explores aspects of interacting with non-government organizations, civilians on the battlefield, decision making processes, and host nation support. Emphasis placed on preparing students for Basic Officer Leadership Course and first unit of assignment. Uses mission command case studies/scenarios to prepare students to face complex ethical demands of serving an officer in the Army. Instructor consent required. Prerequisite: Military Science 301 and 302.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0068531

Cross-lists:  

POLSCI 120

The Challenges of Living an Ethical Life

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Familiar but fundamental ethical questions: What is a good, worthy or just life? How is it to be lived, toward what ends? Readings include dramas and philosophical analyses, parables and auto- biographies, polemics and meditations, novels and political commentaries. Introductory course for the Ethics & Society Certificate.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0249692

Cross-lists: ETHICS101  

AAAS 243

The Civil Rights Movement

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [An interdisciplinary examination of the civil rights movement from World War II through the late 1960s.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0053191

Cross-lists: HISTORY348 RIGHTS348  

POLSCI 277D

The Ethics of War

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Examines ethical questions of war: 1) when are you justified in taking up arms and killing others?; 2) what limits, if any, does morality place on how wars can be prosecuted?; 3) what is required of combatants in the aftermath of conflict?; 4) how do the existence of international laws and institutions affect our answers to these questions? Will also consider the ethical dilemmas raised by the following issues: preemptive invasions, terrorism, cyber and nuclear weapons, and unmanned drones. Readings include classic and modern works of just war theory.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0227751

Cross-lists:  

CULANTH 511S

The Fetish: The Role of Things in Spiritual, Economic, and Sexual Life

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions, Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [This course explores the social relationships produced by debates over the value and agency of material things ranging from the cross and the Eucharist to black leather, fur, dildos and even the more mundane commodities through which capitalism and socialism have defined their rivalry. Thus we will examine the highly charged role of things in religion, economics, and spiritualized erotic relationships, as well as the centrality of the fetish concept in the mutual transformation of modern Africa and the West.]

Link to course description: https://graduateschool.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0256972

Cross-lists: AAAS512S RELIGION511S  

CLST 210

The Good Life: Religion, Philosophy, and Life’s Ultimate Concerns

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions, Phillosophical Ethics

Course description: [What does it look like for a human life to go well? What leads to human flourishing or “happiness” or “success”? What is freedom? Love? Justice? What is the basis for ethics? What is our relationship to the environment and natural world? What is the significance of death? How do our beliefs (or lack thereof) about God or the gods shape our answers to life’s big questions? We examine how philosophical or religious traditions around the globe have answered these questions, beginning with their founders. Traditions (and founders/key figures) covered include Confucianism (Confucius); Islam (Muhammad); Christianity (Jesus); Stoicism (Socrates), Judaism (Moses), and Buddhism (the Buddha).]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0282221

Cross-lists: RELIGION210 PHIL214 ETHICS210 PUBPOL229  

ISS 112

The Googlization of Knowledge: Information, Ethics, and Technology

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Google has altered the way we see the world and ourselves. Its biases, valuing popularity over accuracy, affect how we value information and navigate news and ideas. This course examines information from different angles within the context of social justice, open access to information, and how the Internet and Google affect our lives. Themes include knowledge as a public good, Internet policies, data and visual literacies, social media, and artificial intelligence. Hands-on work researching how technology affects the access, understanding, and reliability of information in students’ lives. Analysis, discussions, and reflection assignments with ongoing application to team-based projects.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0259981

Cross-lists: CULANTH112 PJMS112  

HISTORY 357S

The Insurgent South: Movements for Social Change

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Social movements in the South from Reconstruction to the present. Includes Populism, Women’s Suffrage, the Interracial Movement, labor, civil rights, post-1960s conservatism, environmental justice, and LGBTQ activism. Attention to public policy positions espoused by social movement organizations and activists.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0149401

Cross-lists: AAAS375S PUBPOL232S  

RUSSIAN 321

The New Russia: Reflections of Post-Soviet Reality in Literature & Film

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [Examination of fiction and film in the post-Soviet period. Topics include: crime and social breakdown in the 1990s and 2000s; transformations of classic character types (anti-hero, virgin-whore, swindler-rogue); religious and ethical quests; taboo-breaking themes. Works by authors Sorokin, Grishkovets, Pelevin, Petrushevskaya, Sadur, Shishkin, Minaev, Tolstaya, Akunin, Ulitskaya and filmmakers Bodrov, Rogozhkin, Bekmambetov, Khlebnikov/Popogrebsky, Balabanov, and Sokurov. Readings and class discussions in English.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0146731

Cross-lists:  

ECON 319

The Philosophy and Methodology of Economics

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Introduction to conceptual and methodological issues raised in modern economics. Topics may include choice, rationality and irrationality, realism, models, the relationship between microeconomics and macroeconomics, prediction and explanation, value judgments and policymaking, and causality. Case studies of applications to economic problems. Prerequisites: One course in economics or consent of instructor.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0158372

