Comparative Studies Courses
This list is current as of November 21, 2023. Course schedule and descriptions are subject to change. Please refer to SIS for the most up-to-date information. To view available course flyers, please visit this page. Contact arceno.1@osu.edu if you notice any discrepancies or have any questions.
Comparative Studies 1100 Introduction to the Humanities: Cross-Cultural Perspectives
Online (asynchronous) and In-person | Multiple sections
GEL Literature, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Foundation: Literary, Visual and Performing Arts
GEN Foundation: Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Diversity
COMPSTD 1100 is an introductory course designed to survey some of the current preoccupations in the Humanities, especially as they relate to culture, power, and identity. Across several sections with varied content, instructors of 1100 seek to present relevant issues in comparative cultural study, employing a mix of cultural theory, current events, and literature, visual, and performing arts with a focus on race, ethnicity, and gender.
Comparative Studies 1100H Introduction to the Humanities: Cross-Cultural Perspectives Honors
TuTh 2:20-3:40 | Ioanna Kipourou | PAES A109
GEL Literature, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Foundation: Literary, Visual and Performing Arts
GEN Foundation: Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Diversity
This Honors version of COMPSTD 1100 explores the role of literature and the arts in constructing, maintaining, and questioning the values and beliefs of diverse cultures and historical periods. Topics vary.
COMPSTD 2099 Question of Comparative Studies
M 5:20-6:15 | Philip Armstrong | Hagerty Hall 451
This course offers an introduction to the Comparative Studies major. It is designed to help students to take advantage of curricular, research, and advising opportunities; to manage the particular challenges of independent and interdisciplinary work; to link classroom work to social and political engagement with relevant communities; and to prepare for life after graduation. This course is graded S/U.
COMPSTD 2101 Literature and Society
TR 9:35-10:55 | Rob Barry | Hagerty 159
GEL Literature, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Foundation Literary, Visual and Performing Arts
GEN Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Diversity (New for spring 2024!)
Study of relationships among politics, society, and literature; analysis of social and political elements of literature and film from diverse cultures and historical periods. Prereq: English 1110 (110) or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 2101H (201H, 201).
COMPSTD 2104H Literature, Science, and Technology Honors
TuTh 9:35-10:55 | Nancy Jesser | McPherson 1041
GEL Literature, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Literary, Visual and Performing Arts
We will engage in a study of therelationships among literature, broadly construed, science, and technology, including analyses of representations of science and technology in literature and film across several cultures and historical periods. Because my training and research is in US cultures and society, content from this area may be over-represented. We will attend particularly to ideas of the ‘human’ through both an evolutionary and technological lens; what counts as 'human,’ and how do technology and science mediate ‘being human’ and being recognized as ‘human’. Furthermore, we will examine ways that our contemporaries imagine how science and technology influence and shape culture and nature AND how culture and nature shape deployments of science and technology.
We will frame our discussions in writings/materials centered on cyborgs and evolution. In doing so we will examine the interaction of human technologies, socio-economic situations, the imagined past and future: all of these include considerations of race, gender, ethnicity, colonization, migration, and politics, broadly construed.
COMPSTD 2105 Literature and Ethnicity
TuTh 11:10-12:30 | John Brooks | Mendenhall 185
GEL Literature, and GEL Diversity: Social Diversity in the U.S.
GEN Foundation: Literary, Visual and Performing Arts
GEN Foundation: Race, Ethnicity and Gender Diversity (New for spring 2024!)
This course examines literary representations of ethnicity refracted through experiences of racialization and gender in an American cultural context. How are people belonging to various sub-cultural ethnic groups construed as alien “others” by dominant cultures? How do language, narrative, and creative expression allow writers from diverse ethnic backgrounds to construct a sense of self that resists such othering?
This section of “Literature and Ethnicity” focuses on representations of belonging and alienation in the works of American ethnic writers. Across all writing and presentation assignments, we will focus on the myriad ways that authors describe their changing senses of self in racialized, gendered, and intersectional terms. As we will see, ideas of identity and otherness are fraught with questions and complications—what it means to belong in America has been defined and redefined, often meaning different things to different groups of people at different times. Making sense of one’s identity as an American thus involves coming to terms with competing ideas about ethnic, racial, and gender performances, but also reckoning with the alienation that such identities produce.
