11.225 Argumentation and Communication (MIT)
This Communication and Argumentation seminar is an intensive writing workshop that focuses on argumentation and communication. Students learn to write and present their ideas in cogent, persuasive arguments and other analytical frameworks. Reading and writing assignments and other exercises stress the connections between clear thinking, critical reading, and effective writing.
Greenberg on Depression, Addiction, and the Brain
Gary Greenberg, psychologist and author of The Noble Lie and Manufacturing Depression, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the nature of addiction, depression and mental illness. Drawing on ideas in the two books, Greenberg argues that there are strong monetary incentives to define various problems as illnesses that psychiatrists "cure" with drugs. Greenberg argues that this distorts science and has strong impacts, good and bad, on how we view ourselves and the challenges of life. The co
11.800 Doctoral Research Seminar: Knowledge in the Public Arena (MIT)
This is a course about how research knowledge and other types of knowledge come to be actionable and influential in the world — or not. The course explores ways to make research knowledge more accessible, credible, and useful in the realm of public policy and practice, a project in which the course faculty collectively bring decades of professional experience, in both academic and non-academic roles.
The course addresses the politics of the policymaking process, the power of framing and ag
Afghanistan's Religious Landscape: Politicizing the Sacred (with Kristian Berg Harpviken)
Afghanistan?s thirty years of war have seen the gradual and heavy politicization of religion, transforming the lanscape of religious authority, political process, and the Afghan statebuilding project.
21H.571 The Making of Modern South Asia (MIT)
Survey of Indian civilization from 2500 BC to present-day. Traces major political events as well as economic, social, ecological, and cultural developments. Primary and secondary readings enhance understanding of this unique civilization, and shape and improve understanding in analyzing and interpreting historical data. Examines major thematic debates in Indian history through class discussion.
4.301 Introduction to the Visual Arts (MIT)
This class will introduce students to a variety of contemporary art practices and ideas. The class will begin with a brief overview of 'visual language' by looking at a variety of artworks and discussing basic concepts revolving around artistic practice. The rest of the class will focus on notions of the real/unreal as explored with various mediums and practices. The class will work in video, sculpture and in public space.
15.301 Managerial Psychology (MIT)
This course introduces you to behavioral science theories, methods, and tools and provides opportunities to use and apply them to problems you will encounter in your work and career. The course material will begin with an overview of work and organizations in modern industrial society, and then examine individual behavior, move to behavior in groups or teams, and finally discuss organizations as a whole. It is expected that at the end of the course you will: (a) know something about managerial p
21L.315 Prizewinners (MIT)
This 6-unit subject gives students the opportunity to immerse themselves in the poetry of two living Nobel Laureates: the Caribbean poet, Derek Walcott, and the Northern-Irish poet, Seamus Heaney. We will begin and end the semester with their magnificent epic works: Heaney's translation of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, and Walcott's Omeros (a modern epic set in the West Indies). Between these major narrative poems, we will read a rich selection of their shorter poems, as well as some of their re
Israel and the Middle Eastern Mud - Part 2
Point of View Seminars on International Conflict February 12, 2008 Ian S. Lustick, Bess W. Heyman Chair in Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania POV Seminar Series hosted by Nadim Rouhana, ICAR Faculty
The Israeli/Jewish Historical Memory regarding the Causes for the 1948 Palestinian Refugee Problem -
Rafi Nets-Zehngut, speaking at ICAR on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 about the research for his dissertation examining Israeli Jewish perceptions of the 1948 exodus of Palestinians from what is now Israel. Nets-Zehngut finds that changes in the social and political environment in Israel have accompanied a shift from Zionist to critical interpretations of the origins of the refugee problem.
