Historical & Political Studies

Explore how young artists grappled with enormous political, scientific, technological, and social disruptions that threw them headlong into the modern world at the beginning of the 1900s. You will explore styles such as Symbolism, Cubism, Futurism, Expressivism, Dada and Surrealism as well as visit local museums. You won’t find this type of course in many undergraduate business schools and political science concentrations.

Analyze American culture and identity through the experiences of the nation's immigrants and its ethnic citizens. You will use historical texts, novels, film, and music to consider questions like: What sacrifices have immigrants and ethnic Americans made in order to become members of the national community? How have immigrants and citizens of color adapted the mythology of the American Dream to achieve success? What does the larger narrative of immigration, race, and ethnicity tell us about America’s values?

Examine how business has shaped American culture and society. That includes the rise of the corporation; the icons of American business; the power and politics of consumption, ethnic, and immigrant entrepreneurship; and the role of the marketplace in the nation's economic and cultural development.

Learn how inanimate commodities served as active agents in human history. Beginning in the last 15th century, you will study commodities as drivers of transregional economies and cultures. The course will offer factual knowledge and analytical tools for understanding the political circumstances and shifting cultural values implicated in the rise and transformation of commodities into global goods.

In this political science course, you get a comprehensive understanding of gender in contemporary domestic and international politics through themes such as feminist theory, intersectionality, gender performance, comparative legal regimes, and the political economy of gender. You participate in class discussions and dive into case studies about gender and politics around the world. 

Comparative politics is a methodology that seeks to illuminate the reasons for similarities and differences across countries and provide tools to think more critically about various political claims and proposals. This course will use such cases as Britain, France, Russia, China, Iran, India, and Brazil to look at issues of nationalism, economic policies, institutional design, development, and social change.

This political science course provides tools to help you understand how environmental issues are connected to a wide range of topics. It is designed for business students, and it looks at the many roles played by the private sector in environmental governance. The central part of the course focuses on political challenges related to environmental issues.

Race and racial injustice and Indigenous people’s claims and experience of marginalization shape political, social, economic, and cultural life. This course seeks to raise questions about the history of race as a social and political construct and of the role of Indigenous political struggle and settler colonial rule. Learn about topics such as whiteness as a political identity, the Black radical tradition, the model-minority myth, racial capitalism, intersectionality, queer theory, and many others.