Cross-lists: PHIL345  

AMES 186

The Turkes: From Ottoman Empire to European Union

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective, Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [Readings in cultural history and literature to examine transformations in Turkish identity from the Ottoman era to EU accession. Discussion of the “gazi thesis”, the “sultanate of women”, religious tolerance (millets), conversion, modernity and nationalism. Secondary topics include Sufism, Islam, gender, and historiography. Interdisciplinary focus. Taught in English.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0154725

Cross-lists: RELIGION228 HISTORY212 SES287  

HISTORY 212

The Turks: From Ottoman Empire to European Union

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Readings in cultural history and literature to examine transformations in Turkish identity from the Ottoman era to EU accession. Discussion of the “gazi thesis””]

Link to course description: the “”sultanate of women””

Cross-lists: AMES186 RELIGION228 SES287  

POLSCI 254S

The US Intelligence Enterprise

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Course will explore the intelligence discipline through examination of the US Intelligence Enterprise. Students will review pivotal intelligence policies, the organizational design of the US intelligence apparatus, and contemporary ethical issues associated with intelligence collection, both foreign and domestic. Through teams projects and active learning exercises, students will gain exposure to the sub-disciplines of intelligence collection and intelligence analysis. Open to undergraduate sophomores and juniors.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0274982

Cross-lists: PUBPOL269S  

GERMAN 261

The Viking Age

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions, Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [The history of Viking raiding, trading, exploration, and settlement, with attention to the socioeconomic structure, political organization, and naval technology of medieval Scandinavian societies. Focus on topics such as Norse mythology, ritual, and runes, Icelandic sagas, gender roles and social hierarchies in a warrior society, clan-based justice, and the collision between “heroic” values and the new Christian ethic. Taught in English.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0276801

Cross-lists: HISTORY256 MEDREN305  

RELIGION 368

Theology and Fiction of C.S. Lewis

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [A study of texts of cultural criticism, fantasy fiction, and theological and moral argument by C. S. Lewis; their dependence on the cultural situation in which they were deployed; an engagement with the interaction of magic, science, and religion; and the reasons for their continuing force and wide appeal.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0093131

Cross-lists:  

AMES 386S

Tibetan Buddhism: Culture, Ethics, Philosophy, and Practice

Elective categories: Philosophical Ethics

Course description: [Introduces students to history, practice, culture, and ethics of Tibetan Buddhism; contents include overview of Indian Buddhist practice and ethics; historical overview of Tibetan Buddhism with a focus on connections between the construction of Buddhist ideal types (lama and yogin) and political power; Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy; Buddhist transformation of ethical, social and cultural forms, including the shaman/king and gift exchange patterns, and analysis of the function of lineage within the construction of Tibetan polities and social order; readings include textbook surveys, biography and philosophical texts and poetry.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0210632

Cross-lists: RELIGION327S  

RUSSIAN325

Tolstoy and the Russian Experience

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Historical approach to Tolstoy’s depictions of major societal and ethical issues (e.g., war, peace, marriage, death, religion, relationships). Culture of salons, print culture, censorship, and changing political climate. Central questions on the relationship of fiction and history: uses of fiction for understanding history and dangers of such an approach. Readings include selected fiction of Tolstoy, excerpts from journals and letters, and critical and historical accounts of nineteenth-century Russia.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0160762

Cross-lists: HISTORY 277  

GLHLTH 208S

Transnational Feminism

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [Explore feminist projects and approaches that cross a variety of borders. Under what conditions is solidarity across difference and inequality possible? This seminar examines this and other questions using relevant theories, film, and scholarship. Topics include activism, human rights, development, capitalism, war/militarization, racism, embodiment, and health. Assigned readings and films largely focus on the Global South but situate the Global North within circuits and relationships. The professor guides each student in preparing an original research paper on a relevant topic of interest to the student.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0193763

Cross-lists: GSF369S ICS208S RIGHTS369S HISTORY249S SOCIOL208S  

ARTHIST 557S

Trauma in Art, Literature, Film, and Visual Culture

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [Theories of trauma applied to visual representations of violence, destruction, and pain in contemporary art, film, and literature, examining the topic through multiple subjects from the Holocaust, cults, gangs, racism, and sexual abuse to cultures of trauma. Theories of trauma examined from a variety of sources including clinical psychology, cultural and trauma studies, art, film, and literature, aiming to enable students to gain the visual acuity to identify, understand, and respond to traumatic images with empathy. Not open to students who have previously taken this course as Art History 295S.]