COMPSTD/ENGLISH 2264 Intro to Popular Culture Studies
TuTh 8-9:20 | Rachel Stewart | Denney 238
WF 2:20-3:40 | Umut Gurses | Hagerty 50
GEL Cultures and Ideas
GEN Historical and Cultural Studies
GEN Race, Ethnicity and Gender Diversity
Introduction to the analysis of popular culture texts, with special emphasis on the relationship between popular culture studies and literary studies. Prereq: English 1110 (110) or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 264, or English 2264 (264). Cross-listed in English.
COMPSTD 2281 American Icons
TR 9:35-10:55 | John Brooks | Mendenhall 191
GEL Cultures and Ideas, and GEL Diversity: Social Diversity in the US
GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
GEN Foundation: Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Diversity
This course examines people, places, and things that are “American Icons,” considering icons as objects of identification, admiration, skepticism, and analysis. We will examine an array of iconic American figures—from John Wayne to Beyoncé—alongside iconic concepts in American culture, including hard work, freedom, and the American dream. Where do American ideas about hard work and prosperity come from? What do we mean by “freedom,” and do all people and communities in America have equal access to it? Is the American dream achievable anymore—and, if it is, for whom?
This section of “American Icons” will pay particular attention to the construction of—and struggle over—American identity and history. Put differently, our specific focus will be on the myriad ways that American icons speak to the entanglement of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. We will consider how Americans of various racial and ethnic backgrounds have been construed as alien “others” by American culture, as well as how gender, sexuality, and class produce feelings of American belonging and American estrangement. As we will see, icons are never neutral; in fact, icons are often racialized and gendered.
COMPSTD 2301 Intro to World Literature (HYBRID)
TuTh 9:35-10:55 | Parisa Ahmadi | McPherson 2019
GEL Literature, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Literary, Visual and Performing Arts
GEN Race, Ethnicity and Gender Diversity
Analysis of oral and written literatures of diverse cultures and historical periods. Prereq: English 1110, or equiv.
COMPSTD/ETHNSTDS 2323 Intro to Native American Studies
TuTh 11:10-12:30 | fabian romero | Mendenhall 125
GEL Culture and Ideas; GEL Social Diversity in the United States
GEN Historical and Cultural Studies
GEN Race, Ethnicity and Gender Diversity (New for spring 2024!)
This course is grounded in interdisciplinary engagement with Native scholars and the collective goals of Native/Indigenous wellness, political self-determination, and cultural revitalization. It interrogates the challenges that Native peoples face from ongoing settler colonialism within what is now the United States, without ever losing sight of Native agency and persistence. This course will center Indigenous feminist scholarship and look at Indigeneity transnationally by incorporating Central American scholarship and research. Topics will include gender, sexuality, white supremacy, environmental degradation, individual and community resistance, anti-colonial liberation, and embodied ways of knowing and learning.
COMPSTD 2340 Intro to Cultures of Science and Technology
MW 11:10-12:30 | Liliana Gil | Hayes Hall 5
GEL Cultures and Ideas, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Historical and Cultural Studies
This course offers an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of Science and Technology Studies (STS).
STS examines how science and technology are shaped by and shape culture and society. How do we know what we know? What do we mean when we talk about things like scientific knowledge and methods? How do historical and social contexts shape technological production, and how does technology in turn shape our world, experiences, and relationships? As we address these questions, we will familiarize ourselves with critical thought about science and technology, including key historical, sociological, and anthropological theories. Together, we will sharpen our analytical skills by discussing a broad range of historical and contemporary examples in which scientific knowledge and technological capacity are entwined with power relations of race, gender, global capitalism, and politics.
COMPSTD 2341 Technology, Science, and Society
TuTh 2:20-3:40 | Seth Josephson | Hayes Hall 24
GEL Cultures and Ideas, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
Critical analysis of the relations among science, technology, and culture, with particular emphasis on ethical issues in technology and engineering. Prereq: English 1110.01 (110.01) or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 2340 (272).
