REL 227
Utopias and Americas
Last Offered Spring 2012
Division II
Cross-listed ENVI 227 / AMST 227 / LATS 227
This course is not offered in the current catalog

Class Details

Where does the term “new world” come from? What do we mean by “utopia,” “utopian,” and “utopianism?” What relationships exist between the people who imagine utopias and the lands they inhabit? This course considers the relationship between utopian imaginations and the imaginations of the lands and peoples in the Western hemisphere. We will spend some time studying utopian theory, ancient proto-utopias, and utopias in Latin America, though our main focus will be on particular examples of utopianism in the U.S.A. We will attend to particular instances of utopian social dreaming that re-imagine time, space, environment, gender, family, education, and power. While the U.S.A. is the main focus of the class, students are encouraged to pursue and bring to class utopian perspectives from other parts of the Americas. Students are also strongly encouraged to take questions from class and engage utopian images not listed on this syllabus but pertinent to our classroom learning.
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 19
Expected: 12
Class#: 3553
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: evaluation will be based on class participation, short weekly writing assignments, a 5-page midterm paper, and a 10- to 15-page final research paper examining an American utopia
Prerequisites: none
Distributions: Division II
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
REL 227 Division II ENVI 227 Division II AMST 227 Division II LATS 227 Division II
Attributes: ENVI Humanities, Arts + Social Science Electives
LATS Core Electives
REL North American Religions Courses

Class Grid

Updated 10:41 am

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