Major: LIBERAL STUDIES
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Arts and Letters at UATX asks students to connect abstract ideas about what it means to be human to the lived experience of history, as well as the concrete particulars of fiction, narrative, and imagination. Students learn the origins of intellectual systems such as religious creeds, schools of philosophy, and political ideologies and trace their influence over time.
Students concentrating in Ethics and Politics debate the merits of competing claims about the human condition, draw their own conclusions, and learn how to present their ideas in elegant and compelling arguments. Students concentrating in Literature and Creative Writing analyze great works of literary art and explore their own beliefs through creative expression.
Understand and articulate the history of Western culture from antiquity to the present day in its broad outlines, with reference to religion, philosophy, and the arts
Navigate the history and culture of at least one non-European, non-Anglophone civilization
Discern and explain the relation between form, content, and historical context in works of art and debates about systems of belief
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This course is a general introduction to the cultural and intellectual history of ancient Rome from its founding to its decline, fall, and continuation as Byzantium. Why was ancient Rome able to conquer and rule most of the Mediterranean world? Why did it eventually collapse? What did ancient Romans believe? What kind of debates did they have? What is distinctive about ancient Roman culture, and how did it change over time? Through independent reading, guided reading, lectures, and in-class discussion, students acquire a substantial introductory knowledge of the cultural and intellectual history of ancient Rome.
This course is a general introduction to the cultural and intellectual history of Britain and Europe from late antiquity to the end of the fifteenth century, including the interaction between Europe and the Arabic-speaking world. How did the legacy of Greek and Roman antiquity, the feudal system, Celtic paganism, Scandinavian heathenism, Christianity, and the encounter with Islam shape English and European culture from the fall of Rome up to the Renaissance and the Reformation? Through independent reading, guided reading, lectures, and in-class discussion, students acquire a substantial introductory knowledge of the cultural and intellectual history of medieval Britain and Europe, as well as their relation to the Near East.
This course is a general introduction to the cultural and intellectual history of England and Europe in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, including the interaction between Europe and the Ottoman Empire, as well as some consideration of the contemporary Mughal Empire. How did the feuding city-states of early modern Italy produce unprecedented innovation in the arts? How did Greek scholars fleeing the Ottoman Empire change the course of intellectual history? Why did authors such as Erasmus and Rabelais begin to doubt the value of philosophy? What were the origins of the Reformation? And why did it lead to a century of warfare? Through independent reading, guided reading, lectures, and in-class discussion, students acquire a substantial introductory knowledge of the cultural and intellectual history of early modern England and Europe, as well as some exposure to contemporary developments in the Near East and South Asia.
This course is a general introduction to the cultural and intellectual history of England and France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with particular attention to the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, and the French Revolution. Initially, the sectarian violence of the early modern Wars of Religion gave way to new ideals of moderation, tolerance, and religious pluralism. Over time, however, Christianity encountered a new challenge in the form of philosophical materialism and unabashed atheism. What new ways of thinking prompted the Scientific Revolution? What were the arguments of the philosophes? What were the counter-arguments of contemporary conservatives? What led to the French Revolution? Did this outbreak of popular violence prove a change for the better or the worse? Through independent reading, guided reading, lectures, and in-class discussion, students acquire a substantial introductory knowledge of the cultural and intellectual history of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England and France.
This course is a general introduction to the restless, rapidly developing cultural, intellectual, and political landscape of England, Europe, and Russia in the nineteenth century, including the German Counter-Enlightenment, philosophical idealism, the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, the populist Revolutions of 1848, and new experiments in literary and artistic naturalism. Why did German and English authors turn against the influence of the French Enlightenment? How did German philosophers move beyond the early modern tension between empiricism and rationalism? What is a ‘superfluous man’? Did the reforms instituted by Napoleon fulfill the aims of the French Revolution? What did Tocqueville and Marx think of the so-called ‘Springtime of Nations’? What was the Paris Commune? Through independent reading, guided reading, lectures, and in-class discussion, students acquire a substantial introductory knowledge of the cultural, intellectual, and political history of nineteenth-century England, Europe, and Russia.
What is beauty? What is the sublime? This course introduces the history of competing claims about aesthetics, alongside acclaimed masterpieces of classical, medieval, and early modern art, architecture, and music.
What is beauty? What is the sublime? This course explores the more recent history of competing claims about aesthetics, alongside acclaimed masterpieces of early modern, modern, and contemporary art, architecture, and music.