COMPSTD 2350 / ENGLISH 2270 Intro to Folklore (HYBRID)
MW 2:20-3:40 | Daisy Ahlstone | Hagerty 62
GEL Cultures and Ideas
GEN Historical and Cultural Studies
GEN Race, Ethnicity and Gender Diversity
Folklore is the culture that people make for themselves. Not all of us are specialists, but all of us tell stories and cultivate communities. This class explores everyday expressive forms including stories, customs, objects and digital forms shared in informal contexts. Recurring central issues will include the dynamics of tradition, the nature of creativity and artistic expression, and the construction of group identities. We will consider various interpretive approaches to these examples of folklore and folklife and will investigate the history of folklore studies through readings and an independent collecting project in which students will gather folklore from the field, document it and interpret it for meaning. Under-read and represented texts in the field of folklore were intentionally chosen as readings for this course. By the end of this course, students should gain a basic orientation towards thinking through the power and significance behind the everyday creative expressions of their communities.
Guiding questions: How do people express themselves in traditional forms? How are social concerns articulated in stories, jokes, memes and other genres? How does human creativity burble up in everyday life?
Though this is a hybrid class, it requires a high degree of participation and engagement with your classmates as well as reading. You will be reading as much as 50 pages of text per week, and additionally will be asked to engage in digital exhibits and media. This course works a little differently than others you may have encountered, as we will hold one synchronous class via CarmenZoom and one class in-person each week. For your efforts, you will develop insights with your peers and with me as you practice your analytical and communication skills to gain higher levels of awareness and aptitude that will serve you throughout your life.
The creation of the syllabus for this iteration of COMPSTD 2350 comes in part from the combination of the recent push to represent underrepresented authors, subjects, and fields of study and the groundwork laid by the American Folklore Society for an accessible revitalization of introduction to American folklore courses. The instructor is grateful for the work already done to bring the less heard voices to the front of the stage when it comes to representing the discipline of folklore to new students.
Prereq: English 1110 (110) or equiv. Not open to students with credit for English 2270 (270), or 2350H.
COMPSTD 2367.04 Science and Technology in American Culture
MW 3:55-5:15 | Deanna Holroyd | Hagerty 359
GEL Writing and Communication, Level 2; GEL Culture and Ideas; and GEL Social Diversity in the U.S.
GEN Writing and Information Literacy
GEN Historical and Cultural Studies
This course is designed to help you reconsider some common misconceptions about science and technology. You can expect to question ideas such as 1) science and technology equates to progress, 2) science is an objective uncovering of truth and facts, 3) science and technology are unproblematic, neutral components of modern living that are unaffected by culture, society and politics. To explore these ideas, we will engage with a variety of core theoretical texts about science and technology to better understand the ways in which the scientific facts and technological advancements that we encounter in our everyday American experience are products of a series of processes that are shaped by social, cultural, and political values. By analyzing the rhetorics and discourse within, and surrounding, these various scientific facts and technologies, you will ask how they have all shaped the way that knowledge becomes ‘fact’ in American society. You will also think about how science and technology impact social relations, how they may engender inequities and how they shape our understanding of ourselves and American culture.
Prereq: English 1110 (110), or equiv, and Soph standing. Not open to students with credit for 2367.04H (367.02H) or 367.02.
COMPSTD 2367.08 American Identity in the World (ONLINE)
Second Session Course, TuTh 3:55-5:15 | Shaida Akbarian
GEL Writing and Communication, Level 2; GEL Cultures and Ideas, and GEL Social Diversity in the United States
GEN Writing and Information Literacy
GEN Historical and Cultural Studies
American culture viewed from inside and from the perspective of foreign cultures, as seen in literature, film, art, music, journalism, folklore, and popular culture. Prereq: English 1110, or equiv, and Soph standing. Not open to students with credit for 2367.08H.
