Drew Seminar Course Descriptions

This seminar will explore the evolving role of women as patrons of art, makers of art, and as subjects of art. Through a series of case studies and a variety of media, we will explore the visual arts, both past and present, as a means to better understand the role of women in past cultures and in our modern society. Some of the topics covered will include: prominent, powerful women of the past such as Queen Christina of Sweden; ancient images of Venus/Aphrodite will be discussed in connection with their Renaissance reincarnation and modern images of the nude. In addition, we will question the emergence of the female artist in the sixteenth century and the role of women today as award-winning architects, street artists, and women whose works are in major museums around the world. This exploration will involve class discussion based on assigned readings, informal and formal writing assignments, presentations, and engagement with issues contemporary women in the arts are facing today.

Is 1984 still relevant in 2026? In fact, next to the Bible, 1984 was and still is one of the most widely-read books ever written, and George Orwell was a wide-ranging author and cultural critic who confronted questions of freedom and tyranny that we are still grappling with today. Tech companies today now have intrusive means of mass surveillance that even Orwell could scarcely imagine. Cable news and podcasts promote “influencers” who stare into the camera and tell us what to think. Politicians and party operatives have developed highly sophisticated methods for manipulating the English language. Orwell certainly foresaw “forever wars”, and he may well have invented the term “Cold War”. He was an anarchistic socialist who recognized that Soviet Communism was terribly oppressive, an English patriot who hated British imperialism, a classically-educated traditionalist who was also an innovative literary artist, and one of the first critics who studied popular culture seriously. Far ahead of his time, he addressed such issues as environmental degradation, sexual freedom, gay rights, feminism, antisemitism, racism, ultra-processed food, freedom of expression, and nuclear proliferation. And you will discover in this class that he wrote much else besides 1984. Through engaged class discussions, close analysis of scholarly readings, and both informal and formal writing assignments and presentations, students will practice multiple forms of academic engagement while developing the analytical, writing, and communication skills essential to success in future college courses.

Media has played a powerful role in shaping public understandings of Latino identity in the United States. From early Hollywood’s stereotypes like the Latin Lover and the Mexican Bandit, to contemporary global figures like Bad Bunny and Shakira, representations have influenced – and continue to influence – how Latino identity is seen and understood. This seminar examines the history of Latino representation in U.S. film and television from the silent era to the present by analyzing recurring archetypes, changing star images, and media industry practices that influence who appears on screen and how. While centering on film and television, the seminar will also consider contemporary music artists and their crossover presence in U.S. media. We will explore how global celebrity, language, race, gender, and immigration shape and reshape conversations about Latino identity, visibility, and belonging in American culture. Throughout the semester, we will ask how and why representations change over time, what persists across decades, and what these portrayals reveal about power and cultural influence in the United States. Through engaged class discussions, close analysis of media and scholarly readings, and both informal and formal writing assignments and presentations, students will practice multiple forms of academic engagement while developing the analytical, writing, and communication skills essential to success in future college courses.

Why do we learn, and what is the ultimate aim of education? More than two millennia ago, Confucius offered a transformative answer: learning is the path to human goodness. Often unfairly dismissed as a rigid relic of the past, Confucianism remains a vibrant framework for moral living, relational ethics, and communal responsibility that continues to shape East Asian societies. In this seminar, we will critically examine the Confucian concept of “learning,” contrasting it with Western educational ideals. Through rigorous reading and debate, presentations, and informal and formal writing, students will explore how an ethics of virtue can address the unique challenges of the 21st century.

Paris is both the setting and the theme of numerous films and recent Netflix series. This seminar explores the representation of the French capital in these productions both as mythic and real through an analysis of plot construction, themes, and cinematography. In exploring a few “classics” as well as more recent examples (both French and non-French), we will discuss such questions as: How do narratives and cinematography perpetuate Paris as a mythic place? What myths does Paris embody on screen? How do we relate to and respond to these myths versus real urban experiences? How do gender, race, and class affect Parisians’, Provincials’, immigrants’ and tourists’ experience of this city? Cinematographic techniques, city maps, urban history, and contemporary issues are employed to contextualize these representations. This seminar content will be experienced through class discussions, formal and informal writings, and short presentations.

