Elective Courses in Washington, DC

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For the Spring 2008 semester, students will choose from the following five electives taught by Berkeley, Michigan and Penn faculty.  All five electives are listed as Berkeley courses and will be available for registration via telebears.

The Anthropology of Food-  Anthro 189 - Professor Stanley Brandes

Food is necessary to stay alive, yet it is never consumed without being transformed by social meanings and settings.  Food is the backbone of society and sociability.  Food is also the foundation of every economy.  Food marks social differences, boundaries, bonds and contradictions.  Eating is a continually evolving enactment of gender, family, community and self-identity.  We will think about how food sharing creates solidarity and well being, while food scarcity damages the human community and the human spirit let alone the brain and bodily functions.  This course will focus on both food and drink by discussing a series of key topics within cultural studies, including taboos, ritual, religion, health, alcohol use, social feasting, civilizing society through food use, and the global politics of food.  Through a series of lectures, readings, movies, and projects we will explore the important yet perhaps un-marked place of food in shaping our own place in the world as well as those of all humans, through time.

Public Economics – Econ 131/002 - Professor Sandy Mackenzie

This course surveys the basic principles of public economics and uses them to analyze the structure of the U.S. public sector and its impact on the U.S. economy. It is divided into three sections. In weeks 1 to 4, the course reviews the topics to be covered and describes the structure of the three levels of government; introduces and develops the basic concepts of public good and externality, which are applied throughout the course to explain why governments do what they do; and sets out and explains the basic principles of fiscal federalism. In weeks 5 to 10, the course focuses on the expenditure side of the budget. It analyzes the role of government in education and the federal government’s major transfer programs—social security and Medicare/Medicaid—and the economics of income redistribution. Weeks 12-15 (week 11 is the spring break) are devoted to the economics of taxation.

A Window Into How Washington Works - UGIS 165 - Professor Sally Katzen

The Federal government effects policy (e.g., enhancing public safety, protecting the environment, promoting a viable and growing economy, etc.) primarily in three ways:  taxing, spending and regulating.  This course will explore how regulations – an important instrument of government and one of the easiest ways for a President to make his/her mark -- are developed, amended, or repealed, with an emphasis on how the various institutions of the federal government are involved in the process and how they interact with the other interested entities.

The rulemaking process is neither simple nor straightforward.  Congress writes the laws, which authorize or require the Federal agencies to act (or prohibit them from acting).  We will explore why Congress delegates authority to the agencies, how much it may delegate, and how it influences the use of the authority it has delegated.  Most of the Federal agencies are in the Executive Branch of the government, headed by the President; the rest are so-called independent regulatory agencies.  How much authority does the President have in appointments and removal of agency officials, or in policy guidance, and how does he exercise his authority?  What are the substantive requirements the agencies must follow in developing rules (e.g., the role of science and economics)?  What are the procedural requirements (e.g., notice, opportunity for comment)?  What influence does the public have, including the general public, state and local elected officials, and special interest groups?  We will conclude with the role of the courts, which ultimately must decide questions of statutory interpretation, procedural due process, and constitutional law.

The New World Order and Its Critics - UGIS 166 - Professor Eileen Doherty

Since the end of the Cold War, the phrase “new world order” has become ubiquitous. For some, this phrase points to the United States’ dominant role as the most powerful state in the international arena, with a special opportunity and obligation to establish a new pax Americana.  For others, the driving force is more spontaneous, linked to the much broader process of globalization, featuring transnational flows of capital, corporations, information, people, and lifestyles in an increasingly “borderless” world. For still others, it is the emergence of meaningful forms of governance beyond the nation-state, as evident in the expanding role of international organizations and in the diffusion of liberally conceived universal standards of democracy and human rights. On the other hand, some scholars and actors see very little that is actually new, treating the post-Cold War order is simply the most recent iteration of traditional realpolitik, or merely the latest attempt of the West to impose its values, economic interests, and political systems upon others without consideration of the diversity of cultures worldwide or the economic vulnerability of poorer regions. This seminar aims to understand the theoretical assumptions and historical interpretations that inform these different understandings of the post-Cold War world.  It also seeks to uncover the quite varied range of alternative ideological and theoretical constructs motivating those who challenge particular attempts to build a unified international order, whether through scholarly criticism, mass protest, or direct political-military action. This requires consideration of how recent debates compare with past efforts to conceptualize and build some sort of a multi-national, multi-ethnic political “order” across nations, cultures, and socioeconomic strata -- as, for example, immediately following the Hundred Years’ War or World Wars I and II.  The ultimate goal is to develop a nuanced and thoughtful perspective on whether the sources of order, change, peace and conflict in the post-Cold war world are genuinely new, with an eye to the implications for the future role of nation-states, the possibilities for democracy, the character and impact of economic globlization, new efforts to engineer global governance, and the spread of movements and ideologies that reject notions of world order developed in the world’s more wealthy and powerful societies.

A Theatre of Meaning in the Digital Age - UGIS 163 - Professor Ari Roth

This semester, our focus will center on the high-minded aspirations (and continuing challenges) of the resident theatre companies who program contemporary, politically-engaged, theatrical fare.  We’ll explore different definitions of what makes a piece political, and we’ll also ask why the theater is compelled to try and be political in a town where politicians and lobbyists and interest groups work on politics n such microscopic detail every day.  Which leads us to give a little background on our setting;  the city we will use as a theatrical laboratory.  Washington, DC, our nation’s capital, has rather quietly emerged as the second most vibrant theatrical city in the nation, surpassing Chicago      and Los Angeles in number of performances offered, audience in attendance, and number of union actors appearing on its professional stages.  How did this come to be? We’ll discuss.  And then we’ll explore the implications.  This advent of a robust theater scene planed at the seat of power has created a unique cultural profile; that of an artistic force able to speak truth of power.  Yet often times, theatrical institutions are painfully constricted by divided nature of the audience they play for, the critical community that critiques them, and differing notions about the function and purpose of theater.  What kind of portraits are emerging from area theaters in this often bitterly divided capital?  What are the practical politics within these institutions that seeks to engage, provoke and entertain their patrons?

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