Prerequisite: ALT 1160
This course is a general introduction to the cultural, intellectual, and political landscape of England, Europe, and Russia at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, as fin-de-siècle decadence gave way to the ‘Great War’ we now know as World War I, as well as the Russian Revolution and the Spanish Civil War. What led to this period of violent upheaval? How do political movements such as anarchism, fascism, and Marxism both resemble each other and differ? What prompted experiments in art and architecture such as Dada, Surrealism, Cubism, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco? How did the film industry begin? Through independent reading, guided reading, lectures, and in-class discussion, students acquire a substantial introductory knowledge of the cultural, intellectual, and political history of late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century England, Europe, and Russia.
This course introduces students to twentieth-century controversies about method in the humanities. How should we interpret a cultural artifact such as painting or a poem? Students consider the relative merits of formalism, historicism, and psychoanalysis, as well as arguments for and against “critique,” in light of movements such as Formalism, New Criticism, psychoanalysis, Deconstruction, and New Historicism.
Prerequisite: ALT 1160, ALT 1180
Is history meaningful? Does it have a direction or a purpose? This course introduces the concept of postmodernism and explores its intellectual origins and artistic expression, within the larger context of the collapse of Communism at the end of the twentieth century and the current crisis of liberalism. Students read works and excerpts from works such as Foucault, “Nietzsche, Genealogy, History”; Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition; Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation; Jameson, Postmodernism; Gray, Liberalism; Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man; and Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed.
Prerequisite: ALT 1060
This course introduces the intellectual and cultural history of European colonialism and decolonization, focusing on the origins, effects, and legacy of European imperialism from the eighteenth century to the present day, and engaging with ongoing debates about its possible benefits to the colonized, as well as the colonizers, in light of its human cost. Students read works and excerpts from works such as Conrad, Heart of Darkness; Achebe, “An Image of Africa”; Watts, “A Bloody Racist”; Gilley, “King Hochschild’s Hoax”; Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks; Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth; Saïd, Orientalism; Lewis, “The Question of Orientalism”; Ferguson, Empire; and Biggar, Colonialism.
Towards the end of the twentieth century, the Soviet Union collapsed, and the Eastern Bloc turned away from Communism. Marxism, discredited by the evidence of history, began to take on new forms, sometimes at odds with its former premises and conclusions. This course explores the development of Marxism from the counterculture of the 1960s to the present day, with reference to Gramsci, Marcuse, and present-day identity politics.
Students read and discuss Shakespeare’s most important comedies and problem plays, including in particular A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, and Much Ado about Nothing, as well as The Taming of the Shrew, Measure for Measure, and The Merchant of Venice.
Assessment for all other Center Core courses in Literature and Creative Writing (listed below) includes the option of a ‘creative critical’ project responding to the primary sources under study in addition to more abstract research essays grounded in historical context and engaged in formal analysis.
What is tragedy? How does it work? How has it changed over time? This course traces the history of tragedy from antiquity to the present day. Students read plays such as Sophocles, Oedipus the King; Miller, Death of a Salesman; and Soyinka, Death and the King’s Horseman, as well as selections from secondary sources such as Steiner, The Death of Tragedy, and Nuttall, Why Does Tragedy Give Pleasure? Students may also read short stories and watch films.
What is comedy? How does it work? How has it changed over time? This course traces the history of comedy from antiquity to the present day. Students read plays by authors such as Aristophanes, Plautus, Molière, Gay, Wilde, and Stoppard, as well as selections from secondary sources such as Hutcheson, Thoughts on Laughter, and Freud, Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious. Students may also read short stories and watch films.
This course introduces students to acclaimed and influential works of literature written in the Middle Ages.
This course introduces students to acclaimed and influential works of literature written in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.
This course introduces students to acclaimed and influential works of literature written in the nineteenth century.
This course introduces students to acclaimed and influential works of literature written in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries.
This course introduces students to acclaimed and influential works of literature written in North America, ranging from the Revolutionary Period to the present day.
Students read and discuss Shakespeare’s most important tragedies and romances, including in particular Macbeth, Othello, and King Lear, as well as Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest.
Students concentrating in Literature and Creative Writing must take at least 6 credits of Writing Studio. This course is available to juniors and seniors in increments of 3 credits per term and may be repeated for credit. Students can take up to 18 credits of Writing Studio, of which up to 12 may count towards completing their required concentration requirements; any credits of Writing Studio above 12 will count instead as electives.
Long-form assessment for many of the Center Core courses in Literature and Creative Writing (ALT 1300, 1400, 1500, 1600, 1800, 1900, 1950, 3300, 3320) as well as most electives in Literature and Creative Writing will typically include the option of a ‘creative critical’ project responding to the primary sources under study in addition to more abstract research essays grounded in historical context and engaged in formal analysis.