Link to course description: https://graduateschool.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0181822

Cross-lists: VMS557S  

ENVIRON 212

United States Environmental Policy

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [An overview of the major environmental legislation in the United States. Topics include: air and water pollution, hazardous waste, agriculture, wildlife, and institutions. Political, economic, ethical, and scientific analysis. Open to juniors or seniors or by consent of instructor.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0080921

Cross-lists: PUBPOL275 RIGHTS213  

ECON 345

Urban Economics

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Introduction to urban and spatial economics. Neoclassical monocentric city spatial model, patterns of land values, property prices, residential density and impact of distressed communities on broader development. Systems of cities and regional growth, role of cities in economic development. United States urban features: ethical and socio-economic effects of housing segregation and implications for discrimination. Tradeoffs between efficiency and fairness in housing resource allocation. Business location theory, impact of innovations in transportation, and technology’s effect on work patterns. Prerequisite: Economics 201D.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0032991

Cross-lists:  

DOCST 179FS

US Youth Movements since 2010: Expanding Human Rights for All

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Immersion in the dangerous and contentious history of youth activism in the US since 2010. Using oral history, archival research methods, and cultural production, students explore methods for researching documenting and creating narratives of youth social activism. Historical and contemporary youth campaigns explored in this course include those to end racial profiling and mass incarceration, prevent environmental destruction, improve public education, advocate for undocumented families, create safe spaces for GLBTQIA youth, and champion reproductive justice. All of these movements have expanded the legal, narrative, and practical understanding of human rights in US and global frameworks.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0277011

Cross-lists:  

AAAS 312

War and Public Health in Africa

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [An inquiry into the nature of contemporary war in sub-Saharan Africa and its human cost. Uses public health as a parameter to assess the impact of organized collective violence on people’s lives. Link between war and public health established and measured with respect to civilian deaths, gender based violence, physical and psychological trauma, mental disorders, malnutrition and famine, and the spread of epidemic diseases, inter alia HIV/AIDS. Special attention is paid to rape as “a weapon of war”, to the trafficking of human beings in war zones, the child soldier phenomenon, and to death counts as a vector of humanitarian or political advocacy.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0232201

Cross-lists: PUBPOL333 CULANTH312 GLHLTH312 RIGHTS312  

EDUC 430S

What’s Next: Women, Leadership, Purpose

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Interdisciplinary analysis of the history of ideas about women and the professions with emphasis on women’s actions, past, present and future. The changing status of women in professional life; ethical and political implications of public and personal decision-making. Study of research and writing by and about women in professional fields; interviews with working women. Research paper integrating students’ major, the internship experience and their future goals required. Senior seminar open only to Baldwin Scholars. Consent of instructor required.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0035261

Cross-lists: SOCIOL 430S  

AMES 189

Women and Gender in the Middle East

Elective categories: Cross-Cultural Ethical Traditions

Course description: [An introductory survey exploring the Middle East through the gender perspective Introduction to the gender and women’s studies in the Middle East and the major issues Cross-cultural and interdisciplinary readings to introduce the diversity of the region Readings and screenings include the narratives and performances from the region.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0211402

Cross-lists: CULANTH189 POLSCI186 GSF189  

RELIGION 367

Women and Sexuality in the Christian Tradition

Elective categories: Ethics in Historical Perspective

Course description: [Christian scripture, literature, and art abounds with female figures. From the Virgin Mary to female saints, the Christian tradition has memorialized extraordinary women as models for lay women. How did Christianity challenge and preserve norms for female behavior? How did ascetic women and female martyrs transgress gender expectations? This course navigates the pitfalls and opportunities that the study of women offers for understanding the development of Christian belief and institutions. We will trace how gender was theorized and normative behavior prescribed and enforced within the periods of Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, Reformation and modern day.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0092501

Cross-lists:  

ECON 348

Women in the Economy

Elective categories: Ethics of Contemporary Issues

Course description: [Economics of gender including the status of women in the labor market; feminist economic theories; ethical considerations of gender-based inequalities; gendered division of labor within the family and between the household and labor market. Situation of women in developing countries undergoing transition to market economies; gender-related measurements and indicators; explanations and remedies for female/male occupational segregation and wage differentials. Prerequisite: Economics 201D.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0138241

Cross-lists: GSF230 ICS348  

LIT 212

World of Korean Cinema

Elective categories: Ethics in Literature and Art

Course description: [The world of Korean cinema, broadly defined in terms of national, generic, theoretical boundaries, beyond conventional auteur, genre, one-way influence, and national cinema theories. Cinematic texts examined in local, regional, and global contexts and intersections, in conversation with global theories and histories of cinema, visual cultures, and other representational forms. Variable topics informed theoretically and politically by discourses on gender/sexuality, race/ethnicity, global flows of people and cultures, popular and “high” culture crossovers, transnational co-productions, remakes, translations and retellings. No knowledge of Korean language/ culture presumed.]

Link to course description: https://undergraduate.bulletins.duke.edu/courses/0164102

Cross-lists: AMES171 CINE256 VMS234 CULANTH255