STS.471J Engineering Apollo: The Moon Project as a Complex System (MIT)
This course is a detailed technical and historical exploration of the Apollo project to "fly humans to the moon and return them safely to earth" as an example of a complex engineering system. Emphasis is on how the systems worked, the technical and social processes that produced them, mission operations, and historical significance. Guest lectures are featured by MIT-affiliated engineers who contributed to and participated in the Apollo missions. Students work in teams on a final project analyzi
12.753 Geodynamics Seminar (MIT)
The Earth's crust is primarily composed of melting products from mantle plumes and mid-ocean ridges - both presently and over the course of Earth history. While both systems represent upwelling features in a convective mantle, they can be viewed as end-member systems in that plumes represent buoyant flow whereas mid-ocean ridges represent passive corner flow. This paradigm is not strict - flow beneath ridges may be buoyant in some places, for example, but it does provide a reasonable framework f
21L.488 Contemporary Literature: Literature, Development, and Human Rights (MIT)
Central to our era is the gradual movement of all the world's regions toward a uniform standard of economic and political development. In this class we will read a variety of recent narratives that partake of, dissent from, or contribute to this story, ranging from novels and poems to World Bank and IMF statements and National Geographic reports. We will seek to understand the many motives and voices – sometimes congruent, sometimes clashing – that are currently engaged in producing
Why all Governments Need Spin - Nicholas Jones
Nicholas Jones was for many years BBC political correspondent. His books include Sultans of Spin, The Control Freaks, Soundbites and Spin Doctors and Trading Information. He has been involved in the world of politics for more than 30 years as a journalist, most prominently as the BBC’s political correspondent and in uniquely qualified to talk about how politicians can manipulate the media.
In this Coventry Conversation, Nicholas discusses why spin is central to all governments, both Tory and
21L.472 Major European Novels (MIT)
This subject traces the history of the European novel by studying texts that have been influential in connection with two interrelated ideas. (1) When serious fiction deals with matters of great consequence, it should not deal with the actions of persons of consequence—kings, princes, high elected officials and the like—but rather with the lives of apparently ordinary people and the everyday details of their social ambitions and desires. To use a phrase of Balzac's, serious fiction d
17.441 International Politics and Climate Change (MIT)
This course examines the interconnections of international politics and climate change. Beginning with an analysis of the strategic and environmental legacies of the 20th Century, it explores the politicization of the natural environment, the role of science in this process, and the gradual shifts in political concerns to incorporate "nature". Two general thrusts of climate-politics connections are pursued, namely those related to (a) conflict – focusing on threats to security due to envir
21F.059 European Thought and Culture (MIT)
This subject surveys main currents of European cultural and intellectual history in the modern period. Such a foundation course is central to the humanities in Europe. The curriculum introduces a set of ideas and arguments that have played a formative role in European cultural history, and acquaints them with some exemplars of critical thought. Among the topics to be considered: the critique of religion, the promise of independence, the advance of capitalism, the temptations of Marxism, the orig
12.802 Wave Motion in the Ocean and the Atmosphere (MIT)
This course is an introduction to basic ideas of geophysical wave motion in rotating, stratified, and rotating-stratified fluids. Subject begins with general wave concepts of phase and group velocity. It also covers the dynamics and kinematics of gravity waves with a focus on dispersion, energy flux, initial value problems, etc.
STS.036 Technology and Nature in American History (MIT)
This course considers how the visual and material world of "nature" has been reshaped by industrial practices, ideologies, and institutions, particularly in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. Topics include land-use patterns; the changing shape of cities and farms; the redesign of water systems; the construction of roads, dams, bridges, irrigation systems; the creation of national parks; ideas about wilderness; and the role of nature in an industrial world. From small farms to suburbia,
21L.017 The Art of the Probable: Literature and Probability (MIT)
"The Art of the Probable" addresses the history of scientific ideas, in particular the emergence and development of mathematical probability. But it is neither meant to be a history of the exact sciences per se nor an annex to, say, the Course 6 curriculum in probability and statistics. Rather, our objective is to focus on the formal, thematic, and rhetorical features that imaginative literature shares with texts in the history of probability. These shared issues include (but are not limited to)