Students in other Centers of Inquiry can enroll in Writing Studio if they have completed at least 6 credits of Center Foundations and/or Center Core in Literature and Creative Writing and are simultaneously enrolled in at least 3 additional credits of Center Foundations or Center Core in Literature and Creative Writing.
In addition to the 6-12 credits that they earn from Writing Studio, students concentrating in Literature and Creative Writing must take their choice of 15-21 credits from the following list, for a total of 27. At least 6 of these credits must be selected from courses focused on material written pre-1800: Socrates and Montaigne; Dante, The Divine Comedy; Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales; Shakespeare: The Roman Plays; Shakespeare: The History Plays; Milton, Paradise Lost; or a qualifying Special Topic or Independent Study in Literature.
Students undertake individual projects in creative writing under the guidance of an experienced mentor.
Students choose the remaining 15-21 credits from below (6 credits must be from pre-1800)
Students read and discuss Dante’s Divine Comedy. They may also read some selections from Dante’s Vita Nuova.
Students read and discuss Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
Students read and discuss Montaigne’s Essays, as well as a variety of sources on Socrates, including not only works and excerpts of works by contemporaries such as Plato, Xenophon, and Aristophanes but also excerpts of works by later authors such as Hegel and Kierkegaard.
Prerequisite: ALT 2000
Pre/Co-requisite: ALT 2020
Students read and discuss a selection of Shakespeare’s plays about ancient Rome, including in particular Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, and Antony and Cleopatra, as well as his epyllion, The Rape of Lucrece. Students may also read Titus Andronicus.
Prerequisite: ALT 1010
Students read and discuss a selection of Shakespeare’s plays about the English Wars of the Roses, including in particular Richard II, 1-2 Henry IV, and Henry V.
Students read and discuss Milton’s Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes.
Special Topics
Special Topics
Independent Study in Literature
Independent Study in Literature
Students read and discuss a selection of Jane Austen’s most celebrated novels.
Students read and discuss works and excerpts of works by Kierkegaard.
Prerequisite: ALT 3700
Students read and discuss Melville’s novel Moby Dick, as well as his novella, Billy Budd.
Students read and discuss several of Dostoyevsky’s most acclaimed novels, including in particular Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov.
Students read and discuss works and excerpts of works by Nietzsche.
Prerequisite: ALT 3760
Students read and discuss Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Joyce, Ulysses. Students may also read selections from Joyce, Dubliners.
Special Topics
Special Topics
Independent Study in Literature
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This course is a general introduction to the cultural and intellectual history of ancient Rome from its founding to its decline, fall, and continuation as Byzantium. Why was ancient Rome able to conquer and rule most of the Mediterranean world? Why did it eventually collapse? What did ancient Romans believe? What kind of debates did they have? What is distinctive about ancient Roman culture, and how did it change over time? Through independent reading, guided reading, lectures, and in-class discussion, students acquire a substantial introductory knowledge of the cultural and intellectual history of ancient Rome.
This course is a general introduction to the cultural and intellectual history of Britain and Europe from late antiquity to the end of the fifteenth century, including the interaction between Europe and the Arabic-speaking world. How did the legacy of Greek and Roman antiquity, the feudal system, Celtic paganism, Scandinavian heathenism, Christianity, and the encounter with Islam shape English and European culture from the fall of Rome up to the Renaissance and the Reformation? Through independent reading, guided reading, lectures, and in-class discussion, students acquire a substantial introductory knowledge of the cultural and intellectual history of medieval Britain and Europe, as well as their relation to the Near East.
This course examines the distinctiveness, interrelation, relative limitations, and relative scope of three sometimes-rivalrous epistemologies: faith, reason, and science. Are traditional religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam compatible with the exercise of logic, as well as the evidence of our senses? Can belief in the existence of an omnipotent and benevolent God be reconciled to the existence of human pain and suffering? Is belief in evolution compatible with belief that the world was created by God? What is the scientific method? Can we operate on the assumption that the world is entirely material, or is speculation about metaphysics and the supernatural an inevitable given of the human condition? Through guided reading and in-class discussion, students acquire an in-depth knowledge of many of the most important and influential debates about the relation between faith, reason, and science from antiquity to the Enlightenment.
