About
The HASS Exploration (HEX) subjects are recommended as an option for all undergraduates to approach relevant topics from different disciplinary perspectives and methodologies within the humanities, arts, and social sciences. Faculty-led and team-taught, these subjects provide students with a great opportunity to interact with faculty and upperclassmen. All HASS Exploration Subjects may be used towards the HASS Requirement.
The War at Home: American Politics and Society in Wartime
17.28J
A. Berinsky, C. Capozzola
HASS-S
Units: 3-0-9
Examines the relationship between war and domestic politics in the US since the start of 20th century. Students engage in historical and social scientific research to analyze the ways that overseas military commitments shaped US political institutions, and how domestic politics has in turn structured US engagements abroad. Moving chronologically from World War I to the Iraq War, subject draws on materials across the disciplines, including political documents, opinion polls, legal decisions, and products of American popular culture.
Building a Better World
17.33
C. Lawson, R. Locke
HASS-S
Units: 3-0-9
Explores today's key policy challenges, including state-building, economic development, environmental protection, corruption and the rule of law, the provision of basic public services, democratization, the strengthening civil society, and international security. Presents the problem for each topic, reviews potential solutions, discusses failed approaches, and identifies concrete successes. Examples drawn from around the world. Includes projects with a practical component.
How Culture Works
21A.109
M. Buyandelger
CI-H, HASS-D 4, HASS-S
Units: 3-0-9
Enter the HASS-D Lottery to take this subject.
Introduces diverse meanings and uses of the concept of culture with historical and contemporary examples from scholarship and popular media around the globe.
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How to Stage a Revolution
21H.001
C. Leighton, C. Wilder, E. Wood
CI-H, HASS-D 5, HASS-H
Units: 3-0-9
Enter the HASS-D Lottery to take this subject.
Explores fundamental questions about the causes and nature of revolutions by looking at how people overthrow their rulers and establish new governments.
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Empire: Introduction to Ancient and Medieval Studies
21H.007J
A.Bahr, W. Broadhead, E. Goldberg
CI-H, HASS-H
Units: 3-0-9
Interdisciplinary investigation of three of the best-documented pre-modern empires: the Roman empire of Augustus, the Frankish empire of Charlemagne, and the English empire in the age of the Hundred Years War.
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The Art of the Probable
21L.017
A.Kibel, S. Raman
CI-H, HASS-D 2, HASS-H
Units: 3-0-9
Enter the HASS-D Lottery to take this subject.
Examines literary texts and films in relation to the history of the idea of probability. Traces the growing importance of probability both as a measure of the reliability of ideas or beliefs and also as a basic property of things and the world.
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Globalization: The Good, the Bad and the In-Between
21L.020J
M. Resnick
CI-H, HASS-D 4, HASS-H
Units: 3-0-6
Enter the HASS-D Lottery to take this subject.
Examines the cultural paradoxes of contemporary globalization. Studies the cultural, linguistic, social and political impact of globalization across international borders and on specific language communities.
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The Supernatural in Music, Literature and Culture
21M.013J
C. Shadle, M. Fuller, J. Howe
CI-H, HASS-D 3, HASS-A
Units: 3-0-9
Enter the HASS-D Lottery to take this subject.
Explores the relationship between music and the supernatural, focusing on the social history and context of supernatural beliefs as reflected in key literary and musical works from 1600 to the present.
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Folk Music of the British Isles and North America
21M.223J
R. Perry, G. Ruckert
CI-H, HASS-D 3, HASS-A
Units: 3-1-8
Enter the HASS-D Lottery to take this subject.
Examines the production, transmission, preservation and the qualities of folk music in the British Isles and North America from the 18th century to the folk revival of the 1960s and the present. Special emphasis on balladry, fiddle styles, and African-American influences.
Black Matters: Introduction to Black Studies
24.912J
A. Braithwaite, M. DeGraff
CI-H, HASS-D 4, HASS-A, HASS-H
Units: 3-0-9
Enter the HASS-D Lottery to take this subject.
An interdisciplinary survey of people of African descent that draws on the overlapping approaches of history, literature, anthropology, legal studies, media studies, performance, linguistics, and creative writing.
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology