All courses, arranged by program, are listed in the catalog. If you cannot locate a specific course, try the Advanced Search. Current class schedules, with posted days and times, can be found on the NOW/Student Dashboard or by logging in to SiS.
The goal of this class is to enhance students' ability to read and interpret American texts by learning how to see them in context, to understand the way readers approach texts from interpretative lenses, and to express their insights about American culture in a variety of forms and genres. Meets Core Curriculum Essential Learning Outcome for Diversity and Cultural Awareness (DCA) and Social Responsibility & Ethics (SRE).
Pre-req: ENGL.1010 College Writing I.
This course provides students with an overview of the multidisciplinary field of Asian American Studies from two distinct disciplines. The course begins with the history of Asian American Studies and the methods used to advance the field. Next, various aspects of the Asian American experience, such as gender and sexuality, are examined. Students also participate in service learning in partnership with Asian-serving community organizations in and around Lowell, MA. Meets Core Curriculum Essential Learning Outcome for Diversity and Cultural Awareness (DCA) and Social Responsibility & Ethics (SRE).
Pre-Req: ENGL 1010 or 1020 College Writing I or II or (42.103 Col Writing I-Internatl or ENGL 1110 College Writing I ESL) or HONR.1100.
This course is designed to inform students about the legacy of bias, discrimination, and inequality in the United States, and how this is particularly reflected in our criminal justice system. Drawing on a number of disciplines the course will explore theories of bias and discrimination both individually and collectively, what common stereotypes and misconceptions exist, and how they impact contemporary criminal justice practices. Evidence-based solutions to the reduction of these systemic issues will be discussed.
This course examines prejudice as a motivation for criminal behavior. The criminological theory for hate crime is reviewed, as well as historical perspectives of this crime category.
Pre-Req: CRIM.1010 Criminal Justice System.
This course provides students with an in-depth analysis of the courses, context, and control of a wide range of violent crimes.
Pre-req: CRIM 1010 Criminal Justice System or CRIM 2210 Criminology 1.
This course examines gender and racial implications of criminal laws, criminal justice practices and programs will be examined. The position of women and racial/ethnic minorities will be assessed from the different perspectives of victims, offenders, and criminal justice practitioners.
Hate crimes illustrate bigotry plus criminal acts. This course examines prejudice as a motivation for criminal behavior. The criminological theory for hate crime is reviewed, as well as historical perspectives of this crime category. This is a rich and comprehensive exploration that begins with understanding the psychology of prejudice and ends with reviewing genocide as a mass hate crime.
This course explores key legal issues likely to confront journalists, mass media professionals or students interested in learning more about the relationships between law, media and ethics in this global community. Nonetheless, students are challenged to think critically about the applicability of those issues to individuals and to media institutions that transmit information via spoken communications, writing, traditional media, mobile messages, social network sites, or e-mail messages.
This course is designed to introduce undergraduate students to key concepts of family and community engagement. Students will utilize readings, discussions, and hands-on activities to examine their understanding of the role that families and communities play in the educational lives of students. They will learn community-based relational approaches and design on family or community engagement strategy to utilize in their classrooms. The course will also explore how social networks and school structures impact the development of meaningful relationship between teachers, families, and community members.
Pre-req: EDUC.2000 Foundations of Reading, and EDUC.2100 Introduction to Moderate Disabilities.
The course addresses the literature of America's immigrant and cultural groups and how it contributes to defining our national character. Meets Core Curriculum Essential Learning Outcome for Diversity and Cultural Awareness (DCA).
Pre-Req: ENGL.1020 College Writing II.
Describing a wide range of racial and ethnic denominations, Latinx is a complicated term which this course will examine the trouble. This course emphasizes the historical and aesthetic networks established in the Latinx literary canon that continue into the present, while also exploring the relationship between genre and socio-historical issues. Reading from a diverse tradition that reflects the contested definition of "Latinx" and its shifting demographics in the U.S., this course investigates how U.S. Latinx literature speaks to and expands "American" literary traditions, and how unique ethnic identities such as the Mexican American, Dominican American, Cuban American, or mainland Puerto Rican offer different yet interconnecting representations of what it means to be Latinx in the U.S.
Pre-Req: ENGL 1020 College Writing II.
A study of the history and development of African American drama, with emphasis on major aesthetic, political, and social movements in African American culture. Meets Core Curriculum Essential Learning Outcome for Diversity and Cultural Awareness (DCA) and Social Responsibility & Ethics (SRE).
A study of selected works by black American writers, such as Toomer, Wright, Ellison, Walker, and Morrison. Meets Core Curriculum Essential Learning Outcome for Diversity and Cultural Awareness (DCA) and Social Responsibility & Ethics (SRE).
Students in this course will examine and discuss fiction, poetry and autobiographical writings by four of the seminal figures of the Native American Renaissance: N.Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, Joy Harjo and James Welch. Collectively, these writers helped restore modes of traditional cultural expression and historical perspective long imperiled by the histories of European and U.S. Colonialism in the Americas. Their work is also deeply imbued with concerns for the landscape and ecology, including in regards to conditions within the reservation system. Additionally, we'll pay sizeable attention to critical assessments of the Native American Renaissance as offered in the work of figures such as Paula Gunn Allen, Louis Owens, Gerald Vizenor and others.
Asian Americans hold an intriguing place in the cultural imagination: as perpetual foreigners, as so-called 'model minorities' that serve to maintain hegemonic power relations, and as living embodiments of America's memory of its involvement in recent wars. As artists, however, Asian Americans have contributed and impressive body of literary work, and we'll examine some of the most enduring and provocative of these texts. We'll explore themes such as trauma and the immigrant experience, issues of exile and dislocation, Asian Americans' embattled place in our country's history, and the intersections of race and ethnicity with gender and sexuality. Meets Core Curriculum Essential Learning Outcome for Diversity and Cultural Awareness (DCA) and Social Responsibility & Ethics (SRE).
When the peoples of Africa, India, the Caribbean, Ireland, and Canada finally gained, to a greater and lesser extent, independence from the British during the 20th century, they found that their national, cultural, and individual identities had been radically altered by the experience of colonization. In this course, we will examine how authors have related this postcolonial condition. We will examine a diverse body of texts--poetry which eloquently describe the heroic journey out of colonialism, drama which lays bare the conflicts of assimilation, and novels which fantastically present political struggle--as we determine how postcolonial theory and literature affects and possibly redefines all literature.
Pre-Req: ENGL 1020 College Writing II, or permission of instructor.
This course focuses on thematic or issue-oriented topics in Latinx literature and culture. Topics and methods will vary each section, but topics might include: "Monsters, Hauntings, and the Nation," which examines Latinx horror to understand how the genre addresses the unique experience of Latinx people in the Americas. Reading from a wide variety of Latinx texts, students will gain a deeper understanding of the capacities of horror to depict the foundational yet spectral presence of Latinx people in the "American" imaginary.
From Confucian texts to current conditions, the course examines the evolution of Chinese women's status throughout the centuries. The course will ask questions such as whether Confucianism dictated oppression against women, what factors influenced the changes of status for women, how Western feminism is connected with Chinese women, what roles women played in transforming China, and how ordinary women lived and are still living in China.
The recent history of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America and the comparative global processes and trends that have influenced the world since 1945.
A comprehensive study of the Native Americans through historical and first-hand accounts of their lives. Designed to enlighten students and to represent fairly the Native Americans, dispelling some of the existing myths about them.
The history of the southern United States from the colonial period to the present. Topics include the development of plantation slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction, industrialization and the "New South," segregation and disenfranchisement, the Civil Rights Movement, and conservatism.
This course surveys African American history in the United States from colonization to the present. It begins with a study of life in West Africa and traces the forced migration of Africans to the Americas. It explores West African transmissions, the freedom struggle, the great migrations from the South, the Harlem Renaissance, the modern Civil Rights movement, and the continuing impact of African Americans on life in the 21st century.