COMPSTD 2367.08H American Identity in the World Honors (ONLINE)
TuTh 2:20-3:40 | Shaida Akbarian
GEL Writing and Communication, Level 2; GEL Cultures and Ideas, and GEL Social Diversity in the United States
GEN Writing and Information Literacy
GEN Historical and Cultural Studies
This Honors version of COMPSTD 2367.08 considers American culture as viewed from inside and from the perspective of foreign cultures, as seen in literature, film, art, music, journalism, folklore, and popular culture. Prereq: English 1110, or equiv, and Soph standing.
COMPSTD/SPPO/WGSST 2381 REGD in Spanish Film & TV
TR 9:35-10:55 | Lita Camacho-Platero | Mendenhall 129
COMPSTD 2420 American Food Cultures
TR 12:45-2:05 | Rick Livingston | Hayes 25
GEL Cultures and Ideas, and GEL Social Diversity in the United States
GEN Historical and Cultural Studies (New for spring 2024!)
In this class, students will analyze and interpret the cultural formation of food in the United States.
Food exists at the intersection between material and meaningful life, making it a key site for understanding the power and limits of cultural explanation. Using a diverse range of primary and secondary sources–including contemporary accounts, historical interpretations, and visual evidence–we will trace the development of American food from its agrarian roots to its industrialization and the emergence of a global food system. Drawing on cultural theories of ritual, imagined community, gender, race and class formation, we will examine recurrent tensions between the standardization and diversification of foodways and persistent debates about the nature and quality of American food. By studying the changing status of the Thanksgiving celebration, we will consider the ethical and political dimensions of American food cultures and aim for an integrated perspective on the development of American food over time.
COMPSTD 2864H Modernity and Postmodernity: Issues and Ideas Honors
TR 12:45-2:05 | Franco Barchiesi | Baker Systems 260
How have ideas of human sovereignty and freedom shaped modern thought and global realities? How do modern ideas relate to the structures of capitalism and the power of nation-states? How is modern humanity defined by the violence of racial enslavement, settler colonialism, and indigenous genocide? How effective are theories of postcolonialism and postmodernity as critiques of the violence of modernity?
The course will address these important questions by introducing theories and debates defining discourses of modernity and postmodernity. Through weekly class discussions based on lectures, readings, and films, we will analyze the meaning of the (post)modern global reality in relation to how it differently manifests itself across societies and cultures.
We will also look at that difference problematically, as it is not necessarily geared at inclusion within an embracing humanity but is underpinned by forms of exclusion and domination with deep structural roots.
In our discussions we will address key aspects and concepts in debates about modernity and its critique, including the ways in which modernity is haunted by the “afterlife of slavery” and its manifestations in contemporary anti-blackness; race, class, and gender in relation to contemporary capitalism; how ideas of sovereignty are enmeshed in theories of the modern subject; in what ways migration and mobility are the results of colonialism; the possibilities and limitations of performance and media as forms of agency; the meaning of “resistance” in the context of the “Anthropocene” and threatened global extinction.
COMPSTD 3603 Love in World Literature
TuTh 2:20-3:40 | Lucia Bortoli | Mendenhall 185
GEL Literature, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Literary, Visual and Performing Arts
Representations of love in world literature; emphasis on mythological, psychological, and ideological aspects of selected representations in different cultures and time periods. Prereq: English 1110 (110), or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 3603H (301H) or 301.
COMPSTD 3607 Film and Lit as Narrative Art
MW 3:55-5:15 | Epp Annus | Hayes 24
TR 12:45-2:05 | Lita Camacho-Platero | Mendenhall 185
GEL Visual and Performing Arts, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Literary, Visual and Performing Arts
Relationships between film and literature; emergence of cinematic art as a form of representation with emphasis on diverse cultural traditions. Prereq: English 1110 or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 3607H. GE VPA and diversity global studies course.
COMPSTD 3608 Representations of the Experience of War
MWF 10:20-11:15 | Jason Payne | Mendenhall 185
GEL Literature, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Literary, Visual and Performing Arts
Representations of war in works of literature, religious texts, and film from diverse cultures and time periods. Prereq: English 1110 (110) or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 308.
