English

Ignorance looms large in our current political discourses. From the ignorance of epidemiological facts shaping pandemic policy and public compliance or willful ignorance of climate change which continues to perpetuate the reliance of fossil fuels to naive ignorance of epistemic exclusions that to reproduce marginalizations on the basis of race and gender, ignorance takes center stage in key public debates. With so much putative ignorance around, one might get the impression that ignorance more than knowledge gives shape to contemporary political cultures. Yet, with a more careful eye towards how ignorance functions, it is clear that we are not dealing with a singular idea. Rather, there are multiple discourses around, definitions of, and practices built on ignorance. This seminar distinguishes between two particular modalities of ignorance: positive and negative ignorance. That is, 1) ignorance defined through the absence of specific forms of knowledge, and 2) ignorance defined in terms of someone’s positionality in and situated knowledge of a complex system. The course traces the first modality of ignorance via its deployment in current political debates such as climate change, racial marginalization, and intersectional feminism. In these discourses, ignorance functions as a foundation for critique, as a moral imperative, and even as basis for political activism. The second modality of ignorance, perhaps better understood in terms of aporia, can be found today in a variety of positive programs for dealing with complexity (aporetics) such as administrative decentralization, neoliberal economics, and even public sector design. The course introduces some of the epistemological and practical preconditions for such aporetic governance. Finally, the seminar asks what forms of research, ethical conduct, and political practices may be mobilized in response to or built upon ignorance and aporia.

For students to understand the job market and industry development, as well as establish career planning in advance, this course invites industry leaders to share their career experience. Students are expected to connect campus and industry resources and gain skills at various levels simultaneously. At the individual level, they must learn to train themselves to enter the workplace and strengthen various abilities to become leaders in the workplace. At the group level, they must learn how to cooperate with peers of different backgrounds and abilities in a team to become an important partner. Last, at the leadership level, they must learn how to pay attention to corporate culture and establish a friendly working environment.

This course aims to interrogate core concepts in the humanities and social sciences through the lens of India’s most powerful film industry. Through an exploration of selected films, students will think critically and creatively about key cultural, social and political themes originating in the subcontinent. They will analyze important developments in India and the diaspora through the study of Bollywood cinema. The course will thus facilitate a nuanced understanding of the relationship between text and context, with a focus on Bollywood.

This course traces the history of Ghana in considerable detail, the many influences to which Ghana was exposed throughout its existence, before, as well as after its independence; Christian missions, education, and social change; the growth of British colonial power and jurisdiction and Ghanaian reactions; Anglo-Asante wars; the era of "Scramble" for Africa; Ghana under British rule: social, political, and economic developments under colonialism; the rise of nationalism between 1900 and 1945; the impact of World War II; the struggle for Independence; Ghana since 1957: Kwame Nkrumah; the period of coups: 1966 to 1981; and the Second, Third and Fourth Republics.

This course discusses the cognitive (e.g., conditioning, skill learning, interference paradigms) and neurobiological (e.g., long-term potentiation and molecular neuroscience, brain anatomy, hippocampus) substrates of memories and how they can be changed, and discusses important research methods and behavioral paradigms to study memory manipulation. Further, it discusses how these principles and methods can be applied in fields of education, cognitive enhancement, and clinical therapy. There are no prerequisites, but a strong interest in research methods, cognitive science and/or neuroscience of memory is highly recommended.