This course provides a basic introduction to the history of the African continent. It will expose students to the processes and patterns that have shaped modern African history. The course examines the historical roots of the many challenges that the continent faces today. But, at the same time, it will also provide students with the knowledge to shatter the myths and stereotypes about Africa.
The concept of the Atlantic world arose to describe the interactions of the peoples of the Americas, Europe, and Africa through trade, conquest, colonialism, independence and beyond. In this class, we will consider the cultural, economic, and political relationships that are formed and change over time between these groups. We will pay special attention to historical approaches to studying and writing about the Atlantic World.
This course examines the history of slavery in the United States. It explores topics such as the role of slavery in the economy, the culture of enslaved Americans, resistance to slavery, and the abolition of slavery, often making comparisons to slavery in other parts of the Western Hemisphere. The course also investigates how the institution of slavery has been represented by different generations of historians and in American popular culture from the 1850's through the present.
Requisite: Sophomore level or higher.
This course examines U.S. History--particularly the history of the South--during the era of Jim Crow, the period between the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement when African Americans were systematically denied political and social rights. This course examines the visions white southerners held for what their region should be in this period, as well as the responses of African Americans.
This course investigates the personal transformation of Malcolm X during his lifetime as well as the impact he has had on both American and transnational culture and politics from the mid-twentieth century to the present.
The ancient Mediterranean was home to a diverse array of cultures in close contact with each other through trade, warfare, and colonization. This course will study a variety of Greco-Roman responses to other cultures through a series of case studies of contact between Greeks, Romans, and other cultures of the ancient world. In particular, we will examine questions of the applicability of modern concepts such as race and ethnicity, and explore the ways in which these shifting representations of other cultures are reflective of the ways in which Greeks and Romans perceived themselves. We will also reflect on the ways in which these ancient Greco-Roman conceptions of culture relate to our own modern understandings of cultural difference.
In an age of increasing globalization, historians realize the need for putting the American national narrative in a wider historical context. This course will help students locate the study of the United States in a global, comparative and transnational perspective. This course will be used as one of the courses needed by History majors in the global, comparative and under-represented areas of the major.
The course focuses on the experiences of women, men, and children who came to the U.S. from the colonial era through the 21st century. Their emigrations will be examined in a global context. Irish migration, the mass European migrations during the mid and late 19th /early 20th centuries, and post-Second World War immigration particularly from Asian and African countries are discussed. The Lawrence, Lowell, and Boston immigration stories are also considered.
This course examines the history of the Middle East and the Islamic World from the time of Muhammad to the present. It provides an introduction to the history of this often turbulent region. It exposes students to the processes and patterns that have shaped the history of the Islamic World. The course examines the historical roots of the many challenges that the region faces today.
This course examines contemporary European dilemmas of immigration, assimilation and multiculturalism, within the context of the larger history of European imperial decline after 1945. It will aim at providing fuller historical understanding of Europe's ongoing crises of integration, while also exploring the textures of individual and community life among those of immigrant descent within contemporary Europe. For purposes of focus and continuity, greatest attention will be dedicated to South Asian, Turkish, and North African communities in Britain, Germany and France, respectively.
The course focuses on the experiences of women, men, and children who came to the U.S. from the colonial era through the 21st century. Their emigrations will be examined in a global context. Irish migration, the mass European migrations during the did late 19th / early 20th centuries, and post-Second World War immigration particularly from Asian and African countries are discussed. The Lawrence, Lowell, and Boston immigration stories are extensively considered. Students will acquire an understanding of U.S. Immigration History - Both the experiences of immigrants and reactions to that immigration over time, including the frequent passage of federal legislation to block or impede immigration. Students will utilize area immigration archives to produce original research on the topic.
This graduate-level course examines important ideas and events in African-American history as well as debates among historians about how to interpret these ideas and events. We will examine slavery and its demise, the labor system that emerged after slavery, violence against and intimidation of blacks, the relocation of millions of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North, and the struggle for civil rights, among other topics. A theme that runs through the course is how African Americans were able to build a rich and vibrant culture as well as strong networks of kinship even as masters, landlords, and others sought to control their labor and deny then political and other rights.