This seminar examines the intersection of race and law throughout American history, exploring how legal frameworks have shaped and been shaped by racial identities, social structures, and power dynamics. Through a combination of historical analysis and case studies, students will investigate key moments in U.S. history where race and law intersected—such as slavery, segregation, the civil rights movement, and the politics of race and justice today. The seminar will explore the role of law in constructing racial categories and maintaining systems of oppression, but also in facilitating resistance movements. It will reveal how subaltern actors, and their allies, consistently made use of the law to fight for freedom and equality over the very legal obstacles that barred them from full inclusion in American society. Through class discussions, presentations, and writing assignments, students will critically analyze landmark legal decisions, pivotal constitutional and legislative reforms, and transformative social movements, while considering how race continues to influence legal practices and institutions today.

From classic science fiction and horror films such as Planet of the Apes, Alien, and Blade Runner to more contemporary movies, such as Civil War, 40 Acres, Queens of the Dead, films that depict the end of the world and dystopias have often been more interested in exploring what the end of the world (as we know it) reveals about the state of human existence than the end of the world itself. These films, and those like them, ask us to question how societally constructed issues and fears regarding race, gender, sexuality, class, and citizenship are only heightened when the traditional frameworks of society break down. With a lens guided by queer, anti-racist, decolonial and feminist scholarship, this Drew Seminar explores the intersections of structural oppressions such as white supremacy, racism, misogyny, patriarchy, xenophobia, and homophobia within 20th and 21st Century dystopian and apocalyptic media. Through weekly viewings of films within the post-apocalyptic and dystopian sub-genres, rigorous in-class discussions, student presentations, and formal essays, we will investigate and interrogate the ideologies found within these films, examine how they have both shaped and been shaped by fears and anxieties toward racial, gendered, and politically oppressed “others,” and how recent depictions have attempted to push back or reinforce pre-existing systemic hierarchies.

Do you write to help you think and remember? Maybe in a diary or journal, or a training log or schedule? This seminar takes a deep dive into diaries, journals, and blogs, exploring their personal and broader historical and cultural value, and the power of telling stories (real and fictional) using the diary form. In addition to scandals, diaries tell us about the daily lives of ordinary and extraordinary people and contribute to our understanding of trends from health to global warming. Students will read, discuss, and write about extracts they select from published diaries ranging from American pioneers to Anne Frank, and we will also work in the Drew Archive reading handwritten diaries in their collection and bringing them to life through words and images. Each student will also keep their own brief daily journal tracking their first semester in college with a focus of their choice—from athletics to academics.

If you like to read or write poetry (or to do both), you might struggle to explain why to other people. We ask nearly all schoolchildren to read and write poems but, as we get older, it’s assumed we will move on to more practical considerations. If you were to tell your family and friends that you are going to university because you want to study poetry, some of them might applaud your bravery and passion, but others would look at you quizzically, or even be actively hostile to the idea. They might even say something like “what’s the point of poetry?” What is the point of poetry? This class will try to answer that question while accepting that it might be impossible to answer. We’ll see what the Ancient Greeks thought the point of poetry was, and from there we will look at a host of other attempts to answer this question through the ages. We’ll ask what role poets might have played in different kinds of societies and cultures at different moments in history (how was it, for example, that a poet came to be the first president of Senegal when it declared independence in 1960?). We will also be finding out how the study of poetry came to be a subject that was taught at schools and universities in the first place. And, of course, we will be looking at a lot of different kinds of poems from all over the world and from a variety of times in history. You can expect a mixture of discussion, lecture, and to write three papers analyzing the question: what’s the point of poetry? Finally, there will be extra-credit opportunities, one of which will be to write your own poem.

Does the specific individual in power truly change the course of history, or is the trajectory of a nation determined by larger economic and social forces regardless of who is in charge? This seminar explores this debate by introducing the theories and typologies of political leadership in the post-WWII era. We will navigate how the types of leadership and different styles of power impact political processes, such as independence, nation-building, economic transformation, democratization, and conflict resolution. Our survey is global in scope, drawing on influential leaders from different continents and political systems to see how leadership functions across various cultures. Throughout the course you will engage in vigorous class discussions, analyze empirical studies, and practice presentation skills and academic writing. By the end of the term, you will have a sophisticated toolkit for analyzing and comparing how leadership shapes the world today.