COMPSTD 3645H Cultures of Medicine Honors
TR 12:45-2:05 | Nancy Jesser | Smith Lab 1042
GEL Cultures and Ideas, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
This course engages with the following issues and questions:
- To understand the interactions and relations among practitioners of healing, medicine, institutions of medicine as well as various medical cultures within and beyond the US.
- How are ideas of health, illness, disorder, disease related to culture?
- How do cultures manage and produce variable approaches to health, wellness, and illness?
- How have conceptions of health and illness changed over time?
- How do medical practitioners and lay people interact within structures of power?
- When do conflicts about medicine and culture arise? And why?
- How do different people experience medicine as recipients of care and as caregivers amidst specific historical, social, economic and cultural circumstances?
This Honors version of COMPSTD 3645H focuses on medicine as experienced in a many-cultured United States historically impacted by racisms, class differences and gendered bodies. Nevertheless, we will also read about medicine and culture in the global beyond. I welcome students to introduce more places, cultures, and histories into our discussion, especially in collaborative projects. Because of the diversity of historical experiences and relationships, I will try to sensitivities and traumas surrounding experiences in medicine. However, there is no avoiding difficult and potentially upsetting topics when approaching medicines and cultures critically.
Prereq: English 1110 (110), or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 2341 (272).
COMPSTD 3686 Cultural Studies of American Music
MW 12:45-2:05 | Van My Truong | Baker Systems 140
GEL Visual and Performing Arts, and GEL Social Diversity in the United States
GEN Literary, Visual and Performing Arts
In this course we explore “Americana” as a complicated music genre, a cultural project, and as a space for critical intervention into concepts around race and nation, particularly around what and who can claim the roots/routes of “Americana.” We think through forms like country, folk, blues, and roots music to explore the ways in which these musical conversations have always crossed regional and national boundaries, even while they’ve been touted as some of the most “rooted” of “American” musics. We will explore some of the actual migrations associated with “Americana” music—the material histories of movement and displacement that have not only shaped the musical tones and lyrical themes of the various sounds but have also created spaces within which a new generation of performers and listeners have come to imagine particular notions of nation and belonging through the music. We will engage the music as cultural texts to be read alongside other cultural forms with a focus on the sociohistorical contexts of migration and diaspora that shape their creation and audience engagement. Prereq: English 1110 or equiv.
COMPSTD 3903(E) World Literature: Theory and Practice, Embedded Honors
MW 11:10-12:30 | Ashley Hope Pérez | Denney Hall 250
What does it mean to study literature in a global context? Is it simply a matter of reading more diversely, opening ourselves to what lies beyond our own national literary tradition? Or does it necessarily entail different priorities and approaches? Does world literature enrich our lives through cultural exchange? And what about the realities of “world” writers who can only access a significant audience by writing in English or producing works that “travel well” via translation?
We will tackle these and other questions by examining theories of world literature and reading a variety of literary works. We will also consider topics such as the rise of postcolonial literatures, the impact of globalization and forced migration, and the role of translation. Class assignments include reflective writing, facilitated in-class discussion, and one longer paper/project. Assignments will help you pursue the course goals and participate deeply in a community of learners.
Prerequisites: CS 2301 or CS 3302 or permission from the professor, who enthusiastically welcomes all students interested in a thoughtful exploration of the course topic.
Please note that this course includes a limited number of seats for Honors students.
COMPSTD 4420 Cultural Food Systems and Sustainability
TuTh 2:20-3:40 | Mark Anthony Arceño | Mendenhall 173
How do human societies around the world respond and adapt to the challenges of food production and consumption in times of change? What cultural practices help define approaches to and/or understandings of sustainability?
Considering food as both a material good and marker of individual or collective identity, this interdisciplinary course asks students to think about how food systems are being transformed amid societal, cultural, environmental, political, etc., change at local/regional, national, and global scales.
We will compare and contrast the experiences of individuals and communities, thinking reflexively of how thematic case studies inform understandings of the overall complexity of food and foodways (i.e., socio-cultural practices related to food production and consumption) in and outside of the United States.
To supplement our in-class meetings and guest lectures, this course includes an agricultural experiential component at Waterman Farm situated along Carmack Road.