This course presents a study of racial discrimination in the United States. Emphasis is placed on relevant constitutional provisions, statutory provisions, and on United States Supreme Court cases.
This course provides a broad introduction to international law with emphasis on current issues. Within public international law, topics covered will include the recognition of new states, organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union, the use of force, human rights, international crimes, the global environment, and international courts and tribunals. Within private international law, topics surveyed will include legal aspects of international trade and foreign investment, labor, intellectual property, cyber theft, and taxation. Current issues discussed will include global warming, recent corruption scandals, the Eurozone crisis, and legal issues facing global technology companies.
Studies the immigration, nationality, and naturalization laws of the United States. The topics discussed are: the immigrant selection system, the issuance of immigrant and nonimmigrant visas; grounds of excludability of aliens and waiver of excludability; grounds for deportation of aliens and relief from deportation; and change of status within the United States including legalization, refugee, and asylum status.
This course will focus on issues of identity and difference. We will discuss the ways in which group identities are formed and break down. We will discuss how differences are constituted and reconstituted. These issues are central to theories of race and gender, racism and sexism. Some of the questions which we will raise are these: What motivates forming group identities? How are they formed? How is identity used within oppressive social structures? How can it be used to transform society? Why do some differences make a difference and others don't? Can we choose our group identities? Meets Core Curriculum Essential Learning Outcome for Diversity and Cultural Awareness (DCA).
Students in this course will be introduced to current and longstanding debates within Latin American Philosophy. They will also be exposed to many of the principle texts and thinkers within this burgeoning tradition. The class includes a survey of Latin American philosophy ranging from pre-colonial Aztec thought to the debates over the struggle for Latin American independence, and also the question of identity: what constitutes Latin American philosophy.
This course addresses the question of justice in regards to immigration policy. We consider a variety of views including Communitarianism, Liberalism, Nationalism, Cosmopolitanism, and Democratic Theory. We will look at how these different positions have answered the following sorts of questions: Do we have duties to strangers of foreigners that are of equal weight to the duties we owe to members of our family, our circle of friends or our nation? Does part of the definition of "self-determined state" include the right to unilaterally reject petitions of inclusion from non-citizens? Does a commitment to equality demand that borders be open?
The images of Africa most commonly seen in the US flood our minds with inconsistent messages. Africa is portrayed and discussed as a locus of ancient tribal conflicts, disease, famine, and suffering. While struggles do occur - just as they do in all places - understanding the diverse experiences of the peoples of Africa requires engagement with the cultures, politics, religions, and perspectives of people in more than fifty countries across a vast continent. While such engagement can hardly be accomplished in a semester, we will attempt to scratch at the surface in different ways that reveal ideas, experiences, and thoughts that reflect political life and culture in Africa south of the Sahara in a more reflective manner. Throughout this course, I challenge you to remember that politics as we usually conceive them - the policies, programs, and posturing of government and public organizations - are a backdrop to the way real people live their lives every day. Policies and political systems are less important for the fact that they exist than for the ways in which they affect the lives of those they govern. With this approach, I hope we will be able to pick apart government structures, political organizations, and policy issues in ways that will shed light on the construction and culture of African politics. This requires a focus on power - who has it, how they use it, and to what ends.
This interdisciplinary course considers the way we construct self-identity through our affiliation with various cultural and political groups- from the"Red Sox nation" to linguistic, economic, nationalistic and ethnic groups. It examines the central role of nationalism; its symbols, traditions and expectations; the role of the media; and the benefits and risks of our allegiance to these groups.
A study of the politics of race and ethnicity, focusing primarily on American society, and the racial and ethnic groups of the region.
The region will be analyzed using a comparativist lens, whereby the historical context of creating nation states in the region and the effect of colonialism will be applied to contemporary politics. Women, religious/ethnic minorities and the dynamics of the Arab Spring will also be addressed comparatively.