This course examines the distinctiveness, interrelation, relative limitations, and relative scope of three sometimes-rivalrous epistemologies: faith, reason, and science. Are traditional religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam compatible with the exercise of logic, as well as the evidence of our senses? Can belief in the existence of an omnipotent and benevolent God be reconciled to the existence of human pain and suffering? Is belief in evolution compatible with belief that the world was created by God? What is the scientific method? Can we operate on the assumption that the world is entirely material, or is speculation about metaphysics and the supernatural an inevitable given of the human condition? Through guided reading and in-class discussion, students acquire an in-depth knowledge of many of the most important and influential debates about the relation between faith, reason, and science from the Enlightenment to the present day.
Prerequisite: ALT 1100
Students read and discuss Plato’s Republic. They may also read and discuss some selections from Plato’s Laws.
This course introduces students to the basic political and economic facts of human history, seeking both to describe and explain the variation in observed economic and political outcomes across time and space, which also requires a discussion of how to approach identifying causality when studying historical change. Variation that is studied occurs over several dimensions: material well-being, which activities people are engaged in, the scale of economic and political organizations, the degree of centralization of political power, population density, the extent of individual freedom, the geographic range of economic transactions, and the extent to which political systems are democratic.
This course introduces students to the discipline of history by offering a combination of the history of Western historiography and key readings in the philosophy and methodology of history. Topics include contemporary controversies over the politicization of history, the origins of the Western historical tradition, and recent debates on historical causation and counterfactuals. A key objective is to familiarize students with some of the pioneers of historical scholarship and writing, from Thucydides to Isaiah Berlin.
This course is a general introduction to the cultural and intellectual history of England and Europe in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth century, including the interaction between Europe and the Ottoman Empire, as well as some consideration of the contemporary Mughal Empire. How did the feuding city-states of early modern Italy produce unprecedented innovation in the arts? How did Greek scholars fleeing the Ottoman Empire change the course of intellectual history? Why did authors such as Erasmus and Rabelais begin to doubt the value of philosophy? What were the origins of the Reformation? And why did it lead to a century of warfare? Through independent reading, guided reading, lectures, and in-class discussion, students acquire a substantial introductory knowledge of the cultural and intellectual history of early modern England and Europe, as well as some exposure to contemporary developments in the Near East and South Asia
This course is a general introduction to the cultural and intellectual history of England and France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with particular attention to the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, and the French Revolution. Initially, the sectarian violence of the early modern Wars of Religion gave way to new ideals of moderation, tolerance, and religious pluralism. Over time, however, Christianity encountered a new challenge in the form of philosophical materialism and unabashed atheism. What new ways of thinking prompted the Scientific Revolution? What were the arguments of the philosophes? What were the counter-arguments of contemporary conservatives? What led to the French Revolution? Did this outbreak of popular violence prove a change for the better or the worse? Through independent reading, guided reading, lectures, and in-class discussion, students acquire a substantial introductory knowledge of the cultural and intellectual history of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England and France.
This course is a general introduction to the restless, rapidly developing cultural, intellectual, and political landscape of England, Europe, and Russia in the nineteenth century, including the German Counter-Enlightenment, philosophical idealism, the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, the populist Revolutions of 1848, and new experiments in literary and artistic naturalism. Why did German and English authors turn against the influence of the French Enlightenment? How did German philosophers move beyond the early modern tension between empiricism and rationalism? What is a ‘superfluous man’? Did the reforms instituted by Napoleon fulfill the aims of the French Revolution? What did Tocqueville and Marx think of the so-called ‘Springtime of Nations’? What was the Paris Commune? Through independent reading, guided reading, lectures, and in-class discussion, students acquire a substantial introductory knowledge of the cultural, intellectual, and political history of nineteenth-century England, Europe, and Russia.
This course is a general introduction to the cultural, intellectual, and political landscape of England, Europe, and Russia at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, as fin-de-siècle decadence gave way to the ‘Great War’ we now know as World War I, as well as the Russian Revolution and the Spanish Civil War. What led to this period of violent upheaval? How do political movements such as anarchism, fascism, and Marxism both resemble each other and differ? What prompted experiments in art and architecture such as Dada, Surrealism, Cubism, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco? How did the film industry begin? Through independent reading, guided reading, lectures, and in-class discussion, students acquire a substantial introductory knowledge of the cultural, intellectual, and political history of late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century England, Europe, and Russia.
This course compares and contrast rival claims about ethics in ancient Greece and Rome, starting with Plato and Aristotle and encompassing later Hellenistic schools of thought such as Stoicism, Skepticism, Epicureanism, Cynicism, and Neo-Platonism. Students may consider the appropriation of classical ethics by theologians committed to Abrahamic religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in later antiquity, as well as the revival of classical schools of thought such as Stoicism in the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the present day. Students may also consider non-Western analogues.
