United Kingdom - England

This course uses an array of primary and secondary source readings to explore the emergence of the system of intensive colonial exploitation that we know as the plantation system. The course investigates the economic, political, legal, cultural, intellectual, and technological innovations that undergirded the development of the plantation as a colonial institution. It will also explore the role of bound and enslaved people in resisting and reshaping the institution. The seminar engages extensively with the historiographic debate about the relationship between the plantation system and the emergence of capitalism. It focuses upon developments across the Americas between the 16th and the late-18th century, drawing from the Portuguese, English, French, and Dutch empires and the newly independent United States.

 

In 1800, two empires dominated the region of the Middle East: the Ottoman and Qajar Empires. Today, there are seventeen nation-states in the Middle East. How and why did this happen? This course serves as an introduction to the history of the modern Middle East with an emphasis on developing an understanding of how the region we call the Middle East came to take its current shape. Students explore the encounter with European modernity and subsequent European imperialism, modernisation efforts, responses to colonialism, the rise of new ideologies such as nationalism, and the role of religion in politics and political discourse. The course focuses on the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire, Iran, Turkey, and the Middle East in the 20th and 21st centuries.

This course examines a range of live productions to explore strategies for reading live performance that recognize the importance of where performances take place. Students visit the National Theatre, the Royal Court, the Barbican as well as "fringe" or alternative venues in examining how they read the performance event. Students are expected to engage with critical reviews of performances, examine the role of press and marketing, and explore the targeting of specific productions to particular audience groups.

During this course, students take a critical look at the music industry - particularly those companies that are based in London, such as Sony, Universal, and Kobalt - and explore the impact new technologies have had on the way music is produced and consumed. Central to this exploration is the question of how music is valued in the 21st century. Students survey two classic conceptions of value: the value of commodities by Marx (and later Marxians), and ideas about gift and gift exchange established by Marcel Mauss.