Focusing upon one of the most important topics in Islam, this course will go beyond conventional stereotypes and explore woman's many and varied roles within Islamic cultures and societies.
A focus on the dark side of politics - political repression, including politically motivated imprisonment, torture, murder, and disappearance- and the struggle of critics to bring about change through non-violent and violent demonstrations, general strikes and armed resistance.
Surveys the field of community psychology, including principles of social justice, diversity, and social change. The course reviews historical antecedents, paradigms, conceptual models, strategies and tactics of social and community change and action; examples from selected contexts and social systems, including education, mental health, community organizations, the workplace, health care, justice system, and social services will be employed. Meets Core Curriculum Essential Learning Outcome for Diversity and Cultural Awareness (DCA).
Pre-Req: PSYC.1010 Intro to Psychological Science .
Provides an analysis to the impact of culture, socio-historical, and social influences on psychological processes and outcomes. Students will also learn about techniques for studying the influence of culture including cross-cultural methods and population-specific methods. Through careful analysis of research literature, this class will examine a variety of contexts within the U.S. and internationally. Topics will include identity development, immigration, acculturation, socialization, and social interactions among groups.
An advanced seminar to consider special topics in community psychology with focus on critique of the theoretical and empirical literature, identification of future research pathways, and the potential for application with consideration of ethics and social responsibility. The topic of this seminar is racism. In this course we will investigate roots of racism, kinds of racism, reasons for perpetuation of racism, possible solutions to ending racism. Many believer that racism is a thing of the past. Yet, research shows that many of us are unconsciously racist and hurt communities of color without any malicious intent. We will explore our own posting in terms of racism. This is a writing-intensive course.
Pre-req: PSYC.1010 Intro to Psychological Science, and PSYC.2090 Social Psychology, or PSYC.2550 Community Psychology, and PSYC.2690 Research I: Methods.
An advanced seminar to consider special topics in community psychology with focus on critique of the theoretical and empirical literature, identification of future research pathways, and the potential for application with consideration of ethics and social responsibility. The topic of this seminar is immigration, a very important issue in the United States and around the world. In this seminar we will study the complex process of migration from a community social psychological point of view. Motivations, expectations, acculturation, immigrant status, deportations, policy and more will be covered. This is a writing-intensive course.
An advanced seminar to consider special topics in community psychology with focus on critique of the theoretical and empirical literature, identification of future research pathways, and the potential for application with consideration of ethics and social responsibility. The topic of this seminar is youth violence, which continues to be a major public health concern in the United States. Preventing youth violence is an important component of creating peaceful and safe neighborhoods and just communities. In this course, we will use ecological and multicultural perspectives to understand different types of youth violence, the contexts in which they occur, and intervention strategies to address the violence. This is a writing-intensive course.
An advanced seminar to consider special topics in community psychology with focus on critique of the theoretical and empirical literature, identification of future research pathways, and the potential for application with consideration of ethics and social responsibility. This course explores dilemmas that can emerge when working to bridge diverse groups in community-based work. The seminar will be organized around narratives that address multiple dimensions of diversity including race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexual orientation, disability, and religion. Too often, guidelines for addressing very complex diversity dynamics are presented as neatly packaged lists of recommendations. However, it is within the stories of the challenges and dilemmas that the complexity of the political, historical, social, and psychological dynamics of diversity are most evident. Students will explore examples of everyday diversity challenges and utilize psychological theories to better understand how the challenges can be shaped by struggles over limited resources, deep historical conflicts between groups, privilege dynamics, intragroup dynamics, organizational cultural norms, and/or other issues. This is a writing-intensive course.
An advances seminar to consider special topics in social psychology with focus on critique of the theoretical and empirical literature, identification of future research pathways, and the potential for application with consideration of ethics and social responsibility. The topic of this seminar is social injustice, its causes, manifestations, explanations, and social psychological theories that help us understand them. We will explore how and why social injustice prevails in today's world full of resources; why small number of people own majority of world's wealth; why some countries are poorer than others. We will study our own standpoints and where they come from and we will work on possible remedies that could lead to a more just world.