This course compares and contrasts rival claims about ethics in ancient Greece and Rome, focusing on the reception of Plato and Aristotle, as well as later Hellenistic schools of thought such as Stoicism, Skepticism, Epicureanism, Cynicism, and Neo-Platonism, in the work of Cicero, Seneca, and Plutarch.
Prerequisite: ALT 2000
This course compares and contrasts rival claims about politics in ancient Greece and Rome, beginning with Plato and Aristotle and encompassing later authors such as Polybius, Cicero, Plutarch, and St. Augustine. Students may also consider non-Western analogues.
This course explores rival claims about morality and the moral implications of human psychology written in the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Enlightenment, including works and excerpts of works by authors such as St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Erasmus, Luther, Calvin, Montaigne, de la Rochefoucauld, de la Bruyère, Mandeville, the British Moralists, and French philosophes.
This course explores works on the structure of human societies and the political implications of human nature written in the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Enlightenment, including works by conservative and progressive thinkers and critics as well as proponents of liberalism.
How and why should we study political philosophy? This course will explore ongoing debates about method within political philosophy, as well as the relation of political philosophy to other disciplines such as sociology and political science.
This course will introduce students to the intellectual and cultural history of China, ranging from antiquity to the present day, and including art, architecture, music, literature, theater, and film, as well as treatises and excerpts of works on ethics, politics, and aesthetics.
Students read and discuss Machavelli’s Discourses on Livy, as well as some selections from Livy’s Ab urbe condita (“From the Founding of the City”).
Prerequisite: ALT 1010
Students read and discuss a selection of Shakespeare’s plays about ancient Rome, including in particular Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, and Antony and Cleopatra, as well as his epyllion, The Rape of Lucrece. Students may also read Titus Andronicus.
Prerequisite: ALT 1010
Students read and discuss a selection of Shakespeare’s plays about the English Wars of the Roses, including in particular Richard II, 1-2 Henry IV, and Henry V.
Is history meaningful? Does it have a direction or a purpose? This course introduces the concept of postmodernism and explores its intellectual origins and artistic expression, within the larger context of the collapse of Communism at the end of the twentieth century and the current crisis of liberalism. Students read works and excerpts from works such as Foucault, “Nietzsche, Genealogy, History”; Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition; Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation; Jameson, Postmodernism; Gray, Liberalism; Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man; and Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed.
Prerequisite: ALT 1060
Towards the end of the twentieth century, the Soviet Union collapsed, and the Eastern Bloc turned away from Communism. Marxism, discredited by the evidence of history, began to take on new forms, sometimes at odds with its former premises and conclusions. This course explores the development of Marxism from the counterculture of the 1960s to the present day, with reference to Gramsci, Marcuse, and present-day identity politics.
This course explores works on the structure of human societies and the political implications of human nature written in the nineteenth-, twentieth-, and twenty-first centuries, including works by conservative as well as progressive thinkers and critics as well as proponents of liberalism.
This course explores the ethical and political implications of “recognition” (German, Anerkennung), including its connection to the Greek concept of thumos, as well as its relation to the social importance of “honor.” Students will focus on the role of recognition in Hegel’s thought, as well as its reception and transformation in the work of later philosophers. Students will read and discuss works and excerpts of works by authors such as Hegel, Kojève, Sartre, Buber, Lévinas, Ricoeur, Fukuyama, and Honneth.
Prerequisite: ALT 3700
Students read and discuss Montaigne’s Essays, as well as a variety of sources on Socrates, including not only works and excerpts of works by contemporaries such as Plato, Xenophon, and Aristophanes but also excerpts of works by later authors such as Hegel and Kierkegaard.
Prerequisite: ALT 2000
Pre/Co-requisite: ALT 2020
Students read and discuss Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws.
Prerequisite: ALT 2100
Students read and discuss Tocqueville’s Democracy in America.
Prerequisite: ALT 3600
Students read and discuss works and excerpts of works by Kant and Hegel.
Students read and discuss works and excerpts of works by Kierkegaard.
Prerequisite: ALT 3700
Students read and discuss several of Dostoyevsky’s most acclaimed novels, including in particular Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov.
Students read and discuss works and excerpts of works by Nietzsche.
Prerequisite: ALT 3760
Students read and discuss works and excerpts of works by Arendt and Strauss.
Prerequisite: ALT 3760
Students read and discuss works and excerpts of works by MacIntyre, including in particular After Virtue; Whose Justice? Which Rationality?; Three Rival Versions of Moral Inquiry; and Dependent Rational Animals.
Prerequisite: ALT 2000, ALT 2020, ALT 2200