GEN Theme: Sustainability.
COMPSTD 4597.02 Global Culture
TR 9:35-10:55 | Zach Morgan | Caldwell 137
Examines contemporary global cultural flows, the concepts useful in analyzing them, and the questions they raise about power and cultural change. Prereq: Completion of Second Writing course. Not open to students with credit for 597.02. GE diversity global studies and cross-disciplinary seminar course.
COMPSTD 4804 / ENGLISH 4588 Studies in Latino/a Literature and Culture
TR 9:35-10:55 | Mintzi Martinez-Rivera | Denney Hall 202
COMPSTD 4822 Native American Identity
TR 2:20-3:40 | fabian romero | Smith Lab 1138
This course explores historical and contemporary issues of American Indian identity, primarily in the U.S.; with a focus on American Indian authors, artists, and scholars.
Some of the goals of this course are to broaden knowledge of American Indian peoples and the ways in which their lives are embedded in and inseparable from geographical, historical, spiritual, cultural, and social environments. Through the course, students will be exposed to, and gain an appreciation for, Native American Indian communities, cultures, histories, perspectives, experiences, lives and contemporary issues.
COMPSTD/AFAMAST/WGSST 4921 Intersections: Approaches to Race, Gender, Class, and Sexuality
MW 2:20-3:40 | Sierra Austin | University Hall 47
Examines intersections of race, gender, class, and sexuality in various sites within American culture (e.g., legal system, civil rights discourse, social justice movements). Prereq: One course in CompStd, WGSSt, or AfAmASt. Not open to students with credit for 545, AfAmAst 4921 (545), or WGSSt 4921 (545). Cross-listed in AfAmASt and WGSSt.
COMPSTD 4990 Approaches to Comparative Studies
TR 11:10-12:30 | Spencer Dew | Hayes 5
COMPSTD 5189S Ohio Field School
Wednesdays 2:15-5 | Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth and Lydia Smith | Hagerty 451
This course offers an introduction to ethnographic field methods (participant-observation, writing field notes, photography, interviewing), archiving, and public humanities. Included as part of this experience is a field experience (where students will reside together in local housing) followed by accessioning, exhibition planning, and reflection. Take note that an application is required as part of the enrollment process. Please contact waugh-quasebarth.1@osu.edu or smith.13109@osu.edu for more information.
COMPSTD 5240 / PUBAFRS 5240 / AFAMAST 5240 Race and Public Policy in the United States
Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:45-2:05 | Michael Fisher | Denney Hall 253
This course explores Race and Public Policy in the United States from Reconstruction to the present. In particular, the class is designed to look at the long list of "hot topics" in the current policy landscape, including policing, housing, wealth gap, immigration, voting, political representation, and others. Cross-listed in African American and African Studies and Public Affairs. Not open to students with credit for AFAMAST 5240 or PUBAFFAIRS 5240.
COMPSTD 5691 Common Sense: Knowledge, Experience, and Social Life
Tuesdays and Thursdays 11:10-12:30 | Dorry Noyes | Location: Ramseyer 166
What does it mean when you're told to "use your common sense"? This course examines the idiom of common sense in relation to debates over the authority of knowledge, the value of practical experience, and what should be shared or shareable in social life. Our interdisciplinary exploration will start with folklore: how children (and artists) play at the border of sense and nonsense, how proverbs and other kinds of pedagogic discourse produce everyday "good sense," and how leftover formulations continue to circulate as clichés or "commonplaces," often with disruptive social consequences. Then we'll look at debates on the relation of the senses to knowledge and the communicability of experience across sociocultural divides, thinking about consensus and dissensus as socially accomplished. We'll read about the history of common sense as a democratic, sometimes populist, political ideal that interacts with the rise of secular modernity, professionalization and expertise, race ideology, American nationalism, and technocratic politics. This will bring us to the present: division and mistrust in the age of social media, "fake news," and AI; questions about the possibility of shared understandings when social worlds fragment, interests diverge, and structures discriminate; and new imaginings of commonality (or separation) in social justice projects.