An advanced seminar to consider special topics in social psychology with focus on critique of the theoretical and empirical literature, identification of future research pathways, and the potential for application with consideration of ethics and social responsibility. Over the course of our lives, many of us will be working in organizations that include diverse workers, and thus it is important to understand the issues that shape interpersonal and system dynamics within such settings. In this seminar, we review theories and research relevant to how race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, and disability dynamics affect workplace systems. Classes will be highly interactive and discussion-oriented as students learn about the challenges diverse organizations face in fostering positive working relationships and about strategies adopted to enhance the effectiveness of the diverse workplace. This is a writing-intensive course.
This course will focus on the immigrant experience and the various immigrant groups in the United States with emphasis on recent immigrants in Lowell and Massachusetts. Theories of acculturation and adaptation to a new cultural environment will be extensively examined in the course. An experiential approach will be integrated throughout the course via the incorporation of guest speakers, films, autobiographies/novels, and food. Students will have ample opportunities to read, reflect, discuss and write about the immigrant experience. As our country is a country of immigrants, this course should have relevance to anyone working in the community.
The United States is frequently described as a country with a proud history of immigration. As a result, citizens and residents of the U.S. often identify their home as a nation of people who make up a melting pot country. While useful and insightful, the melting pot metaphor requires comparison with additional explanations of immigration and immigrant experiences. In order to provide deeper comprehension of the topic matter, this course offers sociological examination of immigration processes, laws, and debates. Three areas compose the main portion of class content: historical accounts and theories, legislation, and the social, economical, and political experiences of immigrants.
This course locates and studies the sociological dynamics of race and ethnic relations in the United States as it pertains to all groups. The course material presents theories and models that explain periods of conflict and cooperation between diverse sets of people. While providing some historical background, the course focuses primarily on recent and contemporary situations.
Digital sociology is broadly interested in how (1) social actors use technology in everyday life and (2) technology shapes social processes, especially social problems. This course is a sociological exploration of the development and evolution of racial and gender inequalities online, as well as the implications of racism and sexism online on groups and society.
Deals with issues related to the quality of life in American cities. Students taking this course may engage in research projects on the city of Lowell and the role of the University of Massachusetts Lowell within that city.
Pre-Req: SOCI.1010 Intro to Sociology.
By 2060, Latinos are forecast to comprise over 28 percent of the US population. While the presentation of Latinos/as in public discourse often frames them a recently arrived immigrants, Spanish-speaking peoples in the US have a long and rich history. This course focuses a sociological lens on the historical and contemporary experiences of a community whose emergence requires deep analysis. Emphasis is placed on immigration policy, demographic shifts, labor market discrimination and bilingual education.
There is currently no description available for this course.
This course explores major works from French Caribbean authors. Through novels, films, short stories, poetry, and play, we will uncover the historical, intellectual and social dynamics that define the French Caribbean world. A special emphasis will be placed on topics such as Négritude, Antillanité, Créolité, and Migration.
WLFR.2110 Pre-req or French 4 Waiver Group.
Senegal has particular significance in Francophone studies for the highly visible contributions of its writers and artists from the colonial era through today, and its emblematic role in cultural production in West Africa. Through film, literature, visual arts and other cultural productions in the country from the French colonial period up through today, we examine how artists have responded to the history and present legacies of colonialism through their creative works. The course is conducted in French.
Pre-req: WLFR.2110 French 3 and Culture, or WLFR.2120 French 4 and Culture.
The long history of migration in France, and its current visibility in politics and society make studying this theme in literature, film, and other cultural production fundamental to our understanding of mainland France today. This course focuses on written and visual texts connected to both France, and other regions of departure (including but not limited to North Africa and West/Central Africa). We examine key themes in texts focused on migration: labor, education and assimilation, family/next generations, and clandestine immigration. In addition to primary texts, secondary critical reading will ground discussion in postcolonial theory, gender studies, and francophone studies in order to understand the long tradition of these themes in francophone literature and film.
Pre-req: WLFR.2110 French 3 and Culture.