This is a graduate/undergraduate course that benefits from heterogeneity: students at all stages and with any focus are encouraged! You'll write a personal essay about your own socialization and a final paper on the "common sense" of some current issue. No exams, but active participation is expected in discussion and short writings.
COMPSTD 5691 Comparative Studies of Artificial Intelligence
Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:35-10:55 | Brett Zehner | Denney Hall 207
This seminar will explore the recent rise of “artificial intelligence” from the interdisciplinary perspectives afforded by Comparative Studies. Comparative Studies is ideally situated to study algorithms, not as mathematical abstractions, but as material practices predating human tools and modern machines. Specifically, we will look to the emergence of the concept of artificial intelligence as it emerged from wide-ranging algorithmic practices from the mid-20th century to the present. We will consider the subsequent rise of automation in fields as diverse as financial analysis, climate modeling, social media, crime prediction, and even artistic practice. As such, our seminar will consider how automation affects culture, art, and politics in the present. We will study the algorithmic cultures that lead to recent computational breakthroughs asking – what exactly is a science of artificiality?
As such, our approach will be both historical and theoretical as we trace the culture of artificial intelligence. We will draw from the history of science, cultural studies, intermedial art forms, films, and literature, as we critique the rise of big data in everyday life. Our critical writing assignments will explore recent developments such as Cambridge Analytica and predictive policing. We will also experiment with public-facing "applied humanities" practices as we develop a conversation between the data sciences and the critical humanities.
Religious Studies Courses
This list is current as of November 16, 2023. Course schedule and descriptions are subject to change. Please refer to SIS for the most up-to-date information. To view available course flyers, please visit this page. Contact arceno.1@osu.edu if you notice any discrepancies or have any questions.
RELSTDS 2102.02 Comparative Sacred Texts
TuTh 11:10-12:30 | Kate Kaura | Hagerty 50
Introduction to religious views of the universe, the supernatural, social organization, ethics, etc., through sacred texts (oral and written) of diverse cultures and historical periods. Prereq: English 1110 (110), or equiv. Not open to students with credit CompStd 2102.02 (202.02). GE lit and diversity global studies course. GE foundation lit, vis and performing arts course.
RELSTDS 2370 Introduction to Comparative Religion
TR 12:40-1:35 | Isaac Weiner | 209 W 18th 160
+ In-Person Recitations | F 10:20-11:15 or 11:30-12:25 | Adam Banks | Stillman 245
OR | F 12:40-1:35 or 1:50-2:45 | Mani Sidhu | Stillman 135
Introduction to the academic study of religion through comparison among major traditions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.) and smaller communities. Prereq: English 1110 or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 2370H or CompStd 2370H or 2370. GE cultures and ideas and diversity global studies course. GE foundation historical and cultural studies and race, ethnicity and gender div course.
RELSTDS 3666 Magic in the Modern World
MW 11:10-12:30 | Hugh Urban | Ramseyer 115
GEL Cultures and Ideas, and GEL Global Studies
GEN Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts
GEN Historical and Cultural
This course traces the modern revival of magic and neo-paganism, both in new religious movements and in popular culture, novels, music and film, from 1870 to the present. The course examines the intersections between emergent magical groups and various social and political movements.
RELSTDS 3972 Theory and Method in the Study of Religion
MW 2:20-3:40 | Hugh Urban | Hagerty 46
There are two components to the course. We will first study the “classic” theories of religion, which range from anthropological to sociological to psychological and beyond. What questions and perspectives do these theories bring to religious evidence? Do they “explain” what religion is and does? We will study these in roughly chronological order from the 1870s, when anthropologists began to develop theories of religion, to the 1970s, when departments and programs of “religious studies” had become common in U.S. colleges and universities. The writings in this section form a kind of “canon” with which all scholars of religion are familiar.
We will then consider some more recent approaches to religion that draw on critical theory about culture (e.g., feminism, womanism, performance theory, queer theory, cognitive science). How do these perspectives build on, revise, and/or reject the classic theories? What new questions do they enable us to ask about religious phenomena?
Students will consider these approaches not merely in the abstract, but in relation to specific religious texts, objects, and activities.